Catching Up on the NBA Playoffs

The blog has been a little light on content lately as I deal with the usual busy spring season with the real job (I know, who the heck cares about that)but staying up late watching the Grizzlies-Thunder triple overtime thriller on Monday night has inspired me to go overtime this week. Today we’ll catch up on the NBA playoffs and the shocking sweep of the two time defending champs. Tomorrow I will dive into the NHL playoffs and the lack of drama in the second round and finally on Friday we will catch up on the first quarter or so of the MLB season including your .500 Buccos! Now, on to The Association:

• The Lakers sweep at the hands of the Dallas Mavericks would not be so shocking if we just took a short look back on previous Kobe era flameouts. Pretty much every time the Lakers have lost a playoff series since Shaq and Kobe won their first three titles they have gone down with a bang. Starting with the 2003 Western Conference Semifinals loss to the Spurs, each time Kobe’s Lakers have lost a playoff series they have lost it in dramatic fashion. In that 2003 series, the Lakers lost to the underdog Spurs in six games including a 28 point loss to finish the series, they followed that up with a 5-game series loss to the heavily underdog Pistons in the ‘04 NBA Finals, a 31-point loss to the Suns in ’06 when Kobe quit in the second half of game 7, a first round loss in five games to the Suns in ’07 and a 39 point loss to the Celtics in game 7 of the NBA Finals in 2008. Throw in the embarrassing game 4 in the Mavs’ sweep this year and you can’t help but question the Lakers ability to compete when their backs are against the wall.

• What this says about Kobe Bryant in particular I am not real sure but for a guy who prides himself on his fierce competitive attitude, it has to be both embarrassing to him and counterintuitive to this perception for the rest of us. Could you ever imagine Michael Jordan going out like that? How about Larry Bird? Kobe’s place and legacy as a top 10 or so player of all-time is safe, but let’s forget about the conversation placing him anywhere near those guys. This is coming from a Kobe guy, mind you.

• The Lakers were beat by a pretty good team, though, so for as much as the story is about the Lakers getting swept, let us give credit to the Mavericks for a great series and a truly great shooting performance. Dirk Nowitzki is certainly enhancing his legacy as the greatest foreign born player of all time and he is quickly approaching the Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, Tim Duncan class as the greatest power forward of all time.

• If you haven’t been watching much of the Oklahoma City-Memphis series, do yourself a favor and make it a point to watch the final three games. I know many people may not have been intrigued by this series between the late start times and the lack of familiarity with these rosters but this series has been phenomenal from the start and could very well be the beginning of a fierce rivalry for Western Conference supremacy over the coming years. Both teams are loaded with young talent, highlighted of course by the Blog’s former poster boy in Kevin Durant. The fierceness and competitiveness of this series was in full display during Monday night’s triple overtime thriller that the Thunder were able to pull out to even the series. I still think the Thunder win this series because Durant is the best player on the court but I am hoping for our viewing pleasure that it goes the distance.

• A Dallas-Oklahoma City Western Conference Finals may not have the flare that any series involving the Lakers would have but it would be an absolutely fantastic series that I could see going at least six and probably seven games. I don’t think Memphis-Dallas would be as great for drama purposes as Dallas’ veteran presence and ability to match Memphis’ size in the post would make it a fairly short series in the Mavericks’ favor. Needless to say I am rooting for a Durant-Dirk dual in the Western Conference Finals.

• Over in the Eastern Conference we have seen much more of what was anticipated outside of the Hawks upset of the Magic in the first round. Chicago, Boston and Miami put away their series in relatively short fashion.

• It may be of surprise to some that the Heat are up 3-1 on the Celtics, but not to me. I picked the Heat to win the title before the season, I urged patience when they got off to a slow start, I stuck with them when they lost five consecutive games near the end of the season and I picked them before the playoffs began. Guess what, I am still picking them. They have the best player in the world (by a larger margin than most people want to admit) and the guy who is at a minimum in the conversation for the 2nd best player on the planet. You could put a couple of puppies around them and they could contend for the title but they have another top 20 player and a few veteran role players who have been through the gauntlet before. That’s why I have never really waivered from my opinion that they are the best team in the league. I thought the Lakers could give the Heat fits with their size but I guess we’ll never get the opportunity to find out. It would be fun to see the Thunder take on the Heat in the Finals, though, in what could become the beginning of many great battles between Durant and LeBron.

• I am putting the finishing touches on this post as I watch the Bulls and Hawks battle in game five of their series (Editor’s note: The Bulls pulled out a 95-83 victory with a strong fourth quarter). I am big fan of Derrick Rose. I think he is the point guard version of LeBron James with the ability to dominate the game with his pure athleticism, combining speed, power and quickness. Rose may have even deserved the NBA MVP for the contributions he made to his own team during the regular season (he would have been fourth in my personal ballot but ultimately I did not have a big problem with Rose winning the award). Watching the playoffs, however, we can see why he is still just a step below the Kobe, LeBron and Wades of the league. When Rose is on he is almost unstoppable but when he’s off he doesn’t have the ability to dominate the game in other areas the way the greats do. I think Rose could reach that potential, he already took one big leap forward on the defensive end this year, but he needs to improve his playmaking ability for his teammates and begin to dominate on the defensive end the way LeBron and Kobe do when their teams need it.

