duncan228
04-18-2008, 01:01 AM
The Wall Street Journal chimes in.
http://blogs.wsj.com/dailyfix/2008/04/17/anticipation-builds-for-nba-wests-playoff-matchups/?mod=WSJBlog
Anticipation Builds for NBA West’s Playoff Matchups
Darren Everson
Typically, NBA playoff seeding doesn’t exactly match the intrigue of college basketball’s Selection Sunday, but this season’s historic Western Conference race is different. Now that the regular season is over and the matchups are set (Los Angeles Lakers-Denver Nuggets, New Orleans Hornets-Dallas Mavericks, San Antonio Spurs-Phoenix Suns, Utah Jazz-Houston Rockets), pundits everywhere are engaging in bracketology.
First stop: San Antonio, where the Spurs clinched the third seed Wednesday night by beating the Jazz, 109-80. The defending champions’ marquee player already has gotten serious, Buck Harvey writes in the San Antonio Express-News: “Tim Duncan sat at his locker Wednesday evening, watching a replay of an earlier game against the Jazz, when he saw himself slip on a clumsy pivot move. Still sitting, he rolled his chair, kicking his feet against the floor like a little kid, until he was close enough to grab the remote. Then he replayed the moment, over and over again, until he had seen it 10 times. … Duncan is paying attention now, isn’t he?”
He’ll need to, since the Phoenix Suns obviously will be out for vengeance after last season’s controversial playoff defeat to the Spurs. Although the Suns seem less dangerous than last year with Shaquille O’Neal aboard, Mr. Harvey points out that this is a worse matchup for Mr. Duncan and the Spurs than people realize.
Another counterintuitive thought: The Dallas Mavericks are in good shape heading into the playoffs. The Mavericks won 16 fewer games this season than last, and star Dirk Nowitzki has been hobbled by knee and ankle injuries, but the season ended perfectly for them, ESPN’s Marc Stein writes. The Mavericks grabbed the seventh seed, which means a matchup with the untested New Orleans Hornets – not the top-seeded Los Angeles Lakers, whom Mr. Nowitzki openly admitted his club wanted to avoid.
“That’s not to say Nowitzki or any other Mav was openly clamoring for a series-long dose of Chris Paul,” Mr. Stein writes. “They’re not crazy. They know Paul is likely to gradually adjust to the aggressive, two-man trapping in the backcourt that Dallas used to unexpectedly rattle New Orleans’ MVP candidate and spark its third-quarter comeback. Nor did the Mavs miss how Paul shrugged off a hard foul from Erick Dampier early in the third — and the resulting tweak to Paul’s left ankle — and played on as if nothing happened, slowed only by foul trouble. Yet facing New Orleans is clearly preferable to any of the other possibilities that have been looming for Dallas once it become apparent that last season’s No. 1 seed in the West was going to be a much lower seed this time.”
Mr. Nowitzki’s condition could be worse, but he has been undergoing treatment in a hyperbaric chamber, which numerous athletes are trying in an effort to speed recovery, Kevin Sherrington writes in the Dallas Morning News.
* * *
The playoffs begin Saturday, but Jack McCallum of Sports Illustrated is already pining for a finals featuring the Lakers and the Boston Celtics. The league probably is too, he suggests, although it can’t admit it.
“There’s a long way to go, of course, but the idea of a Celtics-Lakers title showdown, which hasn’t happened since the Reagan Administration, is the most tantalizing postseason prospect to come along in years for the league, its network partners and fans starved for a rivalry that evokes the NBA’s glory days,” Mr. McCallum writes. “… It’s difficult, of course, to get anyone in the league office to admit that a Celtics-Lakers Finals is more attractive than, say, Magic-Jazz. … Network bosses, too, refrain from uttering their true feelings; nobody wants a barrage of favoritism charges from, oh, Detroit and New Orleans. But the league’s jump in ratings (up 14% on TNT, 12% on ESPN and 9% on ABC) has spoken for them. … Indeed, one high-level ABC employee says, ‘Of course we want Lakers-Celtics. There’s nothing else. There’s no second-best scenario. That’s it. We’d kill for it.’ ”
http://blogs.wsj.com/dailyfix/2008/04/17/anticipation-builds-for-nba-wests-playoff-matchups/?mod=WSJBlog
Anticipation Builds for NBA West’s Playoff Matchups
Darren Everson
Typically, NBA playoff seeding doesn’t exactly match the intrigue of college basketball’s Selection Sunday, but this season’s historic Western Conference race is different. Now that the regular season is over and the matchups are set (Los Angeles Lakers-Denver Nuggets, New Orleans Hornets-Dallas Mavericks, San Antonio Spurs-Phoenix Suns, Utah Jazz-Houston Rockets), pundits everywhere are engaging in bracketology.
