Hey, why not, eh?

An amusing analysis of Phil Jackson's politicking:
Jackson and the refs

I remember watching this and thinking those were some pretty amazed looks from people who just witnessed a missed dunk. Be sure to read the caption under the bottom photo:
Shannon Brown almost posterizes Jason Richardson

It looked like a charge to me and the ball didn't drop! It's also presumptuous to crown the Lakers.

At the start of the play, I thought it was a charge, but after viewing it from another angle, it looked like at the last second Richardson shifted toward Brown, whereas if he'd remained still, it most definitely would have been called against Brown.
The fact that it didn't go in is what gets me. I've never seen so many people on their feet applauding a miss by their own guy -- and even some of the players were awestruck.
Presumptuous, perhaps. I just thought it was past time for a new thread instead of retreading the 2009 one.

I found this both amusing and apropos:
Lakers, Celtics ruin it for everybody else

I'm not expecting the Suns to beat the Lakers in this series. However, I hope the Suns can extend this series enough to wear down the Lakers. The Celtics can take them out.

Funny, I was hoping the same thing from Orlando.
I think the Lakers take the Suns in 5. For as well as Phoenix played Sunday night, they only won by 9, and that's with the Lakers helping them by sending them to the line 20 times in the first half. For some teams, that's a game's worth.
The Magic finally showed some grit. Maybe it'll give them confidence to win 1 more and push it to 6.
Maybe. I wouldn't bet the farm on it, but at least the game should be interesting.

What happened to the Lakers? They were looking pretty tired in the 4th. Well, the Suns only won by 9.

I think they made a decision not to play defense. I give the Suns credit for making their shots, but you can only give a 3-point-shooting team so many wide open looks.
Not to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but a friend of mine explained Boston's game 4 loss to Orlando as the NBA trying to milk a few extra games for TV revenue. It makes sense. TNT boasted 40 games in 40 nights. But between 3 second-round sweeps and having so many spells of consecutive nights with no games no TNT or ESPN, I can see why they'd want to manipulate a few extra games.
It's possible the Lakers were tired. But Bynum looked better than he has all post season. No big stats, but he was effective when he was out there. But overall, they seemed like they didn't care on defense. And I heard one radio announcer talk about the rebounding, which was pitiful. Phoenix got to the ball, and there were several times the Lakers got to the ball but didn't secure it. Guilty of mailing it in? Yes. Sandbagging to extend the series? Maybe that's just this one fan's opinion for lack of any logical reason for the performance. On the other hand, if Orlando manages to force a game 6 in that series, it certainly would lend credence to my friend's comment.

Yikes! It remains to be seen whether Orlando wins this one but that call against Perkins has "conspiracy" written all over it. First, the foul was a bad call. Then the technical that got him ejected. I want Boston to lose, but I can't see how that's a technical foul.
Then again, it may be the kind of thing the Celtics rally around.
We'll see.