Celtics and Cavs stage an NBA playoff game for the ages

Yesterday's Celtics/Cavs Game 7, which featured a memorable mano-a-mano shootout between Paul Pierce and LeBron James, hearkened back to the glory days of the NBA.

As I sat on my couch watching Game 7 of the 2008 Eastern Conference Semifinals, witnessing a spectacular battle between All Stars Paul Pierce and LeBron James, I told my son the game reminded me of one of the epic playoff confrontations I grew up watching, like Bird & Dominique, Bird & Magic or Bird & Jordan.

Now, thanks to the Truth and the King, he will have his own playoff classic to recount from his childhood to his kids.

The Celtics defeated James' Cavaliers, 97-92, yesterday at the new Garden, which sounded awfully similar to the old Gahden, especially when the traditional Hub chant of "BULLSHIT!" echoed through the building and the surround sound after a few questionable calls late in the game, and earned the right to take on the Detroit Pistons in the Conference Finals starting Tuesday.

But this game will not be remembered for that, nor for the final score, nor for the sight of Tom Brady wearing a San Francisco Giants hat courtside.

No this one will be remembered for two men bringing the NBA back to relevance, for rekindling the fire in old school basketball fans' bellies by melding memories of immortal league legends with feats of present day superstars to create an everlasting image of how great NBA playoff basketball can be.

For four quarters Sunday afternoon James and Pierce played a full court version of "tag, you're it", each scoring at will early and often while challenging each other to match one big shot for another as they took their teams, fans and a nation of enthralled viewers along for the ride.

LeBron wound up with 45 points on 14-29 shooting including 15 in the final frame, and Pierce ended up scoring 41, 17 of those coming in the second quarter when Boston built a double digit lead, only to see it dwindle down to a single basket thanks to James' heroics.

At one point late in the game, after a pair of Bron treys cut the Boston lead to three points, Pierce stood at the free throw line with the outcome still in the balance and his stat sheet sitting at 39 points. As he shot the first freebie the ball hit the back of the rim and bounced straight up in what appeared to be a late game brick from a tired player.

But miraculously the ball plopped straight back down and through the net, ringing 4-0on Pierce's point register and ensuring the Celts were going to pull this one out.

As a nervous smile spread across a relieved Pierce's face, the rest of the NBA fans smiled as well.
In a series that had been about as painful to watch as an episode of Cashmere Mafia, the duo not only revitalized the semifinals but may have possibly brought the sport of NBA basketball back from the abyss.

With the recent infusion of entitled youngsters, gigantic guaranteed salaries and a business-first mentality that has permeated the Association in the past decade, not to mention a crushing referee betting scandal, the league has taken numerous hits of late, both PR and fan interest-wise.

Sure there have been some memorable postseason games played the last few years. The Suns and Lakers have been involved in a few, Dallas and Golden State Game 7 last year was epic, and the Spurs have had a couple of gems during their run of dominance this decade.

But not since the 80s have we seen a truly memorable scoring duel between two NBA superstars in a crucial Game 7, and rightfully so this one is being called the greatest series-deciding duel since Bird and Dominique Wilkins in 1987.

In that game Larry Legend was, well, legendary, dropping in shots from all over the court en route to a monster 20-point 4th quarter and 34 point night. But as good as Legend was 'Nique was even better, pouring in 47 points on a barrage of layups, jumpers and rim-rattling dunks, but his Hawks ultimately lost to my Cs 118-116 in a game that has been called one of the greatest game 7s of all time.

Until now.

I'm not suggesting yesterday's game, which had enough suspense, thrills and jaw-dropping moments to qualify as a summer theatrical blockbuster , was better than that one.

But I am saying that thanks to the efforts of two special players, the torch has finally been passed from one generation to the next.

"We both tried to will our team to victory and, just like Dominique Wilkins, I ended up on the short end and the Celtics won again," James said. "I think the second round of the postseason, Game 7, these fans will finally have an opportunity to forget a little bit about what Larry Bird and Dominique Wilkins did and remember what Paul and LeBron did. This will go down in history."

Amen, King James.

Thankfully, we were all witnesses.

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Who's your daddy? Spurs sweep Cavs

LeBron became a father (again) early Thursday morning, then he & his team got bitchslapped like newborns by the Spurs en route to their 4th title

The giddy yet reserved Spurs raise another championship trophy

Thank you, Cleveland.

Thanks for not dragging this lopsided series out any longer than absolutely necessary, because if these teams had to play any more games over this weekend, the television ratings would have given new meaning to the phrase "friends & family only."

