obfuscated.org

Dan Wetzen laments the horrid scheduling in this year’s NBA playoffs

Detroit and Cleveland tipped at 3:30 p.m. ET Sunday and not because the Pistons put up the best record in the league this year – “it wasn’t us,” Pistons guard Chauncey Billups said. No, it was LeBron James and LeBron James only.

Meanwhile, San Antonio, merely the defending NBA champion trying for its third title in four seasons, got to play fellow 60-game winner Dallas in the early game, which tipped off at noon in Texas. A thriller to the finish in the Mavericks-Spurs game was as predictable as an easy Pistons victory, and that’s what happened. Too bad anyone west of the Mississippi had to skip church to see it in its entirety.

I couldn’t agree more. For all intents and purposes, Dallas v. San Antonio is the western conference finals. (For the record: Go Clippers!) Why not put it in prime time? This is as bad as putting the Kobe v. Shaq game on in prime time over Detroit v. San Antonio — last year’s and likely this year’s finals matchup — for the Christmas day game.

From the Lakers vs. Suns Game 5 Recap:

Bryant was tossed by referee Leon Wood after complaining that a hard foul against Brown should have been called flagrant.

“He didn’t like my toneage, if that’s a word.” Bryant said. “He’s the decider. Is that a word, decider?”

From tonight Clippers game vs the Nuggets, Lawler said, regarding the Nuggets:

They’ve only made their last seven [shots]. That ties an NBA record for most shots made in seven attempts.

Update: This would be the night that the Clippers break “Lawler’s Law.” The law states quite simply that the first team to 100 wins. (This holds true over 90% of the time in Clippers games.) Denver, up at the half by 20 and by 22 at one point, reached 100 before the Clippers but eventually lost in one of the most exciting games I’ve seen all year.

So the NBA has this horrible scheme where the divison winners are seeded 1-3 in the conference tournament. This year proves this out to be horrible shite, as the two best teams in the western conference — the Spurs and the Mavs — are in the same conference. One of them will be the 1 seed while the other will be relegated to the 4.

Now, this isn’t so bad in the first round for the 4 seed, as they’ll still have home court on account of their better record. However, we will (most likley) see what should be the conference finals in the semis second, and what of the “battle” for the 5^th seed? Mark Cuban walks through the regretable scenario on his blog.

What happens if both the Grizz and Clips clinch homecourt advantage over the Nuggets ?. Put another way, its possible that, and Im just picking numbers here, the Grizz and Clips are tied with 4 games to play, and both teams know that the team that loses more of those 4 games gets home court advantage against the Nuggets. The team that wins more, gets the Mavs or Spurs starting on the road.

Honestly, I can’t see why both teams wouldn’t throw games in order to get home court in the first round. The Clippers haven’t been in the playoffs since the Eisenhower administration, so they’ll take all the home playoff games they can get. The Grizz have been a little better of late, but they’re basically in the same boat.

I really hope the NBA gets it together next year and does away with this whole division-champs-must-be-1-through-3 thing.

Busy with family, I didn’t get to watch both of yesterday’s NBA games. I saw the second half of Lakers @ Heat, which was about what I expected. (I had the Heat by 10, so I guess it was a little off, but still.) The good game, however, was on earlier and was the one that I completely missed. (NBA - San Antonio Spurs/Detroit Pistons Recap Sunday December 25, 2005 - Yahoo! Sports)

The recap, however, provided a great deal of entertainment. Here’s a quote from San Antonio’s coach, who is by far one of the most amusing interviews in the league:

“We’re very honored, but we realize it is a great responsibility to play in the JV game,” San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich joked before the game. “We have to do a good job to make sure the fans stay around to watch the varsity game.”

Hilarious! Detroit and San Antonio are far and away the best teams in the league, yet they’re hugely overshadowed by the Kobe/Shaq soap opera. It pleases me when this sort of thing is taken in stride and joked at by the rest of the league, especially the teams getting the short end of the media attention stick.

I can’t wait to watch these two teams in the finals. (At this point, I’m pretty sure that my preseason prediction of Miami making the finals was wrong. Sorry, Shaq.) With Pop on one side and ‘Sheed on the other, it’ll be another year of great interviews.

When The Kid and I went to the Clips games over the weekend, I learned two important things. First, all of the Clippers’ starting five are on the NBA All-Star ballot. Second, you can vote for the All-Star team once a day. I’m going to vote for all five Clippers every day and I encourage the rest of you to do the same. They’re the best team in the Pacific division and for my money the most fun to watch of any team in the league.

We now return to our regularly scheduled nonsense.

The Kid and I went to see the Clippers whip up on the Heat last night. It was a great game. EB is definitely a front-runner for MVP this year.

The craziest part of the game came between the 3^rd and 4^th quarters. The brought a guy out to shoot from half-court to try to win a car. They asked him how he was feeling and he said “nervous.” He totally seemed like it, too. I bet I would be as well if I was trying to make a half-court shot in front of over 19,000 people.

The announcer was trying to get him to turn around and face the basket so he could take the shot, and he just up and threw it backwards over his head. IT WENT IN. He hadn’t even turned around to watch it yet, and it was through the hoop and everybody in the arena was screaming and jumping around.

Here’s a brief story and picture: Richard Tran, a 22-year-old junior high school math teacher, from Santa Ana… - NBA - Yahoo! Sports.

Have you ever been a couple days in with a few days still to go on something that turned out to not be quite as funny as you thought it would be? Yeah, me too. Maybe it’s because I’ve done the two boring sports — baseball and American football — that I don’t really like. It seems like both previous tournaments came out the same way: at the end of the day, it was either indians or giants winning the day.

