The saddest stat of all

[thecampster]

That at 7 and 16, the hawks are only 3.5 games out of the playoffs. The east just sucks this year. It sucks bad.

[Gray Mule]

So, there is hope!!

Much as I would love to see these Hawks over .500

they have a long way to go to get there now after

such a terrible start.

Never - Never - Won back-to-back games this season.

It WILL happen. We see such a great team {Our last win}

and then we can't sustain it {Our last loss}

Hawks are good -- Just not good enough - Not yet, any way.

But, we, the Hawk's fans, keep hanging in there, hoping

that something good will come about.

Now, about that kid and MILLER TIME coming friday night.

He ALWAYS seems to come on big when he sees the Hawks.

Can we expect any thing less this time?

[cyman3]

i was just thinkin... if we won like 3-4 more games, we'd be in a great position to make the playoffs... LOL

but on a serious note, look how STRONG the west is... the SUCKIEST TEAM (clippers? suns?) would be playoffbound in the east...

i really believe that

[Gray Mule]

Everyone says, All teams in the west are superior to almost

all the teams in the east.

All teams, both east and west, operate under the same

salary cap. The luxury tax works the same for all teams,

both east and west.

The draft of players is set up so that the weaker teams

get first choice.

Yet, despite all this, all west coast {Well, almost all} teams

are far superior to ANY team from the east.

Since we are from the east, it is not home town talk,

not, "My dog's better than your dog because my dog

eats Kennel Ration" type of thing.

Someone please explain this thing to me. Why can't

any of the eastern teams, year after year, measure up

to the western teams? After while, we develop a complex.

We are the weak minded branch of the family tree that

no one wants to admit knowing.

CAN SOME ONE HELP ME HERE??? PLEASE !!!!!!

[Diesel]

The interesting thing is that it has always been a difference, but the difference is in the Positions...

Right now.

All the best Cs and PFs are in the West and all the best PG/SGs are in the Easts (for the most part)...

C/PFs...

Shaq, Yao, Malone, Webber, KG, Nene, Stoudamire, Randolph, Wallace, Duncan, Walker, Jamison, Dampiere, Brand, Kaman....etc.

SG/PGs...

Tmac, Carter, Iverson, Houston, B. Davis, Kidd, Terry, R. Miller, Artest, Rose, Crawford...

Now, there are some exception like Kobe, Allen, and Francis as well as Reef, ONeal, and Curry... However, for the most part, it's a positional difference..

For instance:

Take PF... Take the best four from each conference.

Duncan, KG, Webber, and Malone.. West.

Oneal, Reef, Wallace, and Kmart... East.

What do you have in comparison... 4 guys who are 25/11 players are better vs. 4 guys who are 20/9 players... And Wallace is a C.... BUt there aren't many others that we can call out...

Style wise, the West style is more Physical.

Do the same with SGs...

AI, Tmac, Carter, and Pierce .... East.

Bryant, Allen, Spreewell, and Maggette.... West.

As you can see it's hard to find 4 guys in the west that can even compete on paper with the East's SGs.

The problem is that in Basketball, the PF/C rules. Eastern teams need to try to be more Physical to compete with the West BUT they Still have to have the Gaurd Play to match up with the East...

So what we have had in these weaker years is a more balanced team coming out of the East to play an ultraPhysical team from the West.

NJ is somewhat balanced because there's Kidd and Kmart... With Collins at C. That is what gets them out of the East because they resemble Western teams enough (with Scott's trapping defense) that they can score with Eastern teams and apply enough defense to get pass...

BUT.. When they play SA or LAL they get beat because they can't match up with the Physical game that the West brings. The west beats NJ at it's own game. Truly, it would have been better had Boston went. Not that Boston could have beaten the Lakers or the Spurs, But Boston played such an east coast, Gaurd oriented game that they would have made whichever team have to change it's slow down game...

The greatest example that we find is when AI took the 76ers to the championship game. They beat the Lakers in game 1 and could have done more damage had the refs not become such a big factor. At the time the 76ers were a team that had much guard play. So much so that they didn't focus on trying to score in the paint... This really hurt the Lakers.. None of their guards could match Iverson... But the Refs got loose in games 2-5 and they allowed LUE to hold Iverson. They allowed Shaq to drop Shoulders on Deke and Geiger so what happened is that the Lakers became that Physically dominant team that always wins...

This year, the East's best shot is Indy. Indy is Physical enough to match all of the Western teams. With Foster, ONeal, and Artest.. Indy is a West team in disguise...

The other thing is that the Kings are their opposite. The Kings are a very strong Eastern like team. They have Gaurd play and are not Physically imposing like the Lakers and the Spurs. The Western Playoffs should be interesting. When the Kings beat the Lakers, the whole world will be shook...

[cyman3]

i agree... Indy has the best chance out in the EAST...

and if thats the situation... Indy vs La/Sa... i will be rootin for the pacers...

[TheDude]

we;re only 3.5 games behind the playoffs? oh man, the east is bad...we could actually make the playoffs..wow...

if we can, even if we aren't .500, that would be huge because it's the first step in a winning attitude..

[macdaddy]

Last week the spurs were in last place in their division and if they had been in the Atlantic they would have been in first. I'm not sure if its still that way.

It seems like all the young new owners who have money to burn are in the west. Probably because of the technology boom.

Diesel is dead on about the sixers-lakers series. The lakers are great but part of the reason shaq dominates is he's allowed to throw guys around. Not many agree with me but if he was not allowed to get away with so much contact how would he dominate? He's not particularly good at any bball skills. Any contested shot outside the lane is a brick.

