2010 NBA Playoffs Recap

What we learned from this year’s playoffs:

Kobe’s Not Done Yet

First of all, congratulations to the Los Angeles Lakers for not only winning back-to-back championships, but also beating the rival Celtics in the process. To all the people who said that Kobe was past his prime and that it wasn’t his league anymore, how do your word’s taste? Because Kobe just fed them to you. Kobe Bryant just proved to everyone out there that not only his is still in his prime, but that no injury too severe can stop him. Playing with almost every injury known to man: a broken finger, a spastic back, a bad ankle, and whatever else that we don’t about, Kobe still managed to win his 5th NBA Championship and 2nd NBA Finals MVP. He is now tied in the championship category with Magic Johnson and one, yes one, behind Michael Jordan. He may not have had his best shooting game 
of his career in Game 7, going 6-24 from the field with 23 points, Kobe did pull down 15 rebounds, and in a series in which the winning team in all 7 games won the rebounding category, I think Kobe realized where his team needed him the most in order to win that championship. Even though he has a lot of mileage on that body, he clearly still has a few years left before he needs to hang up the jersey for good. With this win against the hated Celtics, Kobe has moved into the upper-level of NBA greats, propelling himself without a doubt to top 5 all-time, but where he stands in that 5 can be debated. On a side note: Kobe wouldn’t be where he is right now if it weren’t for the underrated Derek Fisher who time after time makes big shot after big shot. In Game 7, he hit a huge 3 to tie the game at 64 after the Lakers clawed back from being down double digits. His heroics are never very highly publicized, but are still none the less very important.

Ron Artest Finally Came Through

I have been critical of Ron Artest throughout the entire playoffs. I felt he had been playing horribly and was holding the Lakers down. He was over-dribbling and then trying to over-compensate by taking a horrible shot. In addition, he continually missed open threes as well as free throws in crunch time. His defense was spotty and reflected how he was playing on the offensive end. However, when he absolutely needed to step up, he stepped up. He had 20 points in Game 7 and although only shot 2-7 from 3-pt range, those 2 threes came at a time when the Lakers NEEDED a basket to stay in the game. But the Lakers didn’t get Artest for his offensive game, they got him for his defensive game, and he had the best defensive game last night in these playoffs. He held his Celtic counterpart, Paul Pierce, to just 18 points on 5-15 shooting to go along with an astounding 5 steals. He still is, however, completely out of his mind, evident by his post game press conference http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nOF7mPg_Yg

I Am Getting Sick and Tired of Paul Pierce

Two years ago during the NBA Finals he fell to the floor, holding his ankle in pain as he was picked up and placed into a wheelchair and carted into the locker room. However he came back on the court about 2 minutes later, without a limp mind you. Can you say drama queen? He also seems to be the only American basketball player to continually flop both on the offensive and defensive end. A trend brought to the NBA by foreign born players such as Anderson Varejao of Brazil and Manu Ginobili of Argentina is being overused by the overly dramatic Paul Pierce. But this year he decided to run his mouth off series after series. In the Eastern Conference Finals against the Orlando Magic, the Celtics went up 2 games to 0 with the series shifting to Boston. After Game 2, Pierce looked into the camera and said that they were going to sweep the series, and then ended up winning in 6 games instead. The night of the guarantee his twitter account was “hacked” and “Anybody got a BROOM?” was tweeted. But it didn’t stop there. In the NBA Finals after the Celtics locked up Game 2 to tie the series 1-1 with the next 3 games in Boston, Pierce turned to the crowd of Laker fans and yelled that they weren’t coming back to L.A. Then the Lakers won in 7 games, in L.A. If that isn’t poetic justice, I don’t know what is. I don’t think I’m the only one getting sick of Pierce and his antics, and it’s time it stops.

Welcome to the NBA Russell Westbrook

In the first round matchup between the 1-seeded Lakers and 8-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder, all eyes were on Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant, but the breakout star of this series was a 2nd year PG out of UCLA. In the 6 game series, Russell Westbrook averaged 20.5 points, 6 assists, 6 rebounds, and 1.7 steals per game. It’s because of him that the series was surprisingly close and he announced himself as a stellar NBA PG who can help his superstar, Kevin Durant, when their championship potential increases in a few years. He can be the Pippen to Durant’s Jordan and it’s clear that when Durant has an off game, Westbrook will be there to take the load of a close game.

Another Dallas Disappointment

There must be something in the water in Dallas because whenever the team has the true potential to make a deep playoff run, something snaps. In 2006 they were up 2 games to 0 in the NBA Finals against the Miami Heat and then lost the next 4 along with the championship. In 2007 the Mavs, with the best record in the NBA, became that 1st 1-seed to lose to an 8-seed in a 7-game series when they were defeated by the Golden State Warriors in 6 games. This year the Mavs got the 2nd seed in the West and played against the San Antonio Spurs in Round 1. After making a great mid-season trade to acquire both Caron Butler and Brendan Haywood from the Washington Wizards, the Mavs lost their 1st round playoff series in 6. The common link seems to be Dirk Nowitzki, and as Dirk gets older it certainly won’t get any easier. for him to step up when needed. He is one of the best foreign born players to ever play in the NBA, but come playoff time, he seems to keep disappearing when he is most needed.

Free Agents Playing Out of Max. Contracts

There is obviously much anticipation for the free agent class of 2010. Among them, Dwyane Wade and LeBron James bowed out early from the playoffs but are still going to get max. contracts. But Amar’e Stoudemire and Joe Johnson also fell short in the playoffs. Their game play during the regular season was max. contract worthy, but post-season play is more important, and Stoudemire and Johnson both were bitter disappointments during the playoffs and are not worthy of such big contracts as they were expected to get. Although Johnson was worse than Stoudemire, both clearly didn’t play to their greatest ability at the most important of times. Amar’e averaged a great 22 points per game during the playoffs but also a mere 6.6 rebounds. A center with the talent of Stoudemire should be averaging double digit rebounds easily, but he didn’t seem to have the correct instincts to properly grab them. As for Johnson, he was just non-existent. During the Eastern Conference semi-finals in which they got swept by the Orlando Magic, Johnson’s per game averages were 12.8 points, 3.8 assists, and 4.5 rebounds to go along with a horrendous 30% shooting from the field. Never should a max. contract player play like that during the playoffs and because of his performance, or lack there of, in May, Johnson is the most likely candidate to have played himself out of a max. contract, but sadly, he will most likely still get one.