As you may remember, me and Both Teamsters Union pal Zach Harper of TalkHoops.net exchanged a series of world-altering emails about the happenings around the Association a few weeks back.
And since it was so wildly successful, we decided to do it again now that the Playoffs are underway. We began this endeavor yesterday morning and then, wouldn’t you know it, one of the best Playoff games of all time went ahead and happened mid-way through. So here’s what transpired, with the first half taking place pre-Bulls/Celtics Game 6 and the second half taking place post-Bulls/Celtics Game 6.
We start with me e-mailing Zach. (If like most people you don’t like this site, feel free to go read this very same thing over at Zach’s house. I hear he has a pool shaped like a guitar and a Sno-Cone machine.)
Enjoy.
Zach,
If you’re anything like me this is far and away the best time of the year. Without fail, the buzz around March Madness awakens me from winter hibernation. Then I hit the snooze once or twice and listlessly trudge around for a few more weeks until Springtime in New York arrives, bringing a borderline citywide euphoria of ambition, an army of mini-skirts and the real reason we’re here today, the NBA Playoffs.
So whaddya think? Where will amazing happen—other than New Orleans, I mean?
For me, things have been a little anti-climactic thus far, honestly. I’m not tryna piss on the parade because I do truly enjoy watching all these games no matter how unsurprising the outcome, but aside from Bulls/Celtics—obviously—a lot of these games have been relatively lackluster. Because of a conflict, I actually missed the best game in the Orlando/Philly series so that plays a part in all this, but for whatever reason those two teams just don’t really do it for me. I like seeing Andre Miller do his thing on the East Coast where he can get a little more press and Dwight Howard gives me infinite joy, but despite those factors—not to mention my Symone Fisher-level man-crush on Thaddeus Young—I just sort of end up zoning out a lot when these two teams are running around inside my TV set.
The only other really good series, Houston/Portland, has a lot more going for it, but I feel on the outside-looking-in with this whole Blazer thing. I’ve tried to get caught up in the total excitement that the rest of the world seems to have for these kiddies, but the exuberance just isn’t quite there for me. I mean, I like all the players individually—Brandon Roy is a beast among men, your boy Oden has flashes of grandeur, LaMarcus is a throwback, Rudy es fantastico, Outlaw is my boy, Bayless is fun. I love their offensive efficiency. And I know intellectually that this could be the first glimpse of a basketball renaissance in Portland that will make the world forget Zach Randolph and Damon Stoudamire ever existed. But the Rockets are actually more compelling to me. I like seeing Yao finally healthy in the Playoffs. I have affection for all things Artest. Aaron Brooks and Kyle Lowry are refreshing. Landry just got shot a few weeks ago. Scola has that great haircut. Von Wafer is slick talk, pain and torture. All in all: Good times. Okay, I guess this series has a ton going for it now that I put more thought into it even if does lack “it.”
Mostly, then, I think my somewhat mild enthusiasm for those two series isn’t the problem. Mainly, it’s the phenomenal disappointment surrounding Heat/Hawks and the complete non-competitiveness of Nuggets/Hornets. Both New Orleans and Miami were billed as two one-man wrecking crews vs. two better teams — all four of which are among the handful of teams I’ve paid the most attention to all season. But neither matchup has really given us much to feel for aside from maybe a little pity for New Orleans.
In a way, that sort of etches in stone the fact that, above all else, you now definitely need a well-rounded, complete team to win in modern NBA again—and that’s a good thing. But at the same time, there’s also this melancholy malaise surrounding that same reality as we watch a “changing of the guard” where the heydays of San Antonio and Detroit become ever-more-distant memories. (The dude from Straight Bangin’ had a good piece on this over at FreeDarko the other day.)
Another thing might be that we don’t have any offenses that can really compare with the high-octane stuff we’ve seen in recent years out of the D’Antoni Suns, Baron Davis Dubs or Ray Allen Sonics. Those teams were always seen as a little gimmicky and “not built for April/May” but they were a lot more entertaining first-round fodder for the real contenders than teams like Detroit, Utah and New Orleans.
Am I alone here?
