Archive for May 2nd, 2014

WATERCOOLER CHAT: D’ANTONI RESIGNED, “MR. UNRELIABLE” LEADS OKC TO WIN, HAWKS LET GAME SLIP AWAY

BASKETBALL

In the NBA, the major news of the day… Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni has resigned.  Something probably happened behind the scenes to cause this resignation, but the Lakers are ready to move on.  D’Antoni was brought in as a back-up in case Phil Jackson didn’t take the job, but he had a losing record with the Lakers, did not vibe well with Kobe, and was a major factor in Dwight Howard’s decision to leave for Houston.  So now the search is on for the next head coach.

It’s likely that the Lakers will interview 15 or 20 candidates, but there is a lot of speculation that they are very high on the two hottest coaches in college basketball right now:  Kentucky’s John Calipari and UCONN’s Kevin Ollie, who led an unranked team all the way to winning the National Championship. There are other quality candidates like George Karl and former Grizzlies’ coach Lionel Hollins, but the Lakers will probably want a name that will draw extreme interest and curiosity like Calipari or Ollie.  Stay tuned….

In basketball action, the Memphis Grizzlies had a chance to close out the Oklahoma City Thunder on Memphis’ home court.  This would have been a significant upset. And, on Thursday, an Oklahoma newspaper put a front page headline next to Kevin Durant’s picture that read “Mr. Unreliable”.  There was a huge protest about this, as Durant may have missed a free throw, but it’s hard to call the league’s MVP Mr. Unreliable.  Either way, this got into Durant’s head, and clearly helped him put on a great performance that saw the Thunder crush the Grizzlies.  It now heads back to OKC for Game 7.  OKC 104, Memphis 84.

Finally, in Atlanta, the Hawks were hoping to pull the big upset and knock off the #1 seed Pacers.  They even handed out old-school Hawks logo shirts to all the fans as a reminder of the better days of the franchise.  The Pacers led most of the way, but the Hawks got a lead late.  Unfortunately for Atlanta, the Hawks couldn’t hold the lead, and let the game slip away to the Pacers.  The series now heads back to Indiana for Game 7.  Indiana 95, Atlanta 88.

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