Thursday, May 26, 2011

The Heat rallied from a 12-point deficit in the final minutes to beat the Bulls

CHICAGO (AP)—LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh joined to win a championship. Well, now they have their shot.

James scored 28 points, Wade added 21, and they led a furious rally in the final minutes as the Miami Heat eliminated Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls 83-80 in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals on Thursday.

Now they are in a collision course with the hot Dallas Mavericks. This will be an interesting NBA Finals, both Lebron James and Dirk Nowitzky are aiming for the gold. Who do you think will get it?

Mavs top Thunder 100-96 advances to NBA finals

DALLAS (AP) — Dirk Nowitzki wrapped his hands around the silver ball trophy that goes to the Western Conference champions and smiled. After five years, he and the Dallas Mavericks are kings of their conference again, earning another trip to the NBA finals.

Yet Nowitzki didn't flash the wide, toothy grin of someone relieved to have accomplished his goal. Because, he hasn't.

Unless the Mavs win the next round, too, and become NBA champions for the first time, their whole glorious postseason — and that silver trophy — won't mean as much. It's a lament heard by many superstars, but Nowitzki's indifference amid much of the frenzied celebration around him showed just how serious he is about it.

"I was already thinking about the finals," he said. "This is nice for a day, but we set our goals in October to win it all. We haven't done it yet."

Dallas capped its climb back to the NBA finals with a 100-96 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night that ended the Western finals in five games.

The young, up-and-coming Thunder made things tough on the older, now-or-possibly-never Mavericks as they had throughout the series. And, as he has throughout the postseason, Nowitzki made the plays that mattered most. His latest highlights: swishing a 3-pointer with 1:14 left that put Dallas ahead and making a pair of free throws with 13.3 seconds left to seal it.

"It feels good to finally go back," Nowitzki said. "This time, hopefully we can finish the job."

The Mavs' only other trip to the finals was in 2006. They were up 2-0, with a big, late lead in Game 3, but wound up losing to the Miami Heat in six games. They'd won only a single playoff series since until a tremendous run this postseason — going 12-3, with wins in 10 of the last 11 games, including a sweep of the two-time reigning champion Lakers.

This Dallas team filled with veterans all seeking their first rings has been playing with what coach Rick Carlisle calls "a laser-like focus." It showed when they clawed back from a 15-point deficit with 5:06 left in Game 4, and again in this game, when the Mavs were down by six with 4:37 left.

They outscored the Thunder 14-4 the rest of the way, with many of their most-accomplished players making the key plays: Nowitzki, Jason Kidd, Shawn Marion and Jason Terry.

"It goes to our veteran leadership, our experience, us being in every possible situation we could possibly be in," said Terry, who along with Nowitzki are the only holdovers from the '06 team. "We know what we're going through offensively and defensively. We know we have to get stops and we're able to do that. When you have that belief and that trust in what you're doing it's just a confidence and more times than not you're going to be successful."

Nowitzki scored 26 points, nine in the fourth quarter. For the series, he averaged 32.2 points, 11.8 in the fourth quarters.

Marion scored 15 of his 26 points in the fourth. His steal, dunk and free throw right after Nowitzki's go-ahead 3 went a long way toward pulling this one out. It meant a lot to him because unlike Nowitzki, Kidd and Terry, he's never been to the finals.

"Lots of guys never go, so I'm going to make the best of it," Marion said. "We knew what we were capable of from the start of the season. This is a realization of that."

When the Mavs last made the finals, they advanced with a win in Phoenix. This time, they got to share the moment with their fans. Franchise founder Don Carter was right in the middle of it all, trading his signature white cowboy hat — the one that used to be featured in the team's logo — for a black baseball cap that read "The Finals 2011" with a Mavs logo and the championship trophy.

"All I can tell everybody is, we ain't done yet," team owner Mark Cuban said during the on-court trophy presentation ceremony.

Funny thing is, Dallas could face Miami again. Fans seem to hope so, chanting "Beat the Heat!" so loudly after Cuban spoke that they drowned out Carlisle's on-court interview.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Heat up 2-1

Bosh scores 34, Heat top Bulls 96-85 for 2-1 lead
Chris Bosh scored 34 points to power the Miami Heat to a 96-85 victory over the visiting Chicago Bulls on Sunday in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals.

LeBron James added 22 points and 10 assists and Dwyane Wade scored 17 as the Heat took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.

Bosh hit four straight shots to start the fourth quarter and finished 13 of 18 from the floor.

Carlos Boozer scored 26 points and Derrick Rose added 20 for the Bulls, who will look to even the series Tuesday in Game 4 at Miami.
 
 

Monday, May 16, 2011

Phoenix Suns' Rick Welts discusses aftermath of announcement that he is gay

Rick Welts is on the phone and the conversation is interrupted by another text message. It's from former Suns great Charles Barkley, who is offering his support.

see full article here

Dallas Mavericks and Oklahoma City Thunder in Western Conference Championship

The Western Conference Championship pits the Dallas Mavericks, who are off a four game sweep of the Los Angeles Lakers, facing the Oklahoma City Thunder, who took the full seven game maximum to defeat the Cinderella Memphis Grizzlies

Mets 3B Wright has stress fracture in lower back

New York Mets third baseman David Wright has a stress fracture in his lower back, general manager Sandy Alderson said.

Bulls take Game 1 from Heat with 103-82 rout

Rose scored 28 points, Luol Deng ably contained LeBron James and the Bulls struck first in the Eastern Conference finals, pulling away to beat the Heat 103-82 in Game 1 on Sunday night.

Cristiano Ronaldo gave shirt to his injured fan

Cristiano Ronaldo's sleight-of-hand with a fan's gift, Fan catches 3 foul balls in one game, and Seinfeld inspires Rangers' lineup

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Rivers signs new contract worth $35 million

The Boston Celtics will be paying Doc Rivers $35 million for a new five-year contract which would make him the NBA's highest-paid head coach next season. That's a huge amount of money. I'm hoping he'll be hoisting 3 banners in that span.

Friday, May 13, 2011

Doc Rivers agrees to 5 year extension

UPDATE: Doc Rivers has agreed on a five-year contract extension with the Celtics, according to a team source with knowledge of the negotiations. Terms were not disclosed. The final details of the agreement are still being worked upon.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Celtics' Last Stand

Win Or Go Home! Boston Celtics Vs Miami Heat

Tipoff: 7:00 pm EDT Wed May 11, 2011

Can the old Big 3 stay alive and win against the new and young Big 3 of Miami Heat. We will see! I'm still hoping that this series will last for 7 games it's just too good not to.

NBA Playoffs: MVP Rose gives Chicago 3 - 2 lead over the Hawks

Derrick Rose scored 33 points and backup forward Taj Gibson scored 11 points in the fourth quarter to lead the host Chicago Bulls to a 95-83 victory over the Atlanta Hawks to take a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series on Tuesday night.

NBA Playoffs 2011

Here's the recent series breakdown towards the 2011 NBA Championship! It's getting pretty interesting as we go deep into the playoffs.