2003-2004 NBA Season (1 Viewer)

[Hunter P]

Man, a bunch of really good games tonight as it turns out. A lot of close, hard fought games. Supreme among them was the Memphis 2OT win over Atlanta. Memphis had to hit a bunch of clutch shots to send the game to each OT (and pray for missed FTs to which the Hawks provided.) Unfortunately, I thought there was a blatant charge which was never called at the end of the game. Instead, of a charge on Posey, he passes to J-Dubb who hit a three. The refs were letting a lot of hard physical play go at the end of regulation and throughout the OTs. I like that they were letting the players decide the game but, to me, that looked like an easy call to make.

Honorable mention was the Minny/Houston game. Good preview for the first round of the playoffs.

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

The team giving Memphis all this trouble tonight...The Atlanta Hawks. If Atlanta were in the West they'd have a .500 record easy, ok maybe not but they seem to play all of the western teams very well.

 

[Hunter P]

I think if they would be fine if they would put in the same kind of effort for every game like they do when a big name team rolls into town. But you could say that for every team. Utah is an excellent example that the difference between the #1 lottery pick and the #8 seed in the playoffs is EFFORT.

(Note to self: send a couple of Red Bull cases to the Kings prior to every game for the rest of the season.)

 

[george kaplan]

I have no idea if the Lakers WILL run the table. I know they CAN run it, IF they put in the effort, something they don't always do. Certainly they have the talent to do so.

Then again, I agree with Casey that it doesn't really matter where they're seeded.

The only thing I do know for certain is that I am suffering from severe cognitive dissonance regarding Wednesday night, since I actually will be rooting for the Spurs to win. Whenever my 3 year old son and I watch a Spurs game, he's learned that they're the 'bad' guys. I guess I'll have to make sure I don't watch it with him, cause I'd have a hard time explaining to him why they're the 'good' guys, but just this once.

 

[Andy Sheets]

As a color announcer, he rivals Tommy Heinsohn as one of the biggest homers on TV today. In a way, it made the game more interesting listening to a guy talk about their teams as if it could do no wrong and the other team could do no right (unless it was pure luck, of course.) And they are the first to say on TV for all to hear that ref So-and-so has a long history of hating the (insert team name here).

He must have been having an off night. I've always found Calvin remarkably critical of the Rockets for a team announcer. He does it in a respectful way, of course, but the way he comes down on their execution or lack thereof and offers alternatives makes you wonder what he'd be like as a coach.

Really hope the sex charges turn out to be baseless. About the only thing worse for the franchise than Calvin being scum would be finding out that Yao Ming operates a slave ring and likes to run over kittens with a lawnmower :frowning:

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

Well, A.I is out for the rest of the regular season, so that means the 76ers should continue to do well.

 

[Hunter P]

He and Tracy can hang out in Vegas and bitch about their teams.

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

Lakers needed to come from 12 down tonight to beat the Hornets, and that's exactly what they did. Pacers lose a game tonight to the Bucks which is important for overall record reasons. I just need New York and Boston to lose 2 more games, and that will give us 2 sub .500 teams in the playoffs in the east no matter which teams end up making it. The 76ers also won tonight.

 

[Seth Paxton]

Man, no kidding. If I was a Philly fan I'd be feeling thankful at this point. Heck, if I was a Philly player I'd be thankful.

The refs were letting a lot of hard physical play go at the end of regulation and throughout the OTs

I may have already said it, but when the refs let the game be physical it always favors the less talented team.


Regarding effort, the bottom line is that no team can maintain an extremely intense level of play throughout the season or even in one game for 48 minutes. That's the illusion that fans of bad teams get "if only they tried that hard every night". Oh yeah, well what if the top teams put in a full effort every night too?

The fact is that teams get out of synch or find themselves in a matchup problem which is easy to do when you are changing the type of team you are up against every 2-3 days. That's what makes the playoffs so different, you are seeing teams with max intensity and all of the tricks and gimmicks are quickly eliminated. Plus you are playing a team more than you did the entire season in a much shorter period of time.


Along that line is the Bucks/Pacers which I don't think is a matter of effort. The Pacers did have to go without Tinsley but Anderson filled in well. The Bucks give the Pacers frontline problems and in all 3 wins they got to the line more than the Pacers, and by a 2-1 margin in both games in MIL. That's not "stepping up", that's a serious matchup problem for the Pacers.

