Orlando's Missed Opportunity

It’s a known fact that I despise the Los Angeles Lakers. As a life-long Celtics fan I couldn’t possibly hate them any more than I do. Unfortunately they are inching closer to Boston’s NBA record 17 championship banners.

In other words, it’s probably a good thing I didn’t write this post last night. It would have been a 800 word column laced with expletitives. My brain would have likely exploded.

So what happened? The Magic were up 5 with like 40 seconds left. They lead by 3 with 7 seconds left. How could they have possibly lost?!?!

Ironically, the answer isn’t “Kobe Bryant.”

Orlando lost for obvious reasons. The main concern that killed them throughout the entire game was also a significant factor in the closing moments: free throws. A huge burden was lifted off Nick Anderson’s shoulders last night. Up three with seconds left in regulation, Dwight Howard bricked two foul shots that would have sealed the game. While Anderson may have missed four free throws (instead of two), his failed attempts from the charity stripe occurred in game 1 of the 1995 NBA Finals. Game 1! Sure, Nick Anderson single-handedly lost that game for Orlando, but he can’t be held accountable for blowing the series since it was so early. Conversely, Howard’s two errant free throws took place in game 4, and would have evened the series at 2-2. Superman could have tied the 2009 NBA Finals, and the Magic would be headed into a game 5 in Orlando with plenty of momentum. The Lakers would still be the favorites to win, but at least we’d have a series on our hands!

How many times do you hear an announcer complain when the team playing defense doesn’t foul when they are up 3 with seconds remaining. Reach in, go for the steal, do SOMETHING to prevent the opposing player from attempting a shot. It’s common sense. Yet you rarely see this happen, and it seems to always result in a game-tying three point field goal that totally shifts the momentum towards the team that sent the game into OT. Last night, Derek Fisher was able to convert an uncontested three pointer as time nearly expired. If Fisher was fouled, this whole scenario wouldn’t have happened. I thought Jeff Van Gundy was going to murder Jameer Nelson after that play. If Nelson is found dead in a hotel bathtub missing a kidney or two, I think we know who to blame.

Finally, an extraordinary number of turnovers further doomed the Magic. They turned the ball over 19 times last night. It’s amazing Orlando didn’t lose by more than 6. Of those turnovers, almost half were credited to Dwight Howard, who was frequently stripped when he put the ball on the floor. He was handling the basketball like it was a hand grenade.

With a 3-1 advantage, along with two more games at the Staples Center, it’s only a matter of time before we see Kobe Bryant kissing the Larry O’Brien trophy. I cringe just thinking about it.

Phillies' Ibanez Rips Blogger for PED Theory

To Whom it May Concern,

The writers of Through Buckner’s Legs do not condone, nor will we ever accuse a professional athlete of taking illegal performance-enhancing drugs. However, we are highly suspicious of Carrot Top.

The Lakers Will Be Victorious in 5

As promised, I will now discuss why I’m predicting the Lakers will hoist the 2009 NBA Championship banner.

I believe it will only take them five games to fend off the Magic. Los Angeles is not only superior but has more depth than Clevelend and Boston, Orlando’s past two opponents. Ultimately, I don’t foresee a sweep in the 2009 finals. The Magic should be able to defeat the Lakers in one of the two contests in Orlando.

I know I’m not exactly taking any risks with this pick. In fact, the only ESPN expert that believes that Orlando will beat the Lakers is Henry Abbott from TrueHoop. I don’t even know who that is.

Let’s start off with the basics. The team with the best player almost always wins, especially in the NBA Finals. In the past 21 years, the only exceptions have been 2008 (Boston Celtics) and 2004 (Detroit Pistons), where in both instances, Kobe Bryant was the best player on the court. This also occurred in 1989, when Magic Johnson fell victim to Isiah Thomas’s Pistons. Ironically all three scenarios involved the Lakers.

In the 2009 NBA Finals, Kobe Bryant is clearly the top player involved. Not only does he possess more talent than anyone else, but he has the most to prove as well since his legacy is on the line. I’m sure he also still has last year’s demoralizing loss to the Celtics on his mind, which further adds fuel to the fire.

Additionally, the superior coach in the championship series typically leads his squad to victory. The Lakers hold an extraordinary edge in this department. There hasn’t been a larger coaching descrepancy in the NBA finals in recent memory, although the Popovich/Mike Brown series in 2007 ranks very close.

Another factor to be considered is how well Orlando has shot the ball in the past several contests. The Magic converted 62 three-point field goals, a record in a five game series. There’s no possible way they can continue to maintain that pace. Orlando’s recent trend of three-point shooting success can actually be detrimental to their quest to win the 2009 NBA championships. Since the team has been doing so well from long range, they will likely keep taking three-point shots, regardless of whether they are going in or not. I’m anticipating a few blowouts in this series. There will be a couple games where Magic succumb to the pressure of the NBA finals and hit a cold streak, resulting in a considerable loss.

