NBA playoffs

[Phlegm]

A lot of upsets this weekend, the best one was the sixers came back from 18 down to beat the magics.

[vonkaar]

Meh, I don't see a lot of upsets. Philly was the only big one, IMO.

There have been some good games though.

My predictions:

WEST:

Dallas over San Antonio in 6.
Parker is a mismatch for Kidd, but the rest of San Antonio is pretty well even with Dallas. They have nobody to cover Dirk and I'd rather have that mismatch on my side than with Parker.

Portland over Houston in 7.
I love Portland, I think they will be a top 3 powerhouse team in the next year or 2. Houston is too thin to keep up with the young legs in Portland. Still, this is a closely matched contest. Goes to 7.

Lakers sweep the Jazz.
I just don't see anyone covering Kobe, and a healthy Bynum + Pao playing like he has is way too much for Utah to handle.

Denver beats New Orleans in 5.
New Orleans really need Tyson Chandler. Without him, this is a very easy matchup for almost any of the teams in the West. Denver is my #2 Western power team right now and I don't think they'll have any trouble with the Hornets.

2nd round:
Lakers beat Portland
Denver beats Dallas

Western Conference Finals:
Lakers over Denver in 6

EAST:

Cleveland sweeps Detroit.
Way too easy. Even more lopsided than the Lakers/Jazz matchup.

Miami beats Atlanta in 7.
I think Atlanta is the better team, but Dwayne Wade will show up strong after the first couple of games and finish off with a bang.

Orlando beats Philly in 6.
Game 1 was a fluke. Howard is about to go nuts and Phillidelphia won't have an answer.

Boston over Chicago in 6.
most boring series in round1. I don't think I'll catch games 2 through 6... /yawn

2nd round:
Orlando over Boston
Cleveland over Miami

Eastern Conference Finals:
Cleveland over Orlando. Though, I'm predicting a big matchup between Lebron and Dwight... where Lebron finishes with a triple double and Dwight has a near-Duncan performance... 20-20-5-9, etc

FINALS:

Man, this could go either way... Lebron is playing so much stronger than anyone alive, but Kobe has a MUCH better supporting cast. I'm going to say...

Lebron will have ridiculous numbers... finals records, even. But L.A. will walk away with the trophy. I think it would be cool if L.A. gets the win, but Lebron gets the final's MVP.

[Zanchief]

I'm mostly just rooting against teams this year.

In order of teams I would like to lose.

Boston
Cleveland
Orlando

So I'm going for Chicago, Detroit (hopeless) and Philly.

I'd love it if Chicago beat Boston so I could hear an entire year of whining about how Boston only lost because garnett was injured. Their team really isn't that good without him.

I like Dwight but I hate Orlando (and it's fans). They deserve to lose because they're mostly all cry babies. Game 1 was awesome.

I'll also be rooting for the Mavs because just about everyone wrote them off (including me) and they still have a pretty good team and Mark Cuban is still crazy (and funny) and Dirk is cool.

I think Houston is going to continue to dominate Portland. They defend just about every position well and Portland is just too young still.

Denver to me is the wild card in the West. They are the one team I think could really stuff the lakers but I doubt that will happen.

The thing I would hate the most is if the leagues gets their way and we have a LeBron VS Kobe finals and it's all hyped to shit.

[Arlos]

Why do you hate Cleveland? Don't like LeBron for some reason?

-Arlos

[Zanchief]

Just because a player is good, doesn't mean I have to like him. More to the point, I don’t have to support the city or its fans.

I like Lebron enough, but I don’t care for the team and he gets way to many star calls. Of the three superstars in the league right now (Wade, Lebron, Kobe) I like Lebron and the Cavaliers the least, most likely because the league loves him more then the others. I like Kobe best because everyone hates him, despite him still being the best player in the league, because he cornholed some girl in Denver who later whined her way to the bank and he got in a fight with a big fat loser who is turning out to be one of the biggest assholes in the league.

