25 Heat Bulls Game Two Takeaways

25) In the second quarter, you have to wonder if Dwyane Wade didn't try for a chasedown block not just because he had two fouls, but also because he didn't want to be on another poster

24) When Chicago brings the defensive wood, it doesn't seem like Miami can get a shot off, let alone score... but they can't do that for 48 minutes

23) LeBron James bailed out on defending an end of quarter heave from Luol Deng, and that three points mattered... not at all

22) Stopping Carlos Boozer seems disturbingly easy for a scoring power forward with a great point guard

21) In the first half, Dwyane Wade's degree of difficulty on makes in the paint was off the charts

20) Kyle Korver and Mike Bibby have one job for both of their teams, and spent most of the first half not doing it

19) Udonis Haslem's third quarter dunks was fairly life-changing

18) When Derrick Rose isn't shooting for a good percentage, the Chicago offense really doesn't seem Final Fourish

17) The TNT broadcast crew really doesn't seem to be emotionally ready to handle runs

16) You could have got great odds from the idea that Haslem, Bibby and Jamal Magloire would actually have moments of competence, especially on the road

15) As Haslem's emergence shows, the Heat look a lot better when they actually have a power forward on the floor

14) Defense gets a lot easier to play when the refs put the whistles away

13) Conspiracy Heat Fan has a clear lost possession and a Taj Gibson hanging on the rim violation to add to the files

12) For a team with two stars that get a ton of calls from the refs, the Heat really didn't go to the line in the clutch

11) Dwyane Wade and Omer Asik both bladed, which means this game really should have been on pay per view

10) It would be really hard for the Heat's Big 3 to show up less in the first 7.5 minutes of the fourth quarter tonight

9) James' three with 4:30 left was a terrible possession, three points for the Heat, and the beginning of the end for the Bulls

8) Chicago's a great defensive team with a tremendous defensive coach, so I'm sure there's some genius reason for why Rose was on James for another key fourth-quarter make

7) You can't play defense for as long and as hard as these two teams play, and still have legs for any kind of offense late

6) Gibson's dunk through six hundred pounds of Heat was amazing, and one more reason why Boozer on the floor late does not happen

5) For the second time in this playoffs, Wade knocked an opponent out of the game with physicality

4) Now that Chicago has lost Game Two, everything that we learned at the end of Game One is meaningless

3) Kyle Korver and Mike Bibby aren't the worst defensive players in the Association, but they certainly look that way in this series

2) If James keeps ending teams with fourth quarter closing runs like this, he's going to completely blow his persona as a clutch time choke artist

1) It tells you a lot about the Heat bench that a 13/5 night from Haslem will be fellated for the rest of the week

Top 10 NBA Draft Lottery Takeaways

10) The only place where the Wolves lose more than on the court is at the lottery

9) This event remains the only reason why anyone in America has ever gone willingly to Secaucus

8) The Cavs will have two of the top four picks in next summer's draft, because the Clippers are just that giving, and the draft is in all likelihood just that bad

7) With the third pick in the draft, Utah will choose a guy from a part of the world that does not compare well to Salt Lake City, which takes work, really

6) The Cavs brought Bernie Kosar along with them for luck, which kind of shows a remarkable lack of knowledge about Kosar's time in Cleveland

5) David Stern calls the lottery the league's "annual rite of renewal", which is 100% true, since you can renew bad teams as well as good ones

4) Since Portland does not have a high pick, Ohio State center Jared Sullinger might be able to walk without crutches in five years

3) Since the Kings seems to be staying in Sacramento, their place fell in the lottery

2) Toronto also dropped in the rankings, which the team will somehow blame on Chris Bosh, taking over Vince Carter's historic role as Source Of All Misfortune

1) Cleveland was saved, and the Internet forever scarred, by the tragically diseased 14-year-old scion of a loan shark

30 Thunder Mavericks Game One Takeaways

30) In the first quarter, Dirk Nowitzki pretty much ended the idea that Serge Ibaka can guard him

29) Once again, there is no reason for DeShawn Stevenson to be on the floor, and Nick Collison to be off it

28) Kendrick Perkins is starting to get a little overboard in this whole enforcer role

27) Kevin Durant went coast to coast on a buzzer beating lay up in the first quarter, making $16.10 to win, $8.50 to place, and $4.30 to show

26) According to the ESPN announcers, it's always good offense *and* bad defense when the Mavericks score

25) Dallas went to a zone not because they can't stay in front of the Thunder on defense, but because OKC has somehow gotten to the last four teams while being bad shooters

24) Durant is such a good free throw shooter, he can overcome the "Ball Don't Lie" problem of making shots when he gets to the line on phantom calls

23) If you don't believe Durant or Dirk is the best player in the NBA after this game, I don't know what else I can say to convince you

22) I'm not sure that the Thunder have played a playoff game this year without crazy swings

21) Shawn Marion took a Perkins elbow, leading to a 5-on-4 score, a converted technical, and the rebirth of Mavs Conspiracy Fan

20) Watching Perkins try to score on Tyson Chandler in the post is downright sad

19) The tragedy of this series is at the end of it, either Mark Cuban or Glen Bennett will go to the Finals

18) At this point in Mark Jackson's broadcasting career, the Cookie Monster Mama Moment is just going to happen, despite the fact that it's the worst thing in NBA broadcasting history

17) If Dirk is going to get the foul calls that he got tonight in every game, the Mavs will sweep, and it will be Wade-esque

