I was born a Rambling Man

Some thoughts for you,

The Boston Celtics won their first road game in the playoffs. In the conference finals. Um, talk about backing your way into greatness. Let's think about this for a second. First round they played the Atlanta Hawks. For those of you keeping score at home the Hawks regular season record was eight games under .500. If you are a sixty win team, and you cannot beat a team that has arguabaly one of the most apathetic fan bases in the country that, and backed their way into the playoffs, then that's sign you won't get out of the next round. Unless you play the Cleveland Cavaliers, who are basically like the headless horseman of the NBA. They are terrifying until you figure out that the brains of the operation is a hollow pumpkin. The Cavs set offense makes Jeff Van Gundy look like an offensive guru. Which brings me to an interesting proposition? If Doc Rivers doesn't get a championship with this team, and he won't, how many seasons does he get to coach them. If they get embarrased in the finals, and they will if they get there, does Doc get fired? Does Doc get fired if they don't make the finals? I really want to know because it would be hard to fire a sixty win coach, unless that coach made it abundantly clear during the playoffs that his strategy didn't figure into it at all. Doc has done nothing if not that by having a superior team in the previous two series and dragging the series out to seven games somehow. If JVG were doing this wouldn't people be up in arms about this? People in Houston bristled when he had a team playing above their potential because he was a curmudgeon and he refused to give up the four hair come over. Thank you for finally giving that up Jeff. Doc should have been fired last year. He has a great team this year, that doesn't make him a great coach.

Detroit has one of the best benches in the league. I almost mentioned Rodney Stuckey in my preview, and I would have looked really smart if I had. This going to be rough for the Pistons if Chauncey isn't full strength. It would be interesting to me to see what would possibly motivate Sheed to turn this into his own personal vendetta to win.

LA and San Antonio is interesting. Kobe is mindblowing, now that I have gotten that of the way for Darko, I would like to talk about something else in this series. There have been an inordinant amount of make up calls in this series. Anytime the Spurs look like they are gaining momentum the game and the officials or foul shooting the Lakers will get a call somewhere. Take the we shouldn't have called a tech on Derek Fisher call on the next possesion. OR the fact that if Bob Horry had fouled Kobe the way Turiaf fouled Ginobli in garbage minutes we would be hearing about a possible suspension. I am wondering if Stern has a Manchurian Candidate thing going on with the officials in both the Boston series and this one to make sure that the officials do their part to provide the most lucrative finals (commercially) since MJ was playing. That being said the Spurs looked tired the first two games and were able to recover well for a third game. I am wondering if they have enough to get it done down the homestretch.

The Mavs are shopping Josh Howard? The Ponies want to get rid of one of the only athletes on their roster? I bet his trade value is through the rough after his recent confessionals on Micheal Irvin's radio show too. A quick aside on this, if you were going to confess to anything in front of Mike Irvin I bet talking about smoking pot in front of him would be like telling your grandmother that you have jaywalked once in your life. Irvin's exploits off the field are almost as well known as his palymaking on the field. I bet when they were off the air during commercial breaks Irvin was telling the young man about snorting elbows off of strippers asses, while Nate Newton bench pressed his own weight in pot. Right before the commercial break is over and Irvin has told a story that makes Howard feel he has to say something, cue the music, so Josh what are your thoughts on partying with some smoke? Roll tape. Speaking of...

Joakim Noah just got charged with possesion of the devil's lettuce, which is about as surprising as John McCain interviewing a fascist for his running mate...

Alright I'm done, The Captain signing off for now...