Give Me The Rock

Well, for starters, I am back. I was out of town for some time and followed that up with a brisk glut of over-working myself.

The Rockets made a trade!! With absolutely no fantasy impact. No one in the league was expecting the Rockets to utilize their expiring trade exception, but Jerry West helped the Rockets bewilder the league. Last night, they traded Scott Padgett for Jake Tsakalidis.

“It will give someone for Billy to (complain) to, so that will be good,” coach Jeff Van Gundy said. “We’ll just sit him right over there and Billy can (complain) to him about how he’s getting (shafted). That will be good.”

Wow, as tactful as the Sex Pistols trailing the Queen on the Thames river. Already relegating Jake to the bench despite ripping off the Grizzlies. How could Jerry West pull the trigger on this deal? He gave up a whole .5ppg and .9rpg. Where does West expect to get that kind of production in garbage time of the Grizzlies blowout victories? Janeane Garofalo would be proud of that sarcasm, by the way, I always thought she was hot. So Janeane, if you happen to trawl fantasy basketball blogs and you see this, leave a comment. My inexplicable celebrity crushes aside, my favorite Houston eatery could not be more happy. Congrats Niko Niko’s on getting even more advertising ammo. The line may be more difficult to stand through than Tsakalidis is to spell, but waiting through it is worth the slice of heaven.

Just so I can say I live blogged at least part of every Finals game (so far).

7:21 - 10 blocks? That’s pretty ridiculous.

I might not post anything else now, and just let PMad handle it.

0:26.2 - Great. Wade pushes off and they call a foul on Dirk. I was really hoping they could win the game and not have anything for people to argue about. I got really overwhelmed by reading blog post after blog post after news story about Game 5. Let the rest of this be a clean one, please.

0:17.7 - No foul on that pass by Dampier, right? Clean steal.

I know my wife will be happy if this is over.

0:11.5 - There, they called a foul on Wade.

0:9.1 - They’re trying to give it to Dallas with the travel call.

But no! It’s over!

Miami is the 2006 NBA Champion! It may have been controversial, but I think they proved they were the better of the 2 teams. Only about 3 points better, though. But I’m sure many championships were won by 3 points. Can’t think of any off the top of my head, of course… but if it weren’t close, then it wouldn’t really be a championship.

I like how Derek Anderson is celebrating like he did something. At least GP hit some key shots, and Mourning got some key blocks, and Antoine didn’t totally screw everything up. DA played for like 6 seconds in the last quarter of the last game.

Congrats Miami. Helluva playoffs for all 16 teams involved.

Okay… coming in a little late here… but it’s only the second now. Just got home from a BBQ. I was hoping to make it for the 2nd half, but traffic was good, so here I am. Just turned the TV.

Miami by 3.

Looks like Dallas is keying on Dwyane Wade tonight. Probably a good adjustment by the Mavericks. Obvious, but good. Let’s see how Miami responds.

7:00 - Maybe Marquis Daniels will be playing Jerry Stackhouse today.

6:49 - They forgot about Wade when he fell out of bounds. Good look by Payton.

Faster than a speeding bullet, Shaq? I’m not so sure about that. Good cross-marketing, though. Couldn’t have worked out better for the Superman Returns crew.

That Motorola Q looks pretty pimp. I’ve been wanting something like for about 2 years now. Wouldn’t really use it enough to justify the cost, though.

0:53 - Howard has 19 points! Wow. That’s a lot for 1 half. Now he’s heading to the locker room… maybe burned from being so on fire.

At the half, Wade’s game is off, and as a result, the Heat are down by 8. At some point in the series, the Miami Orphans are going to have to step up like JET and Howard are right now. I mean, unless Wade can score 35 points a game. Then the other guys don’t matter so much. But tonight is not looking like a 35 points night for him. 3-13 at the half. That’s worse than Dirk’s 3-8 (obviously).

Wade is Miami’s leading scorer with 13 on 3-13 shooting. That should not be happening. I mean, yes, he’s got 7-8 free throws. Maybe he needs to be passing more instead of taking some of those jump shots he had. I guess they’re only down by 8 though, and all it’ll take is for Wade to heat up in the 4th quarter again .

9:14 - Heat let the defensive rebound fall to the floor again. Come on guys. Get the aggressiveness back.

8:31 - Holy crap! Two technicals and you’re automatically ejected?? Whoa! Is that like 2 yellow cards in soccer? I don’t know… I just haven’t changed the channel all day since I wastched that gripping Brazil/Australia World Cup game.

