Conference Finals Could Determine the Future of the NBA

Tweet You may be wondering where the article I promised in my last edition of playoff awards (the one devoted to San Antonio) is. Simply put: it is on hold. The article is a celebration of how San Antonio has managed to embrace the 'team over the individual' concept (something fans of North American sports always crave and ask for, but hate it when they get it), Tim Duncan and his under-rated career, the brilliance of Popovich, and many other things that have defined the Spurs, but that have also been unappreciated for far too long. Kevin Durant and the Thunder of Oklahoma city do not want me to post that article.
Before you continue reading this, please note that I have nothing against the Thunder winning, I just think that future NBA seasons would be better if San Antonio or Boston capture the NBA title this year.

The ode to the Spurs was going to be my finals preview (obviously, they have to make the finals for this to happen), as well as a hopeful thought that the NBA would now move back to an era where teamwork and individual sacrifice would once again be crucial to success. Where watching beautifully executed plays and sequences that could only come from having an unquestioned trust in your teammates (think Ginobili behind-the-back to Tony Parker) would occur on a nightly basis. Where superstars would forego the chance to break a scoring record, in order to truly elevate their team mates, or as I like to call it: the anti-Kobe. And lastly, an era where you would not watch a guard pound the ball for 22 seconds and then launch an off-balance three with the shot clock expiring (and yes, that one is called a 'Westbrook').

The run that the Dallas Mavericks had last year wasn't just beautiful because they beat the NBA's resident villain, the Miami Heat, it was also beautiful in the way they did it. Jason Kidd did not just dribble up the court and pass it to Dirk Nowitzki; the Mavericks moved the ball (often all five players getting a touch)  looking for the best possible shot. If that shot happened to be a Nowitzki fade-away, then so be it, but the point is that Dallas played as a team and it was a big part of why they won. Another thing that contributed to the Mavs' success was that their role-players knew exactly what their roles were. Watching the thrilling Boston-Miami game last night and seeing Spolestra just throwing line-ups out there hoping that they would work (Norris Cole in after Lebron fouled out) reminded me of just how important role players (and coaching) can be. Rick Carlisle of Dallas made sure that players one through twelve on his roster were ready to play if they were needed. That is why Dallas had great moments in their title run such as Brewer changing the pace of game one against the Lakers, or J.J. Barea changing the complexion of the finals.

I guess that what I am trying to say is that it would be good for the NBA if the formula for winning titles went away from "let's build a super-team" to "let's maximize what we have and win that way". The Spurs and Celtics do not have much in common with a lot of teams in the league (teams such as the Lakers, Clippers, Pacers, Grizzlies etc.) they are not as athletic or as talented (at least in terms of their best players). Yet the Spurs and Celtics outlasted all of those teams and have a good chance to make it to the NBA finals, all because they set individual stats aside for the greater good, in this case winning a title. If the Heat or the Thunder win the title, then the Brooklyn Nets pursuit of teaming up Deron Williams with Dwight Howard (both guys had a hand in the firing/resignation of a coach recently) is justified. More and more stars will take the easy 'non-Duncan' way out and just team up instead of working hard. That is why I am rooting for a Spurs and Celtics finals, one that may not get the ratings of other match-ups, but one that could benefit the league in a way not seen since the early 80's.

Playoff Awards: Second Edition

Tweet Enough time has passed since part one of this award gimmick (part two would have been up sooner, but life and summer got in the way), meaning that its time to hand out some more awards! You will notice one glaring omission, but don't worry, I will explain myself at the end. Without further delay, on to the awards!

I always defend like this!

'The Dick Bavetta Award' - Usually reserved for the single, worst ref in these playoffs, this year however, every NBA ref gets it, a team effort baby! So why is it a team award? Let's run through a checklist: Inconsistent calls? Check. Bad calls? Check. Calls where multiple players start laughing in disbelief? Check. Really bad interpretations of flagrant fouls and technical fouls? Check (we are not done talking about those yet). It amazes me that we are in the year 2012, and the NBA doesn't even have an idea to improve officiating (ignoring the problem does not help anyone in the long run). Hopefully, this will become a non-issue, but I doubt it.