I also believe that this is finally Phil Jackson’s opportunity to get even. For Shaquille O’Neal’s entire tenure with the Lakers, he was consistently fouled due to his awful ability (or lack thereof) to shoot free throws. In the end of games, teams used the “Hack-a-Shaq” technique in an attempt to eliminate a Los Angeles possession. Often times he would miss both shots from the charity stripe and this strategy was validated. Now Jackson is on the other end of the spectrum. Orlando’s Dwight Howard is equally as terrible from the free-throw line. Unlike Cleveland, Jackson’s squad has more depth and size, meaning that they have the ability to foul in crunch time. Jackson is also a competent coach, so he wouldn’t allow a 50% foul shooter to score four baskets in a crucial overtime period like Mike Brown did. Pending there are a few close games, you can surely expect the implementation of “Hack-a-Dwight.”

A successful NBA Finals performance boils down to experience. A majority of the Lakers personnel have held significant roles in the championship series, including the team’s best player (Bryant), coach (Jackson), starting point guard (Fisher), and key role players (Odom, Gasol, Walton, Vujacic, Farmar, Ariza. etc). With the exception of Hedo Turkoglu, this is the first deep playoff run for every member of the Magic. Complicating matters worse is that Orlando does not have home court advantage, so they will need to win at least one game in Los Angeles. Since the Lakers have the edge in both experience and number of home games, it’s going to be very tough for the Magic to squeeze our a victory in this series.

- Scottie

Running Diary: Phillies vs. Padres, 6/2/2009

Just recently I was formally introduced to Twitter. I decided to use Twitter to write a running diary on the Padres vs. Phillies game last night, which was a glorious experience. 35 posts and a dead iPhone battery later, here we are. I think I nearly destroyed the Twitter server in the process.

My only regret in writing this is that I think I used every Padres one-liner I could have ever possibly thought of. Keeping that in mind, this may have been my first and last live literary piece on the Friars.

Below are my Twitter posts from the game:

7:29PM Scottie Thompson is at the Padres game

7:31PM: I can’t believe Jake Peavy showed up to the game wearing a Phillies jersey!

7:33PM: [After a David Eckstein at-bat] Looks like me and David Eckstein are still tied for homeruns in 2009

7:40PM: Section 133 has a combined 25 teeth… and the world’s first Mexican dwarf with a mullet. I’m not even mad.

7:43PM: Brian Giles is being paid $9 million this year to hit .193 with 2 HR in 200 at-bats. I feel like he owes me money.

7:49PM: [After Jake Peavy was taken out of the game in the 2nd inning] Apparently he’s sick…He came down with a bad case of “giving up 4 runs in the first inning” itis

7:58PM: Ibanez just crushed a homerun over the center field bleachers, 6-0 Phillies

8:04PM: [The Starting pitcher for the Phillies was Julio Bastardo] Am I going out on a limb by saying Bastardo has a deadbeat dad?

8:07PM: 2nd pitching change and we’re only in the 3rd inning. Does anyone know if Nick Swisher is available to pitch the 7th?

8:13PM: Hairston’s .329 batting average is single-handedly keeping the Padres [team] average over the Mendoza Line

8:28PM: [After a Giles groundout to the 2nd baseman] Giles hits a double play ball…unfortunately he forgot that there wasn’t a runner on first

8:30PM: What’s plummeting worse, Giles batting average or his stock?

8:31PM: Considering it usually takes the Padres 8 games to score 7 runs, I think it’s safe to say the game is over.

8:43PM: New [San Diego] pitcher is Luis Perdomo. I’m almost positive Perdomo means “loser” in Spanish. Is this a sign of good things to come?

8:51PM: Happy 13th birthday David Eckstein

8:53PM: They just showed an old clip of Tony Gwynn Sr. robbing a HR at the warning track. In 2009, Gwynn’s arteries are labeled as a “warning track.”

8:57PM: [After an Adrian Gonzalez homerun] Rule #1: No one over 16 should ever bring a glove to a baseball game. Rule #2: Don’t pitch to Adrian Gonzalez.

9:05PM: Ibanez is 37 and he’s all of a sudden peaking now? Hmmm…

9:09PM: Ryan Howard strikes out, yet “Homerun” flashes across the jumbotron. The scorekeeper must have confused this bat with the only other thing [Howard] does.

9:14PM: 10-1 in the 7th. Luckily we still have a chance if Philly brings in Lidge and Gonzo bats 9 more times.

9:21PM: Gonzo is on pace for 66 HR and 126 RBI’s, hilarity ensues

9:24PM: Bases are loaded… So is Tony Gwynn Sr’s dinner plate

9:31PM: [Adrian Gonzalez walks in a run] Philly finally decides to pitch to Gonzo. Considering the bases were loaded, this may not have been the best time to do that.

