And now is when things really get interesting. Charles Barkley has always said that a series doesn’t really start until a home team loses. With the exception of Philly and Utah, everyone is returning to their home floors looking at an 0-2 hole and a must-win Game 3. Simply put, you lose tonight you have to make history to win the series.
(By the way…the Kenny Smith parody of Kobe jumping a car was hilarious. The best part was that after the third or fourth time of replaying it, they furthered the joke by revealing Ernie to be the driver. Another night where I was sad to watch Inside go off the air.)
Orlando/Toronto
-Toronto has got to do a few things to win tonight. The first is to get anything out of TJ Ford. They have to. He’s played terrible on both ends of the floor. A lot of people are calling for TJ to get benched, but you have to think about this. The reason why TJ got inserted into the starting lineup, despite the fact that Calderon was outplaying him in every single way was because of the fact that TJ’s ego wouldn’t let that happen. A direct quote from Bruce Arthur of the National Post:
“But when Ford was shoved into a backup role after missing eight weeks due to another neck injury this season, he turned toxic. He dominated the ball, shot too much, poisoned the waters. Eventually, Calderon volunteered to go back to the bench to help the team.”
Point blank you cannot have a struggling PG become a frustrated, struggling PG who will start looking for his own game. That’s why TJ is more than likely going to start.
Step 1 for Toronto is stopping Jameer Nelson. I promise you the Magic are extremely tough to beat when he is getting 15-19 points a game. This series so far he is averaging 21. If the Raps can find a way to slow Nelson down, they’ll more than likely win the game. So far this series they have done a pretty good job slowing Rashard and Hedo, now if they can find a way to get Jameer back to his regular season average (10 points) they should win for sure.
The next step for Toronto would be to get production from Bargnani and Parker. They can’t expect Delfino and Kapono to carry them like that their starters have to come up big-time.
If you’re Orlando…keep doing what you’re doing. Try and get some easier shots for Hedo and Rashard, but keep doing what you’re doing.
It would also be nice if the Raptors figured out that the game does in fact start in the first quarter.
Houston/Utah
-Things definitely do not look good for Houston, especially as we watch T-Mac slowly but surely begin to lose his mind. Maybe he has a 50 point performance in him, maybe not. But the facts are all against Houston. Utah just stole 2 from them on the road. Houston has lost 4 straight playoff games in Utah, even when they had Yao Ming. Utah had the best home record in the conference (37-4). Not to mention the fact that the Del….Energy Solutions Center is the toughest place to play playoff basketball in. If Houston wants to have a chance they have to shut down Okur, not let Ronnie Price hit a BS three and get 20+ from Rafer Alston. That’s their only chance. Utah has Deron Williams saying he hasn’t had a good game yet, which is just awful news if you’re Aaron Brooks or Bobby Jackson. Boozer probably will stay out foul trouble and the Jazz will be in their element. I just pray they don’t bring back those awful blue-ish, purple-ish shirts from last year.
Cleveland/Washington
-Washington has got to stop the Z-Man. Ilgauskas is averaging 19 points and 10 boards in the series so far. Basically the Cavs have two options: unstoppable LeBron and unstoppable Z-Man. Forget all the talk about the hard foul Brendan Haywood gave to LeBron…he should be getting criticized because Ilgauskas is absolutely roasting him. The Wiz should definitely spend more time trying to shut Ilgauskas and the supporting guys down than wasting their time on schemes for LeBron. LeBron is going to get his. But when you let Wally get 15 and Ilgauskas get 20ish..it is a wrap.
A big part of the reason why Washington is down 0-2 is the complete disappearance of Caron Butler. During the season he averaged 20…this series he has averaged 13. Ditto for Jamison. And Antonio Daniels has to give them something, he has been a complete non-factor in this series so far. If I was Eddie Jordan, seeing how my team has been offensively challenged I would think about putting Nick Young in. We’ll see if he gets some tick at home.
Forget the hard fouls because they are nothing compared to the 80’s and 90’s. I kind of lost a bit of respect for LeBron James after that foul not going to lie. Did he not watch Come Fly With Me? Did he not see what MJ had to go through, getting bodyslammed by anyone in a Piston jersey for years? One little foul and it was ‘scary’. Come on man. Step it up.
Washington needs to worry more about how they can score and how they can stop Ilgauskas than trash-talking and fouling.