Quick Thursday Night Thoughts from last night’s doubleheader. Chicago didn’t look that good in winning, as a matter of fact they tried to give the game away over and over again but the Pistons couldn’t capitalize. Sheed missed two great looks and the Bulls won. Not much else to be said about that one, although it’s interesting that Big Ben was on the pine so much in the 4th. The Bulls are not going anywhere when it comes to playoff time though, they have no post presence at all. You can’t throw it in to Tyrus or Ben to get a bucket, and any argument about Joe Smith gets refuted by the fact that he’s one of the worst #1 picks in the history of the game. Detroit can throw it into Sheed when they need a bucket and he can either score or collapse the D and kick it out. Unfortunately Flip Saunders is still their coach.
I’m far from impressed with Dallas. At one point I almost wanted to yank them from my contenders list but common sense told me not too. At the end I’m definitely not impressed with Dallas…they don’t really have any swagger or emotion to them. They definitely aren’t winning the title this year. It is clear that Golden State is the team that has their number. Dallas needs to avoid the Warriors at all costs. Avery Johnson had a year to get it right…and he still didn’t. To beat Golden State you’re going to have to outscore them. You can’t try and outdefend them and think you’re going to consistently stop them because you won’t. Without Jason Richardson and Jackson, the Warriors were still an open BD three away from sending the game to OT. Ridiculous. Golden State may be 0-5 but will be back once Jackson returns and Nelson lets Belinelli play. He has to, they need the scoring desperately.
Tonight is the much-anticipated (if you’re Chinese or in China) Yao/Yi matchup. It’s such a big matchup that even ESPN, the network that will hype ANYTHING to death (look at NASCAR) decided to put Denver/Washington and Cleveland/Sacramento on their double-header. I myself am not buying into this being a big deal…unless you’re Chinese. I’m sure they are just going nuts in anticpation for this, even though they won’t be guarding each other. Here in the US…just not really reasonating with me. This is nowhere near Yao/Shaq because these guys aren’t even going to be guarding each other. By the way…does anyone remember that Yao/Shaq game in Houston. Now that was a happening. This is not at all, mainly because the Rockets are so much better than the Bucks it’s not even funny.
In my Sports Psychology class I learned that 50% of athletes don’t rehab their injuries properly. Throw Gilbert into that group. This isn’t like Amare just not showing up, but Gilbert assuming that everything was ok and not doing it all only for it to comeback with a vengeance. The league needs a healthy Gilbert and Wizard fans need it to keep their sanity.
More of Sam Mitchell messing up the Raptors. You put Bargnani at the center in the playoffs and it didn’t work. Then you give him the same starting spot…and it still isn’t working. And now you have to make the switch to…Nesterovic. Toronto is in trouble.
LeBron is better than Kobe, football picks coming soon and if you’re lucky my sweet story on meeting Sue Bird last night.