Marty Fenn Articles - Page 134

The top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks made quick work of the Detroit Pistons in their first-round series, but will face a much tougher test against a Boston Celtics team that is just as talented and capable as any other in the league. And they will need to defend their home court without starting guard Malcolm Brogdon. After […]

The Eastern Conference Semifinal matchup between the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics has yet to begin, but the mind games are already well underway. The Celtics and head coach Brad Stevens have been drumming up how Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo’s style of downhill play makes him more susceptible to charges. Boston, with versatile defenders […]

The Toronto Raptors and Philadelphia 76ers will do battle in the Eastern Conference semifinals, but there is still plenty of admiration to go around. Sixers star center Joel Embiid, who is from Cameroon, was highly complimentary of fellow countryman and Raptors forward Pascal Siakam leading up to Game 1 of the series on Saturday night: […]

The 2018-19 NBA season was a year when Chicago Bulls fans hoped that their young nucleus would take the next step towards becoming a potential playoff contender. Instead, they were dealt with early injuries, a change in head coaches and numerous defensive struggles as they finished with just 22 wins and the fourth-worst record in […]

The Los Angeles Dodgers are coming off of consecutive National League pennants. With a core group of young, emerging stars and wily veterans, the Dodgers have once again stormed out to 15-10 record entering play on Apr. 24. So as the reigning league champions and with (mostly) the same roster intact, they would seem to […]

The wait is finally over. The No. 1 prospect in Major League Baseball, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., will make his big-league debut for the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday night against the Oakland Athletics. Vlad Jr., who is the son of MLB Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero, is the most-hyped prospect to come to the bigs […]

Perhaps NBA fans should have known that the Lob City experiment in Los Angeles was doomed from the very beginning. After all, the only reason that Chris Paul ended up with the Clippers was because the NBA and then-commissioner David Stern — who owned the Hornets at the time — blocked a deal that would […]

When the Golden State Warriors took a 3-1 series lead against the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday, many presumed the series would come to a conclusion in Game 5 back at Oracle Arena. Kevin Durant had busted out of a scoring slump to score 30 points in consecutive games, and the Warriors had cut their […]

The Milwaukee Bucks finished with the best record in the NBA as well as the best defensive rating during the 2018-19 regular season. So as they prepare for their Eastern Conference semifinal matchup against the Boston Celtics, the Bucks have been sticking with what has worked: watching film. Eric Nehm of The Athletic broke down Milwaukee head […]

The Portland Trail Blazers were dealt a tremendous blow to their frontcourt when center Jusuf Nurkic — in the midst of a breakout year — went down with a gruesome leg injury in the final weeks of the regular season. While the Trail Blazers managed to dispatch of the Oklahoma City Thunder in just five […]

The Toronto Raptors and Philadelphia 76ers each dispatched their first-round foes in five games, setting up for a matchup of the no. 2 and no. 3 seeds in the Eastern Conference semifinal. These two teams met four times during the regular season, with the Raptors winning three of those contests. And in the lone matchup […]

Dwyane Wade’s retirement tour officially concluded at the end of the 2018-19 NBA regular season, but the former Miami Heat legend is already one of the most sought-after names to spearhead the next wave of NBA analysts on network television. According to Andrew Marchand of The New York Post, both ESPN and TNT are hoping to […]

The Atlanta Braves were one of the surprises in baseball last season, arriving a year ahead of schedule to capture their first National League East division title since 2013. With a slew of young stars like NL Rookie of the Year Ronald Acuna and Ozzie Albies joining franchise fixture Freddie Freeman in the lineup, the […]

Their names are separated by just a single letter, and yet Chris Davis of the Baltimore Orioles and Khris Davis of the Oakland Athletics are miles apart. Chris recently made MLB history by going hitless in 54 consecutive at-bats dating back to last September. Meanwhile, Khris–or “Khrush,” as he is becoming known as–has already hit […]

The Boston Celtics are taking a 2-0 series lead into Indiana in their first-round matchup against the Pacers, but they could just as easily be on the flip side heading into Game 3 on Friday night. The Pacers led by seven points at the half in Game 1, but were outscored 26-8 in the third […]

Kevin Durant had been struggling to find his shot through the first two games of the Golden State Warriors’ first-round series against the Los Angeles Clippers. Durant was averaging just 22 points on 12 shot attempts, and he also committed a season-high nine turnovers in Game 2 while fouling out of the contest. The mercurial […]

The Golden State Warriors won an NBA-record 73 games during the 2015-16 regular season, only to blow a 3-1 lead to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals. So when Kevin Durant — already one of the best scorers in league history — joined the Dubs later that summer, he took the team to new […]

The Golden State Warriors got back on track in Game 3 of their first-round series against the Los Angeles Clippers, winning by 27 points and regaining control of the series with a 2-1 advantage heading into Game 4. Still, the Clippers have showed an impressive amount of fight, including overcoming a 31-point deficit to pull […]

The National League East was projected to be one of the best and most hotly-contested divisions in baseball this year. And so far–sorry Marlins fans–the division has not disappointed. Three teams–the Phillies, Mets and Braves–sat atop the East at 7-4 before the start of play on Thursday, with the Nationals lagging just one game behind. […]

Orlando Magic center Nikola Vucevic has had the best season of his career. In a contract year, Vucevic made the All-Star team and finished the season averaging 20.8 points, 12.0 rebounds, and 3.8 points for a Magic team that surprised the league in making the playoffs for the first time since 2012. But Vucevic has […]

