The growth of analytics in the NBA has been nothing short of phenomenal. It started with a deeper look at numbers that already were available and produced new and useful statistics such as true shooting percentage, defensive rebound percentage, offensive rating and win shares. With the use of a grid or a matrix, we now have the ability to determine a player’s offensive tendencies and hot spots. For some players, it is quite revealing. For others, such as DeAndre Jordan, it pretty
Kevin Durant, Mike Krzyzewski, Jerry Colangelo and Kevin Love at a USA Basketball announcement in 2013. (Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images) The World Cup just ended, right? I’m sure of it. I watched it. Germany beat Argentina one-to-nil in extra time, thus ending two months of highly anticipated, very engrossing fútbol (spelled as such so as to not confuse it with American football). Well, it is and it isn’t over. FIFA has had its fun,
Wednesday the All-NBA Teams were announced, and with them came a slew of congratulatory, confused and frustrated tweets. Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant led all vote getters as the lone unanimous selection to the First Team, followed by Miami Heat forward LeBron James, Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah, Houston Rockets guard James Harden and Los Angeles Clippers guard Chris Paul. Much to the chagrin of 124 NBA writers with voting privileges, Chris Sheridan, our esteemed Editor-in-Chief, was the lone vote preventing
2014 NBA Defensive Player of the Year Joakim Noah led all vote getters for the NBA All-Defensive First Team. The NBA released the 2014 All-Defensive teams Monday afternoon. Leading the charge was the 2014 Kia NBA Defensive Player of the Year and Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah, who led all vote getters. He was the only player to get triple-digit votes for the First Team, tallying 105 such votes as well as another 13 Second Team votes
LeBron James and Kawhi Leonard figure to be seeing a lot of each other over the next two weeks. That will be the small forward matchup in the NBA Finals. Just like last year, it should be a good one, because both players were named to the NBA All-Defensive Second Team on Monday. Neither the Miami Heat nor the San Antonio Spurs have anyone on the All-Defensive First Team, which was voted on by the media and has Defensive Player of the
NEW YORK – Lance Stephenson and Roy Hibbert of the Indiana Pacers have each been fined by the NBA in separate incidents for violating the league’s anti-flopping rules during Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Stephenson has been fined $10,000 for his second violation of the 2014 NBA Playoffs which occurred with 8:23 remaining in the fourth quarter of the Pacers’ 93-90 win over the Miami Heat last night at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Hibbert has been fined $5,000 for his first
YOUR ALL-TIME STARTING FIVE: Pick your $15 All-time Starting Five pic.twitter.com/NPsa7VmDkA — Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) May 28, 2014 So lets have a little fun with this (thanks to Ballislife for the tweet/idea). My team: Magic Johnson ($5), Michael Jordan ($5), Scottie Pippen ($1), Kevin Garnett ($1), Wilt Chamberlain ($3). Here’s the logic: Johnson is regarded by most as the greatest point guard of all-time. Easy choice. Jordan is regarded by most as the greatest player of all-time. Easy choice. It’s time to use my money wisely, so for
It wasn’t easy, but the Indiana Pacers found a way to stay alive against the Miami Heat in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Wednesday with a 93-90 win at home. A lot happened in the final moments of the game, where the game could have gone either way. An inordinate amount of clutch shots were converted by various players, including Chris Bosh, Rashard Lewis, LeBron James and most notably, Paul George. The teams traded one clutch 3-pointer after another