On The Sidelines 05.07.08: Monday Playoff Games, LeBron and Pizza, D’Antoni, and More

Posted by Porfirio Diaz on 05.07.2008

A clock malfunction shouldn't have cost the Magic the game, right? Have the defending champion Spurs been dethroned by the Hornets? What does pizza and the word "crybaby" have to do with LeBron? And is D’Antoni leaving the Suns a good move? All these questions are answered in the latest edition of On The Sidelines.

Inside The Lines

Monday Playoff Action

Magic 93 Pistons 100 (Pistons lead series 2-0)
What a tough break for the Magic. Not only did they get screwed by the refs, but by the shot clock as well!



Imagine if the shot didn't count. The Magic would have led 76-75 going into the fourth quarter and maybe things would have played differently than what the actual outcome became. This really speaks on how far behind the NBA is in terms of technology when compared to other sports. TNT was able to input a timer on the replay and had it start as soon as the ball went inbounds. Why couldn't the NBA do that for the refs? Also for whatever reason, the refs couldn't review the play or start the play over or even stop the play when the clock stopped. Now the league has come out with a statement that Billup's 3 pointer shouldn't have counted. I'm sure Magicfan is happy to hear that. Just awful NBA.

But more importantly, the Magic didn't lose due to poor officiating or due to a shot clock malfunction. That would be a weak excuse. The reason they lost is the fact that they turned the ball over 19 times for the game and shot 1-9 behind the arc during the 4th quarter. It's pretty hard to win games when you're gift-wrapping the ball over to the other team and shooting horribly. Great teams know how to overcome adversity, so the Magic just need to dig deep like they did against the Raptors and win games. Another thing to look at is the fact that they played with no killer instinct. Its like they use up all of their killer instinct in the last series and had none left over.

Pistons were pretty lucky to win this game. It's pretty amazing that their final 13 points all came from free throws. Don't believe me? Just look at the game summary, when the score was 86-87 after Rip's 3. Either way, Pistons played tough; an attribute which I didn't think the Pistons could regain after their series against the Sixers. Shame on me. Well, the series goes back to Orlando, so if the Magic want to tie the series, they need to become the intense team that they were before. Use this game to say that everyone is out to get you. The Patriots do that ALL the time!

Spurs 84 Hornets 102 (Hornets lead series 2-0)
I have severely underestimated the Hornets. I felt bad when I picked the Spurs to win in 5, because I thought the Spurs would destroy a playoff noob team. Quite the opposite happened, and the Hornets burned them badly. It's funny, because when I picked the Suns in the last series, I thought the Spurs were done. I was wrong, of course and the Spurs finished the series in 5 games. I go with the Spurs in this series and now they start crapping out. Man, I hate predicting games. But this series just further proves that Chris Paul is amazing. He owned not just Tony Parker, but pretty much everyone on the Spurs, especially on this play.



Paul sure did make the Spurs look old and slow pretty quickly. Plus, look at this stat: 85 assists and 9 turnovers in all the games he has played in the playoffs. That's a 9 to 1 assist-to-turnover ratio. That is amazing. As for his team, they did a pretty good job of not allowing Parker or Ginobili to drive into the lane. The Suns pretty much ushered them to the basket in the last series. Hornets are quicker and more athletic, which puts the Spurs in a very tough predicament, as the Spurs have never been down 0-2 in a series before. When the Hornets went up 2-0 against Dallas, the Mavs never fully recovered. But it's too early to predict doom for the Spurs. They are too good of a team to get swept. In fact, they are the most cerebral team this decade, so look for a measure of revenge as the series shifts back to San Antonio.

One more thing, the fact that Paul didn't win MVP just makes me mad, even though everyone saw it from a mile away. Kobe had a great season, but Paul took a team that no one thought would make the playoffs and turned it into a sudden championship team. But Kobe has never won one yet, so voters picked him. Hope you enjoy that lifetime achievement award Kobe. But it's not like I'm bitter or anything.


Papa John's Pizza apologizes for ‘crybaby' LeBron shirt

Papa John's Pizza issued an apology to Cleveland and the Cavaliers for making T-shirts with LeBron James number (23) and the word "crybaby" under it. The shirts started after James complained about the hard fouls he received during the Cavs-Wizards first round series, which prompted Wizards center Brendan Haywood to call James a crybaby. To apologize, Papa John's will sell Cleveland residents a large, one-topping pizza for 23 cents on Thursday, as homage to James' jersey number. The company will also donate $10,000 to the Cavaliers Youth Fund.

Who knew calling someone a crybaby would have positive results. Now, what Haywood said was stupid and immature, and is now watching the rest of the playoffs on his couch. But Papa John's had every right to do what they did. They didn't have to apologize for having a creative mind and a sense of humor. Plus, LeBron does whine a lot (calm down, he's not the only one), but he's a big boy and I'm sure he can handle a little name calling.



Of course, this is Cleveland we're talking about. They like to hold grudges, no matter how petty they are. I believe when LeBron went to Game 1 of the Yankees-Indians series last year sporting a Yankee hat, many Cleveland residents deemed him as a backstabbing good-for-nothing craptard who they wanted to run out of town. I'm pretty sure they're ready to get do the same if C.C. Sabathia doesn't stay with the Cleveland Indians after this baseball season. Of course, the people of Cleveland loved LeBron once he started winning games again. So I can understand Papa John's apologizing to Cleveland. They don't want them to boycott the franchise and have even more negative publicity going their way.

