The D.A.Y. T-Mac and Yao won the big one
Or so they say…
You don’t need me to tell you that the Virginia Tech shootings have a dark cloud hovering over the country today. It’s such a terrible thing, and I hate watching the whole situation become politicized with blame being thrown around already about who did or didn’t do what, and which laws could have prevented it or won’t be changed. There is plenty of time for that later. I grieve for the innocent victims.
Caring about sports is one way to get away from the horrible realities of life, so here we go towards the end of the NBA season. Teams with nothing to play for are for the most part taking it easy. But there was still a little bit of action worth mentioning.
HOUSTON 120 PHOENIX 117
Although Utah won the Northwest division and the Rockets came in third in the Southwest, the Rockets clinched homecourt in their first round series with this win. Mike D’Antoni, criticized for much of the season for using his starters too much and not getting them any rest, did not break from his philosophy. This was a game with playoff intensity, and while the Suns power trio put up the mega numbers you expect from them, the game was dominated by T-Mac and Yao. 34 and 9 for Yao. 39, 11, and 9 for Tracy. Steve Nash missed the big shot and the Rockets held on, leading to this quote from Yao “It is huge. We were so excited when the clock was running to zero. It feels like winning a playoff series.” Um, how would he know what that feels like? The Rockets as a team were very pumped up about this win, and while its admirable of the Suns to run their best players out there every night for the paying customers, you have to wonder if they could feel the burn late in the playoffs. Or maybe their conditioning is so next level, it’s wrong to question anything D’Antoni decrees.
THE JOY THAT IS THE END OF THE SEASON
Even though the Utah Jazz destroyed the Blazers 130-97, it was too little too late for them, and Houston will have home court in their first round series. Travis Outlaw led the Blazers with 26 points, hitting 18 of 20 free throws. I don’t even want to know how Travis Outlaw can be allowed to shoot 20 free throws in an NBA game. Boston beat Miami, with Al Jefferson putting up another big night, making his extended tankrific absence even shadier. Milwaukee played Atlanta and Shelden Williams had 17 boards, Josh Smith didn’t cuss anyone out or flip birds at them as far as I know. Gotta love the end of the season games between terrible teams. The Spurs rested everyone against Memphis, and at this moment the boxscore line for Brent Barry is “DNP – Tummy Ache.” I’m serious. The Spurs show blatant disrespect for the sanctity of the DNP, and I like that about them. The Hornets got 23 and 12 from Chris Paul in what you could call a spirited win over the Kings 125-118, but their slim playoff hopes are gone, as they have been mathematically eliminated. The Nuggets got 23 and 10 from Linus Kleiza in their 122-107 win over Minnesota, and after the game George Karl admitted “We’re basically starting to prepare for San Antonio tonight.” Hey, at least he’s being honest. The Nuggets pretended that the T-Wolves were a San Antonio scout team. There was no KG, no Camby, so yeah.
One other game that mattered.
NEW JERSEY 104 NEW YORK 95
Last night I was kicked out of my apartment for a few hours when my roommate played hostess to her book club at our place for the first time. I was at a local bar, which had the Knicks-Nets game on the television. I had to make a decision, do I care enough about the Knicks to raise my head 45 degrees and watch the carnage that Nets-Knicks has become? Or do I just stare off into the distance with a dumb look on my face. I chose the latter. Jersey owns New York. As someone that grew up in Brooklyn, that is an embarrassingly painful reality. SLAM’s art director Stephen Goggi is the butt of thousands of (my) jokes, which are all some profanity-laced variation of “You’re from Jersey and you still live there by choice? Ha ha you dirtbag!” But the real joke is the Knicks-Nets “rivalry.” The Knicks cannot beat them. Vince Carter had a triple double with 29-12-10, as the Nets have come a half game from stealing the 6th seed from the artists formerly known as the Washington Wizards. Mardy Collins continued to put up big numbers as the Knicks PG, but he did it in NY Knicks PG fashion, leading the team with 20 shots attempted.
The Nets play their season finale against Chicago in Jersey tomorrow night. Washington has Orlando at home tonight, and then go to Indiana for their last game tomorrow night. The Wizards could still hang on, but I really hope they don’t cause I want Vince vs. Toronto. Caron Butler made some claim yesterday about how he could be healthy by the second round. Uh… thanks Caron, love the optimism. Do you mean healthy to play NBA basketball? Don’t you need to be on a team that is still playing in order for your health to matter? This is a very sad ending to and exciting Wizards season. Oh, I mean hey the playoffs are a new hope for everybody!
29 Responses to “The D.A.Y. T-Mac and Yao won the big one”
Apr.17 at 8:59 am
namik says:
Uno….yao could still be the next Shaq, even if he does it unwittingly. Hey Sam, are you catching the new Entourage. You’ve been pretty silent about the new season.
Apr.17 at 9:21 am
Esco says:
My day basically starts at 3 pm over here…fucking time difference…i HATE having to wait so long just to read Slam’s updates…life waiting for the Slam office to open sucks when you live in Paris…*sigh*
Apr.17 at 9:23 am
Esco says:
That had nothing to do with the article…I hope the Rockets win a series, atleast they deserve it…T-Mac just has to keep his mouth shut and they’re good to go…
Apr.17 at 9:24 am
Esco says:
Oh yeah, Go Celtics!!! (just because they beat Miami, I rooted for Miami last year and now I hate them, I think I need to settle on a team…it WON’T be the Celtics though…)
Apr.17 at 9:26 am
Esco says:
It seems to me that Sam and Lang (and Mutoni yesterday)are the only ones coming to work, where are the other updates??? Do you guys really don’t a shit about the end of the season??? Damn, atleast don’t make it THAT obvious!