8:04 - Shaq should not be going out that far. He’s okay on the pick and roll, but not that high there.

7:43 - Sloppy play by Wade. Has his whole game dissappeared?

7:17 - O’Neal should have hit J-Will in the corner there. He was wide open. You know Walker is going to do something stupid with the shot clock down that far.

6:42 - That was a stupid foul by Dirk. I like that O’Neal was like, Screw this, I’m dunking it and it’s going in so I don’t have to shoot more than 1 free throw.

6:13 - It’ll be interesting to see what happens if all of Dallas’s centers foul out (seems likely that at least 1 of them will be out by the end of this.

6:00 - Good adjustment by Posey to stay out on Dirk on the pick and roll. Jason Williams needs to do a better job of defending that. He can’t go under or Terry gets an open jumper. He can’t go through the screen or JET burns him and someone else has to come over to help. Terry took the floater in the lane that time, but I can see him drawing Shaq or Haslem in there and just passing around them for the easy bucket. Dallas is liking that PnR, though. It’ll be interesting to see how it progesses through the rest of the game.

3:00 - That jumper by O’Neal had less arc than his free throws!

2:35 - Walker got tired of being burned by Howard, I guess. Just took him down.

2:24 - Looks like we’re going to have a good game here.

0:56 - Looks like Wade might have found his range.

0:49 - Posey is ridiculous at taking charges. I think it’s the combination of quick feet and tall enough to get noticed when he falls down.

Notes at the end of the 3rd quarter: Dallas has only taken 9 free throws. They’ve made all 9, but the Heat have made 22 free throws. And they’re only 61% from the stripe. If Shaq was shooting 50% they’d be up by 2 instead of down by 1. We’ll see if they can make up for that. The sheer number take and made helps.

I wonder if this game would even be close if Stitchouse were in it. He’d help the other guys take the pressure off of Dirk’s bad shooting.

8:40 - Nice rebounding by Howard. Good timing on the jumps. Gotta give him props. He’s playing all out today.

6:59 - Heat need more movement when Shaq is doubled like that. Someone has to cut to an open space by the hoop; they were all just standing there.

5:47 - Terrible pass by Wade and equally bad (maybe a little better) pass back by Posey. But Wade turns it into a foul. You can tell he’s feeling it. If he wasn’t, there would have been a turnover in there somewhere.

“The magic fridge is back” - You would think that the dude with the fridge would have noticed the first time all his beer was gone after he revolved it. I’m sure the marketers were hoping no one would notice that.

5:05 - I don’t think that was so warrior-like by Haslem. Pretty bad foul if you ask me. Dirk had that rebound already, not sure what Haslem was trying to do. I like aggressiveness, but not when it’s used with reckless abandon. That’s how I play, and I’m not in the NBA.

4:44 - Hack-a-Shaq is in effect. Can he make them when it counts?

4:15 - Miami lets another one fall to the ground, and Dirk picks it up. Sloppy play by Miami and they’ve been doing it all series.

3:08 - So far, Devin Harris has 2 free throws and all the rest of the Mavericks 13 points in the 4th have been Terry and Dirk. Mostly Terry. Now it’s not loading up the Heat’s stats, so I can’t ge the same info there… Guess it’s time to open up the Yahoo Gamecast. Wade with 8, Payton 3, Shaq 3.

I kind of want to see more HackaShaq just to see if he can make the free throws.

2:43 - Yeah, they’re gonna call a lane violation. Dirk’s foot was WAY in the lane. Heat got a break, cause that was a foul on Haslem.

2:24 - Shaq is out. Let’s remember, they’re probably better off that way.

2:16 - Yes indeed. Let Wade create. Lucky roll, but we’ll take it.

1:40 - That is Wade’s shot. He’s already got a highlight against the Pistons with that one. Free throw line shoulder fake. That half second of hesitation is all he needs. How long before people stop falling for the shoulder fake? You think his jump is fast enough to still make it an open shot? Or will he find another way to adjust?

0:49 - I’d almost say you foul Dirk on that one to prevent the shot. He just missed a FT. Make him earn it. But, Haslem did a good job of defending that. Dirk just hit it. Too much to handle.

0:10 - That was maybe not a good decision by Shaq. I can understand his desire to prevent Dirk from hitting another shot over Haslem, but you can’t expect Haslem to react quick enough to cover Dampier there. Excellent pass by Dirk. Incredible awareness and vision. Time to see if Wade can do it.

0:2.8 - Holy crap! He did it. Now… what is Dallas going to do? Another alley-oop? Haha.

OVERTIME!

