ESPN.com and Yahoo Sports are both reporting that Avery Johnson got fired today as Head Coach of the Dallas Mavericks.
I would like to think that Cuban did it either during the last timeout or directly in the locker room, but that’s just for my own personal entertainment.
Seriously, we all knew that the hammer was going to come down on Avery if Dallas failed. They aren’t trading Dirk. They can’t trade Kidd. Something had to happen, so bye bye Little General. The statistics are staggering and all over the internet (thanks Yahoo!). Avery may have had a regular season record of [...]

This might be a new gimmick with a sweet name….so get excited. Five stories I thought were interesting today with my take on them.

Jeff Caplan of the Star Telegram reports that the reason for Dallas having a ‘players-only’ practice was because of Josh Howard. Reportedly, he threw himself a birthday party after the Game 4 loss and 3 or 4 teammates showed up. Avery had said no partying during the series. Avery found out and the Lil’ General went off in a big way.

SJ: On one hand you can see where Avery has a right to be ticked off. [...]

Jack McCallum at SI.com is reporting that D’Antoni is done in Phoenix.
I don’t buy it yet and if it is true I think it is a terrible move for Phoenix. I wrote about it in the Night Watch so you can scroll down, but my first thought is….who out there is BETTER than D’Antoni?
UPDATE: Well…that sounded positively Vescey-esque. Definitely wasn’t on ESPN.com when I woke up and couldn’t find much anywhere. Read the Arizona Republic (yes the actual newspaper) and Paul Coro had the following to say:
Nothing but the playoff losses has intensified the talk about Suns coach Mike D’Antoni’s [...]

San Antonio 92, Phoenix 87 (SA 4-1)
The past few years, the elimination of the Suns has come with a heavy seasoning of ‘what if’s’ and ‘coulda, shoulda, woulda’s.’
Not this year.
Execution was the name of the game and the Suns absolutely did not execute. Point blank. There is nothing else to say about it. Not just tonight but the whole series. I sat here staring at the blank screen trying to figure out how to recap this game. It doesn’t matter that the Suns played great and came back and all of that. It doesn’t matter that Shaq missed all [...]

The news broke earlier this weekend and is now official: Larry Brown will be taking over as head coach of the Charlotte Bobcats.
Immediate red flag thrown in the air. Why would the Bobcats go to Larry Brown to build an up-and-coming team? This will be Brown’s ninth NBA head coaching gig. With the exception of his 6-year stay in Philly, Brown has never stayed with a team for longer than 4 years. And judging by the debacle in New York, its questionable whether or not Brown can deal with a young team. There is no doubting that Larry Brown is [...]

Atlanta 97, Boston 92 (2-2)
Exactly what in the name of Lil’ Jon is going on?
Ladies and gentlemen, believe it or not….we have ourselves a series. Boston/Atlanta, 1 vs. 8, 2-2. The only series where a team has not lost on their home court. The intrigue of this series comes thanks to the young Hawks who apparently didn’t get the memo that they were supposed to go down without a fight.
Fight. That’s the same word that has made this series interesting. The Hawks fought in both of their home games. In Game 3 the fought off an Celtics rally. In [...]

ESPN.com reports that Pat Riley is going to step down as head coach of the Miami Heat.
More as it develops.

Such an entertaining, inspiring and original title to a post I know. Bear with me here people.
I’m not sure I could preview tonight’s games in any sort of depth. Generally speaking, once you get to Games 4 and 5 you have a good idea where the series is going. You already know what adjustments have to be made and if a team hasn’t made them yet it’s probably too late. I’d just end up saying the same old things so here’s what I think is going to happen. Orlando needs to close Toronto out tonight and not let them get [...]

Cleveland 100, Washington 97 (CLE 3-1)
You could talk about DeShawn Stevenson’s flagrant foul on LeBron? Or the Wizards questionable shot selection down the stretch. Or how dumb Mike Brown sounds during those in-between corner interviews. Or how Delonte West sometimes looks like he should be in a meth commercial.
Whatever you do just don’t freakin’ bring up Soulja Boy anymore. Please. Promise me. If I hear one more mention of Soulja Boy I’m going to freakin go to ESPN headquarters with a lead pipe and nail everyone in sight before I get tazed.
Onto the game….there are two reasons why Cleveland [...]

It was refreshing to again sit in front of a TV and watch the playoffs all day. I’m going to be sad when some of these teams get eliminated. This first round sure has been something, eh? Game 3’s tend to be win’s for the home team, especially when they are down 2-0. The crowd and the players have that extra emotional ‘oomph’ inside of them. Losing a Game 3 at home is deflating and devastating, unless you were Utah then it was just a wakeup call.
Toronto didn’t lose Game 3, but they sure lost Game 4. And I can [...]