So thanks to Cleveland's sensitivity, Papa John's is going to sell their pizza for only 23 cents on Thursday, May 8th. Everyone wins. Cleveland gets their apology and Papa John's gets major national exposure out of this incident. That's good business and smart marketing; I'm surprised there's no other food chains willing to make fun of superstar athletics through comical advertising more often. Also the youth fund gets a donation, so that's always a plus.

So Cleveland, get on this deal. It's only 23 cents for one pizza (but only one). So take it and move on. This is probably the best winning deal that Cleveland's gotten in years!

But I kid of course. At least it's not another "Ten Cent Beer Night" promotion, right?


Is firing D'Antoni really the answer?

Suns president Steve Kerr said Monday that he will allow Mike D'Antoni to talk to other teams about potential head coaching openings, which so far involves the Chicago Bulls and the New York Knicks. This move suggests that D'Antoni's time with the Phoenix Suns may be coming to a close. Kerr confirmed the news on Sunday night during an interview on KTAR Radio (620 AM) in Phoenix.

I'm torn. On one hand, he's a man who revived a team from mediocrity to championship contention. He has coached the Suns to four consecutive 50+ win seasons, helped acquire Steve Nash and brought an exciting run n' gun style offense (sometimes called the "Seven Second or Less" offense) that was thrilling and imaginative. Of course, the team took this style of offense from the Sacramento Kings in the early 2000s, though no one mentions it whatsoever. The difference between the two teams was that while the Suns offense was much faster and higher-octane, the Kings actually played some defense. But back to the point, D'Antoni is a coach that can guarantee a team to be in the playoffs every year.

On the other hand, he'll always get that knock of not winning a championship. But not everything was his fault. Bad luck always seem to strike him at bad times, like when Joe Johnson fractured his eye socket in 2005 against the Mavs and when Amare was out for the season in 2006. Not just bad luck, but bad GM decisions hurt D'Antoni as well. Examples include the Joe Johnson trade (they received Boris Diaw, plus 2 first round draft picks from the Hawks which they decided to give away in a yard sale), the Marcus Banks signing (5 year, $24 million to back up Steve Nash?), and of course, the mid-season Shaq trade (which fooled me and others thinking that trade would put them over the top). Now with that said, he's had multiple opportunities to get his team to the Finals, but along with the bad luck and bad manager moves, he would always get outcoached by the better coach, mostly by one Greg Popovich. Another fault would be D'Antoni using a 7 man rotation so often during the regular season that his players would be too fatigue come playoff time.

But again, I don't think this is all D'Antoni's fault. In fact, go back to the Sacramento Kings situation with Rick Adelman. Both had very good teams that excelled in the regular season only to come up short in the playoffs. But unfortunately, when a great team doesn't perform certain expectations, their coach is usually the first to get blamed and the first one to go. That's what happened to Rick Adelman and more recently to Avery Johnson. I believe that will also happen to D'Antoni. Then the question becomes this: who else is out there that could do a better job with the team in the playoffs than what D'Antoni did? I can't really think of anyone at the moment, so why risk losing a proven coach for someone that has a 50-50 chance of succeeding with the team?

Who knows, maybe a change of scenery would be good for both sides. A story recently broke out that D'Antoni and the Bulls are talking again, which might lead to him leaving and joining the Bulls. I think he will be a good fit for the Bulls. Nothing is really definite, so we'll have to continue to wait and see.


Out of Bounds

- Goal Line Blitz is quickly becoming the best thing to ever happen to me during the NFL offseason. Basically, it's a website based on American football with RPG elements (also called American Football MMORPG). You can create a player of any position from quarterback to punter, level them up, and have them participate in fictional seasons with user created teams. You can set tactics, buy teams, recruit players, build stadiums, and more. It's similar to Superstar mode in the Madden games, but Goal Line Blitz has so much more. I only have one created player, a Level 2 cornerback for the Madrid Matadors and just won our last game 19-3 against the Warsaw Stampede. It even gives you play by play and box scores for those games. I can't tell you just how awesome that is. So if you're a football fan or are just waiting for the next NFL season to start, join in on the fun. I'll give you two links: the first link and the second link. Signing up in the second link will help earn me flex points but I don't want to seem like a spam artist. So if you want to help me out, feel free to click on the second link. Otherwise, click on the first one to go to the site's homepage and sign up from there.

- Iron Man rocked! Best movie evar! Heck, 411mania has 5 reviews up explaining the awesomeness. I haven't seen that much buzz on a movie since Snakes on a Plane. So read all the reviews 411 has to offer here, here, here, here, aaaanndddd here.

- Bad week for the NFL. Not only did Steelers' draft pick Rashard Mendenhall get robbed at gunpoint, not only did Benson get pepper sprayed (although he denies that ever happened), but Marvin Harrison is currently being investigated in an ugly incident involving a Belgian gun, a bloody hand, and a car wash. Just bad news all around.

- I love Mario Kart Wii, though sometimes I wish I could also try out GTA as well. But I have no PS3 to put it in. Maybe next year when there's a price drop or when the PC version comes out. But for now, the Wii is keeping me entertained.

Final Seconds

The Celtics-Cavs series starts today, which is good because the Wizards have something to watch on television.

That's it. I'm out. Good night now!