2011 PLAYOFFS !

NBA PLAYOFFS START THIS WEEKEND!

So it is that time of the year again, where the top teams compete for the one thing that they had their mind on the entire season: the champion. Playoffs are finally here and the Finals will be in June. Here is a preview of the teams that will be featured in this year’s post season. 

I like the beginning of this clip showing players quotations and how they express themselves. However, I don’t really like the song because I feel it doesn’t bring enough intensity and excitement about the NBA.

Anyhow, here are my Round 1 predictions and why.

Eastern Conference:

Chicago [1] vs. Indiana [8] (Bulls won season series 3-1): I think Chicago will definitely beat the Pacers maybe even a sweep in Round 1. The Bulls has a better team overall and have good momentum coming into playoffs. Derrick Rose will lead the team pass the 8^th seed. Pacers are good enough just to make the playoffs but aren’t any better to even get out of Round 1. Therefore I say Bulls in 5 or less.

Miami [2] vs. Sixers [7] (Miami won season series 3-0): As much as I do not like Miami, I’m pretty sure they will defeat the Sixers to move onto Round 2. Although the Sixers have been playing extremely well coming off the All-Star break, its playoffs time, with their lack of experience and not being as talented as the Heat, they won’t move on to Round 2. Miami with their big 3: Wade, LeBron and Bosh, will for sure defeat the Sixers. I say Miami probably in 6 or less. However, I do hope Sixers can win, maybe miracles happen. But this is only because I personally do not like the Heats …

Boston [3] vs. New York [6] (Boston won season series 4-0): I hate the Celtics, I can’t emphasize that enough. However, this will be a great matchup to watch since New York did the blockbuster trade right before NBA trade deadline where they added superstar Carmelo Anthony and Billups along side with Stoudemire. But with bias put aside, I honestly think Boston will pull out the victory and move onto Round 2 because Boston overall is a great playoff team and the chemistry of the new Knicks might not be enough to defeat the Celtics. Although Stoudemire did say he plays better during playoffs, I think Celtics play at their best during Playoffs. Celtics are able to win even if it has to be taken to 7 games. Therefore, I say Boston probably in 6.

Orlando [4] vs. Atlanta [5] (Orlando won season series 3-1): The 4-5 matchups are always the most exciting to watch due to both teams ranking so closely. Atlanta has been a playoff team for the past couple seasons and their young talent are starting to bond and mature together as team. However, I still don’t think they got what it takes to get pass Dwight Howard and the rest of Orlando. But it will be a long series since both team have the talent there, I say Orlando in 6.

Western Conference:

San Antonio [1] vs. Memphis [8] (Season series tied 2-2): With Manu Ginobli skipping out Round 1 with an hyper extended injury, I still think the Spurs have more than enough weapons to beat out Memphis. Memphis was very fortunate this year to even make playoffs. Their team isn’t bad, however just not at the top, especially with their star Rudy Gay out for the season. Their only weapons are Randolph, Conley and Marc Gasol. But due to their inconsistency, they aren’t ready to head to Round 2 and unable to. I say Spurs in 5 or less.
 

LA Lakers [2] vs. New Orleans [7] (Lakers won season series 4-0): LA! My favorite team. Obviously I will be rooting for the Lakers. However, without any bias, it is quite obvious that the Lakers will definitely beat the Hornets easily. Lakers have superstar Kobe Bryant along with two statues aside him, Gasol and Bynum. The Hornets have talented PG Chris Paul, however, it is obvious that just alone Paul will get nowhere near defeating the defending champs. Hornets for the past couple seasons has been doing well enough just to get into the post season, however, they are far from what it takes to win a championship. And in this matchup, it is not a question whether they will win or not. Lakers in no more than 5.

