0 comments by Complete Philly Coverage on 8/21/2015
I’ve looked at the Sixers’ newly released schedule quite often since it was released last Wednesday. It’s a fairly typical schedule, with only a few things worth noting. Here are the things I picked out to analyze: The Sixers have zero nationally televised games this season. However, they play twice on NBA TV. Those games […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 8/20/2015
Even today, it seems that a 9:05 or 9:10 p.m. Eastern time start to an NBA Finals game is a little too late. Yes, people live on the West Coast — I’m one of them, here in Seattle — but is it really asking too much to have an NBA Finals game (and an NCAA […]
Photo by Steve Dykes-USA TODAY Sports
0 comments by Matt Zemek
Our survey of weekend back-to-backs has moved through the Eastern Conference. Today, we begin the Western Conference with a look at the not-so-accurately-named Northwest Division. It’s not “Atlanta Falcons and Carolina Panthers in the old NFC West” bad, but it’s still bad, with Minnesota and Oklahoma City — those two noted Northwestern locales — accompanying […]
0 comments by Joseph Nardone
Phil Jackson was once remembered as being one of — if not the — best coaches in the history of basketball. Yet, that was “forever” ago: way before social media, and especially before he took over the duties of trying to make the incompetent New York Knicks slightly more competent. Jackson aimed to do this […]
Photo by Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 8/19/2015
The NBA “Best Of Summer Tour” is taking a brief break. Crossover Chronicles senior writer Joe Manganiello — also an AP Party contributor — covers Syracuse football for the Watertown (N.Y.) Daily Times and has business to tend to this week. He’ll be back in a few days. In the meantime, we’re going to take something […]
Photo by Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports
0 comments by Matt Zemek
Before we move to the next division in our survey of weekend back-to-backs for the 2015-2016 NBA schedule, let’s pause for a moment. If you read our Atlantic and Central Division pieces on this issue — with layouts of all the weekend back-to-backs teams face in the coming season — you noticed that there are […]
Photo by Greg Bartram-USA TODAY Sports
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 8/18/2015
For a primer on weekend back-to-backs — which we’re examining for the next several days here at Crossover Chronicles — consult our first piece on the Atlantic Division. We now move, without any fanfare whatsoever, to the Central Division. * WEEKEND BACK-TO-BACKS: CENTRAL DIVISION CHICAGO BULLS Sunday, Jan. 31: at LAC, 3:30 Eastern Monday, Feb. […]
0 comments by Sean Woodley
Can’t wait for the 2015-’16 season to start? We neither. Now that most of the off-season’s major moves are complete, we’ll dive into some ludicrously premature predictions for next season. In the coming days and weeks we’ll attempt to project the standings in each conference, five teams at a time, before trying to lock down […]
0 comments by Joe Webb on 8/17/2015
The New Orleans Pelicans are excited as any to get next season underway, as the team now has a year of playoff experience under their belt after getting knocked out by last season’s champions in the first round. With Anthony Davis already considered one of the game’s superstars, the Pelicans are building a perennial playoff […]
LOS ANGELES – 1987: Teammates help Magic Johnson #32 of the Los Angeles Lakers off the floor during an NBA game at the Great Western Forum in Los Angeles, California in 1987. (Photo by: Mike Powell/Getty Images)
0 comments by Joe Mags
What makes a great NBA Finals: Seven games? Game-winning shots? Career-defining performances? Outlandish narratives? It all matters. Matt Zemek and I look back on some of the greatest NBA Finals in history. * JOE MANGANIELLO (@thatjoemags) 5 – 1969 FINALS: CELTICS 4, LAKERS 3 Jerry West waited 12 long years before finally winning a championship — on one of the […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
All this week at Crossover Chronicles, we’re going to unpack a specific component of the NBA schedule. It is widely — I’d say universally — acknowledged that the league and commissioner Adam Silver have done a very good job of improving the schedule in terms of easing the amount of stress and strain placed on […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 8/16/2015
It’s something I have written about when covering major-tournament tennis at Bloguin site Attacking The Net. It’s very much worth repeating on a day when Joe Manganiello and I have explored the best NBA Finals series of all time here at Crossover Chronicles: The length of a sporting event is not the central manifestation or determinant […]
0 comments by Joe Webb
Under the guidance of their President of Basketball Operations and head coach Jason Kidd, the Milwaukee Bucks are moving in the right direction for a change. They have young talent in Jabari Parker and Giannis Antetokounmpo. They have their point guard of the future in Michael Carter-Williams, and now they also boast newly-signed free agent […]
AUBURN HILLS, MI – JUNE 15: (L-R) Head Coach Larry Brown, Richard Hamilton #32, Ben Wallace #3, Chauncey Billups #1 and Rasheed Wallace #30 of the Detroit Pistons pose with the championship trophy after Game Five of the 2004 NBA Finals on June 15, 2004 at The Palace of Auburn Hills in Auburn Hills, Michigan. 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. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2004 NBAE. (Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images)
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 8/15/2015
The NBA has almost always been a heavyweight league in a way the NHL has not been able to follow. It’s not as though the NHL hasn’t cultivated its share of dynastic teams, but in hockey, being the top seed (or even the number two seed) in the conference playoffs is hardly a guarantee of […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 8/14/2015
There’s a lot more to be said — and a lot more research to perform — on the twin topics that dominate NBA schedule releases at this point in the league’s existence: back-to-backs and 4-in-5s. We’ll slowly unroll our examination of this topic, adding more details over a period of weeks, but let’s at least […]
