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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

The Basketball Diaries

Atlanta Hawks 97 Boston Celtics 92 (Series tied 2-2)

Just what in the hell is going on here? First the Pistons and Sixers split their first four games, and now the Celtics and Hawks as well? I don't know how it's happened, because I've only seen like 5 minutes of this series, but I guess this means I have to start paying attention now. Joe Johnson had 35 points, 20 of which came in the final quarter, and Joe Smith had 28 points and 7 blocks. "We took care of our home court," Johnson said. "Now we've got to go up to Boston and somehow steal one." Considering that Atlanta lost the first two games in Boston by an average of 21 points, I don't see that happening. Then again, I didn't see them winning two games in this series, nobody did.

Los Angeles Lakers 107 Denver Nuggets 101 (Lakers win series 4-0)

While I thought that this series would be more entertaining, it became apparent from the first two games that the Nuggets were dead. They'd already quit on themselves and their coach before the first tip-off, and the Lakers finished them off officially on Tuesday night. It wasn't a blowout this time, but the Lakers followed the same formula they used in the first three games. Come the 4th quarter, let Kobe dominate. Kobe scored 14 points over the final five and a half minutes to lead the Lakers, and finished with 31 on the night. Pau Gasol also had another big game, contributing 21 of his own. To their credit, the Nuggets didn't lay down last night, but it was a little too late to try and make a stand in this series.

Orlando Magic 102 Toronto Raptors 92 (Magic win series 4-1)

The Magic advanced to the second round of the playoffs for the first time in 12 years on Tuesday night, and they did it the same way they did for most of this series. A lot of Dwight Howard. Howard had his third 20-20 game of the series, finishing with 21 points and 21 rebounds. "There was a different demeanor from him," Stan Van Gundy said of his young center. "Dwight is a fun-loving guy and he likes to fool around. There are a lot of times during the year, not bad, but a lot of times during the year where I've got to try to bring him back to being serious when we're preparing. I did not have to say one word, from the start of preparation for this series all the way through."

This Was Extremely Gratifying

You know, Josh Howard has been having a really tough week. Not only are his Mavs on the verge of being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs for the second straight year, but you can add to that the fact everybody is interested in the shocking "new" revelation that he smokes the sweet cheeba occasionally during the offseason. To make matters worse, he shot only 3-of-16 last night and heard boos from the home crowd (before they left early anyway).

Despite all this, he did do something to ensure that he will forever hold a special place in my heart.

Ha ha! I hate you, Tyson Chandler!

The Basketball Diaries

Cleveland Cavaliers 100 Washington Wizards 97 (Cleveland leads 3-1)

It's unfortunate that this series probably only has one game left in it, because really, it's been one of the more entertaining matchups this postseason. It all started with the trash talk about LeBron from the Wizards, then Brendan Haywood sent LeBron flying into the crowd, and now even Jay-Z has gotten involved with a diss record on DeShawn Stevenson. Which I'm guessing will be the highlight of Stevenson's career. "He's worth $500 million, and he's writing songs about me," Stevenson said before tipoff. "What does that say about DeShawn Stevenson? Ballin'!" Yes, ballin all the way to another first round exit. LeBron scored 34 points to lead the Cavs, but it was Delonte West who hit the game-winning three-pointer in the final seconds that helped Cleveland place their foot on Washington's throat.

Phoenix Suns 105 San Antonio Spurs 86 (San Antonio leads 3-1)

The Suns came out on fire on Sunday, and maintained the intensity all day as they blew the Spurs out at home to stay alive. Unfortunately, they waited until the series was already over before they started playing. Boris Diaw had a huge day for the Suns, scoring 20 points, grabbing 10 rebounds, and handing out 8 assists as Frenchmen continue to dominate this series. Which is an odd thing to say because usually the only thing the French dominate at is getting their ass kicked in wars.

New Orleans Hornets 97 Dallas Mavericks 84 (New Orleans lead 3-1)

The Mavericks started this game where they left off in game 3, but New Orleans' bench took things over in the 2nd quarter to get the Hornets back into the game, and once they took the lead they didn't give it up. David West had 24 points and 9 rebounds, while Chris Paul had 16 points, 8 assists, and 7 rebounds to help put the Mavericks on the brink of elimination. As a side note, Mavs fans suck. After Jason Kidd got ejected in the 4th quarter for a flagrant foul on Jannero Pargo, the Hornets had a 19-point lead, but there were still 6 minutes left in the game. That didn't stop Mavs "fans" from filing out of the arena in droves. It's hard enough to come back from that kind of deficit, but it's a lot harder when your home crowd just gives up on you and leaves. I mean, it's not like there were any high school football games going on.

Detroit Pistons 93 Philadelphia 76ers 84 (Series tied 2-2)

During the first half it looked like the Sixers were going to do the impossible: go up 3-1 on the mighty Pistons. Then at halftime the Pistons remembered they were the Pistons and realized there's no effin way they should be losing to the Sixers. They came out of the locker room and absolutely dominated in the second half, turning a 10-point deficit into a 9-point victory. Even though the series is still tied at 2, Philly's only chance to win this thing was if they won on Sunday night, and I think it's safe to say Detroit's going to take this one now.

Basketball Diaries

Houston Rockets 94 Utah Jazz 92

Tracy McGrady is getting all the credit for the upset over the Jazz but not from me. Yeah, he scored 27 points - 7 critical ones in the fourth quarter - but his missed shots and boneheaded offensive foul against Andrei Kirilenko in the last 47 seconds allowed the Jazz to make it a one-point game. My vote goes to Carl Landry, who made clutch rebounds in the final quarter and a brilliant block that crushed a Deron Williams go-ahead jumper with just three seconds left, giving McGrady a chance to give interviews instead of excuses. (By the way, was that kiss Rafer Alston planted on Landry after the block just a teensy bit too sincere?)

Washington Wizards 108 Cleveland Cavaliers 72

This must-win game for the Wiz can best be summed up by Cleveland coach Mike Brown: "It was a good old fashioned behind-kicking." (I'm guessing he put it a bit differently to the team once they got into the locker room.) And they did it without Gilbert Arenas, who left the game after injuring his surgically repaired knee in the first half. DeShawn Stevenson made good on his trash talk with 19 points - Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison added 17 and 15 more, respectively. Those 15 first-half Cleveland turnovers didn't hurt either.

Toronto Raptors 108 Orlando Magic 94

It looks like Toronto wants to make this a series. After going behind by four in the first three minutes, they kicked into overdrive, took the lead and never looked back, leading Orlando by as much as 23 points. T.J. Ford, who shot just 2-17 in the first two games of the series, posted 21 points, with Jose Calderon adding 18 and 13 assists. "Right from the get-go, the Raptors were outstanding," Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said. "Their point guard play was phenomenal and probably the key to the game for them. The game was pretty well decided at halftime."

Why You Have To Watch TNT's Inside The NBA

Honestly, I love the NBA playoffs, and I've also been pretty open about my love for TNT's Inside The NBA. I mean, I watch the damn show religiously during the regular season, and like the teams they cover, Ernie, Charles, and Kenny step up their show in the postseason.

In last night's show, Kobe followed up his amazing performance against the Nuggets by stopping in and doing an interview with the guys, and of course, that video of him jumping an Aston Martin came up.

This is when the awesome happened.

See, this is what television should be like all the time.