Listening to Nirvana Unplugged, the eleventh floor window looks tempting, but knowing my luck it wouldn’t do the trick; God has too much of a sense of humor to let me go out like that. Oh well…
The brevity of the last column needs your forgiveness, for I mailed that one in; and I’ll be the first to admit it: I didn’t have it, so I faked it.
“I’m not like them, but I can pretend.” Well put Kurt, but if I spend time thanking Mr. Cobain for his song-writing ability, we’ll be talking music all day, and we don’t have time for that; there’s too much basketball banter to be had. (And don’t worry, mate, I’ll get to on the court playoff talk—in due time.)
NBA News…Some of it Weird
Laker GM Mitch Kupchak said he’s pursing trades more aggressively than he did in the past, according to NBA.com. Translation: Goodbye Pau.
The Warriors going back to San Francisco in 2017…Why so soon?
How does one get Defensive Player of the Year and not get on the All-Defensive First Team?
The ESPN bottom line said that the Magic were planning on meeting with Shaq to discuss the GM opening—what? A day later, Shaq said that he’s not interested; I’m amazed they were.
Bill Simmons column “The Playoff Eclipse Chronicles” is a must read—even if the man has a supreme anti-Laker bias, it’s not even a deal—just thought-provoking, laugh-inducing writing.
More Thunder/Spurs Hype
“The secret voices of the brain need not always speak in thunder; the Dream-Painter within us need not always have a full canvas for the exercise of his craft.”—from the Bram Stoker novel The Mystery of the Sea
That semicolon really draws those two thoughts together superbly, doesn’t it? Especially when it comes up in the narrative of the relatively unknown story from the mastermind behind Dracula, one of the greatest things ever written, yet any explanation of that would make little (if any) sense to anyone reading this that hasn’t read that, so…
The line strikes a chord with me about the Coach of the Year Greg Popovich, for he has never struck anyone as a real vocal coach, nor has he ever had the best talent in basketball. And it’s as if all of his coaching has been done right under our very noses, but no one noticed.
Just look at the other award-winner the Spurs are facing in James Harden. He’s playing the role Manu Ginobili invented: 6th man and proud of it. Right under our very noses…Spurs in Seven (but probably less, now that I’ve thought about it, yet I already put the pick in print, so I’ll stick to it, I guess).
Wishing for Two Game Sevens and Only Getting One
Even The Wall Street Journal had this one right: The Pacers fell in the Sixth Game, not the Seventh as I predicted—and boldly too. (WSJ had a closer contest than what occurred, yet they were awfully close to the Pacers’ total at 94-92; the meeting in Indy when the final horn sounded was 105-93.)
Boston should take care of business at home because they only seem to be having problems closing teams out on the road. Notable, however, in Philly’s defeat of the Celtics on Wednesday night was that it was just the second time in the last 34 ballgames in which Rajon Rondo has participated that his assist total wasn’t in double digits.
The Sixers completely shut them down during that contest. Only problem for them is that they need a repeat performance, and for them, for anyone really, beating Boston twice in a row has proved rather difficult in the postseason; in fact, it hasn’t happened yet.
This series has been so ridiculously close, and it would take an act of God to keep me away from it, so if you’re like me: Lock your door, plan your breaks around halftime (you should have that down to a science if you’re like yours truly), ignore your phone, and if anything does make you miss a minute—God forbid—you’ll have such a story that all the people that know you will be lining up around the block to hear it. Translation: Either way you win.
What Awaits the Heat…
Well, they got me; you can win with just the effort of Super Bron Bron and DW. Even the one man that appeared to be stepping up in the absence of Monsieur Bosh, one Udonis Haslem, being suspended for a game didn’t matter, because Mike Miller became the off-the-bench sensation for Miami for Game Six.
Problem for Miami is that Boston has their number, so if it happens to be the Celtics, as I would imagine, it’ll be Boston in six. If not: Philly’s going down in the exact same number of meetings.
I could list the absurd numbers posted by LeBron James and Dwyane Wade over the last three games they’ve played—James flirting with a triple-double on a nightly basis, Wade averaging 33 ppg—but I’ve become fixated on this: They scored 61% of Miami’s points in those same three games. And there’s only two of them! How did they do that!?!
“The day is done, but I’m having fun. I think I’m dumb—or maybe just happy.” I wish Kurt Cobain was still here, so I’ll give you my personal favorite Nirvana song: Lithium—Live at Reading…
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