I just hope the Pacers can win tonight in Indy to get back a little confidence just in case they end up against them in the playoffs, very possible as a 2nd round matchup.


Dallas is such a different team at home. The thing is that usually its the young teams that fall into that problem. I'm not sure what to make of it with the Mavs.


Cavs. They need to make up 2 games on NY/BOS or 4 on MIA. Looking at their schedule I think the Cavs could finish with only 2 more losses and that the Knicks could end up with 3 coming into the final game of the season which is vs the Cavs. That game looks to have real playoff implications. Cleveland has already won the season series against the Knicks too.

I guess I shouldn't count Philly or Toronto out just yet since they are only 1 more loss out right now. But they probably need to run the table or maybe only lose one more game.

 

[Chris Farmer]

Huge win for the Spurs tonight over Sacramento. That was a confidence booster they really needed, as well as helping them find some consistency going into the playoffs. Of course, they just helped LA reach a higher seed by making Sac's record worse, so it's only fair that we beat LA on Sunday just to keep things even.

 

[Hunter P]

Yeah, I don't know what the Spurs were thinking trying to win so badly. Who do they want to play more in the second round? The lowly, defenseless Kings or the all-mighty Lakers? Dammit, they should have just swollowed their pride and let the Kings have the season series.

 

[Chris Farmer]

No questions asked I want the Lakers in round 2. The Spurs and Kings I think are the only teams capable of beating LA, and nobody is better at building momentum then Phil Jackson. If the Lakers don't face the Spurs or Kings in the first two rounds, when they finally do face them in the WCF they'll be damn near unbeatable. At some point, either the Spurs or Kings are going to have to face LA. I'd much rather that be in round 2 then 3, before the momentum truly has started to get going.

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

I want the Lakers to face both Sacramento and San Antonio at junctures of the playoffs. Why? Because if L.A. only has to play one of those teams, I can about hear things now, well sure you won the title, but you only had to play 1 of the 2 really good teams in the west to do it. If we beat San Antonio, and Sacramento and then win the title, there will be no doubt, and no question about who the best team is. It would make it all the sweeter to have knocked off both teams and then won the title.

So Sacramento has to win the next 2 on the Texas swing to make Hunter's prediction come true. I'm ready for the games tomorrow night looking forward to them very much.

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

I just hope the Pacers can win tonight in Indy to get back a little confidence just in case they end up against them in the playoffs, very possible as a
2nd round matchup.

Well, given they won the game by a mere 33 points, I think its safe to say that they have a measure of confidence about facing them in round 2.

 

[george kaplan]

It was painful to have to root for the Spurs last night, but it's over. Now back to the way things should be. Although being April Fools Day, I suppose it would be appropriate to support them for one more day.

 

[Seth Paxton]

Along that line is the Bucks/Pacers which I don't think is a matter of effort.

Maybe they did just "step it up".

Actually one thing I noticed was that they were working very hard to cut Joe Smith off with aggressive double teaming. And I think O'Neal was a bit more focused on trying to stop him as well.

However, while those changes were going to give the Pacers the win, it went from a 10-12 point thing to 30 when every Pacer was knocking down the outside shot. Harrington in particular hit a rainbow fadeaway jumper over Smith that had no business going in, Artest was hitting many outside stepup jumpers right in people's faces, and the 3's were falling for almost everyone.

Say what you will but I think games often come down to who is on with the outside shot. Defense does affect the quality of those shots but any decent NBA offense should be able to get some open outside shots (maybe not inside stuff on good defenses) and if you can hit em then there isn't much the other team can do.

There were definitely shots last night going in that were tougher than the jumpers the Pacers weren't hitting against the Kings and Griz. I also think this is the biggest reason for home court advantages...a familiar shooting backdrop/environment. Obviously the crowd is another really big part of it too.


Anyway, message sent, goodbye Bucks, hello home court throughout the East and Carlisle becomes only the 2nd coach to start his career with 3 straight division champtionships. Not only that but he switched teams and TOOK THE DIVISION AWAY FROM the team that he had led to the division championship the first 2 years. Like Riley going from the Lakers to the Sonics and taking them to the division championship in his 3rd season over the Lakers.


