Hope this limb holds up for the series

We’re all about the conference finals today because there’s really nothing left to be said about ping-pong balls and the lottery.

But, that being said, the lottery’s thing big thing here today and the 8 p.m. draw will probably attract more attention than the game in Los Angeles.

So, with the proviso that anyone hanging around here will let me escape the game for a quarter or so to give me time to write stuff for the newspaper and the web site, I’ll turn up here around 8 p.m. for a special in-game, in-lottery blog.

Sound fair? See you then

Now …

EASTERN CONFERENCE

No. 1 Cleveland vs. No. 3 Orlando

How they got here

Cavaliers beat Detroit 4-0, Atlanta 4-0; Magic beat Philadelphia 4-2, Boston 4-3.

Season series

Magic won, 2-1

The schedule

Tomorrow at Cleveland, 8:30 p.m. TSN

Friday at Cleveland, 8:30 p.m., TSN

Sunday at Orlando, 8:30 p.m., The Score

Tuesday at Orlando, 8:30 p.m., TBD

x-Thursday, May 28 at Cleveland, TBD

x-Saturday, May 30 at Orlando, TBD

x-Monday, June 1 at Cleveland, TBD

x-if necessary

Burning question

How good are the Cavs?

Short answer

No one knows for sure.

Stuff about the series

Yes, the Cavs haven’t lost a playoff game; heck, they haven’t even played since the Phoenix Coyotes were an afterthought to everybody here. But when they were on the court they were pretty dang good.

Trouble is, while the Detroit Pistons and Atlanta Hawks aren’t exactly The Sisters Of The Poor but, frankly, they aren’t very far off so it’s not like LeBron and Co. have been truly challenged for more than a few minutes of any game so far.

Right, James. Him. He’s pretty good and he gets 30 a game on average against Orlando so to think anyone’s going to “stop” him is foolish. But if the Magic can limit guys like Mo Williams (probably with Courtney Lee), Zydrunas Ilgauskas (not sure how but they’ll probably throw different looks at him) and Delonte West (that’ll be a big job for Rafer and a huge key to the series) they can live with LeBron going off.

Here’s an interesting stat: The Magic were the best three-point shooting team in the league but the Cavs held opponents to the lowest three-point percentage of anyone. But Orlando’s Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu aren’t your prototypical three-point bombers, they can handle the ball a bit and create shots as well. Lewis won’t have nearly as easy a time being guarded by Anderson Varejao than he did against Glen Davis or Brian Scalabrine but he still should be the guy to carry the bulk of the load.

Dwight Howard against Big Z? Interesting, there’s no way Orlando’s going to move Howard away from the basket too much to guard Z and his 18-foot jumper, look for them to switch Lewis or Turkoglu out on him and leave Howard near the rim.

The bench advantage has to go to Orlando. I am not at all impressed with Wally Szczerbiak’s ability to guard anyone (him against JJ Redick might be something to watch) and the rest of them are just okay. Mickeal Pietrus is the best sub in the series.

Goofy fact:

Brendan Malone is going to be trying to devise stuff for the Magic while Michael Malone will be trying to figure out counters for the Cavs. I give the advantage there to the Dad.

What won’t happen

Silence engulfs Quicken Loans Arena

What will happen

Okay, time for the mocking and ridiculing to start. I can see all the reasons the Cavs should continue to steamroll, particularly because of that other-worldly No. 23 but there’s just something – I’m not sure what it is, just a stupid feeling – that tells me they don’t really have what it takes.

So, in a true “out-there” moment ….

Magic in seven.

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WESTERN CONFERENCE

No.1 L.A. Lakers vs. No. 2 Denver

How they got here

Lakers beat Utah 4-1, Houston 4-3; Denver beat New Orleans 4-1, Dallas, 4-1

Season series:

Lakers won, 3-1

Schedule

Tonight at L.A., 9 p.m., The Score

Thursday at L.A., 9 p.m., The Score

Saturday at Denver, 8:30 p.m., TSN

Monday at Denver, 9 p.m., TBD

x-Wednesday at L.A., TBD

x-Friday at Denver, TBD

x-Sunday at L.A., TBD

x-if necessary

Burning question

Can grit beat out glitz?

