Cavs/Pistons is headed for a fight; Brandon Roy drops 42 on Houston
B-Roy on Dime #48
Cavs/Pistons is one of those series that makes us pine for the days of the first round being best-of-five. By now it’s pretty obvious Detroit is cooked; they showed some heart in cutting Cleveland’s 30-piecing in half during the fourth quarter last night (with Will Bynum as the sparkplug), and maybe they can steal one at home if Cleveland relaxes, but really, we know who’s moving on from this and who’s gonna pop up on Kenny Smith’s “Gone Fishin’” poster … Typical Cavs/Pistons game: LeBron (29 pts, 13 rebs, 6 asts) strong-arming Tayshaun Prince all over the court, Mo and Delonte looking like what Chauncey and Rip used to look like, and everybody waiting for ‘Sheed to play like he’s allegedly capable of playing … Mike Brown accepted his NBA Coach of the Year trophy before tip-off. He then gave it to a ball-boy and told him to stick it in LeBron’s locker … Anyone else think this series is headed for a fight? In the second quarter, Amir Johnson and Anderson Varejao got into a little jawing that ended with Amir shoving AV. Later in the second half, Mo (21 pts, 7 asts) hit a three right in front of Detroit’s bench and turned around to give the Pistons a long stare and pose. Next time down the floor, Rodney Stuckey conveniently knocked Mo down with some off-the-ball contact. We’ll call it now: Varejao will end up in the middle of an “incident” before this is over … Because he’s such a physical freak, it’s getting hard to be too impressed by any single play LeBron makes. Still, that two-hand windmill from the dotted was NASTY … TNT showed a graphic listing “Young Stars Impacting the NBA Playoffs,” all guys between ages 20-24. The list: Derrick Rose, LeBron, Carmelo, Dwight Howard, Chris Paul, Deron Williams and Brandon Roy. Where was 23-year-old Josh Smith? Or 23-year-old Rajon Rondo? Or 21-year-old Andrew Bynum? … Blazers/Rockets was a great game where both teams went shot-for-shot pretty much the entire time; a complete 180 from their Game 1 blowout snoozer. B-Roy made his true postseason arrival, dropping 42 points (15-27 FG, 10-12 FT) and committing zero turnovers while being guarded by Ron Artest and Shane Battier all night … In the fourth quarter, as usual, it was B-Roy and Travis Outlaw finishing the job and evening the series as it heads to Houston. Outlaw hit a big jumper to put the Blazers up by three in the last couple minutes, followed by Roy sticking a three in Ron-Ron’s face while falling down to push the lead to six. A couple possessions later, Outlaw got a steal and dunk for the dagger … Artest was in one of his “I’m winning this by myself” moods, and had to be driving Rick Adelman crazy: Ron’s jumper wasn’t consistently falling (8-20 FG, 1-8 3PA), but at the same time he was hitting some clutch J’s in big spots, so you couldn’t just take him out or tell him to stop shooting …
Kobe Bryant (photo. Chris Sembrot)
Does the Injury Ghoul just follow Greg Oden around and snuff out anyone in his vicinity? Dikembe Mutombo has been in the NBA for damn near 20 years without suffering a major injury that we can remember, and literally within two minutes of being around Oden, he wrecks his knee while fighting for a rebound and has to be taken off the court on a stretcher. And now it looks like the injury will end Deke’s season and his career. Mutombo was quoted in the Oregonian: “I’m going to need surgery. For me, basketball is over. I cried so much about it when I was laying on the floor.” Terrible, terrible news … Deron Williams went for 35 points, Carlos Boozer posted 20 and 10 boards, and the Jazz still never seemed to really have a chance at beating the Lakers. Whenever they did get close, Kobe (26 pts, 9 asts) just iced another jumper and got to the rack to keep them at Heisman distance … It’s bad enough for Utah that Mehmet Okur hasn’t been able