The D-Dobbs Basketball Blog

With school winding down, I find myself with more free time, which means more time to watch basketball. There has been nothing better than watching the 2011 Playoffs. There have been a lot of close games that come down to the final seconds, and many clutch performances. In fact, so many, that I have decided to form a roster of the players I would most want to have on my team in clutch situations.

PG- Derrick Rose (Chicago Bulls)

Derrick Rose, who is about to be awarded the NBA’s most valuable player, is a pure animal. He has a hunger for getting to the rim, and quite frankly can do that whenever he wants. His multiple 30+ point games against the Pacers in the first round of the series is just a glimpse of how dangerous he really is. He is freakishly athletic and a serious threat at the end of games.

SG- Ray Allen (Boston Celtics)

35 years of age, and the NBA’s best shooter. Along with this he has established himself as one of the most clutch playoff performers in the history of the game, along side Michael Jordan and Robert Horry (to name a few). If you ever watch the Celtics you can see him constantly flying off screens and cashing in three after three. Just remember Game 2 of the 2010 NBA Finals where he torched the Lakers. He is the deadliest assassin in the NBA. Oh and by the way, he is the all-time leading three point shooter in the history of basketball.

SF- Kevin Durant (Oklahoma City Thunder)

The Durantula is the most efficient and prolific scorere in the NBA, especially in the clutch. Yeah that’s right…move over Kobe. He is leading all scorers in the playoffs with over 32 and has been as clutch as Jordan in his prime. Just look at Game 5 of the first round vs. the Nuggets. He is shooting nearly 70% from three, while shooting A LOT. His versatility is almost unrealistic. He can kill opponents in any way. Shooting off screens, pulling up, in-the-face jumpers, driving and finishing. Kevin Durant’s range: in the gym.

PF- Dirk Nowitzki (Dallas Mavericks)

Dirk is just Dirk. If you know basketball, you know what I’m saying. He is a 7-foot forward, with an extremely high release, who can shoot as good, if not better than some of the best guards in the league. In the last five minutes of Dallas’ close games this playoffs, he shoots almost 70% from the field. Impressive? Yes. Shooting 100% from three, and the free-throw line, in the last five minutes of games, more impressive? Yes. He is comparable to Ray Allen, but has the superstar role, so he has the ball in his hands at all times.

C – Kevin Garnett (Boston Celtics)

If I could build a franchise from scratch starting with any big man in the league, it would be Kevin Garnett. His intensity and passion for the game is unrivaled. He is a defensive nightmare, and refuses to lose in the playoffs. He may not average 30 points per game or 15 rebounds per game, but he is one of the best big men and playoff performers we will see.

Coach- Doc Rivers (Boston Celtics)

One of the best in the game, simply knows how to win games, and win with any combination of players of all caliber. His ideals of teamwork, selflessness, and togetherness (ubuntu) have been one of the keys reasons for the Celtics’ success.

Just off the bench:

Kobe Byrant (Los Angeles Lakers), Brandon Roy (Portland Trailblazers), Carmelo Anthony (New York Knicks)

Seriosuly people? Grow up. I have a serious issue with people freaking out about this.

This whole situation was completely blown out of proportion the second it hit news stands, websites and radio broadcasts. Come on people, don’t you remember what its like be on top of the world at 24?

Don’t you guys know who he is?

LeBron James, The Chosen One, King James, or The King, is one of the greatest basketball players of all time.

Despite this, and his numerous accolades, how many of you people out there play in the NBA? I’d say…about 300-ish.

So please, all you journalists, sports analysts, fans, whatever you are, lets try playing in the NBA, leading your team to the play-offs every year, to the Eastern Conference championship, and nearly get swept.

How would that feel, oh wait you wouldn’t know.

My guess is probably pretty miserable. If I were playing in the NBA and were the face of the league, and my team can’t come through, I’d be pissed off.

LeBron has every right to be pissed off.

As an athlete myself, I’m not saying what he did was right, sure shaking hands doesn’t hurt, it’s the right thing to do, but people…it’s not the end of the world.