Instead of making the American public go through that kind of misery, Cleveland did the right thing and succumbed to the inevitable eventuality of San Antonio achieving its fourth title in the last nine years (1999, 2003, 2005, 2007), putting up a fight till the end but ultimately coming up just short, losing 83-82.

Tony Parker, a.k.a. the Luckiest Man on the Face of the Planet, was named the Finals MVP after he averaged nearly 24 points/game and was a major offensive catalyst in three of the four Spurs wins.

3-time champion, Finals MVP, and engaged to one of the hottest women on the planet-dontcha just fucking hate this guy!

LeBron scored 24 points after his girlfriend gave birth to their second child at around 1:oo am, but he was 10-30 from the field and did not shoot the ball well all series (36%)

Tim Duncan racked up his fourth title while Parker notched his third and first MVP trophy just a few weeks before his Paris wedding to Eva Longoria, who wept court side when her man's name was announced as the MVP.

Everybody now- awwwwwwwwwww! (Lucky bastard!)

Anyway, so now that's over and everyone can get around to doing whatever it is they do when the NBA isn't on. And judging by the abysmal ratings for this series, that would be exactly the same thing they do when the NBA is on.

King James and his paupers surprised everyone and had a nice run, but unfortunately it all came to a crashing halt. Now all they need to do is find a coach with balls, a guard who can distribute the rock so James doesn't always have to, and a big man who doesn't have lead feet (Ilgauskas), hands of stone (Varejao) or a stupid tuft of hair on the back oif his neck (Gooden.)

Until then, here's some more pictures from the last NBA game of the 2006-07 season.

Enjoy.

Move over Ashley; we have a new "Hottest Sports Fan"

Do you think she was taking a picture of me?!

...maybe...

NOT!

Spurs: 2007 NBA Champions

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The day LBJ saved the NBA

LeBron, the hero of GM 5, congratulates Gibson, the hero of GM 6 as the Cavs head to the Finals

The San Antonio Spurs and the Detroit Pistons were both supposed to make it to the NBA Finals this year.

The Spurs fulfilled their end of the deal.

But somebody forgot to send LeBron James and the Cavaliers a copy of the script.

Tonight the James Gang flipped that NBA script right on its old guard as the upstart Cavs knocked off the 5-time Conference finalist Pistons to reach its first Finals in Cleveland history.

James (20 pts, 14 rebs, 8 ass) didn't have the monster game like he had in Game 5, but he didn't need to. With a career-high 31 points from rising star guard Daniel Gibson and another solid defensive effort that helped limit Tayshaun Prince to five points and Chauncey Billips to nine, the Cavs used a complete team effort to defeat the ultimate "team" in the league.

And so LeBron, dubbed the next Jordan, the face of the NBA, and the franchise since entering the league four years ago, will lead his team to the Finals faster than any young phenom this side of Dwayane Wade, and if the energized, youthful Cavs were to knock off the stoic, playoff veteran Spurs, when then there would be a new poster boy for in the NBA.

And his name is King James.

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Will they get off LeBron's back now?!

An incredible, amazing, fantastic, yes, even Jordan-esque performance from LeBron James elevates the Cavaliers to the brink of the Finals

Check out 'Sheed's face as Bron nails yet another clutch jumper

"One of the great performances all-time in playoff history."--Marv Albert

"Did you know that you were this good?"--Craig Sager
LeBron, smiling sheepishly-- "No."

LeBron James' Nike campaign slogan uses the brilliant subtlety of a simple word: 'Witness'.

Tonight we did.

I'm not really sure to begin describing what I just witnessed, as the Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the Detroit Pistons, 109-107 in double-overtime to take a 3-2 series lead, but I guess I'll start with the numbers, because they are so mind-boggling:

• 48 total points
• 25 consecutive Cavs points to end the game
• scored 28 of his team's last 29 points
• 35 points after halftime
• 18-33 from field
• 9 rebs, 7 assists, 2 steals

But numbers don't always do a story justice, and this game tonight between the Pistons and Cavs was about much more than numbers, although the Cavaliers are happy to be headed home with a 3-2 series advantage.

Because more than just put up nearly half a hundy en route to knocking off the 5-time conference finalist Pistons in their own building in double OT, King James took his custom Nikes and stomped on all the haters who have criticized his every move, endorsement deal and ill-advised pass on his way to becoming the face of the NBA.

