Lakers vs Magic and the 2008-2009 NBA Playoffs/Finals Thread
 

The East goes through Cleveland. The West through LA. This has gotta be one of the most anti-climactic ends to a regular season in a awhile. I think all the playoff teams have been determined since mid last week. With a win
Wednesday, the Cavs would tie the 85-86 Celtics for the best home mark in league history(40-1).

As a Cavs homer, I'd say they should be favorites to win it all. But you still have tough teams like Boston and Orlando, so it's going to be a long road.

I'm excited for these playoffs. Hopefully there are some good matchups.

East: Depends on KG's health, if he isn't 100%, or very close to it, the Cavs and the Magic will square-off for the right to represent the East. If KG is good to go, the Celts will probably have just enough to hold off LeBron for one more season. After this season though, it is LeBron and Howard's conference for a long time, unless Chicago gets Rose a stud running mate in FA 2010/ same for ATL if they have the cap room. If not, the rest of the Eastern Conference may as well shut down operations for the next decade.

West: Utah and Portland are the only teams with a somewhat realistic, albeit very slim chance to knock off the Lakers.

Prediction: Questionable calls by the refs give the Celtics a 7 game victory of the Cavs in the East. The Lakers have trouble in Utah, but take out the Jazz in 6. Kobe Bryant wins his first title without Shaq in 5 or 6 games over the Celts.

Let's go Magic. Even without Nelson I think the team has a shot at the conference finals despite Boston's experience and savvy. I'm happy they've avoided the Pistons (no matter how much worse they are this season) in the first round.

With the Spurs missing Ginobili the Lakers might have an easy run to the Finals.

You can stick a fork in the Celtics:

Rivers: Garnett likely out for playoffs - Celtics Blog - Boston.com

It seems like Celtics fans expected this, that Rivers has been stringing everyone along on this for whatever reason.

Hopefully Orlando can take advantage of that assuming they get by Philadelphia.

Are Lewis and Turkoglu good to go for the playoffs?

Stan van Gundy: "Well Rashard thought he was going to play and then he went out and warmed up on it, shot on it and decided he couldn’t go. I think he will be and I hope he will be, but I just don’t know at this point. I think they’ll both be ready; I do. But, until it’s game time and they’re out there, I don’t know for sure."

So hopefully.

The 76ers just might be sorry they won yesterday, the Celtics sans Garnett aren´t on orlando´s level.
The Cavs, despite the loss, got another boost with their bench players stepping up big against the 76ers.

I hate the Portland/Houston matchup, my 2 favourite teams meeting in the first round ...
Houston in 6 years hasn´t figured out how to throw a freaking lob pass or take advantage of teams overplaying Yao. It can´t be that difficult, can it ? And Artest is just a terrible offensive player in a team concept, him shooting 40% as a 6´8 , 250 bulldozer while shooting 1 legged fadeaways from 20+ foot is just ridiculous.
I just wish the Rockets make it through the first round, Yao deserves it. Say what you want, but the guy is an incredibly hard worker and not half as "fortunate" as people like to make it sound when they say "but he´s 7´6". For every advantage that brings a disadvantage. Him on defense is like having a 6´10 PF matching up with Koby or Wade in terms of mobility.

The Blazers depend on playing a true C at all times though, so that´s good news.

But i´d also like the Blazers to advance because they are just a fun team. And they´ve been really hot lately, some absurd offensive performances considering their slow tempo and improved defense.

And Dallas-San Antonio might be great as well. Dirk seems to play his best against them and he´s scored 20+ in 25 straight games heading into the Playoffs and quietly had a really good season (btw : it´s still mindblowing he averages less than 2 TOs every year as a 7 footer creating his own shot)
Then again the Mavs play 3 PGs together for large stretches of whome none can guard regular PGs (let alone a guy like Parker) and have exactly 1 Swingmen that can play regular minutes.

That´s the 2 series´s i´m most curious about.

Yup Celtics are done for. To bad they did not know sooner they could tanked the latter half of the season to move up in the draft;) In anycase, they are going to have to start thinking about a replacement for KG and eventually Ray Allen. The NBA is so hard to find stars out of the draft after the lottery picks they will have a hard time. They do have Perkins, Powe and Davis but those names are not going to replace KG production and more importantly his energy.

You for got to mention the Nuggets they maybe the playoffs sleeping giant.

Am I being a massive homer when I, as a Cavs fan, feel no worry about making it to the finals, and am only slightly worried about meeting the Lakers?

I would worry about the Lakers, personally. I think the Finals should be no problem for the Cavs.

Massive homer, but then again I'm one too.