Short answer

They may be blood shed before we find out.

Stuff about the series

Kobe Bryant called his team “bipolar” after the seven-game win over Houston and given the off-again, on-again nature of the Lakers it wasn’t a bad assessment. Los Angeles looked great in its wins but fluctuated to abysmal in its losses and without home court for Game 7, they may have been watching the conference final instead of playing in it.

Two trouble spots for the Lakers are point guard, where Derek Fisher couldn’t keep Houston’s Aaron Brooks in front of him; and the bench, where spotty performances from the likes of Lamar Odom, Andrew Bynum and Jordan Farmar were costly. Fisher will have to worry about stopping Chauncey Billups, a big-time, big-game performer who won’t be fazed by the task at hand.

The Nuggets are tough, tougher than anyone the Lakers have faced this post-season, and that may be their one biggest advantage. Los Angeles is far more a finesse team and if Denver gets the games into hand-to-hand fighting, their physical nature will carry the day.

Denver’s also got a much deeper bench, they get rapid-fire scoring from J.R. Smith, and an energy boost – particularly at home – from Chris Andersen. The Lakers? Well, they can’t decide between Jordan Farmar and Shannon Brown; no one’s 100 per cent sure whether Bynum will start over Odom (although to play Nene, I figure they have to go with Bynum until he gets two fouls in 90 seconds or so) and Luke Walton and Sasha Vujacic have been underwhelming..

But there’s still that Bryant guy and the most compelling matchup has to be him against Carmelo Anthony, who has spent years listening to how he’s not LeBron and he’s not Dwyane Wade and how he’s not really good enough to win it all. Anthony’s been exceptional in the post-season, there’s no reason to think he won’t be again.

Goofy fact

The Lakers cut George Karl’s kid, Koby.

What won’t happen

Mark Cuban shows up in a Kenyon Martin jersey to cheer

What will happen

Brawn over brains? Yeah, I think you could make that the storyline in this one but the Nuggets aren’t just thugs, they’re pretty good players, too. And I am not at all convinced the Lakers have the physical toughness, let along the mental acuity, to pull this off. So …

Nuggets in six.

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That was something of a letdown, wasn't it?

A rather uneventful Sunday, wasn’t it? An awful Western Conference game, somewhat of a no-show by the Celtics at night and what could have been a memorable day fizzled.

But stuff still happened, right? And other stuff’s going on, too (apparently there’s some draw or something tomorrow night?) so …

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What’s Boston to do now?

Well, they face some tough decisions on two players who may be key, Leon Powe and Glen Davis.

Powe, of course, is hurt but if they are the first-class organization they say they are, they’ll tender him a qualifying offer to keep him around and give him some peace of mind going into next season. It might be a wise investment, too, because as we saw against Orlando, they need some front court depth. Davis, on the other hand, has to be due a huge raise of his minimum-value contract – about $711,000 – that expires at the end of next month. I’d think a lot of teams with the mid-level exception available, and that’s about 26 by my count right now, would have big interest in him, Boston’s going to have to shell out to keep him.

It was relatively easy for the Celtics to spend huge tax dollars when it was putting together the Big Three; now it’s time to see if they have the same feeling when it comes to players of a much lesser stature.

Speaking of the Celtics, I’m a big Bob Ryan fan and he sums it up pretty well in today’s column.

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The Magic? Not happy to be there

They exorcised some demons, didn’t they? Hedo was the kind of multi-faceted, good passing, deep shooting, ball-handling big who is a huge matchup problem, Rashard Lewis did what he’d done the entire series – torture whichever over-matched Celtic was trying to guard him and when Rafer’s playing like he did and knocking down threes, well, they aren’t going to lose too many games.

And Stan stayed out of his own way and let the best players play the most and most effectively.

Can they beat Cleveland? I don’t know, but luckily I’ve got until tomorrow morning here to break down that series.

I think what I liked most was the rather muted celebration when it was all over. Yes, I’m sure they were over the moon happy but the businesslike attitude on the court tells me they aren’t going to just be happy to be a conference final.

Here’s Brian’s take on it this morning.

