Playoff Basketball

Three things to keep in mind during this year's NBA Playoffs.

1. Marv Albert is the best play by play announcer in the history of the sport. Did you hear Gus Johnson call the Regional with Butler last month? It was a godsend for CBS, because Johnson has the most infectious announcing style of any working play by play guy. Fortune smiled on Johnson and granted him a couple of terrific games (Xavier vs. Kansas State, in particular). Albert is more reserved and refined, a master of the slowed-down-sentence-for-emphasis style, but he's seen so much basketball that he always rises to the particular occasion when a moment calls for excitement. Pray that he gets a good series on TNT. I think he's got the Blazers and Suns. IMO, this is going to be a quietly great series. In 2007, I remember Albert getting stuck with an awful Spurs series while Kevin Harlan drew the dynamite Mavs vs. Warriors match-up. Here's hoping that Albert gets some quality games AND that Reggie Miller doesn't completely derail him.

2. The best series last year was the Boston/Bulls series in the first round. Right now, it doesn't look like we'll have anything to rival it until the Conference finals where Lebron will meet the Magic again with payback on his mind. It seems like the running motif of this year's games is that the FAVORITE gets a big lead and then holds off the UNDERDOG. In short, the fave outruns itself, gets so big of a lead that it basically can't keep up its offensive or defensive intensity. The smaller team uses this hiatus to make a run, but the fundamental inequality reasserts itself by the time the lead finally gets within 4 or 5 points. In short, the final four minutes of ALL these games have been pretty lame with the more exciting moments coming with about 11 minutes left in the fourth quarter. I'm hoping that the Spurs/Mavs series is different.

3. Pay attention to coaching. I think the Popovich/Carlisle matchup will say a lot about whether or not Jim Carrey Redux is an actual coach or just a pretender who lucked into a significantly better roster after a trade. If he can simply keep up with Popovich (for my money, still a top three coach in the league), then we'll know that he's the real deal. Remember, Carlisle basically set the table for the one NBA championship that Larry Brown has won. Let's break down the coaches into five categories: good strategically, good chemically (with team chemistry and all), good in both, piss poor in both, and IDK.
Xs and Os: Larry Brown, Jerry Sloan, Scott Skiles, Carlisle (esp. defensively)
Chemically: Nate McMillan, Phil Jackson (clearly the best ever at this), George Karl, Scott Brooks, Doc Rivers (although he's slipping), Gentry (great job with the Suns this year)
Good at both: Popovich,
Bad at both: Mike Brown, SVG (not the best strategist and his players are too wary of him), Vinny Del Negro
Don't really know: Mike Woodson, Eric Spoulstra (aka Kumar)