Right off the bat: Rajon Rondo's foul on Brad Miller in the waning seconds of overtime in Game 5 -- Rondo planted a swinging open hand on Miller's dome as Miller drove into the paint -- was not deemed flagrant after further review by the NBA, an unquestionable league conspiracy to increase Boston's chances of advancing to the Eastern Conference semifinals and thus remaining in contention for back-to-back titles.
Watch the play for yourself:
According to NBA Rule 12, Section IV-E, a flagrant foul is any foul "interpreted to be unnecessary." Smacking a player across the head and causing him to bleed in order to prevent an easy layup isn't unnecessary? Nope...not if you take a walk in the shoes of NBA management.
The Celtics are arguably the most storied franchise in NBA history. They've won 17 NBA championships -- the most by any team -- and boast the longest consecutive championship winning streak of any North American professional sports team to date (eight straight, 1957-1969). Heck, you could easily assemble an all-time great NBA team with just Celtics players.
Following last year's successful championship run, Boston remained the league's top team for the first third of this season. Not only did a repeat appear inevitable in the wake of their seemingly endless 19-game winning streak, but the Celtics were beginning to look like a legitimate team (as opposed to last season's Pierce-Garnett-Allen combination of longtime all-stars, each desperate for their first ring). With the Celtics and Lakers heading their respective conferences, Commissioner David Stern and Co. must have been licking their chops as the two teams seemed to be on a head-on NBA Finals collision course for the second consecutive year -- and the twelfth time in league history.
But then the Lakers snapped Boston's 19-gamer on Christmas Day and, from there on out, the Celtics hit the infamous wall and finished the rest of the season with a 35-17 mark. Despite Boston's slump (at least compared to its 27-3 start), Rondo was emerging as one of the league's premier point guards. Case in point: The dude is averaging a triple-double -- 24-10-10 -- through five playoff games thus far.
NBA management knows just as well as anyone that Rondo is highly crucial to the KG-less Celtics' post-season success. If his foul on Miller was determined to be flagrant after further review, Rondo could have faced a possible one-game suspension -- just as Dwight Howard is for his elbow shot to Samuel Dalembert's head. But the Boston-Chicago match-up is as competitive a series as you'll find in the first round. Subtract Rondo from the Game 6 equation and, simply stated, the Celtics don't stand a chance in Game 6 in Chicago.
The thing is: I wasn't exactly in love with NBA officiating before the aforementioned occurred; now, I think it's a bigger joke than Chad Johnson changing his legal last name to Ocho Cinco.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Kobe Being Kobe
In my last blog following Game 3 of the Lakers-Jazz opening round series, I wrote: "Kobe Bryant is human after all."
It was a fair assessment at the time. After all, the dude could have built a school with the amount of bricks he threw up in Game 3's loss in Utah. But after Saturday night's Game 4 showcase, Bryant might as well be from another planet.
Following his dismal 5-24 effort in Game 3, the Black Mamba pounced on the Jazz in Game 4, scoring the Lakers' first 11 points and dropping 38 in total as the Lakers took a commanding 3-1 series lead headed back to Los Angeles for Monday's Game 5.
Bryant was simply a man on a mission. You could see it in his eyes before the game. He was not going to allow anyone to stand in is way -- and he didn't. Ronnie Brewer, who largely tamed Bryant in Game 3, was victim number one. By Game 4's end, Bryant more than welcomed Brewer's defense, as he finished a perfect 10-10 from the field with Brewer as his primary defender. There were also many occasions when Bryant drew double and triple teams, which freed up his teammates for open shots, unimpeded cuts and opportunities to capitalize on Utah's game plan to remain focused on Bryant.
The thing is: Bryant has faced adversity before -- it is nothing new to the 13-year vet. He is accustomed to having the world (or in the case of Game 4, his team) on his shoulders. He knows he needs to perform at a high level for the Lakers to play well, win games and continue on with their pursuit of the Larry O'Brien Trophy. Bryant hasn't always triumphed in times like these but, amidst his peaks and valleys, the Black Mamba has always been a cold-blooded cat.
I told you he wasn't human.
It was a fair assessment at the time. After all, the dude could have built a school with the amount of bricks he threw up in Game 3's loss in Utah. But after Saturday night's Game 4 showcase, Bryant might as well be from another planet.
Following his dismal 5-24 effort in Game 3, the Black Mamba pounced on the Jazz in Game 4, scoring the Lakers' first 11 points and dropping 38 in total as the Lakers took a commanding 3-1 series lead headed back to Los Angeles for Monday's Game 5.
Bryant was simply a man on a mission. You could see it in his eyes before the game. He was not going to allow anyone to stand in is way -- and he didn't. Ronnie Brewer, who largely tamed Bryant in Game 3, was victim number one. By Game 4's end, Bryant more than welcomed Brewer's defense, as he finished a perfect 10-10 from the field with Brewer as his primary defender. There were also many occasions when Bryant drew double and triple teams, which freed up his teammates for open shots, unimpeded cuts and opportunities to capitalize on Utah's game plan to remain focused on Bryant.
