****OFFICIAL 2012 NBA PLAYOFFS THREAD****

[dirk digler]

Great sports weekend with the draft and now the NBA Playoffs starting today

First Round Matchups Today:

76ers vs Bulls
Knicks vs Heat
Magic vs Pacers
Mavs vs Thunder

Sunday:

Jazz vs Spurs
Celtics vs Hawks
Clippers vs Grizzlies
Nuggets vs Lakers

[DaKCMan AP]

Originally Posted by okcchief

I'm glad the Thunder won't overlook Miami because the media damn sure seems to be. Let's remember they just got Bosh back, and if those 3 are clicking they are difficult for anyone to beat. They had an easier road to the Finals, but they have responded every time everyone counted them out. The past doesn't mean shit. This is a team with a bad taste in their mouth from last year, and plenty of talent. I expect this to be a very competitive exciting series.

There haven't been many times that the MVP has met the MVP runner up in the Finals. This really could end up being like Bird and Magic someday, though these 2 seem to be pretty good friends. Of course that may change a little after one gets the upper hand.

I don't know how I'm going to concentrate on work Tuesday with Finals tickets in hand. Should be an unbelievable atmosphere at the Peake.

I'm jealous that you'll be at the games. I have to admit I'm happy Miami is the perceived underdog for the first time in a while..

[okcchief]

Originally Posted by DaKCMan AP

I'm jealous that you'll be at the games. I have to admit I'm happy Miami is the perceived underdog for the first time in a while..

I'm excited. The good thing is people will stop about either KD or LeBron not being able to win the big one. It's especially ridiculous with KD since he's 23 years old, but I've heard people say it, If we weren't in the Finals I'd be rooting for Miami at this point just to hear the stupidity stop. However, the haters will just blame it on the refs if he wins. People are so dumb.

I've also heard comments about this deciding the best player. I'll be the first to say LeBron is the best player in the league right now regardless of the outcome. In a few years that maybe another story.

[DaKCMan AP]

Originally Posted by okcchief

I'm excited. The good thing is people will stop about either KD or LeBron not being able to win the big one. It's especially ridiculous with KD since he's 23 years old, but I've heard people say it, If we weren't in the Finals I'd be rooting for Miami at this point just to hear the stupidity stop. However, the haters will just blame it on the refs if he wins. People are so dumb.

I've also heard comments about this deciding the best player. I'll be the first to say LeBron is the best player in the league right now regardless of the outcome. In a few years that maybe another story.

Should be fun. People are going to hate and say what they want but none of it matters. Both are incredible individual players but teams win championships.

[okcchief]

Originally Posted by DaKCMan AP

Should be fun. People are going to hate and say what they want but none of it matters. Both are incredible individual players but teams win championships.

Yep.

[RealSNR]

Originally Posted by KCtotheSB

BIG STORYLINE ENTERING THE NBA FINALS: Heat vs Thunder is the first matchup in the four major sports where neither team's nickname ends with an "s".

Crap. WNBA here we come

[RealSNR]

For awhile when my worst fears were creeping up, I thought it would be Spurs/Celtics. God that would have been an abortion of a Finals. I even told myself that this year didn't count because the lockout and messed up schedule screwed up the natural flow and balance of the season.

Glad I can stop telling myself that. This isn't like a shortened NFL season or anything. This is now a totes legit championship.

[dirk digler]

I am more depressed today than I have been over any sport in a while.

End of an era...

"Honestly, I just thought we had nothing left," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. "That's how it felt as a coach."

After losing Jeff Green, Chris Wilcox, Jermaine O'Neal and Avery Bradley to injury during the season and trotting out a lineup that included Pierce and Allen who were both playing at less than 100 percent there are worse crimes than running out of gas.

"Great season," Rondo said simply. "We let this one slip away."

The Celtics lost with their pride fully intact and with the full respect of their opponent.

"You can never relax at all on the court when you're competing against those guys," James said. "You can never feel comfortable. You always feel on edge when you go against them. This is their chemistry that they built over the years. It's like no other team that I've ever faced in the postseason. They're great. They're great."

Basketball games can be lost in so many ways; basketball teams can falter in so many ways. Players can undermine or tune out or have philosophical differences with their coach. Egos can split a locker room. Contracts, former contracts and future contracts can determine the wrong pecking order. Minutes can be wrongly divvied up based on a faulty management vision or a coaching staff's pet peeves.

What you didn't know about the modern-era Boston Celtics was who was going to be healthy on a given night. (And why Rondo acts the way he does.) What you did know was that their results would be determined on the court, with an elite core group empowered to seek the outcome and with a coach who trusted, motivated, pushed and prodded when necessary.

