Tag: Golden State Warriors

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NBA General

Around the Rim: Let the celebration begin!


1. The Warriors came out to play (and win)
Well, we’ve been talking about the “biggest upset in playoff history” for what feels like an eternity, but now it’s time to start discussing exactly where this bad boy ranks on the all-time upsets in the history of sports. Golden State used a 36-15 spanking throughout the third quarter to hammer the final nail into the Mavericks’ coffin, 111-86. Yup, that’s no typo; 111-86. Dallas now has to be considered one of the biggest chokers in recent postseason memory after blowing last year’s Finals to the Heat and now this inexcusable defeat to the Warriors. It’s surprising that Mark Cuban didn’t spontaneously combust during the game. Dirk Nowitzki didn’t even bother to show up in the biggest game of the year, but why should he? After all, he already said that the series would be over if they lost Game 4, which they did. Way to go Dirk, you just gift wrapped the MVP for Steve Nash with your pathetic postseason performance. Then again, that’s what friends are for.

2. Home cookin’ makes all the difference

This is what all fans of basketball look forward to every year, and now we finally have our first Game 7 of the 2007 postseason. So far the series between Utah and Houston has gone exactly according to form with each team winning the games on their home floor and Game 6 was no different as Utah used a late surge to force the ultimate win or go home scenario and won 94-82 in Salt Lake City. The Jazz big men led the way with 41 points and 18 rebounds and cry baby Andrei Kirilenko even wiped away his tears long enough to chip in a nice defensive effort of three steals and five blocks to go along with 14 points. The Rockets got decent offensive games from their stars but nobody else bothered to step up in the close out situation. Well, we can’t really say nobody; after all, this is a team that had only four players score in a game not too long ago.

3. Boy, Luol, you’re swell
Well, David Robinson, Grant Hill, AC Green and Joe Dumars will have to set the prim and proper table with one more setting for the newest member of the good guy club as Luol Deng snatched up the NBA’s sportsmanship award on Thursday. Receiving the award is a pretty lofty accomplishment but what’s even more impressive is that Deng beat out Mr. Manners Shane Battier. However, it wasn’t by much: 22 total votes to be exact. But we’re in the playoffs man, who really cares about sportsmanship? It’s good to know that there actually are players who give the league a positive image but now’s the time when we wanna see Deng start throwing some elbows when crashing the boards and putting a little extra umph into those picks. Chicago has Detroit in the next round and Deng has been a good boy long enough, it’s time for him to channel his inner Bad Boy.

Thursday’s Player of the Day: Stephen Jackson vs. Dallas 44 min, 33 pts (FG: 10-19, 3FG: 7-8, FT: 6-8), 5 reb, 3 ast, 3 stl

Buzzer Beater: Ron Artest finally got sentenced for smacking his wife back in March and now he gets to spend a nice sized chunk of his summer picking up trash alongside the highway. A judge sentenced Ron Ron to 100 hours of community service and a 10-day work project to go along with a whole butt load of counseling. Despite what some reports said, Artest lucked out and avoided jail time; there goes his hardcore rap image. You can’t really get street cred by doing hard time in a 10-day work project. Something tells us that Tupac is looking at Artest from somewhere out there and just laughing his ass off.

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Golden State Warriors

Photoshop Geeks have their fun with Charles Barkley


By now, you’ve heard about Charles Barkley saying he hates the Bay Area. We’re pretty sure it’s just the Chuckster being the Chuckster but that didn’t prevent some hurt feelings and some retribution from Warriors fans. Even Baron Davis, Stephen Jackson, and Matt Barnes fought back by making fun of Charles’ Fave 5 commercial. According to Stephen Jackson, Barkley’s real Fave 5 is “McDonalds, Dominos, Burger King. It was Subway, but he pushed them out for Cinnabon. And Krispy Kreme.”

San Francisco Chronicle writer CW Nevius invited his readers to submit some photoshopped pics of Barkley in the Bay Area. There are some clever ones and we’ve posted a few of our favorites below. Still, with all the design geeks in the Bay Area, we think they can do better than the current offerings.

More Photos after the jump.