I admit right up front that I am a massive Lakers homer, but playing Cleveland in the finals doesn't scare me nearly as much playing Portland in the 2nd round does. The Lakers completely suck donkey balls playing at the Rose Garden. They will have home court, but Portland has been on fire lately.

The home court advantage is what really gets me jacked. The Lakers are the only team to beat the Cavs when they had Lebron and Moe playing.

Maybe I'm missing something here, but the Lakers beat the Cavs in LA by 17, and in Cleveland by 10 in the teams' two matchups this year.

Ain't saying the Lakers would walk over the Cavs in the Finals, but I am saying that being "only slightly worried" about the Lakers is probably massive overconfidence more than massive homerism.

With Garnett out or ineffective, it'll be Cavs-Lakers this year, but the Magic will take the Cavs to 7 in an entertaining series. In the end, the Finals will go to 7, with LeBron having just enough firepower to outlast Kobe.

With that said, let's go Bulls!! Pull some upsets!

I have a feeling that the Pistons are suddenly going to flip the proverbial switch and take the Cavs to seven games. :p

I'll give you that. I honestly have told a few people lately that I don't think the Cavs will beat the Lakers this year in the Finals. I guess I was just trying to use hyperbole with how I felt that the Cavs were not getting the credit they deserved.

Don't get me wrong. They are getting a lot of credit. But for being the best team in the East by record I don't hear much talk about them. I could be wrong, but hey, I watch a lot of ESPN :p

Double whammy, first KG, now Danny Ainge has a heart attack

gah. rough for the celtics.

i can't decide who i want to win out of LA-Cleveland. I think it's one of those cases where I root for the arena to blow up and neither team to win.

But barring that I guess I'd rather have the obnoxious rapist win rather than the ohio-team? I dunno...it's a tough call. Guess that saves me from having to watch anymore basketball unless somebody pulls an upset and knocks one of those teams off.

I just hope that if the Cavs make the finals, LeBron shows a little more poise than he did in the Spurs series.

This is more like it...back to agreeing w/ you!

I think people are overstating how bad the Celtics are now. I don't think they'll beat the Cavs, but I still think they have a chance to beat Orlando and go to 6 vs. Cleveland.

(Watch them lose in 4 in the first round now)

no, i think that's what will happen too.

but given how the rest of the year went, if that's what happens you've got to consider that a "bad year" considering what the expectations (and performance all year) were.

I do like their chances to get by the Bulls, and they probably have a chance to get by Orlando, but I think they're pretty big underdogs.

I'm just hoping for a Paul Pierce superstar run. The defense should still be there with Perk+Rondo, but they'll need some oomph on the offensive side.

I am still hoping that the Celtics, down 3-2 to the Cavs in the Eastern Conference Finals have Garnett pull a Willis Reed coming out of the tunnel for the second half and lead them to the NBA Finals:)

There's like 5 weeks before the ECF even start. Garnett won't be healthy by then?

Doc Rivers says he's done for this season.

I'm not sure what your (or other ppl in Boston's) expectations were, but I seem to remember the Lakers beating us on Christmas and Cleveland smoking us at home 2 weeks later with a healthy KG. Those teams both won 65 games, and I seem to recall many people predicting them to win both preseason and at various times during it. So basically, no, a loss in the ECF to a 67-win team in 6 or 7 games would not be considered a bad year from me. I didn't think we had better than a 50-55% chance of beating Cleveland even with a healthy KG - really they were 1 sublime performance by Pierce from beating us last year with a worse team.Maybe then Doc could tell us what's actually wrong, and what surgery is needed. If KG needs surgery, fine, do it now so he'll be ready next season. If it's something where it's merely painful to play on and he won't cause any more structural damage, he'll definitely be back. Even if they tell KG he's risking structural damage by playing on it I just can't see a man that competitive not playing. (And I don't think that's the case, or they never would have had him try to come back during the regular season.)

I think if you won the title in any sport the year before and don't make it back to the championship game/series to defend your title it's generally considered a let-down of a season, no?

Would Memphis or Kansas have considered a loss in the final 4 a letdown? If the Patriots had won their division and lost in the Conference Championship game after their star player was injured, would that have been a "bad year"? What about when the Lakers and Spurs were the 2 best teams and kept meeting up before the finals?

well obviously i think it's team-specific.

would i as a fan be dissapointed if they don't repeat - yes. based on the injury to their key defensive player and chief matchup-nightmare though, will i understand, and appreciate as far as they do make it though - again yes.

i'm not sitting here throwing stones at them saying "if you don't win you suck." it's more along the lines of "well that was a dissapointing ending considering the talent level of the team and the year that they had"

They won #17 last year. And if you're a fan of the other Boston teams, it's been an incredible run. It's all gravy now. Here's some rare sansity on this from the Boston media:

Forget a repeat; Celtics are already winners - The Boston Globe

I wouldn't be remotely dissapointed if they lost a tough series to Orlando.

