by Brett Edwards
The NBA isn't as bad as say, the NFL is in terms of being a copy-cat league. But teams and franchises definitely take notice of how the top franchises become successful. The many blockbuster trades this season were a great example of that, even though only the ones pulled off by the Celtics and Lakers propelled the respective franchises in the right direction.
With the Celtics winning the title, might this spark a defensive renaissance in the league? Go read Tom Ziller's post on the subject, I found it very intriguing. Especially the part where he points out that "defense is cheaper to buy than offense." With teams more salary cap conscious than ever, and the way the Celtics' team defense was able to dominate the Lakers' uber-efficient offense, it makes you wonder if more teams won't attempt to go that route this off-season.
by Craig Kwasniewski
Okay, here I am at the Universal City subway station waiting for the last ride downtown of the 2007-08 season (win, lose or draw). Is this journey like Sherman's march to the sea with everything laid to waste, is this like the final walk down the corridor to "old sparky" or is this a trip down memory lane?
Let's be honest here, the Lakers ain't winning today. An already intimidated and fragile team BEFORE game 4 they haven't shown me the type of personality necessary to bounce back. Any lead will be met with, "when is Boston catching up?" I think Kobe, Fisher and Vujacic will show up but nobody else.
I just hope the game is close... Give me a reason to stay the entire four quarters. I really can't stomach a 48-minute celebration for the Celtics and their very bitter fans (btw - besides having the ugliest women in the nation, why the anger? You've won five championships since 2001 and the beloved Celtics are nearing number 17. But then again... After seeing your women... Sheesh, i'd be bitter too... Jeezus!)
Anyway, as Jackson said, losing in the finals tends to take away the achievements of the regular season but the Lakers have a lot to hang their hats on. Kobe deservedly won the MVP, they advanced to the finals a year ahead of schedule and they're young and primed to dominate for the next four seasons. A few weeks from now I'll wear my Western Conference Champs tee-shirt with pride... Lakers Pride! Basketball (relevant basketball) is back in Los Angeles. Kobe and Phil are back as annual contenders! In a few months the 2008-09 season will start with a full healthy squad and the motivation of almost getting to the promised land carrying the team to a record-breaking season. So congratulations Boston, enjoy your 17th NBA title because we'll see you next year and it won't be close.... And I'm already excited.
Go Lakers!
By Craig Kwasniewski
You thought every angle had been covered for this incredible, throwback Lakers-Celtics Finals? Well, here's a new one: For the first time in NBA history, a team (in this case, the Celtics) might win a championship a few years after its...
star player was stabbed 11 times at a private nightclub party back in 2000.
Everyone forgets "the stabbings" because the Celtics star literally did a fair share of healing since that day in 2000. It's such a compelling story and equally compelling that everyone in the media completely forgot about the incident. (Which I find hilarious considering we know of every single indiscretion by Kobe Bryant since his birth. In fact I just heard his kindergarten teacher was doing interviews about the "orange drink incident" during naptime back in 1983.) How did the media completely forgot about this? Pierce "had lung surgery, with the other wounds mostly superficial" for crissake!
Anyway, if Boston Sports Guy is trying to make a difference by getting the media to pile on about a book in 2004, I thought we should look at this season's NBA Finals through an equally compelling storyline, the Pierce Stabbing Incident.
"Paul Pierce, his eye swollen and forehead bandaged, walked out of the hospital three days after being stabbed nearly a dozen times..." - Speaking of bandages, is this the most one-sided head coaching match-ups in NBA history? Doc Rivers taking his team beyond the first round for the first time in his career (it took only *NINE* seasons) versus Phil Jackson and his 11 NBA Finals appearances. Every Celtics fan right now is looking for any sign that'll convince themselves that Doc has finally learned how to coach in the playoffs.
The truth is, he just hadn't coached that many playoff games before; now, he just banged out 20 in six weeks. He's getting better.
Keep telling yourself this...
