Finally, some good news from the world of television

Torrential downpour means a drive to school, which means a detour for a triple vente latte, which means morning neighbourhood traffic ‘cause everyone forgets how to drive in the rain, which means a very late posting, which means one or two of you might care.

Or you might not as I digress.

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You do know we dodged a bullet tonight, right? The original TV schedule I got yesterday morning had the Chicago-Boston, Dallas-San Antonio doubleheader on TSN2, which really irked me. The other one (Philly-Orlando and Houston-Portland) was on The Score but not being able to see Bulls-Celtics was the big issue.

Well, I’m not sure which saner heads prevailed where – I presume Maple Leaf Sports was involved somehow – but another schedule landed about 3:30 that had the Chicago-Boston, Dallas-San Antonio twinbill switched over to RaptorsTV.

It’s a 7 p.m. start and we’ll be in our usual place to do the live blog if anyone wants to stop around.

And now …

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ABOUT LAST NIGHT

Byron’s last stand?

Look, there were whispers around the league that perhaps Byron Scott’s time was coming to an end even before these playoffs began but losing by 58 FREAKING POINTS AT HOME! Surely that’s the death knell, no?

Now, you know I’m a pretty big supporter of coaches, generally; I think they get too much blame when things go wrong and too much credit when things to go right. I think coaches who are considered “good” are coaches with the best talent.

But …

The Hornets had no toughness, no answers offensively, no defensive play and no heart. And as much as I’d like to suggest they get rid of eight or nine of the players who came up with such a despicable performance in the biggest game of their season, if Scott had one foot out the door before, this is the game that spells the end.

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So, how’d it happen?

The biggest thing, to me, is that the Hornets just didn’t have the mental resolve early.

It’s like they knew the Nuggets were tougher – mentally and physically – and they had no desire to fight back. And that’s strange to me given how much I’ve heard about Chris Paul’s desire and attitude and game.

But he was the most disappointing of all of them. He let Dahntay Jones push him around and stop him cold and that’s not what great players do.

Yes, the coach is going to get the heat; the all-stars (including David West) need to have their feet held to the fire, too.

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Speaking of home dogs

How about the Heat?

A chance to put the series pretty much out of reach and they come out and shoot something like 21 per cent in the first quarter and 37 per cent in the first half and get themselves so far buried they end up losing? And, yes, I know Jermaine O’Neal had another statistically strong game but so did the guy he was playing against, Zaza Pachulia and O’Neal had nine of his 20 in the first seven or eight minutes.

As our good friend Ira points out here, there’s lots of ways the Heat blew this one.

The shocking thing to me? Two points off the bench? TWO POINTS. That’s almost Rpator-esque.

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Lakers win series, Kobe great

Yawn

Seriously, has one series been as absolutely uneventful and conducted in such relative anonymity, as that Laker-Jazz one that's now over. One kind of good game (Game 3, the Deron Williams shot) but the sense of inevitability was overwhelming and I don't imagine there's a person in the world surprised that it's over so soon.

The good thing? It gets the Lakers some rest, not that they're injured or anything, but I'm not entirely convinced how mentally strong they are (outside of that Bryant fellow and Derek Fisher) and not having many close games may make it easier for them as the post-season progresses.

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Peter, during the in-game blog last night, wondered this:

Q: Since blog topics are tough to find, can you tell us how it works between someone like yourself and Bryan Colangelo? Can you call him anytime? Directly? If it's a paragraph or two, I wouldn't mind hearing how that process works in a morning blog

A: It’s a good relationship, one that develops over the course of time and, yeah, I can make a call any day, to either the office or the cell, if I’ve got something on my mind. And I don’t think there’s been one time that I’ve left a message if he’s out and not had a call returned.

Of course, it’s not something I want to abuse so it’s not like I make a call every day. But every other day or so, just a quick check to see if anything’s going on, or to check on the veracity of some other report, or to have some specific query answered, is not out of the norm.

And every now and then, one of those “cold calls” (like, ‘hey, I heard rumblings about this, is it true?” or “what do you think about this idiotic thought of mine?”) yields a good off-day story.

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One thing that’s become apparent in the first week of the playoffs, at least to me, is that Matt Devlin and P.J. Carlesimo have quickly developed some good chemistry as a play-by-play and analyst team working for TNT.

I guess I’m not all that surprised because both of them are professionals and really easy-to-get-along-with guys but, as we heard with the NBA-TV duo last night in the Denver-New Orleans game, nothing is for sure when strange duos are put together to do broadcasts.

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You know that Denver’s 58-point edging of New Orleans last night represents the greatest margin of victory in game ever by the Nuggets, right? You know what’s now second?

It was 39 points.

And you know when that was, right?

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Who wins tonight? I wish I knew but I do now that there’s a chance for four very good games, which is going to make the evening quite a lot of fun.