Dallas [3] vs. Portland [6] (Season series tied 2-2): This will be a great matchup to watch! Although Portland is ranked lower than Dallas, I don’t think they are the underdogs though. Portland is filled with so much young talent, and the team already had a few season for everyone to bond together and get injuries out the way. I believe underdog Portland will be able to take on the Mavericks. Mavericks like every year is one of the top teams in the West, however, they don’t really go far before getting knocked out the playoffs. Even though Dirk Nowitzski is great along side with Jason Kidd and Shawn Marion, I think Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge can get pass them. Portland is a little inexperience when it comes to playoffs, but the talent is definitely there. I will be rooting for and believing that the underdogs Portland can take this series and win in 7.

Oklahoma City [4] vs. Denver [5] (Thunder won series 3-1): Denver finishing up in the #5 spot is surprise even after superstar Carmelo Anthony and PG Billups have left the team. However, the team seems to be playing more smooth and in sync without those 2. Although they do seem like a threat to OKC right now, I still believe with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook will take down the Nuggets. Even Denver is playing extremely well with the new players, OKC not bad either with the addition of big man Perkins. From a bias point of view, I would like Denver to win because I feel OKC can be a threat to LA later on the playoffs, but realistically I say OKC in 6.

Lets the Playoffs begin! By the way, what are YOUR predictions?

Fantasy Basketball Playoffs !

Do any of you play fantasy basketball on YAHOO! or ESPN? Well what fantasy basketball is pretty much you draft your own NBA team compiled of many NBA players and total the statistics. Statistics includes many categories, such as points, field goal percentage, field goals made, field goals attempts, free throw percentage, rebounds, blocks, steals, assists, turnovers, etc. 

So every week for about 22 weeks or so, you manage your own team by adding and dropping players to accumulate the most stats to match up against your weekly opponents. Most leagues draft their teams before the season starts, and fantasy playoff times is always before the actual NBA playoffs. 

This year in YAHOO! Fantasy Basketball, I am in two different leagues. So I have two teams to manage. Around this time of year is the typically Fantasy Basketball Playoff week! Both my teams managed to make the playoffs. Each league typically has about 12 teams and normally top 6 goes into the playoff bracket.

Here’s a picture of how the match up looks like with the stat categories. My team is ‘Kobe Land is Great !’

click to enlarge the picture.

As you can see, it is pretty much an average of your entire team and the compilation of each player’s night to night statistics for the week. 

Here’s a picture of what the roster look like. 

click to enlarge the picture.

It has each player and their individual stats for the week and it is easy to compare to your opponents side by side.

This year I’m not that satisfy with my team because it isn’t as good as I want it to be. I used the wrong draft strategy by drafting 3 rookies and ending up dropping 2 of them. This is my 4^th year playing fantasy basketball, and for the past 3 years, my draft pick was pretty high. This year I got booted all the way to the end. Therefore I wasn’t able to draft my favorite player Kobe Bryant. There’s no correlation here, but maybe mentally I believe that if I have Kobe on my team, I have a higher chance of winning and overall I would just like my team more since my favorite player is on it.  

Another factor that effects fantasy teams a lot is injuries. The likelihood of athletes getting injured is very high. So in fantasy, when a player gets injured, we either drop them or pick up a free agent or we wait for them to get back in the lineup which can take from week to months. For example, about two weeks ago, Rudy Gay injured his shoulder, a week later the doctors concluded he will have to undergo a season ending injury. Therefore there is no point in keeping him on the roster cause he won’t be playing for the rest of the year.

For week 1 in playoffs, my team hit a major bad luck streak. Four of my starters got injured L Players like Rudy Gay, Luis Scola, Aaron Affalo, and Deron Williams. I was pretty sad because I don’t know how I will make it past round 1, but luckily the free agents I picked up performed on par, therefore I’m not onto round 2. However, these backups don’t look like they will consistently perform well, so I probably will not make it to the champions.

Also in YAHOO! Fantasy sports on our own player profile; we get a Trophy displayed next to our name if we finish top 3. Sadly, I only have 2 trophies; both are second places from 2007 and 2009. This year I might be able to fight for the bronze, but we will see what happens. But I will definitely come up with new strategy next year and try to win it all. One of these days, I will finish on the top spot …

Bollywood Night !

