miami is dunzo

so long dwyane wade! so long.. um.. who else plays for miami? frankly, i'm surprised the heat secured the 5th seed (a testament to how weak the bottom half the eastern conference was this season, i suppose).

outside of wade, this team has very little talent. jermaine o'neil? yeah, he's a solid center, but a shell of what he used to be. beasley? the dude can score. too bad he doesn't seem to care. and don't get me started on q. he's not a bad player, but do you really want him to be your 3rd option? plus, don't forget he was traded twenty-nine times this offseason.

this team played hard, though. don't get me wrong. outside of beasley, who was benched for the entire second half of game five, you can't really be too upset with the heat's effort. spoelstra squeezed a lot of effort out of this bunch. but really, is anybody surprised they only managed to take one game from an ancient and beat-up boston celtics team? they needed wade to play out of his mind just to win that one game. they were not a good team.

what happens now, though? pat reily is promising fans in south beach a brighter tomorrow, but can he deliver? the heat will certainly have cap-space. certainly enough to re-sign wade and another high-caliber free-agent, if the offers prove attractive enough.

wade does seem to want to stay in miami, however. and really, who would turn down an offer to play with flash in south beach? whatever happens, changes are coming in miami, for better or for worse.

the worst shot in basketball

finally, tonight was the night ron artest made a shot. made two shots. open shots that trevor ariza normally made in big pressure situations.

back in the glory days, my old basketball coach always used to describe the worst shot in basketball as nothing more than a three pointer with a foot on the line. you're out that far - how hard is it to make sure that your toe is an inch farther back. it wouldn't affect the shot in any way. if you made the shot with a toe on the line, you'd make that same shot and inch farther. (easier said than done i understand that - but these guys are professionals)

sadly, with the way ronron's season has gone down, both shots he made in the fourth quarter were nothing more than what i described above - and did it ever make an impact in the outcome of the game. with about a minute and a half left (and after ron ron had already made his only two shots in the series), the lakers were down by two when they could've easily been tied. the lakers ended up committing a silly foul which wouldn't have happened had it been a tie game.

who am i putting the blame on for the lakers loss tonight? you guessed it. ron's toe.

the chicago bulls care not for brooms

this is going to be a short post; tomorrow's exam is looming, and i need to spot procrastinating (tonight's games certainly aren't helping, though).

congratulations to the chicago bulls after pulling off an impressive 108-106 victory. well, it would have been impressive if they didn't almost blow a 21-point lead. the cavs made basket after basket in the fourth quarter, scoring 38 points. however, the bulls, despite themselves, barely played well enough to hold onto the lead.

the series certainly took an interesting turn tonight. lets just wait until lebron decides to play the first three quarters, too.

the spurs are good, but are they good enough?

as a suns fan, i have a had time writing these words; the spurs are good, and they have been all year long. are they as good as we thought they would be once the jefferson trade went through? not at all. but they're not as bad as we've been saying, either. its hard to read this team.

manu ginobili is finally healthy. he wasn't last year, and he didn't seem to be healthy at the beginning of this season, either. or maybe his confidence was down from last year's showing. either way, manu ginobili wasn't manu ginobili. he wasn't driving to the hoop with recklass abandon, faking the ball so hard the spalding logo game off. he wasn't hitting giant threes, forcing opposing fans to turn off their tv's or rush for the parking lot. but he is now. and oh boy is he ever doing it.

tim duncan is tim duncan. what else can we say about him? he may have been bored late during this campaign's regular season; just going through the motions to finish out another year. but this is the playoffs, and if anybody knows how to win during the playoffs, its tim duncan. he's a robot, and i mean that in the best way possible.

but really, outside of those two, who can this team turn to? richard jefferson? popovich hoped that would be the case, but for some reason, rj just can't find his rhythm, much to the chagrin of spurs fans everywhere.

tony longoria parker is usually that guy. the man from france has been one of the best scoring point guards in the league for the past few years. he can seemingly get into the paint at will and finishes with the best of them. not this year, though. he's been hurt, and even when he's been in the lineup, you could tell he's not all right.

the bench has been bad, too. besides the occasional appearance from matt bonner (the red rocket!) and dejuan blair, the bench has been largely disappointing.

mcdyess has been ok. he's been doing what he was brought in to do. its just that what he's been brought in to do isn't very much.

especially against the mavs. especially not against these mavs. theres too much talent. look at their starting line-up: kidd, butler, marion, dirk, dampier. those are huge names. sure, players such as kidd and marion may not be playing their best ball, but don't forget that kidd was an all-star this year (probably only because he was within driving distance of cowboy stadium, but whatever), and marion can still play defense with the rest of 'em.

so can the spurs get out of the first round this year? maybe. its hard to say. the spurs are good. real good. but so are the mavs, who have more talent and seem to want it more. ultimately, only time will tell, but as we all know, time isn't on these spurs' side.

yada yada yada the spurs are good.

my first banks it in! blog post and i'm having major difficulties picking a specific topic to write about. my views on the basketball world have changed a few too many times in the past hour - my thought process in a nutshell:

as i started this piece, the mavs had been on my mind as the team outside of the lakers and cavs to compete for the championship. the mavs were clawing back from a 20 point deficit against the spurs tonight, and were big time ballin'. caron butler doesn't get as much credit on the defensive end as he deserves (Side note: dubbed 'tough juice' by former nba head coach eddie jordan (see ya never) for his defensive toughness - still a bit confused with the nickname), dirk is one of the most talented power forwards of all time, and jkidd is a sure first ballot hof'er. the mavs got as close at 5, but as the game was coming to an end, my perception of the two teams playing drastically changed.

i guess i forgot how good the san antonio spurs are (like everyone else). more specifically, how good manu ginobili and especially tim duncan are. timmyd was hitting his patented sometimes awkward looking floating shots across the lane from right to left (picture it) while manu was driving and hitting massive threes (manu of old!). if they can keep this up (their biggest test in the west might even be the mavs), the san antonio spurs are a surprisingly scary seventh seed. alliteration aside, i'm hoping the spurs are here to stay and make some noise in these playoffs!

the magic are up two-nil

the magic are now two games away from reaching the eastern semi-finals after a convincing 92-77 victory over the charlotte bobcats. even better news for magic fans, tonight's win featured offensive output from both vince carter and dwight howard, a comforting sight considering the pair effed the pooch in game one.

tonight's win was a comfortable one for the magic, leading by as much as 20 points in the second half. despite a fourth quarter comeback attempt, buckets by carter and nelson ensured the win. while the game started off ugly with the two teams combining for what seemed an absurd amount of turn overs in the first quarter, the magic's offense began to click as carter and howard played well enough to carry the magic to the win.

stephen jackson played well for the bobcats, scoring 27 points to lead his team while showing no effects of a hyper extended left knee. outside of gerald wallace's 15 points and nazr mohammed's (really?) 10 points on 5 five-of-six shooting, cap'n jack received little help.

game 3 kicks off in charlotte this saturday. hold on to your butts, basketball fans.