The State of the NBA Playoffs

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With the first round of the NBA playoffs coming to an end and my finals pick obliterated (they still haven't found all the pieces); it seems like a good time to see where we stand so far. To make myself feel better about the horrible predictions I made, I have decided to hand out some fake awards; because nothing cheers me up more than this gimmick. The 'Requiem for a Dream' award is a prestigious honour given to a team that has endured the most painful and hard-to-watch ending to a season in any sport in quite some time. The Gladiator Award is specific to the NBA, and is given to a player who has had the best single-game performance of the first round. Lastly, the '2004 New York Yankees' Award, is again NBA specific, and as you can tell from its name, is awarded to the biggest choke (both team and coach) of the first round. Once I am finished dishing out awards, I will proceed to hopefully put up some better predictions for round two. 

Both of these guys won an award, find out which ones.

The 'Requiem for a Dream' award goes to: Manchester United! (In case you missed the weekend’s final EPL match-day action, Man U lost their all-but-won 13^th Premier League title when Man City came back from 2-1 down to QPR, scoring twice in stoppage time to win the game and the title). Here is the video, feel free to fast-forward to the 4:00 mark for the good stuff.

 

Yes, I am fully aware that the incredible finish to the EPL season has nothing to do with the NBA playoffs, but do yourself a favor and just watch the video linked above. The NBA equivalent to what happened to Manchester United, would be losing an eight-point lead with 15 seconds to play in a game 7. Had Liverpool lost the title the way that United did, I would still be missing. We would not be able to call ourselves a sports blog without, at the very least, mentioning the miracle of Manchester. The last day this year's EPL season will forever hold the honor of this award.

The NBA: Where Miracles Happen

Tweet The Memphis Grizzlies, opening the playoffs at home for the first time in their history, came out and absolutely sent a statement. They built a lead that was close to thirty points and unlike Miami, they did not need the help of the referees to do so. Memphis looked like a team that knew what had to be done, and were very business-like in dusting the hapless Clippers aside. Conely and Allen were giving Chris Paul fits, Cunningham was posterizing the poster-master, and Marc Gasol was toying with the Clippers big men.

That previous paragraph applies to to roughly 39 out of the 48 minutes of the game, unfortunately, Memphis chose to stop playing after the 39 minute mark, while the Clippers never stopped and never gave up. Vinny Del Negro wanted to pull the starters, but Chris Paul did not let him and we were treated to one of the most improbable and remarkable comebacks in NBA playoff history. From 95-71 to 99-98, a 28 to 3 (3 points in 8 minutes!) run to close out the game... just incredible. Sitting there and watching the team I picked (and wagered on) to make the finals blow this lead was shell-shocking and the worst part is: I can't even try to explain what the hell just happened. Memphis fell asleep and blew it, it really is that simple. Every once in a while, sports gives us a moment like this and we are reminded of why we watch and why we should never turn off the TV until the final buzzer sounds.

So what happens next? The good news for the Grizzlies is that it is only one game, the series is still far from over, and they have two days to get over this before playing again. It will be very difficult to overcome such a collapse, but it is not impossible (see Dallas-Portland from last year), time will still show whether this was a major wake up call for Memphis, or a spring board for the Clippers to make a deep and exciting playoff run. After a mediocre opening day (saved by Durant's heroics and Orlando's improbable run) and a dull second day (obviously saved by the Clippers), suddenly these playoffs seem much more interesting than they were two days ago. Here's hoping that tomorrow brings more of what we witnessed tonight. Cheers

-Follow us Follow @MillenniumSandE

The Millennium NBA playoff preview (part 2)

Tweet After yesterday's post previewed the Saturday games, we move on to today's slate of games. Before I get to them though, some quick thoughts about the opening day of the playoffs.

Kevin Durant gave us the first game-winner of this years playoffs

-Derick Rose. What a tough blow, not just for the Bulls and their title hopes, but also to any fans of the NBA. I guarantee that any team that beats the Bulls (assuming they don't pull off a miracle and win the title, I give them a 7% shot to do this, for the record.) will not feel great about it, this Bill Simmons tweet summed it up best; we will never know how good the 2011-2012 Bulls really were.

-Iman Shumpert. In another cruel occurrence, the Knicks not only got embarrassed in their 8-on-5 match-up against the heat (I included the ref's, their performance really allowed Lebron to do his thing, and completely threw off New York) but they also lost their best perimeter defender for the playoffs. The Knicks have a lot to figure out, or they will be overwhelmed very quickly in this series.

