The Basketball Diaries

San Antonio Spurs 99 New Orleans Hornets 80 (Series tied 3-3)

Okay, so the playoffs have been incredibly predictable so far. Another home team won on Thursday night, as the home teams improved to 20-1 in the second round.

Manu Ginobili had 25 points, and Tim Duncan had 20 points and 15 rebounds to help the Spurs hold off elimination. Well, for a few more days anyway. Unless the Spurs flip the script and pull off a road victory.

"That's what you want to have, an opportunity," said Tony Parker, who had 15 points. "That's why Game 6 was huge. We won the game and now we have an opportunity to win a game on the road."

The Hornets weren't helped out much by the officials, as both Chris Paul and David West picked up their 4th fouls early in the third quarter. Byron Scott left both in the game, but they were pretty limited on defense afterwards.

Though West didn't have to worry about foul trouble for long, as he left the game with back spasms. Luckily these teams will have two days off before game seven, so David will need all the treatment he can get on that back. If he can't go in game seven, that's a huge boost for San Antonio.

The Basketball Diaries

Los Angeles Lakers 111 Utah Jazz 104 (Lakers lead 3-2)

As good as this series has been at times, it's also been incredibly boring. In each of the first five games of this series, the team that takes the lead halfway through the first quarter holds onto it for the rest of the game. The Lakers jumped out to an early lead to start the game yesterday, and they never trailed, not even for a second.

The Jazz tied the game a few times, but never capitalized on an opportunity to actually take the lead from the Lakers.

Kobe Bryant said his back felt better before last night's game, but you could tell watching him play that it's still bothering him. He was much more passive last night, and even though he finished with 26 points, not a single one came in the fourth quarter. Instead it was Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol scoring all the points at the end, as Odom finished with 22 points and 11 rebounds, while Pau dropped in 21 with six boards and eight assists.

"I just had to pick my spots," he said. "I knew I wasn't 100 percent healthy, so I wanted to get us off to a good start, give us an emotional boost. Then in the third quarter, there were moments where I had to pick it up, and I was able to do that. And in the fourth quarter, Lamar [Odom] and Pau [Gasol] took it from there."

Boston Celtics 96 Cleveland Cavaliers 89 (Celtics lead 3-2)

The way this game started, I had a feeling that Boston was finally going to give one up at home, as LeBron James came out hitting his shots and giving the Cavs a 14-point lead at times in the first half. Unfortunately for Cleveland, LeBron's scoring touch disappeared in the second half, and the Celtics took advantage.

Kevin Garnett scored 26 points and had 16 rebounds, and Paul Pierce had 29, but the man who made it all work was Rajon Rondo who finished with 20 points and 13 assists for Boston.

"This momentum, and what we did here tonight," Garnett said, "we've got to figure a way to carry this on the road."

LeBron would finish with 35 for Cleveland, easily his highest scoring game of the three played in Boston, but only 15 came in the second half. Also not helping matters was the fifteen missed free throws for Cleveland, and the fact that they hit two three pointers in the opening minutes, and only went 1-for-14 from there out.

The Basketball Diaries

New Orleans Hornets 101 San Antonio Spurs 79 (Hornets lead 3-2)

The third quarter has been huge in this series, and that didn't change last night. As had happened in games one and two in New Orleans, the Spurs led at halftime, but the Hornets came out and took over in the third quarter. The Hornets outscored the Spurs 28-11 as San Antonio couldn't make a bucket to save their lives.

David West kept the Hornets alive in the first half, scoring half of their points with 22, and finished the game with 38 points, 14 rebounds, and 5 blocks. Decent, I guess. Chris Paul had 22 points and 14 assists, and came alive in the second half after his teammates that didn't have the name West written on the back of their jerseys started sinking shots.

Tim Duncan, on the other hand, didn't have things so easy. He was only able to manage 10 points on 5-of-18 shooting, though Tony Parker did have 20, and Manu Ginobili finished with 18. The Spurs will probably go home and win game six, probably, but I'm not too sure they're going to be able to come back and win in New Orleans if they do.

Detroit Pistons 91 Orlando Magic 86 (Pistons win 4-1)

So the Pistons will be playing in their sixth straight Eastern Conference Finals after disposing of the Magic last night. The Pistons were without Chauncey Billups again on Tuesday night, but they seem to be doing just fine without him.

