[BessLineberger]

"For a rivalry to last 70 years, everything needs to be perfect. The Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers have that. Location, pride, superstars, surprises, game games, and of course violence, have all been apart of the two teams’ history. From the era of Bill Russell against Wilt Chamberlain to Larry Bird facing Julius Erving, and now two young Celtics and Sixers teams filled with potential stars which are both emerging to be powerhouses for a long time, the rivarly has stayed strong.

The two teams have played each other 410 times since 1950 when the Sixers became part of the NBA. This includes 21 playoff series–13 won by Boston and seven won by Philadephia–as well as six rubber match games, and the victory of these matchups and ten times the winner has gone on to win the championship.

On Sunday, August 23rd, the Boston Celtics beat the 76ers by four points to win the series in a fashionable sweep. Even though the series was short and seemingly one-sided, the rivalry seems to only be increasing in intensity as the two young teams continue to grow.

Ever since Red Auerbach started lighting cigars in Spectrum there has been bad blood between the two teams. Throughout the eras of the rivalry, dozens of fights occurred, some of which involved Red.Houston Rockets Face Masks

Enes Kanter traded to the Portland Trail Blazers in three-team trade with Memphis Grizzlies
"The Boston Celtics finally completed their draft night trade with the Memphis Grizzlies, but with a twist. Boston will send Enes Kanter, who recently opted in for just over $5 million for the 2020-21 season, to the Portland Trail Blazers in a three-team deal.

The deal will also see Boston send the draft rights to Desmond Bane to Memphis. Bane was drafted with the 30th pick in the 2020 NBA Draft.

The Celtics will reportedly receive two future second round picks from Memphis. The Grizzlies will also acquire Mario Hezonja from Portland.

Kanter played one season in Boston and averaged 8.1 points and 7.4 rebounds per game. He played 16.9 minutes per game, mostly as a backup to Daniel Theis.

For his part, Kanter seems excited to be headed back to Portland:

In 23 games with the Trail Blazers at the end of the 2018-19 season, Kanter averaged 13.1 points and 8.6 rebounds. He then started for Portland during the 2019 playoffs after Jusuf Nurkic was injured.

Boston will create a trade exception of $4.767 million in this deal, as they are taking no salary back for Kanter.

This deal, combined with the recent opt out decision by Gordon Hayward, has Boston well below the luxury tax. That gives Boston plenty of wiggle room to use the full Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception of $9.258 million, as well as possibly the Bi-Annual Exception of $3.623 million.

In addition, the increased flexibility creates room for a potential sign and trade involving Gordon Hayward. That would allow the Celtics to take back additional salary in a deal. Or if Hayward re-signs in Boston, the Celtics could still have the ability to use the full MLE without worry of crossing over the hard cap.

Because this transaction between Boston, Memphis and Portland is taking place at the tail end of the 2019-20 league year, it is now official. Free agent negotiations open at 6:00 PM ET on Friday evening, and then the league year changes over on Sunday, November 21 at 12:01 PM ET."

"As the Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Lakers face off in the second round of the NBA playoffs, here is a full breakdown of the series."

"James Harden and Russell Westbrook versus LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Small-ball versus a group of giants. Two high-scoring offenses and two of the league’s top 10 defenses. This NBA playoffs matchup in the second round between the Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Lakers has everything an NBA fan could ask for.

While this series between the Rockets and Lakers is sure to provide tons of excitement, the two teams had very different experiences in the first round.

After losing Game 1 to the Portland Trail Blazers many people thought the Lakers might be in trouble, including Charles Barkley who said they would get swept. But James and Davis had other plans. The duo took over the series, putting up incredible numbers, to help the Lakers win the next four games and make quick work of Portland.

On the other hand, it appeared as if the Rockets would cruise past the OKC Thunder after they got out to a 2-0 series lead. But things quickly changed and OKC pushed Houston to the brink of elimination, forcing a Game 7 in which the Rockets needed every single second of to come out on top.

