The second round of the playoffs is underway and with only eight teams remaining, it means another eight have been eliminated from title contention. The offseason is the time for these teams to retool to prepare for deeper runs next season. The Brooklyn Nets finished the year with a 49-33 record, good enough for fourth place in the Eastern Conference. However, their first-round opponent, the Chicago Bulls, surprisingly beat them at home in a Game 7. Read More »

It had been 19 years since Michigan had made the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament. But dabble in a little Trey Burke, and add in some copious amounts of the Kansas Jayhawks — who have a history of this sort of choking — and it all adds up to the best comeback of March Madness … After overtime, the final score read, 87-85, Michigan, but make no mistake: it wasn’t the Wolverines that won the game. It was their point guard. Read More »

How often do you see it happen: a visiting team takes control in the fourth quarter before squandering a late chance to grab a W, and then end up getting pounded into submission in the extra session? Dallas is feeling the pain now after letting the Heat off the hook in Miami’s 119-109 overtime win. There’s not much to explain from overtime: Miami just ran Dallas over. The real fun was in the fourth quarter. In the final minutes, LeBron (32 points, 12 rebounds, nine assists) found Shane Battier for one of the biggest shots of the night, a corner three. Read More »

All of a sudden, visions of an otherwise forgettable Orlando-Golden State game last season jumped out to us during the Magic’s stunning win over the Lakers in Los Angeles on Sunday night. When it became clear Dwight Howard was going to be fouled by his former team over and over again, to the tune of 21 free-throw attempts, we were reminded of the time Golden State chose to willfully foul Howard and put the game in his hands, 15 feet from the hoop, on an NBA-record 39 attempts. Read More »

Gregg Popovich is the Most Interesting Coach In The World. From his job monitoring Soviet intelligence to the small-market dynasty he’s coached in San Antonio, Popovich has the evergreen success, tenure and the temperament to not really care what most people (save for GM R.C. Buford) think about him. Thus, he gives great interviews — save that they’re not sideline talks between quarters (more on that in a second). In his appearance on 790 The Ticket in Miami Wednesday his most interesting answers came about Stan Van Gundy and the presidential debate. Read More »

We can’t wait until the season — training camps, even — begins and we can mention something about Dwight Howard that involves his game, not Orlando. His back rehab is what really has us the most interested right now because the Lakers need all the time together they can get to build the elusive chemistry every great team needs. Read More »

A quick inventory of Orlando would show a brand-new coach in Jacque Vaughn, a new GM in Rob Hennigan and a roster that has been overhauled. Out are Dwight Howard, the cause of those roster changes, and former coach Stan Van Gundy was fired in the spring. Who is the constant, then? Van Gundy pointed the finger in comments today toward CEO Alex Martins, who has been in house for all of the team’s highs and lows of the Howard/SVG era, as the problem. And he did not hold back. Read More »

Nearly 30 years ago, Michael Jordan came back too soon from the only major injury of his career, and even today, Bulls’ chairman Jerry Reinsdorf counts his fortunes every night before he goes to sleep. Okay, he probably doesn’t do that. The man has buckets of money. He sleeps fine at night. But he still says the team listened too much to Michael about his body, and ended up taking a risk by bringing him back before the doctors said he was ready. Jordan had missed 64 games with a broken left foot before coming back to finish the season. The ruthless assassin in him told everyone he was indestructible, and could play even when a few doctors weren’t so sure. Read More »

There’s a certain rhythmic balance in broadcasting, incisive commentary maneuvering inside and out of the nuts and bolts play-by-play. I used to turn the sound off on my television and time the radio broadcast for Knicks games to match the on-screen action. Radio play-by-play, by necessity, replaces the visual and harps on detail, something that’s lost on television. At times it’s cumbersome and overwhelming, like some overzealous auctioneer. What’s earned in detail is lost in jumbled basketball jargon. Who’s where? Who passed to whom? Wait, what? Less is more, as they say. I eventually abandoned my plight only because the nailing down the timing between television and radio was predictably difficult. I guess I got more satisfaction out of accomplishing the feat than the intended purpose of the whole exercise in the first place. Read More »

Unless you’re Skip Bayless and your job is to swim against the current of popular opinion — that being LeBron James keeping Miami almost single-handedly from exiting the playoffs was an incredible, once-every-50-years performance — LBJ was the first thing you talked to your friends about around the water cooler. And why wouldn’t he be? The wrong-footed jumpers (he even banked one in over Kevin Garnett; so filthy), the tip-dunk where his head was at the rim, the 15 rebounds, there was more than enough to go around for conversation. Read More »