The Celtics continued their winning streak by beating the Magic 94-71 in Game Three last Saturday. Boston has now won six games in a row and is up 3-0 on the Magic. Game Four of the Eastern Conference Finals tips off Monday at 8:30 ET at the Boston Garden.
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With four teams left in the NBA finals the first game of the NBA championship series is about three weeks away. Both the Eastern and Western Conference Finals are going into game three. So far the teams with home court advantage are up 2-0, and the championship series is likely to be between the Lakers and the Celtics.
Steve Nash had a bruised eye which will hopefully heal by Sunday, but the Suns as a whole will have a difficult time coming back from an 0-2 deficit against the Lakers for the Western Conference Title. In Game Two the Lakers came out strongly and evidently the 7.5 point favorites which the odds makers pinned them. The Suns gave up a 36 point first quarter, and even though the Suns tightened their game, the Lakers ran away with it in the fourth quarter. The Lakers travel to Phoenix for Game Three of the Western Conference Finals Series.
Either you are at least a little bit surprised by what the Boston Celtics have accomplished so far in the playoffs or you weren’t paying attention during the regular season. They won 50 games to finish fourth in the Eastern Conference, but they didn’t earn a lot of style points doing it. Their older players looked really old, the team wasn’t playing with cohesion, and only Rajon Rondo seemed to have taken a step forward from the previous year. Yet here they are. They beat a pretty good Miami team easily, dominated what was widely seen as the best team in the league, and are now in very good shape against the Magic after two games. They’ve faced the toughest path of any team in the playoffs, and come out of it looking brilliant. They have been like a whole new team for bettors as well – they burned bettors’ money by going 33-47-2 ATS during the regular season, but have been a fantastic 10-3 ATS in the playoffs.
Miami, Chicago, New York, or Cleveland? Where will LeBron James, end up for the 2010 – 2011 season? The Cavaliers’ team leading small forward will become a free agent on July first.
The veteran small forward going into his seventh year of NBA basketball with over 15,000 career points is rumored to be looking for a new home. This news comes bundled with talk of Cavaliers coach Mike Brown not returning next season.
Continue reading “Lebron James Odds On Where the King Lands Next Year”
The Phoenix Suns have dealt with some drama including sweeping the Spurs in the second round of the NBA Western Conference Finals. Their all-star point guard Steve Nash’s scary appearance should be less frightful as his stitched up eye heals.
The NBA playoffs have bee full of great stories. The Celtics have gone back in time by a couple of years. The Suns finally got the Spurs’ monkey off their backs. The Lakers are looking like the Lakers. Performance the most impressive showing so far, though, is by the Orlando Magic. Not only have they swept both of their opponents, but they won their four second round games by a stunning combined total of 101 points. That shouldn’t be possible in the playoffs, and certainly not in the second round. The Magic are now riding a 14 game winning streak, and the only time they didn’t cover the spread over that stretch was in the first game of the playoffs, and they only missed by one point. Oddsmakers haven’t been shy with setting numbers, but Orlando just doesn’t care.
LeBron James is gong to get a title this year if he has to win it single-handedly. His efforts in the fourth quarter tonight couldn’t have been any more impressive. The pesky Bulls were tied heading into the fourth quarter, and they were causing real problems for the Cavs. They were only up by three points seven minutes later when LeBron took over. He amassed 15 points in the next six minutes to give his team the lead for good and to remind the Bulls who is boss. It was an impressive spectacle, though not a surprising one given what he is capable of. Also impressive in the game was Joakim Noah. He sounded ridiculous before the game talking trash about Cleveland, but he really backed it up with his play – 25 points and 13 rebounds.
Continue reading “Basketball, Basketball, and More Basketball”
1. There won’t be an upset throughout the playoffs – There is a big talent gap in the NBA. I don’t see an upset that is likely in the first round, and the standings lay out in such a way that the higher seeded team will be the better team if everything plays out as it is supposed to. It’s quite possible, then, that we could see a playoff race that runs exactly true to form. Something will probably disrupt it along the way, but it is definitely more possible this year than it has been in other years. The West could have had some big contests, but injuries are making that less likely.
2. Kevin Durant is going to make things fun – Despite the injury issues for the Lakers and the huge strides the Thunder have taken, Oklahoma City just isn’t ready to pull of an upset here. That being said, I think that Durant is going to be chomping at the bit to get his first taste of the playoffs, and to get some much deserved national TV exposure, and he’s going to make the most of it. We know that the guy is a big game player, and he and Kobe could have one heck of a showdown in this one. Kobe outscored Durant by just over a point per game in their four regular season meetings.
3. Vince Carter is going to be reborn – A guy as good as Carter is doesn’t have as much payoff success as he should have. He can’t always be accused of being a smart guy, but he’s smart enough to know that this is the best shot that he has had, and perhaps his last great chance to make a real impact. He’s matched up well in his opening series, and I look for him to really elevate his game in these playoffs. Orlando certainly could use some big play from him.
4. Derrick Rose will lead his team to a win in one game – The Cavs are clearly the best team in the league and are going to dominate the East, and likely the West when they get their chance. Rose and the Bulls are a feisty playoff team, though – remember the trouble they gave the Celtics last year – and I really do think that they will find a way to win one here.
5. The most vulnerable first round favorite is the Celtics – It’s hard to believe given how good they have been in the recent past, but the magic of Boston is clearly gone, and they are playing on borrowed time. They are still better than Miami and will win if both teams play their best, but if one team is going to lose series while holding home court advantage it will be Boston. They have struggled in the first round the last couple of years, and they just don’t have the margin of error now that they once did.
The NBA as a league is often ridiculous, but they have reached a whole new low with their latest move. Dell Curry is a broadcaster for the Charlotte Bobcats so he is able to vote for the league’s awards. He’s also the father of Stephen Curry, the likely second place finisher in the Rookie of the Year balloting. Because of the latter, the league has stripped Curry of his ROY vote this year while still letting him vote on the other categories. By doing that the league says that they are ensuring impartiality and saving him from a potentially damaging situation, but what they are really doing is saying that they don’t have any faith in Curry’s professionalism. I would have no problem if Curry decided to give up his vote himself – though I certainly don’t think that he needs to – but I think it’s insulting and ridiculous that the league felt that they needed to do it for him. Besides, by doing this they are suggesting that Curry is the only one who could potentially have any bias, and that’s just ridiculous. If they are going to take away this vote then they should also take away the votes of anyone from Memphis because they will be biased towards Tyreke Evans, and take away the vote of anyone who ever played for Milwaukee because they have been biased towards Brandon Jennings. Bias is absolutely and completely a part of voting for every single award there is – if not then every winner would be virtually unanimous. Besides, they are planning on giving the vote to someone else who covers the Bobcats. Do you honestly believe that that person won’t be at least a little biased towards Curry since they see his father every day? If you do you are naive. By isolating this one situation the NBA has made a joke of the whole thing. Why doesn’t the league focus on more pressing issues like making their perennially awful teams competitive or tightening up the playoff schedule so that teams don’t have five days off between games instead of sticking their nose in something ridiculous and meaningless like this?
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