NBA Blog – NBA Basketball Blog
NBA Blog: The NBA basketball news blog section of Inside Hoops
NBA playoffs blog
The 2010 NBA Finals schedule is now official.
Of course, we don’t actually know which teams are playing in it. The Celtics currently lead the Magic 3 games to 1, while the Lakers and Suns are tied at 2 games apiece.I think we’ll see a Lakers-Celtics championship round.
But, the actual times and dates of the finals are confirmed.
See the schedule here.
The AP reports:
Put away the brooms. Hold off on those “Beat L.A!” chants. The Boston Celtics still have some work to do before they can play for their second NBA title in three years.
 |
Dwight Howard had 32 points and 16 rebounds, and Jameer Nelson made back-to-back 3-pointers in overtime to lead the Orlando Magic to a 96-92 victory over Boston on Monday night to avoid a four-game sweep in the Eastern Conference finals…
Paul Pierce had 32 points and 11 rebounds, and Kevin Garnett had 14 points and 12 boards for Boston. Ray Allen hit consecutive 3-pointers in overtime, but Pierce missed two tries in the final minute as the Celtics failed to complete the sweep…
Nelson finished with 23 points and nine assists for the defending Eastern Conference champions, who led by 10 in the second quarter and were up 85-78 with 2:24 left in regulation before Boston scored eight of the next nine points to force overtime at 86-all.
The Boston Globe reports:
Doc Rivers: “We didn’t execute it at all, I can tell you that. It was supposed to be Paul at the top with a pick‑and‑roll with Ray [Allen], and then the floor was supposed to be flat and spaced. When you look at it, half our team was standing next to Paul. The execution was so bad ‑‑ I thought we executed poorly throughout the game. We didn’t make the next rotations, we didn’t make the next pass. It was amazing how bad we were execution‑wise and still had a chance to win that game. That was amazing to me.”
Dwight Howard: “We didn’t win this game just to win a game to say we were in this series. You know, we want to make this a series and win this series. We all have to believe that. I told the guys before the game put out all disbelief, anxiety and fear. We just got to keep playing. We can’t think about losing or think about being swept. We have to think about winning and staying together.”
The Orlando Sentinel reports:
Orlando did build a 10-point lead, its largest of the series, midway in the second period. Howard, using his quickness to elude Kendrick Perkins, keyed the run with two baskets, but the Celtics quickly recovered, Pierce answering with two buckets and Garnett with another.
But the Magic didn’t allow the Celtics to gain momentum, and led 51-47 at halftime.
 |
Phoenix Suns guard Steve Nash this morning was seen by Suns general otolaryngology doctor (ear, nose and throat), Dr. Ryan Rehl. Nash was diagnosed with a minimally displaced nasal fracture with displaced cartilage. He will undergo a minor reduction, putting the nose back in place, later today.
Nash will practice with the team today and will not miss any time.
Nash suffered the injury in the fourth quarter of the Suns’ win over the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals Sunday at US Airways Center.
Tickets for the Phoenix Suns’ next home game of the 2010 Western Conference Finals on Tue., May 25, have sold out.
In the least shocking blog entry I’ve posted in a long time, Boston is currently flooded with Celtics green. Walk any busy section of the city and every 10 or 20 seconds, someone passing by has Celtics gear on, or at least some green.
The Celtics tonight have a chance to do what no one expected and sweep the Orlando Magic. Coming into the series, most of the NBA world was still surprised how Boston managed to handle the Cleveland Cavaliers.
I still think LeBron James’ elbow was a huge factor, even if many others refuse to factor it in. He was using his off-hand far more than usual, especially as the series progressed, and I doubt it was for the fun of it. Still, credit Boston for the series win.
And now, the Celtics are playing on a truly championship level, more or less on par with their title-winning 2008 team. And the Magic are getting wrecked.
Will the real Orlando team show up tonight for Game 4? I think we’ll see more fight than they’ve displayed in the first three games, but that isn’t saying much.
While it’s possible the Magic win tonight, there’s simply no reason to expect it.
The AP reports:
 |
Amar’e Stoudemire matched his career playoff high with 42 points, 29 in the second half, and grabbed 11 rebounds to power the Phoenix Suns to a 118-109 victory Sunday night that cut the Los Angeles Lakers’ lead in the series to 2-1…
Robin Lopez, whose 7-foot presence gave the Suns some much-needed toughness inside, scored 20 on 8-of-10 shooting in 31 minutes, by far his most playing time since returning from a back injury at the start of the series. Phoenix made 37-of-42 free throws, 14 of 18 by Stoudemire. The Lakers were 16 of 20 at the line…
Kevin Ding of the Orange County Register reports (via blog):
The Lakers’ primary area of dominance — the paint — was muted by Phoenix’s zone. The points in the paint were 44 for the Lakers and 40 for the Suns. The Lakers took 32 3-point shots — a franchise playoff record — and made just nine (28 percent).
