NBA Playoff Potpourri

The Lakers gutted out a second straight victory over the scrappy Houston Rockets Friday night with Kobe leading the charge. The Mamba struck in the waning seconds of the third when on the inbounds play with mere seconds on the clock and Ron Artest draped all over him #24 rose up from about six feet behind the top of the arc with Artest in hot pursuit and buried another buzzer beater in Ron Ron’s face. Kobe also showed more trust in his teammates than usual finding the open man without hesitation even though his 3 assists don’t really reflect the type of game he played on Friday night. Much maligned L.A. local Jordan Farmar of Taft High in Woodland Hills and UCLA filled in for the suspended Derek Fisher admirably getting 12 points and playing aggressive defense in his first playoff start. Lamar Odom had a double double and Pau scored on Yao with a couple of slick head fake jumpers, even dribbling between his legs before stopping on a dime and swishing a 12 footer on one play in the third quarter. Word out of H-town is the 7‘-6” jolly Chinese giant Yao Ming is out for the remainder of the playoffs with a broken foot, bad news for Houston…I hate to see teams lose players to injury, but did you see Kobe block his shot twice before it happened? It seems Kobe does that to The Great Wall a few times a year anymore. The Lakers have been labeled soft by many but are stepping up now that push comes to shove and with this latest victory snatched home court advantage back from the physical Rockets. I can’t realistically see brusier Luis Scola and the rest of these pesky Rockets beating the purple and gold now…not that I could before, but without the Ming Dynasty manning the paint, Houston has two chances…slim and none.

Orlando and Boston will square off again Sunday and I’m still not sure how this series will play out. The Celtics are tough as nails but without a healthy KG they face an unrealistic task of stopping the best center in the league in straight out of high school monster Dwight Howard. The Celtics hopes rest squarely on the shoulders of shooting guard Ray Allen. Paul Pierce will do what he does and point guard Rajon Rondo will continue his ascension to star player status but when Ray Ray’s hitting, the C’ are perfectly capable of topping the Magic, the question is will they?

R.I.P. coach Chuck Daly who passed today at the age of 78 The architect of the back to back title winning Detroit Pistons Bad Boys teams of the late 80’s, he was also head coach of the original 1992 Olympic Dream Team, which should have included Chuck’s star player and engine that drove those Bad Boys, Isiah Thomas. Isiah may be considered a clown now after his soap opera stay with the Knicks but there was a time he was one of the best players in the game. I recall the little pest killing the Showtime Lakers three peat quest in 1989, my senior year in high school. Magic and Byron Scott both suffered hamstring pulls during the Finals that year or that first Bad Boys championship would never have happened.

Dirk Nowitzki’s girlfriend was arrested at his Dallas home after an incident and apparently has used as many as 10-15 aliases over the years….I hope for his sake she’s better looking than Jennifer Gardner. Unfazed, the Diggler went about doing what he does and fluttered rainbow jumpers through the strings to the tune of 33, he‘s as pure a scorer as there is. Carmelo Anthony drilled a three at the buzzer, but only after an intentional foul was purposely committed by Dallas and not called. Too bad Marc Cuban and Josh Howard aren’t as cool under pressure as the Dirkster, they both lost their composure and literally chased down the officials once the game was officially over. The league issued an apology two hours after the game, gee thanks Stern, another case of too little too late and another founded knock on NBA officiating. Mr. Big Shot: Chauncey Billups had 32 for the Nuggs and the Birdman contributed with a couple rebound dunks on hustle plays. Denver’s Dahntay Jones absolutely posterized Erick Dampier on a play that pretty much sums up this second round matchup….Dallas just can’t hang. This Denver team however may just be legit…we’ll find out when they meet Los Angeles in the Western Conference Finals.

The Cleveland Cavaliers continued their unscathed march to the NBA Finals taking a commanding 3-0 series lead over the quickly falling back to ground Atlanta Hawks. LeBron James had a game for the ages, dropping 47 points, 22 of them in the first half, snatching 12 boards and handing out 8 assists….only the second time in history anyone put up those Jordan-esque numbers, and the first guy wore #23 too. King James played like the reigning MVP should play with a barrage of buckets ranging from vicious dunks, power lay-ups in traffic and a series of late game jumpers to ice the game to keep the Crabs undefeated in the playoffs. His short game is looking a lot like Tiger’s lately, impressive. I always said if he learned how to shoot it’d be like when Happy Gilmore learned how to putt…...shhhhh, quiet on the green.