NBA

Paul George and Kawhi Leonard are two of the best wing defenders in NBA history. Their dual ball hawking mimics Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen at their peak. Their growing chemistry has enabled them to switch, deny, and help each other in increasingly devastating ways for Clippers’ opponents. They are …

It’s midway through the fourth quarter of a tie game in Boston, and Jayson Tatum is smelling blood. As he accelerates down the right wing, he spots a dream scenario for any elite wing scorer in 2020: a scrambled Houston Rockets defense running to match up, leaving nobody on the …

Picture yourself on a haunted house ride at your favorite amusement park. You’ll be spooked by pop-out faces, fluorescent lights, and ominous sounds, but you don’t know exactly how, where, or when they will hit you. Intellectually, you know there’s nothing to really fear and you’ll eventually finish the exhibit …

Damian Lillard’s best stretches all look and feel the same. Picture the 37-foot dagger from last year’s playoffs, a shot impossible for most, but one he practices. Fixate on the aggressive poker face he flashed to the camera, an instant meme that will never be forgotten. One stone-faced man floating …

On Oct. 21, 2019, a 48-word New Orleans Pelicans press release put a mammoth damper on the beginning of the new NBA season. Zion Williamson, the rookie sensation that looked even more exciting than advertised in preseason, would miss 6-8 weeks after knee surgery. Nobody with a pulse was happy …

The Philadelphia 76ers are a strange basketball team. Their star is a giant low-post player in an era rendering them extinct. Their co-star is a 6’9 point guard who refuses to shoot jumpers. Their other starters are a modern center starting out of position, a max-salaried combo forward on his …

When the Golden State Warriors leapt into the future on their way to a dynasty, they ushered in a growing basketball revolution. They built an offense around dizzying ball movement that created and leveraged the grave threat of 28-foot shots. Then, their defense neutralized effective ball movement with switches across …

The 2018-19 Milwaukee Bucks won 73 percent of their games while outscoring opponents by a league-leading 8.6 points per 100 possessions. You know what happened next. The Bucks lost four straight to the Raptors after winning the first two games of the Eastern Conference Finals, then refused to go deep …

Pascal Siakam famously refuses to set goals for himself. As he explained in an interview with The Athletic last January: “Most of the time when I don’t set goals, I always exceed whatever goal people have.” This mantra got him to the NBA despite only learning the game at 16, …

The case for the New Orleans Pelicans as a playoff darkhorse in the deep Western Conference was based on four reasons for excitement. One, Zion Williamson was looking like a superstar from Day 1. (Get well soon, King). Two, Jrue Holiday had “permission to dominate” for the first time in …