iggymcfly

That was the one thing that bothered me about Avery is that he'd gotten Dirk away from shooting that 3-pointer. He's got the prettiest jumper in the league, and when he's truly three-dimensional (as he was tonight), no one can stop him.

FIFTY POINTS! We are all Nowitznesses!

MONSTER, MONSTER game for Dirk tonight. He's got 41 thus far, and the Suns can't stop him at all. When that jumper's going, he's just a cold-blooded killer. Oh, and it figures Thomas would be a Cena mark. Talk about gay.

I have no idea. Really, the cheap fouls have been keeping Phoenix in the game when they've been getting nothing in their halfcourt offense. If you took out the transition baskets and the free throws, they'd have about 20 points.

Wow, three shot-clock violations in four possessions for the Suns there. The Mavericks have really been playing some suffocating defense tonight. Honestly, this is the first time that I've really seen the Mavs on their 'A' game since the San Antonio series.

RVD's build has been terrible since he came back from injury. They needed to put him in at least one program with a main-eventer if they wanted him to be taken seriously as "the hot face" contending for the title. If he'd worked a program with Edge going into Backlash that culminated in some hot matches, I think the crowd could have easily gotten behind him. Instead he's just been going through the motions with people like Chris Masters (that a lot of people tune out anyway), and just hitting his five spots. They really needed to do something with him between WM and ONS. Even if he was a fighting IC champion that always defended his title in no-DQ matches, so that the marks could associate him with hardcore and get into it, he might be over. But really anyone that's cheering for RVD right now is cheering for what he's donw five or ten years ago. He's really done nothing at all to get over since coming back from injury.

Wow, the Mavericks really played like shit tonight. That was far and away their worst performance of the postseason. They were missing everything, and they didn't hit the glass at all tonight. I'd expect them to come out really strong for Game 5 though. If Howard plays, I give them a 98% chance of winning, likely by a large margin.

I just don't like the idea that there are an uneven number of teams by league, and that some teams have to beat five teams to win a division while others only have to beat three. Personally, I think they shouldn't have expanded to 30 teams until they had a short-term (maybe five-year) plan to make it 32, so that they could even things out.

I'm getting a 2005 Hyundai Sonata this week. They're comfortable, get around 30 MPG, and they're very affordable. With the prices on domestics nowadays, I think imports are the way to go.

Because the FBI doesn't give a fuck.

I don't know why they were expected to compete for the pennant, their lineup clearly doesn't have enough. Because the AL West is terrible and no one could find anyone that was actually worthy of a playoff spot. When MLB came up with this stupid 5/4/4, 5/6/5 plan, you'd think they could have at least put likely contenders in the four-team division. Really, you'd think the East would have been a slam-dunk with New York and Boston. It probably wouldn't have made a huge difference in the long run, but at least there wouldn't be a systemic bias toward bad teams from shitty markets.

Duke was a team that I liked that I thought would win the national championship in basketball. Half of my rooting for them during the tournament was just to be right because I had them winning in my bracket. At no point did I claim that they were "my team." Georgia Tech has been my favorite college team for the last ten years. With Georgia Tech, I was all excited to see what bracket matchups they'd get (when they were in the tourney), watched all their significant games, and even pulled over at a sports bar in the middle of moving back to college to watch a tourney game of theirs. There's a difference there. Meanwhile, you just picked one of the teams in the championship in every major professional sport a couple years ago, (Pistons, Red Sox, Eagles), and instantly proclaimed them your team. Then, when it looked like you might not have a team in the championship a couple years later (wow, funny how that works out), you started hijacking threads to complain about how the gods had cursed you, dedicating five posts per page to tell us how uninterested you were in the teams that weren't your newly appointed favorites. Now THAT is the very definition of a bandwagon fan.

I don't know if it's possible to ban someone from posting in a single thread, but if we could, it might be nice here to take care of someone who's name starts with Dama and ends with ramu. Nothing pisses me off more than whiny bandwagon fans. I waited through six seasons in a row where Dallas didn't even make the playoffs, then saw the near misses for season after season to finally enjoy them in the Finals, and Dama who probably didn't even know what the NBA was three years ago is bitching because he can't watch the same goddamn boring teams in the Finals this year that made it last year. He can eat a dick. Anyway, Miami looked good again tonight. There's no way that Detroit's going to be able to stop them now. They just don't have the firepower on the offensive end to keep up. I really think this year is a landmark in terms of changing of the guard, as the Mavs, Heat, Suns, Clippers, Cavaliers, and Lakers should all be significantly better next year, while the Pistons and Spurs will be getting worse. I think when Miami finishes off the Detroit in Game 6 (maybe even 5?), the slow boring nightmare of champions that can't score will be over once and for all.

