A fitting end, wasn't it?

The better team won.

I don’t think anyone can sit here today and not suggest that the Orlando Magic was by far the better team over the course of the Eastern Conference final against Cleveland.

Yes, the Cavs had the best player – except in the most important game of the series, that is – but, no, they did not get anything from anyone else and if the series didn’t underscore the indisputable fact that basketball is first and foremost a team game, I don’t know what will.

So the next time anyone asks you about this guy or that guy being able to “carry” his team or “take it to the next level” please scoff.

And so …

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About last night

Rather impressive

Say what you will about Dwight Howard’s offensive liabilities – and Lord knows his lack of finesse or touch or range is something I’ve harped on incessantly in this little space – but you cannot diminish what he did last night.

The 40 points were a career playoff high but it was more than that. It was the control he showed, no foul trouble, no emotional outbursts, nothing but a businesslike dismantling of an over-matched opponent.

Howard was at his lowest ebb after Game 5 in the Boston series, when he went public with complaints about his involvement in the offence; since then, he’s played like a man possessed and, thanks to a group of teammates who simply didn’t fold when things got tough, he’ll have the game’s biggest stage to perform on.

That’s a pretty good story.

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Shocking but …

Brian’s game story out of Orlando lauds the Magic for what they’ve done.

Brian’s game story out of Cleveland suggests the level of disappointment and sadness around the Cavs has never been higher.

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Where’d he go?

I know defeat stings and failing to meeting expectations has to hurt more than anything you can imagine to a great athlete like LeBron James but the way he handled himself at the end of the game, well, it sucks.

Blowing off the media is one thing – although it’s out of character for him, and he sure seemed to be around every other time anyone ever wanted to talk to him, after wins or losses or at halftime or pre-game.

But to not walk down the court, or even stay on the court to congratulate the Magic? That’s just wrong.

A quick handshake, maybe a quick hug, maybe a word of congratulations to Dwight Howard, a former Olympic teammate. Something.

But nothing? Nothing’s bush league and James is better than that.

I’m sure he’ll get a pass, his teammates were giving him one post-game if you believe the stuff in this story, but we shouldn’t in my opinion.

Yes, you can love his skills and we all do. But no, you cannot excuse the way he handled himself in defeat.

Maybe you do learn more about people in defeat than in victory.

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What’s the future hold?

So, there’s a suggestion that Ben Wallace is contemplating retirement, Anderson Varejao has an opt-out everyone thinks he’ll take (and suggestions he’ll want $10 million a year make me shudder in disbelief) and who knows what they’ll do with the spot currently occupied by Wally Szczerbiak.

General manager Danny Ferry resisted the urge to deal Szczerbiak’s expiring contract at the trade deadline – a decision I am dead certain he regrets at the moment – so now the pressure’s on him to find some way to retool this roster before next season.

Forget for the moment about LeBron and 2010, if the Cavs don’t make some kind of substantial move this summer, I don’t think there’s anyway this group – a year old – can repeat the regular season success it had this season.

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What about 2010?

Call me when it’s 2010. The pages and airwaves are going to be chock full of “What’s LeBron going to do” nonsense. If you want to read it, go read somewhere else, I couldn’t care less until almost a year from now.

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Here are a couple of letters from a mailbag I have to finish off this afternoon or this evening sometime:

Q: Hey Doug, just curious but does Chris Anderson's performance in the playoffs positively affect a player like Mensah-Bonsu's salary? He seems to be proving (again) how valuable energy players off the bench can be.

Matt M, Calgary

A: No, it has no bearing whatsoever on anyone other than Chris Andersen.

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Q: On a scale of 1 to 10, what do you think the odds of Kobe Bryant ending up with a new home this summer are? I know LA is having the success he "said" he wants but I have this feeling that Lebron won't be the one playing in NYC. Remember D'Antoni and him are buds.

John S, Sudbury

A: Zero. None. Nada. Zip. With a gun held to my head and I had to give a percentage, it’d be one millionth of one per cent. And even that’s a stretch.

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So, who wins? Lakers or Magic? Kobe or Dwight? Phil or Stan? The Lakers bench or the Magic subs?

I’m still not entirely sure who I like; thankfully, I’ve got a couple of days to figure it out. And once I talk to various web and paper bosses, we’ll figure out when to write what.