Continue reading “Photoshop Geeks have their fun with Charles Barkley”

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NBA General

Around the Rim: The Warriors’ grip slips

1. Another fight to the finish
The Warriors were down by 21 points in the first half of Tuesday’s Game 5 against Dallas, but a 3-point barrage helped them fight all the way back and take the game to another exciting finish. In the end, despite the fantastic comeback by Golden State, it was Dirk Nowitzki and his boys who barely made it off their home floor with a win, 118-112. Dallas was finally able to prevent the Warriors from getting all the way to the hoop in transition but it almost didn’t matter as GS went 16-of-35 from behind the arc. Now, the Warriors will take a 3-2 lead back to Oakland where a rowdy arena full of yellow-shirted fans will be going bonkers in hopes of seeing the first ever No. 1 vs. No. 8 upset in a seven game series. Golden State better treat this like a Game 7 because they won’t win in Dallas should the series return.

2. Marie Elie wants to be a rookie again

The Charlotte Bobcats are in need of a head coach to turn the franchise around and Larry Brown has been rumored to be in the running for the position. Brown has evolving pretenders into contenders for his entire career (minus that New York thing of course), but apparently the Cats aren’t quite ready to enter the cocoon. Well, maybe they are just exploring all their possible options because on Tuesday Charlotte interviewed former Rocket great Mario Elie for the head coaching vacancy. Elie might have potential but he’s not going to be taking this crummy team to the playoffs anytime soon. If the Bobcats decide to save some cash and go with Elie they can give their post season dreams the kiss of death.

3. Raptors almost blow a lead of Jurassic proportions
Game 5 between the Raptors and the Nets turned out to be a lot closer than anyone expected, especially Toronto’s fans. The Raptors were up by 17 in the second half but almost gave it away as New Jersey got to within two points at the final buzzer, 98-96. But hey, a win is a win and when you’re facing elimination you’ll take `em any way they come. Four of the five Toronto starters finished the game with double figures in scoring, the only one not to reach that plateau was T.J. Ford who went down in the first quarter after getting walloped and flopped on by Vince Carter. Eh, no biggie; Jose Calderon came off the bench to score a team-high 25 points to go along with eight assists. With a 3-2 Nets’ lead the series will shift back to Jersey for Game 6; maybe Chris Bosh will figure out how to be a post season All-Star by then after going just 3-11 for 11 points in the last game. Guess it was good that Ford got injured so Calderon could save the day.

Tuesday’s Player of the Day: Dirk Nowitzki vs. Golden State 40 min, 30 pts (FG: 7-15, 3FG: 2-3, FT: 14-15), 12 reb, 3 ast, 1 blk

Buzzer Beater: Chauncey Billups will become a free agent at the end of the year and there are tons o’ teams who are desperate to add the former Finals MVP to their squad. One unexpected team to be making at run at Billups is the former champs turned first round sweep victims, the Miami Heat. Now, talk about a dynamic duo in the backcourt; Billups and Dwyane Wade would make quite the formidable threat as the Heat tried to bounce back from their fall from grace. Personally, we don’t care where Chauncey ends up as long as it’s not with that retarded PA in Detroit as he stutters out Mr. Big Shot’s first name. Hell, we’d rather see Billups suit up with Memphis than stick around for another year of Detroit’s gi-gi-gi-gimmick.

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NBA General

Around the Rim: Happy Trails, Florida



I came back for this?

1. No more magic, no more heat: The two Florida franchises were knocked out of the NBA playoffs over the weekend. Swept out even. On Saturday, the Pistons took care of the Magic in Orlando. Detroit was down by 5 points with 3 minutes left but rallied to win the game and series. The Magic weren’t supposed to be anything more than a roadbump for the Pistons and the series went as expected. The Heat, on the other hand, were supposed to defend their NBA title and set up a stellar series with the Pistons. Instead, they went meekly into the night after the baby Bulls ran all over them from the getgo. The Heat were toast after losing game 3 at home on Friday night but we expected them to salvage some pride and win a game. Nope. Despite coming out quickly in the first quarter, they couldn’t keep the lead in the second half and the Bulls took care of business in the knockout game.

