Basketball/NBA

[IrvDizzle]

Bosh will be in Chicago next season. Unless LeBron wants to go there.

[Pepe Silvia]

Lakers all day sons... Kobe and Bynum to come back for playoffs and make a serious run for Kobe's 5th!!! You don't think he wants it?

[IrvDizzle]

I know Kobe wants it, and Pau is certainly playing like it, but I wonder about the Lakers bench if Bynum is not able to re-find his groove.

[La Furia]

Being a Knicks fan is only fair as I'm also a Barcelona and Yankees fan...you can't have too much good in your life after all.

That being said it's good to see the kids put on a show in the last home game. Five 50 loss seasons in a row and MSG still has the 4th attendance in the league, compare that to Miami and New Orleans where they have superstars and still have half empty arenas.

If this was David Lee's last game as a Knick I thank him for being our first all star in a decade. Sure he can't defend for his life but it's been years since we drafted anyone who we didn't either trade immediately or turned out to be a big bust..we seem to be getting better, even if we sacrificed Jordan Hill for cap space.

[IrvDizzle]

be interesting to see what happens w/ Lee in the offseason. some team who misses out 1st tier free agents is going to do something stupid and pay him max contract money. I'm hoping it's 'allas.

[La Furia]

be interesting to see what happens w/ Lee in the offseason. some team who misses out 1st tier free agents is going to do something stupid and pay him max contract money. I'm hoping it's 'allas.

If we can't get Bosh (I'm not getting my hopes up but he's definitely leaving and we are reckless enough to overpay him), I'd really like Lee back, but not for kind of money he wants. If the Knicks end up giving him more than 10M to return I'll have a stroke.

[yusuf]

Being a Knicks fan is only fair as I'm also a Barcelona and Yankees fan...you can't have too much good in your life after all.

That being said it's good to see the kids put on a show in the last home game. Five 50 loss seasons in a row and MSG still has the 4th attendance in the league, compare that to Miami and New Orleans where they have superstars and still have half empty arenas.

If this was David Lee's last game as a Knick I thank him for being our first all star in a decade. Sure he can't defend for his life but it's been years since we drafted anyone who we didn't either trade immediately or turned out to be a big bust..we seem to be getting better, even if we sacrificed Jordan Hill for cap space.

why are you proud about that, the leafs have the same problem with moranic fans that the managements sees no reason to change cause they are still rolling in the dough

[La Furia]

The Knicks with the worst defensive performance I have ever seen, good riddance to this season.

Suns look great, they destroyed Utah tonight.

LA without Kobe is managing to look almost as bad as Cleveland without Lebron. Steve Blake with a triple double.

[Abaddon]

That Steve Blake Triple double was really embarrassing, even for an unmotivated & Kobe-less Lakers team.

So we get OKC in the first round. Shouldn't be too much of a problem but I'm not sure what to expect. Either the Lakers manage to turn it on and sweep them or they don't and have to go to 6 or even 7 games. Can't see us losing this one though.

Nearly choked in my coffee earlier when I was reading a season review from a Lakers fan, who managed to give Fisher a C rating... How anyone, in all seriousness, manages to not rate him F is beyond my comprehension.

[yusuf]

cant see the lakers losing but durant will drop 40+ one game

raps are out and with bosh all but leaving have to figure out what they are gonna do. BC should be under heavy scrutiny as the team he has built has failed epically in the last 4 years.

