Vintage Playoffs!!!

Now their has been alot of controversy surrounding the NBA and its very hard fouls and tough play this year. I ask why? These are the playoffs and this is what it is about. Not neccesarily having fights or confrontation, but playing every possesion as if it is your last. In almost every second round series, grit and toughness are the determining factors. This years playoffs remind me of the old school, tough fought playoff victories. The Detroit Bad Boys, Patrick Ewing's Knicks, the always dirty and rough Utah Jazz, and Michael Jordans battle tested Bulls. This is what the NBA needs, men fighting for a win and not banking off of pure talent.

In the Orlando-Boston series, Orlando took game 1 after blowing a HUGE lead and showed the Celtics that they are capable of beating them without Kevin Garnett. So we move on to game 2, a critical game for Boston to win on their homecourt or they risk the chance of being swept by Orlando. The defending champs come out firing, literally, with the rare 31 point performance by Eddie House. Rajon Rondo posted a now predictable triple-double and they take the game. But controversy struck as Rafer Alston slapped House in the back of his head after a made three pointer and slight shove by House. You know the rest, alot of jawing and threats but nothing came about. So was Rafer Alston wrong for his slap? I believe so, he may have caught an elbow to the stomach, but Skip has to think about the dire point guard situation the Magic are already in. With all star Jameer Nelson out for the rest of the season, Rafer has to spearhead this offense. Now the offense is in the hands of 34 year old Anthony Johnson, who looks like those old players that still want to run pick-up games at LA fitness. In the bigger picture, this also makes the Magic backcourt even less deep then what they were now without both Alston and Courtney Lee. Luckily for the Magic, this series is headed to Orlando where Hedo and Rashard Lewis can thrive. The wing players have to show up.

The Los Angeles Lakers and the Houston Rockets. What more can I say? Do I feel a new rivalry brewing up? The Lakers dropped game 1 to these cinderella story Rockets and people questioned if they were mentally AND physically tough enough for the wear and tear of the Rockets hard nosed defense. How do they respond? Only through playing off of pure emotion in a very tough game 2. The score was not a good representative of how good this game actually was. A flagrant foul by Derek Fisher that landed him a one game suspension, an (accidental) elbow to Ron Artest by Kope Bryant that was recently upgraded to a flagrant foul, Ron Artest ejection after getting in Kobe's face to get his point across, and Von Wafer being sent to the locker room by Rick Adelman. I feel like this isn't the last time this series will get as gritty as we shift back to Houston for two games. Yao Ming has to be productive and stay out of foul trouble and double teams have to be placed on Kobe. The Rockets should let his unreliable teammates try and beat them. If the Lakers are to win on the road they are going to have to continue to force turnovers and create fast break points like they did in game 2.

In the Nuggets-Mavericks series, we have seen the Nuggets be the aggressors the whole series. Dirk has been fouled to the point where Kenyon Martin recieved a 25,000 dollar fine. But like Charles Barkeley said after the Mavs game 2 loss, Dirk has to react. He can't let the Nuggets big men punk him or it's gonna be a long and physically draining series for him. Right now Dirk is the scrawny 6th grader and NeNe, Chris Anderson or the Birdman, and Kenyon Martin are the 8th graders taking his lunch money. Hopefully that 6th grader will hit them in the face one of these days. But not to mention, Dirk is having an outstanding series averaging 31.5 point per game but lets face it, he cant win without a healthy Josh Howard and a better Jason Kidd. Howard's ankle problems are getting out of hand and Kidd is turning the ball over in this series more than I have ever seen him do so. The Nuggets however, are playing excellent ball and they are owning the last 20 minutes of the game. It seems like Dallas is always with them until the third quarter and then its Nuggets land. The Mavs are going to have to play better at home and finish their games. If they can keep it close till the final seconds, they have two weapons to bank on for clutch shots in Dirk and Jason Terry. The Nuggets just need to keep lighting up the score board. They are playing great offensive basketball and the Mavs might be overmatched right now.

