Last night, the Miami Heat were in San Antonio for game 5 of the NBA Finals against the Spurs, and boy what a night it was.
All sorts of great things were happening for the Spurs last night. Let's start with the fact that they won the game 114 - 104, taking the series to 3-2, and meaning that one more win would see them crowned as NBA Champions for 2013.
Aside from that, both Manu Ginobili and Danny Green had things to celebrate on a personal level.
Ginobili has been struggling in the off season, and his team mates have been waiting for him to have that one big comeback game. They waited a long time, but last night, it happened.
Manu had 24 points and 10 rebounds in his first start of the season, and all round rallied his side to a good game. Tony Parker had 26 points while nursing a sore hamstring, Tim Duncan had 17 points and 12 rebounds and as a whole the team became the first to shoot at over 60 percent in a finals game in four years.
If that wasn't good enough news for the Spurs, then the fact that Danny Green broke the NBA Finals record for 3-pointers had to be. Green knocked down 6 3-pointers in the game, taking him to a total of 23 in the series.
What made the achievement even greater was the fact that it was Ray Allen's record that was broken (22 3's in a series), and he was sat on the Heat's bench to watch it all go down. Just check out his reaction.
The next goal for Green is to break the record for most 3's made in any NBA playoff series, which stands at 28. It will be pretty impressive if Green hits the target for this record in a FINALS series.
Again, the current record for that is held by Ray Allen, who hit 28 threes when he was Milwaukee Buck, playing against the 76ers in 2001.
The way Green has been playing of late, Allen has got every right to be scared!
Game 6 of the NBA Finals will be played in Miami on Tuesday night. San Antonio have to win that game to be crowned Champions, or the Heat need to win to level the series, and take it to game 7. It should be a good one.
When you watch JaVale McGee, you often have to ask yourself, 'what is this dude thinking?' Well, on Thursday, McGee added to the madness by uploading a video to Vine of him slipping a $100 bill under the blanket of a sleeping homeless person, then walking away.
Watch McGee in action:
While it's great to see someone being generous and giving to the homeless, is a slightly creepy Vine video really the way to go about it? Who knows. It's McGee doing what McGee does best.
I guess the whole thing leaves us all wondering the same thing as McGee -->
RT @JaValeMcGee34 I WONDER WAT THAT HOMELESS guy GONE DO WIT THA MONEY!
Here at Basketball Megastore, as well as being crazy about ball, we also love ourselves a bit of art, so the NBA Finals animation that ESPN are showing is a little bit of heaven to us.
Created by London-based animator, Richard Swarbrick, the sequence shows some of the greatest moments from NBA Finals history, with great players such as Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Tim Duncan and Julius Erving.
The Leicester Riders really stormed their way through the BBL last season, and to follow up the most successful season in the clubs history, they have unveiled a brand new logo.
As the longest running club in the history of the BBL, the new logo shows a white horse outstretched in a modern design style, with the founding date of the club below; 1967.
The Riders are sticking with their red and white colours, in what is a bolder and stronger logo than their previous one. (See below.)
The Riders will be launching their new club website in July, and newly branded merchandise will be available from then on.
Riders Managing Director, Russell Levenston, said of the change; "Following our most successful season to date, we're extremely excited about the new logo and brand for the the Club. We have worked very closely with 5or6 who have done some fantastic work that we hope will make our fans proud."
The Brooklyn Nets have named Kidd as their new Head Coach, making him the 18th coach to have taken the reigns at the franchise.
Kidd used to play for the Nets, back in the early 20000's, and he took the team to two consecutive NBA Finals appearances, the first in the teams history. He played 506 games for the Nets, averaging 14.6 points, 9.1 assists and 7.2 rebounds per game.
In a press release about the signing, Net's General Manager Billy King has said;
"On behalf of the Nets organization, I am very pleased to welcome Jason Kidd as the head coach of the Brooklyn Nets. Jason is a proven winner and leader with an incredible wealth of basketball knowledge and experience. This will be a natural transition for him to move into the role of head coach, as he embodies the tough, smart and team-first mentality that we are trying to establish in Brooklyn."
Kidd will hope to lead the Brooklyn Nets to greater success next season. They were knocked out of the first round of the playoffs this year, by the Chicago Bulls, who were finally put out by Miami,
About his new role, Kidd has said;
"This is a tremendous opportunity to be named head coach of the Brooklyn Nets, and it's a role I have been studying for over the course of my playing days. Championship teams are built on being prepared, playing unselfishly and being held accountable, and that's how I expect to coach this basketball team. I am truly excited about this next phase of my basketball career."
Former New York Knick, and NBA Great, Patrick Ewing has been signed as the new Associate Head Coach for the Charlotte Bobcats.
Bobcats owner, Michael Jordan, looks set to get the cast of Space Jam back together to try and bring some Looney Toon-type magic to the team, which is seriously struggling in the NBA.
