Hawks Lose In Game 5. We Never Had A Chance.

Well, I guess we'll have to win it in 7.

Here's a quote by Lang Whitaker from his Game 2 blog on Slamonline:

"Joe Johnson picks up 2 quick fouls and comes out of the game. Our chances to win leave with him."

The same thing applies to Game 5. I knew we were in a wee bit of trouble when I saw Dick Bavetta and Joe Forte. Nothing good could come of that.

Either way, we got beat pretty handily. It's amazing the difference home court is making in this series. Hopefully we'll keep up our end of the bargain and win Game 6 so we can go back to that wretched city that is Boston.

Congrats KD.

Unfortunately it wasn't meant to be...

Random Playoff Thoughts

The Suns and Mavs are "Gone Fisin". They gambled on two Hall of Fame players who were 2 or 3 years past their prime and they lost. Oh well.
Steve Nash said on paper the Suns were the better team. I don't know where the hell the Suns are getting their information from, but stop it. I'd take the big three from San Antone any day over any team's best three.
Remember that little skirmish I told you about yesterday between KG and ZA ZA? Well, no one is going to be suspended. I'm sure Suns fans are too pissed about that.
The Rockets beat the Jazz tonight, so they are headed back to Utah for game 6. I'm so pulling for T-Mac.
Detroit beat the Sixers to take a 3-2 series lead. Mo Cheeks said they'd be back in Detroit for game 7 and dammit I believe him......
Looking ahead to tomorrow.....
Everyone seems to think its so obvious that Boston will win this series. Of course, I disagree. I think we'll win in Boston tomorrow and come back to the Highlight Factory to close this thing out in Game six.

Hawks Win Game Four!!

Yep, the series is now tied at 2 games a piece. Philips Arena was CRAZY tonight!!! David Stern was even in the building to take in this great win as well!

This, just like Game 3 was not a fluke win. The Hawks won this game and the Celtics were trying hard as hell, don't believe anything different. They came out swinging in the first quarter! They had us down by 13 just minutes into the game, but we took that shot and remained on our feet.

Going into the fourth quarter we were down 10, then the Joe Johnson show began. He was Kobe-esque tonight! He even had one of those playoff moments that will stay with him forever. He crossed Leon Powe, made him fall, then set his feet, stared at the rim for what felt like 20 seconds while everyone just stood there and watched, then he drained a 3. (sorry for the run on, but I warned you about my tendency to use them) Anyway. He scored 20 points in the fourth quarter and Josh scored our other 12 fourth quarter points. They were fantastic!

I watched most of the second half of the game beside Josh Smith's bro. He's a good dude, very funny and very much into his brother. I love it!

Paul Pierce almost had those 40 points everyone in the media and Boston promised us he'd have. He was just 22 short.

Al didn't have a great offensive game, but he did have 13 rebounds.

Believe it or not ZA ZA Pachulia set the tone for this win tonight. About midway through the 2nd quarter KG elbowed him and ZA ZA ran up in his face and put his forehead against KG's forehead and let him know that it was not going to go down like that! We aint scared of the stinkin Celtics, and it's high time they realize that!

Game 5 is in Boston, and if we win things really get interesting! We're still playing with house money, and if we can manage to score in Boston (something we didn't do in the first two games) then we can get this thing back to the Highlight Factory with a chance to end it.

The Lakers finished off the Nuggets tonight. Poor AI, he deserves better.

The Magic finished off the Raptors. If you don't live in Orlando or Toronto then you probably didn't see it. Why wouldn't they just put the game on ESPN? I know the league doesn't want to compete against itself, but there are a lot of people who don't have NBATV and it's unfair that they didn't get the chance to watch the Magic/ Raptors series. Who am I kidding? No one outside of Orlando or Toronto cared about that series, but it still should have been more accessible to the fans.

Yankees won.

After an 0-6 start, the San Francisco Giants have sent Barry Zito and his $126 million contract to the bullpen. It serves them right for trying to act like the Barry Bonds era never happened.

Hawks Win Game Three!

