Things are looking up in South Beach

I was sweating bullets at 7:35 last night. After listening to how trades were falling through, I had this terrible feeling that the Miami Heat were indeed going to pick O.J. Mayo second overall. Looks like I was duped by my old friend Pat Riley. B-Easy is going to rock the red and black alongside two former Jayhawks, Mario Chalmers(!) and Darnell Jackson. Here's what espn.com's Chad Ford had to say about Miami's draft:

"I hate to break it to what looked like a very sober, perhaps disappointed Pat Riley, but the Heat won this draft. They walked away with arguably the best player in the draft and then got a second-round steal at point guard, a position at which Miami really needed help.
Beasley has a chance to be a superstar. With him and Dwyane Wade, the Heat have a terrific future. On top of that, Miami got a player at No. 34 who I had ranked as a potential mid-first-round pick. Chalmers is perfect for Riley: He is tough, plays defense, can shoot the lights out and is a winner. Once the Heat find a way to trade Shawn Marion, they'll be in great shape to make a big run at a young free agent next summer.
And according to John Hollinger's statistical formula, Jackson is one the biggest sleepers in the draft."

He gave them an A+. Needless to say, I am stoked. Hopefully they will find a taker for Marion before the trade deadline. It would be pretty interesting to see Chalmers, Wade, Haslem, Beasley and Marion on the floor at the same time. They could definitely pull it off against a lot of the teams in the league right now.

The Boston Celtics had a chance to STEAL Chris Douglas-Roberts at 30. They instead chose to go with J.R. Giddens. Not a bad pick, but I thought CDR would have been a perfect fit for the C's. He strikes me as a James Posey-type player. We all saw how well that worked out. Guess they're planning on resigning him and his man-hugs. Late in the draft, they traded for Bill Walker who was drafted by the Wizards. He has been described as, "Vince Carter before the ACL injury." Dang. And with the last pick, they took a seven foot dude from Turkey who they'll stash away in Europe. Solid picks but again, I'm really surprised they didn't take Douglas-Roberts. How did he fall all the way to 40?

The whole Memphis-Minnesota trade is weird to me. How did McHale and Wallace even talk to one another? That's quite the meeting of the minds. Don't really see how Love will help out Big Al...

What can be said about ESPN's coverage that hasn't already been said about Afghanistan? I knew it would be horrible, but that was an absolute trainwreck of an embarrassment. AwfulAnnouncing did a great job of pointing out just how bad it was in their live blog coverage. I would start to get into here, but I would just get too worked up knowing that those jokers can be downright unwatchable and my journalism degree is collecting dust. (Thanks BU!)

Of course the Knick fans would boo Gallinari. I think he'll actually do pretty well there with D'Antoni running the show. Anyone but Rose wouldn't drastically benefit the team anyway. They are still a couple of years away from erasing the mistakes of Isiah. Nice Jeff Van Gundy chant though...

The only real shocker was Jason Thompson going to Sacramento at number 12. It looked like they had a chance to get either Bayless or Augustin, but they were both snagged right before the Kings were on the clock. Looks like they didn't have much of a backup plan. Oh and can the Maloof brothers just move this team to Vegas already? After what David Stern is doing to the Sonics franchise, he should give the Kings the go ahead just to balance things out.

So there you have it. There's plenty I missed I'm sure, but the forties of a certain champagne of beers didn't exactly help keep my head clear. And seeing as how I am an unreliable (at best) poster, there are talks of bringing in a few other writers to expand the site. I'll keep you posted.



P.S. Okay, just one thing about Stuart Scott. He badmouthed the person who bought Doc River's "Gatorade" shirt for $50,000. The money went to charity you buffoon! He was atrocious the whole night but that was the icing on the cake. I cannot stand this man. The amount of enmity that flows through my body is getting to dangerous levels. He had no business being anywhere near Madison Square Garden last night. None.

P.P.S. "So Brandon Rush, are you excited to be playing alongside Brandon Rush?" Good one Stephen A.

