Anyone gonna bring up the fact that Pierce goes in to convulsions when even the lightest contact is made from his defenders. I get trying to sell a foul but its getting out of hand. One play he threw his upper body and head back and no contact was even made like he just got machine gunned by a 50 cal in the upper deck.

Even my fiancee asked "why does he do that". I just said "Because he's a pussy".

The Scalabrine pic looks more like he's carrying a cardboard figure of KG. You can pick on Scal, but I wish I'd get to do the thing I like the most for the money he gets AND be able to do silly "Skills" vids just as he does!

I knew redheads had superpowers (only if been able to keep an NBA career being less than a transportable punchbag is considered a superpower)!

Prohovorov to Vandeweghe: If he dies, he dies.

How did we miss this?

The stepfather of Boston Celtics guard Marquis Daniels was arrested and subdued with a stun gun during Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals against the Orlando Magic.

http://sports.espn.go.com/boston/nba/news/story?id=5202337

Scal's kinda doing the yawn and arm around the shoulder move...except he's feeling up KG's bicep...

BTW, if the Suns start double teaming Kobe this game, we lose. Have faith that Dudley and Hill can handle him with Suns patented Just Enough Defense (TM). The refs tonight are favorable to the Suns.

I'm all for creating a new all star team called:

"Bench Players who never see the light of the day in the playoffs but are the first to attempt to chest bump during a time out"


Can we think of a better name than that? Put Brian Scalabrine and Sasha Vujacic on this team. Who else needs to be added?

I think that Dwight Howard looks exactly like Scalabrine on the inside. Stop smiling you giant goofy bastard and play physical!

UpA: Don't forget that, IIRC, Scal supposedly had that youth camp in which he "taught" eight-year olds his "post moves."

Hehehe Steve Nash seemed a bit peeved by Sager's douchie questions, I won't even mention the suit.

Did Crazy Pills Artest just tell Craig Sager the Lakers have to play defence "like we do in the projects, am I right Craig?"

Although, it'd explain Sager's jacket.

Does defense exist in the Western Conference Finals? The Suns supposedly improved defense looks awful after six quarters played so far (193 points allowed in that time), but LA's D isn't much better. If defense wins championships then Boston is sitting pretty right now.

Oh my god the officiating just horrible.

I mean, yeah, we knew the Suns were just too damn short, but this is getting out of hand. Gasol looks like Yi Jianlian posting up a chair in combine workouts.

Yams: Defense doesn't exist in the Western Conference in general. Of course, in the Eastern Conference where "toughness" is the keyword, defense is basically not getting called for half the fouls you commit.

Drake: It's late, but bravo.

I think if LA keeps this up (and they might), it's gonna lead people to think that just like in 2008 heading into The Finals that LA should be heavy favorites over Boston, but don't be fooled. LA just looks so good on offense cause the Jazz and Suns are great matchups for the Lakers, while Boston is not. The main thing to look at is that Boston is playing great D while the Lakers defense is really poor.

I'm really impressed with how much the Lakers have neutralized Nash so far. The guy can usually find his way around any defense but he's been really stymied. Richardson, Hill, and Dudley have all stepped up at times to make up for it, but Nash has been contained well.

As I'm unable to resist a snarky comment: How'd those Suns-friendly refs work out for you, Anaconda? ;)
Dudley fouled out and Hill was killing us on offense more than defense (freaking GUARD him, guys). They'll all play better in Phoenix though. Game 3 is super important for both teams.

Adam: That's not snarky at all. There were several questionable calls against the Lakers, and a few less against the Suns this game.

However, bullet points #2-#6 on my list of things for the Suns to improve went unimproved. Dudley fouling out was because he had to cover for Amar'e's shitty D on Gasol.

I think it's interesting how there isn't a lot of talk regarding how the Magic's current situation is almost identical to that of the Cavs last year: the Cavs blazed through the first two rounds without breaking a sweat (didn't they win all 8 games by 10+ points?) and were regarded as the best team going into the next round. Then in the ECF, at the first signs of opposition (by Orlando), they got their asses handed to them on a plate essentially.

Ugh come on Lakers. I get that that the suns pose only a minor threat at home but you just can't toy with them like that. Its just bad Karma.

The best way I can put it is that the suns are a massively obese toddler and the Lakers are a 6'4 fit adult. The lakers keep dangling a piece of candy just out of reach of the thick sausage like fingers of the fat toddler. Then they got bored, eat the candy and roar off in a jag while blaring "I love LA" as the obese monster of a baby looks confused.

The Lakers decided for three quarters to fool the suns into thinking they were close and then in the fourth play a bored game of volleyball for the win. They didn't even play that well.

The suns had some threes going, good pick and roll and Hill was stroking it from the mid range. Sure Amare still has the pharaohs curse of the unluckiest rebounder and his matador defense doesn't even have a cape. But offensively they seemed solid. The lakers stood around, watched the suns shoot, went back scored over their heads, once in a while making a stop to extend the lead. Halfway through I think the lakers even decided to make it challenging on themselves and stopped playing defense, hell I thought Kobe might blindfold to make the game a little more fair.

Suns played a B+/B game and the Lakers played a C/C- game and the result? Lakers win by double digits. Hope the Suns home cooking helps exorcise the spirit of Larry Hughes from Channing Frye. The officials consistently sucked on both sides but there again this is the playoffs so its whats expected.

Lakers keep playing to the level of their opponents, and if they keep on doing that then they're bound to get shanked by an inmate named celtics.

