What has gotten into Kobe Bryant this season? Is it a classic case of “he’s playing well due to the Olympics experience”? The Black Mamba scored 28 points on 12-of-19 shooting to go along with eight assists in a thrilling 84-82 loss against the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday night. His performance brings him to an average of 26.4 points on 55.1 percent shooting in eight games. He is also averaging just 17 shots per game – the lowest since the
Fire Mike Brown. That has been the sentiment of many Lakers fans after watching their super team open the season with three straight losses. Don’t believe me? Check out our “When will Mike Brown get fired” poll. It turns out, fans aren’t the only ones having an issue with the scrutinized coach’s methods, from Alex Kennedy of Hoopsworld: Fans have already started calling for Brown’s job and many of his players have started wondering if he’s the right person to lead the team. Behind
When the Oklahoma City Thunder traded James Harden on Saturday night, they revealed to everyone that they are a team far more concerned with the bottom line than the top of the heap. Probably a bit ahead of schedule, the Thunder reached the NBA Finals last season. As we have said before, they were a questionable foul call away from opening a 2-0 lead on the mighty Miami Heat that would have cultivated the doubt and derision that has swirled around
(This is another in a series of 30 guest columns that will run in October, when optimism reigns supreme across the NBA. The theme will be “Five Reasons to Feel Positive About … ” We encourage you to follow the authors on Twitter and visit their sites. – CS) The fact that the San Antonio Spurs managed to win 50 games in the 66-game lockout-reduced slate should not be a mere footnote; it is remarkable. Translated over a normal schedule, the
Perhaps, after his playing career is over, San Antonio Spurs guard Manu Ginobili might have a future in filmmaking. Ginobili tweeted out a link to a simple, yet very cool time lapse video that he made after leaving American Airlines Arena in Miami following the Spurs preseason game against the Heat.
When we wrote last month that the Western Conference playoff picture would be filled in by the Dallas Mavericks and Minnesota Timberwolves, it was assumed that both teams would have their alpha dogs at power forward. Now that Dirk Nowitzki and Kevin Love are both out until at least December, that picture could be changing. Nowitzki and Love both are top-10 players whose presence instantly legitimizes their teams as playoff-worthy, regardless of the other 14 players sharing a locker room and airplane with them.
Who are the needles in the haystacks? With NBA training camps opening, nothing excites me more than talking about little-known players and their chances to make their perspective teams. The time to put all other events aside for the next 9 months is about to begin, and I couldn’t be more excited. I have the bug so bad this time of year, I go to local college inter-squad scrimmages. As it relates to the NBA, this is a tremendous time of year
