0 comments by Matt Zemek on 6/6/2015
Kyrie Irving won’t play for the rest of the 2015 NBA Finals. That news came down Friday afternoon, giving the Cleveland Cavaliers roughly 48 hours to prepare how to play in his absence. No one’s going to say that this is good news for Cleveland — not in light of the way Kyrie performed in […]
OAKLAND, CA – JUNE 04: J.R. Smith #5 of the Cleveland Cavaliers shoots against Klay Thompson #11 of the Golden State Warriors at the end of the in the second quarter during Game One of the 2015 NBA Finals at ORACLE Arena on June 4, 2015 in Oakland, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 6/5/2015
During Game 1 of the 2015 NBA Finals, longtime NBA reporter David Aldridge tweeted the following: Last year, that player for the San Antonio Spurs was Boris Diaw, a player who breaks a lot of the rules with his style of play and his rather (shall we say?) curvy physique. In 2013, that player for the […]
MIAMI, FL – JUNE 05: A general view of American Airlines Arena prior to Game One of the 2013 NBA Finals between the Miami Heat and the San Antonio Spurs on June 5, 2013 in Miami, Florida. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 6/2/2015
The Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors will soon try to establish themselves as the best team in professional basketball. Our team of writers and commentators at Crossover Chronicles has attempted to predict the Finals. No explanations here — the answers are revealing in and of themselves. The envelope, please: * BRYAN GIBBERMAN Cleveland key […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 6/1/2015
Some coaching hires are met with waves of acclaim and very little opposition. Some hires involve relative unknowns, or if not that, people who lived so far under the radar that it’s hard to even form an opinion. Such was the case with Erik Spoelstra in Miami after the high-profile Pat Riley years (interrupted by […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
It’s NBA Finals week, though the gap between the conference finals and the Big Finals feels more like a month. At any rate, the big event is almost here, and when the NBA Finals arrive, it’s easy to feel nostalgic about past NBA Finals. Much as any baseball fan falls in love with the World […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 5/30/2015
The fact that LeBron James is making his sixth NBA Finals appearance leads to an obvious question: Which previous NBA Finals series most closely resembles this one? Several commonalities exist, but they’re evenly distributed among the possible choices. Is there one NBA Finals which obviously stands out above the rest? It’s hard to say yes […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
In the lead-up to the 2015 NBA Finals, you’re going to see (and hear) plenty of discussion about the 1975 NBA champion Golden State Warriors, now in their second NBA Finals. However, don’t forget the Cleveland Cavalier team from the mid-1970s that very nearly created a Cavs-Warriors Finals in 1976. The story of the 1976 […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 5/29/2015
The NBA Finals are their own separate creature, given the matchup of teams from opposite conferences, over a full week after the completion of the conference finals. We’ve reviewed the Eastern and Western Conference playoffs in stand-alone pieces. Now, let’s look at the top 10 stories to emerge from both conferences over the past six […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
Reaction to the firing of Tom Thibodeau as the head coach of the Chicago Bulls has acquired all shapes and sizes, flowing in every possible direction. There’s a general consensus about the situation in terms of the relationship between Thibodeau and management, and when Adrian Wojnarowski weighs in, you can reliably view his assessment as […]
HOUSTON, TX – MAY 17: Chris Paul #3 of the Los Angeles Clippers reacts in the third quarter against the Houston Rockets during Game Seven of the Western Conference Semifinals at the Toyota Center for the 2015 NBA Playoffs on May 17, 2015 in Houston, Texas. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images)
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 5/28/2015
If we’re going to knock the 2015 Eastern Conference — especially its playoff performance over the past three rounds — the Western Conference can’t be allowed to escape criticism as well. More to the point, if the East was dogged by the plague of injuries that swept through the playoffs this year — Kevin Love, […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 5/27/2015
You know from reading the title of this piece that I’m about to talk about Eastern Conference basketball. Therefore, a few notes must be put forth at the outset: 1) This is not going to be a “rip the Atlanta Hawks” piece. 2) LeBron James making five straight NBA Finals — becoming the first player […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 5/26/2015
Credit for this column goes to Crossover Chronicles reader Robert Barnard, who made the following point during Game 4 of the Western Conference finals between the Houston Rockets and the Golden State Warriors: Mr. Barnard is not wrong. Let’s look at the J.R. Smith arm-smack delivered to Jae Crowder of the Boston Celtics, one month […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
Our team at Crossover Chronicles is covering various aspects of the Western Conference finals. John Cannon offered a Golden State perspective on Game 4, and other members of our staff have written about the West finals from the Houston Rockets’ point of view. Want to read more about these two teams? We’re on it. Yet, […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 5/25/2015
The 2015 NBA Playoffs have been a bust. That short, blunt, inelegant sentence matches the cadence of these playoffs as well as the level of quality they’ve (not) attained. The Cleveland Cavaliers will notch a successful season when they officially seal their Eastern Conference championship in the coming days, but unless Kyrie Irving and LeBron […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 5/23/2015
You can make all the Eastern Conference and David Blatt jokes you want, but if you stop laughing for a second, you can appreciate just how much LeBron James has grown as a leader. This growth — as a person and as a player — is responsible for bringing the Cleveland Cavaliers to the doorstep […]
