No joke, no catch. I got two free tickets to Saturday night's game for buying a washing machine from Home Depot. I had been planning to go with my wife, but alas, she has come down with a fever today, so we're probably not going to make it unless she makes a miraculous recovery. 

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You know, after the initial shock and depression has worn off, the thought occurred to me that we hung with the Lakers last year without a healthy Manu. I don't know that I'd say we should have beaten them, but we certainly could have: we should have held on in Game 1, and possibly Game 5, even without Manu. Manu's random threes were a big factor in the Game 3 win, but it's not hard to imagine RMJ or Bon-Bon having an unusually hot shooting night (ok, it is hard to imagine Bonner doing that, but he did do that against the Celtics in Boston).

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After last night's horrendous loss, I thought it appropriate to reflect on happier times... when you could leave your front door unlocked, not worry about drugs and gangs in school, and especially not worry about the Spurs losing to the : : Thunder : : .

I'm talking about a time two weeks ago, when a fellowship of a few brave, hardy souls took their mojo on the road to the AT&T Center, to watch the Spurs confront the gathering storm... of Wizards!

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There I was, minding my own business not working at work, browsing ESPN's site, when I came across this article:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=stein_marc&page=tradetalk-090205

Basically, it says that Rasheed Wallace is interested in becoming a Spur as a free agent in the offseason. I don't know what to think of this. It reminds me of when there was some talk that Karl Malone might come out of retirement to join the Spurs. On one hand, he's one of my least favorite players in the league. On the other hand, Rasheed is EXACTLY what the Spurs need on the court:

1. He can stretch the floor and shoot threes to open it up inside for Timmy, Manu, and Tony;

2. He could score in the post himself when Timmy sits;

3. He could guard bigs like Bynum or Boozer AND athletic fours like Pau, West, Stoudemire, Dirk, etc.

4. He wouldn't care if the big three took all the shots; in fact, the knock on him (as a player) has always been that he's too willing to defer. That wouldn't be an issue on the Spurs.

Could Pop and the San Antonio environment control his on-court outbursts? Would this be a Randy Moss in New England type of situation? Discuss...

I searched high and low through the archives of Googledom. One time, I even clicked the strange and mysterious "view source" option in my browser. Only after much seeking did I find the proof I was looking for...

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I'm not happy. My wife is sick, and I'm coming down with the same illness. Is there anything worse than knowing you'll be incapacitated within 48 hours? The answer is, of course, yes, there are worse things, but it still is pretty sucky. One thing that is worse would be to have wasted several hours of one's life watching the Spurs' dreadful performance Tuesday night.

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I don't think anyone signed up for this one, and for once I actually saw the game, so I thought I'd write it up. Any objections? I didn't hear any, sitting alone in my underwear in front of my computer at 6 a.m., though honestly it would be pretty creepy if someone did manage to object. Besides, I WILL PUT YOU IN THE GROUND if you object.

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No, this is not a joke of the "Keith Van Horn for Jason Kidd" variety. Mark Cuban was actually charged with insider trading by the SEC. The last celebrity I can recall getting an insider trading charge was Martha Stewart, and that didn't work out so well for her. Imagine how AWESOME it would be if Cubes went to jail. If Dirk Nowitzki were here, he might describe my reaction to this development as "schadenfreude" (a German word meaning "satisfaction or pleasure felt at someone else's misfortune"). Man, I really loathe this guy.

If you were a billionaire facing jail time, would you try to skip the country? I sure would.

Here's the link, so you guys don't think I'm making this up:

http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=529822&catid=2

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http://www.nbcolympics.com/basketball/index.html

I was going to put this in a fanshot, but nobody reads those, and this is just too important to risk everyone not seeing it. I just found that out today.

In fact, you can watch pretty much any Olympic event you want live or in its entirety after its conclusion. I watched about 10 minutes of rousing Egypt-Netherlands (I think) team handball out of sheer stupefaction that it was available. Then I came to my senses and watched some beach volleyball highlights. Yup, I'm a shoo-in for employee of the month. 