Houston Rockets shooting guard James Harden recorded the second-highest usage rate in NBA history this season. Remarkably, he also became the first player in over 32 years to average 36 points per game. In a season where Chris Paul missed extended time due to injury and head coach Mike D’Antoni experimented with a variety of […]

Despite finishing the 2018-19 season with the worst record in the league at 15-67, the New York Knicks find themselves in a rather enviable position heading into this summer. New York will share the top odds (14 percent) of landing the no. 1 overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft along with the Cleveland Cavaliers […]

The Utah Jazz were completely dominated by the Houston Rockets in Game 1 of their first-round matchup on Sunday night, shooting under 40 percent from the floor and committing 18 turnovers. Utah also shot just under 26 percent from the free-point line, and assisted on just 18 baskets as compared to 25 Houston assists. Jazz […]

With the Toronto Raptors dropping Game 1 of their first-round matchup against the Orlando Magic, Kawhi Leonard took his game to a new level in Game 2 on Tuesday night. The soft-spoken superstar made 15 of 22 shot attempts, scoring 37 points in a 29-point Toronto victory that evened the series heading to Orlando. Just […]

Although they did not make the playoffs this season, the New Orleans Pelicans are likely to remain in the NBA spotlight well into the summer. While the Pelicans failed to find a suitable trade offer for superstar forward Anthony Davis before the trade deadline, the team will almost surely shop Davis to interested teams this […]

Is it possible that mercurial New York Knicks owner James Dolan is the superstitious type? Dolan — who is arguably one of the most polarizing owners in all of professional sports — will send Patrick Ewing, the no. 1 overall pick in the 1985 NBA Draft and a Knicks legend, to represent New York at […]

Los Angeles Clippers point guard Patrick Beverley has never been a stranger to the dynamics of trash talk and playoff intensity. After all, this is the same player that made a diving effort to steal the ball from Russell Westbrook with Russ heading toward the sideline to call a timeout during a 2013 playoff showdown […]

As one of the only freshmen to ever win the Naismith Award and one of the most recognizable college basketball players of all time, the hype train surrounding Zion Williamson keeps steaming forward. Williamson, who declared for the 2019 NBA Draft in an Instagram post on Monday, has been the presumptive No. 1 overall pick […]

Throughout the course of this dynasty that the Golden State Warriors have built, Draymond Green has played a vital role in the flow of the offense. Given that the Dubs already possess one of the most prolific scorers in NBA history in Kevin Durant–not to mention two of the best shooters ever in Stephen Curry […]

Thew New York Yankees reported to Spring Training looking like a legitimate World Series contender. Yet it took just a few short weeks for that status to be seriously challenged. The Yankees have had a litany of injuries that have affected the shape of their starting rotation as well as their lineups, and entered the […]

The Milwaukee Brewers currently sit atop the National League Central with an 11-6 record as of Tuesday. They also have the worst run differential (-3) in the division. Could this really be happening again? Despite a depleted bullpen that has lost Corey Knebel for the season and is still without last year’s star closer, Jeremy […]

The 2019 MLB season has already provided fans with an abundance of surprises. From the worrisome starts of the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs to the struggles of aces like Chris Sale and Aaron Nola to the continued red-hot play of Christian Yelich, there have been a number of notable storylines thus far. Yet […]

From 2012-2018, nobody in Washington D.C. commanded attention quite like Bryce Harper. From making his MLB debut as a teenager to being the third-youngest MVP ever to winning the Home Run Derby in front of the home fans, Harper’s superstardom was unparalleled. Yet despite the MVP win and the incredible marketability Harper possessed, he was […]

One of those most fascinating dynamics during these 2019 NBA playoffs has been the matchup between Golden State Warriors star Kevin Durant and one of the league’s best defensive agitators, Los Angeles Clippers guard Patrick Beverley. Both players had a number of exchanges during Game 1 of the first-round matchup between the  Dubs and Clippers, […]

When the Chicago Bulls drafted former Duke standout Wendell Carter Jr. with the seventh overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft, they were hoping that they had selected the perfect player to complement Lauri Markannen in the frontcourt. Those hopes seemed to come to fruition during the NBA Summer League, when Carter averaged 14.6 points, […]

The Houston Rockets and Utah Jazz split their four regular season matchups, but you would hardly know it from Houston’s 122-90 blowout of Utah in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series. Utah shot a woeful 7-27 from the three-point line, as the Rockets totally took their shooters out of the game. Kyle Korver did […]

As if the Boston Celtics did not have enough internal drama during the regular season, they were dealt a hefty deficit before the playoffs even began, with shooting guard Marcus Smart suffering an abdominal oblique injury that will keep him out for the next three to five weeks. With the Celtics losing their best perimeter […]

The Los Angeles Clippers continue to prove their mettle as one of the most surprising teams in the NBA. The Golden State Warriors led the Clippers by 31 points in the second half of Game 2 in the first-round Western Conference matchup between the two teams. What seemed like an inevitable 2-0 lead for the […]

Nuggets big Nikola Jokic has become one of the best all-around players in basketball, a big with tremendous vision and good scoring ability on the block along with a solid face up game. He was also the leading scorer for the Denver Nuggets this season at 20.1 points per game. So it was a bit […]