Rip Hamilton led the way on offense, scoring 31 points, and hit the clinching free throws at the end of the game. Tayshaun Prince didn't struggled from the field on offense, but his huge block of Hedo Turkoglu in the closing seconds more than made up for all his bricks.

The best news of all for the Pistons is that they'll now get to rest up while Boston and Cleveland keep pounding each other (same can be said for teams out west as well). I don't care who wins that series, the way those two teams are playing I don't think either will beat Detroit.

Mike D'Antoni Played With Jerry Reinsdorf's Heart

Just about everyone I know who cares about the Bulls or the NBA was shocked when they heard Mike D'Antoni had chosen the Knicks over the Bulls. All anybody had heard the previous week was that D'Antoni was going to be taking over on the bench here in Chicago.

It's just an important reminder not to believe anything you hear when it comes down to negotiations in sports. You never know when something you hear is the truth, or just an agent stirring the pot for his client. Now it looks a lot like Mike D'Antoni and his agent were just doing everything in their power to make sure Mike got as much money as possible.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this.

Still, that doesn't mean Jerry Reinsdorf appreciated it much.

"I'm disappointed in him," Reinsdorf said. "I don't know what else we could've done. He chose to go to New York knowing there was a good chance we would make him an offer. If he had really wanted to be in Chicago, he would've waited. Instead, he misled us. It's not the end of the world, but it is somewhat rude."

The "misled" accusation stems from their 2-hour-15-minute meeting Friday at D'Antoni's Phoenix-area home that is mere yards from Reinsdorf's, a meeting Reinsdorf said he left at 4:45 p.m. local time.

"The second subject, I said if we need to get something done this weekend we shouldn't even bother talking because it will take longer than that," Reinsdorf said. "He said nothing had to be done over the weekend.

"I also said if this proceeds to where we want to make an offer, we don't deal with coach's agents. He said that's not a problem and that money wasn't the most important thing anyway. He said he wanted a job where he was going to be happiest. He said he didn't want to coach the Knicks."

Now another thing you should know is that when a team is supposedly going to get a player or a coach, and then they don't get that player or coach, they then go into a spin mode to try and deflect all the blame away from them. That's what Reinsdorf was just doing there.

The Bulls can say all they want about the situation. They can say that D'Antoni misled them, or that he just wanted more money, or they can say that D'Antoni is an anti-semite and just doesn't want to work for Reinsdorf. No matter what they say, whether there's an ounce of truth to it or not, is just an excuse. And a bad one at that.

The reason D'Antoni is the new head coach of the Knicks is because the Bulls sat around twiddling their thumbs instead of making him an offer. If they liked him so much, and wanted him to be the team's next coach, they would have done so.

Instead, it's rather obvious now that they just didn't want to invest that much money in a new coach when they still have to pay Scott Skiles.

With No Regard For Human Life

As I promised in the Diaries this morning, here's the video of LeBron's dunk last night. I'm not quite sure why Kevin Harlan would say LeBron had no regard for human life.

I didn't see him kill anybody.

The Basketball Diaries

Cleveland Cavaliers 88 Boston Celtics 77 (Series tied 2-2)

LeBron James can do it all. If you need him to put your team on his back in the fourth quarter, he can do that. If you need him to distribute the ball to his teammates, he can do that as well, as he handed out 13 assists last night. If you need him to deliver an emphatic dunk on Kevin Garnett, he can do that, and did in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter (I'm currently looking for video).

And most importantly, if you need someone who knows when and how to put his mother in her place, LeBron can do that. Which he did during the second quarter when she started saying something to Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce after a hard foul. It was though he'd forgotten that Mother's Day was but 24 hours beforehand when he told her to "Sit down and shut up."

"I told her to sit down, in some language I shouldn't have used," James said. "Thank God today wasn't Mother's Day. All I could think about is her. ... I know my mother. It's fine, we're good."

Doesn't this all seem familiar, though? No, not the stuff about LeBron's mom, but James struggling in the first two games of a playoff series, then going home and getting back on track. Last year he did the same thing against a heavily favored Pistons team, and now he's doing it against the heavily favored Celtics. The Pistons were good at home, the Celtics are good at home.

