Thoughts on the Opening Weekend of the Playoffs
- T-Mac gets it. Plain and simple. Sure, it took a while, but he has really figured it out under the coaching of Jeff Van Gundy. He is an exciting player to watch. On the other hand,…
- Kobe has not figured it out. Sure, there were glimpses of the should-be-greatest-player-alive-today, but, when things got tough in the second half, Evil Kobe took over and hoisted bad shot after bad shot. The Lakers went stagnant and the Suns were able to push the pace on turnovers/long rebounds.
- It was nice of Donovan McNabb to lend Baron Davis his beard for the postseason. Too bad for the Mavericks, Donovan didn’t give Baron his endurance as well.
- Speaking of Baron, what a game. That was incredible. I’m not sure where the line for statement games starts, but I do know that 33 points, 14 rebounds, 8 assists, 3 steals, and 2 blocks far surpasses that threshold. I remember having a heated debate with one of my roommates several years ago during the heyday of the Jason Kidd era (where he took the Nets to the Finals the first time) where I argued that if Davis could ever stay healthy, he could be the best point guard in the game. Well, Davis continued to get hurt, he got in worse and worse shape, and he started forcing way too many bad three pointers. So, I shelved the argument. Yep. I locked it away, thinking it would go the way of my prediction that Luke Jackson would be a solid NBA player. Well, folks, I not only pulled the argument out of the basement and dusted it off, I’m here to assert it again. Davis has every single tool that you want in a point guard. He is a lock-down defender. His passing ability is phenomenal. He has a knack for hitting shots at the end of quarters/halves/games/shot clocks. He is a big guard with excellent handles. Now, the self-imposed ceiling seems to have been lifted through the brilliance of Don Nelson.
- Don Nelson = awesome coach. I absolutely love Nellie. He turned the Mavericks into winners when they were the laughing stock of the NBA. Now he has returned to Golden State to do the same. He got Baron Davis to play to the level he should have always been at. He made Stephen Jackson appear moderately sane. His teams always play hard and light up the scoreboard. The Warriors had a small celebration after a win this season where they presented Nellie with an award, a Bud Light. And, he has one of the greatest quotes about playing in Utah ever. I won’t be able to recite it exactly, but it was about Nellie’s love for playing a playoff series in Utah. He talked about how most guys hated traveling to Utah because there was nothing to do. Nellie said he couldn’t believe that, because he was a member of a drinking club there. Then he went on a little tangent about the drinking clubs in Utah. It was brilliant. Someone needs to find that interview and post it on YouTube.
- The Spurs could not have been worse last night. The Nuggets just beat them all over the court. Duncan, et. al., really need to play better if they want to win this series. (For the record, I’m sure my brother has already hit the panic button.)
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