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The Warriors win without Curry, and may need to do it again

As the 2016 Golden State Warriors’ season unfolded, the optimism always had one caveat. A significant injury to Steph Curry would mean all bets were off. Any other injury, even one as damaging as the ankle sprain that cost Andre Iguodala 17 games late in the season, could be dealt with. Take Curry off the […]

Smoke, mirrors, Barea, Carlisle — Dallas uses all of them to defeat Houston

Rick Carlisle isn’t Steve Kerr or Gregg Popovich. He isn’t wonderboy coach Brad Stevens. Not the coach of a championship contender, and not in his late 30s, Carlisle doesn’t have the present moment or the future on his side. Yet, if Wednesday night’s victory by his Dallas Mavericks over the Houston Rockets reaffirmed a single […]

James Harden’s triple-double keeps Rockets’ playoff hopes alive

After losing to the Utah Jazz at the Toyota Center on Wednesday night, the Houston Rockets knew that on Friday night, they had to beat the Eastern conference’s second-best team in to retain the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. Coming into Friday’s game against the Toronto Raptors, Houston was riding a […]

The Jazz put some soul in the West playoff push

The Utah Jazz are the Detroit Pistons of the Western Conference. Sure, they’d love to make the playoffs — it would be great if they did — but as much as they’re locked in a present-tense battle, they’re more fundamentally playing for the future. A championship is not a realistic aspiration this season, and it […]

The Rockets troll the NBA again, but this time, Michael Beasley’s in on the act

Michael Beasley is, in a sense, the quintessential Houston Rocket, even though he’s been with the team for only four games. Beasley fits right into the Rockets’ overall pattern of being… well… largely free of patterns. Houston is just about impossible to neatly slot into any kind of pattern or category other than one: It […]

The Rockets fired the wrong big man

So here’s your deal: there are just some dudes that get you fired. Think of it like this … from youth to adulthood, we all have that one or two dudes we know that if we hang out with them, nothing good happens in the end. It might be the best fun you’ll have at […]

McHale and Farewell: Houston parts with its coach

It is true that when Pat Riley sacked Stan Van Gundy early in the 2005-2006 season, the Miami Heat went on to win the NBA championship. The brutally harsh and selfish move, drenched in ego as it was, did possess one fundamental advantage: The man who made the change was convinced that a better replacement […]

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