Perhaps all the griping had to do with the fact that he was a poster boy for over-exposed high school athletes from the age of 14, or that he inked a $90 million dollar contract with the swoosh empire before he ever laced up a sneaker on an NBA court....

...or it might have been the fact that he has never given the haters reason to actually hate him; he's stayed clean off the court, has never been seen brandishing a firearm, wagering on 'roided-up Rotties, or raining bags full of his millions down on unsuspecting exotic dancers. Sure he had an incident or two, like walking off the court or snubbing a teammate or coach here and there...

...but c'mon, the kid is just 22 and in four years has given hoop fans more highlights and memorable moments this side of Dwayne Wade, and with Wade hurting and the Cavs poised to make it to the Finals for the first time in franchise history, the time is now for LeBron to silence his critics and take the league by the balls.

Tonight LeBron did something that few other players have done since His Airness exited the league-the first time: put his team on his back and willed them to victory by scoring a slew of outrageous, jaw-dropping shots from all over the court and stunning a favored team in their own crib.

He hit long fadeaways. He hit driving layups. He nailed threes. He got fouled and hit 10-14 free throws. Oh yeah, and he had three monster dunks late in the game, plus a knifing layup through four Pistons that turned out to be the game winner.

Tonight, all critics will reluctantly agree, was truly LeBron's "welcome to the NBA" moment.

I'm just glad I got to witness it.

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NBA Playoffs starting to resemble the WWE

If you see this man on the street or outside a strip club at 3:00 am, please run quickly in the opposite direction

Ejections, technicals, suspensions, near-brawls, hip checks into the side boards, bloodied noses, clotheslines, name-calling, finger-pointing and oh yeah, an infamous knee-to-the-groin.

No, this isn't the Stanley Cup playoffs on Versus, it's your 2007 NBA Playoffs on TNT and the ESPN family of networks.

While the Eastern Conference semis (CLE/NJ; DET/CHI) have been about as electrifying as a night lite, the wild, wild Western Conference semis are providing enough entertainment & bloodshed to qualify as a sequel to "300".

The series between the Golden State Warriors and Utah Jazz has ranged from chippy to downright dirty. The culmination of all that jazz came at the end of Game 4, when Baron Davis threw a flying elbow smash to Derek Fisher's dome followed by Jason Richardson clotheslining of Utah's Memhet Okur, a play that nearly incited a riot at Whatever They're Calling it Now Arena.

Curiously, neither player was suspended for their gutless action, but Richardson was tossed from the game.

The Warriors certainly live up to their cinematic namesakes; every game they clang empty Pepsi bottles together off the ends of their fingers as if to say "come out to play" to any team that dare oppose them. If it's not Davis or Richardson defending their turf, it's Stephen "Action" Jackson, a man who never met a shot, or a shotgun, he didn't like, or Mad Matt Barnes, who throws his body around like a bathtowel with a rattail all game long.

I'm gonna miss these guys now that they've been eliminated. Guess I'll have to wait for the sequel.

But just because the Bay Area Badasses have left the building, that doesn't mean the bad blood and cheap shots have to stop. No, the other semi between the Spurs and Suns has gone from bad (Nash's bloody schnozz ) to worse (Bruce Bowen's knee to Nash's nether regions) to worse-er, as a late cheap shot but Robert Horry on Nash (why him?) at the end of Game 4 has resulted in three players being suspended for tonight's critical Game 5 in Phoenix.

Thanks to Cheap Shot Bob's hockey-like hip-check on the Canadian native Nash, Horry will have to sit out two games while Amare Stoudamire and Boris Diaw of the Suns will each sit one game for leaving the bench in the chaos that ensued.

The fervor over the two Suns having to sit a game for defending their captain is all for naught; the rule book says players cannot leave the bench during an on-court altercation, Stoudamire & Diaw left the bench momentarily to join the fray before being restrained by assistant coaches, therefore they must serve the one-game suspension as the rule dictates.

So as the Warriors season comes to a close the Spurs and Suns are just get heated up. It's now a best-of-three, undermanned war of attrition between the two, and the team with the fewest players eligible and most stitches should win the series.

Just don't pick the team with the player named Cyrus.

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NBA Playoffs taken to a ho.......nuva.......level

The play of the underdog Golden State Warriors and a heartbreaking revelation by an on-court hero has rejuvenated the NBA Playoffs

In true California fashion, the rise of the Warriors has brought out the celeb bandwagon jumpers, a sure sign of a fad waiting to happen- Warriors Fever, catch it before they get the boot!

