NBA Basketball 2004-2005 thread

Hey, nobody heard that more than the Pistons last year. First it was Michael Redd of the bucks, "we just beat ourselves" then it was Kenyon Martin, then it was the whole media with the Lakers, saying how it was only the internal struggles of LA the reason the Pistons beat the Lakers, blah blah blah. Its such an old bit in sports now, can't just admit when you have been beaten and tip your hat....

Btw, I picked the Rockets in the HTF NBA.com league, of course I picked Sacramento as well...

Yeah, it was interesting how well the Lakers were getting along with each other in the playoffs last year while they were beating San Antonio and Minnesota. Lucky for the Pistons that LA just decided to save all their squabbles for the finals. But we kid the national media...

Too tired to see all of the Houston-Dallas game last night, I'll have to try to stay up for the next couple.

So Indiana comes back...I officially have no idea what the hell is going to happen in that series.

I guess people wrote them off because chemistry doesn't really show up in easily digested stat lines. All their moves over the season were about bringing in hardworking veterans who would just play their roles, support Yao and T-Mac, and be happy with it. Stat-padding locker room cancers like Jim Jackson and Mo Taylor got purged. There are definitely still weaknesses in the lineup but when the chemistry is so good it can make teams tough to beat.

I was bummed when I saw that the Sixers/Pistons game tonight was going to be on NBA TV, since I don't subscribe to it. But now it looks INHD will carry it, so that should be sweet. No TNT HD on my cable provider yet, which is also unfortunate this time of year.

I just love how such a huge part of the sportscenter broadcast tonight revolved around the Lakers...how about some better playoff coverage? ESPN is saying that Jackson won't even sign with the Lakers until a new CBA this summer, so how about we talk about it then...rant off.

Agreed. Time for journalists to get their heads out of the ass of two teams that didn't even make the playoffs (Knicks and Lakers).

Phil is a great coach, but I'm not sold that he could make this current roster much better than a 45-47 game winner, so who cares anyway.

How about some respect for teams like SEA, HOU, PHX.


Haggai - Pacers. Very likely will simply run out of what they can put on the floor. That's why I picked Boston. Indy has more talent when healthy, even without Tinsley and Artest, but not when JO, Foster, Pollard, Fred Jones, and Croshere are all hurt (pretty badly at that). Plus Reggie is old and it has shown many times this year, even down the stretch.

In games where Reggie goes off, the Pacers can win. He simply won't be able to pull off a game 2 every night and it will catch up with them. I can easily see Indy dropping 1 of the next 2 home games. That gives it to Boston in 6 I think. Of course Boston is not a great road team and perhaps it will show in the next 2 games and Indy will end up in the drivers seat. I know the extra day rest now really helps.


So far not a lot of surprises to me. I have DET and MIA losing 1 road game each, just on pure star talent from the other side. Houston I had in 7 and I would have them in the WCF if it weren't for the Spurs. Spurs are fine, I have it going 7 so it could still be a grinder.


I made fun of the new schedule but actually just bumping it to 3 games on the weeknights is really nice. Feels like some progress is being made. Heck, MIA/NJ change cities and only take 1 day off. It's about time IMO.

Stern had crazy expectations to think that national audiences wanted to see every matchup. With DirecTV supplementing it anyway (like InHD, etc) people are getting those games, and the core audiences in the home cities get to see them on local coverage. That's where most of the ratings for those series come from.

And I think there is a certain amount of excitement to the idea that you could be missing something going on in the other game, and having those game breaks pop in. It works for the NCAA tourney and its hugely popular, especially the first 4 days.

Coverage looked ok. Nothing spectacular I thought.

Anything in HD looks pretty great to me, especially since most of these games are still just on standard def. But, NBA TV coverage these days does serve as a reminder that Fred Carter is the worst analyst/commentator of all time.

I thought going into this series that Larry might throw Prince at Iverson on occasion to try to shake him up, with Prince's 10-mile long wingspan. Hasn't happened yet, but they haven't needed it, certainly not yesterday as Iverson struggled badly.

spurs look back to normal for one game at least...i never thought i would say this, but the spurs sure have missed rasho in the middle

Yeah, Spurs in the first half were amazing. Denver really mailed it in, though. Clearly resting on their laurels from
Game 1, even though Karl obviously warned them against precisely that.

Shane, you were right about INHD. I flipped over to some of the Bulls-Wizards game, and ESPN had Angels-Yankees in HD at the same time, which looked noticeably better. Still, even mediocre HD is pretty sweet.

One note about the TNT guys at halftime of Phoenix-Memphis: Charles pulled out the word "spurtability" when talking about the Suns, claiming that he'd heard it somewhere. EJ and Kenny laughed and mocked him for apparently inventing a new word. Now, of course he deserved to be mocked, as it's a completely idiotic word, but I was surprised that none of them seemed to know that Clark Kellogg always uses it when covering college hoops (that's pretty obviously where Charles had heard it). Maybe someone else in the studio got that info to them after the game, but I went to bed at halftime.

You shouldn't make the Spurs angry. They tend to strike back hard when they're angry.

The Nuggets brought last night on themselves. They were talking about how they have a championship caliber-team, that they're gonna go all the way, etc. like the series was already over. They're good yes, but they're not THAT good. I mean, the Spurs missed 17 shots in a row in game one, and they lost by six? If Denver really was as good as people were making them out to be, they should have won that game by 20. They're a quality team, but they can't hang with the Spurs in the long run. No matter what, they're gonna have trouble getting this loss out of their minds, especially because Kenyon Martin, Marcus Camby, and Eduardo Najera all have playoff experience playing against and getting creamed by the Spurs.

If Denver takes game 3, unless they blow out SA the series goes 6 and ends. If the Spurs take 3, then series is over in 5.

