The Secret Origin of the Orange Roundie
From the category archives:
So last night the Jazz and Spurs played Game 4 of their series, and…aw, who cares? The Spurs won (and are up 3-1), Derek Fisher and Coach Jerry got tossed, there was a foul imbalance, Deron Williams is really good, and the Utah fans threw stuff.
Seriously, that’s all there is, except for the apparent celebrity look-alike contest they were running in section 104A.
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After the Jazz’s Game 4 victory over the Warriors lasterday, Golden State fans are left a bit disheartened.
We can’t say we blame them, especially when it was one of those games that kinda reminded us of the Baron Davis we know from our normal lives, ie “before that crazy Mavs series”.
The Warriors just seemed kinda off, or more likely, kinda realistic. A team with that kind of talent and speed can roll over anyone when they’re hot, but when they’re not…they’re just a messy basketball team.
That’s not take anything away from Utah, which is like all good and stuff. Luckily we’re over the whole Carlos Boozer/Cavaliers thing, because truth be told, he’s the type of player we love to watch.
Jazz PG Davey Williams knows it, loves it. Lives it.
“We’ve got to throw it in to Carlos first,” [Dimone Williams] said. “We’ve got to let him work, let him get some touches down low, and then it helps us out, because when he’s doing work down low, they’ve got to come down, they’ve got to double it, they’ve got to try to get it out of his hands, because there really is nobody his size out there on the floor that can guard him, and when he does that it opens up things outside and we can work from there.”
We don’t want to get all on that Williams is to Stockton as Boozer is to Malone thing that’s gonna grow more and more in the coming weeks, but it’s getting kinda hard to ignore.
Both Boozer and Malone are a little undersized, stocky, rock-solid work-horses who just play hard and play right. That aligns correctly with Dominic Williams and John Stockton, who both were known to wear Utah Jazz uniforms.
Anyway, this post has no point really – the whole Warriors thing is quickly losing its romantic angle, and frankly, the idea of the Jazz moving on is interesting, if only to see how ABC sells that big UTAH-SAN ANTONIO series.
They’re really gonna need to downplay it, because with this combination of explosive personalities, dynamic gameplay, and (especially) the wild antics the two teams’ coaches encourage, it’s just gonna be nuts. Add in the massive national followings of the Jazz and Spurs, and we can see ratings records falling all over the place.
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UPDATE: Brian Windhorst does an insane amount of math and explains how LeBron got screwed, ie the voting system is a mess.
In their continuing delay to announce Germany’s first-ever league MVP, the NBA has thrown a massive jab step by unveiling the All-NBA Teams.
Some quick things out of the way – no Shaq, no Vince Carter, plus only one of those DET Lasers. Amare Stoudemire is All-NBA first-team, so we guess between that and Zach Randolph, the microfracture surgery is no longer a death sentence careerwise. (Sorry, Darius Miles.)
Your 2006-07 All-NBA Teams:
2006-07 ALL-NBA FIRST TEAM
F Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas
F Tim Duncan, San Antonio
C Amaré Stoudemire, Phoenix
G Steve Nash, Phoenix
G Kobe Bryant, L.A. Lakers2006-07 ALL-NBA SECOND TEAM
F LeBron James, Cleveland
F Chris Bosh, Toronto
C Yao Ming, Houston
G Gilbert Arenas, Washington
G Tracy McGrady, Houston2006-07 ALL-NBA THIRD TEAM
F Kevin Garnett, Minnesota
F Carmelo Anthony, Denver
C Dwight Howard, Orlando
G Dwyane Wade, Miami
G Chauncey Billups, Detroit
Great to see Dwight Howard on there, and while we’re currently pretty bent about LeBron’s placement on the second team, it’s hard to deny Dirk and Duncan their places.
Add in the haze the Cavaliers played in most of the season, and there you go. (Despite 50 wins for the team and another year of doing things individually that only Oscar Robertson has done.)
THAT SAID, we would’ve had Amare on the second team (he’s not even technically a 20/10 guy), slid Duncan over to center, and put LeBron on the first team.
Still, it’s hard to deny that the second team looks like a lot more fun to be around, simply for the inclusion of Gilbert Arenas. He offsets the depression of Tracy McGrady by at least 20-1, plus Chris Bosh eats people, because his father was a tyrannosaurus rex.
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Because we enjoy getting way ahead of ourself and the rest of the world (especially those in the PHX area), let’s assume we end up with a Spurs-Jazz Western Conference Finals, and pair it with a Pistons-Cavs Eastern Conference Finals.
(For the record, even after last night’s Utah win to go up 2-0 on the Warriors, we think that thing goes seven games. It’s that type of series where everyone wins their home games. We do like both the Jazz and Spurs in 7, however.)
Left with those four teams before the italicized parentheses, we’ve got an absolute nightmare in the West, with the uber-boring Spurs and the largely unknown Jazz, in two of the smallest, most unexciting markets in the entire NBA. The Jazz’s showings against the Warriors aside, both will be happy with a series of 66-65 slugfests.
Out East, you’ve got Detroit, which…look, they’re boring. Then you’ve got LeBron and the Cavs, and while LBJ can allegedly draw in some ratings, it’s still gonna be driven primarily by the Cleveland market, which isn’t pulling Los Angeles ratings.
Taken one step further, any combination of the East-West winners in the NBA Finals that doesn’t include LeBron James could actually be lower rated than 2005′s SAS-DET pairing.
Let’s wrap up – we like looking ahead. We’ve got two more days until the Cavs play again. Actively admiring Carlos Boozer is doing things to our brain we’re not entirely able to piece together. And most importantly, LOST was freaking awesome last night – we’re completely back onboard. Completely, 100% with it again!
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