Even though the Warriors collapsed down the stretch last night and wound up losing Game 2 of the Western Conference Semis, 127-117 in OT to the Utah Jazz, the scrappy team from the (other) Bay Area continued to do what they have done best this playoff season:

re-convert former NBA fans who had lost interest in the sport over the past few years due to any of numerous reasons, a group of which I am a founding member.

After commissioner David Stern globalized the sport, elevating it to one of the best professional leagues in the world, and maximized its earning potential to the zillionth degree, something happened to the game itself: it turned into a predictable, me-first snoozefest featuring a few bankable starts, a ton of talented-but-petulant wannabes and coaches who had no more control over their players than Eliot Mintz had over Paris Hilton.

And then along came the 2006-07 GS Warriors. A joke of a team at mid season (19-22), GM Chris Mullin orchestrated a ballsy trade that would either make or break the team- he dealt popular but underachieving players Troy Murphy and Mike Dunleavey plus a couple of scrubs for Stephen "Action" Jackson, a guy who never met a strip club he couldn't riddle with gunfire, Al Harrington and a couple of scrubs back.

Although they didn't set the world on fire, Golden State finished the season on a 23-20 run after the deal and eked into the playoffs as the 8-seed with a 42-40 record.

One historic and hyperkinectic dismantling of the NBA's best team, the 67-win Dallas Mavericks, in the opening round later and the Warriors and their brand of fast & furious funball has electrified the league and brought some much-needed-juice back to the NBA Playoffs. Playing in an packed arena in front of collegiate-like crowds, these Warriors have given fans a reason to care again, even if it is only for a short time.

But like I said, it didn't matter that the best show on hardcourt lost the game last night and is facing a 2-0 deficit as it heads back home for Game 3 on Friday night; no, there was an even better thing that happened during & after the game, and it had nothing to do with points & rebounds, wins & losses.
When Jazz guard Derek Fisher stepped onto the court with just over 3:00 to play in the 3rd quarter to a thunderous ovation, you'd have thought the 11-year veteran might have been having the game of his life, yet it was the first time he had seen the court in the series; he had to leave the team suddenly late last week under the vague umbrella of "personal reasons", and no one was sure when he would return.

Rusty, tired and emotionally spent, Fisher keyed a Jazz comeback by forcing a turnover on Warrior's guard Baron Davis late in regulation and then nailing a clutch three-pointer late in overtime to ensure the win. He finished with just five points, three assists, and one rebound in 10 minutes of play, and yet he was the unquestioned hero of the day.

Why?

Immediately following the game in an emotional post-game interview with TNT's Pam Oliver, Fisher confessed to the world that he had been in New York with his 1-year-old daughter as she received an operation for a rare form of eye cancer. Having undergone successful emergency surgery & chemotherapy earlier in the day, he and his family flew back to Utah later that evening, and a man who needed a way to channel his raw emotions did it the only way he knows how, by taking the the court and thus entering into playoff history.

As he pleaded with the public to have their children visit an opthamoligist to scan for this deadly disease known as retinoblastoma, tears streamed down the face of everyone watching, and immediately the importance of the game and sports itself took a back seat to real life and the courage of this man and his family.

Best wishes to the Fisher family, and welcome back, National Basketball Association.

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Thursday Night TV Feast

What a night to be a couch potato.

The evening's entertainment offerings featured a little bit of everything: off-color humor (The Office), do-or-die playoff action (NBA & NHL), an epic baseball game (Red Sox/Mariners), and, if I'm not mistaken, the world's first scratch & sniff sitcom (My Name is Earl).

Hard to top that for flat-out fun without making it rain, but I'm going to try and do my best to recap it for those of you who were, like, doing something productive last night other than sitting in front of the set.

Mariners at Red Sox 7PM
The second match up of Japanese baseball gods Daisuke Matsuzaka (Boston) and Ichiro Suzuki (Mariners) got off to a rocking start when Seattle plated 5 runs in the first inning off Dice-K, but Boston answered right back with a 5-spot of its own in the 2nd to tie the score- so it's gonna be one of those games...

...Earl 8:00-8:36 NBC HD
This "groundbreaking" super-sized edition of the karma-centric comedy seemed like a little bit too much of a gimmick for me, so I abstained from partaking in the inter-active episode.

Okay, I forgot to pick up the stupid card that had all the corresponding odors on it.

Either way this show is starting to reek of repetition in its second season- I mean how many times can Earl cross something off a sheet of paper and it still be funny?- but it still delivers occasional raunchy, racist, non-PC chucklers, like when Earl is about to chainsaw a horse carcass or when Joy (big-as-a-house preggo Jaime Pressley) tells Catalina "...I've been called a bitch in every language, beyotch. That's black."

