Conference Finals Recaps: Four Games, Four Posessions

Before we go any further, you need to see this. Not just the Lebron shot. We all know that he's not a human being. But the last two minutes as whole. Hedo hits a huge three and a twisting jumper in the lane that we would be talking about this morning if Lebron had never been born (granted, there would a lot less people saying "we are all witnesses" and other variations of the phrase). And after all of that, of course, you have one man breathing life back into 20,057 people at once in less than a second. Add that to the three tense games we've had before Game 2 and we're looking at one hell of a pair of series. And since I have nothing better to do with my time, why not look at both of them in a little more detail?

Western Conference Finals: Lakers-Nuggets

Even though Lebron is busy on the other side of the bracket with his usual ungodly work, this has been my favorite series of the playoffs so far. The frenetic pace, similar quality of the teams and the massive tattoo that is the Denver Nuggets are a few reasons why. Here's what we know after two games.

-Something, somewhere, somehow has clicked for Carmelo Anthony. I've said this before, but I just want to repeat it because I don't think people understand just how good he is. Watching him defend Bryant late in Game 2, his hand waving in Kobe's face, was something special. Yeah, Kobe hit a pull up three and a jumper to tie the game on two separate occasions with that hand waving in his face, but he's Kobe Bryant. You can say all you want about forcing him to his left and trying to make him settle for jump shots, but at the end of the day, he's going to make very, very tough, near impossible shots. That's why he's Kobe Bryant. But Carmelo's ball denial throughout the fourth quarter and especially on the last play of the game was spectacular. Anytime you can make Derek Fisher (and I don't care what the Lakers say about Kobe being a "decoy," we all know that that ball would have been in his hands if they could have gotten it to him) take the last shot of a game, you're in good shape. And I'm putting this up before any of you try to send this to me and try to convince me that Derek Fisher is a viable option in the clutch. That was a fantastic shot, but that was also five years ago. A lot has changed since then. Some things got better, Derek Fisher got worse. The point is, Carmelo has really come into his own in the playoffs this year, and we're finally getting to see it. His offensive game has always been unstoppable, and now that he's doing it on the defensive end as well as winning games, he's right up there with Lebron, Kobe and Wade.

-Chauncey's layup off a pass to himself off Kobe's back. Witty, savvy, intelligent, entertaining, creative, resourceful, brilliant. Just a few ways to describe it.

-The Denver Nuggets are a more talented team than the Los Angeles Lakers. Outside of Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol, the Nuggets are better at every position on the floor. Billups, Carmelo and Nene are better than their Lakers counterparts and the Nugget also have the deeper bench. The Lakers might be better coached, better led and an overall better team, but talent-wise the Nuggets are the winners. Of course, they've been talented for years. It's just that now they're finally living up to their potential.

-We're going to find out all we need to know about the Los Angeles Lakers from this series. If they want to beat the Nuggets, the Lakers are going to have to show up to every game and play tough, physical basketball, which are the two things they've been criticized for not doing consistently since last summer. If they do both of those in this series, there's no reason to think they won't in the Finals. Which, by the way, is where they'll be if they do. That combined with the Magic proving that the Cavaliers are still a part of the NBA and can lose to other NBA teams means that Kobe receiving the championship trophy while awkwardly interacting with his teammates and pretending to like them as they wonder why he's not yelling or scowling at them followed by a contrived Bryant speech about how he couldn't have done it by himself before he ignores his team for two months is becoming more and more likely. The only thing that could make this moment any better is if afterwords Sasha Vujacic tried to take the trophy from Bryant to hold, only to get a Kobe elbow to his mouth followed by a "The Only Reason I Talk To Any Of You Is Because I Haven't Found A Way To Clone Myself And Win The Championship By Going Kobe-On-Five" glare from Bryant. As much as I hate to admit it, I'm a little excited.

I'll write a little more after tonight's Game 3, but right now we're moving on to the second series.

Eastern Conference Finals: Magic-Cavaliers

In one of the most surprising games of the playoffs that in hindsight probably shouldn't have been that surprising, the Magic stole Game 1 from the Cavaliers. They tried to do the same in Game 2, but as you saw above, Lebron James had something to say about it. I've got a few incoherent thoughts about the series so far.

-The Magic are an excellent team, and them beating Cleveland is not as out of the question as we'd all like to think. They almost just beat Cleveland twice in two days at Quicken Loans Arena. To put that in perspective, Cleveland only lost twice at home all year, and one of those losses was a game in which Lorenzon Wright played 35 minutes. Don't ask who, it's not important. But listen to the following scenario without thinking about who the teams actually are and decide for yourself. During the regular season, Team A beats Team B twice at home, once by 11 and once by 29, and loses to Team B by 4 on the road. In their first game of the playoffs Team A comes back from a 15 point deficit to win on the road. In Game 2, Team A comes back from 23 down only to lose on a last second three point shot. If you didn't know that Team A was the Magic and Team B was the Cavaliers, who would you pick to win three out of the next five games in the series? It would have to be Team A right? Which brings me to my second point.

