The NBA...

I'm having a hard time watching the playoffs because I work a lot, I
have a baby, and the weather has been beautiful. Still, I have some
thoughts:

- I hate the spurs.

- I'm not sure how much of this is Chris Paul, but considering the
Mavs have been a fair to good defensive team the past two seasons, I'd
say Chris Paul gets more credit than the Mavs get blame. What am I
talking about? I'm talking about the flat-out best player in the NBA
right now. Chris Paul has been amazing, better than amazing.
Astounding and astonishing. For his size, he's had the best NBA
season anyone has ever had, and right now he is so good that he's
making the Mavs look ridiculous on defense. I don't think, in the
past 15 years, I've seen a single player be able to throw so many
alley-oops or generate so many easy baskets for his teammates IN A
PLAYOFF GAME, as Paul did last night. To steal the Sports guy's
phrase - there is NO CEILING for this guy. Nothing seems
unreasonable. I could see him leading this Hornets team to 4 of the
next 5 titles. He's too fast to double, he's too smart to put a young
guy on him, and he's too athletic to put an older guy on him. He's
got Jason Kidd's all around game combined with Steve Nash's shooting
touch. He's not merely the perfect point guard, he's playing right
now at the Larry Bird-MJ-Magic level.
And seriously, the Mavs wanted to face these guys over the Lakers
(who still feature the worst ball-hog on the planet). The Mavs should
have rested their starters in the final game of the regular season,
just so they could face the Lakers as the 8th seed, because they only
way they can exercise their demons at this point is to turn the tables
on someone else the same way they were beaten last year. The symmetry
would have been perfect. Instead they're just another team that slid
from first to mediocre.

- Seriously, the Spurs? They whine like little girls, they fall down
when brushed, they get the most ridiculous lucky breaks, they play
dirty, and when all else fails, they do happen to have the best big
man and the most amazing closer in the L. The Suns may not be able to
beat this Spurs team (it sure doesn't look like it anyway), but that
just means that I'm probably going to give up on the NBA 1 round
earlier this year than last. I might even root for the Lakers over
the Spurs. Ok. Probably not.

- The Jazz are good. This season-long problem with winning on the
road appears extinct. I can't really imagine how the Lakers take them
in less than 7, if they can be beaten at all. Only the possibility of
a Williams-Paul Western Conference Finals would keep me interested
past the Suns and Mavs demise.