0 comments by John Cannon on 4/24/2015
You snooze, you lose… unless you’re the Golden State Warriors against the New Orleans Pelicans in the first round of the NBA playoffs. The team with the NBA’s best record is about to reach the second round after a remarkable Game 3 escape. However, a clear pattern of regression coexists with the Warriors’ impending advancement […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
The one-game nature of NFL playoff football — how one day’s breaks and bounces affect a team’s postseason fate — gives the province of pigskin a constant unpredictability. The reality of playoff hockey reduces that sport to puck luck and the quality of the two goaltenders on a given day. The nature of playoff baseball […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 4/23/2015
Two schools of thought do not exist for every single topic under the sun, but most of what we pursue as human beings can certainly welcome opposing points of view. Such is the case with the enthralling Western Conference playoff series between the San Antonio Spurs and Los Angeles Clippers, the only one of the […]
0 comments by Bryan Gibberman
Dallas Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle was as blunt as you could possibly be about the future of guard Rajon Rondo on Wednesday. Reporter: Do you expect Rondo to wear a Mavericks uniform again? Carlisle: Uhhhh, no, I don’t. He went on to say in regard to the injury news released about Rondo (who is […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
Wednesday, April 22, 2015. No one won a playoff series on this day, or even took a 3-0 lead. No one scored 50 points or grabbed 30 rebounds. Yes, Tim Duncan played like a man much younger than his almost-39 years, but we’ve come to expect Duncan to defy Father Time. This does not immediately […]
0 comments by Bryan Gibberman on 4/22/2015
The time has finally come for change with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Oklahoma City has fired coach Scott Brooks, league source tells Yahoo Sports. — Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA)
0 comments by Matt Zemek
See Dwight Howard in the cover photo above? He’s having a grand old time… not because he didn’t perform well last year against the Portland Trail Blazers, but because his team is controlling a first-round series. This offers a starting point for a comparison between the 2015 first round and the opening round of last […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 4/20/2015
Tony Parker will be a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame after he retires and becomes eligible for the honor. After back-to-back NBA Finals appearances and one more NBA championship as part of the San Antonio Spurs’ dynasty, there is nothing Parker and his old-man teammates truly have to prove. However, after Game 1 […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 4/18/2015
“Paul Pierce sucks!” “Paul Pierce sucks!” A chant thrown at a loathed athlete on the opposing team isn’t automatically or necessarily cruel, but there’s a time and a place for it. Seasoned fans know when to serenade a villain on the visiting team — when the game is well in hand, when a bad day […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 4/17/2015
The 1994 Seattle Supersonics. The 2012 Chicago Bulls. The 2007 Dallas Mavericks. These and other “winter champions” are not remembered for the best of reasons. Greatness over 82 games and greatness in an American spring are two very different things. The playoffs define professional basketball legacies and reputations. Winning 11 straight Big 12 titles can […]
Gregg Popovich motivated his team by showing them their failure in Game Six. Photo by Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports
0 comments by Matt Zemek
We’ll focus on each of the eight first-round series in due time, but as the 2015 NBA Playoffs arrive — the brackets clean and all 16 teams starting at 0-0 — what broader themes emerge? The first thought that comes to mind is that another professional basketball postseason offers a fascinating mix of the old […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 4/16/2015
The 2015 NBA Playoff bracket is set. The show starts Saturday with a quadrupleheader. Our site will (Crossover) Chronicle the playoffs, and over the next few days, you’ll find plenty to read on the NBA’s postseason before the first game tips just after 3 p.m. Eastern on April 18. More will be said on teams […]
Photo by Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 4/15/2015
There are plenty of people on this green earth who coach and play sports. For these men and women, the DNA of athletic success is so deeply coded into the human organism that it’s a sin against nature to view any loss as “good.” Thus begins a counterintuitive examination of the most successful “bad season” […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 4/14/2015
One of the first particularly memorable moments of a fascinating NBA regular season occurred on Nov. 8, when I was covering college football for Bloguin’s college sports site, The Student Section. The New Orleans Pelicans traveled to San Antonio to take on the newly-crowned NBA champions. The business of the regular season had begun, but […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 4/13/2015
In the 162-game baseball season or the 16-game NFL season, an improvement of just over 10 games cannot be compared. Such an improvement is titanic in the NFL, comparatively modest in baseball. In hockey, 10 more wins in a regular season could mean something hugely significant, but with overtime and shootout losses counting for a […]
