The Fantastic Four

NBA Conference Finals Teams

The NBA playoffs have been nothing short of spectacular this season.  This year’s second round provided fans with dramatic finishes and some of the most poorly officiated games I’ve ever had the displeasure to watch.  But I digress.  The second round boasted four match ups that no one thought would turn out the way that they did.  
Eastern Conference

In the East, the “King” and his loyal subjects took on the “Bad Boys II” in what was thought to be a four game sweep, turned into a battle for the ages.  LeBron James made us all witnesses of his future greatness during his first round performance against the Washington Wizards.  However, trying to repeat those performances against the Detroit Pistons would be a task that not even LeBron thought he could pull off.  The series started off in Detroit with the Pistons bashing the Cavaliers in a 113 – 86 victory, seemingly foreshadowing Cleveland’s fate.  Game two provided more of the same with the Pistons beating the Cavs 97 – 91 behind 29 points from Rasheed Wallace.  Going back to Cleveland down 0 – 2 and playing without guard Larry Hughes due to untimely the death of his brother made the Cavs look like the next to be “gone fishin.”

Never count out LeBron James.  This 21-year old living legend has begun to set a new precedent for playoff greatness.  The Detroit Pistons, who in the early 90’s took on another phenom (Michael Jordan), came into Cleveland looking to throw the knockout punch and move on to the conference finals.  James, in only his second playoffs series ever, led his cracked team of teammates to victories in games three, four, and five.  LeBron played brilliantly on both ends of the floor, averaging 26.5 points, 8.6 rebounds, 6.0 assists and 2.0 steals.  LeBron’s great play and Detroit’s inability to score the basketball led to the Cavaliers’ shocking three game winning streak.  With Detroit looking less and less invincible by the minute, Pistons forward Rasheed Wallace made comments that lit a fire under his teammates, sort of.  “Guaran-Sheed” as he has been dubbed, after a game 3 loss made one of his trademark guarantees saying that game 4 would be the last basketball game in Quicken Loans Arena this season; insinuating that the Pistons would not lose anymore games to the “inferior” Cavaliers.  Wrong.  LeBron willed his team to a stunning 74 – 72 game 4 victory, sending the Pistons and the rest of the basketball world into frenzy about LeBron’s greatness.  

The Cavaliers winning game 5 gave ESPN something else to over-analyze besides that horse’s broken leg, thank God.  Up 3 – 2 LeBron James drew comparisons to former greats by being on the brink of knocking out the reigning Eastern conference champs.  Well, it was a good ride while it lasted.  Detroit came out in game six and beat the Cavs 84 – 82 then totally obliterated them in game seven.  The Pistons now will move on to the Eastern conference finals to face the well rested Miami Heat.

 Also in the East, the dynamic duo that is Shaquille O’Neal and Dwyane Wade steamrolled the New Jersey Nets for a second consecutive postseason.  This series was the only not to go the full seven games, causing every sports journalist outside of Miami, Florida to forget about them.  This series was my original pick to be the least entertaining of the four semifinal match ups.  You know, I am really good at this.  The series started off with the Nets pounding the Heat 100 – 88 in game one which made fans get ready to bunker down for a very long and competitive series.  False alarm.  The Heat blitzkrieg the Nets and ripped off four straight victories.  Shaq showed flashes of his former completely dominant self while D-Wade ran circles around the Nets defenders seemingly scoring at will.  New Jersey made a couple of the games look competitive but they were over matched by Miami’s depth and talent.  

A 4 – 1 series win provides the Heat with some well deserved and much needed rest.  Miami is looking ahead to their match up with their hated rivals the Detroit Pistons.   The Heat will be facing the Pistons for the second consecutive year in the Eastern conference finals and will be trying to avenge their game seven loss from last year’s series.  It was that very loss that set off an interesting chain of events for the Heat organization.  Five new players, a new head, and one under-achieving season later the Miami Heat feel they are ready to finally overtake the Pistons as the new “Beast of the East.”

