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on the topic of the unbelievable, Dwight Howard's sixth technical foul was a joke of a call and I'm glad that it was rescinded.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.

Who is the Birdman?

Nuggets-Lakers Game 3 Reaction: Anything You Can Do

Kobe can do better. That was directed at you, Lebron. You gave us an amazing shot, Kobe gave us an amazing fourth quarter. I'm expecting something special from you tonight. And this is the part where I remember that I'm betting against Lebron and punch a wall a few times. By the way, since we're on the topic of my bet, I realized that it really is the definition of a win-win situation. I win the bet and I get 30 dollars, I "lose" the bet and I get to eat a whole box of Eggo cereal. Was that just me trying to rationalize a stupid bet after picking against Lebron James? You bet your ass it was.

Lakers-Nuggets

I don't want to be seen as someone who shies away from my mistakes, so let me be the first to say that I was wrong. I said that the Nuggets would win Game 3 and was wrong. I said that Carmelo would prove to us that he's on the same level as Kobe and Lebron (which he is, he just wasn't last night) and was wrong. And probably most importantly, I forgot that Kobe Bryant was on the Lakers, which wasn't just wrong but was flat-out stupid. And even though I mentioned it in the previous paragraph, I'm not buying into this supposed Kobe-Lebron duel with each trying to top the other's exploits. Yes, Kobe is aware of what Lebron is doing. So are about a billion other people. Yes, Kobe knows that somewhere along the line this year we all decided to move the title of "The Best Player In The World" off of him and on to Lebron. And yes, a small part of what Kobe did in Game 3 was probably a giant bitch-slap to every basketball fan's collective face after we idolized Lebron for 24 hours, but I believe that the main reason Kobe won the game was, well, because they needed to win the game. It's as simple as that. Kobe knew, like he's known so many times before, that the Lakers needed him to carry them to the finish line and he did just that. There was no "take that Lebron" or trying to outdo The King, there was just a cold-blooded killer breaking the hearts of 20,000 fans in a game his team had to have.

That being said, the Nuggets should have won this game. But instead we were treated to "Furious George Screws Up An Inbounds Play: The Sequel," which was quickly followed by Carmelo Anthony fouling out, effectively ending the game. I still think that the Nuggets are the better team in this series and that they should be up 3-0, but the Lakers have Kobe Bryant and it's starting to look more and more like that just might be enough. At least as long as the Nuggets keep making unintelligent plays down the stretch. And now, rather than going for the sweep on Monday night, the Nuggets will be fighting to stay in the series. It's funny how much one guy changes things. It's also funny how some people never learn.

Don't get me wrong, I believe the Nuggets have a great chance at winning the series, but thanks to two floating, careless passes it's going to be a lot, lot harder. Unnecessarily harder, which might be the worst part. So what do they do now? I would recommend finding a reliable player to pass the ball in. A half-decent sideline inbounds play wouldn't hurt either. After that, they continue to do what they've been doing. They're better than the Lakers, if they stay the course, the winning will come. If not tomorrow, in Game 5. But it will come. Carmelo won't disappear in the second half again like he did in Game 3, Kobe Bryant won't single-handedly win two games in a row (He's getting older and he's getting tired. In his post-game interview both of his hands were on his knees and he was panting more than he was speaking. 2006 Kobe would have never admitted he was drained, let alone show it to the world on national television. Like it or not, he doesn't have enough left in him to dominate every single night.) and the Nuggets won't lose two games in two tries at the Pepsi Center. Hopefully.

And just to clarify, "dominate" doesn't mean scoring 30 for Kobe. That' s nothing for him. Dominate means holding the ball at the end of games for 15-20 seconds per possession and either shooting or creating a shot every time the Lakers go down the floor. And he just can't do that every night anymore. Even after Game 3 he said that the reason the Lakers went to Pau two times on a row late in the game because he was too tired to carry them and needed a break.

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.

Series/Season Recap: I'm Not Complaining

Nor should I be. If there was one constant through all of the injuries, tough losses and elbows that made up our season and playoff run, it was the effort. There was never a night when you could say that the Rockets did not put in the most that they could. There were nights when you could say that our offense resembled a paraplegic trying to run a marathon (In other words, our efforts were futile. Also, yes, that was a cripple joke), there were nights when you could say that the only reason Ron Artest shot was to drive away every single fan and supporter he's ever had, there were nights when you could say that the Rockets were just not talented, athletic or big enough to win, but there were never, ever nights when you could say that we didn't play our hardest. And honestly, I don't care how bad a team does, ff they play with as much passion and pride as the Rockets did, I'll support them until the bitter, possibly embarrassing end. And I'm happy to say that that's exactly what I did. All the way up until the discouraging, 59 points-in-two-games end that we had at the hands of those damn Lakers. Which by the way is how I'm going to be referring to them for the rest of the playoffs. Those damn Lakers.

