dunkside

Cavs @ Heat

• Not much to say about Wade vs Lebron. It was everything fans were expecting. There was scoring, there was dunking, there were blocks, 3 pointers and then some more dunking. It’s the second time Wade and Lebron put up 40 points each when playing against each other. It only makes you wonder if they can top it when they meet again this Saturday.

• Jamario Moon started again and played well. Can’t really blame him for not being able to do much against Lebron. When he plays like he did, especially when he’s hitting from long range (6-7 on 3 pointers), no one can stop the “new and improved Ron Artest” (I just can’t get enough of Ron Ron’s lunacy). Moon seems to have won the starting SF spot and neither James Jones nor Diawara look like they have a shot of taking it from him.

• Despite being down 11 points with less than 8 minutes remaining and the Heat seemingly rolling, the Cavs didn’t get fazed. They had a certain poise, showed maturity and got the job done. That’s the kind of attitude that could make the difference between winning and losing a playoff series.

• The Cavs are far from being at 100%. Ben Wallace is out with a broken foot (and he played much better for the Cavs than he ever did for the Bulls), Delonte West still has some problems with his injured wrist, Pavlovic just came back from injury. This thought should scare the crap out of the Celtics and Lakers, cause the Cavs just got Joe Smith to help with their depth in the front-court, and if they get everyone healthy they look to me like the favorites for the title.

• Moon and JO look like they have developed pretty good chemistry with Wade. The Heat don’t have enough weapons to compete with the big boys of the East, but they certainly can get to the 2nd round of the playoffs and throw a scare into the team they meet there.

• At the end of the game when the Cavs came storming back from 11 down by forcing the ball out of Wade’s hands, the Heat could have used the 3p shooting of one Cook, Daequan. It would have taken the pressure off Wade and helped to actually put some points on the board. However he has been reported missing since the All Star Weekend and has apparently been replaced with a version of Adam Morrison. Like, the new and improved Adam Morrison or something.

Game notes Cleveland Cavaliers, Daequan Cook, Dwyane Wade, Jamario Moon, Lebron James, Miami Heat

Game notes Cleveland Cavaliers, Houston Rockets, Lebron James, Yao Ming

Wizards @ Cavs

So maybe I made a mistake when I picked the Wizards to win the series in 6. The way things have been going, they may get swept. And I found myself rooting for the Cavs despite my prediction. True, I have a huge man crush on Lebron, but I have just as much disdain for Ben Wallace. And the Cavs being eliminated in the 1st round might just make Lebron mad enough with the Cavs front office that he will bold when he becomes a UFA in 2010, which might just give the Bulls a chance to get him. But when he’s playing like he did last night, you just can’t root against him.

I’ve seen Lebron’s 25 consecutive points game in the playoffs last year against Detroit, I’ve seen his showdown with Kobe this season when he blanketed Kobe in the 4th quarter and his games against Wade, of which this one was a classic. I can say I pretty much have seen Lebron’s best performances so far, but nothing compared to what I’ve seen last night.

Not even the 25 straight points against Detroit in the playoffs had the same feeling of absolute domination. In fact, those 25 points didn’t even feel as dominant as Wade’s 17 straight points (including the winning basket) against Detroit in the regular season. Probably because the reason Lebron scored 25 consecutive points was that his teammates were missing everything, despite Lebron providing them with a bunch of open looks, instead of taking the shots himself every trip down the floor.

These playoffs already are more physical than in years past. But last evening Lebron was not about to risk allowing the other Cavs ruin it. In the most physical game in these playoffs so far, Lebron was not about to let hard fouls or even being slammed on the floor stop him from driving to the basket. Lebron played Moses to the Wizards’ defense Red Sea. He played hurricane Katrina to the Wizards’ defense levies. He played the Big Bad Wolf to the Wizards’ defense 3 Little Pigs Stooges.

After just a few minutes you could tell the Wizards didn’t have a chance. They looked just as hopeless as the Eastern Champions in the 2000-2003 finals – just weren’t good enough, and there was nothing they could do to win the game. Nothing except shooting Lebron could have stopped him, and even that might not have worked, as he is so strong he might just be bulletproof.