Sleepless Outside the Staples Center,
Jared Harper
Jared,
Aaaaaaaaaah, spring is in the air, Rondo’s emerging stardom is on the court, and the playoffs are in my LCD 12 hours per night. This IS the best time of year for any basketball fan because we get to argue about award winners while we pontificate on who has the upper hand in a series that a prolific percentage of people think has already been decided by the media and David Stern. Living in Sacramento, I can’t relate to any citywide euphoria of ambition because it’s Sacramento. In fact, I can’t even really relate to the army of mini-skirts unveiling their forces because in California, mini-skirts are like Chris Anderson—Birdman, baby, they fly in any weather. We’re lucky enough on the West Coast to have them year round no matter what the series. Maybe it’s just easy women or maybe it’s just because of easy women in warm enough weather to fight through frozen kneecaps and veins showing through the leggings because of temps in the 40s. But regardless, I’m happy for you and your fellow easterners that you get to experience the minis flying at you like Mark Wahlberg and company in The Italian Job.
As for the playoffs, I’m digging what’s happened so far this round. Chris Paul’s early and utterly noncompetitive departure was extremely saddening for me but Rajon Rondo’s emergence as a potential Top 5 point in the league is as captivating to me as possible. I’ve missed Dwyane Wade doing Dwyane Wade things to keep his terrible team in the mix against Atlanta. It seems like the two teams are taking turns in not showing up for games and I can’t recall caring less about a series that was 3-2. But Ben Gordon, someone who I normally can’t stand because of his one-dimensional nature, has been good enough as an Antonio Banderas vs. Sly Stallone level assassin to make me forget that Dwyane Wade plays video games with Charles Barkley while chirping Big Dwight. But other than those two superstars not being able to showcase their greatness, I think the playoffs for the most part have been extremely enjoyable. The Cavs and Lakers did what they’re supposed to do. The Mavericks bullied a team without one of their stars who also happens to be a Top 15 player in the league when healthy.
I’d say the remaining series that has been most disappointing is the Orlando-Philly debacle. Has it even been THAT fun to watch? Here are two teams that should be mired in an offensive-juggernaut-laden, seven seconds or dunk type of series and instead they’re trying to decide who can win an uglier game. Now that we have Dwight Howard suspended for a game in a league-wide make-up call for the refs that didn’t do their jobs so perhaps the Sixers can force a Game 6 and we can all benefit from this (Editor’s Note: They didn’t.)
Now in regards to the Houston-Portland series, I can understand why it’s not for everyone to get into this Portland team. The Portland hype is about 90% off of the potential of this team three years from now rather than the product out on the court. I’m completely entrenched with this team because of my undying love fest of Greg Oden. As he still figures out how to walk in the NBA (metaphorically of course, we don’t need your injury jokes or unfounded Sam Bowie knocks), I feel like a proud father praising his little accomplishments from the tops of the internet mountains:
“Great dunk, Gregory! You really got up on that one!”
“Don’t bring that stuff in our house, Von Wafer! Even if the backboard clipped that reverse dunk attempt, Oden was there to disregard it anyway!”
“Greg, you’re fronting Yao like an eight-year veteran! Keep it up!”
But I can definitely see why you’d be more intrigued with the Rockets. Outside of Brandon Roy’s swagger and Rudy Fernandez’s el swaggero, the Blazers leave a little to be desired because of their slow style. You give Mike D’Antoni that team and they’d not only win 60+ games but they’d be competing with American Idol every night for ratings. The Rockets on the other hand have a tortured past that they can overcome without McGrady on the court. Ron Artest is crazier than a person deciding to have a crush on Derek Fisher (great topical reference by the way with the Symone Fisher) when Sun Yue is in the conversation. Shane Battier is maybe the most fascinating person in the league. Luis Scola looks like a girl I went to grade school with but plays like what Joe Wolf was supposed to be. And Aaron Brooks has emerged as one of the most dangerous scoring guards in the league. He’s basically what Sebastian Telfair has failed to become. I dig this Rockets team right now and if they ever figure out that feeding the ball to their best player is a good thing, they might make more noise.
