Real Deal

What do you mean when you say you check the profile? With Firefox, your downloads go into a particular folder, or on your desktop. Open up Firefox and hit CTRL+J and your downloads window should pop up. Should be a list of things. As far as images go, that's usually unrelated to your browser's download directory. Are you using any downloading programs (ex. Orbit) or a download accelerator?

Turnovers aren't always the passer's fault. As Poe pointed out, Kobe had to put up with quite a bit. There were hundreds of times where Atkins would start to cut, then just suddenly stop, and Kobe's pass would fly out of bounds. Stone hands Kwame couldn't catch anything, and those would go against Bryant (for some reason), or a Bryant pass would fly right past Kwame's face, and he would be too busy still trying to establish post. You're telling us that Kobe isn't that great of a playmaker, basically, and using the AST/TO ratio to prove it. He's a four-time champion as a playmaker in the triangle offense. Ask Shaq about Kobe's playmaking skills, and just how many perfect passes he delivered to him in the post, on penetrations, wrapping them around players' backs and through their arms and legs. An assist is a two-way street, as said earlier. Out of the triangle offense, which demands five able-bodied passers on the floor at all times, Kobe's help has been one-on-one shot-creators or players with bad hands, the inability to convert, or a lack of offensive awareness. In fact, having watched Bryant more than anyone else back in 2004-05, a ton of those turnovers were due to his teammates, but a few were also due to Bryant splitting doubles (attempting to), getting trapped 35 feet from the rim (because teams doubled him anywhere on the floor), and just driving into traffic and trying to make something happen.

Denver never had a chance this season, even when healthy. The Lakers, Spurs and possibly even the Mavericks would've tossed them in the playoffs. By the way, before this season, Chauncey Billups had reached the conference finals seven consecutive times. That has to be a record (or close to it) for an individual player, at least in the last 20 years.

I absolutely hate how Phil sat Kobe for five minutes in the fourth. It lost our lead, and it was just stupid. And sadly, he does this all the damn time. I believe it was Mark Jackson saying how it seems like Kobe and Gasol have to win the game twice, once in the first three quarters, then again in the last six minutes. I know he's one of the greatest (if not the greatest) coach of all-time, but damn man...fix your rotations. If you're trying to save Kobe's legs for a fourth-quarter surge, give him 2-3 minutes max on the bench, and don't force him to have to catch up late in the game.

Just one thing I wanted to quote...you know that's not fair. That one season he played out of the triangle (which was only half of the season, by the way, and 44 of Kobe's 66 games), he had Caron Butler and Lamar Odom to pass to, with no shooters. Butler creates his own offense, and Odom is best as a facilitator. Even then, Atkins and Odom both averaged four assists that season, in the same lineup as Bryant...and Atkins handling the ball, and the lack of help on defense, is why the Lakers missed the playoffs that season. Tomjanovich was 24-19, though...but once the triangle was re-introduced by Hamblen, it was evident that the team was toast by the way the roles reversed.

Fill in the following. Ten points for each correct answer, minus ten for each missed (which includes extending the series over the correct amount of games). If you feel the series will extend past four games, continue to add an answer to each game you think the series will play to. +10 bonus for the correct series winner, +15 for a perfect series. For example, if you believe the Magic will win the series 4-2, you should fill in six winners. Orlando has home court advantage.

Solid win by the Hawks, but no-show-Joe has to play better in crucial games such as this one. If this was Orlando, the Hawks would've lost by 20. And I'm willing to bet they will, eventually. I don't see Atlanta getting to a Game 7 against the Magic. Milwaukee would've been swept, in my opinion...but Atlanta isn't going to do much better.

Boston didn't do what they were supposed to do in this game, and that's work over Jamison for the entire time he was on the floor. They ended up watching Rondo do everything at certain critical points of the game, and it did get a little weird in that second half, especially when they decided they weren't going to defend ANY shots, by ANY player. It almost looked like most of them were out of gas, but who knows.

Deron is really too crafty for Ron Artest. Kobe needs to defend him.

TIME: 3:30 PM EST TV: ABC

TIME: 1:00 PM EST TV: ABC

Yeah, but Collison needed to get back to the rim. There was no need for him to even move towards Bryant if he didn't even help contest that shot Kobe took in the first place, and helping Ibaka box out a guy who has pulled down 18 boards is just as important. I disagree with the Thunder playing bad down the stretch. They didn't do so bad, they just didn't close it out. The third quarter hurt them the most, but that was due to Bryant's aggressiveness. Had Kobe been given the first six minutes of the fourth, or given the ball within the first 2-3 minutes of his return to the floor (I think just two shots in the fourth), I believe the Lakers would've been in a better situation down the road, and this game would've never required a game-winning putback...but hey, that's Phil Jackson for you.