-Don't get too excited about the Magic. Even though could easily be up 2-0 right now, they could just as easily be down 2-0. And even though they came back from double digit deficits in both games, there's a reason they were down by so much. They are a streaky team. Any team whose offense is built around three point shooting and a center without any reliable low post moves is going to have stretches where it can't score. Any team led by Rafer Alston, and I know that this doesn't have to be said on a Rockets blog of all places, is going to have it's share of problems. The Magic were also one of the best road teams in the NBA this year and are not that much better at home than they are away from it. So before you jump onto the Magic bandwagon, remember that they still have this guy as their starting point guard.

On a semi-related note, I made a bet with a friend last night about the Magic-Cavaliers series. If the Cavaliers win I have to eat a full box of Eggo cereal with a jug of milk in one sitting. If they lose I get 30 dollars. It's a little lopsided, but so is the series. The reason I'm telling you this is because I'm a Magic fan for the next 3-5 games. So don't get confused if you see a little more fawning over Hedo Turkoglu than usual.

-The "momentum" of a playoff series isn't as big of a deal as people might make it out to be. The reason Lebron's shot was so huge was because it tied the series at 1-1 instead of sending the Cavaliers into Orlando down 0-2. Not because of the confidence or swagger or whatever-the-hell-you-want-to-call-it it gave back to the Cavs. At the end of the day, a shot is a shot. The Magic had three losses at the buzzer before Game 2, so it obviously didn't have too adverse of an effect on them. And as for the momentum of the series being changed, momentum changes all the time. That's why it's momentum. It's fleeting. If the first play of the game is an entry pass to Dwight Howard followed by one of his thunderous dunks where he nearly throws the ball into the hoop or a Howard block on a Lebron drive that sends the ball into the fourth row, who has the momentum then? It's the fact that it won the game, not the momentum shift it may have caused, that makes Lebron's shot so amazing.

-The Cavaliers shouldn't be panicking. Should they be worried? Yes. But they should have been worried before the series started. The Magic were clearly the better team when they played in the regular season. Eight wins against mediocre teams that probably shouldn't have been in the playoffs doesn't change that. The Cavaliers weren't going to go 16-0 to win the championship, and it's better that their first loss came relatively early. They recovered, won their next game, and now have to win one on the road. It's as simple as that.

-"Carmelo Anthony has been the best player who has played this week...And yes, I'm aware that now Lebron is going to drop 50 tomorrow and make me look like a fool." Damnit. But in all seriousness, I stand by that statement. Hopefully 'Melo does something tonight to make it look like I'm not a complete idiot.

What I'm trying to say in a very ineffective, inefficient and unneccessarily wordy way is that we have up to 10 more close games on our hands, and that's something any basketball fan should be anticipating. The first four games of the Conference Finals have been decided by four possessions, and that's truly special. So many little things can happen in a game like a shot rimming out, a missed free throw, a player stepping out of bounds, a bobbled pass, a bad call (a really bad call, an embarrassingly bad call, you get the idea), that it's rare to have so many games being so close. What's interesting is how important seemingly unimportant things become. For example, Dwight Howard went 4-8 from the free throw line in Game 2. If they had won you would look at the box score and think "So what? He's a terrible free throw shooter. It's expected." Now you look at it wonder what would have happened if he made two of those four that he missed. The beauty of these games is that Anthony Johnson missing a jumper in the second quarter becomes just as important as Lebron James making a three with one second left in the fourth, that Pau Gasol missing three free throws over the course of the game affects the game's outcome just as much as Derek Fisher missing the potentially game-tying three at the buzzer. Hopefully these four games are an indicator of what's yet to come in the Conference Finals, because I don't think anyone, regardless of who they support, would mind more games like the ones we've had. I just hope that Hedo recovers from his heartbreaking defeat at the hands of The King, that the Nuggets are able to push the Lakers and Kobe Bryant a little closer to an emotional breakdown tonight, and that we get as many of those Lebron-Kobe puppet commercials as possible.

A quick note on tonight's Game 3 of the Lakers-Nuggets series. I think the Nuggets are going to win tonight. The Lakers are hungover from a heartbreaking Game 2 loss and are probably scared for the first time in the playoffs, maybe even all year. The Nuggets are confident and are going back home where they haven't lost in something like 24 years (it's more like since mid-March, but it feels like a lot longer). I see another close, highly contested game with more continued brilliance from Carmelo and another victory for the Nuggets. And, by the way, we shouldn't have to say that about Carmelo anymore. He's on that level now with Kobe and Lebron where you don't have to mention that he's going to dominate because everyone already knows it.

Another "quick" note on Lebron's shot. What stood out the most was the reaction of the fans before and after the shot. It really is amazing how in a single second a single person can change the fortune of a team and by consequence an entire city. It was like those decades of suffering of Cleveland sports fans (the Indians haven't won a World Series since 1948, the Cavaliers have never won the championship, the Browns have never won the Super Bowl or even played in one) were erased with that single shot. After years and years of suffering, Cleveland invested everything it had left into an 18 year old kid from Akron and he has blessed them with his play ever since. I was reading a Sports Illustrated article and in it someone said that Lebron was "God's gift to Cleveland," and he proved it to us last night. In one arching, fading motion, Lebron carried the hopes, dreams and wishes of an entire city to a better place. Now that that's out of the way, I'll leave you with this. You know, just to clarify where my loyalties lie.

