An Era Ends in Miami

By Justin Sherman (@JShermOfficial)

For years, I’ve visualized what this moment would look and feel like.

The ten minute standing ovation.

The crowd chanting “M-V-P” until their lungs gave out.

Maybe a little confetti, and even more tears.

Sentimental thoughts from number 3, standing on the logo he helped make famous.

Instead -- emptiness, disillusionment and heartbreak. 

Your NBA Eastern Conference Semifinal Primer

After carrying Toronto past Indiana in Game 7, can DeMar DeRozan top Hassan Whiteside and the Miami Heat?

By Adam Lowenstein (@StatsAdam)

Ed. Note- We know that the second round has already begun in the West, but we wanted to wait until all the NBA's playoff matchups were set to post our previews. Deal with it.

Anyways, here are Adam's breakdowns of the Eastern Conference Semifinals.

#1 Cleveland Cavaliers vs. #4 Atlanta Hawks

After sweeping the Detroit Pistons in arguably the closest four-game, best-of-seven, series in NBA history, the Cavaliers are well on their way to consecutive Eastern Conference titles.

Although the Cavaliers are under a different head coach this postseason, they have a stronger, healthier roster in 2016. Of course, they have LeBron James and Kyrie Irving, but Kevin Love seems to be the x-factor.

Who Do the Celtics Want to Face in the First Round?

By Adam Lowenstein (@StatsAdam)

Each of the three Celtics’ potential first-round opponents, the Atlanta Hawks, Charlotte Hornets and Miami Heat, will most likely enter the 2016 playoffs without one of the players that was part of their rotation entering this season: Tiago Splitter, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Chris Bosh, respectively.

Meanwhile, the C’s have been very fortunate on the injury front this season, as they are fully healthy entering the last week of the season. In fact, six of their top seven minutes-per-game producers have played more than 70 games this season. In addition, Marcus Smart and Kelly Olynyk would finish with an average of 65 games played if each play in the final two contests.

But, how confident should the Celtics feel with one of the lowest strengths of schedule in the NBA this season? On Saturday, Boston fell to the Hawks, with the loss giving Atlanta the season series, and therefore, the tiebreaker in the standings. The C’s are seeking to sweep their season series against the Hornets and Heat, as they host those squads at TD Garden on Monday and Wednesday, respectively.

So, who should Boston be hoping to draw in the first round of the Eastern Conference Playoffs? Let's take a look at the candidates.

Do LeBron's Cavs Have a Chance Against the Rising Hawks?

Due to an injury to Heat star Dwyane Wade, Atlanta's Kyle Korver was named to the Eastern Conference All-Star team, giving the Hawks four All-Stars for the first time in franchise history.

By Adam Lowenstein (@StatsAdam)

With their 117-105 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Target Center on Monday night, the 43-10 Atlanta Hawks once again avoided a losing streak. Mike Budenholzer’s squad has not lost consecutive games since mid-November when the Hawks lost their fourth and fifth ballgames of the season.

They enter Wednesday evening’s contest in Boston having played 38-5 basketball since that two-game losing streak, their longest skid of the season.

Al Horford, DeMarre Carroll, Paul Millsap, Jeff Teague and newly-added all-star Kyle Korver scored 97 of the Hawks’ 117 points in the victory. With Dwyane Wade sitting out the 2015 All-Star game, commissioner Adam Silver chose Korver to replace the Miami Heat veteran to give the Hawks their first year with four all-stars in franchise history.

The Official (Way Too Long) SuiteSports 2014-2015 NBA Preview: Part II - Six More Lottery Teams

Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade are still in Miami, but making the playoffs will be a tall order without LeBron.

By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin)

Yesterday, we kicked off the official season preview by breaking down the six teams most likely to finish at the bottom of the standings and secure the maximum number of ping-pong balls for the 2015 lottery. We're moving up a bit in Part II, but unfortunately, we're still mired in the realm of teams that probably won't make the playoffs. These teams are better than the ones we covered yesterday, but more likely than not, will be securing a few ping-pong balls of their own.

