What Can Happen in the NBA Playoffs

Mon, May 22, 2006

Whatever happens, it will be set to Tom Petty, the ideal musical sponsor of the National Basketball Association. We may also get to view the charming VW commercial about egocasting cars. (Should I remind you of the list of exceptions to my categorical opposition to torture? Maybe later. But no death is too slow for the ad team responsible here.)

I doubt I will watch a game of the East Conference Finals, as it promises to be excruciating. (Also, do you need detailed statistical/econometric analyses to tell you that Allen Iverson and Antoine Walker don’t help their teams win? [The tease graf there is “why some basketball players aren’t as good as you think.” Well, maybe not as good as you think.])

Moving on to more interesting matters, the Spurs and Suns will win tonight. The Suns game is going to be close, and I would only estimate my actual confidence of them winning as slightly better than even. Their double overtime win was one of the most exciting basketball games I’ve seen in many years, however, and, though they’ll be crushed again by San Antonio in the next round, I can’t see how any freedom-loving peoples could root against them. But frustrating to watch? Oh, yes. Has there been a team in recent memory more given to blow massive leads and miss twenty or thirty shots consecutively? Given that I’ve become such a Phoenix booster, I should pull for the Mavs, as there’s at least a chance that they could be beaten in the next round.