Uh...did somebody hit the Stern button on both of my previous comments? The first one was a little sarcastic but I didn't think that either was over the line.

Adam - I didn't see which comments you're referring to, they aren't the ones above?

Tonight's game was the smallest margin of victory the Lakers have had over Phoenix in Staples Center in four games this season. Just FYI.

@Wild Yams

The numbers though tell us that LA kept the Suns under 50% FG Pct. Maybe it's because they're playing a high possession game?

Then again, they might have to step up the effort if it were the C's.

Is it me or does Amare seem like a black Fesenko everytime the LA bigs beat him to a step: Lost and unsure why he's there?

IMO good D is holding your opponent to somewhere just north of 40% FG shooting. Maybe Phoenix and their "small ball" is a wild card for LA defensively, but I think it's more that the Lakers aren't being challenged enough and they are lazily playing down to their opponent rather than seeking to really put their bootheel on the Suns' windpipe. Maybe playing on the road will up the Lakers' intensity, bit the Phoenix crowd usually has quite a large contingent of Laker fans in attendance so it's not exactly a "hostile crowd" for LA.

BTW, so I don't continue to come off like a shit, I'm not trying to imply that the Suns suck, just that they're exceptionally poorly matched against the Lakers due to LA's size. The amount of Laker dunks and layups in the fourth quarter alone tonight should illustrate this point, but I'm not trying to take anything away from what the Suns accomplished this year, especially against the Spurs.

@Yams

Yeah. I got your point. I looked it up and normally a 47% FG shooting should be enough to win a playoff game. Dang, this WCF are just blowing the numbers off.

@AnacondaHL: For you. I lack the epic Photoshoppin' skills of others on the site (and I didn't feel like hunting down a better "comic" font), but here they are.

Frame 1
Frame 2

Why are people back on the Cs bandwaggon? They have stunk all year, I doubt LA fears them at all.

Well this game was pretty much a carbon copy of game one, except LA went on a run at the start of the fourth instead of midway through the third. I'm glad to see Bynum was able to contribute finally in limited minutes. Gonna need to see more of that if LA makes the finals (which seems more likely but there is still a series to be played).

I'd like to nominate a WOTN for Channing Frye. 0-5 from the floor, 0-2 from downtown and all he managed in 9 minutes was a rebound, a turnover and 4 fouls. Wasn't this guy supposed to force LA's big men to spread away from the paint with his shooting?

Also, I love that Amar'''''e talks a bunch of shit about Odom and not only does he not back up his words with his play, but Odom actually has a, gasp, second straight good game. Maybe all LO needs is someone to insult him before every game and he can play like he should've been his entire career.

I was dissapointed to see Kobe jack up some needlessy difficult shots, but hey, it's gonna happen and at least he's able to hit some of them.

LA fans were chanting "We Want Boston!" near the end of the game. I say, bring it on Boston! Just need to win two more against Phoenix first.

It's "Dosvedanya" Dan, C'mon you had to have known that.

(And no, the username is Russian but I don't actually speak the language.)

It's going to be a whole different ballgame for Pau and Lamar against the Celitics' bigs, Allen and Pierce can easily do what Hill and Richardson did, Scal can do what Frye did, and Rondo will cause Fisher and Farmar more problems then Nash did last night. It'll be a whole 'nother Opera against the Celts.

That's really strange...there was a period of time where I'd refresh and my comments were gone but now that I've woken up and refreshed, they're all back. Maybe it's just my browser being weird.

"I was dissapointed to see Kobe jack up some needlessy difficult shots"

This is kind of like saying "I was disappointed to see Lindsey Lohan out partying again, she used to be such a nice young lady".

Yeah that horse has left the barn. It's frigging KOBE. Taking needlessly difficult shots is, in part, what defines him as a player, and why people like me loathe him with such a passion. Give me Tim Duncan over that egomaniacal twit any day.

Bing - I hesitate to say "bandwagon" because I'm not really rooting for them, but the Celtics are finally healthy and playing like they don't live in a retirement facility.

I told a colleague of mine (who is from Cleveland, poor bastard) after Boston's first win against the Can'toliers that it wouldn't last. I told him they'd all gas out and the Cavaliers would just run them into the ground.

Now that they've gone this far, they'll be fine. In conversation with Bawful, he reminded me that KG, while injured, is plenty rested coming into this game. Ray-ray usually stands around for jumpers, so he had energy, and Rasheed Wallace was due for a statistical anomaly.

So, now I do have faith that the C's are real contenders. I think they'll close out Orlando in 5, and give the Lakers (god that hurts to say) real problems. I think that series will go at least 6 games, with the winner going to the team that dominates the boards.

@The other chris

The same Tim Duncan that couldn't help his spurs beat the fucking suns. The suns which have fooled everyone that they can play defense but really don't. The suns can't beat the Lakers even though the Lakers look like they're bored out their minds. Duncan is a great great player but when you get swept by the suns when all your players are reasonably healthy then you're a shell of what you used to be

I'll live with Kobe taking some horrible shots as long as they win. To be fair though the suns just look terrified of the Lakers. It seems that they've done what they wanted to do this season which is to make it past the spurs. I don't think winning the WCF even occurred to them.

Hey Bawful guys. I dunno if anyone pointed this out yet, but Trey Kirby over at Ball Don't Lie made a suggestion for NJ Nets name changes. One suggestion goes: "• New Jersey Nyets: Surely this is the first time this name has ever been suggested." Just thought you'd like to know.