Not to toot my own horn or anything, but with my 10-2 victory this week, the distance between 1st and 2nd is now greater than the distance between 2nd and 11th. Other than saves, (which I concede every week with no closer on my roster), I haven't lost more than two categories since Week 1. Oh, I also have the top 2 hitters in Yahoo baseball now in Soriano and Pujols, I'm undefeated in wins, strikeouts, and holds, and this week, Coco Crisp returns from the DL to add some punch to the lineup. All right, maybe I did toot my own horn just a little bit. Cranky Old Men rule!

I was just responding to Dama's comment that he could be an NBA star for the Mavs because they get soooo many calls. I was pointing out that they overcome a game that really was biased a week ago to beat the defending champs, so I think his "point" that Dallas wins because of the refs is pretty fucking stupid.

Yeah, Phoenix definitely had their chances. One play that comes to mind is the one where Diop missed a shot and the ball bounced by about three Phoenix players out to the free throw line before Diop just picked it up again. Phoenix lost the game because they were sloppy with the ball, and because no one except Marion made any effort on the glass. If Amare was still around, I think the Suns would have won this game. Still a big win for Dallas though. They had a perfect opportunity to steal one with Bell out, and they took advantage of all the Suns' mistakes.

OMG Dama. Did you watch the Spurs series? Duncan got twice as many calls as Jordan in his prime, and the Mavs still took Game 7. Dirk hasn't been traveling the way the rules called in the NBA, and I certainly haven't seen excessive fouls down low. If the Suns can't overcome one missed shot-clock violation, then they don't deserve to move on. It's not like it was a one possession game anyway. Dallas was winning regardless.

All right. I've been a die-hard Mavs fan for about 12 years (they're not my "team of the month"), and I didn't even think that ball hit the rim.

Well, Dama goes out of his way to dislike whatever everyone else likes because he thinks it makes him an independent thinker or something. That's why he's so down on LeBron, Kobe, Miami, and Dallas. I think it just seems like everyone hates Dallas because he posts so much.

I wish Dirk would take over the game a little more. He's been passing up way too many good looks from three. Still though, the Mavs have been playing quite a bit better in the second half. I like their chances if they keep this up.

Shaq's way more fun to watch than anyone for Detroit or SA. Duncan gets his points by making hook shots and flopping like a bitch. Shaq makes his points by dunking all over people and damn near bringing the basket down. Oh, and Antoine Walker's looked good this postseason too. He's showing offensive skills that have pretty much lay dormant for the last five years.

Aw, don't listen to them. If she's not what she says, she already thinks you're a jackass and you haven't lost anything. Meanwhile, either way, the community of TSM gets some additional comedy. I say go for it.

I'm not sure if I agree on the matchups so much. I mean no one in the NBA has two scoring threats like Wade and Shaq, so of course that will be an edge Miami has on any team. Dallas has much better role-players though in Harris, Howard, and Stackhouse, and I think Diop would play at least passable defense on Shaq. Also, since Miami does score so well, I think you almost have to just outscore them (which Dallas could do) as opposed to trying to stop them (which Detroit seems to be failing miserably at). All in all, I think it would be a really even, competitive series, and I could see it going either way. I think that adding up competitiveness, star power, and just general entertainment value, Dallas/Miami would be the most compelling Finals since MJ retired. Oh, and who do you think will lose in the conference finals between Dallas and Miami? I'd give Dallas about an 85% chance of beating Phoenix, and I'd probably give Miami an 80% chance of beating Detroit. If Phoenix or Detroit made the NBA Finals, I'd be quite surprised at this point.

Miami and especially Dwayne Wade have looked incredible thus far. They're making the best defensive team in the NBA look like lost little puppy dogs trying to stop them. They're starting to get me worried at this point. I really think they could beat Dallas.

Where the fuck's Soriano on the NL side? If fantasy stats were the criteria for the MVP, he'd be Top 5 easily.