Starring down the barrel

Phoenix Crybabies err... Suns are in a hole that no team has ever come out from - a 0-3 deficit in a 7-game series. San Antonio thrashed them in Phoenix late last night in an offensive clinic.

Hello? Where the those who predicted a Suns series win in 5/6 games?!?

No one deserves this better

Emmanuel David "Manu" Ginobili has atlast won the "Sixth Man of the year" award - something which I believe he should have won twice already. Of course, it is the votes that count. Oh yes, Manu won 123 of the possible 124 first place votes garnering 615 of the 620 possible points!

The Spurs' super sub has been nothing but brilliant all season along and has upped the ante in the playoffs against the Suns averaging 26.5 points a game.

Manu received the award minutes before game 2 tipped off in SA.

Go Spurs!

A dream come true

2nd March '08. East Rutherford, NJ - I had been to watch my Spurs play in NJ. It was a wonderful experience in a very well organized arena. I had been waiting for ever to watch an NBA game live and this year was the time.

And, the Spurs won. Yee haw!!!

Bones is back in the Alamo city!

Brent "bones" Barry has decided to join his old team - the team that traded him along with Francisco Elson to Seattle for the big man Kurt Thomas - the Spurs! Or is this a surprise?

The NBA this year has been at its frentic best with blockbuster trades looming under rumors, strokes of sheer brilliance, players veto-ing trades with their "Larry Bird" rights, trades spoiled by "leaky mouths" of players speaking to the media and of course the deadline thrillers.

There was a long running rumor about Jason Kidd being traded to Dallas for Harris, Stackhouse and others in a multi player deal. However, they lost a chance to take advantage of a loophole in NBA's rules - the 30 day period, when Mr. Stackhouse turned "Mr.Otta vaai" and said "I'll be back in Dallas in 30 days". All this after one Mr. Devean George refused to be a part of that trade using his Larry Bird rights. The world wondered if this trade will ever go through! It did, but after so much speculation and headaches and with a fresh set of players.

The Spurs simply used an advantage the media provides them every year - yeah, they do not cover them till the playoffs. They announced that they had traded Barry and Elson for Thomas. And boy, there was not even a semblance of a rumor! Barry had a calf injury that would cost him 30 more days, so Seattle waived him and now Barry is joining the Spurs on March 21st after five teams other than the Spurs went on a begging spree to sign him up.

And this is indeed a master stroke. Nobody knows Barry's health condition better than the Spurs and they used his "recuperation period" to pull off a trade involving him and now they get him back!

Dallas and others, that is how you do a trade!

Spurs fans, double delight ain't it? Barry is back shortly after the Spurs dispatched the Mavs in a high-octane thriller.

Go Spurs!

The all-star weekend

The all-star weekend at New Orleans was easily NBA entertainment at its best.

Daniel Gibson hitting 11 shots from downtown in the rookie challenge, two 7-footers from San Antonio winning the shooting contest, Jason Kapono setting a 3-point shootout record, the best slam dunk contest ever and a thriller of an all-star game - the weekend had everything a fan asked for.

The dunk contest was the sickest and arguably the most creative ever. Gerald Green kicked of the creative extravaganza blowing off a candle on a cup cake placed atop the rim while dunking in. And Dwight "Superman" Howard put on an exhibition of amazing creativity and incredible power becoming one of the rarest big men victors in the contest.

Starting off with a vicious 360 windmill from behind the backboard, Dwight followed it up with the "Superman" dunk and followed it up with a left hand to backboard to right hand slam in the finals capping off the night with another sick dunk - picking up a ball from a small net affixed on the backboard and slamming in a windmill. Watch Dwight's sticker dunk last year - sad he did not make it to the finals!

There was also a flip side of creativity when Rudy Gay asked the public via youtube for dunks he can perform on stage.

The dunk contest has been revived and no one will fear that it will lose its sheen - atleast for the next few years. And the bar has been set so high that emulating it is going to need something out of box!

