PHOENIX (AP) -- Phoenix Suns swingman Mickael Pietrus exercised the one-year player option on his contract Tuesday.
The Orlando Magic didn't beat the Charlotte Bobcats on Wednesday night so much as they suffocated them. Larry Brown's crew managed one field goal in the game's first nine minutes, had just 30 points at halftime and finished on the losing end of Orlando's wire-to-wire, 92-77 triumph. The Magic lead the series 2-0 heading to Charlotte for the next two games.
Following the pattern that had been set by the two other teams regarded as their primary rivals for an NBA championship (the Cavs and Lakers) in their first-round openers, the Orlando Magic jumped out to a commanding lead and then held on down the stretch to defeat a tenacious lower seed--in this case the Charlotte Bobcats, who were playing in their first playoff game in franchise history.
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Judging by their scorching early shooting percentages, it seemed the Lakers and Magic had made some tacit agreement to avoid playing defense in Game 3 of the NBA Finals. So it must have shocked Lakers guard Kobe Bryant when Magic guard Mickael Pietrus reached in and stripped away the basketball with 30 seconds remaining and the fate of the series in the balance.
LOS ANGELES -- This was a portrait of the teenager as an old man.
ORLANDO -- To understand who the Orlando Magic are and how they happen to be ruining the money-making hopes of everyone vested in a LeBron-Kobe Finals, please refer to their possession with 6.4 seconds remaining in Game 4 on Tuesday.
OVERVIEW: Orlando arrives in the postseason with a thud, having gone 4-5 in April while dealing with some bothersome injuries to key players. Fortunately for the Magic, they'll meet a team slumping even worse, as the Sixers prepped for the postseason by losing six of their last seven (with the lone victory a gift from a Cavs team more interested in resting players than winning). One positive for the 76ers is starting forward Thaddeus Young returned earlier this week after missing seven games with a sprained ankle. Young's comeback is a boost to Philadelphia's running game, an integral part of its offense.
SI.com will analyze each of the NBA's 30 teams as regular-season tip-off approaches. For a complete list of team-by-team breakdowns, click here. The information in the "Go figure" category below is provided by Roland Beech of 82games.com.
NBA training camps for the 2008-09 season are about to open. Soon the air will be filled with the sound of basketballs bouncing, sneakers squeaking and coaches barking out commands.
The Southeast Division is the home of potential unfulfilled, a division brimming with upside. If that upside isn't developed, though, either with new support players or the right coaching, it quickly becomes disappointment. Has any team made the moves necessary to join the Magic in the playoff conversation with the Celtics and Pistons? Did the Magic make the moves to stay in that conversation? Let's take a look ...
Don Nelson is up to his old tricks again. The Warriors' coach reportedly wants a raise from his current $3.1 million salary to $5.1 million (guaranteed) for each of the remaining two seasons on the three-year contract he signed just last year. He is threatening to retire before training camp if he doesn't get it.
Restricted free agency, the way it typically plays out in the NBA, isn't so much a negotiating status as it is something George Carlin might mock.
We want to glide into the new year nicely, so this first five-pack of 2007 singles out players, five from each conference, who are overachieving, or, at least, playing above what some people thought they might, at least one of those people being me. This doesn't mean they are bad players playing well; in particular, I don't want one of them -- identified later -- to get mad at me. Note that I have left out rookies: Who really knows what to expect from them?
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