We all know what happened yesterday. the Mavs took the West, it seemed like the Thunder lost more games than the Mavs won. Congrats Cuban.

Yes people, we’ve reached that bittersweet point in an NBA season.

The sweetness of the playoffs, every team doing their best to try to get to the top, watching our superstars go crazy, become nightmares to the other team, our best closers take the last shot, that game-winning buzzer beater, and the bitterness of knowing that all this will be over in less than a month, we’ll be back to settling for a thousand baseball games a day, waiting for the longest going major sport to get to the playoffs for it to get interesting, the bitterness that we’ll probably will have a reduced NBA season in 2011-2012 because of a most probable lockout (yes, exactly like in the NFL), it’s sad. But we’re here, and the NBA will be back, so let’s just enjoy the ride for the time being.

Tough love kids. That’s what it takes.

On the first note, we’ll have the beginning of the Western Conference Finals tomorrow, the Thunder take a trip to Dallas (probably they already did, and are sleeping in some expensive hotel as we speak) and visit the Mavericks, they’ve been outstanding this playoffs, they came as the “nobody believes in us” underdog and took the Lakers by surprise, sweeping them in what probably will be the beating that ends Zen Master’s career and the Kobe era, he’ll probably never be the same after this.

The Mavericks won the regular season series 2-1, but there’s some points that hav to be made, the Perkins trade hadn’t been done, Caron Butler played (big loss for the MAvs this season), so maybe it has little to no relevance to bring up these stats because those teams are clearly not the same that they were when they went against each other in the regular season.

We all know who’re going to be the key matchups in the series, the superstars, KD vs Dirk (not saying one’s taking care of each other but they’re the leaders of their teams and need to step up for them. And obviously there’s the point guard matchup, Kidd vs Westbrook, I can’t say anything about Kidd, he’s amazing but on the other hand we have Westbrook that’s known for trying to take leadership of the team, he’s a good leader but he needs to do what he did last game, give the ball to KD, and involve the other players on the team, just look at the beating the Grizzlies took when Westbrook got everyone involved.

It should be good, let’s hope its not a sweep as the one the Lakers took that was just good because it was an amazing upset and probably the end of an era.

But I can assure you it WILL NOT be as interesting as the matchup we’ve got cooking in the Eastern Conference Finals.

The red-hot Chicago Bulls vs the “white hot” (don’t know exactly what that means but that’s how they call themselves) Miami Heat who didn’t look that hot in the 20 point beating they took last night in the windy city. This is probably going to be one for the ages, the Heat needs to step up their game, they looked relaxed Sunday but they’ve done nothing still, everyone’s been there before, it looks as if they gave up, fulfilled their goal after bumping the Celtics out of the race for the O’Brien trophy. 

They need to know, this, obviously Chicago’s supposed to win both games at home, that’s what home court’s all about, everyone takes their games at home and the series is over in seven games. But as they say, it’s no series until someone loses a game at home, we had an amazing 7-game West Semis between the Gizzlies and the Thunder, each taking one game in each other’s home, we can only hope for this Chicago-Miami series to go that far.

Last year we had a 7-game Finals, Lakers-Boston, the dream for every basketball fan out there. We won;t have something of the kind this year, we’ll have an entertaining series but probably not the highest rated one in the decade. Either way we’re in for a ride, both Conference Finals look close, very.

Dynasties will be born

Last year I headed down to see the Boston Celtics vs the Lakers in Game 7 of the Finals. It is BY FAR the most amazing event I’ve experienced in my life. Obviously you can’t compare that with the Game 7 we’re having this day, I got to see the Zen Master, the Black Mamba, Ron Artest, Ray Allen, the Truth, KG, dispute a game where home-court almost doesn’t matter, a game where anything’s possible and where it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog what matters. 

Today we’re heading into a Game 7, first one of this playoffs, and it feels amazing. This OKC and Memphis teams have put on a show for us for the past 2 weeks, it’s unbelievable how can a Memphis team that rose from the ashes beat the San Antonio Spurs, seeded number 1 in the west, and still have the fuel to go this far with the Zombie Sonics. This proves my theory that the team that gets heated before the playoffs, is probably the one going further in the same contest.

