Seriously. I was reading about an interview with former Hawks beat writer Sekou Smith this morning and he said that only Zasa and fucking Randolph Morris showed up for Jamal Crawford when he received the 6th man award. To me that's one of the most team oriented awards there is because dude could start somewhere else and just keeps his mouth shut. Woodson, no one in management came? WTF? That, to me, says everything you need to know about the leadership on this team. If Woodson wasn't going to tell them to go then the team leader should've. But no one did. Hence no leadership.

I'm done with Woodson for good no matter the outcome of this series.

I was against keeping him after last year for exactly what we are seeing play out right now.

dallas mavs. shitting the bed since...forever.

now i jinxed ft. good work by me.

What do Portland fans think of Roy being rushed back so soon? I think it's kind of idiotic, he had surgery, what 2 weeks ago?

most doctors seem to think that this miniscus tear he had isnt the type of thing that makes it real risky to bring him back. if it was up to me, i'd probably not bring him back, just because this series was over before it began. no real upside to playing him.

Injuries or none, that was a piss poor effort from Portland. With Phoenix doubling most of the time, on EVERY possession there was an open Portland guy if they just rotated the ball quick enough. Jerryd Bayless in particular was just awful. I don't know if it was Macmillan's fault for not recognising how easy a game that was to win if only he wanted to, or if the players just didn't show up, but that was pretty woeful.

And Phoenix truly are terrible if they only won that game by nine. Worst playoff game I've watched this postseason.

teams have been doubling Roy and Lamarcus for a year and a half and the Blazers have yet to figure out how to handle it yet. Not sure if its coaching, the players, or both, but they have a real inability to deal with it. Houston did the exact same thing last year in the playoffs and it worked just as well. In the regular season, the teams that did it generally beat the Blazers too. All in all, though, 50 wins and taking a clearly superior Suns team to 6 games considering all the injuries isn't all that bad.

Some big decisions in the next year or two on players and coaching staff, though. Will be interesting to see what happens.

I don't think that Suns team was significantly superior, even with the injuries. It's pretty hard to win in the post season in 2010 with their style of play. Consider Phoenix really only barely won that game, with Portland having terrible, terrible rotation on both ends of the floor.

A limping Jason Richardson beating Jerryd Bayless down the floor for that alley oop really told the story of that game. I think they just wanted this season to be over and move the hell on.

All the injury turmoil on top of that whole Kevin Pritchard mess just was too much to overcome. Also i think bringing back Roy was a bad idea, and without him they might have won. An injured Roy is another passive jumpshooter, something the Blazers certainly didn't need, and I think without him Andre Miller would have capitalised more on the significant advantage he had at that position.

I just couldn't believe the fact I heard this morning that this is the first time in Grant Hill's 15-year career that he's reached the second round. That seems crazy to me.

I heard on "Mike & Mike" this morning that the Mavs are the only team with 10 straight 50-win seasons to never win a championship during their run. In fact, the other teams that have runs like that have actually won multiple championships. The Red Auerbach/Bill Russell Celtics won 9 titles in their 10-year run of 50-win seasons. The Magic/Kareem Lakers won 5 in their run, and the Spurs have won 3 during their run (their 4th title was during a shortened year). Ouch.

You're welcome, Jerry.

He won't see the third.

not superior? their starters were clearly better at 4 positions: PG (Nash vs. Miller), SG (Richardson vs. injured Roy or Fernandez/Bayless), SF (Grant Hill vs. an injured Batum), PF (Stoudamire vs. Aldridge). Center was fairly close with Collins and Frye vs. Camby running around with a sprained ankle and Juwan Howard.

Game Seven, here we come!

Haha. Gotdamnit, I can't quit you Hawks.

I wanna 'pologize clear back to when I hit you the first time.

Stupid Bucks... just when I thought you had pulled it off, you go back to remembering Bogut is out. Congrats to the Hawks. Now, get prepared for the Magic to whoop you... .

They coulda done some real damage with Bogut in.

That last month they were playing as good a brand of basketball I've seen any team play all year.

carlos boozer sort of sucks

He had his moments. But when the whole Laker inside is playing well - Bynum, Gasol, Odom - they can make other teams' power forwards and centers look bad. If the Cavs and Lakers do play (I hope, I hope, I hope) of course what Kobe can do v. what James will do will be the focus, but if the Lakers win it'll be because Gasol scores, blocks, rebounds, and Bynum and Odom clog up the inside. Don't you think Gasol has the best hands of a big man ever? Who else?

he had his moments except getting punked over the last 8 minutes by Odom.

gasol is good, not great.

We'll see. Hawks have to take one of those first two games on Orlando to have any chance.

Hakeem, Garnett and Duncan come to mind but yeah, Pau has some freakish skills.


Hawks did today what they should have been doing the whole series: Play defense, run, don't take your foot off the gas. The Bucks were done by the beginning of the 4th. Good team though with a lot of heart. With a Bogut/Jennings nucleus, they are one more good player away from being something real big. That Jennings is fucking nuts.

I'm hoping the Hawks can at least make a series out of it with the Tragic. My strategy would be to have Zaza come out and lay some dirty shit on Howard early. Unfortunately, the guy they have no answer for is Jameer Nelson. If they can't scheme him, dude is going to put up numbers.