Beat L.A.

Okay, I was not expecting that at all.

After the Magic demolished the Hawks to get to the Eastern Conference finals, the sports world practically had a coronation for them. They were supposedly so good after winning eight of their first eight playoff games that they were going to roll through the Celtics unfettered, and the road to a championship was clear.

The Celtics, on the other hand, had gone through the Heat fairly easily, and looked surprisingly good against the Cavaliers. Of course, the Cavaliers lost "because LeBron choked," and the Celtics were too old to be able to compete with Orlando.
More stuffRemember when everyone thought that? Yeah, that was dumb. Evidently nobody noticed that the Hawks and Bobcats are not that good at basketball. So the Magic got punked by the suddenly-not-old Celtics, and now Boston's in the finals. I mainly find this funny, and it's a big reason why about 95% of sports analysis is total crap (not what you find here, though!) and why it's mostly useless.

Nobody knows what's going to happen. People make assumptions usually based on faulty information (like the idea that the Atlanta Hawks were ever a good basketball team), and they make these predictions that we the viewers are all supposed to take as gospel, because if you're on television, you're automatically an "expert."

But the concentration on what's going to happen next obscures the role that analysts should be performing, one that they can actually perform. I don't want these people to play Nostradamus. I have no interest in bad predictions. What I want is for people who understand a game to explain to me what happened or what's happening. I want to understand what is happening and why it works. I want breakdowns of plays and strategies. These are things that a proficient analyst can actually do reliably, as opposed to predicting the future.

So now we come to the Western Conference. Game 6 is tonight in Phoenix. I have no idea who is going to win this game; I have no idea who is going to win this series. If I had to, I would guess that the Suns will probably win tonight and lost Game 7. What I do know for sure is this: Amar'e Stoudemire is not very good at defense, and if the Suns are going to win, they need to figure out a way to make up for that. The zone is doing that to an extent, but at some point the Lakers are going to adjust. I fear that the Suns won't be able to adjust to the adjustment, based on the fact that I'm pretty sure that Alvin Gentry is an inferior coach to Phil "X" Jackson.

I also know this: I hate the Lakers. I hate pretty much every player on the team, and I do not like Phil Jackson. I like the Suns, and I'm a Celtics fan. So I want somebody - ANYBODY - to beat L.A. I just don't know who it's going to be.

Perkins got jobbed (again)

So the other night in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals, Kendrick Perkins was called for two technical fouls and thus was ejected from the game by rule. Typically this would perturb me, as I'm a Celtics fan, but at the time my brother was graduating from high school, so I was less interested than usual.

Then I saw film of the fouls, and I reached the appropriate level of rage.
More stuffThe first one was ridiculous. Perkins was trying to help a teammate up from the floor, and his hand slipped. Marcin Gortat was standing behind Perkins, and when his hand slipped, he (I assume accidentally) elbowed Gortat because, if you'll remember, he was standing right freaking behind Perkins. So Gortat decided it would be a good idea to punch the ball out of Perkins' hands, and the referee decided it would be a good idea to give Perkins a technical. If any part of that sequence makes sense to you, let me know.

The second one was maybe even more spectacular. Perkins committed a foul or something (I was watching this on replay, remember) and didn't like the call, so he said something as he was walking away. He didn't show anyone up, unlike some people

Sorry, I don't know where that came from. Anyway, he basically got a technical for walking away from the referee. That's pretty absurd.

The second one got rescinded yesterday, so Perkins is back to having six technical fouls. This is important because a player with seven technical fouls in a single playoffs receives a one-game suspension by rule. In essence, the NBA was able to fix a screw-up by Wednesday night's officials that could have totally changed this series.

The problem: that fix may only be temporary. Perkins now has no room for error whatsoever. One tech and he's out for a game. Considering the fact that the first technical was bogus as well, the NBA should have rescinded both. Stuff like this can turn a series, especially considering the fact that Glen Davis is hurt now and Rasheed Wallace is no longer able to play basketball well. Perkins is the top man on the "guarding Dwight Howard" depth chart. He shouldn't be in danger of missing a game because NBA officials are ridiculous.