They’re one step from winning the second playoff series in team history, but this series means something else, something bigger, this series could take them to the finals to face an old Mavericks team that looks tired of being the most underrated 50-win team in the NBA for the past 12 years and is on almost two weeks vacation of sweeping the two-time defending champion Lakers. 

It looks like it’s gonna be a wild one down in OKC. Memphis is a 3 to 1 underdog in this game. I wouldn’t bet on that.

The Memphis Grizzlies are like the New Orleans Saints last Super Bowl, they are fighting against a flood, the people need this playoff run to go longer, they need something to take their minds off the flood that’s taking their homes, so they’re hungry, very, and they can win this series with the bully of the block, Z-Bo, who after 11 seasons in the NBA is showing up, just like Nowitzki for the Mavs. OKC’s hungry too. 

Expect something big from Durant, Thunder’s 22-year old star who’s been close before, but never this close. He’s coming from the worst playoff game of his career so he needs this win bad, he just needs to get the proper touches from Westbrook. Yup, that same guy we’ve never seen do a passing drill before. 

This might be a short one.

Celtics @ Miami: I’m trying to land some ideas, I’ve been brainstorming since monday about what the Celtics would need to do if they lose today’s game at Miami, obviously their season will be over, but I believe something else’s over. We’ve been talking about a washed-up, old Celtics team for 2 years in a row now, since chicago took them to 7-game series in ‘09. But then in ‘10, stumbling a little along the way, they got to the Finals and took the Lakers to a 7-game series, a big classic by the way, amazing game DROPPED by the Celtics. 

So, if they lose tonight, they might be going to have to blow it up too. Everyone talks about a one-hit wonder Big Baby Davis, maybe you can get rid of him (still have Shaq and JO’neal’s corpse to take up some space in the paint), you definitely keep Rondo (the fact the Celtics can’t take this series is because of Rondo’s elbow, they could easily win tonight and go back home and make this a 3-3 series before you know it but Rondo’s got to be 100%), keep KG, you can’t get rid of the best 3-pt shooter of all time, keep the truth and try and build something around Jeff Green (I’m just rambling here, maybe that was stupid).

I don’t know but what I’m sure of is that they WILL have to do something about their team, since the beginning of last season we all said they looked like an old car with new parts; Garnett’s knees clearly can’t take it no more, Shaq, does it make a difference if I waste some lines talking about him? In game 3 he couldn’t even run, I run like that when I’m trying to get to the bathroom but I can’t do a big effort to get there (I’m sure you know what I mean). Ray Allen looks great, Pierce too (just a little sore from his ankle), Big Baby… my god, he looks like Shaq, end of discussion.

They might (or might not) get Game 5 at Miami, but they can’t go far, really they’ve run out of gas. They’re one of the greatest 5 players to play together, they are amazing (I’ve always had something for the Celtics, they were always the team I wanted to hate but couldn’t, I love Allen, don’t even get me started on KG since he was in the T-Wolves) but I think everything good has to come to an end, this season was (maybe) the end of Phil Jackson’s career as a coach (although I believe he’s coming back, not the way he would’ve wanted to go out with team quitting on him), maybe it is too for the Celtics (notice that I’m not talking about Doc, he still has a lot of time ahead of him), maybe they need to blow it up as Magic Johnson said about the Lakers.

Memphis @ OKC: Not much to say about this series, it’s going 7 games, they just had a crazy game on monday, let’s hope we can get another one today. If someone’s ready to jump into any conclusions and predict something that’s not a 7-game series, you’re welcome to send me a message through here or tweet me @MP_Hoops. Danke.

