The Silver Lining

If the Pistons lose tonight, at least I'll see less of Jim "the Putz" Gray.

In Defense of Flip

Watching Flip have success in Detroit during the regular season was bittersweet. I was sad to see Flip get fired and blamed last year, but happy that he at least got a great opportunity in Detroit, and was making the most of it.

Of course, I saw a lot of wins in the regular season in Minnesota too.

Again, Flip is finding playoff success elusive...despite matching his career series-win total, it's not enough. The Pistons struggled a little too much with the Bucks and Cavs. And things are not looking good for the Pistons now. The commentators and team are pointing fingers. And every time the Pistons start to falter in this series, they say, "Well we went to the finals twice with the same crew...nothing's changed except the coach. Therefore Flip is the problem."

Whatever.

Dwayne Wade is the problem. Shaq and the very good Heat role players are the problem. The Pistons may not have changed, but the Heat have gotten a whole lot better.

In defense of Flip, may I point out to the jive commentators that Miami was not content to simply keep up with the Joneses. In fact, Damon and Eddie are gone. Instead, the Heat have added JWilliams, AWalker, Zo, Posey and Payton...all of whom have stepped up with veteran contributions at different times during these playoffs. Then they have Wade, who is more unstoppable than ever. Shaq's a year older, but he is still Shaq, and he is having a nice little series...especially with other players to help spread the floor and shoulder the load. Plus, most importantly, the Heat no longer have Laettner...who rode their bench last year and his presence alone may have pulled them down into the muck of suck. And don't forget that Wade missed game 6 last year with a rib injury, and his team didn't even score 70 points that game.

Not to take anything away from the Pistons of the past two years...they have been fun to watch, and are still alive now. I am pulling for an extended series, and if Flip can pull it together, it will be very impressive. But Larry Brown may have had luck go his way a little last year...and Flip is definitely in a difficult place right now...standing between Dwayne Wade and his first NBA Finals berth.

Eastern Conference Finals

From the sofa...

Peter: "That's Ben Wallace and that's Rasheed Wallace"

Amanda: "I like Wallace & Gromit"

"You can't arrest me. I'm a basketball player. I play for the Washington Wizards, and I'm not going to leave my teammate." - Gilbert Arenas

UPDATE: the Wizznutzz are far more interesting and insightful than I could ever be on this subject...

More from Malcolm Gladwell on Hoops

Despite his affection for Bill Simmons, I really enjoy Gladwell - here's more from his blog on basketball. I am particularly fond of the formula he quotes w/respect to KG - each year, Garnett gets better & better and McHale surrounds him with worse players...

Ball don't lie

Man, ESPN actually has a nice photo gallery of Rasheed.

Now if he would only start playing some good hoop against the Heat. Chauncey too.

The draft

If Jason's timeless league included the both past and potential points scored, I would choose Elton Brand over a few years of Eddie Curry and the second pick of this year's draft.

Fortunely though, we live in the future and all those Brand-less years of eating Curry are like spilled milk.

I am looking forward to see what Paxson is able to do with the second pick of this year's draft.

Go Bulls!

The line

Danielle and I were in Las Vegas this weekend.

I put down $20 on Cleveland. The bookies tricked me into thinking there was a chance the Pistons would not show up and I would get to collect $120.

On the other side, $20 on Detroit paid back a total of $21 - risking $20 to get $1.

Apparently they priced those bets just right.

As if...

So, anyone interested in making sure Moonball sucks as much time from your summer as the rest of the year? I have heard about this before, but never played, but it seems like a very cool idea:

http://whatifsports.com/nba-l/default.asp

It's $10 to play, and is basically a 40 day season (two games per day). The concept is you have a salary cap & can assemble a roster from past NBA seasons, so you could buy Larry Bird from 1986 and Shaq from 2000 (and then fill up your roster w/a bunch of chumps). Once everyone has a team, the computer uses some kind of algorithm to play out the season.

Let me know if you're interested and I'll look into it more.

Gladwell on Iverson

New Yorker smartypants (and sideshow Bob lookalike) Malcolm Gladwell talks about the Iverson Problem and other sports related stuff in this week's issue.