Finally! The Hawks put the smackdown on Boston tonight in the Highlight Factory. They came out and played like a team that's actually seen a basketball before and played with it together. The first couple of games in Boston they looked like a team who had just met about 15 minutes prior to tip-off.

Josh Smith had a fantastic evening! 27 points, 9 rebs, 6 assists, 2 stls, 1 block and 1 monster dunk over Ray Allen. All in a day's work.

Joe had 23 points, 7 rebs and 6 assitst.

Al had 17 points, 14 rebs and 6 assists. He was fantastic. He also buried a jumper over Paul Pierce late in the game and he had a few choice words for him. I LOVE IT! They've been trying to intimidate Al this whole series and he's yet to back down! I'm sure his reaction wasn't unprovoked because I've been watching the little things the Celtics players have been doing to him. Of course everyone thinks Al is being disrespectful, but I LOVE IT!! Who the hell are the Celtics supposed to be, the Spurs? Has Paul Pierce suddenly become Ginobili? Has KG morphed into Tim Duncan all of a sudden? They haven't done anything yet, but everyone expects the Hawks to throw roses at their feet and just bow down to them. You have to earn respect and until they give our players a little we shouldn't give them any! WE don't give a damn that they won 29 more games than us. They've been talking shit so we gotta talk shit back!

If it was KG they'd just call it intensity.

Either way, if the Hawks play Monday the way they played tonight then we should go back to Boston with this series tied.

Suns Are In Trouble!

I don't like to jump to conclusions, but the Suns are done! Barring a Yankee-esque 2004 collapse, (It hurts me to type that) The Spurs will advance to the second round having barely broken a sweat. The Suns still haven't figured out how to stop Tony Parker, Timmy or Gino. You would think they would have concocted a plan by now, I mean they've only had 2 years to figure it out. Tony lit them up for 41 points and 12 assists tonight. They kept him out the lane which was their game plan, but I have to assume they didn't plan on him hitting those mid range jumpers at the rate in which he hit them. Mike D'Antoni has said several times recently that they are the better team. Well, they have a funny way of showing it.

Steve Nash played like shit, but I bet you won't hear about it. If his name was Tracy McGrady.....
All of a sudden that Shawn Marion for Shaquille O'Neal trade is not looking so good. Steve Kerr will be back beside Marv before long.

I'm all for anything that will get Reggie Miller out of there!

I mean, you could make the argument that the Suns weren't going to beat the Spurs as they were constructed before the trade, but they were a hell of a lot closer than they are now. It's not like they were getting a player in Shaq whose salary was going to come off the books next year. They still owe him $40 million after this season! There's no way they're going to get him off their hands because Isiah no longer has power in New York. I picked the Spurs to beat them in 6 games, but it looks like I gave them way too much credit.

Detroit is in trouble. The Sixers took game one in the Palace, got blown out in game two, rebounded in game three and now have a 2-1 lead over the most overconfident team in this era. People are not giving the Sixers any credit for controlling this series, but its just as much about them as it is about the Pistons and their lack of effort. I knew Philly wouldn't be an easy out, but I didn't think the Pistons could actually lose this series. Now, I'm not so sure.

The Mavs beat the Hornets in Dallas for the 92nd straight time. I think the Hornets will win the next two. Josh Howard is not the smartest person in the world. I know he says he doesn't partake in such things during the season, but I have to assume he was high when he admitted using marijuana and implicated everyone else in the Association on ESPN radio.

Finally, my Atlanta Hawks will beat the Celtics tomorrow in the Highlight Factory. We will.

Things I Thought While Watching The Hawks Lose Game Two.

1st half

Boston's fair weather fans do not heart Bibby.
Paul Pierce got smushed by Josh Smith, I hope he's okay.
Joe has two fouls, not a good situation. We may not see him again until Saturday.
Al has two fouls, see sentence above.
Rajon is still balling.
Acie Law can get to the rim easily. If only he could protect the ball a wee bit better.
Mike, Acie and Joe all on the floor at the same time. Wow.
Too many turnovers.
Ray Allen is really good. Bibby is still struggling and the crowd is committed to harassing him. There's not a lot of, how shall I say.....diversity in the Boston crowd. Hope Bibby gets out of there in one piece.
Joe probably should not end up guarding Kendrick Perkins on any occasion. Ever.
I thought the starters couldn't play any worse than they did in game one, but damn are they out to prove me wrong.