"Pierce wore sunglasses over a swollen right eye and a black Celtics cap that nearly covered a bandage on his forehead." - That reminds me of the most interesting running subplot in this series, the disappearance of Ray Allen. I completely backed the original acquisition a year ago. The guy *was* a cool performer with the a mid-range game (a dying art in today's NBA) second only to Rip Hamilton. I thought he'd create spacing on the floor and open lanes for Pierce and KG to roam freely. I never thought I'd see a player of his magnitude completely disappear to the point that it was embarrassing. So did he find his mojo in the Pistons series? Is he back to is 18-plus per night or will the pressure of his first NBA Finals appearance and Boston's first since 1987 get to him?
"Pierce was stabbed in his face, neck and back and hit over the head with a bottle at a private nightclub party Monday." That reminds me, so will the pressure of the Finals finally crack Lamar Odom? He's the Lakers best defensive rebounder and over the course of his career he's battled KG to a draw. So Lakers won't have to double-team KG and they can focus on containing Pierce. This assumes that Odom's head is in the game.... which is a HUGE assumption. Odom's offensive game dictates his overall effort. If he's frustrated and forced away from the hoop, he tends to drag on both ends of the floor. Boston's defense will focus on keeping Odom out of the lane and it's imperative that he maintains focus if his offense game disappears.
"The motive is under investigation." Did anyone find out what the motive was? Outside of the rumored Dan Fouts shooting back in the early 80's has an All-Star even been maimed like Pierce? This storyline still perplexes me but not as much as PJ Brown's resurgence. The guy was literally left for dead with the Bulls after last season and now he's putting up clutch hoops. The best part is listening to Jeff Van Gundy force out a compliment. If you remember this is the same PJ Brown that literally cart wheeled Charlie Ward in the 1997 Knicks-Heat playoff series that ultimately led to a ton of suspensions for the Knicks. Jeff Van Gundy was the head coach and the suddenly under-manned Knicks bowed out in Game 7.
"I'd just like to tell everybody I feel good," he said. "I can't wait to get back on the basketball court and join my Celtics teammates." And do a million primal screams in the first quarter and do a million jersey-pops after taking a 12-10 lead early in the game. I love the open display of emotion... there's nothing wrong, especially in the playoffs. The problem is that the Celtics literally do it to the point that they're like Maria Sharapova's grunts during *every* shot. It loses value if ot happenes all the freakin' time. Celebrate the wins, the lucky shots and the clutch hoops... but stop at doing it when you're up early in the game. Whatever happened to act like you've been there before?
"The 22-year-old swingman, an emerging star for the Celtics, had lung surgery, with the other wounds mostly superficial." Again, how is this not a haltime sob story for Game 1? That brings me to the most important question of the series: can the Lakers survive the expected phycial and bruising style of the Boston Celtics? Twice in the regular season the Celtics punched the Lakers in the throat and they backed down both times in ugly losses. Will anything be different? I actually not sure... but the Lakers did get by two physical and defensive oriented teams in Utah and San Antonio. And they clearly have better coaching that the Tom Thibidou-led Celtics. Plus the Lakers have the NBA's best closer, a very capable bench, a team with extremely high basketball IQ (I can't emphasize this enough, they have shown the ability to improve as each series moves on) and they're the best team on the road this postseason.... all good signs.
But even after writing a second Finals Preview, I still see the Celtics being too strong for the Lakers to win in a seven game series. Celtics still win 4-2.
by Brett Edwards
Excellent post at the Bleacher Report discussing classless Jazz fans, along with this photographic evidence.
By Craig Kwasniewski
Is it me or have these playoffs established a wider divide between the coaching haves and have-nots? For every Gregg Popovich and Phil Jackson leading two well-oiled machines primed for a colossal showdown in mid-May you have Flip Saunders and Doc Rivers doing... well doing their best Doc Rivers and Flip Saunders impressions (read: not coaching). Since the haves are very obvious (Jackson, Popovich, Byron Scott, Jerry Sloan, the Hedgehog and Mo Cheeks) lets focus on the have-nots:
Mike D'Antoni: Honestly, Phoenix Suns fans should be even more pissed off at D'Antoni after Sunday's season-saving win over San Antonio. It only took all of three games for D'Antoni to finally make the key defensive adjustment by switching Boris Diaw on Tony Parker. THREE FREAKIN' GAMES!
