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This Eastern Conference Crown Is Truly LeBron’s Masterpiece

LeBron James has racked up some pretty extraordinary accomplishments in his 15-year pro career, but few are as impressive as his effort in leading this particular Cleveland Cavaliers squad to the NBA Finals. Missing an All-Star teammate from an already underwhelming supporting cast, on the road against a Boston Celtics team that had been 10-0 […]

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LeBron Is Tired. The Rockets May Soon Be Too.

Welcome to The Lab, FiveThirtyEight’s basketball podcast. On Thursday’s show (May 24, 2018), Neil, Kyle and Chris discuss the conference finals yet again. Just how magical is Boston’s home-court advantage? Just how tired is LeBron James? Is the Rockets’ bench too thin for the starters to stay fresh? And what’s with Kevin Durant’s shot selection? […]

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Not Even LeBron Could Overcome The Celtics’ Home-Court Magic

With their 96-83 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night, the Boston Celtics just got that much closer to becoming the first Eastern Conference team to eliminate a LeBron James-led squad in eight years. (Incidentally, the last team to do it also wore Celtics green.) And once again, it was all about the Celtics’ […]

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Searching For Meaning In All These NBA Blowouts

Welcome to The Lab, FiveThirtyEight’s basketball podcast. On Monday’s show (May 21, 2018), Neil and Kyle discuss where each conference finals series stands. Did Golden State’s resounding Game 3 win really change the tenor of that series? And what changed to allow LeBron James and the Cavaliers to run the Celtics out of the building […]

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Why The NBA Abandoned Roy Hibbert

INDIANAPOLIS — Five years ago tonight, the Pacers needed a hero. It was Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Knicks — a game Indiana needed to avoid a trip back to Madison Square Garden for a treacherous Game 7 — and New York was nursing a 92-90 lead over Indiana with five […]

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