Good Playoffs, Shorter Seasons

Watching the NBA playoffs, one wonders why bother with the regular season?  Of course, you need the regular season to figure out who makes the playoffs.  But it's striking - and obviously obvious - to see how much better the play is in the post season.

Both series are pretty compelling; the young Thunder led by arguably the best scorer since Michael Jordan taking on a Spurs team that is professional and compelling, and the old guard Celtics led by young gun/old soul Rajon Rondo taking on the must see TV that is LaBron James and the Heat.

The NBA should consider institutionalizing the 66-game, lock-out induced schedule.  Like all leagues, the NBA regular season is too, too long at 82 games (the only exception to this is college basketball, whose 30 game schedule capped by a tournament seems about as perfect as 90 feet between the bases*).  There are too many bad NBA teams - thanks mainly to expansion - to waste our time watching.  Shorten the season, and put us and hapless teams like our hometown Wizards out of our collective misery sooner than later.

But the playoffs are a different story. The level of play is fantastic, as is the effort.

That, along with wanting to see who wins,  is what really stands out for me watching these playoffs.  Effort.

One stereotype about the NBA is that players don't play hard for four quarters or that defense is an afterthought. Watching the playoffs should dispel both of those lazy analyses. 

In the playoffs, every shot is contested. And that's true for the first shot of the game and especially the last.  You can feel the defensive intensity oozing from your TV screen.

The effort extends both ways.  It was pretty compelling to watch Rajon Rondo play 53 minutes - 53! - and make shot after shot in a losing cause.  It was inspiring stuff. 

Ditto Manu Ginobili or James Harden as they recklessly and repeatedly attack the hoop, or Kevin Garnett go down low - though he hates it - to exploit Miami's lack of a big man.  Or watch Kevin Durant patiently wait for the game come to him then simply blow up and take over, as he did last night.

Anyway, check it out.  It's the playoffs after all not the regular season - inspiring stuff.

A few more sports notes:

• What else is inspiring? Watching Stephen Strasburg bounce back from 3 consecutive average outings, only one of which he actually pitched badly BTW, with seven innings of shut out ball, with 9 strike outs and no walks to boot.  Not only was it great to see him dominate yesterday and lay to rest rumors of a tired arm or similar post-Tommy John surgery problems, Strasburg did what number one pitchers do on a contending team - he slammed the door on a 3-game losing streak.  
• We're heading to Nats Park in about an hour for Evan's annual birthday party game with his crew.  Excellent weather, an excellent celebration - and we get Gio Gonzalez on the bump.

* Schedules

Back to scheduling for one more second.  On one level, it's easy to understand the main reason why owners and TV execs in particular would oppose shortened seasons: fewer games to sell tickets and TV rights.  

But shortened seasons would benefit all four of the major leagues (baseball, basketball, football and soccer; I do not consider a sport that penalizes players 5 minutes a game for fighting a major sport; you ball your fist in any of the real major leagues and you get suspended 5 GAMES - as it should be. Grow up NHL.)

Expansion has greatly diluted talent pools for all the sports, as has the simple explosions of sports and leagues.  The larger number of teams in each league is one - but not the main - reason you see so many foreign players in all the leagues not named the NFL.


One way to minimize the impact of a diluted talent pool is to player few games.  A shorter season in all the leagues would help immeasurably.  Or, measurably.

