Tag: nytimes.com

Portland Trail Blazers interim head coach Tiago Splitter is focused on the NBA playoffs despite reports that new team owner Tom Dundon has been in contact with other candidates about potentially taking over the position. “I’m just trying to be a pro,” Splitter told reporters before Portland’s 106-103 win over the San Antonio Spurs on…

The NBA playoffs are getting good. Five road teams have picked up wins, which could signify longer series or even upsets. On Tuesday, it was Philadelphia and Portland joining Orlando, Atlanta and Minnesota with road victories. In Wednesday’s games, the top seeds are in action. Oklahoma City is heavily favored to go up 2-0 against…

The Bounce Newsletter  | This is The Athletic’s daily NBA newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Bounce directly in your inbox. This would have been the 60th birthday of Charles Shackleford, an NBA journeyman of the 1980s and ‘90s, who died in 2017. Shackleford played in six NBA seasons from 1988 to 1999 but also found…

LOS ANGELES — Kevin Durant hates double teams. That might sound like an obvious statement — and in some ways, it is — but this goes much deeper than that for the 37-year-old living legend. As the undermanned Los Angeles Lakers were well aware heading into Game 2 of their first-round matchup against the Houston…

BOSTON — This “gentleman’s sweep” business is a nice piece of 21st-century NBA jargon that gets put to service whenever a very good team allows a winnable playoff game to slip away. But for Jayson Tatum and the 2025-26 Boston Celtics, the term is inappropriate language. That we’re even having this discussion is because the…

The Pulse Newsletter 📣 | This is The Athletic’s daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Pulse directly in your inbox. Good morning! Watch out for glass today. Coming up:  🤕 Wemby’s injury ⚠️ Falling glass in Colorado 🎟️ FIFA’s ticket struggle About Last Night: Glass Breaks, Two Ways We must start in…

Aaron Gordon kept coming back to the canvas, back to the brush. Day after day, painting what he felt. What seemed stuck inside. What he couldn’t express on the basketball court — or anywhere else. He called the painting “Caged Bird.” “It’s about following the present moment,” Gordon says, “to avoid being trapped.” Advertisement When…

In the first postseason meeting between LeBron James and Kevin Durant outside of the NBA Finals, James and the Los Angeles Lakers came out on top. James scored 28 points — including 14 in the fourth quarter — to propel the Lakers to a 101-94 win over Durant and the Houston Rockets. Durant scored 20…

The San Antonio Spurs, a potential NBA title contender, are in trouble after an injury to Victor Wembanyama and a fourth-quarter collapse in a Game 2 loss. Led by Scoot Henderson, who led all players with 31 points, the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Spurs 106-103, tying their best-of-seven first-round series at 1-1. Advertisement San…

Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe combined for 59 points, and the Philadelphia 76ers looked like a completely different team against the Boston Celtics in Game 2. And unlike Game 1, the Sixers’ defense also showed up, holding Boston to 43 second-half points and 39 percent shooting for the game in a 111-97 road win to…