Why Mcgrady Has To Go (And Various Thoughts From The Conference Finals)

I noticed a few things in Billy's article and in the Conference Finals that I'd like to share with you. One of them was his blatant misspelling of the word "bait" (he spelled it bate). Another was the comments about how Mcgrady can still help us. I love Mcgrady and argued for him all year until the microfracture surgery, but I don't think that he will ever suit up for us again.

First things first, I understand how good Mcgrady is. I remember that he average something like 24-7-7 during our winning streak last season, I remember his 40 in Game 6 of the Utah series. I also know that you don't go from scoring 40 in your last game of a season to averaging 15 a game the next season naturally, so obviously something was wrong this year. Ideally he has fixed whatever the problem was and will come back fully healthy, but his ability is not the problem anymore (and to be truthful, it never was, it was his commitment to working, but that's another story for another day). In fact, I'm almost sure he's going to go back to averaging 20 points a game, but that's not why he needs to leave our team.

Whether it's true or not, the seed has been planted in every Rocket's head that the team is better without Tracy Mcgrady. For the record, I don't think we are. Yes, we played better without him. We also had a healthy Artest and Battier as well as a newly unleashed Aaron Brooks. Don't forget that when you talk about how we "don't need" Mcgrady. But no matter what the truth is, the Rockets now think they don't need T-Mac. Yes, the Houston Rockets now believe we don't need our supposed savior, the man who was going to take us back to where the Dream took us, the man who "just sucked the gravity right out of the building." The man who beat the Spurs in the greatest comeback in NBA history. Now that we won a playoff series without Mcgrady, the doubt has been solidified. (In an unrelated note, the commercial for "The Hangover" just came on. There is absolutely nothing, and I will repeat, absolutely nothing, more bizarre than Mike Tyson singing "In The Air Tonight" by Phil Collins.) But that's neither here nor there nor anywhere in the vicinity of either of those two places. The point is, Mcgrady will not be able to just walk into practice now that the Rockets "know" that we are better without him. That is the kind of mental damage that cannot be repaired. Bridges have been burned, and I believe it's time for both parties to move on. Not because it's the best option, but because we have to.

That being said, I would have advocated trading Mcgrady anyways. He is past his prime and his contract expires at the perfect time, as Billy just explained, which gives us a lot of options. Hopefully we can parlay (what a word) his contract into a star wing player and actually get somwhere next year. We'll keep you updated with news and our most likely worthless commentary on the matter as the offseason progresses.

And the Nuggets just beat the Lakers in Game 2. The series is tied at 1-1 with two games being decided by a combined 5 points. I'm going to put up a recap of the first two games of both this and the Cavaliers-Magic series on Saturday night, so I'll just make a few comments here.

-Carmelo Anthony has been the best player who has played this week. Yes, I know Kobe and Lebron have been playing, but the things Anthony has been doing are amazing. His offensive game is, since I really have no other word for it, perfect. He can score from inside, outside and everywhere in between. And yes, I'm aware that now Lebron is going to drop 50 tomorrow and make me look like a fool.

-Chauncey Billups is missing free throws. It's probably nothing, but it's still something, if that makes sense. I don't like that he went 1-2 with 4 seconds left when making both of them would win the game. Things like that are what make good teams lose games they should win.

-J.R. Smith has been nonexistent. Actually, he's been existent, he's just been really, really bad. Horrendous even. Usualy out of control. Sometimes just stupid. He's been all of those things, but in all honesty, 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.

-In Game 1, the Nuggets led by 8 after the first quarter and 1 at the half, their biggest lead was 15 and they lost by one possession. In game 2, the Lakers led by 8 after the first quarter and 1 at halftime, their biggest lead was 15 and they lost by one possession. In both games, Pau Gasol made more agonized faces than Yao Ming during an x-ray.

-The Magic are a very good basketball team. In case you missed Game 1, which you shouldn't have, I just want to tell you that it was not an anomaly. They won the way they usually do, Dwight dominating the paint, their shooters hitting 3s and Hedo "The Legend" Turkoglu running the show. And in all seriousness, "The Legend" should be Hedo's new nickname. He deserves it. Really. I'm dead serious. The point of this is that I think they will give the Cavaliers a fight, and while I still think Cleveland is going to win, (that Lebron fellow is not too shabby) I now think it's going to be in 7 games.

I'll post a deeper recap of what I saw in the first four games sometime Saturday, so that's another article for you to read. Or more realistically, another article for you to ignore. Happy Friday everyone.

Also, feel free to call out Billy about his Rockets Season Grades which were supposed to be "coming soon". If Mcgrady had the same work ethic as Billy there's no way he'd even be coming back next year, let alone returning to his pre-surgery form. Oh wait. Damnit. Forget I said anything.