End of the road

Tonight in San Antonio, the Mavericks finished what international basketball and Father Time had started with a three-point aided kill shot over the Spurs. Your final score was 106-93, and while Spurs Fan can bemoan the loss of Manu Ginobili all he wants, expecting the Argentinian to actually play at this point is not exactly building your house on stone. Nor, for that matter, is trotting out the supremely old Bruce Bowen and Michael Finley, the supremely physically limited Matt Bonner and Kurt Thomas, or the supremely not ready for prime time George Hill and Roger Mason. Tim Duncan and Tony Parker just weren't enough, not for their lack of trying, especially with Dirk Nowitzki finally having a decent game.

Note, also, that this was the first time in *eleven* first-rounds that the Spurs lost with Duncan on the floor. But it's not like Dallas doesn't hold peculiar match-up wins with the Spurs -- Josh Howard, in particular, seems to relish seeing this laundry -- and when you lose 4 games to 1, with a 6-point difference per game...

Well, it's not like the Spurs are going to do something crazy, not with Duncan still pretty great and the economics of the NBA being what they are. But at least they are in better shape than most to add talent.

As for Dallas, the Nuggets await in the second round once they finally sweep aside the sad people wearing Hornet jerseys, which should happen any minute now, really. They aren't going to enjoy the step up in athleticism, or the fact that the Nugs actually have bench players who could play for other rotations in the NBA; on the other hand, getting away from Parker has got to make Jason Kidd less of a liability on the defensive side of the ball.

Oh, and this also means we get at least two more weeks of Mark Cuban. Just because the Association is great, folks, doesn't mean it doesn't come without a cost.

But we have time to talk about all of that later. For now, let's mark the end of the Spurs, a team that casual NBA fans loathed, but real NBA fans respected. They never beat themselves, they never gave anything less than complete effort, and if your own laundry behaved this way, you could not ask for anything more. But man alive, do they need some more talent. (And if you really want to be bitter about it, bring up Luis Scola to Spurs Fan. Sometimes, acquiring talent, even if it doesn't have an obvious role, is good, if only because it keeps you from looking at Drew Gooden later.)

Evening Up

We'll lead off with a mostly irrelevant video that fills my heart with blood. Enjoy.



Tonight in the NBA Playoffs, the old men of the Association (Boston and San Antonio) got back to even in their series against Chicago and Dallas, respectively. But there was a world of difference in how they did it.

In Boston, it was a gunfight between Ray Allen and Ben Gordon, with Allen making the last shot to save the home town team. After 96 minutes of basketball, it's clear that the Bulls have, for perhaps the first time ever in the playoffs (and that includes their Jordan teams), a real edge in the front-court, and that was with the C's getting great games out of Kendrick Perkins and Big Baby Davis.

If Perk and Baby give the Celts that game on the road... well, we should all feel better about stem cell research finding a cure for cancer, since everything will now be officially on the table. The Celts will be tight and probably steal back home-court behind a Paul Pierce uprising, but Celtic Fan isn't suffering from overconfidence anymore, and if Rajon Rondo stiffens up from that scary fall he took in this one, it could be over quickly. Derrick Rose ain't no punk, y'all.

(What will happen? Vinny del Negro will somehow blow a game at home, the C's will ride some highly dubious officiating, and the favorites will advance. But lo, they will sweat hard over it.)

In San Antonio, it was the Tony Parker Show, as the quicksilver point ended this Jo Jo Barea nonsense with 38 points and 10 assists in a going-away win for the home team. It's easy to imagine that Dallas, having gotten Game One, just weren't all that interested in putting forth the full energy in trying to get the 2-0 hammerlock, but after watching what Parker did to them tonight, I'm off the ledge from my Spurs pick for the series.

In the NBA playoffs, it's usually Team With The Best Player Wins, and no one was better than Tony Parker tonight. Ever since the We'll Regret It For A Decade deal with New Jersey to send Devin Harris east for the final years of Jason Kidd, the Mavs have absolutely no one who can keep Parker in front of him. They'll certainly be closer when Dirk Nowitzki gives them more than a 3-for-14 effort, but it's not like the Spurs have seen a vintage Tim Duncan game yet, and I'm just not in the chorus of people thinking that he's done. I also just think that the second-tier Spurs scorers (Finley, Gooden, Bonner) are going to step up and win them a road game.

See you tomorrow night, as the Finalists show up to remind us all why none of this matters...

And This Is Why I Gamble

News out of San Antonio tonight that the Spurs' Manu Ginobili, who I've been waiting patiently on for most of the year to try to get the boost that I need for my fantasy team, is done for the year with a stress fracture in his leg.

It's a weekly moves league, so I'm looking at zeroes now from Manu's spot during the most important week of the year. I was hoping to hold unto my third place standing, and not lose money from being in the league.

This, after the out of the blue injury earlier in the year to Amare Stoudemire, which more or less killed my chance of winning the freaking league.

I have no point here, other than taking very little solace in the fact that the Spurs are as dead as my fake team...

Where Unfortunate Happens

Tonight, I'm watching Bugs-Spurs on the Lemur. The Spurs make two three pointers to cut the lead down to 1 with 15 seconds left. The Bugs inbound the ball to Chris Paul, who uses his hyperspeed to avoid the intentional foul, but not really. As CP3 gets to the frontcourt, Manu Ginobili finally gets to him, but not before Paul hoists one from 40 feet. The refs finally get the whistles out, but now it's Paul shooting three free throws; he makes them all. With the lead now up to four, the Spurs don't score again, and that's your ballgame.

