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.

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.

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.

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.