DRIZAFT!

While our man Leon gets to chill out in Oakland and soak in the fact that he's a World Champion, focus now shifts to Madison Square Garden. That's right, the 2008 NBA Draft is tonight! And since the Celtics have picks 30 and 60, I don't see them drafting anyone that will have any kind of immediate impact on the team, thus taking away any more potential playing time from The Show. I could honestly see Boston keeping almost the exact same roster as this past year with the much needed subtraction of Brian Scalabrine and Sam Cassell. This is assuming of course that Posey, House and Tony Allen all resign with the team. Give Gabe Pruitt a few minutes here and there but it's essentially the same team that just won the Championship! Granted, the vets will be a year older, but I'm pretty sure this Powe guy could play a little more...

So Boston won't be making much of a splash tonight (barring some odd trade that I'm not seeing). The Miami Heat however, are the focal point of the entire draft. Whatever decision they make tonight will impact the next 10-12 teams that are behind them. With each passing day, hour and minute, it looks as if the Chicago Bulls will take PG Derrick Rose with the first pick. A pick they have no business owning by the way. And the general consensus is that Rose and PF Michael Beasley are hands down the two best players available tonight. Here's the thing.

The Heat want nothing to do with Beasley.

With Shawn Marion deciding this week to not opt out of the final year of his contract and stay in Miami, the Heat have the 2 (Wade), the 3(Marion) and the 4(Haslem) set. Combine that with the numerous reports of Beasley's character issues. And since I don't see any kind of depth at the center position available to draft, it would only seem logical that they should draft a point guard. But with Rose off the board who is left? Well, a few guys actually, but no one worth taking straight up with the number 2 pick. From everything I've read, it seems like Riley wants to go with O.J. Mayo. I really don't see him as a point guard at all and think his style would actually clash with D-Wade's. Russell Westbrook, Jerryd Bayless and D.J. Augustin are other options depending of what team Miami pulls the trigger with. Minnesota, Seattle(OKC?), the Clippers and Memphis have all been in talks with the Heat about a possible trade. Things are more wide open than the sores on Amy Winehouse's face. (You thought I was gonna go with Lindsay Lohan's legs, didn't you.)

One trade that already did go down was between the Pacers and the Raptors. Indiana finally unloaded Jermaine O'Neal. Personally, it doesn't look like this guy has anything left in the tank. Maybe he will prove me wrong playing along side Chris Bosh but he just hasn't been able to stay on the court over the past few years. In return, Toronto sent TJ Ford, Nesterovic and their pick tonight (17th). This leaves Jamal Tinsley high and dry so maybe Larry Bird isn't done dealing. Last year's draft was out of control with all of the trades. The guys covering it really had trouble keeping up.

Speaking of which, I'm soooo psyched to listen to Stuart Scott, Stephen A. Smith and Dick Vitale all damn night. If I wasn't already going to be drinking furiously because of the Miami situation, I'm definitely going to be slurring my speech by 8:30 listening to those fools. I know they have the ticker at the bottom and all the nice graphics and stuff, but a draft just isn't something you can listen to on mute while blasting T-Pain videos on the Wii all night. (Or is it?) I wonder if any of these dopes will top Berman's "hold the Mayo" gem from the NFL draft a couple months back. Wow, and there's a chance to do that too. How did two guys with the last name of Mayo get into two drafts in the same year? If there someone out there to coin an atrocious new line, it's the King of Booyeah.

Soooo, I'll be back tomorrow with reactions. I said last night that if Miami just drafts Mayo with the second pick and not execute any kind of trade, I will stop being a Heat fan. I'm not sure if I'd take it that far because I still got love for Wade and Haslem but with so many other teams below them coveting Beasley, it really doesn't make any sense to not make a deal. (Said deal should obviously somehow include Mark Blount. I mean, have you seen that guy's contract? Who would give him all that money...)

But Leon can just hang back and watch like the rest of us tonight. It's good to be the champ...

