Highlights | Pace and Space

Breakfast Special: Another Portland Four-Game Exit

May 21, 2019 - by Fox Doucette

The Portland Trail Blazers have been swept out of another NBA playoff series, although this time you have to give them credit for facing their demise in the Western Conference Finals rather than the first or second round. And speaking of sweeps, how about Rodney Hood getting swept out of the playoffs three times in three years on three different teams, all at the hands of the Golden State Warriors? Bonus points to Portland for blowing double-digit leads in all four games, including three in a row where they led by at least 15 and still lost. Golden State made …

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Breakfast Special: Scott Foster’s Rigged Game 3 Adventure

May 20, 2019 - by Fox Doucette

I risk sounding like yet another angry NBA casual when I complain about the officiating, but even in double overtime, 60 fouls, Kyle Lowry, Norman Powell, and Giannis Antetokounmpo all watching Game of Thrones on their tablets while their teammates play a basketball game that completely screwed up the East Coast’s HBO viewing (even the second most-popular sports league in America knew better than to try and mess with the biggest TV finale since Seinfeld)… …well, let’s just say Scott Foster should never, ever be allowed to officiate a playoff game again, because the only thing more puzzling than the …

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Breakfast Special: Damian Lillard on a Milk Carton

May 19, 2019 - by Fox Doucette

Damian Lillard‘s production has fallen off a cliff ever since he tried to choke away the second round of the playoffs for the Portland Trail Blazers more or less by himself in Game 7 of the Denver Nuggets series. He was 3-of-17 in that game, and in the first three games of the Western Conference Finals against the Golden State Warriors, he has shot 4-of-12, 6-of-16, and 5-of-18, a grand total of 15-of-46 (32.6 percent.) At least he was plus-8 in the Nuggets game, as CJ McCollum bailed him out. In this series, Lillard is a combined minus-42 even as …

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Breakfast Special: Massive Milwaukee Mismatch

May 18, 2019 - by Fox Doucette

The Milwaukee Bucks played like absolute garbage in Game 1 and beat the Toronto Raptors anyway. The Bucks played more like the team that won 60 games in the regular season in Game 2 and stomped the Raptors 125-103. People sometimes forget that this Bucks team was tops in the entire league in Defensive Rating in the regular season, and with the exception of Kawhi Leonard, who had 31 points on 10-of-18 shooting, the Raptors could not solve the Bucks’ defense. Raptors not named Kawhi shot 27-of-69 (39.1 percent) and the squad shot just 42.5 percent overall. Milwaukee, during the …

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Breakfast Special: Ig-Whoa-Dala

May 17, 2019 - by Fox Doucette

Andre Iguodala just pulled off the most clutch defensive play in the NBA playoffs since…I dunno, 2016 and “The Block”? Sure, Iguodala’s game-sealing steal from Damian Lillard to seal the Golden State Warriors’ 114-111 win over the Portland Trail Blazers and put them up 2-0 in the Western Conference Finals didn’t have nearly the stakes of LeBron James‘ classic defensive play in Game 7 of a Finals that was the greatest moment in Cleveland sports history, but it still made the difference between a series that isn’t expected to be competitive going chalk and “could the Blazers win this thing” …

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Breakfast Special: Kyle Lowry’s Fourth-Quarter Heroics

May 16, 2019 - by Fox Doucette

How about Kyle Lowry in Game 1 of the Bucks-Raptors Eastern Conference Finals? The veteran put the team on his back and scored all of Toronto’s field goals in the fourth quarter of an ultimately futile but valiantly fought 108-100 loss. Yep, all of Toronto’s field goals. All five of them. The Raptors were up seven heading into the fourth, but Milwaukee outscored them 32-17 in the final frame, Lowry shooting 5-of-7 and his teammates shooting 0-of-15. Pascal Siakam did, however, hit a sweet buzzer beater to end the third quarter and at the very least put a nice final …

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Breakfast Special: Curry Sibling “Rivalry”

May 15, 2019 - by Fox Doucette

When I was a kid, to call what my brother and I had “sibling rivalry” was to give it more credit than it deserved. It was more like he was the Pittsburgh Steelers and I was the Cleveland Browns. He was a high-achiever. I was the kid with the grades like the bra cup sizes on “Baywatch” and the drug problem. Which brings us to the following: 12-of-23 from the field, 9-of-15 from three, 36 points for Stephen Curry, 1-of-7 from the field, 1-of-4 from three, three points for Seth Curry. The Golden State Warriors beat the Portland Trail Blazers …

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Breakfast Special: Kawhi Leonard’s Driveway Heroics

May 13, 2019 - by Fox Doucette

Every kid who has ever picked up a basketball has, in the driveway, counted down “3! 2! 1!” then launched a shot that beats the buzzer, leading the kid to yell “And the Celtics win the championship!” or whatever other team the kid’s growing up rooting for. But until Sunday, there had never been an actual Game 7 walk-off buzzer-beater to close out a series in NBA history. The only time it ever happened in a winner-take-all game—Michael Jordan‘s “The Shot” over Craig Ehlo in the first round in 1989—that was Game 5 of a best-of-five series. Every other example …

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Breakfast Special: New Year, Same Great Choking Rockets Taste

May 11, 2019 - by Fox Doucette

Last year in the Western Conference Finals against Golden State, the Houston Rockets choked away Game 7 at home by missing 27 three-pointers in a row. This year, in the Western Conference Semifinals, the Rockets took a lead into the fourth quarter and choked it away, but this time they shot just fine from three-point land (43.6 percent for the game) but just couldn’t get a defensive stop when they needed one. The Warriors didn’t have Kevin Durant, and even though they should’ve been the weaker squad sans merc, they managed a win and pulled off a cool feat in …

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Breakfast Special: Let There Be Game 7

May 10, 2019 - by Fox Doucette

After a complete garbage first round that was as chalk as the White Cliffs of Dover, we’ve got ourselves the thrills and chills of Game 7 imminent in Toronto and Denver. The Philadelphia 76ers got an insane MVP-level performance from Joel Embiid on their way to a 112-101 win, and the matched set of 11-point victories got completed by the Portland Trail Blazers in a 119-108 win over Denver in the nightcap. We begin in Philadelphia. Drawing an Embiid on the Enemy Here’s your insane stat of the night. Embiid had 17 points on 5-of-14 shooting, pulled down 12 rebounds, …