1.) Kobe Bryant is going to win the MVP, according to the LA Times. I have mixed emotions about this pick: on the one hand, I understand how KG turned around the Celtics this year, and I also realize how nasty Chris Paul is. But on the other hand, I watched Kobe play about 10 times this year and every time he stepped on the court, he single-handily willed his team to victory.
Bottom-line: the Lakers are a one man show and they won the Western Conference through his leadership. How can you argue with that type of success? The Celtics played in the Eastern Conference and Chris Paul led his team to a lower playoff seeding than the Lakers. I love KG, but I don't think he could have led the Lakers to the one-seed in the West this year.
Bryant basically won every game for them and his nightly performance was Jordan-esque. I know people will say he got it because "it was his turn" but the Lakers won the West with Kobe and Kobe alone. And the West by far the most competitive NBA conference in recent NBA history - no one will debate that. Case closed. (As a sidenote, it's somewhat incredible that a player whose averaging close to a triple double (Lebron) wasn't considered to be the favorite for MVP this year...as we've been saying all along...the NBA is awesome now and well-worth your time).
2.) Lebron James beat the Wizards for the 3rd consecutive year. Sweet. I know most people don't care about the Wizards and I know most people don't like Gilbert Arenas, but I'd still like to comment on this series and team:
a. It was an excellent series to watch on and off the court. Jay Z did a rap about a Wizard's role player, Lebron James showed how much a whiney-girl he is, about 1000 technical and flagrant fouls were called, and every game looked like a fight would break out (or a shooting). Answer me this: why was Deshawn Stevenson fined for a throat slash in Game Four while KG was let off the hook for the same thing after Game 7?
b. I hate to say this, but Gilbert Arenas needs to go. I love the guy to death, but the Wizards just play better basketball without him. For starters, he hogs the ball too much and doesn't pass very well (he averages over 30 shots a game when healthy and doesn't average more than 4 assists). Second of all, he is injury prone and doesn't play very much (2 injuries in the past three seasons). Third of all, he is expensive and counts a lot against the cap (apparently he wants 100 million for 7 years). Fourth of all, he is not a player you build a team around, but rather someone who plays a scoring role for a team with multiple good players (imagine him on the Lakers or Suns). The Wizards essentially played .600 basketball without him and beat a ton of very good teams without his scoring. Key lesson: move on.
c. The Wizards need to release Arenas and use their cap space for a passing point guard who can run and gun; they need to bolster their defense through signing someone like Tyson Chandler or Bruce Bowen; and finally they need to resign Antawn Jamison who is the heart and soul of this team. Last time I checked the Wizards wanted to sign Antawn, so that makes me very happy. He is a total badass.
3.) The Celtics/Hawks series was simply amazing. Joe Johnson is a beast and Babcock is right to point out that this series tempers the Celtics for subsequent "tough times" in the playoffs.
I'm really not sure what to think about the Celtics after this series, though. They really should have crushed this team in four games, and the fact that they lost three times on the road may foreshadow difficult times ahead. For example, will they repeat this road performance against Cleveland? We saw how the Cavs fans destroyed the Wizards on the road, and we also saw how band-wagon fans can be tactically deployed by underdog teams. Another question: how will they guard Lebron or will they just try to ourscore the Cavs and shut down their role players (which the Wizards couldn't do). I am looking forward to this series and I hope the Celtics pull it out since I hate Cleveland. Go Celts!
4.) I actually stayed up every night to watch the Suns-Spurs series and while I got sick from losing sleep that week, it was definately worth my time. The Spurs are easy to hate right now since all they do is complain and whine about calls that don't go their way. Every time Duncan got fouled, for example, he would give the refs that wide-eyed, "I'm shocked" you actually called me on something look. And Manu Ginobili just looked like a fish, flopping around on the court taking all those bogus charges. I really didn't like the way the Spurs played this series and the refs seemed to be favoring them over the Suns at every turn. Making matters worse was the sub-par play from Shaq at the free-throw line and the hot/cold play of Amare.
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