NBA Playoffs

[CenTexDave]

The teams are pretty well set now, only a couple more games until the playoffs start.
Who's your pick in the East and West?
Who do you pick to win it all?

[Night Owl]

DALLAS!!!!!!!!!!:):):):):)

Seriously, Cleveland.

[gvls78]

I'm going with Dallas (I am a homer) If I had to put money on it and I most likely will. LA Lakers from west




Cleveland Cavs from the east.

[CenTexDave]

The Cavs have home court throughout the playoffs virtue of their win tonight at Indianapolis. They seem to be peaking at the right time (anybody watch the demolition of the Celtics Sunday afternoon?). They have the best player in the world (sorry, LA LAker fans, LeBron James blows Kobe Bryant away; same with Miami and Dwayne Wadd).
The only team that's really given the Cavs a lot of trouble this year is Orlando. If the Cavs win the East I look for them to win it all in, say, 6!!

[CenTexDave]

Anybody following the Boston Celtics - Chicago Bulls series. Bulls won tonight in 3OT!!!!
Game 7 in Boston on Saturday night. Unreal.

[Night Owl]

GO Chicago!!!!

[CenTexDave]

I agree. Hope the Bulls pull the upset on the Celtics' court.
I'm not a big fan of the NBA. Usually watch a few games when it gets down to the Conference and NBA Finals, but this Bulls - Celtics series is fabulous.

[Night Owl]

what is it now, 4 overtime games?

[CenTexDave]

4. Another one in regulation by 1 or 2 points.

[stormy]

THAT was a great game, and the one on Sunday I think it was, was great too!

[Night Owl]

I still see Cleveland winning it all. If not then hopefully the MAVs come through.

[CenTexDave]

If the Cavs win it would be the first championship of any kind for Cleveland since 1964 when the Browns won it all. Only a mere 45 years!

[stormy]

Watching the game right now....if Chicago doesn't pick up the pace and stop turning the ball over....dammit!!!! :)

[CenTexDave]

The Bulls couldn't get it done tonight.
But still, they took the #2 seed to 7 games. The Celtics will get ripped by Orlando in the next round.

[stormy]

That 1st Celtics/Orlando game was awesome! I could not believe they came back from that far behind!

Last night's game between the Hawks and the Cavaliers was boring. Hopefully, tonight's games will be exciting.

[CenTexDave]

It's never boring watching LeBron James. That guy is from another galaxy.

[stormy]

Wow. Celtics did a great job last night. That Laker's game was pretty intense, too. I couldn't believe all the ejections, technical fouls, flagrant fouls, etc. Kobe did nail that guy in throat pretty good, though.

[CenTexDave]

James just pumped in a 36 footer at the end of the 1st half. Unreal!

[CenTexDave]

Cavs go up 3 - 0.
LeBron James: 47 points, 12 rebounds. Unreal.

[stormy]

The Hawks were terrible. Was glad to see Cavs win that one.

[CenTexDave]

And although I didn't watch the game, I've seen replays of the Denver-Dallas Mavs game. Mavs got screwed.
How about the Minh-less Rockets today taking it to the Lakers!

[stormy]

Haven't watched any tv today. Will probably catch the evening game(s) if there is one.

[CenTexDave]

Yep, Celtics vs Orlando. Should be coming on about now.

[CenTexDave]

Wow, Celtics pull it off with a buzzer beater. These two teams are killing each other. Cleveland will probably rap up their series tonight and get another 6 days off waiting to see who survives between the Celtics and Magic. Same in the Western Conference where Houston and LA are tied up and Denver has a 3 - 0 advantage over Dallas.

[stormy]

I missed the dadgum game last night. That really irks me. Really enjoy watching the Celtics play. Must've been good!

[CenTexDave]

Celtics stole one from Orlando last night. Think it'll be Celtics vs Cavs for the East crown.
The Lakers woke up last night and should put it away Thursday. Without Yao the Rockets have nothing up the middle.

[stormy]

Yeah, that was a good game. Last night was Denver...yawn...I haven't watched a Denver game yet; they just aren't near as exciting as watching Boston; every game they play, including the series with the Bulls has been awesome. Allen hasn't been playing too hot, but he always seems to get back into the swing at the end of the game when they really need him. Was so glad they didn't play last night... The season finale of Lost was on :)

[CenTexDave]

The Magic finally got their first lead of the night with about 5 minutes to go this evening and pulled away. Game 7 goes back to Boston.

[stormy]

Yep, and THAT should be a good game. Did you see the Houston/Laker's game? Houston kicked their butts, and without Yao. I always thought he seemed big and bulky; kinda cloddy in there. I don't know what the deal was last night, but Houston seemed to move and play like a well-oiled machine without him? What do ya think?

[CenTexDave]

I think you're right. They're better without the clumsy Yao.
Game 7 in LA though. That's where it ends for the Rockets.

[FieryPrincess]

Houston = Clutch City

They have been down 3-1 and come back to win a series. The club is typically scrappy and not easily prone to giving up. Neither is the city.

[CenTexDave]

I hope Houston does win it, but they're playing the Best in the West at LA. Will be a tough game.

[cityboy]

I used to love the NBA, but now, I can hardly make myself watch it. I don't know half the players, or the coaches. Basically the only ones I know are the ones that I watched play in college, or people like Lebron James and Kobe "The *******" Bryant. Same thing with baseball. Used to love baseball, but now when I hear people talk about the players and teams, they might as well be speaking a foreign language. To me, there are no team identities any more, like there used to be in pro sports. It's just a revolving door of players being traded around. I don't know ...

[stormy]

I'll have to agree with you on that one cityboy. It has been probably 15 years since I watched the NBA. This year my fiance got sucked in watching the Bulls and Boston, and so did I. I love basketball; played it 7th thru 12th grade and coached too, but the constant moving around, bad attitudes by some players, and the refs calling every little thing turned me off. It's really great to see Phil Jackson still coaching, though. And, now, after watching these finals, there are some really great players I've enjoyed watching like Celtics player Allen, and of course LeBron James! Maybe we're just partial to the "old school" days of basketball with John Stockton, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Barkley, etc. :)

[Night Owl]

I normally don't watch the NBA because they don't play basketball, they play some bastardized version.

[CenTexDave]

That's true. So next year trying watching the NCAA Womens' Tournament. They still play the game like it's supposed to be played.

[cityboy]

I'll have to agree with you on that one cityboy. It has been probably 15 years since I watched the NBA. This year my fiance got sucked in watching the Bulls and Boston, and so did I. I love basketball; played it 7th thru 12th grade and coached too, but the constant moving around, bad attitudes by some players, and the refs calling every little thing turned me off. It's really great to see Phil Jackson still coaching, though. And, now, after watching these finals, there are some really great players I've enjoyed watching like Celtics player Allen, and of course LeBron James! Maybe we're just partial to the "old school" days of basketball with John Stockton, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Barkley, etc. :)

Most definitely -- Larry Bird's Boston Celtics; Magic Johnson's Lakers; Isaiah Thomas' Pistons ... Houston Rockets with Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler (remember, Drexler was with the Trail Blazers before that). And how about even further back, when the Lakers were Jerry West and Gail Goodrich; the Milwaukee Bucks with a young Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Oscar Robertson; the New York Knicks with Bill Bradley and Clyde Frazier; the 76ers with Julius Erving; remember Pistol Pete Maravich??? That was basketball ...

[CenTexDave]

Lakers blow out the Rockets and Orlando blows out the Celtics. Strange game 7's.
Western Conf finals now Lakers vs Denver Rockets and Eastern Conf finals Cleveland Cavs vs Orlando Magic.
Should be two good series.

[stormy]

Oh, wow. Isaiah Thomas, Clyde Drexler, and Magic were awesome to watch. Spud Webb gave me hope to be a great, although short basketball player, too.

It'll be interesting to see these finals. Am looking forward to it! I was so bummed about the Celtics losing!

[CenTexDave]

The Celtics were dealt a bad hand when Kevin Garnett went down and couldn't play the final two weeks of the regular season and throughout the playoffs. With him in there, I think it would have been different.
I watched a preview of the conference finals last night on ESPN. It really appeared to be more of a preview of what they think will be a LA-Cleveland Finals, i.e., Kobe vs. LeBron. We'll see.

[CenTexDave]

Lakers pulled out a close one over Denver, and Orlando, after being down by as much as 16, shocked Cleveland at home. Interesting.

[stormy]

Holy cow! Did you see the winning shot by Lebron James last night? That was awesome!

[CenTexDave]

Absolutely unbelievable.
The Cavs have seem to have lost that "killer" instinct. They get up big in these games and then let off.

[Rick]

That shot might be what turns it around for them. Cleveland sports fans know the feeling of that last second all too well. Lived it all my life. Let's hope for the Cavs!

Here's a shot of the Lebron Wall outside the Quicken Loans Arena from the baseball stadium last year when I went up there.

[CenTexDave]

The drive. The fumble. Jordan hitting that shot over Ehlo in the final second.
The one thing I saw that I didn't like was all the other Cav players just standing around waiting for LeBron to do his magic. They need to help him. The guy plays like Superman, but can't do everything by himself.
The Nuggets blew a close one at home tonight to the Lakers. Denver should have had a 20 point lead and they kept missing shot after shot after shot.

[CenTexDave]

Well, down went the Cavs. Even LeBron James couldn't be a one man show. Orlando seems to have that teams number.
LA vs Orlando for the NBA Championship. Any thoughts?
__________________

[cityboy]

Kobe Bryant is an ass ... if Kareen Abdul-Jabbar had been on his team, he would have demanded Jabbar be traded, so as not to steal Kobe's spotlight. Go Orlando!!!

[CenTexDave]

I agree. Bryant is an ass. He is nothing more than a prima donna that cares only about himself, and I hope Orlando takes the championship.

[Rick]

Well, down went the Cavs. Even LeBron James couldn't be a one man show. Orlando seems to have that teams number.
LA vs Orlando for the NBA Championship. Any thoughts?
The curse of Cleveland lives on!

[Ifrit]

Lebron is way to overrated and hyped. I realized he couldn't do it when the Spurs swept them in 07 for the title.

[CenTexDave]

Overrated? Good lord, he put on one helluva show this year. He can't do it all. The Cavs have real trouble with Orlando. Everybody else they beat this year.
When they played San Antonio he was 22 years old and San Antonio was on their roll. Pretty much the same team this year, but the Spurs couldn't get it done. Duncan, Ginobelli, Parker, etc are all getting old together.