2. On the brink: Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire had stellar games for the Suns to put the Lakers into a 1-3 hole but the big story out west is the Golden State Warriors completely outplaying the Mavericks on the way to a 3-1 series lead. Baron Davis is playing the best basketball of his career at exactly the right time. He scored 33 points and handed out a team high 4 assists in Sunday’s 103-99 victory. Meanwhile, Dirk Nowitzki is playing like the anti-MVP. His stats still lead the Mavericks and he did have those two big 3s at the end of the game but it was too little too late. Already down 2-1 in the series, Nowitzki can’t wait the final minutes to start making big shots. He’s not Robert Horry, situational big shot Bob. He’s gotta dominate from the start. The Warriors have two shots to win this thing: Tuesday night in Dallas and then back home Thursday. There’s no way they win a game 7 in Dallas if it comes down to that, even though TNT is praying for that to happen.

3. On the brink 2: The Raptors might be the higher seeded team but the Nets are absolutely taking them out to the woodshed in this series. Sunday night’s game was especially embarassing for Chris Bosh and company as the Nets more than doubled them up in the first quarter and lead by as much as 33 points during the game. That’s two games in a row that the Nets have practically gone wire to wire. The Raptors will have to come out swinging in front of their home crowd on Tuesday, if not for their fans, then for NBA broadcasters who must be disgusted with the Eastern conference this year. Two 4 game sweeps that likely will turn into 3 when the Cavaliers take on the Wizards tonight. These playoffs aren’t doing much for the perception that the East is the JV league.

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NBA General

Around the Rim: Warriors lose their cool and game two

1. It’s getting hot in here
The series between Dallas and Golden State just keeps getting better and better as the rivalry grows bitterer and bitterer with every dribble of the ball. In game two we saw some real fire between the clubs in a very physical session that was littered with enough trash talk to fill a city dump. And in the end it was the Mavericks who walked away with a 112-99 victory and tied the series at 1-1. Baron Davis got ejected from the game at the end of the third quarter for clapping sarcastically at a call, which basically ended the Warriors chances of leaving Big D with a two game sweep in hand. Then Stephen Jackson took his sweet time leaving the court after he got ejected late in the fourth and gave the refs a nice sized piece of his mind on the way out. But just wait until an arena full of blood thirsty Warriors fans provide the backdrop for a big time game three that could swing momentum into the direction of either team. Hopefully there won’t be any suspensions handed out for the Davis and Jackson incidents or for a brief skirmish that broke out during the third quarter. Maybe all this bad blood stems from the Don Nelson connection but who cares how it originated, it’s producing some freakin’ exciting ballgames; even the one’s that are 13 point blowouts.

2. Carlisle out

In a pretty shocking move, the Pacers decided to axe their coach after the team suffered through a dreadful second half of the season en route to a 35-47 record. Indiana had a horrible season, their worst since 1988-89, and has gotten gradually worse every year under each of Rick Carlisle’s four years. But don’t expect this to be the last thing you hear from Indy this off-season because a complete overhaul could be in store for the Pacers. Stephen Jackson was already traded away and Jamaal Tinsley and Jermaine O’Neal probably aren’t too far behind. Larry Bird is a hardcore winner and he will do anything to get his fix, so a blockbuster deal for Kevin Garnett or Pau Gasol could definitely be in the cards. And, well what do you know; Larry Brown is suddenly interested in coaching again.

3. Gimme that game back!
San Antonio was rolling to an easy victory as game two of their series with Denver entered the fourth quarter but the Spurs almost let a late game slip cost them the victory. With 7:16 remaining in the game, San Antonio grabbed a 17 point lead, 84-67, but by the time the clock struck the 45 second mark, the Nuggets were within three points, 88-91, of a 2-0 lead over the three time champs. But the Spurs held on and evened up the series 1-1 after ripping off six unanswered for a 97-88 victory. The defensive focus was targeted on Denver’s duo of Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson after they torched SA for 61 in the first game; in game two they were held to a combined 46 points on 46 shots. This series will be rockin’ in the Rockies on Saturday when these two hook up for game three.