Now, I'm not a Bug or Spur Fan; I was just hoping to see this go to overtime, so that I could get a few more minutes out of my fantasy game players. But if I were Spurs Fan, I'd be bent, because the zebras clearly missed the call on Paul's clock kill, because Tony Parker-Longoria clearly fouled CP in the backcourt. But, um, not the way the ref saw it, and instead of a shot at the end to tie, CPs made free throws ended things.

Now, is this really a disaster? No, not really; New Orleans led for most of the way and were probably going to win anyway, as Paul was just MVPish tonight, and they were at home.

But it does show the general maddening tendency of the Association, which is that every close game is going to have intense scrutiny on the refs. And ever since the Donaghy scandal, that scrutiny goes beyond thinking about the competence of the individual crew, or how so and so got lucky... and right into a realm that does the league no good at all.

Nothing you need in a recession, during the time of the year when the world cares more about college basketball and spring training baseball...

Where Amazing Salary Dumps Happen

Today in San Antonio, the Rockets took out the Spurs. That would be remarkable enough, really, given that this is the time of the year that the Spurs historically put the throttle down and get into disturbingly efficient killing mode, especially against a Rockets team that doesn't have Tracy McGrady (naturally) and traded away its starting point guard (Rafer Alston).

But hey, Yao Ming can do some things, right? And so can Testy, since he's still in that first year good guy stage. But, um, no. The fingerprints on this loss were entirely those of Luis Scola, who had 19 points, 17 boards, 4 assists, 3 steals and was the high man in plus/minus at +14, the highest on his team. Rockets 87, Spurs 85.

So who is Luis Scola? An Argentine power forward who the Spurs drafted in 2002. He never played a minute for that club, in part due to difficulty getting him away from his club team, and in part because, well, the Spurs have little need for a power forward given the presence of Tim Duncan. In 2007, San Antonio essentially gave Scola away to the Rockets along with big stiff Jackie Butler for cash, a second round pick, and a tax deduction named Vassilis Spanoulis. Scola finished third in the rookie of the year voting last year, and he's giving them 12.6 points, 8.7 boards, and shooting 53% from the field -- all of them up from his good rookie year.

This is, in all likelihood, Scola's ceiling; he's 28, after all, and while he knows what he's doing on the floor, he's certainly not a lockdown defensive player. But it's interesting, on some level, just how convoluted the salary cap makes the NBA. Here the Spurs had to more or less move an asset for very little to an arch-rival, just to make sure that they didn't go over the cap, or create a logjam at a position where they already had a star.

The closest corollary I can think of here is Raheem Brock having a career in Indianapolis for the Colts, after the Eagles drafted the Temple product in the seventh round, then overspent on signing their rookies and had to give him up. Baseball teams sell off assets all the time, of course, but rarely this blatant, and usually not in ways that could cause them a head to head loss that matters.

And, of course, Scola's also not likely to do this again in the playoffs, so on some level, you have to wonder how much it matters. But right now, with the Rockets ahead of the Spurs in the hyper-tight West, the answer is: a lot. And in a way that no other league does...



(And here's the YouTube link of the clinching plays, brought to you by commenter John over at Mundo Albiceleste. For more on the game, go check his site out.)

Your world confuses and frightens me

All over my Internets tonight, nothing but Human Cock Fighting. And heavy on the cock, really.

I get that people like to see people beat the crap out of each other; hence the big "Woo!" noises when a safety lays out a receiver, independent of the outcome of the play. I'm not above watching a good boxing match myself, especially if the fighters either have some personal venom in it, or there's some historical merit to the proceedings: Ali-Frazier fascinates me on a near Trickster Mythos level.

But really, are we all so immune to the charms of The Association (or non-March college basketball) that we're rather watch two guys in shorts wrap their legs around each other's necks until one of them says Hello, Sailor?

Tonight in hoop, there were two double-overtime classics, with the Spurs outlasting the very game Grizzlies and the Rockets taking out the Jazz. The Grizz took the elder statesmen of the league to the limit at home, with rookie OJ Mayo looking like the game's next great player; only a very hot Tony Parker could save them. The Rockets rode Ron Artest (!) to 28 points to win despite missing Tracy McGrady; the Jazz are missing Carlos Boozer, Mehmet Okur and Ronnie Milsap.

This, from a league with perhaps the biggest talent base of any sport outside of soccer, and the only thing I've done in the last two paragraphs is make 70% of the readers bent that I'm talking hoop again.

But anyway, back to the human cockfightery.

There's something going on here, and it's not just the Nature Abhors A Vacuum moment of boxing opening the door wide for a competing thrill. It's that, with the utter abandonment of the playing field by pro wrestling for safe bloodsport thrills, and the increasing pussification of the NFL (don't hit the quarterback in 40% of his body, don't pull the ball carrier down from behind by grabbing inside the shoulder pads from behind, don't hit the ball carrier out of bounds even if it's damn near impossible to pull up on the off chance that he cuts it back inside)...

Plus, with the Web's always-on and always-available fountain of video goodness that used to make us feel bad, until seeing so very much of it made us all lose whatever shame we still had around...

Well, maybe I'm just old school for not being more into Human Cockfighting. But, um, still. This is, really, what you want to watch?

What we've learned so far, or why the NBA regular season matters

One of the disparaging things that you hear, as an NBA fan (and yes, I know that many of you just grabbed the scroll bar -- hear me out anyway) is that the regular season doesn't matter. You hear this from people who just don't like pro hoop and don't want to just flatly admit it.