I'm not going to waste my time talking about the Cavs-Hawks series. Right now the Cavs are just a much better team and Atlanta is suffering from injuries. Maybe their homecourt might give them a little extra confidence, but if not, get ready to pull out your brooms.

These playoffs are turning out to be the best in years. No boring San Antonio or Detroit and young teams are beginning to make a name for themselves. Physicality is a MUST! It shows the teams passion and it provides an edge to each series. Now let's see who will tough it out the rest of the way.

The Best Ever?

Welcome to my third install ment of my blog. We have definitely been watching history take place with the grueling seven game series between the Chicago Bulls and the defending champion Boston Celtics. Now since every one is asking whether this seven game series is the best of all time or not, I am going to give my personal opinion on this subject matter. I believe that this series is the best first round series of all time, plain and simple. But I just can't say it's the best of all time until I see the highly anticipated series finale.

Now just for a little background information:

This series has had seven overtimes! One game had two and last nights game 6 had three! We have seen numerous hustle plays, skirmishes, bloody noses, stitches, hard fouls, missed free throws, a 51 point performance in a game 6 loss and game tying and winning three pointers by Ray Allen, a 35 point game 6 performance and a game saving block on what could've been Paul Pierce's game winning jumper, Paul Pierce's game 5 winning shot, Ben Gordon's game 4 saving three pointer while nursing a strained hamstring, and the best point guard play in the NBA right now with Rookie of the Year Derrick Rose who blocked Rondos potential game winning shot in game 6 and has been averaging 20 point and 7 rebounds in his first playoff series ever, and the triple double averaging sophomore Rajon Rondo! Wow!

I am going to say that this is the best series we've seen in the past decade, maybe even two, but I still believe the ancient Celtics-Lakers championship games in the 80's were better because of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. Now if this series was for the Eastern Conference Championship, then I would give it the title, but it's still a first round series.

Now since I have explained myself, their is one more question left. Who will win this series? My pick would have to be the Boston Celtics because they are going to Boston for game 7. It's hard to really count the defending champs out at their home court in the first round even though Kevin Garnett isn't in the lineup. After all the Celtics were pushed to a game 7 in last years first round, but these Bulls are playing with way more passion away from Chicago than the Hawks were playing away from Atlanta. So I believe everybody should tune in to game 7 tommorow at 8 o'clock on TNT and see how these two compassionate teams will play in their final meeting of this playoff series.

The Drought is Over!

Welcome to the second installment of Elliott Ness Sports Investigation. Today I will actually post two blogs with this being my first. As I promised you, here is the recap of the game 6 finale of the Rockets and Blazers that finally ended the Rockets 12 year second round drought.

Now to the game 6 recap.

My keys for the Rockets success were almost entirely achieved by the Rockets. Yao Ming was able to produce 17 points and add 10 rebounds for the Rockets and he kept the foul happy Greg Oden in foul trouble. My second key proved to be a very important factor for the Rockets win. Ron Artest had his best offensive showing in the series with 27 points and he shot 11 for 21 from the field. To win against the Lakers the Rockets will need Ron to provide quality offensive games like this one. Then the Rockets had 10 offensive rebounds which turned into second chance points, which is a great turn around from the horrible 3 offensive rebounds the Rockets had in game 5. However, the most important factor of the Rockets win were their role players. The play of Carl Landry, Von Wafer, and Kyle Lowry might not overwhelm the box score, but their energy, determination, and hustle proved to be signifigant as they went on a 13-2 second quarter run to push the Rockets lead to double digits.

The Trailblazers just couldn't get out of the hole that the Rockets put them in and it resulted in the 13th loss of 14 in the Toyota Center for the young blazers. They couldn't force turnovers and get easy shots. The Rockets had only 8 turnovers which matched their series low. Their inexperience showed and they looked like a team in panic ever since the start of the second half. They didn't stay poised, which was one of my keys for their victory, and the Rockets let their crowd hoist them to a victory.