When we finally look back at the 2006-07 Suns, people will point fingers squarely on Steve Kerr and blame downfall of the Suns on the Shaq deal. It was a huge gamble that, as Charles Barkley pointed out on TNT, the Suns needed to take a chance on. Sure, they probably needed more time to blend together as a cohesive unit and facing the second best team in the West in the first round obviously didn't help. But Mike D'Antoni cost the Suns this series. Let's even look at that epic Game One where Popovich ran circles around D'Antoni at three key moments:
1. D'Antoni had Leandro Barbosa guarding Michael Finley as he hit the first game-saving three at the end of regulation. Where was Grant Hill? He has same build and athleticism as Finley and is strong enough and has the basketball IQ to throw off Finley from the perimeter. Instead the Brazilian Blur, who's not know for his half-court defense, became the Brazilian Burned and the Spurs were given a second chance.
2. The second game-saving three was a pure miracle shot by Tim Duncan that never should have happened. The Suns should have fouled Ginobili when he was dribbling around the perimeter looking to create (or facilitate, the buzz word for 07-08) for one of the Spurs spot-up shooters. Instead, the Suns watched Ginobili dribble around and then the collapsed on him in the lane leaving Duncan wide open. Why collapse on a guy in the lane when you're up three? And isn't it a European thing to foul instead of playing defense? And didn't D'Antoni make his name as a hoops star in Italy?
3. But the game winner was pure Popovich! The Suns were out of time outs and Nash just hit a risickulous three in the corner to tie it up. Normally Pop would signal an immediate time out and diagram a play. He's notorious for saving all of his time outs for these situations, but the Spurs didn't stop the action. Why? Because the Suns took out all of their interior defenders for that last-second three and Popovich realized that Manu had a good chance at driving the lane for a game winner. Well... we all know how that ended and we all know that Pop CLEARLY dominated D'Antoni.
So the question remains, how many more postseason failures and late adjustments will the Suns' fans, front office and roster put up with? Or more importantly, how many more seasons do they have a relevant Steve Nash on the floor? Stay tunned!
George Karl: Rumors persist that the Nuggets are keeping Karl for next season.
(Time to play "Really" with Seth Meyers and Amy Pohler.)
Really? The Nuggets are keeping a head coach who's led the third highest payroll to a first-round sweep? Really? The Nuggets have a total of three playoffs wins in the last four years (BTW - such a low number that it's grammatically correct to write out the number) and you're keeping him? Really? Melo admits that the team quit in game three. Isn't it the job of a coach to motivate the players? Really? Really? The same George Karl famous for season-ending flameouts in Seattle and Milwaukee is being asked to return? Really? Karl will return to coach the team that "saved" Allen Iverson from 76ers. Isn't that the same 76ers that have at least two more playoff wins than Karl's Nuggets? Really? REALLY?
Avery Johnson: Before Sunday's loss to New Orleans, Johnson was on the 50-50 list along with Mike Woodson, Mike Brown (say what you want about his coaching, the guy pulls out W's), Sam Mitchell and Rick Adelman. But Avery Johnson made two mistakes that killed the momentum of the game and ultimately ended the series (Dallas just doesn't have the stones to rally from a 3-1 deficit.).
What the hell was JJ Barea doing in uniform instead of Tyronn Lue? I know he's injured with a back, but a broken Lue is eons better than Barea! And the Mavs paid dearly when Johnson put Barea in with a lead during the second period. Barea played like it was "win a spot on the Mavs night" and killed all of their momentum. That was the turning point of the most important game of the season and Dallas never really threatened the rest of the way. Why play the ball boy during the playoffs?????
Unlike Phoenix, people should point to the Kidd trade as the downfall of the Mavericks. It never should have happened and now the Mavs are way over the salary cap with Avery Johnson most likely fired this summer.
Doc Rivers: Until this guy actually wins a playoff series (which he hasn't in *NINE SEASONS* of coaching!) I can't ever consider him a good head coach. And the "best team in the NBA" just lost to the eighth-seeded Atlanta Hawks. Hey I understand... quality teams are allowed to stumble every now and then. As San Antonio showed us, good teams tend to lose focus. But what absolutely kills me is that this guy is actually in the conversation for his second coach of the year award. Really? (opps, I already did that!) So you're telling me that he's getting votes over nine-time NBA champ Phil Jackson or even Jerry Sloan (who deserves it more that anyone). The guy has never won a playoff series in *NINE SEASONS* of coaching!!!!!!!!!
