Chris Paul named 2013 All-Star Game MVP (Photo: foxsportswest.com)
All-NBA Awards 2013 - Jun 21, 2013
All-NBA 1st Team 2013
Paul
Bryant
Durant
James
Duncan
Finals MVP: LeBron James (6'8''-SF-84) of Miami Heat Most Valuable Player: LeBron James (6'8''-SF-84) of Miami Heat Most Improved Player: Paul George (6'9''-G/F-90) of Indiana P. Sixth Man: J.R. Smith (6'6''-G-85) of New York K. Rookie of the Year: Damian Lillard (6'2''-PG-90) of Portland TB Defensive Player of the Year: Marc Gasol (7'1''-C-85) of Memphis G. Sportsmanship Award: Jason Kidd (6'4''-PG-73) of New York K. Coach of the Year: George Karl of Denver N.
1st Team
PG: Chris Paul (6'0''-PG-85) of LA Clippers
SG: Kobe Bryant (6'6''-SG-78) of LA Lakers
SF: Kevin Durant (6'9''-SF-88) of Oklah.City T.
SF: LeBron James (6'8''-SF-84) of Miami Heat
F/C: Tim Duncan (6'11''-F/C-76) of San Antonio S.
3rd Team
SG: James Harden (6'5''-SG-89) of Houston R.
G: Dwyane Wade (6'4''-G-82) of Miami Heat
G/F: Paul George (6'9''-G/F-90) of Indiana P.
F: David Lee (6'9''-F-83) of Golden St.W.
C: Dwight Howard (6'11''-C-85) of LA Lakers
All-Defensive 1st Team
SF: LeBron James (6'8''-SF-84) of Miami Heat
C/F: Serge Ibaka (6'10''-C/F-89) of Oklah.City T.
C: Tyson Chandler (7'1''-C-82) of New York K.
F/C: Joakim Noah (6'11''-F/C-85) of Chicago B.
G: Tony Allen (6'4''-G-82) of Memphis G.
PG: Chris Paul (6'0''-PG-85) of LA Clippers
All-Defensive 2nd Team
F/C: Tim Duncan (6'11''-F/C-76) of San Antonio S.
G/F: Paul George (6'9''-G/F-90) of Indiana P.
C: Marc Gasol (7'1''-C-85) of Memphis G.
PG: Avery Bradley (6'2''-PG-90) of Boston C.
PG: Mike Conley (6'1''-PG-87) of Memphis G.
The Heat wins second consecutive NBA title !!! - Jun 21, 2013
LeBron James (6'8''-SF-84) had 37 points and 12 rebounds and the Miami Heat repeated as champions with a 95-88 victory over the San Antonio Spurs in Game 7 of the NBA Finals on Thursday night.
Dwyane Wade (6'4''-G-82, college: Marquette) added 23 points and 10 rebounds and Shane Battier (6'8''-F-78, college: Duke) scored 18 points on 6-for-8 shooting from 3-point range for Miami. James made 5 of 10 3s, all the while hounding Spurs star Tony Parker (6'2''-PG-82) on defense to make the Heat the first back-to-back champs since the Lakers in 2009-10.
Tim Duncan (6'11''-F/C-76, college: Wake Forest) had 24 points and 12 rebounds for the Spurs, who were trying to become the first road team to win a finals Game 7 since Washington in 1978. Kawhi Leonard (6'7''-F-91, college: San Diego St.) added 19 points and 16 rebounds.
Parker had 10 points on 3-for-12 shooting and four assists, and Manu Ginobili (6'6''-SG-77, agency: Interperformances) scored 18 points for the Spurs. San Antonio lost for the first time in five finals appearances.
The Heat led just 72-71 going into the fourth quarter after a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Chalmers. Battier hit his fifth 3 of the night and Chalmers scored on a layup for a 79-75 lead with 7:30 to play, but the proud Spurs never faded.
The Spurs missed seven of their first 10 shots and turned the ball over five times in the first seven minutes of the fourth quarter, with the heart-breaking loss in Game 6 finally taking its toll.