Dan Patrick just said on his show that Chris Mannix from The Sporting News is saying KG's injury is worse than Boston is letting on. So if they're already saying he's done for the season it leads to believe this is potentially career ending, if Mannix's sources are correct.

So it's what, microfracture surgery or some kind of degenerative condition? Then why did they let him try to come back in the regular season? This makes no sense.

The whole thing is just strange. Doc said he looks worse now than he did 2 weeks ago, KG himself hasn't commented, Boston came out of nowhere with this news after trying to play him.

Dan Patrick said Mannix was from Sporting News, but he's from SI and the article below describes his thinking. Basically, if its really bone spurs other trainers say he should be back at some point during the postseason. If they're really shutting him down then it is probably something worse.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...ett/index.html


That comment is what has people thinking its worse.

As a Celtics fan, I think everything is gravy after winning the title last year. It'll actually be kind of exciting to see what Powe can do now. It's his time to step up.

the thing is : Without surgery you just don´t know how serious it is. That´s the thing with knee injury, every other method isn´t conclusive and often you actually can move on it much better as on comparable ankle injuries (as an example) but you just don´t move as well as you are used to.
And seeing how Garnett is (for good and for worse) as tough and competitive as he is, he´ll likely just talked himself into thinking he can play through it. But then when he actually played in games, where there is no faking and holding back, the knee just exploded inside, either aggrevating (a serious sprain into a break) sth or simply getting inflammation on top of the structural problems which than has consequences for the healing process.

@ groundhog :



;) I´m not even a Laker Fan, but that´s great :D

The Bulls played the first half as solidly as one could hope for. They know they can't get into a half court defensive showdown with the Celtics so every loose rebound they push, push, push the ball down court.

Boston has missed some wideopen shots which you have to assume they will start making in the second half. Should be a fun game to watch.

This Bulls-Celtics game has been very entertaining so far. I know it is only 1 game, but so far Derrick Rose is looking like he could have a breakout series and carry his team to the 2nd round.

Bulls get two rough calls on them (Noah cleanly blocked Davis) and now it's time to see if the young team can keep their composure.

Derrick Rose is pretty much taking on the Celtics all by himself.

What the heck is wrong with Pierce. I haven't seen a guy look so disinterested in the playoffs for awhile. Christ.



Edit: As he scores 2 baskets in a row. Ha.

Really Nice back and forth game here.

(edit: Rondo is freaking fearless, and never stops)

Dola: Allen with a playoff funk again?

look for the bulls take the lead and then Ray Allen will sink them. Book it.

Rose and Rondo both look terrific out there.

Heh. What a shot by Rondo.

Joakim Noah FAIL.

All ball.

Bulls got bailed out. 5 more minutes. What a game.

wow, no one expected Pierce to miss, now OT !
Rose might get the most points ever in a first PO game :eek:

Vinny Del Negro's dad: Could he be the Brenda Warner of this year's playoffs?

Bulls better pull it out here in OT because playing another 5 minutes without Rose is not going to be pretty.

Ugh, that deep 3 by Lebron as the half ended really hurt.

LeBron is the man. He will not be denied.

The Pistons are just mediocre nowadays. Still not bad in most areas, still pretty balanced but all that on a lower level. If they had a definite strength they could surprise at times, the way it is they just are irrelevant sadly :( I mean, they shot 47%, had only 7 TOs, were there in terms of rebounding and their bench did fine. And results in a 18 point loss, Lebron going for 38/8/7 on 20 shots with zero Turns and the Cavs as a team shooting 53% and turning it over just 4 times.
I really can´t see Cleveland coming close to loosing a game, even at Detroit. Then again, if memory serves me right, the Pistons have a history of starting really crappy and then turn it arround in series´ .

The Celtics-Bulls game was highly entertaining. Not especially well played, but definitely entertaining with a lot of energy and tempo in the game. Rose obviously was ridculous tonight, but on the other end Rondo almost equally as impressive. a skinny 6´1 guy with no jump shot (the guy has hit 26 threes in 235 career games and shoots 64% from the line) shouldn´t be as effective as he is, that speaks volumes for how great he does everything else on offense.

