Doug Collins is an idiot

This thread is the gift that keeps on giving:) :tro:

What exactly is wrong about what I said? They won and played well but they hardly cruised through the field like you were implying. They did beat Houston, denver did beat them a few times, Bynum didnt do much, the good players played well, and the Celtics know what I said was correct as they are trying to make a big move again this offseason. Seems like most of what I said was right. As usual.

Ariza still a bum?

Of course I dont.
That Spurs team played much better defense
than any of the teams we have seen the past 2years.
Not even close.

The Spurs boring teams are easy to pick on.
They just won games almost every fourth quarter
by playing superior help D. That D is now very old,
very slow, and the Spurs are very bad.

no he is pretty good. Surely steroids are to blame for his improvement.

The Knicks are very bad. The Spurs are just old.

LOL, alright i think this dead horse has been adequately beaten. On to the next topic.

It could be argued that that team was given a ride into the championship game after the fight with Phoenix. The cleveland team they beat was about the worst championship finalist ever.

That spurs team would have gotten beaten by this laker team in my opinion.

honestly if he was a baseball player dont you think someone would have written a story questioning how a guy who was a horrific three point shooter suddenly becomes Steve Kerr from behind the line? Not that steroids have anything to do with it and it isnt like baseball doesnt have its issues but it is interesting how different sports are covered.

If I said that LeBron james or Kobe bryant or Randy Moss or Ladainan Tomlison would dominate thier sports in the late 50's or early 60's no one would disagree. But if I said that Albert Pujols would be the best righthanded hitter in baseball in the same timeframe virtually everyone would disagree.

I used to go watch Mario Elie play for the Patroons in the CBA (coached by George Karl at the time). Guy was a heck of a player but couldn't hit an outside shot which was why he wasn't in the NBA. Suddenly it clicks and the guy made a pretty good NBA career mainly as an outside shooter. More recently the Patroons had Jamario Moon. His first year there it was a running joke between me and my friends of how poor of a defender he was. His second year he won Defensive Player of the Year and was onto the NBA where he's primarily a defensive stopper. Weird how it just clicks for guys in basketball.

The Spurs beat a bad Knicks team in 99,
a bad NJ team in 03, a decent Detroit team in 05,
a bad Cleveland team in 07. The Spurs have never
beaten a good team in any playoff.

We are not on the West or East coast, we cant be good.

Mario Elie fit perfectly with the Spurs defensively.
That guy knew the Defense better than Popovich.

before Isiah killed the CBA

The spurs have been the most consistently good team in the NBA over the course of the last 15-20 years. The team that lost to the Lakers in 04 should have won the title. In those years the spurs made it to the title round, getting past the western conference final was really the championship. They beat some tough teams those years.

07 was a funky year and the stars aligned. Golden State took care of the topseeded Mavs that year and then there was the controversial fight with Phoenix. I dont think anyone in their right mind would tell you that San Antonio was the best team in the west in 2007. It was a very weak year and in the east it was even weaker which resulted in the worst finals in recent memory...in my opnion.

He has an amazing track record.

People said the same thing about all of those playoffs
that I mentioned. Everyone of them. When they beat NY
in the shortened season, Phil Jackson said put an * next
to that championship.

The series with Detroit was a disappointment ratings wise
so the teams were both obviously bad. You have to beat
a good LA team or a good Boston team to be considered
legitimate champions.

Conclusion:
The Spurs got lucky every year, one way or another.
Just not flashy enough. That does not work in this NBA.

Oh I think the whole "our team doesnt get the credit it deserves" thing is pretty bunk. San Antonio got a ton of respect those years. In 05, they were favored all year long in the future books to win the title and the pistons were the defending champs. The spurs could play any tempo and win...kind of like this laker team and most good championship teams. Its just the 07 team just happened to be the weakest championship of the dynasty and to me the weakest in my lifetime. It doesnt take away from the accomplishments of the other teams and that team certainly can't be criticized for winning a title. Either way, that team has nothing to do with any of their other teams.