Wednesday’s Player of the Day: Drew Gooden vs. Washington 32 min, 24 pts (FG: 10-13, FT: 4-5), 14 reb, 2 ast

Buzzer Beater: Earlier this week, Kobe Bryant made an interesting statement when asked about the window closing on his career. He responded by saying “We definitely have to get to that elite level. And we have to get to that level, like, now.” Bryant has been a winner for most of his career and you know that he is just praying for a Shaqless championship ring to go on his pinky finger, so getting bounced in the first round every year is probably not going to cut it for league’s best scorer. Without executing a serious roster overhaul, the Lakers will never reach that “elite level” that Bryant speaks of considering that Dallas, Phoenix, Utah, San Antonio and Houston don’t look like they’ll be giving up their spots any time soon. So, would Kobe consider leaving Tinsel Town for a more championship conducive environment? Hmmmmm.

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NBA General

Around the Rim: The month long first round has begun

NBA playoff action is fantastic!

1. Home-court disadvantage
Most teams won their home games when the opening round of the playoffs began this weekend, but there was a trio of teams who failed to please the fans inside their own gym and they are now looking to crawl out of a 1-0 hole. New Jersey grabbed a victory from a very inexperienced Raptors team in Toronto, but that wasn’t all that surprising. What was really shocking was that Denver and Golden State took advantage of a couple of Texas powerhouses by utilizing some great games from their stars. Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson combined for 61 of the Nuggets 95 points against SA, while Baron Davis, Jason Richardson and Stephen Jackson hooked up for 69 of the Warriors 97. These series aren’t even close to being over but for the clubs that dropped game 1 at home, their next game is pretty darn close to a must win.

2. The Big Ticket’s possible big mistake

Nobody in Minnesota is talking, but rumor has it that Kevin Garnett is talking with the Timberwolves management about getting a contract extension. Why, KG, why?! Garnett seems to be the only person, besides the organization and their fans, who is content with him simply wasting away the remaining years of an incredible career as the big brother for a revolving door of lottery picks. Open your eyes Garnett; you might want to think that you can turn this team around but you can only do so much with the garbage that Kevin McHale surrounds you with. Garnett is signed through next year, then he’ll become a free agent, but we suggest that he faces the truth and forces a trade. He might not even have to go very far; the high-priced Jermaine O’Neal is need of a change of scenery as well.

3. Suns are too hot to handle for LA
Kobe Bryant tried to carry the Lakers on in game one of their series against the Suns, and it worked for about three quarters. That’s when the weight became too much, and Phoenix’s team ball offered too many solutions for problem posed by Bryant’s one man show. Bryant had 28 points in the first half but was then limited to just 11 in the second and, if that’s not devastating enough for LA, the team only scored 10 points in the fourth quarter. Phil Jackson said that his superstar “ran out of gas” down the stretch as he went 1-for-10 during the final 12 minutes. The odds are already stacked against the Lakers, but if Bryant can’t be stellar in this series then they won’t make it back to Phoenix.

Sunday’s Player of the Day: Baron Davis @ Dallas 44 min, 33 pts (FG: 11-20, 3FG: 4-7, FT: 7-8), 14 reb, 8 ast, 3 stl, 1 blk

Buzzer Beater: Just one game into the post season and Shaquille O’Neal is already complaining about the refs. And he’s not doing it quietly either. “My intention was to come out and be myself, until Eddie Rush derailed me,” said O’Neal. Shaq seems to feel that Ben Wallace was dropping like the flop king Vlade Divac and so he’s going to retaliate in the only way he knows how; by crying. Considering that he’s the biggest, baddest kid on the block, the Daddy sure does whine like a spoiled brat every time he doesn’t get a call. Sad thing is that his rant will probably change the way things get called in the next game. Now it is going to be up to Wallace to adjust his game accordingly or he’ll be the one watching the end of game 2 from the bench, instead of O’Neal.

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NBA General

Around the Rim: Guess who’s back

1. The Warriors found the golden ticket!
Thanks to an impressive victory over the Trailblazers last night, Golden State snapped the league’s longest current playoff drought as they will make their first post season appearance since 1994. And for all their hard work, the Warriors land a series with the NBA’s best team in Dallas. But if anybody knows how to beat the Mavericks, it’s their old coach Don Nelson. The Warriors have had Dallas’ number over the past couple of seasons but it’s going to be tough for them to pull out four wins against Dirk Nowitzki, Josh Howard and the rest of Mark Cuban‘s boys. Lots of people, espically fans of Utah or Houston, would love to see Dallas go down, but Nelson is known for winning games; winning championships is a whole other story.