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Raptors?

Oh yeah the Raptors.

I fully expect news in the next 24-48 hours, specifically about coaches but I also think that now that I’ll have a day or so to work the phones, we might find out what transpired in Chicago and how they’re their draft plans are shaking out.

We are getting down to the time they need to start developing a list of candidates in order, hopefully we can shed some light on that before the finals begin.

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Now, it looks like a perfect day coming to go sit on some patio or somewhere to do the mailbag – still gladly accepting letters – while figuring out the pick for the finals and finding an inexpensive way to get to L.A.

If you see a guy in a lounge or somewhere typing, that’d be me. Come on over and say hi.

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The Goods On The Game, NBA playoffs May 30

Of Kobe and LeBron and other wonderful stuff

All right, half of it’s set and my travel to start the final has now come down to Los Angeles or Cleveland and that’s nice to know. (It is, after all, all about me).

I must say I was quite disappointed in the effort the Nuggets put forward last night, it sure looked like they sure didn’t play with any sense of desperation in the biggest game of the season and it turned what could have been a great one into a dud.

But what’s done is done, I guess; and we do have a pretty good one to look forward to tonight. And, because I work too hard and don’t have much of a life, we’ll be here to chat about it starting about 8:30 if anyone else is around on a Saturday night.

‘Til then? The lawn needs mowing, the big Fun Fair’s on at the school and I’ve got some work to do.

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About last night

How good was that?

Kobe goes for 35 and 10 – and wasn’t it really a “quiet” 35? – and proved that in the biggest of games, he’s pretty much the best.

And I think the performance underscores the heart of the debate that’s raging right now, the one about Bryant and that fellow from Cleveland, the Kobe vs. LeBron discussion.

To be, Bryant is understated and LeBron is brash.

Bryant makes those sublime bounce passes off his penetration, LeBron sees a double, elevates and throws a bullet across court to a shooter in the corner.

LeBron’s got that football-like mentality, get a head of steam, get in the lane, finish come hell or high water; Bryant seems much more in control.

Bryant might be the most fundamentally sound mid-range jump shooter of this or any other era, he looks twisted and elevates on the move but his shoulders are square at release and he’s not leaning one way or the other; LeBron’s jumper is, at best, inconsistent.

Bryant strikes me as more cerebral but I’m not around either of them enough to really know. We think we know James with his LeBrons commercials and various appearances, I don’t think we know Bryant at all and I think that’s just fine with him.

LeBron’s got that whole “rosin in the air” thing before the game; Bryant seems pretty steely-eyed and not at all interested in interaction with opponents until he’s dissected them on the court.

I wrote this note to myself after the game (it’s something I do when I have a point to make, it’s silly but sometimes I forget things). It said: With Bryant, there’s not a lot of “hey, look at me” but there’s an awful lot of “wow, look at that.”

There is a subtle difference.

Look, there is no doubt they are the two most talented players in the game today and it’s a joy to watch either of them.

But, to me, I’ rather watch the understated one than the other.

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So, what’s Denver do?

Pretty good season for the Nuggets, no? A stroke-of-genius trade gets them the on-court leader they so desperately needed (even if Chauncey wasn’t nearly as assertive offensively last night as he should have been); they get to the conference final for the first time in a quarter century and they have the bulk of the team under contract for next season.

So, it was a good year, right?

I’d have to say so, even though the disappointment will rage for a couple of days.

But the question is: What’s next?

They have to deal with free agents Chris Andersen and Dahntay Jones – both useful pieces but, frankly, only at the right cost because you can find guys like them without much trouble (Andersen is unique with his emotional style but you wonder if he can do it over an 82-game season with a lot of nights of drudgery). Anthony Carter’s the other free agent and I guess he’d be useful on a minimum salary deal.

The Nuggets have a very short “window” in my opinion – Billups isn’t getting any younger, neither is Kenyon Martin – so maybe they try to make one bold move this summer to stay among the Western Conference’s elite.

The West is going to be better next year, the Nuggets have to find a way to get better as well.

Here’s how Ben wrapped up the season and game in the paper out there.

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Best thing?

For the Lakers?

Four days off before their next game. The final doesn’t start until Thursday and for a team that’s played 13 games – tough, physical games – in about two weeks, rest is a huge help.