So you think the Spurs on the West coast or East
Coast would be treated the same...
I say no way.

Duncan would be a God in Boston.

Last night they crew on ABC/ESPN went
through the best big men in the past 3 years.
Garnett, Gasol, Shaq and Howard.

No mention of Duncan.
Obviously the votes
for all star donts see it like this nor do the coaches.

Sure, its all bunk.

beating Cleveland in '07 is the same as beating NJIT pretty much. I'm surprised the record books acknowledge that year even took place.

(Duncan has never put stickers on backboards in slam dunk contests. how good could he be??)

New Jersey was worse than Cleveland imo.
But they won two games in the series. 1pt and 2pts.
The 4th quarter of the last game of the series
I believed showed the true Nets. 19-0 zip Spurs run
when it was close. NJ just folded.

I dont think with Duncan it has so much to do with geography as much as style. I love him but he is BORING. His nickname is "the big fundamental". How boring is that? There is nothing exciting about his game. He is simply great and for my money will go down as the best power forward of all time.

As for ABC/ESPN, i think they meant centers. All the guys named were centers.

Give Duncan Turkeyglue and Lewis and he Magically becomes a center.
Give Duncan Scola and Battier and he Rockets to the center position.
I think its a fairly silly designation as I have stated before.

Although the Spurs used it to get him starting in the Allstar game
because Yao got the most votes. (I personally dont give a flying flip
about the NBA allstar game, its an act of masturbation for the players)

And here we go again.
From ESPN; that is E as in EASTERN...

They had the second-best player in the league (Kobe), the second-best center (Pau Gasol), a talented forward with a unique set of skills (Lamar Odom), a breakout swingman (Trevor Ariza), a terrific leader and character guy at point (Derek Fisher), and that's about it. They caught three breaks from February on -- Kevin Garnett's knee injury killing Boston's season, Cleveland stupidly opting not to move Wally Szczerbiak's expiring contract for one more piece, and Yao Ming breaking his foot in Round 2 -- and cruised from there. You would not call them great, just very good. I would compare them to the 2003 Spurs, 2005 Spurs -- the cream of a flawed crop of contenders.


Dala you have the 2007 Spurs.
Phil has the 1999 Spurs.

No respect for one of the best team franchises in the history
of modern sports.

I have to say you win here. To say the 2005 Spurs were flawed is simply a bad opinion. To me, they were the basketball version of the patriots.

Simmons has lived in LA for the past several years.

Same difference.
East or West as previously posted.

Just not the middle of the country.
No good teams in the middle.

the greatest sports thread of all time!

Late

First round
Chicago in 5
Miami in 4
Boston in 6
Orlando in 7
SA in 6
LA in 4
Dallas in 6
OKC in 5

Second round
Orlando over Chicago in 7
Miami over Boston in 6
OKC over SA in 6
LA over Dallas in 7

CF
Miami over Chicago in 5
LA over OKC in 7

Finals
LA over Miami in 6

That was what I had prior to the playoffs starting. After round one, I picked
Atlanta over Chicago in 6. I just don't think Chicago is that good. To me, they were outplayed in the first four games by Indiana and Atlanta is a much better team than Indiana and is on a high with their confidence right now. They have too much overall athleticism for the Bulls.

Miami over Boston in 6. Neither team looked particularly good in round one but Boston was especially bad, having a ton of trouble with a severely depeleted Knicks team. Without that inside defensive presence of Perkins, they will need Garnett to play more minutes and be more of an enforcer and I don't know that he can still do that. James and Wade will both be dialed in extremely high for this series as it's personal to them and the fact remains that they are the two best players on the court and two of the three best in the world.

OKC over Memphis in 6. I really like Memphis but I think that the young athleticism of OKC wears them down a little. As Dalakhani said in another thread, Harden is on/off and when he's on, it makes them hard to beat. If he's on three times in this series, I give OKC two of those games. The brilliance of Durant will come out in at least one more and that will be three. Memphis needs huge games from Randolph everytime to have a shot and with Ibaka and Perkins down there, you have to figure that they slow him a couple of times.