Personally, I think we should have all expected a lesser playoff run by the NBA this time around than what we saw last year. We were spoiled with an unbelievable season in 2008 and an even better playoff season. This year, it hasn’t lived up to the hype of last year so maybe that’s why it feels so anti-climactic. It’s rare we get those Warriors-Mavs series in the first round. So I’ll throw it back to you with this. We discussed the Nuggets team the last time we exchanged emails like this. But what about this suddenly impressive looking Mavericks team? What’s it going to take from the Mavs, Rockets/Blazers, or Celtics in the next two rounds to get the playoffs to what we want them to be? Are we just twiddling our thumbs and writing reactions to stuff that won’t matter in two months when we’re finishing up the imminent Cavs-Lakers Finals?
What’s a writer to do?
Sincerely,
Greg Oden’s Illegitimate Father
(Photo by Sam Forencich/NBAE via Getty Images)
Z-Bo,
Did you just call Sun Yue hot?
I mean not to downplay how enjoyable portions of these Playoffs have been. I’ve actually enjoyed them immensely. I guess what I was trying to say is that the styles of play across the League have gotten more similar and that minus the intrigue that I personally have about the individual players/story lines, the offensive game play seems fairly vanilla no matter if you’re watching the Sixers, the Hawks, the Blazers, the Rockets, the Spurs or the Pistons. The styles of those teams don’t differ all that much and it’s only the individual quirks—a Yao here, a Tony Parker drive there, a whatever it is Josh Smith does wherever he does it—bringing the flavor. For me, a pretty giant NBA dork, that’s enough to drum up a lot of interest. But I would imagine a casual onlooker less interested in things like the career arc of Thaddeus Young or the possible Boozer vs. Millsap conundrum in Utah getting a little glassy eyed.
But let’s not dwell on that.
You brought up my four favorite things about this year’s Playoffs: 1) the Celtics vs. Bulls Overtime-apalooza, 2) Rajon Rondo, 3) the Mavs stealth-like resurgence, and 4) America’s Team, aka, the Denver Nuggets.
Could we possibly ask for anything more out of the Celtics and Bulls? Okay, neither team is that dynamic if you really break it down: Offensively, both completely revolve around PG penetration, hitting jumpers and letting guys go one-on-one. Option A is Rondo/Rose. Option B is a swing pass or drive-and-kick to an open jumpshooter. Option C is “Ummm…Someone do something,” which is when hopefully one of Pierce/Ray or Ben Gordon/Salmons starts freelancing outside the offense. Then comes Option D, which is when Tyrus Thomas or Big Baby does something that should have a laugh track. I’m not one to throw aspersions at a guy, but it’s possible this is all somehow related to Vinny of the Black and Doc Rivers bringing checkers to a chess fight.
But how ‘bout these endings? Tremendous.
Good lord, Ben Gordon. There have been like six times in this series where I’ve gone back and forth between hating the way he plays and loving the way he plays twice during the same possession. He’s an enigma wrapped in a riddle wrapped in a pinata. Meanwhile, Ray Ray’s been bringing the goods ever since his putrid Game 1. The Truth has been struggling mightily but still managing to stick dagger after dagger in winning time. Your boy Kendrick Perkins has won me over. Tyrus Thomas is so much entertainment. (The best moment of the Playoffs thus far may have been when Tyrus grabbed a board after a Celtic miss while the Bulls were ahead with less than 24 seconds left and, rather than handing it off to Rose in the back-court so that Derrick could go hit the free throws after the Cs fouled, he just took off down the floor like he was planning to dribble out the final 17 seconds of the game.) I’ve even loved watching Joakim Noah, who someone on Twitter recently dubbed “Spanish from Old School.” As someone who has deconstructed that movie down to the point that “Hey, Mike” is now my favorite line, I can’t believe that comparison had never occurred to me. The dude’s follow-up was even better: “WE’VE GOTTA KEEP OUR COMPOSURE.”
Then there’s Rondo, who has been majestic. That stat line is nuts. The way he’s run the team minus KG has been even better. I couldn’t like the kid more. Maybe that’s why everything else seems a little dull by comparison: His ongoing duel with Derrick Rose has been the most intriguing one-on-one match-up I’ve seen in some time.