If he goes and scores Cleveland's last 25 points in game five to get the Cavs the win, the NBA would probably be better served to hire new writers.

Must Be The Money

I was shocked on Saturday when I found out that Mike D'Antoni had signed a 4-year $24 million deal to become the head coach of the New York Knicks. From everything I'd been reading or hearing, it was only a matter of time before D'Antoni was announced as the new head coach of the Bulls.

Much like everybody else, I figured D'Antoni was using the Knicks as nothing more than a bargaining chip to get a better deal out of the Bulls. After all, he and his agent were saying how excited they were about the possibility of coaching this Bulls team, and the Knicks are such a mess right now that it will be a few years before they can think of turning that around.

There was no way D'Antoni would choose that project over Chicago.

Then he did, and now I have no idea why. The only reason I can think of is the money, as I see no other motive that makes sense. It could have been the draw of coaching one of the NBA's premiere (well, what used to be premiere) franchises in a city like New York, but the Bulls aren't exactly the Sacramento Kings here. We do have quite the basketball history of our own, and Chicago isn't exactly the middle of nowhere.

No, the only thing I can think of is the money, and the fact that they just weren't willing to give D'Antoni as much money. Hell, according to the Bulls, they say they never had a chance to even make the offer.

That's bullshit.

How long has this story been out there? How long were we hearing that D'Antoni wanted to come here, and that John Paxson wanted him here as well? There was no time over the last week to make an offer?

The Bulls had found the coach they wanted, the coach had found the team he wanted, but the Bulls just couldn't pull the trigger. They found themselves stuck in the mud, and they're probably going to find themselves stuck in the mud on the court this season as well.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think Mike D'Antoni was going to instantly make the Bulls into title contenders. I just thought that he'd at least make them interesting and entertaining, and a lot more fun to watch than they were this last season.

The Basketball Diaries

Utah Jazz 123 Los Angeles Lakers 115 OT (Series tied 2-2)

The Jazz tried to give this one away, as they blew a 12-point lead in the final minutes and let the game get to overtime, but from there the defense locked down Kobe and the Lakers. LA only made two field goals in overtime, and the Jazz sent the series back to Los Angeles tied.

Deron Williams had 29 points and 14 assists, Carlos Boozer had 14 and 12 boards, Mehmet Okur had 18 and 11, and Andrei Kirilenko had 15 and 5 blocks. He also played very good defense on Kobe, because even though Kobe finished with 33, he only made 13 of his 33 shots.

"No excuses for me. [Kirilenko] did a great job," Bryant said. "They did a terrific job. They did big plays when they needed to."

San Antonio Spurs 100 New Orleans Hornets 80 (Series tied 2-2)

This game was not as close as the score would lead you to believe.

San Antonio took a 13-point lead until halftime, and nearly had it up to 30 before going to the bench in the fourth quarter. Tim Duncan had 22 points and 15 rebounds, and Tony Parker chipped in with 21 more points of his own.

Of course, the real difference in this game was that the Spurs finally stopped letting all the Hornets not named Chris Paul kill them. They figured out that Paul is going to get his no matter what, and the key to beating New Orleans is to stop everybody else.

"We've got to play Game 5 the same way we approached Game 3 and 4," San Antonio's Manu Ginobili said. "That is going to be huge, so we don't have to have any satisfaction with what we just accomplished. We are the same way we started."

The Basketball Diaries

San Antonio Spurs 110 New Orleans Hornets 99 (Hornets lead 2-1)

Yep, so the Spurs are definitely too old and slow to stop the Hornets. Chris Paul had another great night for New Orleans, scoring 35 points and 9 assists, while David West had 23 points and 12 rebounds, but it wasn't enough to push the Spurs to the brink of elimination.

Tony Parker seemingly answered every basket by Chris Paul with one of his own, and joined Manu Ginobili with 31 points on the night. The key difference in this game for San Antonio was that, while they still weren't able to really stop Paul, the role players hit their shots. Bruce Bowen had 12 points, all on three-pointers, and Michael Finley finished with 11 point of his own.

The Hornets, meanwhile, didn't get much from anybody but CP3 and David West. Peja Stojakovic only had 8 points, while Tyson Chandler was the only other Hornet in double digits with 12.

