Topic - Ball Don't Lie - NBA - Yahoo! Sports

Jesus saves. Momentarily, at least. With just under 20 seconds remaining in the thrilling, back-and-forth fourth quarter of Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals, San Antonio Spurs small forward Kawhi Leonard split two free throws to give his team a 95-92 lead. The Miami Heat came up the court without timeouts, and rather than attack the basket in search of a quick, game-extending 2-pointer, LeBron James — who had been huge in the frame, scoring 16 points on 7 for 11 shooting, but had committed a cou...

Most of Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals has belonged to San Antonio Spurs big man Tim Duncan, who dominated the first half en route to 25 points on 11 for 13 shooting and eight rebounds, and has been the primary low-post and paint force on Tuesday night. On the other hand, LeBron James entered the third quarter on a subpar streak, missing nine of his 12 shots and looking for all the world like he was ready to don the goat horns if his Miami Heat lost and watched the Spurs celebrate their fifth ...

Through the first five games of the NBA Finals, San Antonio Spurs forward Kawhi Leonard has received praise mostly for his defensive work on Miami Heat MVP LeBron James. Yet Leonard has also been very impressive at the offensive end, where he's chipped in four double-figures scoring games and added another option to the Spurs' balanced attack.Leonard has also had his fair share of athletic highlights. In the first quarter of Tuesday night's Game 6, he had perhaps his best of the playoffs. Aft...

The San Antonio Spurs are 48 minutes away from the fifth NBA championship of the Gregg Popovich-Tim Duncan era. The Miami Heat are 48 minutes away from either hosting a Game 7 for back-to-back titles on their home court or facing an offseason of blistering criticism for what will be perceived as its Big Three once again shrinking on the grandest possible stage. The stakes of an NBA game don't get much higher than this. Tuesday's Game 6 is going to answer a lot of questions — here are five tha...

Kobe Bryant has ranked among the most popular players in the NBA for more than 15 years now, as his legendary scoring prowess, on- and off-court charisma, affiliation with the glamorous Los Angeles Lakers and near-constant exposure to massive audiences through nationally televised games and deep playoff runs have combined to make him one the sports world's highest-profile figures. He's also done quite a bit of work over the years to extend his mega-star status into the massive and hoops-mad n...

No, for real, Boris Diaw — you just logged more than 27 minutes for the first time in 2 1/2 months, you kicked in four rebounds, three assists, a block and some very good defense on LeBron James, and played a pretty important role in a 114-104 Game 5 win that puts your San Antonio Spurs just 48 minutes away from raising the O'Brien. We kind of can't believe it, either, but here we are. Sure, we all know for real that Boris was protesting a foul call, but let's be blog game Willy Wonkas and en...

Coaching introductions don’t come much more inauspicious than this. The Detroit Pistons have been flailing as a franchise since dealing away Chauncey Billups in 2008, and general manager Joe Dumars has been through five head coaches since that year. As a response to five straight dreary and ultimately losing seasons, and with his job possibly in danger under new’ish owner Tom Gores, Dumars had to make a splash with someone that could be his final coaching hire. He decided to go with former Tr...

Since Tony Parker's final-seconds heroics in Game 1, every game of the 2013 NBA Finals has been decided by a monster second-half run. In Game 2, it was the 33-5 (or 35-9, if you prefer) bolt that gave the Miami Heat a series-evening blowout. In Game 3, it was four separate post-intermission spurts — 7-0, 11-0, 13-0 and 11-0 — fueled by historic 3-point shooting that put the San Antonio Spurs back on top. In Game 4, it was a Dwyane Wade-and-Chris Bosh-led 14-4 fourth-quarter rip that turned a ...

Families across America celebrated Father's Day on Sunday, and even though they were a little bit busy with an NBA Finals game, San Antonio Spurs stars Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili found ways to squeeze in a little bit of quality time and fun in the midst of a night at the office.After a fantastic final-second layup by Tony Parker to close out the second quarter and send the Spurs into intermission with a 61-52 lead over the visiting Miami Heat in Sunday's pivotal Game 5, ABC's cameras found ...

