Haven't been up on the blog lately, but there's been plenty going on in the league:- The Mavs became the latest casualty of the Nuggets Express last night, being convincingly beaten in a series that stirred up an alarming amount of controversy. Mark Cuban's no doubt got some sort of class-action lawsuit pending against referee Mark Wunderlich and David Stern, but regardless of the blatant no-call, Dallas stood little chance in this series. It was gracious of the league to acknowledge they screwed up, but it probably does little to quell the anger in the hearts of Dallas fans (sidebar: is Mark Cuban for real? Confronting a player's mom courtside after a heated loss? Come on man, you've been here before. You know there's a hundred cameras and mics around and seconds after your team took a controversial loss, they're probably mostly aimed at you. Probably the worst time to do something so indecent.) Denver doesn't need to feel like they stole this series; they were clearly the better team, and possibly the best in the West right now...
- Which leads us to the Lakers and their struggles to finish off the Remains of the Rockets. Dare I say a Phil Jackson team's becoming complacent, but even in their victories this series, LA hasn't looked like the fearsome juggernaut everyone took them for coming into the playoffs. Houston had no business stealing two from them, even before Yao went down (...you really weren't expecting it?). While their supposedly imminent Finals opponents have been ruining everyone in their path, the Lakeshow's drumming up memories of their Finals meltdown last year; just not looking like they want it bad enough.
- Celtic Pride's at a fever pitch; after a marathon victory in the first round, Boston's taken the upper hand against a heavily-favored Magic squad that's finally delving into its much-belated second half collapse. I'd love to attribute Boston's success to the monumental void-filling of Rajon Rondo, but Big Baby and Kendrick Perkins have been rocks down low, playing the best ball of their careers when their team needed it most. Either way, both of these teams are looking like cannon fodder for the Cavs next round.
- The recent outburst of suspensions has everybody in the league afraid to raise so much as a forearm. Several series have reached boiling points and it's totally understandable that the league wants to regulate contact and hopefully prevent players from having to "justify their thug". Still though, it's getting a little ridiculous with coaches lobbying for calls like protesting hippies and players forced to play under that umbrella of doubt about what might land them on the bench next game. If the league wants to truly prevent indecent contact on the court, do it through consistent and disciplined officiating; something they've done very poorly thus far this year.
- Danny Granger also took down the MIP. For some reason we found this out about a week after Lebron took down the MVP and people stopped really caring about the awards. I don't get the timing but I can kinda agree with the selection. Granger became a scoring beast this season, most of his best games coming against his toughest opponents. His numbers jumped out so much as to earn him an All-Star berth on a God-awful team, an honor rarely seen in this age. Next he'll have to prove he can do it on a winning team, but it's not looking like the Pacers are going to be one anytime soon. Oh well, congrats.
Got a couple game 6's coming up tonight, one should be a doozy, the other? Well...im hoping for the best. Be back in a few days. RIP Chuck Daly.
