Celtics / Magic: Where to start…I continue to stand by my opinion of Howard. Watching him dominate on defense is a thing of beauty, I must admit. He is the reason why KG and Rondo had poor offensive games. He is, however, the reason why Rashard Lewis didn’t get off. KG stayed home the entire game and even denied him the pass often, completely ignoring any duties he may have otherwise had in the paint on defense. That may have been the unsung difference maker. Everyone stayed home the entire game and, other than Carter, the Magic players struggled to create offense (more on this later). The Celtics are obviously going to continue to allow Perk and Sheed one on one coverage against Howard. He’ll have his spurts of points and at some point a monster dunk over one or both of them. Other than that, I don’t expect a lot to change. He’s terrible on offense. Can you imagine what Sheed in his prime would do to him? He’d make Dwight cry. He made him wimper at 35 years of age with 90% body fat….

I was surprised to see how confused the Magic players were when nobody doubled Howard and they were forced to either create their own shot or change their offense completely. The second half saw Jameer finally understand that he’ll need screens to create against Rondo. If they run a successful screen and roll game with him in game 2, the Celtics will have to adjust and do something a bit differently. I also expect Vince to get a lot of touches in game 2. Van Gundy knows Pierce is getting fatter and lazier and therefore, is getting in more foul trouble. He’ll have to put forth the effort he did on Lebriggity. BTW, Vince Carter, for all the criticism he gets, was definitely going much harder on offense than Howard and Lewis.

Obvious keys to Game 2: Redick, as much as I don’t like him, should start tomorrow. He’s better than Barnes at half speed.

Not so obvious keys to Game 2: Both Van Gundys must continue to provide both intentional and unintentional comedy through the game. Rasheed must continue to talk shyt in Howard’s ear and make the game broadcast R-rated every chance he gets. Jason Williams must cut his hair to look like a basketball player again. KG must keep smothering Lewis while getting his legs under him and taking more deliberate shots. Ray Allen must continue to appear as though he’s never sweated or been short on breath in his entire life.

Celtics will take game 2 by a similar margin (or else get blown out by 20).

Suns / Lake Show: I talked about my thoughts on this matchup a bit earlier. I’m excited to see my favorite almost-a-superstar-if-not-for-injuries player, Grant Hill, against Kobe. Kobe is perhaps the best post player in the league, I wonder if Hill is strong enough to cause him some discomfort. I always intently watch him on the post to steal some of his positioning and post moves.

Awesome Daddy, that got some legit laughs from me. You need to post your general NBA thoughts more often. If not, we all get to punch you in the nuts. Repeatedly.

Suns -vs- Celtics for the Finals. You heard it here first:

http://twolvesblog.com/201005132983/minnesota-timberwolves/articles/blogger-qaa-with-nbacom-blogger-sekou-smith.html

Daddy's not so obvious keys to game 2 were all fantastic...how can you not love the Van Gundy's?...J-Will shaving just the very bottom of his hair all the way from the back to the sideburns is beyond ugly...JJ Redick is a real player - wow...Rashard Lewis is Antawn Jamison...My post moves are better than D12's, and I'm dead serious...That was the best Rasheed has played in years...Vincanity, Jameer, and JJ were the only Magic players who had the proper mindset for Game 1...I expect Air France and Matt Barnes to bring a lot more to the table in game 2...what exactly is Pat Ewing getting paid to do? D-Ho's offensive arsenal is embarassing - that's why he's never graced the top 5 in any BonK MVP ballots...the CELTICS are back and I'm beyond ectastic!!!

I’m getting my mind off the draft…

Lake Show / Suns, Game 1: Well, I haven’t seen Kobe hot like that in awhile. Watching players like Kobe, Ray Allen, and Corey Brewer (mostly for his bulging muscles) is a thing of beauty when they are on their game. High school players getting ready for Division one competition would be wise to study Kobe’s footwork on the blocks. I still hate him though…I’ll take Wade or Lebron purely for emotional reasons. It figures one of the Lakers’ big men dominated Amare. He has to have 25 / 15 games for them to win.