2nd half
Bibby is still struggling.
We cannot out execute the Celtics, we have to find a way to speed up the game while maintaining control.
The game is getting out of control.
We still haven't figured out how to get Joe easy shots. Mike Woodson, meet "the screen". Players, please familiarize yourselves with the concept of moving without the ball before Saturday.
Ray Allen is really good.
Flip over to ESPN to check on the Yankees game. 6-1 Yankees in the top of the 6th inning. Yes, I'm a multi-tasker.
When other players on the Celtics team (Kendrick Perkins) have the Kevin Garnett scowl it seems contrived. It is contrived.
Doesn't take much to get a flagrant foul in these here playoffs.
I expected so much more from Bibby.
KG just pulled his shirt over so we could see his heart, and since he's slim as hell I could see the imprint of it. I really could, I'm not making this up.
I'd like us to lose by less than 20.
Dick Stockton has called Al Tito at least 3 times.
Wow, we shot 40 free throws!
We only lost by 19. Thanks guys.

The good news is that the next two games are in Atlanta. The bad news is we likely will not have learned not to give up on offensive sets if the first option isn't there.
I'll say this again, they cannot possibly keep playing this poorly. They can't. They just can't.

Wow Mike. Al, I'm So Disappointed.

So Mike Bibby is unimpressed by the Boston Fans.

"They were kind of loud at the beginning," he said. "But a lot of these fans are bandwagon jumpers trying to get on this now. I played here last year, too. And I didn't see three fourths of them. They're for the team now and they might get a little rowdy but that's about it."

"I remember them having bags on their heads [last year]. It's a different look. I guess that's what happens when you win."

Kendrick Perkins took exception to this as you might imagine.

Coming off a 2-for-10 shooting performance, you expect a guy to say something like that," Kendrick Perkins said. "We have the best fans in the world, but we don't expect other players to like our fans." "It's about time," he said. "It takes us going down there to pack their building out."

KG didn't much like it, but he didn't wild out about it.

"That's Mike Bibby speaking his mind. I wouldn't say it's the smartest comment, but that's Mike Bibby," Garnett said. "I'm not going to get into any comments going back and forth. If I was in my younger days, I probably would have said something, but I learned that you let your play do your talking."

Now, Mike we all know that these same die hard fans weren't there last season, but we needn't bring it up now. Howeva, I appreciate the honesty.

Kendrick, don't think your Celtics are special. Kobe, LeBron, AI, Detroit and New York bring more people to Philips Arena. Ha! And if we're being honest Boston hasn't filled up Philips the past few years. It just happened this year when they got good. The other people/teams I named consistently fill up Philips. In your face sucker!

And Al, I cannot BELIEVE you had dinner with the enemy!!!

Rookie center Al Horford is finding the hospitality much to his liking in Boston.
He ate dinner Monday night at the home of Red Sox All-Star and fellow Dominican-born pro athlete David Ortiz.
Horford, who was accompanied by two Hawks' staffers, was invited to join Ortiz and several of his Red Sox teammates for a monthly dinner at Ortiz's suburban Boston home.
"It was definitely a good time," Horford said. "A real good time."

I don't know how I feel about you anymore!

Who Blinks First?

Apparrently the Bengals are serious about not trading Chad Johnson.

"I've stated our case with Chad," Lewis said. "He has a contract through 2011. He's stated without an opportunity to go to a different team and a new contract, he wasn't going to play. I think he's a man of his word and says he's not going to play, so don't play."

I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand I think players should do whatever it takes to make sure they're financially set. I mean, the NFL contracts are not guaranteed and if they can cut them without notice then they should try to get all they can while they can.

