Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Closing Windows


Over a week of no internet access has kept me from updating the blog so if anyone does read these entries, my apologies.


The second round of the NBA season is in full swing and most of my first round predictions did happen.  The only "miss" I had was Phoenix who I thought would finally get past the Spurs.  The only other surprise for me was the strong resistance from Atlanta to push their series to a 7th game.  


I guess the question now is what to do with the Suns and the Mavs who both were elite teams in the last few years but now seems to have missed their windows of opportunity.  For the Suns, Shaq is just too old to keep up for 4 quarters coupled with the worse free throw shooting in the league and Nash's defense really becomes a detriment in the playoffs.  As far as Dallas is concerned, Jason Kidd just seems out of place while having that enforcer in the middle is missing to stop penetration against opponents.


Being an elite team is a fragile thing.  Sacramento (Webber), Utah (Malone), Phoenix (Barkely), New Jersey (Kidd), Portland (Drexler) and Seattle (Payton) all had teams good enough to win in the past 15 years or so.  A key play or loss here and there made the difference in having a winning legacy for the players of those teams.  You can now add Nash's Suns and Dirk's Mavs to that list.


Here's hoping Chris Paul, Dwight Howard, and Lebron James doesn't suffer the same fate.

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