The Golden State Warriors sometimes have a tendency to spot the other team a giant lead to start games before clawing their way back. Take the game against the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday, for instance, when the Warriors allowed the visiting team to get out to a 40-18 lead in the first quarter. Still, it somehow wasn’t particularly worrisome for the defensive-minded, high-scoring Warriors. Knowing how they’ve played all season long, you just knew at some point that they would lock down
Sprung: Kyle Lowry is the Early Eastern Conference MVP
The Eastern Conference’s leader in Win Shares signed a highly publicized free agent contract this past offseason with the East’s best team. That player is not LeBron James but Kyle Lowry, the undisputed leader of the Toronto Raptors. And it is Toronto – not Cleveland – which has the East’s best record at 18-6. Lowry and the Raptors are 5-3 without All-Star shooting guard DeMar DeRozan, who injured his groin the day after Thanksgiving in a loss to Dallas. SheridanHoops went one-on-one with Raptors
Sprung: How the Thunder Will Survive Without Kevin Durant
How will the Oklahoma City Thunder do without Kevin Durant for the first six to eight weeks of the season? It’s extremely hard to tell, considering Durant has missed a total of 16 regular season games over the course of his seven-year career, including just two over the last two seasons. Durant’s lone absence last season came on Jan. 24 in a 101-83 win over Boston in which Russell Westbrook did not play, either. With Durant sidelined by a Jones fracture in
Kevin Durant Out Indefinitely With Foot Fracture
NBA MVP Kevin Durant is out indefinitely with a foot fracture. The Oklahoma City Thunder announced Sunday in a news release that their superstar forward has a Jones fracture in his right foot and that the typical course of action is surgery that requires six to eight weeks of recovery. However, the release also said that Durant and the team had yet to decide on a specific course of action and cannot yet provide a timetable. Here’s what Thunder GM Sam Presti had
Tweet of the Night: Joel Embiid has a bold prediction about MVP rankings in a couple of years
If there was a discussion to be had about who the top two MVP candidates would be for the next couple of years, the names to come up on most people’s lists would be quite predictable: LeBron James and Kevin Durant. Even the most casual fans will have trouble coming up with a case against that one. Ask Philadelphia 76ers rookie Joel Embiid to name his candidates, though, and you will get a response that only he could come up with. Clearly,
Tweet of the Day: LeBron James Enticed By Vegas “King of the Hill”
This isn’t your child’s game of King of the Hill. No sir. No m’am. This is grown man, elite athlete, basketball “King of the Hill.” A game of one-on-one involving three players. It starts with Player 1 trying to score on Player 2. If he succeeds, Player 2 exits the floor and Player 3 takes over on defense. If Player 2 manages to prevent Player 1 from scoring, Player 1 exits and Player 2 moves to offense to try to score on Player
Tweet of the Day: Chicago Bulls Introduce Gasol, Mirotic
The Chicago Bulls introduced their two new big men Friday. [AP Photo/M. Spencer Green]It’s official. The Chicago Bulls are now, barring Kevin Love being traded from Minnesota to Cleveland, the top threat to win the Eastern Conference in 2014-15. For a team that was highly competitive and amongst the best defensive squads in the league without star point guard Derrick Rose, they have gotten deeper and better. Beyond the added scoring that they’ll get from incoming rookie Doug
Scotto: Future Stars Shine Bright in Jordan Brand Classic
The Jordan Brand Classic introduced us to the game’s future stars. And from the looks of it, the future is bright. Top recruits from Duke, Kansas and Kentucky dazzled in the All-American Game and showed why each program has drawn considerable buzz heading into next season. Seton Hall – which had five recruits named to the Jordan Brand Classic – dominated the Regional Game. Canada shined in the International Game once again thanks to Jahvon Blair’s MVP performance with the help of his