"Kevin, Ray and Paul, I'm never going to look at them individually, I'm going to look at them as a group collective," Rivers said, when asked to assess the Big 3's legacy. "They all gave up seven-plus shots each. They gave up minutes. I asked them to defend and move the ball, and they all did it, and they're willing to do it for the better of the team. I think that's what we should focus on, how much they gave up to try to win. That's what I'll remember most about them."

The past tense overwhelmed Rivers' statement there. While Pierce is under contract for the future, with a deal that includes a player option through 2013-14, both Garnett and Allen are unrestricted free agents. The immediate desire to bring back the band was strong on Saturday, what with a third Finals trip in five years so tantalizingly close.

Whether that is possible is up to the 36-year-old Garnett, who was a long, athletic thorn in the Heat's side throughout the Eastern Conference finals. He posted averages of 19.1 points, 9.4 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game. He went out in this series exactly as you would expect: stepping on LeBron James' foot during a jump ball to get into his head, walking off the court early and refusing to shake hands, and dodging the media throng without taking post-game questions. His terms. He's never going to change, and everyone accepted that a long time ago.

Pierce and Rondo are the only truly sure things on the roster heading into next season. More than anything, Boston's future depends on whether the surly rebounding and jump-shooting machine wants another go-around. If Garnett says he is in, how could they not try to run it back? Especially after this season's results and the affection the fanbase has for the group? But there have been rumors around Garnett, of retirement and free agency. If he departs, the whole thing crumbles.

Speaking from the AmericanAirlines Arena's visiting locker room after the loss, Pierce made clear Garnett's importance to the team and also his desire for the team's immediate future.

"He's been everything with his locker room presence, desire, determination and leadership," Pierce said. "He changed the culture of everything we did around here. He made everyone accountable. It'll be great for me to end my career with Kevin. I have a couple of years left. Hopefully management can add a few pieces that we need to get over the hump. If not, it's been a tremendous ride."

Allen, 36, figures to be a high-demand free agent given his shooting ability, immaculate conditioning and playoff experience. He told reporters that his immediate plan is to get surgery on his ankle before seeing what the future holds.

"I don't know what Kevin's situation is," he admitted, his eyes red with emotion. "There's still a lot of basketball left in my legs. I know that for sure. So it's hard to say what can happen, what may happen. But four of us know how to play basketball. We know how to win games."

Of that, there is no question. Since forming during the summer of 2007, the Celtics went 273-121 (.693) in the regular season, made three Eastern Conference finals, went to the Finals twice and won a title.

"Five years has gone quickly, but it seems like it has lasted forever," Allen said. "We've played in a lot of big games. We won a championship together. The things that we do off the floor together. It's just been a special time. It's been a special moment."

"I wish we could have had healthy runs," Rivers lamented.

The end of an NBA team's season, especially in the playoffs, is always like a crash test: 100 miles per hour for an indefinite period of time and then, bang, everything comes to an immediate stop.

That feeling went even deeper in the Boston locker room. This wasn't just one season ending, but a half-decade of premier basketball seeing its possible conclusion at the hands of a rising rival. To the buzzer, they made no excuses, played hard and smart, and pushed themselves past a point, physically, that few of their competitors could match. They angered, intimidated and annoyed a lot of people along the way. They polarized outsiders as they pulled together to form the league's tightest locker room family.

So if this has to be the end, they seemed to hint, at least let it linger.

"I just want to stick with this group, if it's a couple more days, a couple more weeks, or whatever," Rivers said. "I just want to stick with them."

They stuck with each other and they made it this far. Just short.

[dirk digler]

Keyon Dooling class act all the way. And you know what he is probably right about Lebron.

MIAMI — No one felt the pain and heartache of Game 7 more than Keyon Dooling Saturday night at American Airlines Arena.

Why? Because it was the first time he cried since his father passed away in 2009. He admitted as much after the 101-88 loss to the Heat that ended the Celtics season one win away from the NBA finals.

Dooling, who wears a floral lapel pin in honor of his late father, revealed just how much Saturday’s loss hurt the Celtics as a team.

“My father passed away three years ago and I haven’t cried since my father passed away until tonight,” Dooling said. “This bunch of guys, it was a like a senior year of high school. It was a memorable, lifelong friendships, a lot of great moments. This team was very unique. We love each other, we care for each other and though we aren’t champions this year, we have hearts of champions, and that will always keep us connected.”

LeBron James has been one of the most scrutinized and criticized superstars in any sport over the last six years. But on Saturday night, in the moments after he scored 31 points and lifted his Heat team to a 101-88 win over the Celtics in Game 7, he was showered with praise by one of those who tried to slow him down.