First stop: San Antonio, where the Spurs clinched the third seed Wednesday night by beating the Jazz, 109-80. The defending champions’ marquee player already has gotten serious, Buck Harvey writes in the San Antonio Express-News: “Tim Duncan sat at his locker Wednesday evening, watching a replay of an earlier game against the Jazz, when he saw himself slip on a clumsy pivot move. Still sitting, he rolled his chair, kicking his feet against the floor like a little kid, until he was close enough to grab the remote. Then he replayed the moment, over and over again, until he had seen it 10 times. … Duncan is paying attention now, isn’t he?”
He’ll need to, since the Phoenix Suns obviously will be out for vengeance after last season’s controversial playoff defeat to the Spurs. Although the Suns seem less dangerous than last year with Shaquille O’Neal aboard, Mr. Harvey points out that this is a worse matchup for Mr. Duncan and the Spurs than people realize.
Another counterintuitive thought: The Dallas Mavericks are in good shape heading into the playoffs. The Mavericks won 16 fewer games this season than last, and star Dirk Nowitzki has been hobbled by knee and ankle injuries, but the season ended perfectly for them, ESPN’s Marc Stein writes. The Mavericks grabbed the seventh seed, which means a matchup with the untested New Orleans Hornets – not the top-seeded Los Angeles Lakers, whom Mr. Nowitzki openly admitted his club wanted to avoid.
“That’s not to say Nowitzki or any other Mav was openly clamoring for a series-long dose of Chris Paul,” Mr. Stein writes. “They’re not crazy. They know Paul is likely to gradually adjust to the aggressive, two-man trapping in the backcourt that Dallas used to unexpectedly rattle New Orleans’ MVP candidate and spark its third-quarter comeback. Nor did the Mavs miss how Paul shrugged off a hard foul from Erick Dampier early in the third — and the resulting tweak to Paul’s left ankle — and played on as if nothing happened, slowed only by foul trouble. Yet facing New Orleans is clearly preferable to any of the other possibilities that have been looming for Dallas once it become apparent that last season’s No. 1 seed in the West was going to be a much lower seed this time.”
Mr. Nowitzki’s condition could be worse, but he has been undergoing treatment in a hyperbaric chamber, which numerous athletes are trying in an effort to speed recovery, Kevin Sherrington writes in the Dallas Morning News.
* * *
The playoffs begin Saturday, but Jack McCallum of Sports Illustrated is already pining for a finals featuring the Lakers and the Boston Celtics. The league probably is too, he suggests, although it can’t admit it.
“There’s a long way to go, of course, but the idea of a Celtics-Lakers title showdown, which hasn’t happened since the Reagan Administration, is the most tantalizing postseason prospect to come along in years for the league, its network partners and fans starved for a rivalry that evokes the NBA’s glory days,” Mr. McCallum writes. “… It’s difficult, of course, to get anyone in the league office to admit that a Celtics-Lakers Finals is more attractive than, say, Magic-Jazz. … Network bosses, too, refrain from uttering their true feelings; nobody wants a barrage of favoritism charges from, oh, Detroit and New Orleans. But the league’s jump in ratings (up 14% on TNT, 12% on ESPN and 9% on ABC) has spoken for them. … Indeed, one high-level ABC employee says, ‘Of course we want Lakers-Celtics. There’s nothing else. There’s no second-best scenario. That’s it. We’d kill for it.’ ”