• It would help cover the lack of pitching depth in the majors.  If MLB went to the old 154-game schedule teams could experiment for 4-man rotations, need fewer pitchers in general, and baseball can get rid of the asterisks that go along with comparing records in the pre and post-162 game era.   And, with baseball expanding it's post season a shorter season would ensure that the Fall Classic is completed before November.  Baseball is already a grind; why not make it a little less grindier?
• We've already discussed the NBA.  A shorter season gets us to what we want to watch - the playoffs - sooner.  No one pays attention to the NBA any way until after March Madness anyway. Start the season like the NBA did this year - with a Christmas Day triple header (which was awesome, BTW).  Let the NFL have Thanksgiving, the NBA can take Christmas.
• The MLS season already makes no sense, interrupted with side competitions, national team games, etc. and spanning from who knows when to who knows why. They should go back to the traditional world football schedule of games from October to May; MLS is afraid of competing with the NFL for fields and attention.  But with teams getting their own venues that is no longer a problem. And the NFL only plays once a week; MLS should shoot for the other six days and play a shorter season, too. Like the NBA, the MLS playoffs are usually more compelling that a numbingly boring 0-0 tie played in August during the regular season.   
• In an earlier post I pontificated on how to fix college football, including a shorter season, and try to restore the balance between being a student and athlete.
• But the NFL is most in need of a shorter season.  In the old days, when I first started watching the NFL, they played a 12-game season. It's now ballooned to an abusive 18-game schedules that wears out bodies faster and faster. In an era with heightened concerns over head injuries and an epidemic of debilitating injuries, doesn't it make sense to expose the players to fewer risks via fewer games?  The NFL will still make boatloads of money thanks to their lucrative television deals.  The least they could do is shorten their employees' exposure to life altering traumas by playing fewer games (and giving out guaranteed contracts).

NBA Playoffs

Hard to get that excited about the NBA playoffs.  The Wizards demise caused me to stop paying attention to the league months ago. And unlike the NCAAs, with a one-and-done format guaranteed to produce upsets, the NBA playoffs are the opposite. Hard to hide flaws in a seven-game series, and harder to find upsets.


As usual, the east playoffs look unappealing as we wait for the inevitable match up of Vince Carter's Orlando Magic and Antawn Jamison's Cleveland Cavaliers in the conference finals. The other six teams in the east playoffs each have serious problems: Boston is too old, Atlanta very weak at the point and a few years away in terms of maturity; Milwaukee could have made some noise if Bogut was healthy but he's not and they won't; Charlotte is a less-talented version of the Hawks but with even less playoff experience and a big whole in the paint; Miami has one great player and no one else.  


The one intriguing team outside of Orlando and Cleveland is Chicago.  When healthy they feature some great young talent.  Injuries caused them to settle for the 8th spot opposite Cleveland so their trip to the playoffs will be short, this year.


The conference final will go seven, but it's hard to pick against LaBron James - especially with help from Antawn Jamison - so expect Cleveland to make the NBA Finals.


The west will be a slightly different story with at least 2 teams, Brendan Haywood's Dallas Mavericks and George Karl's Denver Nuggets, and perhaps everyone's sleeper team the Phoenix Suns, capable of giving the Lakers an honest run for their money.   


Like the east, don't expect any early upsets.  But unlike the east, the west WILL feature some compelling first round match ups such as the Spurs-Mavs and Nuggets-Jazz, and an entertaining one in the Lakers versus Kevin Durant's Oklahoma City Thunder.  


The conference semi-finals will be even more entertaining featuring a final four of the Lakers vs the Nuggets and the Mavericks taking on the Suns.  Every one of those games will be worth watching.  


I like Chauncey Billups taking down the erratic Lakers and go with Haywood and Caron Butler over the Suns.  Like all lefties I want to root for Steve Nash but the Mavs are too deep; that team features Nowitzki, Kidd, Marion, and Butler. 


I'm sticking with the Mavs to win the conference final, too, so it will be a Tar Heels AND Wizards reunion as the Cavs meet the Mavs in the Finals.


Break Up The Nats 


These are the glory days for our hometown Nationals.  At 7-6 it like 2005 again!  Except for Jason Marquis the Nats have actually gotten good starting pitching lately, especially from Livan Hernandez but also from John Lannan and tonight from Craig Stammen.  Only 83 more wins this season and it's on to the playoffs! 

Tough Out Tomorrow For Heels

To say it is dumping outside is an understatement.  The amount of snow is incredible, and it looks like we will get almost 2 feet.  The weather, plus a backlog, gives me a chance to catch up on some blogging.

Tar Heels

Today's Carolina game at Texas will be an interesting one to watch as the Heels take on yet another top 10 team, this time on the road in front of a Final Four-sized crowd at Cowboy Stadium.


Texas is a semi-legit Final Four team, the semi being the coaching of Rick Barnes.  Barnes is the Gerald Henderson of coaches, a light-weight who picked fights with Dean Smith when he coached at Clemson.  He's an excellent recruiter, but Barnes has only taken one team to a Final Four.