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Minnesota Timberwolves
2014 Record: 40-42
Over/Under Wins: 27.5
Odds To Win Championship: 400-1

The legacy of the 2014-2015 Timberwolves is already set in stone, which is both a blessing and a curse. Regardless of what happens this season, it will always be remembered (for better or worse) as the year they traded away Kevin Love. If Andrew Wiggins pans out and becomes the next Tracy McGrady (or better), then 2014 will be the year they dealt a disgruntled, ungrateful star for a young gun the saved the franchise. If Wiggins busts, then 2014 will be remembered as the year they traded away a top-10 player and got nothing to show for it.

I Like This Team - A Glass Half-Full NBA Preview (Part III)

LeBron has Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love thinking Championship

By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin)

This is the third and final installment of the positive half of our extreme NBA previews. Last Week, I told you why all 30 teams are terrible. Friday and Monday, I told you why 20 teams are great. Here are the last ten, featuring some of the best teams from a season ago (plus the new-look Cavaliers).

As with the first two sections, I've included each team's best-case scenario for the season. With most of these teams, the talent level is close enough that everyone's best-case scenario is to win the title. As such, I've tried to be as specific as possible as to how and why those best-case scenarios might manifest themselves. Put on a pair of rose-colored glasses and look on the bright side. 

Your NBA Team Sucks - A Glass Half-Empty Season Preview (Part III)

Kevin Durant's foot injury could de-rail Oklahoma City's season before it even starts.

By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin)

Ready for one more round of bad feelings? I know I am. Let's throw our stink on the last ten teams in the league. If you missed Part I (the ten worst teams from last year), it's here. For Part II (with the last few lottery teams and the first bunch of playoff teams), it's over there. And this is Part III, covering the best of the best. Well, the worst of the best. These teams suck.

Miami Heat

In case you didn’t hear, LeBron isn’t playing for the team any longer.

The team completely and totally fell apart in the playoffs last year whenever LeBron wasn’t on the floor. How are they going to survive a whole season without him? Dwyane Wade is pretty much guaranteed to break down. The last time Chris Bosh carried a team, the 2010 Raptors went 40-42. At least they can take solace in the fact that everything bad going on is Mario Chalmers’ fault.

Worst-Case Scenario: Wade’s knees fall apart as he tries to shoulder a greater load. Bosh can’t step up, Luol Deng and Danny Granger are washed up, Josh McRoberts never fits in, and the Heat lose 55 games.

America is Football Crazy, But You Can't Beat the NBA Offseason

The high-profile moves of the world's best player LeBron James (left) and ear blower Lance Stephenson (right) have contributed to the NBA's eventful offseason.

By Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

I'm a football guy, but I guess that doesn't really say much anymore.

In America, we're pretty much all football guys. The ratings from NFL and college football broadcasts will back that up, as will the remarkable attendance numbers we hear every week from NFL and college mega-stadiums.

There is no question that football, particularly the NFL, is the king of our sports landscape. So, with training camps opening in the NFL and two-a-days looming for college ball, why the hell can I only think about basketball right now?

Eight Potential LeBron Landing Spots Ranked by "Fun Factor"

LeBron returning to Miami with Bosh and Wade seems like the most likely outcome, but that's no fun...

By Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

As you may or may not know, I am a fair weather Heat fan, so my obvious preference in this game of LeBachelor would be for King James to give the final rose to Pat Riley and re-up for another run with his boys D-Wade and Bosh.

That being said, LBJ returning to the Heat, as presently constructed, is just about the least interesting result in the entire LeBron derby. So, in the interest of "fun," I am removing my slight bias and ranking LeBron's potential free agency destinations based on which would be the most interesting.

Here we go!

Confessions of a Fair Weather Heat Fan

This is pretty much what I look like when I watch the Heat

 By Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

As confetti rained down on the newly crowned champion San Antonio Spurs Sunday night, I was watching the series finale of the hot and cold NetFlix dramedy "Orange is the New Black."

As a sports fan, I know I probably should have been watching until the very end, but just after I finished watching the season finale of "Game of Thrones," I tuned into ABC to find my beloved Miami Heat trailing the Spurs by 21.

I figured, why watch something that I won't enjoy when I could see the conclusion of Piper Chapman's latest prison saga?

