For the vast majority of Thursday night’s game against the Houston Rockets, Playoff Intensity LeBron James looked a whole lot like, well, Not Playoff Intensity LeBron James. In the second half, though, he was able to reach down and grab just enough of that effort to help the Los Angeles Lakers pull out a huge win, 111-106.
Damian Lillard is one of the NBA’s best, and as he ages, many have wondered if he’d angle to leave the Portland Trail Blazers for a team better suited to win a championship. He’s given no indications of doing such a thing, even meeting with the late Blazers owner Paul Allen a year ago not to request a trade, but to affirm there was a mutual aspiration to win a title.
CHARLOTTE, NC — On the morning of the Rising Stats Challenge, Ben Simmons made it clear that he - 2016’s No. 1 overall pick - technically belonged in the game.
That evening, he showed why it was a good call to put him in the All-Star Game, too.
Marcus Smart inked a four-year, $52-million deal with the Boston Celtics last summer, inciting some like Sports Illustrated’s Jeremy Woo to declare it a “coup of a contract.” Smart attracted little market leverage against Boston beyond feigned interest from the Kings, unbacked by an offer sheet.
Quavo's verse in "Made Men" by Migos came so close to perfectly foreshadowing the 2019 NBA Celebrity All-Star Game.
"MVP the whole game, Quavo Russell," the 2018 Celebrity All-Star MVP raps—referencing Oklahoma City Thunder star point guard Russell Westbrook, who is known for his triple-doubles.
LOS ANGELES: Kevin Durant scored 31 points and picked up the MVP award as Team LeBron rallied from a 20-point deficit to outgun Team Giannis 178-164 in the 2019 NBA All-Star Game on Sunday (Monday in Manila).
Durant, who also won the MVP award in 2012, got his team untracked in the second half in a game that at one stage threatened to turn into an overblown three-point shooting contest.
Among the NBA’s “Rising Stars” Friday morning at Charlotte’s Spectrum Center was another superstar, albeit almost two decades younger, in the making.
Celtics forward Jayson Tatum’s 15-month-old son, known affectionately as “Deuce,” was tottling across the court after his father practiced with Team U.S. for the evening’s Rising Stars Challenge. Decked out in a black-and-white Nike jumpsuit, a babbling Deuce scurried around with a basketball in his arms — and even played pass with another member of Team U.S.: New York Knicks rookie Kevin Knox.
Stephen Curry can dunk, and not just regular dunks, either.
After he brought the Spectrum Center down with a bounce alley-oop to Giannis Antetokounmpo, Curryended the 2019 NBA All-Star Game with a bounce alley-oop — to himself.
Hamidou freakin’ Diallo leaped over Shaquille freakin’ O’Neal while wearing a Superman shirt and elbow-dunked on his first try in the Slam Dunk Contest.
