Amid its myriad injuries, its dozen teams below .500 and its 44-98 record against the Western Conference, there is a looming question regarding the Eastern Conference: Can the East even field an All-Star team? A year ago, Kevin Garnett, Rajon Rondo, Luol Deng, Joakim Noah, Tyson Chandler, Kyrie Irving, Brook Lopez and Jrue Holiday were among the East’s All-Stars. You can make the argument – irrefutable in some cases, strong in others – that none of those players should be invited back
The Los Angeles Lakers may be one of the most depleted teams in the league, but they still have plenty of fans scattered around the league. This is evident when they are on the road – there are almost always sections of Lakers fans in purple and gold, cheering them on. On Friday, seldom-used rookie Rudy Gobert apparently heard some of those cheers for the Lakers at EnergySolutions Arena and had this to say after the contest: Shoutout to all the lakers
The NBA has made it a tradition to have a select group of teams play in marquee match ups every year on Christmas day. While the fans certainly find entertainment from the slate of games, the scheduling forces certain teams to celebrate their holidays a bit earlier than most. In the case of Dwayne Wade and the Miami Heat, this includes time spent with loved ones. Taking full advantage of the opportunity to spread the Christmas spirit a few days early,
One’s loss is another’s opportunity when it comes to the NBA, and that will be the case for Kendall Marshall, the Los Angeles Lakers’ soon-to-be newest acquisition at point guard. With the unexpected injury to Kobe Bryant, the team now stands without a point guard. Steve Nash has been out for much of the season and will miss at least another month, Steve Blake is out with a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, and Jordan Farmar won’t be back
Remember back in October, when the handicappers in Vegas said the Philadelphia 76ers would win about 16 or 17 games? And remember in November, when the 76ers started their season with three straight wins, beating the Miami Heat, Washington Wizards and Chicago Bulls with Derrick Rose? How are those 17 wins looking now? Without the Hubble telescope, the Sixers can’t see them. The small sample size of the season’s first week – three surprising wins, a rookie as Player of the Week – is
In Kobe Bryant’s fourth game back from an injured achilles, the Los Angeles Lakers played against the Charlotte Bobcats on the road in the Time Warner Arena and escaped with an 88-85 win—their first since his return. The win will, perhaps, allow Pau Gasol to continue their road trip with his pride intact. At least, that might be the impression you’d get from Golden State Warriors center Festus Ezeli’s reaction to a Josh McRoberts dunk Saturday night. [Read more…]
Every now and then I appear on the BBC World Service, which is broadcast in about 1,800 different countries — or something just short of that number. I aways enjoy explaining the NBA to the Brits, because their knowledge of basketball still trails their knowledge of cricket by something like 1,800 percent. In this appearance, we discussed the lack of rivalries in today’s NBA — which is astonishing to the British because teams can play each other as many as 11 times
Today’s news of the day centered (no pun intended) around the possibility of Houston’s Omer Asik being dealt by next Wednesday or Thursday. The Rockets have set a December 19th deadline, likely to heat up the bidding war for a very useful (and rare) piece. This is according to the NBA’s David Aldridge, one of the most credible sports journalists around: [Read more…]