I, as you may have guessed, am a fair weather Heat fan, and I make no apologies for it.

Good-Bye NBA; I'll Miss You

If this is the last image we see of Tim Duncan on an NBA court, it will be a fitting one.

By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin)

At the end of the 2013 season, I said that the Spurs deserved better.

2014 was what they deserved.

After losing the Finals in the most heartbreaking way possible, losing a series only because the rules say one team has to win and one team has to lose, the Spurs rebounded and claimed their spot atop the NBA world.

The 2014 Finals didn’t elicit the same giggling schoolgirl response that the 2013 Finals did. But the 2014 Finals weren’t about beauty, they were about revenge. It was a brutal assault on the establishment. The Spurs, with all their class and professionalism, would never admit to being motivated by something as dark as revenge. But make no mistake, the Spurs wanted to go through *this* Heat team on their way to the title. That they won so convincingly makes it so much sweeter.

The (Probably Way Too Long) 2014 NBA Finals Preview

We're back. I'm not sure we ever left.

By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin)

12 months and 100+ games later, we're right back to where we started - Miami and San Antonio for all the marbles.

There are two prevailing opinions about a Finals rematch. Some people think "wait, I don't want to watch these two teams play each other again - last year's series was so amazing, there's no possible way to top that. Let's get some new blood in here." Others think "Last year's series was amazing, but it was so incredibly close that I'm still not even sure the better team won. I need seven more games of that to make sure."

Personally, I'm more in the second group. Yes, I realize that there's probably not much chance that this series can top last year's seven-game instant classic. But even after watching all seven games twice last June (once live, once again the next morning) and then a third time over the last week, I'm STILL not sure which team was better.

For the most part, this year's series is going to be a carbon-copy of last year's series, with a few small changes. Last year's series was as close as a series can be, with Miami barely prevailing. This year, San Antonio has upgraded Gary Neal and Cory Joseph to Marco Belinelli and Patty Mills (although Neal was huge in the Finals last year - he was 14-for-30 from three, with many of them coming in huge moments). Miami has lost Mike Miller and replaced his minutes with Rashard Lewis (but I'm not sure if you can call that a downgrade with Lewis making nine of his last 16 attempts from three, and Miami being +58 in his last 100 minutes on the floor). Manu Ginobili is playing well, but so is Dwyane Wade. There are a few subtle changes, but they wash each other out. The only truly relevant points are home-court advantage shifting to San Antonio (more on that later), and Tony Parker's semi-questionable ankle.

Sports Questions Asked by Terrible Hip-Hop and R&B Artists

Actually, people were way too hard on Ja. He wasn't that bad.

By Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

I'm running out of click bait subjects, so now I'm going to just post things for my own amusement.

A few weekends back, during the Mayweather-Maidana fight, I was discussing how old I am with our boxing correspondent Warren Rodriguez and my co-editor Jeremy Conlin.

I told them that I felt old because Kanye West's brilliant debut album "The College Dropout" was now 11-years old, and that the 10-Year Anniversary of the "Jesus Walks" single dropping was coming up (May 25).

I said that, say what you want about Kanye and his craziness since then, that album brought real rap back. Soul beats and sick verses. There's nothing better than that combo, in my opinion.

Jeremy asked if real rap ever left, so I am here to present the terrible Hip-Hop and R&B artists that ruled the roost in between Dr. Dre's "Chronic 2001" (which came out in 1999, duh) and Kanye's debut in 2003.

Eastern Conference Finals Preview: (1) Indiana Pacers vs. (2) Miami Heat

Dwyane Wade (left) and LeBron James (right) are looking for a fourth straight trip to the NBA Finals.