to play hamstring, but it’s even worse when they’re getting NOTHING from Jarron Collins as his replacement. Garbage Twin played 13 minutes, grabbed two rebounds, didn’t take a shot, and committed four fouls. They’d be better off having Memo limp around and at least look like he might shoot a three than having Collins standing there taking up space and oxygen from everyone else … Late third, Kobe was iso’d up top with Ronnie Brewer. Unable to get past him, Kobe stopped, gave two quick pump-fakes, a half-spin, turned back to his original spot, then hit a fadeaway J as Kyle Korver was coming over to help. Who else in the League makes that shot? … Tonight’s schedule includes Hawks/Heat, Nuggets/Hornets, and Magic/Sixers, where Dwight Howard will be presented with the Defensive Player of the Year beforehand. The Centaur got 105 of a possible 119 first-place votes, finishing well ahead of LeBron, D-Wade, Battier, Artest, CP3, Kobe and Kevin Garnett, all of whom received a couple first-place votes as well. How about Ronny Turiaf getting some third-place votes, and Hedo Turkoglu getting one third-place vote? The fact that anybody on the Warriors was even considered is hilarious … We’re out like Hedo for DPOY …
April 22nd, 2009 at 5:25 am
Fish says:
Houston have made so many good draft choices over the years. Not the no brainers, but the deep draft pickups. Great contributions from Von Wafer who is just as unlikely as Cuttino Mobley, Michael Dickerson, Robert Horry, Carl Herrera(!). Really good management.
April 22nd, 2009 at 5:27 am
bab says:
Aaron Brooks went crazy!
April 22nd, 2009 at 5:28 am
Fish says:
Btw, I love the 1994-1995 championship winning Rockets roster for those that remember:
http://clutchfans.net/teams.cfm?Season=1995
Pete Chilcutt!
April 22nd, 2009 at 5:44 am
Lee says:
Greg Oden … 11 mins PT, 6 fouls. Maybe he just doesn’t like playing basketball !!!
April 22nd, 2009 at 6:52 am
the_don_mega says:
“He then gave it to a ball-boy and told him to stick it in LeBron’s locker…”… LMFAO!
i really feel sorry for D-Will… cat really is the only one that is even trying to win (even if there are times that he seems to make dumb TO’s coz of trying fancy dimes)… well, him and prolly Brewer… during the last 2 mins, nobody wanted to shoot… that’s bad…
April 22nd, 2009 at 7:01 am
Jay Jay says:
There’s something about Oden that really annoys me, don’t know what but there’s something there.
Is Iverson going to play for Detroit, i know he was “injured”, but come on Detroit needs all the help they can get! Get his ass on the court and just let him take his 50 shots!
It’s not as if Detroit is going to win the series, so why not just play him?
April 22nd, 2009 at 7:40 am
rick773 says:
LMAO @…Garbage Twin played 13 minutes, grabbed two rebounds, didn’t take a shot, and committed four fouls.
As if his brother is significantly better
April 22nd, 2009 at 7:47 am
Flying_Aussie_Dutchman says:
“He then gave it to a ball-boy and told him to stick it in LeBron’s locker…”
I LOL’d @ that, sad but true.
BTW, is Iverson sitting on the Pistons bench or watching from home?
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:09 am
who sed comon sense was comon? says:
oh yeah, and what was up with the refs love ofr yao.. I mean the guy shoulda collected like 12 fouls.. they making up for all the past years of fouling ya out for the playoffs..
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:10 am
who sed comon sense was comon? says:
man, is it me or has detroit looked so much better when will bynum has been on court. Hes not really a true pg, but at least he offers more of a threat than stuckey, who in my opinion is a major dissapointment. I think we are all seeing how good billups was for detroit and the stat about them loosing 12 4th quarter games while leading is awful, no closer. And rip has failed in his audition of being the go to guy for this team.