I certainly have plenty to say about the Mavs and Nuggs (and yes, Cavs/Lakers is inevitable), but this is getting a little long and there’s probably more to say about Rajon.
Thoughts?
Staying Composed,
Me
(Reuters/Brian Snyder)
Wade,
I’m not saying that Sun Yue is hot but he’s a professional athlete and young. That virility has to count for something, right?
Offenses died more than a decade ago when Michael Jordan nudged Bryon Russell and finished off his third career with a jumper from 19-feet. Sure, you have your Mike D’Antoni’s and your … well … you have Mike D’Antoni but other than his systematic chaos, there isn’t much for offensive execution anymore. Look at the ends of these great Celtics-Bulls games. It’s all isolation games except for one time when Doc Rivers scribbled out a play to get Ray Allen a three-point shot. Other than that, it’s give the guy the ball at the top, clear out and pray for rain.
On a side note and related to what you said, what DOES Josh Smith do on a basketball court? I get that he can dunk a basketball and toss a shot or two whenever someone forgets where he is, but I feel like the two Bobs asking him what it is exactly that he does here while trying to decide between promoting him with stock options or fixing the glitch in the payroll system. I haven’t figured out why he has the contract he has and whether he’s overpaid or underpaid. I’m leaning towards overpaid but I can’t make that assertion until I figure out how he contributes to wins.
You may not be one to throw aspersions around but I certainly will be happy to lob the salvos. Vinny of the Black and PhD Rivers have made me wonder aloud if they have learning disabilities while on the sidelines. That’s not necessarily a disparaging comment either. Apparently, growing up Brandon Roy had a learning disability and that seemed to work out all right for every body. But Vin and Glenn have taken away a lot of the luster from the series but somehow it’s worked out for all of us to enjoy. Instead of complex sets and schemes that try to take away what a team does well, we’ve been given a veritable slugfest of Ben Gordon shots versus Paul Pierce daggers.
I think the most intriguing side of this series outside of Rondo completely outplaying Rose and the Pierce/Gordon duel has to be the way the role players have contributed/failed. Does anybody remember that Eddie House is still on the team? Where has he been? Remember when Tony Allen was a role player on this team? Me neither. When did Stephon Marbury become gun shy? We certainly know his cousin, Bassy, isn’t. When did Glen Davis become David West? Did he steal his powers via Monstar technique? You know that I’m stoked by the emergence of my boy Kendrick Perkins. Who would have thought he’d become a Top 7 center during these playoffs? And for Chicago, is Tyrus Thomas bipolar? One play he’s majestic; the next, he’s an abomination. Kirk Hinrich is teetering on the fence between the good yard and the let’s get his contract off our books yard. And Joakim Noah is maybe the most lethal force around the rim since Bill Wennington. By the way, with Joakim, if he cut his hair, would he look a lot faster to everyone? Give him a short-cropped fade and he’s probably a #2 pick in the draft. And I love the Spanish call with him. Personally, with his dad being black and his mom being Swedish, I’ve dubbed him Toblerone. But I’m good either way.
I don’t really want to get into Rondo for the simple fact that I can’t stop when I start gushing over him. He’s averaging a triple-double with 50% shooting and over three steals per game. If LeBron James was doing this, we’d erase Michael Jordan from the record books. Rajon Rondo is quickly becoming the second best point guard in basketball and that’s not hyperbole by any means.
But I really want to dig into these Mavericks. How good have they been since Cuban threatened to throw them out of the house? How did Jason Kidd turn the ball over just three times last series? JJ Barea has become a better version of Michael Adams. Erick Dampier actually backed up something he said. Dirk is a blitzkrieg bop and Josh Howard has been the best Wake Forest alum this post-season. The Mavs and the Nuggets both dismantled their first round opponents and if Kenyon Martin can’t bottle up Dirk, I see them possibly peaking at the right time to challenge the Lakers (not beat, just challenge). When did Rick Carlisle become a good coach again? Is their resurgence causing Avery Johnson to actually utter a swear word? When does this madness stop?