Series

In Game 7 and as a result in the entire series, the Lakers were the better team. Believe me, that wasn't easy to say. I spent a good 5 minutes typing, re-typing, wording and re-wording that sentence to find the least painful way to put it, and that was the best that I could come up with. The truth is that the Lakers have been better than Rockets all along, but there was no way in hell you were getting us to admit that while we were still playing them. Now that it's all over, I want to, no matter how grudingly it may be, congratulate the Lakers. In the NBA, upsets in the playoffs are hard to come by. In a seven game series, the team that deserves to win will usually win, and that's the way it should be. Despite all of their laziness, arrogance and downright hate-ability, the Lakers were the better team in this series. Now that that's out of the way, I'd also like to say that I've never seen a team with as poor a work ethic as the men in purple (hah), and I hope Denver hands their asses to them in the Western Conference Finals. If you think that's the Bitter Rockets Fan side of me speaking, you're damn right. As for Game 7, I think it's enough to say that I don't want to talk about it. I watched it, yelled at the television once in a while and ended up with my face in my hands wondering where we went wrong. The sad part is, I knew exactly where we went wrong. Our two best players were injured and we could not score the ball. And even though we faced obvious shortcomings and exceeded any reasonable expectations people might have had for us, the end of your season is always disappoiting. I know I said I didn't care what happened to the Rockets after Game 4, but the truth is I did. And no matter how stacked against you the odds are, losing the last game of the year always hurts. It hurts a little less because of what this team accomplished, but it hurts nonetheless. So what now? We take a few days to recover emotionally (done), analyze what happened (in progress), clean up our wounds and hope for next year. The problem is, that's what we do every year. And that's why a season in which we overachieve so much has to be put into context. Because as much as we want to say "If we pushed the best team in the Western Conference to seven games without our two best players" or "Imagine if we were just healthy for one year" we have to realize that that's what we say every year. What I'm trying to say is that before we start planning the 2010 championship parade, let's remember why we're sitting here reading/writing this instead of getting ready to play Denver. So mix little bit each of apprecation of a special season, understanding of what went wrong and cautious optimism and I think we'll be on the right track. Now about our season.

Season

For simplicity, I like to divide our season into three parts. First, there was the "We're Winning The Championship This Year Because Our Team Kicks Ass" section. That was followed by the "Oh We're F**ked" stretch, and then of course there was the season-ending "We Might Not Get That Far, But I Really, Really Like This Team" part.

Part One:

We started the year with the addition of Ron Artest and essentially Yao Ming to a 50-win team. In other words, the David Stern might as well have called of the season and handed us the trophy. There was no way Kobe, Scruffy and the rest of them were going to touch us. Our pre-season optimism soon faded away when we realized that Tracy Mcgrady was overweight and undermotivated (I know that's not a word), Ron Artest and Battier were injured, and that we just weren't winning that many games. Thus we entered phase two.

Part Two:

Tracy Mcgrady was playing every other game, Ron Artest wasn't sure when he was ever going to play and the Rockets looked lost. We didn't know what to do on offense, we weren't defending as well as we used to and we were looking at another disappoining season. Then Mcgrady announced that his season was over, meaning that our title hopes would be going to the same place the debris in his knee was: the toilet. On a side note, I don't think they actually discard of the waste from surgeries in the toilet that doesn't seem sanitary. Mcgrady's injury pushed us into the third and final division of our season.

Part Three:

Just when things were looking worse than Tracy Mcgrady's back/knee/shoulder/desire to actually be a winning NBA player, something clicked for the Rockets. In case you're wondering, that something was approximately 7'6" and had unworldly basketball talent. We started focusing on defense and running the offense through Yao. We traded Rafer Alston and handed the reigns over to Aaron Brooks and we were there. Suddenly we were kicking asses and taking names. But were mostly just winning basketball games. The city of Houston fell in love with these lovable overachievers and we won our first playoff series since the Dream was shakin'. And even though our season ended 7 games and one hairline fracture later, there isn't anybody who can honestly say they aren't proud of the way the Rockets carried themselves, stuck together and found a way to win this year.

Next Season

And as for next year, of course I'm excited. A new season, a new 82 games, a new playoff run, it's impossible not to be. But I'm also aware. Aware that we have suffered a major injury every single year since 2004. Aware of how dangerous it is to get too hopeful about this current Rockets team. Aware of how many times I've been let down before. Ideally, we find a way to get rid of Mcgrady for a star (Kevin Martin, anyone?), keep Artest and KEEP VON WAFER. But that's a topic for another day, and one that will surely be addressed on this very blog as the offseason continues. In the meantime, I'm sticking with the controlled optimism and hoping that we can find a way to put it together next year. Because, at the end of the day, no matter how many times we've said it before, one simple statement still holds true: If we were completely healthy for just one year, there's no way we wouldn't win the championship. On that note, I'm done talking about the Rockets. At least for the next hour to hour-and-a-half.

(Our) Future

As for the rest of the playoffs and, more importantly, the future of Bring Back Novak, the tea leaves look good. We're hoping to keep running throughout the offseason and into next season, so don't forget to keep checking. Visiting hourly would be ideal, but we're just as happy with daily or even weekly. We're going to try our best to keep you updated on the Rockets actions/inactions during the summer and what we think about what they are doing/not doing/should be doing, but we're also going to expand to cover the whole NBA for the rest of the playoffs. As soon as playoffs are over we're going to go back to mostly being exclusively for the Rockets, but as of now we're a blog about everything NBA-related. Starting tonight. With the Western Conference Finals.

Nuggets-Lakers

Just to quickly preview the Lakers-Nuggets series, I want to say a few things about the Nuggets. If there's one team more inspirational than the Rockets, it's the guys the Lakers are about to be playing. They've overcome testicular cancer, drug suspension, a lack of mental stability, an angry coach and a major mid-season trade to become, in my opinion, the best team in the Western Conference. To put that in perspective, that's like if Lance Armstrong, Robert Downey Jr. and Mariah Carey combined all their problems into one person and still got over them. Also, is there any backup combination more badass than Chris Andersen and J.R. Smith? I'm excited to watch these guys for another possible 14 games, and am going to be pulling for them. Not just because they are playing the Lakers and not just because their tattoo total is far and away the most in the NBA, but because if anyone can appreciate a team fighting through obstacles it's a Rockets fan. So, as usual, I've got two words for you. They're not nearly as heartfelt, permanent or important to me as the other two, but they still stand for a sentiment that I hope you share with me. At least for the next 1-3 weeks. Go Nuggets