The NBA playoffs finally started in earnest on Monday, though most of the league has been in a Disney World bubble since July for the season restart (which included eight games for every team, plus a play-in contest for the Portland Trail Blazers and Memphis Grizzlies). And what did we learn from that sample of […]
We begin with the first round of the NBA playoffs, since they started this week, and which teams and players seem to be in good shape. While Neil is looking more prophetic, for the moment, for picking the Los Angeles team that he did, the Hot Takedown crew hasn’t lost faith in LeBron James quite […]
With the NBA playoffs underway, TV networks and the viewing public are champing at the bit for one first-round series in particular: the Portland Trail Blazers vs. the Los Angeles Lakers, featuring Damian Lillard, the hottest player since the NBA restart, against LeBron James, the best basketball player of this generation. The matchup, which kicks […]
LeBron James is, of course, no stranger to the postseason: He has missed the playoffs only three times in his 17 seasons in the NBA, including his disastrous inaugural season with the Los Angeles Lakers. But though LeBron has been a fixture in the finals, he hasn’t usually been favored by seeding to get there. […]
Graphics by Ryan Best In their second game of the 2019-20 season, the defending champion Toronto Raptors played the division rival Boston Celtics. Boston had struggled offensively in its season opener, scoring only 91.4 points per 100 possessions in a loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, and once the game got underway, Toronto replicated much of […]