But my main cause of concern is not the talent of Texas, but that this is Carolina's first game in a week following final exams.  The Heels will likely be rusty after the layoff - both physical and mental - especially early in the game.  Of course, that doubles my concern as in each of Carolina's losses this year the team got off to a slow start.


So watch to see how the Heels fair early.  If Drew successfully navigates the first ten minutes, and get Deon and Davis lots of good touches early the Heels should be okay.  The worst that could happen is we get a little impatient and start jacking up threes.  


NBA Update


Last week I posted a new poll on the NBA.   And the response was unanimous; 100 percent of CHB blog readers care about the NBA.   The bad news - for my overall readership and the NBA - is that only 3 people voted: me, Evan and Michael Degnan.   So my blog is as popular as the NBA!


That it's for now, but blogs are pending on the cosmic Christ and the meaning of Christmas, and Bud Selig's new commission on improving baseball games.  But for now, Go Heels!

What in the wide, wide world of sports is going on here

That headline has no real relationship to today's blog post.  Besides being a great line from 'Blazing Saddles' it's all I could come up with - but does describe lots of sports happenings this week and weekend.

Tough week for the Nats, punctuated by last night's terrible loss.  We were at that game, so had a great view to Danys Baez' swinging bunt with two outs in the top of the 12th.  The only thing worse than watching an American League pitcher start a two-out rally is acknowledging the fact that by sending Baez to the plate the Orioles had conceded the inning.  Even when the other team gives in the Nats lose.

The loss obscured the fact that the worst may be behind us in terms of the Nats bullpen.  Bergman, Beimel, Villone and eventual loser Kip Wells all pitched well last night, and Hanrahan picked up a nice save on Thursday night against the Pirates. 

I have to offer a  moment of appreciation for of all people Joel Hanrahan.  On Wednesday he lost another game with a ninth-inning wild pitch.  But 24-hours later he had the stones, and the ability to forget about that wild pitch, to come in the ninth and protect a lead and get a save.  You have to admire that ability, and it's another small reminder about how great sport is.  Past is not prologue, and shouldn't keep you from performing.  Good stuff.

The bullpen is not the only good pitching news.  The Nats finally pulled the plug on Daniel Cabrera and recalled someone named 'Stamman' from Triple A.  He looked great for 6 innings on Thursday.  Like Zimmermann did last night, he works fast. That keeps fielders sharp, hitters uncomfortable, and fans happy.  It worked for Bob Gibson and Sandy Koufax, and I wonder why all pitchers don't follow that lead and work fast.

The good news for the Nats is all of a sudden a young and talented starting rotation may be taking shape.  Lannan, Zimmermann, Martis and Stamman may ended up as a serviceable starting staff. The bad news is you are walking a tight rope if you expect four starters 25-and-under to carry your team to respectability.  But if these starters progress and get the Nats to 70 wins this year - you know your team stinks if your goal is to 'only' lose 92 wins, which will require the Nats to go 58-63 the rest of way - the Nats could a decent, 500 team NEXT year.  So there may be hope on the horizon.

The bad news for this team right now is that Dunn is not hitting; his average is down 30 points since the 4-4 west coast swing, and Dukes is hurt/slumping.  

The return of Jesus Flores should help the offense and the pitching staff.  With the new, young rotation, the suddenly calm bullpen, and w/Zimmerman, Guzman and Nick Johnson leading the offense all the pieces may in place for a respectable run. The new alignment - great offense, young starters, steadier bullpen - may be the best scenario for the Nats since their move to Washington.  Bottom line: it will interesting to track the team's play with all these pieces in place.

• I was excited to see fellow Greek-American Nick Markakis play last night.  He went 0-6 so we didn't get to see much. But the O who really impressed me was Adam Jones.  That guy looks like a ball player, and hit everything hard last night in getting three hits and driving in the winning runs in the 12th.  The Orioles are set at those two positions for a decade. 
• I still root for the Orioles in the AL.  Unlike many Washingtonians I bear no ill will towards that franchise for years opposing a team in DC.  Perhaps that's because owner Peter Angelos is Greek and an active Democrat, or because Camden Yards is still a great place to watch a game, or because for years going to Balmer to watch Cal Ripken, etc. play was great fun.  But I think the main reason is we have our own team now so who cares? And like a relief pitcher you have to move on to today's game.