[Arlos]

That whole Lakers tiff was retarded on BOTH sides. If they could have just held their planet-sized egos in check, that team could've won who knows how many more championships. They had the chance to go down as one of the greatest dynasty teams ever, and pissed it away. So, regardless of if you blame Shaq for a big chunk of it, Kobe is hardly blameless either. Also, and while I admit I don't follow basketball anywhere near as closely as you do or I do other sports, but even I couldn't miss all the articles out there about how selfish as a player Kobe was, at least for a long time. Maybe he's changed, I don't know, again, I don't watch enough to base a decision on, but years of that are going to color my opinion, for obvious reasons.

As for LeBron, again, in the limited amount I follow this, seems to "get it" as far as working hard and keeping his teammates involved is concerned. Besides which, did he not get the Cavs to the best record in the league despite having piss-all as a supporting cast?

-Arlos

[Phlegm]

I like to see Houston vs. Atlanta in the final.

[Jay]

That whole Lakers tiff was retarded on BOTH sides. If they could have just held their planet-sized egos in check, that team could've won who knows how many more championships. They had the chance to go down as one of the greatest dynasty teams ever, and pissed it away. So, regardless of if you blame Shaq for a big chunk of it, Kobe is hardly blameless either. Also, and while I admit I don't follow basketball anywhere near as closely as you do or I do other sports, but even I couldn't miss all the articles out there about how selfish as a player Kobe was, at least for a long time. Maybe he's changed, I don't know, again, I don't watch enough to base a decision on, but years of that are going to color my opinion, for obvious reasons.

As for LeBron, again, in the limited amount I follow this, seems to "get it" as far as working hard and keeping his teammates involved is concerned. Besides which, did he not get the Cavs to the best record in the league despite having piss-all as a supporting cast?

-Arlos

In the past few years Kobe has matured into a really respectable player imo. Much more a team player/facilitator than he's ever been in his career. That's what makes him Kobe and not Carmelo Anthony. As far as his woes with the Lakers and his ego, that was a kid throwing a tantrum. He needed help in the same way that Jordan needed Pippen to win titles. Only difference was Jordan kept his complaints in house.

[Zanchief]

Well Kobe isn't the one that asked to be traded nor did he force management to trade Shaq like was originally reported so I don't see how Kobe is the one who had the tantrum. It's become clear in the last few years who the real baby is (shaq vs van gundy, bosh even wade). I've lost almost all respect for the guy I think the only reason hes gotten away with for so long is he gives great quotes so the media loves him.

For Kobe, if you think lebron works harder then Kobe then you don't know much about basketball. The better teammate thing is debatable but Kobe is the hardest working player in the league.

PS: fuck the celtics and fuck shuttlesworth's winning three. I could have spent the entire day tomorrow rubbing that loss in those silly new englanders faces.

[Arlos]

Sorry if I implied that Kobe didn't work hard. Everything I've read says that he does work insanely hard. The real complaints I've read were about ego and selfishness.

I was more meaning that LeBron had, again from what I've read, really had the light bulb ome on as far as hard work, and was doing so rigorously as well. And hell, he's what, 23, 24? How good will he be when he hits 28-29?

Oh, and isn't it manifestly true that LeBron has a far inferior supporting cast to what Kobe has at this point?

-Arlos

[Jay]

Complaining about management on public radio and criticizing his teammates at the supermarket to fans is pretty tantrumish if you ask me.

As for Lebron, his supporting cast isn't FAR inferior but yeah, Kobe does have a better team around him then LeBron does.

[Gypsiyee]

PS: fuck the celtics and fuck shuttlesworth's winning three. I could have spent the entire day tomorrow rubbing that loss in those silly new englanders faces.

about time he did something in a first round game. more like jesus sucklesworth. cripes.

[Zanchief]

Oh, and isn't it manifestly true that LeBron has a far inferior supporting cast to what Kobe has at this point?

Yes, very true. This also means unless the Zebra's really help him out (Dallas Miami style) the Lakers will kill them in the finals.

[vonkaar]

Meh...

Mo Williams
Zydrunas Ilgauskas
Lebron James

Andrew Bynum
Pao Gasol
Kobe Bryant

The Lakers have it better but it's not a longshot. The role-players and bench aren't too far off.

[Zanchief]

If you want to match them up one on one it's starts going south for Cleveland in a hurry.