[Diesel]

That's why it's a no brainer about who would have won between Shaq's Lakers and MJ's Bulls. The Bulls would have demolished the Lakers.... Easily.

Namely because Shaq would not be given the liberty to commit the offensive foul as much as he does... Ask Mourning about that.

IN fact, I can tell you what would have happened. Kobe would have disappeared like he did against PTL, IND, and Phil... Pippen would have put the pinpoint defense on him and made him submit. Rodman would have fustrated Shaq to tears. And MJ would play his brand of 2 on 1 defense.

Defensively, the Bulls would have slowed down the game and Kerr would have dropped 3s and Jordan would have career numbers in touch fouls.

Many people don't realize it, but the Lakers are the biggest group of propaganda ever made up by NBA/NBC... If you look over every major series that the Lakers have played, they have had help...

Pacers- The Pacers were Physically beat up by the Lakers. Smits still don't know how it's allowed that Shaq could commit a blatant offensive foul and not get a call and sometimes recieve a trip to the charity line...

PTL - goes to game 7... However, Wallace is thrown out of game 1 becuase he looks at a ref the wrong way?? Has this rule ever been repeated? I have seen MJ point the big finger in the ref face and not even get a tech...

76ers - an Injured and weaker 76er team played against LAL and if not for Lue being able to mug AI, the Lakers would not have stopped him. I got this series on tape, Game 1 is far different from the rest of the games. AI is mugged, grabbed, groped, and held by Lue... no ref calls. Geiger and Deke were punished by Shaq and the shoulder drop...

Sacramento - This is a weird series. Sac-Town is winning and about to send the Lakers home.. But in Sacramento, game 6, the Lakers recieved more foul calls than a team has ever been allowed in the History of the playoffs???

Check this out...

In reply to:

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No question about it. The officiating in the recently concluded Kings-Lakers series was biased, and it was a major factor in the outcome of the series. It’s an open secret that NBA officials show favoritism to established stars, and since the Lakers have the two biggest stars in the game, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, the officiating in the series favored the Lakers. Throw in the fact that the NBA makes a lot more money when L.A., the biggest TV market in the country, goes to the finals, and you’ve got grounds for a conspiracy theory to rival anything on The X-Files.

Is this sour grapes? We don’t think so. No less an authority than Lakers coach Phil Jackson stated that “the Kings deserved to win,” and many commentators around the country have agreed. And as for referees, it was O’Neal who spilled the beans.

After Game 2, a Kings victory, O’Neal said, “If the outcome is going to be predicted WWF-style [now known as WWE], let me know so I’m not out there busting my butt for nothing. Those who understand the game know what really went on.” O’Neal was saying that the NBA had scripted the outcome in the same way that professional wrestling leagues do. Rather than see Sacramento trail two games to none and watch the TV ratings go in the dumper, O’Neal implied the league had given the game to the Kings.

The tables quickly turned, however, as Sacramento gained confidence and became the aggressor, winning Game 3 and jumping to a 24-point lead in the first half of Game 4. Then, as if scripted WWF-style, the Lakers made a remarkable comeback, aided by an officiating crew that counted a three-point shot at the end of the first half even though it had clearly been released after time expired, then didn’t call fouls as the Lakers instated a brutal, bump-and-run full-court press. When the Lakers won on a dramatic, last-second shot, it was obvious that the officiating had been a deciding factor.

The trend continued, as O’Neal miraculously avoided foul trouble despite his bone-jarring style of play and Kings defenders racked up fouls. Why? And why, with the Kings trailing by one and just seconds remaining in Game 6, when Bryant ran over the Kings’ Mike Bibby, elbowing him in the face as he tried to break free of Bibby’s defense, was no foul called? Why didn’t Bibby go to the foul line with a chance to win the game?

Veteran coach Rick Majerus, writing on the series for the Los Angeles Times, explained it this way: “This is a fact of life. The referees won’t acknowledge it, may not even know it outwardly. But there is a pecking order in the game. The stars get treated better.” In other words, Kobe and Shaq got the calls because they’re stars.

That’s not basketball. That’s WWF-style melodrama, and it shouldn’t be tolerated. This year, it cost the best team--and the best fans--a trip to the finals. Commissioner David Stern needs to show integrity, take on this issue and save the credibility of the game before the real fans start tuning out.

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[macdaddy]

I'm totally with you one this Diesel. But before the Lakers it was the Bulls. I agree they were a great team in their own right but MJ got way more help than he needed.

Remember when they were playing the Hawks in a regular season game at the Dome with Stern in the audience. MJ lets fly a last second shot to for the win in a tie game and doesn't even hit rim. He thinks he was hit on the elbow (which maybe he was) With the game headed to overtime standing in front of the commissioner MJ berates the ref. Just screaming at him. A tech would have given the game to the Hawks. Its really ridiculous.

[TheDude]

wow...

consipracy theory galore...never thought about all that but i can see it..

and yes, the bulls would have beat the lakers..

[Diesel]

The Stern years will be remembered for a few things...

1. Individuals being promoted more than teams.

2. Stars given preferential treatment by the refs.

3. Stern always building a "personality" for the fans to buy into.

This recent incident with Kobe is killing Stern. Stern had fixed it so that Kobe/James would be the Matchup of the future. Now, Nike has stopped that train and is promoting James/Mello... With NO Kobe. Kobe will miss his chance to be the face of the league.... maybe Stern will Let Kobe retire for a year to make fans miss him and bring him back ala Jordan's first retirement.