Link

Lucky Number Slevin

Well I meant to post this yesterday but didn't have time (I was mr. momming it all weekend - Alison was off on a spa weekend....) At any rate, I was going to rate the chances of any of the road teams winning a game 7. I figured the cavs had the weekest shot, but there was still the LeBron x-factor, and he looked like he might pull it off for the first half. Man , that Pistons D in the second half was a thing of beauty.

As for tonight's tilts, I think the Clips have a better shot than the Mavs, but I really think those extra days of rest are going to help Phoenix.

Don't even get me started about how fucked up it is that there were no games played on Saturday, one yesterday but two tonight, the best of which will probably end at 1 am eastern. Way to fuck up my life, NBA.

Sam Cassell Address the WB

"It's going to be a dogfight on Monday," Clippers guard Sam Cassell said. "It's going to be a great basketball game, so if you don't have cable television, you better get it right away.

Nice work by the Clips last night, but I think the extra two days off helps Phoenix more than them. And, I'm actually with Mike on this, there should be a law that all game 7s have to be on over-the-air TV, even if that means Bill Walton gets to do the coverage...

Wreck Leaguers

Strange twinge in your ankle?

When one member of the Moonball community is hurt, we all hurt.

Inspired to playoff glory on Sunday evening, the Rec Leaguers jumped into the air, passed for the assist and landed on a defender's foot. Those who feel sympathy pain should think twice before clicking.

Honestly, the Onion Shouldn't be Allowed to Post This

Since it's not satire, it's truthiness

10 Piston thoughts

1. Good for the Cavs, they have been great and deserved to win each of the last three games. I can't take anything away from them, they've played hard and smart.

2. Gino-billy taught Varejao the sweet language of ref-duping. I really like his game, though.

3. It's hard to watch the Pistons play so poorly. I've seen probably 50 games this year and this is by far the worst stretch they've played. With the possible exception of Tayshaun, each regular has played beneath his abilities.

4. A question for Wolves fans: did Flip's vaunted offense regularly bog down in the post-season with the Wolves? The shocking thing about the last few games (including the fourth quarter of Game 2) is that the Pistons have largely stopped moving the ball. They go one on one, take bad jumpers, drive into the teeth of the defense--it's very frustrating.

5. Another question for Wolves fans: when I see Flip on the bench during crunch time, should my heart sink as much as it does? He looks nervous and I don't have a sense that the team, even one filled with veterans who have been through the battles, know what they are doing out there.

6. One more question for Wolves fans: should I stop making Flip a scapegoat for a listless team?

7. Lebron. I have this feeling that we need to get him this year, as there won't be great opportunities over the next decade. What a player and still so much to learn.

8. Maybe we shouldn't have traded Darko. Maybe his presence kept the team humble or something. Or maybe he was a good luck charm. I miss him.

9. I'm hoping someone famous will write or say that the Pistons are done, so that they can kick back into the "we don't get no respect" thing which has worked so well. I also hope Rasheed's ankle heals before Friday.

10. I still think the Pistons will win. I told my friend Dan after game 3 that I wouldn't be worried about this series until the Cavs went back home up 3-2, which I never thought would happen, but here we are. That said, even in Cleveland, with refs that work for a league that surely wants to see a Wade/LeBron conference finals, I think the Pistons will get it done.

That said, the title chances of Detroit have taken a real hit to say the least. Even if they survive the Cleveland series, they'll have to turn it around to get past Miami and Dallas. Or whoever. So no joy in Motown tonight.

Ubiquitous

In Howell Michigan, wrestling hotties adorn the plant wall but in the back-yard someone dirtied a finger to scrawl Pistons on the side of a pickup truck.

On the DTW jet-bridge heading home, fellow salesmen show their ignorance by suggesting the NBA playoffs are only three quarters earnest.

