Everything will be all right.

By now everyone probably heard about the suspensions.
There are tons of interpretations out there. I’ll just sum it up.

Horry checked Nash into the boards.
Amare and Diaw ran towards their injured captain.

Horry is suspended for 2 games.
Amare and Diaw for 1.

So spurs traded their 8th man for 2 starters on the sun’s team.
What a good trade.

This has been a horrible and bloody series. Amare is right all along. Spurs are a dirty team. EVERY DAMN TIME Nash is getting the lane, Bowen is hand checking him and grabbing him with no call. I’m didn’t even get to the bloody nose, knee to the jewels, kicking the heel, holding a guy with your legs bullshit.

I'm happy to see my anger and beef summed up nicely by fellow supporters.

But you know what? I still believe the Suns are gonna pull this one out.
Because sadly, as much as David Stern likes to play god, the refs do too. I have a feeling that the calls are not gonna go spurs' way tonight. All will be well again as we will take game 5. Its up to the zebras to balance the game out. And the dirty spurs will get what they deserve, huge slap to the face when they lose this series.

I don't understand why people are talking as if this series is over, or Spurs have this thing in the bag. The suns are clearly the better team. Lets examine

Game 1 : Both team played well. Suns lost Nash on key possessions late due to bad luck. I'll call this game a tie.

Game 2 : Suns played well, Spurs played bad. Huge blowout.

Game 3 : Suns played horrible, Spurs played well. Win for Spurs. Spurs needed a huge game from Duncan and Manu (Who's been sucking this whole post season). One of the WORST shooting nights of Nash's career. Ridiculous calls going against the suns, some key Finley 3s. and Amare foul trouble to narrowly win this game. Suns had a shot till almost the very end.

Game 4 : Both team played well. Suns win by captializing on Spur's 4th quarter collapse. (Granted a little of the ref's help on this one, they must have been feeling guilty for screwing them in game 3)

From my point of view, if it weren't because of bad bounces and headbutts, the series would already be over.

Predictions: 15 Points from Jalen Rose in game 5 , Suns in 7.

Breaking down the playoff seeding.

Yesterday, I was looking at the eastern conference standings. It was painfully obvious what a good position the Raptors were in. We were #3 in the east. Let me break it down for ya, it looked something like this:

1 Detroit
2 Cleveland
3 Toronto
4 Miami
5 Chicago
6 Washington
7 Orlando
8 New Jersey

Not that it ultimately makes a difference, cause I'm not expecting the Raptors to make it out of first round. In fact, I'm almost hoping that they'd get swept so that would be enough grounds to get rid of Sam Mitchell. Which I'll get into later.

But taking a look at the standings. Lets remove 7 and 8 from the equation cause we're not gonna play them. The only two possible spots for the Raptors are the 3rd spot and the 4th spot. And the only possible teams we'll be playing is Miami, Chicago or Washington With Cleveland having a small chance also.

So, due to division seeding. If we're #3 seed, we'll be playing either the Heat or the Wiz. And if we're #4 seed, we'll be playing the Bulls or the Cavs. I'm gonna assume that the Heat is gonna finish ahead of the Wiz and the Cavs are gonna finish ahead of the bulls.

Here are the heads up data:

1-2 VS Bulls:
Dec 8 L 93-90
Dec 29 L 107-97
Feb 13 W 111-112

2-1 VS Wiz:
Jan 7 W 111-116
Jan 31 W 109-119
Mar 6 L 129-109

Note the two loses and one point win against the bulls.

Okay, as I type, I just realized we lost Jorge for the season... So that totally killed my ranted of trying hard for the #3 seed would improve our chances of making it out of the first round. Cause now that would be near impossible. Of course the heat could also cool down and drop back to 6th, and we would be better off playing the bulls anyways.

I guess I just wanted fellow Raptor fans to join me in my wishful thinking. That maybe.... MAYBE the seeding at the end of the year would just be like yesterday. and we'd have the most chance of making it out of the first round.

Underrated, Agent ZERO

Gilbert.

Just.... Gilbert.
He is what I love about NBA.
This is why I can pound my chest proudly when I say, I love this game.

The man is for REAL

I love the swagger,
I love the honesty,
I love the antics.

He's underrated and overrated at the same time.
He's an enigma wrapped in a riddle wrapped in a jersey.

We need more people like Gilbert in the NBA.
We need more people like Gilbert in the world.


I love this game.

Non-live post of live blogging on the Mavs Suns game.

First Half:

- Mavs having Stackhouse having a 6th man is just unfair.

- First quarter Dirk looks overwelmed and nervous.

- Whole mavs team looks nervous, and had three stupid turnovers in the first few min.