On March 16, 2010, the Golden State Warriors held NBAs first ever Bollywood Night! The Warriors are the first sports team ever to hold a culture event like this. I was lucky to join in on the festivities since I attended that game as well. This game was also broadcasted on national television on ESPN as well as broadcasted live in India! Meaning all the fans in India was able to witness this great event and game happening as well! Too bad Warriors lost though …

The game was at Oracle Arena vs. Dallas Mavericks. Everyone that attended the game got free t-shirts too. On the front of the shirt, it says 'Got Curry?' and on the back is a big logo saying 'Bollywood Night'. 

During the game, in between time outs and halftime, there were many cultural performances. The Warriors Girls even dressed up and performed cultural dances. And during post game, they had American Idol finalist Anoop Desai to perform two songs lives as well. Fans were able to sit in the lower level and watch the post game show if they wanted to stay. Not only did they have American Idol star to sing, the Warriors also had a Q&A session with Stephen Curry post game along side with Warriors Vice Chairman Vivek Ranadivé, the first Indian-born member of an NBA ownership group.

Here is a link to the Highlights from the night :  NBA Videos

I think Warriors did really well by having a first ever Bollywood Night. Throughout the season there are always many Heritage nights and events, but no one has came up with this idea yet. And there are a lot of Indians that love sports as well. Even the LA Lakers hasn't had an event like this before. And as an attendee, I must say this event was very successful. Normally during post game, everyone leaves already and no one wants to stay behind due to it being late, and not wanting to be stuck in traffic. Surprisingly, lower box sections 116-119 was actually filled completely. A friend of mine that works for the Warriors said that normally for post game events, they only open up one section, but for this event they opened up 4 and surprisingly fans stayed behind for the Q&A as well as the music performance.

Maybe the San Francisco Giants should have a Bollywood Night as well, since they are big on having Heritage Nights as well. The Giants last year had it first Thai Night. It would only be fair to have a Heritage Night for all heritages in every sport.

Sprite Commercial !

Have you seen the new Sprite Commercial for Asia yet? Well last week was when the commercial was filmed in LA. Really cool collaboration going on; we have Jay Chou and Kobe Bryant working together. Let’s take a look at the commercial:

So for those who do not know who Jay Chou is, he is a very popular singer, music composer, and actor from Taiwan. But for those who have watched movie "The Green Hornet” will probably remember him as Kato. He was the personal mechanic and martial arts expert in the movie.

I think this is a very cool collaboration because it brings different cultures together. I've always listened to Jay Chou's music and watch his films, but I didn’t know he was into basketball though. I never really read or heard anything about him even being interested in basketball. The two didn’t just collaborate for a commercial; Kobe is also featured in Jay Chou’s new single. In the making of the music video, it is quite hilarious to see the mini petite Jay Chou compared to the huge Kobe Bryant. Jay Chou kept getting swatted left and right every time he tries to put a shot. However, the skateboarding to dunk scene was a little silly though. This is the parts of the new single and all the scenes from shooting the commercial:

As for Kobe, he is very popular is Asia. He has a lot of fans there. Kobe was in Asia during the Olympics in 2008 at Beijing. He spent his 30^th birthday there. And many fans were there to cheer for him during exhibition games and such. Here’s Kobe cutting his cake that year =)

In 2009 during the NBA off season, he toured all over Asia. He held basketball camps and was just playing basketball with the locals at local playgrounds. He was also giving away free Kobe shoes to a lot of people. He even went to the Hong Kong Disneyland during his stay. 

Although it is cool to see a special commercial like this, there is still something weird about it. Sprite used to have a contract with Kobe back in the days. It wasn’t until about 2003 where Kobe was stuck with a court case regarding sexual assault in Colorado. Shortly after that happened, Sprite decided to use a different athlete to promote their product. They went with LeBron James at the time, shortly after he came into the league. Now after years since the court case, Kobe’s public image is restored already. So the Coca Cola company probably finally got over the old news and decided to use Kobe to promote their product Sprite again and this time along with Jay Chou, since this is pretty much being broadcast all over Asia. And the company knows that Asia loves their local artist Jay Chou and the fans in Asia love to watch Kobe. Therefore, piecing them together would be a great way to advertise and market. See what winning more championships can do, it brings up the popularity of an athlete even more, and a good way for companies to use them as a marketing tool.

