First of all, props to Kyrie Irving for winning Rookie of the Year. When he and Anderson Varejao were playing together, the Cavs were one of the best watches on League Pass. There was never any doubt Irving was going to win it, and the best debate was over who was most worthy of 2nd place. I cast my 2nd place vote for Kenneth “Manimal” Faried of Denver, but the second-place winner was Ricky Rubio — who also provided a helluva a
Four point guards, including Jeremy Lin of the New York Knicks, were chosen as divisional winners for the annual NBA Sportsmanship Award. Lin, whose emergence from benchwarmer to star transcended the game for more than a month, is the finalist for the Atlantic Division. He is currently sidelined with a knee injury. Other point guard finalists are Jason Kidd of the Dallas Mavericks (Southwest), Luke Ridnour of the Minnesota Timberwolves (Northwest) and Chris Paul of the Los Angeles Clippers (Pacific). The other two
Cleveland Cavaliers rookie guard Kyrie Irving, the likely Rookie of the Year, will miss a week to 10 days – and maybe the rest of the season – with an aggravated shoulder injury, the team announced Wednesday. Irving suffered a sprained and bruised shoulder Friday vs. Milwaukee and sat out Saturday’s loss to New York. He returned to action Tuesday vs. San Antonio and had 13 points and five assists but took another shot to the shoulder. On Wednesday, Irving did not travel
Kyrie Irving of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Isaiah Thomas of the Sacramento Kings maintained the point guard stranglehold on the NBA Rookie of the Month award. Irving won for the Eastern Conference for the fourth straight month and Thomas earned his second straight Western Conference honor, the league announced Monday. There have been eight monthly rookie awards this season, and point guards have won them all. Irving has swept the East honors and Ricky Rubio of the Minnesota Timberwolves won the first
This week, there was a groundswell for Kevin Love’s inclusion in the MVP conversation. Thanks for joining us in 2012, folks. Love should should have been in it months ago. We know all the names that already comprised the conversation – LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul – with Tony Parker and Dwight Howard on the periphery. Those six candidates differ from Love in two ways. 1. They all play on winning teams. 2. This season, they all couldn’t wash Love’s socks. Yes,
// I had a phone conversation with Rick Adelman earlier this season in which he stressed the importance of the Minnesota Timberwolves making it out of the month of March with some semblance of a shot at making a late push for the playoffs. Well, April is almost here, the Timberwolves are still within striking distance of .500, and if they could somehow string together a four-game winning streak (they haven’t had one all season, although they have had four three-game
Every time it looks like the Minnesota Timberwolves are no longer part of the Western Conference playoff race, Kevin Love takes over a game, leads them to a win and keeps them in the hunt. The Wolves have no right chasing a postseason berth. They were 100 games under .500 over the last two seasons. Their prized rookie point lived up to the hype, then went down with a torn ACL. Their center, a double-double revelation in his own right, also
You have to wonder what criteria the NBA is using to determine its Players of the Week. Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kevin Love, who averaged 33.5 points, 15.8 rebounds and 2.0 assists while shooting 54.9 percent from the field and 52.2 percent from 3-point range, somehow did not win Western Conference Player of the Week honors announced Monday. That honor went to Oklahoma City forward Kevin Durant, whose numbers were 29.5 points, 10.3 rebounds and 5.0 assists while shooting under 50 percent (42-of-86)