Arguably the NBA’s best two players go head-to-head for the first time this season on Sunday when LeBron James and the Miami Heat visit Kevin Durant and the Thunder in Oklahoma City. The outcome of this game could impact the finals if these two clubs are to meet there. At 35-11 the Heat, second to the East-leading Chicago Bulls (40-10), are percentage points ahead of the West-leading Thunder (36-12). Home-court advantage during the finals is given to the owner of the better regular-season
Who has time for the NBA during the NCAA Tournament? We do. And on Friday night, you should have made time, too. From John Rohde of the Daily Oklahoman: “Inside one locker room sat a player who had just set a single-game franchise record for points scored, while four chairs away sat a teammate who had collected his first career triple-double with 25 points, 14 assists and 10 rebounds. And this was on the losing team. Inside the victorious locker room across
Critics of the Oklahoma City Thunder often point to their occasional bouts with immaturity and lack of big-game experience. They can’t do that anymore. In perhaps the best signing of the release/buyout season, the Thunder on Wednesday signed veteran guard Derek Fisher, who was in uniform and scored five points in 19 minutes last night as is new team, the Thunder, defeated the fading Clippers by 23 points. Fisher has won five championships with the Los Angeles Lakers, who reluctantly traded him
Deron Williams missed his 4th consecutive game with a strained right calf. According to Elias Sports Bureau, LeBron James leads the Heat in PPG, RPG, and APG. If he does so, it would be the second time in his career he has done so, and only the 5th time it has been done in the past 10 seasons. The Heat are 5-0 this season when leading by 25+ at halftime. Sixers C Spencer Hawes sat out Friday’s game but will play Saturday against
The trade deadline had passed at 3PM EST on Thursday afternoon. Everything seemed settled and players could finally take a deep breath and play basketball again. Not so fast. Moments after the official deadline had passed, word arrived out of Denver that they had traded away long-tenured Nene Hilario in a three-team deal, receiving JaVale McGee, Ronny Turiaf and a future second-round pick in the process. The loss of Nene turned out to be too much for George Karl and the Denver Nuggets
Despite suffering a slew of injuries to key players throughout the season, the Denver Nuggets have been deep enough at just about every position to stay afloat in the playoff race. With just about every player back to full strength, the Nuggets may be hitting their stride just in time to fight for home court advantage in the Western Conference. They look to avenge their previous loss to Oklahoma City as Kevin Durant and the Thunder visit in Thursday’s best game. Both
As dominant as the Oklahoma City Thunder have been this season, they seem to get the benefit of the doubt when it comes to late controversial calls. The Thunder trailed by a point with 46 seconds remaining Tuesday night when Dallas center Ian Mahinmi appeared to cleanly block Serge Ibaka’s shot, but the whistle was blown for a foul, much to the dismay of Mahinmi and Rick Carlisle. Ibaka made both free throw attempts and the Thunder never looked back as they
Even if Dirk Nowitzki is feeling as good as he did against the Jazz on Saturday when he scored a season high 40 points in just under 29 minutes, defeating the best home team in the league will be a tall task for the Dallas Mavericks. Nowitzki and the Mavericks (22-16) visit Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder (29-8) for their final meeting this season in Monday night’s best game. The Thunder has won two of the three meetings this season