Western Conference

There is only one word to describe the Mavericks and Spurs series… Wow.  This was by far the best series of the playoffs.  Again, I picked this series to be the best of them all, so extra kudos to me.  The San Antonio Spurs came into this series looking to continue on their quest for a second consecutive NBA title.  The obstacle that stood in their way was their arch rivals the Dallas Mavericks.  San Antonio and Dallas have had grueling battles with each other for the past 4 seasons, all of them ending in favor of the Spurs.  However, something was different about this Dallas team.  A new coach (Avery Johnson) and new scheme (actually playing defense) made the Mavs a 60 win team and a more than legitimate title contender.  This series started off under much scrutiny due to the uproar of fans complaining about the 1 seed Spurs playing the 4 seed Mavericks, the two best teams in their conference, playing in the second round instead of the conference championship.  Commissioner David Stern felt the pressure and has decided to change the playoff seeding format preventing another debacle like this one.

Game 1 in San Antonio gave fans a taste of what this series was all about.  A close, grind it out game that went down to the last possession.  The Spurs managed to win the game 87 – 85 after a last second mental lapse from Dallas forward Jerry Stackhouse.  With less than five seconds left on the clock and a clear lane to the basket, Stackhouse chose to run behind the three point line and shoot a fall away three pointer that fell short and solidified a Spurs game one victory.  Game 2 proved to be the only game of its kind.  The Mavericks came out and totally demolished the Spurs in a 113 – 91 blowout.  Games three and four were both very hard fought games and were won by the team that had the last possession.  Dallas took both games and a commanding 3 – 1 lead over the defending champs.  Game five was another barn burner of a game and came down to a last second shot by Jason Terry.  When his rainbow shot fell long right into the hands of Dallas MVP candidate Dirk Nowitzki he tried to tip the ball back into the basket but he mistimed his jumped and missed giving the Spurs another breathe of life.  One underlining moment that went completely unnoticed until reviewed by league officials was Dallas guard Jason Terry’s thrown punch at ex-Maverick now Spurs forward Michael Finley.  During a scramble to the floor for a loose ball Terry and Finley ended up on top of one another jockeying for the ball.  After the officials made the call, Terry threw a quick punch into the stomach of Finley and garnered himself a one game suspension.  

After winning game six, the reigning champion San Antonio Spurs seemed to knocking on the door of a three game comeback.  The stage was set for an epic battle in game seven back in San Antonio.  The game started out with the Mavs jumping out on the Spurs building a large lead and major confidence for the latter part of the game.  The Spurs played their way back into the game and forced an extra five minutes of overtime.  With names like Nowitzki, Duncan, Ginobili, and Stackhouse on the court, the hero of this series was likely to come from that list.  But that’s the funny thing about basketball.  Desagana Diop, the backup to Erick Dampier mind you, made two of the biggest plays of the entire series with a great defensive stop on Tim Duncan and digging out major rebound that secured a Mavericks victory.  Now with the playoff monkey off their back the Mavericks move to the conference finals for the third time in franchise history where they will meet their hybrid cousins the Phoenix Suns.

I would like to step out of my objective, non-bias sports writer shoes for a few sentences and say this: I am a Los Angeles Lakers fan; therefore I have a strong detestation for the Phoenix Suns.  I watched the entire Suns – Clippers series hoping for the very worst for the undeserving most valuable player and his band of overrated nobodies.  Well now that I have gotten that off my chest, let me step back into my journalist shoes.  

After surviving through a tough test from the Los Angeles Kobes, the number two seed Phoenix Suns came in the Western conference semifinals looking to continue on their Amare-less quest for playoff greatness.  Waiting for the Suns were the four seed Los Angeles Clippers.  The Clippers making their first playoff appearance since 1996 came into the second round looking to steal a page from the Lakers playbook and pound the smaller Suns with strong inside play.  Given the NBA’s current television contract, majority if not all of the games aired around 11:00pm EST, causing this game to only be viewed by those with TiVo or a bad case of insomnia.  From the bits and pieces of the series that I did watch and the highlights from ESPN, I must say this series was pretty good.  The teams won alternating games with each game being higher scoring than the last.  The Clippers received a tremendous performance from forward Elton Brand, his 30.9 points and 10.4 rebounds per game carried the Clippers throughout the entire series.  Ultimately, the speed and three point shooting ability of the Phoenix Suns was unmatchable for the Clippers.  The Suns will now move on the Western conference finals to face the Dallas Mavericks.

Round 3
Well, I have been on an unbelievable streak of predicting the outcome of these playoffs, but I know when to call it quits.  I want to keep a clean record and just watch like a normal fan now.  Therefore I am going to steal a phrase from Rasheed Wallace in terms of being asked about the winners of the conference finals match ups… “Both teams played hard.”