Duncan's turnover led to Battier's sixth 3-pointer, a corner dagger that gave Miami an 88-82 lead with 3:21 to go. The delirious Heat crowd leapt to its feet, sensing another Larry O'Brien trophy presentation in South Beach and they didn't sit down for the rest of a thrilling finish.
Leonard's 3 made it 90-88, but Duncan missed a putback and James knocked down a 19-foot jumper with 27.9 seconds to go, sealing the victory as the fans chanted along to the White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army," a trademark celebration at American Airlines Arena.
Confetti rained down the court, and James was surrounded by teammates and clicking cameras after a tour-de-force finish.
Danny Green (6'6''-G/F-87, college: N.Carolina), for five games the favorite for finals MVP thanks to his record-setting 3-point shooting, missed his first eight shots and finished with five points on 1-for-12 shooting, while Game 6 hero Ray Allen (6'5''-G-75, college: Connecticut) was 0 for 4 with three turnovers for Miami.
The Heat have been to three straight finals, just like they envisioned when Pat Riley brought James, Wade and Bosh together three summers ago. But it's been anything but easy for the NBA's latest super team. They lost to Dallas in 2010, suffering the final defeat in Game 6 on their home floor, then rebounded to steamroll the Oklahoma City Thunder last season.
This regular season was shaping up as a coronation more than a competition, with the Heat rattling off 66 victories, including a staggering 27 in a row. They entered the playoffs with an air of invincibility, but were pushed as hard as they've ever been.
In the proud Spurs, they faced an aging core that simply wouldn't give in, which had to make this victory their most satisfying yet.
The Heat were all but eliminated on Tuesday night, down 13 points at the start of the fourth quarter and five with 21 seconds to play, with the home fans streaming out of American Airlines Arena. Then James hit a 3, Ray Allen hit another, and the Heat outlasted San Antonio in overtime to keep their hopes of defending their title alive.
"It's like you have a second chance on life," Bosh said. "You're not going to waste it. We were revived. We were dead. We brought ourselves back to life."
The Heat made the most of the kind of second chance that the Spurs have so rarely given over the years. James found the perimeter shooting that had been lacking for most of the series, hitting consecutive 3s in the third quarter to get Miami going after a ragged start.
The reigning MVP also locked down Parker, the focal point of the Spurs offense, forcing him to give the ball up earlier in the shot clock than he wanted.
As the game wore on, the Spurs wore down. Ginobili fumbled an easy pass out of bounds, then threw an errant pass behind Gary Neal, opening the door for James, who hit a 17-foot jumper for an 83-77 lead with 5:41 to play.
Chris Bosh (6'11''-F-84, college: Georgia Tech) was scoreless with seven rebounds for the Heat.
The Heat were made for moments like this. They were made to be tested. They were assembled to have the talent, the makeup and the swagger to withstand even the proudest challengers. And that's what they did.
For James, it was another step toward rarefied air. Had the Heat lost, James would have fallen to 1-3 in the NBA's championship rounds, and his legion of critics would have been banging on his door with more "He's no Jordan" vitriol.
Instead, James delivered with the clutch performances that have now become the norm for him.
He rescued the Heat in Game 6, scoring 16 points in the fourth quarter, including a 3-pointer that put Miami in position to force overtime on Allen's 3. Then he followed that up with a sterling Game 7 to push those Spurs further toward the sunset of an incredible, decade-long run.
James missed four of his first six shots, but started to find a rhythm late in the second quarter. He converted a three-point play on an acrobatic drive to the rim and hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key for a 33-27 lead, bringing the white-clad home crowd to their feet.
Duncan just wouldn't let the Spurs fade. The 37-year-old had a three-point play, four free throws and another layup that tied the game at 40 and Ginobili's two free throws gave the Spurs the lead again at 42-40.
He scored 10 straight point in the third quarter to keep the Heat in it, hitting consecutive 3-pointers, and locked down Parker on defense, all but eliminating San Antonio's offensive focal point.
