Andrew Upshaw (kind of)

It’s Thursday! I really don’t have anything in depth to write about just a few random thoughts and such. A bunch of other people wrote some ish that I liked so I’ll Throw in some Links:

Last night’s playoff games were pretty boring. I checked in on the Knicks-Heat game in the third and it was already over. i was kinda surprised to see the box score after the game. Did Carmelo Anthony wait until the game was over to start scoring? The series as a massive disappointment for knicks fans who wanted Melo to go Mano-a Mano with LeBron James. He played aight, Lebron played better but who else did the Knicks have? Amare has been a shell of his former self all year and he had ONE good game in the series. The Knicks were relying on Mike Bibby at the point. Mike Bibby. 

The Heat are playing Indiana in the second round. My instinct tells me that Miami will win easily but a lot of NBA experts I respect, namely John Hollinger say the series may be tough for the Heat. His reasoning is The Pacer’s depth and also the fact that their starting five have played just as well together as the Heat’s starting five. Miami’s stating five is Lebron and Dwayne Wade, the best two players in the league, Chris Bosh a Drake-like all-star, Mario Chalmers, the only other player on the Heat who is even close to average, and Haslem, who used to be kinda ok but isn’t  anymore and also isn’t a Center.The pacers have Danny Granger who is almost good enough to be an all-star. Darren Collison who’s also good or Geroge Hill, Roy Hibbert, who actually made the all-star team this year. David West who i think made some All-Star teams with the Hornets and is still good, but not THAT good and Paul George who is above average also known as good. So five good players and decent back up against a team with two great players, one very good player, one slightly below average player, and a bunch of wahed up role players. On paper it does seem like the Pacers could compete with Miami, who have the same exact weaknesses from last year. I still say Miami wins it in six games at the most. Hollinger says seven:

John Hollinger ESPN: Miami Heat vs. Indiana Pacers

The other game I sort of watched was Memphis vs. The LA Clippers. This game was notable for two reasons: Memphis fianly got their big men Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph involved offensively and crusied to an easy win and Chris Paul and Blake Griffin both injured themselves. Blake Griffin sprained his left knee and Chris Paul strained his right hip. Both guys are scheduled for MRIs today and it goes without saying that they both need to be able to play close to 100% for the Clippers to progress in the playoffs. The next game for the series is Friday in LA and I can’t really call it. We know both guys will gut it out though. I wouldn’t be surprised if Chris Paul plays his best game of the series next game actually, the guy is that great.

Rob Mahoney on The Grizzlies Late Game Problems

Tonight The Lakers play Denever in game 6 and Chicago plays Philly down 3-2. I’d like the Lakers to win game 6 but Denver’s tough at home and the series has been closer than we think.Through five games the Lakers have outscored denver by five.  I’ll be looking for the Lakers to go to their big men more. Last game Kobe Bryant took the offense over completely and Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum were afterthoughts.Kobe had a great game but they still lost so I expect Kobe to dial it down and look to get the ball inside more. Finally i have a link to a post by Ian Levy of Hardwood Paroxysm. He looks at the laker’s offense and wonder why they run so many Kobe isolations as opposed to post-up for Bynum and Gasol. The findings show that Gasol and Bynum-centic plays are the most successful plays the Laker’s run, which is partially due to the threat of Kobe. Interestingly to me is that Kobe is most effective scoring off of screens and spotting up as opposed to off the dribble.

Offensive Geometry: Ian Levy

Finally heres a pic of Rhianna, cuz she’s fine as hell AND crazy. Right now it’s kinda cool but hopefully not dangerous. we don’t want anything bad happening to Rhianna.