Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the league, not a player was balling, not even Jeff Teague. The Most Improved Rankings were crafted with flair, in the hopes that somebody might actually care. Danny Ainge was nestled all snug in his bed, while visions of Asik danced in his head. J-Kidd in his kerchief, Lopez in his cast, the Nets have settled down for their long winter’s nap. When from the Wells Fargo Center there rose such a clatter, I sprang from
In his stated effort to upstage Knicks owner James Dolan, Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov has become him. Like Dolan, Prokhorov desperately wants an NBA championship. Like Dolan, he has pursued that desperation with financial abandon, giving his GM an open checkbook. Like Dolan, he has overspent on overvalued big names. Like Dolan, he has mortgaged his team’s future by giving away multiple draft picks. And like Dolan, he appears headed down the abyss. In two months, the Nets have gone from contenders with
Today’s big story is last night’s game between the Pacers and Heat for early bragging/validation rights. And the boss was not happy with what went down at the end, with the officials swallowing their whistles as LeBron clearly fouled Paul George on a game-tying 3-point attempt by Paul George just before the final buzzer. The Joey Crawford conspiracy theories will only continue to grow from here. Those are the only viable teams with a chance of winning the Eastern Conference, and the media
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
Where the hell has the time gone? It certainly flies as the days get shorter and darkness descends in the late afternoon. We’re already through the first quarter of the NBA season and almost at Christmas. The league has seen plenty of pleasant surprises, like the consistently stellar Portland Trail Blazers, and many disappointments, like the entire Eastern Conference besides Indiana and Miami. There have also been a whole host of players who have really progressed in a positive direction over the
The Bucks have played as badly as Danny Schayes looks in this photo. Just kidding, Danny! The Milwaukee Bucks are terrid. That’s right—they’re so bad, I had to make up a new word to describe them. It’s like that Sonic commercial where they needed to make up words to describe how delicious that chicken sandwich is. (I’m still trying to work “spice-dictive” into a sentence for the first time). Terrid is easier, though. It’s a combination of “terrible” and “horrid,” and
The NBA holiday shopping season is upon us a little early this year. It usually starts December 15, the first day players who were signed in the offseason become eligible to be traded. But after seeing Rudy Gay’s immovable contract somehow sent from Toronto to Sacramento, it is clear that shopping season is under way. Come next Sunday, NBA general managers will have increased flexibility when looking to improve their rosters, which was Kings GM Pete D’Alessandro’s approach in acquiring Gay, or their payroll,
Remember that streak of games hot-shooting LeBron James put together last February? Well, he’s doing it again. Much earlier in the season. And for a longer stretch. And if he keeps it up, it will become historic. Because since the ABA-NBA merger, no wing player or point guard has scored this much while shooting this well. Not Dr. J. Not even Michael Jordan. Yes, really. Through the first month of the season, James is third in the league in scoring at 26.2 points per