Wow, whata great couple of game 1s. I hope the rest of the two series are like that. The Orl-Cle game had me on the edge fo my seat the entire 2nd half. Great stuff.
Too bad Chauncey couldn't steal that game one. :D
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word.
just watched lakers denver gm2.
i think this series is exactly like the houston series in the sense that if the lakers played as hard as their opponents, they would dominate. but for some reason, they insist on making it close (too close i'm sure if you axe jeremy).
i dunno, i give denver a lot of credit because i really think they improved a ton lately.
but really, if the lakers weren't just plain lazy for 20 minutes of that game, it would have been a blowout, much like more than one of the games they played with houston.
not to mention... did anyone else feel like la got totally jobbed by those refs? it seemed like their were an unusually high % of blown calls for the home team in that game, right? like, right outta the gate and all the way to the end...
anyway, wouldn't that be bad ass if orlando and denver upset these a-holes?! i find myself rooting for both underdogs even though they are clearly less talented teams. how the smell does orlando have cleveland's # so bad? i heard stu scott say that orlando is 3-1 against cleveland this year. that seems strange, having watched both teams play a lot. i dont feel like orl is way better, but 3-1 is a pretty strong track record..
and denver?! marquez is on the edge of his seat! he went to one of the first round games, and he's been waiting for like 4 years now for them to make some noise..
I jsut watched the game too.
I know i saw a decent amount of bad calls. i dont' remember which way they all went though. I do remember a couple bad calls in LAs favor though.
How the refs missed JR smith running through the lane seems impossible, though. How can you not notice something happening in the one place everyone is looking? And what the hell was Smith thinking anyway?
LA mishandled the ball a bit and got suckered into fouling Chauncey down the stretch. I say suckered cause chauncey makes players take bad fouls. Like, he'll get a shoulder by a guy, then stop, so the guy runs into him. And (almost) everytime chauncey goes to the rim, it is cause he sees a guy out of place he thinks he can pick up a foul on. He did those couple things a few times down the stretch. I think without putting Billups on the line and without the late turnovers, the bad calls wouldn't have mattered. Though, isn't' that how i always see it? ;)
Yeah, Orlando and Denver would be awesome and a huge surprise (though not as huge of a surprise now as it was b4 this round).
3 of 4 teams have never won it all
Chuck picked both Orlando and Denver. I actually thought the Denver one was a brave choice, but, not necessarily foolish. I really expected CLE to destroy Orlando though.
And not because of the last two rounds. I think we can agree the Det series was a big joke. And the atl series was a slightly smaller joke. Detroit, though, didnt' even want to win.
I just thought orlando lacked toughness and intelligence. They were soft every time detroit played them, even this year. But, they have been tough physically and mentally the last few games. So, props to them.
I do gotta say, the non-lebron james cavs were effin horrendous. just horrendous. If they can play well again, things should be different.
I been really amped for Denver too. My love for Chauncey has basically made me a big denver fan. I want to see chauncey make it to the CFs next year, as well. Then, he would tie the record. the other guys who did it all were on the lakers in the 80s. I think being the leader of the two different teams in 8 CFs in a row is more impressive:D (of course, LA didn't jsut appear in CFs, they won championships, so....hehe. But still, I'm just talking about this particular record:)
Go C Bill!
thats true, that jr smith shit was awful.
and you are right, the bad calls shouldn't have mattered. if la would have just played at even 80% for the whole game, it would have been a blowout.
and yea, those non-lebron cavs looked like doodoo. when big z is off it seems like the rest of em have a hard time. and big z seems to have a really hard time with dwight. maybe this has a lot to do with the 3-1 record stu scott mentioned?
thats awesome that chuck picked both orl and den. figures. i'm down. f it. go den/orl!
I just watched game 2 cle-orl. These CF rounds are really making me love basketball right now. Last possession games in all four games? Big shots. insane
When Lebron's final shot was in the air, i thought his body language conveyed he didn't think it was going in. And then he looked shocked as shit when it did. great stuff. Though, I hate varejao, so i wanted that miracle shot to clank.
No one is mentioning this on TNT (yet, i got inside on in the background), but Orlando should have been more careful that there was, at most, negligible time left after Hedo's shot.
I got one question. Since when is it legal to bean a guy in the back with the ball? Haha. Talking about, of course, mo williams in the first quarter right in front of the ref.
Props to the refs for actually calling Lebron on one of his infamous travels.
