Archive for June 3rd, 2006
Continue Reading June 3rd, 2006
A Dallas win tonight could set up a Finals matchup between two of the most media-friendly guys in the league: Shaquille O’Neal and Mark Cuban. I believe it would be the first appearance in the NBA Finals for any team that was owned by a man with his own blog.
But Phoenix is not going away easily. If we’ve learned anything this playoff season, it’s that the Suns will battle, they will keep coming at you, and they are very hard to kill. A Game Seven in this series just feels right. And I’ve heard these rumors that Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki are friends, and I’d like there to be another game, just to see if the media might explore that friendship a little bit.
I don’t necessarily have a preference in the series (even though I like Dirk Nowitzki and hate Tim Thomas), but… I think we need a Game 7 here. If we don’t get it, there’s no basketball until Thursday, and I can’t quit cold turkey like that.
Mavericks can oust Suns, reach NBA Final for first time [ESPN.com]
Continue Reading June 3rd, 2006
Things may have finally gotten rough enough for Pistons guard Rip Hamilton, who loves to spout his slogan, “If it ain’t rough, it ain’t right,” which has always sounded slightly dirty to me.
The Heat polished off the Pistons in Game 6, cruising to a 95-78 victory. The Pistons shot 33.3% on the evening, compared with 55.7% for the Heat. It helps when Shaq goes 12-of-14 and Jason Williams, of all people, goes 10-of-12. I apologize, but I’m still having a little bit of difficulty adjusting to the idea that a team featuring Antoine Walker, Jason Williams, and a fan base dressed in white is headed to the NBA Finals.
The win seems like vindication for Pat Riley, who I believe still has small portions of Stan Van Gundy’s corpse stored in his freezer. For Flip Saunders, I don’t know… what’s the opposite of vindication? He’s really the only major variable on the Pistons teams of 2004/2005 to the 2006 Pistons, and they look, act, and feel like an entirely different team.
So the Heat sit back and await the winner of the Dallas/Phoenix series, and no matter the outcome, or when, the Heat get five full days of rest. The Finals don’t tip off until the 8th.
Heat in six [Detroit Bad Boys]
Detriot 78, Miami 95 [ESPN.com]
Continue Reading June 3rd, 2006
Assorted thoughts on both teams here:
There are some people upset at Wade’s post-game comments about being the first from the 2003 class to go to the Finals. C’mon, we all know what the subtext of that question really was, and Wade did, too.
She was really asking “are you glad you got to the Finals before LeBron?” Excuse him for not immediately thinking of Darko in the moment, there. He was also apparently inspired by the presence of Damon Jones in the building.
There’ll be plenty to say about Miami in the days ahead, so let’s wrap up our assault on the Pistons, who handled themselves with extreme class after the game, both on the court and with the press. We’re officially done beating them up, at least from the arrogance angle.
The Detroit News hands out their grades for the Pistons performance.
Free agent Ben Wallace, who called this a “wasted season”, becomes question #1 in an offseason of many questions in Detroit.
Mitch Albom warns the franchise not to blow everything up.
We tend to agree, but at the same time, when the Pistons aren’t clicking as a five-some, they just aren’t very good. We’ve said it all along - it’s a league about superstars, and they lack one. That 2004 team is like the only NBA champion ever to not have a superstar. That’s nice, but it’s also an anomoly, like it or not.
Good luck to them - hopefully they can find a go-to scorer who can create his own shot (like a Dwyane Wade or a Carmelo Anthony), or a true low post threat (perhaps a Chris Bosh), or even a decent big man off the bench (someone like a Darko Milicic). Luckily they have the best GM in basketball, who would surely snatch up players like those if they came along.
As for us, we’re excited, mostly because the Heat moving forward is so great for the league. Shaq will draw non-basketball fans, who can then be exposed to Wade, and hopefully Dirk. The Pistons and Spurs will be back, and two new teams in the Finals means that many more true contenders next season for the Cavaliers to roll over.
Continue Reading June 3rd, 2006
Well, we were obviously very happy with the outcome last night, as “Heat in six” both fulfills our preseries prediction, and also means we’re one step closer to the Antoine Walker-Jerry Stackhouse-Keith Van Horn Finals we’ve all been waiting for since 1997 or so.
The ongoing question on nights like last night is why they give out that Conference trophy. Other than making for a TV moment, it’s completely worthless. Shaq refused to touch it, so good for him.
We’ll have more on both the Heat and Pistons in a bit, but for now we really need to come clean on Rachel Nichols.
Much like Scarlett Johansson way back when, we can’t figure out if this chick is hot or not. In no way is she ugly or anything, but by all technical standards she’s really not like “hot”. There’s something about her, though. Is it just us, or is this true?
The other confusing factor is that for some reason we don’t think we’d be attarcted to her when she’s not reporting from location. We tried to imagine like sitting in a bar with her, or going to dinner, or like doing it in an alley, and none of those really yield the same feeling.
Thoughts?