Chicago @ Atlanta: This is not over, they’re going back to Atlanta on thursday and they have a chance o tie it. This is not the Hawk’s team we’e been seeing for the las 2 seasons, this is a more disciplined Hawks team that almost stole last night’s game at Chicago (1-pt game heading into the 4th). We’ve seen some crazy things this season, the West’s #1 seed is out already defeated by an 8th seed, who says the #1 seed of the East is untouchable? If the Atlanta Hawks tie it tomorrow, the pressure’s on the Bulls because they’re supposed to win that series, the Hawks are free of the pressure because first of all, nobody thought they’d get THAT far to the semis. So yesterday was a must-win for Chicago, tomorrow’s another must for Chicago. The Bulls better not take their chances vs a hungry Hawks team who has been pounded for the last two years and has now found an opening to the ECF. But more on that tomorrow.

Dallas: They might be america’s team by now, let’s see how they match up to whoever they need to take on the WCF. They’re clearly title contenders and they kinda deserve it, Tyson Chandler + JJ Barea are the answer for the Mavericks to get the title they so much deserve. Everything is pointing towards seeing a rematch of the ‘06 Finals against the Miami Heat, but it’s not the same Mavericks nor Heat team, they’ve changed and on one side we’ve got Nowitzki, the guy who got stolen a Game 6 because of that ridiculous call by Bennett Salvatore, and on the other side we’ve gome post-Decision LeBron James, that youngster who once took the NBA world hostage and now is in desperate need for a title, he couldn’t do it alone in Cleveland, broke his promise, joined forces with Wade and Bosh and now lives in a glass house (please cue 2Pac’s “All eyez on me”) with the world watching him.

Lakers: We already know the Lakers might be blowing up their core this offseason, they may be on the top 5 Oldest Teams in the league, I’m talking about age of the players don’t get me wrong. (Dallas, ironically is the oldest). So we might see a reformed Lakers team next season (assuming there’s no lockout at all) maybe a quicker, younger, smaller Lakers team. It’s impossible to know for sure which way they’re going but we can all be sure they’ll be back, this is a team that’s going back to the playoffs, maybe not going straight to the Finals next season but we know it’ll be interesting, they always have a hand up their sleeve. 

If it was for me I would do what Marc Stein and Bill Simmons talked about, without a doubt you keep Kobe, you try to trade for Blake (at this point if you get free gatorade bottles you take ‘em), you trade for anyone else you want, you can get at least 4 good guys for Bynum and Gasol. The only thing is, Gasol can be back to normal, and if he goes back, he’s great at what he does so you keep him maybe. I don;t really know a lot about trades, as you can see I’m new at this so let’s stop talking about that.

NNHHLL!!

Red Wings: I was wrong, the Red Wings are riding on the ‘10 Flyers spirit. They’ve tied the series with the Sharks and they’ve got all the momentum to take it away. I would love to see that happen (two years in a row someone in the NHL gets back from the 3-0 hole, that’s gonna get me into hockey). We’re about to see what the Red Wings are made of. We’ll all be watching tomorrow.

Adios.

Today we’re covering the NBA action last night (and we’re going to do our not so thorough baseball analysis). The Heat paid the second playoff visit to the Celtics, wasn’t that good for them, and we’re gonna talk about the game that went to 3OT, with sick 3’s being shot by both parties.

Let’s get to the Heat @ Celtics. It was a day after Bosh was called a ‘softie’ by the general basketball covering media. The Celtics lead through all of the first half, it was a very close game, Celtics led through the entire first half and obviously everyone was hoping on the Celtics to keep that lead though it, not that surprising since the general public was hoping Boston would even the series and take their talents to South Beach with the series 2-2. The Celtics got to a bad start in the second half and Miami’s D just kept getting better, the Celtics were outrebounded 45-28, believe it or not, that’s a ton of rebounds.

There’s one thing I guess everybody’s talking about, on that last drive, were KG was guarding LeBron and Pierce was on Bosh, they should’ve switched, KG won’t be as fast as LeBron not even in a million years and Pierce can’t handle Bosh’s size, he just can’t. As we all know this led to that game-clinching Bosh tip because he had pierce under the rim with him, he wouldn’t have been able to pull it off if Garnett was on him, Garnett might be old but he’s still a very great big for the Celtics.

