::pukes on horse::
Son of a!
LOL!!! Nice. That’s why I don’t predict specific games. I can barely tell who will win a series, let alone a single game. My Spurs in 6 pick is already looking bad.
Anyway, wow, I’d like to say that I watched the entire game but I was too busy watching JUSTIN VERLANDER THROW A FUCKING NO-HITTER!!! HOLY CRAP!!! Seriously, that was awesome. The best part is there’s always one point in a game when you’re just casually watching a game and then it suddenly hits you that it’s a no-hitter…it hit me right after the 6th and I was glued to the TV from then on. Man, I was nervous. It’s great to be able to say that you watched someone on your own team do it, especially a guy as great as Verlander. Just think…all the seagulls on the field will be able to tell their baby chicks that they were there for a no-hitter.
Seriously, I ended up watching most of the 2nd quarter and the second half of the Cavs game. Anyway, stuff from Game 3:
-For one, I was VERY surprised at how well the refs were calling the game, particularly in the second half. I was starting to wonder about the refs when Duncan was collecting fouls left and right in the first half and figured he’d be fouled out by the end of the 3rd quarter but then LeBron had just as many (and amazingly, he didn’t sit for 9 straight minutes! Genius!!). Still, the refs improved a lot in the second half and just let the guys play and despite the horrific shooting, I found the game strangely entertaining in a no-one-can-score-so-every-point-scored-is-MEGA-important kind of way. I actually read a theory by some sports writer on ESPN that the NBA actually sends its terrible refs during a lop-sided series since they are easily swayed by the home crowd and always give calls to superstars in an attempt to sway the series. It made a lot of sense, but I guess that’s only the case for when teams are playing against the Pistons (I’m KIDDING!!!) 
-Also, I also really love Jon Barry. Not just because he’s a former Piston but he’s HILARIOUS on the ESPN staff. The best part is his constant mockery of his brother Brent Barry which he did at the end of the game. The best was when he was calling one of the Spurs/Suns games earlier this year and was cracking on Brent throughout the game since he’s the only guy who can openly mock one of the players. When Brent retires, they need to put those two on an announcing team together. It’d be comedy gold. I actually heard an interview with both of them at the same time on local Detroit radio and it was hilarious.
-Oh…and what a surprise. Larry Hughes just HAPPENS to be unable to play this game and Boobie Gibson starts…and, what a shocker, he was actually fast enough to stay in front of Tony Parker and limited him to mostly jump-shots. It’s almost like I was right…yet it took Mike Brown two full games to figure this out. Sigghhh…
-Anyway, about LeBron’s last play…yeah he was fouled, but why was he complaining? If he was smart, he would have noticed that Bowen fouled him BEFORE the shot. That would have sent LeBron to the line with only two free-throws which wouldn’t have done him crap being down by three. Yeah, he could have intentionally bricked one free-throw and gone for the tip-and-shot but that works about 1% of the time plus the Cavs had no timeouts left either so getting another possession was out of the question…the ref did LeBron a favor by letting him take the three. And, I’m sorry…it’s just pathetic seeing LeBron bitch about fouls when no one gets more leeway from the refs than he does. Oh…and, by the way, considering how much that Cleveland fans ripped on us here in Detroit when we complained about the lopsided or blown calls, it sure isn’t as funny when it happens to you, is it? Karma’s a bitch, Cleveland.
-The biggest problem…what about the play BEFORE that? LeBron charges the lane, turns around and dishes it to…Anderson Varajao??? WHAT?? I couldn’t believe he did that! Even Varajao himself seemed shocked by it. It’s was like he got the ball and he thought “What? I can’t shoot jumpers!! Why did he give me the ball!?” then he tried to make a weak drive and shot but with Tim Duncan in the way there wasn’t much chance of a decent shot. I don’t even blame Varajao…he shouldn’t have had the ball in that situation ever. Drew Gooden, who was the only other guy on the Cavs aside from LeBron who was hitting shots had fouled out so they ran the same jumper play that they were running with Gooden with Varajao??? WHAT?? That was a FAR worse play than the Donyell Marshall pass in Game 1. Come on, LeBron…THINK! Can the comparisons with Jordan stop yet? Do we need more proof?
-Also, did anyone else notice that Varajao took the flopping thing to the next level? Ginobli charged the lane and brushed by the stomach of Varajao and somehow got called for a foul for it as Varajao flopped to the floor (Van Gundy’s “there’s a charge on EVERY play if they’re calling that” comment was priceless). Anyway, after the foul, Varajao actually LEFT THE GAME with a supposed injury. Then one minute earlier, he was fine and checked back in. He’s taking the soccer thing to the next level!! Instead of just flopping like a soccer player, he’s now flopping AND faking an injury and being removed from the game like a soccer player. I can only assume that in Game 4, he’ll step it up even more and actually need a stretcher to take him off the court into the back, then 30 seconds later he’ll crawl off the stretcher and run back from the locker room.