Lebron was a force on defense too, with a team high 2 blk and 8 of his 9 rebounds of the defensive kind. At the same time, he kept his teammates involved, finishing one rebound short of a triple double: 30 points on 9-19 FG, 9 rebounds, 12 assists.

And, believe it or not, the most idiotic moment of the night came courtesy of none other than DeShawn Stevenson, the same moron responsible for making Lebron mad and perhaps burying with one short sentence the Wizards chances of advancing. After he made one of his only 4 shots of the game, he did the “I can’t feel my face” gesture which he does when he’s hot. Lebron cooled him off though, as on the next trip down court he responded with a 3 pointer of his own, despite being double teamed. Too bad Lebron doesn’t talk much trash, cause it would have been priceless to see him mimic the “I can’t feel my face” after that shot. Later, with the game safe in hand, Cleveland brings in the reserves. Enter Damon Jones: as soon as he hit a shot his only shot, he did the “I can’t feel my face” to the delight of the crowd. As for why DeShawn couldn’t feel his face, I think it was because Lebron’s boot was on it.

Game notes Lebron James

Nuggets @ Lakers

• For this game, at least, the old Kobe was back. He scored 32 points, but he did it on 9-26 FG (34%) and only had 1 assist. The Lakers can probably survive him playing like this (selfish, that is) against the Nuggets, but if he keeps doing it in the 2nd round, that Celtics – Lakers final might have to wait another year or two.
• Remember when people questioned whether Gasol can win playoff games ? Apparently he can if he has the right players around him. Kobe wasn’t really impressive in this game, so it was the Gasol show. He was close to a triple double and finished with 36 points on 14-20 FG, 16 reb and 8 ast. Also had 3 blk. It has to be said that Gasol is an opportunistic player, who needs someone to create for him, but he’s great at running the floor and exploiting any oppening in the opposing defense.
• Melo and Iverson scored 30 points each on a combined 22-50. But the one who changed the momentum in the 2nd quarter and brought the Nuggets back when they were 10+ points down was JR Smith. He couldn’t do it again in the 4th quarter though
• Kleiza had a really good and efficient game with 23 points on 9-13 FG, but that was not enough to offset the horrible shooting of the other role players of the Nuggets: Camby 2-9, KneeMart 1-7, Najera 1-5.
• Odom continued to excel in his glue-guy that does a little bit of everything role with 17 points, 14 rebounds and 6 assists.
• The game was closer than the score shows, or at least it seemed that way cause at the breakneck pace the Nuggets play, the 10-15 points advantage the Lakers had all game long could go up in smoke in about 2 minutes. And this could have happened easily had the Nuggets caught a few lucky breaks. But they didn’t and they fell apart at the end with Iverson getting ejected. I expected the series to be 4 blow-outs in a row, but even though the Nuggets were slightly better than I expected, it still doesn’t look like they have a chance (other than extending the series to 5 or – highly unlikely – 6 games), especially if Kobe gets his shit together and reverts to playing the way he did during the regular season.

Game notes Allen Iverson, Carmelo Anthony, Denver Nuggets, Kobe Bryant, LA Lakers, Lamar Odom, Linas Kleiza, Pau Gasol

Mavs @ Hornets

• The Mavs controlled the game in the 1st half and seemed to be headed to a victory; the Hornets looked about to fall apart when Chandler got a technical foul midway in the 3rd for shoving Dirk after the refs whistled him for a foul.
• But after the break the Hornets came out a different team. Chris Paul looked like a man possessed. He was into that “I will take over the game and no one can do anything to stop me” mode that only true superstars get into. He had his game face on, he was pumped up and he delivered, and got his team-mates pumped up
• Josh Howard did not fit well in the Mavs offense. He killed the ball movement, over dribbled or just kept the ball in his hands way too much, probably waiting for a clear-out so he can try and take his man one-on-one. I wouldn’t be too surprised if the Mavs traded him in the offseason.
• I wonder who expected this series to become a really physical one with cheap shots from each side and with the teams looking from the 1st game as if they truly and deeply hate each other. If the series goes to 7 games, the hate between these 2 teams may get to late ’90s Heat – Knicks proportions.
• Again, there are not enough words to describe how good Chris Paul is. Not only is he great as a player, but he manages to lead his rather inexperienced team to unbelievable performances
• Kidd didn’t play bad himself and was close to another triple-double, but you could see how sometimes the offensive movement of the Mavs stopped and he was left waiting for a cutter or a screen that never came
• This is nothing new, but the Hornets will go as Chris Paul goes. This game just showed once more how much they depend on him.