The first time I tried to watch it, it asked me for my zip code and cable provider; it said something like "NBC has a special deal with certain providers." I tried a couple of different ones before I got one it liked. If you get that question and your own address or provider doesn't work for you, try putting in 78704 and Time Warner Cable.

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So I was playing ball this Saturday. I'm one of the better players in my Saturday morning pickup game. Anyways, the other team has a 2 on 1 fast break, but I turn and track the play down. He jumps and releases the ball, and a split second later I jump to defend the play. The ball is right there, I reach for it, and swat! Get that weak stuff outta...

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Just a strange, strange game. The Lakers opened up with unreasonably hot shooting, especially Kobe, and you knew it would cool off and that Boston would come back. For the entire second half it felt like Boston was about to seize control of the game, and they just never did.

After the game, I wasn't really sure how LA scored in the fourth quarter. If I had been watching the game without looking at the scoreboard, I would have thought that Boston was up 6-10 points; it seemed like Pierce was going to the basket at will, while Kobe was firing up wild shots. Farmar kept them afloat early in the quarter, Kobe got hot in the middle, and they kind of muddled through with foul shots in the end.

The broadcasting crew, JVG in particular, really butchered LA's effort, basically saying that they didn't deserve to win. I felt like that was a little harsh. I mean, they got strong contributions at different times from many different players, got just enough stops, and finished the game with more points than their opponents. That's the name of the game. It reminded me a little of San Antonio's win over Detroit in Game 7 in 2005; it wasn't clear how they amassed enough points, but they kept pounding that rock, and eventually it split open (with Manu's big dunk at the end).

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As Spurs fans, we know the feeling when your team is about to give up a big lead. The lead would have been gotten through some sort of oddity, like unusually hot 3-point shooting, combined with poor defense. Once that well dries up, the team can't seem to score. Meanwhile, the other team hits two threes, to cut, say, a 23-point lead to 17. The players seem to have a nonchalant attitude like "no big deal, we're still up 17." They screw around more, get out of the offense, then you look up and the lead is at 11.

Fans and players start looking at the scoreboard, thinking "surely there's not enough time." But then you realize that there's something like 4 minutes left in the third, or ten in the fourth... plenty of time.

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I happened to catch this game as well (my wife was watching the Batchelorette on DVR in one room, so I watched the game in the other room). Surprise! The Lakers shot a whole bunch more foul shots in Los Angeles than they did in Boston.

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I thought I'd be agnostic towards this series, but when I broke it down, I found that I really favored the Celtics. I don't really like them, but other than Ray Allen, I don't dislike any of their players or coaches. I dislike Boston (the city and the fans), but no more than I do LA. With LA, I can count on one hand how many of their players I wouldn't punch in the face if given a free shot.

Bear in mind, my stupid DVR cut out and I missed the last four minutes of the game, where LA apparently cut the lead to four at one point. My analysis doesn't take this flurry of points into account at all.

The "Guys with the Whistles"

The referees started off the game by making atrocious calls on both ends. It seemed like one of those basketball video games where fouls are called at random every minute or so. Guys would practically tackle each other, no call, then a touch foul would be called. Boston set two legal screens that were called as fouls. It seems that in the NBA, moving screens are OK, but any screen that causes the defender to fall down or stop in his tracks is considered a foul, no matter how stationary the screener is.

After the first few minutes, the refs start calling the game like the fix is in for Boston. Kobe is getting hacked and manhandled, and not getting any calls. Gasol is playing tough, dunking in Garnett's face and taking it strong to the rim, and not getting ANY calls. Meanwhile, Leon Powe is spinning and juking and jiving, throwing up Steve Martin "wild and crazy guys" shots, and being rewarded with 9 FTs in like 5 minutes of playing time.

KG: Softer than Pau?

