Skip to content

Posts from the ‘NBA 2007’ Category

Jul 31

9 Comments

KG/Celtics Points

Kevin Garnett is a Boston Celtic. Let that sink in for a moment. Weird, isn’t it? For the first time in almost two decades we devoted Celtic-faithful have been given the opportunity to ponder the unthinkable questions. Questions like how many times will the Green be appearing on national television? Or how many teams in the NBA will finish with more wins than the C’s? And the kicker of all kickers: are the Celtics about to be flirting with championship #17?

Early answers are: many, my friends; very few, folks; and in the words of Borat: YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!!!!!!

In an effort to assess the scope of this situation, I’ll be blunt. The Celtics are better off today than they would’ve been had they gotten the number one pick in the NBA Draft. Whoa, you might be inclined to interject. You’re saying KG and Ray Allen are better for the franchise long term than Greg Oden would be? Actually no, I’m not saying that. But in case you missed my Paul Pierce Points and don’t know how much he has meant to the city of Boston over the years, I’ll be glad to expand.

I have little doubt that Oden will ultimately become the center piece of a championship team, maybe even a dynasty. For the foreseeable future, though, the kid’s still a kid (even if he looks like he could be the patriarch of multiple Oden-generations). He played one entrepreneurial year in college, and much of that one season he had the use of only his off-hand. He may be a gargantuan man among gigantic men, but rest assured, he will take his lumps for the next few years. The Shaqs and Duncans and Dwight Howards of the world simply wouldn’t have it any other way. He has a whole lot of maturing to do, even if his size and facial hair wouldn’t indicate such. Unfortunately for Paul Pierce (and hence the Celtics), time is of the essence. Paul is beyond hungry for postseason glory. He’s starving, he’s famished. Hell, he’s basically been fasting for the last five years!!

So the answer was obvious. Bring on board the two guys in the league who are arguably as hungry as Paul and at similar points in their careers, and run with it for the next three to five. The time is now. For once, that mantra employed by the Celtics’ Beantown counterparts, the Red Sox and Patriots, has been reciprocated by the Green.

Realistically, the only possible hindrance I see that could thwart this team from winning right from the word go is chemistry. As is always the case when stars get thrown together, egos will have to learn to coexist. I’m confident these three will. They have too much in common not to. All three have brought teams and cities to places they never envisioned: Paul took the Celtics to the ’02 Eastern Conference Finals; Ray carried the ’01 Bucks and the ’05 Sonics deep into the playoffs. And KG helped the ’04 Wolves win the first two playoff series in their franchise history. All have been borderline excessively-loyal guys. Other players in Paul’s or KG’s shoes would’ve skipped town years ago, given their stature and frustrating situations. As for Ray, he was as fiercely loyal to Milwaukee as anyone could be to a small-market city with no viable title shot; he didn’t depart until the powers-that-be effectively replaced him with Michael Redd.

So they’re all ecstatic to be teammates and have already been buddies for some time now, which in my opinion are the building blocks of good chemistry. And don’t underestimate the impact of Boston on their chemistry. From what I’ve heard and read, this deal wouldn’t have had a chance of happening without unrelenting lobbying on Paul’s behalf to KG. For the last few weeks he’s been in close contact with Garnett, surely playing up the value of Boston. Since the city has frequently been labeled as “that place” black athletes don’t want any part of, my bet is Paul brought KG up to speed about that misnomer. History (ie the reason why Boston has a justifiable-bad rap) aside, one thing about the city I’m sure Paul has conveyed is its unmatched passion for its teams as well as its undying love and support of its athletes.

You play pro sports in Boston, you’re automatically on a higher plateau than your colleagues in other cities. Granted, fans in Boston are needy and the media commands accountability, which combined make it difficult to be an athlete without being a celebrity. But even borderline-shy, reclusive players like Manny Ramirez feel the pull of the city to such a degree that in the end the pressure and demand is worth the reward. No city and fan base will support and defend you as staunchly as Boston. No place will drip with such visceral emotion after an otherworldly performance. And if in the end you have a hand in bringing a title to the town, every step you take from that point forward will be on hallowed ground. Paul feels it. He’s felt it through the adoration he’s received, through the devotion of the faithful. He’s felt it through Manny and Pedro and Corey Dillon and Troy Brown. And you know what else? He found a way to make KG feel it.

When you think about it, Garnett has always been destined to play in Boston. Here is a guy who literally leaves it all out on the court on a nightly basis, hell or high water. Now he’s going to be playing in a house that won’t be wondering if he’ll blow the roof off; no, they’ll be expecting it every night. And that first evening when he’s formally introduced and the entire waterfront shakes, like all athletes in new places, he’ll want to savor that moment and freeze it in time, because he’ll have to believe it will be next to impossible to rival it. So it goes for athletes previously foreign to Boston. Just wait until the first shot he hits. The first big swat he records. His first 20-20 game. His first deft dish to Paul for an overtime dagger. Just wait, KG, just wait.

