Just John

I'll believe it when I see it. I really can't imagine this working. Don't they have enough trouble balancing 3 American brands?

I hope so, though as it stands it would be a semi-final matchup. Of course, that opens the door for some really weird ECF like Raptors/Wizards or something. I'd rather not see Pistons/Heat as the top match for the third year in a row. Please opt for the surgery, Dwyane. Any team shaking up the boring east is fine by me.

The Celtics beat the wildly inconsistent Knicks and the McGrady-less Rockets. If you catch the Knicks on a bad day, you're hard-pressed to not win both of those games. I don't think it's a sign their season is turning around. And man, the Rockets got hammered by the Raptors last night. Not that I'm too worried, since Houston's so much farther ahead of where I thought they'd be at this point without Yao. And he's due back in 3 weeks or so. Plus the Raptors are pretty good right now.

What? You must really hate the Spurs and the Mavs for their "rivalry" to seem that long. Dallas and San Antonio have only met in the playoffs twice this decade if I'm not mistaken. Last year obviously, and once in the Don Nelson era (the 03 WCF, I think). And San Antonio beat Phoenix in the 05 WCF.

Nash has been doing that for a while. I can't remember how many times I've seen a team take the lead on the Suns, then Nash gets down court and hits a 3.

Well, yeah, for those of us who are in/were in/going to be in college for academic purposes, the test seems like a joke. I mean, I ran through the samples in about 3 minutes, but I can see where some people would really suck on it. It reminded me of when I took the marine aptitude test or whatever they call that thing they give you when you get suckered into an attempted recruitment. You'd be surprised how dumb some people are, and a good number of football players aren't around college campuses for their academic proficiency. Just ask about some of their ACT scores...

Here is a sample wonderlic test so you can see some of the questions they ask. Nothing ridiculously hard, but if you're abyssmal at math, your score could get pretty low. http://espn.go.com/page2/s/closer/020228test.html

If this has already been addressed, I'm sorry, but I need to ask. If HHH hadn't torn his quad in 2001, was there ever any speculation as to what his role in the invasion would have been? How would it have affected the roles of Austin, Angle, etc?

No way. The Livingston injury looked bad, but not that bad, and it shouldn't end his career. I think the worst leg injury from our generation that I've seen is the Garrison Hearst 180-degree ankle twist that kept him out for two years.

Dislocated knee for Livingston. Bad news for the Clippers.

Even without T-Mac and Yao, I'm not sure the Rockets should be dropping home games to the Celtics... To add my two cents on the Jazz, I think their playoff chances are slim with the way they play defense. All the fouls you can get away with in the regular season against bottom-feeders will get whistled against playoff superstars. Guys like Kobe, T-Mac, etc. could wind up shooting 20 FT's a game against the Jazz in the playoffs. I still think they would beat the Lakers, but it wouldn't be a run over, and there would be some bitching about the refs.

Haslem is underrated, but I still have trouble thinking of him as more than a role player. He's a good defender and hits open jumpers. His season average now for pts/reb is about 10/8, which is solid, but not enough to be considered an elite third player, I wouldn't think. I see him as one of those really good role players like Shane Battier.

Miami did just fine with Wade/Shaq and role players.

Rockets have a lot of games this week. I'm hoping they can win 4.

The Lakers would be an instant contender with Garnett unless, for some unforseen reason, they lost Kobe. However, there are lots of other teams that would be gunning for him, and most would have something better to offer than the Lakers unproven guys, underachievers, and expiring contracts.

Austin/Bret Michaels/Taker

Shawn's best match (the HIAC with Taker) was included, so who cares what the other choices are? I'd say his best matches are... - vs. UT (Badd Blood 97) - vs. Mankind (Mind Games 96) - vs. Hall (Summer Slam 95) - vs. Nash (Good Friends Better Enemies 96) I prefer his mid 90's work to his post-comeback stuff.

The Lakers would be better off getting another scorer than getting another distributor. Besides, come playoffs, the Lakers are going to be outclassed up front by pretty much anyone they'd be likely to play as is. Imagine how much worse it would get if they were forced to start Ronny Turiaf at the center position with god knows who coming off the bench. Dirk, Amare, Duncan, and Yao would probably beat the shit out of the current center setup of the Lakers, but at least they have a rotation to avoid mismatches all game. Without Bynum, the Lakers would be absolutely fucked up front. All the guards in the world aren't going to save an Odom-Turiaf-Walton front court.

If someone got a high-quality basketball simulator like Al apparently has for baseball, I think it would be really fun. Same deal with football. I've wasted quite a bit of time on whatifsports.com dicking around with various NBA matchups over the last 40 years.

I'm not sold on Cleveland. Their guard play and bench have been inconsistent all year. I don't see them beating the Pistons, though they might be able to take the inexperienced Raptors. I'm just hoping Toronto does something to mix things up. Washington is another interesting team, but their lack of defense could really hurt their chances. Honestly, though, the East is Detroit's to lose right now. Although, something else to remember, is that if Miami does still stumble into the playoffs (which is entirely possible if they play .500 the rest of the way), they'll have Wade back for the first round. Everyone in the East should make it a top priority to beat down the Heat when they get the chance, because you still can't count out Wade and Shaq in the playoffs even if they haven't played together but 10 games or so this year.

So, the East comes down to the Pistons and... The Raptors? Who thought we'd be saying that at the beginning of the year?

Read on nba.com that Wade's injury was a dislocated shoulder, though the severity is still unknown.

I know he was mid-season pickup, but was Beltran on the 04 Stros here?

Great showing by the Rockets tonight who dominated the Heat for the second time this season. The 3-pt shooting was on target, and T-Mac was hitting big shots all night. The Heat never really had a chance, and any fleeting hope they had cutting the lead to 7 was erased by a quick 7-0 run capped off with a Bonzi Wells 3/4 court shot to end the 3rd. The real story, though, is Dwyane Wade. He looked like he was in terrible pain. He's one of the most aggressive players in the NBA and he was nearly in tears on the sideline. The announcers said he'll have to stay in Houston for further medical examinations instead of traveling to Dallas with the team. The first time I saw the replay, I thought it might be a separated shoulder, but with as much pain as Wade appeared to be in, I hope it's not something much worse (like a torn rotator cuff or something). Never wanna see that happen to anyone.

The Cardinals... won... the 2006... World Series. Comparing an 83-win team beating a 95-win team to a 54-win team doing the same thing is ridiculous.