A Few More Random Notes

I tried to TIVO three other sporting events last night while we were at the game: game two of the Cavs-Magic series, Carolina playing in the ACC baseball tournament, and the women's lacrosse team in the final four.

• Phenomenal ending to the basketball game.  How you could let Lebron James catch an inbounds pass in that situation is beyond me, but he still had to hit a tough shot. I would have not guarded Mo Williams and doubled James.  You just can't let him get the ball. 
• Excellent game in general though, and the Magic should feel great about stealing game one and having the fortitude to come back from a 20-point deficit. Some teams, say the Lakers against the Rockets last week for instance, would have tanked it at that point, simply happy to have won one game on the road.  But behind Dwight Howard and the world's most famous Turk, Hedo Turkoglu,  the Magic fought back.
• The Heels got waxed 11-1 by Virginia, so I did not watch that game at all.  The Heels should still host a super-regional when the NCAA tournament starts next week.
• The women defeated previously undefeated Maryland last night to make the lacrosse national championship game on Sunday.  The game is in Towson, Maryland, so we may go up for that one.  Another chance to yell the greatest two words in the English language: GO HEELS!

baDCarma week

Actually, it wasn't so much of a bad week as it was a bad day.  On Thursday the Caps lost a game seven - at home - a few hours after Ryan Zimmerman's 30-game hit streak ended in San Francisco.  Both events are related in that the Caps and ZImmerman were the only glimmers on a generally bleak Washington sports landscape.

I'm not a hockey fan at all and didn't read much of the coverage, but I was struck by a few letters to the editor that pointed out how flat the Caps played.  'Coming out flat' has got to be one of the oddest phenomena in sport.  Carolina came out flat in last year's Final Four, too.  I can see coming out flat against Radford, etc.  but why teams come out flat in a big game will always be a mystery.

NATS NOTES

We have Nats tickets tonight.  Evan and I were looking forward to seeing Zimm continue his streak but now can look forward another 8-6 game featuring great offense and horrible relief pitching.  Making matters worse we have Daniel Cabrera on the mound.  I'm not that crazy about Rob Dibble as the Nats' color man - he talks about himself too much, and Rob Carpenter seems starry eyed to be sharing a booth with a former Nasty Boy - but I like how he openly calls on Manny Acta to swap Kip Wells for Cabrera.

We know the Nats' pen stinks, but I'm starting to think that Manny Acta makes things worse in the way he uses it.  He's a little too open minded, and keeps giving guys like Kensing and others too many chances to audition for a job. Then again, I guess he doesn't have much choice.

One great thing about baseball is the history. To that end, I encourage folks to check out the list of players who have hit a home run in the their first at bat in today's Post (Archives, page D6).  It also lists if they homered on the first pitch and if it was a grand slam. The only guy to do that - grand slam on his first pitch - in more than 130 years of baseball is Kevin Kouzmenoff for Cleveland in 2006.

Interesting to note how complete the list is - the first homer listed is by George Tabeau for the 1887 Cincinnati team in the American Association.  The first National League entry is in 1890; American League in 1921 so I guess the Junior Circuit did not track stats as well in the 19th century.

Two more interesting notes on first pitch homers.   One, there appear to be a decent amount of pitchers on that list: Mark Wainwright, Dustin Hermanson, John Montefusco, Hoyt Wilhelm.   Two, outside of Wilhelm there aren't many Hall of Famers on the list.   Elijah Dukes is on there, but the best hitters on the list are folks like Terry Steinbach, Reggie Sanders, Carlos Lee, Bert Campaneris, Tim Wallach, Will Clark, Carmelo Martinez and Jermaine Dye.  Three pretty good managers, Whitey Lockman, Gene Lamont and Chuck Tanner are on there too. 

NBA Playoffs

For the first time this year I may Tivo two playoff games.  Even with J.J. Reddick on the floor for Orlando I am happily rooting for the Magic.  Both of those teams look incredibly mediocre to me.  Rondo and Howard are great players, but no one else has shown me - or more importantly Labron James - anything in that series.

Speaking of mediocre, how about the Rockets?  I expect the Lakers to stop sleep walking and wax the Yaoless team from Houston tonight.  I wonder if the Lakers will be able to turn it on for seven games against George Karl's Denver Nuggets?   