-The Pacers. I mean... I thought we left the choking in last year's playoffs. As you may recall, Indiana lost 4-1 to the Bulls last season, in a series where they led in the 4th quarter four out of the five games. Yesterday, they allowed Orlando to close out the game on an 11-0 run, while missing open jumpers, turning the ball over carelessly (travelling, really?) and just taking bad shots (Collison's long two being the pick of the crop). Indiana will seriously need to re-evaluate things if they lose this series, but we have to wait and see what happens for now.

-Kevin Durant. Dallas and OKC provided us with the best game of the day, with KD hitting the game winner (rarely will we see a shot hit side rim and go in, but that's where Durant's soft touch greatly helped) with 1.5 seconds left. Rick Carlisle made a rare mistake and had no time-outs to use after Durant hit the shot. It turns out that Dallas looks ready to defend their title swinging, and Igor echoed what I think everyone is starting to realize: this will be the best match-up of the first round. On to Sunday.

2012 NBA Playoffs Running Diary: Day 1, Part 1

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I decided to do a running diary of today's NBA Playoff action. My thoughts are below. 


1:00 PM - It's the Playoffs!!! (3 exclamation marks! that's how excited I am). Getting ready to watch the first game of the day with the Philadelphia Sixers visiting the Chicago Bulls. Pretty cool montage being shown right now by TNT. Nothing will beat the one they had at the beginning of the season though which was amazing.

1:06 PM - Before we tip off I might as well make my first round picks. Last year I had the Blazers knocking out the Mavs so that should let you know my success rate with these. Bulls over Sixers in 5. Heat over Knicks in 7. Pacers over Magic in 6. Celtics over Hawks in 6. Spurs over Jazz in 5. Thunder over Mavs in 7. Lakers over Nuggets in 6. Grizzlies over Clippers in 6.

1:09 PM - Still commercials. This game is being broadcast on NBA TV Canada so I'm expecting a couple of awful Raptors commercials each break. This is the worst one of all time (this may be the worst commercial of all time period)

1:11 PM - And we're off! Kevin Harlan (thumbs way up) and Reggie Miller (thumbs down) are the commentators. Holiday hits the opening shot of the playoffs with a 3 followed by a Deng jumpshot. It'll be interesting to see what Sixer team shows up for the playoffs, the one that started off the season on fire or the one who fell off a cliff after the all-star break. For the Bulls, the biggest question is how long it takes Rose to get back to his top form.

1:14 PM - 10-3 Bulls. Timeout from Doug Collins. Not a good start for Philadelphia, Chicago looks way more amped for this game in the early going. Appear quicker to their spots and as a result all of their shots have been wide open.

1:20 PM - Sixers have come back better after the timeout but just as I'm writing this, Rip Hamilton hits a 3, 15-9 Bulls. Hamilton scores again, answered with an Elton Brand Jumper only to have Rip hit one more. Rip with 9 and Brand with 6. These guys think it's 2004. We get a look and listen at the last Sixer huddle. If I was an NBA coach, I would hate "Inside Trax" because they always make coaching seem incredibly easy.

1:24 PM - Oh! Noah just posterized Lavoy Allen off a lovely fake pick and roll handoff with Rose (Think Webber). This was of course followed by his patented celebration of looking up in the air while flexing and screaming simultaneously. I can see why other players hate Noah. 23-16 Bulls.

The Millennium NBA playoff preview

Tweet With the NBA playoffs starting today, how can we not put up an article with some analysis (may contain predictions), but we will do more than that with Luka doing a full on running diary of the day's action that will be posted later. So, without wasting too much of your time, let's preview each series (in the order of the weekend TV schedule).

# 1 Chicago Bulls vs. # 8 Philadelphia 76ers

Or as I like to call this one "integrate Derick Rose into the line-up" series. Chicago could not have asked for a better match-up. The 76ers like to play defense and slow it down, they are offensively challenged, and some would argue that Philly didn't even deserve to make the playoffs with the way they closed out the season. On our podcast (which should be posted fairly soon) Luka made the argument that all teams need a closer, or at least someone who they know is going to be taking all of the big shots late in games, Philly definitely does not have "that guy" and it will probably hurt them in this series. There really isn't much to say about the Bulls, they are a contender, they managed to win 50 games despite Rose missing a significant chunk of time, and they will be ready. Expect a quick series, with few entertaining games.

The prediction: Bulls in 5.

# 2 Miami Heat vs. # 7 New York Knicks

NBA: Recap of the Week

Tweet In this edition of the 'recap of the week' I will examine the NBA's playoff picture, talk about some of the big games of last week, and of course, some Ron Artest talk. Hit the jump to read more.

NBA: Recap of the Week

Tweet For those of you wondering where our 'mad men' and 'game of thrones' reviews went this week, don't worry, there is a simple explanation. That explanation is: The writers (Luka and Igor) both had a busy exam week, but once they get some free time they will make up for the lost reviews. For now, Lets stick to my weekly look at the NBA.


Briefly, the NBA's MVP race is officially on! With the Heat's continued struggles, Lebron's slight dip in performance, and Kevin Durant's brilliance, I truly have no idea how those lucky members of the media that have a say in these awards will choose their MVP. Hopefully, the decision will be objective and based on the vague MVP criteria, and not based on the anti-Lebron campaign that has been in full force since this.

But enough about that topic, what really amazed me (in a bad way) this past week was the behavior of the owners of my favorite team, the Sacramento Kings. Earlier in the year, I wrote about how happy I was that the city of Sacramento would keep their beloved Kings team. I realize that I do not live there, and where the team plays should not affect me that much as a fan, but I WAS 'there' (at least in spirit) with those people cheering the team on when they were title competitors. It would be brutally unfair to take away the city's only professional sports team. The Kings (believe it or not) are among the NBA's oldest franchises (dating way back to the 50s) and the fact that David Stern seems to care so little about them kind of sucks to be honest. However, to his credit, Stern did at least try to help the Kings stay in Sacramento, but the Maloof's (the owners) are a fucking disgrace. It is so obvious that they want to move the team, that I gag every time I read a story about how "we are a family" and "we want to stay here". Look, whether the team moves or not, I will probably still support them, but (credit to Luka for most of what I am about to say) there is a special place in hell for people who betray an entire city, the Maloof brothers are about to join that place (they have a reserved seat between Roger Clemens and Lebron).

Moving on to some more fun topics, we are officially at the point where we can start looking at potential playoff match-ups. First off, every NBA fan in the world threw a massive party when they heard that Orlando was shutting down Howard for two weeks, why? Because it meant that the Hawks and Magic would not.... hold on, I'm going to go find some wood and knock on it. Anyways, I repeat: no Hawks-Magic travesty series this year. As it stands, it looks like Orlando could even drop to a seven, or eight-seed, something that I guarantee you that the Bulls and Heat do not want. As for the Hawks, its win-win. We either get them and Boston (which is always hotly contested) or Hawks-Pacers (cool jersey color clash, and in my opinion, an intriguing series). Moving West, we currently have the following: OKC-Houston, San Antonio-Denver, Lakers-Mavs, Clips-Grizz. These are not bad at all, the only exception I would make is to somehow get an 'all Los Angeles' series in the first round, but we shouldn't get too greedy.

My updated list of the teams I think can actually win the title: OKC, Spurs, Lakers, Grizzlies, Mavs, Heat, Bulls, Celtics.

See you next week

Follow us on twitter @MillenniumSandE

Recapping the week in the NBA

Tweet When I decided to start this weekly segment last week, I had no idea that we, the fans, would be treated to such a great week of NBA basketball. The week had a little bit of everything, from playoff races, to MVP races, to complete collapse, I have you covered.

It is only right that I begin by talking about that amazing game between the Miami Heat and OKC Thunder, The game was so good that it had analysts salivating over a potential finals match-up between the two teams. What I think got lost in all of this, is the fact that the game was actually very sloppy and poorly played, Durant had nine turnovers by himself! What made this game good was the officiating (let a lot of things go), the competitiveness, and the hard fouls. You truly got a sense that these two teams did not like each other and they were playing like it. What made the game even better was the match-up of Lebron vs. Durant, with Lebron basically telling everyone that was trying to build hype for the Durant MVP campaign last week, that the MVP trophy is his to lose. He completely shut down Durant in the final minutes and was the entire Heat offence in the fourth quarter, it was nice to see him step up and separate himself from everyone else on the court. He rose to the occasion and did not shrink from it, of course this means nothing until the playoffs start so stay tuned.

Last week I also named a few teams who had very important weeks coming up that would likely determine their fate in regards to making the playoffs, those teams were Memphis, the Knicks, and the Celtics. The Grizzlies took care of business in a very impressive 4-1 week (with the one loss being to Dallas in the third game in a back-to-back-to-back set, and they avenged that loss by beating Dallas three days later) that has given them some breathing room in the crowded Western conference. Memphis could get as high as a 3-seed if they keep playing this well, and continue to be a scary match-up for anyone. The Knicks actually managed to climb to the 7-seed in the East (because Philly is self-com-busting at this point) and beat a Rose-led Bulls team in OT. They are also winning enough games to keep the streaking Bucks at bay, while waiting for the health statuses of Stoudemire and Lin, a solid week for the Knicks. Lastly, the Celtics stumbled a bit with losses to the Bulls and Spurs (although not many teams would beat those two teams) but recovered to beat Indiana and Philadelphia. Boston is really playing some good ball and at this point there really is not much more to say about the team. They did not fold this year, (when they had every chance to do so) they stuck together, and now worst of all (for every other team) they are starting to believe.

But enough about the teams that are actually taking care of business, on to the teams that are doing the exact opposite. Firstly, OKC is no longer the West's number one overall seed having lost three games in a row and only snapping that skid with a win against the lowly Raptors. For a young team that has yet to win a title like OKC, home-court advantage is a must and they have let it slip away. Another team that is doing its best NOT to make the playoffs are the 76ers. I have no idea what happened to this team, but within the span of two weeks the race for the East's 8-seed went from a two-team to a three-team race, and you know what? I think New York and Milwaukee both make it and Doug Collins' early season COY bid becomes a thing of comedy. I will conclude this segment with the obvious: the Orlando Magic. I am actually amazed that SVG still has a job coaching this team. While I am on his side in this (he did get screwed over by Shaq in Miami) there is no way you can keep him around at this point right? Could any other coach get away with completely throwing his star player under the bus? Needless to say, Orlando is in the middle of a funk that could drop them even lower than the 6-seed they find themselves in right now, they need to decide (and soon) if they want to try and actually accomplish something in the playoffs, or fade into obscurity.

That will do it for this week, I am keeping things short only because exams are breathing right down my neck this week. Hope you enjoyed anyways!

Hit us up on Twitter @MillenniumSandE

The NBA so far (Part 3)

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For Parts one and two of our NBA rundown, in case you missed them click here (one) and here (two). I noticed that in part two I forgot to post the points that the teams accumulated from our ranking system. Better late then never right? Here they are for those of you who are curious: Kings-27, Suns-37, Bucks-37, Cavs-40, Warriors-41, Jazz-47. Yes, I do realize that the Warriors are going to be ranked higher even though they received fewer points, but it is a small price to pay for a quality report. Anyways, here are teams 19 to 14.

19. The Golden State Warriors (41 points)

Heading into the season the Warriors had failed at getting DeAndre Jordan, settled for gifting Kwame Brown 9 million for the year (if decent big men weren’t so scarce this guy would never have a job in the NBA unless it was a locker room bouncer…and even then he’s probably too soft), were uncertain if their back court could co-exist, and brought in rookie head coach Mark Jackson. This obviously was not a recipe for success, so as a fan I wasn’t expecting much this year except some fun up-tempo Warriors’ basketball. Unfortunately, early on in the year the team seemed to have lost their flair on offense while still being mediocre on defense which really concerned me (c’mon Mark you’re better than that). However, in the last few weeks the team has really turned it around and started playing that fun to watch basketball again. With a relatively easy schedule the rest of the way (really doesn’t mean much since they could lose to a d-league team but beat the ‘96 Bulls on any given night) they could sneak into the playoffs as an 8th seed…and we all know what happened last time they were 8th. Monta Ellis has been his usual self, hitting ridiculous shots and making some spectacular plays, but the other half of their back court really worries me. Stephen Curry keeps re-injuring his ankle and unless he takes a larger amount of time off and heals fully, I could see this keep happening throughout his career (knock on wood that this does not happen). As for the other players, David Lee is showing why the Warriors signed him a few years ago (no flesh eating elbow disease this year thankfully), Ekpe Udoh is a solid center but probably not one I would start, Dorell Wright has gone from one of the most improved players to one of the biggest busts this year and needs to be benched or traded ASAP. The bench has been playing well and is packed with scorers (Robinson and Thomspon) and good defenders (Rush and McGuire) which is always a luxury to have. Apparently the front office is interested in making a move for Bogut which I wouldn’t mind, even though he comes with a huge injury risk. Many moves need to be made to improve this team for the future, the first one being to acquire a good center, but for now I’m happy to enjoy these fast paced late night games.