[IrvDizzle]

hope is renewed in NYC

[yusuf]

hahahahahha, as usual the MLSE will jew out on the raps instead of making an attempt to do something besides staying status qua

[La Furia]

My playoff predictions:

Leastern Conference:
We all know that Cavs vs Magic is going to be the conference final, but there could be close calls on the way:

Cavs-Bulls: If Chicago takes a game it will be a moral victory. Cleveland in 4.
Magic-Bobcats: This should be a nice scrappy affair and Larry Brown is more than capable of grinding some fear out of Orlando, but they don't have enough firepower to take the series. Plus the Cats have Larry Hughes to chuck them out of a game or so. Magic in 5, 6 maybe if Vincesanity shits the bed.
Hawks-Bucks: No Bogut no cry. Hotlanta in 4.
Celtics-Heat: Celtics are just asking for a first round knockout, but lucky for them they got the exceptionally unimpressive Heat. Wade is just biding his time until him and Amare can push for another ring while they both have cartilage left in their knees. Until then, Boston in 7.

Bestern Conference
Lakers-Thunder: Lakers might have ended the season woefully but they played lazy last year too. OKC just doesn't have the experience to get more than a win off the back of Durant, who will probably statistically outplay Kobe who should be smart enough to know he's not in the shape to try and chuck LA to victory himself. Lakers in 5.
Spurs-Mavs: This one can really go either way. Mavs are the better team this year but Spurs have enough left in the tank for at least one upset before running out of steam. You can't count out Timmy, so Spurs in 7.
Suns-Blazers: No Roy, and as much as I love Camby he's not enough to exploit Phoenix's biggest weakness, size. Suns in 4.
Jazz-Nuggets: This is assuming Boozer can play. Without George Karl the Nuggets are an overrated team with no discipline who rely too much on Melo. As long as Boozer is healthy enough, Utah in 6.

[IrvDizzle]

soooooo ... I was going to do this awesome mega playoff preview and I got busy. too bad ... so no explanations/write up ... just picks:

1st Round

1 Cleveland v 8 Chicago --> Cleveland in 5
4 Boston v 5 Miami --> Boston in 6
3 Atlanta v 6 Milwaukee --> Atlanta in 6 (too bad Bogut got hurt, would have made this series way more interesting)
2 Orlando v 7 Charlotte --> Orlando in 6 (I'm tempted to pick Charlotte in 7, but I think that Orlando has too much talent to be beaten, even if Larry Brown can out-coach SVG with his eyes closed)

1 LA Lakers v 8 OKC --> LA in 5 (too bad OKC got LA in the first round, I really like them)
4 Denver v 5 Utah --> Utah in 7 (no George Karl will hurt them)
3 Phoenix v 6 Portland --> Phoenix in 5 (too much injuries for Portland)
2 'allas v 7 SA Spurs --> 'allas in 6 (tempted to pick the Spurs, but they just haven't shown it all year ... very disappointing)

2nd Round

1 Cleveland v 4 Boston --> Cleveland in 6 (2008 Champs are dead, KG's legs are gone, 2010 Cleveland v 2008 Boston would have been EPIC)
2 Orlando v 3 Atlanta --> Orlando in 5, not much to say about this

1 LA Lakers v 5 Utah --> LA in 7 hard fought, brutal games that I will be too nervous to enjoy (I expect Artest to get thrown out of at least one game)
2 'allas v 3 Phoenix --> The Steve Nash renaissance continues, Phoenix in 7 great games (Cuban WILL throw a hissy fit in game 6 after horrid officiating costs 'allas the game and the series)

Conference Finals

1 Cleveland v 2 Orlando --> Cleveland in 7 great games ... I so want to pick Orlando, but really, Vince Carter is their clutch time scorer ... I have so much faith in his ability that I was tempted to pick Charlotte to beat Orlando ... I will say this, Matt Barnes is going to do something stupid to get LeBron to explode in a display of brutality that will cause Facebook and Twitter to crash)

1 LA Lakers v 3 Phoenix --> LA in 6 ... this is going to be a great series, and as well as Steve Nash will play, Amar'e will not

which means the Finals will be ...

1 Cleveland v 1 LA Lakers ... the rational pick is Cleveland in 6 or 7 ... but I'm going to pick LA in 7 ... Kobe's last hurrah

[yusuf]

i have nothing to say except i pray lebrick loses