On June 3, 1984, Earvin “Magic” Johnson dropped 21 assists as the Los Angeles Lakers took a 2-1 series lead in the NBA Finals. To this day, that stands as the Finals record, and the only two other occasions where a player broke 20 dimes also belongs to Johnson: June 4, 1987, against the Celtics;…
On May 28, 2016, Klay Thompson went absolutely bonkers from deep. He drained 11 threes while leading the Golden State Warriors to a 108-101 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder. It was a performance that had historic ramifications beyond the fact that it still stands as the playoff record for a single game. Thompson also…
On May 27, 2014, there was still hope for a championship in Oklahoma City. Though the Thunder had dropped their first two games to the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference Finals, a Game 3 win and marvelous performance by Russel Westbrook in Game 4 had evened things out. Westbrook notched 40 points, 10…
On May 21, 1991, The Chicago Bulls were rolling, and not even their rival Detroit Pistons could get in their way. Michael Jordan led the way with 35 points as the Bulls took care of business. The Bulls had only lost one game through the first two rounds of the NBA Playoffs, and that was…
On May 20, 2019, the Golden State Warriors made history when they defeated the Portland Trail Blazers 119-117 to make it to the NBA Finals for the fifth straight time. They joined the Boston Celtics (who went 10 straight years from 1956-66) as the only teams to do so. Stephen Curry led the way with…
Most of us enjoyed watching The Last Dance, which recounted the great Chicago Bulls teams of the 90s. The show went extensively into Michael Jordan’s struggle to get past the Detroit Pistons to win a championship. While it’s not a perfect comparison, there are a lot of similarities to LeBron James and his struggle to get…
Triple-doubles used to be uncommon, even as Russell Westbrook, James Harden and LeBron James have recently produced a spike in them. But San Antonio Spurs center David Robinson long ago one-upped these luminaries by recording the NBA’s last quadruple-double. Only three other players have ever registered such a feat: Hall-of-Fame centers Nate Thurmond and Hakeem…
Carmelo Anthony has done it all in his basketball career. An NCAA champion with the Syracuse Orange in 2003, ‘Melo’ is a 10-time NBA All-Star and scoring champion (2013), as well as a multi-time Olympic gold medalist. Critics, however, have always been quick to point out his ball-stopping style of play. Another common notion is that…
The 2001 Los Angeles Lakers’ postseason run was arguably the most dominant in history as they went 15-1 to get the middle title of their three-peat. During that run, Kobe Bryant had one of the best playoff performances of his career, scoring 48 points on May 13 to finish off the sweep of the Sacramento…
The basketball world rightly associates No. 23 with Michael Jordan. No. 45 also played a short role during his 1994-95 comeback season as well—as detailed recently on ESPN’s The Last Dance. But do you know The Goat once donned No. 12 on Valentine’s Day 1990? The Orlando Magic hosted the up-and-coming Bulls that evening. Both teams…
