Playoff Diary: Twelve Days In

- The Spurs have fallen! Rejoice! For the first time in Tim Duncan's illustriously dominant career, he's taken an L in the opening round, meaning the Spurs have officially lost their ten-year grip on contender status. Good f***ing riddance; over the reign of the Duncan Dynasty, the Spurs gave you few reasons to cheer for them. They were never the most exciting team (often the most boring), rarely would have any obstacles to overcome and were seldom the most honorable. They were just excruciatingly good; a finely-tuned machine of monotonous execution, spawned out of a fluke David Robinson injury that essentially allowed for a West contender to pick up what would become the best power forward ever. Their horrific conquest of the NBA spanned many years, but now they're forced back to the drawing board by an aging and injury-prone roster. It's finally over.

- ...Now that I have that off my chest, how bout that Bulls/Celts series? Wow. Best thing to happen to the NBA's first round since the Golden State Warriors. What I love the most is Boston's Ubuntu-esque "we're not giving up, we're survivors" attitude throughout the series. Honestly? You're playing the fucking Bulls, easily the rawest team in the playoffs. 3 games have gone to overtime and if Ben Gordon ever learns to pass out of double teams your season will end. Paul Pierce has been dynamite in the clutch, but his team needs to stop acting like this is the Finals and what they're accomplishing is of much significance.

- Dwight Howard's been ballin' out of control. Not only has he waxed the glass like a high-rise window washer against Philly, but he's probably just become the first player in history to sideline two players on his squad with separate inadvertent elbows.

- Carmelo Anthony, meet the second round; it was nice knowin' ya New Orleans. The "Big Easy" can now also refer to the resistance the Hornets put up this past week. This team was just too hurt and too offensively inept to hang with the Nuggets, who are looking more thorough every game. Chris Paul was outplayed consistently probably for the first time in his career, and ironically, it was the absence of the guy they tried to ship out mid-season that looked to have hurt them the most. 58-point blowout? These are the kind of thing we just don't expect in the postseason. 

- I was pretty high this morning when I was peepin the highlights from last night's Heat/Hawks game, but did Josh Smith really try to go between the legs in a game? And shank it? That guy's got stones. I know the series is getting physical and these squads are trying to put one over on each other any chance they can get, but Josh, c'mon. You serve up enough demoralizing dunks that you shouldn't be worried about turning the waning minutes of a blowout win into All-Star Saturday Night. You looked dumb and this did nothing to repair your long-damaged relationship with a coach who isn't going anywhere soon. 

Rajon Rondo for MVP. After the Hawks, Rockets and Celts close out these series this weekend I'll be back with some second round previews. Peace.