The weekend in hoops was one big game of anything you can do, we can do better. The Thunder pull to within 2-1, then tie at 2-2? The Boston Celtics will see that with their own two-game win streak at home. That theme carried over into this weekend’s five best plays. Read More »

The Celtics, as they were believed to be, were too old and slow for this Miami team, and maybe that’s still true in a larger sense of a series. Taken back to Boston, though, the Celtics’ Big Three coalesced around their biggest star — Rajon Rondo — and what we now have is a 2-2 tie in the Eastern Conference Finals. Read More »

The Celtics needed a win, and they got it thanks to Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. The two of them combined for 47 points as Boston held off a late rally from Miami. Boston did whatever they could, got contributions from whoever they could, and along with Rajon Rondo (even if he was back to air balling triples) going for 21 points and 10 assists, they survived in Game 3, 101-91 against the Heat. LeBron James dropped 34 and eight, but it was never enough. Miami fell behind big in the second half, and even a late run wasn’t enough to keep their heads above water. Read More »

Was it an offensive foul? Probably. Instead, Kevin Garnett got whistled for the foul despite getting kneed in the man parts, and Dwyane Wade converted a three-point play, the biggest play in overtime of Miami’s crazy 115-111 win. He helped make up for the fact that he made two poor plays near the end of regulation, which when coupled with LeBron James (34 points, 10 rebounds, seven dimes) missing two potential game-winners, forced overtime. The Heat needed all the help they could get (Udonis Haslem, Mario Chalmers, the refs) because Rajon Rondo played the single greatest game of his life (He also got screwed on a rather obviously call down the stretch). He had 44 points, eight rebounds, 10 assists and played every second. Read More »

Roy Hibbert is so big it invites comments like Shaq‘s from Game 2 about how he needs to get 28 and 15 to live up to his God-given size. We even saw a tweet from a national writer about how he is in the category of Jamaal Magloire as players whose All-Star nods were anomalies. We can’t be sure he read those missives or heard the (rightly deserved) criticism as he stood around in Game 2. In front of a gold-out in friendly Indianapolis, though, Hibbert had the game of his playoff life. Read More »

Indiana gave the Heat enough chances, missing more freebies than a Ben Wallace practice session, and yet the two best players in the world (supposedly) couldn’t finish the job. At home. With mismatches all over the court. The Pacers worked off a terrible first half to tie the series up with their 78-75 Game 2 win, which didn’t become official until Miami let Mario Chalmers seal their fate in the closing seconds (this ain’t college). Down three, South Beach’s starting point guard and LeBron‘s personal whipping boy decided it was his time, and lofted up a triple that was too ugly to have a chance. Read More »

Congratulations, New York. Your Knicks just set the NBA record with 13 consecutive playoff losses. Forget a championship. New Yorkers just want one playoff W before they die. Even with that one, it could be a while. Miami played possum through three quarters before exploding in the final 12 minutes and walked away with a 3-0 lead after a 87-70 win. In a weird way, LeBron James‘ foul trouble came back to help him. He stayed fresh. While everyone else was busy throwing body shot after body shot as if this was Fight Night Round 4, James (32 points, eight turnovers) spent heavy portions of the game on the pine, and then came back in the fourth quarter with eight consecutive quick points to give Miami their first cushion of the game. Read More »

Wasn’t this Manhattan/South Beach matchup supposed to be the best series of the first round? Um, what happened? It’s a colossal mismatch, and a 2-0 lead doesn’t do justice to Miami’s dominance through eight quarters. Game 1 felt like murder. In last night’s 104-94 Miami win, the Knicks were better. They played a little harder. Defended a little better. Actually made a few shots. And yet it seemed like the Heat had set their sliders to the Rookie level. Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and LeBron James combined for 65 points on 48 shots whereas Carmelo Anthony was struggling against everyone besides old man Shane Battier (‘Melo was unleashing hell on him in the first quarter), forcing his way to 30 points on 26 shots. Read More »

In my bracket, I had Kentucky and UNC. The two best teams, I figured, should meet again to determine the 2012 championship. Then Kendall Marshall was taken out in the air by a lumbering big man in the round of 32, and everything was turned on its head. Kentucky might look like runaway favorites tonight with a top six that could probably play with any core group of any college team in the past 20 years. But we’ve seen upsets before. In college basketball, sometimes talent can be trumped by experience, and Tyshawn Taylor and Thomas Robinson have a history together. It’s not likely they’ll lead Kansas to yet another championship upset over John Calipari. But it’s not out of the question either. Read More »

You can’t disrespect a Derrick Rose-less Chicago team that’s still leading the East despite him being gone for 20 games now this season with injury. The Heat couldn’t stop the Bulls without their MVP a couple weeks back, remember? This is to say that when West-leading Oklahoma City met East beast Chicago on Sunday in OKC, you knew the Thunder were going to give the Bulls a full run no matter what. That run turned out to be a 14-point win that came with serious style points. Read More »