Recent NBA News & Series Analysis
Starting with the lastest NBA hardware handed out...
- Defensive Player of the Year - Not much of a surprise here with Ben Wallace from the Detroit Pistons winning the award for the 4th consecutive year. This is really one of those awards that makes you go, “huh?“. The guy can't shoot (period) so all he does is rebound and play hard on defense. Let's see... how good would David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, etc. have been if they didn't have to lead their team on both ends of the court. This award, in my opinion, is lame...
- Rookie of the Year - This is a total no-brainer.... Chris Paul from the New Orleans Hornets. Paul was the simply the best rookie at any position in the league this year. He was so good that folks complained when we was snubbed from the All-Star Game.
Other News...
- Sacramento Kings fire long-time coach Rick Adelman. The Kings had risen to a top team in the league mostly in part to Adelman over the past 10 years, so it's surprising to see management let him go. They didn't have a great season, but played a great second half after acquiring Ron Artest. Rumors are that the Maloof brothers didn't see eye-to-eye witih Adelman and his departure has been a long time coming.
Series Analysis...
- The Dallas Mavericks tried something different in Game 2 by starting Devin Harris alongside Jason Terry and Josh Howard. It seemed to work and the Mavs played a Suns-style game and simply ran the Spurs out of their own building to tie the series at one game a piece. Tim Duncan played solid, but the rest of the Spurs didn't have enough juice/legs to keep up, which led to the loss.
- The Detroit Pistons are going to be in the Conference Finals in two more games, no doubt about it. After surviving a late scare in Game 2, the Pistons pulled out and now lead the series two games to none. Lebron James put on quite a show trying to keep the Cavs in it, but in the end Detroit was too much.
- New Jersey ran all over the Miami Heat, which is kind of a surprise to me. I know they aren't the worst team, but the Heat are suppose to be so much better. The injury to Richard Jefferson is really going to affect their chances of taking another game in Miami though, so look for the Heat to win Game 2.
- Of course, where would my analysis be without talking about the Phoenix Suns. They head into Game 2 with the LA Clippers up one game to none. Expect the Clippers to be more physical and to try and slow the pace of the game down. The Suns can win by rebounding the ball and preventing 2nd chance opportunities for the LA big men.