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Everyone believe in the Lakers again?

Was an easy win – and that one was effectively over about the end of the first quarter – enough to satisfy the critics of their heart and the suitability of their bench?

Yes, they looked great at times but the troubling thing to me is how horrible they looked at times in the series. There’s a quote in this piece where Kobe Bryant says the Lakers are “bipolar.” I couldn’t agree more.

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Game, but over-matched

Now that they’ve spent a week or so as Our New Favourite Team, will the Rockets now go back to quasi-oblivion? Will we forget Rick Adelman’s a great coach, that Luis Scola and Shane Battier are 1 and 1A in the Most Under-rated Players In The League Race, that Aaron Brooks is as fast as any point guard in the NBA? It would be easy to say things are looking good because Yao will be back and this has the makings of a long-time contender but considering Yao’s injury history – and it is extensive – I don’t think we can take anything for granted with that guy.

And we can forget, at the moment, Tracy McGrady. With microfracture surgery in late February, I don’t imagine he’s even on a court until Christmas so take him entirely out of the equation.

So unless the Rockets find some way to upgrade their talent with another big and someone on the wing who can get to the rim and also knock down threes, we might be looking at them as another one-and-done playoff team a year from now.

But for the moment, they feel pretty good about themselves, as they should and as Jonathan tells us here.

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Oh yeah, TSN2 is available to Rogers hostages today.

Big whoop.

What I wonder is, if the Jays were 15-27, would we be heralding the news that the network now has another avenue from which to sell tickets?

The whole mess, orchestrated primarily by Rogers with some help from TSN and Maple Leaf Sports, has been unseemly, stinky and disrespectful of fans and viewers.

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I’m chatting with a guy who knows about these sorts of things on the weekend and I mention my theory that the Raptors will likely have their coaching staff fully in place by the May 27 start of the Chicago pre-draft combine.

Well, to paraphrase the great Carnac, Wrong Clipboard-breath.

Seems the NBA is limiting the number of team officials allowed in Chicago to seven and once you put Bryan at the top of that list and the fellows I fondly call The Henchmen – Maurizio, Masai, Jim Kelly, Marc Eversley – you’re running out of room. Toss in, I presume, the sports psychologist Dana Sinclair and a member of the team’s medical staff – and you’re pretty much out of room. In fact, someone has to sit out just to get Jay there.

So, that may not be the exact trigger point for the announcement that Marc Iavaroni will lead the assistant coaching staff.

The stuff you learn …

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All right, the regulars at the in-game blog, and the irregulars, will know that I’m not the biggest fan of that G commercial, mostly because dude’s voice grates on me like fingers on a chalkboard.

But thanks to Jordan of Toronto, I know dislike it a lot less.

Here’s what I had sent to me last week:

Good Morn' Doug, More of a tidbit of information for you and the bloggy-thingy world than anything. I noticed you have taken a "dislike" to the G commercial which is totally understandable. I just thought you'd like to know that the kid who comes after Ali and right before the Jabba Wookies (sp?) is 17-year-old Canadian Bradd Arseneau who happens to be quite an outstanding basketball story.

Check out this link that he sent me and it’s a great story you all should read.

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This is getting entirely away from the Raptors and the NBA and are usual area of expertise but I’m sure you all saw this wildly interesting piece that’s Basketball You Can’t Get Anywhere else.

It was a rather interesting, and somewhat surprising to me, night at Ryerson on Saturday. I was fully impressed by the crowd – more than 100 doesn’t sound like much but I’ve been at national team events the past without audiences that big and it was a Saturday night of a long weekend for a team no one’s heard of at a gym that you need a GPS to find.

The calibre of play wasn’t the greatest but you have to figure it’s only going to get better and that’s the most important thing. There needs to be places for women – and men – to develop their skills during or after their college careers and this is a perfect opportunity.

Minor league sports, particularly minor league basketball is this market, is a dicey proposition at best and who knows how long the Stealth will actually last. But I think it deserves a chance, and it deserves some support; I presume I’ll be back if time permits and if I had a young daughter interested in the game, I’d take her to see the Stealth play some night.

You should, too.