This is, of course, bull. The regular season matters a ton, because home court in the playoffs is a big deal, and the record of higher seeds every year proves it. By the time 82 games is up, unless there is some mitigating injury factor, we usually know who the best teams are. They are the ones with the best record.

So in the East, what the first 8 to 12 games have shown is the following:

> Washington has lost any margin for error. Basically, there are two very good teams in the East (Boston and Cleveland), followed by a middle tier that's going to be .500 or better (which describes, gulp, 8 teams right now). By being six under .500 two weeks before Thanksgiving, they've got to play the rest of the year at least 41-33, and probably more like 45-29 to be truly safe. Considering that they aren't likely to get better until the return of Gilbert Arenas (and given how badly Gilbert played last year when attempting to come back from injury, not even then)... well, if you want to stick a fork in them after only eight games, I won't disagree with you. You need bigs to win in this league, and they've got, in the words of Jack Black, squadouche.

> People who think that LeBron James is going to bolt Cleveland to be with a winner need to realize... he's already with a winner. The Cavs are 9-2 after a convincing road win tonight in New Jersey, with their only losses coming on the road in Boston and New Orleans -- and both of those games were in single digits. Beyond 'Bron, they are getting serious production out of their garbagemen (combine Ben Wallace and Anderson Varejao, and you get 13 boards and 2 blocks a game in 48 useful minutes), and a clear second option in Mo Williams (15.9 points a game). They still aren't a work of art to watch outside of King James, but they defend well, rebound better, and work people under the table.

It also, of course, doesn't hurt that James is throwing down 30, 8 and 7 every night. Ye gads.

> Orlando's just fine, thanks. When they dropped the first two games, there was the temptation to think that Dwight Howard's bad Olympics and Hedo Turkoglu's ill health was going to take these guys down a peg or three. Eight wins in their last nine fixed that problem, including a three-game road sweep. They still look vulnerable to me for as long as they want to fool themselves with Jameer Nelson at the point, and I'm not sold on them as road warriors. But they're still the best team in the Southeast, even if Atlanta and Miami are better.

> Your Philadelphia 76ers are 5-5 and looking much better than they did a week ago, thanks to a three win in four night streak in Toronto, Indiana, and the lay-up at home over the Cursed Thunder at home. The most intriguing thing is how they are doing it. Your leading scorer is second-year man Thaddeus Young, not Elton Brand or Andre Iguodala. Seven men are in striking range of double figures per game in points per game. They out-rebound the opponents by 8 boards a game while shooting a higher percentage from the field -- and that's a pretty rare combo right there.

There are flaws, of course, and it's a pretty glaring one, in that they don't take care of the ball. But given the turnover in the roster, that's more than understandable. My guess is that we won't really know anything about this team until the usual monster West Coast trip (this year, it's six games from Dec. 23 to Jan. 3), but getting back to .500 fast is a major relief.

In the West...

> Punch the lottery tickets for the Wolves, Cursed Thunder and Clippers already. They are a combined 3-27 (hard to do, Harry), and if you combined the rosters for all of them, you might have a playoff team. But only if you can get Baron Davis to show up and give a damn, and I'm not thinking you will, really.

Honestly, I'd like to find the people who talked about how the Wolves got a good deal in the Garnett trade and hook them up to lie detectors, just to see if they are idiots or morons. Basketball is not baseball; numbers do not exist in a vacuum, and you don't replace a high plus defensive player with a defensive sieve and have it be a zero-sum game. The bigger question is, really... what exactly does Kevin McHale have to do to lose his job? Now that Isiah Thomas is (presumably) being kept in a room with safety scissors and non-effective glue, he's Top Choice for the Guy Who Shouldn't Be Employed...

> The West will regret not burying the Spurs when they had the chance. The old robots are a one-legged stool right now, with Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili both out with injuries, but a motivated Tim Duncan is a monstrous thing, and after three wins in five nights (over Houston, then on the road in Sacramento and in Clipland), they are back to .500, with four out of the next six at home. Assuming they'll be .500 or better at the end of that, they'll welcome back Manu and Parker, spend December getting everything settled, and be the team that no one wants to play in May -- especially because everyone but Duncan will have fresh legs, and he's still young enough to handle the minutes.

Remember, if Ginobili's healthy, they really could have stretched the Lakers much more in last year's playoffs, and it's not like they don't have the pedigree. And to think, they were 2-6 just a week ago, and looking like the Warriors '07 choice for the team to be hurt most by a slow start.

> This is a very top-heavy conference -- which is why the Nuggets are still relevant. Only four teams (Utah, Lakers, Suns and Rockets) look all that good to me, though you expect that the Hornets will turn it around any day now. After that, you've got the Blazers, Nuggets and Suns... and your nine-hole team, which last year was a 48-win Warrior club that was wildly entertaining, is going to be a sad-sack Maverick team that just needs to be euthanized.

> George Karl didn't take long to throw Allen Iverson under the bus, did he? I guess the poor boy is just giddy over a road win in Boston, the night after losing in Cleveland. This has left many to follow the logic that Chaunce must be better than AI, and well, OK, what the hell, it's not like the Nugs were doing anything before the trade.

But honestly, just how magical of a creature is AI, to make a very highly paid coach in Karl tolerate so many bad moments? I'm thinking The Answer has hidden Anti-Jedi powers and just enjoys losing. Either that, or George Karl quit on his team like a bitch last year, which, given that there was a whole Internet movement trying to get him pink-slipped last year, strikes me as just a *little* more likely.

