David Yapkowitz Articles - Page 53

The Phoenix Mercury underwent quite a few changes leading up to the 2024 WNBA season. Perhaps the biggest change was new ownership in the form of Mat Ishbia. One of Ishbia’s first tasks was to hire a new head coach. Ishbia looked to the NBA ranks for the Mercury’s next head coach in Nate Tibbetts. […]

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Sparks get their first look at rookie sensation Caitlin Clark as the Indiana Fever are in town for their lone regular season visit to the city. The Fever come to town searching for their first win of the 2024 WNBA season as they have begun the year 0-5. There’s […]

The Oklahoma City Thunder are on the verge of becoming legitimate NBA championship contenders. With a core three of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams, the Thunder have as promising a young trio as anyone in the NBA. But the Thunder still need a few tweaks to their roster, specifically in the frontcourt. The […]

The Los Angeles Sparks grabbed their first win of the 2024 WNBA season on Tuesday against the Washington Mystics in a game where both teams came into the meeting winless to that point. One of the key factors in the Sparks win was head coach Curt Miller’s decision to play Lexie Brown at point guard […]

The Oklahoma City Thunder took a huge leap this season as they finished with the No. 1 overall seed in the Western Conference and reached the second round of the NBA playoffs. Although they fell to the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference Semifinals, they are not far off in terms of being a legitimate […]

The Los Angeles Sparks may have gotten off to an 0-2 start to the 2024 WNBA season, but one of the top positives from the early goings is the budding chemistry between Cameron Brink and Dearica Hamby. Hamby has moved back into a full-time starting power forward in her second season with the team while […]

The Chicago Bulls missed the playoffs for the sixth time in eight seasons and for the second consecutive time. The last time the Bulls made the playoffs was during the 2021-22 season when they lost in the first round to the Milwaukee Bucks. The coaching staff underwent a few changes in recent days as the […]

The Golden State Warriors had a disappointing 2023-24 NBA season. They barely squeaked into the postseason picture by making the play-in, only to lose to the Sacramento Kings and miss the playoffs for only the third team in the past 12 seasons. While the team will have to make a decision on Klay Thompson in […]

The 2024 NBA Draft is just about one month away and one team that has a major decision to make is the Houston Rockets. The Rockets used a little bit of draft lottery luck to move up to the No. 3 overall pick. That’s incredible fortune for a team that finished with a .500 record […]

Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets were written off after dropping the first two games of their Western Conference semifinal series of the NBA Playoffs against the Minnesota Timberwolves. But in true heart of a champion form, the Nuggets stormed back to take the lead in the series. But with the Wolves forcing a Game […]

Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark may not play for the Iowa Hawkeyes anymore, but she’ll always be a Hawkeye at heart. Playing college basketball, the bond players develop with their teammates sometimes lasts forever. Some players may go on to play professionally while others follow different career paths. Such is the case for Caitlin Clark […]

The Indiana Pacers advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals on Sunday with a 130-109 win in Game 7 of their Eastern Conference Semifinals matchup against the New York Knicks. In doing so, they became the first team in this series to win a game on the road. The Knicks and Pacers have had legendary playoff […]

The Los Angeles Sparks are off to an 0-2 start after dropping their second game of the season on the road against the defending champion Las Vegas Aces, 89-82. While the Sparks have yet to get a win, there have been some encouraging signs for the team to start the 2024 season. One of the […]

The Los Angeles Sparks started the 2024 WNBA season with a 92-81 loss against the Atlanta Dream. It was technically the Sparks home opener but due to maintenance, the Sparks are playing their first two home games away from Crypto.com Arena and at the Walter Pyramid at Cal State Long Beach. It doesn’t get much […]

The Boston Celtics dispatched the Cleveland Cavaliers in five games to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals for the third consecutive season. But the biggest question for the Celtics moving forward is their health. The Celtics have been without starting big man Kristaps Porzingis as he’s been sidelined with a calf injury. Porzingis suffered the […]

The Las Vegas Aces are coming off a second straight WNBA championship and so far they’re looking like the top team in the league to start the 2024 season. The only major loss the Aces took in the offseason was losing Candace Parker to retirement. But the team was able to win the 2023 title […]

LOS ANGELES — The 2024 WNBA season got underway for the Los Angeles Sparks on Wednesday night against the Atlanta Dream. While the Sparks managed to keep the game close through three quarters, an 11-0 run by the Dream to start the fourth quarter proved too much for the Sparks to manage. Although the Sparks […]

The Atlanta Hawks had one of the most disappointing 2023-24 seasons in the NBA, finishing 36-46 and getting smoked by the Chicago Bulls as the No. 10 seed in the play-in tournament. But a new era could be on the horizon in Atlanta. Following Sunday’s NBA Draft Lottery, the Hawks used a miraculous stroke of […]

Following an 0-2 hole after losing both Games 1 and 2 against the Knicks in their Eastern Conference Semifinal series, the Pacers responded they way they needed to in Game 3 to pull off a tough, gritty win. It was Andrew Nembhard who delivered the fatal blow to the Knicks. After having a poor shooting […]

The Minnesota Timberwolves came into Game 3 of their Western Conference Semifinal series of the NBA Playoffs against the Denver Nuggets looking like arguably the best team in the league. To that point, they were the only team that had not lost a game in the playoffs. They swept the Phoenix Suns in dominating fashion […]