Howeva, I have to applaud the Bengals for sticking to their guns. If I owned a team I'd probably be a real bitch about things. I can't see myself letting an employee talk all reckless to me! Some of these players are getting a little too big for their breeches! If you were a millionaire literally paying someone millions of dollars you'd feel a little bit differently about things. At least I assume you would. These owners make a lot of money off these players and they only give them a small fraction of it. But, it's no different than any other company. No one makes near the amount of money they generate or manage for their employers. You know it's true. For whatever reason we're only offended about athletes being underpaid. Honestly, it's hard for me to feel bad for someone who can't budget millions of dollars. I'm all for them getting money, but I tune them out when they start bitching about being underpaid. That shit annoys me! It will be interesting to see how long the Bengals keep it up. History has shown us most teams fold by either giving the player their money or trading them.

Things I Thought While Watching The Hawks Lose Game One.

1st half

Celtics came out swinging!
Pierce is on fire.
We took their first round of blows, but we got back up.
We wanted Rajon Rondo to prove he could shoot, and he did.
Everyone not named Al Horford played like sh*t!
Cassell came off the bench balling again. See game tape from April 12.
Down 9 at the half.

2nd half
Bibby still struggling. I still heart him anyway, but I expected more.
Joe is trying, but it's not working.
Ray Allen found his groove.
KG is really intense/possibly insane.
Woody looks just as clueless as ever.
Josh Smith is not playing like a free agent.
Our starters cannot possibly play any worse.
We cannot win if Al is our best player.
Al is gorgeous!

I expected us to lose this game so I'm not going to go on a profanity laced tirade. I knew Boston would be crunk as hell for this game. Hopefully we'll be over it before game two. We have about 2 weeks until game two so hopefully Woody will be able to make the necessary adjustments. Not that he's made adjustments in any of the games prior to the playoffs, but I'm totally going to keep my fingers crossed.

By the way, the Sixers upset the Pistons. The Lakers and Magic also won.
The Nuggets team bus caught on fire on the way to the game. That darn Mitch will do anything to win! (wink)
Word on the street is Phil Jackson rode by and saw them, but he didn't stop. If that's true, it's funny. Not that he could have done anything anyway...... I doubt Phil drives a bus to the Staples Center, but I could be wrong.

Suns/Spurs: It's Gonna Be Haaard To Top This One!

The Suns/Spurs game one definitely lived up to the hype!

I don't like that the pundits are already bitching about Phoenix's foul trouble. If you listened to them you'd never know the reigning Final's MVP who also happens to be one of the Spurs best players fouled out.
Do they not think Tony Parker is as important to the Spurs as Amare is to the Suns? If they don't then they're wrong. Dead wrong. Tony is damn near untenable. He gets to the rim with ease on anybody, and when he only has a statue like Steve Nash standing in his way, it makes it that much easier for him to get to the rim. He knows this, which is why he's constantly attacking them. When you lose your starting point guard, who happens to be the reigning Finals MVP you're at a slight disadvantage whether the analysts want to acknowledge this or not. Rest assured the Suns are bout to start whining again because it's never their fault when they lose. It's always everyone conspiring against them. Nevermind the fact that they blew a 16 point lead and left Shaq on the floor when he was CLEARLY a defensive liability. He was playing with five fouls and everyone on the Spurs knew this so they went right at him and all he could do was move out the way. Why the hell would you have him on the floor if he's not even going to attempt to play defense?? I know I'm not a coach, but from where I'm sitting that makes absolutely no sense.
Yeah, his presence is normally a big help defensively, but not when he's trying to avoid fouling out. In my opinion, this played right into the Spurs hands. They knew they could get uncontested layups. For all of the coaching errors D'Antoni made, leaving Shaq in there to watch Ginobili blow right by him was one of the biggest.

BTW, Cleveland and New Orleans won. The Jazz/Rockets game is still going on so I have no final for that one yet. I'm outta here!
I hope the Spurs sweep em!

Max, please bring the Yankees some steroids!