The NBA Finals is often decided by one or two huge performances from role players, but San Antonio Spurs wing Danny Green's shooting against the Miami Heat is unprecedented. With 9:39 remaining in the third quarter of Game 5, Green knocked down his 23rd three-pointer of the series, breaking Ray Allen's record for the most threes in an NBA Finals. Green ranked seventh in the league this regular season with a 42.9 percent mark from beyond the arc. His shooting in the NBA Finals has been conside...

In a purely literal sense, Game 5 of the 2013 NBA Finals isn't a must-win, no matter what any member of the San Antonio Spurs or Miami Heat tries to tell you — with the series tied at two games apiece, whichever team drops Sunday night's contest will still have two shots at staying alive and hoisting the O'Brien once the series shifts back to South Beach. On the other hand, though, as NBA.com's John Schuhmann noted, of the 10 times the Finals have been tied 2-2 since 1985, the team that won G...

The NBA announced Friday afternoon that it has fined Miami Heat center Chris Bosh $5,000 for violating the league's anti-flopping policy during Game 4 of the 2013 NBA Finals on Thursday. The penalized play took place at the 6:07 mark of the second quarter of Miami's big 109-93 victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday night. Here it is, for your viewing pleasure: Well, duh. Bosh is the eighth player to receive a flopping fine this postseason. He joins Derek Fisher, Jeff Pendergraph, J.R....

On Thursday afternoon, I found myself wondering if Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra would look to curb Dwyane Wade's minutes in Game 4 after three straight games where the All-Star shooting guard came out hot, petered out after halftime and played often lackadaisical defense that helped contribute to the San Antonio Spurs' offense finding rhythm, wide-open 3-pointers and two wins in three tries. On Thursday evening, Spoelstra rode with Wade even longer — 39 minutes, 55 seconds, after not ...

Miami Heat big man Chris Bosh has had a very frustrating NBA Finals, getting many open shots and failing to make a satisfactory number of them for various reasons. In the first half of Thursday night's Game 4, Bosh managed to find his way into the paint a little more than he had in the first three games of this series. His first-half line of eight points and four rebounds wasn't overwhelming, but it does show that he might be finding his way into this series.On the other hand, getting involve...

After Game 1 of the 2013 NBA Finals, the big question was, "Can you believe Tony Parker hit that?" After Game 2, the big question was, "How the hell do you stop the Miami Heat when they play like that?" After Game 3, it was, "How the hell do you beat the San Antonio Spurs when they shoot like that?" We don't yet know what the main topic of conversation will be after Thursday's Game 4, but we do know what some of the big questions are heading into this critical matchup. By night's end, we'll e...

Basketball Hall of Famer and longtime Wizards, Magic and Rockets assistant coach Patrick Ewing is back in the NBA, working as the newly-minted associate head coach of the Charlotte Bobcats. Ewing will run the team alongside head coach Steve Clifford as team owner Michael Jordan continues a long and frustrating rebuilding project with the long-suffering squad. The former Knick center, who was out of the NBA last season, has for just as long coveted a head coaching gig at this level, but he see...

Miami Heat fans have a pretty poor reputation among NBA observers and partisans. In the eyes of many, they show up late for important games, approach the game itself with cursory interest, and generally just don't know very much about basketball. As with any stereotype, it's easy to question the validity of those statements, but there's no question that it's the perception. Maybe it's just an uncomfortable byproduct of living in a city where the weather is often amazing. The creative minds at...

For a blowout win that was over by the fourth quarter, this sure is one compelling video. NBA entertainment knows what it’s doing. As does San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, who delivered the best in-huddle lines of the evening, as is usually the case. Give it a watch: This sort of winds down our Game 3 coverage, so for those of you that missed out in a wave of linkdom and potential G3 fatigue earlier on Wednesday, here’s a roundup of Yahoo! Sports’ reaction to San Antonio’s significant ...

You know how the Miami Heat (like many sports teams before them) have been using the White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army" as their player introduction music, and how Heat backers at the AmericanAirlines Arena have fallen in love with “OOOOH OH OH OH OH OHHHH OHHHHHHH” chants when things are going pretty well for Erik Spoelstra's squadron? Yeah, San Antonio Spurs fans know, too. And apparently, like the dude Eddie Maisonet, the AT&T Center faithful aren't such big fans of the practice — so with ...

