Anyway, we need more ketchup with our fries:
*I picked the Cavs in their series with the Magic. I even compared LeBron's place in the league with Tiger Woods' on the PGA Tour, stating that he's basically playing against past greats and the record book. I may have jumped to conclusions after the shot he hit in Game 2.
I still think he's the best player in the NBA, and I don't think it's close. What he's doing on the court is simply something we've never seen, except for Michael Jordan in the '89 and '90 seasons. When one looks at his stats, it's hard to believe that his team could possibly be down 3-1 to any team. In the playoffs, he's scoring 36 ppg, dishing out 7 apg, and grabbing 9 boards a game. He's also shooting over 50%. I repeat, he's also shooting for over 50%, and he's hitting 35% of his three-point shots. His scoring and assist numbers against the Magic are also higher than his overall playoff numbers, so how is his team losing? It's like when a guy and a girl meet, and they both like one another, except they don't just like one another, but they think each other are perfect. One would think finding someone who is perfect would make having a relationship with them easy, but instead, they each start thinking why is this person pushing thirty, good-looking, holding a good job, and. . .wait for it. . .single. There's got to be something wrong, right? At this point, Lady Victory must be thinking that LeBron is secretly a serial killer, pedophile, or an AIG board member.
Or Mike Wilbon figured it out... Wilbon pointed out in the pregame show that if this series were being played on a playground, and Stan Van Gundy and Mike Brown had to choose sides, then the draft order would go something like this:
LeBron James
Dwight Howard
Hedo Turkoglu
Rashard Lewis
and in any order Mickael Pietrus, Rafer Alston, and Mo Williams
and maybe Delonte West sneaks in
The problem with Cleveland is that they're playing a team that has five of the best eight players in the series. It's like a cross country meet. It doesn't matter if one team has a guy who comes in first. The pack always beats the lone wolf. The team that takes the 2, 3, 4, and 5 spots will always win out once the points are totaled. In other words, it doesn't matter that LeBron leads his team in ppg, apg, rpg, and is their best shooter and defender. It's just too much to ask. I mean, Jordan always had Pippen to help with the defense and scoring. He had Rodman and Horace Grant to rebound, and his teams always had plenty of shooters.
The Cavs have LeBron, which is also the only reason they still have any hope.
*Wilbon's playground theory also helps explain why Denver is surprising a lot of people. After Kobe is picked, the order would probably go something like the following:
Carmelo
Billups or Gasol
and in any order J.R. Smith, K-Mart, Nene, Lamar Odom, Kleiza, and Ariza
Birdman
The Nuggets have seven of the best eleven players in this series, which means they almost always have more raw talent on the floor. Really, Kobe is in a pretty similar situation to LeBron, except that having Pau and Ariza means that Kobe doesn't have to do everything, just almost everything.
People keep saying that the Cavs are one last second shot from having been swept, but couldn't a similar thing be said about the Lake Show? Aren't they a couple bad inbounds passes away from having been swept or from being down 3-1?
*The fact that the Cavs had the League's best regular season record, with their supporting cast, suggests that Mike Brown is the coach of the year, but his inability to do anything to slow down the Magic offense suggests that maybe LeBron should have been Coach of the Year. Seriously, the Cavs haven't committed at all to taking one thing away from the Magic offensively. They can't decide if they want to stop the pick and roll, stop the 3's, or stop Howard. I'm not saying they could stop any of these things, but I could at least respect the idea of trying to figure something out to do defensively.
Another idea is to at least guard Rafer Alston, allowing him to hit 6, wide open three's is a little much for anyone to accept from a Coach of the Year winner. I mean, how hard is it to say someone guard the And1 player?
*When Lamar Odom was drafted 4th by the L.A. Clippers, people wondered two things which ligament of his would blow up first and could he be the first option on an NBA team. When he played one year with Dwayne Wade in Miami, the question was can Odom be the second best player on a quality NBA team. When he went to the Lakers, that question followed him, and now that the Lakers have Gasol, people ask if Odom can be the third best player on the team. I can't wait until Bynum or some other player is clearly the third best player on the team, so that we can all ask if Odom is ready to be the fourth best option on an NBA team? Do you think when he retires we'll ask can he be the best retired option for an NBA team?
*I'm a fan of Chris Andersen, Big Wheels, slap bracelets, and LA Lights. They all deserve comebacks.
*With all the talk of Brett Favre coming back once again, why is his main form of communication still texting? It seems to me he would have started using Twitter by now. It would give his fans more access, and it would allow him to change his mind more often.
*The Atlanta Braves are 23-22, and they are in third place of the NL East. I'll have more on this in the next couple of weeks, but I just want to say that Bobby Cox is my FDR, my Winston Churchill, my Dr. John Carter in these trying economic times.
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