There were no games last night, so what the hell am I going to write about?

That is the one drawback to the games getting deep into the playoffs, the lack of games played. Very rarely since October have there been nights where there have been no basketball games played. So what do I do? Well, I write about tonight's game.

But there's a problem to that to. Everybody is writing about tonight's game. And it seems everybody has the same idea. Right after I decided what I was going to write about, I read Scoop Jackson saying the same thing, although, much more eloquently. And Sam Rubenstein at SLAMonline had pretty much the same idea too, although his relates to LOST.

It comes down to this. LeBron James had his team in a position to win on Monday night against the Pistons with not his best game. But at the same time, Chauncey Billups and Tayshaun Prince for the Pistons had bad games too. You can't expect that two games in a row.

LeBron has also had a fairly quiet postseason. And I don't mean quiet like Tim Duncan quiet, where nobody notices. I mean quiet like people are expecting more from him.

And yes, I do realize he's averaging almost 25 points per game along with 8 rebounds and 8 assists per game during the playoffs. But these are the Eastern Conference Finals now. He's four wins away from the NBA Finals. He's playing one of the toughest teams in the entire NBA. People are expecting something special from him on his conference's biggest stage.

People are expecting one of those performances from him where years down the road, they remember where they were and what they were doing that night. LeBron James is the type of player who inspires those expectations in people.

I believe LeBron James knows this.

And I think (I hope) tonight is the night he delivers.

Were the Western Conference Finals last round?

The Spurs took apart the Jazz again last night in a game that was nearly identical to game 1 in the series. I was there with my endless amounts of both basketball knowledge and "that's what she said" jokes at my disposal.

We got to the AT&T Center about 45 minutes before game time in hopes of watching the NBA draft lottery on the jumbotron in the arena. No dice. Thanks ESPN! TNT had no problems running their feed up to the jumbotron last week so we could watch game 4 of the Cavs-Nets series before the Suns and Spurs tipped off for their game 4.

Instead I was forced to try to look over Rick Carlisle's shoulder at the small TV on ESPN's set. From over 100 feet away I might add. I didn't find out until halftime who actually won the lottery.

Possibly responding to all of the (stupid) criticism the community of San Antonio got for not selling out game 1 of the series, the fans were out in full-force on Tuesday night. Great playoff atmosphere.

The Spurs did their thing in the first quarter, trying to establish their tempo and getting guys in a rhythm. Michael Finley started off hitting a quick three and getting the crowd into it early.

Usually the Spurs either make a big run during the third quarter or keep it close until mid-way through the fourth and put the game away. Not against the Jazz. In both games the Spurs have made big runs during the second quarter and gone into halftime with big leads. This might cause the team to become uninterested and lose focus during the second half, or the Jazz just need to constantly play with a sense of desperation.

Despite the 24 points, Tim Duncan never really got established on the low block. The majority of his points came off of dishes from Tony Parker (14 assists) or Manu Ginobili, or off of offensive rebounds. The fact that the Spurs can win as handily as they did without their best player in his rhythm really does help Jerry Sloan sleep at night. Shooting 13-26 from three-point range does have something to do with that though.

If Utah doesn't get other players besides Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams involved, I don't see this series going more than five games. Game 3 is Saturday night in Utah.

The curse of Red Auerbach

Even though I was at game 2 of the Jazz-Spurs series last night, I feel the need to address the NBA Draft Lottery first. First off, congratulations to the Portland Trail Blazers. The Blazers had a 5.3% chance at winning the lottery; compared to Memphis owning a 25% and Boston owning a 19.9% chance. Seattle gets the second pick, Atlanta the third, Memphis fourth, and Boston got the fifth pick.

Portland has a decision to make, because both Kevin Durant and Greg Oden would fit in their lineup. Obviously, I think you take Greg Oden first no matter what team you are, but Kevin Durant would not be a bad choice at all. The Blazers have the option of taking Durant because they already have Zach Randolf and LeMarcus Aldridge down low. Putting Durant next to those two and Brandon Roy would make for a talented young lineup. I still pick Oden in any case though.