Ring #4

11.50 PM Eastern : The San Antonio Spurs have done it yet again - they've just won their fourth NBA championship sweeping the Cleveland Cavaliers 4 to zip.

Tony Parker for the MVP.

Go Spurs Go!

Cry Babies

It's time cry babies Mike D'Antoni and his Phoenix Suns stop whining and start playing basketball. Whatever happened in Game 4 happens always come playoffs. And while what Horry did was bad, I thought Nash flopped in a bit too. And Amare and Diaw were supposed to be on the bench having known how stupid the league rules are. And D'Antoni said "we have the best cameras in Phoenix". The league used the very same cameras to review the play and suspend the players. What a shame!

And they say the Spurs are dirty. The spurs are the only team that play the game the way it should be played. Well, they play technically perfect, grind-out defense solid basketball. That's San Antonio basketball. And that's why they have 3 championship rings and are possibly on their way to a fourth.

And you call it boring? You call Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili playing as boring?!? Then you do not know baskeball. Period.

So Phoenix, stop whining. Its playoffs. Save yourself from elimination.

Go Spurs go!

Wild Wild West

1:15 AM EDT May 04, Oakland, CA : Confetti streaming their down way from the Rafters at the Oracle Arena. Golden State Warriors have just thrashed 2007's statistically best team in NBA - Dallas Mavericks by 25 points to storm into the Western Conference semi-finals.

But why the confetti? It was Golden State's first playoff appearance in 13 years and they became the first #8 seed to knock off the #1 seed in a 7 game series. They played tough basketball, very physical, tough 'D' and great offense. Dallas had 67 wins in the regular season while Golden State made it to the playoffs on the final night of the regular season. As expected everybody wrote the #8 off, but nobody seemed to remember that Golden State were the only team that swept the season series against Dallas 3-0. I have always hated Dallas and that scoreline was one reason for me to believe Golden State could pull off an upset and they did that!

It was one of the best ever play off series I've ever seen. Infact I will hold this a step above the SA-Dallas semis last year. The warriors played like real warriors. They came back everytime their back was against the wall and responded like warriors. Baron Davis played game six with practically one leg after pulling a hamstring and still managed a double-double. Such was the determination of the Warriors and Stephen Jackson led the team with Davis injured with 7 on 8 shooting from downtown. And above all, Nowitzki was held to 8 points for one of the worst games in his career.

The Warriors had nothing to lose. They played with passion, they played for the city of Oakland. And kudos to the city. Close to 90% of the people had turned up with the yellow "We believe" t-shirt in the stadium and they stood all thru the second half. Boy! thats a real crowd! Easily one of the best and biggest at about 20,700. They did really believe and so did the 15 warriors. They have pulled off the best and biggest upset in NBA history.

And finally, call this as attitude. Nowitzki in a pre-game before game 4 said, "If we lose this, its pretty much over". Steve Nash, with Phoenix trailing 1-2 said this before game 4 last year "If we could win this game, we can turn the series around". Now, Dallas lost game 4, somehow managed to win game 5 courtesy plenty of Golden State's errors and shades of Nowitzki's brilliance but lost the series 2-4. Phoenix also lost game 4 to trail 1-3, but came back to win the series 4-3.

Oh ho ho Joey...

Joey Crawford has been suspended indefinitely for the Duncan episode. A sports analyst has comeup with Duncan as his MVP pick ahead of Nowitzki and Nash for tossing Crawford out of the play-offs :-)

Hey... he he... he he... I am very happy... Start meesic!

What are you upto Mr. Joey?

Sunday April 15, 2007: The place, Dallas. An NBA game between I-35 rivals Dallas and San Antonio towards the fag end of the season.

1:16 left in the third quarter and there comes arguably the "worst" piece of refreeing ever, all sports put together. Tim Duncan tossed off from the game for "laughing". You read id right, "LAUGHING". Referee Joey Crawford was apparently provoked by Duncan - technically the most perfect player and amongst the nicest individuals ever to have played the game - that he gave him two 'T's while "sitting on the bench". Yes, when Duncan was on the bench!

