There have been some fair comparisons drawn between the current 17-game winning streak of the San Antonio Spurs and the remarkable 27-game run put together a year ago by the Miami Heat. Both teams expect to compete for the NBA championship. Both teams found their rhythm at the most opportune time of the season. Both teams stormed to the league’s best record and home court advantage throughout the playoffs. There are obvious differences as well. For one, San Antonio still needs 10
The Miami Heat do not intimidate the Indiana Pacers. That much was very, very clear in their matchup Wednesday night. But you know what intimidates the Pacers? The moment. We saw it last year in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals when they looked like deer in the headlights. And we saw it again Wednesday night when George Hill went to the line with 1.8 seconds left and a chance to put Indiana ahead by 3 – and promptly missed both
Kevin Durant is going to be the MVP. There’s no stopping him, and nobody is doing anything remotely close to what he is doing on offense for Oklahoma City. He might even win the award unanimously. So that steers the MVP argument toward who should finish second, and I have been making the case for two weeks now that Blake Griffin is the most deserving candidate (although his missed FT late in regulation against the Pelicans was especially costly last night). I
As teams continue to jockey for position in the Western Conference — and fight for 50 wins just to get in — one of the early season darlings continues to sink. That would be the Portland Trailblazers. Once the talk of the NBA, the Blazers have hit a rough patch at the worst possible time, losing nine of their last 13 games and are now just a half game ahead of the Golden State Warriors for the 6th spot in the
As the NBA regular season finally hits the home stretch before what promises to be a highly entertaining two months of playoff basketball, a few of the leagues elite teams find themselves riding the struggle bus. The two-time defending champion Miami Heat needed a strong finish against Portland on Monday just to avoid a sub .500 March. Bad losses to Boston, New Orleans and Denver were all contributors to this stretch of underwhelming play. [Read more…]
Three years ago, New York literally rolled out the red carpet for Carmelo Anthony upon his arrival at Madison Square Garden while blasting “I’m Coming Home” by Diddy. On Tuesday, as Phil Jackson’s career officially came full circle, his introductory press conference soundtrack included “Who Says You Can’t Go Home” by Bon Jovi and “Glory Days” by Bruce Springsteen. Once the offseason begins, the nearly $130 million question is if Anthony and Jackson will return New York to the glory days by
The readers have spoken … and the readers are thinking the same thing I am thinking: Blake Griffin is a stronger MVP candidate than LeBron James. We published a poll late last week asking readers to chime in on the question of who should be sitting in the No. 2 spot beneath Kevin Durant, and Griffin drew 61 percent of the vote. Yes, it seems sacrilegious to list LeBron third-best at anything – especially after he had another one of his freakish performances
For the Miami Heat, the story of the night will be how LeBron James went into Quicken Loans Arena and dropped 43 points on 14-of-19 shooting from the field to help his team come out with a 100-96 victory. The Cleveland Cavaliers will largely wonder how Dion Waiters didn’t get a foul call when it mattered the most. Down 95-90 with just under 30 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Waiters saw an opening and drove to the basket past Ray Allen.