I think Wade probably fouled him there… but something that close, I don’t know that you can call that. Hard to say. Probably a good no call; especially since it’s tied. Just let it go to overtime in that case.

Is Mark Cuban wearing a Jerry Stackhouse jersey? That’s kind of silly. I’m sure he thinks it’s some kind of protest. He’s kind of getting on my nerves with his big talk non-blogging.

Here we go…

4:30 - Good rebound by Wade. The rest of the Heat looked like they were going to let it fall to the ground again.

3:58 - That’s a good call. Unfortunate foul by Haslem, but good call.

2:02 - I think I’m going to stop blogging for a sec so I can just watch this game.

What up tho, Luol Deng! Way to be an activist. Go talk to Mark Cuban about that.

2:00 - Kind of looked like Wade got fouled there. I don’t know…

Is Pat Riley checking his receipt from dinner last night?

1:41 - Good foul by Shaq. Crap defense by Payton. How about you stay in front of your man, Glove? Thanks.

0:54 - Where was the foul there?? That’s a total bail out. I can see that O’Neal kind of came down on him, but barely. I’d say that was after the shot anyway. But he misses both, so nothing lost except now Shaq has 5 fouls. Maybe it’d be better if he fouls out?

They should have a DVD set of all the games of this playoffs. I would buy that for like $100. I bet a lot of people would get that. And how easy would it be to just slap all those games on some DVDs and make some extra cash.

0:29.8 - Jason Williams high-fives the camera after Payton’s granny-shot layup. See, Shaq? Granny shot works!

0:9.1 - Oh my god! How did he make that? REDONKULOUS! Usually when Dirk shoots that you can tell if it’s going in. That didn’t look like it at all. But it went. Wow.

1 shot left? They should be playing some Lose Yourself.

0:1.9 - I don’t know about the foul call there. Wade should have kicked that to Posey. He had the open look. When you’re triple teamed, there’s got to be somebody open, right?

Okay, I don’t know what to say about that now… Howard’s timeout. Ouch. Too easy to call that a Webber. But if Wade doesn’t make the free throw it might not matter.

This is in poor taste, but I have to do it:

Of course, after putting that up, I have to say, Howard’s mistake doesn’t matter as much as Wade’s clutch free-throws. I don’t think he missed a free throw in the second half. Talk about putting a team on your back. Wow. Dirk played a helluvagame, but Wade, well… only 3 turnovers. That’s key.

Bring on the DVDs NBA! I want this whole playoffs! Uncut! Not some crap highlight film. Just put the full game footage (you can even include the ads if you want) on DVDs and sell it to me! Do it! Do it now!

I’m to the point where I don’t even care who wins. I’m just excited to see some more awesome basketball!

Out.

Just so I can keep my live blog streak alive… just got home…

3:38 - The singer from System of a Down is a Heat fan.

1:32 - Sorry, had to get some water. Really dehydrated.

Looks like it was a good one for the Heat. I’m sorry I missed it. Now let’s get 3 more games that all come down to the last second.

1:09 - I swear Gary Payton just shoved Marquis Daniels out of bounds. How is he getting to shoot free throws?

0:45 - Kapono’s in. Guess it’s all over.

Have a good night everyone!

Although Nels is unable to run with the live blog for Game 4 tonight (special event is really code for being ‘detained with a family issue’… just kidding there Nels), I’ll try to keep up with the Heat & Mavs for as long as I can. Being an East Coast guy who is not only old and married, but also has an actual real honest-to-goodness daytime job (talk about a triple threat), it’ll take a hella good game for me to stay up past midnight. Let me speak for everyone on the eastern half of our beautiful county by saying, “What the hell David Stern?” A fricken 9pm start and I have to be at work at 8am. Unless there’s free beer or stripers involved, I just don’t see the point.

See you at 9. Until then, I’ll be watching the Puerto Rican Day Parade on MTV. I hear Marc Anthony might get an award.

And were back…

John Carroll of Scouts, Inc is picking the Heat for tonight’s game. His rational?

I thought the Heat played a better game than the Mavs. If you negate Miami’s 20 turnovers and 14 missed free throws, the game would not have been close. If the Heat can clean up these two areas quickly, I feel that the energy and aggressiveness they demonstrated in Game 3 will allow them to win Game 4 and tie this series at two games apiece.

Yes, and if could make more money, I’d be rich. I’m gong with the Mavs to put this series out of reach.

Welcome to the American Airlines Arena, not to be confused with the American Airlines Center in Dallas. For a company that lost $162 million last year, American Airlines sure loves to flip for arena naming rights. I’d be pissed if I owned stock in them. Good thing I don’t own any stock. I prefer my money under the bed, right near my gun.