(And yes, of course I am defensive about AI, who is, of course, a defensive hole and no one's idea of a great point guard... but for heaven's sake, the man killed himself for you for a year and a half, and didn't say a negative word to anyone. And you just pretty much took a dump on him in public. In the words of the great Ricky Watters, for who? For What?)

Oh, and George? I know you work for a team that won't ever spend money again, and you're probably going to spend maybe one more year twiddling your junk around .500 while collecting your paycheck in a weak division in a watered-down conference. But you might not want to poison the well so much for your successor. He might actually want to attract a free agent that's worth a damn some day, especially when you realize that Chaunce is old, getting older, and wears down very badly by the end of the year...

Epic Drop: Top 10 ways that Shaq will make the Spurs pay

The Phillies are a strike away from the World Series at this very moment. My link is about Shaq. I have unerring blogging instincts!

Lakers-Spurs, Game Five: The Mamba Will Kill You Now

Closing time in Los Angeles tonight, as the Lakers shook off a sluggish start and rode Kobe Bryant's 39 points (26 in the second half) for the kill shot. The Lakers go back to the Finals for the first time since Shaq, with a 100-92 win.

The Spurs blew two of the biggest leads in the playoffs in this series -- a 20 point lead in Game 1, a 17 point one tonight -- and there's a very good reason why: they are old, old, old, and even older than that, since they've got all of those playoff road miles on the tires as well. You can also talk here, if you must, about how the Spurs lost this series in Game 1, the same way the Suns lost their series in Game 1.

In the first half, the Spurs built their big lead on three point shooting, but that dried up with a vengeance in the second half, and the Laker bench cut the big lead down before the half. For the Spurs, Tim Duncan did everything he could to carry them up the mountain, but the simple fact of this series is that Manu Ginobili only played well in one game, and that was the only one they won.

If you're looking for a better Finals, root for the Celtics to finish things off in Detroit in Game 6, but it should not matter either way, simply because Bryant is just on another level right now. Tonight, he scored huge hoops over Duncan when they needed them, and he just seems to be playing at a different conditioning level than everyone else when the chips are down.

The Spurs still have Parker and Duncan, and maybe Manu gets back with rest and health. But they were always working harder to get the same results in this series, and it's hard to see how they're going to get better. They'll have cash to throw around, assuming they bow to reality and avoid some of the older vets on their roster, but there's suddenly a lot of holes here, and Duncan's not getting any younger or better. They are just one big injury away from missing the playoffs entirely next year. They just lost in five in a series where Bruce Bowen played his best ball in years; he's not getting younger either.

For the Lakers, it's just been lightning in a bottle, with the Gasol deal just the security blanket that made everything else fit. If the Finals turn out to be Lakers-Celtics, it will be a simple sign of what it takes to win -- taking another franchise in a ludicrous trade, so that you have two franchises worth of talent boiled down to one team. Nice work if you can get it.

And for the final note, tonight was the last TNT game of the year. How will I live without the obese laughter lampreys of Tyler Payne, Bill Engvald's milk-fed whore daughter, the never-funny shtick of The Closer, and the 15 years past her prime of sassy Holly Hunter? Oh, right. Easily and with great relief...

Lakers-Spurs Game 4: On the Near Impossibility of Killing Cockroaches

Tonight in San Antonio, the Lakers won despite a nearly historic choke job in the last minute. It's 3-1 Lake Show, and the defending champions are officially on life support after a 93-91 home loss.

> The sports world will look at nothing but the last play, where Derek Fisher joined the parachute club on Brent Barry on a 3. Fisher got contact on Barry, who then missed the 3 at the buzzer. If the call is made, it's 3 free throws, where Barry, a good shooter, could have won it at the line, or at the very least, forced overtime. Barry didn't sell the contact enough, because he's not a star that knows how to do that, but still, it was a foul.

Spurs Fan will scream long and hard about the non-call. He's right. It was a foul. And that "Ha Ha!" Nelson Muntz laughter you hear is coming from Phoenix... (Oh, and Spurs Fan? You were outplayed all night, and you were unconscionably lucky to have been in the position to win at the buzzer. So stop crying.)

> The Spurs were lucky not to be buried at the half -- and, you could argue, most of the game. They were destroyed on the offensive boards, with the Laker bigs -- especially Radmanovic and Walton, surprisingly -- punishing Ginobili repeatedly. You wonder why more teams don't attack the Argentinian on defense, especially given that the Spurs are not a great shot-blocking team.

> It really is striking, how much more athletic the Lakers are. When the game gets up and down, they routinely pull away from pursuers, especially when it comes to the bigs. That's true of just about every team they play, but it's especially true against the older and slower Spurs.

> When Gasol and Odom are passing well, it really is remarkable to watch. If they can stay healthy and develop, they could be the best passing big man tandem since Divac and Webber for the turn of the century Kings.

> If Tim Duncan is slipping -- and until the Spurs are dead and buried, that is purely theoretical -- it's most notable on his bank shots. That used to be absolutely automatic, but it isn't anymore, at least not this year, and this series.

> The Lakers really have cornered the market on goofy but effective white guys. When they run Vujacic, Radmanovic, Walton and Gasol. It's positively Celtics-esque.

> With 3:30 left in the third, the Spurs could have taken the lead on a wide open Barry 3. He missed it, Manu didn't get back, and it led to Kobe adding to the highlight reel for a new Lakers lead.

In every tight game, there are small and quick turns that further the plot, and in this game, that was significant -- as it was one of a half dozen opportunities to take the lead that the Spurs didn't capitalize on. They lost this game at the buzzer, but they also lost it on many occasions before that.

