NBA '08 Playoff Thread

I picked SA 4-2.

If Ginobili plays slightly better than a corpse in Games 1, 2, or 4, SA is up 3-1.

Much like in Game 1, there were stretches where Tim Duncan was the only player on the floor in a white jersey who was showing a set. Barry was great off the bench. Almost made up for Ginobili's no-show.

I know Ginobili's hurt, but I really think if he sits out Game 4 with the injury, SA wins. SA would have been better served spreading his 8-10 shots around to healthy players rather than have him hit one of them.

Hard to jump on Manu because he's such a gamer, but when do you put your competitiveness aside and admit your hurt and tell Pop your team would be better without you? Pop almost sat him in Game 2, and probably should have considering the outcome.

As for the play at the end, Barry was fouled. However, SA blew so many chances, coming back so many times to only tie or cut the lead to a possession yet not take the lead. That's what happens when you don't get a big shot at any of those junctures when you tie or cut the lead to a possession.

 

If the teams continue playing like they are right now, the Finals will be a mismatch. LA and SA are playing at a much higher level than BOS and DET.

 

You're probably right. But much like the Stanley Cup finals, I'm optimistic enough that it could be a good series with the lesser team (Boston/Detroit) rising to the occasion.

 

I remain to be shocked that Charles Barkley would say that this Laker team is more talented than the Shaq-Kobe Lakers.

As Chris Webber rebutted, Shaq and Kobe could beat this team 2-on-5.

 

Derrick Coleman, career averages 16.9 ppg, 9.3 rpg, 2.5 apg, 1.3 bpg. FG% .447. 3PFG .295, FT .769

Rasheed Wallace, career averages 15.2 ppg, 6.9 rpg, 1.9 apg, 1.4 bpg. FG .474, 3PFG .341, FT .717

They're essentially the same player (Wallace's edge in 3PFG shooting is really a huge negative, since it leads him to indulge his tendencies to dick around outside the perimeter rather than go inside and rebound -- thus the 2.5 rpg difference, huge for a PF/C, one of whose main jobs is to rebound). Wallace got traded to a real good team 2/3 of the way through his career, Coleman didn't.

Like Chris Webber has any idea about what it takes for teams to win.

One thing's pretty much for sure: Get Chris Webber off your roster.

 

OK no worries. Like I said I wasn't 100% sure if that's what you meant.

As for the Lakers (or Spurs) rolling over the east champ -- I know it looks that way now, but I'd be surprised if we're looking at anything less 6 in the finals.

 

Well, Oz -- let's hope for your sake the lesser team in the NBA Finals shows up a bit more than your Pens in the Cup Finals.

I think either Boston or Detroit is more than capable of winning a series against both L.A. and San Antonio. I know it's become the "cool thing to do" over the years to discount the entire Eastern Conference, but these are the two exceptions out of the LEast. There's no reason why Detroit or Boston can't win a title.

 

Games like last night are why the NBA was stupid to put Joey Crawford back into the rotation to officiate Spurs games.

That last play was clearly a foul -- not one that will always get called, but no doubt there was contact and a foul.

The fact that it wasn't called and if I am not mistaken Crawford's crew was on the game lends credibility to conspiracy theorists who hate the NBA.

It is the appearance of evil -- not the evil itself -- that always gives the league an image problem with officials......

 

Popovich showed last night why he is one of the classiest coaches in the past 40 years. He said "if I was the official, I would not have called a foul." "There was no foul." Man wish the Warriors had kept him.

 

Is Crawford also the reason the Spurs shot seven more free throws, or the reason Kobe didn't go to the line once?

 

I agree that there was, technically, a foul on the last play. But it's the kind of foul that, in that situation (last-second, game-deciding shot in a key playoff game), if it gets called, people go crazy saying the refs decided the game and they need to let players decide it. So I really have no problem with it not being called, especially since Berry didn't sell it. In that situation, Berry would have best been served by flopping like a soccer player. And this comes from a person who very much dislikes the Lakers and would enjoy little more in these playoffs than to see them lose.

 

The way Barry reacted, it looked incidental (not really but kind of like incidental). If he had initiated the contact while shooting with Fisher in the air, a foul is called. Reggie Miller called it, the way Barry reacted, not going to get the call.

As for the conspiracy theorists, its always easy to say, hard to prove. Plus, if you want to win on that weak call?