NEW YORK — On a beautiful Sunday afternoon in New York City, the old cliché held true; There’s a first time for everything. Unfortunately, today wouldn’t be the day for the first that Knicks fans were hoping for… That would have been the first time that Carmelo Anthony’s Knicks beat LeBron James’ Heat in Madison Square Garden. Instead, it was the first time that Mike Woodson lost a home game as the head coach of the New York Knicks. After dropping the
A potential first round matchup gets a vigorous nod for Sunday’s best game when the Miami Heat make their first and only appearance in New York against the Knicks. That is, until the playoffs. New York (31-28) is currently tied with Philadelphia for the seventh and eighth seeds but holds the tiebreaker. Miami (41-17) lost 96-86 in overtime in Chicago on Thursday. LeBron James missed a game-sealing free throw that allowed the Bulls to make an improbable comeback without Derrick Rose, essentially locking
So how many seasons are the Miami Heat going to act like the NBA championship is their birthright and merely a formality? Not one, not two, not three, not four … It’s sometimes hard to tell whether the Heat are bored, whistling in the dark or still trying to figure it out. But one thing is certain: the basketball they are playing right now is not good enough to win a title. “We all know we have to take a real big step forward as a
April is supposed to be the time of the NBA season when the best teams gear up for the playoffs and head into it playing their absolute best basketball. The Heat must have missed that memo. And the Bulls’ starters, too. With the NBA regular season slowly but surely winding down, two of the top teams in the Eastern Conference are heading into the postseason with plenty of uncertainty and several important questions to still resolve. For the Chicago Bulls, the team with
The Chicago Bulls could inch closer to securing the best record in the league while locking up the number one seed with a win against the second best team in the Eastern Conference. Whether they might actually want to secure the number one seed is another story. Holding the best record in the league, the Chicago Bulls (44-14) play host at the United Center to the visiting Miami Heat in Thursday’s best game on TNT. The two teams split the first two games of
// What are we going to learn in tonight’s big Heat-Bulls matchup in Chicago? Hopefully, we’ll find out which stars can show some fourth-quarter moxie. But the better Chicago-Miami game to look forward to will happen next Thursday, when a clearer picture of playoff positioning possibilities will have emerged. There is a case to be made that it is better to be the No. 2 seed than the No. 1 seed, because it might mean an easier path to the conference finals
Could the Boston Celtics beat the Miami Heat in a playoff series? Well, they couldn’t a year ago, when they managed more than 91 points just once in five games and looked a tad long in the tooth. If Boston was to beat Miami, it appeared it would have to find a way to stall LeBron James and Dwyane Wade in transition and make every game a walk-it-up, grind-it-out affair, where the Celtics excel and the Heat are not exactly comfortable. The Celts
After looking old and uncertain at various times during the season, the Boston Celtics have hit their stride just in time to take a convincing Atlantic Division lead as the playoffs draw near. As usual, defense has been the key. They have allowed just 89.3 points per game this season, good for third best in the league. Since the insertion of Avery Bradley in the starting lineup nine games ago, they have been even better, giving up an average of 81.7 on