So this "Max" character Jose Canseco has been rambling on about has supposedly finally been revealed.

If what he's saying is true:

In a Miami-area restaurant on Tuesday night, trainer Joseph Dion read the passage in front of two SI reporters and instantly identified Max.
"That's gotta be me," Dion said.
Dion said that Canseco is partially accurate in his portrayal of Max. Yes, Dion is a Canadian-born trainer who knew Canseco during his Toronto Blue Jays days. And it's true that Dion moved back to Miami, where he was raised, and was introduced to Rodriguez by Canseco in the late '90s. Dion said he worked with Rodriguez for four years when the current Yankee played for the Seattle Mariners.
But Dion adamantly denies Canseco's written account of Max as a "fan of steroids" who began working with Rodriguez specifically to juice the young phenom's body with illicit performance-enhancing drugs.
"That's really, really funny because I am the one person that hates steroids," Dion said. "I'm against it 100 percent. And, A-Rod, at the time that I trained him -- and this I swear to God -- was 100 percent against steroids. He was one of the hardest working guys, and most natural guy, that I've met in my life. He hated steroids. We talked about it."

then maybe Alex is/was clean. Or at the very least it may confirm that Jose Canseco is just throwing names out there. He admitted that he didn't know for sure, but it is his opinion that Alex used steroids.

You know I kind of find it strange that Jose knows about everyone's steroids use. They almost act like if a guy is or was on steroids Jose would know about it. Is he the only player who had steroid connects?

I don't know if this story is true, but I want the Max that Jose was talking about to pop up and give the Yankees pitchers a fresh dose of steroids! I really do, because they are struggling right now! I wouldn't mind if he shot Alex up as well. If we can't depend on Alex in April then when can we depend on him?? We know October is out of the question, but we've always assumed he was Mr. April.

I know Phil Hughes (Mr. we're not including him in a deal for Johan Santana) is young, but dammit his era is 9.00 and he's 0-3!!!! You mean to tell me this kid was untouchable!! GTFOH!

He really did it

He really shaved his head! Woody said he would do it if the Hawks made the playoffs and he kept his word. He doesn't look as bad as I thought he would. Hopefully Mike Bibby will do the same!

Playoff Predictions

Since everyone else is doing it, I might as well do it too.

First Round playoff predictions:

Boston/Atlanta=Atlanta is my team and there's no way I'm picking against them! 6 games.

Detroit/Philly=Detroit should win this series in about 6 games.

Orlando/Toronto=Orlando should win this series in 5 games.

Cleveland/Washington=Cleveland is not playing well, but LeBron is capable of winning a playoff series by himself and all the trash talking by Gil and DeShawn should be motivation enough for him to take care of the Wizards in 6 games.

Los Angeles/Denver=Los Angeles in 5.

New Orleans/Dallas Mavericks=New Orleans should be motivated since Dirk really wanted to play them. They will make him regret that wish in 6 games.

San Antonio/Phoenix=San Antonio has been chilling for the past few weeks, but they'll turn it on just enough to beat the Suns in 6 games.

Utah/Houston=Houston is going to get out of the first round finally! I know I'm the only person outside of Houston who believes this and that's fine. Houston in 7.

Hawks Are In!

The 2007-2008 Atlanta Hawks are in the playoffs! You can read my thoughts on this at The Starting Five.

Hawks in 6! Yep, I said it!

Hawks Lose.

I am so disappointed in the Hawks for that half assed effort they came out with tonight. In fairness to them, Indiana was on fire for most of the game, but still.
If they had won tonight they would have eliminated Indiana and all but wrapped up a playoff spot, but noooooooooo they didn't do that! The only persons who came to play tonight were the Josh's and Joe and unfortunately that was not enough to get it done.
Now, if we finish with the same record as Indiana they own the tiebreaker. I fully expect us to get in and if we don't there will not be enough room for the profanity laced tirade that I will most certainly go on.

Yankees lost to the Royals, and Posada has "dead arm" to go with Jeter's dead leg. I really hope this last season in Yankees stadium is not disastrous.