Rant

So I watched the Spurs/Mavs game four last night. And man, what a game - both teams were just making killer plays - Jason Terry, Gino-billy, Finley, l'il Devin Harris. However, one guy basically sucked down the stretch - The Diggler. Yeah, he managed to get to the line a bit, but he was short-arming jumpers, passing up open looks, etc. All of which is what it is - good players sometimes don't play well in big moments. Look at Tim Duncan's game six of the Finals last year - if Big Shot Rob doesn't come through with some huge plays, we'd all be talking about how much Tim sucked in the crunch.

Which brings me to my rant. I am sick of the fact that KG is never going to get the respect as one of the greatest players of his generation because of the fact that he's never had playoff success. Have there been a few times he hasn't stepped up in the playoffs? Yes. The difference is, with the exception of 2004, he's never had other guys around him capable of picking him up. Jason Terry was huge last night; Horry was huge for Duncan last year. But somehow having good teammates makes Duncan & Dirk better than KG, which I just will never understand.

Sorry, my bitterness about what has happened with the Wolves over the past 24 months is clearly warping my ability to watch the playoffs...

/rant

Deal with the devil wearing off?

So, is Detroit's unholy run of injury-free good luck about to end? Will the inability to close the deal on the Guaran-shee mark the end of the line for the Pistons?

Hard to say. I didn't expect the Cavs to get a game in this series, but they've now taken two games that Detroit should have won...

Getting paid

One of my favorite things about the NBA is that a significant amount of the league's economic rent goes to labor.

EXHIBIT A: LARRY BROWN

2005 Severance from the Pistons - $7 million
2005-2006 Coaching Pay - $10 million
2006 Severance from the Knicks - at least $20 million

At least thirty-seven million dollars for one year of work.

I don't know if it is PER or will or something else, but Larry Brown even got himself paid more than MJ.

UPDATE

Looks like Larry won't leave without the full $40 million remaining on his contract. Better businessman than I thought.

Things get wackier in NY

I guess since Isiah is doing such a good job as GM, Dolan may just give him even more responsibility... this is crazy. Even if Dolan eventually fires Isiah or he just leaves, Dolan will never hire anyone good. Imagine interviewing with Dolan for that job and having to answer to his face what your strategy would be to fix the team. You'd have to tell him that everything he has done and believed in for the last 5-10 years has been completely idiotic. The person that says that will have no chance at the job. For that reason, I have come to believe that firing Isiah will not solve any problems in the long run. I thought this year's terrible performance might finally make Dolan realize what they had to do. Instead, he blindly moves on not seeing what is obvious to the rest of the world. Fire Dolan, sell the Knicks. That's the only answer. There's no miracle coming along to save the franchise the way Patrick did. Isiah already traded away our shot at Greg Oden.

Rough Start in Minny

A lesson in keeping your composure no matter how bad it gets.

W - Buehrle IP 6.0 PC 99 H 12 ER 1 BB 2 K 3

A Prince among men

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wattsferry/143984855/

Sure, Zydrunas got the put back, but this was quite a block.

Weedblazers may hate John Hollinger, but...

he has a pretty decent piece on the Daily Dime today about the Clips on the offensive boards. Quantifies in a simple way the importance of hitting the glass.

On another note, what does WB have in common in with Juwon Howard?

Bell, Brand, Riles and Why Vandeweghe is Better than Nash

I love Raja Bell. And not just he tossed Kobe to the earth. On the NBA scales of athleticism, quickness, and strength he is squarely average. Yet he brings a consistent intensity and aggression that make him factor in most every game he plays. He is smart. His defense is really exceptional for how under-sized he is night in and night out against other NBA 2s. His most proficient offense trait is his timing. Like a less prolific Sam Cassell, Bell goes on mini runs that regularly swing the momentum and the scoreboard in his teams favor. Nash, Diaw, and Marion are all clearly the stars, and by many standards Leandro Barbosa may be better, but Bell is playing at a very high level, and that is always nice to see from a guy who came up via a 10-day contract straight from the CBA. Plus he tossed Kobe to the earth.