> Similarly, after a Vujacic 4-point play late in the third, Kobe was able to get bench time... and after two Duncan misses where he looked visibly uncomfortable when faced by Gasol, it didn't cost them. The Spurs simply have to work harder than the Lakers in this series, and since they're older and have had a harder road to get here, that starts to make for some easy math.

> In the fourth, the Lakers had a fresh Kobe. The Spurs had tired legs, and that, combined with a suddenly effective Lamar Odom, got the Lakers the lead they almost gagged.

> Brent Barry picked an amazing time to have the game of his life. The 36-year-old bench guard had five three pointers and should have been on the line to win it at the end. The Spurs needed all of it, because Manu was absolutely, positively horrible.

> It really is a shame that the only thing that anyone will remember about this one is the finish... but it's also kind of great, in that it's going to give the Spurs the oomph they need to make Game Five a war, rather than a coronation. Besides, Popovich is too good of a coach for this to be a runway, and the Laker team that played the last two minutes of this game could keep anyone close. I think LA closes it, but it'll be a good game... and if the Spurs can somehow get a good game out of Ginobili, it's not like the Spurs can't prolong this. Either way, it could be the best game we see for the rest of the year, and it tips off in 48 hours.

Spurs-Lakers Game 3: The Cockroaches Rise

Tonight in San Antonio, the Spurs got the game they had to have to make this a series. Spurs 103, Lakers 84, and it's 2-1 in the series.

The Lake Show didn't seem into this game at any point tonight, with their bigs (Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom) looking tentative and out of sorts, and Kobe Bryant unwilling to go for the 50+ night that his team needed to stay competitive. The Lakers have been the best team in the Association in this playoff season on the road, but they didn't play worth a damn tonight, and the Spurs are very much alive. (Again. In the words of Charles Barkley, they're cockroaches.)

Will the Spurs win Game Four and continue to buck the odds? No. Remember, Phil Jackson's teams never lose a series when they get Game One, and even though the Lakers played horrible tonight, it wasn't a complete blowout, and the road team has to hit more from outside in the next game then they did tonight (which is to say, any). The Spurs got unconscious three-point shooting tonight to keep a comfortable margin.

In the context of a 7-game series, tonight's game felt like rope-a-dope, with the Lakers continuing to feed Lamar Odom to try to get him to feel a little bit better about himself, rather than letting Kobe try to drag them back into it. Besides, the Lakers can advance without a road win in San Antonio, and Bryant won't let Manu Ginobili (30 tonight, including 19 of the Spurs 28 in the second quarter, when they built the lead they never lost) get off in Game Four, the way he did tonight. (Tim Duncan's 20/20 night is going to be a harder thing to prevent, though.)

Also to be noted...

> Bryant did not shoot a free throw until halfway through the fourth quarter tonight, and that was on a made 3. You can be sure that he'll (a) be more aggressive in Game Four, and that (b) Coach Philip will let the refs know all about this before the next game. He's good at that.

> The Lakers have had a strong advantage in every series when the game goes to the bench. They might have the best player in the Association in Bryant, but it has helped -- a lot -- that he's never had to play a game where he's had maximum minutes. And that goes double for their bigs, who rely more on quicks and length to get it done. Tonight, they were crushed, and that's why this wasn't a close game.

> You can usually tell, early in a game, who has a better chance at wining... because they are the team that is hitting their free throws, and getting points out of bad possessions, with shots late in the shot clock. Tonight, the Spurs got a made 3 from Manu on a miracle heave in the second quarter; when that happens, it's just not your night. Game Four is Tuesday.

Spurs-Lakers Game 1: This Will Leave A Mark

Tonight in Los Angeles, a Spurs team that slept on the plane, survived a Game 7 on the road, and is dramatically older than its opponent found themselves up 20 halfway through the third quarter. Kobe Bryant had 2 points. The Staples Center crowd was booing. TBS seemed more interested in showing celebs than the game.

And then the tide turned, and most likely, so did the Spurs' chance to win the NBA Championship.

Independent of who you were rooting for -- and frankly, at this point in the NBA Playoffs, there isn't a team left alive that I'm going to be really happy about getting rings -- it was great hoop. Tim Duncan was magnficent in defeat, and Kobe Bryant (27, 5 and 9 -- 25 of it in the last 18 minutes) exerted his will, more or less abusing Bruce Bowen late. It was back and forth, and when it was all over, you got the feeling that the Spurs had just missed an opportunity that they aren't going to get again.

Here's the stat of the night, if not the millenium: Coach Phil Jackson is 40-0 when his team wins Game 1. Let that roll around your head for a second. 40-0.

Adding to Spurs Fan's worry is that the move that they had to make to get past New Orleans -- more minutes for the well-managed resource that is Manu Ginobili (3 of 13, 10 points, 3 assists) -- looks like it's taking a toll now. Manu has rarely enjoyed his games against the Lake Show, and he was just awful tonight, with big turnovers and Korver-esque defensive efforts on Bryant. There really isn't a player in the Association that can stay in front of Bryant when he's on his game, and for the last 18 minutes of this game, the Mamba was in the house. Combine it with Manu's struggles in the fourth in New Orleans on Monday night, and he's looking at a half dozen sub-par quarters at the worst possible time.

The turning point in this game, for my money, was in the Laker run to end the third. Instead of the Spurs having a cushion, the Lakers were able to turn up the defensive heat and get the game to 7. So even when buckets were traded later, there was never that tense "have to have it right damn now" moment for the home team, who took their first lead of the night with just under 3 minutes left.

