Think your team is making the playoffs in the West this season? If you don’t live in L.A., you sure about that? If your team is the Dallas Mavericks or Utah Jazz, you shouldn’t be so sure. The Western Conference has six teams that are postseason certainties and four teams that are locks for the lottery. That leaves five teams vying for two spots. The Oklahoma City Thunder, Los Angeles Lakers, San Antonio Spurs, Los Angeles Clippers, Memphis Grizzlies and Denver Nuggets are in. Each
OKLAHOMA CITY – The Miami Heat’s lead was down to 4, the shot clock was at 5 and Shane Battier was about to set a screen for Dwyane Wade at the top of the key. But he slip-screened, backed up, got his hands ready, set his feet and let the ball fly. “I was just trying to get it on the rim, to be honest with you,” explained the do-it-all forward. “The shot clock was low, (Kevin) Durant was in my
In any seven-game series, the biggest adjustments by coaches are usually made between Games 1 and 2. Those adjustments – and a sense of urgency – have contributed to some of the best Game 2 showdowns in recent NBA Finals history. As we will do throughout the Finals, we have compiled a list of the five best Game 2’s since 1984, when David Stern became commissioner (and the playoffs went to a 16-team format). In all five games listed below, the team that
Boston Celtics center Kevin Garnett was fined $25,000 by the NBA on Wednesday for not making himself available to the media following the team’s Game 7 loss at Miami on Saturday. The Celtics lost, 101-88, and were eliminated from the postseason, one win shy of the NBA Finals. Obviously upset with the loss, Garnett left the locker room without speaking with reporters. Garnett just completed his 17th season and is said to be considering retirement despite a renaissance in which he averaged
// All eyes were supposed to be on LeBron James as the NBA Finals began Tuesday night. Would James continue his spectacular postseason? Would he put his disappearing acts in last year’s Finals behind him? Would he finally break through and win his first championship? Those aren’t the questions fans are asking anymore. In fact, after one game, the focus is no longer on James. It is on Kevin Durant, whose 36 points and eight rebounds lifted the Oklahoma City Thunder to
The 12 referees who work the NBA Finals will wear No. 57 on their jerseys as a show of recognition to colleague Greg Willard, who has pancreatic cancer. A 24-year veteran, Willard is one of the NBA’s top officials, having worked the last two NBA Finals, the pinnacle of officiating. He was still working in the early rounds of this postseason before pulling out with an undisclosed illness. The gesture was arranged by the National Basketball Referees Association with the NBA’s cooperation. “Greg’s
It is Chris Bosh’s lot in life to be the third member of the “Big Three.” In the Heat heirarchy, he always is placed behind LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, whose games are more captivating and awe-inspiring. He was mocked last season for crying after a string of tough losses. In this postseason, his nine-game absence due to an abdominal strain was somewhat minimized when James and Wade snapped out of their doldrums and put together an awesome two-pronged attack that obliterated
Break up the Big Three? Maybe down in Miami, where the trio of so-called superstars have the collective toughness of your average 9-year-old girl. But not in Boston, where the Celtics are on the verge of a huge postseason upset, and Kevin Garnett looks like he is about to hand previously undefeated Father Time his first career loss. You don’t have to like Garnett. You don’t have to like the stream of R-rated language that comes from his mouth after every good play.