The Heat went to shoot 44% FG, (now watch this, this is where it gets weird) 23% (yes, that’s 3-13) 3PT, and 89% FT (LeBron 9-9, Bosh 4-5, Wade 12-14). Miami’s big three went for 83 points combined, that means that the rest of the team, the other 8 guys that had minutes on the game had 15 (fifteen) points! The Miami Heat’s apparently 34-3 whenever the Big 3 score 70+ points in a game.  

Two notes that were kind of important in this game: 1. Rondo’s elbow, as I said on another Twitter account that I manage, which I’m not ready to pass on yet, I can’t see the Celtics winning another game in this series with Rondo not nearly close to 100%, I just can’t see it happen, even if he plays with more padding. It’s the same thing that killed the Spurs this year, Manu not being at his highest level; and 2. Celtics got outscored 4-12 in OT, there’s no way you can win games that way.

Btw, what’s with Garnett’s sneakers? Just awful sneakers in general in this game. 

Onto the game that has all the East Coast in sleep deprivation; OKC @ Memphis. I’m not gonna lie to you, I really thought the Grizzlies were taking control of the series by doing not that of an effort, and without a doubt, they were not going to lose at home. No doubt about that… WRONG! The Grizzlies lost at home, now the series is tied 2-2 and going back to OKC where it will be hard to stop Durant as he and Westbrook played in ‘eff-you mode’ yesterday. 

Westbrook seems to be out of his funk but there’s still one problem, he took 13 more shots than Durant in yesterday’s game, he had only 5 assists, Durant is OKC’s best player and I’m tired of emphasizing this every time I write or discuss hoops so I’m not gonna even touch the subject anymore. Done. 

So that series heads back to OKC on thursday and the opportunity to take the lead in the series apparently is up for grabs, it was a terribly coached game and it was a roller-coaster. 

Let’s make this a running diary:

- The game’s coming down the wire in the 4th, OKC leading by 3, last seconds,            Boom! Mike Conley with a long 3 to tie it.

- Game heads to OT, 2 minutes out, OKC leads by 7. 9 seconds left, OKC leading by 3,  you need a clutch shooter (you wish and curse the basketball gods for not having Ray  Allen on your team right now, who’d you give it to? Boom! Gervais Vazquez over        Westrbook (I may have misspelled that name, I don’t care that much because I’m        excited) THREEEE! We’re heading to the 2OT at 109. 

- 2OT, this overtime was a back and forth of 1-point leads, looked like a soccer match score, Memphis up by 1, OKC takes a jump-shot, OKC up by 1, etc. Tied at 119 Westbrook takes what later, if OKC had lost the game, would’ve been referred as the Hindenburgh of Game winning shots. So we’re heading to 3OT. At this point everyone on the East Coast is praying for the lights to go out in Memphis and this game to be postponed, sleep deprivation has been goin’ on for about 3 hours. 

- 3OT, there’s not much to say about this 5 minutes. The Grizzlies were outscored 4-14 and as I said on the Celtics recap, you can’t win games by being outscored this way in OT. Ok so the Grizzlies have an excuse, they were up 2-1 in the series, game’s been going for 63 minutes. Even Z-Bo’s in “I WANT TO GO HOME” mode. OKC Thunder take Game 4 and even the series.

Westbrook + Durant = 75 pts, 7 stl.

Z-Bo + Gasol = 60 pts, 37 reb.

KD’s kicks are AMAZING. And James Harden’s beard is great too.

I’m really to lazy to talk baseball right now, nothing interesting has happened, only for the fact that today the Marlins’ Josh Johnson takes on the Phillies’ Roy Halladay. The Indians lead the AL and the Phillies lead the NL. Same sh**, different day.

The Hawks pay a much deserved visit to the Bull, series tied at 2 games a piece. Are the Hawks ready to continue with that discipline and take the lead? Are Noah, Boozer and Korver coming back from the dead and support Bulls’ one-dimension, get-out-of-Rose’s-way, offense? 8pm ET.

See you later kids.

