I’m going to keep this restricted from the late 1970s and going forward. I mean no disrespect to the greatness of Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West and Oscar Robertson, among others, but I never saw them play and will leave assessments to those that did.
When you hear NBA pundits talk about the Eastern Conference race, all the chatter revolves around three teams—the front-running Atlanta Hawks, along with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Chicago Bulls. But nestled in between those teams in the Eastern standings is a team that everyone seems to have forgotten about—the Toronto Raptors. Here’s a basic primer on what Toronto brings to the table for the coming playoffs and what they don’t.
The NBA playoff format has been under some scrutiny this year, and with Commissioner Adam Silver at least putting himself cautiously behind the idea of change, it’s now out on the front-burner during the All-Star break. This question is this—is it time to abolish the East-West conference distinctions in the interests of getting the best 16 teams in the playoffs?
The Washington professional basketball team is off to its best start since the 1979 season, a year in which they were defending champs and made it back to the NBA Finals. Washington hasn’t reached those heights since, and with a 25-12 record they’re a threat to at least win the Eastern Conference this season.
The sharks are starting to swirl around first-year Cleveland Cavaliers head coach David Blatt. With the team at 18-13 after another loss last night to the Atlanta Hawks, the great homecoming that many envisioned for LeBron James isn’t off to a strong start. Cleveland is fifth in the Eastern Conference and the subject of talk shows this week was whether Blatt has the King’s backing. Let’s consider this possibility—could Kentucky head coach John Calipari be in line as Blatt’s successor next season.
San Antonio is playing reasonably well so far this year, but in the rugged Western Conference, they’re staring up at several teams, most notably the Golden State Warriors, Portland Trail Blazers and Memphis Grizzlies.
I’m looking forward to the coming NBA season—and hopefully the next several—with more anticipation than I ever have before. This has the real potential to be a Golden Age for the league.
The NBA Finals resume on Thursday night in Miami, and for the second time in four games the Miami Heat are going to face something right next door to a must-win game. LeBron James stepped up and took over in Game 2 and the big question now is whether he’ll do it again in Game 4. My answer is this—of course he will, but the real question should be how much James alone will matter.
I think it’s safe to say two things—none of us expected a sequel and none of us are complaining that we have one.
A rematch of one of the great NBA Finals of all time is set. The Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs each closed out their conference finals in six games, and we’re back to where we were last June. It’s time to find out what NBA Finals rematch history teaches us about where Miami-San Antonio II might go.
The 2013 NBA Finals between the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs were one of the best in the league’s history, especially the final two games. Both teams have made it back to the NBA conference finals, and if the oddsmakers are to be believed, a rematch looks in order.
I believe Westbrook gets far too much heat from the national media for not being a true point guard…