In yet another drama-filled week in the NBA, Lance Stephenson has managed to find his way into the mix again. There have been plenty of talks regarding the Charlotte Hornets swingman’s future in recent weeks, most notably ending in his being dealt before the trade deadline. The Hornets have been playing much better basketball as of late, but it’s the opposite side of the coin for the Brooklyn Nets, who have lost eight of their last 10 games and have dropped
One of the biggest knocks against the NBA is that when the season starts, there are only five or six teams that can truly win the championship, making the regular season and the early playoff rounds interminably tedious. Not this season. As we reach the midway point – 18 teams have played at least 41 games, another nine have played 40 – there are no less than a dozen teams with legitimate title aspirations, including a handful that haven’t been in the
After last week’s loss in Atlanta, Memphis Grizzlies coach Dave Joerger – whose team has the fifth-best record in the NBA – lamented his roster’s shortcomings. “We have to get another playmaker on the floor,” Joerger said. “We’re going to have to start playing multiple point guards (at the same time). We’ve got to be able to get inside of defenses.” It doesn’t matter that the Grizzlies have been at or near the top of the league for most of the season.
The three-team blockbuster trade involving the Cleveland Cavaliers, Oklahoma City Thunder and New York Knicks has been made official, after initial reports of the trade on Monday evening. Now that it’s gone through, the players involved had some things to say to their now former teams before they left town. Dion Waiters, J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert each showed respect for the franchises after they were traded. [Read more…]
Is this some sort of way to earn a quasi 12th ring? New York Knicks president Phil Jackson could not have done much worse Monday night in dealing away Iman Shumpert and J.R. Smith to the Cleveland Cavaliers in a three-way trade that netted the Knicks three non-guaranteed contracts and a second-round draft pick in 2019. We’ve all heard of selling low, but this? This was a gift to the struggling Cleveland Cavaliers, who just became the first team to lose in
It’s still too early to push the panic button, but the situation in Cleveland is becoming more troubling by the day. The Cavs are now 18-12 after an embarrassing home loss Sunday to outmanned Detroit. That record that places them as only the No. 5 seed in the mediocre East, which is hardly what LeBron James envisioned when an apparent “super team” was formed over the offseason with James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. Anderson Varejao, one of the team’s only reliable big men, was
Every time someone summons up the nerve to ask, “What’s wrong with the Spurs?” the defending NBA champions have provided an emphatic response: Nothing. They did it in November, beating the Clippers and Warriors on the road on consecutive nights after losses to Houston and New Orleans. They did it again in December, beating the Clippers to end a four-game losing streak that included back-to-back excruciating triple-overtime losses. And they did it again last night, beating the Rockets for the first time
Twas the night before Christmas, and all round the league, not a player was stirring, because there are no games on Christmas Eve. That’s because everyone is gearing up for the Christmas Day lineup of games that are assembled. There are five solid games on the docket featuring some of the league’s best teams like the Cavaliers, Warriors, Clippers and Bulls. If you’re like me, you haven’t done any holiday shopping yet. But as long as it isn’t Christmas, there is