After the Washington Wizards ended a season-high five-game losing streak Saturday with a 37-point victory over the Brooklyn Nets, Marcin Gortat wasn’t quite ready to declare that their earth was back on its axis. “At the end of the day, it was Brooklyn, so we can’t get really excited,” he said. There’s nothing like perspective. And Gortat is right: One win against a plodding, tired team is nothing to get excited about. What the Wizards should be is concerned. Prior to the win
Nets point guard Deron Williams is being paid $19,754,465 this season. That’s just over $240,908 a game and $60,227 a quarter. After a strong start to the season, Williams had a bad December hindered by a calf injury and was supplanted in the starting lineup by Jarrett Jack. Jack has thrived in his new role as a starter for Brooklyn, which has won four of five. With head coach Lionel Hollins all but saying that Jack will be the starter for the forseeable future, Williams
Perhaps no team in the NBA has moved on from its past and looked toward its future more than the Utah Jazz. Virtually all of the ties to the great Jazz teams of the 1990s are gone. In their place are a rookie coach and a starting lineup that figures to have no one older than 24. The Jazz won’t be much better than last season, when they lost 57 games, their most since arriving in Salt Lake City from New Orleans
BROOKLYN – Through three regular season games, Alec Burks led the Utah Jazz in points per game (18.0), two-point field goal percentage among players who took at least one shot per game (57.6), offensive rating (107), win shares, win shares per 48 minutes (.131) and PER (19.2). Sounds like someone who should start for a rebuilding team like the Jazz, no? Yet the 12th overall in the 2011 draft has yet to start a game in his NBA career. Why? “He’s deserved to start
Generations of fans know the Utah Jazz as a model of stability. They were raised on Hall of Famers John Stockton and Karl Malone, coach Jerry Sloan and super significant owner Larry H. Miller, the rock of the franchise. Miller kept the team together, mended issues with coaches and players and even took financial risks to purchase the team. When Miller died in 2009, the franchise slowly lost all the stability he imparted to it as the sole owner. It truly fell apart
The playoffs start tomorrow. With the schedule for the first weekend released, we can now see which playoff teams the NBA thinks will draw the most viewers. And to nobody’s surprise, the Heat, with their Sunday evening time slot, are one of them. The other game that pulled a prime time slot is the Chicago Bulls visiting the Brooklyn Nets. Which also shouldn’t be surprising, considering they’re two of the biggest markets in the country. As for who is driving viewers
The return of NBA games that count also brought the return of The Bernucca List, which made its 2012-13 debut last week. It took just under three hours before reader Brian delivered the correct answer, which was “Players who were waived after being acquired in trades this offseason.” Five of the players on the list were waived by Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey, who added to the list following the James Harden trade by waiving five more players – Jon Brockman, Gary
You had to enjoy watching the Jazz fight off the Suns and the Rockets for the West’s final playoff spot. They have been playing playoff-atmosphere basketball for the better part of April, but they are about to go up against a machine of a team that Tim Duncan described as the deepest he has ever played on. That’s a mouthful right there. Here are five things to watch for in the first-round playoff series between the San Antonio Spurs and