NBA Playoffs 2008 - Round 1

[Mr. S£im Citrus 0]

this season, the Spurs won when the only difference betweent he two teams was that Shaq missed freethrows while they were fouling him off the ball. My question is how is that equaling basketball superiority to you? Did the Spurs out defend the Suns? No, the Suns were pretty much scoring when they wanted to. Did they out execute the Suns? Nope. Both teams look equally good and equally bad at times. The only thing they were better at in this series was fouling Shaq without the ball.

If that were the only difference, then why did they only win one game? Why does it always seem, as I said before, like Phoenix can't win a close game against San Antonio? I mean, I'm not saying that the Spurs have a slight edge when the game is close, I'm saying that the Spurs ALWAYS WIN WHEN THE GAME IS CLOSE, and to me, that's not the sign of a team being evenly matched with them.

 

What you're saying is not a big difference I'm saying is a huge difference. To me, a team that's mentally better is better, period, especially if that mental edge always seems to put them on the winner's end of a box score when the game is close.

[alfdogg 0]

I agree with most of the stuff in that post, but I don't see how you can say the Spurs have not out-executed the Suns. Almost all their games the last couple years have come down to who executes at the end, and more often than not it's been the Spurs.

 

EDIT: In response to Ripper

[randomguy 0]

this season, the Spurs won when the only difference betweent he two teams was that Shaq missed freethrows while they were fouling him off the ball. My question is how is that equaling basketball superiority to you?

 

Free throws count as much as anything else. All you are saying here is that the Suns played as well against the Spurs except in the critical areas they didn't. Well yeah.

 

Its like saying Player A is better than Player B because he beat him in HORSE.

 

No, it's like saying Team A beat Team B because they beat them on the floor.

 

Which of those things have anythign to do with real basketball?

 

Free throws are part of real basketball. This isn't And1. What next, if the Suns get outshot at the 3-point line are you going to claim that isn't "real basketball" either?

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus 0]

On the Kings board I post at, people are always bitching about seeing the NBA brought back to NBC... After watching the hype package on TNT for Hawks/Celtics and Wizards/Cavaliers, I think those people ought to be hit in the head with a snow shovel.

[Guest I swallowed a Q-Tip.]

Nobody thinks TNT should lose its NBA coverage. TNT's coverage is widely acclaimed. It's the ABC coverage that nobody likes: the "ESPN on ABC" presentation just makes it look like the finals have been demoted to cable, and there's very little effort on ESPN's part in putting together a compelling presentation.

 

um, what happened

[Mr. S£im Citrus 0]

I disagree; I think that the play-by-play between NBC and ABC is about equal, and I think that the studio analysis is also equal (though I'll admit to being biased towards ABC simply because I like Wilbon). I think that the production favors ABC which, to be fair, should be expected, given the advances in technology. But, basically, I just don't think that NBC did anything better than ABC does, let alone worthy of being remembered so fondly.

 

I think that the people who have hardons for NBC just have some kind of stalker-ish love affair with "Roundball Rock."

[Guest I swallowed a Q-Tip.]

I don't know. When I think back to watching the NBA as a kid, or when I go back and watch the NBA on NBC stuff on youtube, they did a much better job than ESPN/ABC does. Wilbon is great at everything he does, I won't deny this, but he's a relatively new addition, I believe. For a while, I think the analysts were Tim Legler, John Saunders, Stephen A. Smith, and other various people who had nothing interesting to say. Also, ABC has had the misfortune of carrying some really ass Finals, like Spurs-Nets, Spurs-Pistons, or Spurs-Cavaliers. There's only so much to work with there.

 

I think that the people who have hardons for NBC just have some kind of stalker-ish love affair with "Roundball Rock."

This isn't necessarily false.

[Kinetic 0]

Also, ABC has had the misfortune of carrying some really ass Finals, like Spurs-Nets, Spurs-Pistons, or Spurs-Cavaliers. There's only so much to work with there.

 

The first and third of that bunch sucked, granted. Spurs-Pistons should have been good, but we ended up with a series that went to seven games but only had one game that was particularly good. I don't know... I just kinda wish that the Lakers would play the Knicks in the Finals every year so that everyone in the NBA and all the good folks at ABC could get really rich and have great ratings and all. Makes me feel sort of bad for liking a small-market team.

 

[CanadianChris 0]

Celts/Hawks is not on TV here. Fuck a whole bunch of that.

[Guest I swallowed a Q-Tip.]

Now I feel bad for resenting how criminally dull it can be to watch the Spurs, and then watch ABC make me try to care about the Spurs because of their "international flavor." How'd you become a Spurs fan, anyway?

 

By the way, spurs "international flavor" returns 2,490 results on Google. This is more than I expected. Sometimes I can't remember if other people drive a phrase into the ground, or if I think they did but it actually ends up being me.

