Dan talks to himself about the NBA playoff's

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 14 May 2009 05:50

So the Nuggets are in the Western Conference Finals and will most likely face the Lakers. If I were the Nuggets, I'd find that hotelworker Kobe raped a couple years ago and give her complimentary courtside seats to every home game. Maybe put her by the basket, and then switch her to the other basket at the half so Kobe would have to see her every time he went to the foul line.

BainbridgeShred · Post by **BainbridgeShred** » 14 May 2009 10:55

I wish I was a NBA player so hospitality workers could make accusations against me that legions of haters would pick up and run with years afterwards.

I understand you're probably joking but didn't they find out later through DNA that she had had sex with 7 other people recently, only one of whom was a multi-millionaire, and only one of whom she cried rape against? Besides, even if Kobe did rape some chicken it will never be as a big a slight to NBA fans as Paul Pierce leaving the NBA finals in a wheelchair only to come bouncing out minutes later to the Rocky song.

Anyways, I was glad to see the return of MY LA Lakers two nights ago. Hopefully they don't pull Jekyll on me tonight.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 15 May 2009 04:24

OK, I'm not going to touch the rape topic anymore.

Thanks to last night's games, it looks like we're going to have two Game 7s this weekend! I love Game 7s

This is gonna be the 4th Game 7 the Celtics have played in the last two years. That's crazy.

Obviously, these Game 7s are good news for the Nuggets and the Cavs, since they get more time to rest while their next opponent gets more beat up. The Cavs will have homecourt versus either team that makes the ECF, and will likely beat them pretty handily. I'm expecting a 5 or 6 game ECF that isn't that exciting. Denver on the other hand, will have to start the WCF on the road if the Lakers advance, and in theory that should be a much closer matchup. Homecourt seems especially important in the WCF, because the Lakers have been pretty weak on the road in this year's playoffs.

Pretty much everybody is saying the Lakers will dominate Game 7 because they play at home, and I think they are right. But it's fun for me to indulge in the fantasy that the Rockets might beat them in LA. If they did, that would be one of the biggest playoff upsets ever.

Whatever the case, this year's playoffs feel like they've been more entertaining and fun than most recent ones I can recall.

Rieferman · Post by **Rieferman** » 15 May 2009 05:08

shane battier is the first defensive specialist that I haven't hated. he plays classy, and man is he a good defender. really making kobe work for it.

also looking forward to the game 7's.. finally got to watch a full game last night (celts/orlando). btw, if dwight howard ever learns how to shoot at all, everyone else is in trouble.

bdams19 · Post by **bdams19** » 15 May 2009 09:50

bdams19 wrote:Woo got em all! Let's see if we can do this again:

Next round:

Denver over Dallas (6)
Cleveland over Atlanta (5)
Lakers over Houston (6)
Magic over Celtics (7)

Let's go fake bracket!

BainbridgeShred · Post by **BainbridgeShred** » 15 May 2009 10:31

Personally, I think Nuggets V Cavs would be nearly as interesting as the Kobe/Lebron matchup that's going to happen otherwise.

I'm not sure I buy into the whole "More days between series = better for the team" equation. Afterall, anyone still playing is above 100 games played since the start of the season, and a lot of guys left played in the Olympics this year too. So I'm not sure if an extra break of maybe just 1 or 2 days actually helps heal any injuries or soreness, or instead only fucks with your psycological momentum of wanting to go out there every night and dominate.

I agree that this has been a fun playoff's. I think part of it is just a general revival of the NBA, getting over the malaise that was 98-06. You can no longer watch a game and say that the guys aren't trying on defense. You cannot watch a game and say that they aren't moving the ball around on offense. I think part of the reason is the sucsess of teams like the Spurs and Pistons, who despite most people not finding their style enjoyable, really showed the NBA THE way to play basketball. Also, a new influx of humble players (Wade, Lebron, Rose, ect ad nasuem) really brought the game back to its roots, and took a lot of the older players with them.

Speaking of Rose, the emergence of a new generation of elite point guards has been my favorite storyline this postseason. Besides the show that Rose and Rondo put on, Aaron Brooks (Who I've been watching since he was a pup) has almost single handedly been giving it to the #1 seed. Two years ago it was the same story with Paul and Williams. Can anyone remember 2004 when Stephon Marbury and Allen Iverson were our starting guards on the national team? Laugh, no one knew who would play the point in the coming years, and look at it now.

Now if we could only do something about these refs.... Oh and the draft lottery.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 15 May 2009 11:10

I agree that the officiating has been pretty terrible, in the West games especially.

BainbridgeShred wrote: I'm not sure I buy into the whole "More days between series = better for the team" equation. Afterall, anyone still playing is above 100 games played since the start of the season, and a lot of guys left played in the Olympics this year too. So I'm not sure if an extra break of maybe just 1 or 2 days actually helps heal any injuries or soreness, .

Actually, I don't really look at the time off as a way to heal, so much as a way to avoid injuries/suspensions. The way I see it, the more games you play, the higher the risk somebody gets injured or suspended, especially in the playoffs, where series tend to get chippier the longer they go on.

Rieferman · Post by **Rieferman** » 15 May 2009 11:15

i think time to heal is part of it.. personally, i just finished 6 months of crazy amounts of manual labor that has left me really pretty injured in a lot of ways - after 2.5 days of rest, I'm so improved already. After 5 days, it will be like it never happened.

I think a tough 7 game series is like running a marathon.. Whereas an easy series is like running around the block.

BainbridgeShred · Post by **BainbridgeShred** » 17 May 2009 18:23

So we've got our conference finals.