It was this notion that Paul undoubtedly succeeded in relaying to KG, along with the fact that he, KG and Ray will be manhandling the East for the next few years to the tune of 55+ wins and an annual top seed in the playoffs. Once again I won’t mince words: I believe the Celtics are poised to make multiple Finals appearances over the next couple of years. I can’t go so far as to put them on that next level with the two best teams in the league, the Suns and Spurs (only because either Steve Nash or Tony Parker would manhandle Rajon Rondo en route to a Finals MVP), but I entirely believe the Celtics are now the team to beat in the East.

So am I calling number 17 just yet? No, I’m not ready to make any crazy proclamations, but I am ready to watch these guys play ball. And I will say this: when you unite a trio of seasoned and starving superstars and they get a few shots at the glory fruit, expect them to find a way to get fed.

Jul 24

10 Comments

NBA Betting Scandal

With all due disrespect to Barry Bonds and Michael Vick, what’s transpired with NBA referee Tim Donaghy over the last week is, for lack of a better term, in a whole different league. Bud Selig and Roger Goodell actually have grounds for a toast, albeit one wrought with sick irony. While each of their respective enterprises, MLB and the NFL, is seeing a major scandal come to a head, their governing-counterpart in the NBA, David Stern, is smack in the middle of a s–t storm the likes of which has never been felt in professional sports.

I never thought I would defend Bonds, a blatant cheater who is going to break one of baseball’s timeless records because of performance enhancing drugs. I also couldn’t fathom trying to give perspective to Vick’s perpetuation of a cruel and sadistic hobby for profit. But now, amid allegations that Donaghy has been fixing NBA games in an elaborate criminal endeavor, in accord with members of the mob and possibly his own colleagues, I must say that Bonds and Vick are now small potatoes. For Vick, his alleged involvement in a dog-fighting ring is abhorrent, but nonetheless is mutually exclusive to his day job as an employee of the NFL. In Bonds’ case, the entire home run/steroid era of the last decade is going down in history with a collective asterisk; he’s just going to be the poster-boy because of the amount of dubious home runs he’s hit. However, right next to him will be his partners in crime, guys like Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire and Gary Sheffield (and many more).

The word “integrity” gets thrown around a lot when it comes to athletes and improprieties. Bonds and everyone else who’s ever juiced have exhibited very little personal integrity, which in turn has cast a shadow over the game of baseball. Likewise for Vick, and his alleged operation of animal cruelty. There are two glaring differences between them and Donaghy though. First, their actions never sought to undermine the games themselves in the name of illicit financial gain. Second, they are athletes, not officials. There have been two major precedents for players using their sports to profit monetarily, both in baseball. In 1919 the Chicago White Sox (aka the “Black Sox”) threw the World Series because they were underpaid and treated poorly by their owner, Charles Comiskey. The term “Black Sox” was in fact spawned because Comiskey was too cheap to pay for his team’s dry-cleaning, resulting in black, sordid uniforms (although history would ultimately validate the nickname). The second instance involved Pete Rose, who as we all know wagered on tons of baseball, which included his own team, the Cincinnati Reds. However, he never bet against his own team, and he was still one player on a field of nine.

What Donaghy has supposedly been doing, fixing games, is not simply on another level of the severity scale, it’s on the highest level. Why? Because he’s a referee; it’s his sole purpose to moderate games in the most unbiased of fashions. In addition, basketball is the easiest game to fix. Unlike in other major professional sports, officials in basketball actually hold sway over how many points are scored. Of course the play of the athletes is obviously supposed to dictate the amount of foul calls and not vice versa, but that’s exactly the catch. With over/unders (ie a set gambling line for two teams’ aggregate points scored) representing a huge chunk of wagers, an NBA official could very conceivably alter the final score and/or outcome of a game by calling or not calling inordinate numbers of fouls. If you watch this YouTube compilation of Donaghy and his crew calling Game 3 of this year’s Suns-Spurs series, you’ll see what I mean.

Seeing Donaghy make the latest call in NBA history for Manu Ginobili was enough to draw skepticism from both the ABC crew announcing the game as well as scores of reporters and journalists. Upon watching that entire reel from Game 3 (as well as the whole Suns-Spurs series) it is more than possible for one to come up with a variety of conspiracy theories of apparent crookedness with legitimate hard evidence to support a claim. I don’t want to speculate but I will expand on the implications of this scandal. I see a possible two-fold disaster pending for the league.

