Archives › Kurt Helin
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The numbers do not lie — the Miami Heat’s starting five with Mike Bibby and Zydrunas Ilgauskas was outscored by 39 points in the first round. By the 76ers starting five. Every game — including Game 5 — the Heat would fall behind quickly, but in four of the games the Heat’s substitutes stabilized them,…
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When Gilbert Arenas was sent off to Orlando, Nick Young got thrust into a starting role. Young would have gotten his chance anyway, he was already looking better than Arenas in preseason. Young went on to average 17.4 points per game on 44.1 percent shooting, he got to the line and he shot 38.7 percent…
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Fantastic story from ESPN’s Rick Reilly (seriously) on Chris Paul and the murder of his grandfather. LeBron James called knocking off the 76ers “finishing off their breakfast.” The quote that spawned 1,000 food metaphors around the Web. Lunch is going to be a lot tougher to swallow, by the way. LeBron should talk food with…
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Kings owners talk to NBA officials, told they should stay put
Apr 28, 2011, 10:12 AM EDT
Do the Sacramento Kings owners want to put the other owners resolve to the test? That’s what it comes down to. The NBA has been on a fact-finding mission and collected pledges on nearly $10 million in new sponsorship money in the Kings stay in Sacramento. The NBA has heard of the new plans for…
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The conference semi-finals for the East have been set. Mostly. Except for the details of not knowing one of the four teams yet. Here is the schedule for the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics, which is the one series set in stone. Game 1: Sun., May 1 at Miami, 3:30 p.m. (ABC) Game 2: Tue.,…
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The San Antonio Spurs are still alive in the playoffs right now, living to fight another day. Thanks to Gary Neal. A rookie. He did what seemingly countless veteran Spurs have done before him and made the big play — in this case a three to send Game 5 to overtime. Where the Spurs prevailed…
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Is there a more fun team to watch play than the Oklahoma City Thunder? They are pure passion on a basketball court. It was true again Wednesday night as this game had everything a basketball fan (especially an Oklahoma City one) could want — a come from behind win (they were down 9 at the…
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Give the people what they want. And this is the series nearly everyone wanted. Old school big three vs. new school big three. LeBron James against the Celtics again — but this time he has new friends with him for backup. Tradition rich New England vs. modern and stylish Miami. Celtics vs. Heat. A seven-game…
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SEASON RECORDS Heat: 58-24 (No. 2 seed) Celtics: 56-26 (No. 3 seed) PLAYOFF SERIES: Heat: defeated Philadelphia 4-1 Celtics: defeated New York 4-0 SERIES SCHEDULE Game 1: Sun., May 1 at Miami, 3:30 p.m. (ABC) Game 2: Tue., May 3 at Miami, Time TBD (TNT) Game 3: Sat., May 7 at Boston, 8:00 p.m. (ABC)…
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We’re optimists. We’re not going to focus today on the lockout and the “if there is basketball next season” questions, because there will be plenty of time for that coming up. Let’s talk about the game. Because while the league is hammering out financial issues, it will also talk about some rule changes. And one…
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There is a lot of speculation out there in the world that Stan Van Gundy could be axed if the Orlando Magic cannot complete the 3-1 series comeback. The logic flows like this: If the Magic loose then Dwight Howard is going to be really unhappy. And he can be a free agent in 2012,…
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The Miami Heat are going to close out this series tonight. Sure, in theory in one game anything can happen (the NCAA bases a whole basketball tournament around that theory). Even Burnie (the Heat mascot you didn’t know had a name) will admit this Heat team is fully capable of playing a lazy, terrible game…
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Shaq will not practice Wednesday, Thursday. Will he play against Heat?
Apr 27, 2011, 4:01 PM EDT
Now we return to Shaq Watch 2011… and still no sign of the big man. He did not practice Wednesday and will not Thursday according to A. Sherrod Blakely of CSN New England on twitter. That does leave open the chance that he practices on Friday and will be ready to go Sunday, but do…
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He’s not cheap at $14.2 million a year, and he’s not young at age 35 by next playoffs. But the Knicks were not going to find a better point guard for their team next season. So they picked up the option on Chauncey Billups, the team announced Wednesday. “We have made a decision to keep…
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The Knicks would love to get Wilson Chandler back, if they can
Apr 27, 2011, 2:24 PM EDT
The Knicks have a lot of post-season roster filling out to do… once they get the whole Donnie Walsh/Mike D’Antoni situation straightened out. And the Chauncey Billups situation. At least there are deadlines on those. But when they do get all that figured out, and when the lockout is over and they can get around…
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UPDATE 1:35 pm: The Warriors have decided to let Keith Smart go as coach, according to CSN Bay Area. Smart had been the head coach of the Warriors for one year, but had spent the previous seven as an assistant. This isn’t a shock — owner Joe Lacob wanted to put the team on a…
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Andre Iguodala has struggled through the playoffs. The most explosive wing player on Philadelphia has shot just 31.6 percent overall and 25 percent from three. He is averaging only 8.8 points per game. He has looked like a shell of the guy who won gold with Team USA in Turkey last summer. That guy looked…
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This is the end Beautiful friend This is the end My only friend, the end —Jim Morrison, The Doors We’re going to miss the Tim Duncan era Spurs. Yes, likely will get one more win in their first round series, Wednesday night at home. They are fully capable of that. But it will be fools…
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Tuesday afternoon, Orlando’s Jason Richardson stepped on some glass at home, resulting in seven stiches on his left foot, according to the Orlando Sentinel. Tuesday night, playing through pain, he had his best game of the first round leading the Magic with 17 points. There is no truth to the rumor that Dwight Howard and…
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Carlos Boozer played just jut 15:31 on Tuesday night, and it wasn’t just because the Bulls were closing out the Pacers in a blowout win. Boozer suffered a turf toe injury during the game, something that likely will linger into the second round, reports ESPN Chicago. “I just went up for a shot, the one…
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Kobe Bryant wouldn’t really talk about his injured ankle, and he wasn’t letting doctors look at it either. All Phil Jackson would say was that he was playing. After the game, it took Hornets coach Monty Williams to sum it up best (as reported by Sam Amick at Sports Illustrated): “All this talk about his…
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Finally, a couple days before the deadline to pick up the contract extension on Knicks president Donnie Walsh’s deal, he is going to have a sit-down meeting with owner James Dolan. Nothing like waiting until the last minute. The Knicks are expected to keep Walsh around with a two-year contract extension, according to Howard Beck…
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You don’t want to read too much into this — Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen argued, Larry Bird and Kevin McHale yelled at each other on occasion, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant had… okay, the last one is a bad example. But according to TNT’s Pam Oliver, Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant had a heated…
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The question coming into Game 5 was just how Kobe Bryant‘s ankle was going to hold up and impact the Lakers. And in the first quarter, there may have been concerns. But when Kobe threw down the dunk of the 2011 playoffs so far on the head of Emeka Okafor, his ankle looked fine and…
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NBA Playoffs: It took five games, but Bulls play like contenders
Apr 26, 2011, 11:56 PM EDT
This looked like what we all expected this entire series to look like. The Chicago Bulls dominated Game 5 Tuesday game from the start, were up 11 at the end of one quarter, pulled away in the third quarter and cruised to a 116-89 win. Now they sit around until next Monday (when the NBA…
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Video: Metta World Peace the weatherman
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Video: Eastern Conference finals preview
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Video: Heat gearing for another physical battle
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Video: Phil Jackson compares MJ and Kobe
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Video: Grizzlies ready for 'running' Spurs
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Video: Durant won't 'compromise himself' like other stars