I love that finals intro, with all those playoff heroes from the past, but what can I say, I’m a sucker for history.

Our first Stuart Scott sighting of the night. I used to think he was the man back in the day on Sportscenter.

My Miami Heat? Really? They’re mine too? Thanks Miami.

The Heat can actually get the National Anthem singers (R-style?) to wear white. Pretty slick.

Did you guys see Michael Wilbon wearing those crazy sunglasses and waving some white flags like a crazy lunatic? And I always though Tony Kornheiser was the crazy one.

So, a “9pm” start has a tip-off at 9:16pm. David Stern, you dirty little bastard.

11:40 - Shaq hits the shot and draws the foul, but misses the free-throw. Where have we seen this before?

11:27 - Dirk gets mauled as he goes to the basket and hit’s his 2.

9:40 - J-will on Dirk, no chance.

9:22 - Terry takes one of the head. He’ll hear about that one. Don’t try that move on national television.

7:36 – Our NBA blocking lesson of the night. Let’s all stay out of the restricted area folks.

7:15 – Wade has definitely come to play tonight. The shot looks on, I like his touch.

6:32 – Stackhouse with the left-handed hook. I wish I knew how to quit you Stack

5:33 – Wade is officially on fire. He’s hitting 3’s, driving to the hoop, backing into the lane and abusing his man. I’m telling ya, the Heat are just a better team with Shaq on the bench.

2:55 – What’s more amazing - four offense rebounds by the Mavs. Or that they still couldn’t hit their shot!

2:19 – Loose ball fouls. I hate em. It’s just straight up hustle, that’s all. Don’t hate the hustle.

1:19 – Walker’s patented spin move to the basket. Good to see that he’s still got that going for him.

.16: The Heat go on a nice run to end the quarter – Zo with the block, Wade on the break.

.05: But Stackhouse hits the 3 as the quarter comes to an end.

End of 1st Quarter: Heat 30 Mavs 25

11:40 - The foul call on Haslem was weak. A little chest contact. LET THEM PLAY!

11:02 – Dirk is what 1 – 5 so far in the game?

10:34 – Well, he just hits the 3. Let’s see if that’s the start of something.

9:55 – Posey gets the charge called on Dirk with a little flop action. Save that crap for soccer.

Ted Danson – he just keeps that mojo working all these years later.

8:53 – Shaq misses 2 more free-throws. It’s got to be a mental problem for him now. He’s bad, but this bad?

8:01 – Let me finally state what Hubie has said about 10 times already. The Mavs are shooting 30-something percent compared to the Heat’s 50-ish and are still only down by 3 points. Not a good thing for the Heat.

7:06 – Two back to back threes by Posey and Williams put the Heat up by 9. Clearly, whatever I write in this space has the opposite effect on reality.

Superman Returns. I’m officially psyched. And a dork.

6:33 – I can see why they call Terry the JET (well, besides the obvious). He found another gear on that dunk.

4:57 – Wade counters with the 3 and then draws the foul the next time down the court. I admit it, I ‘m now a Wadeness. The kid can flat out play.

3:56 – The refs are just throwing out the technicals tonight.

3:43 – Nice pass by Shaq. Almost a no look.

3:14 – And the Mavs still can’t shoot. But they are grabbing those offensive rebounds. So, they got that going for them.

Wilbon just called out Dirk for having “no game”. Ouch. Don’t piss of a German, Michael. David Hasselhoff shows no mercy. He will break you.

2:15 – Say what you will about Zo, you got to love that full on, out of nowhere, balls-out rejection that Zo has always been so great at.

1:20 – One of the great things about Wade’s game is how fast he get in the air on his jump, which must sound weird, but it allows him to get up and above taller players to get his shot off before they can fully contest his shot.

.10 – Stackhouse has the same free-throw shot form that I did in high school. It didn’t serve me quite as well.

HALFTIME: Heat 54 Mavs 44

A nice story about Jason McElwain, the autistic kid who scored 20 points in his first and only high school basketball game, providing inspiration to other children with autism. And he’ll have a movie made about him, which should be everyone’s goal in life.

The Mavs are shooting 34% from the field. Miami’s shooting 58%. I can’t believe the Dallas is only down by 10.

10:58 – Antoine for 3! What an ugly release.

9:25 – Wade with the little hook over Dirk. See what I’m saying! Wade has got a quick jump.

