Look At All These Beautiful Clutch Basketball Shots

Time for another edition of the quiz that we played here on Deadspin last Wednesday: “who had the best buzzer-beater tonight?” In order to reflect the nature of today’s choices, however, it will now be amended to “who had the coolest shot in the closing seconds of regulation last night?” (No, that is not quite as…

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Things Got Weird At The End Of The Knicks-Wizards Game

John Wall—who is having one of the most efficient seasons of his career and has the once-moribund Wizards playing shockingly competent basketball—sealed the game against the Knicks tonight with this lightning-quick behind-the-back dribble that led to a wide-open dunk with 13 seconds left.

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For the first time, players had a hand in voting for the starters of the NBA All-Star Game, and the

For the first time, players had a hand in voting for the starters of the NBA All-Star Game, and the NBA released the full results this evening. Of note: they had Isaiah Thomas and Russell Westbrook making it; meanwhile, Quincy Pondexter, Brice Johnson, and a few others who haven’t played at all this year picked up…

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Russell Westbrook Has No Time For The Warriors

The season’s second reunion between Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant did not make for a particularly close game, but it was still plenty entertaining. The Warriors beat the Thunder, 121-100, and Durant had 40 points on 16 shots. Westbrook had a triple double (a quadruple double if you count turnovers), but the…

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James Harden Vs. Giannis Antetokounmpo Was Fun As Hell

Here’s how good James Harden has been this year: Russell Westbrook is averaging a triple double over halfway through the season for the first time in over 50 years, and yet the general consensus around the NBA is that the virtual MVP award is a tossup between Harden and Westbrook. While Westbrook is getting his…

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Joel Embiid Is A Historically Good Rookie

Joel Embiid is the truth. Though The Process has yet to enjoy full, starter-type playing time—he’s on a 28-minute restriction to protect his health, and rides the bench for back-to-backs—he’s posting eyebrow-raising numbers in his 25.2 minutes per game. The flashiest figure might be his scoring per 36 minutes: 28.0…

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Draymond Green: Actually, Yes, Cavs-Warriors Is A Rivalry

This is a silly thing to discuss, granted, but it is a long season and we need something to sustain us after the Warriors and Cavaliers met for the final time—until June, we hope and pray, at which time everything that’s been said by everyone on either time will be dredged up and injected into the most narrative-laden…

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The Warriors Turned The Cavaliers To Ash

With three-and-a-half minutes remaining in the second quarter, LeBron James had his Cavaliers 14 points behind the Warriors. Cleveland recovered from their largest first quarter deficit of the season by slowing the game to a grind and stubbornly parking themselves at the free throw line. The Warriors got that lead by…

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Klay Thompson Ruins Meticulously Planned Pregame Ritual

Everyone knows that Steph Curry likes to have a little fun during pregame warmups, shooting balls from the tunnel and whatnot. Before last night’s game against the Pistons, he set up what appeared to be an imaginary field goal attempt or soccer free kick, only to be thwarted by an oblivious Klay Thompson.

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NBA: We Might Speed Up The End Of Games Because Of Crappy Millennial Attention Spans

The last two minutes of an NBA game move at the pace of continental drift thanks to an interminable barrage of timeouts, replay reviews to determine exactly whose ass the ball bounced off of, and free throw back-and-forths. It’s boring, and bad, and turns what should be the most enthralling part of the game into a…

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The NBA Refs Union Is Going To War With Mark Cuban

Officiating an NBA game is an incredibly difficult job. You have to monitor ten players, many of whom are trying to get away with some transgression or another on any given play, and keep an eye out for a series of complicated rules violations. Meanwhile, you’re also charged with making split-second calls and…

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Disgraced Former San Francisco Police Chief Gets Warriors Security Job [Update: Not Anymore]

Greg Suhr was the chief of the San Francisco Police Department from 2011 to June 2016, when he resigned at the request of San Francisco mayor Ed Lee. Suhr’s time in charge was a tumultuous one for the SFPD, but despite his very public departure from the SFPD, Suhr has been hired by the Golden State Warriors to do some…

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The Crazy Craftsmanship That Goes Into Making an NBA Championship Ring

When you win a championship as a professional athlete, you get a ring. But it’s not a normal ring meant for normal humans with normal fingers. No, championship rings are enormously gaudy boulders with, like, a million diamonds set in a very specific way because it represents winning or something. The excess is…

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Report: Derrick Rose Considered Walking Away From Basketball

Derrick Rose tried to explain away his absence from Monday night’s Knicks game by citing a “family issue,” sketching the incident in vague terms. “It had nothing to do with the team or basketball, but that’s the first time I ever felt like that emotionally, and I had to be with my family,” he told reporters yesterday,…

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DeMar DeRozan Takes All The Hard, Bad Shots And It Is Glorious

DeMar DeRozan torched the Celtics for 41 points and 13 rebounds last night, and the Raptors’ leading scorer continues to feast on the scraps nobody else really wants these days: lots of contested midrange jumpers. DeRozan was out there leaning, absorbing contact, going 16-for-29 from the field and 8-for-12 from…

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DeMarcus Cousins Asks Two Reporters If They Want Him In Sacramento

DeMarcus Cousins is constantly being asked if he wants to remain a member of the Sacramento Kings. It’s a reasonable question given his often tumultuous relationship with the franchise, but I’m sure he gets damn tired of hearing it. After last night’s game against the Pistons, Cousins came up with a more entertaining…

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Gordon Hayward And The Utah Jazz Are For Real

The Utah Jazz have been out on the fringes of the NBA for most of the decade. They haven’t made the playoffs since the lockout-shortened season of 2011-12 and the last time Utah had an all-star was Deron Williams in 2011. However, both short droughts are probably going to end this season, as the 24-16 Jazz are just…

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