One team, the Dallas Mavericks, has already been knocked out of the playoffs. If you want to bash Mark Cuban for it, you should read this first. The Utah Jazz will look to avoid the same fate in Game 4 against the mighty San Antonio Spurs, who seem to have forgotten how to lose – winning their last 13 contests. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Clippers hope to put themselves in a dominant position to take the series from the Memphis Grizzlies, who
San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich made it a habit to rest his veteran stars this season, come what may. Up until Game 3, the Coach of the Year had been treating the playoffs much the same way. Tim Duncan played 35 minutes in San Antonio’s 102-90 Game 3 victory Saturday night, and Tony Parker played 40. But during the first two games against the Utah Jazz, the only Spur to play more than 31 minutes was Parker, who logged 37
Tyson Chandler was awarded the NBA Defensive Player of the Year award. But you know what, I think Serge Ibaka should have gotten it. Click on the video above to find out why, and insert your comments in this post or into the DPOY post from yesterday. CineSport’s Tara Petrolino and SheridanHoops.com’s Chris Sheridan discuss this, along with the Heat vs. the Knicks, and the Grizzlies’ win over the Clippers in Game 2. //
The Memphis Grizzlies are one of the less glamorous teams in the postseason party. They shoot 3-pointers about as poorly as any team in the NBA. They don’t have many high flyers offering up highlight-reel dunks a la Blake Griffin. They have not one but two ground-bound post players in Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph. The Grizzlies simply defend like mad, play through their big men and try to make hay in transition and at the free-throw line. And for the last
The Coach of the Year was announced Tuesday, with Gregg Popovich coming out on top by a wide margin. It was certainly well-deserved, but there were plenty of other coaches that warranted attention as well. Thirteen coaches received votes, including Frank Vogel, Lionel Hollins, Tyrone Corbin, Stan Van Gundy and Vinny Del Negro – mid-season crisis and all. The work of these fine coaches will be on display tonight as we look into the preview of three playoff games on Wednesday night. Utah (0-1) at
// csprtContainer(); // ]]> The Chicago Bulls played 27 games without Derrick Rose during the regular season, and they won two-thirds of them. They were without Richard Hamilton for more than half of the season. They lost Luol Deng for a long stretch. So if there’s any team prepared to deal with the calamity that was the season-ending injury to Derrick Rose, it is them. C.J. Watson will take over the starting point guard duties for the Bulls as they resume their first-round playoff
Shame on you if you turned off the television early last night. (Or the night before, for that matter). If you did, you missed one of the most epic comebacks in the history of the NBA playoffs. And you also missed a chance to see an example of just why Chris Paul is indeed worthy of MVP consideration (even though it seems like a foregone conclusion that LeBron James is going to get the award.) The Clippers were down 24 points early
