Buzzer Beaters, Game Winners, and Mark Cuban (Oh My)
May 11th, 2009 at 10:32 amBy Chris
Busy weekend for the NBA. At least two of the four playoff battles currently underway will go to a Game 6, if not further. Granted, Denver and Cleveland look like they are in a class by themselves; although, one could argue Cleveland is by themselves — we’ll call it the LeBron class — while the Denver Nuggets look like the best team in the West. Does this mean you should pencil the Nuggets versus the Cavaliers as your NBA Finals series? In regards to Cleveland, the answer is a definite “probably,” and it’s moving quickly to the “I guarantee it” department. As for the Nuggets, they are, in all likelihood, still going to have to go through Kobe and the gang to advance; although, Houston — even without Yao — is doing their best to alter that storyline.
Moving on to the Eastern Conference:
While LeBron continued his drool-inspiring dominance, Orlando and Boston continue to trade wins and it looks like they are going to need the entire slate of seven games to decide this series, thanks, in large part to Glen “Big Baby” Davis and last night’s roar-inspiring buzzer beater he sank to tie the series at two apiece.
Davis’ shot was huge for a number of reasons. The obvious choice is because it won the game for Boston, and that’s quite true. More than that, it allowed the Celtics to avoid being down three games to one. The shot also returned Boston’s home court advantage as well. Considering how these games are being decided, the opportunity to have a potential Game 7 in Boston obviously favors the more experienced Celtics.
That is, if they can hold onto it. The question now is, can either team win two games in a row or will they continue to trade victories?
In Denver/Dallas series, Mark Cuban is non-to-happy with the lack of a foul call before Carmelo Anthony’s game-winner and apparently, he doesn’t like the way Kenyon Martin was raised. First, Melo’s glory:
I’m not joining the “foul/no foul” debate here because that’s not what this post is for. What I will say is Mark Cuban was none-to-happy with the outcome and decides to let everyone sitting courtside to know his feelings:
Cuban’s frustration is understandable because fans, even those that own the team, are emotionally invested in the outcome. When you add a fan’s desire to win, and the fan is also the billionaire owner, reactions like Cuban’s are understandable; although, I’m not sure why calling out Kenyon Martin to Martin’s mom is the wisest move.
The two sides have different accounts of how the situation unfolded. Cuban told the Post via e-mail that a fan was screaming about the Nuggets being thugs, which led Cuban to say “That includes your son,” to Lydia Moore, Martin’s mother.
Martin’s agent said Cuban spotted Moore in the crowd and said “Your son is a punk,” without provocation.
He’s also having some Twitter problems as well. Apparently, anonymous microblogging is a great tool to use when you want to suggest the owner of an opposing team perform fellatio on himself and deposit the finishing results into the mouth of his mother.
Internet anonymity!!! It’s fantastic!!!
All of this could’ve been avoided if they simply called the foul before Carmelo shot. Was it a “good enough” foul to stop play? That’s debatable, even with the league’s hollow mea culpa. It would, however, stop the Internet-tough-guy crap that’s going on in the news and across trendy social media tools.
