NBA Playoffs 2008 - Round 1

[randomguy 0]

Terrible end. Nash gets picked, Nash bounces the ball off of Amare's shins, pass thrown away, Duncan trips over his own foot...bleah.

[Jaxxson Mayhem 0]

Nash fucked up huge in crunchtime.

[alfdogg 0]

Oddly enough, I think Shaq was the only guy I saw walk up to the line and do better than split a pair of free throws in the entire fourth quarter, from both teams.

[MFer 0]

WTF Nash?

That was a bad pass. Right into bowens hand honestly.

 

Good game, good series. Its sad that they lost because Shaq couldn't hit freethrows, but oh well. If someone doesn't force that fucker to shoot underhand this offseason, I have to question the balls of everyone on the team.

Yeah...still, Nash had a couple turnovers prior to that.

 

God I hate the Spurs.

[Ripper 0]

Yeah he had some turnovers. But turnovers happen. 17 missed freethrows is what cost them the game. And missed freethrows cost them game one. We all know who was missing the freethrows.

[Ripper 0]

I take it, then, that after San Antonio puts Phoenix out, you're going to spend the offseason going on about how the Suns were "really the better team," like you did last year?

 

 

Well thats just a crock of bullshit. I have never said the Suns were the better team. I said they were two evenly matched teams, which they were and which they still are.

[naiwf 0]

It's looking more and more likely that Nash will retire as the only 2-time MVP never to play in the Finals since that window in Phoenix just got shut tonight. Shaq will be in full fatass mode next season, Nash is getting older and D'Antoni doesn't believe in using the bench so it's pretty much a done deal. If there's any team I could kind of relate them to it's the Knicks in the '90s since we were always a threat but never got over the hump and even when we made the Finals it was such a soulcrushing way to lose the series that I'd have preferred to not live through it.

[Mr. S£im Citrus 0]

I take it, then, that after San Antonio puts Phoenix out, you're going to spend the offseason going on about how the Suns were "really the better team," like you did last year?

 

 

Well thats just a crock of bullshit. I have never said the Suns were the better team. I said they were two evenly matched teams, which they were and which they still are.

If they're so "evenly matched," how come the Suns always lose?

[bobobrazil1984 0]

Screw it, i hope we get that Deron-Paul matchup. It's kind of difficult to see them getting past LAL and SA respectively, but it would be new and fun.

[Ripper 0]

Because nothing happened in the series last year out of the ordinary.

 

And Shaq not being able to shoot freethrows means that obviously the Spurs are superior and in no way are they evenly matched with the team that was 3 close games and a blow out for both teams. Niether was the was the series that was tied up 2-2 last season before the suspensions and the last two games also came down to the last possessions.

 

Yeah....no way are they evenly matched.

[Ripper 0]

Screw it, i hope we get that Deron-Paul matchup. It's kind of difficult to see them getting past LAL and SA respectively, but it would be new and fun.

 

Could be great, although Lakers - Spurs wouldn't be anything to hate anyway.

[alfdogg 0]

BTW, tonight was the first time the Hornets franchise has ever won a best-of-7 series.

[Narcoleptic Jumper 0]

It's looking more and more likely that Nash will retire as the only 2-time MVP never to play in the Finals since that window in Phoenix just got shut tonight. Shaq will be in full fatass mode next season, Nash is getting older and D'Antoni doesn't believe in using the bench so it's pretty much a done deal.

 

I think they still have one more year. They'll really need to get a backup pointguard, though, to cut down on Nash's minutes at least a little. And if they actually end up getting rid of D'Antoni, they can go ahead and get someone who actually will play the bench. They can't play 7 guys next year if they want to have a chance. On the upside, if they do stay with D'Antoni, there's no way in hell Shaq will be in "fatass" mode because of all the running he'll have to do. and with their training staff, I wouldn't be surprised to see him in fine shape next year. but fuck that's a long time from now. i need to worry about more important shit goddammit. what a sad ending. i'll be rooting like hell for the Hornets.

[Mr. S£im Citrus 0]

Because nothing happened in the series last year out of the ordinary.

 

And Shaq not being able to shoot freethrows means that obviously the Spurs are superior and in no way are they evenly matched with the team that was 3 close games and a blow out for both teams. Niether was the was the series that was tied up 2-2 last season before the suspensions and the last two games also came down to the last possessions.

 

Yeah....no way are they evenly matched.

You know what you sound like? Kings fans after 2002. The average Kings Fan, to this day, keeps making excuses for why we lost, and we still don't want to accept that the Lakers were the better team (and man, did that hurt me to have to type).

[Ripper 0]

To be fair, D'Antoni didn't have a bench this year like he has had.

 

The bench guys that didn't play this series: Sean Marks, Eric Piakowski, DJ Strawberry, Linton Johnson. Seriously, which one of those guys were supposed to get more playing time?

[Ripper 0]

Because nothing happened in the series last year out of the ordinary.

 

And Shaq not being able to shoot freethrows means that obviously the Spurs are superior and in no way are they evenly matched with the team that was 3 close games and a blow out for both teams. Niether was the was the series that was tied up 2-2 last season before the suspensions and the last two games also came down to the last possessions.

 

Yeah....no way are they evenly matched.

You know what you sound like? Kings fans after 2002. The average Kings Fan, to this day, keeps making excuses for why we lost, and we still don't want to accept that the Lakers were the better team (and man, did that hurt me to have to type).

 

 

Because the Lakers were better than those Kings team. It would be a apt comparison if there was this one year where the second most important player on the team broke his face, or if Chris Webber and Vlade Divac got suspended this one year for taking a step on the court.