A.I. is not the answer. He is one of the most overated players in history. Hes is not a team player and look at his career stats. His fg% is so bad. Why do people consider all of these volume scorers to be so good. If any nba player shot as much as a.i. hed be considered great aswell. Ive always wondered why people do not mention that obvious point. Same with gilbert volume scorer, even though like a.i. talented but awful shooting %.
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:21 am
ToAn says:
just a question for everybody…was Oden this kind of a FOUL-Machine his whole carrer?…i’m from europe so we don’t get to many NCAA games. so anybody knows if odens 1 year at university was also like this
expecting a BIG game from CP3 tonight
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:22 am
ToAn says:
just a question for everybody…was Oden this kind of a FOUL-Machine his whole carrer?…i’m from europe so we don’t get to see many NCAA games. so anybody knows if odens 1 year at university was also like this
expecting a BIG game from CP3 tonight
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:26 am
45% says:
“How about Ronny Turiaf getting some third-place votes, and Hedo Turkoglu getting one third-place vote? The fact that anybody on the Warriors was even considered is hilarious”
Ronny was the only one playing Defense on that team..
in 21 minutes dude averaged 5rpg & 2 bpg
so you making fun of him just shows you only
pat attention to the offensive side of the ball.
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:40 am
that's whats up says:
@8 – Iverson is rehabbing his back so he can be ready for the second round of the playoffs.
Oh wait, what? He doesn’t play for the Sixers anymore???
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:43 am
E$ says:
B.Roy didn’t cry for a foul the entire night, not like Game 1
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:51 am
ticktock6 says:
Well, at least Jarron is the better looking twin. He can have that to comfort him during his early summer… no? OK, maybe not.
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:56 am
doc says:
B.Roy put in wor.,So did the King and Mamba,so basically everybody else is irrelevant until they play one of these 2.That dont mean I wont watch the games though.Aint shit like the journey.
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:56 am
JA says:
You know, the first thing I thought about after hearing Mike Brown was named Coach of the Year was: If Brown is coach of the year, does this take away – even a little bit – from Lebron being MVP?
Going with the implicit assumption of Brown being named Coach of the Year, is that the Cavs (as well as Lebron?) wouldn’t be as good without Brown coaching them.
Moreover, it has been brought up throughout the entire year that the Cavs have better players and more depth this year then they have in the past – a big reason for their improvement as a team.
Anyway … not that I don’t think Lebron will win the award, but based on the above two points – and throw in that his season stats were very similar to last year (down a bit, but he played a couple less mins per game) – I don’t see it as being as much of a run away vote as it probably will end up being.
My $0.02 … your thoughts?
April 22nd, 2009 at 9:03 am
Dagomar says:
Really, really sad for Mutombo. It’s horrible to see that happen to maybe the most beloved guy in the game. He’s still the heart and soul of this Rockets team and I wonder how this is going to impact them. But aside from that: sad for the man, sad for the game.
B-Roy is the truth. He’s this good now and he’s only just becoming a superstar. In a couple years he’ll be challenging for best SG in the west, Drexler 2.0 (or maybe better). What a beast he was last night. The best thing about him: he’s one of the top-5 clutch players in the league, period.
Lebron is just toying with the Pistons. In limited minutes he roasted them for 29, and it seemed he did it without breaking a sweat. Detroit seems MUCH more disjointed and disheartened and dysfunctional than I had expected; I thought they’d at least act like a .500 team with some guts and some pride in the playoffs. I figured they’d at least push the Cavs. Granted we haven’t seen what will happen at the Palace yet, but this is a team that looks beaten before the playoffs even began. Funny moment last night for me: two Pistons try to give Bron the hard foul as he’s going for a layup; they fall down, and he just turns around. Must be awesome to be that big . . . .