[Kinetic 0]

I lived in San Antonio for five years. I even met David Robinson at the airport! Shit, I went to school in Winston-Salem when Duncan was at Wake Forest. I couldn't avoid being a Spurs fan.

[Kinetic 0]

Let me just say this: I don't care what anyone thinks about the Spurs. Hate them if you want. But please keep in mind that even if ABC gets blockbuster ratings for a Finals series, they will not be sending you a check. You have no vested interest in what those ratings look like.

[Mr. S£im Citrus 0]

Agreed; I care about the basketball matchups. The ratings can go get fucked.

[Guest I swallowed a Q-Tip.]

I want to be entertained. If the Orlando Magic can entertain me, despite the relative size of Orlando, I'll be happy. It's not San Antonio that I resent so much as it is the Spurs just doing nothing for me.

[Maztinho 0]

I want to be entertained. If the Orlando Magic can entertain me, despite the relative size of Orlando, I'll be happy. It's not San Antonio that I resent so much as it is the Spurs just doing nothing for me.

 

I resent them for systematically kicking the shit out of my team year in and year out. I actually like them when they are systematically kicking the shit out of everyone else in the league.

[Kinetic 0]

This is a strange thing. It seems like people can't even muster up a good ol' fashioned Notre Dame-type hate for the Spurs. You'd think that they'd have built up the type of animosity that the Pats experienced last year, but it still seems like no one outside of die hard NBA fans and fans of the team care.

[Ripper 0]

I disagree; I think that the play-by-play between NBC and ABC is about equal, and I think that the studio analysis is also equal (though I'll admit to being biased towards ABC simply because I like Wilbon). I think that the production favors ABC which, to be fair, should be expected, given the advances in technology. But, basically, I just don't think that NBC did anything better than ABC does, let alone worthy of being remembered so fondly.

 

I think that the people who have hardons for NBC just have some kind of stalker-ish love affair with "Roundball Rock."

 

 

I want it on NBC just because of the John Tesh music.

[Kinetic 0]

I mean, they flop. And they bitch and moan all the time. And several of them weren't even born here in the US of A. Despite the size of their market, they are the ultra heels of the NBA.

[Guest I swallowed a Q-Tip.]

35% of Patriot hate is a function of Boston sports fans. Even though most Spurs fans are ostensibly Texans, nobody thinks of them as loud ostentatious dickholes like the people that like the Cowboys or college sports. They actually seem like the best of the bunch.

[Ripper 0]

35% of Patriot hate is a function of Boston sports fans. Even though most Spurs fans are ostensibly Texans, nobody thinks of them as loud ostentatious dickholes like the people that like the Cowboys or college sports. They actually seem like the best of the bunch.

 

 

Yeah, you can't hate the spurs because their fans don't suck ass.

 

 

[Guest I swallowed a Q-Tip.]

Was that sarcastic? Do they suck ass? I DUNNOOOOOOO. I always get the impression that they're decent folk.

[Kinetic 0]

Yeah, I can't help but feel that even though most would like to see the Spurs be dealt with, it would be even more satisfying to see Boston get embarrassed.

 

ALTHOUGH that has a lot to do with the level of cock-slobbering that ESPN does with any successful Boston squad. And have you seen KG's weird "INTENSE" face on the Jumbotron in that recent Gatorade commericial? Man, fuck that guy.

[Guest I swallowed a Q-Tip.]

You are correct. The Hawks have temporarily become America's Team.

[Damaramu 0]

If the Wizards played with any sort of an offensive brain in the fourth quarter they could've won this series.

[Guest Vitamin X]

Well, I happen to resent both San Antonio and its Spurs. So now there's two Spurs fans on this board of note: razazteca and Kinetic. Interesting.

[Guest I swallowed a Q-Tip.]

I'm pulling for the Wizards here. Fuck the Celtics and the Cavaliers. They have Ben Wallace. Fuck that piece of shit.

[Kinetic 0]

I spelled out the reasons for my Spurs fanhood in some Maff chat a while back. Did you know that I wasn't allowed to wear certain colors to school when I lived in San Antonio? Spurs colors weren't included in that bunch. We've come a long way, baby.

[Guest I swallowed a Q-Tip.]

Weren't the Spurs' colors magenta, banana, and turquoise back then? Those should've been disallowed for looking gay.

[Kinetic 0]

Certain colors were disallowed because we would have been shot dead by gang members. I was, like, nine. I didn't know the difference. I wore a Miami Hurricanes hat, slightly tilted right.

[Ripper 0]

Was that sarcastic? Do they suck ass? I DUNNOOOOOOO. I always get the impression that they're decent folk.

 

 

No, no sarcasm. They really have non sucky fans.