Monday Biz

First, big thanks to GasFace for his guest bloggerizing of the Swag. We got straight gassed, son. Stay tuned for more from the Gas one, as the Bulls-Pistons and Cavs-Nets series' unfold.

Next, after yesterday's Phoenix v. San Antone melee, there can be no doubt Steve Nash is the league's MVP. Either him or TDuncs, but whichever one of them it is, it sure as hell isn't Dirk "Early Exit" Nowitzki. In fact, watching Nash play through a Rocky Balboa-like bleeder on his face just makes the handing of the MVP to Dirk that much more of a joke.

Don't be fooled by the Pistons' game 1 shellacking of Chicago. This is still gonna be a hell of a series. The Bulls needed a game to find their sea legs. Now that they got that one out of their system, I'm expecting them to give the Pistons fits at home and hell on the road. This baby's going to 7 games. I like the Pistons to defend their home court and come out on top.

Cavs baby, Cavs. We didn't look magical, but Bronny gets the job done. That's all we need. We can ride the King all the way to the big show if we play our cards right. Look for the Cavs to dominate the match ups they can control. Nobody expects Larry Hughes to light the world on fire against J-Kidd, and Bronny on Jefferson or Carter isn't exactly a dream come true on defense for the Cavs. But Z, Gooden and Varejao should all have their ways with Miki Moore, Josh Boone and Jason Collins. I'm also looking to Eric Snow for a big defensive and experience push for Cleveland. He did it last year for the Cavs against the Wizards.

Shed a tear for TMac. I can't believe Utah stole this one. I knew it would be a tough series, and Utah's no bunch of slouches, but how does a team with Mac and Yao (not to mention Shane Batty) not get out of the first round? Either way this spells good news for the Warriors, I think. The Jazz are an excellent defensive team, but I feel like Yao would have absolutely eaten the Warriors alive in the paint. I don't think Golden State would have been able to play "small ball" against the Rockets. They should be right in their wheel house against the Jazz' 3 forward-2 guard lineup.
We still believe, Bay Area, don't let the fire die down. We can ride this wave of momentum all the way into a West Finals blood bath with San Antone or Phoenix.

WE'VE DONE IT!!

Yes we! Bay Area fans are the 6th man of this squad. We just humiliated the Mavericks. It's on!! Next round here we come!! Go Warriors!!!!!!!!

Incidentally, as the game was ending just now on TNT, Cuban said something angry to the camera as he passed by. It was inaudible, any lip readers with Tivo, get on this.

WARRRRRRRRRIORS

6 and a half minutes to go, Warriors up 21.

The Bay Area is about to explode. Make no mistake, after this game wraps up in about 15 or 20 minutes, we will take to the streets.
Lock up your daughters, lock up your wife. Lock up your back door and run for your life.
When I finally calm down, I'll get in depth about the greatest playoff upset in history.
The City is back.

Matt Barnes: It's Getting Ugly in Here

When asked about relations between the Mavs and Warriors, Matty Barnes had this to say (from Mercury News):

"The bottom line is, we don't like each other," Warriors forward Matt Barnes said. "We don't like them, they don't like us. It's going to get chippy, there's going to be hard fouls and that's the way we like to play."

I love this kind of mean spirited trash talk. Matt Barnes deserves special recognition for how he's played in this series. He's been phenomenal. Clearly Baron is the MVP, but Barnes has been the lightning rod, the intangibles factory, and the clutch-shot machine for the Warriors.
Add tattooed, ass whooping, Dirk dominating, destroyer to that list.

Cuban: Crazy or Right?

Part of me loves Mark Cuban. His fire, his money, his team, the fact that he's one of a small handful of owners who look like they genuinely love the game and want their teams to win beyond profits.
The other part of me wants to punch this whiny, spoiled, entitled, chubby faced, goatee-sporting assbag right in his man-boobs.

When he bitched and moaned about a referee against Dallas, I ignored it as the crybabying of a rich punk. But the refs have done everything in their power to hand this series to the Mavs. Last night Baron got a 6th foul on a no-contact play and, moments later, Stephen Jackson was ejected for what appeared to be absolutely nothing. This all handed the Warriors legendary victory right to Dallas.

But it doesn't phase me.

No, the Warriors will not be stopped by such foolishness. Tomorrow in Oakland, Baron and the boys are gonna TCB.

Okay, enough posturing. I don't think there's a "conspiracy," of any kind, but it's just clear; Golden State has Dallas' number, and the refs don't know how to play it. They're either calling fouls at the worst possible time, for no reason, or they're letting the guys play knock down, drag out ball with no calls in the early going.

