Here's some playoff thoughts thus far from an ordinary guy:

-The Spurs-Lakers series is closer than it indicates. In game 1 if the Spurs hit a few more buckets and make one or two more defensive stops, they steal game one.

Also, in game 4 the Spurs could have won this one too. The Spurs just couldn't get over the hump. Poor shot selection when they had a chance to tie or go ahead. Plus, Brent Barry easily got fouled by Derek Fisher at the end.

I am an advocate for refs not deciding games, mainly at the end, but man this was a blatant foul. The Spurs could easily be the ones up 3-1, but you have to give Kobe his dues, he is finally winning without Shaq (No pun intended).

On Thursday night the Lakers and Celtics will face off in a historical rematch of the NBA's two most storied franchises in the 2008 NBA finals.

Both teams entered the playoffs as the number one seed in their conference. The Lakers came out of the Western Conference by leaning on Kobe Bryant’s MVP skills and Paul Gasol down low. The Celtics are led by the trio of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen.
Here comes some position breakdowns and analysis.
Homecourt Advantage
Both teams are good at home but I can't go against the Garden. Their rowdy fans will have the team fired up and ready to win.Advantage: Celtics
Point GuardRajon Rondo vs. Derek Fisher

Jim Mora: A real man of genius. This is required viewing for the rant that will follow:

Here's TSF's NBA Power Rankings as of 12/11.

1. San Antonio Spurs
The Spurs have been impressive even without Tim Duncan. Manu Ginobli is looking to be the sixth man of the year as he scored 37 points twice in back to back wins over the Mavs and Jazz. The Spurs have been themselves lately, playing team basketball, winning, and holding opponents to 92.5 ppg, plus they're on a 5 game winning streak and have won 11 of their last 12.
2. Boston Celtics

West

Northwest1. Denver NuggetsA very talented team is poised to make a run at an NBA Championship. This team is ready to compete with San Antonio, Dallas, and Phoenix. Carmelo Anthony is one of the best scorers and players for that matter, in the NBA. If Marcus Camby and Kenyon Martin can stay healthy, I have a feeling they will be one of the best.

Wild Yams reminded me of this little brouhaha in the TNT studio last night. I added it to Worst of the Night, but it really deserved its own post. As Mr. Yams put it: "Chuck's second big gaffe of the night was saying that this Lakers team is the best one Kobe's ever been on, although him saying that was totally worth it for Webber's fantastic reaction of wanting to walk off the set in disbelief. I love how Barkley shoots from the hip like that and doesn't think through the things he's about to say, because every now and then he'll let fly with a Bill Walton-esque bit of hyperbole like that. God bless Barkley."

God bless Barkley, indeed. And Webber's awestruck reaction really was the best; it even succeeded in getting Chuck to back down and revise his statement to: "Let me rephrase that. I think this Laker team is potentially, they could win a lot of championships in the next couple years. That maybe is the way I should have phrased it." Yeah. Maybe so.

As Ernie Johnson put it: "Rick Fox, rolling over in his grave." Here's the video.

I'm sure most of you sports fans out there were watching the game tonight. I know I was. In case you missed it the Celtics beat the Lakers 98-88. Here are a few brief thoughts I had after game 1.

-Kobe was just not on tonight and facing the top Defense in the NBA didn't help either. Kobe managed to put up 24 points. However, he only shot 9-26 which is real bad.
-I'll admit I definitely thought the worst when Pierce went down like that. Then I was incredibly confused when he came out of the tunnel 4 minutes later ready to play. The whole things seems a little weird (I smell a fresh NBA Conspiracy Theory Post?)
-The big 3 looked good all putting up 20+. I'm very interested to see how Pierce's knee is feeling come game 2 though.
-The Perkins injury is going to be interesting to me because if he can't play anymore I think Pau Gasol could be a real problem for the Celtics to handle. Perkins didn't match up well against Gasol as it is and with him out I think Gasol could have a chance to really dominate. Unless if P.J. Brown is going to shut him down (which I highly doubt).

