neil (Neil Paine, senior sportswriter): So we just witnessed what our friend Zach Lowe called the “wildest lottery ever.” The Zion-Williamson-to-the-Knicks (or its less-heralded cousin, Zion-to-the-Lakers) hype train gained a ton of steam when both teams were revealed to be in the Top 4 … and then it crashed and burned on live TV as […]
The NBA draft lottery on Tuesday night pitted the repeated good luck of Cleveland against the long-standing bad luck of New York — and somehow, New Orleans won. The Pelicans landed the No. 1 overall pick despite having just a 6 percent chance to do so, and they’re widely expected to use it on Duke […]
The NBA’s splashiest backcourt outside Oakland resides in Portland. Trail Blazers stars Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum have combined to make 1,645 threes over the past four seasons, more than any duo in the league besides Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. Steph and Klay are also the only backcourt in the league to average more […]
Mike D’Antoni has seen a number of close misses throughout his career, with his teams coming up just short of clearing the highest bar to claim an NBA championship. Having been through that pain before, the Rockets coach knew that this most recent playoff exit — in which Houston lost to Golden State in six […]
Early on in Sunday’s Game 7 between the Raptors and Sixers, TNT announcer Kevin Harlan deemed the winner-take-all matchup one that “only a mother could love,” a reference to the horrendous shooting display the teams put on in the early going. Somewhat surprisingly, Kawhi Leonard — arguably the best player of this postseason so far, […]