Don't Sleep On Disneyland

Who’s the BEST? Kobe Bryant? Lebron James?

Jerry West’s comments yesterday anointing Lebron James as the best player in the NBA, along with Kobe Bryant’s iconic 40 point performance (18 in the 4th quarter) last night in game 1 of the Western Conference Finals have taken the debate to a fevered pitch… and everybody is anticipating the ultimate showdown in the NBA Finals, where the debate could be settled on the hardwood, and not just in the new Nike Most Valuable Puppets commercials.

There’s just one problem with this scenario… a team called the Orlando Magic. They aren’t getting any respect, yet I think they give the Cleveland Cavaliers a lot of matchup problems. Orlando will beat Cleveland if they can somehow steal one of the first 2 games in Cleveland. YEAH, I SAID IT!!! Cleveland needs to give Orlando more credit than the analysts and sportswriters are. Many of them are actually picking Cleveland to SWEEP!

We all know that Cleveland has Lebron “King” James. Orlando, however, has a much more balanced attack. Orlando has 5 players in the playoffs averaging at least double figures (with a sixth player averaging 8.9 points). Cleveland has 4 players averaging double digits with Lebron averaging more than twice as many points as anyone else on his team.

Orlando presents potential matchup nightmares for Cleveland. As long as Orlando and Stan Van Gundy have learned from the game 5 gaffe where Dwight Howard only touched the ball twice in the 4th quarter (sparking the reserved, soft-spoken Howard to call out his coach), the Cavaliers are in serious trouble. With Howard in the middle, he will command double-teams (unless you think Zydrunas Ilgauskas can actually cover him one on one - LOL).

Howard’s surrounded on the floor at any given time by 4 sharp shooters, who all shoot a decent percentage from the 3-point line. Orlando, in these playoffs, have FIVE players who have made at least 15 3-pointers in these playoffs (by comparison, Cleveland has two at this point). Orlando’s perimeter players are shooting with confidence and are patiently waiting for their opportunities to arise.

Their offensive strategy, and their team as a whole, reminds me a lot of when another dominant big man in the middle was surrounded on the perimeter by lethal 3-point shooting threats.

PICTURED BELOW: 1994 NBA CHAMPIONS - HOUSTON ROCKETS

All of you faithful Lebronians, rest assured, he will have a great series… he will have his share of mutant-like highlights… and, he’ll probably average more than 30 points… but everyone needs to remember that the Magic have a pretty good defensive presence in the middle in Dwight Howard (2009 NBA Defensive Player of the Year). So, in other words, don’t expect the unadulterated trips to the basket for his holiness that became commonplace against the Detroit Pistons and Atlanta Hawks.

Hmmm… speaking of defensive player of the year, care to take a guess at who won the defensive player of the year when the team pictured above won their championship? You guessed it, their dominant man in the middle, Hakeem Olajuwon.

Orlando in 6 games, to advance to the NBA Finals against the Lakers.

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The Biggest Dime of the Postseason

And no, I'm not referring to any part of Corie Blount's stash. I'm referring to the assists the Lakers have received from 3 of the Western Conference's most mediocre teams: The New Orleans Hornets, The Dallas Mavericks, and The Houston Rockets.

These 3 teams have helped fan the fires of doubt the media has created about the Los Angeles Lakers, and their chances to win a championship this year. This "doubt" helps the Lakers, because it causes them to focus even more on the task at hand -- winning playoff games.
I'm sure you know that people have actually been asking analysts how the Lakers matchup to the Nuggets... and what the Lakers need to do to defeat the Nuggets... Huh?? COMO SE DICE??? Aren't the Lakers still the #1 seed? Where's the respect? Don't we have the best player ev...... (Ok, I won't go there yet... but WHEN the Lakers win the CHIP this year, I'M GOING THERE... stay tuned for THAT BLOG POST!!)

Of course, before the playoffs started two trimesters ago (maybe it just SEEMS that long ago), an analyst predicting that any team in the West would even seriously challenge the Lakers would've been deemed clinically insane. Now, in addition to the 42% of Sportscenter viewers who selected Denver to be victorious in either 6 or 7 games (compared to about 40% who picked L.A. to win in the same amount of games), many sports pundits are now picking the thuggeriffic team from the rockies to advance to the NBA Finals. This is actually a huge benefit for the Lakers. They have been humbled by the Rockets and the media is now on the Nuggets' bandwagon... let them be the favorites... the Lakers will just be focused.

Exactly how did all of this happen?

New Orleans Hornets? More like Mudbugs...
Q: How do you lose by 58 points? What kind of team allows that to happen to themselves? At home??
A: The same team that has a banged-up center (Tyson Chandler) and that starts Rasual Butler at one of the premier "scoring" positions in the league (shooting guard). Yes, Rasual Butler is a starter.
Hmmm... not exactly a stellar competitor. No wonder Denver looked so potent. I call this false advertising.
Dallas (our owner garners more media attention than us) Mavericks?
Please. Better than the Hornets, yes. Good team? Eh, not really. Seriously, NOBODY expected the Mavericks to do anything in these playoffs. And yet, somehow, Denver's reputation has been bolstered by their performance in this series. Everyone is praising how well the Nuggets are playing defense in the postseason... and I can see why... They actually held Dallas to a scoring average of 106.8 points per game in this series. Dallas averaged a whopping 100.7 points per game during the regular season. Wait, so that means they scored more points in this series! (Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd, and Jason Terry helped their team INCREASE their production against Denver -- and they're not quite Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, and Lamar Odom)
I'm not sold on Denver's defense.