Officiating: Quick quiz: What time is it? Quick answer: Zebra hunting time. Last night, Joe Crawfordy, Joe Forte, Mark Wunderlich and David Stern (in absentia) were The Four Horsemen of the Spurspocalypse. I mean, seriously, the no-call to end last night's game was completely, utterly and in all other ways inconceivable. I'm not even going to argue the point. The bottom line is this: Derek Fisher fouled Brent Barry. Marv Albert and Doug Collins knew it. Johnny Ludden knew it. Henry Abbott knew it. You knew it. I knew it. Nostradamus knew it way back in 1562. Helen Keller, Zeus rest her soul, would have known it. My 85-year-old grandma called me in the middle of the night to ask "What was up with that lousy no-call in the Spurs game?!" It's crazy.

Here's the video. It speaks pretty well for itself.

There was a whole lotta man lovin' going on in last night's Spurs-Lakers game. Package grabbing? Check. Ass grabbing? Check. Suggestive lip smacking? Check, check and check. (I apologize if I missed a submission or forgot to credit someone. If that's the case, email me or leave a comment and I'll get it fixed up quicker than a Tony Parker flop.)

First, eljpeman (via the Yahoo! Sports NBA page) showed me "How the West is Won." (Apparently, winning the West has something to do with Kobe's genitals.)

Then emma noticed that Timmy seems to have a fixation on Pau's "fertile Spanish valley." And Pau looks...surprised...to say the least.

Dallas Mavericks: Dirk Nowitzki's summer vacation was all about travelling the world and engaging in meaningful introspection. Hopefully these experiences have provided him with the insight and perspective necessary to deal with this season's inevitable playoff disappointment. Oh, and somebody should tell Josh Howard that blindsiding Brad Miller doesn't make you tough.

Enver Nuggets: That isn't a typo. There's no "D" in Denver. Until that changes -- and trust me, it won't -- this team won't "contend" for anything more than 45-50 wins and a first-round playoff exit.

Manu Ginobili: In today's NBA Closer column, I called Manu "Shoeless Joe Ginobili" because it sure seemed like he was trying to throw the game: 10 points, 3-for-13 shooting and 4 turnovers. And at least three of those turnovers came during critical stages of the fourth quarter. Manu kept running into traps or jumping into the air with nowhere to go and then just throwing the ball up for grabs. During the postgame press conference, Ginobili said: "There's no excuse for how I played today." He's not wrong.

Denver Nuggets defense: The Charlotte Bobcats are 20th in the league in scoring (95.4 PPG), but Denver let them score 119 points. That's the most points the Bobcats have scored since late last season, when they dropped 122 on the Wizards. Memo to the Nuggets: If you want to be legit, you can't let teams like Charlotte score 119 points on you. Still, despite all that, Denver would have won the game if not for...

Sorry this is late, folks. Even I need a holiday, apparently.

Spurs-Lakers Game 2

San Antonio Spurs: The seven-game series with the Hornets, that night spent sleeping on a grounded plane, the devastating choke job in Game 1 of this series, their age...it was like all of those things caught up with them at once in Game 2. The Spurs shot 34 percent as a team -- including 6-for-23 from three -- and they got slowly and methodically crushed in the second half en route to a 30-point rout. The champs were a step slow everywhere, especially on defense, where they allowed the Lakers to shoot 55 percent.

Manu Ginobili: Manu was San Antonio's worst player in the first game, and he was just as bad -- maybe worse -- in Game 2. Shoeless Joe Ginobili was 2-for-8 from the field, 0-for-4 from distance, and finished with 7 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 turnovers, and 2 fouls in 23 pointless minutes.

Miami Heat: They went 0-for-the-weekend and have lost four in a row overall, dropping their record to a second-next to league-worst 8-23. On Friday night, Miami wasted a 48-point, 7-rebound, 11-assist performance by Dwyane Wade in dropping a 121-114 overtime decision to the Orlando Magic. Things got worse on Saturday night, when the Heat scored only 74 points in a 22-point loss to the Washington Wizards. Said Pat Riley after the game: "One positive point about tonight's game is that this is the last game of 2007. It's been a bad year."

Are you tired of the same old boring, repetitive formula in these stupid "Worst of the Night" posts? We know we are. So we've kidnapped Basketbawful and locked him in a room where he's being forced -- Clockwork Orange-style -- to watch highlights of the greatest player to ever come into contact with a round ball covered in dead cow skin: Kobe Bean Bryant. So, for one day at least, you won't have to put up with the mindless hate and jealousy this guy pukes forth day after day after day after day. And you'll get some real basketball insight from somebody who actually watches NBA games instead of sitting around in his parent's basement defiling Kobe Bryant bobblehead dolls with his dark voodoo arts.

