And here we go on to the 2nd round:

Lakers vs San Antonio, 1st game Monday night at San Antonio

Boston vs New Jersey, 1st game Mon night at NJ

Sacramento at Dallas, 1st game Tues night at Dallas

Philadephia at Detroit, 1st game Tues night at Detroit.

Here's my pick:

Lakers in 6
NJ in 7
Sacramento in 5
Philadelphia in 6

p.s. note the quirk ---- Dallas has homecourt advantage, despite being the #3 seed and Sacramento #2 seed. This is because San Antonio had best record overall; Dallas second-best record; and Sacramento third-best record. HOWEVER, b/c #2 spot in playoffs automatically goes to Pacific Division winner, that meant Sacramento was ranked #2.

Since we are now in 2nd round play-offs, and Dallas has a better record than Sacramento, Dallas therefore gets the home court advantage.

Is anyone confused, yet?

lol

And here we go on to the 2nd round:

Lakers vs San Antonio,
lakers-6
Boston vs New Jersey,
nets-6
Sacramento at Dallas,
dallas-7
Philadephia at Detroit
philly-5

Lakers in 6
Boston in 7
Dallas in 7
Detroit in 6

Lakers vs San Antonio,
SPURS-6
Boston vs New Jersey,
NETS-5
Sacramento at Dallas,
KINGS-6
Philadephia at Detroit
PISTONS-7

wow, some of you folks really think Dallas has a chance?

If I had free money to throw around, I'd bet it all on Sacramento.

Dallas is purely a perimeter shooting team, with no inside post presence. Furthermore, they don't defend well, don't rebound well.

Those are deadly combinations in the play-offs.

Spurs 7
Nets 6
Kings 4
76ers 5

Lakers vs San Antonio,
Lakers-5
Boston vs New Jersey,
Celts-6
Sacramento at Dallas,
Kings-6
Philadephia at Detroit
6'ers-7

And the results of 2nd round action:

Nets hang on to beat the Celtics, despite a great performance by Pierce.

Spurs beat Lakers as Shaq fouls out with 3 minutes to go. Gotta put Samaki Walker instead of Horry, who's pretty much useless against Duncan.

Originally posted by podstock
wow, some of you folks really think Dallas has a chance?

If I had free money to throw around, I'd bet it all on Sacramento.

Dallas is purely a perimeter shooting team, with no inside post presence. Furthermore, they don't defend well, don't rebound well.

Those are deadly combinations in the play-offs.


yeah you are right but if they get hot and stay hot you can forget about it.
dirk, finley, nash, najera and nick the quick coming off the bench, they can shoot your lights out. and their "D" is getting better

5/7/03 update: as expected, Kings took the Mavs to school. I am surprised the game wasn't more lopsided.

If Kings really played hard all 4 games, it's a sweep, but knowing that Lakers-Spurs is going to be a 6-7 game series, do the Kings really want 7+ days of layoffs?

Pistons beat Sixers, which was a surprise to me. Boy, that Pistons defense is pretty good!!

5/8/03 update: Spurs 1,000 Lakers 6

Ok, it wasn't that one-sided. I can't even recall the score. But the game was over by halftime.

It was a terrible game for Lakers...and we will see if this is the end of their current run come Friday at Staples for game 3.

All I know is this, come this summer, Lakers will re-tool.

I do not think we have what it takes to beat Kings. I still believe we can beat Spurs if we win these next 2 home games.

I will watch until my Lakers get kicked out of the play-offs or until we win it again.

Tonight was tough...but I'd rather have us blown out by 50 points, than to lose by 1 point. A loss is a loss; but the blown-out games are a bit easier, b/c you know it was not your night, and nothing you could've done would have helped.

Game over.

Spurs now up 2-0.

Games 3-4 are a must. Otherwise, series is over.

well,

so far

Nets up 2-0 on Celtics

Pistons up 2-0 on Sixers

Spurs up 2-0 on Lakers

And the team that was expected to go 2-0 is now 1-1 Kings vs Mavs

NJ Nets 94

Celtics 76

wow, Nets are spanking the crap out of the Celtics.

Didn't think it would be this easy. Of course, I didn't think Spurs would win 2-0 at this point.

Originally posted by podstock
wow, some of you folks really think Dallas has a chance?

If I had free money to throw around, I'd bet it all on Sacramento.

Dallas is purely a perimeter shooting team, with no inside post presence. Furthermore, they don't defend well, don't rebound well.

Those are deadly combinations in the play-offs.

Good thing you didn't bet on Sacramento.

They look like they are done with Webber out.

Nets will win it all, with Webber out, the Nets are unstoppable.

Tim

Originally posted by stkmtimo
Nets will win it all, with Webber out, the Nets are unstoppable.

Tim

LAF

Originally posted by stkmtimo
Nets will win it all, with Webber out, the Nets are unstoppable.

Tim

LOL

The Nets can't even dominate the Eastern Conference let only the Western.