Kobe == Bron Bron
Gasol > Ilgauskas (I don't think it's that close but you can make the argument)
Fish > West (Both roleplayers but Fish is better at this point)
Bynum > Varejeo (By a number that can't be calculated)
Ariza < Mo williams (it's pretty much the same but I'll get chewed out if I don't give it up to Mo).
Odom >>> Szerbiak?
Walton >>> Joe Smith?
Vujacic >>> Gibson?

I'll take the laker starters over the Cleveland starters. Now picture if you had to remove 5 players off each team who would win. It wouldn't be close.

[Arlos]

Also, doesn't LA have a rather sizeable advantage at coach as well? I do know enough to know Cleveland's coach just got the COTY award, but that's small cheese compared to what, how many titles does Phil have now?

Now, I don't know enough to know how big a difference the conferences made (though to my limited understanding, the West is far less dominant over the east than was the case a few years back, if it's even dominant at all now), but what does it say about player skill and success if LeBron carried his team to a better record than the Lakers got, despite having a weaker set of teammates and a lesser coach?

Again, I dunno how much of that comes from favorable treatment from the refs or not. About all I know about refs in the NBA is that they're widely regarded as awful. heh. Still, I dunno if it's the player's fault directly that refs give him calls, is it?

-Arlos

[Zanchief]

Kobe's playing for the playoffs. Lebron was playing for the MVP trophy. The devide has shrunk a bit in the last few years but the West is still a tough place to play.

[vonkaar]

Phil Jackson is also 0-2 for his last finals appearances... and in both instances, they entered the contests as heavy favorites. I'm not doubting that he's still the greatest playoff coach ever, but he's not as invulnerable as he used to be. It used to go that if Phil Jackson wins game 1 of a best-of-7-series, then it's game over. He was 100% in such scenarios. He also used to "never" lose homecourt advantage... Never lose a game when his team outrebounds the opponent... so many crazy stats like that, he was perfect. In the past five years, all of these have come undone.

Furthermore, the East still has a long way to catch up with the West. Their advantage is in their few 'top' teams. Three of the four best teams are in the East. Beyond that upper tier, the West has a distinct advantage. Check out the records for example...

In the East, Miami, Chicago, Philly and Detroit (half of the Eastern playoff teams!) all made it into the playoffs with .500'ish records (.524, .500, .500, .476 respectively). Detroit didn't even win half of their regular season games and still made the party, even lost their final 3 games! Phoenix missed the playoffs for the first time in nearly a decade. Their record would have given them home-court advantage in the East. Making it into the playoffs and especially to the finals in the West is STILL a much harder prospect than the East. That is the single-biggest advantage that the East has had in the past few years.

[Zanchief]

Anyone else as bored with the first round as I am?

Spurs Mavs and Bulls Celts are the only matchups that have me the least bit interested and in the case of the Bulls Celts it doesn't matter who makes it out, they're going to get trounced.

[vonkaar]

Those are the best 2 series right now... Houston v Portland isn't bad though.

I also watch L.A. to see what seats the celebrities got. Freaking Dustin Hoffman sat directly next to Kobe in game2.

[Gypsiyee]

I don't know, some of the games come on way too late for me to watch but I've quite been enjoying watching Courtney Lee do his thing. I've found the Magic/76ers series entertaining because it's just constantly back and forth - better than watching a blowout or a game where you turn on the TV and just kind of feel bad for one of the teams (hi Pistons)

Jonathan's butthurt because I told him right when AI was traded that the Pistons were going to do shit this season because they just inherited team-cancer. I also told him to watch the Nuggets shine without him - he ain't happy, cuz I know jack shit about basketball and he hates when I'm right. He hates seeing AI go out without a ring, too.

[Jay]

I feel your pain Recks. I love AI =(

[Gypsiyee]

hey man, AI is a hometown hero - I love him too. Even growing up when I knew absolutely 0 about basketball, not even half the team names, I knew who AI was.

I'd never say he wasn't one of the greats, but he is team cancer - in relation to a cohesive and functional team with any talent, anyway.

I hate Skip Bayliss, annoys the piss out of me, but his "me, myself, and Iverson" nickname is pretty dead on

[vonkaar]

hornets and nuggets

holy shit

[vonkaar]

and speaking of AI...



wow... that's messed up