Western Playoffs Game 4’s - Kellan

This weekend I didn’t watch as many games as I should have, but the series to watch is the San Antonio Spurs and the New Orleans Hornets anyway. Watching Chris Paul emerge is amazing. The first article I wrote for this site was called The Assist. I am seeing Chris Paul become a player that seemingly has no ceiling. He knows exactly when to score and when to pass. His steals really help set the tone for the Hornets as well. So a bit of advice; watch the New Orleans games because Paul isn’t the only player you’ll be hearing from in the years to come. Tyson Chandler has emerged as a real force and David West was an All-Star this year. Stojakovic just needs to keep raining down the threes and I don’t know if there is any team that can stop them. That is just too many offensive options.

So the Jazz have just gone on a crazy run and it’s all about Deron Williams. I’m hoping that Brewer can be his alley-oop guy like Chandler is for Paul. I hope Williams can maintain this level of play. It’s one of the differences between good and great players. Good players can have great games and mediocre games but great players consistently have good to great games. So please Deron learn that consistency so that I can like watching the Utah Jazz again.

I have to say that I just keep liking Channing Frye more and more. He talks about real things and you can notice how he’s getting better at writing too. I wonder if all of this blogging will eventually create more basketball books. I would read something Gilbert Arenas wrote.

That was a real hard foul by Turiaf. Seemed like it just happened in the course of things and wasn’t as bad I’ve seen in other games. But man he made the guy bleed. That is definitely not something you’re supposed to do in basketball.

Here’s a pretty cool article about Chris Andersen of the Hornets if you have a free fifteen minutes.

Pfft, Derek Jeter

Just really quick, six reasons why I’m insanely jealous of Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees…

(In no kind of order)

 

 

Is it not enough to have dated one of these beautiful women, but all six.  Not cool Derek.  Did your mother not teach you to share?

Episode 23

Watch out, we’re on location.  Do’in the podcast from a laptop, watch’in Boston and Cleveland.  At least the podcast was better than the game.

Episode 23

Episode 22

Oh deuces.  You know what made this episode one of the best, Kellan cough’in over the money.  It’s a good feeling, one that can keep me warm at night.  Having his money and being able to rub it in, does life get any better?  I don’t see how it can.  Oh, and we did talk about some sports along the way.  And by sports I mean just NBA playoffs, we ran a little long.

Episode 22 

Lakers SWEEP!

Ok, here’s the thing, I hate the Lakers.  Truth be told, I hate Denver even more.  The first round series that just wrapped up between L.A. and Denver has been a battle of two evils for me.  The only redeeming factor is Kellan now owns me one U.S. dollar, a buck, a greenback, some scrill!  Finally one of my rediculous predictions/bets have finally paid off!

The Lakers took care of the Nuggets in Denver last night, in what was game four of the first round of the western conference playoffs.  The Nuggets really never seemed to show up to play against Kobe.  Kobe did.  He averaged 33.5 points per game, shooting exactly 50% from the field at 48-96 shots, and getting 6.3 assists along the way.  I do have a bit of a problem with how Mr. Bryant conducts himself on the court, especially during the playoffs.  There are many players in the association that have learned to flop with the best of them, and the best of them seems to be Kobe himself.  Kobe has taken the flop to new heigths and his ability to whine at the refs is not unlike Larry Bird’s ability from “back-in-the-day.”  In the last half of game four, I lost count after 18 or so flops that Kobe took.  Now, I’m not saying he wasn’t getting fouled, but after his arms are thrown into the air for the thousandth time, it really starts to get old.

But aside from making this post a rant about what a little whiney @#%$& Kobe is, or how much I dislike the Denver Nuggets (well Denver in general), the most important thing about this post is that Kellan owns me money.  So, no one in the west had a snowball’s chance to sweep in the playoffs this year.  The west is just too strong and no team will let the other team run away with the home games.  Well Kellan, you were wrong.  More then anything else this is a moral victory for me.  The Pats didn’t lose to Maimi, the Bulls didn’t win the finals this year (let alone make it to the playoffs), and the Blazers did make it to 500 when I said they wouldn’t.  Now I realize that most people might find this win as a small one, but bragging rights are bragging right, and Kellan doesn’t get to have them for once!