It was a heart-breaking way to end it for these Spurs, who were 21 seconds from title No. 5 when everything went wrong in Game 6. Now, once again, they will face proclamations of their demise. Only this time, it may be harder to hold those off.
Duncan is 37, but coming off an All-NBA First Team season and a vintage performance in the finals. The 31-year-old Parker is nearing his apex after one of his finest seasons. But Ginobili will turn 36 next month and will be a free agent, perhaps marking the end of the three-person core that helped put the Alamo City on the NBA map, and keep it their for 10 years.
They gave it their all, these Spurs. But in the end, James was just too much, and a prophecy came to be.
Back in 2007, when the Spurs swept James and the Cleveland Cavaliers for the franchise's fourth title, Duncan found the young superstar for a quiet moment to tell him that the league would one day be his.
Now James has four MVPs, two Olympic golds and back-to-back titles on his resume. Duncan has been right so many times throughout his career. This time, it's at his own expense.
Courtesy of Associated Press
West beats East 143-138 in NBA All-Star Game - Feb 18, 2013
Chris Paul (6'0''-PG-85, college: Wake Forest), Blake Griffin (6'10''-F-89, college: Oklahoma) and Kobe Bryant (6'6''-SG-78) turned this West victory into an L.A. story. Paul had 20 points, 15 assists and won MVP honors, Bryant blocked LeBron James' comeback attempt, and the Western Conference beat the East 143-138 on Sunday night. Kevin Durant (6'9''-SF-88, college: Texas) scored 30 points and Griffin finished with 19, joining his Clippers teammate, Paul, in creating Lob City deep in the heart of Texas. James scored 19 points but shot only 7 of 18 after having no shooting troubles during the latter part of the season's first half. Carmelo Anthony (6'8''-SF-84, college: Syracuse) led the East with 26 points and 12 rebounds. The first dunk of the game came 16 seconds in, Paul throwing a pass to Griffin as part of the West's 7-0 start. The West led after each of the first three quarters, though was never ahead by more than eight points through three periods. They finally pushed it into double figures early in the fourth fueled by former Oklahoma City teammates Russell Westbrook and James Harden (6'5''-SG-89, college: Arizona St.), but couldn't put it away until a late run behind the guys from the city of Los Angeles - who along with Lakers center Dwight Howard gave Los Angeles all but one of the West's starting spots. Paul hit two 3-pointers, Bryant made a layup, and his block of James led to Durant's dunk that made it 136-126. Griffin had one last forceful dunk to help close it out, throwing a pass to himself off the backboard and climbing high in his neon green sneakers to slam it home and make it 142-134. Harden had 15 points in his home arena, where the sights of the game were on the floor and the sounds were at the rim - which shook repeatedly after thunderous dunks for most of the game before, as usual, players tried to make some stops down the stretch. Players' sneakers were a variety of pastels and fluorescent colors that looked like they came right from Easter Sunday church, many clashing so badly with their multi-colored socks that they may as well have been created by spilling out random paint buckets. James and Dwyane Wade wore purple, and Griffin's neon look was also sported by the usually-not-so-loud Tim Duncan (6'11''-F/C-76, college: Wake Forest) and Brook Lopez (7'0''-C/F-88, college: Stanford). But the NBA's high-flyers sure could leap in them. Durant slammed one down so hard at one point that he stumbled backward after landing, appearing woozy. He came in as the career leader in points per game with 28.3 and may have won a second straight MVP award 'if not for Paul's big finish. Courtesy of: charlotteobserver.com
Terrence Ross wins Slam Dunk Contest - Feb 17, 2013
