NBA Playoffs Blog

One of the great coaches in NBA history seems to be on his way out the door, and one of his greatest rivals is sad to see him go.

"It's too bad," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said of Lakers coach Phil Jackson, whose career may have ended Sunday with a four-game sweep at the hands of the Mavericks. "He's the greatest coach maybe in all of American sports, forget just basketball. For a coach, I've been around the league, and gone against him as a player as well, you don't like seeing guys that have contributed to the game leave."

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With their Game 4 overtime win over the Celtics, the Heat took a huge step toward following through on their ridiculous welcome party with an NBA title, right?

Not only do they have two chances to close out the Celtics in South Beach, where the Lakers may already be vacationing, but they've been able to watch top-seeded Chicago go from unimpressive against the 37-45 Pacers to downright mediocre against a Hawks team that so mailed in the regular season that Joe Johnson basically admitted it on national television after winning Game 1.

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Drafting European players has always been a roll of the dice for NBA teams. While they often bring a unique skill set and immeasurable potential to the United States, their game doesn't always translate to the flow of the NBA.

Then, there's Dirk Nowitzki.

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Once again on Monday night, the Celtics found themselves in position to get a pivotal win against an overwhelmingly talented Miami Heat team in the final minutes. But once again, the C's are left reflecting on bad breaks and missed opportunities rather than celebrating a life-saving victory.

The C's have fallen behind 3-1 in this Eastern Conference semifinal series for the same reason that they fell behind 2-0 six days earlier -- they simply ran out of gas. Winning playoff games takes more than a mere 40-something minutes of resolve. It requires the full 48, or occasionally, as it did Monday night, 53. This team doesn't have that in them.

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You could complain about the referees, the unjust Paul Pierce ejection, the 68-40 discrepancy in free throws and the missed calls. You can blame it on the Kendrick Perkins trade and its demolition of the team's chemistry, or Tom Thibodeau's departure from Doc Rivers' bench. If you've watched this Celtics team play for the past few years and have grown accustomed to championship runs, you have a long list of reasons to feel sour, but all are simply distractions to the cold, hard truth.

The Celtics, down 2-0 in a series for the first time of the Big Three era, are seeing their window as a championship contender close right before their eyes.

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Well, what can you say? This hasn't exactly gone according to plan. The Celtics are now down 2-0 in their second-round playoff series with the Miami Heat.

This is uncharted territory for them — they've never trailed 2-0 in a postseason series since acquiring Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen. They're not quite sure how to respond.

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When Shawn Marion takes the floor against the Lakers, he'll do so with three stitches above his right eye.

How he got the injury is quite the story.

Marion was leaving the team hotel in Portland after Dallas' Game 6 victory over the Blazers when he "got into a battle with a glass door and the glass door won," he said while relaying the tale to The Dallas Morning News' Brad Townsend.

"I'm being serious," Marion said. "It was an accident. I was in a rush, trying to get on the bus and I slipped. I had my glasses on and it cut my eye."

"Have you ever seen that Windex commercial? That's in some ways how it happened. I slipped going up the stairs... You've got two doors where you can leave on that first level. Instead of me going to the left, I went to the right and that door was closed. I had my bags and my water in my hands... and I broke my glasses. I was more (ticked) about my glasses."

Marion wound up getting stitched up by team physician T.O. Souryal on the team plane. Fortunately for him and the Mavericks, there is no lingeriring pain, other than perhaps a little embarrassment.

-Mike Piellucci, FOXSportsSouthwest.com

It was NBA Draft Day 1986.

The Lakers were coming off a five-game playoff loss to the Ralph Sampson-led Houston Rockets and the Boston Celtics were the newly-crowned World Champions. Things seemingly couldn't get much worse at the Forum—but they did.

In that morning's Los Angeles Herald Examiner, columnist Doug Krikorian reported that owner Jerry Buss had agreed to trade James Worthy to the Dallas Mavericks for Mark Aguirre and Roy Tarpley. It was a panic move consisting of equal parts stunned frustration from losing to the Rockets and anger that the Celtics once again ruled the NBA. Magic Johnson and Aguirre were best friends and Johnson had been pushing Buss and GM Jerry West to get the small forward with the big derriere to the Lakers. Tarpley was the prototype NBA big man of the 2010's—but thirty years ahead of his time. On paper, it looked like a shrewd move for the Lakers, picking up one of the game's best forwards and a big man to prepare for life after Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Joe McDonnell looks back at Mavs-Lakers history

It's no secret Heat guard Dwyane Wade has struggled against Boston this season. In four games he's averaging 12.8 points (almost half of his 25.5 ppg average during the season) and shooting .281 from the field (far below his career-best .500).

Boston guard Ray Allen is averaging 20.3 ppg against Miami this season and running Wade ragged on defense. If the Heat is going to beat Boston in this second-round Eastern Conference playoff series, Wade has to improve at both ends of the court.

"We need him to be aggressive," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "We need him to score. (But) probably better player than I've been around, he's able to figure defenses out. The more he sees it, the more he's able to crack the code."

Boston, of course, has beaten Miami three out of four games this season. But Miami won the last matchup, 100-77, on April 10.

It was a good news/bad news game for Wade. The Heat finally beat Boston, and Wade had eight assists, which aided in the winning effort. But he only scored 14 points on 4-for-12 shooting.

That won't get the Heat a victory in this series. Wade has to play better.

You’ve got to hand it to Charles Barkley for having the gall to call his shot, proclaiming at the start of the playoffs that the Grizzlies would be the second eight seed ever to upset a one seed in a seven-game, opening round series.

He went big.

The Spurs went home, much earlier than anyone but the Round Mound of Rebound envisioned.

It almost defies description to see the league’s most successful team of the past decade outside of the Lakers get bounced so unceremoniously by a franchise that had nary a playoff win to its name before this series.

It also raises the question of what adjective properly encapsulates the indignity of the poster child for building and developing talent internally getting bounced by a veritable hand-me-down roster of parts other teams couldn’t use, didn’t want, or, in the case of the almost-traded O.J. Mayo, players even Memphis wanted to cast off.

Embarrassing? Sure

Regrettable? Definitely

Shocking? No

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