Only 2 items left for Indy - 58 wins is the team record and of course the overall NBA homecourt which we be a huge advantage IMO should it come down to it. Right now the big number seems to be to go 5-2 which would be 60 wins and would guarantee home court vs everyone but the Kings right now. Jersey comes to Indy and there is the game in Detroit, but nothing tougher than that, at least no tougher than the Pacers choose to make it themselves.


Looks like the Kings are going to go 2-1 at best on the Texas road trip. Granted that was the toughest of the 3 matchups. Ginobili had a great 4th qtr last night and Rasho gave the Spurs a serious defensive boost. Turkoglu had a strong run in the 3rd to help keep the Kings at bay as well. Of course no Brad Miller had a huge impact on the game. You know Brad Miller was injured during most of Indy's 2nd half collapse last season too. Interesting parallel though not as drastic this season.


It's funny that the team lost in the wash right now seems to be Minny more than Sacto. They went from West darlings to possibly another 1st round exit realistically speaking. The Spurs could catch them which would likely put them up against the Griz in the first round and a Memphis win wouldn't exactly be a shocker at this point.


Miami just saved their butts by pulling out the road win (barely) in Atlanta. That might be just enough to put them in the playoffs for sure.


Iverson gives up, TMac gives up. Teams are both in the toilet. Sure justifies my own questions about either of them ever being legit MVP players. Iverson got it by Brown as coach and being allowed to chuck up as many shots as he wanted to get his points, but I don't think he made that team a winner on his own and I think this season proves it. You hear stuff like "well, he isn't as good this year, injuries and stuff" but I don't buy it. His attitude was terrible and its the same attitude he had when he did win MVP.

I understand guys sitting out with injuries when their team is out of it for the benefit of the team. However, as far as I can tell both AI and TMac are sitting out for the benefit of themselves instead of the team. Blame Grant Hill all you want but so far TMac has been a bust in terms of making his team a real competitor. Orlando was a mid to lower level playoff team which is exactly what they were the year before TMac joined them. And Toronto was a little better the year after TMac left.

Meanwhile AI's team plays better WITHOUT HIM. Yeah, that's a sign of an MVP, make your team worse when you are on the floor.

All I'm saying is that you see 2 guys quitting on their teams, bitching about their teams, and you sort of notice a pattern connecting their attitude to what they really bring to the team. I wouldn't exactly trade either guy for James Worthy or Bernard King, let along Magic, Bird, Jordan.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Anyway, message sent, goodbye Bucks, hello home court throughout the East and Carlisle becomes only the 2nd coach to start his career with 3 straight division champtionships. Not only that but he switched teams and TOOK THE DIVISION AWAY FROM the team that he had led to the division championship the first 2 years.

An interesting item regarding Carlisle's accomplishment is that the team he led to division titles the previous two seasons -- Detroit -- will finish with a better record this season than either of those two seasons, and his new team still finished ahead of them. So, it's not like the Pistons fell apart without him, but he was able to get Indiana to improve by a wide margin.

 

[Craig S]

More shocking news from Houston today:

http://www.clutchfans.net/index.cfm

 

[Joe Wilmore]

Until the least wins a championship, I think all discussion of that conference should stop. Indiana doesn't have any hope of beating the Lakers, or any decent team in the west. Their best player was riding the bench a few years ago in Portland. Does anyone really think that Jermaine can stop Shaq during the playoffs? The Lakers are significantly better at every position. Let's not forget that 2 years ago, the Lakers only lost 1 game during the entire playoffs. The only team that can beat the Lakers is themselves. Oh yeah, and it was also so fun to watch Chris Weber come close to tears when they lost to the Lakers last week. Everyone keeps talking about how they need Weber to win a championship. Why, was there a year they won the championship with Weber? I hope he gets a endorsement from kleenex.

 

[Hunter P]

Everybody keeps talking about how they need Payton and Malone to win a championship. Why? Was there a year they won the championship with them?

p.s. Why is Webber so difficult for you to spell?

Joe,
Do us all a favor and take your rantings over to the message boards on espn.com to nba.com. There are plenty of your kind there to play pattycakes with. They love to have year round discussions about how "the Lakers rule" and "everyone else sucks." In those boards, using the "just because I said so" defense is viewed as a legititmate reason for backing up your arguments.

Unfortunately, the HTF crowd has a little more grounding in reality. You're going to have to give actual evidence and sound conclusions in your arguments. Leave the civilized sports talk to the adults in the room. You might hurt yourself.