"Hey, I'll tell you what. I don't have a college degree, but I got a lot of people workin' for em got 'em." -Charles Barkley
I'm not sure that LA will win this series. I do think that the brilliant effort the Rockets showed will help the Lakers but I'm not sure it's enough. The mile-high advantage & the fact that JR hasn't hit 6 monster 3pt shots is scary.
This one's for you Tom: Chauncey is bitch - he flops as much as Varajao but nobody wants to admit it because he's respected (& doesn't have shirley temple lochs that flop with the rest of him). I thought they were gonna do something about the flopping crap? At the start of the season, didn't they mention handing out Technicals more for the acting BS? Another theory of mine: the real reason Denver is better is not all Chauncey but more with Melo working harder after his stint w/ the Olympic team (a la LeBron). Take that!!! :)
(not sure how much I believe it but had to get in a dig on Mr. Big Freethrow while I had the chance)
So... if ORL & DEN make it to the Finals, who's favored?
along the prediction lines, the bracket is pretty interesting now right?
If it's LAL-CLE & LAL wins - Shasher takes the prize. If CLE wins, Jimi walks with it.
But... the only person who predicted anyone other than those teams is Chad. He had ORL losing to LA so it could get mixed up a bit if they do beat CLE (worth 4 points).
Also, if Shasher wins, I think Jake & I would tie for 2nd. We might have to modify the # of games option to include a score of the final game? That's a little premature given the look of these series'.
This may be the best overall playoffs in many years? First round, usually a snoozer, actually had 2 game 7s and an upset in the I-35 series. The 2nd round had 2 game 7s (and could have had a couple more games if the ref hadn't blown game 3). It's early in the Conf Finals, but both series look like they're going to be awesome.... I love this game!
Chauncey definitely does not flop as much as varejao. It is not even close. Chauncey initiates contact on offense, usually leans, sometimes kicks, but not flopping.
And there are many more leaners than floppers in the NBA. I definitely have more disregard for the floppers. To pretend you are a 85 pound little girl on a constant basis is shameful, especially for a big. :D
Is Melo's improved work ethic the reason the pistons fell apart after the trade, as well? makes sense.
I didn't' mean to say he doesn't flop. Just not often. Not enough to warrant the title "flopper." there are really only two people in the NBA that i harp on for flopping. Of course, i am sure some crappy teams that i never watch may have some.
I actually had this thought during game one: But, if everyone played defense like Varejao, there would be 5 people always laying on the floor. I love this game.
haha that is hilarious.
i used to think chauncey was a bitch, but now i really kind of like him. he's definitely a flopper (although my stance on flopping is prolly unusual-i say if the league rewards flopping, then flop. but i digress) in my book, and also he definitely made denver better. but, detroit has been nothing but a lot of talk and tayshaun prince for a while. maybe taking him away was the straw that broke the pistons back or something, but it's not like they were a championship calibur team right before he got traded. lets be real.
i like tom's point earlier though, about chauncey drawing fouls. he's very good at that. i think it kind of goes hand in hand with his flopping tendencies. kinda like manu-draws fouls with the best of em, and in doing so ends up flopping some. like, towards the end of game 3 (LAL DEN) when chauncey made that 4 point play off flopping when kobe didn't foul him.. that was chauncey's superb floppiness that got em that point. (although, can anyone really take the floppy crown off verajao's head? he's the MASTER!)
david stern needs to read our blog and do something about all the flopping. i hate it as much as the next guy really, but it's dumb to not flop if the league will reward you for flopping, right?
dammit, did i make this a post about flopping? shit.
umm.. conference finals are awesome! yay conference finals!
lets be real. Who said Det were a championship caliber team before the trade?
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i tend to think of a "flop" kinda literally. Which is basically, "throwing oneself." So when an offensive player creates contact i don't really think 'flop.' But when a 7 foot 300 pound man is sent flying by a guy 2/3 his size, yeah, "flop" is what i think.
That being said, you are right; chauncey flopped on that 4 point play. I am just having semantic difficulties.
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really though, how come mo wiliams was allowed to bean that guy with the ball? I had the volume down and music playing during the first quarter so i was pretty confused. Did they have a reason or were they as confused as I?
no, the announcers were just as confused as you and me. i have no idea how he got away with that crap.
and yea, semantics is a mother f'er. alls i'm saying is it wasnt a huge difference in my eyes to go from a crappy detroit team with chauncey to a crappy detroit team without him. thats all. i'm not trying to put words in your mouth.
My views on Chauncey were a bit tongue-in-cheek. I respect the hell out of him (and more so this year) and would love him on my side but since he's not, he's the one I hate the most right now (hate is a show of respect too right?). He's definitely not a flopper like Varajao. Jake nailed it, he's a lot more like Ginobili. They don't flop around on defense, they jerk their heads back when they attack on offense, and they get free throws a more often because of it. Fish does the same thing.
