Perhaps I’m off, but for some reason, while I was watching a one-eyed Steve Nash finish off the sweep of the San Antonio Spurs in the fourth quarter of last night’s deciding game, I was reminded of Alex from A Clockwork Orange, specifically, when he was going through reconditioning, courtesy of the Ludovico technique. Granted, I don’t think Nash was forced to view violent images while he was being stitched up, but whatever the case, his 10-point/five-assist fourth quarter is the reason Phoenix is going to the Western Conference Finals.
While it’s true Amar’e Stoudemire deserves a great deal of credit — he too had a huge fourth quarter (12 points) — but the majority of his scoring opportunities came courtesy of Nash setting him up. True, he still had to make shots, but the question is, without Nash’s wonderful one-eyed point guard play, would he even have the opportunity for a big scoring quarter?
Remember the Titans? Not here. Win one for the Gipper? Um, no thanks. Famous speeches given by Vince Lombardi? Don’t need `em. Such is the approach of San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich, whose team is facing a 2-0 deficit against the Phoenix Suns. Judging from the upcoming video, “Pop” apparently has no place in his locker room for the cheerleading, rah-rah stuff made famous by countless amounts of sports movies. Instead, the Spurs coach would rather treat his group of Spurs as men, instead of dry sponges, begging for someone to fill them with the necessary motivation.
The Dallas Mavericks’ season came to a disappointing end against the San Antonio Spurs last night, losing their opening round series, 4-2. The realization that the mid-season moves made the Mavericks didn’t work apparently didn’t sit too well with Mavericks owner, Mark Cuban. As a response to such unsettling news, Cuban took his frustrations out on one of the Gatorade jugs in his vicinity.
Naturally, there’s a video and an animated gif of Cuban’s emotional outburst.
Thanks to the take down skills of Eduardo Najera, Manu Ginobili will be finishing the 2010 Playoffs with a busted nose. Because basketball is something of a contact sport — especially playoff basketball — the Spurs excellent wing player has been trying different nose-pad styles, all of which are about as aesthetically pleasing as roadkill.
With Ginobili rejecting the idea of wearing a Richard Hamilton-style face mask, those nose pads, which look like super-sized Breath-Rite strips, are about the only protective option he has. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s been working as well as he’s wanted, hence the color changes between Game 4 and 5.
The lead image shows what his nose protection looked like in Game 5. Unfortunately, without the courtesy of a good screenshot, there aren’t any great pictures of Ginobili’s nose guard from last night’s Game 5. Thank goodness for the power of Photoshop, or in the case of this particular blogger, Fireworks (sorry, it’s just a much better web graphics program), because now we have a better idea of what Ginobili’s massive, flesh-colored band-aid looked like.
Yeah, yeah. I don’t want to hear about Kobe’s bad back nor his busted finger either. If he’s that broke up, don’t play; because he ran the risk of George Hill taking advantage of his ailments, and Hill did just that. In the second quarter, Hill stripped the ball at midcourt and and flushed resulting turnover down with some authority.
Meanwhile, Kobe was left writhing in the middle of the court.
As for the “don’t play” admonishment, Bryant did (or didn’t do) just that in fourth quarter — that is, he didn’t play. It sounds like those back spasms are wreaking a little havoc on Mamba. Maybe he needs to go back to high tops. As for the Spurs, they finished off the Lakers, 105-85.
And the march towards non-preseason NBA basketball continues. This time, however, there aren’t any nifty LeBron James blocked shots to help you along. No, this time, you get San Antonio Spurs point guard Tony Parker making out with is hot wife for clothier London Fog. There’s a press release with the standard corporate lingo, saying both parties represent quality and all that good stuff. Naturally, the London Fog website has also been given a Tony and Eva makeover.
Oh, in case you were wondering, Parker, besides being an other-worldly type point guard, he’s also a freaking Mack Don to the Nth degree. Sure, Eva’s smoking hot as always, but Tony isn’t afraid to let his studly-ness come out. Don’t believe me? See below for further proof:
That’s the look that says, “After I get through with Eva here, I’m coming for your girlfriend, your sister, your wife and your mom.”
Just when you thought it was safe to enjoy professional basketball without all that San Antonio boredom, guess what? The Spurs have heard your complaints and have responded with a hearty, “We don’t care. We are improving our team to make another title run (or two) and you just have to deal with our ‘boring’ style of play.” This particular announcement was made when the Spurs acquired Richard Jefferson from the Milwaukee Bucks in exchange for every expiring contract they had, apparently. While the move does leave the San Antonio front line a little sparse, the move immediately improves the talent level of the starters.
After stealing Game 1 against the Spurs, the Dallas Mavericks allowed Tony Parker and crew to knock them around the court last night, to the tune of 105-84. Most, if not all of the Spurs’ damage was provided by Tony Parker, who could very well be the fastest Frenchman, maybe ever. Parker so thoroughly dominated the Mavericks — 38 points and 8 assists — he’s got their defenders talking about using alternative means to stop him; means like knocking Parker to the floor (via the Dallas Morning News):
“Parker got into the teeth of our defense and caused problems,” he said. “Every time he drives the lane, we have to put him on his back. The first foul has to tell him he;s in for a long night.
“My first foul Thursday night is going to put him on his back. I guarantee it.”
I’m not sure if sending him to the foul line — or perhaps even accruing a bunch of intentional fouls is going to help. If these were the Detroit Pistons/Boston Celticsdays, Dampier could knock Parker around all he wanted, but with today’s “protect the offensive player” rules, Dallas’ center will only find himself sitting on the bench sooner, rather than later.
And Tony Parker will continue to penetrate the Mavericks defense at will.
