Russell Westbrook is back and possibly better than ever, and now the long climb officially begins for the Oklahoma City Thunder as they attempt to re-insert themselves as a contender in the loaded Western Conference. In Friday night’s 105-78 home rout over the Knicks, Westbrook put up 32 points, eight assists and seven rebounds in 24 minutes — making him the first player in the shot-clock era to score at least 32 points and eight assists in a timeframe that short. [Read
As you’ll probably notice from the headline, Andrei Kirilenko’s time with the Nets may be drawing to a close. What makes this interesting, apart from how good Kirilenko used to be, is that he turned down a sizable contract from the Timberwolves to come to Brooklyn in the first place on a veteran minimum deal. Kirilenko has barely seen the floor this year, and last year was easily the worst of his career, but you’ve got to imagine there’s an NBA
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
Lakers fans are everywhere. Literally. Before a Sunday night game in Oklahoma City between the Thunder and Houston Rockets, an LA fan had to created a little dialogue from the bleachers. Lakers fan six rows behind the scorer's table screams at Westbrook: "Russ, come to L.A.!!" Russ starts shaking his head no. — Darnell Mayberry (@DarnellMayberry) November 17, 2014 Fan: "You can shoot all you want. Come to L.A. We got rings." Westbrook: "Get yo ass out of here and go back to L.A." —
The NBA season is only 10 days old, but there’s been a lot to take in and observe. The “Big Three” in Cleveland have a big three losses against one just one narrow win. The Sacramento Kings didn’t get the memo about returning to the lottery. The Los Angeles Lakers are finding out that winless and glamorous usually are mutually exclusive. The New York Knicks look like a different team from game to game. Here are five things I’ve learned so far
The Oklahoma City Thunder are hoping to find some secrets to keeping their players healthy. Already missing superstars Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, Perry Jones III left last night’s game against the Raptors with a knee injury. On top of them, Anthony Morrow, Jeremy Lamb and Andre Roberson are all out with injuries. When Jones III went down yesterday, the Thunder were down to only seven healthy players that dressed and were able to play. [Read more…]
There were two pieces of bad news coming out of Loud City this weekend. And there was a disproportionate reaction to the wrong one. There was far too much hand-wringing to the news that Russell Westbrook will be joining fellow Oklahoma City Thunder superstar Kevin Durant on the sidelines after undergoing surgery on his broken right hand. The Thunder are going to survive November without Durant and Westbrook. They have 14 games between now and Dec. 1, the projected earliest return for
James Harden probably would not mind being compared to Babe Ruth. As an avid video game player, he has likely played Madden. I’m not too sure he would welcome a comparison with a billy goat, but since the subject is curses and jinxes, if he knew the humorous history of the Curse of the Billy Goat, he’d probably be OK with the reference. When I first heard the surprising news in October 2012 that the Oklahoma City Thunder had traded a