Irish pub crawls in Chicago rock. Recovery from them, however, does not. So no Worst of the Weekend today. Instead, I wanted to say a few words about the Houston Rockets, whose winning streak reached 22 games with yesterday's 104-92 win over the Los Angeles Lakers.

In case you've been living under a rock and haven't heard, that's the second-longest winning streak in NBA history. Only Bill Sharman's immortal 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers -- starring Hall-of-Famers Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, and Gail Goodrich -- won more games in a row. And while winning streaks, however long and impressive, don't necessarily make a champion, they do make for dramatic, must-see basketball. So I keep wondering: Why are so many people so eager and determined to dismiss The Streak?

Seriously, I've spent the past week or two defending the Rockets' winning ways from the snipings of a variety of fans and friends. The main criticisms being leveled against Houston fall into two catagories:

1. They've had an easy schedule

I'm currently writing an impassioned plea to the Suns to stop sucking -- and yes, a 24-10 team can and does suck -- but in the meantime, here's a brief Worst of the Night post with a little something extra: What is possibly the worst and most bizarre Larry Bird commercial of all time (as previously discovered by Matt Watson of the AOL Fanhouse).

East

UNC vs. Louisville
I've been anticipating this match up ever since the bracket came out. I like pretty much every match up here. Both have some good guards even with Tywon Lawson I will give the edge to Louisville in this department because the Cards are a little deeper. Earl Clark will be a tough match up guard-wise for the Heels. Louisville's guards can give problems to UNC's with their depth and feisty defense. The frontcourt match up should be a dandy. David Padgett vs. Tyler Hansbrough; Both are physical players but I will once again give a slight edge to Louisville. Should be a great game.
The Pick: Louisville- yes I am picking them. I like their guard depth, their demanding defense, and Padgett down low.

OK, so we all know the refs got it wrong at the end of the Spurs / Lakers game 4. And sadly, we all know the refs usually get it wrong. Let's be honest, even the refs know they're getting it wrong, but...

...whose fault is it? The refs are now regularly doing whatever it takes to keep the scrutiny off themselves. It is human nature to do so, and I don't have any particular faith in NBA refs to behave otherwise. For years, refs have put the whistle away for the final 5 seconds or so of any big game, because there is a notion that the "players should decide it."...in Thunderdome, apparently.

Unfortunately, the way the NBA is set up, either the refs are forced to decide the game either way (by awarding a player "gimmie" free throws or completely ignoring a mug job like they did). Almost universally, refs have decided to go the "ignore the foul" route, because this method has become an accepted - even anticipated - part of the game (just listen to the resigned post-game comments of Popovich and Barry - they know how this works).

You think the foul would have been called if Brent had gone straight up and forced harder contact? I don't. I think Fisher would have had to sucker-punch Barry at the end of that game to for a foul to be called, and I think Fisher - wiley veteran that he is - knew that too.

The Solution?

"We are so freaking screwed..."

Once again, Basketbawful and Hardwood Paroxysm bring you the weekly Powerless rankings. Much like a man lost in the woods, I'm going to try to stay alive by cannibalizing the West while the hardwood boys gnaw on the nasty flesh of the East.

Memphis: Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley sent franchise center Pau Gasol to the Lakers for a large, steaming pile of crap named "Kwame Brown." It's not his fault, though. It's the Bulls' fault. Just ask him. Said Heisley: ''We had conversations with Chicago that were non-satisfactory." Here's what I want to know. What could the Bulls have possibly offered him that was any worse than Kwame Brown?! I'm pretty sure Will Perdue and Bill Wennington have been retired too long to include in a deal.

Kevin Durant: Hey, have we mentioned this kid is long yet? Well, he is. Like, really long. Unfortunately, "impressive length" does not necessarily equate to "good shooting percentage." Or even "mediocre shooting percentage." Or hell, even "bad but improving shooting percentage." Durant had the worst game of his rookie season last night, scoring 10 points (4-13), grabbing a single, lonely rebound, dishing out zero assists, and committing 4 turnovers. Through eight games, he's shooting an Adam Morrison-like 38 percent from the field. That's your 2007-08 Rookie of the Year, folks!

