Every good sports-movie plot twist came together at the right time to make Sundiata Gaines‘ game-winner on the Cavs last night feel like the Jazz had won an NBA championship and exorcised the Jordan-on-Russell demon all at once, not to mention getting a couple hundred starving screenwriters to crack open the laptop to get started on the Hollywood script. (Fredro Starr could play ‘Yatta. He’s got the NYC swagger and experience from Sunset Park, but him being 5-foot-2 might be an issue. To compensate, you’d have to get Don Cheadle to play LeBron and break out the 8-foot rims.) … With five seconds left, Utah was down two and missing Deron Williams, who’d re-injured his right wrist earlier in the fourth, plus Carlos Boozer, who’d fouled out. Read More »
Seeing as Rasheed Wallace didn’t even bother combing his hair, you kind of got the impression early on that Boston was taking the Pacers lightly — and that was before the C’s fell behind by double-digits in the first quarter. (Oh wait, ‘Sheed never combs his hair. Scratch that part.) KG was given the night off with a thigh bruise, and even Tommy Heinsohn called in sick rather than risk his pipes against Indiana when there’s a big Christmas Day game against Orlando looming … Overcoming a slow start in which they made Earl Watson look like Tim Hardaway, the Celtics managed a tie going into the fourth, and that’s when Paul Pierce took over. Read More »
Funny how the Celtics went from everybody’s new favorite team (this side of the Lakers) two years ago, to the most hated team in the League today (this side of the Lakers).
When Kevin Garnett was traded to the Celtics, we all imagined the hypothetical Finals series between Boston and San Antonio and would it would mean for the legacies of KG and Tim Duncan. Two of the game’s five greatest power forwards came up in the same era, but because KG’s supporting cast was consistently so much worse than Duncan’s, we never got a real look at what would happen if they met on a really big stage. And even after KG got to Boston, those big-time matchups never seemed to materialize due to injuries and what-not. Last night we finally got to see what a Celtics/Spurs NBA Finals might feel like — and neither KG or TD was even the best power forward on the court … Read More »
I can’t resist season preview magazines. NBA, NFL, college, MLB, I’m a sucker for those thick annual issues that I’ll pore through in a couple of sittings before the season, then rarely open during the season. (Speaking of, keep an eye out for Dime #53, our NBA/college/high school preview issue.)
Every few years, one of the preview mags will do a feature where they create the “perfect” player for their sport, Dr. Frankenstein-style. Read More »
Last year we debuted the “Highs and Lows” system — previewing the NBA season by predicting the respective ceiling and basement for each team. Same theme, different season…
As much as everyone has talked about the cooler, calmer, more collected Denver Nuggets in this second Chauncey Billups era, this is still an energy-driven squad, especially at home. So throughout last night’s Game 6 loss that ended Denver’s season and sent the Lakers to the NBA Finals, Kobe Bryant was all about delivering daggers and taking the crowd out of the equation. Kobe (35 pts, 6 rebs, 10 asts) was handing out silencers like Nic Cage in Lord of War, and in turn the Nuggets were generally listless, particularly in the second half when you’d expect them to come out on fire. Read More »
I thought Doc Rivers post-game touchdown dance was going to elicit a reaction from the Magic. But as long as he didn’t split his pants with his Rod Tidwell ground-slap, Doc didn’t cause any problems. After Big Baby hit the game-winning jumper (and pushed a little kid into his seat), some other Celtics supposedly crossed the line, inciting notorious tough guy Rashard Lewis to issue a warning to Boston through the media. Read More »
After all that had happened in the first six games, you have to imagine even Boston fans would’ve liked to see a more thrilling Game Seven between the Celtics and Bulls. It’s not that the game wasn’t competitive — Kirk Hinrich and Ben Gordon sparked a late second-half comeback and kept Chicago within a possession or two for most of the fourth quarter — but it was like the C’s were Lennox Lewis, keeping the young challenger at bay with a series of long jabs and the occasional big right hand … Read More »