Too big, too strong, mach 2: The Elton Story. Now myself and many others among this crew have in the past chided HP for his proclamations of Elton Brand greatness. As Brand begins to add post-season accolades to his monster regular season play, I will give it up to Mr. Brand, the one Dukie that does make me pukie. He has been awesome. The first game against the Suns was stellar. Sure the Clips lost, but with the Suns lack of size, Brand will top 40 at least twice more, especially as the Clips push for a slower tempo.

David Blaine’s Drowned Alive show brings back memories of Riles dunking his own head into a tub of ice water while trying to inspire the Miami Heat to ‘win it all.’ I forget how long that sucker was able to stay under water, but apparently it was not long enough. I say if Riles can top 9 minutes, the Heat win the whole damn thing.

Back to a long ago thread about the League’s worst GM, a question was posed to us Portland folks if Nash was as bad as his team would indicate. . . my long awaited answer is hell yeah. Nash is up for contract renewal, which makes for a great time to dump him. My money is on Kiki Vandeweghe to take over the reigns in P Town. I hated Kiki as a player. No D. But he seems good in the front office, Kenyon Martin aside. Certainly he is better than sorry ass John Nash. Geesh!

Greatest First Round Ever? Wouldn’t know, I don’t have cable.

I saw very little of the first round.

Followed lots of the games live on the internets, but saw very little.

I do not have cable. monkeyshoes has cable, and I caught most all of the LA-Suns series, thanks to Dave and Eden’s hospitality. But no NBA playoff triple headers on network TV? Bad decision.

I realize that so many damn people have cable that maybe I’m complaining about automobiles scaring my horses, but I think the collective NBA-ABC-Disney decision to put weekend games primarily on cable is stoopid.

Sure the prevalence of folks with cable—particularly folks with cable with money to spend of the shit they advertise during sports—probably means that the dollars point to cable and pay channel as the primary mode for watching the NBA.

But I tell ye this is short-sighted thinking. I know. I saw how many regular fans tuned out an entire season because the Blaze crew simply did not have enough games

One of the least discussed reasons for the demise of the Portland Blazer fan base is that during the 2002-2003 season, the P-Dogs were televised like 18-20 times all season. Total. Paul Allen was trying to play hard ball with the cable company that controlled Portland, bungled through the season with the result only the local tv games were on. No cable.

Now, you may say ‘I thought he was bemoaning cable games?”

But what I am complaining about is lack of opportunity to see the team play. Reading and blogging about B-Ball is great, but (aside from playing) watching ball is where it is at. When willing fans cannot watch as many games, for whatever reason, the team and the League eventually suffer. Not hardcore folks like us, mind you. But the halfway fans and more importantly the kiddos need to be able to see guys on TV to become enchanted. It is the athletic poetry and situational heroics that compel folks tune in for more.

Ya see, as much as tomorrow’s bottom line should define today’s business plan, when sports teams, leagues, and the entertainment networks and advertisers that pump billions into the fortunes of the League, failing to invest in your fan base through as wide publicity as possible will haunt you.

p.s. I would not call the best first round eva, but I loved all I saw

Playoff Thoughts

Nice post from Kevin Pelton at 82games:

http://www.82games.com/pelton19.htm

The Sports Mysoginist manages to write 3000 words on the NBA with only two unnecesary WNBA cheap shots (though he does also manage a gratuitous KG dig...)

Lengthy essay from the good folks at Free Darko on Bron-Bron's layup. I gotta say, when I watched it it looked to me more like a great player getting it done than the D brain freezing. Amazing play.

Okay, gotta go set the Tivo for tonight's episode of the Best First Round Ever. Hope all of you are doing well...

Better to have loved and lost

Go Bulls!

One injury away from round 2.

Random stuff

I love the playoffs. The only real dud we've got is the Memphis/Dallas tilt - maybe the Grizz are trying to one-up my Wolves by not just losing in the first round but getting swept...

I had to pass on this link (via DeadSpin):

http://mvpwnedtrophy.ytmnd.com/

Warning...contains awesome but loud music on load...

I can't believe how well that Lakers team is playing. Big Chief T is worth the damn money.

Also, I'm sure everyone has seen this, but just in case. I was watching this game w/the sound off so I didn't know what caused Kaman to go nuts. Now I do.