Playoff Ramblings

Just a quick thought before we get to the hard work. Lebron James is inhuman. That turnaround three was unbelievable and I honest-to-god believed that his half-court three was going in. He's just that good. If you had told me that he had made a 35 footer to win the game, I wouldn't have been surprised. Amazed? Of course. Surprised? No way in hell. Nothing with this guy surprises you anymore.

While we're on the topic of the unbelievable, Dwight Howard's sixth technical foul was a joke of a call and I'm glad that it was rescinded. For those of you who didn't catch it, Dwight made a great play, scored, and yelled. That's it. That's not a technical foul. That's a good player scoring and getting excited. The referees need to see reactions for what they are, let players be players, and loosen up a little bit. If Dwight had missed a possible Game 6 or 7 because of that technical, Orlando would have been up in flames. So yes, I agree that Dwight's technical should have been taken back by the league.

Magic-Cavaliers

-Every bad habit of the Cavaliers we thought had died is popping back up. I actually don't know any of their bad habits besides standing around and watching Lebron, but that's the one that keeps popping up. That's the reason they're down 3-1. And that's why they're going to lose this series. If Lebron James is averaging 42 points and 7 assists a game, there's no reason you should be losing a series. Unless those 42 points and 7 assists make up half of your overall points as a team. As great as he is, no one man can beat a team. And the Magic are team. A hell of a team actually. Sorry Lebron. We thought Mo was the answer. We were wrong.

-Dwight Howard is hitting his free throws. When Dwight came out and complained about not getting enough touches towards the ends of games, I laughed at him. I said that he has no reliable post moves and that teams could just foul him and waste possessions for the Magic. I was wrong. Last night he dominated the overtime, scoring 10 points and carrying the Magic to victory. He even made two clutch free throws to effectively end the game. Throw in his usual, award-winning defense and there's a good chance that we just saw the birth of a superstar last night. See, this is why I'm hoping that neither Lebron or Kobe make the Finals. I love one of them (not Kobe) and I think it would be a great matchup, but people need to realize that there are many, many phenomenal players in the NBA and that we shouldn't be putting all our eggs into one basket. Even if that basket is a 6'9", 270 pound man who can score like Jordan and pass like Magic.

-Rafer Alston is one win away from the NBA Finals. Let me repeat that. Rafer Alston. Our "beloved" Skip is on his way to playing for an NBA Championship. And he scored 26 points last night to actually help is team in a good way in an important game. Who would've thought, right? I don't know if we should be happy for him or bitter. I'm just going to settle for pleasantly perplexed.

-The Magic are better than the Cavaliers. Yes, yes I know, we're not allowed to say things like that. It's sacrilege or something of that nature. But it's true. They won two games by 40 points combined and lost by 4 during the regular season, and now could easily have just swept the Cavaliers. At first glance, making 17 threes last night seems like an anomaly. And yes, it's a lot. But when you dig a little deeper, you realize that that's the Orlando Magic. They shoot the ball and they shoot it damn well. When you factor in how open the threes were, 17 threes is almost a foregone conclusion. And it's not even Cleveland's fault. If they stay home on the shooters, they open the lane to the likes of Courtney Lee and especially Hedo Turkoglu with his constant driving, dishing, and scoring. Oh, and of course, that means they can't double-team this guy. Which, as we saw last night, probably isn't a good thing.

All things considered, I don't want to act like I saw this coming. I saw this coming after Game 1, but if you had told me a team would be up 3-1 in this series, I would not have guessed the Magic to be that team. Yes, that means I thought the Cavaliers were going to win. But, here we are. The King is about to be dethroned by a team without it's starting point guard, who also happens to be an All-Star. Just saying. Then again, being an All-Star doesn't seem to mean much in this series. Just ask him. Mo, just an idea here, but don't talk trash when you're on the Cavaliers and are not named Lebron. It just makes those 5-15 nights when you leave Lebron to fight a team all by himself that much worse for you.