The first issue at hand is its awareness of the FBI investigation into Donaghy, which has been ongoing for nearly a year. There have been conflicting reports as to Stern’s knowledge about the federal probe, with the New York Times reporting most recently that he was not brought up to speed until after the Finals (although the New York Daily News reported that Donaghy’s neighbors in Pennsylvania were under the impression that a private investigator who was looking into Donaghy’s gambling proclivities a year ago was acting on behalf of the league). In short, if it surfaces that Stern had knowledge of any aspect of any investigation into Donaghy or Donaghy’s activities themselves and allowed him to continue calling games, this thing will snowball in the face of the commish.

Next is Donaghy himself. He will undoubtedly name names in either an effort to take heat off of himself or expose what could well be a greater referee-conspiracy. This is no doubt Stern’s worst nightmare. Whatever comes out of Donaghy’s mouth will double as a serious blow to the credibility and integrity of Stern and his league. In a statement made Tuesday Stern reinforced his belief that Donaghy was acting alone.

“We think we have a rogue, isolated criminal here,” said Stern.

Within this context Stern might as well have subbed the word “hope” for “think”, because at this point in the investigation that’s all he can really do. Once Donaghy turns himself in this week and the Feds tape recorders start rolling, this scandal could take yet another decisive turn for the ugly.

As ESPN.com’s Sportsguy aptly pointed out, this scandal is a story straight out of a Hollywood script. I agree with his vision of this imminent film, right until the ending. If this story truly followed a movie script everything would happen as Sportsguy laid out until the point where the ref (Matt Damon) is indicted and placed in protective custody while awaiting trial. At this juncture either the mob boss (Alec Baldwin) or the embattled commish (an always-shady Ron Silver) would give the word to “dispose” of the ref before the trial to avoid further damage down the line. The film would end with Damon getting approached by a few gun-toting thugs with silencers, and that would be that. A viewer would be left with the token question: was it the mob boss protecting his future interests or the corrupt-commish resorting to all and any measures to preserve his league? Both would have legitimate reasons to rid themselves of Damon and viewers could decide for themselves.

Hollywood and fiction aside, this scandal has opened a door into a dark and murky world usually left to be portrayed by art. But don’t be fooled: both the stakes and players in this devious and highly illegal scam are real, and it’s going to get a lot uglier before there is any resolution. Let’s just hope art sticks to imitating life and not the other way around.

Jun 4

2 Comments

Lebron/NBA Finals Points

Before I get to the uplifting news, allow me to speak frankly. The NBA has disappointed the s**t out of me the last two months. The defending champs’ knockout was one-upped only by Chuck Liddell’s in terms of head-scratching decisiveness. The one thrilling series in the first round involved a 67-win team getting humilified by a squad of street-ballers. (Note that I morphed “humiliated” and “mortified” because I feel like a new word need be invented to aptly describe what happened to the Mavs this spring.)LBJ

That surreal Dallas-Golden State series created a void left by the Mavs, which gave us just one super-heavyweight showdown (a championship series before the Finals if you will) between the Spurs and Suns. Then the Robert Horry/David Stern tag team had to go and roger it all up. By virtue of Horry’s completely unnecessary hip check of Steve Nash and Stern’s utterly preposterous interpretation of the bench-rule, we were denied the one, epic seven-game series we were due this playoffs.

This all preceded my Celtics getting sandbagged in the lottery (by not getting a top two pick) then getting dirt thrown in their face when they were down (by getting the fifth pick). So much for putting your hopes and dreams in the hands of a friggin leprechaun..errr lottery.

So with all that said I’m sure you can understand why I’m feeling just a tad angry, perplexed, unfulfilled, teed off, and generally disheartened, right? I mean I’m not the only one who’s realized how poor the NBA has been the last couple of months, right? You’re probably inclined to agree with me, unless you hail from the city that rocks, in which case you’re probably inclined to tell me to stick something somewhere.

Yep, the town of Cleveland has turned into the castle of King James; its inhabitants have become his subjects and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is now simply an additional reason to visit C-Town. They should just change the prefix from “Cleve” to “Lebron”.

Ladies and gentleman, you are now entering Lebronland. Please fasten your safety belts, put your tray tables and seat backs in their full upright and locked positions, or else assume the fetal (aka “Tayshaun Prince”) position. Lebron-23 has taken off and his final destination is not yet known.

Let’s be truthful, after the performance we witnessed in Game 5 against Detroit, there isn’t a single basketball mind who can give a definitive appraisal of Lebron at this moment. The kid has grown up more in the last four games than he has in the last four years. (And I’m obviously not talking physically, considering I’m convinced that as a baby he was some Lebron-version of Marlon Wayans’ character in “Little Man”.) It’s as if sometime during the fourth quarter of Game 5 his mind and body finally agreed upon a solution to the problem of the horrible team around him. Basically a light bulb went off in the mind, which in turn informed the body that it was bigger, better, stronger and scarier than the whole Pistons team.

