f13.net

So... I live in San Antonio. I'm a Spurs fan. Wouldn't mind seeing them kick everyone's ass yet again.

But... This might be the best chance to see another Lakers vs Celts series. Wouldn't mind seeing that as well.

Anyone else watching?

I'm cheering on the Cavs. So, far the Cavs v. Wizards series has been great (at least from my side). Listening to the Wizards talking trash and then getting owned when it comes to game time. And yet they still have the nerve to show-boat when they are down by 16 points. It's hilarious.

The Cavs also really pulled together that last game and "the trade" finally looked like it was going to work. I'm not sure if it was a fluke or if they finally figured something out. If it was a fluke and they go back to the LeBron-dribble-for-15-seconds-and-then-create offense they will get owned by the Celtics. If they play like they did on Monday though the Celtics/Cavs series could actually be interesting.

I can't care about the playoffs this early.  Talk to me in August when we get to the conference championships. 

The NBA and NHL playoffs need an overhaul.  How can they really be called playoffs when they invite nearly all of the teams?

16 teams, with a league total of 30 (I think?). Not nearly all the teams.


I think the leagues (both NHL and NBA AND MLB) could use a rehaul as far as total season games go though. It's too freaking much. I liked the 99 nba season when a strike occured and the season was cut in half. Only problem with that is that every team basically only got to play each other once. The way it is now, every team plays each other about 3 times (some are limited to only two matchups). Cut it down to where it's two matchups overall, and that'd be great.

Agreed, they need to go to a baseball system. 3 Division winners in each conference, and 1 wild card.

In the NBA it would be Boston, Detroit, Orlando, and Cleveland in the East. It would be the Lakers, Utah, New Orleans, and San Antonio in the West.

One of the problems in that system is that this year is so funky with the West just killing the East in wins.

Exactly what I had in mind.  Thank you for that.  Having over half of your teams in the playoffs smacks WAY too much of a money grab. 

Even if they don't change that they need to do a better job on the scheduling. It takes almost 2 weeks for each series to finish anymore. That stretches the playoffs out over almost 2 months. Way too long. Playoffs started April 19th and might not finish until June 19th. Freaking ridiculous.

Between the Sonics blowing unholy ass, the fact that they are likely leaving for OKC (good luck with the NBA financial model in that city, btw), and the utter decline in the quality of the watchability of the NBA in general, I haven't seen a single second of a playoff game, and likely won't unless I am not in charge of the remote.

How's THAT for a sentence?  :uhrr:

I'd be bitter too. That's bullshit about the Sonics.


The league itself has some of the best games going on ever, but as I said, it's too damn long. If it's unwatchable, it's for that.

Please to not be fucking with our NHL Playoffs.


That being said, I generally can't stand basketball, but will follow Nash and the Suns

Once the Suns are done (which should be soon), the playoffs are pretty much done for me.  Although, this is the one time of the year I actually watch.  It's really hard to care about a 82 game season.

Ditto for baseball but insert Diamondbacks for Suns. 

As an aside, the home town support is a more recent development for me.  Growing up none of my favorite teams were local.

Is this like a Canadian thing or what?


Just please don't tell me you like the "exciting" way the Suns play.

Nash is from Victoria on Vancouver Island. He's the only NBA player Canadians are allowed to like. (Torontonians don't count as Canadian)

I'm sorry, but PHX has had it.

I really didn't expect the Spurs to be as good this year, but they still have that "thing"... Y'know, that thing, that zone that they get into often that makes them capable of completely obliterating any team in the league. Sometimes those games resemble a mock Globetrotters show. Last night was one of them.

The Raptors are awesome, you shut up! (Well, not THAT awesome, down 3-1 in the series I believe   :cry: )


As to the playoffs for the NBA/NHL. I Can't speak much for the NBA, but for the NHL, they're more or less the only games actually worth watching, even if you don't have a horse in the race.


A Detroit/Colorado game in the regular season? No thanks.

In the Playoffs?  :popcorn:


All the players just play better. Harder, faster, stronger. I wish you could replicate it for the regular season, but I'll be damned if I know how.

In case anyone is interested in "the drama" between the Cavs & Wizards here's Jay-Z's rap:

http://realtalkny.rawkus.com/2008/04/topic/artists/jay-z/jay-z-blow-the-whistle-deshawn-stevenson-diss/


Then yesterday some DC rapper named Pantene, err sorry that's ProV responded:

http://www.zshare.net/audio/1119889428557c2c/

The Raptors are stupid. Not awesome. Yeah, yeah, they managed to recover and make it to the playoffs, but a team shouldn't be forgiven for that kind of mismanagement. T-Mac and VC on the same team? Come the fuck on!