In fact, it’s led to one bold prediction already. Check it out here.

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Now, to the mail for one left over from an in-game query the other night.

Q: Hi Doug is there a defined roll for each assistant coach? As always, thanks

Steph R, Glencoe

A: There hasn’t been but maybe there should have been and I fully expect there will be when Jay gets around to telling us who’s on his staff.

What I expect will happen is that Jay will handle most of the offensive planning and duties, aided chiefly by one of his assistants – I imagine that’ll be Alex English if he comes back – and I am certain from talking to people near the team that Marc Iavaroni will be responsible for the defence. He did it in Phoenix – I know, the Suns were awful defensively but I think they were better that some people give them credit for, their defensive abilities were masked by the hurry-up offence they ran – and given a different set of players he should be okay.

The one big difference is going to be in game prep, which is pretty important through the course of the regular season. Under Sam, the assistants split opponents, each guy would be responsible for a certain number of opposing teams and would do the scouting report, make suggestions to the head coach on what would work best. It was a bit convoluted – the assistant would get the info from the advance scouts or by watching video, he’d give it to the head coach who’d then make the final preparations on what he thought would work best.

Now, I think you’ll see Micah Nori – who is one of the best prepared advance scouts-assistant coaches out there – work directly with Jay for every team, cutting out one step in the process.

None of this is cast in stone, of course, but from talking to people around the organization, I’ve got a pretty good idea that’s how it’s going to work out.

As for skills development: You’ll see Alex work with the wings as he has been (or his replacement will), Jay will work with the guards and Marc will work with the bigs. Toss in Eric Hughes as a teaching coach and, hopefully, Alvin Williams in the same role (primarily with the guards) and that’s how I expect it to shake out.

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Wow! Stop the presses!

Amare Stoudemire said yesterday that he thinks he’s better than Chris Bosh!

Wake me when he says, “no, I suck, Chris is a way better player.”

Seriously, this is treated – according to the e-mails and comments I got – as significant?

I don’t get it.

Personally, I’d rather have Bosh on my team, he’s much more versatile on offence; neither is going to win defensive player of the year and Bosh hasn’t had two significant knee surgeries and isn’t returning from a serious eye injury. But that’s just me.

And for the fact Stoudemire says he thinks better than Bosh?

Yawn. Snore. Wake me when he says something important.

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So, those commercials on TV, where they digitize the players, background, fans, refs, etc. and fade them in and out? Perhaps my favourite NBA ads ever and this might be the best of the bunch.

And since I have no idea how they can make stuff like that happen, here’s a story that tells you how.

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The Goods On The Game, NBA playoffs May 29

Of course he dominated, he's LeBron!

We’re going to be rather short and sweet today, not much to say about last night’s inevitable outcome, actually.

And since Stumpy and I were in a bistro checking out the action, I must admit I didn’t watch all that closely all the time. Saw enough, but not with the usual eagle-eye.

But tonight will be different, of course. I’ll be ensconced in Casa Doug with the machine turned on and a few of my little friends gathered wherever they gather. Come by about 9, it’s a hoot.

On with the show:

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About last night

TONY DEJAK/AP

Lebron had that look in his eyes again last night.

You knew that was going to happen, right?

No way LeBron wasn’t going to pull out one of his LeBron acts, to dominate with scoring and passing and rebounding.

The triple double was impressive – 37 points, 12 assists, 14 rebounds – but here’s a part of it that might not have been given the prominence it should.

In one stretch from the third to the fourth quarters, James scored or dished assists on 32 straight Cleveland points. Thirty-two straight! That’s rather incredible, no?

It was reminiscent of that Game 5 in Detroit a year ago when he had, what, 25 points in a row.

But it’s what the Cavs did to spring him that caught my eye.

Taking a page directly from the Orlando playbook – and that’s a pretty good testament to Stan Van Gundy, isn’t it? – they put him at the top in the middle, ran a high screen-and-roll, put shooters in the corners and let him go to work.

It’s pretty much the same play Orlando runs with Hedo Turkoglu with one notable exception.

Orlando lets Howard roll down the lane every now and then to take a pass and either dunk or kick the ball to a corner; Cleveland leaves the lane wide open so LeBron, if he likes, can get a head of steam, attack the basket and wait for the whistle to blow on the inevitable foul.

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Speaking of …

They played an entire game with just one technical foul, on seldom-used Wally Szczerbiak, no less?

Talk about being on good behaviour.

It was pretty nice to see, wasn’t it?

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So, if you’re Orlando …

Do you feel good that you came back from 22 down and made a game of it?

Or do you feel bad that you came back from 22 down and then frittered the comeback away?

I imagine they feel pretty good; but I also imagine they feel an inordinate amount of pressure to close it out at home tomorrow. No way in the world do they want anything to do with a Game 7 back in Cleveland.

Brian’sgame story here touches on it a bit and it’ll be the topic of conversation all day today down there.

One thing to remember, though. In that Boston series, and even in the Philly series for the game that Howard had to sit out, they’ve responded to the pressure-packed situations well.

I would imagine that’s the point Stan’s going to be hammering home today.

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Welcome back

Mo Williams made an appearance last night and when he got 20 points it was the first time any Cavalier not named LeBron James reached that level in any game of this series.

And you wonder why Orlando is ahead?

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Where’d you go?

Rafer Alston, 1-10.

So the Cavs are 1-1 when they dare him to shoot.

Can’t imagine they’ll change that strategy tomorrow.

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Oh, oh.

You know this news won’t sit well with me.

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Okay, I rarely mock the pucks, right?

Well, they deserve it for this one.

It was brought to my attention that the Stanley Cup final opens with games – get this! – Saturday and Sunday.

What? They couldn’t do a day-night twinbill on Saturday?

That scheduling, my friends, is utterly ridiculous.

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About tonight

Who do you like? Personally, I see Denver winning, they play great at home, I am still not convinced the Lakers have what it takes to win a big game away from the Staples Center in these circumstances and I would imagine the Nuggets will be all physical and nasty in the paint, where they were scorched the other night.

Of course, I’ve been way wrong before and maybe I just want a Game 7 Sunday because I love Game 7s (and because I picked Denver to win).

And, of course, the main topic of conversation is who can work the officials the best, as this story details.

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Oh yeah.

If you care, the mighty Yankees of the Mississauga North Baseball Association peewee house league (sort of like the house league version of the ’27 Yanks, I believe) were rained out last night, stalling their inexorable run to a 2-0 record.

Of Lamar, bad singing and Bryan's time to chat

Oh yeah, we’re headed to on Game 7 for sure, don’t you think?

No way the Lakers play that well two games in a row, is there?

Could be shaping up to be a nice weekend because I fully expect a Game 6 in Orlando on Saturday and now a Game 7 in L.A. on Sunday.

What I don’t expect is many to care but we’re going to be dark here in this little corner tonight, big baseball game goes until about 8:30 and I presume a coaches meeting will be required after.

So, no in-game blog but I’ll be back for Denver-LA tomorrow night.

And away we go:

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About last night

MARK J. TERRILL/AP

Lamar Odom: X Factor.

Who is that guy?

I really wish I had a handle on Lamar Odom but the more you watch him play, the more of an enigma he becomes.

In a lot of respects, he was the best player on the court last night, rebounding, scoring, blocking shots, playing defence.

In a lot of respects, he’s been the most disappointing player over the course of the series, invisible for long stretches, unable to make his mark on close games when it counts, passive at both ends of the floor.

Phil Jackson, in one of his more lucid comments, suggests Odom is the X Factor in every game and he’s probably right about that.

The thing with guys like Odom is you want them on your team for precisely the reasons he showed last night. He’s a 6-10 ball-handler with shooting range and an inside game and those don’t come around too often.

The fact Odom’s an unrestricted free agent this summer also adds to the equation. He doesn’t start but he can dominate, I don’t think anyone would suggest he’s a maximum-value player you can build a team around but every good team with realistic championship aspirations would want a guy like him.

If, as many think, a guy like Shawn Marion might get $7 million or $8 million from his current team, how could someone not pay Odom $10 million or even a little bit more?

But if you do, what do you get? Game 5 Odom? Or Games 1-4 Odom?

Tough, tough call.

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Oh, this makes sense.

Speaking of Odom, maybe Bill Plaschke has an explanation in this column.

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What’s it all mean?

Does the winner of Game 5 automatically win the series, especially if it’s the team with homecourt advantage?

