Weekend roundup and first Playoffs impressions
I watched the whole Heat-Bulls game yesterday and some of the Clippers vs Nuggets action. I only got to check the rest of the games through Gamecast, well, here are my first thoughts:
The Bulls played well, very well for stretches. Especially when they were knocking it down from beyond the arch. A real shame they don´t have ANYONE with some class who could score down low. Chandler is an absolute non factor on offense as we all knew already and it doesn´t seem like he will step up his game during the Playoffs. I wonder if he even practices low post moves or something. Shouldn´t his amazing physical ability help here? I just don´t get it.
Nocioni does all the little things, yep, but on offense he sometimes seemed to be slowing things down a lot down the stretch. Some key misses and turnovers hurt his team during the minutes when these kind of games are decided. Where the hell was Deng? Couldn´t Skiles have rested Nocioni for some time?
Gordon really got it going. Extraordinary scorer but he needs to calm down at the end of games, be smarter and not launch so many ill-advised shots. Easier said than done I guess :)
As pitty they have to go with a very small lineup all the time because of thier lack of inside presence...
As for Miami, yikes. I picked them as my champions but unless they improve their game and start being more fluent on offense and play some D, there´s no way they even get past Round 2!! Dammit. Shaq looked OK, he even had some nice blocks (5 in total!!). Wade took over in the fourth and left looking sort of injured but for the rest. Haslem got mental and threw his mouth protector to the referee after a non called fould. Never seen that before. Also very funny reaction from the referee who was reaaaaally pissed!!! Walker was poor, so were both PG´s, Williams, who´s useless anyway and we all knew that (why did they go for him???) and Payton who apart from washed up looks like he doesn´t care anymore, but we knew that as well. I mean, the Glove was unstoppable 3 years back and since he joined the Lakers he´s lost not one step ecah season but at least 4!! Probably bad Karma from good ol´ Kobe... I wonder why they cut Derek Anderson for the Playoffs, seing Shandon out there almost hurt my eyes...
As for the rest of games. Brand and Cassell looked good in the first minutes. I´m glad the Clippers managed to win despite not scoring a single FG in the final four minutes and almost f**ing up a 10 point lead in that time span. That would have been too harsh in their first Playoff game in ages... If Maggette steps up and regainshis old form after his injury, as the Playoffs advance, hell, they will be scary as any other top tier team out there...
The Kings loss in San Antonio was bad but they´ll bounce back... hopefully.
Lebron posted a triple double in his first ever Playoff game and Arenas and the whole Wizards´ shooting was so off that the team stood no chance of winning at all.
As for Sunday, the Pacers surprisingly just beat the Nets a few minutes ago without Jermaine O´Neal even playing much due to foul trouble... The guy had a good 4th quarter though.
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Apart from that I´m still recovering from my flue and I went to Bath and Bradford-on-Avon this weekend. Nice places. The first a city with an awesome Roman bath and a few other nice places. The second one, a village, very small but with lots of flair and very relaxing. Liked both, but maybe I expected a bit more from Bath or it is just that we ended up in Bradford by chance and it was suprisingly nice, I can´t but recommend it. Here some pics:
-> making some stupid joke about the "phone" in the Roman bath.
-> Famous Pulteney Bridge in Bath
-> Bradford-on-Avon, small chapel from the late 8th. Century. Very cool.
Chruch and lil sis in Bradford ->
The Bulls played well, very well for stretches. Especially when they were knocking it down from beyond the arch. A real shame they don´t have ANYONE with some class who could score down low. Chandler is an absolute non factor on offense as we all knew already and it doesn´t seem like he will step up his game during the Playoffs. I wonder if he even practices low post moves or something. Shouldn´t his amazing physical ability help here? I just don´t get it.
Nocioni does all the little things, yep, but on offense he sometimes seemed to be slowing things down a lot down the stretch. Some key misses and turnovers hurt his team during the minutes when these kind of games are decided. Where the hell was Deng? Couldn´t Skiles have rested Nocioni for some time?
Gordon really got it going. Extraordinary scorer but he needs to calm down at the end of games, be smarter and not launch so many ill-advised shots. Easier said than done I guess :)
As pitty they have to go with a very small lineup all the time because of thier lack of inside presence...
As for Miami, yikes. I picked them as my champions but unless they improve their game and start being more fluent on offense and play some D, there´s no way they even get past Round 2!! Dammit. Shaq looked OK, he even had some nice blocks (5 in total!!). Wade took over in the fourth and left looking sort of injured but for the rest. Haslem got mental and threw his mouth protector to the referee after a non called fould. Never seen that before. Also very funny reaction from the referee who was reaaaaally pissed!!! Walker was poor, so were both PG´s, Williams, who´s useless anyway and we all knew that (why did they go for him???) and Payton who apart from washed up looks like he doesn´t care anymore, but we knew that as well. I mean, the Glove was unstoppable 3 years back and since he joined the Lakers he´s lost not one step ecah season but at least 4!! Probably bad Karma from good ol´ Kobe... I wonder why they cut Derek Anderson for the Playoffs, seing Shandon out there almost hurt my eyes...
As for the rest of games. Brand and Cassell looked good in the first minutes. I´m glad the Clippers managed to win despite not scoring a single FG in the final four minutes and almost f**ing up a 10 point lead in that time span. That would have been too harsh in their first Playoff game in ages... If Maggette steps up and regainshis old form after his injury, as the Playoffs advance, hell, they will be scary as any other top tier team out there...
The Kings loss in San Antonio was bad but they´ll bounce back... hopefully.
Lebron posted a triple double in his first ever Playoff game and Arenas and the whole Wizards´ shooting was so off that the team stood no chance of winning at all.
As for Sunday, the Pacers surprisingly just beat the Nets a few minutes ago without Jermaine O´Neal even playing much due to foul trouble... The guy had a good 4th quarter though.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Apart from that I´m still recovering from my flue and I went to Bath and Bradford-on-Avon this weekend. Nice places. The first a city with an awesome Roman bath and a few other nice places. The second one, a village, very small but with lots of flair and very relaxing. Liked both, but maybe I expected a bit more from Bath or it is just that we ended up in Bradford by chance and it was suprisingly nice, I can´t but recommend it. Here some pics:
-> making some stupid joke about the "phone" in the Roman bath.
-> Famous Pulteney Bridge in Bath
-> Bradford-on-Avon, small chapel from the late 8th. Century. Very cool.
Chruch and lil sis in Bradford ->
Labels: London