Chris Paul is no joke. I highly doubt Tony Parker is going to look the same as he did in the PHX series.

Celtics are gonna beat the Hawks ONLY because they have home field. I expect it to go to 7.

That doesn't bode well for Boston against the Cavs, really.

This will be the best semi-finals lineup in years.

For basketball... Yes.

For me as a Cavs fan... No.

Pistons - Cleveland's rivals. Probably the most hated team in the playoffs for all Cleveland fans.
Celtics - Just eliminated Cleveland and are seeming to be VERY over-rated. Not only can they not win on the road they are getting beaten easily and playing tight games at home.

Lakers - I hate Kobe, sure he's a great basketball player but as a person he's complete slime.
Spurs - Beat Cleveland in the finals last year... Enough said.


Add in the latest Donaghy news on even more fixed games and I think I might be done with the NBA for this year since there is no good outcome that can possibly happen in the playoffs or otherwise.

I will watch again next year though since the NBA loves LeBron and will eventually rig the playoffs so Cleveland can pull a championship. The Lakers vs. Celtics was too good of a story for the NBA to pass it up this year.

The typical setup (since sal cap was enforced years back) is that any given team is basically limited to two star players at best. The Celts stand out because they've managed to afford 3 stars (hell, sometimes just two is hard enough). They could easily win games with just Garnett and Pierce, but Allen put them over the top. So that's why they get attention...And why they win. There's no conspiracy. It's a freakin' unbelievable lineup.

And you see what they're able to do when Allen fucks up too... They can still beat the Cavs. Take him away, and Garnett and Pierce still outnumber Lebron's scoring (sometimes Pierce can even match it by himself). While Lebron is surrounded by roleplayers (granted Big Ben is the shit... but he's still a roleplayer).

Second rule of thumb is that you don't win championships without a dominant big man. Only Jordan broke this rule -- but so far, Lebron hasn't. No matter how good he is on his own, if his team has no answer for Tim Duncan especially, then they aren't going to win any rings.

Only problem with that is they were supposed to destroy the Hawks and beat the Cavs easily. Not go to 7 games against both.

The playoffs are weird! That Hawks series was an anomaly.  :oh_i_see:

The Cavs aren't going to go down easily either way. Lebron might be the only major offensive force on that team, but what a force it is. If he had his Pippen, they'd be pretty unstoppable.

Pippen was pretty awesome once he stopped playing with Michael and had to stand on his own... er... nevermind.

Lebron is a great player, but he lacks the physical gifts of Michael, Magic, or even Koby.  Sadly, you still see him making terrible decisions on the court as well.  He still has a few years to show what he's capable of.  He just hasn't peaked yet. 

He's only 23! That would be 99% of NBA players' rookie age (after getting out of college). He's already taken his team to the finals once... Even if they did get sweeped, it's pretty amazing what he's already done. Kobe only managed it that early with Shaq. Garnett, another out of h.s. player, is only having a chance at it now.

He's great on a purely athletic/physical level. That isn't the problem, nor is what wins games. A lot of players have that, and don't amount to anything. Jordan had those things right out of the gate too, but it took him awhile to win championships (in his words, he said he was never complete until he learned what true teamwork was from Magic, and what fierce competitiveness was from Bird). Kobe's just learning those two now... and Lebron already has them (he was already an excellent point guard right from the start..so the teamwork thing is there. And I think he's about as competitive as he's ever going to be at this point too). What he needs now is a true wingman (a 20-25 a night scorer like he is.. Not a Ben Wallace).

Like I said.

See, we agree.

Yeah, pretty much.  :-) I just disagree on the physical gifts bit.

Take a look at Amare Stoudemire -- gifted with more physical gifts than probably anyone.

But he's stupid. Hasn't changed or learned a damn thing since his first year.

I'm pretty damn impressed with Lebron as a person to be honest.  He came into the league young, had great success early, and still manages to keep his head on straight.  Be interesting to see where he is in another 5 years. 

I pretty much hate the NBA, but I will watch LeBron. Not just because he's an amazing talent, but yes, he's got his head on right. He's never selfish, he's never a punk and he's never made it all about him. And he so carries that team. I think if he just had a CONSISTENT guy who could notch 15 points a night, the team would own. He has decent guys around him, they just aren't consistent. When Pippen and Jordan were together, you could count on Pippen most nights. LeBron doesn't have a guy you can count on that consistently.

