{"id":304,"date":"2009-04-30T16:24:34","date_gmt":"2009-04-30T21:24:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=304"},"modified":"2009-04-30T22:06:36","modified_gmt":"2009-05-01T03:06:36","slug":"a-mini-inquisition-on-the-nba-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=304","title":{"rendered":"A Mini-Inquisition on the NBA Playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Basketball is such a game of matchups and adjustments, individual duels and coaching tete-a-tetes.\u00a0 And, because of all of this, it really lends itself&#8211;from the spectator&#8217;s viewpoint&#8211;a perfect sport for the series.\u00a0 This is why I love the NBA playoffs.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The NCAA tournament is the best sporting event going, but the one thing that the NBA playoffs has on it is the intrigue of the series.\u00a0 If the NCAA tournament decided to play best-of-seven series starting in the Sweet 16, it would become\u00a0literally perfect, as\u00a0a sporting event.\u00a0 In fact, it would be so good, that I might not ever watch any other sporting event (and, I probably wouldn&#8217;t be able to anyway, since it would take most of the year to play).\u00a0 But, the NBA playoffs has these matchups, these adjustments from game to game that just doesn&#8217;t happen anywhere else in sports.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Baseball plays series, but the nature of the game&#8211;namel, that the only real head-to-head athletic &#8220;matchup&#8221; is between pitcher and batter and the pitcher is different every game&#8211;does not lend itself to any real adjustments from game to game.\u00a0 There, obviously, is incredible intrigue in baseball series directly resulting from the different pitching matchups and whatnot, but these between-game adjustments and strategies do not happen anywhere near the extent to which they do in basketball, when it is the same 5 starters and 7 reserves against the same 5 starters and 7 reserves for seven straight games over\u00a0one two-week period.<\/p>\n<p>Football would be incredible when it comes to coaching between games of a series, but the severity of the sport makes it just about impossible, physically, to have a series (unless you decided to scrap the playoffs and take the best regular-season teams from each conference and play a &#8220;Super Series,&#8221; but clearly a 16-game season cannot possibly give us enough clarity to accurately reward just two playoff teams).\u00a0 Basketball gives us\u00a0a gruelingly long regular season, that does a good job at accurately selecting and seeding the teams.\u00a0 It also allows us ample fodder for analysis of what team matches up best with what other team, what player is going to go mano-a-mano with what other player, what coach will be scheming to stop what system, and so on and so on.<\/p>\n<p>This is what makes the NBA Playoffs so uniquely awesome.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, because of a variety of life factors (mainly because I get paid to something <em>other than watch sports<\/em> unfortunately), I have not been able to watch see all these little nuances this year, but I have, as the dedicated sports enthusiast as I am, been able to catch a good amount of games and feel as if I have a bird&#8217;s eye view of the 2009 Playoffs.\u00a0 Then again, there is so much more to know.\u00a0 That is why, instead of doing amateur analysis, I am going to venture into these playoffs through the medium of rhetorical questioning.\u00a0 Some will have answers, some will have conjectures, so will have absolutely nothing.\u00a0 I just hope it makes a little bit of sense when it&#8217;s all complete.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><u>#1 Cleveland sweeps #8 Detroit 4-0<\/u><\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>How long would the series have to be for it NOT to have been a sweep?\u00a0 Best of 13?\u00a0 19?\u00a0 107?<\/li>\n<li>Was Chauncey Billups really that good?<\/li>\n<li>When can we officially dub LeBron the &#8220;best player ever?&#8221;\u00a0 Is it blasphemous to even post such a thing?\n<ul>\n<li>Okay, I know it&#8217;s too early now.<\/li>\n<li>Yes, I saw MJ, in his prime, and if you know me, you&#8217;ll know that there\u00a0are very\u00a0few people who hold\u00a0His Airness is such high esteem.\u00a0 I\u00a0have even called him the best\u00a0athlete in the history of the world, narrowly edging out Alexander the Great.<\/li>\n<li>BUT&#8230;is there really any doubt that LeBron will go down as a better player than Michael?\u00a0 Honestly?\u00a0 Where is LeBron&#8217;s Pippen?\u00a0 Where is LeBron&#8217;s Coach Jackson?\u00a0 Mo Williams and Mike Brown?\u00a0 Really?\u00a0 The only valid response to any of this is:\u00a0 where are LeBron&#8217;s\u00a0six rings?\u00a0 Okay, fair, enough, I&#8217;ll shut up from now until 2017,\u00a0but don&#8217;t forget that I said it\u00a0now, in 2009.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Is it sad, even a little bit, that these great Pistons teams are pretty much dead?