2. Professional leap frog

Before last night, Cleveland was set on a course in which they would collide head-on with the Miami Heat in the first round. And with a healthy Shaquille O’Neal and Dwyane Wade in the lineup, no team wants to draw them right now; thanks to a 109-96 victory over the Bucks on Wednesday, now the Cavs won’t have to and the Bulls will. With the victory, Cleveland leaped three spots in the Eastern Conference playoff picture and secured the No. 2 seed and a first round series against a Washington team that is missing their two most powerful Wizards. LeBron James wasn’t messing around as he went off for 24 points and nine assists, which made him just the second person in league history to average 27 points, six rebounds and six assists for three straight years.

3. More Crawford aftermath
Tim Duncan came out and said yesterday that he hopes that his team can “get a fair shake” from the referees after Duncan and the Spurs were at the epicenter of the Joey Crawford suspension. The officials aren’t too thrilled about David Stern‘s decision to give Crawford the boot, but hopefully for the Spurs sake the refs will be able to separate Stern from the Spurs. After all, the remaining referees can’t really argue that Duncan deserved to get T’d up and ejected while he sat on the bench; can they? Well, if they don’t want to end up with the same fate as their fellow zebra then they’ll be forced to call the games as usual, regardless of their personal feelings.

Wednesday’s Player of the Day: Pau Gasol @ Minnesota 36 min, 25 pts (FG: 9-15, FT: 7-9), 16 reb, 6 ast, 1 blk

Buzzer Beater: The Clippers were oh so close to grabbing the last playoff spot, but last night against the Hornets the Clippers pulled out their old tricks and dropped the must win game. It’s not surprising to see LA miss the post season, after all they are the Clippers, but it startling to see them fall so far in just one season. Last year at this time most were under the impression that Los Angeles finally had two professional basketball teams and some even believed that Clippers were on the verge of surpassing the Lakers for the domination of Hollywood. But you can scratch that idea now; and all those celebrities that were finally showing their faces at Clippers games will soon start donning the purple and gold once again.

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NBA General

Around the Rim: Even Mr. Clutch can’t save Memphis

1. West walks away
Jerry West will always be the logo of the NBA, but yesterday he announced that he will no longer be the face of the Memphis Grizzlies. West told reporters that his five year run as the Grizzlies’ director of basketball operations will end on July 1. Mr. Clutch said “I’m not a youngster anymore,” and said that the constant losing, uncertainty and injuries have all added up to be too much for the soon-to-be 69 year old. West has done all that he can for the Memphis franchise and while they might have some pieces to build on; they seriously need a centerpiece to build around. And according to West, Pau Gasol is not that guy. But with the luck of the bouncing ping-pong balls, perhaps Kevin Durant could become what Gasol never did.

2. Skiles shoots down Curry’s season

If the Tim Duncan/Joey Crawford drama isn’t enough to keep your NBA interest peaked, then perhaps a coach/player rivalry will be more intriguing to you. Last week, Bulls coach Scott Skiles said that the Knicks Eddy Curry is “having a very good year but it seems like he’s being put on a pedestal awful quickly here.” It sounds to us like somebody is upset that Curry didn’t have his breakout season while playing in Bulls’ red. Curry said that his former coach was “very disrespectful” in his comments. This is a great start to a bad blood rivalry, but it’s not going to get a chance to get fully rolling until next season since New York won’t be participating in the post season.

3. Jamison doesn’t mind carrying the load
With Gilbert Arenas and Caron Butler out of the lineup there are gobs and gobs of points available for the other 12 players on the active roster. And on Tuesday night Antawn Jamison did his absolute best to make sure that he grabbed as many of those points for himself as he could by scoring 48 points against the Magic. Unfortunately, the 48 point effort was in vain as the Wizards fell by six to Orlando, 95-89. Jamison jacked up 26 of the Wiz’s 80 field goals and attempted 24 of the team’s 44 free throws. Talk about a one many show! Jarvis Hayes was the only other Wizard to finish in double figures with 15 points on 6-of-12 shooting.