April 22nd, 2009 at 9:04 am
Hollowhustla says:
How does CP4 garner ANY defensive palyer points? Just how? And come with the steals bit, when Iverson used to OWN that stat and NEVER was considered a defensive POY. CP3 gets lit up by other PGs all the time. Chauncey, Parker, both Williams, Harris, Nelson, even Brooks gives him buckets. I just don’t get it. Who does this guy ever lock down? Oh, my bad, he does lock down the likes of Farmar, Alston, Blake, etc. Puh-leeze, D-Stern y’all need to stop with all the obvious PR for some of these cats.
April 22nd, 2009 at 9:05 am
Dagomar says:
JA: so you’re saying the MVP can’t have a great coach? Guess Kobe shouldn’t have won it with Jackson then, right? Or MJ with Jackson. Or Magic with Riley. Or Russel with Red. And trust me, Brown is no Jackson, Riley or Auerbach.
April 22nd, 2009 at 9:12 am
Hollowhustla says:
How does CP4 garner ANY defensive palyer points? Just how? And come with the steals bit, when Iverson used to OWN that stat and NEVER was considered a defensive POY. CP3 gets lit up by other PGs all the time. Chauncey, Parker, both Williams, Harris, Nelson, even Brooks gives him buckets. I just don’t get it. Who does this guy ever lock down? Oh, my bad, he does lock down the likes of Stuckey, Conley, Telfair, etc. Puh-leeze, D-Stern y’all need to stop with all the obvious marketing for some of these cats. Let ‘em earn theirs! Didn’t y’all learn a lesson when they tried to market Grant as the “next” MJ. How well did that go? Now, don’t get it twisted, CP3 is all that, but c’mon with the DPOY 1st place votes. They’re killin’ me!
April 22nd, 2009 at 9:18 am
AB_40 says:
DEKE:-(
brown and bron squeezed everything out of every player on that team except maybe pavlovic they deserve it. IF they make the finals and IF the lakers do to we’ll have a great matchup bball wise and marketing wise
April 22nd, 2009 at 9:25 am
smity far away says:
“Collins standing there taking up space and oxygen from everyone else … ”
nice.
Too bad for Dikembe. I don’t know anybody that doesn’t like him.
42 on artest and battier is no easy task at all (i’m obviously stating the obvious). So now i’m waiting to see him do it again. On the road. we’ll see.
April 22nd, 2009 at 9:29 am
Jei says:
f*ck Jarron Collins…
unleash ZAN TABAK.
April 22nd, 2009 at 9:35 am
JA says:
@Dagomar – I’m not saying the MVP can’t have a great coach, because that can and has happened.
What I’m saying is that the Cavs won the most games in the NBA this year; they equalled the amount of wins that the Celtics had last year. Note that Doc Rivers didn’t win COY last year, nor did anyone on the Celts win the MVP.
All I am saying is that with having a better roster this year, with Mike Brown being named COY, and with Lebron’s statistics remaining similar year over year, it takes away from Lebron being the MVP this year – even if slightly. It makes it harder to attribute the league’s best record as well as one of the largest increases in wins year over year to Lebron by himself.
April 22nd, 2009 at 9:50 am
King of the Hill says:
Why didn’t the Lake Show continue to feed Bynum the whole game? He was killin’ em! I would’ve gone to Bynum more and ’saved’ Gasol until it was absolutely necessary. Gasol has the playoff and international experience that they will need in the later rounds. I’m saving my parade route spot on Figueroa right now.
April 22nd, 2009 at 9:58 am
BERN BROGDEN says:
Shout outs to B Roy!
That’s how you bounce back Portland!
GO, VANILLA GORILLA, and LMA were doing EXACTLY what they were supposed to do.
SMOTHER YAO — Make the other Rockets beat ‘em.
STRATEGY WORKED! Shouts to Nate too.
Just like the Jazz has resorted to throwin BOWS ’cause they know they had no chance. And oh yeah, Deron has gotta stop throwin’ the dumb ish. C’mon dawg, it’s Pau and AB – they’re like, really tall. C’mon, Trevor and LO’s long arms. C’mon, Kobe’s not buying it. Fisher’s been around too long.