Well, I’ve got a sure-fire cure for this minor literary malaise: The WNBA! They have all sorts of nuts names that the NFL would never even consider. Plus they don’t have that many teams, so I can get through this one relatively quickly. Here goes!

WNBA Tournament

1. Charlotte Sting
2. Connecticut Sun
3. Detroit Shock
4. Houston Comets
5. Indiana Fever
6. Los Angeles Sparks
7. Minnesota Lynx
8. New York Liberty
9. Phoenix Mercury
10. Sacramento Monarchs
11. San Antonio Silver Stars
12. Seattle Storm
13. Washington Mystics

Sting v. bye

A slow start, but we’ll make it through this. Sting

Sun v. bye

OK, so we have to do two of these. No big. Sun

Shock v. bye

Who puts 13 teams in a league?! Geez! Shock

Comets v. Mystics

All right! This is some action! I’m all the way for anything even vaguely magical winning, but I’m pretty sure that if a comet ran in to a wizard or what have you, it’d be game over. Comets

Fever v. Storm

A storm is immune to any sort of health-related ailment. Storm

Sparks v. Silver Stars

What temperature does silver melt at? I’ve got to think that it’s a lot higher than what you’d get off any sort of sparks. Silver Stars

Lynx v. Monarchs

Lynx are small and stealthy enough to steak past any sort of palace guard, and they’ve got CLAWS AND TEETH to rip in to some monarch flesh! Lynx

Mercury v. Liberty

Liberty is a wonderful thing. It’s part of what our country is based on. Mercury, on the other hand, has those rad shoes with wings on them. You can’t top rad shoes. Mercury

WNBA Quarter-finals

Sting v. Storm

I don’t care if you’ve got a whole swarm of hornets or a big fist full or scorpions. There’s nothing with a stinger that a little lightning and hail can’t take care of. Storm

Sun v. Silver Stars

Sparks wouldn’t do it, but I bet you the sun could melt the hell out of all the silver in the world. Sun

Shock v. Mercury

Speedy as he is, Mercury would be out like a light if you ran a current through him. Shock

Comets v. Lynx

Stealthy cats with claws and what have you don’t do so well when giant balls of ice and rock and metal from space run in to them. Comets

WNBA Semi-finals

Sun v. Storm

I’ve been watching for months now and I’ve not seen a storm permanently block out the sun. Sun

Shock v. Comets

Science has yet to study the effect of electricity on comets, but we know exactly what would happen if you ran a comet in to some sort of generator or power plant or battery or something like that. Comets

WNBA Finals

Sun v. Comets

The comet has had some impressive wins so far. It’s got an impact that’s hard to ignore, what with its traveling through space at zillions of miles an hour and being made of heavy, hard stuff. Those are impressive stats.

The Sun, on the other hand, is a giant, burning ball of gas. It’s surface temperature is almost 6,000K. That’s really hot. I’m pretty sure that a comet would melt or explode or something like that before it got within 100 miles of the sun. So this contest, really, is an easy call.

The Connecticut Sun are your WNBA Champions

More Sports with Woody

The NBA’s 2006 All-Star ballots (which are freakin’ impossible to link to, so you’re on your own to find them on the NBA site) are out. Here’s my ballot:

West

Forwards: Elton Brand and Tim Duncan

Sorry, KG. Elton and the Clippers are having a great year, and your team kind of sucks. Good thing Amare is hurt, or this would have been an impossibly hard decision. Yes, I’m aware that I’ve voted in two 4’s; I really wanted to vote for Brand this year, and how could I not vote for Duncan?

Guards: Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash

What a horrible homer pick in Bryant, one of the most hated players in the game. It’s a damn shame that he’s still the most talented guard playing. Nash loses some of his luster when not playing with a huge finisher like Amare, but he’s last year’s MP3 and the best pass-first 1 in the game.

Center: Yao Ming

I didn’t vote for Amare as a forward because he hasn’t played all year, but I would have for center because all the other choices are so underwhelming. Yao seems like some sort of strange 7′6″ consolation prize.

East

Forwards: LeBron James and Jermain O’Neal

Remember when the east didn’t have more than one or two star forwards? That’s certainly not the case any more. LeBron was an obvious pick here — he’s the best player in the game, and the most fun to watch (The Kid and I are seeing him play against the Clips’ in a couple of weeks) — but Artest or Prince would have been great as well. I could have gone with ‘Sheed or Wallace at the 4, but O’Neal is the power forward in the east, so he’s in.

Guards: Gilbert Arenas and Allen Iverson

This hurt. I really wanted to vote for Dwyane Wade, but Arenas is having an amazing year, and leaving out A.I. would be like leaving out Shaq. Which brings us to…

Center: Shaquille O’Neal

How could it be any other way? No other player even deserves consideration.

The ‘Hoo published its NBA predictions for the 2005-2006 season today. Here are my predictions:

Western Conference finals: San Antonio Spurs over Houston Rockets

Eastern Conference finals: Miami Heat over Indiana Pacers

NBA finals: Miami Heat over San Antonio Spurs

Worst record: New Orleans Hornets

Most Valuable Player: LeBron James, Cleveland Cavaliers

Rookie of the Year: No strong opinion. I’ll say Wayne Simien, Miami Heat

Coach of the Year: Phil Jackson, Los Angeles Lakers

Defensive Player of the Year: Ron Artest, Indiana Pacers

Sixth Man Award Antoine Walker, Miami Heat

Most Improved Player: Marko Jaric, Minnesota Timberwolves

Executive of the Year: Pat Riley, Miami Heat