And Tyrus Thomas being the x-factor and deciding the game, that was just not right ...

btw : Is Brad Miller officially the least athletic guy in the NBA right now ? Damn, that was ugly at times ... On the other end : What the hell happened to Marbury ? I´m not talking about him playing bad, but him playing timid like a little kid ... He had at least 5 wide open shots or drives to the baskets that he just passed up.

And damn, here it´s 12,30 in the night and still 4 hours till the Rockets-Blazers game ...

Everyone points to the Lakers possibly struggling with Portland because they lost two games on the road to the Blazers but then we see comments about how the Cavs won't see the Lakers as much problem to them, even though they were swept by the Lakers including their one real loss at home minus their starting post player on the last game of a 6 game road trip?

Did I get it right?

I'm surprised the Celtics played Marbury. He doesn't seem to flow with that offense at all and just got embarrased on defense.

I love JVG, he just projected "a blowout" for the Rockets. The guy get´s fired and still remains a Rockets homer, what´s not to love about that ? :)

That series is soooo up in the air, anything could happen including Rudy Fernandez taking a 2 point jump shot, Artest taking a good shot or a battle of the 42 year olds , i can´t freaking wait ... :popcorn:

@ Rainmaker : He does kind of do a good job on offense when he plays with the starters and Pierce and Allen hit shots, but in other scenarios he´s just a guy that doesn´t drive or shoot the ball which just isn´t an option for a Guard at this level. He´s basically playing like a big guy that only come in to set screens and play defense, just without setting screens or playing defense ... although Rose was just too much for Rondo either on that end. Maybe they should try out Tony Allen some, but in the end most likely they will bring more of that matchup-zone that kind of worked in the 4th, if Gordon doesn´t get it going just at that point that move by Thibodeau wins them the game.

On that previous note : I´ll do an Bad-Shots-Counter on Artest if i don´t loose track. I´d put the over/under at 8 for tonight including at least 3 one-legged fadeaways and 2 1 on 3 drives .
If that guy had any sort of offensive bball IQ (and the Rockets a bit more firepower) the guy could be sooo good. He´s even a pretty good passer when he wants to ...

Derek Rose is awesome. If LeBron leaves for anywhere I hope it is the bulls.

Hadn't Cleveland's 66 wins this season sort of quieted those "Lebron could leave" rumors?

I think the only thing that will quiet the "LeBron leaving" rumors will be LeBron re-signing with the Cavs.

Wouldnt D-Wade have a better shot at leaving to chicago as he is from there?

But then again LBJ is from here and according to most media hes as good as gone.

With KG out, bad nights by Pierce AND Allen will be hard to overcome.

Pairing Rose with any of the big names in 2010 is going to make for a very, very scary Bulls team.

Dallas beats the spurs, solid pergformance by Dirk, good one by Howard and a huge lift by Bass and barea in the 4th (in fact, Howard scored like 15 in the 3rd and then those 2 took over and howard sat like the whole 4th Q)

Great basketball today.

And Houston trying to put the hammer down early here, 34-23, Yao with 16 on 7-7 in the 1st :)

Why do basketball players sit on the floor right before they go in? Doesn't it seem like they would be more loose it they stood up instead?

If you're talking about the ones waiting at the scorers table to enter the game, it's so they don't block the view of the scorer, clock operator, etc.

I guess that makes sense. You'd think there would be a better way, though.

At the NCAA sites where they had the raised floor, as players waited to enter the game they sat all the way off to the side, basically next to the coach's box, since sitting anywhere else would block those people.

I'd think the only other way would be for guys to run over, check in, and sit back down on the bench...but maybe it exists in that way so the opposing team can see who is entering the game and what matchups they would like to set up?

Agreed. If it's Wade or LeBron, you just get meat players in the middle who can dunk and defend, and an outside shooter or 3. Obviously Bosh or others would be great too, but they don't scare me nearly as much.

Damn, the Rockets really ended up putting the hammer down, delivering a good old ass whooping in Portland :eek: When Yao gets involved early it just opened everything up. And he came to play, getting that block on Aldridge early and scoring 16 in the first. And then they never looked back, even when Yao went out in the middler of the 3rd the Rockets continued to pull away. They simply put up their defensive intensity, Mutombo played like he was 28 again (was he ever 28 ? It feels like he´s been 40 for a decade) and Scola and later Brooks scored the ball. Brooks hit like 4 threes in a row :D
For the Blazers no one got going. They played an absolute stinker here. Even Roy did. Searched for contact everytime instead of just finishing, was inefficient overall and did only get 2 assists.
Oden was good later on and played with fire. That´s about it for positive aspects.

Rockets played incredible transition defense, too. The Blazers got absolutely nothing there, holy shit.