Utah has a shot though. They can beat LA. Especially if Utah plays just as physical at home.
Especially if Utah can get a slight upgrade to their GARBAGE TWIN.
They were a legitimate 11 points from victory. I’m quite sure an “Okur” could cover that.
About realizing they’re not better than thier comp – That’s EXACTLY what Detroit is doing.
Stuckey’s J is sometime-y. Tayshaun can’t put together a good court performance. Sheed’s ready to go home. LBJ and company is too much for them.
April 22nd, 2009 at 10:16 am
E$ says:
Nice to see Portland fans back in the swing of things…lol – Joey Crawford is your BFF now
April 22nd, 2009 at 10:23 am
Sanpitch says:
lol @ the mike brown comment and jarron collins.
am i the only pissed that the rockets blazers was on nba tv?? i missed a good game.
dime asked, “Kobe was iso’d up top with Ronnie Brewer. Unable to get past him, Kobe stopped, gave two quick pump-fakes, a half-spin, turned back to his original spot, then hit a fadeaway J as Kyle Korver was coming over to help. Who else in the League makes that shot?”
no one else in the league hits that shot! as much as i hate kobe, there is no one else in the league who would hit that shot w/out it being considered a “prayer”. brewer played kobe about as good as any could last night. kirilenko does a horrible job on kobe.
detroit is done.
sad to see mutumbo go out like that. dime hit it on the head, oden’s injuries are very, very contagious.
April 22nd, 2009 at 10:40 am
Tha Boddy "Agent Zero Still DMV Hero" says:
“Late third, Kobe was iso’d up top with Ronnie Brewer. Unable to get past him, Kobe stopped, gave two quick pump-fakes, a half-spin, turned back to his original spot, then hit a fadeaway J as Kyle Korver was coming over to help.
Question
Who else in the League makes that shot?”
Answer
Any1 else who the NBA and it’s referee’s allow to clearly travel (even though that move was sick)I coulda sworn that every time Kobe does that move he switches pivot foot to get that extra space on the step back fade.Any1 else agree…Hell Kobe is getting way with that like D-Wade gets away with palming the ball
All uncalled turnovers aside they both are great players
April 22nd, 2009 at 11:19 am
LakeShow84 says:
Good game from Utah.. they practically had us in every stat and still lost by 10.. sad.. i feel bad for Deron, the man had the playoff game of his life last night and couldnt even tie it up for them..
oh well 14 wins left..
The only gripe i have about Mike Brown winning the COY is wasnt his team good last year?? didnt they actually upgrade this summer with Mo Williams?? was there any real surprises going on with Cleveland besides the cakewalk schedule and home record?? rriiiggghhhhttt… Nate McMillan, Jerry Sloan (injuries) or even Van Gundy shouldve won.. But once again its a Cavs year so i guess anything goes..
Ill be pissed if we get into the Finals against those nocs and get slighted by the whistles..
April 22nd, 2009 at 11:22 am
LakeShow84 says:
@ Tha Boddy
It wasnt a travel.. next time watch the replay.. and quit hating.. but ur a Shaq fan right??
April 22nd, 2009 at 11:38 am
the antoine says:
yah it wasnt traveling.. he keeps his pivot foot down and when he jumps for the shot he jumps off both feet which isnt traveling.
April 22nd, 2009 at 11:47 am
dagwaller says:
Good Smack today.
Can we officially retire any lines about Rasheed Wallace being better than he plays? His career is nearing its close; we officially know just how good he is. That line was dumb from the start.
Real pissed that I was stuck watching a relative blowout from the Lakers instead of a HOU-POR series that you know is going to be tight. I looked at the schedule and went “Buh…?!”
It really makes a lot of sense, actually, that Utah would get destroyed. When any team loses its starting center, it’s bad news. Memo is no KG, but a playoff caliber team just isn’t the same without its key players.