-Igor

18. The Boston Celtics (53 points)

The already old Celtics are getting older, yet Pierce and Garnett are having very solid seasons. However, the Celtics aren’t playing as well this year, which can be seen by their sub-par record (at just over .500), putting them currently near the bottom of Eastern conference playoff teams. The Celtics have had injuries all season, especially with Rondo and Jermaine O’Neal, and their play has been inconsistent as a result. It also doesn’t help that Rondo has been inconsistent himself, who followed the best statistical game of this NBA season with an 8, 5 and 2 performance just two games after. Pierce has been the best Celtic this year, and Ray Allen is shooting a career high percentage from three point range, but there is not enough depth on this Celtics team and a team with such a poor bench cannot expect to do well in the playoffs. Boston’s decline began after they traded away Perkins, and it’s a shame they could not win another title with him the previous year, but when you are playing against the Lakers and David Stern, you probably shouldn’t expect to win the title (though they did manage to take the series to seven games, even though only one of those seven games were fairly refereed). The Celtics are struggling, and their chances of making it anywhere in the playoffs are looking slim, which is unfortunate because they will soon have to begin rebuilding once their three veterans retire. At this point, it would be best for them to start rebuilding right away and trying to get good value for their veterans, who can still play well on their own. There’s no point in waiting for them to retire when they still have a high current market value.

-Jovan

17. The Minnesota Timberwolves (56 points)

Ricky Rubio. Sadly this paragraph must begin with him and his season-ending injury suffered just last week. With Rubio the T-Wolves have that rare player in the mold of Steve Nash (yeah I get it, Rubio’s shooting sucks, but Nash shot 36% in the 98-99 lockout shortened season...just saying) with his ability to see the floor, always find the open teammate, make passing infectious throughout the team, and in general seem like the type of guy who would be extremely fun to play with. With Ricky the Wolves were surprising everyone by staying right in the playoff hunt in the extremely competitive Western Conference. Now without him they have to turn to Luke Ridnour (very average) and J.J. Barea (Rick Adelman seems to not like him for whatever reason) to hold down the fort at point guard for the rest of the year. Could the Wolves still make the playoffs? Possibly, but they’ll need to get even more from their superstar (no question about this) forward Kevin Love who is without a doubt the best Power Forward in the league (sorry Blake but you’re going to need something more than “spin, spin, spin, yell and flop your arms” as  a post-move to get this status). Since Love is already averaging 25.7 points and 13.6 rebounds a game, this may be too much to ask. The Rubio injury has been one of (if not the) worst stories of the year because this Minny team had been one of the feel-good stories up to that point. Rick Adelman continues to prove he’s one of the best coaches out there and Nikola Pekovic has emerged as a very solid big man in the NBA. Something that seems even less likely when his appearance seems more suited for a bouncer rather than an NBA center. I believe Minnesota will continue to fight for a playoff spot the rest of the season but will fall short due to a lack of PG consistency. Their future looks very promising though with a young core of Rubio, Love, Pekovic, Derrick Williams (has shown flashes of very good play), Michael Beasley (still salvageable in my opinion), Wesley Johnson, Martell Webster, J.J. Barea, Darko and the rest of a team that can only improve. Finally, if you’re not a fan of the T-Wolves, watching this will make you one.

-Luka

Editors Note: We wish Ricky Rubio a swift and successful recovery, its never fun when such a likeable and unselfish young player has his season ended so abruptly.

16. The New York Knicks (62 points)