Well, the Lakers won the game they had to win, Game 3, by a 15 point margin.

Spurs perimeter shooters were missing all the shots they made in games 1+2.

Shaq has got to stay away from the flopping of Malik Sealy and stop getting charging fouls. If Shaq can avoid foul trouble in game 4, Lakers will even the series, and then it's the best of 3.

Phil Jackson just underwent angioplasty to relieve a 90% blockage in one of the arteries to the heart today. Not sure if he'll be coaching Sunday afternoon.

Lakers have got to get game 4.

Dallas win in double overtime to take a 2-1 series lead. SURPRISE!! SURPRISE!!

The Webber injury in game 2 changes the whole series.

No longer are the Kings favored to win the title.

As a matter of fact, it's looking like the winner of Lakers-Spurs will take the NBA title.

Game 4 Lakers vs Spurs 12:30 PM PST

Also, by some quirky scheduling, there are 2 series with back-to-back games:

Dallas at Sacramento -- a game Kings MUST win

Pistons at Sixers

Monday, Nets look to close out Celtics, who've played extremely poorly

Lakers 99 Spurs 94.

An absolutely horrid 1st quarter for the Lakers, as they shot 25%, with only Kobe and Shaq scoring; everyone else doing what fans were doing: just spectating.

Spurs, if they just handled the pressure better in 4th quarter, would've won this game.

Not much to say about the game, as I gave up when Lakers were down by 13 in mid-2nd quarter, at which time I got into the card and drove to a mall to grab a smoothie. I taped the game, as I always do for Lakers' playoffs, so I'll re-watch the entire game tonight.

The stress is just tough, esp. as a fan. I'd much rather be playing in the game, than watching the game.

Next game is at SBC center this coming Tuesday 9:30 PM EST

pwaldo..yes, I am relieved I don't live in Vegas to go to the bookies and bet on games.

But, you have to remember: I said what I said BEFORE Sacramento lost Chris Webber.

Sacramento may be a deep team, with a talented bench, but you can't lose Webber and expect to beat Spurs/Lakers.

Not saying it can't happen; but the minute Webber crumpled to the ground holding the knees, the odds of the Kings beating Lakers just went up astronomically.

Originally posted by pwaldo
LOL

The Nets can't even dominate the Eastern Conference let only the Western.

Hmm, really? Then why did the Nets just dominate the Celtics and win the series! THE NETS WILL WIN IT ALL!!

Tim

Tim, there are a number of reasons why the Nets so easily beat the Celtics (although I predicted Nets to win -- in another thread -- in 6 games, and not a sweep).

First, Celtics have a 1-2 punch of Pierce and Walker; the problem is, Walker is purely a 3-point shooter. He rarely posts inside. So, either he's really hot, or he's really cold. Pierce is great inside, but he mostly shoots from perimeter.

So, Nets have the type of defense where they can shut down 1 or the other.

Second, the Nets have a number of players who can score 20+ points -- Kenyon, Kidd, Kittle, Jefferson....Celtics can't concentrate on 1-2 players.

Third, once Celtics got down 2-0, they basically gave up. If you saw games 3-4, you'd see that they just didn't have it in them, ESPECIALLY Antoine Walker

Fourth, Pierce was hurt, and when you're not 100%, it's tough to be at your very best.

We'll see how Nets do vs. Pistons/Sixers.

There's no way they win the title, barring unforseen injuries to Shaq/Kobe and/or Tim Duncan.

5/14/03 update: Pistons won by 1 point on a last second goal-tending call against Derrick Coleman --- the correct call.

Now up 3 games to 2.

Tonight is a biggie!!!

Will both Sacramento and LA be eliminated?

Who'd have thunk it, huh?

LA will win by 10-20 pts. tonight. Period!!!

It's not a matter of if they can win tonight.

Can the Lakers play defense for 4 quarters in game 7?

Sure, you need to win game 6 to get to game 7; but, ultimately, it's a question of whether or not they will play 4 quarters.

A lot of my buddies made a big whoop-*** about Lakers coming from 20+ down in 4th quarter, and almost winning on that Horry 3-pointer.

You know what....to me, it'd don't freaking matter. Lakers played horribly game 5, and they lost. It doesn't matter if the game was close all through, or they were down by 75 points and had a chance to win. They sucked, and sucked big time.

Can they win game 7?

I believe so; but only b/c I love the Lakers.

Ideally, without a bias, I'd say, hell no!!

My picks- Round 2

Nets over Celtics in 4
Mavericks over Kings in 7
Lakers over Spurs in 7
76ers over Pistons in 7

lol..sorry, Card Crazy, can't make your picks once the games have already been played.

Nice try, though.

And naturally, the Lakers are behind, as Derek Fisher refuses to shoot an open jumper, instead, opting to dribble drive, stop and shoot.

Naturally, the farker misses.

The pain is too much, and I turned off the game.

Just end the game.

I can't stand the bullsh*t lackaidaisical plays.