UPDATE: Just saw that the Nets and Bucks have agreed to a trade. It doesn't involve any draft picks but Richard Jefferson will head to Bret Favre country while Yi Jianlian and Bobby Simmons will now play in the dirty Jerz. In case you didn't get the memo, LeBron James is going to play for the Nets when they move to Brooklyn. This just adds to the buttload of cap space already created by the Jason Kidd deal. It's the R.O.C. Holla.

Rally

Just a quick post. Didn't make it to the rally on Thursday but I tracked down this picture of Leon. I don't really remember any other team openly smoking cigars during a celebration parade/rally. The team also made an appearance at the (first place) Red Sox game on Friday. Boston fans are spoiled as hell right now...

P.S. James Posey wasted no time in already declaring he will test the free agent market. Why the hell would he want to leave? I'm sure Danny Ainge would have taken care of him. I guess when you have two rings you can do whatever you want.

Ubuntu indeed

Some people might have wanted a closer game. I am not one of those people. The Boston Celtics beat the Los Angeles Lakers by 39 points to win their 17th NBA Championship. Let's be honest, the game was over with about five minutes to go in the second quarter, but this thing was fun to watch.



There are so many different aspects to the team, so many different stories. Everything came together at the right time. When I started this blog a couple of weeks ago, I wasn't sure if the Celtics could take that last step and beat a team that looked extremely formidable since aquiring Pau Gasol. I wasn't sure that Doc Rivers would be able to coach this team in such a way that they could overcome their weaknesses (and a boatload of injuries it turns out) and flaws in a best of seven series against LA. Frankly, I was livid after his Game five performance and am still a little bitter that Leon got treated the way he did. Again, I know Leon isn't an All-Star (yet) but I felt he could contribute enough with about ten minutes per game to help the team win.



I suppose all is forgiven for the time being. Powe got into the game last night and aside from an ill advised 12 foot jumper, had another quality performance. He had some huge boards and once again stifled Lamar Odom. In fact, the entire bench (Big Baby sighting!) played very well and never let up. Boston kept their intensity for 48 minutes and proved that they were the hungrier and better team. The Big Three came together with Allen more than redeeming himself for the first two playoff series, Garnett FINALLY playing offense like the monster that he is, and Pierce dominating both sides of the ball and proving he is one of the best players in the league. Let's not forget about Rondo too. He dropped a 21-8-7-6 spot in the deciding game of an NBA Finals?!?! Lastly, Kendrick Perkins showed how tough he was by gutting out 13 minutes with a bum shoulder.



Danny Ainge rolled the dice by bringing in Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett. It wasn't clear that they, along with Pierce would be enough to win it all, or even co-exist. But then he signed Eddie House and James Posey. As a Heat fan, I knew first hand that if Posey was motivated and in shape, he would have a tremendous impact and that House was a deadly spot up shooter. Combine those five with the youth that was remaining after all the trades with Rondo, Perk, Leon, Tony Allen and drafting Glen Davis, the pieces were there. What really brought everything together was Tom Thibodeau's defensive knowledge and Garnett contagious defensive instensity. People will inevitably start talking about repeats and such, but for right now, it's time to add one more to the collection up there:

Random notes:

-It's too bad that Red didn't get to see this one, but owner Wyc Grosbeck was classy in paying tribute to him in his acceptance of the trophy.

-Good to see my boy Dwayne Wade doin' work on the pregame show. Word is, he'll be ready for the Olympics this summer. As much as he'd help that team, a part of me wants him to continute rehabbing his shoulder and knee and get ready to start practing with Derrick Rose...So yes, an NBA championship is more important than a gold medal to me. These colors run apparently.

-The refs weren't really a factor last night because it ended up being such a blowout, but the NBA is going to need a Hulk-sized beach towel to start wiping all the egg of its face. They tried to let the Donaghy thing just fade away, but since the officiating was just horrible through most of the playoffs and with new investigations being launched into past games, David Stern needs to stop being so stubborn and really take a look at the referees as a whole. I certainly don't have all the answers, but something needs to be done.