Game notes Chris Paul, Dallas Mavericks, Dirk Nowitzki, New Orleans Hornets

Spurs @ Lakers

• Pau Gasol is really really soft. And he’s underrated as a flopper. Too bad Manu is not playing, cause they might have settled the “who’s the biggest flopper in the league” dispute once and for all
• The Spurs are looking good on offense so far. Their shots are falling and they look a little bit like the old Spurs
• Turiaf has developed a nice mid range J, but he better not start falling in love with it, cause his bread and butter is his defense and rebounding under the boards
• He may be soft but he’s running the floor well. Gasol fits well in the Lakers offense as an opportunistic scorer. He fills well the open spaces and gets a lot of easy points when Kobe or Odom are double-teamed.
• Vujacic has a lot more balls than Odom. Each time he’s open, Odom hesitates till a defender comes and covers him. He feels much more comfortable passing the ball. Vujacic on the other hand has no conscience whatsoever. He’s shooting as if he had a guaranteed contract or something, and couldn’t be fired if he missed a shot or 10. Actually pretty much everyone on the Lakers except for Odom is beaming with confidence, and Vujacic and Farmar deserve a special mention for not being afraid of taking (and making) big shots.
• Derek Fisher put on a little show by himself with his best impersonation of Steve Kerr, punishing the Spurs each time he was left open. He finished with 14 points on 6-9 shooting in just 24 minutes.
• Lamar Odom seems to have found his niche with the Lakers: leading rebounder. As long as he’s not asked to be the 2nd option on offense, he can focus on rebounds and distributing the ball. He had the best +/- on the Lakers in 4 of the Lakers last 5 wins, and I doubt this is a coincidence.
• The Spurs missed Manu badly on offense, especially after half-time, when the Lakers D tightened up. The Spurs defense was also uncharacteristically porous at times, allowing lots of layups and dunks, but, as mentioned in my previous post, this probably has a lot more to do with age than with Ginobili missing the game.
• The Lakers owned the boards (51 to 36) and got 12 offensive rebounds. But during the game it seemed they got about 100 or so offensive rebounds
• The new Kobe vs the old Kobe: at one point Kobe missed an open shot and the Lakers got the offensive rebound and the ball got back to Kobe who had a hand in his face this time. The old Kobe would have taken that shot (and probably missed it). The new Kobe swung the ball to an open team-mate. The new Kobe took tough shots only when the shot clock was ticking down (and this game he made them all), and was content to let his team-mates share the glory. This is why the MVP voters will probably feel much more comfortable giving him the award this year (my personal choice would be Chris Paul, but Kobe will probably win in a landslide).

Game notes Kobe Bryant, LA Lakers, Lamar Odom, Manu Ginobili, Pau Gasol, Ronnie Turiaf, San Antonio Spurs, Sasha Vujacic

