Facing Boston in the second round felt like a true lose-lose situation. Win and everybody says Boston wasn’t at full strength. Lose and everybody mocks this prematurely anointed 76ers squad. The hype felt out of control. Everything seemed to be happening so fast. One week, the 76ers take out the Miami Heat, becoming Eastern Conference […]
Tag Archives: basketball
It’s The Freaking Postseason
The 76ers made the NBA Finals 17 years ago. Since then, Philadelphia has played nine playoff series, losing seven of them. Saturday night the 76ers will host their first Game 1 since April 20, 2003. Head coach Brett Brown says star center Joel Embiid won’t play that game. But Wells Fargo Center promises to rock […]
Are playoffs possible?
In reality the playoffs are possible, especially since Philadelphia presently sits 5.5 games out of the eight seed. But it’s highly unlikely Philadelphia makes the playoffs this season. Last night’s win against Toronto, however, feels like a validation for the Philadelphia 76ers. The Raptors played their second game in as many nights, but Kyle Lowry […]
Kawhi Leonard
Lee Jenkins writes some of the best feature stories for Sports Illustrated. About a month ago he profiled Kawhi Leonard, and, as usual, it was great. Leonard has to be the most interesting superstar in the NBA. Not because of his personality or anything, but because of how he came one. He won Finals MVP […]
Sam Hinkie
One of my college professors had a rule after she returned graded papers or tests: don’t email or talk to her about the grade until 24 hours after getting it back. She wanted students to take those 24 hours to analyze where they might have gone wrong; she didn’t want students to automatically assume that […]
Review: Boys Among Men
Grantland was the best website to read basketball stories. Zach Lowe wrote detailed explanations about a team’s make-up, specifically their offensive and defensive tendencies and philosophies. Bill Simmons wrote extended commentary about what kind of mark a certain player would leave. Jonathan Abrams wrote stories about the successes and failures of several NBA players. He […]
Thunder-Warriors
Last night’s Thunder-Warriors game had a bit of everything. The Warriors scored 73 first half points. Oklahoma City wanted to guard the 3-point line, which they did, but unfortunately the Thunder didn’t do a good job at individual or team defense in the first 24 minutes. Stephen Curry used a couple picks to find a […]
Dirk Nowitzki
Three players have scored over 2,000 points, grabbed over 600 rebounds and shot over 90-percent from the free throw line in NBA history: Kevin Durant, Larry Bird and Dirk Nowitzki. Each of those guys have done it twice. Nowitzki won his only MVP in 2007. That same year his first-place, 67-win Dallas Mavericks lost to […]
The Preview
Miami vs. San Antonio I’m anxiously awaiting Zach Lowe’s NBA Finals preview. I expect it to be released tomorrow as his usual weekly Tuesday column, but then again I wouldn’t be surprised if it isn’t released until Wednesday or Thursday. I’ll post my tonight, and I’ll include my five impact players along with a winner […]
NBA Second Round Preview
I should have never made a full playoff prediction. I should have been patient and simply done a round-by-round preview. Although my NBA Finals is still intact (Miami/San Antonio), I only correctly picked one second round matchup (Oklahoma City/Los Angeles). Basically, I did awful. I’m happy I wrongly selected Chicago over Washington though because I’m […]