Only in the made-for-TV concoction that is the NBA Slam Dunk Contest can five misses equal perfection. But for former Husky Terrence Ross (6'6''-G-91, college: Washington), that was the formula that propelled him to the 2013 Slam Dunk championship on All-Star Saturday here at the Toyota Center. Ross, now in his rookie season with the Toronto Raptors, missed five times on his first attempt, in which he circled the ball behind his back while executing a 360, before finally making it. The judges, a group of former Houston Rockets players that included Clyde Drexler, gave him a perfect score of 50 once he did pull it off. That was good enough to get him to the two-man final against Jeremy Evans (6'9''-F-87, agency: Priority Sports, college: W.Kentucky) of the Utah Jazz, who won the title in 2012. Once in the finals, Ross used a dunk in which he leapt over a young ball boy to secure the title. "It's still overwhelming," said Ross, who became the second former UW player to win the title. Nate Robinson won it in 2006, 2009 and 2010 to become the only three-time winner. The combined four titles of Robinson and Ross give UW the most of any school in an event that was first held in 1984. Ross said he knew all about Robinson's slam dunk history. "It was my favorite event to watch every year, since I was a small child," said Ross, a 6-foot-6, 195-pound shooting guard. "But actually winning it, I never thought I'd do it." His prospects didn't look great when he struggled early. "This is honestly like really my first big dunk contest, so I was nervous," he said. "And not making a dunk didn't make it easy. I had to get myself together." Once he made it, however, he was pretty much flawless. In the final round, Ross first ripped off his warm-ups to reveal an old jersey of Vince Carter, the only previous member of the Raptors to win it in 2000. For that dunk, he then called on Terrence Jones (6'9''-F-92, college: Kentucky), a former teammate at Jefferson High in Portland now with the Rockets, to help him out. Jones tossed the ball off the side of the backboard and Ross caught it in midair and dunked while doing a 360. For his final dunk, he settled on jumping over a ballboy and dunking after passing the ball through his legs. Ross referred to the ballboy as the son of the "owner of Twitter" and the boy was confirmed to be the son of Twitter CEO Dick Costolo. Ross said his agent got the two together. "I told him the day before that I was going to jump over him," Ross said. "But I never told him I was going to go through the legs. He was kind of nervous. When I first grabbed him, he said, 'You're going to hit me, right?' I said, 'No, I'm not going to hit you.' " A year ago, Ross was finishing up his sophomore season at UW, a little later making the decision to turn pro and being taken as the eighth pick of the first round. Like Robinson, he won the dunk title in his first year after leaving Washington. "I don't know if this is validation (of the decision to leave)," said Ross, who is averaging 6.4 points for the Raptors. "But it definitely feels good." And for now, he's not saying if he'll try to match Robinson's multiple wins, saying he doesn't know if he'll compete again next year. "I'm not sure," he said. "This took a lot out of me." Courtesy of: seattletimes.com
Irving, Lillard show their skills - Feb 17, 2013
Cleveland point guard Kyrie Irving (6'3''-G-92, college: Duke) beat San Antonio's Matt Bonner (6'9''-F-80, college: Florida) to win the three-point contest during NBA All-Star Saturday Night. Irving, who will play in his first All-Star Game on Sunday, started 7-for-7 in the final round and finished with 23 points - two shy of the record shared by Craig Hodges and Jason Kapono. Bonner finished with 20 points in the final round. Bonner scored 19 points to edge New Orleans' Ryan Anderson (6'10''-F-88, college: California) (18) and the Warriors' Stephen Curry (6'3''-PG-88, college: Davidson) (17) in the Western Conference half of the first round. Players had one minute to take 25 three-point shots from five positions around the arc. Bonner had the highest score of the six players in the first round. Irving, who also played in Friday night's Rising Stars Challenge, had 18 points in the first round. Also, Toronto rookie Terrence Ross beat defending champion Jeremy Evans to win the Slam Dunk Contest. Earlier, Portland rookie Damian Lillard (6'2''-PG-90, college: Weber St.) of Oakland won the Skills Competition, and the trio of Chris Bosh, Swin Cash and Dominique Wilkins won the Shooting Stars event. Courtesy of: sfgate.com
NBA Shooting Stars 2013: Team Bosh Wins All-Star Event - Feb 17, 2013