9:33PM: 4 runs in the 7th, special thanks to Chan Ho Park’s rotting corpse

9:55PM: Next up, the ghost of Cliff Floyd

9:56PM: 9th inning = I’ve run out of jokes

One final note: As anyone who has watched a game at Petco knows, when a player is batting, the jumbotron displays a relevant statistic. For example, during Phillies at-bats I read: “Ryan Howard led the league in Homeruns and RBIs in 2008” and “Chase Utley is one of two players to win the Rookie of the Year and MVP in consecutive seasons (Cal Ripken).”

Here are a couple gems that appeared on the scoreboard when the Padres were at the plate. “David Eckstein hit .261 with 21 doubles in 2006” (I can understand how this would be a big deal, a .261 average in the Padres lineup is basically the same as hitting .400) and “Josh Wilson has played on 5 teams throughout his MLB career.”

Ladies and Gentlemen, your 2009 San Diego Padres!

The Downfall of the 2009 Cavs

Numerous experts labeled Cleveland as the favorite to win this year’s NBA title. I was so mesmerized by King James that I fell into this mindset as well. LeBron was such a dominating force that a 2009 Cavs championship seemed inevitible. After sweeping both of their first two opponents, this prediction was looking pretty good.

While the Cavs did possess the best overall record in the 2008/09 season, this was essentially the same team that didn’t have enough to beat Boston last year. As a result, Cleveland was defeated in the Eastern Conference Finals to the surprisingly much more superior Orlando Magic.

And the addition of Mo Williams was enough to put them over the top? Seriously?

First off, Cleveland needs a wingman for LeBron. I’m not even going to expand on this because it couldn’t be any more obvious, but it’s a crucial component of a championship team. ESPN’s Chris Broussard wrote a great analysis of this point here. Mo Williams is a shoot-first point guard that isn’t consistent enough, nor talented enough, to be an adequate sidekick for LeBron.

Secondly, the Cavs lack even a reasonable presence in the post, which allowed Dwight Howard to do whatever he wanted. Watching Howard dominate Zydrundas Ilgauskas and Anderson Varejao night after night was painful. Big Z looked like he was walking in cement. On the defensive end, he moves in slow motion and I don’t think he has jumped in years. Offensively, Ilgauskas has a 15-foot jumper that goes in sometimes. One of the main reasons opposing teams are consistently able to triple-team LeBron is due to Big Z’s presense (or lack thereof) in the lane. Since he is so one-dimensional, he isn’t viewed as much of a threat if he gets the ball. This means that defenders can regularly cheat over on James. Could you imagine Pau Gasol on this team? He’d average 40 a game just off kickouts from LeBron!

I love how everyone refers to Varejao as an “energy guy.” His offense is entirely limited to rebounds and putbacks. In addition, he can’t score from more than three feet away and doesn’t have anything close to resembling a post move. During the Orlando series, Reggie Miller said something to the extent of “Anderson Varejao is a ‘flopper,’ that’s his game. Ray Allen’s game is shooting, Varejao’s is unnecessarily flailing onto the court in hopes of a foul being called.” When an ability to ‘flop’ is the best thing you can say about a player, that isn’t a good sign.

Should we even discuss the ghost of Ben Wallace? Claiming that Wallace is on the tail end of his career would be giving him more justice than he deserves. He was once known as a defensive specialist and led the league in rebounds for a few seasons. This year, Big Ben only averaged about three more points and six more rebounds than I did. This wouldn’t be that big of an issue if he wasn’t being paid $14.5 million in 2009. His salary is higher than LeBron’s! This is robbery, Cavalier fans should be outraged. Worse, he’s on the books for the same paycheck next year. Big Ben is rumored to be contemplating retirement, but this would be a horrendous decision from a financial standpoint. By retiring, he’d leave $14.5 million on the table. Cleveland might as well pencil Wallace’s corpse onto the 2010 roster now so they can at least advertise his expiring contract as trade bait.

Ultimately, the Magic were quite frankly a better constructed team. King James averaged a rediculous 38-8-8 in the series but Orlando’s ability to explot matchups in the frontcourt gave them the deciding edge. Howard, Hedo Tukoglu and Rashad Lewis were just too much for Cleveland’s forwards & centers to handle.

The funny thing is that the Cavs could have easily beaten the 2009 Celtics, a scenario which almost took place. Cleveland’s plethera of medoicre big men would have been capable of handling Kendrick Perkins and Big Baby, combine that with KG’s absense and the apparent tired legs of Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, a competitive series would have been very unlikely.

Cavalier fans, I hope everything turns out for the best. Unfortunately Cleveland’s quest for it’s first professional title in ages will need to be postponed at least another year.

- Scottie