NBA Playoffs 2012 Running thread

Kobe has no energy whatsoever. The Lakers are fortunate Pau finally showed up to play.

 

TNT only caught the end of it but how about McGee on the last play dunking his own missed free throw! That'll be on Deadspin within 12 hours. Of course he must have been like six feet over the line to do it and a violation was called.

Pau's one of my favorite Lakers of all-time, even when he has played, um, not as solidly the past two seasons. Tonight he was great, obviously Blake was superb. And Kobe's D on Lawson in the fourth - 24 through 3 and murdered them in the third, none in the fourth.

 

Hell of an effort from Gasol, Bynum, Blake, Artest. Kobe's obviously not back to full strength, but he did hit the dagger at the end. So clutch.

No matter. Lakers are going to get absolutely waxed by Okie City. First four games in five nights. Oy. Could be ugly.

 

Yeah, not many expectations going into this one. One wildcard is that OKC does have games where those jumpers don't fall and they are so jump-shot dominant. Maybe it happens in Game 1 or 2 and Lakers steal one. Then win Game 3...then all the momentum the next night to go up 3-1. Yes? Yes?

Last time Lakers played back-to-back in playoffs, I believe, was 1990, when young Suns ran them off court in Games 3 and 4, then won in the Forum in Game 5.

 

Schedule:

http://espn.go.com/nba/schedule/_/date/20120512

Games Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday. Does the NBA even do back-to-back nights of the same series anymore?

That said, Lakers will get smoked. Weird that Kobe, at the beginning and end of his career, gets to play with a man-child center who can't be counted on to be completely focused all the time.

Yes, yes I did just compare Bynum to Shaq. He has great potential, to be the first great center the L.A. Lakers have actually drafted and developed. But he has two rings and dragged himself through the 2010 playoffs. He doesn't have to care. Maybe Kobe can yell at him and hit him with a stick, as Magic did to Divac.

 

It actually is Friday-Saturday, according to that schedule too. I don't know what the reasoning is. The shortened schedule? Ok. But not sure why having one day off would be a bad thing. Back-to-back in the playoffs is ridiculous. Even dumber? Game 6 is on a Wednesday. A Game 7 would be the following...Sunday.

I'm guessing it's because of the Kings and possible Clippers games also being there.

 

I had huge issues with Shaq's shitty effort and the way he worked the media to blame every problem on Kobe so no one would notice he was 400 pounds, but Bynum infuriates me far more. At least Shaq seemed to give a shit once the lights were on.

 

Dick Stockton fuck yeah!

Give him a Tommy point!

 

Anybody else get a kick out of LeBron trying to act like he was "emotional" about winning his third MVP?

 

If LeBron wins another MVP before his first title, would he be the first four-time MVP guy without a ring?

 

I'd like to think getting a kick out of pretending to read LeBron's mind/expressions and trying to come up with some negative twist was a fad that ran its course about a year ago.

But I could be wrong.

 

Just laughing at his bad acting, dude. Lighten up, Francis.