Month: March 2020

Dennis Smith Jr. sits at his locker, checking his phone and listening to music before most games. He’s available to the press in the locker room more than most Knicks, but he’s looked increasingly forlorn. It wasn’t supposed to go like this. “I’m thinking exactly what you’re thinking,” Smith Jr. told Basketball Insiders. “I had
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12:15 AM ET MIAMI — It felt like a statement win at the perfect time Monday night, but according to Miami Heat All-Star Bam Adebayo, his team’s 105-89 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks shows the Heat’s potential yet doesn’t change their underdog status. “We’re always the underdog. I feel like we can play with anybody.
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A new approach to using measures of role, skill and quality to optimize fit and player combinations in NBA lineups. What would be a more valuable move for our team — adding another stretch big or finding a vertical spacer? What should we be targeting in free agency this summer — more dynamic play-making or
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6:09 PM ET Among the NBA’s short-term recommendations to teams in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, players should utilize fist-bumps over high-fives with fans and avoid taking items such as pens, balls and jerseys to autograph, according to a memo to teams obtained by ESPN. Among larger concerns being addressed in NBA front offices
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The regular season is over two-thirds finished, and the playoffs start in 53 days. Unsurprisingly, the front of the Defensive Player of the Year race has remained largely stagnant as 2019-20 enters its final stretch. But there’s ample time for movement among the obvious top-four candidates, with factors like injuries, lineup changes and even overall
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The Milwaukee Bucks are having a historically great regular season, but they aren’t guaranteed to win this year’s NBA championship. What might trip them up? The Milwaukee Bucks are in the midst of a historically great regular season. At 50-8, they’re on pace to become only the third team in NBA history to win at
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4:29 PM ET ESPN News Services Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo reeled off 41 points, 20 rebounds and six assists — in just 35 minutes — in Sunday’s 93-85 win over the Charlotte Hornets. It was the fewest minutes played in a 40-20-5 game in NBA history, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The previous
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It’s been another brutal season for the Detroit Pistons, but Dwane Casey and his hodgepodge roster of underappreciated veterans and inexperienced youngsters are taking the right approach. It’s been a tough couple of weeks, months, years to be a Detroit Pistons fan. A hard-nosed, stifling defensive play style has never been everyone’s cup of tea, but
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2:37 AM ET Tim BontempsESPN BOSTON — Since the moment James Harden became a member of the Houston Rockets in October 2012, the team has been almost exclusively built around him and his prodigious talent. That has led to plenty of Rockets victories on the back of Harden’s incredible offensive displays. And when Houston has
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8:00 AM ET It’s not St. Patrick’s Day, but there’s something lucky about Leap Day for the Boston Celtics. Feb. 29 comes around only once every four years, but it’s been 36 years since the Celtics had to suffer through a defeat on Leap Day. Their 102-98 loss to the New York Knicks on Feb.
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