Signed,
The Man Outside Sun Yue’s Condo
[EDITOR'S NOTE: After Zach's last email and prior to this response, one of the best Playoff games of one of the best Playoff series of all time took place.]
Zeke,
HOLY SHIT.
After just watching Bulls/Cs Game 6 (it ended about 20 minutes ago), I’m not really sure I can construct a coherent thought. Fortunately, I probably wasn’t going to do that anyway so at least I now have a good excuse.
Pretty good ballgame, eh? I think I blacked out for a while there. I can’t even begin to comment on the particulars—Joakim’s steal, Rose’s block, Ray’s corner fadeaway, Hinrich’s missed layup/Rondo’s marginal goaltend, Brad Miller’s finger roll, John Salmons relentless penetration—but one thing that seems particularly miraculous about that endurance challenge that felt more like the Iditarod than a first-round Playoff game is that I was watching the post-game highlights afterwards and was like “Oh, yeah, I forgot that last year’s Finals MVP had to leave the game at one point to go get some stitches.” To me, the thing that usually allows a good game to qualify as a great game is entirely intangible and essentially is the same as the threshold for obscenity (I can’t define it…but I know it when I see it), but I think it’s pretty safe to say that when a Hall of Famer losses about a pint of blood during the game and you don’t even remember that happening, you’ve just watched a great game.
That’s all I’ve got on Game 6 right now. Speechless otherwise.
As for the Mavs, I couldn’t be happier about their resurgence. They look very good. I’ve been jock-riding Josh Howard since like 2005 when I was trying to convince people he was the fourth best player from that draft class (meaning, better than Chris Bosh…and, yes, I was wrong), so it’s good to see him get his swag back. He was in a funk and/or injured much of this year, but he’s now shot over 50% from the floor in every game of the Playoffs aside from his subpar performance in the one game they lost to the Spurs. (He still shot 3/8 that night…just didn’t have much effect on the game.) Great call on the “best Wake Forrest” player designation and, similarly, I think it’s safe to say that Jason Kidd has been better than his Cal counterparts Leon Powe and Sean Marks. Old Man River can certainly still run an offense and while he might not exactly be as timeless as, say John Stockton or Illmatic, I think he’s shown that he has at least two more years of relevancy left in him. Most importantly, Dirk is about to get his rightful spotlight back. His stellar play was so overlooked this season that it was borderline criminal, even though he is almost certainly a 2009 All-NBA First-Teamer, right? Who beats him for the other forward spot? Pau? Doubtful.
And now him, Howard and Brandon Bass are gonna be matched up against Melo, K-Mart, Birdman and Dahntay Jones? Plus Kidd vs. Billups? And maybe best of all: JR Smith vs. Jason Terry? Even Nene vs. Damp sounds great. I really couldn’t be more excited for this series.
I’ve been watching a ton of Nugget ball this year and they’re playing better and more consistently right now than I’ve seen all season. I’m not sure whether the complete undressing they just gave Chris Paul and company is going to be a good thing or a bad thing for this team honestly, but it seems that Carmelo and Chauncey have everyone on more of an even keel than most people think. The rest of the guys on this team might be seen as knuckleheads at times, but they’ve basically taken on the persona of front line soldiers on a mission, with JR playing the Barry Pepper sniper in the bell-tower role—presuming, ya know, this version of Barry Pepper may arbitrarily decide to drop Tom Hanks and Matt Damon with consecutive headshots. So, yeah, nothing like that at all really.
Fly in Most Weather,
Birdman, Jr.
(via Ball Don't Lie)
J-Bone,
THAT. WAS. AMAZING.
In regards to Game 6 of the Celtics-Bulls, I don’t even really know what just happened. I feel like I was just on the business end of a Kama Sutra session. I’m confused, elated, and just damn impressed by what I experienced. I have to agree that I too forgot Paul Pierce was bleeding like he just escaped from one of Jigsaw’s “games” and I honestly didn’t really remember Hinrich and Rondo getting into it until I watched the highlights again. There are people that don’t like basketball. There are people that don’t get the allure of basketball. I defy those people to watch that basketball game and not fall in love with the attraction of this sport. The ones that still wouldn’t get it are clearly not real people or perhaps they’re soulless like they just endured a fatality at the hands of some pixilated character wearing a 2-D jumpsuit.
