Begrudging Congratulation to the 2012 NBA Champion Miami Heat

I watched all the finals games, even while I was in Brazil.  Lebron James dominated and deserves his first championship ring.  I really expected OKC to take it by their superior team focus, but LBJ/Bosh/Wade were too much, and support from the rest of the cast propelled MIA to the win.  Congrats Miami.

Some Updates

Congratulations to the Dallas Mavericks, specifically Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd, Jason Terry & Mark Cuban! Dirk will definitely be remembered better, not considered soft, now that he has an NBA ring. He briefly left the court right after the game, probably had to let a few tears go, and did not want to do it on the court, in front of cameras. Jason Terry's irrational confidence inspired him to get a tattoo of the Finals trophy on his bicep before the season. Jason Kidd was finally able to capture an NBA title, claims he has 2-3 more seasons. Although I am not a huge Cuban fan, he redeemed himself a little bit in the past 48 hours, in my eyes, check out the picture above!

There are a number of reasons that Miami lost, but the two most obvious in my opinion are Lebron and Spoelstra. Lebron is arguably the best player in the NBA, and possibly one of the most gifted athletes of all time. However, he disappeared in the second half of that series, just like he did in the series against my Celtics last year. I still can't comprehend how he did just decide to get to the basket, like he always does, which results in a better overall offense and free throw attempts for Bron. I am very mystified by that performance. Secondly, Spoelstra was less than competent in the series, and really in the whole playoffs. I know people love him, for some reason, but I am not buying it. The Heat had NO offensive strategy in the 4th quarters of almost all Playoff, and especially Finals games. They were leading for 95% of the first 4 games, and ended up only being able to split them. They gave up a 15 point lead with 7:30 to go, and that's not acceptable as a coach.

I was very happy with last night's NHL hockey game, where the Bruins were able to even up the series, drawing a game 7 in Vancouver tomorrow. The Bruins outscored the Canucks 17-3 in Boston's TD Garden, now they just need to replicate it in Vancouver, where they have struggled immensely. The game was basically over halfway through the first quarter, where the Bruins scored 3 goals in quick succession, and Luongo was pulled for the MA Native Corey Schneider, who was Boston College's captain and hails from Marblehead on the North Shore, who let in another goal making it 4-0 and time to book tickets to Vancouver. The rest of the game was pretty chippy, lots of penalties, and a final score of 5-2. Marchand punched Daniel Sedin in the face roughly six times, saying "he felt like it" in the post-game interview. I think we will see Luongo in the next game. My sportsbook has Vancouver -155, meaning they are roughly 58%ish percent favored to win, and I feel that is a pretty good line, I like the under 5, although I wagered on that same outcome on game 6, which I knew I had no chance to collect after the first period.

In other unrelated news, I have been thoroughly enjoying HBO's Game of Thrones. The characters are very compelling and I have always been a bit of a fantasy junkie, so this is right up my alley. The acting is good, as well as production, and the story is fantastic. In the most recent episode, the main character of the season Eddard Stark, who happened to be the most recognizable figure was killed off. This series really keeps you guessing, unfortunately I am going to pick up all of the books in the Song of Fire and Ice series that it is based upon. Also my younger brother celebrated his 21st birthday with a pig roast on Saturday, lots of beer and several shots were had by all, my wife Marina went a little overboard unfortunately ending our night a little earlier than I had planned, still fun though! The pulled pork from the leftover pig was excellent too!

Rajon Rondo: the Man Made of Rubber

Celtics took Saturday night's game 3 against the Heat at home. The entire core played excellent, Allen was +21 when he was in the game, Pierce scored a bunch, and KG was the mvp, contributing 28 points and nearly 20 boards. Jermaine O'Neal was quietly excellent, I counted at least 4 blocks and a bunch of rebounds, plus his large presence made it difficult for the heat to get to the cup. Shaq was back, and although he was barely making it up and down the court, he is a huge body, and that affects the game. I will take Shaq over Big Baby Glen Davis! D. West hit a key 3, and Jeff Green contributed, and looked like he cared.

