Real Deal

Bryant was rarely on Jason Terry. He defended Kidd, and J-Kidd went from shooting 48% in the first round (against POR) to shooting 28% in the second round, and from 40% 3PT against Portland, to just 29% against LA.

Wesley Johnson shouldn't be getting in over Jordan Crawford, as it stands. In fact, if Crawford had the opportunity to make something of himself a bit earlier in the season, he probably would've made the first team. I'd probably remove Johnson and Favors from the list, slide in Davis and Crawford.

Damn, this is sad news, and creepy for me. Last week, my friend was having trouble breathing, and holding his chest, while we were playing ball...and I asked if he was okay and called him Tractor Traylor. Makes me feel like shit now. RIP.

I was thinking about this last night. What are the two things Miami doesn't want teams to do? 1) Play through the post. 2) Defend Wade and LeBron well. This is going to sound ridiculous to a few that don't want to hear it, or don't watch the Grizzlies (maybe more ridiculous if I had said this back in March), but I'm thinking the worst possible match-up for the Heat (meaning, not in their favor) would be the Memphis Grizzlies. Gasol and Randolph...how do the Heat stop that duo up front? Haslem will more than likely struggle to contribute on either end of the court. Not taking jabs at Bosh, but come on...he can't defend as good as Duncan/McDyess or Ibaka/Perkins, and Zach could eat him alive. Nobody to defend Marc down low. Aside from that, what two players would defend Wade and LeBron better than Tony Allen and Shane Battier? LeBron will be able to take Battier off the dribble, but as intelligent as Shane is, he'll lead James straight into help, and the Grizzlies have the tougher, defensive-minded Gasol brother. What one player would you stick on Dwyane Wade in a series? Probably Tony Allen. Not to mention the fact that Mike Conley has the ability to torch Mike Bibby, and OJ Mayo would be the best bench player in the entire series. I see Chicago doing well against them. OKC likes to run, and it'll turn into a free throw game. Boston is done. Dallas would have trouble getting shots off against a team that relies heavily on their perimeter defenders. Atlanta doesn't have a clear-cut player that can take over against Wade or James. Memphis? It seems like they have not only the puzzle pieces, but they had the damn thing glued together, framed, and hanging from their wall.

Reading a bit more into this, it sounds like the Bucks are already fed up with Jennings. The best available player, to them, could be Kemba or Fredette at that 10 spot. If I were Milwaukee, I would still pick the best available out of the position(s) I need. The Bucks have Bogut and Jennings...might as well take one more shot at putting pieces around those two. Does Kemba make sense? Sure...he's a scorer, and Milwaukee had trouble scoring all season long. However, if they do draft Kemba, they are going to need to trade Jennings, and there's no question about that. Jennings plays like a two-guard, but despite the Iverson comparisons he was getting early on, he's not going to be able to contribute at that position...ever. I would take a chance on Jan Vesely, who could turn out to be difficult to defend in the NBA. Then, with that second-round pick, take Josh Selby if he is still around (I have him going late first right now, though). That gives you a versatile and athletic PF that's 6-10 or 6-11 (can't remember how tall he is) and a combo guard that can play behind Jennings for a while, play some two-guard, and see where he fits in best. Either Selby, or Malcolm Lee, who is a defensive wizard at the two.

Yeah right. I wouldn't want a guy who takes pride in being voted as a top eight "worst poster" on another board he frequents, someone that registered a fake Facebook profile to bad-mouth the site on our FB page, and one who gets on a fake Twitter account to harass celebrities and athletes. He's still a child. I'd rather have bang^3 back, posting full-time. The only recognition Matt gets is for being king of the trolls, and even some of his friends (who never posted here and knew him better than us) told me how immature he was when I spoke to three of them on Facebook.

I thought it was really weird that they put up a "jersey swap" feature for Dwight. I don't see why any Orlando writer or news outlet would want to do something like that...makes absolutely zero sense. If anything, the entire city should want to keep him, and write positive articles about Otis Smith looking to reconfigure this team around Dwight, going for another title run, etc. No fan or writer benefits from losing Howard.

