In what comes as no surprise at all, the defending champion Miami Heat and the loaded Los Angeles Lakers are favored to reach the NBA Finals. Gaming site Bovada.lv released its odds for winning the championship and has the Heat at 11-5 and the Lakers slightly higher at 5-2. Miami has reached the Finals each of the last two years, defeating the Oklahoma City Thunder in five games last season. Los Angeles has not reached the conference finals since it last won
Northwest Division Fantasy Preview (Part I) Yesterday, Kent kick-started our week of division previews with the Atlantic. Today, I tackle the Northwest. The Northwest is a mecca for fantasy basketball players. The division has four of the NBA’s seven highest-scoring teams, and even the fifth (the Portland Trailblazers) finished in the top half. With new a coach and point guard in Portland, I expect all five teams to continue to push the pace in 2012-13. With all that scoring, the division gives fantasy
Darnell Maybery of The Oklahoman: “The Northwest Division has more than just the Lakers.” Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News: “Dirk Nowitzki excited about Mavericks’ overhaul, says knee is good to go” Al Iannazzone of Newsday “Knicks considering retired All-Star Rasheed Wallace” Ethan J. Skolnick of The Palm Beach Post: “As camp approaches, the Heat appears healthy” Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News: Point Guard Jonny Flynn will get camp tryout with Pistons. Ryan Wolstate of the Toronto Sun: “Raptors’ Valancuinas injures foot” Brian T. Smith of The Salt Lake Tribune:
The Shell Answer Man is a column theme that was inspired by my 8th grade journalism teacher Bill Ehrlich, who taught me as much about basketball as he did about journalism. The background story is linked right here. Essentially, these are questions I’ve either been asked on Twitter, on the radio, in person, or questions I’ve asked of myself. So let’s get right to it: What can we expect from the Chicago Bulls this season? On the surface it appears as though the Bulls
The chatter about the Los Angeles Lakers have been non-stop for much of the summer, thanks to their huge offseason acquisitions of Steve Nash and Dwight Howard. Doc Rivers and Kendrick Perkins aren’t so high on focusing on the Lakers like everyone else though, and are looking forward to another possible meeting with the Miami Heat instead. See what they had to say about the Lakers and the Heat, what lesson Dwight Howard learned from his debacles as a Magic,
UNDER CONTRACT: F Kevin Durant, G Russell Westbrook, C Kendrick Perkins, G James Harden, G Thabo Sefolosha, G Daequan Cook, F Nick Collison, C Cole Aldrich, G Eric Maynor, F-C Serge Ibaka, G Reggie Jackson, F Lazar Hayward, C Hasheem Thabeet, C Daniel Orton DRAFT PICKS: F Perry Jones FREE AGENTS: G Derek Fisher MOVES: The Thunder were very quiet during the moratorium period. They did sign free agent center Hasheem Thabeet to a two-year deal at less than $2 million. The erstwhile
As the offseason continues to wind down, keep checking our index and analysis of every team’s offseason moves. And here’s all the latest news from around the world of basketball: Sam Amico of Fox Sports has a piece of Thunder news via Sulia: “Speaking of Kings, Jimmer Fredette would love to go someplace where someone other than just DeMarcus Cousins will pass him the ball. Thunder would love to pry Fredette away from Kings as replacement for Derek Fisher. Kevin Durant is a