Finally, here’s yet another article on the series by Bill Simmons from ESPN. He did a “running diary” of Game 1 where he posts his comments as he watches the game go on. I usually don’t post these unless they’re REALLY funny and this is one of his best yet. It’s hilarious. Check it out.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/070608
Stevo
Wow, Hank was right. Broomtown.
I really didn’t see that coming, I thought it would go 6 games.
The Spurs have the highest winning percentage in the NBA Finals of any team in NBA history.
And doesn’t Eva Longoria look like she’s enjoying this a bit too much?
Yeah, I could have done without the 500 billion shots of Eva during the game and the awards ceremony. She’s fast becoming the most annoying athlete wife ever…she’s one or two annoying interviews away from knocking down Brenda Warner and that’s saying alot.
Anyway, can we put the Jordan comparisons on hold for LeBron now? I’ve never seen a superstar more neutered than I have seeing LeBron. I mean EVERY TIME he passed that ball to one of his open teammates they missed…it seemed like EVERY time…and yet he KEPT doing it!!!..Over and Over again!! I mean how many times did Donyell Marshall brick a shot?..Did he make a single one?? I mean how many games did they need to blow before he said “Screw it…there’s no point in trying to involve my teammates here since we’re too late into the playoffs to work on our teamwork anyway…I need to actually win one of these games” and just started jacking up every shot. I mean, it couldn’t have gone worse…even the announcers were begging for it. Of course, LeBron couldn’t make many shots ever when he did anyway. Of course, to be fair, Jordan didn’t have a big jump-shot either and was an average defender at best when he started but he worked on those parts of his game. Then later on he developed a three-point shot too. LeBron might need all that stuff before he’s in the conversation. Oh yeah…and a supporting cast that doesn’t royally blow would help. If the Cavs don’t help him out, then he’s gonna blow out of there.
And boy…just when Mike Brown couldn’t get worse he finds a way. With 40 seconds left and only down by 7 or so, he LOOKED like he was conceding the game by letting the Spurs run the clock down to about 20 seconds. Then after the next two posessions, he starts fouling!!? HUH?? I don’t get it! Then Ginobli made that retarded foul on Damon Jones and they had no time left to even make a decent comeback despite Manu’s error. Even down to the end, Mike Brown was clueless. He may have passed Mike Dunleavy for the worst Finals Coach ever on that one…it’s still debateable but it’s close.
Though kudos to Mike for putting in Michigan State’s own Shannon Brown in the Final minutes of the game just to give him some time…as an MSU fan, that was nice. Of course, it was also incredibly stupid since if the Cavs got a steal off the inbound pass, they would have been stuck with Shannon on the court for a final play to tie who hadn’t played in a playoff game yet this year. As always, I was forever confused.
By the way, good job by Cleveland fans to chant “Buuuulll-shit” after a perfectly obvious call when LeBron tipped the ball on the jump-ball before it reached the apex. Way to know your basketball, Cleveland. Of course, they didn’t know they had a b-ball team until LeBron arrived so I guess they need a few more years to study. Heh.
And was anything more annoying that guy who kept whooping like a monkey during EVERY Spurs possession in the 4th quarter!? Didn’t he realize that none of the Spurs could hear him? I don’t mind it that much but can you imagine being in the same section as that guy?..I would have frickin jammed my beer cup down his throat. My goodness…
Anyway, the Finals were predictabe and somewhat stale but it’s always nice to see the Spurs win. The NBA emphasizes superstars but the least-hyped superstar and the TEAM concept won yet again. And as always the NBA hypes offense, offense, offense and once again a great defensive team won yet again. Yet I GUARANTEE you that once again we’ll see the same NBA “experts” predicting that the offense-heavy teams like the Suns and Mavs will win it all next year. They never learn.
Lastly, WHAT DO I DO NOW??? No hockey. No b-ball. No football. Yeah there’s baseball but I need more than that. What the heck do I watch?? I wish I could just hibernate until college football starts. Hellloooooo Dead Zone.
Stevo
WITNESS THIS, LEBRON
http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/photos?photoId=1600678&gameId=270614005
Yeah, I hate the lull in good sports viewing this time of year.
Wait a second, I still have golf every Saturday and Sunday.
If there’s not men’s golf on (for whatever reason), I’m not even opposed to watching women’s golf. There. I said it. But there are some hot golfers out there.
Since we all know male golf!ers have the hottest sports wives, is it a corollary that women golf!ers have the hottest husbands?
Who will be the first pro golf!ing husband/wife combo ala Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi?
Also, sub-question, is it better to burn out than fade away?
Be ashamed your tongue-fingers ever spewed such blasphemy!