When it came to crunch time for the Spurs, there were two consecutive bad Ime Udoka misses (Manu really wasn't feeling it). You also had Duncan giving up a 12-footer at one point so that Udoka could try from 20. (Yeah, I don't quite get the Udoka Fascination, either.) And while Lamar Odom did his level best to match Manu struggle for struggle, he still had a big hoop when the Spurs tried to guard him with Michael Finley, a couple of made free throws, and the final board of the night.

The Spurs should be better with more rest. But the Lakers should be better with less rust. Game 2 is Friday night, and I'm smelling 40 from the Mamba and an easy Lake Show win. You underestimate the Spurs at your peril, but they've had a hard road to get here, and the Lakers just seem to have a higher ceiling.

Oh, and one final point... Marv Albert really is the best play by play guy in the Association, but what was he smoking when he said that Sasha Vujacic's free throws with 7.3 seconds left, and the Lakers up 2... that only the first free throw was important? The second one, Marvalous, gave the Lakers a 4-point lead, and prevented the possibility of overtime. It's kind of an important point, too. Sheesh.

Epic Drop: Top 11 Reasons Why The Spurs Won't Die

Your list is here, and if you are getting the sense that I feel the same way about this franchise as I do about the Celtics (i.e., respect, fatigue and loathing in more or less equal measures)... well, guilty. And if the season ends with Spurs-Pistons again... gah. I'd rather have the week-long revisionist history wankathon of Celtics-Lakers than that. (Oh, and for the record, I think it's going to be the Lakers and Pistons, and that the trophy is staying west.)

Spurs-Hornets Game 7: The Vise Experience

Tonight in New Orleans, the defending champion Spurs put the kids to bed with a workmanlike, 91-82, Game 7 road win over the New Orleans Hornets. The champs built a big third quarter lead with their typical bone-crunching defense and cagey veteran bench presence, then held on down the stretch despite a terrible shooting quarter and some highly un-Spurs-like behavior.

Your Final Four is set, and it's the 1 vs the 3 in the West, and the 1 versus the 2 in the East. In the Association, you rarely go broke picking chalk.

Here's the points from my notes...

> You don't get the sense that the Hornets crowd or players really expected to win this game tonight.

There was never a sense of electricity, and the Bugs didn't help matters by playing nearly the entire game from behind.

Memo to any young team... it's not a given that you will be back here. Look at the Jazz. Look at the Cavs. Game Seven at home demands more of you than Jannero Pargo late. (And yes, one has to wonder if Robert Horry has thugged the Spurs to yet another ill-gotten win, since David West turned in a fairly ordinary 20 and 9 tonight, and didn't do much in the fourth.)

> Whose stock fell more in this playoff -- Wally Szczerbiak or Peja Stojakovic? The veteran sharpchoker gave 7 and 4 in 44 minutes tonight, and when he wasn't invisible, he was forcing it. The Bugs would have been better off with Morris Peterson on the floor tonight, or maybe even giving some of his bench players some run. Honestly, when you run three guys over 44 minutes, you're having none of it. No NBA team has so bad of a bench as what Byron Scott managed tonight.

> Here's the difference in the game tonight: 6 made 3-pointers from the Spurs bench (Finley, Horry, Udoka). The Hornets bench was Jannero Pargo, who alternated between hero and goat on alternative possessions in the fourth. The Pargo Virus is a nice little player, but he's not winning Game 7 against the defending champions for you. The Spur bench built the lead with Duncan on the bench. It's one of the few times in the past month that role players showed up on the road.

> Just as in the Cavs-Celts game last night, the trailing team had an open 3 to tie; the Cavs with Delonte West, the Hornets with Pargo. Both men missed, and both teams never threatened again.

> The Spurs held a 17 point lead in the third, and looked for all the world to be cruising the seventh and final drama-free finish in this series... and then the fourth started, and they forgot to defend and suddenly looked old. That's why I'm picking the Lakers in the next round. I think the Spurs are just running on fumes at this point.

> The reason why this series was a pleasure to watch -- even the Spurs part of it, and despite the fact that the closest final score was tonight's 9 -- is that basketball is meant to be driven by point guards. It's also why Celts-Cavs was such an eyesore for 6.25 games. The game I grew up with had points; Mo Cheeks is, and will always be, my model for a point. Paul and Parker are two of the best, and their teams feed off them. (And if you are looking for a villain as to why points were in hibernation for so long, and why everyone has to work the refs for every call... point the finger at Phil Jackson with his Frankenstein point guards, and Michael Jordan with his incessant refwork.)

> Spurs Fan doesn't get why the world hates their team. Let me boil it down for you: it's Manu. Sure, everyone hates Horry and Bowen, too, but Manu's got the magic combination of flops, elbows, and startling competence. And tonight in clutch time, he was awful, and kept the Bugs in it with early forces on offense, turnovers and misses.

He's a fourth quarter assassin normally, and they don't get here without him. But he might be getting run down. The Manu the world knows is not the one on the floor in clutch time tonight.

> For the most part, the refs weren't a factor tonight... but one call with less than four minutes left really stood out. Manu slips, falls, and is in the midst of a turnover, when the refs whistle Paul for a loose ball foul. It was just unconscionable, though it didn't really change the outcome of the game.

> The Bugs had to believe on one possession where they got 4 shots late, ending with a Pargo 3. But after a Duncan miss and the fateful Pargo open 3 whiff, it was Parker yet again, making it a five point lead with 50 seconds left. When you're running so far uphill all game, you have to break through when you get close, and it just didn't happen. Goodnight, Big Easy.

