The Sixth Man Award is a complicated one. Historically, the winner has been a super scorer who provides a needed offensive boost to a winning team. But this season might be different. No top team has a true standout scorer off the bench who fits the mold of winners from seasons past. The one exception could be Ryan Anderson of the New Orleans Pelicans. Sure, New Orleans is only 9-9 and has been wildly inconsistent this season. Still, since Anderson’s return to the
Houston Rockets guard Jeremy Lin, one of the NBA’s top reserves this season, is out at least two weeks with a knee injury. According to the team, Lin has a Grade one sprain and contusion of his right knee suffered in Wednesday’s home win over the Atlanta Hawks. He will be sidelined two weeks before being re-evaluated. It is not the same knee in which Lin had surgery to repair a meniscus tear during the 2012 offseason, when he left the New
Sleep deprivation and sofasores come with the territory at this time of year. If you live on the East Coast, like me, you sacrifice both your days and your nights to the basketball gods and pray that it’ll all be worth it. Last night, it was. With Tony Allen defending him and trying to force him to go left, Chris Paul went to his right anyway and sank the game-winning shot with one-tenth of a second left to give the Los Angeles
In a conference call last week, NBA commissioner David Stern made it clear that he wasn’t a huge fan of “homer” announcers. But it’s one thing to watch a broadcast of the Portland Trail Blazers – or any team – and get an earful of blind support for the home team. It’s entirely another when some of these broadcasters extend their undying support when they vote on the NBA’s season-ending awards. Knicks guard J.R. Smith won the Sixth Man Award today. The
NEW YORK — Well, you can’t exactly call it a landslide. But it certainly was a more decisive vote than many might have anticipated. J.R. Smith, who led all reserves in scoring, received 72 first-place votes to Crawford’s 31 in winning the NBA’s Sixth Man award Monday. Jarrett Jack of Golden State received 14 first-place votes and finished third. My vote went to Smith, who had seven 30-point games in which the Knicks went 5-2. Crawford scored 30 once — one of the deciding
Life without Kobe Bryant for the Los Angeles Lakers began Sunday night, and it wasn’t so bad. In fact, it was pretty good. With Dwight Howard having a big game and Steve Blake somehow outplaying Tony Parker, the Lakers defeated the suddenly struggling San Antonio Spurs and need just one more win to clinch a playoff berth. [Read more…]
The 1,230-game NBA regular season ends Wednesday. The following morning, editor-in-chief Chris Sheridan will submit his ballot for the season-ending awards. I don’t have a vote but I am hoping to influence his thought process with my choices, which are below. If not, I am hoping I will make him laugh with my snotty remarks. Let’s get to it. [Read more…]
This week marks the final edition of our Sixth Man Rankings, and we have a winner. While major alterations to the list have been made throughout this process, the race ultimately has come down to two players on opposite sides of the country: Los Angeles Clippers guard Jamal Crawford and New York Knicks guard J.R. Smith. Both players are in their first full season with their teams and both were able to add a bench scoring dimension to which neither team had