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0<strong><u>#1 Los Angeles beats #8 Utah 4-1<\/u><\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Has there been a better first-round coaching matchup?<\/li>\n<li>Is I was a 7-foot European basketball player, would I grow feminine hair, sweat like a pig,\u00a0have\u00a0incredible finesse,\u00a0and\u00a0be afraid of any contact\u00a0whatsoever?\u00a0 Like is this a nature-nurture kind of thing that we shouldn&#8217;t mock for fear of unfairly stereotyping?<\/li>\n<li>Is Pau Gasol the most underrated player in basketball?<\/li>\n<li>Were those two questions really stupid to post back-to-back?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0<strong><u>#2 Boston leads #7 Chicago 3-2<\/u><\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Would anyone complain if we scratched the rest of the playoffs and just had these two teams play over and over again every night\u00a0for six weeks before starting the Lakers-Cavs Finals in Cleveland?\u00a0 Honestly?\n<ul>\n<li>No, really, this series has been so incredible, that I will be rooting hard for the Bulls tonight, simply because I want a Game 7.\u00a0 For the second time this week, I will find myself struggling to pay attention to the hometown Sixers because this other series&#8211;in which I have nothing emotionally invested and between two teams that will not win the title&#8211;is just so riveting.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Does anyone else get pissed off when announcers keep talking about this being the battle to see who is the best UConn Huskie of all-time?\u00a0\n<ul>\n<li>Now, I am not a huge Ray Allen fan, but hasn&#8217;t he had a career that Ben Gordon won&#8217;t even touch if he reaches his ultimate &#8220;upside?&#8221;\u00a0 And, if the Bulls win this first-round series, does that mean that\u00a0Ben Gordon (26 years old) is a better career player than Ray Allen (33 years old)?\u00a0 Come on.\u00a0 And, if you&#8217;re Rip Hamilton, aren&#8217;t you irritated by all of this talk or are you too busy hating AI?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Does anyone care that I saw Rondo play, as a freshman at Kentucky, and said, &#8220;Wow, this guy is gonna be a phenomenal pro, but he&#8217;ll be a sleeper because the rest of the team stinks?&#8221;\n<ul>\n<li>For the record, I am generally terrible at seeing pro success in college ballplayers.\u00a0 I thought Lou Roe would be better than Marcus Camby, that Marvin O&#8217;Connor would be better than Jameer Nelson, and that Aaron McKie would be better than Eddie Jones and Rick Brunson better than both of them.\u00a0 So, I am going to toot my own horn about Rondo.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Why doesn&#8217;t Paul Pierce have any scars after being stabbed 18 times in the face?\u00a0 Is that why he only grows patches of beard?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0<strong><u>#2 Denver crushes #7 New Orleans 4-1<\/u><\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>How can a home team POSSIBLY lose by 58 points in a playoff game?<\/li>\n<li>Is Chauncey Billups really that good?<\/li>\n<li>Is the fact that we asked that same question in relation to his current team being great and his former team being terrible the answer to the question?<\/li>\n<li>Is the fact that Carmelo was the go-to guy on the 2004 Olympic Team (&#8220;The Nightmare Team&#8221;), but is not on the 2009 Nuggets team more of an indictment of Team USA or a praise of the Nuggets?<\/li>\n<li>How can Tyson Chandler go from &#8220;so incredibly bad&#8221;\u00a0to &#8220;really pretty good&#8221; to &#8220;really pretty terrible&#8221; in consecutive seasons?<\/li>\n<li>Is the West-Posey combo the best ever former\u00a0A-10 teammate combination on the same pro team\u00a0in NBA history?\u00a0 If so, what does that say for our conference?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0<strong><u>#3 Magic lead #6 Sixers 3-2<\/u><\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Should we lose respect for Dwight Howard for the elbow he threw at Dalembert?<\/li>\n<li>Should we lose respect for Dwight Howard for the lack of his team&#8217;s confidence in his crunch-time scoring ability\/FT shooting?\n<ul>\n<li>I mean even Shaq got the ball in crunch-time and Howard&#8217;s not that bad a FT shooter<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>What in the world is DiLeo thinking starting Willie Green over Lou Williams?\u00a0 Am I the only one who sees how much better the team plays with Lou instead of Willie?<\/li>\n<li>Who in this world does <em>not <\/em>hate Stan Van Gundy?\u00a0 Magic fans?\u00a0 I don&#8217;t think so.\u00a0 Magic players?\u00a0 Clearly not.\u00a0 Fans of any other NBA team?\u00a0 Definitely not.\u00a0 Shaq?\u00a0 Hahaha.\u00a0 Jeff Van Gundy?\u00a0 Maybe&#8230;<\/li>\n<li>Would the Sixers be more or less likely to pull off this upset if they had a healthy Elton Brand?\u00a0 Is it depressing that we even have to ask this question?\n<ul>\n<li>Honestly, I think there is too much heat thrown on Elton&#8217;s play this year.\u00a0 Yes, it was a bad deal, but I think it was a bad deal because he&#8217;s not healthy.