I almost hit that road, but then I had Jessica move in with me, so when she's in there watching Vampire Diaries and Grey's Anatomy, my ass is on OTR. "Brandon, do you want to watch my show with me tonight?" "No baby, I have a few members acting up and fighting each other after that damn Jazz/Pistons game. It's crazy...gotta go take care of it."

A big "NO" (as in, stay in New Orleans) for David West. He's an awful defensive player, and that's the last thing we need.

Yeah, I think Hinrich would defend Rose better, but Teague is making Rose work harder on the defensive end. Both would be effective. Big surprise to me, though. I didn't think Teague had it in him.

Not really sure if the Knicks had a choice, though. If they didn't, and they let him go, they'd be relying on a draft pick to run the point, or Toney Douglas.

Gasol and his typical, generic replies. "Um, well, I am obviously disappointed in my, um, play. That I was not, um, dere to help my team. We will make the necessary changes and come back, um, stronger for next season. It is what it is."

Superstar in the making. The difference is, he's also a big.

Gasol just stated that none of the rumors were true, and he keeps referring to her as his girlfriend, so I'm a believer. If there was a real problem, he wouldn't want to talk about it.

The Clippers would be dumb to accept any player for Blake at this point, even LeBron James. I doubt he's traded.

OFWGKTA posted a couple of Lakers topics, one that was deleted (maybe the other one as well) that baited Lakers fans. This was around the first round series, or right before it. Also, he didn't have a single post in this entire series (all four games) until the link he posted. There were reasons to believe he was baiting. To be honest, I wasn't going to say anything about his link OR what Lkr said. My reply to the second or third post of his was setting up a clarification of what Lkr said, which was exactly what I did by getting him to realize it came as no surprise that the Knicks were swept.

The Heat were hated on not because of how the fans expressed themselves, but how the three players did. I would expect you (and anyone) to do the same thing if LeBron was on a team we didn't consider our favorite. You guys could've blasted Drew for what he did in Game 4, and it would've been okay. Most of the Lakers fans did the same. Any criticism for what he did would be warranted. People were disgusted when they heard Jordan trash his HS teammate during his HOF speech. Posters everywhere will sit and wait for the Lakers to lose a playoff series, all because they hate them winning anything. They proceed to take jabs at them when their fans are down, but once things change back, LA wins it all, and the world is back to normal, those that do it are silenced, or they claim the NBA is rigged. People still use the rape allegations against Kobe. People still talk about the 2004 Finals. Kobe ran Shaq out? Kobe quit in Game 7 vs. the Suns? Phil's book? Five years from now, for some reason, people will remember this Dallas sweep, and it'll be brought up over and over again. Who talks about the Heat getting swept after their 2006 championship? Not a single person. Kobe's legacy is damaged because he was swept after a title reign? How about Magic Johnson, who was swept after a title reign twice in his career? You had no idea that Jordan was swept twice in his career. Sometimes, you have to start respecting what people do, in any event, sport or not. During last season's championship (or maybe it was 2009), I had to direct all of our Lakers fans to TLN, so they could celebrate without the bullshit that happens here. I had to direct OTR posters to another site. I'm done talking about it.

Those, and the fact that Garnett completely blacked out on the last play of regulation, and failed to set a screen for Pierce. Every NBA fan, player and coach knows that Pierce wanted to take it right and hit the jumper at the elbow.

TIME: 9:30 PM ET TV: TNT

Rondo has one arm, Garnett is on Pluto, Shaq is knocking on retirement's door, and a duo of Ray and Pierce aren't going to knock off the Heat. Series over.

TIME: 7:00 PM ET TV: TNT

http://hilobrow.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/joker-clap.gif You recognized the problem. Moving on...

Schedule: http://blog.lakers.com/lakers/2011/05/10/exit-interview-schedule I believe those are Pacific times, also...and they are running a bit late, because Walton just finished up.

A little late, but Gasol is coming up soon... http://www.nba.com/lakers/multimedia/livestream.html Should be next, or right after Fisher.

If you're going to venture into a close-out game topic and post a link that basically makes a joke about the Lakers being swept, you're going to hear something about it. This same post I'm quoting from you would be the exact same post you'd make in the Game 4 topic, NYK/BOS, if Lkr posted a picture of Carmelo crying, and Amare holding his back.