Indiana Pacers center Roy Hibbert is one of the game's more genial types, he's one of the more social media-friendly fellows to follow, and he remains one of the more quick-witted and creative minds in the game. So imagine our surprise when, while releasing a video designed to "preview" the video game 'Call of Duty: Ghosts,' Roy acted the strong, silent type throughout the entire clip package. Watch: Yep, just one "whoa" in the first 40 seconds of the video, precious little after that, and no...

The San Antonio Spurs' return to the NBA Finals, and strong performance there thus far, has meant increased attention on a team and organization that doesn't exactly court the spotlight. Sometimes, that means learning more about people from whom we haven't heard much, like sharpshooting Game 3 heroes Danny Green and Gary Neal. Sometimes, it means lavishing a bit more deserved praise on celebrated stars like Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, who (despite not playing especially well th...

The alert came in the hours after the San Antonio Spurs' dominating 113-77 victory over the Miami Heat in Game 3 of the NBA Finals from SB Nation's Paul Flannery: There's a child dancing on a truck in a diaper. Go Spurs Go — Paul Flannery (@Pflanns) June 12, 2013 The confirmation came from intrepid journalist Ben Golliver of SI.com: Now that looks fun. (And also, you know, pretty dangerous.) Fret not, though, friends. Golliver notes that the rooftop dancing occurred while the truck — emblazon...

Guys, I need to come clean — sometimes, in the course of doing my job, I encounter things that make me question my own fandom. I mean, I like the things I like, and I feel sorrow when my favorite teams lose and joy when they win, but there's stuff I see that sometimes makes me wonder whether I'm missing some measure of mania essential to being a truly remarkable supporter. Like, for example, this image — as captured by Chris Herring of the Wall Street Journal during the San Antonio Spurs' 3-p...

It's a playoffs truism that role players tend to play better at home than on the road. In the first half of Game 3 of the NBA Finals, reserve San Antonio Spurs guard Gary Neal proved it once again. In the first two games of the series, Neal shot a combined 6-of-16 from the field and 3-of-8 from beyond the arc. Those are solid numbers, but they didn't indicate the explosion to come. In 14 first-half minutes, Neal put in a game-high 14 points, including a 4-of-6 mark from three-point range. His...

The San Antonio Spurs enter Tuesday's pivotal Game 3 of the 2013 NBA Finals having accomplished their primary goals — taking a game off the Miami Heat at AmericanAirlines Arena and getting back to Texas with a chance to win a championship on their own home floor. To do so, though, they're going to need a significantly better effort than they mustered in Game 2, where sloppy half-court defense and too many turnovers spelled doom for San Antonio, as the Heat put together a dominant second-half ...

What's the difference between being 5-foot-2 and being 6-foot-11? Getting your face in a photo taken by Questlove of the Legendary Roots Crew, apparently: Someone had to get sacrificed in this photo: sorry @dwighthoward but @kevinhart4real is from Norf… instagram.com/p/aWH-y8wa0J/ — Questlove Jenkins (@questlove) June 9, 2013 The Roots drummer, DJ, producer and musical director for "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" snapped this shot of pals Kevin Hart and Dwight Howard at the taping of the 2013 ...

With Monday offering a night off between Game 2 and Game 3 of the 2013 NBA Finals, many NBA fans and players turned their attention to "The Doctor," the new NBA TV documentary celebrating the life and career of Hall of Famer Julius Erving, which debuted on the network last night. In interviews promoting the film prior to its premiere, Dr. J told reporters that while he might not quite be the legendarily acrobatic high flyer he once was, he can still throw down, even after turning 63 this past...

After a drive and finger roll by to-that-point-star-of-Game-2 Danny Green, the San Antonio Spurs led the Miami Heat 62-61 with 3:50 remaining in the third quarter, seeming to have a pretty strong chance of weathering a bad offensive performance from longtime stars Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili and another subpar shooting game from rising sophomore Kawhi Leonard. The Heat looked awkward at times, with MVP LeBron James unable to get on track and Erik Spoelstra's squad seeming unable...