Bynum played really well today I thought. That's going to have to continue in the next (2?) series.

Boston's eliminated it looks like. I have mixed feelings. Can't decide who would be a better challenger for the Cav's, but I think it's the Magic anyways. I just like rooting against Boston and seeing them get run over by Lebron would've been fun. \

Fuck the cinema

BainbridgeShred · Post by **BainbridgeShred** » 19 May 2009 20:17

George Karl sounded ready to tear up

bdams19 · Post by **bdams19** » 20 May 2009 13:36

George Karl f'd up big time when he gave the ball to Anthony Carter for the inbound and NOT calling time out when clearly no one was open and the 6'10" Lamar Odom was not going to give up an easy pass. He knows that it was his fault.

That said, I forgot to do my predictions.

Cavs over Magic in 6 games
Lakers over Nuggets in 7

I really want to pick the Nuggets to win over the Lakers but the fact that JR Smith might not be 100% is frightening to their chances. Melo really showed up in Game 1 though and his physicality is going to affect Kobe on both ends of the floor.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 21 May 2009 19:57

All 3 games so far in the conference finals have been fantastic, coming down to the last couple minutes. Super-entertaining.

If I were a Lakers fan, I'd be pretty concerned. They almost lost the first game on the their homecourt, and now they've lost the second game, also on homecourt. 3 of the next 5 games will be in Denver, and Kobe is playing heavy minutes.

bdams19 · Post by **bdams19** » 23 May 2009 10:43

EPIC FINISH! LEBRONNNNNNNNNN

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 26 May 2009 19:49

Wow. LeBron is in trouble. Magic deserved this one...really good series.

Just for the record, the only time I can remember a team coming back from 1-3 was when my Suns beat the Lakers back in the first round in 2005. So it's possible, but I wouldn't bet money on it.

BainbridgeShred · Post by **BainbridgeShred** » 26 May 2009 20:23

Late in the fourth quarter of tonights game Lebron gave Michael Petrius an elbow to the forehead, that had it been Kobe throwing the 'bow, would have almost unquestionably gotten him a flagrant foul and a sarcastic remark from some footbagger in New York. But it wasn't Kobe, it was Lebron, so instead he gets a remark from someone in Seattle instead, and of course, no flagrant foul. The difference? Lebron's elbows are double the size of Kobe's! Michael Petrius took it like a champ though and wasn't on the floor long. Michael Petrius both defensively and offensively has been killing it; a complete fucking freak.

Which brings me to my next point. I love all these Magic. I don't think LA or Denver will beat them. Turkoglu is, in my opinion, in the "unguardable" category, Rashard Lewis is the only man in the world with balls smaller than Turkoglu, and Dwight Howard is slowly developing into a the type of player I'd always wanted to see out of him. Rafer Alston is exactly who he needs to be, despite missing a ton of three's late in the game after Stan Van had asked him if he was too tired to play anymore to which he of course said no. Courtney Lee is also totally fearless and in the Petrius category of being a fucking freak. Most importanly JJ Reddick is where I've always wanted to see him: On the bench.

Which is sad because I was just kind of starting to become a Cav's fan this season. Now I get to go back to hating on Lebron. He was money on those free throw's tonight and that last made three was sweet too. I definitely felt the last shot of his going in too, would've been nuts.

Oh yeah Orlando has filthy defense too. Two versatile point forwards also. And now finally a Dwight Howard who is for the most part a consistent player and an improved free throw shooter. Though I don't understand what happened to him after the first half. He started the game super hot I saw but then I had to do other shit. Picked the game back up at around 8:00 in the fourth and watched him do nothing until overtime, where he again played in the Courtney Lee/Michael Petrius category of like a fucking freak. Am I being misled by the 2nd/3rd quarter stat line? Someone fill me in

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 27 May 2009 03:47

BainbridgeShred wrote:Two versatile point forwards also.

Turkoglu and... ?

BainbridgeShred · Post by **BainbridgeShred** » 27 May 2009 09:02

Well there's only one other player on the team standing at 6'10 with an amazingly clutch jumper and good ball handling skills. And even though Petrius is definitely a 2 guard he plays like a 3 a lot of times so you could maybe add him into the mix.

bdams19 · Post by **bdams19** » 27 May 2009 09:23

The Cavs were getting outplayed but were still up most of the game... I wish Lebron missed that last free throw because Verajao was in position for the tip in with .5 seconds left and it would have put them up by 1

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 27 May 2009 10:12

I guess we have different ideas about what a point forward is. My informal test to see whether I consider a player a point forward is: "if the point guards on my team were injured, would this player bring the ball up and initiate the offense more than 60% of the time?" If the answer is yes, then I consider them a point forward. If the answer to that question is yes even when the point guards are NOT injured, then it's even clearer.

Basically, a point forward needs to be a forward who has court vision and passes as well as a point guard. I'm thinking players like Pippen, Bird, Turkoglu, and LeBron. I feel like in his heyday, Brad Miller was a point-center.

Minor point, but interesting nonetheless.

BainbridgeShred · Post by **BainbridgeShred** » 27 May 2009 19:50

I remember plenty of times in Seattle where Ray Allen would be out, and even though he's a 2 we ran our entire offense through him. Instead of letting Daniels or Ridnour take the ball up the court it was Lewis and he always did pretty well.

My favorite play in all of basketball to watch is when Kobe goes up for a completely wide open three, and as everyone stands around and waits for it to go in, he sneaks in a dime to Odom. All the haters need to take note.