Can we speak on how Steve Blake dominated Tony Parker last night? Yes? That surprising turn of events was just a small part of a truly wacky game in Los Angeles. The Lakers beat the Spurs, 91-88, and are now just one win away (or one Jazz loss away) from making the playoffs. Dwight Howard looked like… well, someone who’d just been given his own team to control and lead. Read More »

If you pluck the following quote out of context, you’d have a hard time telling if the story was about state-sponsored torture or team-sponsored injury prevention: “They’re putting you in a room that’s, like, minus 180. So your mind is telling you, ‘I might die.’” This is about the latter, specifically the Cleveland Cavaliers’ recent visit to U.S. Cryotherapy outside Sacramento, the destination of several, frozen trips by other teams. The Cavs’ trip just comes off a lot funnier than most others. Read More »

Lakers point guard Steve Blake is out another 6-to-8 weeks because of arthroscopic surgery on a torn abdominal muscle, an announcement today that wasn’t unexpected (he hasn’t played since Nov. 11) but leaves Los Angeles treading water at the position. Earlier today Steve Nash said he expects to be out another 10-14 days with a broken bone in his leg. With no relief expected for at least a week, what is the prognosis for the Lakers? Read More »

At the end of the Lakers‘ loss to the Clippers the other night, Steve Blake really got into it with a fan sitting courtside. It was bad enough that the League fined him a whopping $25,000 for the incident. As you can see from this video, just by doing some lip reading, he probably deserved it. Read More »

On the day that Chicago’s most famous face took center stage in the presidential election, the Bulls beat down the undefeated Magic, 99-93. Over the final five minutes, the Bulls closed the door with some ferocious interior defense, forcing guys like Big Baby into impossible shots, and on the other end, Joakim Noah (20 points, nine boards, five blocks) and Taj Gibson (playing over Carlos Boozer to end the game) provided some offensive highlights. Read More »

We don’t want to say we called it, but… we kinda did. After Ray Allen splashed his first shot of the season on a wide-open corner triple, we noted that he’s pretty much automatic from that area. If he gets a look from the corner, you might as well start walking down to the other end. Well last night in Miami’s wild 119-116 win over Denver (the Nuggets offense finally showed up for the first time this year), the Nuggets had a one-point lead in the closing seconds before LeBron James (20 points, nine boards, 11 assists) drove hard to the rim and found Jesus wide open in the corner. Read More »

The Spurs are now officially old. Okay, so their average age (26.9) is actually the lowest of the Tim Duncan era. But Danny Green, Tiago Splitter and Kawhi Leonard are not the Spurs. Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Gregg Popovich and Tony Parker are. Up until today, whenever you talked about age with the Old Reliables, you could always add a “but” at the end. But Tony Parker is still young. Well, he finally hit a milestone today. Parker is now 30 years old. Read More »

We’ve seen some big leads vanish this spring. The Grizzlies famously melted down in Game 1 against the Clippers in the first round, a game that probably cost them a shot at the semifinals. But to blow a game on the road after holding a seven-point lead with two minutes left is equally as damaging. The Lakers are now down 0-2 to a better team with homecourt advantage, and over his entire career, Kobe has won only one series after losing the first two games. In other words, the Lakers are pretty much done. Read More »

So much has been made about age in this year’s NBA playoffs that everybody is overthinking the obvious. Here’s all you need to know: Young teams (Clippers, Thunder, Sixers) don’t win championships without experience, while old teams (Spurs, Lakers, Celtics) don’t win championships without youthful energy. It’s no more complicated than that. Like everything else in basketball, you need a balance. Last night’s two conference semifinal games were split between one older, energetic squad whose signature vets played like it was 2004 again, and one younger, experienced squad that showed incredible fourth-quarter composure … Read More »

As long as Rajon Rondo doesn’t have to shoot with the game on the line, he’s good money. We’ve constantly heard that the Celtics’ point guard is the John Nash – the genius – of the NBA. Maybe he just really is that smart. The dude fouls the Sixers up three, and then watches as Lou Williams botches it by making both instead of missing the second. Then, Doc draws up a spectacular play and Rondo runs into the backcourt all alone for a touchdown. Evan Turner couldn’t catch him for a foul, and that was that. Rondo bamboozled Philly’s whole team; Game 1 to Boston, 92-91. Read More »