True. Danny Ferry went hard after Michael Redd but he resigned with the Bucks. Rumor has it that he's not happy there now so Ferry might still try to swing a deal to get him in Cleveland. Doubt they could massage the salary cap that much though.

I hate that people hate the NBA for that...


Considering that the team that keeps winning championships in recent years is probably the most square team ever built (Spurs). Duncan is about as vibrant as Mr. Spock. Theoretically, he shouldn't offend anyone.

Many top tier players and teams worth watching are in the same boat. Nash is a freakin' ex-Canadian soccer player, for crissakes. Chris Paul is just a pure baller -- he has no other personality besides what you see on the court. Anyone who plays for Utah is, by association, Mormon. Kobe has tried to his damnedest to be nothing than what he is in that Lakers uniform as well. So he fucked a white woman. So the fuck what.

Not everyone is a Ron Artest. Hardly anyone is.

The Spurs are SO BORING to watch. Yet they keep winning because of how boring they play. And the guys who are exciting are either in the thug category, or on teams where they are really the only good thing happening (LeBron).

Kobe is a fucktard. How many times has he asked to be traded this year? Then when they are winning, he's "I LOVE LA!"

The fucktard quotient in the NBA is high.

The Spurs are playing half court basketball. It's the same gamestyle that just about all winning teams have won with. Jackson's triangle Bulls and Lakers, 80's Celtics, Rockets, Pistons.. The only championship team that didn't play that way was Magic's Lakers -- and even they weren't on the fastbreak as much as what ignorant fuck modern ritalin fans with loser teams clamor for. They had a 40 yr old Kareem to slow things down. The other championship team like that goes all the way back to the 60's, with the Celts -- but again, it was a lot slower than what a modern fan would want, since that team was centered on a big Bill Russell -- with a fast break created purely through slow, rough play on the defensive side - and a lot of fighting for offensive rebounds.

If you find the halfcourt boring, then you don't like basketball. The Spurs keep winning because they are "boring"?? They win because they simply take advantage of the game's fundamentals more than anyone else right now -- instead of trying some utterly pointless flashy shit that doesn't work and doesn't win. Barring two unique examples, no one wins any other way than strategizing on the halfcourt, with good players in the post.

Playing fast and small only works in college these days because there are no big men, and there's a short ass 3 pt line. You can load the court with nothing but fast moving shooters, and one lumbering "body", with no smarts, in the center position. But that shit doesn't apply in the NBA. And many of those top players from college amount to fuck in the league. They end up learning nothing in the longrun by being encouraged about what's "boring" or not, and the league's pool of good draftees gets poorer and poorer because of it.

Watching the spurs execute is a treat if you ask me; its just pure good, smart basketball. The lakers nowadays are capable of some amazing plays though...

This may, in fact, be quite true. I'm not going to deny it.


By boring, I mean supremely efficient. And against lesser teams, it's really boring to watch. They have some really good players, but no real marquee guy. Parker can drain 3's but they just lack... zazz.  :awesome_for_real: I'm in no way saying that they shouldn't be playing that way, or the league should change things to discourage that type of play. But don't ask me to watch it, because I just really don't like to see it.

But again, I may not like basketball. I was raised on Magic/Bird matchups, and sometime after Jordan started winning all those championships, I just lost interest in basketball.

Duncan is, basically, the marquee guy. When he retires, he'll go down as the greatest power forward of all time. Hell, he already is... Malone and Barkley never did what he's already done multiple times. And McHale is the very guy that Duncan modeled his game after -- except Duncan's better and doesn't need Bird.

He doesn't have "zazz" though. I'll agree with that. Nor do the Spurs as a whole. This is still David Robinson's team somehow, even though he's been long gone.

[edit] Damn, how could I forget this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu1Wz5JQEz8&feature=related (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu1Wz5JQEz8&feature=related)

One of the funniest calls ever. Tim Duncan gets ejected out of a game...For laughing. The ref wasn't used to the guy actually displaying emotion, and so he gave him a technical.

Lack of zazz indeed. So much so that if you even display a little now, you'll get booted from the game.

I always love the contrast between players and refs in the NBA.


Giant  Man vs. Tiny  Man, with ultimately the Tiny Man holding all the power.


It's like Napoleons wet dream  :oh_i_see:

Now THAT was ridiculous. That looked like a ref showing his ass.

The Last NBA Cowboy? (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs2008/columns/story?columnist=adande_ja&page=Horry-080527)

J.A. Adande makes an arguement in favor of  Robert Horry's future Hall of Fame status. I believe he'll make the cut. My favorite players have always been the "other guys" like Kerr, Kukoc, and Hornacek, so I have a soft spot for Horry even though I don't watch as much NBA as I used to.