I’m sure the percentages are overwhelmingly in favour of the Lakers (I think I heard last night it’s like 86 per cent that the Game 5 winner eventually takes a series) and I’d agree wholeheartedly if we were talking about any team other than mercurial Los Angeles.

Remember Houston? Same situation and they went on the road and dropped a stinkbomb of a game and the Rockets were far worse off than the Nuggets are.

I see a seventh game Sunday in this one, as much because of Los Angeles than Denver.

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What’s up in Denver?

Speaking of the Nuggets, they had to come away kicking themselves for the way things unfolded in L.A. in Game 5.

They were tied going into the fourth quarter, were getting almost any shot they wanted and had pretty much negated Kobe Bryant, who was strangely passive for long stretches.

So what’d they do?

Stop scoring, stop defending and lost.

And this despite a return to form of Carmelo Anthony, whose 31 points showed he was pretty much over the stomach flu and ankle woes that robbed him of anything in Game 4.

This time it was the bigs who let them down, Nene, Kenyon Martin and Chris Andersen, who were out-scored 54-36 in the paint and simply unable to stop Odom, Gasol and even Andrew Bynum at times.

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Stop the presses

Losing team whines about calls – check out this story – and isn’t that doing exactly the same thing that they are upset at Phil Jackson for doing: Planting seeds.

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Ban him. Whoever he is

Okay, you know me and anthems so this is a bit of a soapbox issues so if you want to scroll down, be my guest.

I read that some buffoon named Tyrese Gibson bastardized the U.S. anthem before Game 5 in a manner that is as much disgraceful as it is disrespectful.

As Dave Krieger of the Denver Post points out in his column, it’s one thing for baseball fans in Baltimore to accentuate the Oh in the Oh, say, can you see? and one thing for Houston fans to bellow “Rockets” at the appropriate time.

But to change the words to “our Lakers were still there” is shameful.

End o’ rant.

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Does this pass for news? Was having a conversation with someone in the Raptors organization, who shall go nameless, yesterday and asked when the much-anticipated hiring of Marc Iavaroni and the rest of the staff might be completed.

“It’s close” was the reply.

Hardly a surprise but I bet some of you are interested.

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More Raptor stuff, without it being very big

The most significant stuff that happens at the Chicago pre-draft camp this week won’t happen anywhere near a court: The big goings-on will be in hotel meeting rooms.

Not only is Bryan going to meet with a dozen or so players – meetings that will likely include sports psychologist Dana Sinclair just so she can get a feel the minds of these kids – but he’s also going to run into Henry Thomas, the agent for, among others, Chris Bosh and Anthony Parker.

There will be nothing big come out of it, you have to trust me on that, but the more face time the better, I guess.

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The Goods On The Game, NBA playoffs May 27

At least I'm not -- ouch! -- in the -- ouch! -- infirmary (yet)

Sorry I’m a bit late today.

Fingers are sore, back’s broken, legs are gone and it was everything I could do just to drag this sorry old carcass out of the sack this morning.

But there was no time spent in either an ambulance or an ICU so things could have been worse.

Anyway …

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Eighty.

Eighty holes of golf.

I can tell you, my friends and neighbours, that is an awful lot of golf. Not a lot of good golf, just a lot of golf. Just ask Eric Smith, the cart-mate who journeyed around the course with me yesterday.

Now, it was more speed golf than anything – two balls per hole at least (sometimes four on par-3s) but each ball played out tee to cup – and there were, um, relaxed winter rules in the fairways, rough everywhere else. But still had to swing the club and make the putts and walk a gawd-awful amount of steps across fairways and greens and tees.

And, you may not all know this, but I’m not in tip-top athletic shape.

The goal, however, wasn’t to set scoring records, it was to raise money for the Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus Association of Ontario and that we did.

The final accounting is still to come but it looks like they got raised more than $30,000 and that’s nothing to sneeze at.

I thank you, the good people at the association thank you. My body? It’s been reminding me that it’s not in favour of such hijinks.

Oh, the score? To protect future sandbagging opportunities, that shall remain a state secret.

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About last night

What have we been telling you?

What we’re seeing is validation – as regulars here might tell you – of one of my pet peeves and oft-made points.

No one guy can “carry a team” for any significant length of time.