New Knicks : Anthony & Billups

NBA trade deadline have just passed last Thursday. One of the major transactions was Denver’s Carmelo Anthony. For the past few months, rumors have been going around talking about which team he will end up with. Denver has offered to extend his contract multiple times but it was obvious Carmelo doesn’t want to stay with Denver anymore. There were talks about him going to New York, New Jersey, and even to the Lakers. Well the wait is finally over; Carmelo is now officially with the New York Knicks. Here is an article regarding the blockbuster trade happening. Knicks finally land Anthony.

Even though Chauncey Billups was part of this trade, often times, people forget about him. All the attention went to Carmelo. But lets not forget that Billups is known as Mr. Big Shot. He makes shot when it counts the most. And also, back in 2004, he was part of the championship team in Detroit.

So Anthony has been with the Nuggets for 7 and half years now. They haven’t won a championship within these years. They got close in 2009 by making it to the Western Conference Finals; however they fell short to the Lakers. Their team made playoffs yearly, but they just didn’t have enough to go all the way.

The Knicks starting lineup went from:

- Landry Fields

- Raymond Felton

- Timofey Mozgov

- Danilo Gallinari

- Amare Stoudemire

To the new improved:

- Chauncey Billups

- Landry Fields

- Amare Stoudemire

- Carmelo Anthony

- Shawne Williams

The trade worked perfect for the Knicks. Their roster is stacked with talent now and will enable them to become legitimate contenders in the Eastern Conference now. With Billups, Anthony, and Stoudemire paired together, they will become threats. However, even with the improved team, they still have to worry because of other elite teams such as Miami, Orlando, Chicago, and Celtics, all within their conference.

With the new team put together, the game today against Miami was a good test to see how these teams compare and matchup. New York ends up edging Miami in the final minute with good defense. Here is a quick recap of the game: NY 91 - MIA 86. We could tell that the chemistry with the new team still isn’t quite there yet, however with time, they should be fine. Billups and Anthony been playing together for a few seasons together in Denver already, they will just have to incorporate all the other guys on the team. The Miami Heats has been a threat since summer when free agency went wild and landed LeBron James and Chris Bosh onto the same team as Dwayne Wade. The Heats been in the talks all year and competing teams been making trades and upgrades to roster just to match them up. The Heats are projected to win the Finals this year. But it looks like they will have some good competition before reaching there. The new Knicks will be one of the contending teams; we shall see how far they can go with all the heavy competition in the Eastern Conference.

As for the Nuggets, losing their star Carmelo and Chauncey Billups, they will just have to be in the re-build mode. But even if they somehow got Carmelo to stay with them, it wouldn’t do them any good. Both Carmelo and Denver’s coach George Karl aren’t happy with each other. And when there is dispute between coaches and players, the team will not win. So Denver is better off parting with Carmelo. They will just have to make new investments and hopefully the players already on the team can step it up and take the team into playoffs once again.

2011 All-Star MVP Kobe Bryant !

The NBA 2011 All-Star Game was just last week. It was a great game; it got very competitive in the 4^th quarter. I of course was rooting for the West since my favorite basketball player is Kobe Bryant. The West this year was considered as underdogs, however they were still able to win the game with great talents. 

The All-Star game was held at the Staples Center in LA, Kobe’s home court. So of course he would put on a show. We can all tell since the beginning of the game he was trying to go for MVP. Typically whichever conference wins, the player with the most points scored in the game from that conference would win MVP for the game. Kobe scored 11 pts in the 1^st quarter, 10 pts in the 2^nd quarter, 13 pts in the 3^rd quarter, and 3 pts in the final quarter to total 37 pts for the entire game.  Although arguments say that Kevin Durant should have gotten MVP because he was the main reason why the West was able to hold onto their lead in the 4^th quarter, Kobe overall had a better performance. Durant wasn’t far behind with his 30+ pt game as well, but Kobe was more outstanding of course.