David West Drinks Tim Duncan's Milkshake

Home cooking continued tonight in the Bayou, with the Bugs following the script of the first two games of the series -- tight early, build a lead in the third, and pull away late -- to take the 3-2 series lead. The Best Bug was the fantastic West, who had 38, 14 and 5, along with 5 blocked shots. He didn't make Tim Duncan curl up in a ball (10, 23 and 2), but he was clearly better, and the best player on the floor. Chris Paul crushed Tony Parker (22 and 14 assists to 18 an 4), and the result was yet another fourth quarter with garbage time. There has not been a close game in this series, and the final was 101-79.

Here's all you need to know about this game: the Bugs had 8 blocks and 8 steals. The Spurs had 1 and 2. If the Spurs were the Pistons, we'd be accusing them of falling asleep for this one.

Despite the runaway win, this one's almost certainly going 7. The Bugs got beat up in this game, with West sporting a back problem and Tyson Chandler suffering a bruised knee. The Spurs played out of sorts all night, with Tony Parker settling for 3s and the team shooting under 38% from the floor, including 9 for 21 from three point land. I can't imagine Popovich taking that again, or the young Bugs having the stones to close on the road.

Regardless of what happens in the next 1 to 2 games in this series, tonight was a night to remember for one key point: Paul and West were a *lot* better than Parker and Duncan, and West utterly carried the Hornets with 22 first half points. This is the first time in the Duncan Era where the other team might have the better power forward. (Sacrilege!)

Surprise! It's the Spurs Again

Once again, it's the veteran Spurs doing what they need to do with coaching matchups to get even. On the defensive end, it's been to make Peja Stojakovic important and uncomfortable -- i.e., just like when he lost games for the Kings -- and preventing lobs to Tyson Chandler. On the offensive end, it's been all about making veteran spot-up shooters (Finley and Bowen) a factor again, after two games at the start of the series where they just seemed in the way. Suddenly, my pre-series pick of Spurs in 6 is looking a lot more comfortable.

Special points have to go out to Manu Ginobili, who Gregg Popovich put into the starting lineup in Game 3. It's mostly a symbolic gesture, but it was still a key change, in that it told his team that the series was serious; his team has responded with their characteristic excellence in execution. As for the Bugs, Byron Scott tried the age-old "Send in the Scrubs" move when down 20 at the end of the third; garbage time ensued. Chris Paul is still the best player on the court, but David West picked a bad time to play his worst game of the playoffs, and the Bugs got nothing of note from any other player. (Of course, Tim Duncan's 22 and 15 might have a bit to do with West's disappearance.)

Who wins the best of 3? Well, you can hope for more hoop from the exciting young team... but the Spurs do not care about your hopes. Or the fact that Spurs-Pistons, the NBA Finals that may not even be something that people in San Antonio or Detroit wants to see, is looking like your best bet. (And no, the visual scars from the last time they danced have not faded. Some thing can not be unseen.)

The Hornets Do Not Respect Their Elders

Tonight in New Orleans, the home town Bugs did something that the Suns were not able to do for their entire series, even in the Game 4 loss where the Spurs were never really in the game. Tonight, the Spurs looked genuinely uncomfortable, like they didn't have confidence in the matchup.

Tim Duncan, especially, didn't look like himself, scoring just 5 points on the night on 1 of 9 shooting. This was mostly lost in the five game first round runaway, but the Spurs didn't win with their big man; as a matter of fact, Shaq held him down to bad percentages, and if he doesn't make that 3 in Game 1, more would have noticed the performance slippage.

No, the Spurs beat the Suns on Parker and Ginobli, most especially Parker. And that's really not going to work as well in this series... because while CP3 isn't exactly a shutdown point guard on defense, he's not the toreador that Steve Nash is, either. And when he does get beaten on the dribble, his bigs -- West and Chandler -- not only have the physical quicks to close out on shooters from pick and roll, but the interest in doing so.

So while the initial response to a 101-82 Bugs Win is not that big of a deal, especially one where the home team trailed into the third quarter before piling on late, you need to look deeper into the numbers.

The Spurs were only in this game due to the 3-point shooting of Bruce Bowen. They had serious problems guarding Peja Stojakovic off the dribble, which hasn't been his game for years. The refs didn't seem interested in giving the Spurs the benefit of the flop all night. West makes Duncan come away from the basket to guard him, leaving space for Paul and his finishers. And finally, the Bugs have Bonzi Wells, who might be the only guy in the NBA willing to play dirtier than Bowen. (And how is it that no one, especially in a late game, hasn't just gone after Bowen with a clothesline? Bowen didn't do much after the pain. Oh, the irony.)

Can the Spurs get Game 2? Of course. Duncan is the best power forward in NBA history for a reason, and he might have avoided guarding David West in this game just to set him up for the next one. Bowen could still hurt someone. The Spurs got little from their bench. Popovich is a dramatically better coach than Byron Scott. The Bugs will look worse on the road. The Spurs have been beaten badly before; they know how to respond.

But after watching tonight's game, especially in the second half, leads one to wonder if maybe the Suns didn't just beat themselves. Because if tonight's Spurs team shows up for the whole series, they are going home in 5.

The Spurs Decide To Clinch At Home

Today in Phoenix, the Suns got out early and often, building a 22 point lead at the half. They did it with activity and aggressive-
ness on the defensive end, as both Shaquille O'Neal and the previously defense-free Amare Stoudamire were physical and involved.