\u00a0 I refuse to be convinced that this team is not better off with a healthy Elton Brand.\u00a0 He&#8217;s too good of a player to be a detriment.\u00a0 And, to all those people that say &#8220;you won&#8217;t win a title with Brand as your highest-paid player,&#8221;\u00a0we sure as hell aren&#8217;t winning one without him.\u00a0 This run-and-gun offense is nice and all, but ask Phoenix how good it is in the playoffs.\u00a0 And, the Sixers aren&#8217;t one-tenth as good as Phoenix was.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Who the hell is Courtney Lee anyway?\u00a0 Yeah, what?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0<strong><u>#3 San Antonio is upset by #6 Dallas<\/u><\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>In 2006, what odds would you have given me\u00a0that neither of these teams would be the best in the state of Texas in 2009?<\/li>\n<li>Can Manu possibly be <em>that<\/em> good?\n<ul>\n<li>The Spurs got hammered in this series, by an aging Mavs team that really isn&#8217;t that good.\u00a0 To whimper out in five games is poor.\u00a0 And, everyone seems to think that it would have been totally different if Ginobli had played.\u00a0 Really?\u00a0 Come on, this team is old.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Jason Kidd versus Tim Duncan&#8230;in 2009&#8230;would you call it <em>fantastic<\/em>?<\/li>\n<li>How much does Dirk Nowitzki look like my cousin, Mike?\n<ul>\n<li>A\u00a0lot.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Should I be banished from NBA watching for thinking that Tony Parker may even be <em>under<\/em>rated?\n<ul>\n<li>I hate everything about him, starting with his national heritage, but take a look one day at his shooting percentages and remind yourself that he&#8217;s a POINT GUARD.\u00a0 He&#8217;s unreal.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Is it wrong to be sad that the so-called San Antonio &#8220;dynasty&#8221; is pretty much over?\n<ul>\n<li>Yes.\u00a0 Yes, it is.\u00a0 And, folks, this is coming from someone who SWEARS by defense and &#8220;playing the game right&#8221; in every sport.\u00a0 And, I do not agree that this team is boring.\u00a0 They do it right.\u00a0 But&#8230;it is so hard to root for a team that whines and moans and complains so much.\u00a0 Really, really hard.\u00a0 Even for me.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Is The Big Fundamental old or just even more &#8220;fundamentally sound?&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0<strong><u>#4 Atlanta leads #5 Miami 3-2<\/u><\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Has this series even started yet?<\/li>\n<li>Is it on TV?<\/li>\n<li>Is it possible for a series to go\u00a0seven between two entertaining,\u00a0athletic, hungry teams to be so incredibly boring?\u00a0\n<ul>\n<li>Well, if the Heat win tonight, then, yes, it is possible.\u00a0 This was probably the one non-Sixers series that I was looking forward to the most, and it&#8217;s been a complete dud.\u00a0 Like, awful.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Should I even waste more time on this series, as it has gone so far?\u00a0 No.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0<strong><u>#4 Portland trails #5 Houston 3-2<\/u><\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>How funny will it be if the Rockets finally win a playoff series and it is the first one (as currently constructed) WITHOUT Tracy McGrady?\u00a0 Is anyone else rooting for that?\n<ul>\n<li>I feel bad because I like McGrady, despite his childish, awful antics this year.\u00a0 But, yes, I am rooting for it because, well, it&#8217;s funny.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>How old is Greg Oden?<\/li>\n<li>How unoriginal am I that I just used that joke?<\/li>\n<li>How good is Brandon Roy?\n<ul>\n<li>This is a great storyline because coming out of UW, he put everyone into one of two camps&#8211;either people thought he was going to be a star and rookie of the year and all that OR they thought he was purely a product of the Lorenzo Romar system and that his ceiling was as a nice role-player on run-and-gun team.\u00a0 I&#8217;m happy that it was the former, even though I believed the latter at the time.\u00a0 Again, my estimation of college players?\u00a0 Not good.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Does anyone else believe that no matter who wins this series, that they will give the Lakers a nice tussle in Round Two?<\/li>\n<li>Do I have to stop asking inane questions about the NBA Playoffs?\n<ul>\n<li>Yes, because my work day is over and BSB doesn&#8217;t pay me enough to work &#8220;overtime.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Basketball is such a game of matchups and adjustments, individual duels and coaching tete-a-tetes.\u00a0 And, because of all of this, it really lends itself&#8211;from the spectator&#8217;s viewpoint&#8211;a perfect sport for the series.\u00a0 This is why I love the NBA playoffs.\u00a0 &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=304\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}