0 comments by Sean Woodley on 1/14/2016
On the first podcast of 2016, Sean Woodley and Joe Manganiello chat about whether or not the Hornets should consider trading Nic Batum, Danny Leroux’s piece suggesting the Clippers trade Chris Paul, Sam Mitchell’s role with the developing Timberwolves and the Raptors’ impending decision to bring back DeMar DeRozan or let him walk. Listen at […]
0 comments by Joe Mags on 1/8/2016
On Wednesday, the New Orleans Pelicans, then 11-22, played the Dallas Mavericks, a team they had beaten twice this season and played three times overall. Dallas elected not to play four starters — Deron Williams, Wes Matthews, Zaza Pachulia, and the wizard Dirk Nowitzki — as their old legs were still reeling from a comeback […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 12/31/2015
The 2015 portion of the current NBA season has reached the end of the line. The Roman god Janus looks back at the year which is in the history books, and forward to the coming 365 days. As January arrives, the All-Star break comes into distant view. We are confronted with the reminder that as […]
0 comments by John Cannon
For those who think that the Golden State Warriors are a collective, rather than a great player and a lot of good ones, I offer Wednesday night’s game against Dallas as evidence that you’re out of your minds. Okay, let’s get the caveats out of the way. 1) Stephen Curry wasn’t the only Warrior who […]
0 comments by John Cannon on 12/27/2015
Reaction to the Golden State Warriors’ Christmas Day victory over Cleveland has affirmed a theory I’ve been developing as the NBA season hits the one-third pole. Perceptions of their greatness (or not) and validation of their 2015 championship (or not) depend largely on how much you’ve seen them play. I’m referring to actually SEEING them […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 12/26/2015
It’s fascinating to see the Chicago Bulls make their way through this NBA season (with most of the journey still ahead). Though Fred Hoiberg is dramatically different in style and outlook from his predecessor, Tom Thibodeau, the Bulls are so strikingly similar to their 2014-2015 incarnation. First of all, the Bulls still depend on defense […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
So much hype accompanied the Christmas Day showdown between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors, to the point that for many, the game represented a referendum on the Cavs and what they had learned since the 2015 NBA Finals. This viewpoint is entirely understandable. Cleveland knows that the Warriors are the league’s gold […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 12/24/2015
Ebenezer Scrooge, before his moment of conversion — that’s today’s NBA. It used to be that Christmas Day featured two NBA games. In the 2006-2007 season (likely due to the television restraints posed by the presence of Monday Night Football), the NBA played only one game on Christmas Day. Going dark on Christmas Day is […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
The Phoenix Suns — at least one of them — threw in the towel Wednesday night. Literally. The Suns suffered one of their worst losses of the season Wednesday night at home to the Denver Nuggets. The result didn’t just put the Suns seven games below .500; it didn’t just push Phoenix beneath Denver in […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 12/23/2015
My colleague here at Crossover Chronicles, senior writer Joe Manganiello, wrote a piece last week in which he argued that the Eastern Conference, though deeper than the past few seasons, is not necessarily better. Joe appears to be right, but the specific point of emphasis is that in the days since his article was published, […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 12/22/2015
The larger theater of sports offers us cliches, truisms, and tidy expressions, assorted ways in which to capture the significance of various moments during a long and grueling season. One such expression is this: Teams can afford to lose some games more than others. Every game matters in a context of competition. Winning 55 games […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
How do you smother the criticism that your wins are empty-calorie conquests? Smother a team with legitimate conference championship aspirations. * Not too long ago, the San Antonio Spurs throttled the Utah Jazz by 37 in a game they had led by 44. Naturally, a blowout on that scale gets the attention of a lot […]
0 comments by Connor Pelton
While basketball lovers and aficionados watch the NBA all year long, a subsection of fans seems to ignore the sport until the blitz of games that Christmas Day brings. If you fall into that latter category, this pre-Christmas power rankings update is for you. The league has seen one of its most exciting starts in […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 12/21/2015
The Washington Wizards’ playoff fate this season won’t be decided in the next few weeks… but it will be shaped. Entering play on Monday morning, the Wizards sit in 12th place in the Eastern Conference. In terms of a games-back differential, the Wizards aren’t that far out of a playoff spot. At 11-14, they’re only […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 12/20/2015
If there was a good and convincing reason to think that the Los Angeles Clippers would “get it” this season and address their shortcomings, it was that Paul Pierce would be a player-coach on the floor, guiding the supporting cast through the season while being a cohesive presence in conjunction with the superstars. Bill Russell […]
