ESPN Homepage

[rAm]

http://www.espn.com

should we be offended? should france be offended?

[DesignatedT]

no

[RedRaider]

..no

[santymrc]

I can't read the complete article :(

[alchemist]

Just so you know, Pop owns Hollinger....

http://sports.espn.go.com/dallas/nba/news/story?id=5087206

...no rest for the vets

[Muser]

Why would france be offended?

[cheguevara]

Why would france be offended?

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/francesurrenders.htm

[easy7]

Manu is there also...should Argentinians be offended because of the Falkland Islands? You guys are reading too much out of a simple pic. Negro, por favor. :hat

[ffadicted]

ooooooooooohhh lol i get it... lame

[rAm]

Manu is there also...should Argentinians be offended because of the Falkland Islands? You guys are reading too much out of a simple pic. Negro, por favor. :hat

I'll agree with this, but ESPN is always throwing subtle insults at the spurs and their players.

[cheguevara]

I'll agree with this, but ESPN is always throwing subtle insults at the spurs and their players.

or maybe you are overreacting? Maybe ESPN thinks Spurs performance tonight is the most important of the night?

[rAm]

or maybe you are overreacting? Maybe ESPN thinks Spurs performance tonight is the most important of the night?

Definitely overreacting, but tell me how showing a picture of manu and tony bickering and using the caption "What's my motivation here?" is showing that.

[Bartleby]

they're bickering?

[CubanMustGo]

Overreaction forum

[CGD]

This post is full of all sorts of win.

[taps]

- "Don't talk to me like a child, I played Hamlet at Cambridge!"

-"Once again you've ruined MY concentration."

-"Excuse me, excuse me, What's my motivation here?"

[Fpoonsie]

- "Don't talk to me like a child, I played Hamlet at Cambridge!"

-"Once again you've ruined MY concentration."

-"Excuse me, excuse me, What's my motivation here?"

GREAT fucking movie. Tons a' people hate it, no idea why.

[Halberto]

LOL is someone going to post the article or not

[Sausage]

Playoff battles in regular-season finale
By John Hollinger
ESPN.com

Remember, tanking isn't just for lottery teams. It could also be a big story tonight in the final day of the regular season. While teams jockey for playoff position and fans start getting excited for the postseason, the story the league probably doesn't want you to ponder is how few teams will be really trying to win.

Tonight 15 of the 16 potential playoff teams are in action. Of those, either six or seven won't care, five to seven will be trying to win, and either two or three could be actively trying to lose.

I don't mean the players will be attempting to lose. Rather, I mean the team has incentives to "rest the starters" and otherwise play with less than the full playoff-level intensity we might expect this time of year -- in some cases knowing it's better to lose than to win.

My list goes something like this: Atlanta, Cleveland, Charlotte, Orlando, L.A. and Oklahoma City don't care what happens tonight and will likely sit some of their starters for the playoffs. Each is locked into a seeding and no longer has any control over its first-round opponent.

Eastern Conference Playoff Picture

More than half the East is locked into place, but four teams still have work to do. Here's where it stands heading into Wednesday's regular-season finale.
Seed Team Status
1. Cavaliers Locked in
2. Magic Locked in
3. Hawks Locked in
4. Celtics Locked in
5. Heat Clinch No. 5 with win or MIL loss; clinch No. 6 with loss and MIL win.
6. Bucks Clinch No. 5 with win and MIA loss; clinch No. 6 with loss or MIA win
7. Bobcats Locked in
8. Bulls Clinch No. 8 with win or TOR loss
9. Raptors Clinch No. 8 with win and CHI loss

In the West, only three teams -- Dallas, Phoenix and Utah -- will try to win. Dallas can lock up the second seed with a win over San Antonio, which would also lock San Antonio into the seventh slot. While there's a temptation to gift San Antonio a win and try to draw a wounded Portland team rather than a tough first-round pairing with the Spurs, there's no way the Mavs would do it at the expense of the No. 2 seed. Since the Mavs won't know the outcome of the Jazz-Suns game when they tip off, it behooves them to give a full effort.

Fortunately for Dallas, the Spurs aren't likely to contest the outcome. The Spurs will likely try to lose (or rather, "play the young guys") in an effort to avoid playing a Utah team they lost all four meetings against.

Follow the logic: The Spurs are currently the No. 7 seed and have a matchup with No. 2 Dallas if they lose the game. If they win, the Mavs are likely to fall to No. 3, but the Spurs would need Portland to lose for San Antonio to move up to No. 6.

If that doesn't happen -- and it probably won't, since the Blazers are home against Golden State -- the Spurs would be likely to face Utah in their nightmare matchup. And if the Blazers lost? The Spurs would face Dallas, making the whole exercise seem kind of pointless. They can lose and definitely face Dallas, or win and maybe face Dallas or maybe get a much worse outcome; I'm thinking they'll take the path of least resistance here.

Portland plays after the Spurs-Dallas game and will be in position to choose its fate. If the Blazers find out the Spurs lost, it locks them into the No. 6 seed, so they can just rest whichever starters of theirs are still healthy and play the other guys against Golden State. If they find out the Spurs won, Portland will play to win to avoid a possible date with Utah -- the Jazz swept the Blazers too.

