This week in the NBA

[justsoyouknow 0]

Hence my "if you think that..."

[Rendclaw 0]

The only way the Bulls will get respect is doing damage in the playoffs. They are still a young team and make the mistakes a young team makes, although I will say they are doing it less frequently. They need some serious low post scoring and I am sorry, being a Pistons and Magic fan, any team that has Ben Wallace on it (as much as I love the guy on the defensive end) is going to be 4 on 5 on the offensive end.

 

 

I was rather impressed with their win, even though it was over a depleted and tired Suns team.

[naiwf 0]

http://cbs.sportsline.com/nba/story/9992841

 

Nash to skip the AS Game . . .

 

http://cbs.sportsline.com/nba/story/9992912

 

. . . Riley to return after it

 

 

Nash is making the best move for his team, Riley isn't. I didn't have much respect left for Riles after he dicked over the Knicks but doing Ron Jeremy's twin dirty last year and then leaving his team only to return when they finally got their act together just seems unnecessary.

[alfdogg 0]

RE: Bulls/Suns

 

I may be mistaken about this, but I think Nash was a late scratch for that game. I think the "Suns will kill the Bulls" talk was probably said when it was thought that Nash was a go. You guys (Ripper/JSYK) can correct me if I'm wrong, though.

 

So the replacement discussion starts again...off the top of my head, the top candidates look to be Ray Allen & Deron Williams, for positional purposes, with Okur, Randolph and Brand also having solid arguments. So who goes?

[Guest]

Stern will pick Allen. If I chose, I'd pick Williams.

[Ripper 0]

Okur and Williams are the only two that should be on the list right now.

 

And for the SUns Bulls, yes I thought Nash was playing, but I still would have picked them until I found out Diaw also wasn't playing. Without both of their playmakers I wouldn't have called a definate thing. But I still would have picked them. Then Amare got into foul trouble and I knew they probably were going to lose. And they still came into the 4th with the lead.

 

As for all this respect the bulls stuff. They are a mediocre team in a mediocre conference. What are they now, 27-23? Don't try to drum them up as the leagues elite when they are 4 games over .500. They get the exact amount of respect that they should.

[justsoyouknow 0]

I was also under the impression that Nash would be playing. But it's better for the team in the long run to have him sit out, since we need him later in the season moreso than before the all-star break. As for the Bulls hatred, the entire eastern conference is pretty much a joke, so being the best in a conference of shitty teams is like being the least retarded kid in your special ed class.

[alfdogg 0]

Allen Iverson's also been making noise about not playing in the All-Star game, btw.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

Even though I've given up the Suns/Bulls issue, I have to point out that last year was the same thing, with the West being a lot stronger than the East. But who won the NBA title? An Eastern team. Yes I know the NBA probably gift-wrapped that one, but it still happened.

[justsoyouknow 0]

Because you can't touch Wade.

[Ripper 0]

Or look at him.

 

Or according to a couple of games in the finals, you have to move out of the way if he reaches his arm out to grab you.

[Guest]

And according to Phil Jackson, he walks all the way from 3 feet outside of the 3 point line to the basket on every possession.

[alfdogg 0]

And he kicks puppies.

[Just John 0]

Phil Jackson has zero room to complain given some of the calls his stars have gotten over the years.

 

And I'll say it again: Fuck Pat Riley. He's not even trying to hide the fact he only wants to be part of the team when its successful anymore.

[Ripper 0]

Thats just silly alf. He kicks babies.

 

But seriously, even though Dallas got fucked over on at least one of those games because of terrible calls for dwayne wade, thats not why Miami won the Championship. The happened to play the one team out of the West they could take in a 7 game series. And Dallas still would have won had they pushed the tempo, but they decided to slow the game down into half court and got fucked.

[Guest]

Nobody that I've ever seen gets calls like Wade. My Jordan viewing is limited to ESPN Classic and late in his career due to my age, so take it for what you will. Shaq got some calls too, but he couldn't make his free throws. Honestly though, the way he got fouled he probably deserved more than he got.

[naiwf 0]

Nobody that I've ever seen gets calls like Wade. My Jordan viewing is limited to ESPN Classic and late in his career due to my age, so take it for what you will. Shaq got some calls too, but he couldn't make his free throws. Honestly though, the way he got fouled he probably deserved more than he got.

 

MJ got even more borderline calls than Wade, that's all you need to know. He berated refs worse than 'Sheed ever did on a routine basis and rarely ever got T'ed up. As someone else said, he could hack, chop and elbow his way through 3 quarters while basically never getting fouls called until the end of a game. And God forbid some ref didn't read the memo and had the audacity to give him a couple of fouls in the first half and he had to sit for a minute or two. That doesn't even touch on the fact that he had a protective 2 foot wide bubble surrounding him in the 4th quarter of every close game he ever played in.

[alfdogg 0]

To address what Porter said, though, the gap between the East and West is considerably larger than it was last year, and is probably as wide as it's been since the Nets were making the Finals. And even still, last year a large majority of people had an East team (Detroit) winning the thing up until their bitter end.

[Just John 0]

Nobody that I've ever seen gets calls like Wade. My Jordan viewing is limited to ESPN Classic and late in his career due to my age, so take it for what you will. Shaq got some calls too, but he couldn't make his free throws. Honestly though, the way he got fouled he probably deserved more than he got.

 

Naiwf covered MJ, but Phil's Lakers got plenty of favorable calls as well. A big example would be Game 6 of the 2002 WCF, which is similar to Game 5 of last year's finals in terms of horrendous officiating. The call that still stands out to me from that one was Mike Bibby getting whistled for impeding Kobe's swinging elbow with his face.

[Guest]

I didn't think that series was too bad (#5 should be retired by the Laker organization). But I'm a homer, don't trust me with judging officiating in a game with the Lakers involved.

 

Game 7 was the best I've ever seen, and the only time that I cried during a game.

[alfdogg 0]

Wow, you must really like Farmar!

[Guest]

Hell yeah!

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

2002 WCF is the worst officiating that I can ever remember. It was just ridiculously one sided after the Kings got the early lead in the series. Game 6 was particularly egregious.

[Rendclaw 0]

I didn't think that series was too bad (#5 should be retired by the Laker organization). But I'm a homer, don't trust me with judging officiating in a game with the Lakers involved.

 

Game 7 was the best I've ever seen, and the only time that I cried during a game.

 

You are one of the few fans that admits his homerdom. Good on you.

[Guest]

When the team's not so great, I try to be modest, but when they're good I can't help myself.

[Guest Vitamin X]

But the Lakers have lost 3 in a row to teams that could've been beaten.

[Guest]

I'm down on this team, so I really don't wanna say much about them. They're really missing Luke Walton, but one thing that I like is that they fell into a seeding that could help them to win a series in the playoffs. Like, there's no way that the Lakers are getting out of the 6th spot. It's perfect. 2002 is different, and talking about them makes me happy.

 

Like, on a totally different note, the Hornets have crept up to a half game back of the 8th spot. After their start, I didn't see that coming at all.

[alfdogg 0]

AI pulled out of the All-Star game today, and now there's rumor that Jason Kidd may miss as well due to a sore back.

[naiwf 0]

This AS game is beginning to resemble the Pro Bowl.

[Broward83 0]

So which player is going to get JACKED UP! in Vegas then?