Ugh. Bad basketball night for me. First I watched what was possibly the lamest double-overtime game I've ever seen. At first I was rooting for the Nets but their shot selection was so idiotic that by the end I was begging Miami to put them away.

Then the game switched over the Rockets/Mavs and I discover that the Rockets have apparently decided to the night off *in the playoffs*! I just don't get it. Home court's supposed to be a good thing but they just don't focus at home like they do on the road. The body language and the energy level were all wrong and the Mavs made them pay for it a bad way. If the Rockets don't come out strong the next game, the Mavs are going to knock them out in 6.

Why does Vince Carter take so many crazy off balance jump shots? I just laugh watching him, with that kind of shot selection, he would never win a championship let alone a conferenc. I did think that NJ would give Miami more of a run than this. Houston was up 88-80 in the fourth then gets blasted right in the face. Nice job. Just hoping that the Pistons can basically close it out tonight in Philly.

It will be my first game in Hi-Def. Does ESPN HD rarely show anything in HD because I had the dish installed yesterday and so far everything has been crappy 4:3 with ESPN bars on the side...

You must have never seen Vince at Carolina, if he can't dunk then the drive to the hoop is going to be adventurous.

That's right, Brandon, most stuff on ESPN is not in HD. Sportscenter is in HD, at least the stuff in the studio, though many of the highlights are still standard-def.

So will the game on ESPN be in 4:3 or 16:9 tonight since its in hi-def? I am confused on that issue. If its in 4:3 it really isn't worth me paying for.

Brandon,

The SD broadcasts on ESPN-HD are in 4:3 with the pillar bars (they're upconverted, but they are from SD source material).
The HD broadcasts on ESPN-HD are in 16:9.
The ESPN-HD schedule shows you what's in HD (and widescreen). Notice the chunks of time missing in the schedule. In those chunks of time you'll see pillarboxed 4:3 SD programming.

Tonight's games are listed in HD, so you should be getting what you want. And it IS spectacular.

The Mavs tied up the I-45 series by winning again in Mosquitoville.

So far neither team has won at home, perhaps making this series a home court disadvantage.

Cool! Van Gundy called out the refs, the NBA, and Mark Cuban for rigging officiating against Yao. I know he's doing it because it's the playoffs but he should have brought this up during the regular season

Anyone who would believe that the NBA and their officials would conspire (or even cooperate with) Mark Cuban in anything is losing their touch with reality.

Besides which Eric Dampier has been whistled even more heavily than Yao and Josh Howard fouled out of two of the first three games. But no one has suggested that Howard's fouls came from anything other than having to guard T-Mac.

It wouldn't be the NBA playoffs if there wasn't another conspiracy theory regarding the officiating.

I wasn't able to watch very much of Pistons/Sixers yesterday--ironically enough, I was taking off from the Detroit airport early in the 4th quarter--but I'm certainly relieved by the result. Any number of breaks going one way instead of the other, and it's 2-2 with massive pressure on the Pistons in Game 5. Not happy with the turnovers on offense, and giving up too many open looks on D. Gotta improve on both fronts, the sooner the better.

Too bad I didn't stay up for Kings/Sonics, 35-18 Seattle in the 4th! Looks like we can stick a fork in the Kings.

The clock'll be chiming in the Palace tomorrow night, as Big Ben gets the Defensive Player of the Year award for the 3rd time in the last 4 seasons.

It just won't go away will it?

As for Phil Jackson I don't care where he goes, just so long as he hurries his ass up so we don't have to talk about him for awhile, of course this guy is the master of getting people to pay attention to him and giving him exposure. Probably the only reason he's flirting with the Laker job because he knows that going back or the possibility of going back would get him all sorts of attention.

Have I mentioned I don't like Phil?

Someone in that Houston/Dallas series will win a home game, and whoever does first wins the series.

Apparently a nerve got touched. For implying to the national media that Mark Cuban is a whiny bitch and that the NBA referees are acting on special officiating orders regarding Yao Ming (and, to some degree, implying that the NBA has something against Chinese people), the NBA has fined Jeff Van Gundy...$100,000. Largest ever fine against a coach. I have to admit that while I feel for his pocketbook (unless someone in the organization pays the fine for him) I think the whole situation is pretty hilarious

Well Cuban is a whiny bitch, but I'm not sure that he ever got a fine under $100,000.

Cuban's fines are actually double the assessed amount, as he always makes a donation to charity for the amount of the fine (in addition to the fine). That is one reason that I can stand to watch him on the sidelines.

Yao Ming and T-Mac combine for 55 points, but the Mavs have six players in double figures as they hang on to win (with some luck) to go up 3-2.

I just listened to T-Mac in a post game interview. A very class act.

Great series.

DAYUM! DAA YUMM!

That was a CRAZY game tonight!

Im just speechless about the officiating, but it seems that they let the players actually play in OT.

I cant say enough about how great Denver played, they surely didnt play like a 7th seed.

Needless to say, i was having some high blood pressure throughtout the game and espescially in the 4th quarter.

I hope the Spurs close it out back home.

Maybe he is now, but he does have one of my favorite quotes from a few years ago with Orlando after going up 3-1 in the series over the Pistons. In a great prophetic statement he exclaimed "it's great to finally be in the second round of the playoffs" well somebody needed to explain to him that the first round had changed to best of seven and that there were still three more games to be played...all won by the Pistons.

What a crazy game in Denver last night! I feel terrible for Boykins, as he had an outstanding game -- he clearly hit a 3 pointer in the last few minutes (replay showed his foot was not even close to touching the line), but the refs only awarded him 2. The commentators say that in a game that close, that one point could make a big difference at the end, and whaddayaknow, without that one point, the game goes to overtime and the Nuggets get killed in the extra time.