Author: teddoncic

Stephen Curry ball screens give Golden State something close to an offensive cheat code. Bring a big man up, force two defenders to make a decision, and Curry can turn one mistake into three points before the weak-side defender even finishes his rotation.Stephen Curry ball screens give Golden State something close to an offensive cheat code. Bring a big man up, force two defenders to make a decision, and Curry can turn one mistake into three points before the weak-side defender even finishes his rotation. Steve Kerr knows exactly how destructive that action can become. He also knows what the…

Pistons health management starts with an uncomfortable truth: Detroit’s brilliant 2025-26 season ended with Cade Cunningham looking drained under the brightest lights. The Pistons had won 60 games, secured the East’s No. 1 seed and reached their deepest postseason round since 2008. Then Cleveland walked into Little Caesars Arena for Game 7 and ripped the season away, 125-94. Cunningham had already fought through a collapsed lung two months earlier. By the final six quarters of the series, NBA.com described him as visibly sapped. That image should follow Detroit into training camp. Not because Cunningham failed. He carried an enormous burden…

Stephen Curry crosses half court and the noise inside Chase Center rises with him. Five minutes remain. A defender presses into his hip, another waits near the level of the screen, and thousands of people already know where Golden State wants the possession to end. This season, those moments carry more weight. Golden State finished last year 37-45, its first losing 82-game season since 2020-21. Curry still averaged 26.6 points in 43 appearances at age 38, but injuries stripped the Warriors of continuity and exposed a more troubling weakness. Too many close games came down to asking their oldest superstar…

At Royal Lytham & St Annes, bunker play becomes a major-championship nerve test before anyone settles into the round. There is no gentle handshake. Five bunkers crowd the opening par-three green, three to the left and two to the right, creating an immediate warning about what follows. On Sunday, the R&A and LPGA course setup sheet stretched that first shot to 189 yards from the tee markers to the flagstick. Flush an iron a fraction too high and the Fylde breeze can peel it away. Tug it left and the sand waits. Leak it right and the same problem appears.…

Par-five scoring became the pressure release at the 2026 AIG Women’s Open, the few moments when Royal Lytham & St Annes loosened its grip. Sea air pushed against ball flights. Firm turf sent good drives skittering toward bad places. Everywhere players looked, another revetted bunker seemed ready to turn one loose swing into bogey. There were 166 bunkers in all. By Sunday evening, only 11 players had survived four rounds under par. That made the three par fives different. The 490-yard 6th offered genuine eagle chances. The 586-yard 7th demanded far more restraint. Then the 520-yard 11th asked players to…

Scrambling at the AIG Women’s Open looked like this on Sunday: Shiho Kuwaki standing over one last par putt while Esther Henseleit’s championship hopes sat buried in gorse. Royal Lytham & St Annes had spent four days turning clean swings into uncomfortable questions. Wind shifted above the Lancashire links. Approaches skidded across firm turf. 166 bunkers squeezed landing areas and punished shots that missed by only a few yards. Only 11 players finished the championship under par. Now the entire major had shrunk to the 18th hole. Henseleit had already produced the shot of the afternoon. Needing birdie to catch…

When the Lancashire wind howls across Royal Lytham & St Annes, AIG Women’s Open contenders can watch a routine 150-yard approach turn ugly before the club reaches the top of the backswing. A stock 8-iron suddenly becomes a choked-down, punch-cut 6-iron. The flag flaps hard toward the railway. Trouser legs snap in the gusts, and one pot bunker waits exactly where a tentative swing wants to send the ball. That is links golf at its most uncomfortable. When the 50th AIG Women’s Open returned to Royal Lytham from July 29 through August 2, 2026, the final major of the season…

How Shiho Kuwaki read Royal Lytham to win the AIG Women’s Open became clearest on her second playoff trip down the 18th, when the championship suddenly stopped asking for brilliance and started demanding control. Esther Henseleit had already extended the afternoon with a twisting birdie putt from roughly 40 feet. Now her playoff drive had kicked off a marshal and buried itself beneath gorse, while Kuwaki stood in the fairway staring at the green. The advantage looked obvious, but the pressure did not. Kuwaki resisted the temptation to force the moment. She found the putting surface in regulation and left…

The Pistons rotation puzzle looks different after 60 wins. Detroit no longer enters training camp hoping its young core can become relevant. The Pistons went 60-22, finished first in the Eastern Conference and posted the NBA’s second-best defensive rating. They pushed Cleveland to Game 7 of the conference semifinals before the run finally ended. That changes the standard. J.B. Bickerstaff has to answer three uncomfortable questions before another playoff chase begins. Who closes tight games? Who runs the offense when Cade Cunningham sits? Which shooters can survive when postseason opponents start hunting them? The summer made those questions harder. Tobias…

The Nuggets small-ball identity reached its most painful breaking point in Minnesota, where Denver’s season ended beneath an avalanche of rebounds and paint touches. Rudy Gobert swallowed space near the rim. Julius Randle and Naz Reid supplied more muscle. Jaden McDaniels kept hounding Jamal Murray until Denver’s second scorer could barely breathe. By the end of Game 6, the numbers looked brutal. Minnesota had beaten Denver 110-98, won the rebounding battle 50-33 and scored 64 points in the paint. The Timberwolves did it while missing Anthony Edwards, Donte DiVincenzo and Ayo Dosunmu. Gordon, meanwhile, could not play because of his…