Monday’s 10-game slate includes the NBA’s only unbeatens facing tests as Miami hosts Atlanta and Oklahoma City travels to Dallas. Elsewhere, the New York Knicks return home to face Toronto and the Orlando Magic take their four-game winning streak to Detroit. But the most intriguing game undoubtedly is at the Target Center, where the Minnesota Timberwolves host the San Antonio Spurs and perhaps giving Ricky Rubio his long-awaited duel vs. Tony Parker. I will be the first to admit that I have
Tonight’s best game: Chicago at LA Clippers
With ESPN’s prime-time air time locked into bowl season and TNT having already aired a pair of doubleheaders this week, Friday belongs to NBA TV. Despite an 11-game slate, there are not many intriguing matchups. But if you can fight your eyelids at the end of a work week, the Chicago Bulls visit the Los Angeles Clippers at 10:30 p.m. ET. This is a getaway game for the Bulls, who started the season with a four-game trek through California. They stole a
Bernucca Column: Punking vs. Punching
By Chris Bernucca “There’s a lot of woofing going on in the league. Guys do a lot of talking. What I would like to see, since television seems to be promoting everything, is an off-season boxing tournament for NBA players. Let them put on 16-ounce gloves and fight three two-minute rounds. One thing it would do … it would stop a lot of the woofing going on.” – “Pistol” Pete Maravich, in a 1977 Sports Illustrated article My son plays AAU basketball. He’s not
Eurobasket: Quarterfinal previews
By Chris Sheridan KAUNAS, Lithuania — This city is the birthplace and/or childhood home of Arvydas Sabonis, Sarunas Jasikevicius, Sarunas Marciulonis and Zydrunas Ilgauskas, and by the end of next weekend it will be the metropolis (to use that word loosely) where the latest European champion is crowned. Eight teams have made it to the quarterfinals of EuroBasket, and the do-or-die portion begins Wednesday night with Spain-Slovenia and Macedonia-Lithuania. Thursday’s games are France-Greece and Russia-Serbia, and the semifinals — which will determine which two teams qualify for the 2012 Olympics
Bo McCalebb, American PG, leads Macedonia
By Chris Sheridan VILNIUS, Lithuania — The second-leading scorer remaining at EuroBasket is an American with a Macedonian passport, a player whose home in New Orleans was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, a point guard who never once got off the bench during the entire 2008 NBA summer league in Las Vegas when he was trying out for the Sacramento Kings. “He’s the best point guard in Europe right now,” said his agent, Eric Fleisher, “and the entire NBA ignored him, which was a huge