Manny being Clemens

Not exactly sure how to react to the Manny Ramirez saga.  One thing I do know, I am tired of this story and this era.  The drip drip drip nature of the steroid revelations is horrible to endure and generally disgusting.   

The only good thing about this story is that a major star like Ramirez was caught and received such a lengthy, meaningful and expensive penalty. Manny will lose more than $7 million in salary.  Hopefully the suspension, shame and lost wages will discourage other players from taking performance enhancing drugs.  

The worst part of this story is the nature of the drug, basically a masking agent to hide the steroids Manny took.  Instead of saying "These drugs aren't worth it" the only thing Manny learned from the experiences of Bonds, Clemens, A-Rod et. al. was "Use a masking agent."  

Depressing stuff.

Also depressing is the all star team of cheaters.  Look at this lineup: Clemens, Maguire, Palmiero, A-Rod, Giambi, Bonds, Sosa. Who can you trust anymore?  Certainly not any player over 35 who continues to hit like Ramirez had.  I trust Griffey, Frank Thomas, Pujols, Chipper Jones, Vlad Guerrero.  And it makes you respect guys who age and decline, players like Griffey, Jeter, and Jeff Kent.   At least those guys are natural.

 NBA Playoffs

Nothing seems to be slowing down the Cavaliers' march to the NBA Finals.   And George Karl's Denver Nuggets, actually Chauncey Billups' Nuggets, look like legitimate contenders in the west.  But the other two second round series' have been pretty interesting.  

Even with KG on the bench I expected the Celtics to calmly dispatch the Magic.  But despite an incredibly weak backcourt, that series is now the Magic's to lose after their win in Orlando on Friday night.  Dwight Howard is dominating, as is Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu.  On the other hand Ray Allen and Paul Pierce look tired.  Outside of Rondo and Eddie House the Celtics look pretty bad on offense.  

I did not think the Rockets could hang with LA at all, but they stole game 1 nonetheless.  Tonight's game three will be huge, and expect the Lakers and Kobe Bryant in particular to have a big game.  One weird stat in this series - after dominating game one Yao Ming only took 4 SHOTS in game two.  You can't win like that.

QUICK MOVIE MINUTE

Hadn't seen many good movies lately, until this week when I got to watch The Wrestler, The Reader, and Slumdog Millionaire on DVD. I was really touched and impressed by all three. 

Mickey Rourke should have won the Oscar, and I cared about his character as if he were a Tar Heel. Yeah, he was Tar Heel good in The Wrestler.

Kate Winslet deserved her Oscar for The Reader. She did a great job portraying a complex character, one who is vain, naive, ruthless, kind, mean, and oblivious. It's a great movie about human nature and guilt, going along with the crowd, among other things. 

Finally, Slumdog Millionaire was about as satisfying a movie you will ever see. A great story, with details that unfold similar to The Usual Suspects and Training Day, and great acting and characters. There's a love story, a brother/buddy movie in there too.

.

One more final four

There is another final four this weekend, as Panathinaikos plays for the Euroleague 2009 championship today against CSKA Moscow.  The game is a rematch of the 2007 championship, won by Pana in Athens.  This year's final four is in Berlin.

Panathinaikos defeated arch-rival Olympiakos 84 to 82 - in a thrilling game - on Friday night to reach the championship. That was a good game to watch (the entire Euro final four is on NBA TV), with lots of back and forth action and good shooting. Olympiakos had a chance to tie at the end but Bourousis (which loosely translates to 'can you' or 'did you try'), their center, missed a pretty good look down low.

The Greens were led by two NCAA/NBA alums, Maryland's Sarunas Jasikevicus and Arizona State's Mike Batiste.  Jasikevicus hit a number of big shots, mainly 3s, and Batiste had 4 dunks in the second half.  In addition to those two, the game featured a number of NBA alums and other well known players.   In addition to Jasikevicus and Batiste, Pana's roster includes Greek national Vasili Spanoulis (Houston Rockets), Antonis Fotsis (Memphis Grizzlies where he played one season with Batiste) and Maryland's Drew Nicholas.