Big Shot Rob. Hell yes, he deserves hall of fame status. Probably one of the best 6th men ever... And definitely one of the clutchiest players.


I can't believe what happened tonight (if anyone watched LA vs SA). 2 seconds, 2 points behind, Robert's wide open for a 3... And... Nada. No pass given to him. Fail.  :?

It would've been sweet to have LA taste their own medicine  :awesome_for_real:

I live in Sacramento.  FUCK the Lakers!  After Sac and GS go down, San Antonio is my team.

I want to see SA vs Detroit in the championship series.

Joey Crawford is a retarded dipshit with a Napoleon complex.

DEEEEEEETROIT BASKETBALL

I live in Flint, pretty close to there and it is nice to have 2 teams kickin' ass in the D.

These Celtics aren't as good as the Pistons, but I think it will take 7 for the Pistons to finish em off. Horrible officiating IMO. They seem to want Celtics to win, as probably most of the NBA fans do! 6 years in the conference finals in a row, thats pretty sweet.

Just quoting myself again after the rigging that got the Lakers into the playoffs. The NBA is just too easy for the officials to decide the outcome of games. There's pretty much a foul somewhere just about every trip down the court so all the discretion goes to the officials to set the flow of the game.

I just hope the NBA rigs it in Cleveland's favor before LeBron heads to NY so we can finally end the drought.

Hmm! Even though I love my Spurs, I can't find much to complain about the referees.... Kobe is playing phenomenally this year, and Jackson finally has a lineup where the Triangle can work again. That, and they were simply more hungry than San Antonio was.

With a 4-1 margin you can't say it was the refs.

I love watching these lakers play. I just think that when you combine so many players who are smart offensively, can all pass and move + triangle offense = heaven.
Not a perfect team by any stretch of the imagination but generally a joy to watch imho.

Ummm... actually it was the NBA that said it was the refs that cost the spurs the game not me. There is a big difference between going into game 5 with the series tied 2-2 than with the series at 3-1.

One could say the same thing the other way around though... Kobe only went to the line literally a handful of times during the whole series. They didn't call any fouls for him.

Granted, that was part of Spurs strategy to try not to foul him as much as possible... But there were still plenty of times that he did get fouled, and didn't get any calls.

No Spurs, no Pistons.  What more could a guy ask for?  Ohh yah, not so goddamn long of a lay off.  The playoffs really lose all momentum with this.

Edit: as for the hubbub with game 4?  So.. we're all clairvoyant?  No guarantee Barry hits those free throws.  No guarantee Spurs win Overtime. Yes, they got hosed on that call.  It happens.  Move on, Spurs fans, your team is too old.

I loved the comment about Bruce Bowen being Edward Scissorhands. The guy's defensive IQ and hand/arm quickness are off the charts. You watch him closely and you realise that he's always doing something thats nearly a foul and he is real smart about it. I would have hated to be a ref during the Spurs/Lakers series; impossible job.

I don't carry about the bum foul in game 4. I'd rather blame Barry for not passing to Horry. That's the real problem. He recognized that the play imploded -- but he panicked because of it. That implosion created an open Robert Horry.

Lakers/Celtics might be the only championship I'd ever watch outside of something with Dallas or Atlanta in it. Personally, go Celtics. I'm really sick of seeing LA or the Spurs in the finals every year.

Get used to it. As much I like the Celts, Kobe is going to crush them.

I...disagree!

Apparently, everybody does.

Random dude earlier: Dude, you sucking Kobe's cock or what?

Random dude's friend: Harharhar! Kobe steak! He's eating Kobe steak!

If you ask me its probably indicative of the team's quality that the Lakers have been pretty much rolling through the playoffs and the Celtics have had an um, slightly bumpy journey (go Atlanta...).

I don't think Boston has the gas to keep up with the Lakers. No one likes to talk about the Laker's defence but the strength of Phil's second unit means the Lakers play swarming defence the whole damn game. Phil's rotations also mean that he often leaves it to one guy on the opposing team to knock down jump shots. Relying on jump shots can be risky, especially later on as players get tired.

Watching the Lakers comeback time and time again against the Spurs + riding their second unit was just bloody impressive. I can't see the Celtics having that kind of staying power throughout a whole game.

Exactly.

Though I will say that if there's one team that can ride their way on jumpers, it's the Celts. Neither player is as consistent night after night, but at least either Allen and Pierce can do it well on any given night.

Very doubtful that both will get hot in the same game though. Bryant will be assigned to either one of them -- and whoever that is, won't be scoring too well. Bryant doesn't just succeed through every possible defense -- he also stops people in man-on-man just as well as Bowen and Bell.

