AboveLegit

OMG WALL!

Great quarter, Dray has been playing well, Yi got a nice block, and Wall is looking awesome.

So far so good, Wall with two nice jumpers, and we've been great rebounding the ball.

Over 300 million watching in China.

http://oi56.tinypic.com/5bblk.jpg

This would be great for the league and for Middle Eastern countries. I hope the kid pans out the way he's expected to.

You've got to remember that there's one thing the Celtics did really well in all of the playoff series that post season, and that was keep the ball out of the post altogether. Despite Gasols FG% in the series, one of the main reasons the Lakers couldn't get anything going was because of the Celtics denial of passes inside, as well as their collapse inside. Again, that does not mean they could stop Shaq once he got the ball. And there's no way that the 2000 Lakers would get dominated on the boards the way this group did. But through Shaqs prime of 2000-2002, no one attacked him defensively, he always attacked everyone else offensively. Garnett/Perkins/Posey/Brown and Powe would have done everything they could to make sure that when they fouled big daddy, he felt it and didn't make his shots. That wouldn't help when Shaq decided to just dunk, which would still get him 30 a game. But anytime Shaq would get it with a body in between him and the basket, the Celtics would be putting him on the line without an and 1 (which most teams couldn't do). And you all know how effective Shaq is at the line. People tend to forget this (because of the myth that is Shaquille O'Neal in his prime, I guess) but he could be contained by teams with good interior defense, like the Spurs. He had good games against the Spurs, but by his standards, his great games against them were few and far between. The player who usually killed the Spurs was Bryant (why do people forget this?) because the Spurs perimeter defense has always been a bit suspect. But this Celtics team's perimeter defense is nearly as good as their interior defense. As you get further down the Laker's three peat, it gets less and less likely that that players on the perimeter would be able to make the Celtics pay because of their rotation. I'm not confident that the Celtics would win, this is extremely close and could be debated both ways.

I can't say for sure if the Lakers would have beaten these Celtics, because I can't guess what Shaq's reaction would have been after the first game of the series, after feeling the amount of intensity the Celtics bring. Lets face it, the 00-02 Lakers were bullies (how could you not be with Shaq). They pushed teams around and forced them out of their games. But they NEVER played with or against the intensity that the Celtics bring. I've NEVER in my life (not even the Jordan Bulls team) seen a team so focused on dominating defensively in every aspect of the game. Those little things lead to victories. Never giving up on a defensive play, like when you hear the whistle blow, see an opponent shoot up a practice shot, and watch Garnett or Perkins jump up and grab the ball out of the air, just to make sure you don't get a taste for the basket. Or having a hard foul called in which the Celtics defender made sure that their opponent couldn't throw up and easy and 1 basket and then James Posey comes in with hard contact of his own (yes, it is a cheap shot, but he gets away with it every time) after the original foul is called, because he knows that another foul won't get called. Those things weigh on a team. It affected the Lakers so much by the 6th game of the series that they just completely gave up by halftime. All of their whining all series long after the games, their frustration in the locker room and on the sideline, they were mentally broken. I'm not saying that Shaq wouldn't have stepped it up after playing a game or two against that intensity, but if he decided to take it easy like he did in the Pistons series in 03 against a milder version of that pressure, then the Celtics would have routed all three of those Lakers' squads. The Lakers teams were far more talented than the Celtics, but in the finals, its all about who can truly give 100% all the time (like playing with a desperate intensity with 4 minutes left in the 4th even though you're leading by 35 points, which the Celtics did in game 6, meanwhile, the Lakers blew big lead after big lead in the series because they got lackadaisical). Unfortunately, like all comparisons across season lines, we'll never know for sure. Yeah, KG has had trouble against Shaq-led teams but the other big men included Rasho Nesterovic, Gary Trent, Earvin "not Magic" Johnson, Mark Madsen, and the immortal Michael Olowokandi. I'd wager that Kendrick Perkins, PJ Brown, Leon Powe, and Glen Davis are a touch better than that group. This Celtics team has enough quality bigs to throw at Shaq (more so than any team the Lakers faced in 00-02 in the finals at least) that it would at least be able to hold Shaq a little and none of the teams they played and this Celtics perimeter D. I fully support the idea that the Celtics could beat any of the teams since 1999 (and embrace the idea that they'd have a leg up against any team since the 92-93 Bulls). This Celtics team wasn't just good defensively, they put up historically great defensive numbers (which carried them until they finally found their legs offensively in the playoffs against the Pistons).

Let's go Wizards! Wall is going to dunk on Yao for sure.

I don't use them personally, but it looks like a nice add-on to the skin. I say keep it despite what the poll may show.

MVP-Offense: Peyton Manning MVP-Defense: Clay Matthews Rookie of the Year: Sam Bradford Best QB: Peyton Manning Best RB: Chris Johnson Best WR: Andre Johnson Best TE: Antonio Gates Best O-line: Indianapolis Colts Best defensive lineman: New York Giants Best linebacker: Clay Matthews Best defensive back: Darrelle Revis Best head coach: Bill Belichek

...so you want the refs to purposely not call a foul when clearly there was one? The league (and fans) want the refs to be more consistent with their calls, it's only fair that they called it.

How was that not a foul?

ELSON = CLUTCH

AK47 = CLUTCH

AK47 with a huge three.

Milsap is a monster.

Denver's D wasn't all that, sure. But Indiana couldn't miss. I mean, literally. If it wasn't for Mcrobert's last second heave at the end, Indiana would have been 20-20, including 8-8 from 3. It was just crazy. And no, it isn't a record. GS did it in 1989, and Buffalo scored 58 back in the early 70s I think. Dunleavy was killin it out there. Wow.

Not really, some houses tend to over do it, but for the most part people just don't care.

Kobe's performances while great, still pale in comparison to the best of Jordan, Kareem, Russell, Magic, Bird, and Duncan. The only Kobe GAME that even compares is Game 4 of the 2001 Western Semis vs. Sacramento. If you want to make an argument, that's the game you should point to. I really don't think that Kobe's performance in the 2009 Finals was all that impressive, at least compared to the Finals performances of the players he's up against historically. Was Kobe's 2009 Finals better than Rick Barry's 1975 Finals? Hell yeah. Was it better than Dennis Johnson's 1979 Finals? Of course. But is it better than MJ's 1993 Finals? No. Bird's 1986 Finals? No. Magic's 1987 Finals? No. And that's my point. That Orlando team was a perfect matchup for him because they had terrible wing defenders that didn't have the size to guard him. Look at what happened to them against Cleveland. At the end of the day, Kobe is a great player, an awesome player, one of the all-time greats, a great competitor, dominant at times, but he lacks a certain level of transcendence, something just indescribably awesome about his game that separates him from everyone else. If you broke down the All-Time great list into tiers, I think it would look like this: 1. Jordan 2. Kareem, Russell, Magic 3. Bird, Duncan, Shaq, Kobe, Moses, Wilt It's pretty clear to me at this point Kobe is going to eventually pass everyone in Tier 3 when he decides to hang it up whether he wins another title or not. Bird's holding a slight edge in my opinion over Shaq and Duncan but I'm not even sure that holds up. You could make an argument for either guy over him at this point.

I'll probably wait to download the explicit version.

+1

He had no choice but to take the shot, the play wasn't designed for him to take it. Mavs played great D and forced him to shoot.

Yeah, almost every practice if I'm not mistaken.