- Barbosa is the fastest guy in the nba with out the ball.

- Suns are a completely different team without nash at the point.

- Amare looks like he's allergic to rebounds.

- Spurts during the first half looks like mavs just forgot about dirk.

- Dirk is starting to heat up. His height should be illegal. Seems like it doesn't matter if you have good man on man defense on him.

- Suns played AWSOME defense the first half. Almost all of Mav's points came from outside. And most of them weren't open looks.

- Nash with amazing first half numbers 11pts 5-7FG 2Reb 5Assists.

- Seems like Dallas are switching every pick and roll. Not sure why, nash seems to be lighting dirk up. Probably cause Harris got hurt. Maybe he's the only one on that team fast enough to go over the screen?

- James Jones showed flashes of what suns have been looking for the last 3 years. Knocking down his shots. A consistent 8th man. Though he's teased me in the past and completely collapsed aswell. (For '7 secs or less' readers, looks like he's finally learned to catch and shoot or catch and pass) cept.....

- Kurt (Crazy Eyes) Thomas is starting to show his age. Late on two rotations. Looks more grounded than ever before. But I'd still be for comfortable with him protecting my defensive boards than amare though.

Second Half:

- Its quite obvious Amare is not 100% yet. And he's really pissing me off with his lack of defensive rebounding. He's letting ERIC DAMPIER having his way... seriously wtf. But I don't understand why everyone is raving that he's back.

- Seems like most of the Mav's offense is just iso a player. One pass to dirk, or one pass to Josh.
and a dirk starting to heat up takes back the lead. Suns offense starting to slowdown. Seems like their pace and rhythm is disrupted with barbosa on the bench. Jason Terry seems non-existent other than a spotup three point shooter at this point.

- And as if right on queue james jones just shut me up with a turnover and getting burned by josh howard on the other end.

- Amare slow getting back on defense causing Dampier getting an easy one posting off nash.

- D'antoni seems to not want to keep Marion on Dirk. Eventhough dirk is torching everyone else they're sending at him. I have a feeling its cause they need Marion to protect the defensive boards and cover amare's ass.

- James Jones seems lost now. I wonder if there's stats out there on this. I think he only plays well if Suns are leading.

- Suns take out nash to keep him more fresh for the 4th. Mavs now stretch the lead to 15.

- Nash calms down suns with his presence. With more clutch shooting and passing. lead down to 10

- 9:00 Left : Diop, Dirk, Howard, Stack, Terry VS Amare, Diaw, Bell, Barbosa, Nash. If I was d'antoni, I'd be shitting my pants. I need to rest Marion, but where are defensive boards coming from? Diop just gets another offensive rebound off amare as I type.

- Nash draws three defenders and dishes to amare. who finishes well. Like the 5th time this game. Marion is back for Diaw. Now is crushtime. Diaw doesn't seem to be 100% yet.

- Suns get another team defensive rebound (Bounced outta bounds in favour of suns) The 3rd or 4th one of the night. I'm sure the out of bounds section have more defensive rebounds than amare.

- Suns have their offensive rythem back, but now Stack is heating up. Mavs up 10 with 4 min left.

- Dirk seems to be out of the picture for a while. Maybe its cause marion's on him. I think that's the flaw of Mav's offensive. Since all their players are so talented individually, and maybe since the sun's players are such weak one on one defenders. They iso too much.

- Amare's outside shooting is impressive. Once he gets all his explosivness back. I think we'll see an Amare even better than the one that was torching Duncan two years ago in the playoffs.

- Nash last few possesion. 2 missed shots, 1 turn over. looks frustrated. 1:20 left, 7 Mavs point lead.

- Suns give up two more offensive rebounds. Good thing dampier is as smart as he is good looking

- 32 Seconds left, Mavs up 5. dirk at the line to shoot 2 freethrows. Seems over.

- Mavs seems to think they won too. Gives Steve 2 freebies.

- Good thing Josh Howard is so un-clutch. Missed a freebie, stupid three point foul on Nash. 3 freebies.

- Dirk misses another freethrow. Two clutched freethrows missed.

- Marion Bails out Nash with the storybook three pointer for the tie at 2.7 left.

- Everyone talks about the end of the game, where nash scores the suns last 10 points. But 5 of those are freethrows off stupid fouls. 2 points are off a mavs defensive collapes. and 3 are off a three given a second chance points. And before that for three possessions he had 2 missed shots and 1 turnover. Everyone seems to make a big deal about dirk's missed freethrows and nash's 10 straight points, as part of clutchness and MVP discussion. I think Nash's performance down the stretch is overrated.