The thing is: Bryant has faced adversity before -- it is nothing new to the 13-year vet. He is accustomed to having the world (or in the case of Game 4, his team) on his shoulders. He knows he needs to perform at a high level for the Lakers to play well, win games and continue on with their pursuit of the Larry O'Brien Trophy. Bryant hasn't always triumphed in times like these but, amidst his peaks and valleys, the Black Mamba has always been a cold-blooded cat.
I told you he wasn't human.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Lakers/Jazz - Game 3
The Los Angeles Lakers' two-point road loss to the Utah Jazz in Game 3 of this opening round Western Conference series showed us a few things: 1) the Lakers can compete on the road even if their play is sub-par (or in this case, horrific), 2) Lamar Odom is still a valuable piece to the championship puzzle and 3) Kobe Bryant is human after all.
The Lakers shot just 37 percent from the field (Kobe led the way as he went 5-24, including 1-10 in the first half) and 61.5 percent from the charity stripe; starting center Andrew Bynum nearly posted the same number of minutes as he did fouls: seven and five, respectively; the Jazz out-rebounded the Lakers by 15, held a seven-point advantage in fast break points and limited the Lakers to a mere 86 points, 21 points under their regular season average and 30 -- 30!!! -- points under their playoff average. Yet, with two seconds remaining in regulation and the Jazz leading 88-86, Kobe Bryant found himself with an opportunity to give the Lakers a dominant 3-0 series lead.
Lamar Odom played one of his best playoff games in purple and gold. Say what you will about L.O. but, believe it or not, this team has a far greater chance to contend for and win a title with Odom in uniform. The dude provides mismatch problems in any given game. Name me one other 6'10' player who can consistently go coast-to-coast with finesse and you can consider the Josh Hoffman Blog to be no more. Unlike many of today's players, Odom doesn't need to be option A, B or even C. In fact, he is often times most successful as option D or E. On a night when Kobe couldn't throw a pebble in the ocean if he tried and Pau Gasol struggled to find his rhythm, Odom kept a multitude of possessions alive by grabbing offensive rebounds -- five to be specific, 14 total -- and led the team in scoring (21 points) and the +/- category (+7). Simply stated: the Lakers don't find themselves in a position to tie or win the game without Odom's contributions.
All in all, the Lakers undoubtedly played their worst game of these playoffs and arguably one of their worst games of this season, while the Jazz desperately confirmed how and why they won 33 of their 41 regular season home games. An optimist would offer: "The Lakers took care of business in Los Angeles; the Jazz have done the same in Utah thus far." A realist would laugh and blatantly admit: "Kobe Bryant got one of his all-time worst playoff performances out of his system. The Jazz playoff bomb implodes in T-minus two games."
The Lakers shot just 37 percent from the field (Kobe led the way as he went 5-24, including 1-10 in the first half) and 61.5 percent from the charity stripe; starting center Andrew Bynum nearly posted the same number of minutes as he did fouls: seven and five, respectively; the Jazz out-rebounded the Lakers by 15, held a seven-point advantage in fast break points and limited the Lakers to a mere 86 points, 21 points under their regular season average and 30 -- 30!!! -- points under their playoff average. Yet, with two seconds remaining in regulation and the Jazz leading 88-86, Kobe Bryant found himself with an opportunity to give the Lakers a dominant 3-0 series lead.
Lamar Odom played one of his best playoff games in purple and gold. Say what you will about L.O. but, believe it or not, this team has a far greater chance to contend for and win a title with Odom in uniform. The dude provides mismatch problems in any given game. Name me one other 6'10' player who can consistently go coast-to-coast with finesse and you can consider the Josh Hoffman Blog to be no more. Unlike many of today's players, Odom doesn't need to be option A, B or even C. In fact, he is often times most successful as option D or E. On a night when Kobe couldn't throw a pebble in the ocean if he tried and Pau Gasol struggled to find his rhythm, Odom kept a multitude of possessions alive by grabbing offensive rebounds -- five to be specific, 14 total -- and led the team in scoring (21 points) and the +/- category (+7). Simply stated: the Lakers don't find themselves in a position to tie or win the game without Odom's contributions.
All in all, the Lakers undoubtedly played their worst game of these playoffs and arguably one of their worst games of this season, while the Jazz desperately confirmed how and why they won 33 of their 41 regular season home games. An optimist would offer: "The Lakers took care of business in Los Angeles; the Jazz have done the same in Utah thus far." A realist would laugh and blatantly admit: "Kobe Bryant got one of his all-time worst playoff performances out of his system. The Jazz playoff bomb implodes in T-minus two games."
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