Happy mothers day to everyone out there.

First off let’s lead with something that’s affecting the NBA this days, and you know what, not only the NBA but every major sport, where are the teams getting this guys?! I thought one bad boy Pistons was enough for the NBA, just as the Cowboys are enough for the NFL. Now you have the Lakers? That shot Bynum took on JJ Barea was probably worse than the Artest melee back in 2004 (ok I’m sorry, nothing’s worse than the Artest melee), but it was tremendous, and please, pick on someone your size, why didn’t he try to check Dirk that way? Or Tyson Chandler, hell, I would’ve paid to see him try that on KG, he would’ve been taken out there in a freaking wheelchair. That’s what cowards do, the cheapest shot of the season on a guy that’s torching you (and has torched you for the better part of the series) and is half your size! That shot got me thinking and for a moment I even thought Artest was one of the classy guys in this team! ARTEST! Let’s just hope we don’t see Bynum on the hardwood for the first two weeks of the next season. That said, let’s get to the things that matter.

Sunday, the Lakers are taking game 4 in the American Airlines center, down 3-0 in the series against a weaker (about 11x stronger really) Mavericks team. Lakers have got Kobe, you know that guy who’s dad’s number is retired in Philly and has won 5 rings “best closer ever”, ring a bell? And the Zen Master, a coach who’s never been swept, and has 11 titles (most in NBA), highest percentage of wins in NBA, highest percentage of playoff wins in NBA and has juggled with the talents of Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Shaquile O’Neal and Kobe Bryant just to name a few. With that introduction, now let’s welcome the Mavericks and give them the proper recognition for; 1. What they’ve done so far (before the game started), and 2. What they did in Game 4 crushind the two-time champion Lakers.

Congratulations, without a doubt you’ve been the most underrated 50-win team of the last 11 years and now you’ve proven something, you swept the Lakers and people might want to take away some of your thunder by saying that the Lakers quit, it’s not true, you did it (your bench helped it) congratulations, let’s hope you survive another round. You swept the Zen Master, that’s what I’m most impressed about, but as I said on a post the other day, Zen Master’s already in Montana, he doesn’t care. I think we will see another Kobe before we see another Phil Jackson so everybody has to pay respects for the best coach there’s ever been, great guy (didn’t know him personally but he seems like one), and the greatest talent juggler in the history of sports. 

It’s sad to see a career end this way, I’m not ready to embrace the fact that today was maybe the last time we saw Phil Jackson head to a locker room after a basketball game. We all know we’ll have Kobe for at least one more season but Phil, I don’t think we will, and besides, not everyone likes Kobe. But if I had to put things in perspective and weigh them, what’s worse, getting swept or getting swept while your team quits the way they did today? I think we’ll all agree on the latter. And I appreciate that I was alive for the best coaching career I’ll get to see in my entire life. Thanks Phil.

Now the Bulls! I have been saying this since playoffs started (obviously you don’t know this because I wasn’t writing when the playoffs started so you’ll just have to trust me), the Chicago Bulls have a one dimension offense, what’s that dimension? Derrick Rose. It’s impossible for a Bulls team to get to the NBA Finals, hell even the East Conference Finals if they’re a Rose-or-bust team, absolutely no depth (today Carlos Boozer was the only player doing something out there for the Bulls) and if they want to get far they have to get Boozer, Noah, Deng and Korver to step up to the plate. This is the big leagues kids, the Lakers just got swept to a Mavs team that looked a lot weaker, who says it won’t happen to you against a “much weaker” Hawks team? Step it up! We know you can talk the talk but, can you walk the walk? You can’t be expecting Rose to shoot 32+ a playoff game and think you can beat the Celtics or the Heat that way, that doesn’t exist. Now, Atlanta knows they can win this series, they knew it from the day they stole one in Chicago, but maybe they’ll lose because of discipline, we all know the Hawks have been too lazy to get anything going for the past 4 seasons. 

