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*rant alert*

i'm watching game 6, and its obvious yet again that defense wins championships. but is this mantra a good thing? wouldn't we all rather see high-octane offense like the showtime-era lakers win championships? these finals have been underwhelming (though certainly better than all those spurs suckfests)--it's dawned on me that maybe if we strip all the drama and pressure from the NBA playoffs, it's actually more boring than a regular season game. and there's no sign of it ending because it's become unassailable doctrine that you have to have a grinding halfcourt team like spurs, pistons, or celtics to win a championship. and that depresses me, though i like pierce/garnet/allen/rondo a lot (hate their fans and city though).

sometimes i wonder if the nba needs a rules overhaul. it's my understanding that FIBA is a little more offense friendly (that's why Carmelo is such a great Team USA player). and one would think more offense=better ratings. but i'm sure there's something holding the nba back that i'm not thinking about.

maybe i'm not a true basketball fan because i'm not super psyched about defense. or maybe a lot of people are pretending to like defense better because it makes them sound like more of a connoisseur of the game. or something else.

thoughts?

Personally, I'm a fan of the NBA not hand-picking the champion. But those days are long gone.

I love watching great defense! If you want to watch no defense, that's pretty much the NBA regular season except without the Top 5 defensive teams playing.

It wasnt a good thing when we were subjected to series like San Antonio-Detroit (and sorry, if I wasnt a Pacer fan that Indiana-Detroit conference finals would have been excruciating). Now? Its not as bad with the slow it down junk because not every team is trying to employ it. This series reinforced two fundamental basketball ideas: Defense and size win championships.

While we are off-topic, does it hurt anyone to watch the Finals? Watching other teams and other players celebrate kills me. The Celtics have 17 titles. We have none. I want just one. The worst part is that we arent even close to being in a position to compete for a title. I wish some bonehead GM would drop a superstar or two in our lap. It'd be nice to see JO next year playing the part Paul Pierce was playing this year. I hate this.

PacersRule07 wrote:I love watching great defense! If you want to watch no defense, that's pretty much the NBA regular season except without the Top 5 defensive teams playing.

let me qualify my statements to say that i love it when the pacers play great defense, or any team that i am rooting for. but because i am the luckiest sports fan in the world, i don't get to see my rooting interests play deep into the playoffs, so i'm left watching two teams i'm fairly impartial to. and i just can't get into it as much if they're playing slowfooted, defense-first basketball.

Watching the Celtics play defense was awesome in my mind. They were incredible, and I've never seen anyone make Kobe look like a lost puppy, the way they did throughout this series.

KG is the best off the ball defender in the game. His length is amazing, and his ability to switch on anyone and do a solid job defensively is impressive. Pierce and Allen can be great man to man defenders when they want to be. Perkins is the enforcer in the paint and is a strong and fundamentally sound low post defender. Rondo is perhaps the best PG in the league at getting steals, the Celtcs let him loose tonight, and it paid off.

Sure the Lakers were really fun to watch throughout the Western Conference playoffs but i can't say Boston wasn't fun to watch either. James Posey has been great for them but they score in bunches when they need it except the differences is, each game they play unreal defense. I love watching defense play, but i did have more fun watching the Lakers run wild in the West when they opened up space to run. Pau Gasol was nowhere this series. That was disappointing. Boston's defense dominated the Lakers' offense so yes, to the question of the topic, defense does win championships and in some cases it is good, because Celtics play both ends of the floor.

Congrats to Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce.

But the one player i can NOT stand on Boston it's Eddie House. The guy is the most unsportsmanlike player i've ever seen play a professional sport.

Maybe. But Eddie House is awesome at what he does. He's like a gunner off the bench, and he's ice cold...yet he on more than he's off. Instant offense.

Another blog writing journalist-wannabe thinks it was a great series, go figure.

If the Lakers put up any fight in Game 6, it would've been. However, it was still one of the best finals I've seen in years because it didn't contain the Spurs, Pistons, or Shaq.

The Lakers should have never been in the finals. And if you think this is one of the greatest finals you've ever seen, then you haven't been alive for very long.

PacersRule07 wrote:If the Lakers put up any fight in Game 6, it would've been. However, it was still one of the best finals I've seen in years because it didn't contain the Spurs, Pistons, or Shaq.

LOL that is true. The excitement was there it's just too bad a few players **coughcough** Gasol **coughcough** didn't show up. Also the choke job by Lakers didn't help this series one bit in Game 4.

It's not even close to the greatest Finals I've ever seen, but it's probably the best of the past 5 seasons or so. Maybe because I knew the Pacers had no chance, and I had nothing invested except to watch great basketball. Or maybe because I got to see great players get that elusive ring and prove their critics wrong in the process aka The Peyton Manning Complex.

Guys, come on.

Harding, the NBA didn't hand-pick this Finals...if they could do that the last three matchups would have been vastly different.

But, also this was FAR from the best Finals or even a great one. Our Finals lose to the Lakers was better, in my opinion. An overtime game...and a better set of six games...

At least Gasol made like 4 plays, was Odom even playing tonight? I'm really glad we didn't trade JO for him, he does nothing to take over a game. In the very least, JO attempts to and doesn't hide behind a lamp shade.

PacersRule07 wrote:At least Gasol made like 4 plays, was Odom even playing tonight? I'm really glad we didn't trade JO for him, he does nothing to take over a game. In the very least, JO attempts to and doesn't hide behind a lamp shade.

Totally agree. I don't want to sound bitter or anything but seeing Lamar Odom these playoffs he didn't impress me at all. He had his big games when the Lakers shot lights out from 3 and when Kobe and Gasol dominated. Odom was nowhere all series vs. Boston and showed no attempt. My opinion changed on him alot seeing these playoffs.

On a side note, Lakers should be even better next season. They said on NBA TV's post game coverage that they believe Gilbert Arenas will end up in Los Angeles. And of course Andruw Bynum is going to return.

Arenas - Kobe - Gasol - Odom - Bynum

Is that even stoppable? lol

I doubt Arenas will go to L.A.

But with Bynum back and the rest gelled longer and another year older, they will be much better.

Is Arenas going to take a pay-cut? Is Washington going to accept Lamar Odom for him when they have a tweener in Jamison?

If Arenas goes to LA, it will be to the Clippers.

PacersRule07 wrote:Is Arenas going to take a pay-cut? Is Washington going to accept Lamar Odom for him when they have a tweener in Jamison?

If Arenas goes to LA, it will be to the Clippers.

I didn't really pay much attention to it on television, but isn't Arenas a UFA? I thought i read somewhere he opted out and July 1st he's free to go where he wants and where ever it is, won't be as much as it would have been if he decided to stay in Washington. I could be wrong tho...