The Three Point Play 05.09.08: Celtics Dominate, Lakers and Magic Pick Up Wins, and All-NBA First Team
Posted by Blake Lovell on 05.09.2008
The Celtics continue their dominance at home, but can they win on the road? Plus, Kobe and the Lakers continue their winning ways. All-NBA First Team is announced, and an Agent Zero update!
Hello everyone, and welcome to yet another exciting playoff edition of The Three Point Play. To start things off, the All-NBA First Team was announced, with really no surprises. The teams consists of league MVP Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Chris Paul, Lebron James, and Dwight Howard. It's hard to argue with any of those selections, as those were essentially the five best players in the league this season. For information purposes, Kobe was the only unanimous vote, which is a little crazy to me, as I'm not really sure how anyone could leave Chris Paul off that list with the kind of year he had. Then again, not all members of the media can be a genius like me, right? Only kidding. And by the way, you can find the All-NBA Second and Third Teams below in the Bonus section. But anyways, we have a ton of playoff action to get to, so let's jump right in! Note: Spurs-Hornets Game 3 was still in progress at the time of this writing being submitted. We'll discuss it in the next edition of The Three Point Play.
1. There's No Place Like Home
The teams with home-court advantage in the Semi-Final round are certainly using that to their advantage right now. One example of that, the Boston Celtics. The Celtics dominated the Cavs in Game 2, as the Celtic defense was just all over Lebron and company. It seemed like the Cavs were on a mission to start the game, taking a 21-9 lead, but then it all went downhill from there. The Cavs couldn't hit anything, and Lebron's jumpshot was nowhere to be found. This game showed why the Celtics were the number one defense in the NBA during the regular season, and more importantly, they are smothering on defense at home. The Celtics never panicked despite getting down early, and Paul Pierce and Ray Allen had much better outings than they did in Game 1 of the series. Garnett was excellent as usual, and there's just no one on the Cavs who can guard this guy.
The only way the Cavs are going to get back in this series is if they find a way to score consistently. There are some moments during the game where they look like they may put up 100. Then there are other times when they struggle to get to 70, which was pretty much what happened in Game 2. The Celtics have done an outstanding job of keeping Lebron out of the paint, as most of his shots have been outside the painted area. If Lebron has to shoot nothing but three point shots and midrange shots, the Cavs are going to have a tough time scoring, because that definitely isn't his specialty.
So now we are at the point where we get to ask whether the Celtics can win on the road. That's what will be talked about leading up to Game 3, and until the Celtics win on the road, that is all that will be talked about. The Celtics don't want to give Cleveland any type of momentum at home, so Game 3 will be an important one for both teams. Of course it's more important for the Cavs because they cannot get in an 0-3 hole, because then it's all but over for them. Lebron should play much better at home, so the Celtics need to keep up the defensive intensity, because they certainly don't want to let Lebron go crazy on them, and give the Cavs a much-needed spark.
2. Somewhere, Ari Gold is Smiling
The Los Angeles Lakers continued their dominance in the playoffs as they defeated the visiting Utah Jazz Wednesday night to take a 2-0 lead in the series (Game 3 Tonight, 9 PM ET, ESPN) . In case you missed it, all you would really have to do is watch Game 1 again, as it was basically the same game. The Jazz got down early, fought back to get it close, until the Lakers ultimately pushed it out and came up with the victory. Personally, I thought this series would go seven games, and while there is a lot of basketball left to be played, the Jazz just look outmatched right now. They had every chance in the world to take the lead in Game 2, or at least make it a competitive ballgame the whole way. But you know why that didn't happen? Their defense. At this moment in the series, they are having an incredibly difficult time stopping anyone. Never was that any more evident than in the Lamar Odom-Mehmet Okur matchup in Game 2. Now granted, Odom is a difficult matchup for anyone in the league. But Okur just doesn't have the athleticism to stop him right now. Utah had numerous chances to chip away at the lead, but they just kept trading baskets every single time down the floor. And as Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said in his post-game press conference, putting the Lakers at the free throw line 89 times in two games is not good at all either. Utah didn't have a whole lot of problems scoring, but they just couldn't find a way to stop the Lakers from scoring, whether it be from the line or outside the arc.