Olympiakos features Temple's Lynn Greer (Milwaukee Bucks), Jannero Pargo (Arkansas and most recently the New Orleans Hornets),  and George Printezis (drafted by San Antonio but traded to the Toronto Raptors).  But their most famous player is former Atlanta Hawk Josh Childress.   Childress had a nice game, and finished with 11 points, but never really asserted himself. Though he got his hand on Bourousis' missed shot his tip-in did not go in.

Olympiakos will not win Euroleague, but Childress has helped lead his team to the top of the Greek basketball league standings.   And he says he will honor his three-year contract to play with the Pireaus-based team and continues to say nice things about living and playing in Greece.

A few more Euroleague Final Four observations:

• The crowd was loud for the entire 40 minutes.  Pana-Olympiacos is similar to Carolina-Duke, with the main difference being Carolina-Duke fans generally respect the other team.  Not so in Greece, where sport seems to be an excuse to recreate the city-state wars of the 5th and 4th centuries BC (Spartan dog, Corinthian pig, etc. etc.!).  
• The crowd was so loud that you could barely hear the announcers, one of whom, Jeff Taylor, is a Carolina grad.
• Not only was the audio bad but I noticed how spoiled I am by American sports broadcasting.  The camera angle for this game was way to wide.  It almost felt as if you were watching the game from the upper deck rather than on television.
• The court was surrounded by a net so fans could not throw stuff on the floor or at each other.  Just another reminder that as crass and tacky as American sports can get, European sport is much worse. Our venues aren't surrounded by nets, smoking is not allowed and the uniforms do not feature advertisements instead of city names or logos.
• For the record, the Greens were playing 'for' Cosmote, a Greek communications company, while the Reds (Olympiakos) appropriately enough were playing 'for' CitiBank.

NBA Playoffs

As entertaining as the Bulls-Celtics series was, I still haven't gotten into the NBA playoffs. The other first round series' were terrible, but I expect to start watching more intently once the conference finals start.  Watching the Lakers battle the Nuggets and the Celtics play the Cavaliers will be worth staying up for.

NATS UPDATE

Some good news from southwest Washington as Sharion Martis threw the first Nationals complete game since the 2006 season in defeating the Cardinals 6-1 on Saturday.  It was Manager Manny Acta's first complete game as Washington's manager.  

The combination of Martis' effectiveness and the Nats' woeful bullpen made Acta's decision to let this starter finish what he started an easy one. 

Zimmerman extended his hitting streak to 21 games, and Adam Dunn hit his seventh homer for the Nats.  Offense does not seem to be a problem for this squad, and Lannan, Olson and rookie Jordan Zimmermann have each had good starts lately. Let's hope the complete game inspires the bull pen and the Nats string some wins together and get close to 500. 

Next Year's Heels II

Get it?  The title is an homage to Larry Drew II,  the starting point guard for your defending national champs.

Going pro is a slam dunk for Lawson, who depending on the order of the draft, should go in the top 10.  He's improved his game and is ready for the next level.  That's the good news.   The bad news - news tempered by being paid to play basketball - is that the teams most in need of point guard help include backwaters like Golden State and Milwaukee.

At the Thursday press conference Roy Williams said he had spoken with 13 teams and was assured that Ellington would go in the first round thus a guaranteed, three-year contract.  I hope that's true.  Besides a guaranteed contract the great news for Ellington is that is projected to go late in the first round so will likely end up with a playoff team.  Interesting to note how many good teams don't have world-beaters at the 2.  Dallas and San Antonio, for instance, bring their best 2 guards off the bench (Terry and Ginobili, respectively).  Same for New Orleans, Houston and Denver who starts Duke scrub Dahntay Jones at 2.

The other significant draft news is that Gerald Henderson will enter the draft but not hire and agent.  Henderson will likely be drafted in Lawson territory so has probably played his last game as a Blue Devil (a game where he went 1 for 9 from the field in a loss to hometown team Villanova).  Duke will be good, but without Henderson they won't be THAT good. I'm not sure why folks like Caulton Tudor are so optimistic about Duke's chances next year.  Lance Thomas and Brian Zoubek have proven that they are NOT ACC-caliber talent, and the jury is still out on guys like Nolan Smith. Though Singler and Scheyer are great players Duke is still weak at point and on the boards (again).  Nationally they aren't as talented as Kansas or Michigan State, and even with their losses I don't think Duke measures up to Carolina either.

