It was just a couple months ago that the “Save Vinny’s Job” homestand began for the Los Angeles Clippers. They returned home reeling from a seven-point road loss against New Orleans, the worst team in the West, and had lost eight of 12. What has happened since has been the second renaissance of the former laughingstocks of Los Angeles, and Del Negro coached his kiester off in Game 7 of the first round against the Memphis Grizzlies, riding the players
Congratulations to LeBron James on winning his third MVP award. Now go win a title. Seriously. Neither of us is getting any younger. As avid readers of this site are aware, I cast my MVP vote for Chris Paul of the Los Angeles Clippers, for reasons stated in this column. Five other voters agreed with me from a cast of 121 voters — sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada, as well as an NBA.com MVP fan vote. James collected 85 first-place votes. Kevin
San Antonio/Utah The top-seeded Spurs advanced to the conference semifinals against the winner of the Memphis–Los Angeles Clippers series that could go until Sunday. Parker had 11 points on 4-of-14 shooting, Tim Duncan added 11 points on 4-of-10 shooting, and starters Kawhi Leonard, Boris Diawand Danny Green combined for a total of eight points. The Spurs’ bench picked up the slack, outscoring Utah’s reserves 57-10 and finishing with 27 more points than their own starters. Facing elimination, the Jazz started their Big 3 lineup, with Derrick Favors at power forward, Al Jeffersonat center and Paul Millsap moving
One team, the Dallas Mavericks, has already been knocked out of the playoffs. If you want to bash Mark Cuban for it, you should read this first. The Utah Jazz will look to avoid the same fate in Game 4 against the mighty San Antonio Spurs, who seem to have forgotten how to lose – winning their last 13 contests. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Clippers hope to put themselves in a dominant position to take the series from the Memphis Grizzlies, who
San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich made it a habit to rest his veteran stars this season, come what may. Up until Game 3, the Coach of the Year had been treating the playoffs much the same way. Tim Duncan played 35 minutes in San Antonio’s 102-90 Game 3 victory Saturday night, and Tony Parker played 40. But during the first two games against the Utah Jazz, the only Spur to play more than 31 minutes was Parker, who logged 37
Take out the brooms. Who would have thought we’d be saying that about the reigning World Champions? The Dallas Mavericks were swept by the Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday night after only eight days of playoff basketball, becoming the first team to be eliminated in the 2011-2012 Playoffs. As the TNT crew stated, they’re going fishing. It marked only the second time the team was swept out of the playoffs. The first time was against the Portland Trail Blazers in 1990, in a best-of-5 format. It
Tonight (and tomorrow) it’s the Sheridan Hoops Freeroll, with $250 cash in prizes, absolutely free to play. DraftStreet, which offered one-day NBA leagues all season, now extends them over two days, so tonight’s three games not only decide May 3-4 leagues, they kick off May 4-5 leagues like the Freeroll. There is a wider assortment of great players to choose from as a result. Scroll down for more info and my picks. Thursday Recap MIA @ NYK: That was ugly. LeBron James was