How else can you explain 25 straight points and 29 of 30 to close a game? How else can you explain an array of off balance, fading jumpers mixed in with a trio of monstrous dunks, all in the final minutes? Above all, how the heck else can you explain Tayshaun Prince, one of the grittier playoff performers of this era, cowering in fear as Lebron posterized him? It’s almost like Tayshaun saw Lebron soaring in, and said to himself, screw it, I’m cool being that guy forever linked to Lebron entering the next realm, at least I can live to talk about it.

It was that kind of game for everyone involved; a transcendent, ephemeral yet eternal event. You didn’t watch this game, you lived through it; you experienced it; you were somewhere for it. When it was over you rubbed your eyes, checked your watch, maybe even flipped a light switch. All served as confirmations that what you had witnessed was in fact not just a figment of your imagination, but the saving performance of the 2007 NBA Playoffs. A game for the ages.

It was a game that officially marked the coronation of King James as well as the collective decapitation of the new-age “Bad Boys.” I thought Detroit would take the series in six and they lost in six, which after last year’s seven-game tilt, coupled with the events of the past week, can only lead me to conclude that the consequences of losing Ben Wallace were far more grave than the Pistons could have ever imagined. It’s over for Detroit, and just beginning for Cleveland.

The only question now is how far can the Cavs go? Or more appropriately, how far can Lebron take them? Not to a championship, not this year. Not with the San Antonio Spurs, the best team of the last decade, looming. Not with the series going through the Alamo. A week ago I would’ve said the Cavs don’t stand a chance of winning a game, let alone four. Now I’m sure they’ll win at least one, because Lebron says so. No, he hasn’t guaranteed a victory (to my knowledge), but actions always speak louder than words. His actions might as well have been amplified by a bull horn last week.

How many games Lebron will win is a matter of educated guess and/or opinion. Let’s now tackle why he won’t win four games. In a word, defense. The cornerstone of the Spurs quasi-dynasty has always been defense. They know how to best force an opponent to beat them in a way that’s unorthodox and uncomfortable. They toppled the Lakers by taking the ball out of Kobe’s hands; they’ve beaten the Suns by keeping the ball in Steve Nash’s hands. The philosophy against LA was to prevent Kobe from scoring 40; the philosophy against Phoenix was to dare Nash to drop 40. In both instances the plan worked out (except for one Derek Fisher in 2004).

Rest assured, the Spurs will never (nevah evah evah, evah evah!!!) let Lebron James thwart them from their fourth championship in nine years. They’ll double team him, triple team him if necessary. Gregg Popovich will utilize Fabricio Oberto and Francisco Elson’s big bodies and 12 fouls to ensure that the painted area is well-fortified at all times. Bruce Bowen will continue to be the dirty hound that he is.

Then there’s the Spurs “Big Three”. For the first time this postseason Tony Parker will be matched up against a point guard who he’s better than, after having to deal with with Allen Iverson, Nash and Deron Williams in the Western Conference Playoffs. Manu Ginobili gets better as games and series wear on. And Tim Duncan, yes he is probably the greatest power forward in the history of the game. (I’m now going to watch repeated highlights of his patented post-up and bank shot to counteract my insomnia.)

Whether Duncan acts as a natural sleep-aid or not, whether the Spurs as a whole do it for you or not, they are a deep, talented, experienced and well-coached team built to win championships. Cleveland isn’t. That enormous gap between the two franchises will be the difference in this year’s Finals. But hey, look on the bright side. You’re going to get to watch the best team of the last ten years clash with the best player of the next ten years. You won’t see seven games but you will see history in the making. With the way this season and playoffs have gone, I’d say that’s probably the only icing that can save one crappy cake.

Spurs in six.

May 28

2 Comments

Multi Points

Marquise Hill: 1982-2007 It’s a somber Memorial Day across the NFL and Patriot-nation. Marquise Hill, a third-year defensive end from LSU, drowned Sunday night on Lake Pontchartrain after a jet ski accident. Hill was a second-round pick of the Patriots in the 2004 draft, and was a rookie on the team that won its third Super Bowl in four years. He only played in a handful of games throughout his brief NFL career, but that was more of a testament to the depth and quality of New England’s defensive line. I don’t have any specific memories of him on or off the field but I know one thing: Marquise Hill was a Patriot for a reason. He was a Patriot because he was a hard worker and a good teammate. He was a Patriot because he had a winner’s mentality and a desire to become better. Marquise Hill was a man in a locker room where each man was valued as a necessary part of a greater entity. So even if we, as fans, were not aware of his impact, we need not look any further than the uniform he donned. Marquise Hill lived as a Patriot, and will be remembered as a Patriot.

(Note: Subsequent to publishing this on Monday I have done some reading about Hill and discovered he did a great deal of work helping his brethren in New Orleans rebuild their homes and city post-Katrina. This comes as no surprise but reinforces what a truly good man he was. He didn’t need camera crews and Patriots’ representatives documenting his deeds; he just did them because he was a caring and admirable individual. Marquise Hill will be missed by many.)