Tuesday’s Player of the Day: Antawn Jamison vs. Orlando 48 min, 48 pts (FG: 14-26, 3FG: 5-9, FT: 15-24), 9 reb, 1 ast, 1 stl

Wednesday’s Game to Watch: Golden State (41-40) @ Portland (32-49) Portland might be the home team in this contest, but the Trailblazers have nothing to play for. Golden State, on the other hand, has everything to play for as their post season hopes ride on the last game of the last day of the schedule. If the Warriors can pull out the victory, then they are in the playoffs for the first time since 1994, snapping the longest current streak of going without any post season lovin’. However, if Golden State fails to win against Portland then the Clippers can sneak into the post season by beating the Hornets in LA.

Buzzer Beater: Jermaine O’Neal didn’t try to hide the fact that he wanted out of Indy if the Pacers failed to reach the playoffs, but now that the season is over O’Neal is backing off of his demands for an off-season trade. “I want to retire here, but I understand the business part of it. The business part is brutal. If they feel they can’t rebuild the team, they have to tear the team down.” While O’Neal isn’t admitting it, he’s probably still looking for a change of address and one attractive location is in LA; with Kobe Bryant, not Elton Brand. The Lakers desperately need a big man to compliment their superstar scorer but they’ll have to give up some young talent in return; perhaps Andrew Bynum. Unfortunately, The Captain would not be happy with that.

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NBA General

Around the Rim: Houston, we have lift off

1. Rockets booster
There were lots of questions about Tracy McGrady’s health during the season and there were even more questions about Yao Ming’s health after he broke his leg, but now all the questions have been answered and the results are not good for the rest of the West. The Suns certainly took notice after Houston pulled out an impressive 120-117 victory behind 39 points from McGrady and 34 from Yao. As if 39 points isn’t enough, McGrady chipped in 11 rebounds and nine assists as well. With the win, Houston gained home-court advantage in their first round series against Utah despite being the fifth seed in the playoffs, and considering that Houston is currently the hottest team in the West, the slumping Jazz are suddenly looking like the underdogs in this much anticipated series.

2. Reappearing act

When Caron Butler first got diagnosed with a broken hand two weeks ago, the outlook was bleak. But now things are starting to look a little more promising for the All-Star forward who says that he is still hopeful he will make a full recovery before the playoffs are over. The only question that remains is if the Wizards will still be playing when he does. Butler was originally supposed to be out of action for six weeks but on Monday he took part in practice with the team. This is great news for the Wizards as they need all the help they can get since Gilbert Arenas had to cut his season short with an injury. Butler’s return probably won’t be enough to get Washington past Toronto or Chicago but it definitely gives them a better chance than having Jarvis Hayes in the starting five.

3. One spot left; who wants it?
With only one day left in the regular season, oddly enough there is still one playoff spot up for grabs and it is for the very undesirable final seed in the West which yields a first round match-up against the Mavericks. The only teams that are in left in contention for the post season are the Warriors and the Clippers. Neither team has an easy opponent but luckily for them their games involve teams that have nothing to play for. The Clips are in the worst position possible as they need to not only defeat the Suns, but they also need the Warriors to lose to Dallas. On the other hand, Golden State has their destiny in their own hands as they simply need to win and they’re in.

Monday’s Player of the Day: Tracy McGrady vs. Phoenix 41 min, 39 pts (FG: 14-31, 3FG: 3-7, FT: 8-11), 11 reb, 9 ast, 2 stl

Tuesday’s Game to Watch: Toronto (47-33) @ Detroit (51-29) The Raptors will get an excellent opportunity to get a feel for the post season waters as they travel to Detroit for an early battle against the Eastern Conference’s best team. Both teams will probably take it kind of easy during the game in order to avoid any unnecessary injuries before the playoffs but it could still prove to be a great game of chess between the two coaches. This could be a preview of a second round series between these two in a couple of weeks but Chris Bosh and TJ Ford will have to survive a series in the unfamiliar post season before they can start hoping of knocking off the former champs.