Overtime:

- Amare 3 for 3 to start. I still don't think he's 100%. He has that first step. but I don't feel that elevation is there. There's no strong finish at the basket. He's tossing all these hookshots. I think he only had 2 dunks all game.

- Mavs get a bunch of calls go their way, and Nash gets hit with a bunch of no calls on his drives. Amare looks distracted by the calls that went against him.

- Clutch Mavs: Terry, Stack Unclutch Mavs: Dirk, Howard.

- Mavs play hot potatoe with the rock and Terry hits a tough shot 3 to tie the game with 4.9 left.

- Amare gets a freebie but doesn't slam it home... HE tries to LAY IT IN... and MISSES.... sigh.

- I think amare doesn't even trust his own elevation. He has a free dunk off a nash penatrate. But he seems to be taking off a bit too close to the basket. lack of OMPH on the dunk.

- Amazing defense by Marion. Iso dirk double pump fade away. BLOCKED by Marion. Nash almost turns it over, bailed out by refs with a call that could have gone either way. Sean Marion is too underrated. I know he makes around more than 3 Times every suns other than Amare. And he's over paid. And he won't be as effective in another system. But the man is one of the most unselfish players in the NBA. The media needs to give him more love.

- Another nash penatrate and free amare dunk. Takes off a good distance for his elevation (pre-macro-frac) barely gets in the dunk. lack of OMPH.

- Dirk's unclutchness leads to frustration leads to technical leads to free point for suns.

- Nash's unclutchness leads to Marion bailing him out with an offensive board and put back.

- Why is james jones in the game? I don't understand. I guess bell has been really uneffective defensively and jones has height over bell. And Diaw isn't 100% yet. But james jones.... sigh.... think about it.... my team has James Jones in the game. For defensive purposes. Lets just say, Steve Nash has the same amount of defensive rebounds as Amare and James Jones COMBINED. Whom are listed at 6-10 and 6-8 respectively. And he bricks are pair during his tenture in overtime.

- Suns win with Nash's clutch defensive play..... is what the highlights will have you believe. I think it was all Marion. This year the suns need to win the championships. Its their last chance, since odds are, they're trading away Marion next year. Its now of never... and a 80% Amare and a 70% Diaw and an aging Kurt "crazy eyes" thomas and an inconsistant james jones and no backup point guard, and lack of interer defense, and a slipping raja..... sigh its never been so had being a suns fan.

Dream Team

I was talking to a friend,
and I was shocked that he didn't know all the members of the dream team... And it wasn't like he missed one or two... he missed a whole bunch....

Anyways, here's my super easy way of remembering the original dream team.

Two Bulls (Jordan and Pippen)
Two Jazz (Stock and Malone)
Two from the greatest rivalry (Magic and Bird)
Two centers not named Hakeem (Ewing and David)
Two who will later become rockets (Clyde and Barkley)
Two Chris (Mullin and Laettner)

Looking back, this team was suppose to be the best EVER.

- But there were no dominate center. (Why is there no Hakeem? Laettner over Shaq and Alonzo?)
- No Isiah. (One of the most dominant little guy of the 80s)
- No Reggie.

I guess first priority was getting MJ on the team.
Speaking of MJ.
I was never a huge fan of MJ.
Perfection is flawed by being perfect.
I enjoyed watching his stay at Washington much more than the Bulls.
Flawed heroes are prefect heroes.
(I still hate Kobe though)
My favourite players on the Bulls were Pippen, Toni Kukoc, Bill Wellington in that order.

Speaking of Pippen...
How is it that no one has showed interests in his services?
He can still give a good 13-18 min on a contender.
The guy plays 3 positions.
Great leadership, court sense, team defender.
There's just.... no news about this AT ALL, other than the fact that he wants to play...

Maybe people just automatically assume he'll end up with the Lakers so no one's really trying to sign him.

But through out the last few years, maybe its karma, that veterans that take a pay cut in order to win a championship don't win (With Heat last year an obvious exception. But the championship came from riding on Wade's back more than the contribution of the veterans). Malone, Payton in LA. Finley, Van Exel in SA. Of course this is probably more due to expectations which didn't properly reflect the skill level of these players during those time periods.


Lets hope he goes some where he can shine.
And lets hope if he goes to the Lakers they don't knock out my Suns

Here we are....

Life is not easy,
Being a Canadian basketball fan.
Hockey is always on TV.

I get 10 second highlights of games at the end of the night if I'm lucky.
while hockey highlights run all over the place.
Where's the love?

Anyways, here are some random thoughts from the point of view
of a disgruntled Canadian basketball fan.

And here is where I stand

Loves:

Steve Nash
Yao Ming
Kevin Garnett
Dirk
Rasheed

Hates:

Kobe
Vince Carter
Rob Babcock