Yes, LeBron James' mammoth fourth-quarter rejection of a Tiago Splitter dunk came in the midst of a roaring Miami Heat run that turned Game 2 of their NBA Finals series against the San Antonio Spurs into a blowout victory. No, it wasn't a truly game-changing, momentum-shifting play like, say, Roy Hibbert's man-cave-adorning stuff on Carmelo Anthony that sparked an Indiana Pacers win over the New York Knicks. In the grand scheme of the game at hand, it was a play that didn't really "matter."Bu...

For the first 30 minutes of Game 2 of the NBA Finals between the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs, LeBron James was curiously not in the middle of the action. As the league's best and most divisive player, James is typically the top story in any game regardless of his level of play. Yet, due in part to a strong performance from his teammates, including oft-criticized point guard Mario Chalmers, the Heat were able to weather his largely inessential performance and keep pace with the Spurs. For...

After a thrilling start to the NBA Finals that saw the San Antonio Spurs take a 1-0 lead over the Miami Heat thanks to the order-within-chaos brilliance of Tony Parker, both teams, their fans and folks like me have had two full days to digest what happened and think about what comes next. We know Dwyane Wade says Game 2 is a "must-win" for the Heat with three games in San Antonio looming. We know all eyes will be on Chris Bosh every time he tees up a shot, on LeBron James every time he choose...

A look around the league and the Web that covers it. It's also important to note that the rotation order and starting nods aren't always listed in order of importance. That's for you, dear reader, to figure out. C: The Bergen Record and ESPN. Friday marks 20 years since the death of Drazen Petrovic, the trendsetting, trail-blazing, 3-bombing, heart-racing guard whom Steve Popper remembers as "a Croatian combination of Pete Maravich, Michael Jordan and Manu Ginobili" and whom the New York Time...

YouTube is full of very small children "playing" basketball, but the sad fact is that the majority of them have no skills whatsoever. Due to their low-functioning motor skills and general uncertainty over what objects are and how they should be used, these babies typically struggle to stand up, look at the hoop with quizzical interest, and perhaps even make one attempt to shoot the ball after hopeful yet strained encouragement from a parent. Take, for instance, this child (chosen at random), ...

If you’ve ever wondered about the direction the Milwaukee Bucks were taking in this pivotal 2013 offseason, whether the team was going to keep with the same 38-win crew or blow it all up, a report out of Milwaukee has surfaced that should lead you to believe the Bucks are once again going for more of the same. Shootin’ for that .500 record, hopin’ for the eighth seed, signin’ all of the Monta Ellis. From Charles F. Gardner at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has ...

Heading into the NBA Finals, a number of analysts suggested that, with all due respect to the San Antonio Spurs, a Miami Heat offense that struggled mightily at times in the Eastern Conference finals would hit its stride after dispatching the Indiana Pacers' brutal defense. "Chris Bosh in particular would feel like he's getting out of jail," TNT commentator Steve Kerr told USA TODAY Sports' Jeff Zillgitt, due to the "more free-flowing" and less physical nature of the game the Spurs like to pl...

Tracy McGrady did not play in San Antonio’s Game 1 win over the Miami Heat on Thursday night, and the seven-time All-Star has played just 17 minutes total during San Antonio’s postseason run. This has left T-Mac with a whole lot of time on his hands, but even hands-free devices aren’t allowed on the San Antonio sideline. That’s OK, because when Tracy McGrady develops an appetite in the locker room following a game, he goes right for his phone, and his DasDak app. The result? A meal will be wa...

Coming off a phenomenal opening salvo in these 2013 NBA Finals, here are a handful of thoughts and things that seemed worth mentioning from Thursday's fantastic Game 1 between the San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat: • Dwyane Wade is back, until he isn't, so is he really back? The All-Star shooting guard turned question-mark X-factor started the game with a sharp cut and dunk, made four of five shots in a 10-point second quarter that kept the Heat ahead of the despite a 12-point frame from low-p...