Houston, we have a problem.
The Houston Rockets are not a good team. Houston is so bad, that people questioned everything from the Lakers' arrogance, to Pau Gasol's toughness, to Andrew Bynum's manhood, because they won 3 games in the western conference semifinals. While I'm not impressed by the Lakers' nonchalant approach to their games, I am impressed by the way they played in games they HAD to win (Game 5 after the Mother's Day Massacre and, of course, game 7).
What I was reminded of more than anything else from this series, is the fact that the Lakers are the only team that can beat the Lakers. When they're focused and locked-in, no current team can beat them in a best of 7 series.

SUPER-QUICK NUGGETS vs. LAKERS PREVIEW

I've been tough on Bynum. I'll be the first to admit it... especially during my real-time game tweets. I expect him to play strong in this series, though and his defensive rebounding (if he jumps for them) will be critical. Bynum generally plays at the energy level of his teammates, and I don't expect to see the lulls in the Lakers' energy, courtesy of all of the criticism they have been receiving.

Who's going to guard Kobe Bryant? Dahntay Jones? (ex-dukie... shout out to Coach K) But, are you serious? Really, give me a break.... and if Denver does bring him in to cover Kobe... who do you take out? J.R. Smith? One of their most potent offensive threats. Be our guest.

I hope Phil Jackson gives Shannon Brown a lot of playing time to matchup against Chauncey Billups. Of all the Laker point guards, he gives us the best shot to contain Billups due to his size, speed, and defensive energy. Phil will use Kobe on Billups during crunch time for sure. But if Kobe is matched up on Billups for the most part, that would fatigue him unnecessarily. Brown can slow Billups down just enough (I'm not saying he'll shut him down) to throw the Nuggets off of their offensive rhythm.

Bottom line, when it's all said and done and the series is over... they are who we thought they were. Lakers in 5 games. 6 tops.

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They Play To Win The Game... Don't They?

Typical basketball game highlights on SportsCenter:

“Your favorite basketball player had 30 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 assists in tonight’s game. It was a tremendous showcase of his all-around skills. He demonstrated again why he’s considered by many to be the best in the game. He shot well from the perimeter, converting on 4 of 6 3-pointers. It was a great game. Oh yeah, his team lost 97-92…”

Now, it might not go exactly like that… but I’m convinced that we’ve become too stat-driven in sports… especially when it comes to individual accolades. I put this blame on the media coverage and attention given to individual performances.

Danny Granger was just named the NBA’s Most Improved Player of the Year. Granger had a great season (statistically). This was also his first all-star season. NBA.com reported, “In his fourth year, Granger was the league's fifth leading scorer, averaging a career-high 25.8 points -- 6.2 points higher than 2007-08 (19.6 ppg).” Well done, Danny. Well done. What the article excluded however, was the fact that his team, the Indiana Pacers, finished with a record of 36-46, 10 games below .500. (This was the exact same record they had the previous year – NO IMPROVEMENT)

What’s even more troubling about the voting was the trend of non-playoff team players receiving votes extended to the 2nd place finisher (Devin Harris) and the 3nd place finisher (Kevin Durant). Their teams finished 14 games and 36 games below .500, respectively. And in a day and age where there is exhaustive, over-the-top coverage and analysis of the smallest topics in sports (i.e. Glen “Big Baby” Davis nudging a kid after his game-winning shot in game 4, to the kid’s father making an idiot of himself for calling Davis a “raging animal”, to Davis eventually apologizing for the incident, to a breakdown on whether the apology was necessary), I haven’t seen ANY debates on “PTI” or “Around The Horn” in regards to the following question… How does an individual award go to a player on a non-playoff team? Have we forgotten that they “play to win the game?”

Other than Rookie of the Year (which went to a playoff participant), there should be NO individual awards given to members of non-playoff teams.

The person who deserves this award is Rajon Rondo (and those who know me personally KNOW that me giving this guy ANY credit is a HUGE change from what I’ve been saying his entire career - which, in one way, strongly validates the moniker “most improved”). He still needs to shoot 500 jump shots/day this offseason (as Reggie Miller suggested during game 5 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals), but he has drastically improved his game. This improved performance has been magnified with the absence of the Celtics’ unanimous leader, Kevin Garnett, during this postseason. While nobody gave the Celtics a shot this postseason because of KG’s injury, they are currently one win away from a showdown with the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals.

You may be thinking, “The award is based on what’s done in the regular season.” I could use statistical data from the regular season to validate this selection as well, but instead, I’ll share with you a visual reminder of why they play.

And even though the Lakers will more than likely reclaim the NBA title and another ring this year, Boston and Rondo are still alive. Granger? Well, as the TNT guys would say… He had “gone fishing” on the last day of the regular season.

LIVE TO WIN!!!

(If you would like statistical evidence as to why Rondo is a better choice for Most Improved Player than Granger, be sure to leave a comment and I’ll post that as well)

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