So the Sixers and Celtics will resume hostilities in Game 7 at Boston on Saturday. The Celtics have a badly needed extra day of rest. They have the advantage of playing on their home floor. They have plenty of postseason experience. And they also have better players, which always helps. The Sixers were supposed to have started their offseason two weeks ago. They nudged their way into the playoffs as an eighth seed that had been playing poorly for six weeks. They
Jerry Sloan wants back into coaching. The long-time coach of the Utah Jazz, who abruptly resigned midway through the 2010-11 season following a feud with star point guard Deron Williams, will be interviewing for one current vacancy and is interested in another. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, Sloan has spoken with Charlotte Bobcats owner Michael Jordan about the coach opening with the NBA’s worst team and could meet with him as early as this week. The Bobcats are looking for a new
Wednesday was my 16th wedding anniversary. It also was the 30th anniversary of one of the most anticipated playoff games in NBA history – Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Boston Celtics. The rivals met in the conference finals in three consecutive years from 1980-82. In 1981, the Sixers opened a 3-1 lead before the Celtics won the next three games by a combined five points. The following year, the Sixers again opened a 3-1
If you win Defensive Player of the Year, you should probably be on the All-Defensive First Team, right? Wrong. New York Knicks center Tyson Chandler, who won Defensive Player of the Year honors this season, was bumped to the Second Team. The Orlando Magic’s Dwight Howard was the center on the First Team. Defensive Player of the Year voting was done by a media panel, while the All-Defensive Teams were chosen by the NBA’s 30 coaches, who could not vote for players on
The Golden State Warriors have scheduled a news conference for 1 p.m. ET where they are expected to announce plans to move the franchise from Oakland to San Francisco later this decade. A press release called it “a major announcement,” with San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, Warriors Co-Chairs Joe Lacob and Peter Guber, and NBA commissioner David Stern in attendance. A report in the San Francisco Chronicle has the details, with the Warriors planning to move to a waterside site in the
In the biggest game of the season for the Boston Celtics, the Big Four took a back seat to the Other One. All of the attention in Boston rightfully goes to Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo. They are the only four players remaining from the team’s last championship in 2008 and comprise perhaps the best quartet in the NBA. They are the reason the Celtics are still in the title hunt when most felt their window of
// Dwight Howard wants out of Orlando, the events of yesterday notwithstanding, a source close to Howard tells SheridanHoops.com On the day coach Stan Van Gandy and general manager Otis Smith lost their jobs with the Magic, a source who has spoken with Howard recently said the All-Star center desperately wants to be traded prior to the start of next season. And although the Brooklyn Nets are still considered the frontrunner, “it is not going to be a one-horse race,” the source said,
Did the Boston Celtics take the bait? After the Celtics easily handled the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 3, reclaiming home-court advantage and the upper hand in their series with a convincing win, Sixers coach Doug Collins tried to plant a seed of overconfidence in Gang Green. “I think they are looking at that other series a little bit,” Collins said. “I think they see Chris Bosh being out (for Miami). They see a tremendous opportunity for themselves.” Whether Boston did or didn’t, it