Usually, the winners make the headlines. In today’s roundup, however, the losers were the story of Saturday night as a handful of teams fighting to make the playoffs came up short. With three different teams — Milwaukee, Utah and Phoenix — still within reach of the eighth and final playoff seed in their respective Conferences, how many of them came out with a victory? None. Starting with the most inexplicable blowout of the night – the only game on national television – the Spurs
April is supposed to be the time of the NBA season when the best teams gear up for the playoffs and head into it playing their absolute best basketball. The Heat must have missed that memo. And the Bulls’ starters, too. With the NBA regular season slowly but surely winding down, two of the top teams in the Eastern Conference are heading into the postseason with plenty of uncertainty and several important questions to still resolve. For the Chicago Bulls, the team with
As the truncated season winds down, teams are jockeying for playoff positioning and home-court advantage. One of those teams should be the San Antonio Spurs. But coach Gregg Popovich is playing a different game. Popovich, the silver-haired, long-tenured guru who is among the frontrunners for Coach of the Year Award, decided to sit out three of his top three players – Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili – for the second time this season. The result was the same as the last time
Derrick Rose was impressive in his long-awaited return, with 29 points, but he did miss 19 shots and turned the ball over eight times, showing a bit of rust. Carmelo Anthony was even better, scoring 43 including the clinching 3-pointer in overtime. Tyson Chandler (8 PTS, 16 REB, 3 BLK) was a huge factor and Iman Shumpert (15 PTS. 6 AST, 9 REB, 3 STL) made up for a quiet day from the hobbling Baron Davis. Luol Deng played almost
That’s what we should be expecting from Ray Allen as the sixth man. Five 3-pointers, four steals and 19 points in 33 minutes. Avery Bradley (4 PTS in 29 minutes) is starting mostly for defensive purposes, and Paul Pierce (24) is the main scoring option. Kevin Garnett (15 PTS, 7 REB) got a lot of support from Greg Stiemsma (10 PTS, 9 REB, 5 BLK) up front. Many of the Pacers played just as well as they had in upsetting
A month from now when we’re forced to endure an Indiana Pacers or Atlanta Hawks playoff game and we’re looking back fondly on what has been smorgasbord of a regular season, we shall long for nights like the one we had Wednesday. Heat-Thunder. Lakers-Clippers. Spurs-Celtics. And perhaps best of all, because I am biased here by virtue of touting this one and watching the thrilling finish from the edge of my office chair, Suns-Jazz. Great game in Miami, won by the Heat
