Vonkaar... (or, NBA talk part 2)

[Zanchief]

This is the most pointless series in the Western Conference. Both of these teams are a chokefest waiting to happen, a la the Blazers of the 90s.

If you are referring to the Pippen, Rasheed, Damon Blazers that blew a 14 point lead in the semi-finals to the Lakers, that was in 2000, not the 90s.

[Menelvir]

Terry Porter
Clyde Drexler
Buck Williams
Cliff Robinson
Kevin Duckworth

I hated those bastards. But they did work pretty well together.

[Zanchief]

Terry Porter
Clyde Drexler
Buck Williams
Cliff Robinson
Kevin Duckworth

I hated those bastards. But they did work pretty well together.

That's before Drexler sold out to get a Championship with his old college buddy Hakeem.

That was before my time. I only REALLY started to follow the NBA on Jordan's second three-peat.

[vonkaar]

wtf? Are you a kid? I thought you were my age... or... 'before your time' means, before you got into the sport?

[Zanchief]

I got into Basketball in high-school when I started to play a lot.

Coincidentally, the same year(1995), the Raptors poped up so I followed them.

[vonkaar]

Okee doke.

FOR THE RECORD...

If the Mavs lose tonight, I'll throw in the towel.

[Zanchief]

They will win tonight.

Game 4 is another story.

[vonkaar]

We need our rookies to play like they did all season, instead of the freaked out wide-eyed first-timers they've been in the past two games.

If we get that... and Finley wakes up...

I still think we can win it.

[Drunnken]

clyde the glide was the man

and i've been watching NBA since Larry Bird, but the first big game i can remember is when the bulls beat the pistons in the playoffs for the first time, and consequently the playoffs

[IgraineShedra]

A decade runs 1-10, so 2000 may as well count. But they have a mad history of choking the whole 10 years, starting back in 1990, when they lost 3 home games to the Pistons. Then losing at home in 1991 to the Lakers. Then an historic choke job in 1992 in game 6 against the Bulls, when they couldn't get the ball across half court for like 6 minutes.

As far as this year: whoever wins the Spurs/Lakers series wins the Championship, which sort of pains me, because I'd love to see the TWolves win, but I don't think KG has the experience yet to beat either SA or LA.

Vonkaar, good luck getting anyone to take Antoine Walker off your hands.

[Zanchief]

A decade runs 1-10, so 2000 may as well count.

1990 - 1
1991 - 2
1992 - 3
1993 - 4
1994 - 5
1995 - 6
1996 - 7
1997 - 8
1998 - 9
1999 - 10
2000- 11?

[Zanchief]

Last nights games were pretty interesting.

Dallas and Denver looked great, if they can just win the next game they could very much still be in the series.

[Scoota McGee]

Why is Dallas still playing those rookies so much? I'm glad Dallas won but I really don't understand what Nelly is doing.

[vonkaar]

Because they were the freaking bomb in the regular season.

I've never even used the term 'bomb' before but that's definitely what they were.

We were like... 8/8 in one month when the rest of the league had 'figured' Dallas' 'large ball' out... so he(Nellie) pulled our centers out, put Walker in as a small-center and started Marquis Daniels.

Josh Howard proved his worth *very* early in the season, and was constantly a top ten 'Got Milk' rookie pick. He was one of eight rookies that played in the all-star rookie challenge... not bad for being drafted in last place. It wasn't until his first starting role against the Lakers (in L.A.) that I noticed him as a true star. His 'box' numbers belie the actual impact he had on the game, but 17 points 13 rebounds against such a tough opponent is still worth noting.

Marquis Daniels is probably the BIGGEST surprise of the season... Nellie is looking like a fucking Guru of rookie-picking with Howard and Daniels, but I doubt that even he would have foreseen the amount of starts that Marquis would get at the end of the season and into the post-season... They are completely justified though. Ya'll saw the impact he had in game three last night. My biggest complaints with the Mav's two losses in Sacramento were with the rookies. I've become quite comfortable with the idea that they aren't even rookies, but they *played* like it in the two losses. Last night, they got a bit of their game back.

Anyway... Howard got the early jump on the rookie star wagon with his dominating defensive game (which REALLY stands out in Dallas :p). Marquis didn't even see much action until we were faced with our three main point-guards on the injured list... Nash was out, Delk was out and Best was out. Sooo, Daniels got the start. In his first three games, he BARELY missed hitting triple doubles in all three contests. That got him a LOT of attention and he showed up on the 'Got Milk' top ten for the first time. This was in December and he left the weekly top ten only twice until the end of the season where he claimed the 7th spot. Again, I'll point out that this guy went UNDRAFTED. Josh Howard got the 10th spot, by the way... 29th draft pick... it's scary.

So yeah... Nellie is a player-picking genius. It's been said before that if Basketball were a chess match, Nellie would never lose.

Now, the final question should be answered in the box score... why did Nellie play the rookies so much? Howard led the game in rebounds with 14 (6 offensive) blocked 2 shots and stole the ball 4 times in only 22 minutes. Daniels scored 22 points with 3 steals and 3 assists. Nellie played them because they earned that right.

I still think that this will go into game 7. Game 5 will be HUGE and I think that whoever wins that will likely win the series.

[Scoota McGee]

Damnit damnit damnit, Houston could have won games one and four. Oh well, Spurs Lakers is going to be a great series.

[vonkaar]

My resident Spurs superfan refers to it like...

"Nobody wants to deal with the Lakers, it always falls to San Antonio to deal with them - and we will, just like last year."

Hehe

For Sac/Dallas... Game 5 is huge. If we can win our one game in Sac (coming off a pair of huge home wins) we'll come back to Dallas to wrap things up at home. If we lose game 5, we'll head back to Dallas to defend our home, which we will... but then head back to Sac to try and do what we would have failed to do three times that year and I think we'd lose it. That's assuming we win tonight, of course.

[vonkaar]

That was quite easily the most painful sporting event I've ever seen... I'm seriously floored. Sac simply wants this series more than Dallas. Missing 13 free-throws... whatever. I've nothing left to say =/.

[Jirig]

Sorry, Vonk. I feel your pain.

<scoots over>

There's room here on the Spurs bandwagon if you're still interested.