“I’ve never bought into this whole persona that LeBron isn’t the guy,” Dooling said. “I think everybody should relax a little bit. He’s great for our game, he is our game. We need to uplift him instead of tear him down. He’s a guy who’s the most unselfish superstar I’ve ever seen. He rebounds the ball, he assists the ball, he’s empowered his friends from his community. He does a lot of charity work in the community. He’s a model citizen. He should not have a stain on his reputation and I hope it stops.”

Dooling was part of a Celtics bench that could only muster two points and was outscored by Miami’s new bench weapon, Chris Bosh, 19-2. Dooling said the Celtics weren’t tired in the fourth quarter as they were outscored, 28-15. It was just a matter of the Heat’s execution.

“It wasn’t about gas,” Dooling said. “They just did a great job of defending.

They’re a great team. You have to give them credit. We fought, we hung around, we were there. We had some good shots at the end. We just couldn’t make plays. They did a phenomenal job. They made all the plays, they shared the ball. They executed down the stretch. They got some interior baskets as well. They did a phenomenal job. Tip your hat to them.”

[pr_capone]

Originally Posted by Fine Uncut Meat

Lebron's lucky Chris Bosh went beast mode.

Damn man. You are letting the hate flow through you... and not in a cool "dark side" kinda way. LeBron got hack-a-shaq'ed and made his free throws, had the most rebounds in the game on either team, and lead both teams in scoring on his way to a double double.

But yeah... he didn't have a triple double so he totally sucks and got bailed out by a team mate.

[58kcfan89]

Originally Posted by okcchief

I'm glad the Thunder won't overlook Miami because the media damn sure seems to be. Let's remember they just got Bosh back, and if those 3 are clicking they are difficult for anyone to beat. They had an easier road to the Finals, but they have responded every time everyone counted them out. The past doesn't mean shit. This is a team with a bad taste in their mouth from last year, and plenty of talent. I expect this to be a very competitive exciting series.

There haven't been many times that the MVP has met the MVP runner up in the Finals. This really could end up being like Bird and Magic someday, though these 2 seem to be pretty good friends. Of course that may change a little after one gets the upper hand.

I don't know how I'm going to concentrate on work Tuesday with Finals tickets in hand. Should be an unbelievable atmosphere at the Peake.

I'm so jealous. I saved up some money hoping to get down there for a Finals game but had a few things come up recently that crushed those hopes. I'm still hoping to get in town to watch games in Bricktown or something if OKC gets 3 games in the series so I can at least say I was in town if the title thing happens.

Have you heard anything about them opening up The Peake for away games like other teams have done in the past? I feel like they would have released something by now if they were doing that but figure you're more in-tune with it than I am. Also figured with all the Thunder Alley business that they wouldn't be too interested in doing it.

Can't wait for this series to start. NBA Playoffs have been money the last 2 years.

[okcchief]

Originally Posted by 58kcfan89

I'm so jealous. I saved up some money hoping to get down there for a Finals game but had a few things come up recently that crushed those hopes. I'm still hoping to get in town to watch games in Bricktown or something if OKC gets 3 games in the series so I can at least say I was in town if the title thing happens.

Have you heard anything about them opening up The Peake for away games like other teams have done in the past? I feel like they would have released something by now if they were doing that but figure you're more in-tune with it than I am. Also figured with all the Thunder Alley business that they wouldn't be too interested in doing it.

Can't wait for this series to start. NBA Playoffs have been money the last 2 years.

I'm pretty sure Thunder Alley is done because of the shooting. It's a shame because it wasn't related to the game and was way down the block. However, those crowds were getting huge down there and hard to control so its probably for the best.

They still raffle off like 40 sets of tickets at face value so you might try that. Lots of places in Bricktown to watch the game, and from talking to friends that's a great atmosphere as well.

I'm thinking this is a 6 or 7 game series do you'll probably have your chance.

[okcchief]

Oh, I misunderstood on the away game thing. I haven't heard but that would be cool.

[Dylan]

I was just wondering if you think the Thunder might be too young and inexperienced when they go up against the Heat on Tuesday ... TIA

[Chiefs Pantalones]

Those first two games are huge for OKC. With the Finals format being 2-3-2 they HAVE to win both those games to win the series. IMO the team without home court advantage has the advantage, not the other way around. I know historically there haven't been many teams win all three of those games but I wouldn't wanna find out. Especially Miami they would be chomping at the bit to be able to put themselves in that situation.

Gotta win those first two, OKC.

[Dylan]

Thank you Chiefs Pantalones for being generous in answering this question