On a night when Rasheed Wallace’s power moves were as effective as those of George Wallace, LeBron James (22 points, 9 assists, 8 rebounds) carried Cleveland to a 2-2 tie in their Conference semi-final series with Detroit.
Eric Snow scored 10 in the 2nd half…and Chauncey Billups attempted to reenact LeBron’s psych-out of Gilbert Arenas when James was on the foul line with a minute left (he hit one, missed the other). Just a little something else that Stu Jackson can think about this post-season. For the most part, this was old fashioned Eastern Conference-style smashmouth (and ankles, elbows, etc.) basketball, scarily reminiscent of a prior generation, save for the part where the Pistons came out on the short end.
TNT is promising Kobe Bryant will be in the studio Wednesday night during the network’s coverage of Cavs/Pistons and the Mavs/Spurs respective 5th games. Presumably, he’ll not disappear during the 2nd half of the broadcast.
Midway through the 4th quarter in Dallas, the Spurs are leading the Mavericks, 69-68. It’s an 8 man rotation thus far for the Spurs, a mere 7 for Dallas — fair enough, considering Keith Van Horn’s poor notices after the cameo in “Big Love”. Or maybe that was “Space Jam”, very easy to get those two mixed up. Much the way San Antonio continue to have difficulty defending his Dirkness (despite Bruce Bowen’s typical stickiness), Tim Duncan (21 points) is simply abusing Erick Dampier.
I don’t mean to disrespect the aged, but Dick Baveta does a tremendous job getting up and down the floor for a man almost as old as Pat Borders.