I started laughing out loud on the 4pt play - thinking exactly of this thread.
The only time I've felt such pent up energy watching the Lakers, since they beat SA in '04, was '06 against the Suns and last year against Boston (only first 2 games really).
How about that. LA bigs were finally Large Dudes for a game. I want La to lose; but i like to see teams playing the right way:D
I always feel like the the play style of NBA bigs is generally shrinking.
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Marc Jackson -
i don't know if he'll ever get a head coach job. Any organization with some sense, can see pretty clearly that he has of average intelligence. He may be able to coach a perennial loser to improvement. But, coaches tend to be pretty smart, and he'd get owned against them in big games/playoffs.
I don't mean to pick on him, just every game we get him and van gundy, he says at least something that is dumb, and obviously so. I don't mean like a not-so-funny joke. I mean something like being way off on basic basketball theory.
i feel like a bad person now.
you are a bad person. a hilarious bad person.
i came up with a drinking game that i never got to play with anyone but that i think would be funny and get you wasted.
drink every time mark jackson says the word "basketball"
he really likes that word
Haha. I like it!
Mark Jackson actually reminds me a lot of Doc Rivers. Doc was an extremely average coach until he got (all in one year) - KG, RayRay, & Thibodeau (and a maturing Rondo). I'm sure someone will give him the opportunity some day, but when it happens, I think he'll have to accept his role as a leader/motivator and dig deep through his ex-teammate rolodex for the real strategists (or just hope for a miracle like Boston received). [did i ever drop the story about when I met Doc? His Wayport internet was flaking out in his penthouse in NOLA (He was coaching Breaky & the magic and were in town playing the Hornets). We happened to be there for the weekend doing break/fix work so the GM called me up to fix it. I didn't know much about his playing career at the time so I just asked if he thought the hotel was sabotaging his research to help the Hornets out - he didn't think it was very funny...)
As for the Lakers; they've had spurts of looking good, but that's the first game in a while that I can remember them making a concerted effort to guard the rim. Odom went off (on both ends) & even Gasol played up to my expectations defensively. He always logs a deceptive number of blocks but never really puts forth the same effort on the defensive end that he's willing to on offense; he was working hard down there last game though.
Flopping topic; ran across this article: LINKShoulda guessed a defender like Battier would call out the offensive flops! love.that.guy.
Orlando side note: I remember Phil Jackson getting laughed at a little at the start of the playoffs for his answer to the "Kobe or LeBron?" question. I couldn't find a direct quote but it was something like: "If I had to start a team with one of them? Dwight."
i started the game like 50-60 minutes after tip. And i am already caught up and ignoring the blowout:( LA maybe playing their best game, and denver playing their worst. Who plays bad on their birthday? Bad defense is jsut annoying to watch.
You know why LA had so few freethrows (well, the first few periods anyway)? You don't get fouled when their are no opposing players within 5 feet of your shot.
Oh yeah, and hugely absent were all their double cuts(i don't really know if that is how "double cuts" is used). They have been having tons of plays were they hit a cutter, and then, he hit a cutter baseline for a dunk. I have not see that once this game. Just crappy movement off the ball.
And Chauncey, others too, had several errant passes.
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That's a great Jackson quote. Like i said in a recent thread. I would start my team with either a PG or C. So i'd take chris paul or Dwight.
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Van gundy was about half off on his "cat that ate the canary" understanding.
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nice doc story:D
Denver had a chance to really make an imprint in peoples minds, even losing the series. I think this fizzle out kinda ruined that.
In the end, they didn't look as good as houston, a team without ow and breaky. Because houston was smart and played good defense all series.
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Only 8 teams have come back from 3-1. But, it is usually in a series not too dissimilar from the CLE-ORL series.
yeah yeah, cle has no answer. for turk and rashad. But orl has no answer for Lebron, and he is a much bigger question.
I agree with the tnt dudes, that lebron has to do too much, and it woudl be tough as hell to win a series playing like that.
But, ya know. Dwight gets in foul trouble every game. And, while he is their best player, they don't go to him, so much, down the stretch. I suppose cause he misses foul shots and gets stripped. So down the stretch It is like lebron vs turk or rashad kinda, kinda.
I'm rambling, yeah; all i'm saying is i wouldn't be shocked if cle won series. surprised? yes.
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Denver better hope Mark "basketball" Jackson ends up the new coach of LA next year. Phil still has karl's number.
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