Now to segway into some playoff basketball…

Cavs-Pistons It’s evident that the Cavs could very well be up 3-0 on the Pistons. After Lebron’s questionable pass in Game 1 and mauling by Rip Hamilton in Game 2 resulted in consecutive 79-76 losses, King James needed to man up in Game 3. He rose to the occasion after proclaiming Game 3 the biggest of his life, scoring 32 points to go along with nine rebounds and nine assists. He also hit the two biggest shots of the game in crunch time. Most importantly, he finally had the look of a guy determined to find a way to win. My question is what took so long? Both games in Detroit were there for the taking. They were games hanging in the balance, waiting for the best player on the floor to take over and exert his will. Lebron was that player, except he didn’t show it.

Of course the Pistons are a championship team who know how to grind down opponents and finish games. But in nail biting postseason games the best player on the court should be able to dominate the last couple of minutes by himself. That’s how Dwyane Wade won a championship last spring; that’s how Michael Jordan won six titles in six tries in the mid-nineties. Maybe Lebron isn’t ready yet, maybe he’s too enamored with becoming a “global icon” and not the next great champion. Maybe he has to learn how to compose himself at the free throw line in the final minutes of huge games. Maybe he secretly knows the supporting cast around him is only sufficient enough to win ten or eleven playoff games, and not sixteen. Or maybe the stage is still too grand for him.

No matter what, the fact is that he is the best player in this series and has had the ball in his hands with chances to win each of the three games, with one victory to show for it. Detroit may well win the next two games in convincing fashion, and there will only be so much we can put on Lebron’s shoulders because the Pistons are the handily better team. But if the next two games play out like the first two did, we’ll definitely have learned more about Lebron than we would have if the Cavs drop Game 4 and Game 5 by double digits.

Spurs-Jazz The Jazz are playing with house money. The bad news is the money is only good in their house. The good news is Game 4 is in Salt Lake City. The Jazz are a perfect 7-0 at the Delta Center (actually it’s Energy Solutions Arena, but it was the Delta Center in the old days of Stockton/Malone and has been resuscitated this spring) this postseason. The Spurs have never won a playoff game in Utah in nine tries. And the fans there know it. They also know they are one of the rare crowds that can pick its team up and carry them by their jersey-collars. In the Stockton/Malone/Delta Center heyday the building rocked so loudly that it was difficult to be in the Salt Lake valley without hearing the buzz of the stadium. That familiar roar is back and driving the young-Jazz. A win tonight would guarantee one more game in the house that the pick and roll built. It would also send a clear message to the veteran-Spurs that while it’s not the Mailman delivering them playoff losses anymore, there is a kid named Deron Williams who will be postmarking big games for years to come.

Apr 29

Multi-Points

So much is happening in the world of sports that I’d have to write five pieces to adequately address everything that’s gone down in the past week. But that would take a long time and I don’t get paid for this (yet).

A quick recap. First the Red Sox swept the Yankees at Fenway. Then the Bulls scorched the Heat in four, making Miami the weakest defending champion in decades. Next the Sox proceeded to take two of three at Yankee Stadium. Then the Patriots traded a signed-Tom Brady jersey to Al Davis for Randy Moss (actually it was a fourth round pick). Finally the week concluded with the Golden State Warriors winning Game 4 against Dallas, to go up 3-1 against the defending-Western Conference champions.

What does all that mean? Well most relevantly it means my NBA Playoff Preview Part Deux has officially been “deaded” quicker than Turtle’s record deal with Saigon on “Entourage”. It also means I now have the chance to throw my two cents on all of it…


Yankees The Yankees have suffered through slow starts before (they were 9-13 two years ago) but what strikes me about this April is that without A-Rod the Bombers wouldn’t have won more than five games. Because with him they still only won nine!! That’s embarrassing. Just how embarrassing is anyone’s guess. But if you want to find out for yourself, and you happen to have the pleasure of being chummy with a New York fan, ask them what’s worse: watching A-Rod’s most prolific-April in history result in a record of 9-14 or living through a 5-18 start, which evidently would have been the case minus A-Rod’s superhuman effort early on. I say the latter’s less humiliating, because the Yanks starting staff is ravaged and Mariano Rivera always struggles out of the gate, so Yankee fans would at least have a viable (albeit weak) excuse for such a sputtering start. But with A-Rod hitting more home runs than some divisions over the first half of the month, to win nine out of twenty three games is just poor.