Kobe For MVP, Never

I was going to write a long post about how Kobe won't win the MVP because the voters hate him, but Scoop Jackson already took care of it. There's really nothing else I can add to it.

Oh yeah, for the record I'm picking Stanford to upset Tennessee in the women's championship game tonight. Take that Rico!

Update: I was wrong about the Stanford upset.....

Kansas Wins! Poor Memphis.

Wow, the poor free throw shooting really did come back to haunt Memphis. CDR owned up to it in the press conference and took it like a man. When asked about the free throws he said, "I missed em". He kinda had that gotta to laugh to keep from crying moment going on and he and Derrick Rose shared a little smirk. Good times! That was one of the best title games ever! There were a couple of those shots that someone makes and you think to yourself there's no way they're losing. I first thought that about the Derrick Rose bank shot that they reviewed 800 different times before finally ruling it was a 2. Then I had the thought once again when Chalmers hit that 3 to send the game into over time. Obviously.

I placed in the top 10 in the Slamonline Bracket. I'm fine with moral victories!

Random Stuff

Hawks won.
Yankees lost, ugh.
Memphis beat UCLA handily.
Kansas beat the hell out of UNC.

I'm actually quite pleased that the Final Four games were both blowouts. Everyone was so convinced that both of the games were going to be great since they featured all #1 seeds. I knew something like this would happen because everyone's expectations were just way too high. I'm pulling for Memphis even though I picked Kansas in my bracket.
I don't know what the poor media is going to do with themselves now that Kevin Love and Tyler Hansbrough are both gone.

Yanks suck right now.

Yankees lost 13-4 to the Rays. Really Ian Kennedy?

Hawks lost to the 76ers tonight. I still heart Mike Bibby after the atrocious night he had. Although atrocious doesn't accurately describe the shooting night he had. It was worse than that. We'll get em tomorrow hopefully!

I Heart Bibby!!!!!!

I totally heart Mike Bibby the Atlanta Hawk. I wrote this in Score the week we made the trade. I'll highlight the important parts.

"The Atlanta Hawks starting lineup will now consist of: Josh Smith, Joe Johnson, Al Horford, Marvin Williams, and Mike Bibby. Our beloved Hawks just made a trade for a legit veteran point guard. I’m not saying that AJ, Lue and Craig (I refuse to call him Speedy, you should know why) aren’t legit, but they fall more into the veteran category than the legit category. The Hawks just got better on paper and in real life. There will no longer be a debate about which point guard should be in the game during those crucial fourth quarter moments. While Bibby is not quite the player he used to be, he’s still an upgrade over every point guard the Hawks have had recently. We should finally get to see that running team, we’ve heard so much about. The notion of them being a running team is more of an urban legend like the Loch Ness Monster, than a realistic assessment of the team’s offense. Considering Bibby has played in an up-tempo offense for most of his career, he’s quite capable of showing this team how to do so effectively. The Hawks are barely out of the playoff picture, but with the addition of Bibby they should be able to secure a spot".

Bibby came up BIG in one of those crucial fourth quarter moments I was talking about tonight against the Dinosaurs b.k.a the Toronto Raptors. He hit a 3 to send the game into OT (that shot and our time-keepers happy fingers) and from there it was the Josh Smith show. He hit 2 big 3 pointers himself. When he was winding up to take the first one, naturally I cringed, but he hit it. Then as he was fading away taking the second one, it seemed so natural, almost Kobe-esque.

I feel so much better about this team in late game situations now that they have a point guard who won't panic and who is accustomed to taking big shots. I really do heart Mike Bibby!

The Dinosaurs are protesting this win, and they'll likely win said protest, but tonight we still have the win and I'll take it!

With the win tonight the Hawks took a four game lead over the Pacers for the 8th playoff spot. When I find out who they play in the first round, I will go into great detail about how and why the Hawks will win. I wouldn't care if they were playing the 96 Bulls. I'm still going to tell you they will win. Stay Tuned.

By the way, the Yankees lost. Sigh.