7:36 – Has anyone else ever daydreamed about what it would be like to have to guard Shaq. All that body just backing down into you. Plus, he sweats like Niagara Falls, which can’t be pleasant.

7:20 – Dirk takes the hard fall to the ground. Looks like he lost his balance on his own rather than being manhandled by Shaq.

7:06 – Shaq with the powerslam over Doip and we get shots of Shaq’s Dad and wife reacting in the crowd. It’s certainly more entertaining than the way Dallas is playing right now.

6:29 – Damn! Stackhouse just TOOK SHAQ RIGHT OUT on the fastbreak. Right to the head! Flagrant foul. Shaq literally got up off the floor, stumbled around, and fell back down like he was in a heavyweight fight and just got a right hook to the face. Good move from Stackhouse (provided Shaq doesn’t kill him later), it might be the only way to get the rest of the team motivated for the second half.

Dave Chappelle’s Block Party. I love the show, should I see this movie? Any recommendations?

4:45 – The Mavs certainly seem to have more energy now, but energy doesn’t help shots go in. And the Heat lead by 19.

4:10 – Dirk badly misses the three and flops to try and draw a foul. No go.

3:37 – A very sweet alleyoop to Halsem from Williams. Couldn’t have been executed any better.

1:26 – Dirk misses again and is 2-12 on the night. There’s the Dallas loss right there.

:43 – Another turnover by the Heat and the game is starting to get interesting again. It’s down to a 13 point lead. And Walker misses a long three. Don’t let him take those.

:00 - And Stackhouse cuts the lead to 11 at the end of the 3rd.

End of the 3rd Quarter: Heat 78 Mavs 67

I was thinking about calling it a night when the Heat were up by 20, but an 11 point lead makes things a little more interesting. Let’s see if my deliberate disregard for the job the actually provides a paycheck pays off.

11:12 – Dirk, no amount of acting will change the truth. You can’t change the fact the ball just went through your hands.

10:46 – Wade hits the jumper off an inbounds pass with 1 second left on the shot clock. I shake my head.

10:00 – Horrible offensive charging call on Wade. Harris was totally running with him. How is that even anything like an offensive foul?

9:34 – Another offense foul called on the Heat. I’m starting to feel cheated.

9:04 – Dirk turns his ankle on a 3 attempt and leaves the game (but stays on the sideline)… Despite the fact that Dirk has had a pretty bad game, this could be the end for the Mavs tonight.

8:34 – O’Neal makes a free-throw. And another! It’s a pretty good time to start making them.

7:11 – Posey for 3! Dampier misses the putback at the other end. Miami is up by 15 now and time is definitely starting to run out for Dallas.

6:20 – Shaq is now channeling the spirit of Magic Johnson with a little no look pass action. He looks like he’s having fun out there – I’ll give him that.

5:47 – Dirk is back in the game, but misses the 3 again. He’s now 2-14.

5:22 – The Mavs are playing sloppy, throwing the ball around the court right now. Not the thing to do with 5 minutes left in the game.

4:17 – Call it! Walker for 3 puts the Heat up by 20. That’s the game for me folks. I think we can safely call this one. And I can finish this live blog off before the clock strikes 12.

See you for game 5! I believe American Airlines will be involved. Peace.

ADDENDUM: Final score, Miami 98, Dallas 74. My Dallas prediction for this game almost looks as good as Dirk’s shooting performance. As an indication about how important this series is, the top story on Yahoo Sports is the World Cup, followed by the US Open. See you on Sunday!

1) Probably no live blog tonight (at least from me). I was hoping to hit every game, but we’ve got tickets to special event this evening. Not as special as the NBA Finals, but then, they have one of those every year, right?

2) Is anyone else going to get confused when they go to draft Ray Allen next year and end up with Allan Ray on their team? Yeah, watch out for that.

I’m trying to catch up here at half time. It actually wasn’t a “family” matter, as PMad said… since that sounds like something serious has happened. No, it was just a friend’s birthday and they asked if I wanted to go to dinner all last minute about it. Did have some Friendship Chinese, though, so I can’t argue too much.

Now, I’m not really sure if I really want to do catch up… I’d prefer to start over from scratch at this point, but I did promise something… so we’re going to get some double-live-blogging going on.

Right now they’re talking about some sport that isn’t basketball. Okay, fine… I did watch some futbol this afternoon since they hadn’t started playing the Arena Bowl yet. I got too excited when it looked like Portugal was going to score a couple times and remembered why I don’t really like futbol. And I only watched the Arena Bowl because Chicago was in it.

Since this is already a long post, I’m going to start a new one called “Action” that will have the actual live blog in it.