Boston Celtics 89 Cleveland Cavaliers 73 (Celtics lead 2-0)

I'm guessing that after this game was over, LeBron James showered as quickly as he could, and ran to the airport. Anything to get the hell out of Boston. James struggled from the field again on Thursday, going only 6-of-24 from the field. That brings him to 8-of-42 in the series.

Despite his horrible shooting, LeBron did manage to score more points than anybody on the Celtics, with 21, but I doubt that's of much consolation. Paul Pierce had 19, Ray Allen 16, and Kevin Garnett 13, but it was enough for Boston to get a pretty easy victory.

Still, given the way Boston played on the road in the last series, there's no way you can say that the Cavs are done in this series. Plus, you gotta figure LeBron's shots will start falling at some point. They have to, right?

The Basketball Diaries

Los Angeles Lakers 120 Utah Jazz 110 (Lakers lead series 2-0)

On the night when Kobe Bryant was given his first ever MVP award, he went out and showed everyone why he got it. Kobe scored 34 points, had 8 rebounds, and handed out 6 assists as the Lakers maintained their perfect playoff record, and more importantly, went up 2-0 on the Jazz.

Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol also had big nights, scoring 19 and 20 respectively (Odom had 16 boards as well) using their length and quickness to get Carlos Boozer in foul trouble, and just abuse Mehmet Okur. Derek Fisher had 22, and hit a big three in the third quarter to give the Lakers their double-digit lead back.

As for Utah, Carlos Boozer didn't get much playing time thanks to all those fouls, but he didn't do much with the time he had, finishing with only 10 points and 5 boards. He also missed seven of his 10 shots.

Deron Williams had 25, 22 in the second half, and gave the Jazz a spark at times, but they were forced to play from behind all night. Plus, Matt Harpring and Kyle Korver could never get going, but role players play better at home, and that's where Utah's going.

Orlando Magic 111 Detroit Pistons 86 (Pistons lead series 2-1)

The Pistons didn't just lose a game on Wednesday night, they may have lost Chauncey Billups as well. Billups strained his right hamstring early in the 1st quarter, and was lost for the game. He's scheduled to undergo an MRI on Thursday, and the Pistons are crossing their fingers.

If Billups is out for a considerable period of time, it could change this series.

Still, we'll have to wait on that announcement, so let's focus on the Magic. Orlando was raining threes on the Pistons, with Rashard Lewis bringing the most thunder. Lewis scored 33 points for the Magic, making eleven of his 14 shots (including 5-for-6 behind the arc), and taking over the game to finish the first half.

Speaking of thunder, Dwight Howard had a ho-hum 20 points, 12 rebounds and six blocks. In defense of his low rebound total, it's hard to get a lot of rebounds when you're swatting away so many shots.

Charles Barkley Is a Dumbass

See, I told you.

The Basketball Diaries

Boston Celtics 76 Cleveland Cavaliers 72 (Celtics lead series 1-0)

This one was not pretty. While Kevin Garnett scored 28 points, nobody else really did much. Paul Pierce had 4 points while making two of his fourteen shots. Ray Allen went scoreless, but in his defense, he only took four shots. LeBron at least hit double digits with 12 points, but eight of those came at the free throw line, as he also struggled from the field at going two for eighteen.

Yeah, this one was what you might call a defensive struggle.

Sam Cassell managed to have a good night, as somehow always happens in the playoffs. The NBA's only alien scored 13 points, making some big shots to help the Celtics come back after the Cavs took a lead while KG was on the bench. Rajon Rondo had 15, but most of them were scored in the first half.

Zydrunaus Ilgauskas scored 22 points for Cleveland, but didn't help out much during the second half.

Still, this is only the first game of what could be a long series. I don't think LeBron is going to shoot this badly, nor do I expect it from Pierce or Allen, so it's hard to get a real read on how it's going to go. If the Cavs can stay within four points in Boston, with LeBron stuggling to get anything going, it's entirely possible they can steal a game in Beantown like they did in Detroit last season. Seemed to work for them last season.