 

The Spurs have played the complete Suns team one time out of the three. No way the Suns would have won the first one, because the Spurs were the best team then. The last two season, they have been evenly matched. Simple as that.

 

The scores and the series have said as much.

[Guest]

Shaq is not going to stay in shape. Just thought I'd get that out of the way. Anyone who thinks he will is dreaming.

[naiwf 0]

Then the Suns need to work on their bench because they can't depend on getting 30+ minutes per night throughout the season and into the playoffs from Shaq & Hill given their injury histories. That leaves Nash, Barbosa, Bell, Diaw and Amare to do the heavy lifting yet again and Giricek can only give you so much. They might actually benefit from getting some bigs that can guard bigs instead of people who can play two or three positions on offense and none on "D".

 

[Ripper 0]

They need to keep Skinner as he is a good back up big and they need to figure out what they are going to do on the defensive end. They need a MONSTER at the Center position to make up for how horrible Amare is defensively.

 

Diaw did a incredible job tonight offensively and defensively much like last game. He simply is not a bench guy and is only effective as a starter. They are going to have to move Hill to the bench, although HIll was huge all season, you can't count on him the whole year, so you might as well have a guy that is going to be there and plays well.

 

 

[chaosrage 0]

What's sad is I think the Suns played better than the Spurs tonight, but they just missed 17 free throws.

[Ripper 0]

I am also still pissed that the Suns refused to go over the cap for:

 

Luel Deng

Rajon Rondo

Kurt Thomas

Sergio Rodrieguez

Rudy Fernandez

 

(although I realize they might have picked different players)

 

But said: Lets go over the cap for SHAQ!

[Mr. S£im Citrus 0]

Because the Lakers were better than those Kings team. It would be a apt comparison if there was this one year where the second most important player on the team broke his face, or if Chris Webber and Vlade Divac got suspended this one year for taking a step on the court.

Maybe more like if Webber and Scot Pollard got suspended.

 

The Spurs have played the complete Suns team one time out of the three. No way the Suns would have won the first one, because the Spurs were the best team then. The last two season, they have been evenly matched. Simple as that.

 

The scores and the series have said as much.

I beg to differ; all those scores and series tell me is that Phoenix can't close the deal. The only margin of victory of any consequence to me is the how many games it took one team to win; how close the individual games are don't really matter if the team loses 4-1 and 4-2 all the time. You can play the "if" game all you want to, but the Suns didn't win those close games. Since 2003, the Suns are 4-14 against the Spurs in playoff games decided by single digits, and they won half of those in 2003. I should certainly like to think that if they were truly "evenly matched," like you say they are, that statistic would be a lot closer than that.

[Precious Roy 0]

I wouldn't say they were evenly matched this year. The Suns showed some fight winning game 4, but they threw their best punch in game one and came up short. 3 close games, the Spurs won all 3 of them. The Spurs were clearly the better team. This Phoenix team lacked depth and outside shooting, and the Shaq experiment backfired. If they were evenly matched it would have gone more than 5 games.

[Damaramu 0]

So how might this have been different had the Shaq trade never happened? The Suns were flying pretty high before it happened.

[Ripper 0]

I wouldn't say they were evenly matched this year. The Suns showed some fight winning game 4, but they threw their best punch in game one and came up short. 3 close games, the Spurs won all 3 of them. The Spurs were clearly the better team. This Phoenix team lacked depth and outside shooting, and the Shaq experiment backfired. If they were evenly matched it would have gone more than 5 games.

 

 

Except the spurs won 2 of their four wins base soley upon Hack a Shaq. That literally was the difference. I don't see how you can say a team was clearly better when they basically won on fouling a guy off the ball in non basketball plays.

 

Not that I blame them. It was sound stragedy and they won, but to say they were CLEARLY the better team becaues Shaq missed freethrows is a little silly.

[chaosrage 0]

I don't understand why D'antoni didn't try the Hack-a-Bruce.

[Precious Roy 0]

Shaq is the Suns starting center and they exploited his biggest weakness. That's a smart play by the Spurs. They exploited a glaring weakness in their opponent.

 

In the past Shaq's inability to hit free throws was negated by the fact that he was a dominant force on both ends. Now he doesn't even have the legs to power through with dunks under the hoop. He catches the ball under the basket in traffic and goes up for layups, which he misses half the time. It used to be an automatic dunk and maybe a dunk plus a free throw.

 

The Spurs are the better team. Citing Shaq's weaknesses doesn't do anything for your argument.

[bobobrazil1984 0]

This is a very strange back and forth going on. You guys realize that Shaq is ON the Phoenix Suns team, right? Thus Shaq's weaknesses are Phoenix Suns' weaknesses.

 

on the Phoenix topic, SI.com is reporting D'antoni is done.

[Rendclaw 0]

that's not surprising, though to my way of thinking Kerr should be following him right out the door... but I'll bet that this is one of those "gm fires the head coach to save his job" situations, even if D'Antoni did enough by himself to get fired.

[teke184 0]

I don't understand why D'antoni didn't try the Hack-a-Bruce.

You have to be willing to put people in to eat the fouls in order to do that.

 

D'antoni didn't seem willing to put anyone but his top 8 guys on the court and at least 3 of those top guys (Shaq, Amare, Diaw) had 4-5 fouls late in the game.

 

 

Also, from what I'm hearing, D'antoni walked because he didn't feel he had management's confidence behind him.

 

Who goes to Phoenix, Avery Johnson?