The Lakers tied the franchise playoff record by taking 31 3-point shots in their April 22 loss at Oklahoma City. They made 10 3-pointers that game (32 percent). The Lakers are 0-3 in the three playoff games in which they took 31 3-point shots, and now they’ve lost shooting 32 also.
Also hurting the Lakers’ cause inside was early foul trouble first for Andrew Bynum and then for Lamar Odom. Neither one wound up sustaining an effort, with Odom fouling out after making a series of poor decisions in the fourth quarter. He appeared bothered by a sore right side after driving into traffic in the first half and not getting a foul call.
InsideHoops.com notes:
Both teams shot a similar field goal percentage, and both were off from three-point range, though the Lakers tossed up way more from outside. The shooting stat that matters most is the free throw category: Suns 37-of-42, Lakers 16-of-20. Isn’t homecourt fun sometimes? Also, the Lakers committed 17 turnovers; the Suns just seven.
Steve Nash had 17 points and 15 assists. He brought it.
Ron Artest and Lamar Odom tossed up bricks, including lots of bad misses from three-point range.
Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel reports:
Coach Stan Van Gundy said players “were down” on Sunday when they started reviewing Game 3 videotape, conceding they are “a little shaken.
“It didn’t start great in the film session. Guys were down, but as it went along, they were fine,” he said. “Our guys haven’t been in this situation in a long time … to be beaten like that. We took a lot of losses in the playoffs last year. But other than Game 1 in L.A. (against the Lakers in the NBA Finals), we hadn’t been beaten like this.
“They don’t have a lot of experience with this. Our guys are a little shaken.”
The Magic unraveled in the first quarter when shots didn’t drop. Turnovers mounted and players decided to go one-on-one instead of patiently making the extra pass. The mass frustration spilled over to the defensive end.
The AP reports:
Paul Pierce helped the Celtics open a 16-point, first-quarter lead, then watched as Rajon Rondo and Glen “Big Baby” Davis helped Boston coast to a 94-71 victory over the Orlando Magic and take a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference finals…
Pierce had 15 points and nine rebounds, Ray Allen scored 14 and Garnett added 10 points in just 24 minutes. But this time it wasn’t the Celtics’ aging all-stars that did the damage—it was the two youngest players on the roster, Davis and Rondo, who were born in 1986, the year that Larry Bird and the original Big Three won the last of their three NBA titles.
Davis scored 17 points, and Rondo added 11 points and 12 assists, and they also gave the team energy and defense that the Magic couldn’t match, diving to the floor for loose balls and getting the crowd going with spectacular plays…
One game after scoring 30 points, Dwight Howard had just seven and seven rebounds. Rashard Lewis was also disappointing, scoring four points on 2-for-8 shooting, missing all four 3-point attempts. Vince Carter and Jameer Nelson had 15 points apiece…
Pierce had eight points and five rebounds in the first quarter, when the Celtics scored the first seven points and then added a 14-0 run to open a 21-6 lead.
Lisa Dillman of the Los Angeles Times reports:
 |
Ron Artest managed to hit three three-point attempts in Game 2 and was six for nine from the field in scoring 18 points, a slight uptick from his Game 1 performance of 14 points.
There is, apparently, no explanation for his enhanced shooting.
“I’m not sure. I have no clue. I really don’t. I really don’t,” Artest said. “. . . All I do is shoot it. . . . I don’t know what it’s doing.”
More shooting practice in the gym?
“I don’t know,” he said. “I shoot a lot every day. When I was going 0 for 10 or whenever that was, I was in here shooting.”
Back to his comfort level with the triangle offense: Artest managed to get off a good line about his teammates.
“There are still guys that don’t know the triangle and they’ve been here longer than me,” he said, looking amused.
The Arizona Republic reports:
 |
The pep talk came on the flight back from Los Angeles, and it set Channing Frye straight.
“I got an earful on the plane from my wife, man, but it was all positive,” the Suns’ center said Friday. “She’s like, ‘Just think about how far you’ve come and have some fun. . . . This is not you. This is not who you are. You’re supposed to be this and that. You’re showing everybody else wrong. Imagine if our kid was here now. How would you want him to act?’ “
That made Frye, whose wife is expecting their first child in October, realize he’s making mountains out of molehills. Through two games of the Western Conference finals, this has not been his series. A consistent long-rang shooter throughout the regular season, Frye has made just 1 of 13 against the Lakers. He played only 8 minutes, 39 seconds in Game 2, a season low.
NBA referee Joe DeRosa has been suspended without pay for one game for throwing a ball to a fan at halftime of Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals on May 18.
The suspension was announced today by Ron Johnson, NBA Senior Vice President, Referee Operations.
DeRosa will miss the next game he would have been scheduled to work.
The fan was not ejected from the arena as was reported previously.