Lebron"s 4th year = No post season awards, No title.
Michael’s 4th year = Slam dunk champ, steals leader, scoring title, All Star MVP, League MVP and oh yeah DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR. No title.
Don’t make me have to teach you the Jordan rules again! ;D Mwahahahahahaha
The last time I was in an airport some fat bastard was telling his two sons that Jordan was great on offense but lazy and sucked at defense. I almost said “hey, beergut, the guy won a freaking defensive MVP award, not to mention he was on the first-team all-NBA defensive team several years.”
all those times that ball thing went through that hoop device i was all sorts of happy.
i was told to be…should i not have been?
what are you saying?
To be fair, I thought that LeBron should have been the MVP last year rather than Nash winning his second. He carried that team even more-so than this year. MVP voting is a joke nowadays anyway. I mean Dirk as MVP? Please…
And yeah…Jordan was weak on D when he first entered the league but he worked on it. LeBron’s got a long way to go on his D…there’s some plays where I have no idea what he’s doing.
Stevo
Worst. Finals. Ever.
Yeah. I’ve been watching the NBA playoffs since the late 80s, and I can’t remember one that I was less interested in.
Maybe the 2 years those dopey Nets made it. Everyone knew they didn’t stand a chance.
Yeah, the Nets/Lakers series in 2002 was about as pathetic as this one. At least this year’s had LeBron on the Cavs…though perhaps it was even MORE disappointing in how we were all waiting for LeBron to say “screw it” and just start jacking up every shot and NEVER did it. At least in the Nets series we got to watch Jason Kidd working his ass off in a losing effort. I’m not even sure if LeBron was trying by Game 3.
Stevo
Hey, we made it to the Finals.
I couldn’t care less if YOU enjoyed it or not.
I couldnt care less if someone else enjoyed any of these playoffs. The league’s awful. Its gone back to the late seventies when teams like the Sonics and Bullets were meeting up in the Finals and nobody cared. The NBA is one step away from being Hockey. Basketball was my favorite sport as a kid. I loved watching the NBA. After the 99 lockout year it just lost something.
Just I try to get out they puuuuullllll me back in…
Man, I love the NBA draft. There’s a number of reason. For one, the entire thing is four hours long. The NFL took SIX hours for just their first round. I watched the entire bloody draft and was in bed by midnight. There’s only five minutes between picks in the first round and two minutes between picks in the second. Now THAT’S how you run a draft.
Things I noticed:
-Jay Bilas is an idiot. I have NO idea why this guy is considered an expert. I’m convinced that he hasn’t watched a single one of these players play a college game. All I hear about is “upside potential” and “wingspan” and “long” and other lame buzzwords. And my favorite is when he says a guy “isn’t athletic.” What? What does this even mean? If a kid plays 30 minutes a game in college and isn’t exhausted by the end of it, then isn’t he athletic? Unless a player is a fat slob then how can he not be athletic? This dude drives me nuts. You need no further evidence than when he had a white stiff like Josh McRoberts sitting on his “Top Prospects” list for hours before he was finally selected in Round 2 followed by Bilas gushing over him. Then he ranked Atlanta as one of the big “losers” of the draft which made no sense and he didn’t even explain why. I mean they needed a point guard and wisely waited on it to grab Horford at #3 then got the best PG in the draft in Acie Law anyway. How is that bad? Seriously, even a screaming nutjob like Stephen A. Smith makes more sense.
-I had no idea what Portland was doing. They grabbed Oden which was fine and I figured that with him, Zach Randolph would be able to do more combined with Brandon Roy who was awesome last year. Instead they trade Zach to the Knicks!!? What? And what did they get in return?.. ----- and Steve Francis and his ridiculous contract? What? WHY? They got NOTHING for a 20-10 guy!!! And, of course, that idiot Bilas LOVED the deal since he loves how the Blazers have blown up their entire team in the last two years to get good “character” guys. Last I checked, no one’s ever won a title with “character.” Also, last I checked, blowing up your entire team NEVER works. Ever. Third, Bilas doesn’t know of the one-crazy-guy rule. I basically states that any team can be okay with only ONE crazy guy but no more than one. If you get two or more crazy guys, their craziness feeds off each other and creates major problems. But if you have one nutjob but he’s surrounded by good guys then things work out. Rasheed won a title with the Pistons. Stephen Jackson was a big help for the Spurs in their title (and was a big help with Golden State last year). Even Artest was only getting in minor trouble with the Pacers but the second they combined him with Stephen Jackson, they were both flying into the Detroit stands two months into the season. Zach Randolph could have easily worked in Portland and instead they dumped him off for nothing. That’s possibly the first time in history that Isiah’s ever ripped someone ELSE off in a draft.
