Game 2 Preview

Let me help you

Game two anticipation keeping you up at night?

Let's break it down and make a prediction so you can get some sleep tonight.

Guards:
C.Duhon just earned a himself a big contract next year with his game 1 stop of G.Arenas. Arenas acknowledge Duhon in his post game interviews. If he can repeat and hold Arenas below his scoring average, the series is in the bag.

K.Hinrick needs to shoot a little higher percentage than 8-23. He was The Player of The Game in Feb's Wizards-Bulls face off so expect more. (See he's got his game face on). He should score in the 20's next game.

E.Piakowski was 1 of 7. He'll need to shoot better and I'm picking him to do that in game 2.

B.Gordon vs. L.Hughes in game one goes to Gordon for doing his scoring in the late part of the game. Hughes took advantage of Gordon early on so there's the potential for Hughes to get revenge in game two.

Front court:

I thought K.Brown would redeem himself after game one when he played beyond his season average, but it looks like his knee is hurt and he may be out of the next game (or more).

Chandler and Co. were all in foul trouble. He played well in the end - a sign of a smart player. Look for him to be a bigger factor with his classmate Brown out of the game. (Chandler was #2 and Brown #1 pick in the draft).

Davis and Harrington played well and as veterans with a long rest between games, they'll continue to play well. The forwards will contribute more in Game 2.

Chapu - he earned that silly nickname - was awesome.

Chapu is going to get a lot of attention from A.Jamison. Both can play SF and PF but only Chapu defends like a mad man. Jamison isn't a slouch and so he'll rise to the occasion but Chapu brings his "A" game every night, every game.

Game 1

Da Bulls win a difficult game. Their "Bigs" *all* got into foul trouble and remember, E.Curry is missing. The Wizards Bigs performed well. K.Brown Especially played well and he could be an series X-factor. Conversely classmate T.Chandler could be expected to contribute more than he did in this game - statistically as least.

The game should have been a disaster for Da Bulls but their guards out-played the Wizards' guards, their strength. Amazing that the Wizards backcourt didn't dominate with scoring. A.Nocioni was an effective 'tweener. He played both forward positions and was a force on the boards and scoring. A.Jamison is another 'tweener, capable of both small and power forward positions. Nocioni was the better contributor this game. A.Jamison is going to impact this series more than he did in this game.

L.Hughes was tough. He scored at will but not when it counted - the end of the game. G.Arenas was taken out of his game and didn't play to his averages - he turned the ball over and was out rebounded by Duhon. A.Jamison had A.Nocioni. Jamison's going to have to work his man harder on offense to stop him fro

Wizards vs Bulls: L.Hughes

L.Hughes

Character: Unaligned
Scoring: (7 of 10) Can score at will when shot is on but less likely
to get to rim
Defending:5 (of 10) Goes for the steal but not an effective defender.
Special Powers: Quick shot and good ball handling for a SG.
Weaknesses: Defense, Sensitivity and Judgement; will shoot when his
shot is off and acts beyond his abilities when slighted.
4th Period Effectiveness: 5 (of 10) Not afraid but not as aggressive
as G.Arenas.
Cost: 7 (of 10) Well paid free agent recruit.

Wizards vs Bulls: G.Arenas

G.Arenas

Character: Chaotic
Scoring: (9 of 10) Can score at will when shot is on. Capable of
driving to the hoop when his shot is off.
Defending:5 (of 10) Goes for the steal but not an effective defender.
Weakness offset by speed on fast break and good rebounding for a guard
Special Powers: Amazing confidence and super speed pushing the ball on offense.
Weaknesses: Defense and Judgement; will shoot when he could pass for a
better shot.
4th Period Effectiveness: 8 (of 10) wants the ball at the end of the game.
Cost: 7 (of 10) Well paid but delivering value for the dollar.

Wizards vs Bulls: Jamison

A.Jamison

Character: Good
Scoring: (9 of 10) Had back to back 51 pt games.
Defending:5 (of 10) Not effective defender but offset by awsome rebounding
Special Powers: Pogo stick rebounder - scores points off of offensive rebounds
Weaknesses: Defense
4th Period Effectiveness: 6 (of 10)
Cost: 9 (of 10) In the tail end of a max contract

Lakers Lose to Warriors

Warriors crush Lakers

Golden State scored its most lopsided victory of the year on Monday night, a 126-99 rout of the Lakers in front of a sell-out crowd of 20,024 at the Arena in Oakland.

In all fairness, Center Valde Divca and Brain Grant did not contribute much to this season and PF L.Odum is out with a damaged shoulder. In short, the Lakers gave up Shaq, a Center, and the replacements, three bigs, have been hurt: Two centers out and a mid-season injury to their PF.

It's a tough season but the Lakers have a lottery pick in a deep draft that lacks a superstar.

They'll be back next year. -LA is a popular place to play and possiby a humbled Kobe will be a better teammate. Maybe Divac and Grant are too old to play next season - Divac has a disk problem and Grant his knees. Maybe Odum or Butler will be traded. Still they have some latitude to retool and come back next season with a better power line-up to help Kobe.

For thier pick, think PF. Maybe him.

Pay TV and sports

Monday Night Football' leaving ABC for ESPN.

I don't have pay TV. Maybe that's okay for the NFL and NBA because I'm not a typical target audience but there seems to be a growing number of people who are not plugged into pay TV.