Maybe the Game 2 loss was inevitable for the Jazz. I mean, Kobe was presented the MVP trophy before the game, and that's bound to get a team fired up. Just to sort of give some more thoughts on the MVP race, Kobe was the best choice. Like him or not (and honestly folks, I'm not exactly Kobe's biggest fan), but he is the best player in the league right now. My belief is that the MVP should go to the player who is the absolute best in the league. Some people believe that the award should go to the person that is the most meaningful to his team. That's all fine and good, but if a person is the best player in the league, he would have to be the most valuable player, right? Again, it's a topic that is debatable. However, the right man won it this year.
However, going back to the actual series, looking at the way it's gone in the first two games, it makes me wonder why I picked this to go seven. It would not surprise me one bit for the Lakers to sweep this series, although like the Magic did against Detroit, I would expect the Jazz to come out on fire in Game 3 in order to stay in this series. As numerous NBA analysts say, the playoffs are about matchups, and Jazz coach Jerry Sloan is going to have to figure out a way to matchup better with the Lakers. High energy guys like Paul Millsap and Ronnie Brewer may have to play even more minutes than they already do in order to provide more athleticism on the court. Millsap has had a pretty good series thus far, and needs to continue to provide good minutes for the Jazz if they want to have a chance to advance. We'll see tonight if the Jazz can find a way to slow down the high-powered Lakers offense. Because if they can't, the Lakers will continue to score at will, and the Jazz will struggle to win a game.
Somebody sure pissed off Rashard Lewis. Lewis had an outstanding game (33 points) against the Billups-less Pistons, and put the Magic one game away from tying this series up. Despite Hedo Turkoglu struggling a little and taking some very questionable shots at times, the entire Magic roster played well, as they are certainly capable of winning this series if they can take Game 4. Dwight Howard continued to prove that he is becoming one of the best big men in the game, as he just continues to dominate the paint. If this man gets a jumpshot, look the hell out. He will be completely unstoppable then. Point guard Jameer Nelson also had a very good game, although part of that could be due to Billups' absence. However, that's not the only reason he played well. Nelson is still a young talent in the league, and he clearly plays much better at home than on the road. Even though he is smaller than a lot of other guards in the league, he can still find a way to get to the basket and score. His jumpshot is also getting much better, as that showed in Game 3.
As for the injury suffered by Billups, it was pretty nasty looking. Watching it live, it definitely looked like the guy could have torn something pretty bad. However, with it just being a strain, he should be able to return in this series. As for which game he will return in, that has yet to be seen. The Detroit staff just needs to make sure they don't try to push this guy back too soon. Although the Pistons may lose, there's no reason to rush him back for Game 4. Even if Detroit drops the game, the series is still tied heading back up north. It would be much better for them to drop Game 4, and have a more rested Billups heading into Game 5. The Pistons still hold the home-court advantage, so at this point, they are still in control of this series. With or without Billups in the lineup, I'm gonna say that the Magic take the next game, and make this a very interesting series. Lewis has to play effectively once again, and Howard has to continue to dominate the boards in order for that to happen though. The Magic are certainly capable of still winning the series, and we'll see what happens tonight.
THE BONUS
- All-NBA Second Team: Deron Williams, Steve Nash, Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki, and Amare Stoudamire.
- All-NBA Third Team: Manu Ginobili, Tracy McGrady, Carlos Boozer, Paul Pierce, and Yao Ming.
- Ok question for the Wizards fans, does Gilbert Arenas return next season? Or maybe the better question, do you want him back? He hasn't been healthy in over a year now, however he's still got a lot of talent left in the tank. He's definitely a guy you either love or hate. I've got no problem with him. Although, according to Gilbert's latest blog, he doesn't see the need to come back unless Antawn Jamison returns as well.
That's all for this edition of The Three Point Play. Tune in next time for in-depth coverage of the Spurs and Hornets, plus more playoff action. And remember, stay classy.....world.
