Me and Mark Cuban vs. Sam Smith

I caught wind of an article by Sam Smith, a columnist for MSNBC.com and the Chicago Tribune, today on SpursReport.com. Smith predicts that the Spurs will win the NBA title this summer and and claims that the Spurs are his NBA champion from last season. I'll repeat that again for emphasis. Sam Smith claims that the Spurs are the real NBA champions of 2006.

I don't repeat that because I'm proud to hear it or want to rub it in the faces of Heat fans or Maverick fans or fans of any team that got past the second round of the playoffs. I repeat it because it's ridiculous.

Let's get one thing straight, the Miami Heat won the 2006 NBA Championship. There's no doubt about it.

Smith claims that the Spurs were the best team during the playoffs last year and only lost to the Dallas Mavericks in the second round because Mark Cuban intimidated the NBA's younger officials during that series, giving the Mavericks calls that should have gone against them.

I agree that the calls seemed a little lopsided in that series, one of the reasons I have a personal vendetta against Steve Javie, but I don't think Cuban's presence and antics had much to do with it.

Smith also states that the Spurs are a classy organization and won't complain about or blame their losses on officiating (which is true), and wonders what the Mavs would have done if those calls went against them.

Well they did. In the Finals.

I don't know if Smith remembers, but Dwyane Wade scored about half of his points from the free throw line in that series.

(And if you're wondering, yes, I am going to break down all of Smith's points in his article and counter them. Or at least the ones I disagree with. Why? Because it's a beautiful day outside and I'm stuck at work on a Saturday with nothing else to do.)

The main reason Sam Smith attacks the Mavericks and Cuban so blatantly in this article is probably his running feud with Cuban.

Later in the article Smith gives his reasons for why he thinks the Spurs will beat the Mavericks and win the title this season.

1. "(Gregg) Popovich has quietly kept playing time down for the entire roster."
2. "This Dallas team is haunted by that Finals collapse." (Against the Heat in last year's Finals)
3. "What we saw (last year) was that the Spurs could play the Mavs' game and have success. The Mavs can't play the Spurs' game"

Those are Smith's three main points in his article.

The only one of those points I agree with is the first one. I have been keeping an eye on minutes this season because this is a veteran (a nice way of saying old) team. The Spurs would have had a better chance of beating the Mavericks last year if they were healthier and I attribute those injuries to age.

But the coaching staff has done an excellent job of monitoring the players' minutes this season. In the games I have seen so far this season, Avery Johnson hasn't done as good a job with his players' minutes.

I vaguely remember a game this season where the Mavs were up by a good twenty or so points for the entire fourth quarter but player his starters through the final minute. I don't remember who they were playing but I remember thinking that he should have gotten Dirk Nowitzki and his other starters out of the game earlier.

Last season the Detroit Pistons had a regular season much like the Mavericks are having this season, albeit in an easier conference, where their Flip Saunders mismanaged his players' minutes during the regular season, and they flamed out in the playoffs against the Heat. I don't know if the Mavs will have a similar fate, but who's to say they won't?

As far as Smith's claim that the Mavs are haunted by their collapse during the Finals last year, who knows? They may talk about it a lot, but that doesn't necessarily mean they are haunted. Oftentimes something like that leads to motivation, which could explain the Mavs great regular season. But who really knows what's going on inside the Mavs' players' heads other than the Mavs? Definitely not Sam Smith.

Smith's final point is one I disagree with to a point. The Spurs can play the Mavs game. The Spurs can play the Suns game. The Spurs can play any team's game. They are one of the very few teams in the league with the personnel to excel at any style of play. But they play the best when they control the pace and play the game under their circumstances. Just ask the Phoenix Suns.

I think that the Mavs can play the Spurs game. After all, who knows more about the Spurs game better than Avery Johnson, who guided the team to its first NBA championship? The problem is, the Mavs can't play the Spurs game as well as the Spurs.

Smith's only criticism of Popovich was that he had the Spurs play the Mavs game during the series instead of the other way around. The Spurs had no choice. The Spurs won championships forcing teams to play their style of play and play big because they had two dominant seven-footers in the paint to stop the ball at the rim.

In last year's Spurs-Mavericks series, the center combination of Rasho Nesterovic and Nazr Mohammed was so ineffective that Avery Johnson and the Mavs were able to play a smaller lineup featuring two point guards. Had Nesterovic and Mohammed produced at all during the series, we would probably be weighing the Spurs' chances at winning three NBA titles in a row.

But because Nesterovic and Mohammed couldn't produce, the Mavs went small. When the Mavs smaller guys produced and the Spurs' centers couldn't, the Spurs were forced to go small. When the Spurs went small they couldn't protect the rim as well because Tim Duncan didn't want to get into foul trouble (because he was the Spurs' biggest offensive threat).

This gave the Mavericks easier opportunities to score in the lane and rendered the Spurs' defense much less effective than it is when there are two big men in the lane. And that, in essence, was the series. The fact that the Spurs took it to a game seven and were in a position to win that game, only to lose in overtime, should be a victory in itself.

If Fabricio Oberto and Francisco Elson can protect the rim and rebound the basketball in the playoffs this year you can expect the Spurs to win their fourth NBA Championship this summer and prove Sam Smith right, but for completely different reasons than he'll give you.

Wake Me Up When April Ends

I've had better days. I think I broke my foot playing basketball, but I'm tough and I'm fairly positive I can post with pain.

All I want right now is for the playoffs to start. This is bar-none the worst part of the regular season right now. The good teams are starting to rest their players. The bad teams are resting their players in hopes of getting a worse record so they can have better odds at getting one of the top two picks in this summer's draft.

The only exciting stuff going on right now is the race for the eighth playoff spot in the West and the jockeying between Denver and the Lakers for the sixth and seventh seeds.

As of tonight, before any games have started, Golden State holds the last playoff spot. The Clippers are just half a game behind them and New Orleans/OKC just a game back.

Personally, I'd like to see the Warriors hold onto the eighth spot. They would end up playing Dallas in the first round and, besides the Suns, nobody has played the Mavericks better than Golden State. They have beaten Dallas in both of their games so far this season, with a third scheduled for the 17th of this month.

In the two spots ahead of Golden State, the Nuggets currently sits in at the sixth spot and the Lakers are in the seventh spot. The Lakers are a game and a half back of Denver.

In their current positions, the Nuggets would end up facing the Spurs in the first round and the Lakers would play the Suns. I think everybody (me included) would rather see a first round matchup between the Nuggets and Suns.

The speed that these two teams have on floor would make for a very entertaining game. Who wouldn't want to watch two future Hall-Of-Famers in Steve Nash and Allen Iverson (and possibly Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire) go at each other for seven games. These are two of the fastest guys in the league; guys who never seem to slow down. Sounds like can't miss games to me.

I also think it would be more competitive than if the Suns played the Lakers, despite the seven game series the two teams had in last year's playoffs. Both teams styles of play make for an easily watchable series.

I think a matchup between the Lakers and Spurs would be a better series then the Spurs taking on the Nuggets. It also has an outside shot at reviving the on-life-support Lakers-Spurs rivalry of the early years of this century. A rivalry that all but died when Shaq was traded to the Heat. But it probably won't revive it, it might just bury it for good. Buy hey, we'll never know until it happens, right?

These teams also have styles of play that would matchup well and make for great basketball to watch. The Lakers and Spurs played one of the better games I watched this season when the Spurs beat the Lakers 96-94 in overtime on January 28th in L.A.

Me being in favor of a Spurs-Lakers first round series has nothing to do with my personal bias' (amazingly), I am just thinking which matchups would be more competitive and better for the fans to watch. Honestly.

As for the Eastern Conference playoff races, well, no one cares.

The Suns Own the Mavericks, The Spurs Own the Suns

The Spurs beat the Suns 92-85 last night in the late game on TNT. Watching the game, the Spurs dominated the pace of the game. Holding a team that leads the league in scoring at 110 points per game to 85 points is impressive.

The win by the Spurs brings the within two games of the Suns in the standings and home court advantage in the second round series between the two teams, if both teams get out of the first.

Steve Kerr brought up a good point last night when talking about home court advantage. Kerr said that even though both of these teams are great road teams, they want to have game seven if, should the series go that far, on their home floor.

Speaking of Kerr, he is easily one of my favorite color guys in the game. At the house I was at last night, I refused to let them turn on music over the game because I enjoyed hearing what Kerr had to say.

I'm very excited for the playoffs in the Western Conference to see how it comes down between the Suns, Spurs, and Dallas Mavericks. The Eastern Conference? Not so much....

Word just came out that Texas A&M head coach Billy Gillispie just took the head coaching job at Kentucky.

This is a big blow for Texas A&M, who was one of the up-and-coming programs in college basketball. I imagine after losing Gillispie, they will fall back to mediocrity in college basketball and return to being a football school.

For Kentucky, this is great. Gillispie has that great combination of being a talented recruiter and coach. Most of the great programs in college basketball have coaches are only good recruiters. But with Gillispie they get both and I imagine that they will be back in the Final Four in a couple of years.

Agent 0 M.I.A.

It's a shame to see that Gilbert Arenas' season is over. Arenas has been one of the best stories in the NBA so far this season.

From his anger over getting dropped from Team USA this summer and his subsequent decision to burn every team with a coach on that staff, to the YouTube clip of his shooting contest against DeShawn Stevenson for 20 grand, the trampoline dunk during a timeout in the All-Star game, his $10 bets with fans sitting courtside, and his numerous game-winners; Arenas has not just been a bright spot for the league this year, he's been the sun.

Arenas tore his meniscus last night in a loss to the Bobcats. He didn't start the game after being late to the team's morning shootaround and in his first minute in the game, Gerald Wallace went up for a layup and came down on Arenas' knee.

The news today is that Arenas needs surgery and is going to be out 2-3 months. With the injury to Caron Butler and now Arenas, I think it's safe to say that the Wizards will be an early exit in the playoffs. Antawn Jamison is a talented player, but not one with a reputation for carrying a team to the promised land.

Stranger things have happened though.

Big game in the NBA tonight when the Spurs take on the Phoenix Suns. With the Suns winning their last two games against the Mavericks, things are getting very interesting in the Western Conference playoff picture.

Keep It Moving

The Florida Gators are the 2007 National Champions. I predicted Ohio State to win, and I was wrong. Sounds about right.

Greg Oden did have a monster game, which was awesome to see. Or in my case, read about later on that night (stupid work!). Corey Brewer, who always reminded me of Josh Howard (mostly because they're both tall for guards and extremely skinny) and I always thought had the most pro-potential out of that Florida group, played really well throughout the tourney.

So to sum it up, FLA back-to-back. Very impressive.

Greg Oden may not have won a national championship or the MOP, but he's a winner in my book. As you can tell by the pic.

With the college season over the NBA playoffs are coming up. Which means we will have roughly six more months of basketball on our hands before the offseason.

What's that? The playoffs don't last that long? Sure seems like it. Either way, the fun doesn't stop now, it's just the beginning.

Work Sucks

Everybody seems to be picking Florida to win tonight. The game tips off in about fifteen minutes and I still have Ohio State winning. I am expecting big things from the Buckeyes tonight, especially Greg Oden. But anyone who reads this blog regularly knows I always expect big things.

But despite my predictions and what I expect, I won't even be able to watch the game tonight. That's right, I'm stuck at work, trying to keep the bills paid. I can't wait until I get paid to watch basketball and write about it.

My final score prediction is 73-67. That's what my bracket says at least. And speaking of my bracket, I am in first place in both of my brackets. And that means if, I mean when, Ohio State wins tonight, I will have finally dominated a March Madness pool for the first time in my life. I should have wagered some money. Enjoy the game, I wish I could.