NBA Nba Last Night

There are some oddly interesting parallels between Kobe Bryant and Conan O'Brien; athleticism aside, of course. Both are seen as "rebels" -- to a degree -- and both are now champions (again, to a degree), with both having stepped out of the shadows of their former big men (Shaq/Leno). Or something. Either way, you could see a fantastic difference in Kobe's personality on the "Tonight Show" last night, owing mostly to his legacy being nearly complete. Hand-pounds to the Drs. of Hoop.

Bloggers knee-jerking on the phone + roundtable style = RoundCast.

Okay, we might be overstating it, but the fact of the matter is that a spectacularly played Game 4 of the Eastern Conference final led Moore, Watson and I to discuss LeBron James' future ... both immediate and long term.

After Cleveland managed to take last night's game into overtime, the Magic then reversed the fortunes of this series with a strong overtime period before putting the Cavaliers in a do-or-die situation. Unfortunately, that's a scenario that involves Mo Williams "not being horrible" and "being a man of his word." We take him to task, naturally.

The "ball off the defender's back --> easy layup inbounds pass" is one of the truly great punkings that one can pull off on a basketball court. It rarely happens, though, outside of movies, and when it does, it never happens to good players. Just people like Zach Randolph. And Shawn Bradley. But last night, Chauncey Billups pulled a fast one on Kobe Bryant, literally using No. 24 for an easy bucket. Via the Drs. of Hoop, obviously.

Bloggers knee-jerking on the phone + roundtable style = RoundCast.

Why are the Lakers in trouble? Well, first of all, they didn't hold serve at home -- that's a tremendous problem, even if we should have known this series was going seven games before it ever started. But they're worse off than that because Matt Moore and I were the only available bloggers for the RoundCast tonight, and you know we took them to town. For a freaking hour no less. But it's Friday, kids, and you ain't got ... well, you might have a job, and you might have stuff to do, but that doesn't mean you can't do it while aurally ingesting some NBA knowledge.

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Amid a midseason war of words, Shaquille O'Neal faulted his old coach Stan Van Gundy for his frenetic, loud sideline direction, infamously calling SVG a "master of panic." Magic players including Dwight Howard and Marcin Gortat have alluded to the accusation late this year -- a seemingly worrisome development.

But if Van Gundy's style does create unnecessary anxiety for Orlando, it sure didn't show up in Game 1 Wednesday.

Much of the year, Orlando's reliance on the three-point shot earned scorn from observers, who (en masse) dubbed the style as likely to fail in the playoffs. As recently as Game 5, Dwight Howard himself questioned the strategy to keep taking threes with a lead -- it was seen as a risky move. You live by the three, you die by the three ...

... or so they said. The Magic took more threes than anyone but the run-and-gun Knicks this season, but still finished with the sixth-best shooting percentage from deep. The threes weren't tics of the inside-out offense Stan Van Gundy employed, waiting to be turned off when the circumstances warranted. The threes made up Orlando's offensive identity. Without shooting them, the Magic die.

Sunday's Game 7 win is a great example of how the threes work for Orlando.

Cherry Picking recaps the previous day's NBA playoff action.

Progress looks like this. Atlanta, long a laughingstock of the NBA, made the playoffs last season. This year, the Hawks advanced to the second round. Progress, right?

Well, from my seat it doesn't look like a whole lot of progress. More than offering new hope for tomorrow, the struggle against Miami followed by obliteration at the hands of Cleveland has pointed out Atlanta's specific deficiencies. The shortcomings are intrinsic to this roster, the problems part-and-parcel with the strengths. I fail to see how the Hawks can get much better from here.

Ron Artest took a Kobe Bryant elbow to the throat moments after teammate Luis Scola took a fierce shiver from Derek Fisher. Artest reacted rather dramatically, making sure everyone knew what Kobe had done. For his troubles, Ron-Ron got booted. Honestly, it's just as well: at that point, the Lakers were not on a path toward losing.

But Artest spent some time after the game explaining to reporters that he just wants Kobe to play fair, and for the referees to hold Kobe and the Lakers accountable for dirty play. It's not that Ron-Ron can't handle dirty play. Oh, he can handle it. He knows a guy who got killed in a pick-up game.

In Game 1, Dallas committed a devastating 20 turnovers in its loss to Denver. Things were better in Game 2: the Mavericks coughed up the ball only 11 times, a decently low number considering the pace (93 possessions) of the game.

But of those turnovers, half came completely unforced. The Nuggets are a good defensive team, and all teams make mistakes. Every game. You expect the Nuggets to strip a few balls, force a 24-second violation or two. But on six plays in Game 2, Dallas lost possession because they lost focus, didn't communicate or got rattled. Those giveaways kill you, especially against elite great teams.

Perhaps NBA fans wouldn't have had the opportunity to watch Houston's lightning quick guard Aaron Brooks had it not been for the night of March 9, 2006 at Staples Center, the same place Brooks burned the Los Angeles Lakers for 19 points in 36 minutes during Monday's 100-92 Rockets Game 1 win.