I’m way too sad about Phil Jackson to talk about baseball so here’s a recap: Tigers, Dodgers, Rays, Marlins, Red Sox, Pirates (two in a row, wow), Yankees, Cardinals, A’s, Reds, Angels, Padres, Giants, White Sox, and Braves won. Everybody else lost. 

The Indians still lead the AL and the Phillies lead the NL, so nothing’s changed.

Apparently Tiger Woods is coming back on Thursday to Sawgrass, let’s se how that goes. Tomorrow we’ll have Game 4 of the Heat @ Celtics, and OKC @ Memphis.

See you tomorrow kids. Stay in school.

Ok now, first off we have to congratulate Justin Verlander from the Tigers on getting the second no-hitter of the season. Gallardo almost did it too, it would’ve been an amazing day in sports if both of them got one. Shoulda woulda coulda.

Now, on why is this post called “The Full Metal Jacket” its simple, I think the Miami Heat took a BEATING today in B-Town, a beating that reminded me of the one Pyle took from everyone at the Island barracks before he went crazy and started shooting people. Impressive how the Celtics shot 50% from the field and beyond the arch and kept the Heat shooting only 20% from downtown and 40% from the field. Now, about that Full Metal Jacket reference, I’m not assuring the Heat will go crazy and become the finest basketball machine ever made, but they just might. This time the ones that became a working weapon for basketball were the Celtics, today they felt like last year C’s, did everything they wanted, even Rondo played better after falling on his elbow and playing one handed. How about that Rondo fall? I tore my ACL back in august and now I have to hoop wearing a DonJoy knee brace, same one Shawne Merriman uses to train, its a pain in the @$$. Every time I see how the elbow bent backwards I want to cry, let’s hope it’s nothing, can’t see the C’s wiinning a single game without Rondo.

The Thnder lost in Memphis, exactly what was supposed to happen, err no, Memphis took one from OKC at home so now, the smart thing to do, if they want to keep the Grizzlies from getting to the West Finals against most likely the Mavs, is steal one at Memphis to even this series out, we’ll have to wait until monday to see if KD has it. Btw, could someone let Westbrook know that he is NOT the best shooter in that team? He continues to take almost the same amount of shots Durant takes! I’m not saying this was one of Durant’s best games, he went 10 fo 24, but he is supposed to take those shots, he is the leader of that team, Westbrook needs to embrace the Robin position just as LeBron did in Miami. OKC’s solution: when in doubt, GIVE IT TO KD! Every team has their go-to guy. Cleveland had LeBron for 7 years, Wade has had Miami since 2003, you don’t see Mike Miller getting the ball in crunch time, you may not even see Mike Miller getting the ball in the 4th quarter at all. So yeah, that’s the only solution for OKC, maybe someone’ll read this and let them know just as I thought someone was letting the Lakers know they had to go big and stop chasing JJ Barea. But they never listen.

On to kicks, I want to make a special and public recognition for the Jordan brand, they NAILED the All Blacks DWade wore today, they were amazing, I already ordered 2 pairs (just kidding, I didn’t). Rondo’s white Hyperfuse, nah, not into white sneakers that much. Btw, if I’m the NBA I’m making everone wear a different color at home, everybody wears white, it sucks. The C’s should wear green, Knicks blue, Lakers gold or purple, Miami red or black etc.

Let’s hit the hardball now. The Tigers, the Cubs, the Rays, the Brewers, the Phillies, the Red Sox, the Royals, the Pirates, the Mets (finally), the Rangers, The Indians, the Nats, the White Sox, the D-backs and the Giants won. Blue Jays got no-hit by Verlander. And everybody else, just lost.

The Indians still lead the AL and the Phillies the NL so nothing’s changed.

On another note: apparently Mosley was surprised about Pac-man’s power and speed… I think Team Mosley should double-check their sources before commiting to an unwinnable fight next time. Congrats to Pacquiao.

Note to Freddy Roach: please start picking tougher fighters for Manny. Sincerily, everyone spending money on DirectTV PPVs.

See you tomorrow.

Ps: Kobe looked crazy on that press conference yesterday… Let’s see if he can start making history on Sunday.