I was hoping Henderson would stick around one more year for another loss to Carolina in Cameron.  That guy deserves nothing but Tar Heel-induced misery.  Instead he joins luminaries like Greg Paulus in the list of players who will leave Durham having never won in Cameron against the Heels.

I'm a fan of the NBA, but can not get into the playoffs yet.  These first-round series always seem tedious and rarely produce an upset, though Dallas taking down San Antonio does qualify as one even with Ginobili on the bench for the Spurs.  The NBA should restore some legitimacy for the regular season - which is long enough - and reduce the number of teams that make the playoffs.

I'll blog more on the NBA playoffs in a could of more rounds.

NATS UPDATE

Well, the Mets have put an end the Nats' 6-game, 8-inning winning streak.  Going into the weekend series Washington had been hitting the ball well, but that has ended in cavernous Taxpayer Stadium.  The Nats' anemic hitting in New York joins their bad pitching and shoddy defense for an 'in the toilet' trifecta!

NBA Playoffs Blog

One way to treat (but not cure) my post Final Four blues is with a nice playoff run by the hometown Washington Wizards.  I'm so excited I'm going to do something I have never done - TiVO a Wizards game, today's first round game versus Cleveland that runs up against back-to-back kid soccer games.  

I blogged this a week or so ago, but I think the Wiz will go to the Eastern Conference finals. They match very well with Cleveland and Boston and will pull back-to-back upsets.  The Big Three for the Zards are healthy - at least Jamison and Arenas are - but I think it will be my man Brendan Haywood that puts Washington over the top in both series.

Haywood may have more trouble with Cleveland that with Boston. He is coming off his best season as a professional, and generally plays very well against Cav center Zydrunas Ilgauskas.  But last year, Z dominated the first round sweep of the Wizards.  If Haywood rebounds he should out play Ilgauskas this year.

The Wizards have beaten the Celtics three times this season, and Haywood has been a big reason.  In each win, he has kept KG in check, even getting in his face a few times. For whatever reason, the Cs bring out the best in the Wizards.  As critical as Haywood will be, I think this will be Arenas' series. Look for Agent Zero to use this series to redeem a season lost to injury, AND to remind the rest of the league that he is one of the NBA's elite players.

Not much else happening in the East - the Pistons will march to the conference and NBA finals with only a few speed bumps against inferior competition.  The Wizards will probably be the most and probably the only intriguing story in the East.  

That is not the case in the West.

It's still hard to accept that the Spurs play the Suns in the first round! The Suns appear to have figured out the Shaq thing, going 15-5 in their last 20 games.  Stoudamire has really excelled with Shaq around, but I have trouble seeing the Spurs losing this series.  My bet is that Shaq and Duncan, and Nash and Parker, cancel each other out. It will come down to who plays better - Stoudamire or Ginobili.  As much as I like Stoudamire I have to go with Ginobili (one of the three most exciting players on the planet).

Though not as marque as the Suns-Spurs series, there are other great first round match ups.  I see the Jazz taking down the Rockets and Tracy McGrady.  My guess is that Jerry Sloan will figure out how to dismantle Houston in a seven-game series.

The Lakers will handle the Nuggets, but the other first round match up - between the Hornets and Mavs - is a toss up.  I'm still not a believer in the Hornets, though Dallas does not inspire much confidence either.  This series, like much of the playoffs actually, is full of talented players,  but many of whom do not have IT.   KG, McGrady, Pierce, Allen, Kidd, Nowitzki, are all veteran stars whose teams - for whatever reason - never seem to win the big game.  Calling them 'losers' is too harsh, but when in doubt pick against their teams.

Nats Notes

Nice win for the Nats last night, mainly because they finally got a big hit.  Hopefully, Nick Johnson's bases loaded double will ignite more clutch hitting from the Nats.   Zimmerman got two hits last night, and has hit in three straight so he may be getting his stroke back.  Let's hope that Kearns and Pena start hitting soon too.

Sean Hill got called up by Washington yesterday and makes his 2008 debut today against Florida.  He's got the stuff to be a number one starter if he stays healthy.

As bad as the Nats have played they are only 5 back with 145 games left to play!