The 2013 NBA Shooting Stars champion is Team Bosh of the Eastern Conference, defeating Team Westbrook of the Western Conference. Team Bosh was made up of Miami Heat star Chris Bosh (6'11''-F-84, college: Georgia Tech), Swin Cash (6'1''-SF-79, agency: Josep and Nicolas, college: Connecticut) of the WNBA's Chicago Sky and former Atlanta Hawks great Dominique Wilkins (6'9''-F-60, college: Georgia Tech). The team led by Oklahoma City Thunder star Russell Westbrook also included Moore Maya (6'0''-SG-89, college: Connecticut) of the WNBA's Minnesota Lynx and retired NBA legendary clutch shooter Robert Horry. In the first round, Team Bosh bested Team Lopez in what was a poor showing by both squads. Team Bosh finished with a time of 50 seconds, and that only stood because Team Lopez had a dreadful finish of one minute and seven seconds. For the Western Conference, Team Westbrook emerged victorious after completing its round in an impressive 29.5 seconds, while Team Harden came up short with a time of 37.9 seconds. Team Westbrook was cruising in the final round and looked certain to beat Team Bosh's time of one minute and 24 seconds, but then came the half-court shot. Sadly for Team Westbrook, it was unable to make the half-court shot after getting to the final spot on the floor with plenty of time left. As time continued to tick, it figured to be Horry's moment to drain yet another clutch shot as he had done throughout his career. However, that wasn't the case, and instead, nobody on Team Westbrook was able to convert the final shot. That led to an improbable victory for Team Bosh. None of the teams in the final looked all that impressive, but Team Bosh was just slightly better. This was no doubt an ugly win for Bosh's squad, and while it won't be getting any style points for its victory, a win's a win. Courtesy of: bleacherreport.com
NBA All-Star Celebrity Game 2013 results: Kevin Hart wins second straight MVP - Feb 16, 2013
Comedian Kevin Hart lives for NBA All-Star Weekend and for the second straight year, he was named the MVP of the All-Star Celebrity Game Friday. Hart, who played for the West, led his team to a 58-38 victory, not so much for his on-court contributions but for the ... uh ... intangibles? I guess? that he brought to the court. Among his accomplishments in the game, Hart had to borrow shoes from Chris Paul because he forgot his basketball shoes, incited a vintage finger wag from Dikembe Mutombo, got into a fight with a mascot and beat track star Usain Bolt in a (somewhat rigged) foot race. The game featured former NBA stars Clyde Drexler, Tim Hardaway (6'0''-G-66, college: UTEP), Sean Elliott (6'8''-F-68, college: Arizona) and Bruce Bowen (6'7''-F-71, college: CS Fullerton), actors Nick Cannon and Josh Hutcherson, musicians Ne-Yo, Trey Songz and Common, and WNBA stars Moore Maya (6'0''-SG-89, college: Connecticut) and Tamika Catchings (6'1''-SF-79, college: Tennessee), among others. The teams were coached by All-Stars James Harden (6'5''-SG-89, college: Arizona St.) and Russell Westbrook (6'3''-PG-88, college: UCLA).
Courtesy of: sbnation.com
Kenneth Faried named BBVA Rising Stars Challenge MVP - Feb 16, 2013
Team Shaq - Team Chuck 135:163
Team Chuck exploded with a big victory over Team Shaq in the BBVA Rising Stars Challenge in Houston on Friday night. Kenneth Faried (6'8''-F-89, college: Morehead St.) was impressive with 40 points and 10 rebounds for the winners. He was named the MVP after the game. It was a usual no-defence high-voltage piece action on the court in Houston. Plenty of impressive moves and exclamatory dunks performed. Team Chuck cleared off to a 90:66 lead at the half. Kenneth Faried totalled 19 points in the first half. He had a chance to practice some of the slam dunks to perform during the Slam Dunk Contest he is about to participate in. Team Chuck did not surrender the lead in the second half and marched to an uncontested victory at the end. Kawhi Leonard (6'7''-F-91, college: San Diego St.) and Tristan Thompson (6'8''-F-91, college: Texas) fired 20 points each for the winners. Thomas contributed 18 points for Team Chuck. Kyrie Irving (6'3''-G-92, college: Duke) answered with 32 points for Team Shaq. Dion Waiters (6'4''-G-91, college: Syracuse) netted 23 points in the defeat.
Spoelstra
