Tim Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs have won 18 consecutive games. Will the Thunder challenge them?/AP

18 wins in a row. The San Antonio Spurs are rolling.

Unbeaten in this year’s NBA playoffs, the Spurs swept the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Clippers to reach the Western Conference finals. They’ve been unstoppable.

They haven’t been tested, either, but that’s all about to change Sunday.

Here come the Thunder. The Oklahoma City Thunder.

The Spurs have the best team, but the Thunder have the two best players in the series in Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook and the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year in James Harden.

So make no mistake. The Spurs will lose a game in this series, but will they lose the series?

Read the rest of this entry »

Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol better be up to the challenge of Kendrick Perkins (5) and Serge Ibaka or else./AP Photo.

Denver pushed them to the brink.

The Los Angeles Lakers needed a Game 7 at home and the return of Metta World Peace to outlast the Nuggets and advance to the Western Conference semifinals.

Up next? Durant. Westbrook. Harden.

The Oklahoma City Thunder have their Big 3 – Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden - muscle and shot blocking on the inside and depth at power forward and center positions.

What they don’t have is Kobe Bryant, who in his 16th season is still the game’s best closer.

As great as Bryant is, he’ll need help to get past the Thunder.

Paging Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol.

By the way, watch the elbows World Peace and watch out for them Harden.

Read the rest of this entry »

Charles Barkley loves him. So does Reggie Miller.

Ivan Johnson impressed Barkley, a Hall of Famer, and Miller, a future Hall of Famer, with his effort for the Atlanta Hawks in their 116-109 triple-overtime home loss Thursday night to the Miami Heat, who were without injured stars LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.

Johnson, who starred for the Erie BayHawks last season, had 13 points Thursday night that included a coast-to-coast jam in the third quarter.

Johnson added four rebounds for the Hawks before fouling out in the third and final overtime.

Just came across Charles Barkley welcoming Shaquille O’Neal to TNT to work with Ernie Johnson, Kenny “The Jet” Smith and Chris Webber.

Still gonna need to clear some space on the desk for the Diesel, but Barkley basically told O’Neal he can’t upset Johnson, who is the host of the show.

“Second thing, pretty much nothing after that matters,” Barkley said. “Ernie is the man.”

With that being, we don’t want to see Barkley and O’Neal do this again. For those two to be athletes, they’ll never be mistaken for Muhammad Ali.

1. Pre-game hype man Ahmad Crump.
“If you believe in Dan Gilbert, make some noise.”
“This is the capacity for the other team
“I’m predicting a win for the Cavs.”
2. Very loud cheers for Charles Barkley when he, Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson took the floor for the TNT show (I thought the Cleveland fans hated Charles. They dont’ know since he said ragged on LeBron James)
3. Fans waved towels. Look like playoff game when Cavs came out.
4. LeBron James came out skipping to some very loud boos from fans. Dunking in layup line. Did a windmill dunk off that bounced off the back of the rim.
5.  Did his powder routine.
6. Didn’t wear the brace (Arroyo had one on)
7. Josh Cribbs, Bernie Kosar, Shaun Rogers, Ron Harper, Michael Bivins, Drew Carey, Joe Haden, Terrell Owens.

1. We wont 4Get you LeBron James
2. BETRAYED (Kids with t-shirts with the letter of each word)
3. Took
No
Talent
To South Beach (TNT)
4. Lyin King
5. You’re only a prince in Wade’s Country
6. 11-8: Looks like you left your talents in Cleveland
7. LeBron went South and Gloria is riding West
8. Merry Quitness

One of my favorite shows is TNT’s Inside The NBA.

Host Ernie Johnson and NBA analysts Kenny “The Jet” Smith and Charles Barkley not only talk basketball, but the show is funny. Tonight was no execption.

They ended the show with having Kenny and Chuck guess the nicknames of the 16 D-League teams. Now they put some fake nicknames to throw Kenny and Charles off and it worked, but Charles won the competition with getting two of the eight nicknames right. Kenny was an unfortuante 0-for-8.

So you’re probably wondering if Charles got the Erie BayHawks right.

He didn’t.

Barkley thought they were the Erie Flash. It’s the Utah Flash, but at least he didn’t think they were the Erie Lobsters.

Good stuff. Here’s the video. Might have to search for it below the main screen, but it’s worth it.

Life without two-time NBA MVP LeBron James begins today for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

With the Cleveland Cavaliers media day ending at Cleveland Clinic Courts in Independence, Ohio a few hours ago, I’m sitting her wondering what to make of it all. 

As Mo Williams said, there are no TNT trailers or ESPN trailers here, but George Smith of ESPN was there.  Got to recognize George. He does work. 

Anyway, the buzz was about the obvious. Life without LeBron James. 

“There is no LeBron in this building,” Williams said. “Whether we believe it or not, he’s not coming back, you know. This is what we got.” 

Cleveland coach Byron Scott said he’s moving on and is excited about running the players into the ground in training camp. He said he’s putting trash cans around the court for those who need to lose their lunch. 

He also said the players should be “pissed” about people saying they’re not going to win without James, the two-time NBA MVP from Akron who left Cleveland this summer to join forces with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami. 

Heard the Heat had a press conference at 2 p.m., which was the same time the Cavs got started. The thing the players and Scott are asking the fans is to be patient. 

Hard for fans to do that when the owner, Dan Gilbert, got them all stirred up by saying the Cavaliers will win a title without James before Miami does with James and the Heat are favored to win it all this season, but that’s another story to tell later. 

But let’s get back to Mo Williams. It was classic Mo today.

Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s what TNT NBA analyst David Aldridge and University of Kansas coach Bill Self had to say about Toronto’s first-round pick, Ed Davis out of North Carolina. Davis’ father, Terry Davis, played 10 seasons in the NBA.

When watching Game 4 of the Western Conference finals tomorrow night (Tuesday) on TNT, you’ve got to check out Craig Sager’s suit.

For those who don’t know, Sager, a sideline reporter for the network out of Atlanta, wears the most outrageous stuff. I know brothers who wear ultra-bright colors and they wouldn’t be caught dead in what Sager sports.

I remember covering a Cleveland Cavaliers-Detroit Pistons playoff game in Cleveland and Sager had on a lavender suit and shoes to match. Someone said to him, “Hey, nice Gators (alligator shoes).” Sager replied, “No, it’s crocodile.” I was like Flavor Flav.

“Wooooooooooow!”