Of course, we’re all looking forward to Chicago-Boston because that’s the series that’s caught everyone’s attention the most but don’t sleep on Philly-Orlando. As good as the other East one’s been, three of the four Sixer-Magic games have come down to a last possession and that’s pretty impressive.

Comments

[SY]

Giorgos Printezis or Brandon Jennings? Not sure about you but I personally won't put a lot of emphasis/expectations in these unproven players. Of course, the Raptors should continue to do their due diligence when scouting them but I don't not expect them to be difference makers....(of course, I would be extremely delighted if any of these players turn out to be good players). What I think the Raptors should emphasize on is who (tough players according to BC) they are going to bring to compromise the solid core of Bosh, Bargnani and Jose. Two tough veteran players I have in mind - Andres Nocioni and Marcus Camby.

1. Banks + Graham + Future 2nd Round for Nocioni

What's in it for Sacramento?
Sacramento gets financial flexbility much earlier (Graham - expiring contract and Banks - 2 more years left in his contract) and a future second rounder.

What's in it for Toronto?
Toronto gets a good tough solid starting forward but a longer contract (Nocioni - at least 3 more years left in his contract).

2. Kapono + Humphries + Future 2nd Round for Camby

What's in it for LA Clippers?
LAC gets a solid 3 point shooter to compromise with Randolph and Kaman inside.
LAC does not lose Camby for nothing to the free agent market in the summer of 2010.
LAC gets a future 2 rounder.

What's in it for Toronto?
Toronto gets a tough solid center who can backup Bargnani and go against the bigs in the East.

-SY

Blogger's note: No disrespect, but I'm sure there are other, more appropriate places, to propose fantasy trades; I'm not sure this is it.

[dc]

doug(the commentor), i don't get your point.
rondo is the perfect example of a young point guard learning every aspect of the game- offensive and defensive.
too often, he's like most cagey guards and likes to go for the steal. jason kidd, gary payton, they were legendary point guards in their prime capable of completely shutting down their opponent (cough calderon)and running the offense like a general.
some point guards are better defenders than others but it doesn't mean year after year a point guard should not be trying to improve at both ends of the court. Maybe GMs really do have to sacrifice defensive for quarter-backing at the point guard position. I still think the all-time greats are remembered as all-around players and chris paul and deron williams are getting there, but still have room to improve. just look at derrick rose, rondo is burning him time and again. it's ok because he can burn rondo on occasion and he beats every body else on offense. But he has to sit frequently down the stretch because at this young point he just hasn't developed the defensive ability (maybe because he was pampered like all chosen ones these days)

[Travis]

AP article about Jose having surgery on his left ring finger and will need at least six weeks of recovery - is this news or just a typical end of season repair? Does this mean he will 'take it easy' this summer?

Blogger's note: Pretty typical.

[doug]

my point is this as with every position there is a a list of priorities and the list is as fellows for a point guard, a true point guard, run the offense first, be a slasher, penetrate off the dribble, feed your teammates, create,think pass first over shot first, be effective both in a half-court set as well as in the transition game...after that comes defense...sure Kidd was good as he is a potential hall of famer what I am saying is all I heard all year long was about Calderon's defensive shortcomings....if you can play defense as a point guard and be a effective point guard on the offensive end then you are guaranteed a HOF bid...as Isiah Thomas showed..so don't judge a point guard by his defense judge him by his offense, as that is his first priority....of course they can't neglect the defensive end but at the same time that is not where they are judged...sometimes a point guard is hard to defend because of one simple reason, there dam good and fast...you can teach defense to a degree like the Bulls can to Rose, but you can't teach his the offense he brings..I am sure the Bulls can live with that...so my point is people have been riding Calderon, Nash Paul, Williams for their defense that's not what there primary goal is, what there paid for..

[Rob.V]

Blogger's note: If I'm a general manager, the last thing I want to do is pay a backup point guard (who might get 14 minutes a night if the No. 1 guy stays healthy), $7.2 million this coming season and $7.5 million next season; and that's quite aside from any off-court issues there might be.

At over 7 million I can see your point. The site I was on had him listed at a shade over 6 million so the difference between his salary and Banks' wasnt as large from what I was seeing.

Having said this though, Colangelo is going to have to pull a rabbit out of his hat because personally I'd prefer to overpay someone that fills a teams need rather than paying Banks close to 5 million a year to virtually not be part of the team.

As always, thanks for the response.

[Kevin]

re the comment about Kidd and Payton being shut down guards. In the day of the hand check it was so much easier to steer a point guard to the corner. You can't do it anymore. Steve Nash benefited from this. With the hand check he played at a higher weight. After the rule change he lost weight and played the speed game (with some effectiveness).

[Eric G.]

This in regards to your coaches comment. I think the best NBA coaches run stuff through so thoroughly in practice that they barely have to be there on game days. Like Phil Jackson. You implement a system, make sure the players know it backwards and forwards, then sit back and watch them run it.