I know this series isn't over, but... when you have one of your star players yelling at the coach "don't just sit there!" and then later saying that the entire team quit, well, it doesn't look good.
The Good Guys played much better defense, but frankly didn't shoot all that well, especially from the free throw line. That could've been a 30+ point win.
So, since I'm a jerk, I like to go see what the good folks posting on the Denver Post website have to say:
"this team is a "F" joke...your playoffs lives are at stake and this is how you respond especially @ home...I will not be staying up late here on the east coast watching this ******* on monday"
"Still all four MC, GK, Carmelo, and AC need to be put in a sack and thrown off the bridge."
"okay, here's the upside. if LA sweeps, 100% guaranteed that George Karl gets fired."
and my favorite: "Just goes to prove that a surplus of tats does not a basketball team make."
Oh, the tears of unfathomable sadness, mmm, yummy!
Let me start with a word that David Mamet claims to have coined:
Unbefuckinglievable
I don't think any of us expected the #1 seed, but here we are. Someone send flowers to Ron Artest and JR Smith. Or, scratch JR, we'll deliver those in person in the first round. And then a HUGE win on Sunday; I know they didn't have Ginobili, but that second half was a paddlin' like the Spurs took out the school canoe.
Best of all, we got the exact playoff matchup across the board that I was hoping for. Have you seen the bottom half of the bracket? That very easily could've been us playing the Suns first round, Spurs second round. Now? Nuggets->Jazz->Spurs->Celtics, The Laker Championship Ladder. A tall task, but not impossible by any stretch.
So what do you think about these matchups? Let's ignore the East for the first two rounds, although the Wizards-Cavs series should be watchable.
THE KOBE BRACKET Lakers (1) vs. Nuggets (8) Frankly the Lakers should sweep, but the Nuggets shoot their way into one win, and the Lakers throw one away on one of those 4-for-17 Kobe nights where no one picks up the slack. Gotta gotta gotta win the first two at home. Game 1 Sunday at Noon. No jinx, Lakers 4-2.
Jazz (4) vs. Rockets (5) Rockets have home court advantage. They also have someone named Carl Landry getting significant minutes. I'm selfishly rooting for the Rockets, but only if I don't have to watch them play. I do like Deron Williams, but I'll get to enjoy him driving right around Fish for six or so games next round. Jazz 4-1.
THE MANU BRACKET Hornets (2) vs. Mavs (7) Did the Lakers do the Hornets a favor in a way by showing them 'playoff intensity' the other day? If that helps them not be shell-shocked in game 1, they win the series. If the blow game 1 to a fired up Mavs team, Mavs win the series. Which, Mavs 4-2.
Spurs (3) vs. Suns (6) Yee-ha. This oughta be fun. Will Horry be healthy enough to clothesline Steve Nash? I fucking hope so. These teams hate each other, which probably means the Suns will play like bitches and lose when a flop isn't called at some critical moment. ESPN and I certainly wouldn't mind the Lakers getting the Suns in the West finals, but, Spurs 4-3.
I do declare, that was quite a lovely evening of basketball.
First, I get home in time to see the Suns game out of reach early in the 4th, which meant that a win by the Lakers would clinch the Division. Nooooiice.
Second, as I'm getting ready to leave, Sony calls and convinces me to watch that hilarious hockey check by VladRad on Tyson Chandler. Great to see him fired up, but the adrenaline didn't seem to do much for his outside shot.
Third, I played a very entertaining 3 hours of basketball down in the Mont. With 16 guys we played rotating winners/losers court 4-on-4, and my team never lost despite having a 10-year-old as our fourth. There is some pretty decent talent there mind you -- mostly in the 21-29 age group, including a few guys that play on the Ohlone college squad. In the fifth game the one loudmouth hick in a gym full of otherwise classy, no-argue players, rolls his ankle untouched on some ridiculous fading 3-point turnaround jumper. It wasn't too bad, but he threw a hissy fit and basically challenged my teammate to a fight, claiming he was pushed. The best part: the remaining 15 of us all told him to go home an not come back. Oh yeah, then we ran full with subs and my team won a 20-min. timed game by 2. Nooooiice.
Was there something else? Oh yeah, Fourth: I get home well after midnight, sore but satisfied (no homo), and get to watch that great Laker win over the Big Easy CP3s. Someone 'ruined' the outcome for me, so that 3rd quarter only stung a little. But a salve was at hand: that dunk (above) by Kobe was incredible -- the slo-mo really does it justice. And speaking of justice, that clinches the division and moves the Lakers to the #2 spot and a potential 1st-round match-up with our bitches the Mavs. What do you think, Stu? Nooooiice.
So did the MVP race just turn back in our favor? I'm still not buying it. If the players or coaches or GMs voted, Kobe would win in a landslide. And yes I know that a couple LA Times 'informal poll of voters' has him winning, but the 'journalists' that vote are lard-ass haters extraordinaire (this not an opinion, but a verifiable fact). And as we've seen in the difference in Obama vote totals in open caucuses vs. balloting, there is something about the privacy of a voting booth that clarifies the mind and allows the voter to proceed with complete irrationality and unfettered bias. Also, most of the writers are white, and white people do love assists.
Never mind that CP3 is sort of a defensive liability -- sure he gets some nice steals, but so does Baron Davis, and so did Smush Parker. Can anyone seriously watch last night's game and think, wow those two superstars really battled it out? You mean Kobe and Pargo? And since stats can't tell the whole story, it should come down to the intangibles of Leadership, Indomitable Will, and, I don't know, how about Which Player Strikes The Most Fear Into The Hearts Of His Opponents? (Answer: Kobe, Kobe, Kobe. And KG second.)
If it comes down to this "who is most valuable to his team" nonsense, I might have to go with Lebron James. That Cavs team wouldn't win 20 games without Lebron. But is anyone worried about them on the playoffs? Or the Hornets? It is to laugh. There are three and only three contenders for the championship right now: Celtics, Spurs, and Your Los Angeles Lakers. You feel that fear? It's because we're close.
That win last night was really... necessary. Can we please face Dallas in the first round? Pretty please? I think we can beat them in a 7-game series without Gasol or Bynum.
So I flip over to TNT to catch the end of the Rockets winning streak, and during the post-game highlights of the Suns-Blazers game they show Shaq shaking hands with Paul Allen. Charles Barkley says something about Allen having a lot of money, and Ernie Johnson says, well, Shaq has a little too. Thus prompting this gem from Charles:
"Are you kidding me? If Paul Allen woke up with Shaq money, he'd kill himself."
To me, that looks tailor-made for the Lakers reaching the conference finals, while the bottom half is a brutal slugfest. Just shows how important positioning will be down the stretch.
Missing from the picture is the Denver "Two All-Star Starters" Nuggets. At 33-22 they would be 4th in the East (where Philly is holding down the 8th spot at 25-32). Maybe the NBA should go to a full 16-team reseed? Could be interesting:
1. Celtics 16. Kings
8. Jazz 9. Rockets
4. Suns 13. Cavs
5. Spurs 12. Nuggets
2. Pistons 15. Blazers
7. Mavs 10. Magic
3. Lakers 14. Raptors
6. Hornets 11. Warriors
First round is a LOT more compelling, that's for sure. And you still get the much hoped for Lakers-Celtics final.
