Hooped Up

Wow! The most racist thing I’ve seen in a newspaper this year has officially happened. This picture was taken for a Spanish newspaper and you got to wonder, what the hell was Spain thinking? The whole team posed in a racist, slanty-eyed gesture directed obviously directed at the Asian community for a freight company ad.

During the 2008  Beijing Olympics, in freakin’ China. Uh…ya, bad idea. The Spanish squad definetly went 1936 Berlin games on this one.

Not to condem the players (who obviously should know better) but who the heck was the 8 year old “genius” that let this go to publication?

The enite Spanish squad shoud get a free pair of Bad Idea Jeans for this one.

In a crazy series things went nuts again, as the Lakers hung on for a unlikely 98 - 103 win last night. The Lakers jumped on the Celtics early, leading by as much as 19 points again before the Celtics closed in at the half. Both teams were very sloppy combining for 35 turnovers.

Kobe Bryant finshed with 25 points followed by Lamar Odom who had another strong game posting 25 points and 11 rebounds. Paul Pierce had a great game leading the Celtics with 38 points and 8 assists in a losing effort that saw him go 16 - 19 from the line.

Down the strech the Lakers got very lucky and the Celtics couldn’t exicute missing key free throws and turnovers. Not to mention Doc Rivers had several miss cues in the roation he had on the floor, in the dying moments in the game.

The stage is now set for a game six in Boston for either the Celtics to close out the series. Or the Lakers to force a game 7 Tuesday night. No team has ever come back down three games to one in a series to win.

Hooped Up

Maybe the worst playoff collapse in Lakers history, or the best playoff comeback in Celtics history.  Take your pick. Either way, the Celtics were down by 18 at the half and at one point down by a 24 point margin to the Lakers.  Despite that the Celtics clawed back into the game and pulled out a 97 - 91 victory.

Paul Pierce led the Celtics with 20 points, while Ray Allen  was a key factor down the stretch with 19 points. Lamar Odom led the Lakers with 19 points while Kobe Bryant had 17 points and shot an abismal 6 - 19 from the field.

 The Celtics now only need only one more win for the series an will have a chance Sunday night at the Staples Center.

Well the chance of a sweep is gone as the Lakers won game three in the Staples Center on Tuesday 81 -87. It wasn’t as much that the Lakers won the game as the Celtics gave them the game. Kobe Bryant scored an efficient 36 points and had Ray Allen looking like he was on skates all night.  Sasha Vujucic was on fire all night for a playoff high of 20 points.

The Celtics for the most part with the exception of Ray Allen offensively two thirds of the big three could not hit anything. Kevin Garnett was 6-21 from the field for 13 points, and Paul Pierce was 2-14 from the field for 6 points.

Despite this woeful shooting the Celtics remained close right to the end, and still had a chance to win as the fourth quarter came to  the final whistle.

If the Celtics forget to show up tonight look for the series to be knotted at two a piece tonight.

After leaving the game with a knee injury Paul Pierce came out of the tunnel from the locker room and led the Celtics to a 98-88 win over the Lakers in Game 1 of the NBA finals.

Kevin Garnett was a beast that had his way with Pau Gasol all night scoring 24 points, Pierce finished with 22, and Ray Allen added 19 for the Celtics. The next game is in Boston Sunday.

Hooped Up

Now missing three injured 7-foot centers after Pau Gasol’s ankle buckled Friday night, it seems physically impossible for the injury-plagued Lakers to keep standing so tall. If Gasol misses the next two weeks, as seems likely, while fellow centers Andrew Bynum and Chris Mihm remain out, the focus for the Lakers might even shift from lording over the Western Conference to just making the playoffs as a top-eight qualifier. Upon losing, 108-98, to the New Orleans Hornets after Gasol went down in the opening minutes, the Lakers dropped into a tie with Houston for the West lead — and they’re six games ahead of Denver, ninth in the West.

Orange County Register

The Commercial Appeal has learned that the Grizzlies have traded Pau Gasol to the Los Angeles Lakers for center Kwame Brown, rookie guard Javaris Crittenton and first-round draft picks in 2008 and 2010. The decision was made that the Grizzlies could no longer move forward with Gasol on and off the basketball court.

Memphis Commercial Appeal

Before Kobe Bryant, Shawn Marion and Andrei Kirilenko made it popular to have your organization completely ignore your public trade demand, there was Pau Gasol. Gasol is still in Memphis, where he doesn’t really want to be so long as the Grizzlies keep losing. But he won’t ask for a trade again, because he knows where that got him last year. Nowhere. Memphis tried to move Gasol near the trade deadline last February, but got greedy in its attempt to raid the Chicago Bulls of nearly every talented piece they had, most notably Luol Deng. A year later, Gasol has his name tossed in trade rumors after almost every Grizzlies loss.

Washington Post

With the Kobe Bryant trade talks apparently on hold for now, Bulls general manager John Paxson should turn his attention to Pau Gasol and gauge the chances of making a deal for the Memphis Grizzlies big man. Gasol isn’t nearly as talented as Bryant and I can’t see any scenario in which fans at the United Center would begin chanting his name, but he’d give the Bulls their first legitimate low-post scorer since Eddy Curry was dealt a little more than two years ago — and would come at a much cheaper price than what the Los Angeles Lakers are asking for Bryant.