6.03.10 2:13 am by Alex
The 2010 NBA Finals tip off tonight featuring a rematch of the ’08 series. As with any NBA matchup, there are plenty of storylines and interesting characters on both teams. To help you enjoy the game even more, we’ve created NBA Finals Bingo. The rules are pretty much self-explanatory. Be sure and hit us up on Twitter as you’re watching the game and marking your boards. We’ll probably do at least one more of these (or maybe more if you beg) for your bingo-ing pleasure later in the series, so leave your ideas for version 2 in the comments or via the aforementioned Twitter. Putting a Free Space in the middle would be too easy, so I went with a Jack Nicholson sighting, which is pretty much a gimme anyway.Also, if you don’t get the Rasheed reference, click here and watch this.
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6.02.10 9:32 pm by Pat
LA vs Boston once again! Sorry LeBron, but we are about to witness, for the second time in three years, one of the best rivalries in all of sports. In 2008 the Celtics embarrassed the Lakers in a game six blowout and several Lakers admit that it still stings when they think about it. If you’ve read anything about the series so far, undoubtedly you’ve heard people compare and contrast the 2008 versions of these teams with the current version. A few differences in personnel here and there, but the core of both teams is still intact.
If you’ve read any of my prior NBA related article, it’s no secret that I am neither a Laker fan nor a Kobe Bryant fan. But, for this article I’m going to try my best to set aside my bias (did I mention I’m a lifetime KG fan?) and write my analysis from a neutral perspective, as much as possible. If you want bias, you can look to a known Celtics fan Bill Simmons and follow his tweets during the finals or you can read this article by Charley Rosen who wrote a very Laker friendly preview this week. Not to go on a tangent, but at least Bill Simmons doesn’t try to hide his bias. Charley Rosen called Derrick Fisher the “best position-defender at point” without adding a “…just kidding” afterwards. A quick peek at his Wikipedia page revealed that he was an assistant to Phil Jackson during his CBA days in the 1980′s and co-authored a book with him. We’re on to you Charley.
Anyway, instead of writing a match-up review or an elaborate prediction detailing how I came to my conclusion, I’m going to try something different. I’m going to do a brief write up on what I would do if I were coaching either team. I’ll provide my prediction after my team by team plan so I can go on record with my guess. I’ve been horribly wrong so far, so I can’t really lose at this point.
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6.16.09 10:28 pm by Pat
Editor’s Note: We’re introducing another new writer with this post. This is Pat. Pat is not a Lakers fan.
As I sit here and watch as the Lakers and Magic come to the inevitable conclusion of the Lakers hoisting the trophy, I find myself getting angry and frustrated that Houston, Denver, and now Orlando have failed to take them out. Then ABC flashes to an up close of Kobe Bryant sticking his bottom teeth out like his jaw is dislocated and my Kobe-hating meter is now off the charts. I have never been a fan of Kobe or his frequent ball-hawking style of play. I respect his talents and believe he is a top ten all time player, and getting a ring this year without playing second fiddle to Shaq cements his place in history as one of the best to play the game. Similar to Bryant himself, Kobe fans are often smug and arrogant and for some reason insist that he is the best player ever despite there being little, if any, statistical evidence to back this up. That being said, I decided to write some reasons/facts that fellow Kobe-haters can use as ammunition against the LA fans who undoubtedly will be signing his praises even louder this offseason.
1) Kobe is 4 for 6 in NBA Finals appearances, and he was the second best man on the team for three of his four rings. Kobe had the luxury of playing for arguably the best coach ever during the majority of his career and he played with the most dominant physical force to ever play the game in Shaquille O’Neal. During the 2003-2004 season, Kobe was playing with three other future Hall of Famers (Shaq, Karl Malone, and Gary Payton) and was regarded at that point as the best player on the team and rightfully so. Shaq’s numbers had dipped and Malone and Payton were nowhere near their prime, but the team was undoubtedly stacked and Kobe failed to deliver in the finals. In his second run as the top man on the team, he lost once again to the Celtics. This year by defeating Orlando, Kobe earned his first ring as the go-to man for his team. You need to give him his props for that, but he doesn’t have the other three without Shaq.
2) Kobe’s supposed legendary ability to hit the game winning shot is more hype than truth. If you look at this site, you can see that Kobe, despite taking the most game winning shot attempts out of an extensive list of NBA players, did not hit the most game winners and shot just .250%. Those statistics include the 2003-2004 season up to February 4th of this season. ESPN and ABC want to make Kobe out to be the next Jordan in terms of clutch shots and have done all they can to promote this idea. The fact of the matter is the more attempts you take, the more you will eventually hit. You don’t see the misses replayed over and over, but the makes are made into some sort of iconic shots.
Kobe fans may point to his better record in terms of game winning shots in the playoffs, as can be seen on the same page. However, after watching his performance in this year’s playoffs, including his game 2 game winning attempt that was blocked by Hedo Turkoglu (as Kobe was triple teamed and failed to pass to a number of wide open teammates…but that’s another story), I am confident that his shooting percentage will drop once this year’s playoffs are factored in. Anyone who tries to deny that Kobe takes to many shots, and even more so at the end of the games, just needs to look at the numbers.
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6.04.09 7:27 pm by Alex
Tonight we’ll see the first game of the 2009 NBA finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Orlando Magic. ESPN likes to point out that these cities both contain Disney theme parks, a form of subliminal advertising since ESPN is part of ABC, which is part of Disney.
Lets look at how these teams got here. Both teams won their conference finals series in 6 games, L.A. defeating Denver and Orlando taking care of first-seeded Cleveland. It seems like Kobe and the Lake Show have been destined for the finals since day one but Orlando’s first finals appearance since the Shaq days is seen by most people as a surprise. There has been a lot of advertising about a possible Kobe-Lebron finals, but it was not meant to be. The Magic took care of the Cavaliers in 6 games despite an incredible performance from LeBron James.
Dwight Howard and friends were able to stop the one-man show from Akron, but this L.A. team is an entirely different animal. Kobe Bryant is one of the best - maybe the best - players in the league, and on top of that they have a talented roster that, unlike the Cavaliers, is capable of putting together a complete team effort (See Conference Finals Game 6. Five guys in double figures).
The key to this series will be the Lakers’ ability to defend Dwight Howard and the three-point shooters of Orlando. Cleveland frequently left Pietrus, Lewis, Alston and Turkoglu wide open while trying to double-team Howard, a strategy that didn’t work because the Cavaliers big men were unable to defend him, even with help. If the Lakers play up to their potential, they should be able to figure something out to slow them down. I’ll take Gasol, Bynum, and Odom over Ilgauskas and Varejao any day, and Phil Jackson’s track record as a coach is reason enough to think they’ll do a better job defending than Cleveland did.
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