It's so weird. Just when it looks Lakers had the easiest remaining schedule, they went on to lose to Bobcats and Grizzles. This west conference thing is so tight.

The Lakers without Gasol are pathetic. Hurry up and get out there Gasol. They won't make a dent in the playoffs if they continue playing this way. Fisher, Kobe, and the crew are better than this.

Weird part is the Lakers beat Utah(in Utah!), Dallas, Golden State last week without Gasol. Weird turn-around, to say the least. Though Memphis has figured things out more lately (though it took them 60 games to do it). Darko has kind of arrived finally.

Oh, and the Lakers attempted 45 3 pointers tonight... 14 by Sasha Vujacic! (Kobe took 17). That is awful!

If the playoffs started today, over in the west we'd get these first round matchups:

San Antonio vs. Dallas
Phoenix vs LA
Golden State vs. New Orleans
Houston vs. Utah

There are some pretty impressive looking matchups there for a first round... Kobe vs. Shaq... S.A. vs. Dallas... The first round could be more exciting than the eventual finals.

Phoenix vs LA shouldn't happen in the first round. I'm hoping Phoenix gets the 5 seed while Lakers get the 2 seed, so they don't meet until the conference finals (if they can get past the Spurs and Hornets).

I think it'll end up

NO vs Dallas (hopefully)
LA vs Golden State
San Antonio vs Houston
Utah vs Phoenix

hmm looks like the Cavs haven't totally seperated themselves from "THE PACK" yet. After tonight(they're getting spanked), they'll be 1.5 ahead of Washington, 2.5 ahead of Toronto, 3 ahead of Philly. Those two losses to Milwaukee took away their breathing room. If we could get in a 4-5 seed matchup with Philly or Washington, even without homecourt advantage, it'd be a godsend. A Toronto-Washington series would be the most entertaining thing ever... I swear every game we play with them ends in overtime or a nailbiting finish, they're my favorite team to play.

Oh how wondeful would it be if the Cavs fell into 7th. Pistons vs. Cavs, seven game series in the first round?

What a wonderful thought.

They seriously need to do something about those Hawks scorekeepers. We wuz robbed!

The most frustrating thing is that Mitchell and our bench pointed it out as soon as it happened, but the refs ignored their pleas.

I really think this should be grounds for reversing the game. I mean the instant replay clearly shows the clock was at .35-.4 when the ball was caught, and if it was at .5 it's an easy basket. Raptors victory.

I'm not that upset because Washington lost to Milwaukee tonight and we might end up playing Orlando instead of Cleveland this way(good thing), but still. Get the right calls please. Especially considering this has happened 3 times with the same team (last year Ford had a phantom bucket against Atlanta, plus the Miami thing)

I think the NBA should stop counting tenths/hundredths of seconds...

I mean, come on. Humans can't sense hundredths of seconds. It's just stupid that you can inbound the ball, catch it, land, turn around, set and shoot in less than a second.

It defies physics.

No, it was an inbound alley-oop play, he threw it at the rim and Ford caught it in mid-air and stuffed it in. The clock is supposed to start when you touch it, it should've started at .5, but it did at .4. Considering the call of whether or not it was off his fingertips was already insanely close(though it was the right call, it was on his fingertips), like less than half of a .1, it's clear that with one more .1 of a second there's no question, the ball is in. The league should be able to set their own instant replay clock, look at the play again, and determine it.

Also it should've been at .7-.8 seconds from the other play. I don't suspect that'll come up in the protest, but whatever.

That's exactly what I'm arguing though.

I mean, COME ON! Can you really sense one tenth of a second? No.

It makes no sense whatsoever to use a clock that no human can even comprehend.

No, but the clock was started when the ball was noticeably away from him. .1 is kind of a while at bullet passing speed. I can understand human error, but when the same thing has happened to one team three times and to no-one else, when they fuck up the play before it, and when this happens, it's not just an error anyone makes. Maybe they're just plain incompetant, but whatever.

http://img363.imageshack.us/img363/2484/badcallsj2.jpg

And that's when it's actually at .4 and it's still not there. So the .1 already happened. God knows where the ball was when the clock actually started.

Don't care when the clock started. In real life you can't sense tenths/hundredths of seconds.

Maybe if they wouldn't have let Atlanta come back, just like EVERY other team does, then they wouldn't be getting shitty calls.

They suck.

According to ESPN, the refs are the ones that start the clock... not the Atlanta scorekeepers, so we can't blame them.

It's a bum deal, but from the sounds of it, it does not sound like something that will go very far in a protest, as the refs can not review when the clock was started, only whether the shot was off in time. Plus, there is no way for sure they could say 100% that had it started a little later that Ford would have got the shot off... likely, but not definite. So, at best they'd replay that .5 seconds, but I doubt it'll go anywhere.

Looks like the Hawks will do whatever it takes to make the playoffs.

Though I'd be super pissed if that happened to my team. Did you break anything Shack?

Celts really look good in weaker East Conference.

awful loss tonight. I think I'm actually more interested in what happens with the Raptors this offseason than the remainder of this season for them, looks like we'll definitley limp into the playoffs and get spanked by one of the top four. But this offseason... got a Ford automobile to move, got an expiring stomach Rasho contract to attract other GMs, got a draft pick. Gonna be some important decisions to be made, we have to change our style of play from jumpshooting pussies to more hard work and heart.

Edit: Never mind. Yahoo is slow.

You can't finish people off if you go limp right before you climax...

So we might actually fall to 8th and get the Celtics now. It's funny thinking that 2 months ago I thought there was no way were weren't getting the Cavs in the 4-5 seed matchup, at worst 6th, and whoever got 7th and 8th would get it in an embarrasing default fashion. Amazing how quickly sure things go away when you lose 15 of 21.

yep about fucking time.

Lol, I guess Durant took some sweet sweet revenge on Denver tonight. The Nuggets lost to Sacramento without Artest and Miller and to Seattle on consecutive nights. Talk about taking yourself out of it.

KD's lookin like the real deal lately

Is it the playoffs yet?

So Celtic fans, would you rather get Washington or Cleveland in round 2? It's pretty much a lose lose for you if they play each other (which they should). I'd actually be more scared of Washington, GS proved last year matchups matter, and they've seemed to figure Boston out. Plus Cleveland looks ugly since the trade. Like, really ugly. Actually considering Flip "I've lost to clearly inferior teams two years in a row LOLERZ" Saunders is waiting in the ECF, Washington is probably the biggest darkhorse this year, as crazy as it'd be.