The two different paths the Lakers and Rockets took to get to this point makes this series even more intriguing. The Lakers are fully rested but also have gone six days without playing a game that could hurt them. Meanwhile, the Rockets are still gassed from their first-round series but the fact that the series went seven could serve as a benefit because it let Westbrook get his legs back under him after missing four straight games.

This is just one of the many storylines to follow during this series. Continue reading to for a breakdown of a key matchup, key questions, and predictions for this second-round series"Los Angeles Lakers Face Masks

The Boston Celtics (and 3 other teams) are having a bad start to free agency
"There’s been plenty of good and bad so far in NBA free agency, but the Boston Celtics and three other teams are off to terrible starts.
It’s the happiest time of the year in the NBA, and that fact is compounded with the combination of the draft and free agency in the same week. Of course, if it’s not a happy time, it’s the absolute worst time, and for a handful of teams (led by the Boston Celtics), it’s been downright awful.

Let’s take a look at just why the Celtics have had a terrible time so far, and then we’ll go on to a few other teams having just as bad of a time.

Why the Boston Celtics are having a miserable free agency
The Boston Celtics always seem to be on the verge of making a big deal for a star, only to decide they’re fine without a blockbuster trade and come up just short in the end. Over the last couple of seasons, it’s even worse than that. Not only have the Celtics been unable to swing a big deal for a star or two, they’ve been losing their own.

Last season they lost Kyrie Irving in free agency, receiving nothing in return. While considering how poorly the relationship was by the end of Irving’s time in Boston, it’s fair to say that getting him out of the locker room was a win by itself, but it’s still a poor result for a max-level player.

This time around, they lost Gordon Hayward also for nothing. He opted out of his $34 million 2020-21 salary, and while he and the team were apparently working to find a sign-and-trade in order to maximize him as an asset, he ended up departing to the Charlotte Hornets and signing a gigantic four-year, $120 million deal.

That contract is certainly an overpay and not something the Celtics should have tried to match, but losing top-end players and replacing them with nothing so far isn’t the best way to get back to the Eastern Conference Finals.

Maybe the Celtics will turn it around, but so far they’re one of our headlining teams for Bad Times During Free Agency."

"Almost one calendar year after the 2019-20 NBA season began, the NBA Finals are about to begin between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Miami Heat. It’s been a long, grinding, tumultuous season with the deaths of Kobe Bryant and former commissioner David Stern, and an all-time footnote in the form of a four-and-a-half month hiatus brought about by the coronavirus pandemic.

The NBA had to get creative to even consider resuming its season, and it did indeed think outside the box in order to do so. As we know now, the league created a bubble environment in Walt Disney World’s Wide World of Sports, and thanks to vigorous testing and quarantining had a perfect record with no positive tests on campus.

The league pulled off something that seemed impossible back in the middle of March when they suspended the season, and along the way provided some incredible basketball. The Phoenix Suns were the seeding game champions with a perfect 8-0 record but were eliminated from playoff contention in the final game of the round.

Performances by Jamal Murray and Donovan Mitchell in a seven-game first-round battle between the Denver Nuggets and the Utah Jazz were nothing short of spectacular, and the Miami Heat’s stifling zone defense clamped down on the Milwaukee Bucks and the Boston Celtics en route to the Finals, while Anthony Davis had a fantastic scoring run for the Lakers.

Not to be left unmentioned, LeBron James had a vintage Game 5 against the Denver Nuggets to clinch things, reminding us that there’s still nobody like LeBron when he has a team on the ropes in the NBA playoffs.

The Los Angeles Lakers and the Miami Heat are not the matchup we expected when the season began, or even when the seeding games or the playoffs began. The Lakers were never worse than the second-most likely team from the Western Conference to get here, but the Heat astonished everybody to get to the Finals."Golden State Warriors Face Masks