Ewing and Jordan featured in the classic basketball movie back in 1996, despite being staunch rivals on the court.
Ewing missed last season in the NBA, but had previously worked 8 seasons as an assistant coach for teams including the Orlando Magic and Houston Rockets. He will be joining Steve Clifford on the Bobcats coaching staff; the same guy that he worked with on his previous coaching jobs in Orlando and Houston.
Charlotte went for 21-61 last season, finishing second last in the Eastern Conference, one ahead of the Orlando Magic. They were 6-35 on the road for the season.
The Bobcats will get the 4th pick in the 2013 NBA Draft, where they will have a chance to add some new talent to their roster. Last year, they picked up Michael Kidd-Gilchrist as the 2nd pick of the draft.
How about those Spurs? Last night, the San Antonio Spurs dealt a hefty blow to the Miami Heat in game 3 of the NBA Finals.
The Spurs blasted to a 113 - 77 win over the Heat, while knocking down a record 16 3-pointers in the game. The previous record for 3-pointers made in a play-off game was 14.
Watch every three-pointer made in the game:
The stars of the game where the Spurs Danny Green and Gary Neal, who together had a huge 51 points. Green had 27 points, and was 7-9 from behind the arc, while Neal had 24 points, being 6-10 from 3-point land. Green was the games top scorer, but the box score shows that the Spurs really put up a huge team effort in order to silence the Heat.
Tim Duncan had 14 rebounds and 12 points, and Kawhi Leonard had 12 rebounds to go with 14 points. The big guys really made a difference in this game, with the Spurs outrebounding the Heat, 52 - 36.
A big worry for the Spurs however, was the fact that Tony Parker picked up an injury, early in the 3rd quarter of the game. His hamstring tightened on him, and Parker had to leave the floor to get it looked at. He came back later on in the 3rd quarter, but 1:27 into the 4th quarter he had to sit down, and stay down.
A great feature of the Spurs team is that they really can pick up when their bigger players are down, and this game proved that. Parker has been a huge star for the Spurs in these playoffs, but even though he only scored 6 points, the Spurs still won by 36 points.
The Miami Heat struggled from the off in the game. LeBron, who has more or less carried the team in these playoffs, missed 11 of his first 13 shots, finishing the game just 7 from 21, with a measly 15 points. Also, for the first time this season, he didn't have a single free-throw in the entire game.
James didn't get a huge amount of backup from his team in the game either. Chris Bosh had 12 points and 10 rebounds, Dwayne Wade had 16 points and 5 assists, and Mike Miller had 15 points. The rest of the team made little headway on the stat sheet, and that showed in the result.
The Spurs now lead the final series of the playoffs by 2 games to 1. This matchup is wide open! Game 4 will be played on Thursday night in San Antonio.
The very first release of the Ewing Focus is going to be right here at Basketball Megastore in just a few weeks time!
Ewing Athletics are releasing two colourways of the Ewing Focus shoes, the first in white, royal blue and orange, and the second in black, red and grey. The awesome thing about this release is that it marks the 20th Anniversary of when Patrick Ewing actually wore these shoes, when he played for the New York Knicks in the 1992-93 NBA season.
What's more, the colourways that are being released are perfect representations of how that season went down. The New York Knicks made it to the Eastern Conference Finals, where they were knocked out of the Championship race by Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. So if you're a Bulls fan, the 'bred' colourway of the Focus might be right up your street.
The Focus is characterised by the front-facing strap, which has 'FOCUS' emblazoned across it. It also features Patrick Ewing's signature down the side of the strap.
The upper is crafted from leather and suede, with a comfortable ankle closure and large ankle strap. The shoe has select perforations along the side, toe box, and no the neoprene panels near the ankle.
The Miami Heat are back in the NBA Finals for the third year running, and are looking to get their second consecutive NBA title. Heading the attack for the Heat is LeBron James, a fact that is perhaps best demonstrated by the serious hustle that he puts into every single game.
The Heat levelled the series against the San Antonio Spurs at one game each last night, and this HUGE block on Tiago Splitter shows just what we mean about LeBron James!
The NBA 2K franchise is easily one of the most awaited video game releases of the year, and NBA 2K14 is just about here.
It has been announced that LeBron James is going to be this year's cover athlete and if you pre-order the game, you will get access to the King James Bonus Pack, which contains exclusive content such as LeBron James in a yet to be revealed capacity, 10,000 VC points to spend in the game, additional content for the new Path to Greatness mode, the ability to use LeBron in Blacktop mode, and an all-new signature skill.
Take a look at the promo video, showing LeBron coming onboard with 2K.
Basketball Megastore was set up by two avid NBA and BBL fans, and players of the game, and if you love basketball as much as we do, then you're in the right place!
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