Now the freakin’ NBA Commisioner is going to call LeBron and talk with him about this?

I’d say this is almost embarrassing.

It’s called emotion.

Okay…so I guess this wasn’t Cleveland’s year.

Please do not mistake me as a Cavs fan, but come on, that’s just disappointing. King James is doing it all, call it the King James Show if you must, averaging nearly 43 points per game this series, fell short of an NBA title once again.

For the 4^th straight year, the Cavs packed their bags and were eliminated from the NBA playoffs, falling in game six of the Eastern Conference Finals to Orlando 103-90.

I guess it didn’t help that LeBron had an off game, and Orlando’s best player Dwight Howard had a phenomenal game.

This game was Orlando’s from the start, with their point guard Rafer Alston, nailing 3s like it was his job…oh wait.

“Superman” aka Dwight Howard (NBA Defensive Player of the Year) had literally the best playoff game of his career.

Heads up: when a reigning 7-foot Defender of the Year scores 40 points and grabs 14 rebounds, you’re bound to find trouble.

Unfortunately for LeBron and his gang, these were the circumstances.

LeBron himself, scored 25 points and barely missed a triple-double with 7 rebounds and 7 assists. Quite a below average game, which is the funny part. In fact, nearly 20 points less than his series average.

By game six, the King was beat. Who knows how much gas he had left in his tank, the kid averaged 44 (of 48) minutes every game in the series….are you kidding me?

I don’t mean to point fingers here but besides Dwight Howard, LeBron’s teammate Delonte West gets the onus for this loss, hence, the season ender.

West shot 9-19 in the game, scoring 22. The thing that made me freak, was when he tought he was LeBron- no he thought he was MJ, and he tried to take over the game in 3^rd quarter when he shot the ball every time he touched it, despite where he was on the court. Enough already, you’re averaging 13 ppg in the playoffs, as opposed to LeBron’s 36 ppg.

One thing I would like to credit the Magic to, is their guard Mikael “Air France” Pietrus, straight out of Guadeloupe. One of few players who is considered the NBA’s most “under-rated player”, had to guard LeBron James for six straight games. LeBron did averaging over 40 points in the series, but still, my hats go off to Mikael Pietrus, who also made a name for himself offensively as he came up huge and averaged 13 ppg during the series.

So the Magic will match up against Kobe and the Lakers in the NBA Championship, and the Cavs will be hittin’ the golf courses.

I would personally like to thank LeBron, my favorite athlete, as this was his last game of the 08-09 season. For basketball fans world wide, WE ARE ALL WITNESSES. I believe this unreal season by LeBron, which is one of many to come, is just the beginning of the LeBron James era in the NBA.

And yes titles will come…mark my word.

No need to repeat myself any more than I have.

LeBron James is averaging 42 point per game while shooting 53% in the post season.

Get real.

Big Z, Mo, Anderson, Delonte….come on. Where’s the love?

I mean honestly, your playing with arguably “the greatest person to ever lace up a pair of sneakers,” as said by Magic guard Rafer Alston, and you can’t even chip in and do your part?

What happened?

Regular season was smooth. Two home losses, overall record of 66-16. Why fall apart now?

The King needs your support.

Now facing elimination, the King is in dire need of his teammates’ support. Its not typical that your small forward will average 43 points per game in a series.

Game 5 is Thursday night, as Orlando looks to end LeBron’s season.

Keys to the game: Mo Williams and Daniel Gibson (off the bench) need to make threes and limit the turnovers. Zydrunas Ilgauskus and Anderson Varejao need to stay out of foul trouble and contribut 10-15 points, and LeBron just needs to keep making us into witnesses and we should have a game six amongst us.

While concealing the bumps, cuts, and stitches around his left eye with sunglasses in a recent press conference, point guard Mo Williams said, “we’re the best team in basketball.

“Guarantee we’re going to win the series? Yeah, yeah,” he said. “We are down 2-1. But there is nobody on this team and definitely not myself that says we are not going to win this series. Yeah, it is going to be tough. We know that. We get this game tomorrow, go home, still got home-court advantage. We don’t see ourselves losing two out of three at home,” said Williams.

On his injury, he said, “my head’s still ringing, the game of basketball is not played with throwing punches, throwing elbows.”

I guess the Magic had enough of LeBron’s buzzer-beater replay. It was apparent that they took this as fuel in their 99-89 victory over the Cavs.

Rather than being decided by one point, like the first two games, this game was decided by elbows and hard fouls.

With an astonishing 86 combined free-throws attempted, this game was full of physical play which also included a flagrant foul, two technical fouls, and a Cavs point guard leaving the game to get 4 stitches.

 LeBron, who scored 41 points and had 9 assists, 7 rebounds, and one sick block on Courtney Lee, once again did not have enough help from his supporting cast in Anderson Varejao, Delonte West, Mo Williams, and Zydrunas Ilgauskus.

 Vareajao, West, Williams, and Big Z shot a combined 13 of 37. Come on, seriously?

 In the first two games of the series LeBron shot an almost unrealistic 60% from the field. In this game he shot 39% from the field and 75% from the free-throw stripe.

 This statistic might hint he had an off night, but he really did not. Shooting wise…he was sort of off…but despite that, he had an incredible game.

 Post game, Orlando’s big man Dwight Howard said, “we still have no answer for him.”

 LeBron needs more contributions from his teammates!!!!

 Game 4 is in Orlando, Tuesday night.

 Note: Cleveland has lost 6 of their last 7 games in Orlando. 

With 1.0 seconds on the clock, the Cavs desperately needed a miracle. Down two points, any type of win looked highly improbable.

LeBron James delivered for the city of Cleveland.

James nailed a 23 foot, three-pointer right over Hedo Turkoglu of Orlando as time expired, giving them a 96-95 victory, which ties the series at one a piece.

James immediately ran to the sideline to hug his teammates.

Not only did the 20,562 fans in attendance jump to their feet, I am not embarrassed to admit I did in fact pretend like I was in the arena, and went crazy, hugging and jumping on my friends.

The Cavs were facing a 95-93 deficit when Turkoglu hit what seemed to be the game winner, as the ball fell through the hoop with just about one second on the clock.

Cleveland called a timeout, drew up a play for James, and he answered, pouring in 35 points.

“I knew it was good,” said James.

A Cleveland radio commentator said, “he’s just going to keep getting better, and he should be banned from the league for being too good by age 30.”

James told the press, “I got that out of ‘my bag of Michael Jordan tricks’ I guess.”

This shot is certainly one of the greatest in NBA history, and I consider myself fortunate enough to have seen it on TV, as it will probably be the topic of discussion (as is MJ’s “The Shot”) for the rest of sports history.

I still get goose-bumps every time I watch this shot.

Game 3 is Sunday night in Orlando.

Theme of the game: Feed the hot hand.

King James, had a playoff career high 49 points, 6 rebounds and 8 assists, and was on fire all game, making 20-30 shots from the field…and hitting an embarrassing… 6-10 from the free-throw line.

This marquee match-up between the best defensive player in the NBA in Dwight Howard vs. the best overall offensive player in the NBA, went Orlando’s way.

Believe it or not, it is possible to defeat LeBron…I mean the Cavs.

This laid back attitude the Cavs have on the bench during games was bound to catch up to them at some point.

But in no way am I blaming the loss on that.

The Magic outscored the Cavs 59-43 in the second half, and shot 7-13 from beyond the arch in the second half.

Howard, who had a nice pre-game meal which consisted of two double-quarter-pounders and french-fries from McDonalds, surprisingly had an outstanding game, with 30 points and 13 rebounds.

LeBron, who arguably had one of the greatest playoff stat lines in recent NBA history, suffered the one point loss, when Magic forward Rashard Lewis hit the game winning “three ball” with 15 seconds left.