Red Sox I can count on one hand the number of players in the game today who are capable of carrying their teams for a stretch of time all by their lonesome: Albert Pujols, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, David Ortiz, and Manny Ramirez (honorable mention: Vlad Guerrero, Ryan Howard, Carlos Beltran). Here’s my point: look at what A-Rod has done in comparison to what Manny has done until this juncture. Now extrapolate that s**t. Yankee fans love noting how “it’s only April”. Well for Manny April represents the calm before the storm. While A-Rod’s .355-14-34-1.297 has been the respirator on which the whole Yankees-organization is breathing, Manny’s .202-3-13-.629 has been nothing short of a comical farce. Why? Because the Red Sox have taken five of six from New York and have the best record in baseball. Manny, meanwhile, has contributed little more than a few bombs and a couple goofy exchanges with Dice-K. We all know that as the weather warms up so too does Manuel Ramirez. (Makes that 6.5 game lead seem a little more imposing, doesn’t it?)


Randy Moss Let’s make something clear right away: the Patriots don’t need Randy Moss. In the months subsequent to their collapse in the AFC Championship they signed the deep threat (Dante Stallworth) they so desperately needed, a big and physical possession receiver (Kelley Washington), and a slot-specialist (Wes Welker). Those acquisitions supplemented a receiving core that proved to be nearly sufficient enough to return to the Super Bowl. So when the opportunity arose to pull Moss out of Oakland for nothing more than a fourth round draft pick, Bill Belichick and Scott Pioli probably said, why not? Then they met with Moss, and most assuredly laid down the law cut and dry. Something along the lines of if you come here and work like every other guy on this team, you’re going to win a Super Bowl. Anything less and you’ll be out on your rear end quicker than you could ever imagine. The knock on Randy Moss has always been his incessant and inherent selfishness. Now he has the opportunity to tie his personal legacy into that of the most successful franchise of this era. Here’s one vote saying Randy chooses the Patriot-way over the highway.


Mavs-Warriors Forget the 67 wins in the regular season. Twenty percent of the Mavs’ 15 losses came against the Warriors. (That’s three.) And frankly they look exactly like the team that last June stood by, in shock and awe, as the Heat took four straight from them in the Finals. Which is to say they’re playing scared. And timid. Playing the Warriors period was already the worst-case scenario for Dallas. It’s rapidly becoming a worst-case nightmare. Including playoffs, Golden State has now taken a whopping nine of the last 11 from Dallas. The Warriors’ coach, Don Nelson, knows all of Dirk Nowitzki’s secrets. And their fans are genuinely intimidating. So how exactly are the Mavs going to pull off three straight and avoid becoming the biggest fraud in NBA history? Don’t ask me. Optimists will point to last year as the Suns climbed out of a 3-1 hole to down the Lakers. The parallels end there. The weight on the shoulders of the Mavs is immense. Between their implosion in the Finals last year to dominating the entire league but Golden State this season, the Mavs are going to have to overcome history and reality. (Plus Stephen “Haymaker” Jackson.)

Finally, a few notes on imminent Eastern Conference second round matchups…

Nets-Cavs This Nets team is pretty much on par with the New Jersey teams that went to back to back NBA Finals a few years ago. Difference is the rest of the Eastern Conference was god-awful back then. No more will Jason Kidd win multiple playoff series’ by leading the fastbreak and tossing alleys to Richard Jefferson. The Nets reign as the most hard-nosed defensive team in the East has long passed. Simply put, anything the Nets can do Lebron can do better. Shoot. Pass. Defend. All advantage Lebron. He’ll ultimatley need a true wingman to take the next step, that much is known. But for the moment Lebron won’t have too many problems disposing of a team that recently has taken nothing but steps back.

Bulls-Pistons The Pistons exhausted their nitrous way too prematurely last year. For a team that already understood the grind of winning an NBA title, Detroit burned itself out in the 2005-06 regular season (64-18), had to dig itself out of a 3-2 hole just to defeat King James in the second round of the playoffs, then bowed to the Heat in the East Finals. I know what you’re thinking. To say the Bulls are hot after watching what they did to the defending champs would be like saying an ice-bath is cool. And yes, Ben Wallace did get the better of his old team during the regular season, but don’t let that fool you. Chicago is still maturing, and this season Detroit has adapted its mentality to that of a team expecting to win a championship.

Apr 20

1 Comment

NBA Playoff Preview ‘07

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!!!

Awake yet? Have a nice snooze through the 2006-07 NBA season? Good. Now splash some water on your face and prepare yourself for some real basketball. Dwyane Wade is back. Lebron James cares about the game again. Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson are finally clicking. Tim Duncan is one lumbering step away from meeting a referee in the parking lot to settle a few things. And barring a Black Sox-esque fix, the embarrassing and over-documented tanking that defined this season will be permanently relegated to the rear view.

Plus the Warriors are in the playoffs!!

See, good news all around.