I do wonder who is going to be marking who. My guess is Phil starts off with Kobe on Ray Ray and Vlad on Pierce. I don't know whether Doc is smart enough to realise that if Kobe is guarding Allen its probably worth trying to have Allen get Kobe tired at the defensive end (though whether such a thing is actually possible, I don't know  :awesome_for_real:). Vlad guarding Pierce could go either way; he's shown himself to be capable of good defence in spurts and his height will make shooting over him difficult. Pierce will probably get to the hole fairly easily with Vlad guarding him but the Lakers have shown to be pretty good at collapsing, Gasol won't probably be marking Perkins tightly and Fisher/Farmar are going to help out on any drives.

I don't think anyone should forget about Vujacic. I'm not sure whether hes strong enough to guard Pierce but the guy is a pure pain in the arse.

Hey, the Celtics showed up.  This is actually going to be a fun series.

The Celtics look great at home. They always do. Thing is, the Lakers always look good at home, too.

The Pierce "injury" was bizarre.

Lol... Can you say "WWF"? When he came back, that was the first thing that came to mind.


Either that, or the Celts have Mr. Miyagi as their personal physician.

Fuck. The Celtics are freakin' hot.  :ye_gods:

I've only watched the game in spurts but some of that reffing was absolute shite. Lakers should have played better; they had a real chance when they cut the lead to 10. Celtics didn't give the Lakers any easy shots but that might not work so well for them in LA. Got to see what happens in game 3...

Edit: Maybe I should've kept watching the game.

Holy fuck. 4 point game.  :awesome_for_real:

Celtics are still up 2-0, despite the  :ye_gods: ending.

Celtics win this thing in game 6. They lose the first one on the road, win the second, lose the third, and win the whole damn thing at home.

Phil Jackson really needs to stop whining.  I don't remember him bitching this much with the Jordan led Bulls and Shaq/Kobe Lakers.  If you're shooting 28 less free throws as a team, perhaps you should start driving to the hoop and stop having 80% of your team parked on the 3 point line.  Jump shooting teams don't shoot a lot of free throws.   Also, Boston just defends better.  Laker interior defense relies on a lot of contact.

That collapse last night was epic.  I was almost hoping they'd lose it.   Parked jump shooting Euros on the 3 point line can pay off at times. Especially when the other team refuses to put any effort into defense.

Celts D is playing damn good, forcing the jumpshot, where LA can't drive even if they wanted to. And when they do drive (they meaning Kobe), they aren't getting enough calls. Of course, as I said, Celts are playing damn good defense... But there still might be something up there. Same shit happened throughout the SA series (no calls on Kobe), but the difference there was that he hit every damn jumpshot he took.

Heh, the one problem with having the Lakers + Jackson complain is that they probably have had a lot of calls go their way in the past.

The Lakers are not a jump shooting team though, whilst they obviously have a lot of capable shooters the triangle relies on lots of cuts to the basket and that sort of thing. The issue with an offence like the triangle is that the kind of contact and physicality you use to defend it wouldn't necessarily be the same sort you would use against a typical team driving using the pick n roll for example.

Those sort of fouls can be hard to call, but some of the calls were absolute crap. The first 3 against Kobe stand out to me. Though it seems to me that the refs responded by giving the Lakers some garbage calls in return.

Not to be a hater on this stuff, but...I'm right so far.

Celtics are gonna take this thing in 6.

Yes you are... Damn Lakers are imploding. I really thought they had it last night because Odom was finally playing for a damn change, but....

Lakers sucked, but still won. It's one of those things. Everytime I watch them play I'm wondering how they'll blow it.

^ Agreed

Ain't changing who I'm rooting for though  :awesome_for_real:

Spurs/Celts would have definitely been a more interesting series though.

Uh. Wow. Damn.

That was like a Globetrotters vs Senators game.

I don't understand.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Even when I thought the Celtics would win in Game 6, I didn't expect they would bend over the Lakers and make them their bitches in front of thousands of fans. 39 points? I think it's safe to say they beat the spread.

Kudos to the Celtics; they showed how thoroughly they deserved to win.

As a Lakers fan I am slightly... disturbed by what happened. The fact is if it wasn't for Kobe's ridiculous 3 pointers in the first quarter this game would've been much much uglier.

Celtics did what they needed to do and they did it in style. I think for the sake of the game at least I would've preferred to see the Lakers with more fight in them. It seems a bit like a fairy tale season but there were a lot of Celtics who have worked hard enough to deserve a ring, now they have it.