Weekly Chat; Game 4 NBA Finals

Bilbo is a party animal

Cam looks A LOT like Mark Cuban

Maaatt decides to start off the Weekly chat with a question posed to fellow Nextians Bilbo and Cam: I don't get what Lebron is doing. His lack of hustle last game was so obvious in clips. That last drive he was one foot away from Dirk's drive and didn't even move a muscle to help out, WTF? Is it his ego? Is Wade tearing it up, so he get his feelings hurt that he's not the best player on the team? Or is is just super tired from the reg season and playing all playoffs? Is it a possibility he has totally gassed? Is Eddie House secretly screwing his mom AND Bibby's sister???

Cam: When LeBron scores 15 points or less in a playoff game, his teams are 0-7. Fascinating.

What’s even more fascinating is that LeBron has scored less than 15 points in a playoff game 7 times. 7 TIMES. He is the best player in this league, hands down, but he’s got some sort of mental problem.

Jordan never did this, was a complete killer, and has never been passive his entire life. During Jordan’s rookie season he bought a PacMan machine for his house because he was determined to be the best PacMan player on the Bulls. LeBron’s more about being a global icon and illegally recruiting college players to sign to his stupid agency. Hey LeBron, why don’t you develop a post game this summer instead, mmmkay? Either that or at least try to become a killer like you were in the Bulls series. Which brings up the point:

Wade and LeBron currently can’t both be awesome at the same time. It’s one guys’ stage or the others’. Chicago Series = LeBron dominate and Wade plays like crap. Finals = Wade plays incredible and LeBron is passive. Do you think they talk about this before a series starts or do they just figure it out after game 1 and go from there?

They’ll probably still win the ‘ship this way but it is quite strange.

Bilbo: What if LeBron is playing bad on purpose so he can explode in the last couple of games? Yeah right! The Jordan comparisons need to stop. They are different players completely. A better comparison is Magic, except that even fun time Magic had a switch that turned him into a beast. Maybe LeBron didn’t come with that switch, ya dig? Maybe he isn’t the player we want him to be and never will be. He wants to focus on his brand, fine. Global icon? Sure, why not. But he needs to know that craving the spotlight comes with a cost, namely, that anything less than incredible on the way to a title is a failure. Anything less than superhuman plays night in and night out on this stage is unacceptable. Maybe the best comparison should be Wilt Chamberlain. He too had all the physical tools but could never take that next step to greatness. I think he ended up with one title when he prolly should have had 4-5.

That being said, it would not surprise me to see he take over game 5. That is, if D-Wade will let him.

I’m still sticking to Dallas in 6.

Cam: It's hard to stop the Jordan comparisons. Especially when Scotty Pippen just said that LBJ was better than Jordan.  Aside from Scotty being a dick, check out LBJ's downward trending usage rate:

Dwyane Wade vs LeBron James
Usage Rate, 2010-11 Season

	Wade	James
Reg. Season	28.8	29.6
First 3 Rds	26.8	25.6
NBA Finals	26.5	19.4

Paul Pierce Gets Tossed

PP was just plain mad. His Celtics didn't come out to play the Heatles in Game 1 and frustration does eventually boil over to where you lean extra hard into a screen on Dwyane Wade. Going 6-14 from the field for 19 points and 4 turnovers won't get the job done either. After Pierce took off he avoided speaking to the press (doesn't he get fined for that?) and Boston Globe writer Dan Shaughnessy calls him out:

"We thought we were over this stuff with Pierce. He is 33 years old. He’s been in the NBA since 1998. He was MVP of the Finals in 2008, for gosh sakes. What’s the excuse for losing his cool twice in the fourth quarter of a game against a team that’s always waiting to choke if you can keep things close?"

Get in your wheelchair to regain your powers and see you in Game 2, Truth.

Cam & Bilbo Weekly Chat: THE Christmas Day Massacre; Lakers & Heat



Bilbo teaches son to work for him



Cam teaches son to do the Blue Steel







Bilbo: After a morning of pork and an earful of mother-in-law, I was ready to relax and watch the epic Christmas battle between The Heat and The Lakers. I had actually been looking forward to this game since the start of the season and I will freely admit that I was hoping Kobe would demolish LeBron. But then something weird happened. As the game went on, I started loving it when The Fakers struggled early and I found myself cheering when LeBron drained 3 after 3 in Ron Ron’s face. And then I realized, as much as I disliked the way LeBron handled his move to Miami and the media orgy that followed, I had to admit to myself that they are very entertaining to watch. I also realized that no matter how much I tried to convince myself, I could never, ever, ever root for the Lakers.