I wish we could just let them play.

If the foul doesn't clearly alter the play, keep your damn hands off the whistle. It always ends up looking like the refs were out to screw the losers when their calls end up deciding the game.

So no, Cuban's not right. And he's also not crazy. But he clearly wasn't complaining after the refs gift wrapped game 5 for him last night.

WARRIORS

It's good to live in the Bay Area. Baron Davis, Matt Barnes, Stephen Jackson, Mickael Pietrus are legends. 5:49 to go in the fourth quarter of game 5. Warriors up a point and they have the ball. Is history about to be made?


UPDATE: The answer is no. history will have to wait for thursday night in Oakland...

Game 1 MVP

Call him Baron, call him B-Diddy. Call him what you want, just call him domination.

Baron Davis in Game 1 against the Mavs:
33 points, 14 rebounds, 8 assists, 3 steals, 1 block, 4 three pointers, 55% FG, 88% FT, 3 TOs

If we see a better game than that all playoffs long, I'd be surprised.

Mark Cuban: Badass or just ass?

"I couldn’t deal with the NBA," Cuban said. "There was things that I couldn’t imagine happening in the Finals that happened in the Finals. You don’t even know a tenth of it – stuff I didn’t get fined for and that was just too outrageous for me to even say publicly. And so I was like, ‘I’m done.'"

I'd like to coin the phrase "Cubanized" and use it describe situations where your boss thinks you and he/she have an unspoken understanding, and then you just air the dirty laundry in front of the customers. For instance; your boss lets you get away with spending half your day cruising the Internet, thinking to himself that you will then not dare point out his subscription to www.fatasshoeswithtoysandjello.com, in return. You proceed to announce at the front desk, that your boss has a fascination with hoes, who have large butts and own toys covered in Jello. Your customers book for the exit with no delay, and your boss looks at you like, "WTF dude? I thought we were homeys." That is essentially what Cuban has done to Stern here. And Stern, not being able to fire Cuban, has 2 choices: 1)fine him a shit ton of loot, or 2)let it slide, but remember it for the next time Cuban needs a favor. Fining him means nothing, because he has more money than Cresus, and doing that just draws more attention to what amounts to the equivalent of 9/11 "truthers" spouting whatever ridonkulous thing pops into their imagination. So I'd have to imagine Sterny's gonna let this one slide. As for the question of the day? I'm starting to think Cuban is pretty badass...

Lunatics Running the Asylum

Over at the Washington Times, hyperbole is becoming fact. And at an odd juncture. Kevin Brewer writes, in an alarmist titled piece "Reign Over?," that Bronny has gotten worse. Maybe. So much so that while last year he was in a class with Shaq, Dr. J and Jordan (According to Brewer. I'd argue he was in a class by himself), this year he's not even in the top 15 players in the league. I'm not that familiar with Brewer's work, but this is the utterance of a man out of touch. LeBron's numbers have fallen off a bit this year, no doubt. But they're still in the top 5, easily, in the league. The only lines I'd take over Bron's are KG, DWade, Dirk and maybe Nash/Marion . Bron's still, most assuredly, top 5, definitely top 10, and even discussing top 15 is just a joke. Furthermore, at the time of this article's publication, peep Bron's line over the last 8 games:

33 pts, 5 rebs, 5 assists, 1 blk, 1 stl

The reign isn't over... it has barely begun.

Reggie Miller: Spending too Much Time with Scottie Pippen?

First Pip, now Reggie's caught the un-retire bug(from the Dallas Morning News):

No way of knowing how serious it is yet, but Reggie Miller could be a candidate for the Mavericks' vacant roster spot.
Owner Mark Cuban brought up Miller's name before Monday's game against the Hawks. The former Indiana Pacers star is the No. 1 3-point shooter in NBA history. He retired after the 2004-05 season, but remains in excellent physical shape.

This one doesn't surprise me as much as Pippen's hair brained scheme for a number of reasons: 1) Miller played more recently, in fact, he's only been out of the league a year and a half. 2) Miller wasn't really washed up at the time of his retirement. Dude did 15 pts, and a couple of 3s a night in his last season. 3) Miller seems clear on his capabilities and role: step up, knock down open 3s, provide leadership for Howard and Harris, hustle on back to the bench. Pippen thinks he'll be running the point, logging serious minutes, etc. Dream a little dream. My only question is how Miller can ever respect Avery Johnson, a guy who's only like 3 months older than him, and a guy whom he once (probably) referred to as a hobbit (midget, dwarf, pixie, elf, asshole) when they were playing against each other.