woke up from a nap to catch the last of the fourth. tears in my eyes to see kidd (and dirk) finally get a ring, to see a true team of team players win, and to see dallas finally get redemption for a pretty badly-reffed series in 06.
also, congrats to those who predicted dallas in six, or in anything. i couldn't be more thrilled about being dead wrong about miami winning.
Deep down my gut says Dallas, and I'll stick to that. Dallas in 6.
It's unfortunate that I ignore my gut so often in life, but here's the to the one time I listened to it.
I was telling my friends that there's still a lot to be learned from this older generation of players. I'm glad to see that it's still "their time." The best things in life are earned. No doubt these guys earned it.
speaking again about my new hero (zach lowe), he wrote an article today about two weird plays on lebron's part. here's one:
Quote:
The [play] occurred with about 6:15 left in the third quarter. LeBron was guarding Jason Kidd, who was doing what he does now: standing at the top of the arc, acting as a safety net, while J.J. Barea and Dirk Nowitzki ran a pick-and-roll on the right side of the floor. LeBron parked himself at the left elbow and watched as the Heat snuffed out that pick-and-roll.
Barea swung the ball to Kidd. LeBron barely moved, even though the shot clock was in single digits. James took only a half-step toward Kidd, his feet barely crossing the top of the circle. Kidd had loads of space, and he went up for a three-pointer. LeBron responded with a close-out that would have been unworthy of his skills even on the second end of a back-to-back in March. He put both hands together but did not bring either of them above shoulder level. He did not leave his feet at all.
Then something weird happened: With the shot already in mid-flight, at the very top of its arc toward the rim, LeBron lunged an extra foot toward Kidd and extended his left hand toward the Dallas player’s head, as if face-guarding him. It looked like James was saving face, putting in a token effort. There is no point face-guarding a shooter when his shot is about to hit the rim.
Re: Random thoughts on the playoffs-