Celtics @ Bulls

• Gooden is injured so I get the opportunity to watch Tyrus Thomas some more and hopefully he’ll show again that he can produce when given the minutes
• there’s still no one on the Bulls able to throw an alley oop pass
• hey, Bulls fans, does watching Tyson Chandler play well for the Hornets hurt ? Well, you gonna be in a world of pain as soon as Tyrus is traded to a team that knows how to develop and use his talents (besides being very athletic – which everyone knows about him, he has very good hands, good passing skills, and now, apparently, can hit the open J with some consistence)
• Deng keeps jumping on every single Paul Pierce pump fake. At one point not even Pierce was expecting him to bite on the fake anymore, cause he wasn’t ready to force the contact in order to get the call. Otherwise, he could have put more fouls on Deng and gotten to the FT line a few more times.
• Hinrich is still one of the dumbest PG in the league and at his age there’s no hope on him ever improving on that. His 18-20 feet off the dribble pull up jumpers on the fast break drive me crazy. How some (many) Bulls fans used to put his name in the same sentence as Nash or Stockton is beyond me.
• you can add Rondo to the list of players who abused Hinrich. Defense was supposed to be his thing, right ?
• Rondo has really good court vision. The more I see him, the more I like him. With all the talk about KG in the race for MVP and Paul Pierce’s transformation, Rondo’s part in the Celtics success seems to be a little underrated.
• Noah could do a better job recognizing when he’s defended by a shorter player so he can take advantage of the mismatch. He could have scored with ease a few times if he would have just shot a baby hook over the shorter defender. He had good position, he just wasn’t thinking about scoring, wanted to pass the ball. Altruism is a noble thing, but sometimes you have to look to score in order to help your team.
• Big Baby sporting a mohawk ? Better than Brad Miller with cornrows
• well, apparently Duhon can throw an alley oop pass. Too bad he can’t do much of anything else. Especially shoot the ball.
• when I’m opening my own restaurant, I’ll be serving Deng Pudding. It’s gonna be so soft and fluffy and after 3 quarters (of an hour) it will just disappear from your plate
• Hinrich hustles a lot on D. He even won a jump ball against KG. Too bad this does NOT make up for his dumb decisions on offense. Not on an offense starved team such as the Bulls. That’s the reason I’ve always been saying that Hinrich would best fit next to a superstar SG/SF with play making skills. A Lebron, Kobe or Wade would help his game a lot. So would a coach telling him what he’s supposed to do and what he’s not supposed to do.
• the Bulls play their young players substantial minutes and they stay close to the best team in the league ? Big surprise. NOT !!!
• when Hughes is about to take a bad shot, you can sense it in the air. Maybe it’s the stench of his decision making. It precedes the sound of the ball clanking on the rim just like lightning precedes thunder.
• Celtics’ announcers are just as homeristic and annoying as the Bulls’
• Tyrus keeps hitting those mid range J’s. Skiles must have been right when he implied Tyrus wasn’t really working on his jump shots. Right out of his fucking mind !!! And just as I’m typing this, he hits a nice turn around J on the baseline. Back to Skiles, some people decried him getting fired on Christmas. For as much of a jerk he’s been with Tyrus and others, this was nowhere near enough. Him getting fired on Christmas, then getting raped by the Grinch and then dumped by Chris Duhon would be closer to what he deserved.
• you can see Tyrus is not used to playing this many minutes. At the end of the 3rd he’s obviously tired and needs a breather. Too bad his coach (same one who’s responsible for keeping him too much on the bench) can’t see that
• Aaron Gray is the quintessential big slow white lug. He’s part of a long line of centers who’s only “talent” was being tall. Dave Corzine, Will Perdue, Luc Longley and Greg Ostertag watch him and reminisce of their young days.
• Sam Cassell couldn’t wait to get into the game and put up a few shots. He may be old, but he knows his trade. If, as expected, the Celtics make the finals, he’s able to win them a game, and it could make all the difference if the series gets to game 7.
• less than 7 minutes left, 8 points difference. Who’d have thought that the league leading Celtics would have trouble with a team that used to be scrappy, but now is just crappy ? Again, for all non believers, this happening when Tyrus is getting minutes is NOT a coincidence.
• Hinrich loves to dribble. I think he would have been happier on an And1 team. Although I don’t know why they’d want him, since his dribbling is not spectacular (like, say, Skip to my Lou’s), just boring.
• A little over a minute left and 10 points difference and Doc pulls his starters. If I was on the Bulls, I’d be pissed. That’s like saying “You morons can’t put up 10 points in 1 minute even if you were all alone in a gym”. Too bad he was actually right: the Bulls looked like they were past their bed time and couldn’t wait to go home.
• In the end, they were right. Why fight for a win ? To risk having Boylan the Clown as a coach next season too ? To mess up whatever chances the Bulls have for a high lottery pick ? No, thank you. I’ll take the L and be on my way. Which, for some of them, will be the way out of town. And it might turn out to be better for them to play for an organization who actually has a clue about managing its players.
• One last thing: Tyrus was the player of the game for the Bulls with 24 points on 9-16 FG and 6-7 FT, 7 rebounds, 0 assists (a little weird since he was passing the ball well), 1 steal and 2 turnovers in 37:22 minutes. He was also one in just 3 Bulls players who scored in double figures against the Celtics tight D. The other 2 were Nocioni with 19 points on 5-9 FG and Deng with a pathetic 10 points on 3-9 FG. Yeah, this is the guy Paxson wouldn’t trade for Kobe.

