Memphis (2-3) at Los Angeles Clippers (3-2): Injuries have been the story of the first round of the playoffs, and the Los Angeles Clippers have officially joined the party. Caron Butler has been playing with a broken hand, and it seems his two superstar teammates will have to toughen up and join him in playing through injuries. Blake Griffin and Chris Paul each were hurt in Game 5, and though they are likely to play, a gimpy version of the two could prove
What looked to be a fast ending to the first round of the playoffs took a turn for the competitive good on Tuesday night when three of the four teams that faced elimination – the Hawks, Bulls and Nuggets – all survived to play a Game 6. The New York Knicks and Memphis Grizzlies are in the same boat – down 3-1 in their respective series – and they will try to avoid elimination on Wednesday night rather than go fishing,
San Antonio/Utah The top-seeded Spurs advanced to the conference semifinals against the winner of the Memphis–Los Angeles Clippers series that could go until Sunday. Parker had 11 points on 4-of-14 shooting, Tim Duncan added 11 points on 4-of-10 shooting, and starters Kawhi Leonard, Boris Diawand Danny Green combined for a total of eight points. The Spurs’ bench picked up the slack, outscoring Utah’s reserves 57-10 and finishing with 27 more points than their own starters. Facing elimination, the Jazz started their Big 3 lineup, with Derrick Favors at power forward, Al Jeffersonat center and Paul Millsap moving
We shall begin this morning by saying goodbye to the San Antonio Spurs … for a little while. They will play again, they will most certainly be rested, and they still will have no black marks on their record since back on April 11 when they lost to the Lakers. Since then, it’s been 14 wins in a row — the latest an 87-81 victory at Utah the eliminated the Jazz after they fought tooth and nail over the final month
One team, the Dallas Mavericks, has already been knocked out of the playoffs. If you want to bash Mark Cuban for it, you should read this first. The Utah Jazz will look to avoid the same fate in Game 4 against the mighty San Antonio Spurs, who seem to have forgotten how to lose – winning their last 13 contests. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Clippers hope to put themselves in a dominant position to take the series from the Memphis Grizzlies, who
Take out the brooms. Who would have thought we’d be saying that about the reigning World Champions? The Dallas Mavericks were swept by the Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday night after only eight days of playoff basketball, becoming the first team to be eliminated in the 2011-2012 Playoffs. As the TNT crew stated, they’re going fishing. It marked only the second time the team was swept out of the playoffs. The first time was against the Portland Trail Blazers in 1990, in a best-of-5 format. It
Most traditional fantasy basketball leagues are finished, but fantasy hoops continues on DraftStreet during the playoffs. Instead of one-day leagues (8-man teams with a $100,000 salary cap) they are now extended over two days. That was a great call: tonight’s two games will decide May 2-3 leagues and kick off May 3-4 leagues. The pool of players improves dramatically with the 2-day duration. Scroll down for my selections. Wednesday Recap LAC @ MEM: The evening’s best game by far. The Grizzlies took
The Coach of the Year was announced Tuesday, with Gregg Popovich coming out on top by a wide margin. It was certainly well-deserved, but there were plenty of other coaches that warranted attention as well. Thirteen coaches received votes, including Frank Vogel, Lionel Hollins, Tyrone Corbin, Stan Van Gundy and Vinny Del Negro – mid-season crisis and all. The work of these fine coaches will be on display tonight as we look into the preview of three playoff games on Wednesday night. Utah (0-1) at