It was just ridiculous.

Duncan never speaks a word unless its absolutely needed and he never said any on Sunday. Joey did what he did to the utter disbelief of players and fans in a nationally televised game. He has always had his temper taking control of situations in games in the past and one can always expect something to happen when he is around. But imagine what will happen if he does something similar in the playoffs or in the championship game - it will turnaround the contest!

Hey Joey, we don't watch games to see you flaunt your so called authority w/o thinking. David Stern can atleast do something for the players now.

Get well soon Dwyane...

Dwyane Wade, the reigning NBA finals MVP has a dislocated left shoulder after a nasty tangle pursuing a rebound with Shane Battier in Houston. Miami, the defending champs are already having an injury plagued season with Shaq and Wade injured at different points earlier and are starring down the barrel with Wade out of the line-up for atleast six weeks.

Wade's injury has come up at the most crucial juncture of the season - post the All-star break. He successfully defended his title at the Skills challenge in the all-star weekend in Vegas beating Kobe, LeBron and Chris Paul enroute. Miami had beaten San Antonio just before the break and were poised for a good outing when the unfortunate incident happened.

Wade has evolved as a phenomenal talent after he was drafted in 2003 - A potential hall of famer, a gentleman in the game and in my opinion the best of the famed 2003 class.

Get well soon Dwyane, the Heat are awaiting your return to the line-up.

The All-star break

The 2007 NBA season is at the half-way stage and has currently made a stopover at the entertainment capital of the world - Las Vegas, for its mid-season classic - The All-Star weekend.

Friday was the Rookie challenge where the Sophs steamrolled the freshmen by a 41 point margin. The hardness in the Sophs' game bears testimony to the embarassment their seniors handed them last year in Houston. Just for the stats - there were 35 dunks in the game.

Yesterday was All-star Saturday and the events lined up were the Shooting stars, Skills challenge, 3-point shootout and the show piece event - the Slam dunk contest where Gerald Green of the Celtics prevailed over defending champ Nate Robinson with 4 spectacular dunks.

And today is the All-Star game and it kicked off an hour ago with a classic comment, "For one night, whats happening in Vegas is shown around the world" :-)

Spurs Lose

Defending NBA Champions San Antonio Spurs have lost in the western conference semis in an overtime thriller to the Dallas Mavericks. Tim Duncan had 41 points, 15 rebs, 6 assists and 3 blocks and the spurs overcame a 20 point deficit to lead by 3, but it was not enough as Dallas forced overtime and pipped the Spurs.

This is the best series I have ever watched and this rivalry is bound to go places in the coming years! More on the Spurs-Mavs classic series.

Back to the River City

It's been long since I wrote something about my favourite sport - Basketball. Its showtime out there in the NBA now, it's play-offs! Its one of the best actions this year with 3 of the 4 semifinals decided by Game 7! The other one had six. I've not seen a more intense playoff in recent times. The top two teams in the West, San Antonio and Dallas are squaring up in the conference semis in what has been billed as the "dream series". True. It has been an amazing series with all but one game been decided in the final seconds. Game 7 is Monday in the River city. The greatest in this series - the Spurs have sprung back from 1-3, a deficit which only 8 teams have managed to overcome all these years. They simply showed why they are the defending champs!

I chanced myself to Game 6 of the series. The Spurs scripted out a superb 5 point win on the road shutting the foul mouthed Mark Cuban, Mavericks owner. Michael Finley heard nothing but boos and saw placards saying "Public enemy #4" playing on his former team's home court. He silenced the crowd with a thunderous dunk over 7-foot Eric Dampier. And it was Mike again with the go ahead 3 pointer over 7 foot Dirk Nowitzki and he thwarted Dirk on the ensuing possession. Parker sank two from the charity stripe and the Spurs defense then screwed things to finish off. Superstar Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili had big games too. Duncan had his worst game of the series though with only 24 points :-) Timmy is back after a subpar season! But for a person to steal the show with 20K people against him is truly sensational. Three cheers to Michael Finley.