On the offensive end, they got a lot out of the previously MIA Raja Bell, and even some utility out of Boris Diaw, who was really the best player on the floor today. By the midway point of the third quarter, the Suns were up 30, and even the Suns defense isn't porous enough to give that back.

And... where the hell was this in the first three games, when this still could have been a series?

Kudos to the Suns for finally putting Grant Hill out of their misery, and for letting Diaw -- the only Sun with a chance in hell of staying in front of Tony Parker -- take a bigger role. If the Frenchman can play this way on the road (and of course he can't), the series could still go long.

As for the Spurs, you got the feeling that they were throwing this game for some reason. Michael Finley tried to defend Amare Stoudamire one on one. They didn't run the pick and roll that has absolutely murdered Phoenix all series. They spent a good part of the first half trying to get Robert Horry involved. They never ran a press, and didn't even flop or complain with their usual vehemence. The third quarter saw a lot of Jacques Vaughn and Ime Udoka. They didn't even Hack Shaq very much... and if there was ever a game in which Shaq should have punished a guy for doing that, it was today.

I'm pretty sure I even saw Tim Duncan accept that he fouled a guy today (along with sit most of the second half). The Spurs had no interest in winning this game; the only question is whether or not the Suns decide this defense thing is worth trying again, and if the refs continue to give them the benefit of most of the whistles. I'm not saying the game was fixed, but Tony Parker was smacked in the face twice today for no calls... and I posted this at the end of the third quarter. That's how done this game was, and how much the Spurs mailed this one in.

Oh, and big ups to ABC/ESPN for having their fingers on the pulse of the culture, with musical interludes from Led Zeppelin and the Beatles. Well done, Mouse Minions.

Stick A Fork In The Suns

Well, so much for what was supposed to be the best first round playoff series ever. The Suns never led tonight in a must-win Game 3 at home, and are now dead and buried at 0-3. No NBA team has ever come back from 0-3.

In watching the Spurs utterly dismantle the Suns, the temptation is to think that the Spurs really are this good. After all, they are the defending champions, and just a handful of plays away from having even more than their four rings.

But it's more than the brilliance of the Spurs. This is also the end of the line for the Suns.

If you watched the first quarter of this game, you watched the whole game. The Spurs scored easily off pick and roll. The Suns didn't. When the Suns started to get any hint of rhythm, the Spurs fouled Shaq. Lather, rinse, repeat.

The two most important positions in basketball are point guard and center. In both of these positions, the Suns start a superstar and ex-MVP -- Steve Nash and Shaquille O'Neal. And both of these guys are on the wrong side of 30 (in Shaq's case, 35), and almost completely incapable of stopping their opposite number on the Spurs. If it hadn't been San Antonio, it would have been the Jazz with Williams and Boozer, or the Hornets with Paul and West, or the Celtics with Pierce and Garnett.

This isn't to excuse Amare Stoudemire, who might be the worst defensive power forward in the Association that isn't named Zach Randolph. It's also not to excuse the rest of the Suns players and general manager; only the Suns would consider Grant Hill a defensive player who can somehow stay in front of Tony Parker. But if you want to have any chance of beating the Spurs, you have to take away 2 of their 3 big guns. And with Nash and O'Neal, that's just never going to happen.

It's been a fun run, and I'm still of the mind that if Horrygate didn't happen, the Suns would have gotten a ring last year. But like the Webber/Bibby Kings, the Dirk/Howard Mavs, the Kemp/Payton Sonics, or the KJ/Barkley Suns, they'll end their run of prominence without a championship. They are just one more pleasant team that was fun to watch, but just not good enough.

Oh, and one other thing: when Shaq's teams lose in the playoffs, they lose badly. Expect the Spurs to seal the deal with a sweep. It happens a lot to Shaq's teams. This one ends on Sunday.

Hack Your Eyes

In tonight's Game 3 of Spurs-Suns, San Antonio continued their tactic from the first two games, where they deliberately fouled Shaquille O'Neal at the end of the quarter, to gain additional possessions. This led to a debate between analysts Mark Jackson and Jeff van Gundy, where Jackson opined that the rules shouldn't be changed to protect a bad free throw shooter, and Jackson wondering why the Spurs just didn't do this for the entire game.

Both men, of course, are missing four critical points:

1) It's terrible to watch. Basketball is a spectator sport that needs to attract casual fans. One team benefiting from what seems like, not to put too fine a point on it, cheating... is bad television. Along with the inherent bad visuals of Shaq doing this, and the game getting all herky-jerky sloppy.

2) If it's not acceptable in the last two minutes of the game, it shouldn't be acceptable in the first 46 minutes, either. This is like not having a DH until the 9th inning -- illogical on its face.

3) Eventually, one of the intentionally fouled players is going to, um, not like it very much.

If I were Shaq, especially in a game that didn't mean much, I'd do something when a player intentionally fouled me. I'd make him, you know, earn it. Perhaps even send a message to the next coach or player who gets sent out to do the deed. And just that quickly, the tactic gets a heck of a lot less enjoyable.

4) Fourth and finally, we don't really want to watch guys hugging each other. It's kinda, you know, not really high on our sports fan priority list.

My guess is that the Association changes this in the off-season, because they are usually pretty good about making the product more watchable... and there's more than a few pretty horrible free throw shooters in the league, and the trend has been for that to get more common, not less. If you don't like Hack A Shaq, you also won't like Hack Duncan, Hack Wallace, Hack Howard, Hack Chandler, Hack Maxiell...