Here is a short clip of the action in the 3^rd quarter.
 

LeBron was on chase down towards Kobe, and Kobe was still able to dunk the ball in. One of the funny parts was when Kobe slapped LeBron in the behind after the play. And following that play, another turnover and Kobe was able to convert that turnover into a swoosh 3 pointer. MVP status indeed. LeBron didn't do too bad himself either, he recorded a triple double for the game, just that his conference lost the game.

I was happy to see Kobe receiving his 4^th All-Star MVP award; he is now tied with Bob Pettit for most All-Star MVPs =) Now all Kobe has to do is try to win another All-Star MVP within the next few seasons then he will hold the record at the #1 spot for most All-Star MVP awards. How awesome would that be right? 

Kobe’s first All-Star MVP was back in 2002 when the game was held in Philadelphia. It was sad that year, because even though he won the award, the fans in the arena BOOed him. It was harsh for him since Philadelphia is his hometown after all. His 2^nd award came in 2007 when the game was held in Vegas. Not only did Kobe win All-Star MVP that year, he also won league’s MVP award as well for the entire season. The only down part to that season was he lost to the Celtics in the NBA Finals, or else it would literally feel like Kobe’s year to win everything. Right after the finals that year, Kobe and the U.S Olympic Team brought home the Gold that year too … so if only he had won the Finals that year, it would be the perfect career year for him. The 3^rd award came in 2009 at Phoenix Arena; however, he was Co-MVPs along with Shaq. I thought that was kind of whack, Kobe should have the award to himself … And finally the tying history award came last Sunday. 

It is great to watch Kobe achieve so much through his career, especially since I been following and watching him since he arrived in the league in 1997. Because I am a huge fan of Kobe, you might see some bias in my future blogs towards him …

Remember the Name

Everytime I watch NBA on TV I still always remember the playoff theme song from back in 2006. The song they used for most NBA commercials promoting on TNT was Fort Minor – Remember the Name. I thought the chorus part of this song matched the intensity of basketball very well.

 “This is ten percent luck, twenty percent skill

Fifteen percent concentrated power of will

Five percent pleasure, fifty percent pain

And a hundred percent reason to remember the name”

This mini clip shows a little bit of the different players in the league. Since it is a commercial for playoffs, it pretty much only showed players from the top teams. It showcased players such as Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade, Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James, Tim Duncan, Steve Nash, etc.

It is obvious this commercial was from a few years back because if we are speaking of up to date, a lot of things would not match in the clip. Kobe Bryant from the Lakers is no longer # 8, Shaquille O’Neal isn’t with Miami, LeBron  James parted with Cleveland, Pau Gasol was clean shaved, Vince Carter is no longer with New Jersey, etc.

I really like this short clip because it shows highlights and great footage of how exciting playoff basketball can be. From slam dunks to crossovers, from the skills and special talents displayed by every NBA star, to just the entire atmosphere of the game, it is exciting and entertaining as a whole. And the song played perfect into this whole theme and idea, the song itself had a great upbeat and feels very motivating. Even till now, 5 years later, when NBA playoffs come around, this song is one of the first things I think of.

Intro.

Hi my name is Rosanna. I am a senior at SF State majoring in Hospitality Management. One of my main interests are sports such as the NBA. I started watching the NBA since I was in 5th grade. I like to play basketball as well as watch how others play the sport.


[This is me at a Warriors vs. Lakers game, the ESPN NBA bus was at Oracle Arena that year so I had the chance to take a picture with it. Do Bill Walton and Kenny Smith look they're really sitting next to me?]

My topics mainly will be based off of the NBA because that is something I keep up with regularly. My blogs will be my perspective and opinions expressing and responding to sports articles and news regarding basketball and basketball players whether its on or off the court. Or it could just be some random thoughts : NBA Random Blobs :)