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Nets :

  • Chris Paul is the L.A. Clippers' savior -- but there have been others in the NBA (RealClearSports.com) May 15, 2012
    Chris Paul joins a list of players who turned struggling franchises around.
  • The moments that made an MVP season (The Associated Press) May 12, 2012
    MIAMI (AP) LeBron James wears jersey No. 6 in Miami, so here's six memorable moments from the season where the Heat star became just the eighth player in NBA history to win a third MVP award. The announcement was made by the NBA on Saturday:
  • Fan's Take: Should the New York Knicks Trade Carmelo Anthony? (Yahoo! Contributor Network) May 11, 2012
    After falling to the Miami Heat in the first round of the 2012 NBA Playoffs, serious changes have to come to the New York Knicks. Some fans and even some analysts have suggested that trading Carmelo Anthony is the only thing that can save the franchise.
  • The Utah Jazz? Gone till November (Ball Don't Lie) May 8, 2012
    The Utah Jazz couldn't even take a game in the team's opening-round series with the San Antonio Spurs. It took a furious rally in the fourth quarter of Game 4 for the Jazz to even lose a game by single digits ; they lost the four games by an average of 16 points. The shooters weren't shooting well, nobody could stay in front of Tony Parker, and one-time All-Star guard Devin Harris managed a shockingly low single-digit PER over the first three games of a four-game postseason. And it doesn't matter. Would we have liked to see the Jazz give the NBA's hottest team a few more close games, or even a win? Sure. But this wasn't ever supposed to be the year for Utah to attempt this. The Jazz went into 2011-12 fully ready to use each of the season's 66 games to develop rotations, give Tyrone Corbin his first full year -- if you can call it that with a shortened season and training camp, and so few practices -- as head coach and see how well the team's bigs played off each other. The answers, some 5 1/2 months later? There still aren't any. This group is still developing, and the playoff trip was a fantastic bit of gravy not so much for the extra gate revenue or needed work on an advanced stage against a championship-level team, but because it allowed Corbin and the Jazz more of what they needed the most — reps. What comes next? That depends on quite a bit.
  • Finally, a Brooklyn Nets logo haircut for us all to get (Ball Don't Lie) May 7, 2012
    I know what you're thinking: It seems like FOREVER since the Brooklyn Nets released their official, Jay-Z-designed logo , and yet we still haven't seen any sort of follicular representation of it that we can all go into our local barbershop and get. People in San Antonio can get Michael Jordan's face on their head every single day if they want to, and yet we're sitting here like a bunch of SAPS. Luckily, Brooklyn barber Ron Snipes , one intrepid, slightly-too-shaggy gentleman in need of a cut and online barbering site  BarbershopConnect.com — "Your Connection to the Barbering Community" — all exist, and have come together to give America what it needs. Behold: The adidas logo atop the badge — while not part of the official Nets insignia — is a nice touch that shows sharp knowledge of the Nets' branding and partnership agreements, what with the shoe company both producing the team's jerseys and sponsoring the new team store at the Barclay Center . Savvy synergy, Snipes.
  • Mavs: NBA title to sweep, offseason with questions (The Associated Press) May 6, 2012
    DALLAS (AP) The Dallas Mavericks never seemed as though they were really defending an NBA title. It certainly wasn't the same team that raised the trophy a year ago.
  • NBA: Stoudemire practices with Knicks (The SportsXchange) May 4, 2012
    Forward Amare Stoudemire practiced with the New York Knicks on Friday for the first time since suffering lacerations on his left hand after Game 2 on Monday.
  • Report: Magic's Anderson to receive Most Impoved award (The SportsXchange) May 4, 2012
    Orlando Magic power forward Ryan Anderson reportedly will be announced Friday as the recipient of the NBA's Most Improved Player Award.
  • Beleaguered Bulls try to move on without Rose (The Associated Press) May 3, 2012
    PHILADELPHIA (AP) The Chicago Bulls took flight for Philadelphia without both a series lead and superstar guard Derrick Rose.
  • Jason Kidd may retire this offseason if teams don’t bring the big cash, reports SI (Ball Don't Lie) May 3, 2012
    Has anyone noticed how weird Jason Kidd's game has gotten recently? Not "bad" or "ineffective," just "weird." He'll pace that Dallas offense without picking up the same sort of ball-dominating stats he used to, but he still seems absolutely in control of things even if he's just relegated to making the lead pass, or penetrating enough to start a wave of extra passes. And even though his Mavs are down 0-2 in their playoff series (and title defense) to the Oklahoma City Thunder, Kidd still seems like a game-changer of the highest order. He's also a free agent this summer. A free agent of the highest order, in Kidd's estimation, who will probably play his last game as a Dallas Maverick whenever the Mavs play their last game — sometime later this week, or in late June. And according to Sports Illustrated's Chris Mannix, if teams don't come correct with their free-agent cash, Kidd just might call it a day. Here's Chris' tweet, from Wednesday night :

Knicks:


76ers:

  • 76ers Must Show Character in Game 4 Against Celtics: A Fan's Opinion (Yahoo! Contributor Network) May 18, 2012
    The Philadelphia 76ers essentially have their season on the line when they host the Boston Celtics in Game 4 on Friday, May 18. After being blown out in Game 3, the 76ers face a game that they have to win. If they don't, there is little chance that they will overcome a 3-1 series deficit. As a fan, I am looking forward to seeing how the 76ers approach this game. The way they play here could define their season. If they come out strong and win, they will prove that they are on the right track in the NBA. If they flame out, the offseason of questions will be right around the corner.
  • Steve Blake, wife receive death threats via Twitter after Lakers’ Game 2 loss (Ball Don't Lie) May 18, 2012
    After scoring 19 points and hitting five 3-pointers in a huge Game 7 performance to beat the Denver Nuggets, Steve Blake was lauded for shaking off a 12-for-33 mark in the first six games and coming up big when it counted. But after missing an open corner 3-pointer that would have given the Los Angeles Lakers a one-point lead in the closing seconds of Game 2 — a game that the Lakers led by seven with two minutes left, a game they gave away in a manner befitting Santa Claus , according to their center — some fickle fans changed their tune on the backup point guard and, disgustingly, brought his family into the mix. From Dave McMenamin at ESPN Los Angeles : After the game, both the Twitter feeds of Blake and his wife, Kristen, were inundated with criticism ranging from curse word-laden rants to threats. "I hope your family gets murdered," read one tweet that Kristen Blake re-tweeted along with a single comment: "Wow." [...] Steve Blake responded to the troublesome situation after Lakers practice on Thursday. "It's pretty disappointing that there are a lot of hateful people out there, but you move on," Blake said. "I just don't appreciate it when it's toward my family. You can come at me all you want but when you say things about my wife and my kids, that makes me upset." As horrendous and regrettable as this is, it's nothing new; as long as there have been sporting matches to lose, there have been goats blamed for losing them, and pockets of disgruntled, perspective-lacking fandom whose pursuit of doling that blame out ventures far beyond the pale of reason and decency. (And let's be clear about this: "Lakers fans" aren't to be blamed for death threats and hate speech lobbed uncaringly at the Blakes; "awful, lunatic-fringe idiots" are. Several bad apples don't spoil a gigantic, passionate bunch.) What is relatively new, though, is how social media outlets — primarily Twitter, since more pros actually seem to use and manage Twitter accounts themselves than handle, say, their own Facebook pages or write their own blogs — and the immediate connections they afford fans to the objects of their obsession can factor into this mix.
  • Celtics-76ers Preview (The Associated Press) May 17, 2012
    PHILADELPHIA (AP) Kevin Garnett turns 36 on Saturday, a youthful age for any man, except for the rare ones with nearly 55,000 punishing minutes absorbed on an NBA floor.
  • Celtics have new life in those old legs vs. 76ers (The Associated Press) May 17, 2012
    PHILADELPHIA (AP) Kevin Garnett turns 36 on Saturday, a youthful age for any man, except for the rare ones with nearly 55,000 punishing minutes absorbed on an NBA floor.
  • Paul Pierce dunks early, attacks often to set pace in Celtics’ Game 3 win (VIDEOS) (Ball Don't Lie) May 17, 2012
    After the combination of a sprained medial collateral ligament in his left knee and the defensive efforts of the Philadelphia 76ers (and primarily Andre Iguodala) had him looking less than his best in the first two games of the Eastern Conference semifinals, Paul Pierce came into Wednesday night's Game 3 bent on attacking. He'd managed just 20 field-goal attempts through two games against Philly after averaging better than 16 a night in Boston's six-game opening-round win over the Atlanta Hawks, and the Celtics' captain was determined to ratchet that number up with the series tied at one game apiece. "I just wanted to be aggressive, regardless," Pierce told reporters (including Frank Dell'Apa of the Boston Globe ) after the game. "Everything I do was going to be aggressive, and that's it. When I'm getting limited to nine shots in a game, that's not me." Exploding for dunks on consecutive possessions isn't really Pierce, either, or at least, it isn't anymore — he threw it down just 20 times in nearly 2,100 minutes during the regular season, according to CBSSports.com's Dunk-O-Meter — but late in the first quarter, that's precisely what happened.
  • Thunder strike late to beat Lakers, Celtics win (Reuters) May 17, 2012
    (Reuters) - The Oklahoma City Thunder scored nine unanswered points in the final two minutes to edge the Los Angeles Lakers 77-75 on Wednesday and seize a 2-0 lead in their second-round playoff series. There was no late drama in the Eastern Conference, where the Boston Celtics trounced the Philadelphia 76ers 107-91 to move ahead 2-1 in their best-of-seven series. Although the 76ers lost by a bigger margin, it will be the Lakers who will probably be suffering more due to the manner of their loss. ...
  • Behind the Box Score, where the Lakers absolutely melted down the stretch (Ball Don't Lie) May 17, 2012
    Oklahoma City Thunder 77, Los Angeles Lakers 75 (Thunder lead series, 2-0) The Oklahoma City Thunder were down seven points in this contest with two minutes left to play, with just 68 points to their credit. And though we've seen comebacks that overcome that differential in even shorter amounts of time, given Los Angeles' defensive dominance for the first 46 minutes of the contest, who in their right mind thought the Thunder could outscore the Lakers by eight points over that final term, considering that they had to essentially pitch a shutout because of the waning seconds? Well, the Thunder managed one of the two. They pitched the shutout, but they didn't outscore Los Angeles by eight in the final two minutes. They outscored 'em by nine. The Thunder are championship-worthy, and the Lakers have their problems, but it's OK to be shocked at the way Los Angeles frittered away this contest.
  • NBA Playoff Capsules (The Associated Press) May 17, 2012
    OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) Kevin Durant scored 22 points and rattled in the go-ahead basket on a baseline runner with 18 seconds left, and the Oklahoma City Thunder scored the final nine points to rally for a 77-75 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals Wednesday night.
  • Celtics rout 76ers to seize series lead (AFP) May 17, 2012
    Kevin Garnett scored 27 points while Paul Pierce added 24 and Rajon Rondo had 23 as Boston cruised past Philadelphia 107-91 to grab the lead in their NBA playoff series.
  • Sixers can't match Celtics' determination (The SportsXchange) May 17, 2012
    After splitting a pair of one-point games with the Celtics in Boston, the Philadelphia 76ers liked their chances in Game 3. They were coming home knowing they could have easily won both in Beantown.

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