NBA '08 Playoff Thread

Exposed? Sure Josh Smith looked like Dr. J last night, but somehow the Celtics were able to hide their lack of athleticism over the first 84 games of the year, I don't think last night revealed some fatal flaw. I think Game 3 on the road up 2-0 might be one of the toughest games to win. Any momentum is killed by the ridiculous NBA scheduling, though there's actually only one day between games as opposed to two or three at other times. I like Horford's game a lot. Think he's a winner. Like that he isn't backing down to the C's. Also think he's going to regret some of his Game 3 actions tomorrow night.

 

I'm not saying it was a fatal flaw or anything, or that they're not athletic. But Atlanta as a group is very young and far more athletic on the whole. I fully expect Boston to come out and weather a storm early against them and then break their spirit before halftime in Game 4. But at the same time, Mike Woodson is a hell of a coach and that team is fired up. And if Mike Bibby decides to play like Mike Bibby, then it could get interesting.

 

Yeah, that's fair. Smith might be one of the most athletic guys in the league and M. Williams has shown me more than I ever thought he had -- he's thrown down a few with authority this series. I'm not sure if Mike Bibby is capable of playing like Mike Bibby anymore -- at least not the one he was about three years ago -- but he looked far better in G3 than the first two.
I agree with your assessment of G4. Might not be a cakewalk, but I'd be very surprised to see Atlanta win it. The trash-talking, particularly between KG and Horford, should be entertaining.

 

Yeah I agree with you on Horford. Solid player and I think he's going to be an all-star type guy for a while, but running your mouth to a team that has Kevin Garnett on it won't bode well for the immediate future.
In the meantime, let's watch the Shaq-periment officially go down in flames to the team that is going to win not only the West, but the whole thing yet again.
And, let's see if the Pistons can make a shot or fall down 3-1 ... if they lose this series, it's worse than Dallas losing to GS last year, IMO.

 

If Detroit loses this series we all need to take a step back and reassess where we rank this team. They've been given a pass as the top team in the East for the past 5 years or so, but they only have one title in that run and haven't really been close to another (if they lost a finals in seven games I'll stand corrected but I don't think that's the case). I feel like everyone gives them too much credit, including themselves.

 

Well they're run of conference finals appearances is no doubt impressive and ranks them as one of the dominant teams in the east over the past six years or however long its been (not sure off the top of my head, maybe five straight?) But yeah, they have one title, probably should have had another one the next year, but after that -- nothing to write home about. They've been a dominant team in a terrible conference -- I think that should be simply taken for what it's worth. They're in no way even close to San Antonio in that same time frame, the Spurs have gotten it done consistently in an extremely tough conference -- they need to be ranked as one of the best ever, no question about it.

 

And their championship has to have a huge asterisk next to it, due to the fact the Lakers essentially tanked.

The Pistons, and their fans, and their media, seem to act like they're a team for the ages, when in fact they're an OK playoff-caliber team which was lucky enough to have its opponent completely implode during a finals series.

 

Flip Saunders just sounded like Charlie from "Always Sunny in Philadelphia" during the between-quarters interview. God, he's awful.

 

While I'll agree with the overrated statement, calling them completely lucky is a bit ridiculous. The Lakers didn't have a whole lot of an issue getting through the West that year (outside of the Spurs for a bit), and to say they tanked completely and giving no credit to that Detroit team is a bit much. Remember they came within about 40 seconds of repeating the very next season against a great Spurs group.
Overrated ... yes.
A lucky, asterisk toting, "pretty good" team .... no.

 

Their loss to the Spurs the year after the win over the Lakers was a 7-gamer, IIRC.

 

Watched the Mavs-Hornets game last night on the hope that the Mavs could get their mojo back and saw nothing but a bunch of jump shots clanging off the iron (and Brandon Bass grabbing a few offensive rebounds). Everyone was shooting jumpers, Bass, Terry (he went to the rack a few times), Nowitzki, Howard, George, Stackhouse. Ugly.

Jason Kidd is either totally done or is incompatible with the Mavs because he's just some guy dribbling the ball up and doing nothing to add offensively. Oh he'll swing the ball and make a nice skip pass but that's it; no penetration and kick, no finishes at the rim, no coast to coast. Sad really.

Avery looks like the tightest would coach around and the Mavs play like him. There's no joy.

Hard to figure, Dampier is huge at the start, gets a couple of fouls, then never gets any dump downs anymore and he disappears. When he was with the Warriors, yeah he got a couple of cheapies but you could go back to him in the post for a couple of buckets on jump hooks.

 

The Mavs and Avery are done. Dallas will be a 42-45 win team for the next few years. Trading youth for age and dumping first round picks will stagnate this team.

Cuban screwed up.