There can be no dispute that LeBron James is playing spectacularly – although it will be a frosty day in Hades before Kobe Bryant commits eight turnovers in a crucial playoff game, methinks – and yet his team is on the verge of elimination.

Why? Because never, ever, ever, ever, can one guy do it alone. It doesn’t work for Chris Bosh in the regular season, it’s not working for LeBron or Kobe in the playoffs; it hasn’t worked ever in the past, it won’t work ever in the future.

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A recollection

As I watched Rafer Alston dominate all I could really think about was how glad his fans must be that he didn’t retire after that night in Boston with the Raptors.

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Admit it

You all thought that last-second mid-court heave by LeBron was going in, didn’t you?

I sure wouldn’t have been surprised.

But in Brian’s game story here, he admits even he knew right away there wasn’t another miracle to come.

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Changing of the guard

JOHN RAOUX/AP

Congratulations Anderson Varejao, you are the new face of the Those Who Don't Believe They Have Ever Committed A Personal Foul club.

You all know how much I love and respect Dikembe Mutombo but I’m afraid he has lost one of his places in my heart.

Anderson Varejao is now, officially, the worst whiner and aggrieved party in the history of Those Who Don’t Believe They Have Ever Committed A Personal Foul.

Honest to the Great Deity who guides our lives, if I watch Varejoa raises his arms in disbelief after hacking someone, or watch him complain every time the whistle blows, I may throw something through the television (a happenstance that will upset Super Wife and Super Son quite a bit, I’d imagine).

The guy is unrelenting in his complaining.

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This abacus sucks

Okay, so my point yesterday about technical fouls in the post-season was arithmetically flawed (I don’t have enough fingers and toes to do that kind of calculation either) but the point remains the same.

They need to increase from seven the number of techs they allow in the post-season before they start suspending guys.

It’s arbitrary anyway so why not make it 10? Or 12?

The one Howard got last night was, I guess, technically a technical, he did a very small amount of taunting and if you strictly by the books he probably should now be just one away from earning a one-game suspension.

But the level at which “taunting” technicals are handed out is so subjective, I cannot believe that one warranted a call. And I would also not be at all surprised if we didn’t find out today that it had been rescinded.

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So, I hear that Chris Bosh, on his website, promises some big announcement on Monday?

Don’t get your knickers in a knot. I presume – and this is a presumption based on only a couple of conversations – that it’s got something to do entirely divorced from anything about the Raptors.

It can’t be a contract extension – they can’t even talk about that until July; I don’t think he’d all of a sudden have a change of heart about declaring any huge 2010 intentions.

But I will say this: It’ll drive traffic to his site and that’s what it’s all about.

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What about the West? As strange as it is to type this – and it’s probably strange to read it, too – the Nuggets might be all but dead without the play of J.R. Smith the other night.

The guy of whom it’s been said takes more bad shots than anyone in the history of basketball seems to be maturing in front of our very eyes. Odd but a very welcome sight for the Nuggets.

And here’sa pretty good read on him that gets to both sides – good and bad – of his game.

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All right, have about 30 comments from yesterday to post and a handful of Advil to eat like they were Smarties. And we will be here tonight about 9 to chronicle Nuggets and Lakers if anyone wants to join in.

It's chippy with a side of chirpy

JACK DEMPSEY/AP

Bodies flying everywhere and it's great playoff basketball.

The Western Conference final, already a rather chippy and chirpy affair, is fully on now.

Best-of-three, teams starting to truly dislike each other, a whole bunch of guys battling a variety of injuries and illnesses, the rest of this one has a chance to be more a matter of survival more than anything else.

Great playoff basketball, in other words.

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About last night

Watch out, Nuggets

Dahntay Jones doesn’t strike me as a dumb fellow, just a guy who does dumb things every now and then.

Like the two-hand shove in the back he gave Kobe Bryant in Game 3 of the Nuggets-Laker series, a foul that was upgraded to a Flagrant 1 by the league, by the way; earning him a small fine.

Last night? Intentionally sticking out his foot to trip Bryant – and it sure looked intentional to me upon further review – was a tad silly.

It didn’t hurt his team too much last night but I guarantee you Kobe will remember it when he looks over at Jones before the tip to start Game 5 and I smell a 40-plus night coming. And I also smell Bryant telling Jones precisely what he’s going to do before he does it.