16) So much for the idea that the Mavs would be rusty

15) If you enjoy watching talented big men shoot free throws well, this game was positively orgasmic

14) With Mavs Fan also wearing blue and being uncomfortably white, these crowds are going to look a lot alike

13) In a shocking opinion, Jeff van Gundy feels that tagging a man in the face with a hard jab shouldn't be a technical foul

12) Scotty Brooks went to Nate Robinson when the game was actually in doubt, just to prove that every short player doesn't have to be effective

11) If the Thunder are going to foul on every defensive possession, it might help to stop doing it against Nowitzki

10) Mike Breen and Dallas Fan marks out for Barea in ways that usually require helium

9) I'd like to say that Barea embarrassed Robinson on a layup, but that implies that Robinson can be embarrassed

8) Honestly, I have no earthly idea what Robinson was doing on the floor in this game

7) For the number of dunks that the Thunder had in this game, you might think that they ever threatened

6) Putting Westbrook on Barea just plain works, and should have been done a long time ago

5) Dirk's foul on Durant is a flagrant if it's not committed by a star

4) Dallas might be the only team in the NBA where the Thunder doesn't have a free-throwing shooting advantage

3) The idea that the Thunder could be close in crunch time when Westbrook was this bad is kind of amazing

2) Dirk broke an all-time NBA record for perfection at the line, and even that wasn't the most impressive part of his game

1) By the end of this series, we might stop hearing about Dirk's height while shooting free throws, but that's not how you bet

Top 10 reasons the Royals left Vin Mazzaro in

Tonight in Kansas City, Vin Mazzaro took something fairly epic for the team, giving up 14 runs in a 2.1 inning stint against the Indians. Why did the team leave him in for the full punishment?

10) Were sending him to the minors anyway, so they might as well do it with cause

9) Wanted to set some sort of record for cruelty

8) Hacked an account and snuck him onto a friend's fantasy team for the day

7) Trying to single-handedly return Matt LaPorta's prospect status

6) Pushing for Cleveland Fan's Best Week Ever, assuming the Bulls keep punking the Heat

5) Since Mazzaro didn't take the loss, his 22.74 ERA is all OK

4) It's not easy to get Travis Hafner and Jack Hannahan numbers

3) They are big Lester McCrab fans, and there's no better way to get the man back in the news

2) Innovative attempt to give the thousands of people in the outfield seats a souvenir home run ball

1) Best way to get Mazaro back to Oakland, where he was just forgettable, rather than historically atrocious

Urge To Ignore Rising

Today in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a three-man panel said the lockout can stay until a full appeal is heard on whether it's legal, which means that we are very likely to see nothing new on this until June 3. As an Eagles fan, this means three more weeks of not trading Kevin Kolb, not getting Nmandi Asomugha signed to fix the raging cornerback problem opposite Asante Samuel, another three weeks where they can't bring in a linebacker and get the young defense trained up, another three weeks where we can't think about Juan Castillo's effort to transition to defensive coordinator, another three weeks where the guys they drafted more or less fade into the offseason ether, especially since we have no idea how many of these guys are expected to start, and who are expected to learn from older guys.

There's also this. I try to go to a road game every year, because it's something the Shooter Mom and I both really enjoy. My mom has been an Eagles fan for a period of time that I'm not allowed to discuss out loud, but suffice it to say that she remembers when this laundry won its last game of the year, and the year involved the playoffs. This year, we were thinking about the option of going to opening day in St. Louis, taking a plane ride to see friends in San Francisco, or maybe an October ride to Buffalo. A December weekend in Miami also sounds worthwhile...

But, well, the league basically does not exist right now.

And it hasn't existed for months now -- this is officially the longest work stoppage in NFL history -- and some growing, and not so very insignificant part of me, wants to tell these people to go screw themselves for good. Disband the fantasy league, go back to a world where I've got my weekends free for better parenting and an improved relationship with my wife, never spend another minute of any day or evening with Chris Berman, Phil Simms, Jon Gruden, Joe Buck, Tony Siragusa and so very many more people who no decent human being should ever want to subject him or herself to.

Have I gotten there yet? No, of course not, probably never will, since the sides will still most likely settle this thing in a month and everyone will forget this happened.

But every day it continues? It gets a little easier to imagine not watching it.

In the mid-90s, the Phillies stopped trying to win games. After the blue snow year of 1993, they more or less let the team go to seed, stopped spending money to compete with the Braves, let Curt Schilling and Scott Rolen walk for what seemed to be marginal returns, and basically said they weren't going to try again until they got a new stadium. The Lords of Baseball allowed a three-party dance of death to occur between small and large market teams and the players, and when the smoke cleared, a World Series had been lost, Montreal had been permanently destroyed as a tangible market for baseball despite having MLB's best farm system, and I stopped watching baseball.

For something like five years. The first sport I ever watched, a twenty-year habit of games biked to and stadiums across the country visited, fantasy leagues won before the Internet existed, jerseys purchased, road trips taken, trips to Cooperstown... all gone. All done. Such was my measure of ire for the way the game had treated the paying public, such was my ire for my laundry for no longer trying to win games.

Well, the Eagles haven't stopped trying to win games, though smarter men then me really disliked their draft, and if they don't sign a corner, I'm going to start wondering hard that they are actually trying. And if the game goes away -- the game that's got to be, by any reasonable measure, unspeakably profitable...

I've given up harder things in my life. And so could you.

And if this was actually a credible threat, shared among a reasonably large portion of the populace?

We wouldn't be in this situation, would we?