Seriously, the Blazers shot 42% (low, but not that low), got 15 offensive boards and hat just 8 Turnovers. And got only 81 points, that amazing.

What a great day of playoff basketball yesterday :)

Ron Artest terrible shot counter : 4. Good job Ron, you really composed yourself tonight and i´m only half kidding. That double-fake-stepin-onelegged-three point-leaner at the end of the first half was a thing of beauty ...

:D

If Trevor plays this way for the rest of the playoffs, Lakers are sitting pretty

Time to watch the Sixers get beat by 15+ points. NBA.. it's FANTASTIC!

Cleveland versus L.A. should make for one of the most exciting finals in a long time.

That was a RIDICULOUS reverse dunk he pulled off.

The ball totally hit that bar there.

Marshall! Great comeback by the Sixers.

Great shot by Iggy!

Ugh, terrible loss. Orlando will still win the series though.

Yeah really. I realize that you're not in the Philadelphia area, but Marc Zumoff on CSN was going NUTS.

It seems as though they are content on letting Howard dominate and putting the game in the hands of the guards. Orlando should win the series, but it's an interesting strategy.

Look who is courtside at the Hawks game

Here we go again in Boston

This just in: This game is officially nuts. OT again?

NO. Ray Ray GO BOOM!

Celtics Win!

Best first round series so far.

Great game. League will make sure it goes 7 and they get the most bang for their buck.

Props to Allen on that shot, but damn. Missed chance by the Bulls to take it back to Chicago up 2-0. Helluva game though.

God, no disrespect but Da Bulls got no right winning a game in Boston KG or NO KG and if I am a fan would almost be pleased they have played so hard. Props to the Bulls for winning one and almost two. I expect the Celtics to blow the off the court in the next two games even in Chicago and maybe with out Rondo/Powe. Why Bulls were 41-41 and this isn't the George Mason story or the NCAA.

I really think the additions of Salmons and Miller, two guys who I've always liked, did wonders for this team.

Indeed. The trade for Salmons and Miller simply changed the team. They suddenly had a legitimate center with good hands, and a hard-working wingman who didn't mind getting dirty.

They went 17-11 after the trade and basically snuck into the playoffs in April.

Games 1 and 2 were simply extremely fun to watch. I don't see any significant difference in the talent level of the two teams at this point in time, and I'll be shocked if this series doesn't go the distance. I have gained mucho respect for KG's impact on the game(not that I didn't respect his game immensely before the injury, but Chicago wouldn't be sniffing 100 points if KG was on the court). The UConn gun-fest was the stuff of legends.

On one hand, Ben Gordon isn't Superman, but these outbursts, albeit on a smaller scale, are what makes Ben Gordon a very good basketball player, at least on the offensive end where his size(the man is 6'0'' at best) isn't a huge liability. The percentages may not show it due to the amount of bad-shots he throws up at times, but his jumper is about as sweet and pure as you will find. I wonder if any team in the NBA has the stones to steal him away from the Bulls this off-season? If the money is right, he is as good as gone, but will a team throw $8-10 million per year at Gordon?

On the other hand, The Celts bigs will not make everything they throw at the hoop either. Rondo's ankle worries me a bit, and if he is closer to 80% than 100%, the Celts are probably toast. Nevertheless, Paul Pierce will step up in Chicago and that will be a huge problem for the Bulls.

At this point in time I see two better than average teams running up and down the floor, not playing much in the way of defense, but the competition has been great and the casual viewer(Me) is most certainly entertained by the product on the court.

Celts in 7

I just have a feeling that Gordon has an 8 for 25 night coming up.

Leon Powe will miss the rest of the postseason (knee) according to ESPN.

It's not playoff related but Ricky Rubio declared for the draft, I liked watching him this summer in the Olympics.

The big difference in the Bulls now is that they have two streaky shooters. So if Gordon is off, Salmons is usually on. Salmons also gave them someone who can cover the other team's 2 guard.

I don't think the Bulls are a great team yet, but I do think they are much better than what they were earlier in the year. They can score with just about anyone in the league and can run better than most. Their problem is in the half court game. They are also rather tough at home and I do think have a good shot at taking both from the Celtics. Some of the younger players like Thomas and Noah really feed off the crowd.

I think the experience Rose is getting in the playoffs is invaluable. He is going to be a star in this league in the coming years. I'd love to see them win this round but am just happy they've made it and are playing competitive basketball. It sets up for a nice season next year and then the big leap to grab a top FA in 2010 to be contenders.

with Powe out for the postseason I'm voting that this team just doesn't have the horses this year. Already too deep into their bench as it is.

Ah well...still a solid year.

The Bulls are fun to watch.