Which team presently fills you with more bitter, irrational anger; Celtics or Spurs?

Right now, I'm leaning Spurs. If nothing else, I actually like the Celtics stars as individual players. Talk of long-suffering KG/PP/RA "deserving" to have a shot at a title does not seem obscene.

Conversely, the Spurs stars seem to cut from the same unspeakable mold as the loathesome 80's Celtics. They are like the piece of some horrible, perpetual clock.

Re: both teams. I will grant that they are good at what they do, but any decent human being has to admit: they are the forces of evil.

By the way, notice how Ginobili comes off the bench for the Spurs? Very effective.

And yet many of you complain that PJ does that with Bynum.

Mike T,

I think i had a pretty good quote about you a couple days ago. Whatta you think?

"it's amazing, you hate everyone that makes kwame look bad.

Phil-called kwame a puss
Mihm-battle for starting center for 3 years
Luke-all his passes are dropped by kwame so he gets the blame"

Ex,

No question the Lakers need to make a move. There's no reason why Kwame's expiring deal shouldn't be dealt at the trade deadline. I'm still praying that the Maloofs will decide they need to hand the team over to Kevin Martin and deal Artest to us. It's unlikely but I'm praying for it. The Pacers are coming back down to earth after a torrid start maybe JO will get frustrated again. And Pau Gasol is frustrated once again because the Grizz have improved but are still the worst team in their division.

BK,

I agree it's more than one or two players. I just singled out Walton and what I consider an awkward center rotation when Bynum is clearly the best of the trio and Mihm is clearly the worst. I'm not saying Bynum should start yet, but starting Mihm and not playing him the rest of the game makes no sense to me. And Drew played another good game. I think he should have played more minutes when we could have used his scoring and rebounding--not to mention the solid D he played. This can go one of two ways. The Lakers coaching staff shove game tape down the throats of the squad and show them that they've lost two games because of poor defensive rotations and they make the adjustment or they continue to make these bonehead decisions.

The problem is no one is sure what they should be doing, whether it's collapsing on Parker or Ginobili or staying at home. Too often guys inch into the lane to help but don't commit to playing help defense leaving a passing lane for Parker to find the open man. As for Kobe, I didn't mind him playing free safety early on because he was cleaning up the boards and playing great help D. The problem was he didn't adjust when guys like Bowen and Ginobili got hot from three point land.

Actually Ted Green wrote this:

"The more I watch the NBA, and I’ve been watching and covering and writing and broadcasting, I have to confess, for 40 years, the more I am confounded by this concept of what I believe to actually be some kind of soft zone.

Soft being the operative word.

Why can’t the wing defenders stay home and guard their men? Why can’t those perimeter defenders stay home and take the challenge of stopping the man they’re assigned to? Why can’t the centers and power forwards, the big guys, come over and challenge or put a hard foul on a driver at the conclusion of the play?"

I forgot to put a the end quotation mark. on the post.

mike

From the Star-Telegram article:

"When Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal could no longer co-exist and Shaq was asking for a contract extension averaging $30 million a year, Buss shipped him to Miami. The trade might have worked out better for Los Angeles if not for Lamar Odom's health problems and also the ill-advised decision to trade Caron Butler, an all-star level player, for Kwame Brown, who is not."

Ouch. I hate it when journalists conveniently forget that we traded Caron AND Chucky Attitude for Kwame.

Greek dude-

Yes! Indeed we are. So you, and everyone! should tune in at noon... which is in about 10 minutes. Just click the show icon on the side of the page.

BK

The weird thing about last night's blowout loss was that it "felt” like a winnable game.

Take away the untimely vagaries of the referees’ calls in the 2nd quarter, take away Luke totally losing his mind and thinking he can make Kobe shots, take away Duncan’s moving screens, take away Kwame ever entering the game and Bowen making 100% of his 3 pt shots and one has a very different outcome. (OK that is semi tongue in cheek).

Yeah, the Spurs are an annoying team for some reason (especially when they win). I think it may have something to do with Duncan's earnest astonishment that he would ever be called for a foul, Pop's oversealous rantings on the sidelines, or Parker blowing the doors off of any defender he faces.

BK, nice, now i have an excuse not to do my materials engineering homework. Thanks

Greek dude, Michael A, Exhelo, Kobe's T,

I'll just get to my point since I gotta mozy soon.

I am tired of all the talk how Spurs are such geniuses by finding these gems late in draft. They're not.

Parker and Ginobili are above average role players, but nothing more. Parker is a small 180 pounder who is quick. Is he quicker than an most 6', 180 pounders that make the NBA? No. Is he a great court visionary anywhere in the Kidd or Nash mold? No. He never averaged more than 6 dishes in his career. Never average more than 18 pts.

Manu is also smallish for a 2 guard and he actually may be quicker than most 2 guards. A bit.

Neither of them are pure shooters at all. They don't have near the sweet stroke of league's premier shooters.

The secret to Spurs success (not sure why it's such a secret, since I've read/heard a number of analyst discuss it in the same vain) is having the players buy into the system, and being disciplined play-in and play-out about exercising the system. Unity. Singular goal. They got each other's back. Brain over brawn. The organization is on the same page from top to bottom. Business approach. No voices of discontent leaking to the press.