Game notes Boston Celtics, Chicago Bulls, Kirk Hinrich, Luol Deng, Paul Pierce, Rajon Rondo, Tyrus Thomas

Celtics @ Suns

• Refs let the game free, and even if it got a little more physical, it was fun to watch.
• Shaq ain’t injured. That’s just in case you had any doubt. He was just taking his mid-season break and when he was traded he found the motivation to start playing again. At one point, Shaq out hustled Garnett for a ball. That right there tells you something about his motivation, cause Shaq hasn’t out hustled anyone in the past 5 years or so. Shaq finished with just 4 points but had 14 rebounds and 2 blk in just 26 minutes. It’s just his second game of the season with more than 11 rebounds: he had 14 rebounds on Nov 23, 2007 and he needed 34 minutes to do it.
• I think we can make it official: the Celtics have trouble against quick teams (Nuggets, Warriors, Suns)
• The Suns seem to be having fun again on the court. Earlier in the season I had a feeling that this team was not the same despite still winning a lot of games. And I was not the only one to notice that. Marion’s whining must have gotten on everybody’s nerves and took all the fun out of the game.
• Amare has been playing at a much higher level since Shaq arrived (as I was thinking about this, the commentators said he plays like a man possessed). He’s been the aggressor all night. He tried to make Garnett lose his temper while he kept cool despite taking a couple of elbows.
• The Suns really missed Barbosa in this game. He had to go to the lockerroom in the 1st quarter thanks to a Pierce elbow to the head and did not return.
• This was the most aggressive (from a physical stand point) I have ever seen the Suns play. They are like a kid that knows his big brother is just around the corner ready to jump in if things get nasty. Now they won’t take it if other teams try to bully them. This is what Shaq brings them, and I think it’s more important than his contributions on the court.
• This game was very very entertaining. Amare and Garnett have been jawing at each other from the very start of the game. Soon it turned into bumping. They each got a technical and there might be a rivalry brewing. If the teams meet in the Finals, it will be one hell of a series.
• At one point, Pierce missed a dunk. Badly. The entire arena laughed at his ass. Did I mentioned that I don’t like Pierce ? Well, I don’t.
• The Suns piled-up turnovers. Hard to believe they still won the game, but they did. Couldn’t be just the effect of adjusting to playing with Shaq. Couldn’t be just the (very good) Celtics defense either. The Suns were really sloppy and careless with the ball.
• The game turned into a grind-it out affair. The Suns only scored 29 points in 19 minutes. Usually they’d score this much in less than a quarter. This is the kind of game they would normally lose in the playoffs – slow, half court, lots of physical defense.
• I really wondered how Amare would do playing PF and if losing the quickness advantage he had when playing against centers would work against him. Well, I just got my answer: he’s much better on rebounding and help D. Probably the same thing as Ben Wallace: he benefits from playing next to a bigger guy which allows him to roam on D. Not being undersized anymore helps his rebounding as well.
• I have NEVER seen as many offensive fouls whistled in one game. NEVER. I suppose the only place where you can see something like this is a practice of Argentina’s national team.