When I read your words and sentences about the Mavericks and Nuggets just now, it took a few minutes to remember that this is just the first round of the playoffs and that there are other series. I guess by your assessment, it’s time to take the Mavs seriously again and I can’t really disagree or argue with that. This is a team clicking on 100% of the cylinders that it takes to be a dangerous NBA playoff team. They have two enigmatic big men in Erick Dampier and Nene who have emerged, disappointed, and been accused of not having the proper amount of testicles. They have two over the hill point guards that can’t keep up with the younger points in the league even though they’ve just taken out two younger point guards that they basically outplayed. They have two gunners from deep in Jason Terry and JR Smith who jack so many deep shots that you start to see the money ball at some point in the game. It’s a fun optical illusion.
And then there’s the match-up of Carmelo Anthony against Josh Howard. To me, it’s like watching two kids playing arcade Streetfighter without ever blocking an attack. Neither of these guys play particularly good defense and both of these guys can fill up the cup like two girls on the internet (not that I’d ever watch that). And both of these guys have gone through their trials and tribulations over the past year that make you want to root for them whether you like them or not. Carmelo was once the next Bird to LeBron’s Magic Johnson. Then he was the most overrated thug who couldn’t get out of the first round or stand going toe to toe with Jared Jeffries. And you have Josh Howard who apparently loves weed and hates the National Anthem, two things that aren’t things you should brag about when living in the heart of Texas. But now after five first round playoff games, both guys appear to be past all of that and ready to get past the other for a shot at the Lakers.
Oh and by the way, the 2007 MVP and definite lock for All NBA 1st Team this year is going to be in this series too. Both of these teams are playing so well that they probably think they can take the Lakers down. But will they have a chance?
Who’s to say the Rockets won’t be able to out-duel the Lake show? Who’s to say Los Angeles can stop Aaron Brooks from scoring, Ron Artest from being crazy enough to win this series or Yao Ming from dominating Andrew Bynum who is one more knee injury from being renamed Jimmy Dolan and strapping on a permanent knee brace as he becomes a basketball scout shipped to the heart of Africa? I guess my questions has two parts:
1) Are we sure that the Lakers are going to be in the NBA Finals and 2) could the Western Conference have had two better match-ups for the second round?
V/T,
Z
Harpo,
This may just be the five hours of sleep that felt more like five minutes talking, but as good as that Bulls/Celtics game was, I’m not sure the Yao/Artest press conference wasn’t the highlight of the night. There was no chance I was falling asleep for at least four hours after the Bulls game so I actually caught it twice (plus the second half of HBO’s stellar Thrilla in Manilla doc), and, man, I mean that thing is good. (Unfortunately I can’t find video of the whole thing right now, but here’s a small bite of what was actually more like a 24-ounce porterhouse. )
Watching those two in action really makes me wanna see Houston knock off the Lakers and make a run. Deep down, it bothers me that Ronnie gets dismissed as a psychotic leper when he’s by most accounts a genuinely nice and gregarious guy — albeit with plenty of major character flaws — and watching the back-and-forth Abbott and Costelllo routine those two had going last night really helps you realize there’s a lot more going on with the Rockets than “the Chinese dude” and the “crazy dude.” Imagine how amazing that locker room must be with Yao, Artest and Dikembe? It’s like an even more dramatic version of the Pedro/Johnny Damon/Manny triumvirate of personality that fueled the 2004 Red Sox, and if there’s one thing I like more than anything else it’s something unique. We’ve never seen anything remotely like a Yao/Ron Artest-led team in this League and I want to see that get as much exposure as possible. You ever see The Year of Yao? The guy is on that Tim Duncan dry wit level. Toss in the uncaged aura of Ron Artest that has him ending post-game interviews with things like “Queensbridge in the Building” and I’ll be a willing participant in any expedition these two dudes wanna take me on.