-Besides Kobe, Gasol and Lamar, the Lakers kinda suck. There I said it. Sure, they might have won if Bynum never got hurt, but everyone else on that team is just not very good. Fisher's decent at the point and Vujacic can get hot being the three point line now and again but Luke Walton? Ronny Turiaf? C'mon. Mitchell Freedman?

-Will Jeff Van Gundy ever coach again? It seems like he's having way too much fun in the booth. Personally, I'd rather having him going off on weird tangents once in a while but providing great basketball knowledge than grabbing players legs during games.

And finally, for the last time this year, he is Leon Powe's line for Game Six:

9 minutes

8 points

4 rebounds

3-5 FG

2-2 FT

0 turnovers

How much playing time will he get next year? Will he even be on the team next year? Who knows. But people do know who is now. Game Two will be his calling card until the next big game from THE SHOW.

Congrats to Leon, the rest of the team, and the organization. Just start looking over your shoulders for number 3 in a red and black uni.

P.S. I'll keep posting about this and that. Of course, we got the draft coming up next week so be sure to keep checking back.

Why even bother Doc?

That was downright insulting.

What was the point of Leon starting when he was taken out after five minutes and sat for THE REST OF THE GAME! The sad part is, as soon PJ Brown came in for him, I said outloud, "I bet that's it for Leon tonight." Now in those five minutes, did Leon turn the ball over a few times? Did he take some bad shots? Did he not hustle/run up the floor or did he get rebounds pulled away from him? No.

He didn't even get a touch on offense. Not one. No field goal attempts, no free throw attempts. But he had zero turnovers, two rebounds and even won the tip against Gasol! To compound this stupidity, Garnett was in foul trouble all game and Brown lurched his way to another mediocre performance. By the end of the game, both of them looked absolutely exhausted while Powe continued to sit on the bench.

And to add insult to injury, the Daily Dime on espn.com has the nerve to put Leon in their "Sunday's Worst" category saying,

"Good news: He replaced injured center Kendrick Perkins, who didn't dress because of his shoulder injury, in the starting lineup. Bad news: Other than two rebounds and a foul, the rest of his stats across the board were the same as Perkins for the night -- all zeroes."

with no mention of the fact that he only played the five minutes. That's just bad reporting Maurice Brooks. No disrespect to Perk (and it sucks that he played hard all year and now has to watch from the sidelines) but I don't recall him filling up the stat sheet in the first five minutes of a game especially when no one passes him the ball.

The fact is, "Sunday's Worst" should have been Doc Rivers. (Or Phil Jackson really. Chris Mihm? Seriously?) Nevermind the fact that Brown played 25 minutes (and only had 4 points and 3 rebounds to show for it), did you see who had their best game of the series so far?

Lamar Odom.

Odom finished with 20 points (on 8-10 shooting), 11 rebounds and played 41 minutes. Leon ate him alive whenever he guarded him in Games 1-4 drawing charges, being physical and swiping rebounds. You could even argue that Lamar had the best game of anyone wearing a white jersey. (Yeah, I know I said in an earlier post that Kobe wouldn't have more than one awful shooting night unlike Lebron, but he had another stinker last night going 8-21. Wow.)

Mark Jackson said on the broadcast last night that the lineup of Pierce, Garnett, House, Allen and Brown was the Celtics best to go up against the Lakers because of their "length." There's no way anyone can tell me with a straight face that Brown played a good game last night. Bottom line: PJ Brown should only play 25 minutes if Garnett, Perk and Leon miss a flight to a game.

It even got to the point at the end of the game where I was wondering if Brown or Garnett ended up fouling out if Doc would just go 4 on 5 instead of putting Leon back in. Garnett was so beat at the end of the game that he front rimmed the first of two free throws that COULD HAVE TIED THE GAME! Doesn't it have to be personal at this point? Did Leon wear a red curly wig and a green jump suit while kicking Doc in the nuts or something? Did he take Doc's mom out for a nice seafood dinner and then never call her again?