Still, I was pissed that I didn't have the scratch card, so every time a number popped up on screen and I couldn't get the full aroma of the scene it just made me want to change the channel.
Which I did, over to the Red Sox game, just in time to see Manny Ramirez blast a 2-run homer into the Monster seats to give the Sox a 7-5 lead after 4 innings. Surely Matsuzaka would hold that lead, I said to myself, so I flipped back to NBC to catch a super-sized (isn't that concept played out by now, Peacock net?) version of...

The Office 8:36-9:18 NBC HD
In what had to be one of the funniest episodes ever of the dry-but-deadly comedy, Phyllis is the victim of a flasher and it's up to Dwight, Michael and the rest of the men of Dunder Mifflin to make sure the ladies feel safe.

Well, that is after Michael sticks his finger through his zipper and reenacts the horrible event to a stunned crowd of employees. This was just the first of many below-the-belt, penis-related jokes in the show, and although many were childish and sophomoric, some of them were side-splittingly funny.

Like when Michael decides the best way to find out who the culprit is by checking everyone's junk. "Let's see your penis," he blurts out, then qualifies it with "as that was coming out of my mouth I knew it was wrong."

Later Dwight mentions that he's got "penises on the brain", and when Michael decides to hold an impromptu Women's Appreciation meeting, he let's loose with this philosophical gem:

"A penis, when seen in the right context, is the most wonderful sight for a woman, but in the wrong context, it's like a monster movie."

Even for Michael that sentence is not only apropos but oddly poetic.

Those comments plus gags about cross-dressing, homosexuality and female domination (Michael's GF/boss Jan says she'll pay him $300 to come over and service her) made for one raunchy episode, and it was the perfect antidote to the high-intensity contests that were taking place elsewhere on the dial.

After the show ended I watched the conclusion of the Sox game. Matsuzaka allowed the M's to tie the score again at 7, but then Manny Ramirez did what Manny is known for- other than faking injuries, hawking other people's grills and not granting interviews- he hit a titanic homerun over the bullpen in the 8th inning to give the Sox to a sloppy-yet-entertaining 8-7 victory.

Mavs @ Warriors 10:30, TNT HD
That game ended at precisely the right time, so I was able to catch the most intriguing playoff game of the evening, the Dallas Mavericks at the Golden State Warriors. Sure there was other playoff action on the dial, and I did catch some of Utah's win over the Houston Rockets, which forced a Game 7 between the two tomorrow night.

But in all the excitement and channel-changing I missed the thrilling conclusion of the Vancouver Canucks/Anaheim Ducks series, which Anaheim won on a fluke flip of a goal past goalie Roberto Luongo, who made 61 saves in the game, in the 2nd OT to take the series, 4-1.

Oh well, another spirited Mavs/Warriors tilt should make up for it. These two teams truly don't like each other, especially after former Dallas coach Don Nelson had the Warriors on the verge of knocking out the league's best regular-season team, and the series had more subplots than a Roger Altman film:

Nellie is suing bumbling billionaire Mavs owner Mark Cuban for $6 mil in back pay; Cuban is lobbing bombs at Nellie's questionable coaching style; probable MVP & former Nellie draft pick Dirk Nowitzki is playing like a 7-ft cream puff; and if Baron Davis & the Warriors don't win this series after blowing a late 9-pt lead in game in game 5, Steven Jackson might just go postal on the unsuspecting Bay Area.

Unfortunately the game didn't like up to the previous barn-burners in the series. After playing each other even for most of the first half, Golden State used a 36-15 third quarter scoring binge to pull away from the discombobulated Mavs, and by the time crunch time rolled around, Davis, Jackson and the rowdy Warriors fans at Oracle Arena were already celebrating the team's first playoff series win since 1991 and the Mavs were looking to jump on their latest chartered flight to nowhere.

Speaking of those Warriors fans, it was quite amusing to watch the camera scan the arena and focus on the low-wattage star power the team has dangling from the back of the bandwagon now that the team is decent again:

...none other than clueless Kate Hudson, her brainless boytoy Owen Wilson and has-been hemphead Woody Harrelson

Throw in fellow courtside club members sometime Laker fan Snoop Dogg and hard-hitting Hall of Fame safety Ronnie Lott, plus strip club king Jackson and all I can say is boy would I have liked to have been at that after party!

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