Still, looking past all that emotional nonsense, I don’t see anyone in the West beating Los Angeles — and I think I can break it down by channeling the soul of Trevor Ariza.
I really can’t fully explain my affinity for Ariza. I loved the guy as a Knick (which, as a Pacer fan, is a phrase that exits my mouth about as often as “No thanks, I’m full” exits Eddy Curry’s”) and couldn’t believe they just tossed a 20-year-old athletic dynamo with obvious defensive promise into a trade along with Penny—particularly since New York was basically just trading for a shorter, just-as-broken-down Penny in Stevie Franchise. Worse still was when Orlando subsequently gave him away to LA. Really, Magic? You would rather have Mo Evans and Brian Cook, aka the poor man’s Tony Battie, then go to war with a Dwight/Rashard/Ariza front-court? Real Cracker Jack talent evaluation, Minnie Mouse.
To me, it’s the guy that I’ve affectionately begun calling Switchblade that opitomizes why the Lakers are on a direct flight to the Finals. Kobe and Pau require no discussion really, and when Lamar has it going like he did against the Jazz, he’s one of the most versatile cats to ever touch a ball. But what Trevor represents is the newfound consistency L.A. has found in 2009. He plays the exact same way every night. And whenever he’s on the court, you may as well break out your Team Building Exercise ‘99 t-shirt cause it’s business…it’s business time. Rarely will you see Ariza goof around. Sure, he’ll finish off a time-out-inducing 3-on-1 break with a lightning quick reverse dunk on the other side of the rim and then throw out a few high-elevation chest bumps, but it ain’t exuberant revelry. He isn’t smiling. He isn’t yelling. He isn’t even particularly impressed. He’s just gonna go sit on the bench, listen to Phil and Kobe, and then walk back out on the court and lock someone down. He brings a detached, executioner mentality to the team that says: “We got this if we just go get it done.”
And to me, that’s a microcosm of what this team is all about.
Last year, they were up-and-down. Last year, they were caught up in their own personalities. Last year, Pau played more like a hesitant ringer who just met the guys he was playing with a few hours before the game. Last year, this team carried itself with a Lamar Odom demeanor. This year, they’re walking around like Switchblade.
Now I’m not saying this makes them good enough to interrupt LeBron’s upcoming nuptuals with destiny, but when “maybe Lamar won’t drop 20″ is your biggest flaw and you’re playing against teams with the question marks that all of Houston, Denver and Dallas have, there isn’t really much room for a debate about which team will emerge.
As for your other question, no, we couldn’t possibly have better match-ups for the second round. It’s like a second round West Coast Voltron where LA is the head. And the unforeseen way the teams came together may be the best part of it all. While the whole world was busy fellating Portland’s young guns, Chris Paul and Deron Williams even though they’re teams were middling and fairly dull, the Nuggs, Cuban’s boys and H-Town just showed up and handled their business like Marky Mark in The Departed: “I’m the guy who does his job; you must be the other guy.”
The ironic part — or tragic part, depending on your favorite conference — about this whole thing is that this was supposed to be the year where the Eastern Conference re-emerged. All year it was a four-team race for the Championship between L.A., Boston, Cleveland and Orlando—plus you had Dwyane Wade generating all that MVP buzz as he hosted his own personal basketball clinic in Miami. The West still had its superior one-through-nine team depth, sure, but three of the Association’s four elite squads were supposedly in the East.
But if you re-evaluate the landscape today, without KG and after watching the Magic under a spotlight, would you take any team in the East aside from Cleveland to beat any of the West’s Final Four? I love me some Baby Bulls Part Deux and Orlando certainly has a little sumptin-sumptin going on, but I’m not sure I’d put money down on either one of those squads. And despite all the heroics going on in Boston, the Celtics are being propped up with Bazooka Joe and duct tape at this point.
And in a League of few surprises, I for one couldn’t be more excited to watch Houston, Denver and Dallas aim their slingshots at Kobe and Pau.
