Basketball players have been referred to as the greatest athletes in the world. In the NBA, you see superbly conditioned athletes soar to the basket and throw down rim-rattling dunks or muscle past two or three defenders. Sometimes we marvel so much at these super beings that we, as fans, wonder how pro basketball players … [Read more…]
LAS VEGAS — The Samsung NBA Summer League in Las Vegas hit the ground running with a record-setting opening night. The marquee matchup between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Minnesota Timberwolves pulled in the largest crowd to watch a summer league game at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center, as more than 12,000 came to … [Read more…]
LAS VEGAS — You don’t have to be a basketball junkie to love the NBA Summer League, especially if the venue is Las Vegas, Nevada. For the general admission price of $25 you get to watch a slew of games at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center and Cox Pavilion. And if you’re paying attention … [Read more…]
This year’s draft was supposed to be the rebirth of the Los Angeles Lakers brand. After Minnesota took Karl-Anthony Towns the Lakers were poised to land arguably the best center in the draft in Duke center Jahlil Okafor. It was a marriage made in basketball heaven, right? The Lakers and a dominant center. You couldn’t … [Read more…]
The Golden State Warriors may have made small ball trendy, but the NBA is still a big man’s league. Go big or go home. That’s the TNT slogan in the NBA playoffs. The Minnesota Timberwolves and Los Angeles Lakers could be the big winners in the 2015 NBA draft as both teams should walk away … [Read more…]
When the Golden State Warriors were trailing 2-1 in the 2015 NBA Finals and all the momentum seemingly on the side of the Cleveland Cavaliers, first-year head coach Steve Kerr went to his go-to guy to stop the bleeding. And that’s exactly what do-it-all forward Andre Iguodala did. Iguodala scored 22 points, made eight of his … [Read more…]
You can analyze or overanalyze basketball games with all types of fancy analytics and metrics, but teams that win championships follow two basic formulas: score easy baskets and don’t give up easy baskets. Basically, to speak in the language so millennials can understand, you want to score in the paint and protect the paint (if … [Read more…]
The mood in Cleveland has gone from bad to worse in 24 hours after news broke that All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving is done for the rest of the NBA Finals after an MRI exam revealed a fracture in his left kneecap. The injury normally requires a three- to four-month recovery time, so don’t expect … [Read more…]
LeBron James won’t guarantee an NBA championship in Cleveland this year, but he did make one proclamation. “I guarantee that we will play our asses off,” he said about the Cavaliers’ showdown with the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals. James and his Cavaliers have been playing their butts off this postseason, especially on … [Read more…]
It’s difficult to quantify the debacle that just occurred in the 2015 Western Conference semifinals when the team that fell apart has very little history to begin with. The Clippers were one win away (or one quarter away) from reaching their first conference finals only to watch it all go up in a cloud of … [Read more…]