Cleveland point guard Kyrie Irving is set to play in tonight’s crucial Game 5 between the Cavaliers and Bulls despite injuries to both of his legs. Irving’s right foot has been strained since Game 2 of Cleveland’s first round series against Boston, and now he’s said to be truggling with tendinitis in his left knee after overcompensating for the sore right foot. From Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com: “If the consideration is now, then, I mean, I should have been sitting out maybe about
The Golden State Warriors had no business winning Game 3 against the New Orleans Pelicans on Thursday. Absolutely none. The best defensive team in the league allowed the Pelicans to get anything they wanted for the first three quarters of the contest, allowing 89 points and trailing by 20 points heading into the fourth quarter. [Read more…]
This is what we have been waiting for since Halloween. The strength of the Western Conference was as good as advertised and has provided a first round of playoffs that should have NBA fans salivating. The best series appears to be the Los Angeles Clippers vs. the San Antonio Spurs, whom you could argue were two of the league’s three best teams coming down the stretch. And approximately two weeks from now, one of those teams will be headed to its offseason,
The NBA regular season ends tomorrow, and as of now — even with most teams having played 81 of their 82 games — not a single first-round matchup is locked in. It’s an incredibly rare situation that promises to bring loads of drama both Tuesday night and especially Wednesday night, as the 2014-15 slate comes to a close. In the West, the complex playoff picture was reasonably summed up in one tweet on Tuesday morning from San Antonio’s star guard Manu Ginobili: So,
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
Where would the San Antonio Spurs be this season without Kawhi Leonard? To answer my own question, probably out of the playoff picture. In a Western Conference where the 8th-seeded New Orleans Pelicans are seven games over .500, the Spurs are 33-16 with Leonard and just 9-9 without him. Leonard leads the team in scoring, defensive rating and minutes per game. There’s an immense difference in Leonard’s stats in Spurs wins and losses, to the point where an off night can torpedo
This season’s MVP race is shaping up to be the best one in quite some time. The perceived top five candidates this season – James Harden, Stephen Curry, Anthony Davis, LeBron James and Russell Westbrook – represent the top five in PER, three of the top five in win shares and lead the NBA in nearly two dozen major statistical categories. We’re pretty well covered with MVP rankings on this site with Sheridan’s regular updates, and other staffers have chimed in
Aside from the expected festivities, the Dunk Contest, Three-Point Contest, Skills Challenge, BBVA Compass Rising Stars Challenge and the All-Star game, the NBA All-Star weekend brings with it ample time to either rest or stay busy with promotional opportunities. While many will be resting for the second half of the season, a number of NBA athletes are choosing the latter, opting to do a number various promotional activities. Atlanta Hawks power forward Paul Millsap stopped by the Samsung Soho Studio to meet