If you are like me and a fan of the TV show The Walking Dead, you were thoroughly intrigued by the recent season finale, which showed a strange hooded female character who had gained control of two formerly relentless zombies, rendering them harmless annoyances by severing their arms and placing them on leashes. In a way, those zombies could have been the Orlando Magic and Philadelphia 76ers, a pair of dead teams walking into what should otherwise be a very alive
There were so many games last night (14) in the NBA, your fingers go calloused from switching the remote and your brain got scrambled by considering all the playoff possibilities. Bottom line: There are still eight nights left of regular season basketball, a lot can happen over those eight days, and we need to find a way to give you a synopsis of what’s up. To do that, we’ll focus today on the teams with 32-30 records. There are three of them, they
… and don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. Hey, gotta try to one-up the Sixers’ fans, right? In the city where they once booed Santa Claus, the patrons were not quite so delighted last night. And they let the home team know about it. The Philadelphia 76ers were booed off their home floor in their final home game of the regular season Tuesday night, a 102-97 loss to the Indiana Pacers that cut their lead over
Monday night’s triple-overtime thriller in Salt Lake City simply was one of the best games of the season. It was a three-hour commercial for why League Pass is worth every penny and Exhibit A for why I walk away laughing when some fool tries to explain why the college game is better than the NBA. We will get to that game in some detail. But the first matter of discussion is the Houston Rockets, whose late-season freefall gives North Korea’s space
CHARLOTTE — If the Charlotte Bobcats lose the rest of their games, they will go down in the record boks as having the worst winning percentage of any team in NBA history. In an effort to avoid that distinction, they have brought in a new player — NBA veteran Jamario Moon. He is expected to be in uniform tonight when the Bobcats, losers of 15 consecutive games, play host to the Boston Celtics. A four-year NBA veteran, the 6-foot-8 Moon has played in
// What are we going to learn in tonight’s big Heat-Bulls matchup in Chicago? Hopefully, we’ll find out which stars can show some fourth-quarter moxie. But the better Chicago-Miami game to look forward to will happen next Thursday, when a clearer picture of playoff positioning possibilities will have emerged. There is a case to be made that it is better to be the No. 2 seed than the No. 1 seed, because it might mean an easier path to the conference finals
Sixteen days to glory. The title of Bud Greenspan’s documentary of the 1984 Olympics also is fitting for the NBA season, which has just 16 days remaining and a dozen playoff spots still up for grabs. For argument’s sake, we’re going to assume middle-of-the-packers Indiana, Boston, Atlanta and Orlando will eventually clinch berths in the Eastern Conference, while the Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers and Memphis will sew up spots in the West. All seven of those teams have fewer than 25
With 11 games left in the regular season, the Philadelphia 76ers can slice their Atlantic Division deficit in half on Sunday with a win over the division-leading Celtics in Boston. It could come down to a battle of the benches. Saturday, Ray Allen came off the bench for just the sixth time in his career and hit four 3-pointers in the fourth quarter. Philadelphia’s leading scorer, Lou Williams (15.3 ppg), comes off the bench every game; and Saturday the Sixers were paced by