Meanwhile, I think Garnett has shot at least 5 jumpers in the first half from the top of the circle. Does he ever shoot in the paint? If ever there were a moment for KG to man up, it would have been after Pau dunked right on his head. What does he do? He takes it at Pau, then scores on some kind of weak dipsy-do reverse under the basket. I tell you, if Garnett were wired upstairs like Leon Powe, he'd be... a Tim Duncan who pounds his chest and throws talcum powder in the air (does he think he's a magician?). Although Tim's gone away from taking it hard to the basket as often as I'd like him to.

Kobe had to sit with three fouls, but the reserves played well, so ultimately it didn't make much of a difference. Still, he got saddled with two very questionable calls early; that has to affect his aggressiveness on D. It seemed like the whole team lost that aggressiveness for fear of fouling; Boston's "swarming" defense is being allowed to clutch and grab, and they are getting a lot of deflections, loose balls, and rebounds. They played most of the game with high intensity, which the Lakers did not come close to matching.

Unlimited Fouls

Jeff Van Gundy had an interesting suggestion: give players more fouls (7 or 8) or even unlimited fouls. Why not? How does it benefit the fans if a star has to sit because of foul trouble? They get free throws, so it's not like you can commit fouls without repercussions, like you can in pickup ball. Maybe they should make it where every foul you commit after the sixth gives the other team three FTs (on shooting fouls or when in the bonus) or one shot and the ball back (on non-shooting fouls).

Second Round Draft Pick Leon Powe

Apparently Leon Powe had a rough childhood, being homeless/in foster care. The announcers are really harping on this fact. Anyways, Leon Powe is exactly the kind of player the Spurs need. He reminds me a lot of young Malik Rose. Athletic, hungry, a bit undersized, but plays like his hair is on fire. The Spurs used to find these guys (Rose, Devin Brown, Derrick Dial, et al) but now it seems like Pop doesn't have the patience to give Darius Washington or James White any slack. If you take a bad shot, you don't just get benched, you get CUT. Even if those players are not as effective as veterans (though it's hard to see how they could be less effective than Horry or Finley), their youth and enthusiasm helps the team chemistry as a whole. 

Part of the problem with taking fliers on these foreign guys in the second round is you give yourself no chance of finding a Leon Powe, Carl Landry, or Paul Millsap diamond in the rough. If you figure only 1 out of 5 second rounders pan out, even for teams with competent front offices and scouting departments, then it's all about picking more players. If you pick guys, but you can't bring them over, you're dramatically reducing your odds.

Foreigners

Speaking of, the NBA needs to address the issue of set salaries for first round picks. I'm sure the Spurs would have like to have offered Splitter more money, but they couldn't. Maybe NBA teams should be allowed to match the contract offers for guys in overseas leagues. Mark my words, it won't be long before you see a high draft pick sign in Europe for bigger dollars than they could make in the States (like Danny Ferry). If it were New York or LA or Boston that was running into this issue, and not the Spurs, you can bet the commish would do something about it. 

What About Game Three?

I suspect that the officiating will be VERY DIFFERENT back in LA. I absolutely hate buying into conspiracy theories, but this game really makes me think that the NBA is going to ensure that this series goes 6 or 7 games. I foresee an LA blowout in game 3, LA winning a semi-close game 4, then a down to the wire game 5.

One thing that is lost in the furor over the Barry/Fisher noncall is whether the Spurs made the right move by going for the stop. Statistically, I think they would have been better off trapping Kobe to try to make him give it up to Gasol (who had just missed two FTs) or Odom (shooting well, but historically shaky).

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Of course, there's always reason to hope... except for in 2001 when the Lakers steamrolled the Spurs. What other playoff series from Spurs or NBA history might offer the good guys from the Alamo City hope against the flopping punks from New Orleans?

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Yikes. Despite a promising start, our boys got hammered in the second half, and looked a whole lot like the spuRS we had to put up with in the last couple of weeks of the season. Here's what I think is the prescription for game 2...

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