Buzzer Beater: One day after the Spurs’ Tim Duncan got teched up, thrown out and supposedly called out, Gregg Popovich decided that he wasn’t going to take any chances with his stars’ futures before the post season. So, last night as the Spurs took on the Grizzlies, Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili all enjoyed the entire game from the comfort of the bench. Well, enjoyed might not be the most accurate term considering that Memphis grabbed a 10 point victory, 101-91. But what can realistically be expected when 55 points per game plus a bunch of rebounds, assists, steals and blocks are riding the pine? Hopefully James “Flight” White enjoyed what will most likely be his only chance to ever lead the Spurs in scoring after he tied Michael Finley with 17 points on Monday.

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NBA General

Around the Rim: Suns block? SA’s building steam

1. Spurred On
Tim Duncan was named the NBA’s Western Conference Player of the Week yesterday after he led the Spurs to a 3-0 record last week by scoring 21 points and grabbing 10 rebounds while dishing out five assists and blocking three shots per contest. But it was the French phenom Tony Parker who guided SA to their fourth consecutive victory by racking up 30 points on 12-of-16 shooting in a dismantling of the Trailblazers. The Spurs are getting hot at the right time but they are still sitting two games behind Phoenix for the second seed in the playoffs. However, you shouldn’t be surprised if San Antonio catches the Suns before the end of the season because they have a much easier schedule as the year draws to a close.

2. Warriors, come out and plaaay

Golden State made a serious statement last night as they destroyed the Utah Jazz by 24 points, 126-102. And thanks to a Clippers loss to Denver, the Warriors have slid into the eighth and final playoff spot in the West; for now. Home-court advantage for the entire playoffs was also determined by in the Clippers loss as Dallas won their 64th game of the season and guaranteed that they would be spending the majority of every playoff series in their gym. And at the moment, their first round opponent would be the same giant killing Warriors that ripped apart Utah last night. So, is Golden State ready for the Mavericks? Probably not, but it would more entertaining than throwing the sacrificial Clippers to Mark Cuban’s hungry lions.

3. Kobe goes cold
Like most of the great scorers in league history, most nights Kobe Bryant has got it but some nights he doesn’t. And last night was definitely one night that the league’s top scorer wouldn’t mind forgetting. Bryant was 9-of-30 from the floor in a 115-111 loss to the Nuggets that put the Lakers perilously close to sliding completely off the playoff map. Only two little games separate LA from missing the post season and regardless of what happens over the remainder of the regular season, this will be the most losses for any Phil Jackson coached team with the Lakers currently sitting at 40-38. The Mamba just couldn’t get it going as Denver’s dynamic duo torched LA for 57 points and the team’s sixth straight victory. Nobody wants to get caught playing against that level of firepower in the first round of the post season, and then you throw in a Defensive Player of the Year candidate patrolling the middle in Marcus Camby and you have a serious dark-horse just waiting to grab an early playoff upset.

Monday’s Player of the Day: Ricky Davis vs. Toronto 39 min, 28 pts (FG: 9-17, 3FG: 4-8, FT: 6-6), 3 reb, 8 ast

Tuesday’s Game to Watch: Los Angeles Clippers (37-39) @ New Orleans (36-41) With the playoffs just about two weeks away, the final three spots are still technically up for grabs but it’s really the final two that are in the most unstable condition. That’s where the Clippers and the Hornets come in. Both teams are on the outside looking in right now as they try to scratch and claw their way into the post season picture and knock the Lakers and/or Warriors out. It’s great to see this kind of late season head-to-head contests where the winner can take control of their own destiny and watch the battle of wills square off. Without getting too Bill Walton about the matter, let’s just say that it should be a good game.

Buzzer Beater: In a story that goes to show you that NBA ballers are still regular folk too, Michael Doleac’s brother ‘s Black Hawk helicopter was shot down in Baghdad as he piloted the aircraft. Everyone ended up being all right but that has got to put game of basketball into perspective for Army 2nd Lt. Kenneth Doleac’s older brother.

“From what I’ve heard from him, it was he and another helicopter flying,” Doleac said. “They got hit, it was just small arms fire, and they ended up going down. He was able to put it down. A couple of his guys got hit, but no one was injured seriously. He was able to put the helicopter down. The other Black Hawk that was with him wound up coming back in a couple of minutes and picking them all up.”

“It wakes you up. You take for granted every day he’s over there flying. To hear that he got shot down was just nuts. Every time you hear a helicopter go down, it’s something bad.”