The real story of the game though was Rajon Rondo. As Dwayne Wade was falling down, he managed to pull Rondo down with him, and he fell incredibly awkwardly on his left arm. The excruciating fall was replayed gratuitously and burned into our retinas after the 20th time it was shown. He was carried off the court, with a dislocated elbow, and everyone thought the game and the series was over for the Celtics. However, in the 4th, Rondo returned, but his left arm was looking like it weighed 75 lbs. He played through it, purely on adrenaline, scored a bunch of points and contributed for our team. As he was falling, on a steal, he tucked the arm in and rolled over, clearly the thing was injured. He was making one hand passes, and scoring layups, but it was scary. The Heat looked like they didn't want to touch him, which strategically didn't make much sense. You are not going Pau GaSOFT or any other Euro playing like that, fuck yeah America.

Let's see if we can take down Game 4, Go C's!

one more shot of the elbow for the road...

Celtics 0-2

The Celtics have gotten off to a terrible start in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. They lost the first two games to the Heat in Miami and are coming home to play the next 2. I am feeling a lot less confident, but I am certainly not saying that they are drawing dead. The first game on Sunday was awful, the Celtics were down the entire game, and Miami and Wade had their foot on our necks the whole way. Some terrible officiating including the Pierce ejection, and 2 miscalled flagrant fouls (that have since been changed) would have resulted in potentially 7 extra points in Boston's direction.

Game 2 went down last night, and the Celtics looked a lot better, however they were not enough for the Heat. Bosh had a solid game 2, much better than his Sunday performance. KG played bad again, missed a ton of shots, got owned by Wade on a sick crossover move, and got owned again by Lebron at the end of the game going for a layup. Rondo and the bench played pretty well, but lack of significant contributions from the rest of the Big 3 resulted in the L. Lebron seems to have settled into his role as the #2 option for the team, but his amazing skill allows him to take over games at will, which he did in the second half.

Game 3 is going to be insane in Boston, and a win is vital, Shaq being back in the lineup could shake things up. I am looking for a huge game from the entire Celtics roster and hopefully the Heat will struggle like they did during regular season games at the TD Garden. Around the rest of the league, I see no way that the Hawks can actually beat Chicago, but in the West both underdogs are totally live. Memphis is playing some scrappy basketball, and as long as Mike Conley does alright, we could definitely see them knocking off OKC. Lakers should be able to beat Dirk and the Mavs, although Pau and Odom are going to need to get angry to win! Go Bruins!

NBA Playoffs Semifinals

I am so hyped for the upcoming series, especially for my Celtics. The Knicks were not as much of a problem as advertised, to be fair, Chauncey was injured as was Amare, but the two games in MSG were not playoff basketball. Boston has had plenty of time to rest and the Heat are going to be a real opponent. Ultimately, I don't see them having enough to beat my Celtics.



I admit that I am a bit of a homer (GO BRUINS!) but lets look back at the regular season games between the Heat/C's. Record was 3-1 in our favor. Let's throw out the first game and the last game as they are not fair representations of both squads. Celtics were 2-0 in the middle games, Rondo dominated, and Wade struggled. I expect a lot more of the same. Lebron/Wade/Bosh will dominate at least 1 game, possibly 2, but I don't see this series going to 7. The Heat lack the entire package that Boston has. We will have Rondo distributing the ball, bigs causing trouble in the paint, a better coach, and two wings who arguably shoot better than Lebron/Wade. Lebron has choked against Boston in previous playoffs, and I am expecting more of the same. The Heat gave the Sixers tons of opportunities to get back in games, and just looked generally streaky, while the Celtics play with precision and consistency. This might be our last year, but Boston will take this series in 6, and I am going to be betting the underdogs and under on total points in almost every game.


Looking forward, the Bulls should take care of Atlanta/Orlando without much of an issue, which worries me, because Boston will be tired from playing hard against Miami, we will cross that bridge when we get there! (and are you really scared of D. Rose?) Oklahoma City and the Lakers are going to be the two teams I am worried about in the West. The rest of the conference does not have much of a chance. Grizzlies were not able to put away the pesky Spurs who hit a couple of shots late, (and then covered the 6.5 spread in OT) but I hope ZBO and Tony Allen and crew will finish them off this weekend.