The Basketball Diaries

New Orleans Hornets 102 San Antonio Spurs 84 (Hornets lead 2-0)

After the first game of this series, Spurs coach Greg Popovich wasn't very happy with his team's performance on defense against New Orleans' David West. So on Monday night he came up with a gameplan to help minimize West's contributions. The good news was that it worked, as West was held to 10 points on 2-of-11 shooting. The bad news is the Spurs were so worried about West that Chris Paul and Peja Stojakovic ran wild on them. CP3 finished with 30 points and 12 assists while Peja had 25 thanks to his 5-of-7 shooting behind the arc. Now, over the next few days you're going to hear a lot about how the Spurs are old and washed up, and just can't hang with the Hornets. Don't buy it. These teams have played 6 times now this season, and the home team has won each game. With all of the Hornets wins coming in the blowout variety. Don't be shocked if this series flips on it's head when they get back to San Antonio.

Detroit Pistons 100 Orlando Magic 93 (Pistons lead series 2-0)

This game turned on a pretty controversial play at the end of the 3rd quarter. After the Magic caught fire from the three-point line to get back into the game, Detroit had the ball with 5.1 left in the quarter. As they inbounded the ball, the clock stopped at 4.8 seconds, and the game kept playing as nobody noticed and Chauncey Billups hit a three. For some reason, it counted. A closer, TIMED, look showed that Billups didn't get the shot off until after 5.2 seconds, so it wouldn't have counted had the clock actually not "malfunctioned." Now, I know the Pistons won by 7, so if you took those three points away, they'd still win, but it doesn't work that way. This was a two-point game in the final minutes that only grew to seven thanks to the free throws at the end of the game. Take away those three points from the Pistons at the end of the third, and it's Orlando protecting a lead in the final minutes, not Detroit.

Mike D'Antoni Given Permission to Talk to the Bulls

There was supposed to have been a decision on Friday about the future of Mike D'Antoni and the Phoenix Suns. Well, Friday came and went with word that the two sides would meet again this week to discuss their future, or lack of one, together. They stuck to their word this time.

D'Antoni has been given permission by the Suns to talk to both the Bulls and the Knicks about their head coaching vacancies.

The Bulls will move to interview Phoenix coach Mike D'Antoni in the next few days after Suns general manager Steve Kerr granted D'Antoni permission Sunday to do so.

League sources confirmed a report by the Suns' flagship radio station, KTAR-AM, detailing Kerr's change of mind. Last week, Kerr said he wouldn't allow teams to speak to D'Antoni, who has two years and $8.5 million remaining on his contract.

As far as what any of this means, I'm not entirely sure, but I have no problem speclating. It's pretty obvious that Steve Kerr isn't willing to just fire D'Antoni and eat the rest of his contract, but is willing to let D'Antoni take a job elsewhere, which would free the Suns of any obligation to pay him. What I can't be sure of is whether or not the Suns are going to want some kind of compensation from the Bulls if they do hire D'Antoni, whether that be a player or a draft pick.

If that's the case, I hope Paxson is smart enough to tell them "Thanks, but no thanks." It's obvious to just about everybody that Kerr doesn't want D'Antoni back on the bench next season. They have two very different philosophies, and it doesn't seem as though they like each other much either. So I doubt that Kerr is going to keep D'Antoni around even if he doesn't get job somewhere else, and he's just stalling in hopes somebody else will hire him.

So if Kerr starts talking about a trade, remind him of the $8 million he'll be saving by the Bulls taking D'Antoni off his hands. Unless all Kerr wants in return is Chris Duhon. If that's the case, I'll pitch in for Chris' plane ticket to Phoenix.

The Basketball Diaries

Los Angeles Lakers 109 Utah Jazz 98 (Lakers lead series 1-0)

The Lakers continue to roll, as they improved to 5-0 in the postseason this year after finishing the season winners of eight of their last nine. Soon to be named MVP, Kobe Bryant, scored 38 points, grabbed 6 boards, and handed out 7 assists. He spent the majority of the afternoon at the free throw line, where he made 21 of 23 shots. "You've got to be able to knock those free throws down. They're open looks," said Bryant. "It's my responsibility to knock them down." Hell, most of this game seemed to be spent at the free throw line, as the Jazz and Lakers combined for 76 free throws, with 31 of them coming in the fourth quarter alone. It doesn't exactly make for the most exciting basketball.