The Indiana Pacers grabbed a much needed win in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference Semifinal series of the NBA Playoffs against the New York Knicks. Facing the devastating prospect of dropping to an 0-3 hole, the Pacers responded with clutch play down the stretch to hold the Knicks off. But injuries have been piling […]

The 2024 WNBA season tips-off next week and teams have been busy making their final roster moves and trying to whittle their rosters down to at least 12 players if not 11 due to salary camp restraints. One team that still had multiple roster cuts to make was the Phoenix Mercury and they did just […]

With the 2024 WNBA season set to tip-off next week on May 14, teams are in the process of making their final roster moves to get to down to the maximum of 12 players. But due to salary cap restraints, some teams will carry only 11 players into the start of the season. The Washington […]

The Phoenix Mercury made a few key roster moves this offseason, one of which was the addition of Kahleah Copper. Copper was acquired by the Mercury in a trade with the Chicago Sky in a deal that also included Morgan Bertsch heading to Phoenix and Michaela Onyenwere and Brianna Turner going to the Sky. The […]

The WNBA had a major announcement on Friday with the news that the city of Toronto had been awarded an expansion team. The team is set to begin play for the 2026 season. This is the second expansion team that the WNBA has announced in the past year alongside the Bay Area team which is […]

The Indiana Fever surprised nobody when they selected Iowa star Caitlin Clark with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft. Clark had been the consensus No. 1 pick in the draft going back to last season. Amid a surge in popularity for women’s basketball, the WNBA is set to reach new heights […]

The 2023-24 MVP Award was announced this week with Denver Nuggets star big man Nikola Jokic winning his third career MVP. While Jokic is certainly a deserving candidate, the voting caused no shortage of uproar on social media with many believing Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic had cases […]

When things go wrong in the NBA, usually the first person to take the blame for the failure is the head coach. Whether it is right or wrong, that’s usually the way it plays out. The Phoenix Suns became the latest to engage in this behavior with the firing of head coach Frank Vogel on […]

The UCLA Bruins had a disappointing 2023-24 season finishing with an overall record of 16-17 and only 10-10 in Pac-12 Conference play. It was the first time since Mick Cronin took over as head coach that the Bruins finished with a losing record and failed to reach the NCAA Tournament. But reinforcements are on the […]

The Denver Nuggets currently find themselves in an unenviable position as they trail their Western Conference Semifinal series against the Minnesota Timberwolves, 0-2. Not only that, but they lost both games at home and now face the daunting prospect of  must win games on the road. But prior to Game 3 tipoff, the Nuggets received […]

The Portland Trail Blazers officially hit the reset button before last season began when they traded Damian Lillard to the Milwaukee Bucks. Moving on from their longtime franchise cornerstone signaled the organization’s intention to retool the roster around younger players. When the Blazers hired current head coach Chauncey Billups though, the expectation was to have […]

The Minnesota Timberwolves struck first in the Western Conference Semifinals of the NBA Playoffs to take a 1-0 lead against the Denver Nuggets. The Wolves were led by Anthony Edwards’ 43 points as he joined some elite company in being amongst the youngest players to score 35 or more points in three straight playoff games. […]

The Gonzaga Bulldogs had a solid 2023-24 season. They finished with an overall record of 27-8 and 14-2 in West Coast Conference play. The Bulldogs powered through the WCC Tournament defeating the No. 1 seed Saint Mary’s Gaels in the title game and then advanced to the Sweet 16 where they fell to Purdue. With […]

With the Los Angeles Lakers elimination in the first round of the NBA Playoffs by the Denver Nuggets, they’ve decided to go in a different direction regarding their head coach. At the end of last week, the Lakers informed Darvin Ham as well as the rest of the coaching staff that they were being let […]

The NBA prides itself on being the best men’s professional basketball league in the world, and that certainly has some bearing as the majority of the top foreign players have goals of playing in the league. From the late Drazen Petrovic to Dirk Nowitzki to Pau Gasol to Tony Parker, the NBA has seen quite […]

The Minnesota Timberwolves struck first in their Western Conference Semifinals series agains the Denver Nuggets with a 106-99 win in Game 1. The Timberwolves stole homecourt advantage from the Nuggets and now it’s up to the defending champs to respond. But the talk of the game was focused on Timberwolves star shooting guard Anthony Edwards. […]

In an unsurprising move, the Los Angeles Lakers announced on Friday that they had parted ways with head coach Darvin Ham. Following the Lakers first round flameout in the NBA Playoffs against the Denver Nuggets, it seemed likely that Ham was on his way out. The Lakers will now head into the offseason looking to […]

It’s been almost a week since the Los Angeles Lakers were eliminated in the first round of the NBA Playoffs by the Denver Nuggets, and the fallout is still ongoing. The Lakers announced on Friday that they had fired head coach Darvin Ham as well as the rest of the coaching staff. And then on […]

The Atlanta Dream and Dallas Wings finalized a preseason trade on Saturday with the Dream acquiring the 2020 WNBA Rookie of the Year in Crystal Dangerfield, the team announced. In addition to the trade, the Dream waived Elizabeth Balogun and Taja Cole as well. The Dream are coming off a 2023 season that saw them […]