Even if you've already watched Tony Parker's remarkable off-the-floor, scrambling, just-in-the-nick-of-time final-possession buzzer-beating jumper to ice the San Antonio Spurs' 92-88 Game 1 win over the Miami Heat on Thursday 1 million times, you still need to watch it from the NBA's Phantom Camera. Seriously. The super-slow-motion footage only heightens the absurdity, brilliance, razor-thin separation between release and buzzer, and overall impact of one of the truly amazing moments in recen...

The San Antonio Spurs have been called boring, dull, and workmanlike at many times during their 15 years of NBA championship contention. While basketball fans are free to argue over the validity of those labels, there's no question that the Spurs' last possession of Thursday's Game 1 of the NBA Finals was absolutely amazing. With 31 seconds left in the fourth quarter and the Spurs holding on to a 90-88 lead after two LeBron James free throws, point guard Tony Parker held the ball for what fig...

It seems almost unbelievable that 10 years into a Hall of Fame career that's included four NBA Most Valuable Player awards, four trips to the NBA Finals, an NBA championship and countless appearances in all manner of advertisements, commercials and pop-culture media, LeBron James has never been on the cover of a video game. Unbelievable, and yet true. Until now, that is. 2K Sports, the makers of the über-popular "NBA 2K" series of video games, unveiled the Miami Heat superstar as the cover at...

The mid-'90s were a simpler time. The internet was but a diversion for most, not an all-encompassing aspect of life; it was fashionable to wear baggy clothes; Seattle was even considered by some to be the cultural center of the nation. In 1993, a little-known Hollywood artist named Steven Spielberg captured the imagination of the world with a personal film called "Jurassic Park," a tale of scientists creating dinosaurs and the consultants and children who work out their daddy issues when ever...

For as much as we love bad blood, trash talk, ill will and general Birdmania/Pendergraphery that often accompanies emotionally-charged playoff matchups between teams competing for an NBA championship, sometimes it's just so much nicer when everyone's willing to praise their opponents' skills and talents. Isn't that what your mom would want? (Unless your mom has a thirst for your adversaries' blood, in which case, yikes, and let's move on.)Luckily for those of us who sometimes just like it whe...

In the run up to Thursday's Game 1 of the NBA Finals between the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs, it has been mentioned several times that MVP LeBron James has seen this matchup before. In 2007, as the 22-year-old leader of the Cleveland Cavaliers, James faced a vastly superior Spurs team that swiftly dispatched the Cavs in a four-game sweep. The result wasn't terribly surprising, and it's possible that the series is the least remembered NBA Finals of the past 20 years for anyone other than ...

I mean, sure, I could sit here and go into detail about how Froggy Fresh, f.k.a. Krispy Kreme, is a probably-kidding-but-possibly-not rapper who once bragged that he “could beat you up even if you had one thousand knives, even if you had infinity knives” and how his "X-Factor" "blaze video" is pretty great, and how his ongoing narrative feud with nemesis James is oddly compelling, but you don't REALLY need to know all that to appreciate this. Instead, let's just listen to the epic tale of a t...

The minds behind Ball Don’t Lie have previewed the NBA Finals, with Kelly Dwyer going against character for a more genial take, Dan Devine bringing his inimitable mixture of both order and bedlam, along with Eric Freeman’s legendary look inside the reputations of some of the series’ key fixtures. We end the 2012-13 season, single tear, with the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs. Which team do you think will win the series, and in how many games? Vote here to let us know what you think. Kelly D...

Basketball fans remember the NBA Finals primarily for the teams that win and create dynasties, but these games are also about moments. We remember Michael Jordan's game-winning shot against the Utah Jazz in 1998, Willis Reed playing through a torn muscle for the New York Knicks in 1970, and Julius Erving's swooping reverse lay-up in 1980 as major events in the history of the league. When the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs tip off on Thursday night, they could add to that list of unforgettab...

A look around the league and the Web that covers it. It's also important to note that the rotation order and starting nods aren't always listed in order of importance. That's for you, dear reader, to figure out. C: The Sherman Report. Doris Burke, whose duties on ESPN/ABC coverage include sideline reporting, talks about what those funny few seconds feel like when you're on the other side of the microphone: "I try very hard not to take his reactions personally. I’ll be honest with you. It is n...