The View from the Couch - by Gavin McDougald!
April 18, 2007 - Survive and Thrive
The NBA playoffs begin on Saturday so the season long Greg Oden/Kevin Durant Tank-a-Thon Sweepstakes in Memphis and Boston will finally mercifully come to an end. For those 16 teams who have actually been playing this season, now the real fun begins.
And, lucky us, we get to see some series that are truly worthy of our attention right off the bat. Usually the way the NBA shakes down in the first round is the best series is between the forth and fifth seeds ? and that?s about it. The rest of the match-ups are usually too predictable in their outcome to schedule your life around.
This year however, due to quirks in the seeding due to injury, if all goes as it should the defending NBA champion Heat will go up against the Cavaliers. That puts rejuvenated Shaquille O?Neal and the recently returned Dwyane Wade against league poster-boy LeBron James. I wonder which series ABC is gonna highlight?
Kobe has been nothing short of Jordan-ian in getting the Lakers to the Promised Land on the last weekend of the season. Now LA gets to take on the Dallas Mavericks. Makes you wonder why he tried so hard? Probably didn?t want to see Jack Nicholson have a stroke.
There is the return of ?Vinceanity? to Toronto. Vince Carter was supposed to be the savior for the struggling Raptors in the great white north. However, he proved to be too much of a ?me me? guy for Canadian sensibilities. Seen as being a bit of a wimp by the hockey lovin? locals he soured of the city and the team he was shipped off to New Jersey three years ago for a bag of tape. Now he returns as the underdog after almost single handedly getting the Nets into the playoffs.
Sam Mitchell, the coach of the Raptors was asked in an interview Wednesday morning ?what was the difference between the regular season and the playoffs?? and his response was ?nothing.?
Then he went on for about five minutes talking about the increase in intensity, how players have to elevate their own play, how the officiating becomes more crucial and more care has to be taken with clock management, playing time and strategy.
Besides that it?s exactly the same. However, that?s the message he must convey to his players, and in particular his best player Chris Bosh, so his neophytes to the post-season don?t choke it up against Vince in the first round.
That is one of the keys to post-season success: Experience. Almost invariably you have to have been-there-done-that to do well.
The other key is health. The playoffs are not a sprint but a marathon, and you need all parts chugging along at the end to win. It?s the middle of April right now and these suckers won?t be over until nearly the end of June.
Going in health-wise there is no team worse off than Washington, losing their two best players within a week of one another. Once a scary prospect as a first-round opponent with Caron Butler and Gilbert Arenas leading the attack, now they are reduced to a first-round doormat. Whoever gets them has an easier road in the east than any other team.
The rest of the teams remaining, regardless of how high there hopes are now, they are one tweaked knee of shoulder away from Wizardsville. If Dirk goes down Dallas is dead. No Nash and Phoenix is finished.
The chances of the elite teams in the NBA, which are all in the west, being stretched out to seven games and having key players injured are far greater than in the lesser east.
Back in November I picked Dallas to lose to Detroit in the NBA finals. After watching for an entire season I see no reason to change my mind. The Pistons will have an easier route through to the finals where as whoever comes out of the west, be it Phoenix, San Antonio or Dallas, they will have a much tougher road each and every round.
The east is least but in 2007 they will be best, again.
Cheers and enjoy the playoffs! - Gavin McDougald - AKA Couch
Wager on 2007 NBA Playoffs now!
April 18, 2007 - Survive and Thrive
The NBA playoffs begin on Saturday so the season long Greg Oden/Kevin Durant Tank-a-Thon Sweepstakes in Memphis and Boston will finally mercifully come to an end. For those 16 teams who have actually been playing this season, now the real fun begins.
And, lucky us, we get to see some series that are truly worthy of our attention right off the bat. Usually the way the NBA shakes down in the first round is the best series is between the forth and fifth seeds ? and that?s about it. The rest of the match-ups are usually too predictable in their outcome to schedule your life around.
This year however, due to quirks in the seeding due to injury, if all goes as it should the defending NBA champion Heat will go up against the Cavaliers. That puts rejuvenated Shaquille O?Neal and the recently returned Dwyane Wade against league poster-boy LeBron James. I wonder which series ABC is gonna highlight?
Kobe has been nothing short of Jordan-ian in getting the Lakers to the Promised Land on the last weekend of the season. Now LA gets to take on the Dallas Mavericks. Makes you wonder why he tried so hard? Probably didn?t want to see Jack Nicholson have a stroke.
There is the return of ?Vinceanity? to Toronto. Vince Carter was supposed to be the savior for the struggling Raptors in the great white north. However, he proved to be too much of a ?me me? guy for Canadian sensibilities. Seen as being a bit of a wimp by the hockey lovin? locals he soured of the city and the team he was shipped off to New Jersey three years ago for a bag of tape. Now he returns as the underdog after almost single handedly getting the Nets into the playoffs.
Sam Mitchell, the coach of the Raptors was asked in an interview Wednesday morning ?what was the difference between the regular season and the playoffs?? and his response was ?nothing.?
Then he went on for about five minutes talking about the increase in intensity, how players have to elevate their own play, how the officiating becomes more crucial and more care has to be taken with clock management, playing time and strategy.
Besides that it?s exactly the same. However, that?s the message he must convey to his players, and in particular his best player Chris Bosh, so his neophytes to the post-season don?t choke it up against Vince in the first round.
That is one of the keys to post-season success: Experience. Almost invariably you have to have been-there-done-that to do well.
The other key is health. The playoffs are not a sprint but a marathon, and you need all parts chugging along at the end to win. It?s the middle of April right now and these suckers won?t be over until nearly the end of June.
Going in health-wise there is no team worse off than Washington, losing their two best players within a week of one another. Once a scary prospect as a first-round opponent with Caron Butler and Gilbert Arenas leading the attack, now they are reduced to a first-round doormat. Whoever gets them has an easier road in the east than any other team.
The rest of the teams remaining, regardless of how high there hopes are now, they are one tweaked knee of shoulder away from Wizardsville. If Dirk goes down Dallas is dead. No Nash and Phoenix is finished.
The chances of the elite teams in the NBA, which are all in the west, being stretched out to seven games and having key players injured are far greater than in the lesser east.
Back in November I picked Dallas to lose to Detroit in the NBA finals. After watching for an entire season I see no reason to change my mind. The Pistons will have an easier route through to the finals where as whoever comes out of the west, be it Phoenix, San Antonio or Dallas, they will have a much tougher road each and every round.
The east is least but in 2007 they will be best, again.
Cheers and enjoy the playoffs! - Gavin McDougald - AKA Couch
Wager on 2007 NBA Playoffs now!