By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin)

By The Numbers:

Indiana:
56-26 (35-6 Home; 21-20 Road)
PPG: 96.7 (24th); PPG Allowed: 92.4 (2nd)
+4.3 Average Scoring Margin (7th)
Off Rating: 101.4 (22nd); Def Rating: 96.8 (1st)
+4.6 Net Efficiency Rating (7th)

Miami:
54-28 (32-9 Home; 22-19 Road)
PPG: 102.2 (12th); PPG Allowed: 97.4 (5th)
+4.8 Average Scoring Margin (T-4th)
Off Rating: 109.0 (2nd); Def Rating: 102.9 (11th)
+6.1 Net Efficiency Rating (4th)

Season Series: Tied 2-2
Indiana 90, Miami 84 (December 10)
Miami 97, Indiana 94 (December 18)
Indiana 84, Miami 83 (March 26)
Miami 98, Indiana 86 (April 11)

Sports Questions Placed Underneath Images from Your Childhood

By Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

It's time for our weekly click bait here at SuiteSports, and this week we hope to cash in on the fact that people love getting all nostalgic on the internet.

Yes, we all can't get enough of Super Soakers and "Full House" posters, so here are seven more sports questions, this time simply placed underneath images from your childhood.

And yes, I'm aware there are more "boy" images than "girl" images. Deal with it.

Seven Sports Questions Asked By Attractive Celebrities

By Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

Last week, we brought you first installment in our new series of click bait articles.

That Pulitzer-worthy blog featured adorable animals asking all the burning sports questions of the day. Not gonna lie, it's going to be tough to top that one. But, if there's one thing people love to stare at on the internet other than cute animals (and, uh, other stuff), it's a beautiful famous person.

With that in mind, we bring you everything you need to know about sports this week, asked by a bunch of people far more attractive than you or I.

East Round 2 Preview: (2) Miami Heat vs. (6) Brooklyn Nets

Chris Bosh isn't the most heralded member of the Miami Heat, but he plays a pivotal role in this series.

By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin)

By The Numbers

Miami:
54-28 (32-9 Home; 22-19 Road)
PPG: 102.2 (12th); PPG Allowed: 97.4 (5th)
+4.8 Average Scoring Margin (T-4th)
Off Rating: 109.0 (2nd); Def Rating: 102.9 (11th)
+6.1 Net Efficiency Rating (4th)

Brooklyn:
44-38 (28-13 Home; 16-25 Road)
PPG: 98.5 (21st); PPG Allowed: 99.5 (11th)
-1.0 Average Scoring Margin (19th)
Off Rating: 104.4 (14th); Def Rating: 104.9 (19th)
-0.5 Net Efficiency Rating (17th)

Season Series: Brooklyn 4-0
Brooklyn 101, Miami 100 (November 1)
Brooklyn 104, Miami 95 - 2OT (January 10)
Brooklyn 96, Miami 95 (March 12)
Brooklyn 88, Miami 87 (April 8)

East Round 1 Preview: (2) Miami Heat vs. (7) Charlotte Bobcats

Dwyane Wade needs to be at full strength for Miami to make another run. This series is his first test.

By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin)

By the Numbers

Miami:
54-28 (32-9 Home; 22-19 Road)
PPG: 102.2 (12th); PPG Allowed: 97.4 (5th)
+4.8 Average Scoring Margin (T-4th)
Off Rating: 109.0 (2nd); Def Rating: 102.9 (11th)
+6.1 Net Efficiency Rating (4th)

Charlotte:
43-39 (25-16 Home; 18-23 Road)
PPG: 96.9 (23rd); PPG Allowed: 97.1 (4th)
-0.2 Average Scoring Margin (16th)
Off Rating: 101.2 (24th); Def Rating: 101.2 (6th)
+0.0 Net Efficiency Rating (16th)

Season Series: Miami 4-0
Miami 97, Charlotte 81 (November 16)
Miami 99, Charlotte 98 (December 1)
Miami 104, Charlotte 96 - OT (January 18)
Miami 124, Charlotte 107 (March 3)

Midweek #HotSportsTakes: The Ultimate Goodbye

Thanks to the death of the Ultimate Warrior, we again include wrestling in our #HotSportsTakes.

By Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

Midweek #HotSportsTakes is a new weekly segment here on SuiteSports, where we will offer shallow and somewhat incendiary analysis on random hot-button sports topics of the day.


Let's get right to it.

March Mascot Melee™: Round One of the NBA Bracket

Does this look like a kind of guy you want to mess with?

By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin)

Joe kicked us off with his breakdown of the most vicious mascots from Major League Baseball, and I'm here to walk you through the most fearsome of basketball's furry friends. Here are the top sixteen seeds: