// Best Performance of the Night: Rajon Rondo- 18 Pts, 11 Reb, 14 Ast Worst Performance of the Night: Rudy Gay- 2-12 FG, 5 Pts, 3 Reb
Silva: What the Bulls showed in California
CHICAGO — I tried to not get caught up in all the hype surrounding the first week of the NBA season because, well, it’s the first week of a 66-game season. No matter how frantic the pace – four games in six nights for the Bulls – there’s still plenty of basketball to be played, and much more to be revealed. The first four games for Chicago, and the rest of the league for that matter, were more like an exercise
Wade’s late shot makes Heat 3-0
// There are five NBA teams that have played three games in the first four nights of the season. Two of them (Miami and Oklahoma City) are 3-0. Another, the Boston Celtics, are 0-3. The two others are the Lakers (1-2) and the Warriors (2-1). Undefeated records for those first two teams should come as no surprise. Pretty much half the staff at SheridanHoops.com predicted they would met in the finals. But then we have the third team, the Celtics, who were known
NBA season 3 days old, so panic ebbs & flows
// That calming breeze you feel outside is the collective sigh of relief coming from the West, originating in Los Angeles. Unless the wind is blowing from the Northeast, near Boston. Then it’s cold and bitter. The folks who sit in the front row and wear their sunglasses indoors had a little extra bounce in their step as they strode to the valet stand last night, a measure of normalcy having returned to the Staples Center as the Lakers — the first team
Explaining the panic in Lakerdom
When you’ve won as many championships as the Lakers have (11 since moving to Los Angeles), your fans get spoiled. And what do spoiled people do? They whine when things don’t go their way. That’s not a knock on Lakers fans, it’s just the way I see it. I spoke about that particular fan dynamic tonight on the Sportsnet 590-The Fan radio in Toronto with host Roger Lajoie, and we also touched on the uptempo style the Miami Heat are playing, the surprising struggles
Perkins: Udonis Haslem, the Heat’s key “addition”
MIAMI — The first thing you notice about Miami Heat forward Udonis Haslem is his hair. The trademark braids he wore for his previous eight NBA seasons are gone. Spending two hours a week getting his hair done finally got to be too much. But after you get over that initial shock of seeing Haslem wearing a medium-sized afro, you notice the rebounding, the toughness, the willingness to take charges, to get on the floor after loose balls. You see the art
Day after Christmas a downer for Lakers, Celtics fans
// Did you get what you wanted? If you are a long-suffering Clippers or Knicks fan, you sure did. If you are a Mavericks fan, you sorta did (a banner), sorta didn’t (a shellacking). If you are a member of the tribes known as Lakers Nation and Celtics Nation, no you did not! Today dawned with a post-Christmas hangover in a lot of places where folks had been accustomed to having their wishes fulfilled and their dreams come true. The Lakers were up six
Perkins column: Does the Heat really “have enough?”
MIAMI — Midway through the third quarter of the Miami Heat’s 118-85 victory over Orlando on Sunday, second-year center Dexter Pittman got right in Dwight Howard’s face as though he wanted to start something. The result of the altercation was a double foul — one on Pittman, one on Howard — and a measure of respect. But it didn’t answer any questions about the Heat’s toughness in the middle. Miami’s four-headed center — starter Joel Anthony, Pittman, and power forwards Chris Bosh