Eddie Jordan: Two GLARING things with the Wizards: bad turnovers and worse emotions. A ton of HORRIBLE turnovers did the Wizards in on Sunday. But what's even worse is the lack of control that Eddie Jordan has on his players. Is it wise to piss of one of the best players in the NBA? Do you really need to motivate him even more?
Flip Saunders: Let's save the best story for last. On Sunday's telecast on TNT, Chris Webber confirmed what everyone in the NBA already knew but didn't know: that the Pistons tune out Flip Saunders. With Detroit losing to Philadelphia by 10 at the half, Ernie Johnson put a question out to the former Piston and new in-studio member:
Ernie: You've been in that locker room with Flip Sauders at halftime, what is the mood in there now.
C-Webb: Truthfully, no disrespect against Flip but it doesn't matter what Flip says because they take on the personality of Joe Dumars. So I'll tell you this: Rip, Chauncey, Tayshaun Prince, Rasheed and McDyess are very mad right now, they're probably not even talking and they're probably just saying, "okay we're going to go win this ballgame."
Joe will come down to the locker room though and tell everybody, "I don't know what y'all think you're doing. I'll trade all y'all today." Joe will do that.
So who's doing the coaching anyway... Joe D or Flip? This totally explains why under Saunders the Pistons seem bored during the playoffs. But if they were tuning him out last year (as C-Webb learned first hand), then why is Saunders still coaching them? Again, like the Suns, how many playoff disappointments under Flip Saunders will the Pistons' fans, front office, and roster put up with? Sheed, Rip and Chauncey are getting up there in age. Do they really want to do this again next season?
You can't hide bad coaching in the playoffs.
By Craig Kwasniewski
Just wanted to get my picks in before the games start tomorrow (also so I can blockquote myself in the "I told you so" post in a few weeks). Let's start with the Varsity League, the Western Conference:
LA Lakers (1) vs. Denver Nuggets (8): "The experts" are predicting an easy series for the Lakers... I don't think so. The Nuggets have trouble against physical teams like San Antonio and Boston and the Bynum-less Lakers are far from the bruising days of the Shaq-Kobe era. The Melo "incident" (when is there not one with that guy?) will give Denver the much-needed us-against-the-world attitude and will give them even more focus. These games will be very entertaining and a throwback to the late 80's Lakers vs. the Doug Moe-led Nuggets with high scoring and very little defense. The Lakers will win this series in 6, but it won't be easy.
New Orleans Hornets (2) vs. Dallas Mavericks (7): Quick question... if Chris Paul is such an MVP and better than Isiah Thomas (as the Boston Sports Guy so irresponsibly wrote), then why are a lot of people predicting a Dallas win here? Isn't the MVP supposed to find a way to win the close games? Isn't the MVP supposed to lead a team through the playoffs in the early rounds? Shouldn't this be a relatively easy series for the Hornets because Chris Paul is just that good? Hey, give CP3 his damn MVP and let's get another awesome MVP press conference like Dirk's from last season because New Orleans ain't beating Dallas. Dallas wins in 6.
San Antonio Spurs (3) vs. Phoenix Suns (6): What a series! With so much history and bad blood between these teams it's a damn shame it's happening in the first round. (Actually, no it's not! The Lakers only have to face one of them... so fight it out to 7 guys!) The Suns made the Shaq deal solely for the Spurs and so far it's been a success with two easy W's. Interesting fact: since 1999 either Shaquille O'Neal or Tim Duncan have made it to the Finals. Will 2007-08 be the first season without either big? Who knows... San Antonio has too many nagging injuries and not enough time to rally to save the season. I see is a motivated and quickly gelling Suns beating the Spurs in 7.
Utah Jazz (4) vs. Houston Rockets (5): Are the Rockets the worst team to ever win 22 straight? 10-years from now when we see the top 5 winning streaks in NBA history will we drop a collective WTF when we see "2007-08 Rockets?" Isn't that finger waving thing by Mutombo annoying considering that it's taunting and it should be a technical and that he brings nothing else to the table? Will Tracy McGrady miss the second round again? Is the Yao Ming era one of the most overrated eras in NBA history? Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes and YES!!!!!!! Utah wins in 6.
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