• The Bulls will probably get past the Hawks and advance to the Eastern Conference Finals but that’s where their phenomenal 2010-2011 season will end. I thought before the second round began that Boston-Miami was the real Eastern Conference Finals and watching this Bulls-Hawks series has just solidified that opinion for me. Start preparing yourself now for some over-the-top, can’t watch Sportscenter anymore hype when the Heat are battling the Mavs or Thunder in the NBA Finals.

NBA Smorgasbord...It's Fantastic!

I don’t often get the chance to write about the NBA even though I probably follow the league as much as any of the diehard fans in cities that have a team but hey, you have to give your audience what they want, right? With the presence of a professional team in the other three major U.S. sports as well as one of the marquee teams in college basketball, the NBA understandably takes a backseat in the minds of sports fans in the ‘Burgh. It is kind of a shame though, as the NBA has never been as strong or as deep as it is today. With that, I am going to use today’s smorgasbord to give some of my thoughts on the “Association” as we head towards what is shaping up to be a terrific two months of NBA playoff basketball.

* I mentioned in the opening that the league has never been as talented or as deep as it is today and to be honest, it isn’t even close. At least seven, maybe even eight teams have a legitimate shot to win the NBA title this year. (In case you were wondering those seven teams are San Antonio, Los Angeles, Dallas, Boston, Miami, Chicago and Orlando…with Oklahoma City having a puncher’s chance.) Just one year ago that number was only four, and going back to the heydays of Jordan, Magic and Larry there was never more than three or four teams that had a legitimate shot at the title in any given year. This is not the result of a watered down league either as each of these rosters have at least one superstar and in most instances multiple stars on them.

* It is not just the top teams featuring star players either. Even some of the league’s worst teams feature young, exciting stars in the making such as Kevin Love in Minnesota, Blake Griffin for the Clippers and John Wall for Washington. Really the only team with nothing going for it right now is Cleveland, and we all know the reasons for that. If you are a true fan of basketball at its highest level it is pretty easy to find a game or a team to watch almost every night of the week.

* After Miami blew a 24 point lead last night in losing to the Orlando Magic the talk is going to heat up (no pun intended) on how LeBron and company continue to lose close games and to the other elite teams. Last night’s loss dropped the Heat to 3-9 against the other six teams mentioned as true contenders above and a lousy 5-12 in games decided by five points or less. The truth of the matter, however, is that neither of these records means a thing. How do I know this? Glad you asked…

* If you are a fan of the NBA, a fan of statistical analysis, or just a fan of good writing and you have not read John Hollinger’s stuff on ESPN, do yourself a favor and get an insider account. Hollinger’s stuff is worth the yearly price alone. Anyhow, Hollinger points out that records against elite teams and in close games are essentially meaningless when assessing a team’s ability to win a championship. He doesn’t just say this; he shows empirical statistical evidence to support the notion. More important factors include scoring margin (Miami owns the league’s best), star power (LeBron and Wade) and performance heading into the playoffs (Miami is 34-10 since the opening month, the 2nd best record in the league over that stretch). Next time you turn on ESPN or TNT and hear the talking heads ranting about Miami’s record in close games, do yourself a favor and change the channel until they begin talking about things that matter. Do yourself another favor when filling out your NBA Playoff Bracket – do those exist?! – and remember that Miami has the best pair of players in the world and thank me in June.

* While Miami would be my guess as to who will win the title at the end of the day, I put their odds of winning it at no better than those of the Lakers, Celtics or Spurs. Each of those teams has multiple stars themselves, major playoff experience and fantastic defensive systems. Dallas and Orlando aren’t far behind either with unique rosters built around Dirk and Howard, respectively, and both teams are playoff battle-tested as well. Like I said, this is shaping up to be one of the best stretches of playoff basketball in NBA history.

* Turning our attention away from the court for just a second; if you haven’t paid much attention to the NBA yet this season you may be quite shocked to take a quick look at each team’s rosters. Tons of players changed teams at the trade deadline and unless you live under the rock you have probably heard about the most prominent of the moves being Carmelo Anthony’s trade to the Knicks. Between Anthony forcing Denver’s hand, LeBron’s “Decision”, and the rumors of more NBA superstars joining forces in coming years there has been a sentiment being pushed about that the players now control the league. The fact of the matter is that players have always controlled the league. The difference today is that the level of media scrutiny takes everything to a whole new level. It was 30 years ago when Magic Johnson had his coached forced out in only his second season in the league. Further, if you take a look at the NBA’s list of its 50 greatest players you will notice that a remarkable number of them played the primes of their careers in more than one city, often joining forces with other stars.

* Today’s moves from the league’s marquee players are nothing new and with the enormous amount of talent around the league at this time I expect some major rivalries to develop as the result. Rivalries are always good for a league and great for our entertainment. For NBA fans out there, sit back and enjoy what should be great theatre this playoff season and what should be some great basketball over the next few years, barring a lockout of course. For you non-NBA fans, I am surprised you made it this far but if you have hopefully I have peaked your interest just a bit. The NBA…it’s FANtastic!