In your face, how you like them apples, whaz up now, suck it, oh burn, and simply HA!

San Antonio vs. Phoenix - Game 4

I’m gearing up for game 4 between San Antonio and Phoenix. I want Phoenix to win for a couple of reasons. First, I made a bet with Jeff that no one in the West would sweep. Second, I really wanted to see a Lakers-Suns match up this year. That had a lot of potential plot lines. Shaq vs. Kobe (I liked the NBA Playoffs commercial they did too), Shaq vs. Los Angeles, Phoenix has knocked the Lakers out of the playoffs for the last couple years. The Phoenix vs. Lakers games in the playoffs were already really good, I think that adding in Shaq made it even more interesting. And the third reason is that my buddy Abel is a HUGE Suns fan. Things aren’t looking too great for Phoenix, but Abel will shortly be a father (his boy is due next week.)

One more thing on a Phoenix vs Lakers series. Kobe has been smiling so much lately I think he needs a little run-in with Raja Bell.

Delonte West just hit a killer three pointer to put Washington down 3-1 on the series. It seems like if at least two other people on Cleveland can have good offensive games that the Cavaliers looks like a team that should be in the Playoffs. Delonte West and Daniel Gibson were the ones for Cleveland in this Game 4. It looks like Cleveland should be able to finish this series without too much difficulty. Now what happens when they get to Round 2?

Episode 21

After a week of rest it was time to break down the playoffs.  And then we talked about hockey again.  We’re getting better at it, although we’re still pretty bad.  The non-hockey stuff though, pure gold.

Episode 21

Playoff fix

Now that Golden State is no longer mathematically able to make it into the playoffs I thought I’d finally weigh in with what I think would make for the best playoff structure.  Personally I still like East vs. West.  I don’t like the people that say seed 1-16 and let things fall how they will.  As I’ve said in a previous podcast I think that the way to fix the playoff system is to take the top 6 from each conference.  So here would be the seedings as of right now.

East
1. Boston
2. Detroit
3. Orlando
4. Cleveland
5. Washington
6. Toronto

West
1. LA Lakers
2. New Orleans
3. San Antonio
4. Utah
5. Houston
6. Phoenix

So the best in each Conference still get to go.  But that is only 12 teams while the playoffs is for 16. 

Portland vs. Sacramento and mini-links

I’m currently watching the Blazers play horribly against the Kings. What I really want to do is watch the Lakers play the Hornets. How is this not on national television? I want to see these two teams. I’ll probably see them play sometime in the playoffs but things are heating up and on a Friday night I’d be watching that at the sports bar rather than sitting at home watching a less than exciting Portland game.

Maybe I’m just feeling bitter that it now seems like my Golden State Warriors may not make the playoffs (true fans always keep hope until it’s statistically impossible). So if the Warriors do not make it I’m going to have to throw my support behind the Hornets. With CP3 hopefully clinching up an MVP award tonight the Hornets are not a team that someone wants to go up against in the playoffs.

Just eight more days until the playoffs kick off. Maybe it’s time for me to do some end of the season links as the game progresses.

I really enjoyed this website about LaMarcus Aldridge being the league Most Improved Player. Being a comic book fan and a Portland resident it resonated with me. Good job Portland in knowing your audience. Now, is it going to work on the voting committee?

Paul Shirley retiring? Well at least he had a good run. He managed to get a book published was able to travel the world was playing a game and was paid for the whole thing. I have a feeling that he’s going to be alright in his post-basketball career. Although I wonder if he’ll ever be able to get away from basketball or if he’ll just explore where he fits within the world. And a shameless plug to read his book. Anyone who wants to know what the harder side of professional basketball is give it a gander.

Episode 20

Is it a milestone?  No.  But we did talk about hockey.  If you want to hear two guys be completely clueless about a sport check out the last five minutes.  If you want to hear us sounding (slightly) better listen to the first thirty minutes.

Episode 20