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Heat-Raptors Game 7: the players

The words “Game 7” might not stir the soul on Sunday afternoon in Canada as much as they ordinarily would in a second-round NBA playoff series, but the Miami Heat and Toronto Raptors won’t care. They shouldn’t. The reality of sports contains an always-present disclaimer: An event might not live up to the hype or […]

Kyle Lowry got sick and tired of being sick and tired

The inconvenient truth about Kyle Lowry’s breakout in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals is that it began not only before the fourth quarter, but before Dwyane Wade put the Miami Heat on his back. Yes, before D-Wade produced the surge which led the Heat to a flat-footed 68-all tie at the end of […]

Flash, back home: Wade earns a Game 7 for Miami, as hero-ball works

Dwyane Wade, like former teammate LeBron James, was made for one of the most underrated crucibles in all of sports. Most sports fans and analysts pay close attention to Game 7s, those moments when a long series reaches the ultimate crescendo. Yes, Game 7s are almost always special, and they certainly reveal what exists inside […]

Overheated: Miami suffers from a feast-or-famine quality against Charlotte

The Miami Heat’s 2016 season is not over, but it seems reasonable to say — even now, before an elimination game Friday night against the Charlotte Hornets — that Miami’s presence as a threat to the Cleveland Cavaliers has been oversold. Game 5 of the Heat’s Eastern Conference first-round series on Wednesday night illustrated the […]

Courtney Lee rebounds… in more ways than one

Courtney Lee is a rebounder — and not principally in the sense of being a player who grabs missed shots. Yes, Lee’s rebounds at the end of Games 4 and 5 have put the Charlotte Hornets in position to eliminate the Miami Heat this Friday in North Carolina, but the story of Courtney Lee’s rebounding […]

Charlotte feels the Heat, as Miami does the improbable

The Miami Heat have been the best team in the NBA over the past five days, in which all 16 playoff teams have played two games. You saw that coming during the regular season, didn’t you? If you say yes, you are either a family member of someone in the Heat organization… or you’re a […]

Joe Johnson on the Heat could be problems for teams that aren’t the Heat

As far as national sports news goes this past week, “Joe Johnson signs with the Miami Heat” probably registered just slightly below whatever Johnny Manziel ate for lunch on Wednesday and several notches below “holy hell, did you see what Steph Curry did THIS week?” but probably, there was no more significant event in the […]

Let the Nets rumors begin

The Nets had a payroll this year of $102,825,181. That is a lot of luxury tax — nearly doubling the amount the team paid to the players and the league. With that kind of a payroll comes outsized expectations — championship expectations. You do not spend that kind of money without expecting to win a […]

The Truth wins Game 1

Paul Pierce did not have to do much until the fourth quarter. When he turned it on in the fourth, he buried the Raptors. Pierce scored nine of his 15 points in the final 12 minutes and put the dagger in the Raptors at Air Canada Centre to help the Nets steal Game One and […]

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