The reason the Spurs won 3 Titles in the past 5 years is the same reason Team Greece or Team Timbuktu which don't have a single player nearly good enough to make NBA win World Titles over the incredible collection of the bestest and sickest players ever assembled. (certain other earlier Dream Teams aside)

So it's not that Spurs find needles in haystacks with their late draft pick. It's that those late picks flourish within their system of good coaching and winning culture. Spurs focus on players that have a combination of decent talent, decent intelligence and decent character. It serves them well.

Winning Culture!

When you see coach Pop doing this, that'll spell the end of Spurs dynasty..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6-SPSrOfw8

Word

Chris H: "I think about 29083450349785 bloggers (including myself) yesterday warned NOT to leave any of the oppositions shooters open, but apparently the fans opinions don't get into the Laker organization somehow."

AK/BK - what do you guys think? You think anyone in the organization keeps tabs on what goes on here? You do interview a lot of them (Ronnie Lester for instance) who don't get media play anywhere else. Not poking fun. This is a serious question.

You know what? Maybe Mike T is right. 15 turnovers on the first half and then he deliberately starts Kwame "No Hands" Brown to finish the job and maybe create more turnovers? Mike T might be on to something.

mike t: "A lot of people say they love my post. Quite a few in fact. People from other countries and stuff. And those who don't...seem to comment on my post anyway. Kind of like a two-edged sword. No matter how you look at it...people respond to mike t.

That says enough for me."

So you're the Hasselhoff of this blog?

mike: "Anyone who understands the game knows this is PJ's doing."

How do you know this when you don't understand the game yourself?

Mike T.",A lot of people say they love my post. Quite a few in fact. People from other countries and stuff. And those who don't...seem to comment on my post anyway. Kind of like a two-edged sword. No matter how you look at it...people respond to mike t."

HAB, "You get attention like that fat girl in a yellow micro skirt, red thong, purple wife-beater with a belly button piercing that hangs over the stretch-marked rolls.Love you Mike:-)"

YES FOLKS IT'S
HAB vs MIKE T
FOR THE UNDISPUTED VANITY POST OF THE WORLD

Zen,
" then he deliberately starts Kwame "No Hands" Brown to finish the job and maybe create more turnovers?"

No, it was because Kwame would fit right in with that style of play.

mike: "Do you actually think whether you believe me or not matters?

Ted Green said it all. He's not referring to Kwame...but to Phil Jackson.

My work on Phil Jackson, starting with the Jackson Journals, is going to have the desired effects. I want the media to take a good close look at what PJ is doing. And I want them to write about that before they claim: The roster! The roster! The roster!

PJ doing this interview on ESPN talking about wait until December and Janurary...tells you he's being questioned.

Anyone with eyes sees that what he's doing makes no sense."

You don't matter. So by extension, believing or not believing in you doesn't matter either. Ask AK and BK to corraborate your theories with Ted Green himself.

mike: "My work on Phil Jackson, starting with the Jackson Journals, is going to have the desired effects."

So, your goal was to burn out my scroll wheel?

tha show,

>>>>because sasha is irrelevant.

Sasha is hitting 50% of his shots and 43% of his 3-pointers.

Maurice Evans, on the other hand is shooting 25% and 0% of his threes.

The Lakers were 2 of 16 on 3-pointers last night (including 0 for 2 by No-threes Evans),
which allowed San Antonio to pack in tight on defense. THAT is why they didn't pass
it in to Bynum much. Every time they would try to set Drew up in the post, the player
guarding the passer would just sag off and double Bynum.

Say what you like but the Lakers could really have used some 3-pointers last night. I'm
not saying Sasha would have won the game for them, but he may have made a little
bit of a difference.

mike: "My work on Phil Jackson, starting with the Jackson Journals, is going to have the desired effects."

So, your goal was to burn out my scroll wheel?

HEY I LOVE READING THOSE JACKSON'S JOURNALS BUT EVERY NOW AND THEN
MIKE GETS A LITTLE TOO HOT TO HANDLE

Hell, Ted Green didn't even shoot PJ an email...he just wrote it up.

"I know you’ve all seen it. A perimeter wing defender comes over to “help” a teammate guarding an opponant driving toward the basket. Only this second “help” defender almost never actually gets to the spot where the play is being contested. Instead, he gets caught in no man’s land, giving a clear lane for the penetrating player to whip the ball back to the man this “help” defender just left wide open at the 3-point line.

While the “help” defender is guarding nothing except the floor.

Final tally: Peja 10 threes, but the floor was held scoreless. Bruce Bowen, 6-6, but again, nothing for the floor.

So I ask: Who is this defensive wizardry helping? C’mon, Phil. Like Dumbo, I’m all ears. If it’s not the primary defender it’s helping, and it’s not the end result it’s helping, and it’s not the win column it’s helping and it’s not my sanity it’s helping, let me ask one more time for emphasis:

Who is this helping?

For $10 mil a year you’ve devised a brilliant scheme to leave Peja Stojakovic wide open?"

No this guy didn't send PJ an email. He just wrote it up perfect!

mike

Wait a second...so out of nba.com, espn.com, si.com, foxsports.com and latimes.com, the lakers have the lowest power ranking in their own hometown paper?

laker_sth - you're on a roll. That's good stuff.

CS:

"Note: C.S. has coached zero teams to an NBA championship, so what do I know?"

Don't you mean, "Note: C.S. has coached zero teams to an NBA championship, so what does C.S. know?

Consistency. It's what seperate great referrers to self in the third person (eg. Ricky Henderson, Karl Malone) from the amateur referrers to self in the third person (e.g. Keyshawn Johnson).