Cam: Yes, as true blue (and yellow) Warriors fans it is very tough to feel anything but spite (and jealousy) for the Lakers as a whole. You can respect what they do on the court but their fakeness and ego perfectly personify the LA region. This is a very Nor-Cal perspective and is really the only way Warriors fans can cope with the disparity in accomplishments, but it is important to know where we’re coming from. Regardless, I hope that our liberated fandom (dude, we rock) allows us to be somewhat appreciative of the Lakers and how they play the game of basketball. On the other side of this matchup, you bring up the communal eye-rolling that collective EXTRA! EXTRA! pop-culture-knower has towards the Heat and LeBron in general. I’m pretty sure my wife’s mom knows that “The Decision” has to do with LeBron James, basketball, and is bad. So here we had two of the best and most hated teams in the NBA. I had been looking forward this game too and was happy to see somebody lose big with the game not living up to the hype. From Phil Jackson complaining that playing on Christmas is a bad idea to Kobe saying that it’s “just another game” to the Heat keeping their mouths shut (finally) and just going out there and kicking the Lakers ass, it was fun. I would have avoided my family for 2 hours on the holiest of present-opening holidays if the Mavs played the Spurs, but this matchup was fun to drink egg nog to and chat with your family about. Shall we dissect the game?


Bilbo: I skipped the egg nog and had a 6 pack of IPA at my side for this game. Minus the suite opening alley oop dunk from Bryant to Odom, the first quarter was horrendous for LA. Gasol was very timid, Kobe was in his “lay-back-the-first-half-and-turn-it-on-in-the-third-quarter mode taking only four shots, and Artest was trying to “get in LBJ’s head” and failing miserably by picking up two quick fouls. Kobe/Gasol/RonRon were 0-12 in the 1st quarter!! Meanwhile The Big Three shot 50% and Chris Bosh was on fire with nine points in the quarter. He threw down a huge dunk off a great pass from D-Wade and Odom stood motionless as he flew by. That would be the theme for the Lakers. No passion, no urgency, no nothing. But despite the slow start the Lakers were only down 6 going into the second so they were still in the fight…for now.

Cam: The only thing the Lakers had going for them were those glow shoes they were wearing. Maybe if they went with green socks and red shoes like the Warriors did later that night they would have had the Santa karma on their side. This game was so hyped that I couldn’t believe there wasn’t another Nike jive talking puppet commercial set in a puppet barber shop or in the shared puppet house with puppet Kobe and puppet LeBron. Word on the street (literally) was that tickets to the game were fetching $15,000 a piece and that crowd was ready to cheer. Two great Odumb dunks set it off for the Lakeshow fans until Bosh hammered one down off a dump pass by Wade. I found it funny that Bosh outplayed both Bynum and Gasol. The Lakeshow should have a huge advantage in the post but credit CB-4 for having a great game on the block. Bosh has been playing much better of late and is the key to this whole win streak. As a basketball enthusiast, I’m really glad he figured it out. Wasn’t it just a few weeks ago that the Heat were doomed and the Lakers were unstoppable? Oh, how things change quickly in quick-hit forget the past sports media land.

Bilbo: Speaking of those hideous shoes, I found it interesting that only three of the five Laker starters chose to wear Kobe’s new neon green kicks. Maybe Pau Gasol and D-Fish didn’t like the color, or their size wasn’t available. But maybe they said to themselves, fuck Kobe, I’m not going to support him by wearing his gear during the biggest regular season game since 2004 (ratings-wise). To me this speaks to the detached, individualized style of Laker basketball. This is not a new idea, obviously, but in the next game I saw that ALL five starters for OKC were wearing Durant’s shoes. Unity, apparently, is more important for The Thunder (and Team Crunk Juice?) than it is in LA. I just wish that it would translate to more titles for Durant and co. than for Kobe and Phil.

