NBA Playoffs

[sensei_hanson]

Well done Detroit! Tre-men-dous effort at both ends of the floor. Too many Piston second-chance points...and WAY too much Ben Wallace tonight for the Lakers to overcome. Ben was a monster - how many put-back dunks did he have tonight? Can anybody wearing purple actually box out?

Chauncey Billups becomes the first player to win the NBA Finals MVP before being named to an all-star team since....Joe Dumars. Nice story there. I figured before the series started that Chauncey would have to win the PG battle (which he absolutely dominated) and average over 20ppg (he finished with 21ppg) for the Pistons to win. Just call me Kreskin.

But the best part about this Pistons win is that several guys stepped up at different times to carry the load. Rip Hamilton led the team in scoring, Rasheed had a huge game four, Tayshaun played awesome defense all series long and went for 17 and 10 tonight. And I've already touched on how amazing Big Ben was this evening. Then you get great contributions from guys like Elden Campbell, Corliss Williamson, Mike James and Lindsey Hunter - a bench mob which totally outplayed their LA counterparts. It was great to see a more team-oriented style of play win out over a bunch of individual parts that showed no cohesion whatsoever.

Once again, well done to the Pistons. Great ending to the NBA season.

 

[knvb]

That was an unbelievably good Pistons team! To think, for all but one shot they beat the LA Lakers 5 games in a row in the NBA finals. But I'm wondering if the Pacers, who seemed to give d-rock so much trouble couldn’t have very well beat the Lakers? Can you imagine Reggie 'God whopped up good on me with the ugly stick' Miller with a championship ring? Makes the hair on my arse stand up. Think the Pistons could have done that well against a much tighter unit like the Spurs?

Bad boys, bad boys, whacha going to do...



Long off season for Mr. Bus... Kobe's gone, Malone's gone and what's worse is I think Payton will stay.



Dark days...

 

[Dapotayto]

Dark days...

If you're a Lakers fan maybe, but what kind of loser would be a Lakers fan? Besides the geriatric (and old as hell) Jack Nicholson, that is. Hell, maybe they should put Mad Jack out there. Its not as if Kobe would pass to him anyway. By the way, Beaker, I am off to North Carolina next week. Shall I bring you back a picture of me in front of Duke University wearing a Duke Sucks shirt?

 

[knvb]

That would be tremendous Dap, make sure you get one for Sandman too. Please don't be confused by the giant buildings on campus. Those are full of classrooms. They have them at good universities like Duke. They don't load the kids into portables or have class under a tree like most of the shitty schools, like say Kwantlan or North Carolina.


Directions

 

[filling the net]

Wheels already turning

L.A. mulls Rudy T. as coach





Former Houston Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich is emerging as a top candidate to replace Phil Jackson as Lakers coach if Jackson does not return, according to a source familiar with the Lakers' thinking.
Tomjanovich, who resigned as coach 13 months ago after being diagnosed with bladder cancer, owns a lifetime 503-397 record and coached Houston to back-to-back NBA titles in 1994 and 1995. He is regarded as a superb offensive coach who is well-liked by players and one who has first-hand experience relating to superstars, having coached Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler, Charles Barkley and Scottie Pippen.

The Lakers believe Tomjanovich's personality would serve as a calming influence for Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, teammates who have feuded for years. Bryant will opt out of his contract on July1 but is likely to re-sign with the Lakers.

Jackson's contract expires this summer, and after the Lakers were eliminated on Tuesday, he said the chances of him returning were "slim."

Kurt Rambis, who was Jackson's predecessor and is a Lakers assistant coach, is also a candidate for the head job. Pat Riley is a long-shot to return to Los Angeles because he is under contract for one more season with the Miami Heat and his deal includes ownership of the team.

Tomjanovich, 55, spent the past season with the Rockets as a personnel consultant and part-time scout but wants to return to coaching



Notice kobe to sign back with the lakers. With the one two punch karl malone coming back, the lakers will be there again. Its just sad cause I guarentee if pistons had to go through the rockets, spurs then wolves the lakers would of kicked their ass. Change the ****ing seedings stern, so these weak ass eastern teams dont make it. Boston making the playoffs?? come on thats just sick. Pistons coasted to the finals no wonder they had way more energy. They didnt earn shite.

 

[sensei_hanson]

Re: Wheels already turning

Its just sad cause I guarentee if pistons had to go through the rockets, spurs then wolves the lakers would of kicked their ass. Change the ****ing seedings stern, so these weak ass eastern teams dont make it. Boston making the playoffs?? come on thats just sick. Pistons coasted to the finals no wonder they had way more energy. They didnt earn shite.

Buuuullll-shite.

Detroit had to beat the team with the best record in the NBA (Indy) and the two-time defending Eastern Conference champs (New Jersey) to get to the finals. And anytime you destroy the Lakers, winning four of five games, it's incredibly hard to say that Detroit "didn't earn" their title.

Did you watch any of the Pistons-Pacers series? That was TOUGH basketball. Both teams were totally drained. And, unlike the NBA finals, both the Pistons AND their opponent played tremendous defense. It should also be noted that Detroit actually played one more playoff game en route to facing LA in the finals (Detroit went 5, 7, 6; LA went 5, 6, 6). Detroit also had a triple-OT game in that gruelling seven-gamer versus NJ.

The Lakers beat a disorganized Rockets team, then watched San Antonio shoot themselves out of the second round (after being demoralized by a lucky Fisher shot). The Western Conference finals were played without Sam Cassell, who was arguably the co-MVP of the Wolves victory over Sacramento. Might I remind you that Darrick Martin, Vancouver Grizzlie castoff, was running the point for the Wolves after Cassell and Hudson both went down with injury. Any coincidence why Payton had his best performance of the playoffs against Minnesota? And the only reason the Lakers escaped that series without returning to Minny for game seven was due to Kareem Rush having the game of his life in game six.

The "weak" rep the Eastern Conference gets is due to the lower seeds (4-8) who cannot match up with the depth in the West. But the upper echelon teams - Indy, NJ and Detroit - are just as capable of competing against the big boys out West.

 

[knvb]

shite! No you didn't....

Fcuking hell Sensei! No you just didn't... I had done up 2 different posts letting filling the net know exactly what kind of crap was leaking out the sides of his mouth, between his left shoe and his right ankle, but I had to delete them because I didn't have all the numbers to back it all up. So as I'm off looking them up on NBA & ESPN.com what do you do? Steal my bloody thunder!

There not much more to add that you haven't already superlatively summed up and actual fact you added more than I was going to. So, what I will do is say to filling what you weren't willing to do out right, and that's calling him an idiot. I’ll also ask, on behalf of all basketball fans everywhere is for him longer to TRY and repeat what he heard on channel 54 while flipping his way over to 57 in time to catch Simpsons re-runs or the Sponge Bob show.