Since we, as fans, are fixated with rankings, I’ve decided to rank the NBA playoff teams, from worst to first, in order of how they will fare in the upcoming second season of basketball. Following is the first half of that list…

Gone real fast

16. Orlando Magic Every couple of years the Magic slip and slide their way into the seventh or eighth seed in the East only to be completely dismantled. The last such occurrence came in 2003 against Detroit. Tracy McGrady actually led the Magic to a 3-1 advantage in that series before the Pistons locked down and took a methodical three straight, reinventing themselves as the new age “Bad Boys”. Since then they’ve seemed to take pleasure in falling behind in the playoffs only to come storming back against mortified opponents. In my opinion getting swept is actually less humiliating than having an adversary spot you a game or two just so they can mop the floor with you the next four nights. If I’m the Magic, I say, thanks but no thanks, just do what you came here to do, Chauncey. Quick and painless exit for Orlando this year…

15. Washington Wizards Not a whole lot to say here. The season-ending injury to Gilbert Arenas prevented the most-hyped rematch from a year ago from really taking place. True, the Wizards and Cavs will meet in the first round again, but there will be no need for Lebron to drive the baseline for an epic game-winner; no need to walk to the free throw line and ice Gilbert Arenas in Game 6. Nope, without Agent Zero in uniform there won’t be multiple one-point thrillers, nor a pulsating-Game 6. There won’t even be a Game 5. Sorry, Wiz.


Upset early

14. Toronto Raptors 47 wins versus 41 wins. That’s all that justifies the notion that Toronto losing to New Jersey is an upset. So the Raptors won six more games than the Nets and have home-court advantage. Woohoo. Nothing against the Raptors, they are a solid youth-infused team led by a true star in the making, Chris Bosh. Had Chicago beaten New Jersey on the last night of the season the Raptors would have been facing Washington in the first round, and I would have been congratulating Toronto on its first playoff series win since this guy named Vince Carter. Which reminds me…Vinsanity anyone?

Not like last year

13. Los Angeles Lakers Kobe and the Lakers were peaking at this time last season, and surged out to a 3-1 series lead in the first round against Phoenix. Then Steve Nash got angry and the Lakers got juvenile. No matter what, it went down as the most compelling opening round tilt, as the Suns prevailed in seven. This year Kobe has had to drop 40 a game just to keep LA from crumbling down the stretch. Coupled with Amare Stoudemire’s presence in the rematch I don’t see the Lakers winning more than a game this time around. Plus, after three grueling seven game series in the West last year, the Suns now understand they can’t fool around in Round One.

Back…ever-so-quickly

12. Utah Jazz Mainstays in the playoffs during the days of Malone and Stockton, the Jazz had been slowly fading away the last few years. Snatching Carlos Boozer from the Cavs and drafting Deron Williams has helped the Jazz undergo a massive transformation, resulting in 51 wins and another division title to hang in the Delta Center. This will be a team to reckon with for years to come, but in 2007 they have to face a very hungry-Houston team. Both Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming have been patiently awaiting this opportunity for years. The time may be soon for the Jazz, but it’s now for the Rockets.

Formidable first foe

11. Golden State Warriors Lots of intrigue and mystery associated with the Warriors. Here’s what we know: a) Golden State hasn’t been in the playoffs since 1993, b) they are 16-5 over their last 21 games, with Al Harrington making a huge impact once settling in after his trade from Indiana, c) they have won five of the last six games against Dallas, including all three this year, and d) they are playing with absolutely nothing to lose. Question is, how many times can they down the Mavs in the postseason. I say twice. If so, that’s not good news for the defending Western Conference Champs.

Going the distance

10. Denver Nuggets Melo and AI. AI and Melo. It always sounded right, didn’t it? Well now it’s starting to look right as well. No one thought it would be easy, not with Melo suspended for AI’s first month with the Nuggets, not with the marked transition it was going to be for these two megastars to coexist and thrive. Well of late, they’ve done just that. Winners of 10 of 11 entering postseason play, Denver is primed for another run at San Antonio. The Spurs are notorious for slowing teams down, but they’ve never had to reckon with Iverson in the playoffs. Ladies and gentleman, your first Game 7 of the 2007 NBA Playoffs will take place Sunday, May 6th, in San Antonio.

9. Chicago Bulls Beat New Jersey once, avoid Cleveland, Miami, and Detroit until the Eastern Conference Finals. That was the scenario for the Bulls on the last night of the ’07 campaign, and they failed. Now they have to face the defending champs in Round One, and would theoretically have to beat both Detroit and Cleveland to advance to the NBA Finals. But that’s not going to happen. They blew their chance. Can’t mess with karma. In the case of the Bulls karma will be coming in the form of an unrelenting Shaq-diesel, then a crushing dagger from Dwyane Wade in Game 7 of the most thrilling series we’ll see in the first round.