Lakers-Nuggets

What's left to be said here? A lot actually. I don't really know why I said that. The Nuggets put on a valiant show in Game 4, beating the Lakers with defense, rebounding and some fire from J.R. Smith. But more on that later.

-Chris Andersen. That's it. If you saw the mini-documentary on him during the halftime show, you'd [hopefully] understand my man-crush on him a little better. When he said, "Look at me now," I teared up. Alright that's an exaggeration. But it was still a great video nonetheless. Billy put it up, take a look at it. I'd link you to it, but there's no way in hell I'm linking you to something Billy posted. Find it yourself.

-The Nuggets big men (Andersen, Nene, Martin) combined for 42 rebounds while Odom, Gasol and Bynum had 23 put together. In other words, the Nuggets wanted it and the boys in purple didn't. The Lakers had a 58-40 rebounding advantage and won the offensive board battle 20-9. The Lakers cannot allow that to happen again if they want to win this series. So, yeah, L.A., allow it to happen again.

-The Nuggets were able to win on a night when Kobe got his 34 and 'Melo was sick and injured. That means, like I've said before, that the Nuggets are the better team. They are deeper and have more weapons, which is why they won by 19 points with Carmelo struggling.

-A big reason for that was J.R. Smith. He did what we've expected him to do all series long. He came in, took a bunch of shots and changed the game. And, before we move on, I'd just like to point out something to you. "I'm not worried. J.R. Smith is the definition of streaky, and I won't be surprised if he averages 22 a game in the next two games in Denver on something like 60 percent shooting from three and 55 percent shooting from the field." That was me. Yes, I was actually [half] right about something. I know, it was only in Game 4 and my percentages were way off. I'll take credit anyway. It'd be great if you threw me a bone and agreed with me. 24 points, 4 threes and 1 badass post-shot celebration for this man.





J.R. Smith (the shirtless one), tatted up and ready to go.




So that leaves us at 2-2, with a big game tonight. A huge game. Monumental. Birdman-hair sized. That was a recycled joke. I think the winner of Game 5 wins the series, so here's hoping that the Nuggets win.

A Nuggets win tonight is dependent on their defense, rebounding, hustle and Carmelo Anthony. If they outplay the Lakers on the defensive end like they did in Game 4 and have a normal game from Anthony, they have a great shot at winning tonight. As for the Lakers, they need to remember how to box out, grab rebounds and most importantly, want the game. They can't come out flat like they've been prone to doing, and even games like Game 4 when they play hard but not as hard as they could will kill them against a team like the Nuggets. Against the Rockets, unfortunately, no. But against the more talented, deeper and fiery Nuggets? Yes. It's going to be another fight akin to Games 1-3. Don't expect a blowout. Don't expect any niceties to be exchanged between the two sides. This isn't the Champion's League (I actually shouldn't have said that. I watched Barcelona vs. Manchester United and actually enjoyed all of it. It was exciting and a great change of pace from what I'm used to. I think I'm actually starting to like soccer). But still, I mean what I said. There'll be no love lost between these two teams. It's far too late for that. Now is when things get chippy, ugly and sometimes even downright dirty. That means no more tripping, Dahntay. I'm looking forward to another great game and hopefully the boys in baby blue can pull out the win. If not, I don't really mind. At least not as much as I did before. My respect for Bryant has actually grown a lot, and while I still can't stand him, the Lakers or their fans, I suppose I don't hate them as much. That being said, I still want my Carmelo-Dwight Finals and would love to see Sasha Vujacic trying to console a raging-mad Kobe Bryant after they fail to win the championship yet again. And you're welcome to go now, I'm pretty much done here.

Just as an aside, I ordered a Hedo Turkoglu and Carmelo Anthony t-shirt jersey today. They should be here in about a week. Yes, just in time for the Finals. I don't know where my loyalties will lie if they face each other for the NBA Championship, so I got both just in case. I'll probably do something like switch shirts at halftime, or cheer for the home team. But my strange man-love is a completely different path that we don't need to be taking right now. Happy Wednesday and enjoy Game 5.