Boston Celtics 99 Atlanta Hawks 65 (Celtics win series 4-3)

It was a nice story that the Atlanta Hawks were able to take the Celtics to a full seven games in this series, but anybody who thought that they actually had a chance to win in Boston should be beaten. With a big stick. Kinda like the beating the Celtics gave the Hawks on Sunday. Kevin Garnett had 18 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Celtics, who won their four home games by an average of 25 points per game. "I really had no doubt in my mind how we were going to come out," Paul Pierce said. "You kind of saw it from the guys after Game 6 on the plane, there wasn't a lot of talking. We knew that we let a couple of games get away in Atlanta and I knew we were just going to take care of business."

Does Mike D'Antoni Want To Come To Chicago?

When the Bulls fired Jim Boylan officially and began their search for a new coach, I have to admit, I wasn't very excited by the prospects out there. In the last few days, things have changed dramatically. It all started when Mark Cuban fired Avery Johnson after the Mavericks were eliminated from the first round of the playoffs for the second straight season.

I like Avery Johnson, and anybody who's taken a look at his coaching record in the regular season would be as well: 194-70, a 73.5 winning percentage. Of course, then you take a look at his record in the playoffs, 23-24, and you start to wonder if he's capable of winning in the playoffs. Sure, he got the Mavs to the NBA Finals a few years ago, but since they went up 2-0 on the Heat in that series, they've lost 12 of their last 13 playoff games.

All this with a team that actually has a legitimate superstar in Dirk Nowitzki, and this season added another Hall of Famer in Jason Kidd.

So while I wouldn't mind if Avery became the Bulls next coach, I wouldn't exactly treat him as the messiah either.

What really got me excited was when I heard that Phoenix coach Mike D'Antoni isn't happy in Arizona, and wants out. Apparently he feels that new Phoenix GM, and former Bull, Steve Kerr is a bit too much of a micro-manager, and they're philosophies towards basketball just don't mesh.

So D'Antoni wants out, and it could happen as soon as today. Where does D'Antoni want to go? Apparently he's got his eyes on Chicago, and our underachieving Bulls.

Sources say D'Antoni is increasingly likely to get an invitation to relocate to the Windy City if he can indeed extricate himself from the Suns. As covered in this article in cyberspace on Wednesday, moving to the Eastern Conference with Chicago is an idea that has D'Antoni more than intrigued and which apparently has a few Bulls players (presumably Luol Deng and Ben Gordon) already salivating.

D'Antoni is scheduled to meet Friday with Suns owner Robert Sarver and team president Steve Kerr, who will try to convince D'Antoni that he belongs in the desert and that their in-house tensions can be diffused. But sources continue to echo the sentiments revealed earlier this week bv Sports Illustrated's venerable Jack McCallum, who wrote that the highly frustrated D'Antoni considers his philosophical differences with his bosses to be "irredeemable." You'll recall that McCallum spent the 2005-06 season as a virtual member of D'Antoni's coaching staff to write the acclaimed book "Seven Seconds or Less."

Yes, yes, yes, a million times yes.

I would love to have D'Antoni running the Bulls. He's had the same success as a head coach as Avery Johnson, good regular seasons and postseason letdowns, but unlike Avery, he's more suited to take over this Bulls team.

Watching the Bulls the last few seasons, I've had one major complaint about the way the team ran it's offense. They tried to do a little too much half-court sets when really, the team has the athletic ability in which they should be running up and down the court a lot more often.

That's exactly the style D'Antoni would bring with him in Chicago, and I would love every second of it. Now, Kirk Hinrich is definitely no Steve Nash, but he could blossom under D'Antoni's system. Luol Deng could develop into the Shawn Marion type that flourished in Phoenix. And tell me, would you rather see Tyrus Thomas running up and down the court from the wing, or posting up in the block? Where do you think he'd be a better fit?

Hell, Ben Gordon might actually still have value on this team with D'Antoni because in Mike's system, his inability to play defense won't be so glaring.

I also think D'Antoni could be set up to have a lot more success in Chicago for a couple of reasons. The biggest being that the Bulls are in the Eastern Conference, and it's a much easier road to hoe on this side of the country. The other area would be the depth the Bulls have.

Have you noticed while watching the Suns the last few years that they basically had an 8-man rotation at best? There were always those four or five guys on the bench who never saw any playing time, outside of garbage time. There was good reason for this, and that's because they sucked. It wasn't D'Antoni's fault though, as the Suns owner Robert Sarver is an incredibly cheap bastard, and after giving money to Nash, Stoudemire, and Marion, he didn't want to spend any more money to fill out the team. Therefore, D'Antoni was actually quite handcuffed in Phoenix, and he still had a lot of success.