This was followed by a missed three from Cavs’ Delonte West and Mo Williams’ failed attempt at a buzzer beater.

107-106 Magic

On LeBron, Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy said, “I still don’t have a clue what to do with him, he’s unbelievable.”

Howard, who broke one of the shot clocks with a booming dunk in the opening minutes said, “it’s a big victory. We kept belieiving we could win and we kept fighting.”

Orlando is 4-0 when scoring over 100 points in the playoffs, as they look to keep this trend alive Friday night for Game 2 in Cleveland.

The difference; one year, three inches.

Coming into the league one year apart, both LeBron James and Magic center Dwight Howard were the number one overall pick in back to back drafts (James ’03, Howard’04) straight out of, the twelfth grade.

Yes high school.

While their friends were out partying after graduation, where were they?

Working out with NBA teams preparing for the draft.

Both these players have exceptional talent both offensively and defensively, and were strategically drafted to turn bad franchises into great ones.

Mission Accomplished.

These two “All NBA First Team” selections are about to face-off for a battle of the ages. One of them will make it to the NBA Finals, where the ultimate task at hand stands in front of them; an NBA Championship, which neither franchise has ever won.

This is more or less a test to see which position you need to completely rebuild a franchise, and more importantly who is the best player of the decade?

Versatile shooting guard/small forward like in James a.k.a. the hybrid version of Michael Jordan?

Or the towering seven-foot defensive monster in Howard who has probably the greatest potential of any NBA center….EVER.?Not to mention his game play has almost surpassed that of Ewing and Shaq Daddy with regards to defense and athleticism

Both of them are 24 years old and have yet to reach the peak of their career.

These two young-guns will take the stage and take act in one of the most thrilling playoff series’ ever.

One thing’s for sure, these two jokesters will have the time of their lives playing against each other, like they always do.

And by king, I am referring to the one and only, potentially the greatest basketball player of all-time, as well as my favorite athlete and player, LeBron James.

I am not the one to consider my self a fan of the NBA or a fan of the Cavaliers, infact I hate the NBA more than anything, but if one thing has precedence over any other sport I love watching (New York Jets, North Carolina Tarheels), it would be LeBron James.

My friends and I often fight over what is better college, or professional basketball. Hands down college is better, but ill save this argument for another column.

Anytime the Cavs are playing on TV, you can find me infront of that screen, glued to the TV, watching LeBron’s every move.

I simply love being able to grow up watching most likely the greatest basketball player in the history of the sport. I will save all the praising for another column as well.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are flat out dominating the playoffs. No, LeBron James is flat out dominating the playoffs.

Leading his team to the second round of the playoffs, the Cavaliers are currently undefeated and in fact looking like they won’t lose a single game.

As many sports announcers would say, they are “en fuego.”

They swept the Pistons in the first round, and knock on wood, are about to sweep the Atlanta Hawks, being up 3-0 in the series.

The King himself is averaging a ridiculous 33.7 points per game, 10 rebounds per game and 6.6 assists per game. It is without a fact that he has drawn the attention of the entire league – no, the entire sports nation – no, the entire country. If you have yet to witness (hence the LeBron James “WITNESS” shirts) his performance on court, I highly suggest you catch a Cavaliers playoff game on ESPN.

In only his 6^th year in the NBA, 24 year-old James is living the life. He just won his first NBA MVP award (one of many to come) and is carrying his team to the top of the world. The Cleveland Cavaliers look like serious contenders for the NBA Championship.

This young, 24 year-old sports phenom has turned around the Cavaliers franchise 360 degrees, and they are considered the best team in the league, as they finished the regular season with a league best record of 66-16.

They are the real deal.

As I said to my friend the other night while watching the Cav’s game, or as I often say, “the LeBron game”, “they are easily going to run the tables.”

As young as he may be, any follower of the NBA or of the Cavs can tell he has matured so much since his 18 year-old Rookie of the Year Award days. His game as stepped up so much and his focus and dedication to his game and his team is remarkable.

And to only think, he has yet to reach the peak of his young career.

Ha.