Ira Winderman ranks the East teams by how much of a threat they could be to the Miami Heat. Miami Heat | Sun-Sentinel Blogs: Mr. Half Empty?
I wonder what would his opinion be ond possible 2nd round matchup between Miami and Detroit. Miami figures to have a much tougher series than Pistons and their health is a much bigger question mark.
Whoa, the Jazz just blew a 3 on 0 fast break...Fisher missed the layup, Memo missed on the follow, and the Rockets got a dunk with Yao cherry-picking on the other end. And that gives Houston its first lead since back in the first half.
Yao runs with blocks on his feat. that blown 3 on 1 was absolutely hilarious. Remember, this was the guy that tried dunking on Duncan a fewyears ago. (Fish)
It wasn't a 3 on 1...it was 3 on 0! One of the Rockets had gotten back, but he was blocked off from getting to the rim. There were three Jazz players going to the basket against zero Rockets.
Which makes it even more hilarious. Yao was so gassed at that point that he didn't even bother to move. Turned out to be the right decision.
So T-Mac's wild-eyed insistence to Stephen A. Smith that "IT'S ON ME" wasn't looking too good in the first half, when he only had one point and the Rockets trailed by nine, but he dropped 16 on the Jazz in the third quarter as the Rockets blew past them 26-11 and held on for the win.
MacGrady really has some serious range on his shot. From > 2 feet outside the arc, it seems like the most reliable in the league. I think they are the West's version of the Pistons. Very good on defense, and therefore not as fun for the average non-affiliated fan to watch. I respect them, but I can't say I was riveted while watching.
This post season will tell us if T-Mac really has it. By that I mean, will he realize he can`t and doesn`t have to do it all himself. He and Yao make a great 1-2 punch. Battier, Howard, Mtumbo and Head are great role players. Van Gundy has done a very good coaching job, winning over 50 games in the WC with Yao and Mcgrady out (at times) during the season. If T-Mac loses that, "I must do it all" mentality, and the defense and role players continue to produce, we will see them in the Finals, IMO. They are definitely the sleeper team in the West.
The Rockets are built for the playoffs, and the only other West team you can say that about is San Antonio. I'm not sure the Rockets can get by the Spurs, but if someone else knocks them out, they have as good a chance as anyone. I like Van Gundy a lot.
I think the Wizards are a better team without Arenas, but they're really missing Butler. Eddie Jordan has them exploiting mismatches and pretending to play defense, which is a step in the right direction, but they're too depleted to win this series even if James is more seriously injured than it looks.
Have you been drinking this afternoon ahb?? Seriously though, I don`t think they are a better team without Arenas, they just play a totally different style of ball without him. Remember they are without Caron Butler also. Now if they had Butler and no Arenas they would be a better team, however, Arenas kind of makes this team go, they feed off him.
And I think that style is more conducive to winning, especially in the playoffs. Their fake Princeton offense with Arenas jacking up 10-15 bad shots a night is completely unreliable and makes their already-bad defense even worse. Using Antonio Daniels to do the playmaking instead of Arenas has a similar effect to Philadelphia replacing AI with Andre Miller. Some observations from the PHX-LAL game: It's amazing how much better the Lakers are with Kwame Brown in the lineup than they are with Bynum or Turiaf. The refs are in Phoenix's back pocket. Both teams are missing a lot of easy shots, but the Lakers' team defense is perfectly designed even when it's not well executed. Marion is useless if you guard him. That LA has failed to is a concern. Jon Barry makes Mike Breen sound like just a garden-variety jackass by comparison.
Ok, Hopefully DT will not read this, with me actually defending the Wiz. I disagree. Daniels certainly is no slouch running the Wizards offense, however, Arenas is a PG in name only. He does average about 6 ass. per game though. He does jack up a lot of bad shots, some of them he actually makes. I don`t like the Wiz or Arenas at all, I get to see them from time to time since I am local, and with the team they are putting on the court now, contrary to your opinion, without Arenas they wouldn`t be playing right now. On the other hand with Arenas and Butler, they possibly could defeat the Cav`s. As far as their defense, the talent on this team is not assembled to stop anybody, consistently. BTW Arenas is always among the league leaders in steals.
Ugly game in Dallas but a pretty result. Between Cuban %%%%%ing and Harris flopping the Mavs are beginning to remind me quite a bit of Miami.
Gotta give it up for the home boys. Lets hope they can keep it up throughout the series. Their defense is what scares me. They'll put up points against any D most of the nights, but can they stop anyone is another question.