In Chicago that wouldn't be a problem, as John Paxson and the Bulls have no problem filling out the entire roster with guys who can get time on the court. Hell, the Bulls generally have too many players.

I really think that if D'Antoni came here and took over the Bulls, we might finally have the coach to take us to that next level. I'm not saying we'd be a title contender, as we still don't have a superstar, but we'd be a lot better off than where we are now. Not to mention, they'd be a hell of a lot more fun to watch.

The Basketball Diaries

Detroit Pistons 100 Philadelphia 76ers 77 (Pistons win series 4-2)

So this game was over after about three minutes. The Pistons jumped out to a 10-0 lead to start the game thanks to Rip Hamilton, who actually outscored the Sixers in the first quarter 13-12, and they never took their foot off the gas pedal on Thursday night. After falling behind 2-1 in the first three games of this series, the Pistons played like the team they're supposed to be the last three games and disposed of Philly rather easily once they showed up. Rip would finish with 24 points, and Chauncey Billups also had 20 to lead Detroit. "We really didn't catch a rhythm in this series until that second half of Game 4, and we really got our defense going, our offense going and things like that," Hamilton said. "And we kept carrying it over, so hopefully we can continue to do that." The Pistons now move on to face the Orlando Magic in a series that will begin on Saturday.

The NBA Is Going Soft

I remember growing up and watching Michael Jordan get the hell knocked out of him constantly during the playoffs. First it was the Detroit Pistons and the "Jordan Rules" which were basically, anytime Jordan gets in the lane, try and kill him. How many times would you see Bill Laimbeer or Dennis Rodman body check MJ out of mid-air? How many times would you see Isiah Thomas try and undercut him?

It was constant, and it didn't end with the Pistons. Once the Bulls conquered Detroit, it became the Knicks who would apply the same tactics against Jordan. I didn't like that other teams were deliberately trying to hurt him, but you could understand the reasoning behind it.

You weren't going to stop him, so you might as well try to hurt him. Luckily for Bulls fans, all any of it did was piss Jordan off, and considering Michael was already the most competitive person on the court, pissing him off only made him more dangerous.

You know what I don't remember as much from all those series? Flagrant fouls being called. There were a few in the most egregious cases, but for the most part, the refs let it go. The league let opponents try and take out it's marquee player.

That's not the case these days.

The one thing that's been driving me nuts this postseason in the NBA is the constant flagrant foul calls. It seems you can't touch anybody anymore. Right now if LeBron James goes to the hole and catches an elbow in the chest, whoever delivered that elbow is going to get a flagrant called on him.

One of the worst cases I've seen came last night when Al Horford was called for a flagrant foul on Kevin Garnett. As Garnett went to the basket, Horford committed a good clean, hard foul. He didn't go after his head, instead he used his left arm against KG's chest to stop him, and with his right arm he swiped at the ball.

Garnett fell to the floor afterwards, despite Horford's effort to hold him up, because generally when two guys who are 6'10 or taller collide in mid-air, somebody is going down. Horford was then hit with the flagrant.

It was a bad call.

I use it as an example, but it's not the only one I've seen.

I understand that the NBA is in a constant battle against ill-informed "fans" who claim that the league is full of nothing but a bunch of thugs and gang-bangers, and that they have to make sure their corporate sponsors still want to fill the arenas and commercial breaks with advertisements (though those same corporate sponsors don't have a problem sponsoring the NFL where the goal is to beat your opponent into submission, wonder why that is?). I also understand that it's a superstar driven league, so the league is going to take extra precautions to protect its superstars, but it's getting ridiculous.

These are the playoffs, and throughout the history of the NBA, the playoffs get a lot more physical. It's a large part of what makes the NBA playoffs so exciting. Now I'm in no way condoning fights amongst the players, and I understand that the constant use of the flagrant fouls helps keep some fights from happening, but the NBA is playing scared.

By trying to cut off all physical play, the NBA is actually taking away a large part of what makes the playoffs so exciting, and it could end up hurting them more in the long run than a few punches ever could.