LA over Dallas in 7. I had Dallas winning game one and then LA taking one in Dallas to make it a best of three at the end. I really with Caron Butler was playing here. I'd take Dallas then but without that scoring option, Dallas is just going to be too limited and I only think this goes seven because the Lakers allow it too. Nowitzki's big advantage has always been his quickness over the opposing big forward but with the Lakers, they can throw out Odom and Artest and negate that advantage. Terry can be defended by Bryant or Brown and I think Brown and Fisher can do a good job on Kidd since he's not that quick, penetrating type of guard that gives LA trouble like Chris Paul or Aaron Brooks or Deron Williams. The key will be keeping the games close for Dallas. If they do, Kobe tends to forget about passing the ball and the Lakers size advantage goes out of the window.

I am pretty much in agreement, I think Memphis may well take OK City to game 7 but in the end Durant and company have a little to much firepower for the young Memphis squad. Miami outplayed Boston twice in Miami but it will be interesting to see if they can do same in Boston...if they win one then the series probably goes 5.

LA, DOA, LOL, bye bye

:tro:

Disappointing performance by the Lakers today, being swept 4-0 and losing by over 30 points is bad enough but two cheap shot fouls leading to two players being ejected is disgraceful for a proud franchise....not the way for the greatest coach in NBA history to go out. So long Phil, it's been great. As far as the Lakers go, a major shakeup is probably coming as they looked old, tired and disinterested. If Dwight Howard is serious about playing for the Lakers, they should try and get him but they also need help at point guard and bench.

Man, the Bulls punished the Heat last night, really exposed their lack of an inside game along with their sloppy half court plays, gotta give the Bulls credit, they play great defense and board extremely well, Heat need a quick fix or they could be in trouble.

If the Bulls make their threes like they did last night, Miami could get swept. The Heat are simply no match for the Bulls on the glass, and while Chicago has guys who can bother Wade and LeBron, no one on Miami has a prayer against Rose. A young, athletic frontcourt like Chicago's will always give the Heat major problems. The fact that Jamaal Magloire got meaningful minutes this early in the series is a bad sign.

Most experts like to crown eastern conference false champions after two rounds. two years ago it was Clev, last year was Orlando, this year Miami. I thought the Heat were abysmal against Boston the last 3 games. They lost by 16 to a one armed point guard for a quarter and a half, got taken to OT in game 4 with an entire game by a one armed point guard, and were down 6 with 4 minutes left at home in game 5 against a one armed point guard. The common knowledge was the Bulls struggled mightily against the Pacers and Hawks, and though perhaps true, they were brutally efficent against ATL in games 5 and 6 thus showing an upward trend, while Miami was definitely on a downward trend in the BOS series. Chicago's game 6 against ATL was the best playoff game by any team so far this year. Miami peaked in game 1 against BOS and has been steadily declining since.

Thus far Derek Rose has two arms still. Miami can certainly come back but I liked what I saw in game 1.

If anyone doubts what you are typing, I want to know what adjustments Miami can make to change this series. They got outrebounded 45-33. Chicago shot 43% from the floor while miami shot 47%. If they commit more to the defensive boards, Korver and Deng will kill them and that's not even considering what Rose will do penetrating. The scary thing is that Rose was doubled much of the night.

It doesn't matter if Wade and Lebron play out of their minds for the rest of the series, Chicago is going to the finals.

I like OKC to win game one. They are in rhythm, Dallas hasn't played in a year, and Dallas is not a really strong home team anyway. I think Dallas rebounds and takes the series though. I'll say six.

I think Miami rebounds too. In my opinion, James and Wade are still two of the three best players in the world and they will play better tomorrow. Chicago will think that they have it made after the ease of game one and let off the gas just enough to allow Miami to sneak out of there with a win. I think they split in Miami also and then you have a best of three series, which I like Miami to win in two. So I like Miami in six.