Eventually there is going to be a three tiered market: NBA/NFL packages where you get it all; local packages to follow the teams and see national events; and free TV sports to keep the marketplace interested.

As they transform popular, free sports into pay events, they are making room for lower tiered sports in the free TV market and that means they are leaving room for them to catch on with the public.

One time not so long ago, breakfast cereal was king. Prices kept going up with profits until it made little sense to pay so much for cold cereal. People began to pay a bit more and get a fresh bagel or hot latte and muffin.

Point is the market switched and a cut in cereal prices didn't bring people back.

Habits change.

Monday Night Football on ESPN. Not a reason to get pay TV - not at all.

Wizards' final two games

The Wizards play the Nets and Knicks. The Knicks are slumping but the
Nets are playoff bound. Them beating the Nets would be a sign that
the Wizards are going to be a very tough team for round one and have
earned the #4 slot.

Three games

The Washington Wizards want 4th place and home court advantage.  Chicago leads them by one game.  There are three Bulls games left, if they win all three, it's over.  Chicago will have home court advantage in round one with a sweep. 

 

Wizards are looking tough.  Jamison is a pogo-stick jumper and damaging offensive rebounder.  He can wreck a Curry-less Bulls squad.  Arenas is a streaky shooter who, IMHO, uses poor judgement but he's explosive.  A steal in the 2nd round, he's no match for Ben Gordon who uses better judgement and can also be a streaky shooter.  Hughes is no match for Hinrich as a ball-handler or as a defender but he is the better shooter when he's on. 

 

Meet the Wizards

Mr. Jordan the Wizard

Ironic that the first time both franchises make the playoffs, they'll play each other in the first round.

I liked Chicago but with E.Curry and L.Deng out it's a hard pick. Jamison, Hughes and Arenas were all high scoring players at GSW but they did not defend well. I still think they'll score but maybe not enough to beat the Bulls. With scorers Deng and Curry out, that makes the Bull's job harder.

Kickin Orlando's butt

Wrong Orlando

Bulls beat Orlando by 40, 77 to 117.

Earlier this BB season Orlando was playing over 500 and Skiles was asked about their chances in the playoffs. He responded it was a long season.

He was right. Orlando is out and Chicago is in.

Penny for your thoughts

What can one infer from these two articles.

"Penny Hardaway, another player entering the final year of his contract and one that Isiah Thomas has said he will try to move, quit on the season months ago. Hardaway, upset over limited playing time, left the team three weeks ago, saying he needed time to rest a sore hamstring. In January, Hardaway took a month-long leave of absence after complaining about his role . Several players have privately criticized Hardaway's behavior."

"Every Magic fan knows the story about how Penny Hardaway orchestrated the overthrow of (Brian) Hill, the winningest coach in franchise history. Hardaway and his band of mutineers quit on Hill midway through the 1997 season -- less than a year after Hill coached the Magic to the Eastern Conference Finals and less than two years after he guided them to the NBA Finals. Still devastated by Shaq bolting to L.A. before the season, Magic management didn't have the guts to stand up to Hardaway.

Which is worth more?

K-MART is an idiot

K-Martin is an idiot:

Kenyon Martin was ejected early in the third quarter Monday night for shoving Golden State's Adonal Foyle, his second technical foul of the night.

Martin received his first technical midway through the second quarter for throwing his mouthpiece in the air after being called for a foul. Martin was tossed with just over 10 minutes left in the third when he lightly shoved Foyle to the floor after scoring a layup.

Martin yelled at official Rodney Mott for a few seconds, then ripped off his jersey and tossed it to the crowd as he left the floor. Martin also tore off the tank top he was wearing under his jersey and disgustedly threw that into the crowd.

At least he kept his pants on.

K-Mart's decision to leave NJ for more contract money in Denver was, IMHO, a mistake. The NJ market is much larger and more visible. Was NJ's offer that bad? You can only wear one pair of shoes at a time so how much money is enough? If you do want money, playing in NJ will get you more and better exposure and endorsements than playing in Denver. Either way, it makes sense to stay. K.Martin left NJ for emotional pride. He was "disrespected" by not getting a generous offer - and early on in the Season. Since BB is a business and that's a stupid reason to leave.

Until recently, Denevr missing the playoffs was a possibility. Now that Denver is playing very well, he'll at least appear in the playoffs. In NJ there was no doubt they'd be in contention.

So Denver will be seeing San Antonio which is the 2nd seed but Denver's probably going to make it to 6th place and play 3rd seeded Seattle on the road.

"Beautiful Ohio" Oxymoron

R.Miller is going to bank-roll a movie: "Beautiful Ohio".  

Old enough to fight

O'Neal sez:

If I can go to the U.S. Army and fight the war at 18, why can't you play basketball for 48 minutes and then go home?"

Amen.

Rich NBA owners want less risk during draft day but that interest does not justify an age limit. These guys are old enough for Iraq, they're old enough to play BB.

85-84

Da Bulls lose to Detroit by 1 point in overtime. A close loss can
hurt a team even more than a blow out.

Chicago matches up better against Detroit than it does Miami and I
think this team knows it. The loss is one less turnover or a better
shot taken in hte course of a long game. How Chicago matches up
against the Pacers is unknown - they are over achieving given their
shuffling lineup. Boston is beatable as is Washington.

We're in April and games matter.