Ten/4,
Wade
My main man Jared Wade,
I don’t quite know how to describe the comedy combination of Yao Ming and Ron Artest. It’s organic and natural while being completely confounding. But it works. It seems like they’ve been studying tapes of the Adam Carolla-Jimmy Kimmel tandem and copying that chemistry. Maybe Chuck Hayes has helped out by jumping on trampolines at the end of practice while Deke is throwing back 10 ounces of beer like it’s a Grey Goose shot. Whatever the system is, that locker room is clicking. And I think a lot of it has to do with the craziness of Ron Artest. He believes he’s the best player in the league. He thought he could win a title with the Kings last year. He still calls a local 9pm-midnight radio show in Sacramento all the time and even texts the host at three in the morning on random nights to see the next time he can be on. He’s on a different wavelength than anybody and I think it’s infected the team (insert swine flu, topical joke here). His confidence is something that has permeated his team and with that newfound ego boost, the team feels like a title team to them even if it isn’t quite there.
And when Ron Artest said that he’d been in the stands before, it showed that even though he may be crazy, he’s still one of the most grounded and down to earth guys who thinks outlandish things. At times, he’s a walking paradox but it works.
As for Yao, The Year of Yao is something that everyone should see to get into the mentality of this guy. He’s had the weight of a billion plus countrymen on his shoulders since he was 17 years old. And it’s not like it’s the most forgiving culture when it comes to failure. When he doesn’t lead the Chinese National Team to the gold medal in each Olympics, he’s not doing what they engineered in a lab for him to do. I’m not fully convinced that he’s a real human because he looks like he was grown from an over-sized Petri dish. But when you hear him speak, there’s no robotic about him. He’s humble, hilarious, and smarter than most people. He’s slyly funny in a way that it took someone like Norm MacDonald years to craft. The guy is existential beyond belief and unfortunately people just see him as an under performing tall guy. Unfortunately for him, he’ll once again be a disappointment because I agree that no one is taking down the Lakers.
It’s interesting that you bring up The Departed because I think that movie shows the contrasts between the Lakers and the rest of the West. The Mavericks (Mark Cuban), Nuggets (George Karl), and Rockets (Ron Artest) are represented of Jack Nicholson’s character in the movie. They’re bold, ostentatious, and easy to fly off the handle. They run things for now but you can see the end coming to their current reign. They haven’t had to ask for money since the third grade because everyone has feared them to some degree. Karl has been around the block many times with Payton and the Reign Man and now has his version of Frenchy once again with Chauncey Billups. Mark Cuban is living the lifestyle of a famous mobster who gets in trouble on occasion but can’t be brought down by David Stern and the other owners (aka Martin Sheen and the rest of the State Department). And Ron Artest is crazy enough to chop off someone’s hand and mail it to the guy’s wife with the ring still on it. You know, just in case she wants something to remember him by.
But in the Western Conference landscape, the Lakers are led by the aura of Leo DiCaprio’s character Billy Costigan. Sure, Kobe is the main man on the team, Pau is the key addition who is playing better than any power forward in basketball, and Lamar Odom is bridging the gap like Nas from his versatile forward doings until Andrew Bynum is ready to be the third guy. But Ariza is Billy Costigan. He’s cold-blooded when he needs to be. He adapts to every situation. He does what the team needs and doesn’t question the big picture when he could be getting his stats somewhere else. In The Departed, there’s a line that Leo’s Billy Costigan says, “”You sit there with a mass murderer. A mass murderer. Your heart rate is jacked. And your hand, steady. That’s the one thing I figured out about myself in prison. My hand does not shake. Ever.”
And if that doesn’t describe the current state of Trevor Ariza and the calmness he’s brought to the Lakers attack then I don’t know what does. His hand does not shake. He spent his time in New York and Orlando and at times I’m sure it felt like prison compared to the situation he’s in now. What he’s brought is that consistency you’re praising and a defined role to the rest of the team. Everyone falls in line, accordingly. And as good as the second round match-ups are and as good of a Western Conference Finals as we might have, I concur that the Lakers probably aren’t being taken down. Whether they survive the rest of this movie is a whole other story that will be written by the duel we see in a couple of months between LeBron and Kobe.
Until then,
Zach
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