Tag: nytimes.com

Let’s get the obvious out of the way: The Los Angeles Lakers should win their Western Conference quarterfinals series with the Houston Rockets at some point. That’s what happens when a team leads 3-0 in a best-of-seven series. The Lakers won’t talk about it, but it is already someone’s job to prepare the team for…

The Bounce Newsletter  | This is The Athletic’s daily NBA newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Bounce directly in your inbox. The No. 8-seeded Orlando Magic took a 3-1 series lead on the No. 1 Detroit Pistons yesterday. It was 23 years to the day that the Doc Rivers-coached and Tracy McGrady-led No. 8-seeded Magic took…

PHOENIX — Earlier this season, when the Phoenix Suns played their best basketball, coach Jordan Ott pointed out that when Devin Booker pulls up for a transition 3, you could feel the anticipation in the building. This happened Monday night in Game 4 of their Western Conference first-round series against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Booker…

DENVER — Jaden McDaniels has toiled in Anthony Edwards’ shadow for his entire career. The two friends came into the league together, endured the losses of the early days together and have helped turn the Minnesota Timberwolves into contenders in the Western Conference together. They complement each other so well. Edwards is the loud one,…

ORLANDO — It was hard to imagine this series getting worse for Jalen Duren and the Detroit Pistons. And then Jamal Cain came soaring down the lane. Duren rotated over in the paint to help cut off the drive. He did so somewhat passively, throwing his hands up and positioning himself in front of the…

The NBA’s (occasionally) admirable attempts to bring the hammer to the scourge of tanking continue to ignore the tenacity and recalcitrance of nails. The league is committed to trying to reduce the most egregious forms of tanking — the multi-year versions — in its attempts to get more of its teams to participate fully in…

By the winter of 2015, the buzz had made it to Loveland, Ohio, where 13-year-old Jaxson Hayes knew he needed to see it for himself. Word of a high-school junior hanging 51 points on Edgewood, 45 on Valley View and 53 on Bellbrook had people talking, and Hayes and his friends wanted in. “This was…

TORONTO — Collin Murray-Boyles either didn’t hear the conversation or didn’t care. Given how he carries himself, both are equally plausible. RJ Barrett and Jamal Shead, Murray-Boyles’ teammates, were talking about the rookie’s unusual sturdiness for a first-year player. You know how “Once he gets stronger…” leads most projections about a prospect’s potential? Well, that…

For Reed Sheppard, basketball has provided lifelong lessons in self-trust. And one night earlier this season, it took Sheppard four minutes and 33 seconds to show that the faith he has always had in himself would produce different results in Year 2 than during his challenging rookie season. In an NBA Cup game against the…

Signs of an adjusted offense were obvious just after tip-off. The New York Knicks had fallen behind 2-1 in their Eastern Conference first-round series. The Atlanta Hawks had a chance to come within a win of ending New York’s season. And so, a desperate team turned to a place it hadn’t reached so often since…