In last Monday's game against the Celtics, the Los Angeles Lakers wore throwback short shorts for the first half. Kobe Bryant was quoted after the game saying:
“I don’t know what it feels like to wear a thong, but I imagine it feels something like what we had on in the first half,” he said with a grin. “I felt violated. I felt naked...."
The failure of Bryant, the media or fans to link his joking claim to his recent indictment for rape suggests that the world has moved on. As I've mentioned before, Bryant in apologizing acknowledged:
I now understand how she feels that she did not consent to this encounter.
This is a more serious sense of feeling violated.

"I will break you."

revenge game (ri-venj' gam) noun. A game in which a particular player or team has the opportunity to seek retribution for an injustice -- whether real or imagined -- that was committed against them by another player or team.

Usage example: The Dallas Mavericks won their revenge game against the Golden State Warriors last night.

Admit it. This gave you a little wood, didn't it?
Kobe Bryant: Señor Black Mamba scored 39 points (a team high) and grabbed 10 boards (another team high). Brilliant game, right? Sure, if you overlook his severe case of fumbleitis. For much of the game, Kobe handled the rock like somebody had replaced his hands with two honeybaked hams. He coughed up the ball a career-high 11 times -- 7 of which came in the first half -- on his way to his first career triple bumble. He also unleashed some of his trademark "subtle" criticism of his teammates: ""What are you going to do when guys are open? If I catch the ball, what am I going to do, go one on three? We made the right play, we just didn't complete it." I ran this one through the Kobe-to-English translator in my Batcomputer, and apparently that comment means, "Hey, not my fault. Go talk to Lamar. He airballed the final shot." But this also begs the question: When has Kobe ever shied away from going one-on-three?

Don't worry, boys. I'm old, fat and slow now,
but I'm just what you need.

Ok, Evil Ted here. As a Patriots fan who just watched 99 out of 100 football analysts pick my team to win last weekend, I'm in a contrarian mood today. So let me be that 1 out of 100 person to say that the Shaq move will prove to be exactly the right move for the Suns - at least for this year's playoffs. Here's why:

1.) Myth 1: The Suns Need Marion. The Suns are already stacked with a ton of fast, young, athletic, able-to-play-plenty-of-minutes talent (Stoudemire, Diaw, Barbosa). Unless the rules are changed to allow Steve Nash to bribble four balls - two in each hand - and dish out assists to four guys at once, the Suns will not be lacking athletic scorers and finishers. Just last night against the Hornets, Diaw threw in 22 in place of Marion, and the Suns scored 130 points. And lost. Because they gave up 132. Looking for a defensive presence in the middle? Just got it. Looking to free up Amare for some free-wheeling power forward duty? Just did it.

Detroit Pistons: The Pistons went 0-for-the-weekend after losing back-to-back games against the Lakers and Kings. That means Detroit has lost three of their last four games. Why? Simple: They've lost their defensive focus. After holding their first five opponents to 87.8 PPG, the Pistons have given up scores of 103, 102, 104, 103, and 105 to their last five opponents -- and that's including games against Seattle (99.4 PPG), Portland (93.7 PPG), and Sacramento (99.4). I'm not a mathematologist, but even I know that a team averaging just under 100 PPG can't give up more than that and win on a consistent basis.

To be a Bobcat is to be unhappy.

Basketbawful reader joe just sent me this priceless video of Kobe Bryant smacking some poor lady in the face with a towel during yesterday's Mavs/Lakers game. So yes, he's trusting his teammates more and has stopped blasting his owner, GM, and front office. But once a Black Mamba, always a Black Mamba.

Edit: Basketbawful reader 30f had to rain all over my parade of hate with the following 100 percent correct explanation for Kobe's apparent act of superdickery: "Looks to me like the Mambster is grabbing a towel off the top of the the stack and the second one in the stack clings to the towel in his hand. You can see the towel he actually grabbed remaining in his hand at the end of the clip as the other one flies towards its (accidental?) target. This is not to say that Kobe is NOT a tool, I just think that this is how he picks out the conquests for his road trip hotel rooms without the wife knowing. Kobe hearts MILFS."