Game notes Amare Stoudamire, Boston Celtics, Kevin Garnett, Phoenix Suns, Shaquille O'Neal

Magic @ Raptors

I know it’s a little late, but I kept reading how Bosh “destroyed” Dwight Howard and I had to see that myself to believe it. So here goes:

• Bosh did most of his damage against other Magic defenders. Well, maybe defenders isn’t the right word to describe them, they looked more like traffic cones dressed in Magic uniforms
• Bosh did score some buckets when defended by Howard. One of them was a nasty dunk after a pump fake and a baseline dribble. The rest were really long 2s, some contested. Bosh just made shots that most players usually wouldn’t.
• Bosh took advantage of his superior speed. Howard was reluctant to come too close fearing Bosh would beat him off the dribble, so Bosh had enough space to take jump shots.
• Bosh ot 40 points, 5 reb and 5 ast, but statistically Howard was arguably better with 37 points of his own and 15 reb.
• Orlando has absolutely no idea how to defend a pick and roll. They often looked as if it was the first time they ever saw a pick and roll. The Raptors, and especially Calderon, took advantage of it.
• Calderon is one evil mother fucker. As Denzel Washington said in Training Day, he’s surgical with that bitch. He shot 8-10 from the field (and he often had a hand in his face) and had 13 assists with just 1 TO. As I said, SUR-GI-CAL. Let me be the 1st one to say that he should be the most coveted FA this summer. Forget about
• Delfino can shoot the 3p shot if he’s left open. And with Bosh drawing double teams and opponents also having to worry about other good shooters (Calderon, Kapono), Delfino is getting his fair share of open looks. In fact, his percentage from the 3p line (41.1%) is better this season than his FG% (40.7). Turns out bringing him was another good move by Bryan Colangelo.
• Jameer Nelson was a defensive liability. He got abused on defense and seemed unable to stay in front of his man.
• In the end, the Magic had little to no chance of winning the game with Turkoglu and Lewis shooting a combined 10-30 FG (3-12 from 3p).

Game notes Carlos Delfino, Chris Bosh, Dwight Howard, Hedo Turkoglu, Jameer Nelson, Jose Calderon, Orlando Magic, Rashard Lewis, Toronto Raptors

Celtics @ Warriors

• Oracle Arena probably has the best atmosphere of all the NBA arenas (at least from what I can tell on TV) and the fans are incredible. It must be great to play there, even as an opponent of the home team. The crowd being into the game for more than just free BigMacs makes the game 10 times more entertaining to watch.
• Just like last season when he signed with the Pistons, Chris Webber is underrated. He may not be able to run with the Warriors, but if Nellie picks the right spots when to use him, he can really contribute. He did a good job in his time on the floor and got 3 blk in just 20 minutes. Not bad for an old man with creaky knees.
• Monta Ellis is absolutely amazing. Not only did he score 26 points and dish 9 assists, but he was the focus of the Celtics defense, more so than Baron Davis himself. He managed to beat double and triple teams and he was getting double teamed even outside the 3p line. Boom Dizzle made the winning shot and had a great game himself, but Ellis was Da Man in this one.
• B-Diddy went as far as calling Monta the most talented player on the team in the post-game interview.
• Stephen Jackson was on his feet the whole time, yelling indications. You’d say he was the coach and Nellie was some casual fan. If you think about it, Jackson would make an interesting coach, a great motivator for sure. Cause you know he’d pistol whip whoever didn’t listen to what he said. And all his players would run the fast break AND play All-NBA defense knowing that if they don’t, their coach might bust a cap in their ass.
• On one occasion during a time-out Jackson went and said something to Mikael Pietrus which left Pietrus with an astounded look on his face. My guess is that he said something along this line: “I saw Pierce causing you problems on defense. Here, take my gun and shoot him. Just make sure you got him right, cause that mofo survived like 50 stab wounds.”
• Not much to say about Boston: they played great D yet the Warriors came up with some miracle shots.
• Garnett may still be rusty, but he pulled down 15 rebounds in just 30 minutes. Didn’t even realize how many he got till I saw the boxscore
• How many times was Tony Allen burned on a last second shot ? Everybody’s been raving about how well Paul Pierce has been playing D. In that case, shouldn’t he ask to guard the opponents’ best player on the last possession ? Why let a young unexperienced player coming of 2 knee surgeries defend the players who are known for taking their team’s last shot ? To me, Pierce still looks like he wants to be the hero on offense. He forces the issue too often. Of the Celtics’ big 3, he’s the one who, in the end, may prove he’s not yet ready to sacrifice his ego for the team.

Game notes Baron Davis, Boston Celtics, Chris Webber, Golden State Warriors, Kevin Garnett, Monta Ellis, Paul Pierce, Stephen Jackson