Apr.17 at 9:26 am
Alex says:
Sam… You live with Female roommate??? What is this a Seinfeld episode? Do yoo guys have velvet couch?
Apr.17 at 9:27 am
Esco says:
Also, Joakim Noah look like that dude Shleprock from Gym Class Heroes minus the tattoos and piercings, that would be a good Separated At Birth…
Apr.17 at 9:41 am
Esco says:
I am obviously bored…but I am at home and not on the job like most of these readers, you guys should be ashamed of yourselves…not doing what you are payed to do and doing what you should do (in other words, read Slamonline.com)…ahhh the weirdness of what I just said…
Apr.17 at 9:42 am
Boing Dynasty says:
Useless f*cking Knicks.
Apr.17 at 9:46 am
Esco says:
You guys should post of weekends, from home or something if that is possible…I need something to read when I am not outside roaming the streets…twice per writer on Saturdays and once on Sundays…MINIMUM! Ok, you guys will officially not like me, you won’t be able to say T.G.I.FRI-D.A.Y.!!!
Apr.17 at 9:56 am
Danny W UK says:
Totally unrelated to the article, but, anyone ever play NBA 2K7 Xbox 360 online? Add me gamertag CW484
Apr.17 at 9:59 am
Gilbert0 says:
Esco, sit the next couple of plays out
Apr.17 at 10:21 am
Esco says:
Want me to join you on the injured list Gilbert0??? Nah, I’m safe…
Apr.17 at 10:41 am
Sam Rubenstein says:
Work on the weekends? That is blasphemy. It says so in the bible.
Roommate=girlfriend. I just call her that to annoy her.
Entourage, I saw the season premier. It was okay, I just find E irritating. Gold was Gold as always.
Apr.17 at 10:45 am
Nadav Mor says:
Rockets-Jazz series. What is this, the late 90’s?
Apr.17 at 10:54 am
Lang Whitaker says:
Yes, he has a velvet couch.
Apr.17 at 11:02 am
Gilbert0 says:
I think he re-gifted, then he de-gifted and now he’s using an upstairs invite as a springboard to a superbowl sex romp!! Sorry, but that is one of my favourite all time line from Jerry.
Apr.17 at 11:03 am
Keith says:
Bring on the playoffs!!
Apr.17 at 11:08 am
Andres David says:
It’ll be funny to see the Wizards take the crown and Caron come out on crutches to receive his finals MVP trophy. E holds it down, you need a guy like that on your crew.
Apr.17 at 11:38 am
Sam Rubenstein says:
We had a Super Bowl party a few days after she moved in and there was no furniture. It was exactly like the Seinfeld where George gets the girl to ditch her male roommate.
Velvet? I wish.
Apr.17 at 12:01 pm
Phil B says:
i wish i could still watch seinfeld. can’t now because of kramer.
Apr.17 at 12:16 pm
albie1kenobi says:
i’m hoping suns is pulling out all their stops (or in their case, guns, but that would be insensitive because of the recent tragedy) tonight against the clips.
why?
one more clippers loss will mean warriors making the playoff. for the first time in eons.
Apr.17 at 12:28 pm
Cheryl says:
What, no love for the Heat-ers? They played last night, too, and we even got to see some really tall guy named Barron shoot the outside jumper a la Dirk. That’s O K A Y, every slight by the media is fuel to the Heat fire, baby! So, diss, diss, all you Mavs bandwagoners!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA (crazy, horror movie laugh)
Apr.17 at 12:29 pm
Shiz says:
I love the end of the year. that means the bums finally get some burn. And your prayers of “PUT SO-AND-SO IN!!” about the end of the bench-warmer are finally answered. I really hope the suns run outta juice, but I don’t see it happenening. Here’s hoping Ronny Turief gets his first Flagrant foul call against em…
Apr.17 at 12:55 pm
Benedict says:
Ahhhh.. 5 days more and its playoff time again. I seriously think Phoenix is getting out in the second round. No more WCF for them.
Apr.17 at 1:08 pm
albie1kenobi says:
there’s another big game tonight with mavs coming to bay area to play GSW again. normally a high seed should rest their regulars, but the mavs will most likely play the warriors in the playoff, and that the warriors have been beating the mavs the more than anyone the last two years, not to mention the fact that if they beat the warriors they can possibly avoid them in the first round.
so if you are avery johnson, how would you treat this game? damn i shoulda bought tix for this game.
Apr.17 at 1:41 pm
Mike says:
Joey Crawford suspended for remainder of season and all of the playoffs!! Wahooooooo! That chump deserved it
Apr.17 at 1:42 pm
white hot eboy says:
ESPN is reporting that Joey Crawford is suspended indefinitly! SternBot is not to be f@#cked with. “This is not a game people” His quote is great “Joey Crawford’s handling of this situation failed to meet the standards of professionalism and game management we expect of NBA referees,” NBA commissioner David Stern said. “Especially in light of similar prior acts by this official, a significant suspension is warranted. Although Joey is consistently rated as one of our top referees, he must be held accountable for his actions on the floor, and we will have further discussions with him following the season to be sure he understands his responsibilities.” Go Sternbot!!!!
Apr.17 at 11:13 pm
Jonathan says:
Sam I sent you some of my work last night. Check your e-mail.
Thanks