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Here's today's podcast. Right click here and save it to your hard drive.

You know you love hearing my voice

The podcast from this morning's Bobcat Radio show is up today. Right click here and save it to the desktop or wherever. Congratulations to the 2007 NBA Champion San Antonio Spurs.

Who is Sam Presti?

I linked last week to news about the Sonics hiring Sam Presti to be their new GM. Well HoopsWorld.com has a great piece on how Presti go to be where he's at. If you don't think this guy is going to be successful, I don't know what to tell you.

Podcast

The podcast's are up. Well one of them at least. Here is the podcast from Friday morning's show (NOTE: right-click on the link and save it to the desktop, don't try to play it directly from the link). This morning's podcast should be posted sometime tomorrow.

Sonics on the right track

A big blow for all Spurs fans out there: Sam Presti is set to be named as the Seattle SuperSonics new GM today. Presti is one of the brightest minds in basketball right now and is sure to be one of the top GMs in the NBA soon. It's a great hire for the Sonics. He is the guy credited with first discovering Tony Parker.

Coming soon to an ABC station near you

As a response to my post yesterday where I linked to TrueHoop's breakdown of the Cavs-Spurs series, or more specifically, the LeBron James-Spurs matchup, here is a link to Bill Simmons' column yesterday where he takes more pro-Spurs stance.

I hope radio isn't really dead

Just to let everybody out there know, I'll be on my campus' radio station from 11 a.m. to noon CT Mondays and Fridays talking sports. The official show name is Bobcat Radio (Texas State's mascot is the Bobcats) and if you're in the Austin/San Antonio area it's 89.9 FM. If you're outside that area, you can stream it at KTSW.net. And trust me when I tell you it won't be just about Texas State sports. In fact, right now it's mostly going to be national sports. Especially basketball with the Finals starting.

We're also trying to get it set up so you can download the podcasts at anytime, so if we do that, I'll definitely link to it here.

Not so fast my friend

With everybody predicted the Spurs to easily defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals, I thought I would link to this TrueHoop article, the blog run by Henry Abbot which was picked up by ESPN.com a few months ago. Abbot breaks down his breaking down of the game film of both games the Spurs and Cavaliers (in which the Cavs won both, by the way) and explains that it might not be the quick series we all expect it to be.

Witness protection program

I was at the AT&T Center for game 5 of the Spurs-Jazz series on Wednesday night, but unfortunately, there's nothing more to say except the Spurs took that game. They jumped out early and never looked back, something they don't do enough. The real story during the conference finals has been the Cavs-Pistons series though.

These are slowly becoming the King James version of the playoffs. I wrote before game 2 of this series that I thought LeBron James was finally going to show us something special. Well, I was one game off. He did in game 3. And in game 4. And even more so last night in game 5. As you can read at any sports site, that was truly a performance to be cherished.

You can credit Detroit's lack of defense at the rim for part of that (who would've thought they'd miss Ben Wallace this much?), but mostly it was LeBron. All LeBron. You don't need to know the statistics; as incredible as they are, they don't begin to tell the story.

The work isn't done for the LeBron and the Cavs, they still have to win one more game against a better team. But if there's one player who can take down a team, it's him. And even if he doesn't, we'll remember these three games for what they are: special.

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.

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.