Granted, the No. 6 seed could face Phoenix instead of Utah, should the Suns manage to knock off Utah on the road. This is unlikely but possible, especially in light of Carlos Boozer's rib-cage injury last night. But Portland fared better against Dallas in the regular season and San Antonio didn't fare any worse, so given the Suns' torrid play of late, one presumes both would prefer facing Dallas to Phoenix.

Speaking of presumptions, I presume the Suns will give a full effort, but it's possible they'll kick back after knocking off Denver last night and guaranteeing themselves home-court advantage for the first round. The No. 3 seed, though, looks like a much more appetizing position, and they'd earn that slot with a win.

For Utah, there's little doubt about the motivation. The Jazz will be seeded second or third with a win, but will end up fifth and miss out on home-court advantage in the first round with a loss. Watching with great interest will be the Nuggets, who will earn home-court advantage with a Jazz loss.

Western Conference Playoff Picture

The wild West winds down on Wednesday. Here's where each team stands heading into their final games of the 2009-10 regular season.
Seed Team Status
1. Lakers Locked in
2. Mavs Clinch No. 2 with win or UTH loss; clinch No. 3 with loss and UTH win.
3. Jazz Clinch No. 2 with win and DAL loss; clinch No. 3 with win and DAL win; clinch No. 5 with loss.
4. Suns Clinch No. 3 with win; clinch No. 4 with loss
5. Nuggets Clinch No. 4 with UTH loss; clinch No. 5 with PHX loss.
6. Blazers Clinch No. 6 with win or SA loss; clinch No. 7 with loss and SA win.
7. Spurs Clinch No. 6 with win and POR loss; clinch No. 7 seed with loss or POR win.
8. Thunder Locked in

Here's the full skinny: A Utah win and a Dallas loss means it's (2) Utah, (3) Dallas, (4) Phoenix, (5) Denver. A Utah win and a Dallas win means it's (2) Dallas, (3) Utah, (4) Phoenix, (5) Denver. A Utah loss, regardless of what Dallas does, means it's (2) Dallas, (3) Phoenix, (4) Denver, (5) Utah.

Still, that leaves us only three West teams that will definitely be trying tonight, against one that actively wants to lose and three others that won't care too much.

(One caveat: If the Lakers see the 76ers beat the Magic in Orlando, they'll have incentive to beat the Clippers and grab home-court advantage in a potential NBA Finals rematch. That said, Kobe Bryant is planning to sit out tonight to try to get healthier.)

Similarly, the East offers some tanking opportunities of its own. Boston plays Milwaukee tonight, giving the Celtics a golden opportunity to dictate their first-round opponent. The Celtics already are locked into the No. 4 seed in the East but can play the injury-riddled Bucks rather than streaking Miami provided they lose to Milwaukee and Miami loses. In fact, Doc Rivers is probably kicking himself for beating the Bucks this past weekend; otherwise he could guarantee Bucks-Celtics by losing again tonight.

Miami, meanwhile, has to debate whether it wants to slip down to No. 6 and face an Atlanta team that it beat three times out of four in the regular season (and move to the Orlando bracket), or whether it would prefer facing a dragging Celtics squad (and stay in the Cleveland bracket). I presume the Heat will try to win and face off against Boston, but it's not a slam-dunk decision.

Milwaukee, at least, will try against the Celtics, virtually guaranteeing the outcome Boston desires in that game. The only question is whether Miami cooperates. If the Heat beat the Nets tonight at home they're locked into the No. 5 seed and a first-round date with Boston regardless of what the Bucks and Celtics do.

At least Chicago and Toronto will be trying, even if their opponents won't be. The Bulls will face Charlotte, and while Bobcats coach Larry Brown said his team will compete, I don't think he's going to be sending Gerald Wallace and Stephen Jackson out there for 44 minutes like he did during most of the regular season. Meanwhile, the Raptors host a New York team that gave up on the season a couple of years ago. Toronto needs both a win and a Chicago loss to snatch the No. 8 seed from the Bulls; it's likely to only get one of the two.

Let's sum it all up. Presuming all the teams that have motivation to lose do so, and all the teams that don't care end up losing, when it's all said and done the final pairings should look like this:

EASTERN CONFERENCE
No. 1 Cleveland vs. No. 8 Chicago
No. 2 Orlando vs. No. 7 Charlotte
No. 3 Atlanta vs. No. 6 Milwaukee
No. 4 Boston vs. No. 5 Miami

WESTERN CONFERENCE
No. 1 L.A. Lakers vs. No. 8 Oklahoma City
No. 2 Dallas vs. No. 7 San Antonio
No. 3 Utah/Phoenix winner vs. No. 6 Portland
No. 4 Phoenix vs. No. 5 Denver OR No. 4 Denver vs. No. 5 Utah

We'll come back when the playoffs are set with all the picks for the first round (and, in fact, the entire postseason), an exercise that should provide great material for any aspiring comedians come June. In the meantime, if you want to see playoff-caliber basketball before Saturday, the Jazz-Suns game is probably your only hope tonight. In every other game at least one of the teams either has no motivation to win or, worse yet, plenty of motivation to lose.

[m33p0]

LOL is someone going to post the article or not
:tu
first post with sense

[doobs]

GREAT fucking movie. Tons a' people hate it, no idea why.

It was a commercial, right? What movie?

[ShoogarBear]

I guess nobody thought to do a screen cap?

[alchemist]

Just so you know, Pop owns Hollinger....

http://sports.espn.go.com/dallas/nba/news/story?id=5087206

...no rest for the vets
no rest, faggot! :lol :bang