The Goods On The Game, NBA playoffs May 17 continued

The Goods On The Game, NBA playoffs May 17, part I

This and that and many other wondrous things

You folks keep ‘em coming, don’t you? This has got almost a regular season length to it, congratulations. And here’s not even a draft-specific one in here yet.

Anyway, it’ also the start of a long day with this machine; don’t forget we’ll be back for an in-game blog day-night doubleheader of Games 7 right around 3 p.m.

This should keep you busy until then:

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Q: Hey Doug, enjoy the blog, you do a great job with it. I was just curious as to whether you would know which stories get read more online: the game stories you write for the paper, or your blog? Personally, I normally won't read the game story since I would rather watch the highlights or I would have watched the game myself. Thanks.

Darren L, Toronto

A: That’s impossible to tell because, unlike “hits” on an internet piece, we’re unable to accurately tell how many people read a story in the paper. We know circulation figures, but not actual readers.

And making newspaper stories on games relevant is the toughest part of my job. Everyone knows who won, everyone’s seen the highlights and heard the relevant sound bites; making a story off a game interesting but a “game” story is the hardest part of the job.

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Q: When do you think is the peak age of a NBA player where they play their best and/or put up their best statistical year(s)? It seems to me that NBA players perhaps have their best years in their mid 20s and some players do drop off significantly starting around 30 or early 30s. Conversely, there seems to be a much higher percentage of MLB and NHL players who have career years north of 30 years old.

Joachim T, Toronto

A: Without statistical data, which I’m sure exists, I’d say between 27-33 are the typical high-water mark in a players’ career. That might be younger than other sports simply because players come to the NBA at generally a younger age and learn what it takes to become a good pro quickly.

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Q: I was just listening to the Fan590 and Nick Kypreos raised a point that I hadn't considered, but I thought deserved your input. To paraphrase, he said that MLSE would be more concerned about a second hockey team in Southern Ontario because of the impact that the team would have on the Raptors, than the impact the team would have on the Leafs. Thinking about the media coverage that the lone hockey team gets in this market, would the coverage given a second hockey team bury the Raptors even further?

Alex H, North York

A: Ridiculous? Preposterous? Silly? Born from whatever kind of ignorance, jealousy and misinformation that seems to be a staple of some segments of the hockey media.

I don’t imagine the presence of a hockey team in Hamilton is going to have an impact on whether we cover the Toronto Raptors or not. And, besides, on most television newscasts, it’s not like the Raptors exist anyway.

And that’s the short-sighted nature of whatever news directors are under-serving a large segment of the population.

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Q: Hey Doug, long time no see. Anyways, I was recently reading the whole Manny debacle, and it got me to thinking: I know the players are tested for performance and non-performance enhancing drugs (marijuana, cocaine, etc), but what about staff and officials?

Mike S, Seoul

A: Officials and coaches are indeed tested; support staff are not.

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Q: Doug, reports from Spain today indicate that Jose WILL play this September in the Euroleague. Think this will cause a reason for concern with the Raptors? Since Colangelo explicitly stated that he prefers Jose not to play this summer.

Raj M, Toronto

A: Things, as I’m come to learn over the years, often get lost in translation from some of the Spanish media to Canada. I don’t know the true story of what was actually said and in what context. I still think, as has been the case since the end of the season, no firm decision has been made on whether Calderon will play for Spain in late August and early September and it still being May, I don’t expect a final decision to be made for months.

When it is made, people can worry about it; to get all worked up about a translated article in late May is, frankly, not worth my time. Or yours.

We've got some kind of Sunday ahead, don't we?

PAT SULLIVAN/AP

Lakers need to see more of Odom.

Well, that was some night, no? Figured the Orlando game would go the Magic way but I sure didn’t see the Rockets doing that to the Lakers.

It’s going to make for a rather eventful and fun Sunday, right? Of course, family considerations in the middle of a long weekend may dampen some of it but I’ve been in the doghouse before because of work and will be again so what the heck.

For all you TV viewers, just got word a minute ago that the Sunday night game’s on TSN; the afternoon one is on ABC.

So, if you’ll be around, I will be; why don’t we try for the first ever Victoria Day Weekend Live-Blog Doubleheader? It might be too much but what the heck, it’s worth giving it a shot.

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So, who wins?

Normally, you’d think the home team in a Game 7 situation would have a huge advantage, wouldn’t you? On their own court, with the energy and adrenaline boost they get from the fans, sleeping in their own homes, going through their familiar routines. It all usually adds up to a significant edge.

Why, then, do I have a suspicion that both Orlando and Houston can pull off shockers on Sunday afternoon?

It is because there seems to be no way the Celtics can guard Rashard Lewis and that a fire seems to have been lit under Dwight Howard? Is it because Rafer Alston has no conscience and won’t care about the hostile environment? Is it because Ray Allen seems to be aging rapidly right in front of our eyes? Maybe it’s because Kendrick Perkins and Glenn Glen Davis can’t seem to stay out of foul trouble?

I know Orlando’s penchant for blowing leads is, ahem, rather troubling; I know Doc Rivers seems to have a way of making the right move at the same time Stan Van Gundy makes the wrong one.

But because of those first few items, and the relative youth of the Magic, I can see an Orlando upset.

Out west, is there reason to think Houston can steal one – and it would be by far the biggest single-game playoff upset of this year and probably the last few?

Is it because they seem oblivious to pressure? Is it because they respect but they certainly don’t fear the Lakers? Is it because Lamar Odom has been far too invisible into many games? Is it because Andrew Bynum is an entire non-factor? Or that Aaron Brooks is killing the Laker point guard so much it’s bordering on abuse.

Now, Kobe Bryant may have something to say about the final outcome, he has the ability to single-handedly win a game but a wise man once picked the Rockets in seven and even though he asked for a Mulligan, he’s not going to take it.

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Sorry, Dwight

Okay, ripping Dwight Howard is no longer the cool thing to do.

Not after last night, that’s for sure.

I don’t know that there are that many “plays” called for – I don’t know that the Magic have a lot of specific stuff in their system for him outside of high screen and roll and a direct post-up – but he was active, he went and sought out the ball and was a beast on the glass.

All in all, he was an all-star, after being a spectator, of his own or his coach’s doing, too often in the series.

According to Brian’s piece here, they’re a little incredulous, too.

It was a weird one, no?

Orlando goes on an 11-2 run at the end of the game? When they were supposed to be crumbling like they always do?

Rafer Alston’s drilling huge threes and Hedo Turkoglu sheds the goat horns to make his biggest shot of the night?

The Celtics commit 22 turnovers? This is the defending NBA championship team?

But it really call comes back to Howard.

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Question answered

As I’ve been known to do (it’s a quirk, I know), I sent myself a note in the second quarter of the Rockets-Lakers game, when Los Angeles was making a run and that 21-3 Houston start looked like it happened eons ago.

It said:

How far does emotion carry a team?

Well, far enough, it seems.

I’m one of those many people who seem to like the Rockets more every day because they might be the most mentally tough team in the league and I knew they’d come out humming at home.

However, after 21-3, you knew there had to be a letdown and for a minute it looked like the Lakers were truly gaining control of the game.

Then the funny thing happened. The Rockets didn’t go away.

I’m not sure what was more impressive: Luis Scola schooling whoever was guarding him in the first quarter or the fact the Rockets simply did not wilt at any time. They bent a bit but never went away.

Now, I know NBA types have loved Scola all along but perhaps even more than Glenn Glen Davis, that guy has become the revelation of all revelations to the casual fan.

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Is Kobe Bryant turning into Rasheed Wallace?

No, not a three-point shooting big man who seems to be near the end of his career. A whiny, overly-emotional technical-foul machine.

And a guy who better be careful.

The technical Bryant got last night, a cheap one for what looked like a shot to Ron Artest’s face, was his fifth of the playoffs and if he gets two more, he’ll have to sit out a one-game suspension.

The refereeing the post-season has been, to say the least, shoddy. Technical fouls come out of nowhere and what it takes to get a technical seems to change game-to-game and quarter to quarter. And don’t get anyone started on what constitutes a flagrant foul because no one seems to know exactly for sure what that might be.

Still, doesn’t that mean, as frustrated as he understandably would get, that Bryant has to be extra-careful in his dealings with the officials at emotional moments?

With five, Bryant’s the runaway leader – no one has more than three – of players still playing and it’s not like he’s been in two contentious series; yes, there were moments in this one when he could have lost his cool but they really routed Utah, didn’t they?

Imagine the hue and cry if, for instance, the Denver Nuggets goaded him into a couple and he was suspended for something like Game 5, 6 or 7?

That’d diminish the reputation a wee bit, wouldn’t it?

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Speaking of refs, yes, that was Mark Wunderlich working the Rockets-Lakers game last night. Guess there was no real fallout from that Dallas-Denver blunder.

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Oh, right, Raptor news.

There is none. Sorry.

I do know there are people in the organization who think they’re will be a resolution to any coaching staff moves before the end of next week. The next “trigger point” would be the Chicago pre-draft combine, which goes May 27-31. Teams will want their full staffs at that one so look for any hirings in Toronto – or throughout the league, probably – to be done before that May 27 start.

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Now, we’re trying to get a mailbag together for tomorrow or Sunday (depending entirely on my day and my mood) but we could use a few questions. Feel free to goof off from work for a bit and send me an e-mail; you know how to reach me.

The Goods On The Game, NBA playoffs May 14

Of duds and Dwight and Daly

Wonder if we’re in for one of those nights where everyone expects drama and gets duds.

WINSLOW TOWNSEND/AP

One of the "big" stars of tonight's, Game 6 double bill.

I sure hope not but there is this sinking feeling that the Game 6 doubleheader may not live up to its billing.

But it doesn’t matter to intrepid Bloggy Thingy people, we’ll here just before 7 p.m. to check things out.

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Not really much to say about last night, actually. Except this:

The better team won.

Deeper, more varied on offence, tougher and stronger, I don’t think there’s a person around who’d think the Nuggets weren’t full value for disposing the Mavs.

Of course, some of us are ticked there were only three technical fouls in the game, but that’s a digression.

You sort of knew right off the bat that the Mavs were sunk when Rick Carlisle panicked and made a change in his starting lineup, putting in Jason Terry and taking out Antoine Wright.

Why do it? It (a) weakened the already weak Dallas bench; (b) it took touches and shots away from Dirk Nowitzki with the first team; and (c) it’s not like the Mavs were being totally out-classed, they were three seconds and one blown call from being in a 2-2 series.

There have been several instances of odd coaching moves in these playoffs (memo to self: Keep as future blog item) and this was just another of them.

Other than that, not much to say; if you’re interested in what they’re reading in Dallas,check out Eddie’s piece here; if you care about how it plays in Denver,Ben’s got this one.

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All right, Dwight.

Time to put up or shut up.

After publicly ridiculing his coach after the Orlando Magic spat up Game 5 against the Celtics, the big fella had better produce tonight, no?

He’s painted himself into a pretty dark place by saying his coach needs let dominating players dominate; you know Stan Van Gundy – in a move of employment self-preservation as much as anything else – is going to give him every chance to back up his words with actions.

Can he?

Maybe. Only maybe.

He’s had difficulty dealing with Kendrick Perkins for most of the series (the exception being when Perkins finds himself in early foul trouble) and I don’t think anyone would say he’s been “dominant” in any game so far in this series.

Now, after doing the yapping, he better do the playing.

And, to the surprise of no one, it’s all lovey-dovey down there. Check out Brian today.

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Okay, with the end of the Nuggets-Mavs series, can we please put to rest this back-and-forth between Kenyon Martin and Mark Cuban? It was a wee bit titillating for one day, marginally interesting the second but it really got to high school levels of name-calling and immaturity as it went along.

Thankfully, it’s over.

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Hey, Uncle Anthony, congrats!

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They buried Chuck Daly yesterday in what I understand was an emotional ceremony-celebration in Florida.

I didn’t have that much contact with Daly over the years, a few conversations here and there when he coached and served as a consultant to a couple of franchise but you could tell he’d like little more than sitting around telling stories. The one enduring image I’ll have is of him as the coach of the Dream Team in 1992. Starting in Portland with the qualification tournament right through the Barcelona Olympics, he was a gem, always gracious in the face of international media that bounced between fawning and silly and the way he managed that – and the various personalities and egos on that team – was a pleasure to see.