That LeBron is not a better shooter than Kobe, and I agree. I've seen LeBron catch fire, but an excellent defensive player would have no problem stopping LeBron's shooting. The drive is the biggest problem, and that ability to get to the rim anytime he wants is what makes him so damn good. James still doesn't have a post game, and part of that is due to the inability to hit highly-contested shots against good defensive players (the other part being lack of footwork).

Best player, hands down. A player's teammates shouldn't have a positive or a negative effect on his value. I worked with three other people at my last job, and they were terrible. That didn't mean I was less valuable, and a future employer wouldn't look at who I worked with and judge me based on their performances as well.

TIME: 8:00 PM EST TV: TNT

Debate fail. Just look at the cool pictures, I guess.

So, again, in other words...a player's value is heavily affected by his teammates? It's a league-wide award. Basically, if that's true, the MVP award means much less than it did when Jordan, Magic and Bird were winning it.

You misunderstood what I was saying. Bosh could just walk, but if he waits and a team pursues him via sign-and-trade, he can decide to accept it, giving back to Toronto. If he wanted to leave Toronto and not give them anything, well, he could. He's not restricted. But say one of the teams interested has offered a few players to the Raptors, and Bosh has that team on his radar with another of which he could just take a paycheck from. Instead of leaving Toronto with nothing...maybe he'll do the opposite.

LOL, yes, I want Durant to win it because I just despise LeBron James so much, and it kills me to say he deserves it. I said he deserves it, and I said he would win it. He did, and I don't even care. But Durant needs a lot of consideration as well. The MVP should ALWAYS be given to the best player in the game, because the best player is obviously the most valuable. This BS about who does what without who, or how many all-star teammates he has, or how many wins...it's pretty lame...but again, it's been that way for years, and the award will always change definition, no matter how anyone spins it.

Yep, anyone can join, even if they skipped out on previous rounds. The Suns/Spurs and Lakers/Jazz prediction threads are up.

Fill in the following. Ten points for each correct answer, minus ten for each missed (which includes extending the series over the correct amount of games). If you feel the series will extend past four games, continue to add an answer to each game you think the series will play to. +10 bonus for the correct series winner, +15 for a perfect series. For example, if you believe the Suns will win the series 4-2, you should fill in six winners. Phoenix has home court advantage.

Fill in the following. Ten points for each correct answer, minus ten for each missed (which includes extending the series over the correct amount of games). If you feel the series will extend past four games, continue to add an answer to each game you think the series will play to. +10 bonus for the correct series winner, +15 for a perfect series. For example, if you believe the Lakers will win the series 4-2, you should fill in six winners. Los Angeles has home court advantage.

What the hell? Only half of what I wrote posted. Anyway, good job on a very strong season by OKC. Durant struggled, but his teammates did step up big. Props to Westbrook for dominating our weak PG's and knowing when to attack, and a massive round of applause to Serge Ibaka, who will be a very good player in the league someday (and he's pretty good already, to be honest).

Good game, happy to win, but I don't like a lot of things that Phil did. 1) He pulled Kobe out when he was on fire, and didn't even play him until six minutes into the fourth, which was a HUGE mistake. 2) He pulled Shannon out when he was on fire, and acted as if he was in trouble, for some reason. 3) He stuck Fisher back on Westbrook ONLY because the Thunder were screening Kobe off of Russell. So what? That gave Westbrook the green light to attack, and he did. Shannon hit shots, but his defense absolutely sucked, and he kept making bad decisions when he actually had the ball in his hands over five seconds, one a costly turnover that led to him being put on a poster. Gasol's offensive board and putback locked it up, and 18 rebounds were fantastic. He has to be more effective in the offense, though. Ron's defense was good, and he actually didn't do so bad offensively for a while, until he took a few long-range shots that were contested and unnecessary (one near the end of the game, where Kobe went nuts and threw up his hands). Bynum found his way into Phil's doghouse again, with his pathetic defense and his three-second calls. Fisher didn't do too bad. Odom could've given us more. Kobe's 16 in the third was key, though. If he had played most of the fourth, and actually had the ball in his hands for the first two minutes after he returned, we would've maintained that seven-point lead. 32 points, nearly 50% FG, seven boards...just a strong game from Kobe in a crucial Game 6.

Kenyon Martin and JR Smith are just ignorant. The series was meaningless to me, but I'm happy to see those two lose. Too much Boozer. Good thing for the Lakers, though. He's averaged around 40-42% FG against us since Gasol put on a Lakers jersey, so it should be a fun series.