Forgive TNT for their graphic. They probably just didn’t have enough room to include all of those players, and really, the only switch I would have made on that list is Rondo for Rose. You could argue that Rose is more important to his team, though without KG I’m not so sure that’s the case.
I mean, Josh Smith, Rondo, and Andrew Bynum are nice and all, but they’re not touching LeBron, Melo, Howard, CP, Deron Williams (who needs a nickname badly) or Brandon Roy (ditto).
Artest proves my point that “clutch” shooting is overrated. If he had just stopped taking dumb shots like he always does, his team probably wouldn’t have needed his “timely jumpers” in the first place.
Too bad to see Deke go down like that. He should have just called this year his farewell tour from the start, though. He would’ve gotten more love from around the League than Zo, probably.
Lol @ the Collins analysis.
Finally, no one else in the Association makes the shot that Kobe hit last night. No one. Partly because of the difficulty, but mostly because no one else in their right minds would ever take such a terrible shot.
April 22nd, 2009 at 12:01 pm
Big Island says:
I’ve never felt worse about someone getting injured than Dikembe. Such a good dude and, believe it or not, had some hot ass shoes back in the day.
And I really thought Mike Brown told the ball boy to put the trophy in LeBron’s locker. It didn’t even seem like it wasn’t possible.
April 22nd, 2009 at 12:39 pm
wanabballer says:
He then gave it to a ball-boy and told him to stick it in LeBron’s locker… lmfao…
“I’m going to need surgery. For me, basketball is over. I cried so much about it when I was laying on the floor.” damn, just damn…
April 22nd, 2009 at 1:20 pm
rockstar32 says:
@ dagwaller Roy has a nickname The natural is not the greatest but it works
April 22nd, 2009 at 1:32 pm
dagwaller says:
@ rockstar – I didn’t know that. I don’t count “D-Will” or “B-Roy” as true nicknames btw. Maybe I just expect that because they’re star/superstars, they need to have nicknames…before I realize they haven’t been in the League long enough to have earned them yet.
April 22nd, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Mikey says:
Come on Dime. You spend a whole paragraph about an upcoming rumble between the Cavs and Pistons but then you don’t mention the Kwame Brown/Darnell Jackson face-to-face confrontation? I’m just busting your chops, even TNT said it was more like two men kissing than a fight.
April 22nd, 2009 at 1:55 pm
weng santos says:
WOW, Deke’s career deserved a better ending.
As a many time defensive player stalwart, for being a good teammate, for his charity work, and as a great ambassador of everything good that basketball represents, it’s terrible he goes out like this.
He should have gone out on his own terms.
April 22nd, 2009 at 5:06 pm
Diego says:
@ 12:
I think Oden was pretty aggressive in college, but because he was a lot bigger than most of the guys in most games, he didn’t get in all that much foul trouble–those covering him did.
In the semi-finals of the NCAA tourney in 2007 as I recall, Oden got in serious foul trouble as did Roy Hibbert, which really kind of tarnished that game. I am convinced that the refs responded to criticism of that game by letting Oden have about 12 fouls in the finals agains Florida; hence his big game in the finals. But Florida nevertheless easily won, but Oden got lots of (unwarranted) props.
April 22nd, 2009 at 5:22 pm
michael lee says:
http://www.annelok.com/Toronto/Ontario/Homes/CoxwellDanforth/Agent/Listing_1939323.html
ron artest cannot guard brandon roy
April 22nd, 2009 at 7:10 pm
Kevin says:
I don’t believe it for a second, Mutumbo WILL be back, I know it
April 23rd, 2009 at 1:01 am
the cynic says:
Long live the Deke, an all-time great
April 23rd, 2009 at 3:56 pm
kevin k says:
“Mike Brown accepted his NBA Coach of the Year trophy before tip-off. He then gave it to a ball-boy and told him to stick it in LeBron’s locker”
HAHHAAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH