Indiana’s playoff hopes looked especially dim after a 15-30 start, but a stretch of inspired play in February and March had the team at 30-34 on March 12 after a seven-game winning streak. Paul George was set to come back and it looked like the Pacers were going to be the team no one wanted to draw in the first round. Since then, Indiana has lost eight of 10 including Monday’s crucial 111-106 setback in Brooklyn against the Nets. The Pacers
Indiana’s win in New York on Saturday night epitomized the current trajectory of the team’s season. It was a slow and ugly start, but the team persevered through strong defense and playoff-tested experience. The team’s slow and ugly start began actually began nearly eight months earlier, on a sultry Friday July evening in Las Vegas with Paul George’s horrendously gruesome leg injury. The bad luck and misery continued when rotation stalwarts David West, George Hill and C.J. Watson missed the beginning of the season with
We don’t blame you if you haven’t been paying attention to the bottom of the Eastern Conference playoff race. The West obviously has been far more interesting. While Golden State looks secure in the top spot, the next six teams are all playing better than .600 basketball and separated by just seven losses. And Oklahoma City, New Orleans and Phoenix – all vying for the eighth and final spot – are within two games of each other. The East? Well, the top
Chris Bosh’s season may be slowing to a halt as doctors suspect he may have a pulmonary embolism. Just days after participating in his 10th NBA All-Star weekend, Miami Heat center Chris Bosh is now out indefinitely. Bosh was said to have been suffering some pain over the weekend while on vacation with teammate Dwyane Wade and their families. When the pain continued into the week, he saw team doctors who sent him to the hospital on Wednesday for tests. Initial
Is Paul George really out for the season? If the Pacers can make a playoff push in the weak Eastern Conference, it sounds like he might not be. In a video interview on Tuesday, team president Larry Bird did not rule out the star forward’s return this season despite his horrific leg injury suffered last August. “We’ll see where Paul’s at. Still have no idea whether he’s coming back or not, but it seems like every week, he’s getting better and better.
If Derrick Rose wants to sit out games because he doesn’t feel 100 percent healthy, that’s fine. If Rose wants to go to the coaching staff, training staff and management of the Chicago Bulls and develop some sort of maintenance program which allows him to sit out games from time to time, that’s fine, too. In fact, given what the San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat have done with their aging stars over the last several seasons – and the success that
BROOKLYN – Andrew Wiggins grew up watching Vince Carter during his “Air Canada” days, back when Tracy McGrady was also with the Toronto Raptors, showing his early flashes of stardom. The phenom drew comparisons to both former Toronto players as ceilings for his development when he entered the NBA draft. However, a handful of games into his NBA career, the 19-year-old has drawn numerous comparisons to Paul George in recent conversations with several league general managers, executives and scouts. Wiggins had his best
There are eight games on tonight’s NBA docket, including a showdown of the unbeaten Rockets and Heat. But the league’s top drama is set to unfold on HBO. In the Tuesday night debut of an hour-long HBO Sports documentary, “The Offseason: Kevin Durant”, the injured Oklahoma City superstar lets the world know exactly why he left the US national team this summer just before the World Cup. And despite his statements at the time, it doesn’t appear that fatigue or any other specific medical