I'm sorry to all the Boston Celtics fans out there. But hey, you guys lost the 1997 lottery and that turned out alright didn't it? You got Chauncey Billups and Ron Mercer out of it. Of course Mercer never really amounted to anything and Billups didn't become the player he is until he got to Detroit, but still. Oh and Sports Guy, don't do anything crazy.

I hate to mention karma, because everybody seems to have been talking about it the last couple of days (apparently that's the only way to explain why teams win the lottery; it has nothing to do with chance), but the Blazers really have their karma going. First, they do their best to get rid of the Jail Blazers reputation that had for the last few years by getting rid of most of their problem players and drafting some quality guys. Then they don't try and tank the season like the trio of Memphis, Boston, and Milwaukee did (who, by the way, got the fourth, fifth, and sixth picks respectively). What do they get for their troubles? The first pick, with their option of choosing either Oden or Durant. Congratulations Blazer fans.

I'll post later about last night's game.

Down with the King?

A lot of people are on LeBron's case today. You know what? I'm not. I'm going to break it down for you:

• Donyell Marshall is a very good three-point shooter.
• Donyell Marshall was wide-the-hell open.
• LeBron is a great passer.
• LeBron had about three good-to-great defenders coming at him when he got to the lane.
• The old saying is you go for the tie at home and you go for the win on the road. Well, the Cavs were on the road.
• Calm the f*ck down. If Marshall hits the three, the Cavs win and everybody is talking about what a great decision LeBron made to pass the ball.
• I've heard people say that Michael Jordan would've taken the shot. I seem to remember Money hitting Steve Kerr and John Paxson for game winning jumpers in his playoff career.

The draft lottery is tonight and the future decade for several franchises could be decided tonight, good or bad. My God I'm glad the Spurs are in the playoffs; I couldn't deal with that stress. But I'm excited to see what happens.

I'll be at game 2 of the Spurs-Jazz tonight and I'll watch the lottery there. I'll have my thoughts from both the lottery and game here tomorrow.

From one finals to another

The last few posts I had, I was looking forward to the regular season ending and the playoffs starting. Then, I would have some interesting stuff to post about. Then finals happened. The couple weeks I spent wrapping up classes and working on finals took up most of my time and completely threw me off my rhythm.

Now that finals are over and I'm sitting in front of a computer for eight hours a day, I think it's time I try to get back into that rhythm. And you know what? It's a shame that I haven't posted for the last couple of weeks, because I missed out on some good stuff. Here are some things off the top of my head that I missed:

• Tim Duncan vs Joey Crawford -- I will be campaigning for this to be on the undercard of the inevitable De La Hoya-Mayweather Jr. II fight.
• Golden State Warriors vs Dallas Mavericks -- The series paved the way for the Spurs to have possibly their easiest route to the finals ever. And it gave me something to harass 50% of my friends about until November.
• San Antonio Spurs vs Phoenix Suns (or more specifically, Robert Horry vs the city of Phoenix) -- The most controversy the Spurs have ever been involved in. Before that, it was Phil Jackson campaigning for the Spurs to have an asterisk next to their 1999 title. For what it's worth, the rulings against Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw were unfair considering the circumstances, but they clearly violated a rule. As much as it sucks for the fans of the Suns and that series, the right ruling was made. The rule definitely needs to be addressed in the offseason.
• LeBron James vs Expectations -- LeBron knows what he's doing. He didn't care when people criticized the way he was playing in the regular season, when he was saving a lot of energy for the playoffs. Now he's four games away from reaching the NBA Finals against a team that he almost single-handedly beat in last year's playoffs. The Eastern Conference playoffs might finally get interesting.

Hopefully I'll be able to keep on track now that I have the time. We'll see. Enjoy the conference finals.