Cam: Though the Lakers cut their deficit to single digits with around 4:30 left, they ended up losing by 16. Kobe shot 6 for 16 and his plus/minus was a -21. Gasol and Bynum combined to shoot 11 for 22 and their plus/minus (-11 for Gasol, -4 for Bynum) wasn’t as bad as Kobe’s. The week went on and the Lakers had a “really great” post Christmas Day Massacre practice and ended up getting blown out by the Spurs by 15 led by Kobe’s 8 for 27 from the field gem. Kobe has recently called his teammates complacent. He says they don’t work hard enough. He got thrown out of a game with two technicals a while back just to make a point. We are in one of those “Kobe being Kobe” phases which is code for being an asshole and the blame game is on. In these phases of Kobe he doesn’t trust his teammates and does some awfully weird stuff. This can involve shooting way too much while taking terrible shots (not quality shots, as he once explained to Gilbert Arenas) or just not shooting at all as in Game 7 vs. The Suns in 2006. To break out of this pout-fest I would recommend that Kobe start giving it to his big men. If there was any advantage on Christmas day, it was that Gasol and Bynum should have torched Bosh and whichever lackluster body they put down low. But they didn’t. I’m pretty certain that LA will turn this thing around. But if they are going to win the NBA Championship and 3-Peat, it will only be if Gasol ends up being the Finals MVP. Mark my words. Or don’t.

Bilbo: Right on. Check out these Laker big-men quotes from Johnny Ludden of Yahoo! Sports: Afterward, the Lakers offered their usual veiled criticism whenever Bryant goes off the deep end.“We need to really stay inside the system, attack teams and use the mismatches to our advantage,” Bynum said.“We didn’t play a smart game, put it that way,” Gasol said. “ …We have to recognize what’s going on and understand what our strengths are against certain opponents, and try to exploit them.” “It can’t be an individual effort from nobody,” Gasol added. “It has to be altogether on a string, like a family.”

Cam: Great find, Billy. You are a Golden God.

LBJ & D-Wade; Photo of the Year

Now if this picture doesn't make you cream your jeans, then you are more jaded than THE Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (a show which I totally don't watch when my wife has it on).

Check out the Fanhouse article with photog Morry Gash (awesome last name) to get the scoop.

LeBetard on James/Wade/Bosh Contracts

This guy wrote THIS ARTICLE about the new "Big Three" and how between the three of them they sacrificed $47 Million to sign Udonis Haslem.  Haslem then called up D-Wade and professed how much he loved him. He should do more than that.

Remember the old Big Three?  No, not those Boston misfits.  The real Big Three who won 3 Championships (thanks to @johnhollinger's twitter).  No love for Timmay!

Illuminati!

More ridiculous, I mean, concrete evidence that LeBron James is Illuminati with D-Wade and CB-4. Enjoy the fuzzy math and super scary music:

D-Wade's Nelly Bandaid

Not only was D-Wade ripping off lame rapper Nelly during All-Star weekend this past season, but now he is profiting (for charity) off of the eye band-aide as well. If I see anyone on the YMCA Men's Wednesday Night "Top Gun" league court wearing one of these pieces of garbage, they're getting a raptor claw to the other eye by yours truly. Look out.

If you'd like to get your eyes poked by The OG Nextian, pick up some eye-band-aides HERE .....and then find me on the court, bitches.

Why Can't SportsCenter Do This?

Well, the answer is because SportsCenter is lame. So you have to leave it up to creative out of the box thinkers like MaxaMillion711 of YouTube to change the status quo. Here's the dramatic highlights of Monday's epic game. Awesome stuff:

Dwayne Wade abuses the Grizzlies

You gotta love this video of Dwayne Wade taking out the future of the Grizzlies in one swift crossover dribble. Talk about pulling the rug out from underneath Rudy Gay and OJ Mayo:



Thankfully, OJ Mayo is currently the top ranked fantasy rookie in basketball. He's even ahead of Rudy Gay. Heck, he's even ahead of Kevin Love (aka "Splash") who Kevin McHale geniously traded OJ for in the pre-season. On a related note, Kevn McHale had his GM title stripped and is now sucking the life out of the Timberwolves from the bench as their coach. Maybe someday Love will learn that the McHale up and under move. Then we can call it the Love Up and Under. But probably not.