Actually I'm not even sure Kobe is my favorite rapist MVP... Didn't Karl Malone admit he impregnated a 13 year old girl this week (the kid plays for the Buffalo Bills now ). I'm not sure if it fits the defintion of rape as much as pedo, but it's close enough.

I didn't know that about Karl Malone! Sex with a 13 year old is definitely considered rape, so thank god... I have a new favorite rapist to win the NBA MVP! Kobe moves to 2nd place.

Maybe this is like a requirement to win the award? Perhaps we should dig into Steve Nash's background? He looks like a rapist!

I would have to stop liking the Pistons if that happened...

It's the Bill Simmons curse.

Mavericks hire Rick Carlisle already, wow they have a quick trigger finger. It's a solid move I think, he's a lot like Avery, but then again Dallas did go to the finals and win 67 games with Avery's style, so it can work. It's a lot better than hiring D'Antoni or something and trying to play Phoenix style with that slow as balls roster, that would be a mess.

Cuban doesn't realize that the problem with the Mavs isn't Avery.

It's him.

Fucking idiot.

Did I mention how much I hate the second round starting before the first ends? It happens every damn year! Learn how to schedule better, dammit.

Anyways

Cleveland in 7 if Boston wins/Cleveland in 5 if Atlanta wins
Detroit in 6

LA in 6
New Orleans 7 (i'm psyched for this one)

I think this round will make up for last in terms of the match-ups living up to their billing. And really, the only way we don't get a classic WCF is if San Antonio and Utah win... not that I dislike either of them, but SA seems to have Utah's number and I think it would play out similarly to last year. LA vs San Antonio, LA vs New Orleans, New Orleans vs Utah would all be awesome.

Yeah... I hate that the 2nd round is here before the 1st is over.

Here's my last second predictions for what we know:

Detroit over Orlando in 5 games
SA over NO in 5 games
Utah over LA in 6 games

Boston over Cleveland in 7 games
Cleveland over Atlanta in 5 games

There was a rumor earlier in the year that it was considered, and I was with you... I'm a diehard Pistons fan since the late 80's, and I would have disowned the team. But, I ultimately have trust that Joe Dumars is smarter than that.

On the Rick Carlisle hiring... I like Carlisle. I liked him when he coached Detroit, but I've never thought he had quite what it takes to get a team to the NBA finals. I don't think we'll see a drastic change in the team with this change, but clearly it had to be done for there to be a chance.

Lastly... as for the Boston and Atlanta game 7, logic tells me Boston is going to win easily, but I can't help but wonder how tight they're going to be, and on the reverse Atlanta should be loose. The Hawks have nothing to lose and the Celtics are facing one of the biggest chokes in sports history. This should be interesting tomorrow!

Detriot over the Magics in 6
Boston over Cleveland in 6

LA over Utah in 6
New Orleans over SA in 6

Happy the Pistons won, but that game was a snooze fest! It looked like a pre-season game.

The Magic looked like they were just going through the motions - they just don't bring any intensity at all. It's early, but it may be time to get a broom out... especially if Howard really is hurt.

I don't know why I hate Orlando so much... and I'm not saying this because they beat my team... even in the regular season, they're just kind of blah. Even Howard, I keep expecting him to be a Shaq like scoring force that they can't stop, but they never pass it to him.

Maybe it's because their crowd is 80% old retired people or kids who just want to go to Disneyworld. I think it's uncool that the team that got Shaq, Penny, Tmac and Howard, is a pretty new franchise in a city that isn't really basketball crazy. I guess when you get that many stars handed to you, you never suffer and build character...

I feel the same as you about Orlando, so it's not just because your team got beat, as Detroit thumps them on a yearly basis. I think it's because they play with very little passion. They don't seem like a real close team. It's like a bunch of good pieces, but I'm not sure they fit together, or that they really gel.

Maybe Orlando can prove me wrong, but there is no way in hell they're going to beat Detroit unless they can play with some intensity, like Philly did, or like Atlanta is doing with Boston. They can't just walk into the arena and win.

As for the other game tonight... what a freakin' clusterfuck! Delayed around 30 minutes in between quarters because of a mascot trick gone wrong. Nobody on either team looked thrilled about that, and it was fun watching TNT try to fill a half hour until they got the game restarted.

Spurs look a little thin

Hornets are legit

I love David West

Hawks clearly couldn't hang in the Garden all series long. Coming in this is the most certain I've ever been about a Game 7 winner, there was no way Atlanta was walking in there and winning.

Wow, 32 points with 5 minutes left in the 3rd? Celts are freakin pissed.

This could end up being good for the Celtics. This is the first time they've ever played a big time game 7 as a team and they came through huge. When is the last time they had a meaningful game in the regular season?

Cavs need to win in 6 if they're going to win.

Well that game was closer than the score indicated, Utah was hanging around 5-8 points down most of that 4th. D Will didn't really have it today though and Boozer was in foul trouble. Should be a good series.

If you live in Cleveland, you can get $0.23 cent pizzas on Thursday!!!

From Papa Johns.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs2008/news/story?id=3381471

I'm a little suprised by what the Hawks did. Don't get me wrong, I expected the Celtics to win and I expected them to do it somewhat convincingly since for some reason they're able to just turn it on at home, but once the Hawks got down by about 10, there was just no more life in them. It seemed like they just gave up and waited for it to end.

The Celtics though just went out and won it though. Why they weren't able to turn it on like this (not expecting 30+ blowouts in Atlanta, just a win) in Atlanta and steal a game I just don't know. In Game 3 I could see where they might not have taken the Hawks seriously and they just thought they could roll over them, but not winning 4 and 6 was not good at all. At least they won the series and that's all that matters for right now. That saying, if they want to beat the Cavaliers, they have to win at least one game in Cleveland. And I have the confidence that they'll be able to do just that. Maybe I'm just being optimistic, and maybe I'll regret saying this, but it wouldn't shock me if this series goes much smoother for the Celtics than the Hawks series. With the exception of James, I'm not sure if there is anyone quite as athletic as anyone that they faced on the Hawks. Having seen West and Sczerbiak first hand, they don't exactly strike fear into someone's heart unless they're left wide open, and Wallace is not the force he once was. However, since they have James who can pretty much make anything happen, the series is still going to be tough and not one they can afford to overlook (they won't, especially after this last series).

I see the Celtics finally winning an away game, and I see them winning in 6. Then agian, I'm extremely biased. Based off what they did today, and how after they knew they already had the game won and just simply wanted to embarass the Hawks, I think they've finally woke up.

WOW!

Why couldn't the Suns play the Spurs like the way the Hornets are.

Oh I would love to see a NO sweep.

Spurs got blown out in back to back playoff games. that ever happened to them this decade?

Lakers steamrolled them once in their championship runs; I think it's the second one of their three-peat, where they just killed everybody from the late season on.

Yeah, I think being able to exploit Nash and Shaq in the Suns' defensive system which enabled the big 3 to score like 80 ppg kind of masked that the Spurs have looked old all year long, and they don't really have any supporting players who can score (Bowen, Finley, and Horry have all turned from "solid old age role players" last year to "useless" this year). Keeping Scola would've helped A LOT.