Now with the series shifting to the AT&T center, I can't wait for Game 7!!

But for the Finley incidents and Jason Terry's punch on Finley that earned him suspension for Game 6, the series has been played with superb spirit and the players have respected each other so well. Avery Johnson, Dallas Head Coach learned the nuances of the game as a Spur at the Alamodome under Gregg Poppovich, the Spurs Head Coach. And he has indeed brought in certain values of the Spurs into the Dallas rosters. The Spurs are the best franchise among all professional league sports!

One thing causing a stir among the top ranks is the big flaw in scheduling match-ups in the playoffs. The current setup is such that the top two teams in each conference meet in the semifinals. Weird isnt it?!? The result - San Antonio and Dallas squaring up in the semis. This is a classic finals matchup!David Stern has promised change next time around and hopefully Dallas and SA continue this superb rivalry for many more years to come!

Go! Spurs Go!

Go Spurs Go

Vikhyath called me at around 8 in the morning and both of us started cribbing about the state of Game 7 of the NBA Finals. The defensive intensity was so much. San Antonio and Detroit combined for only 77 points in the first half and Detroit made it a one point game at the breather. This is poor basketball, some may say. No, its classical basketball. These teams take pride in forcing shot clock violations and swatting the ball away rather than scoring 100 plus points. Vikhyath read out a list of Detroit players whom he hates. He would have named the entire roster!

"Oh! this will be really boring"... That was what the people outside Texas and Michigan opined when the Spurs were pitted against the Pistons for the finals. After all everyone would love to see high scoring energy sapping affairs. After all thats the way things are changing; quite similar to the effect one day cricket has had and oflate the 20-20 games. But this is for the basketball purists. It is said that "Defense wins championships" and thats why San Antonio and Detroit are in the finals. The first four games were blowouts and the next two were decided in the final minutes and what else can you ask for in the final game?

That's precisely the reason I woke up early and sat in front of the TV. And I was spell bound for the next three and a half hours until the presentation ceremony. Detroit made it 48-39 and Vikhyath and I were probably the most disappointed guys in India at that time. That's when one man, who was was criticised for not playing the way he used to and he is expected to at crunch situations, took over. He is the man... he is basketball's Rahul Dravid.

"In comes Ginobili, whips it to Barry, Barry to Duncan and Duncan slams it home", screamed Hubie Brown of ABC TV and that was the turning point. Another scream at the same time. My mother came running out of the kitchen. It was me. So much excitement and Duncan turned the game on its head. He did it all. He made his patented bank shots, made his free throws, assisted on three huge treys and played terrific 'D'. The MVP award, his third, was only an expected addition to the superstar's hardware collection. Manu Ginobili, the Argentine superstar shooting guard with his slashy dare-devil style of play thundered the rim with a couple of unbelievable dunks. He brought in the real rustiness that you get to see in the South Americans enroute to winning his second ring in his third season. Bruce Bowen, one heck of a pesky defender blocked a three pointer. My-o-My, he is absolute nuisance for any opposition!

And it was all over with silver and black confetti streaming down the rafters. Tring.. Tring.. Vikhyath again... "Oh! what a play!" we screamed. That was what we were expecting. Our favorite team had won a championship. A terrific exhibition of individual brilliance combined with indomitable team spirit. I had to cut short our call as it was already 9.55 and I had still not had my bath. Man, I gotta go to office! Hastening things a bit, I left at 10.30. Damn hot outside. Thankfully T51 came in immediately and after helping myself out with Cardamom milk to beat the heat at the Aavin Parlour in Tidel Park, I made my way to work.

Oh! What a morning it was! Weekend mood started right in the morning!