The Basketball Diaries

Washington Wizards 88 Cleveland Cavaliers 87 (Cavs lead series 3-2)

Although I have no real rooting interest in this series, I'm happy that the Wizards were able to pull off the victory over Cleveland on Wednesday night to extend this series at least one more game. Not because of the quality of basketball being played-it's really not that great-but because with every game these two teams play, there's a chance there will be a huge fight. Fights are fun! Anyway, Caron Butler put the Wizards up with 3.9 seconds left by driving to the hole on LeBron and making the layup. LeBron had a chance to win the game for Cleveland, but his short jumper at the buzzer didn't find it's mark, and now we're going back to D.C. for a game six. "I was messing with LeBron before the play started," Butler said. "I told him, 'Miss this shot, make it interesting and let's take this thing back to D.C.'"

Boston Celtics 110 Atlanta Hawks 85 (Celtics lead series 3-2)

Boy, I'm happy I finally took the time to watch a game of this series. I never really planned to, but after the Hawks won the last two games back in Atlanta, I figured I should probably start paying attention. Yeah, back in Boston it doesn't quite work that way. The Celtics beat the Hawks down like they should, and while the Hawks hung around for a few minutes in the first quarter, the game was never really close. "We still haven't won a road game, guys," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. "We have to do it again. We have to do it on the road now. We have to go in there and play like tonight." Please do, I really don't want to watch two more of these games.

The Basketball Diaries

New Orleans Hornets 99 Dallas Mavericks 94 (Hornets win series 4-1)

For the second straight year, the Dallas Mavericks have been eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, as Chris Paul and the Hornets finished them off in New Orleans on Tuesday night. Paul finished with a triple-double, scoring 24 points, 15 assists, and 11 rebounds. A lot of those assists went to David West who had 25, Jannero Pargo who had 17, and Tyson fucking Chandler who had 10 points and 14 rebounds. "A lot of people may be surprised with how this thing turned out, but we're not too surprised," West said. "Coach has a lot to do with that, his mentality. It's a trickle-down effect. We go out and we pride ourselves on competing." That coach is Byron Scott who earlier in the day won the NBA's Coach of the Year award. As for the Mavericks, who knows where this is going to lead. I wouldn't be surprised if Avery Johnson is looking for another job next season.

San Antonio Spurs 92 Phoenix Suns 87 (Spurs win series 4-1)

Suns general manager took a pretty big risk when he traded for Shaq, a move I never thought made any sense, but the reason he did it was to beat the Spurs. Well, it didn't work. The Spurs knocked the Suns out of the post-season for the second straight year. Tony Parker had 31 points, Tim Duncan had 29 and 17 boards, while nobody else on the Spurs roster managed more than 8 points. It didn't matter though. The Spurs move on to the next round where they'll be facing the Hornets in what should be a very entertaining series. As for the Suns, you have to wonder whether it's time to blow it up. I'm not sure what Shaq's plans are, but I'm willing to bet the Suns wouldn't mind if he just retired. I don't think Mike D'Antoni will get fired because he didn't make the trade for Shaq.

Detroit Pistons 98 Philadelphia 76ers 81 (Pistons lead series 3-1)

Something told me that the Pistons weren't going to come out in game 5 with the same lackadaisical demeanor they showed in game 1 of this series, and I was right. Yeah, me! They jumped out to a 14-point lead after the first quarter, and never relented. Chauncey Billups had 21, Rip Hamilton had 20, and Rasheed Wallace had 19 to lead Detroit. "We knew Game 6 was going to be an elimination game either way it went," Billups said. "We wanted to be on the upper hand of that."

Houston Rockets 95 Utah Jazz 69 (Jazz lead series 3-2)

Everything the Rockets hadn't been doing in the first four games of this series, they did last night, as they handled the Jazz rather easily to stave off elimination for a few more days at least. Tracy McGrady had 29 points, Luis Scola had 18 and 12 rebounds, and Rafer Alston scored 14 to extend the series back to Utah. The odds are still in Utah's favor considering they've only lost 5 times all season at home, but two of those losses came to these Rockets, so I guess you never really know. "We're in a great situation," McGrady said. "We know we can win in Utah because we've done it before." Yes, you're one loss away from having your season end, and you have to do it in the toughest place for a road team to win. What a great situation.