I do have a legitimate beef involving this series. This has been boiling inside of me forever, I just am too unsure of my argument to ever voice this opinion. But I’m at my wits end with Steve Nash. I am so tired of folks riding his nutz because of his “toughness” and how spectacular he is. For all of Iverson’s toughness, he received more criticism than Nash ever will, yet he got further in his career than Nash will (presumably) – and with much less talent around him. After years of regular season success, players like McGrady, Dirk, Lebron, KG, etc. all get (or used to get) heat for not taking their team to the next level. Nash has yet SOOO many chances, yet never gets to the big game. He is also completely irrelevant on one side of the court – coincidentally on the side of the court that “wins championships.” Despite this, he’s a two time MVP and heralded as the savior of white basketball for eternity. Sure, I enjoy watching Nash, but it’s silly that we are criticizing Lebron (and ignoring the best defense since the Daddy’s coaching in 09-10 high school basketball) for failing against the Celtics and will never mention Nash in that group…

If I have one series to win and I can assemble a team as I please, I’m not taking Nash at PG. I’ll take Rondo, CP3, Deron, Billups, and Rose before him. I’d be fine if Nash was unavailable and had to roll with Old Kidd or Jameer. Get the picture? Not a Nash fan. He’s a terrible example to my players who all want to emulate him and give two shyts about defense.


Celtics / Magic: Game 2 was a CLASSIC – “So age don’t count on the court…” thanks Rakim…Anyway, on to the game.
Rondo, Rondo, Rondo…Jameer is better than I thought, but just can’t match Rondo. I’m used to him getting to the rim by now. What impresses me is his hounding defense. I would hate to bring the ball up on him. Jameer is gassed and filled with anxiety by the time he gets an opening.
Ray and KG…step it up on offense fellas. KG won’t have a big series offensively. He can’t jump and is unable to get off with Howard there. His defense on Lewis is textbook in terms of ball denial and close outs. Lewis can’t get even get the ball (although he doesn’t work to get it). When he does, KG closes out with a hand in his face and the other in the dribbling lanes. What Lewis doesn’t know is that he can blow by Garnett every time if he would just dribble. We’ll just make that our little secret. JJ outplayed Ray Ray. Let’s correct that back in Boston Ray.

Ummmm, was Pierce inspired by Kobe? He sure is ugly when he does it, but he took over. After that bytch foul by Pietrus and Howard, I’m surprised he didn’t pull a Nash and play with one eye.

Howard was a beast. Perkins had a bad game. I doubt he has another game over 20 points. I could be wrong.


Subtle keys to game 3:
-Vince will have to control himself from flailing about on the ground and pretending he injured his wrist. WTF was that? The strangest incident EVER. All is did was piss the refs off.
-KG will have to at least attempt to leave the ground on his half-dunks…
-JJ Reject will have to study tape of Chris Webber to understand his timeout blunder was just as dumb.
-The entire Magic team needs to chill out. They were in panic mode at the end. Vince Carter had his hands up in the air crying over who knows what. Jameer was standing there freaking out. JJ Retard was dribbling in Corey Brewer mode. Rashard Lewis was doing what he has the entire series and Howard was busy recording interviews with himself.
-Baby and Sheed must instigate a fist fight with Howard. I doubt ANYONE on that soft team steps up to help him. It would be hilarious to see Pierce, KG, Baby, TA, and Sheed all jump in to destroy Howard. He’s so big I bet he could take half of them out before Rasheed goes in for the Ric Flair…
-BTW, way to sign Brandon Bass Magic. He’s been playing well so far….

That was excellent. Vince has probably the worst body language among elite players in the league. He could honestly complete with Jay Cutler. He looked like it was a blowout and he couldn't wait to hit the showers with 10 minutes left in the 4th and down by 7.

Great point on Nash. He's been paired with All-NBA caliber PF's and consistently good role players for his entire career. It is interesting that Nash and Dirk were very criticized but as soon as he was on his own with the Suns it has been a free pass.

This is awesome Daddy. These game posts of yours are better than any game story/article you can read in a newspaper these days. What a dying industry they are. But that's another discussion for another day. I digress.

I've very publicly hated on Nash ever since he won his first MVP award. He's so overrated, and gets such a free pass... it's sickening. It also pisses me off how everyone proclaims his greatness, yet he plays NO DEFENSE and, quite frankly, never has. He's the worst multiple MVP winner in the history of the league, and always will be.

Vince sucks. What a donkey.

Go Celtics! I am loving how they are putting it to the Magic. I didn't expect this, to be honest.

Brandon Bass... hahaha wow. Nice signing. They are paying Gortat and Bass like a combined $10 million per year. What a waste.

Nash = white
AI = black

Sometimes it really is just as simple as that.

roundhouse wrote:
Haha, yep!

I was gonna comment about that, but forgot.