That’s all for now. I’m off to watch the Greatest Rivalry in Sports, aka Sox-Yanks. Back with the rest next week…

Feb 12

NBA Midseason Points

With the 2007 NBA All-Star game on the horizon I thought it would be appropriate to look at the state of affairs in the league. This season has been rich with subplots: streaks (Suns and Mavs), beefs (Nuggets and Knicks), marquee player movement (Allen Iverson and Chris Webber), and one team inching ever so close to a new wing of the NBA Pantheon (hint: 16 championships, 18 losses…and counting). Because “parity” isn’t part of the NBA vocabulary, let’s take a look at some of the principal themes of the 2006-07 NBA season within a context of conferences.Western Conference

Simply put, the West is diesel, and Shaq has been back east for the last three years. The Mavs have won 42 of their last 47 games (a cool .894 clip) while the Suns won 32 of 34 at one point. Pantheon streaks? Absolutely. Both teams have championship-caliber lasting power, but Dallas is clearly a step above of Phoenix because of its defensive capabilities and depth. However, as the Suns have proven the last two years (2006 without Amare Stoudemire), they have the potential to run any team this era has to offer straight out of the playoffs. Steve Nash has been hampered of late and the Suns have fallen off the Mavs pace of 68 wins. Expect Phoenix to run off another 12-15 in a row soon after the All-Star break and make it an epic race for the West’s top seed.

If there weren’t two 65+ win teams in the West, the talk would be all about the balance of excellence throughout the top half of the conference. The Jazz have benefited from Carmelo Anthony’s 15-game suspension stemming from the “MSG Incident”, and have built a lead of seven games over the Nuggets. They’re going to need it, as the Nuggets will make a strong push with A.I. and Melo finally playing together over an extended period of time. I still like the Jazz to take the division with 50-52 wins, barely edging the Nugs, who will be relegated to the bottom half of what will be a fearsome playoff bracket.

Denver will be joined by Kobe’s Lakers on the latter half of the bracket. Bryant has been playing some of the best team basketball of his career (with the least capable supporting cast), remarkably transforming an inexperienced team into a group of young veterans. Both the Nuggets and Lakers will be assuming the identity of that team no one wants to face in the first round. And should the Clippers continue their resurgence, they will combine to form one hell of a first round speed bump for the likes of Phoenix and Dallas.

Amid all these legitimate dark horses in the West lies perhaps the most dangerous pair: Houston and San Antonio. Yao Ming has become what skeptics never believed he could be in this league: dominant. He was averaging 25.9/9.4 before he broke his leg two months ago, and the Rockets have actually been better since his injury. The Spurs, meanwhile, continue to hiccup through the ’07 campaign, but are without a doubt the Patriots of the NBA, and will obviously win their 57 games and become the toughest out in the West (mainly because the Mavs won’t beat them two years in a row).

Eastern Conference

You know things are bad when the most noteworthy storylines involve the weight problems of the defending champions, and the inability of the league’s most historic franchise to score more points than an opponent. For the Heat, it’s simply a case of having too many veterans (see: Antoine Walker and Gary Payton) having already achieved all they need to in their careers, opting for drive-thru instead of practice. The Celtics diagnosis is equally simple: without Paul Pierce the Celtics are a glorified college team.

That said, I still like Miami defending at least it’s Eastern Conference crown. See, that’s what’s glorious about the East. It’s entirely possible to tank half a season (as the Heat basically did last year as well), string some wins together at the end, and go to the Finals. It’s the age-old axiom: if it ain’t broke, why fix it? Here the Heat are, 51 games into the defense of their title, with 25 wins to show, two impact players (Walker and James Posey) having been reprimanded for munchy-syndrome, and sparse amounts of Shaq. Yet they currently sit just four games behind Washington for first place in the Southeast Division.

Who’s gonna tell me the Heat won’t win 46 games, snag the three seed, go into Detroit or Cleveland and take the East again? It’s just that easy when you’re a beast of the least.

On the opposite end of that spectrum sit the Celtics. Their losing/tanking is well-documented, as is the fact that come May 22nd, Danny Ainge will be putting his livelihood into a plastic bubble filled with ping pong balls. To me, it’s worth the trade off. I didn’t get to grow up watching Larry Bird. I thought I was going to grow up watching Reggie Lewis. I ultimately settled for Paul Pierce, as if that was settling.

He’s been everything a superstar could be: talented and cocky, loyal and endearing, not to mention clutch. But he’s never had a big man. And that’s just not fair. In my opinion, if you replaced Antoine Walker with Tim Duncan (as the Celtics had hoped for in their last tango with lottery fate), Paul Pierce would today possess at least one ring, maybe a couple. If you find yourself a doubter, take a look at his 2001-02 season. He played in all 82 games and another 16 in the postseason. In his first playoff run he etched his name into the Celtics record books, alongside the likes of Bird, McHale, Russell, and Cousy. And he did this all after surviving an attempt on his life just three weeks before the season began, in which he was stabbed multiple times.

Let’s face it, Paul Pierce deserves a big man. And with the way everything has gone the last few years, culminating with “the collapse”, I’m willing to take my chances with the lottery…again. If not for Celtic Pride, for Paul.

Now that Greg Oden guy just better freaking declare.