Summer Reading

The Indiana Pacers Need To Pay Julius Randle

- by Fox Doucette

It has been a bit of a running theme here at Pace and Space that Julius Randle is too good for that rotten Lakers franchise he’s been toiling for, usually when he does something Breakfast Special-worthy in the course of a game. But with Randle clearly not in the Lakers’ long-term plans as they look to dump salary and create room for the alleged superteam involving Paul George, LeBron James, and Kawhi Leonard, admittedly a superteam that has about as much chance of happening as I have of winning the Powerball and re-enacting Charlie Sheen’s midlife crisis in my own …

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Summer Reading

Carmelo Anthony Killed Paul George’s Career

- by Fox Doucette

It is the general consensus in Indiana at least that “the Pacers won the Paul George trade.” After all, the Pacers got Victor Oladipo, who didn’t need anyone to drop out due to injury in order to get into the All-Star Game. They got Domantas Sabonis, who went from statistically one of the league’s worst rookies in 2016-17 to an emerging star at center in 2017-18. And they also got a team that won 48 games in the regular season, gave Cleveland their toughest test on the road to the Finals (sorry Boston, you guys had home court advantage and …

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Analysis

The Last Glory of LeBron James

- by Fox Doucette

Once upon a time, I used to be a boxing writer. I covered the sweet science both as a journalist, with ESPN’s old Friday Night Fights show as my beat—a great gig that got me ringside seats in Reno, where I met Teddy Atlas in one of the coolest total-fanboying moments of my life—and as a romanticist, writing historical fiction in the only sport besides maybe baseball where you can do that for a sports news publication and not be thought terribly unusual. (Unless you’re Jon Bois from SBNation. I am not Jon Bois.) And boxing was at the forefront …

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Highlights

Breakfast Special: Pack It In, Boys, Kevin Durant’s Finals MVP

- by Fox Doucette

Not since D-Day in 1944 has a group of people defending their turf been so thoroughly shot to pieces on the sixth of June as the Cleveland Cavaliers got at the hands of the Golden State Warriors in a 110-102 second-half comeback Wednesday night. Dub Nation is just one win away from sending your columnist into hibernation for the next four months (this is a lie; there will be Pacers talk and free agency talk and draft talk. The hiatus won’t start until early July, and the previews will be back like they always are starting shortly after Labor Day.) …

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Highlights

Breakfast Special: Steph Gonna Steph On LeBron

- by Fox Doucette

Well, Golden State is up 2-0 on Cleveland. Again. And after Game 4 in Cleveland, the Warriors will probably be up 3-1 in the series. Again. After all, in a five-game series, the losing team wins Game 3. And the Warriors will win the series in five. Again. Game 2 featured Stephen Curry breaking the Finals record for three-pointers by shooting 9-of-17 from out there, Contrast the Jordan era… 3-POINTERSStephen Curry tonight: 9/17 Bulls entire 1991 Finals: 5/21 — Tom Haberstroh (@tomhaberstroh) June 4, 2018 Oh, the times, they are a-changin’. And in case you don’t want to be arsed …

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Highlights

Breakfast Special: JR Smith is the WOAT.

- by Fox Doucette

J.R. Smith is the Worst of All Time. LeBron James scored 51 points, grabbed eight rebounds, dished eight assists, and put up one of the greatest NBA Finals performance in the history of the sport. He singlehandedly pushed the Cleveland Cavaliers to a point where they could steal a game from the Golden State Warriors on the road. Then the Warriors got overtime because George Hill choked at the free throw line and Smith dribbled the clock out because he thought the Cavs had won the game. And Tyronn Lue stood on the sidelines and watched rather than call timeout …

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Analysis

How the Cavaliers Can Beat the Warriors in the 2018 NBA Finals

- by Fox Doucette

The near-universal consensus is that Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, and the rest of the Golden State Warriors will win either a sweep or a “gentleman’s sweep” in the NBA Finals. Indeed, the belief is that at best LeBron James and the Cavaliers will grab a Game 3 win in a series they lose in five games, as Bron has that one game where he plays completely out of his mind and the Warriors’ shooting isn’t enough on a team level to overcome the performance. But how can the Cavs make this more like 2016 than 2017 in terms of the …

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Highlights

Breakfast Special: The Rockets Die by the Sword

- by Fox Doucette

The Houston Rockets lived by the three-point shot all season long, putting up three-point attempt rates so high that in plenty of games, they shot more threes than twos. Trouble was, their shooting went cold on them at exactly the wrong time, and they ended up losing Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals to the Golden State Warriors, 101-92. It wasn’t just that their shooting went cold. It’s that it went from pretty good, as they made six of their first 14 shots from long range (42.9 percent) to utterly putrid, as they then missed 27 three-pointers in a …

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Highlights

Breakfast Special: LeBron James is the GOAT. Discussion Over.

- by Fox Doucette

Michael Jordan‘s run as the Greatest of All Time began on June 14, 1998, when he hit The Last Shot against the Utah Jazz, retired, and officially got past the “no player can be evaluated for his place in history until he is no longer playing the game” rule of historical comparison (we do not talk about the Jordan-era Wizards. They are a figment of the NBA Dark Ages.) And calling Jordan the GOAT was not something to be taken lightly; after all, the previous nine years had seen Kareem Abdul-Jabbar reign in that capacity, and to be better than …

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Analysis

It’s Game 7 Time. The 2018 Playoffs Are Redeemed.

- by Fox Doucette

Never in the history of basketball have such garbage series produced such great results in a conference finals. In the Eastern Conference, no game has been decided by less than nine points; each individual game has sucked. The home team has won in a relative walk. And the storyline—LeBron James is God, the rest of the Cavaliers are steaming hot dog crap, and the Celtics couldn’t beat the Maine Red Claws on the road. But it’s a Game 7. In Boston. With Kevin Love in concussion protocol and LeBron quite possibly needing a 50-point triple-double just to make the game …

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