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2 days ago | 
wsj.com | Robert L. O’Connell |Robert O’connell
Two Oklahoma City Thunder stars have people in Canada quietly hoping someone changes the channel to basketball. Fat chance. When the Stanley Cup Finals begin on Wednesday night, fans across Canada will rally around the Edmonton Oilers as they try to become the first team from the country to win the trophy since 1993. Puckheads in the hockey-mad nation will gather in pubs, in houses and in public squares—wherever there’s a TV showing the game and enough Labatt’s to go around.
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4 days ago | 
wsj.com | Robert L. O’Connell |Robert O’connell
But as the NBA Finals get under way this week, George may be the single most important player in the series—even as he’s nowhere near the court. That’s because, years before they got ready to square off with the championship on the line, the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder both got their star players in the exact same way. By trading away Paul George. For the Thunder, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams have turned into the modern-day version of Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen.
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1 week ago | 
wsj.com | Robert L. O’Connell |Robert O’connell
Indiana point guard Tyrese Haliburton has led the Pacers to the brink of the NBA Finals. He hasn’t needed the basketball in his hands to do it. There’s a straightforward rule for playing good offense in the NBA: simply give your best player the basketball. In the postseason, when every possession is crucial, superstars hog the ball, surveying defenses and taking the lion’s share of shots. Which makes the best playmaker left in the playoffs something of a curiosity.
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2 weeks ago | 
wsj.com | Robert L. O’Connell |Robert O’connell
Indiana faced an impossible deficit against the New York Knicks on Wednesday night. It turns out that’s exactly where they wanted to be. As the clock wound down in Madison Square Garden Wednesday night, the Indiana Pacers had absolutely no reason to believe they could beat the New York Knicks. With 2:45 left in the game, Indiana trailed by 14. Since the NBA started tracking play-by-play data in 1997, 994 teams had faced that predicament in a playoff game. Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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2 weeks ago | 
wsj.com | Robert L. O’Connell |Robert O’connell
The New York Knicks and Indiana Pacers spent the 1990s beating each other up in the NBA playoffs. Three decades later, they’ll be at it again with a Finals berth on the line. When the New York Knicks and Indiana Pacers square off in the first game of their playoff series on Wednesday, they’ll be battling for a spot in the NBA Finals. But for fans and former players of each team, there’s something more important than a title shot on the line.
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2 weeks ago | 
wsj.com | Robert L. O’Connell |Robert O’connell
The Boston Celtics suffered a shocking playoff loss to the New York Knicks. Now they face impossible questions about how to keep one of basketball’s best teams together. For most of the NBA season, the Boston Celtics looked like the perfect basketball team. They were fresh off of winning a championship. They had a roster stuffed with elite players. Their strategy of shooting 3-pointers at an outrageous clip left the rest of the league eating their dust. Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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3 weeks ago | 
wsj.com | Robert L. O’Connell |Robert O’connell
When the Knicks beat the Boston Celtics in a pivotal playoff game, it didn’t win them the series. But it hinted at a major transformation for one of the longest-suffering franchises in pro sports. In the 25 years since the New York Knicks last made it to the Eastern Conference Finals, the world has been completely transformed. There have been seven presidential elections and three papal conclaves. Tom Brady won seven Super Bowls. And society witnessed the entire rise and fall of the BlackBerry.
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3 weeks ago | 
wsj.com | Robert L. O’Connell |Robert O’connell
When Dallas traded away Luka Doncic in February, it marked the rare occasion when the world of sports was in complete agreement: The Mavericks had made a terrible mistake. Superstars like Doncic come along once in a generation, if a team is lucky. Getting another player of that caliber can take years or even decades. Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
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3 weeks ago | 
wsj.com | Robert L. O’Connell |Robert O’connell
The Oklahoma City Thunder needed a comeback win to keep their championship favorite status alive. A defensive masterpiece from backup guard Alex Caruso gave it to them. In the most important moment of their season on Sunday afternoon, the Oklahoma City Thunder turned time and time again to one player to get them over the line. It wasn’t the scoring machine who’s likely to win the NBA’s MVP award. Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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4 weeks ago | 
wsj.com | Robert L. O’Connell |Robert O’connell
During the season, Mikal Bridges failed to live up to the massive trade that brought him to New York. In the playoffs, his defense has them on the verge of their biggest win this century. Thanks to a succession of improbable turnarounds, late collapses and down-to-the-wire finishes, the playoff series between the New York Knicks and Boston Celtics has already turned into an instant classic. Twice, the Knicks have fallen behind by 20 points on the Celtics’ home court.
