I have know idea about the contract situation from other players, but do you see it happening that when Johnson leaves, the Hawkes become a squad like Houston, only more athletic? With no real superstar but lots of roleplayers who can step it up?

damn you! you realize you've totally stat cursed the magic, don't you?

of course i'm not even sure a stat curse could save the hawks right now...

Lebron Hate! Lebron says he wants to guard Rondo, and the media instantly goes crazy asking Rondo stupid questions like, "Do you take it as a compliment that Lebron wants to guard you?" Stupid.

At least Kobe had the decency not to give away his and the Lakers' Westbrook plan until AFTER the game was over. In a roundabout way, LeElbow essentially called out his teammates (Parker and Williams) for sucking on Defense. Maybe Rondo can sucker him into more blindside whiffs, a la Game 4, or better yet, throw a basketball into his groin.

For Dragic's picture, I will have to correct you: If you knew something about basketball, you'd laugh in my face if I told you this guy dominated the Spurs. Not one NBA-fan saw that one coming!

Anonymous -- Yeah, honestly, at this point, my stat curse efforts would be like a single drop of food coloring in an entire ocean. It won't matter.

The Belgian Waffle -- Touché.

Dan: I'm right there with you. My mom's fiance offered to take out the whole fam (her, me, my sis and bro, sis's husband and kid, and my bro's friend) to Claim Jumper for Mom's Day lunch. Sweet! Then, my mom calls midweek and says, "Bob and I are going hiking Sunday morning, so we're making it Mother's Day Dinner instead. We moved the reservation to 5:00. Can you still make it?"

I very nearly said I had other plans... but bit my tongue and said I'd be there. Of course, the game tipped at 5:00 our time, too.

So, there may have been lots of "bathroom breaks" during dinner where I went into the bar and caught up on game action. Even better, as we were being seated, Bob announces to the table that he's DVR'ing the game, so he didn't want to hear any score updates.

Douche.

I turned down Claim Jumper dessert (*tear*) and zipped home at imprudent speeds. I settled in with about 4:00 to go in the 3rd quarter, so I got to watch most of the meat of the game... and got to watch Nash dominate with one good eye.

Btw, Atlanta in the process of being boat-raced again... 66 points with about 9 minutes to go. Wooo.

Joe Johnson hasn't changed a bit since the Suns refused to give him all that dough he wanted. Just like getting rid of Marion, it's taken a little while for it to bear fruit, but boyyyyyyyy does that ever look like a good move now. People seemed surprised at his bitter comments about the Atlanta fans after Game 3, but we heard pretty much the same song here in PHX that summer when he was lobbying for his new deal. And, sure enough, as the money nears its end, Joe shows his true colors once again.

There's no way on God's green Earth that Mike Woodson can come back next year. Rashard just hit a three to put Orlando up 21 and the camera cuts to him looking like a cigar store Indian. I wasn't sure if he had a pulse. The Hawks need someone who knows about that orange sphere called a basketball.

i think a better caption for the lebron pic would be:

when all my other defensive stances fail i have my tiger-style. Karate chop!

So Lakers advance with a sweet of the Mormom Musicians. Granted, it's the Lakers and everybody knew LA was going to go on, but still, D-Will needs to get into the WotN somehow just for dooming...no, STARBURYING his team when he said he's the best point guard in the league. It's like a stat curse...without needing any stats!

Can we get a WotN for the Utah Jazz fans? At least 2 in particular?

Without fail, every time Fisher touched the ball a wave of boos would be heard coming from the crowd. Honestly? Get over it already, it's been more than three years. It's not as if he stunk up the place when he was with the Jazz. In fact, his defensive stop against Baron Davis and his 3 pointer to clinch Game 2 against Golden State after coming from laying in a hospital bed with his infant daughter who had cancer is regularly mentioned as one of the most inspirational NBA performances (it was nominated for Best Moment in the 2007 ESPY Awards). He's always been a very well liked and respected person (some may not like him as a player but that's different) and that didn't change when he was with Utah. Speaking of his daughter though...

If not a WotN for the grudge-holding crowd as a whole, there needs to be a WotN for the two young "ladies" in green shirts close to the floor (sorry, I don't have pictures). The shirts were solid green with big, bold, white lettering. The first shirt said "FISHER". The second shirt said "LIED".

I was honestly speechless. Really? Really? Yes, clearly Fisher was so unhappy playing in Utah (as his sluggish, unproductive statline shows - all 82 games played, 10.1 points, 3.3 assists and 1.01 steals while scoring in double figures 40 times) that he fabricated a story about his baby girl having a rare eye cancer that threatened her life just so he could get the hell outta dodge. Man, he was so committed to the lie that he even flew back and forth from Utah to New York for added realism! He had Sloan so fooled! "FISHER LIED"? Sweet jumping Jesus on a bigwheel, let it go. Fisher was released with the full blessings of Jerry Sloan, the Jazz players, and the Jazz organization because it was in the best interest of his daughter. The best facilities for her were in LA and Fisher still wanted to play basketball. Considering there was a pretty well known team in LA that he had played for before... Apparently Jazz fans (and those two "ladies" in particular) don't know their facts or simply just don't care. Stay classy, girls.

WV: Brapper - I'd like to smack those fans wearing the "FISHER LIES" shirts right in the brapper.

That 8-man rotation plus the size diference would kill the Jazz sooner or later. Most of the players were dead! And Boozer, again, shows no heart!!
That first game changed all... and the miss tip in the 3rd... altough the Fakers are the best team, the B-gods were not on old man sloan's side...
He shouda brought Stockton and Malone for the playoffs instead of injured Okur and Gaines... hei, I heard Ostertag was available... c'mon Sloan!!!!

I think those Jazz fans are saying that Fish used his daughter's cancer as an excuse to return to LA, not that he lied about her cancer. Still, it's despicable. Her LA oncologist is her NY oncologist's partner, and his wife's family is in LA. He took an $8 million pay cut to play with the Lakers, plus the Knicks, Nets, and Clippers didn't offer him anything. What's so hard to understand about that?

Anyway, he obviously uses the "Cancer!" chants and the "you suck boy!" chants as motivation whenever he's in Utah. He always seems to have better games against the Jazz than against other teams. Karma is a bitch.

Does anyone remember the last time 3/4 semifinal series were sweeps?

Czernoblog- I think ESPN said that was in 1999. I'm not sure if it was the conference semis or any round.
WV: nonomm- when there are no brains for a zombie to eat.