Lou Pickney's Online Commentary
NBA Musings
Thursday
May 18, 2005
The Spurs won a critical Game 5 last night in San Antonio over the Sonics. With Seattle holding serve on its home court for games three and four, the Spurs desperately needed to win, and break Seattle's momentum, or else face back-to-back elimination games, the first of which would come tomorrow night. Instead, now it's Seattle that is one loss away from an exit from the Western Conference Semifinals.
|  | Not even Todd MacCullouch can stop Shaq.
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The Phoenix Suns are a fun team to watch, and a Suns/Spurs final would be intriguing... though right now the Suns/Mavs, with an up-and-down style, are bringing some fun into their series. Plus with Dallas playing them close, it's proving to be competitive. I figure it's going to be a San Antonio/Miami finals (Tim Duncan vs. Shaq, with Manu Ginobili vs. Dwyane Wade on the undercard), which should be good from a star level perspective. If Ginobili seems like an odd name to promote, keep in mind that he shot 49% from the field this season, and he's a guard. That is superb. And no, I didn't misspell Wade's first name. It really is Dwyane.
I don't know who I want to win more in the Indiana vs. Detroit series. I'd love to see Reggie Miller get one more shot at a ring, but at the same time seeing Shaq in a rematch with Detroit has great potential (best Eastern Finals storyline in years), plus the potential for Darko Milicic guarding (and I use that term very loosely) Shaq has all kinds of high comedy implications.
One more NBA note: I can't agree with Phoenix's Steve Nash winning the MVP. No way a guy who's as much of a defensive liability as Nash deserves it. His addition to Phoenix has been a major boost to that team, no question, but no one means more to his team in 2005 than Shaquille O'Neal. No one. If I weren't a Spurs fan, I'd be pulling for a battle of #1 seeds with Phoenix vs. Miami, if only so O'Neal could perform some Shaq-Fu on Nash and company. An angry Shaq is a productive Shaq, history has shown.
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