After playing the game of his life, Luguentz Dort slumped in his chair. His eyes slightly reddened, he did his best to answer questions, occasionally wiping tears from his face, as his accomplishments and emotions were overwhelmed by a settling reality. “I mean, we lost,” Dort told FiveThirtyEight weeks after that September night. “I had […]
Through 50 seasons, the Los Angeles Clippers have tended to come undone at the worst possible times. Last year’s arrival of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George was supposed to remedy that; instead, history repeated itself in the form of a Western Conference semifinals collapse. Now the problem belongs to newly promoted head coach Tyronn Lue. […]
The championship ambitions of the Los Angeles Lakers naturally centered on the historically great pedigree of LeBron James. But Anthony Davis proved to be the Lakers’ ultimate margin for error throughout its title run. In the six seasons preceding Davis’s arrival, the Lakers missed the playoffs more times than they did in their first 65 […]
We start with the conclusion of the NBA Finals. The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Miami Heat in convincing fashion after a blowout Game 6, and LeBron James now has his fourth ring. Naturally, the accomplishment has revived the old question of whether LeBron did/can/should unseat Michael Jordan as the GOAT. The Hot Takedown team […]
As the Los Angeles Lakers romped their way Sunday night to a record-tying 17th league title with a 106-93 blowout victory over the Miami Heat, the majority of conversations around their win figured to focus on the superstar combination of LeBron James and Anthony Davis that ultimately returned them to glory. But while those two […]