Ahira's Hangar

Well, it is that time again, for basketball.

Pistons made a huge trade (for Allen Iverson) that so far looks to be biting them in the butt, and they have only one win thus far this season since making the trade.

That's changing quickly, but I still worry-if the Pistons start to get "thuggy" it could get nasty, especially if Iverson and Wallace return to their "hood" roots. Danny Granger (UNM) is now leading the way for the Pacers with Jermain O'Neal in Toronto-his hook-up with PG T. J. Ford makes for an exciting combo-I heard that Granger got his front teeth knocked out in the second game but he scored 28 pts his next time out-that's tough.

I'm not sold on the addition of Matt Barnes to Phoenix, but he does bring good defensive skills and 3 pt shooting, very good for a pt half court team that involves Shaq . The Suns seem to be regressing back to the run and gun with Leandro Barbosa leading the team in scoring. I doubt that will last very long, but Amare Stoudemeier, Steve Nash and Barbosa can still fly.

I'm sorry to report that long time Detroit Pistons owner Bill Davidson has passed away.

The man gave over $100,000,000 to charities all over the world over the course of his life. The world will miss this quiet and classy man.

The playoffs are starting, unfortunately, the pundits are saying that the Pistons will get swept out by the Cavs. I'm so used to having the Suns in there that's it's tough for me to care. I'm not crying in my beer about the Suns, it's just that the less I play basketball the less I care about it. Yes I filled out my brackets, put I only watched part of the championship, and nothing else. I think I watched two Suns games and one Bulls/Heat game the entire season. I'm pulling for Portland because I absolutely love Brandon Roy. But, really, let's just scrap all this and have LeBron and Kobe duke it out...at least then we wouldn't have to wait for the middle of June...

Oh yes, we Detroiters are certain the Pistons will be swept. Watching LeBron James play against them will be like watching a huge college basketball star playing against a high school junior varsity team.

I am sure that Boston Celtics fans are hurting right now, since one of their main players is now out for the playoffs. Looks like little chance of a repeat for the Celtics.

Looks like the Cavs, Lakers and Mavericks have all made it to the next round. Houston and Denver are on the verge. I expected the Heat/Hawks and the Celtics/Bulls series to be tough but not the Orlando/Philly one. Very impressed with how long the 76ers have lasted-they are a strange team to figure out: no brand names, that's for sure-I do, however, think the Magic have turned the corner. Dwight Howard (something like 24 points 23 rebounds last night) is a very hard force to stop. I'm very impressed with Denver too-I've always thought George Karl was a very good coach. I thought there was more fight in Portland, but, hey, they're young-with one more key element they'll destroy the world in a couple of years.

Denver advances! Even Karl is mystified with these guys-Carmelo's curse has finally lifted.

How about dem Bulls? 3 of these games have been sent into OT, last night's triple OT win was decided by a block by Chicago's ROY Derrek Rose, despite Ray Allen scoring 51 points! Game seven in Boston Sunday. Contrary to the Mike & Mike rumor about Kevin Garnett pulling a Willis Reed act-Danny Ainge issued a statement saying that his knee injury will keep him out of game seven and for the rest of the season.

The Celtics/Bulls series has been amazingly good.

I watched the first game of the Nuggets/Mavericks series yesterday and DAM was it entertaining-Nene and Chris "the Bird: Anderson were amazing!!! Anderson had something like 6 blocks and just intimidated everyone, including Nowitski, on D. He's a very interesting character-he's gone from NBA drug suspensions to playing in Europe to the NBA development league (including one year with the NM Slam) and back to the NBA. Atlanta made it to the second round and that's notable, before LeBron steamrolls their ass. Orlando/Boston looks to be a great series too-Magic's point guard is out, it think, or at least they have a key injury-Dwight Howard is a force of nature. I'd love to see Houston beat the Lakers, but the odds of that happening are pretty...darn...slim.

Sad day. Coach of the infamous back to back champion Bad Boys Pistons Chuck Daly has passed away from pancreatic cancer. My sympathies to his friends and family.

The conference finals are set in basketball:

east:
Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Orlando Magic

west:
LA Lakers vs. Denver Nuggets

Watched the game last night, pretty good-Lakers won unfortunately, I'm reminded of why I don't like Kobe Bryant. Pulling for the Nuggets and Magic, probably won't get my way but...tonight's game should be great. Oh and the Clippers get the first pick in June's lottery.

Both of the conference finals series are all tied up at 1-1 games. All four games played thus far in the conference finals have been very close.

as the series stand:

East Cleveland 1 - Orlando 1

West LA 2 - Denver 1

Unfortunately the last two games played out exactly as I suspected with both LA and the Cavs winning. With LA up 3-2 I expect the Nuggets to put a serious beat down on them tonight and win the series in LA on Sunday. Yes, it's all my fault I watched the game until the Nuggets were up by 7 pts late in the 3rd, and then had to do something for about 5 minutes and came back at the end of the quarter to see the game tied. Frikin' Denver got 6 out of 7 turnovers in a row but couldn't score!!! 5 minutes into the 4th I knew the stupid Lakers had it.

Orlando is still up 3-2 as James kept the Cavs alive last night with a triple-double. I really want David Stearns' worst nightmare to happen: Nuggets/Magic in the championship!!!!