Remember Kobe screaming “he can’t guard me” at times about Shane Battier in the Houston series? Same thing coming, I bet. Only worse. And in a much, much more important game.

Better, I think, to let sleeping superstars lie.

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Welcome back

Okay, we’ll give Carmelo a pass for another so-so game because it’s obvious he ankle’s bothering him but the return of Chauncey Billups to form was one of the big deciding factors in that relatively easy Denver win last night.

Derrick Fisher, Shannon Brown, Jordan Farmar – whoever it was – didn’t stand a chance against the undisputed leader of the Nuggets and if they let Chauncey keep getting away from them like that, the wise old men who picked Denver in six might be proved correct.

Wouldn’t that be wild?

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Raptors news!

Ha ha. Fooled you.

There is none.

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Technically, it’s a mess

I know referees want to “control” the game but how come when they do it, they often ruin it for stretches.

Yes, there were some contentious minutes in Denver’s win over the Lakers but the incessant parade to the free throw line to shoot technicals really put a damper on the evening. A couple were probably deserved, a couple were probably not and it strikes me that the officials have thinner skin in the post-season than the probably should.

Emotions run high, players chirp a bit more because calls are more significant, I think the refs should take a bit more than they do in the regular season. I’m all for calming the night if it’s getting out of line physically but players need the chance to vent a bit more vociferously in the playoffs than they get in the regular season.

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A (bad) percentage increase

Okay, lots has been made about players accumulating technical fouls and facing suspension when they get to seven in the post-season. Kobe and Dwight Howard are both at five (although it would surprise me if the league rescinds the fifth that Howard got the other night in Game 3) and could be forced to sit out a game of the Finals, which would be a true travesty.

Look at it this way:

It takes seven to draw a suspension in the post-season, when the absolute greatest number of games a player will appear in is 28.

It takes 16 to draw a suspension in the regular season, when a player will – barring any strange trade – appear in no more than 82 games.

I’m no mathematician, but they it strikes me that the ratio is a bit skewed the wrong way. Shouldn’t there be more leeway in the playoffs, when those emotions are running higher and the stakes are greater?

I don’t’ know who came up with seven – maybe it’s Stu Jackson’s lucky number or something – but I would expect the governors to increase that to, oh, nine sounds arbitrary enough, before the 2010 playoffs begin.

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Schedule set

I know all of you were breathlessly waiting to know this for sure, what with in-game blog plans to solidify, but the Denver win means the NBA Finals begin for sure on June 4 and follow a Thursday-Sunday-Tuesday format until they end.

You’re welcome. Now set those nights aside.

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From the mail, a question of taste:

Q: Hi Doug, please help settle a friendly sibling argument. We've been subjected to the Score/TSN ads throughout the playoffs (over and over and over) and have a question about the Juicy Fruit ad featuring Bosh, the vending machine and the three supporting ballers. We agree it's completely BRUTAL, but our question is whether it's brutal on purpose to appeal to Bosh's sense of humour (my brother's opinion) or whether it's just plain BAD (mine).

Ellie W, Toronto

A: Oh, I’m with you all the way. I give them no marks for subtlety; the commercials just stink.

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About tonight

Seriously, I think if you asked 100 fans who’ve watched the entire series, a shocking majority would say Orlando’s a heavy favourite in Game 4.

They’ve confused the Cavs all series with good enough defence on everyone not named LeBron and their offence has come alive whenever they’ve needed it.

In fact, I think a case can be made that Orlando really hasn’t played a great offensive game for 48 minutes (Hedo’s struggles early are Exhibit No. 1) and if they do, there’s a chance the game won’t be close.

It’s a strange thing to say, but the team that won 66 regular season games is, to many, now the decided underdog.

Which, of course, means Cleveland could win by 15.

But I don’t’ think so.

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All right, I have be on the tee about 8:30 up in Streetsville to start this marathon of double-bogeys so I’ve got to jet.

Wish me nothing but gentle fades, power draws and downhill sliders that cut right to the heart of the hole.

But it does mean I could be a tad tardy in getting to comments today; I’ll get to ‘em when I can.

And it also means I’m going to need to take tonight off from the in-game blog stuff to recuperate so we’ll see you all back here tomorrow morning.

The Goods On The Game, NBA playoffs May 25