I heard Charles Barkley talking at halftime last night about the community of basketball and anyone who saw the litany of players, coaches and executives at the ceremony should know exactly what he’s talking about.

The NBA, in many ways, is like a big travelling circus, everyone knows everyone else, there’s a feeling of family in a lot of instances and they tend to close ranks in times of trouble and tragedy.

As writers who cover the league regularly and have for quite a while, we’re privileged in many regards to even been on the periphery of it. We don’t play, we don’t coach, we don’t sit in meetings where decisions are made but there are times when some of us feel like we’re a small part of it. That’s not to say we aren’t objective and critical when it’s called for, it’s not to say were aren’t loathed by some and loved by few who are truly The Game.

But because I, and so many others, are around it so much, we’re privileged enough to know people like Chuck Daly, to have chatted with him on the record and off, to have heard some stories and laughed at them.

It’s a terrible loss for his family and the game. And some of us feel it a little bit.

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By now you’ve all seen the all-NBA teams, I presume, voted on like all the other awards by a panel of writers and broadcasters who cover the league on a regular basis.

First team: Dwyane Wade, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dirk Nowitzki, Dwight Howard.

Second team: Chris Paul, Brandon Roy, Paul Pierce, Tim Duncan, Yao Ming.

Third team: Tony Parker, Chauncey Billups, Carmelo Anthony, Pau Gasol, Shaquille O’Neal.

Really hard to argue with any of them, isn’t it?

The biggest surprise would be that Nowitzki beat out the other power forwards for the first team spot with the injuries that hurt Garnett and slowed Duncan had to be the over-riding factors (and remember, votes had to be in the day after the regular season ended so Dirk’s playoff performances had no impact whatsoever).

There were a couple of e-mails here yesterday about the fact Bosh didn’t make any of the teams and, frankly, I’m a bit stunned anyone thought he had a legitimate chance.

Yes, he had a very good regular season (if you find a way to wipe December and part of February from the memory banks) but even a 20-10 year pales when you look at the overall record of his team and those long stretches of rather pedestrian play.

Besides, which of those three would you replace him with?

As you see from this league release, Bosh did get 56 votes (right behind Garnett in the group of forwards left off the three teams) and I think he finished right where he belongs this year.

Bosh and Vince Carter remain the only Raptors in history to make an all-NBA team; Bosh was on the second team in 2006-07 and Carter was named to the second team in 2000-01 and the third team in 1999-2000.

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The Goods On The Game, NBA playoffs May 13

The wreck that is the Magic, and some other stuff, too

ELISE AMENDOLA/AP

If a photo tells 1,000 words two of them have to be "ah, crap".

The Boston-Orlando series sure hasn’t got to the level of Boston-Chicago but you have to admit, it’s been pretty darn good. And with the Magic playing the role of out-of-control truck careening down a freeway as we all watch with a mixture of awe and horror and amusement and a how-in-the-world-with-they-blow-this-one incredulity, I really hope it goes seven games.

Not sure it will, but we can hope.

Anyway, thank goodness that was a good one because the late game, as I read, was a dog and bailing on it early made perfect sense.

And while I thought about bailing entirely on tonight, a 9 p.m. start and the likely demise of the Dallas Mavericks makes it worth our while to do a live blog, right? Not a lot of promo for it out there so tell your friends and we’ll see some of you this evening.

Now …

About last night

Duh!

Open the old web page to see what my friend B. Schmitz is writing about the colossal collapse by the Magic and see a subhead:

Magic Blow Big Lead

Dwight Howard calls out coaches

Here’s the story right here and, like a few thousand others, I’m sure, the immediate reaction is: About frikkin’ time.

Most of you know my opinion of coaches – too much credit when they win, too much blame … blah, blah, blah, blah, blah – and I’m all right with not getting Howard involved in the offence every possession since he was being schooled by Kendrick Perkins and was surrounded by shooters.

But not one shot? Not even a post-up to attract a double-team and maybe a get a kickout? Shocking, appalling and a bunch of other stuff.