Now the Rockets have to put this series behind them and head to a tough matchup against the defending Western Conference champions, the L.A. Lakers. If they have any chance to beat the Lakers, the Rockets have to play every position like it's their last. The Lakers are everones shoe in for the NBA finals but let me remind you that these are the playoffs in the NBA. Anything can happen, as some people are seeing with the amazing series of the Bulls and the Celtics, but more on that later. With their backs against the walls, the Rockets will try to make amazing happen with an upset of everones favorite team to hate.

Portland Trailblazers-Houston Rockets Round 1

Welcome to the first edition of elliott ness sports investigation. Today I will preview the fifth game between the Houston Rockets and the Portland Trail Blazers in one of the most interesting NBA playoffs we have seen in years. As a huge Rockets fan, I will try to keep my biased opinions to myself and only present facts. Well as you all know the Blazers won game 5 by eleven points after a 4th quarter surge in which they out scored the Rockets 15 to 0. The Rockets were clicking and then all of a sudden all momentum shifted to Portland. I won't say that this was the result of Houston "choking", but instead a sudden boost of momentum from the die hard 20,462 Portland fans. So here we are now. The series has shifted back to Houston and the Rockets are up 3-2. I am far from being a TNT NBA analyst, which someday I will be, but I will give you the keys of the games for both the Blazers and the Rockets.

Now since I am such a huge Rockets fan, I'll give you their keys first.
1. Get the ball to Yao Ming!
-and I stress this the most for my Rockets because when he can get the ball against Greg Oden or Joel Pryzbilla, he can score eight out of ten times. When he is double teamed, which he usually is by these young Blazers, he can either pass the ball back out and repost or swing the ball for an open shot.
2. The Rockets need Ron Artest to be more consistent on offense.
No knocks on Ron, coming to a team his first year and virtually becoming the star in place of Tracy Mc(Trade Me), or Tracy McGrady in his better days, but Ron needs to shoot the ball better after going 3 of 9 from the field.
3. Crash the offensive boards.
I have this key at number 3 for a reason. The Rockets had only 3 offensive rebounds yesterday which makes them unable to produce as many second chance points. In game 4 Houston grabbed 16 offensive rebounds in their win. The Rockets need to crash the boards to win game 6.
4. Houston has to pick their poison defensively.
The Rockets have to contain both Lamarcus Aldridge or Brandon Roy. Since it's nearly impossible to contain Brandon Roy because of his great midrange and driving game, I say lets take Lamarcus out of the game by playing him with a physical and quicker opponent such as Chuck Hayes. I love Scolas defense, but he will foul Aldridge too many times and the Rockets need him on the floor.

Now for the Portland Trailblazers.

1. Give Brandon Roy the ball when the game is on the line.
Portland, you are a young team with a superstar that is capable of putting you on his back and winning the game. Every one saw how horrible of a game he was having in game 5 until he erupted in the 4th quarter to score 14 of his 25 points. If they want to stay alive in this series, Portland has to give him the ball. He averages 27.9 points in the playoffs, so why not?
2. Stay poised on the road.
As I mentioned before, Portland is still a very young team and inexperienced in the playoffs. They have to come out firing on all cylinders in Houston, but when they slump, and they will because of Houstons crowd and the Rockets defense, they need to collect theirselves and take the game one possesion at a time.
3. Force turnovers.
In game 5, Portland forced 17 turnovers, which is the most forced upon Houston for this series. Keep forcing turnovers and allow your young talent to turn them into fast break points.
4. As much as I hate to say it, double team Yao Ming. Their double team is very effective on Yao as he had no first quarter shots in game 5. Force the other players to score and keep the ball out of Yao's hands.

That's todays edition of the elliott ness sports investigation. Tune in after Game 6 to get my version of the recap.

Elliott Ness The Untouchable