-Ray Allen to the Celtics. I can’t say I mind the move of dumping Ray Allen. It just wasn’t working in Seattle. But what they received…Delonte West and ----?? Yeah, they got Jeff Green but they should have gotten something better. Basically aside from Paul Pierce and Al Jefferson everyone on the Celtics blows so they should have gotten one of them or else it was a waste. So now the Celtics can roll out Pierce/Jefferson/Allen and Seattle has a rookie and Delonte West? And what if Rashard Lewis doesn’t stick around. Seattle could be screeewwwwed. Everyone’s ranting that this Sam Presti is some hot new GM but I’m not impressed.
-Jason Richardson to Charlotte? I don’t mind it THAT much. Charlotte’s been trying to roll out a team almost completely composed of a who’s-who of young college stars and it’s not working so they definitely needed a veteran guy to settle things down. The trade works IF Brandon Wright becomes a star…except I think he’s very overrated so I’d say that Golden State got the sad side of the deal. But I could be wrong so who knows. By the way, when did Michael Jordan become the GM of the Bobcats. I swear, EVERY TIME these guys mentioned the Bobcats, they HAD to mention Jordan. Guys…he’s a partial minority OWNER of the team. He’s not the President, he’s not the GM, he don’t run the team. I’m sure he’s got input and stuff but why did ESPN give him credit for every pick and decision like he was the SOLE decision maker? I remember even seeing a graphic as they went to commercial that said “Up Next: MJ and the Bobcats pick” MJ and the Bobcats??? Is that the new name of the team? Are they now the Charlotte Jordans? Seriously, this bloody obsession and worship of Jordan by ESPN is just sickening. He’s a great player!! I get it!! You don’t need to jam him down my throat at every opportunity. Besides, if he really is the sole decision-maker of Charlotte than it’s a mistake since he was terrible as the Wizards GM. His greatest decision of that period was “Bah, I can’t pick players at all…I know…I’ll just play for them myself!!” GREAT idea, Michael.
-The 76ers are, as always, laughable. For one, they grabbed ---- when both Julian Wright and Al Thornton were on the board. They pick a Taurean Green which I thought was a good pick but then they immediately traded him to Miami for yet another big white stiff in Jason Smith from Colorado State. Then later on they were just buying picks for cash. I swear it was like GMs were playing a game where they were calling up Billy King with the most inane and stupid deals just to see how he would react, then they were shocked and amazed when he said yes. That’s what it felt like.
-The Spurs. I love how I predicted the Spurs pick. I literally said: “Watch…the Spurs will pick some foreign guy that we’ve never heard of who we won’t see again for two or three years who will suddenly show up on their roster and be really good” and sure enough, they grabbed that guy from Italy. Hilarious. It’s like the Spurs are twenty steps ahead of everyone.
-And as a fine Chicago-hater, I’d be remissed if I didn’t mock their pick. So wait…the Bulls got beat in the playoffs because they didn’t have a low-post scorer and undersized guards so they go ahead a draft a guy with virtually no offensive skills who is basically identical to Luol Deng on defense at #9? Okay. Whatever you say, Bulls. Have fun with that. I can’t wait for the game of HORSE between him and Ben Wallace.
-Anyway, my Pistons. Eh. Hard to say. I was really getting more and more bummed as the Pistons #15 came up. I was really hoping they would get Julian Wright, Al Horford or Acie Law and ALL THREE went off the board one-by-one as the Pistons pick came up. I only saw this Rodney Stuckey guy in one game in the Big Sky Finals so I only knew a little bit about him but I know that I did NOT want Nick Young from USC…that guy didn’t impress me at all. Stuckey sounds like he’s a scorer who can charge the basket and create his own shot which is what the Pistons need so I guess I’m okay with it for now. I thought the Afflalo pick was cool too since the kid plays some mean defense which fits in perfect with the Stones. It was strange that they drafted three guards though…I hope they have a clue where they’re getting a center.
And yeah, I liked the commercials with Durant and Gilbert Arenas but I found it pretty funny when they was that one commercial when they had Durant make this spin move and totally school Gilbert and then take it to the basket and Gilbert’s all shocked. Why were you shocked Gilbert?..You can’t defend anyone anyway…why would you be shocked at Durant schooling you? Not only were the commercials funny, they were accurate too.
Oh…and is there a bigger shocker than ESPN running commercials for a mini-series on the Yankees? Big shocker there. No it’s not enough that they spend 15-minutes on every Sportscenter to yammer about the Yankees, show 50% of their games on national TV and run 24/7 coverage of Roger Clemens and have careful analysis of when he blows his nose…no now we need a mini-series of the Yankees in the 70’s. Why don’t they just throw Michael Jordan in there as well so they can have both of their most overplayed and tired obsessions together in one show. Gimmie a break.
Stevo
::claps hands for Stevo::
Bro, we need to get a beer sometime and talk sports!