Not to mention the zany decision – again, in only my opinion – of even having Howard on the court in an intentional foul situation late in a close game. Of course, the Celtics defended the right way and the worst free throw shooter on either roster has to go to the line.

And don’t get me started with having JJ Redick on the floor – guarding Ray Allen for goodness sakes! Still scratching my head over that one.

I haven’t spoken to Brian in a while and he’s too busy to bug today but can you imagine who full his in-box has to be with “Fire Stan” e-mails? Imagine what it would be like up here?

We can only assume that if Orlando loses this series, and I now fully expect they will, and don’t advance any further than they did last year and with the face of the franchise publicly ripping the coach after the biggest game of the year, there may be another job vacancy in the coaching ranks.

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However …

And I say this knowing it’s probably not the best analogy I can come up with but it's early-ish in the morning and all the syanpses aren't quite firing

If Dwight Howard, for all his glorious rebounding and shot-blocking abilities and his incredible athleticism, doesn’t get some kind of expanded offensive game, when’s he turn into a younger, stronger, bigger Ben Wallace?

Now, when I said something like to a couple of NBA coaches last night they looked at me like I had three heads but, seriously, the limitations of his offensive game might have had as much to do with Van Gundy not calling plays for him as anything.

I love a lot about Dwight Howard’s game, I love his enthusiasm for the game and I think, with an awful lot of time in the gym he can become a more polished offensive player, but right now, it’s on him to do the work and make the improvements.

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Take that

Speaking of emphatic, had to wipe the sleep out of my eyes and do a double-take checking the final score in the Laker game. A 40-point win?

I didn’t see an awful lot of it, kind of worn out after the Bloggie Thingy, but what I saw early was just like Sunday only the other way around. Home team gets hot, road team plays like crap, game over early.

Seems to be what the Rockets think, too, given the tone of Jonathan’s story here.

But I will say this:

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this series doesn’t still go seven. The Rockets aren’t about to give up because they got drilled badly, they seem to me to be veteran enough to put that one away, forget about it and be back to their usual tough selves in front of the home fans tomorrow.

Of course, maybe it has all caught up to them and the loss of Yao is just too much to overcome but there’s something about that team that makes me think not.

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Apropos of nothing, and a wee bit old because I keep forgetting to mention it, you cannot imagine how cool I think it is that the park in Miami is now known as Landshark Stadium.

As a guy who knows just a wee bit about fermented liquids, that’s an absolute great name. Great beer, too. And now I’m even more of a Jimmy Buffet fan.

We now return you to our regular basketball stuff.

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So, Raptor workouts are over now until the first week of June – no, no one who was there either Monday or Tuesday really stood out – but then they get back to it in earnest.

I’m sure you’ve all read the story in today’s paper about the process, right? Well, here’s what the Raptors are going to try to do in the future sessions, according to personnel guru Jim Kelly.

“Ideally, it would be six players – two points, two wings, two bigs. I think probably as the process goes along, it’ll probably be two points, four wings. (There are) not that many bigs and it’s no secret what our emphasis and what our focus is.”

So what it’s all mean?

“It’s another step in the process, you get to see them up close. We noticed a few things about Dionte Christmas’s shot today, about his follow through, where he comes down. Sometimes, you watch a guy three or four times in a game and you might miss those things. You can also isolate a situation. If you know maybe they’re not really good reacting defensively in a two-man game, you make sure you put them in it here and you get to see them up close.”

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This is part of the reason I’m becoming something of a Big Baby Davis fan.

Check out this apology, passed on by Regular Reader Tom, after Davis inadvertently ran into that kid at the end of Game 4:

“You know what, I’m a big guy. And sometimes I can’t even feel when I’m sitting on the remote. So imagine if my emotions are going wild and I’m running by somebody and I don’t feel it. So if I’ve hurt anybody or if I’ve done any harm to anybody, please forgive me. Because my intentions were harmless.”

Classic. And pretty classy and something I could see a guy saying rather than something written for him.

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Back to our apropos of nothing, really, department: I’ve set the over and under on Dallas technical fouls at 3 1-2 for tonight.

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