Even with all of Doc's stupidity (don't even get me started on Cassell) the Celtics still almost won the game. They came back from another huge Lakers lead and had the series within their grasp until Kobe body punched Pierce (and got exactly zero percent of the ball) to knock the ball loose and get a dunk on the other end with a little over a minute to go. If the Celtics go on to win either Tuesday or Thursday, it will be in spite of their coach. Just another awful game by Glenn (what is his doctoral degree in btw?) that raised my blood pressure, and lowered Powe's confidence in getting any kind of minutes. As far as his actual confidence? I would hope that The Show can just chalk this up to his coach being an unthinkable moron rather than something lacking in his own performance. I need the Celtics to win tomorrow night just so I don't have to watch Rivers bumble his way through another game.

Leon's line from Game five:
5 minutes
0 points
2 rebounds
0-0 FG
0-0 FT
0 turnovers

Twenty four point lead ain't no thang!

My dad always says that NBA games aren't worth watching until the fourth quarter. While that may be true for most games, (and strictly regarding results, last night counts too) I think Game Four could be appreciated that much more by watching that awful first half. Sure the Celtics looked fairly despondent after the first quarter but then they just started chipping away. You could sense it going into the fourth, and then, LEON POWE ties the game for the first time at 73 all.

He had another relatively quiet game stat-wise but with Perk and Rondo but hurt big time, the bench played quality ball while The Big Three took their play into the stratosphere. Powe was strong on the glass, Posey nailed some dagger three pointers, and House cooly ran the offense. I still can't believe that the Lakers put zero pressure on Eddie bringing the ball up the floor. Zen Master indeed.

By how does a team come back from two dozen on the road? Simple.

The Lakers didn't have home court advantage in their own arena.

It's a well known fact that LA crowds aren't the most boisterous in the league, but last night was embarrassing. Simmons talked about it after Game Three but Game Four was much, much worse. You can talk all you want about how these guys are grown men and should be focused on what's happening on the court. But if 19,000 of your "fans" are lifeless when the opposing team is mounting a ginormous comeback, it'll get to you. This Laker team is pretty soft as it is, but getting outscored 57-33 in the second half of a Finals game? Incredible. The crowd was like the bizarro Golden State crowd from last year when they beat Dallas. By the time Leon hit the tying shot, I think rigor mortis had set in.

I still remember watching the press conference introducing Kevin Garnett as a Boston Celtic. He, along with Pierce and Allen sat at the table with huge smiles on their faces. I thought how nothing short of getting to the Eastern Conference Finals would be a huuuuuge disappointment. After they put Detroit away in 6 games, it was sort of like playing with house money. Sure it would be great for those three to finally win a championship, but the West was just so dominant. Right? So here we are now. One game away from the greatest franchise in NBA history adding yet another banner to their already impressive collection. It's been a long road for Leon and I'm pretty stoked he's gotten to where he is. It's also been a long road for Pierce, Allen and Garnett. It would make quite the statement if they all came out and dominated Game Five. But I don't think anyone would be complaining if the Celtics won their 17th championship back on Causeway St. on Tuesday...

Leon's line from Game four:
9 minutes
3 points
5 rebounds
1-4 FG
1-2 FT
1 turnover



P.S. Ray Allen played the entire game. Holy crap!

Props from an old friend.

EDIT - How many should I order?

I had to pass this along.

Rod Benson writes a column for yahoosports.com. He also happens to be a former teammate of Leon when they were at Cal. He has played in the D league for the past two years and is currently working out in Miami in the hopes of making an NBA team next year. (He also did a piece with Bill Simmons on E:60 a while back.)

He's also pretty hilarious.

I've read his stuff before but his article about Leon after Game Two is just awesome. I love first person accounts like this. And it makes it that much better that he's a good writer. Enjoy.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/Too-much-Rod-Benson-Leon-Powe-gets-buckets?urn=nba,86906


P.S. We need to make an, "I GET BUCKETS" T-shirt with Leon's face on it. Let's make this happen!