Adam Silver has been commissioner of the NBA for 14 months now. He has been forceful on one issue — the lifetime suspension of Donald Sterling, which led to the sale of the Los Angeles Clippers to billionaire Steve Ballmer. It is time for Silver to stand a stand again, and this time it has to do with reformatting the playoffs. I wrote an open letter to Silver about this very issue less than a month ago, and it is certain to
What do James Harden, Stephen Curry, Russell Westbrook and LeBron James have in common? They’re all legitimate MVP candidates, of course. But what else does that Awesome Foursome have in common? In a potential playoff series against the defending NBA champion San Antonio Spurs, they can all expect to see an individual matchup with Kawhi Leonard. In case you’ve been transfixed by March Madness, the Spurs are looking like a championship contender. Again. If you want some perspective, my son Andrew was born
In his most recent column, Danny Schayes noted how the Utah Jazz were doing a pretty nice job of playing spoilers, beating a bunch of the top playoff contending teams. Lots of crazy outcomes can happen in the late days of a season, and Schayes recounted a pair of instances when his team was out of the playoff picture but came up with victories that were not only unlikely, but uncommon for the circumstances that surrounded them. Here is a link
First place in the Southwest Division changed hands again last night as the Memphis Grizzlies snapped a three-game slide by defeating the Sacramento Kings while the Houston Rockets lost to the Toronto Raptors. So Memphis is back on top, but with only a half-game lead over Houston. The winner of the division is likely to get the No. 2 seed in the playoffs, and that means a matchup with the No. 7 seed. And although nobody can say with any degree of
Teams in the NBA playoff races aren’t the only ones watching scoreboards this time of year. Take the Philadelphia 76ers, for example. The Sixers lost their first 17 games, were mathematically eliminated from the playoff race nearly a month ago and almost certainly will lose 60-plus games for the second straight season. But GM Sam Hinkie and the rest of the Sixers’ front office are tracking the results of other games almost as closely as their own. That’s because Philadelphia could have
Good afternoon, Adam. Hope you are having a nice time filling out your NCAA bracket. I imagine you have Duke winning, since you got your undergrad degree there. A word of caution: Beware Larry Brown’s SMU Mustangs in the South Regional final. It’s fun filling out an NCAA bracket, isn’t it, Adam? So many games between teams that almost never play each other. That’s what makes it so special. Which brings us to the upcoming NBA playoffs, which are not going to be
One thing you can be assured of when looking at the NBA’s Eastern Conference: Everybody is impressed with the Atlanta Hawks and their 42-11 record. Another thing you can be sure of: Nobody is shaking in their boots at the prospect of facing them in a playoff series. Still, there is no queston the Hawks are going to be a tough out, and they will likely play the Cleveland Cavaliers or the Chicago Bulls in the second round of the playoffs. Avoiding
Why do doubts remain about the Atlanta Hawks? The Hawks are 40-8. They have lost twice since Thanksgiving. They have beaten Chicago, Cleveland, Houston, Dallas, the LA Clippers, Cleveland again, Portland, the Clippers again, Memphis, Washington, Toronto, Chicago again, Oklahoma City and Portland again. The Hawks just completed the best undefeated month in NBA history, going 17-0 in January. They have won 19 consecutive games, the fifth-longest streak in league annals. They have won 12 straight road games. What seems to be the