...while wondering what ever happened to Rod Carew

It's baseball season!

Yeah, yeah, I know. There's still some unfinished roundball business and I'll get to it. With my beloved Mavericks' elimination, I now know how Laker fans have felt all these (two) months.

Onward!

Round two of the Beautiful Season almost turned out like its predecessor, a perfect run of predictions -- almost.

In the (L)East, we had Miami in four over Washington and that's how it went down. The Wiz were a little more seasoned than the Incred's and that got them into the second round. They never really had a chance here, even without the Big Femur.

In the other Eastern Series, we picked Detroit in seven over Indiana. The Pistons won, but it wasn't nearly as close as we had it. LB's got the guys primed and ready for another run and showed again how he's a class act by calling timeout to extend Reggie's farewell standing-O, then leading his team to half-court to join the applause. Asked about it afterward, The Greatest Basketball Mind of Our Time said, "I only wish we had had more timeouts." What brawl?

Over to the Big Boys. We picked Dallas in Seven over Phoenix and our perfect streak ended in six. Thus also ended the Charles Barkley rule that in a seven game series the better team always wins. But, as they say, that's why they play the games.

In the real shocker of the post season, Seattle actually won two games before falling as expected to San Antonio. I have no explaination for this at all.

On to the Conference Finals:

EAST:

(1) Miami Heat vs (2) Detroit Pistons

Where to go here? Miami has stormed to the conference finals, going 8-0, but has played two teams they should have stormed through. Detroit put away one garbage opponent in the Sixers and handled the Pacers more easilly than we thought. The Heat have the most dominant player in the game but the Pistons have the best coach. Shaq has eaten everyone's lunch this season but these same Pistons scarfed his in last year's Finals. Everything about this matchup screams Pistons.

Except that voice inside me.

Miami in 7

WEST:

(1) Phoenix Suns vs (2) San Antonio Spurs

Run and Gun can not win an NBA title. I do not care if you are Doug Moe, Don Nelson or Mike D'Antoni. Take all of their Nugget, Maverick and Sun championship rings and they will add up to Kobe Bryant's class -- none. Phoenix beat the Grizzlies in the first round because they were vastly superior. They beat Dallas in the second round because the Mavericks completely abandoned their season-long quest to improve defensively and because, in reality, they only had 19 games playing under a new system before the postseason started.

San Antonio lost the first game of their series with the Nuggs then put them away in short order. Despite inexplicably losing two games to Seattle, that series was pretty much the cakewalk it should have been. (as an aside, look for Seattle to be in the lottery again next season -- seriously) The Spurs will come into this series untested, but with Greg Popovic that won't be the issue it would be for most teams. The lack of sharpness gleaned from intense competition will probably cost them a game early and the Suns are good for one win at home, but that's about it for this Cinderella season.

San Antonio in 6

Until next time,
Paz