Doing bad things

Fuck what you heard. I love the second round!

The Pistons need to get themselves straight, since there's no reason they should be having such a tough time handling Indiana. The Reggie shot at the end was almost a foregone conclusion. . .when the big picture goes Indiana's way, of course that's going to cap it all off.

The Suns/Mavs game was another Nash/Stoudemire wow-fest. There's some talk now that Wade can't be stopped, is perfectly capable of sweeping the Wizards without Shaq. And while he explodes into the lane like no one else, and gets to the rim more than most big men, he's still a guard. Meaning, he has to take some tough shots, twist and turn, take jumpers. . .shots that can and will go wrong sometimes, no matter how physically gifted Wade is. Amare, on the other hand, is absolutely unguardable. No one gets up as quickly and powerfully as him. Ever. He's Shaq-like in his sheer power, but moves way too fast for anyone to try and drag him down.

It's weird to think that, as magical as LeBron is, he still doesn't have that single, guaranteed offensive move. Wade and Amare both do, and for that reason alone, you've got to think they just might be a little bit ahead of him, development-wise. Maybe it's unreasonable to expect every player in the league to have a bread and butter shot; pretty much everytime LeBron takes it inside off the dribble, his body gives him a high percentage chance of getting points.

Still, would anyone call LeBron "unguardable" quite yet?

All that aside, the Suns proved that they can fight, think on their feet, and still end up running the other team into the ground. You've got to be thinking about a potential Shaq/Amare match-up as one of the great torch passings in recent memories.

Nothing to say on the All-Defensive team, since without Artest and Kirilenko it's pretty much meaningless. But Wade's shredding of Hughes has called into question exactly what lands you on there. Hughes led the league in steals, and him and Arenas proved tremendous at playing defense-unto-offense--lots of gambles, playing off of each other to disrupt passing lanes, basically trying to force a turnover before the other team's even gotten a chance to set up. But it's not lockdown defense, and really, lots of people could rack up steals numbers like Hughes if they cared as little about actually keeping their man in check. You can't measured Hughes's defensive performance relative to who he's guarding; anyone is vulnerable if Hughes is willing to lay it all on the line. And, coversely, any elite player can get take advantage of Huges once he'd committed to trying to force a turnover. It's the same kind of defense the Suns play--it makes your score higher, not the other team's lower.

As remarkable as it would be to see Indiana advance, Miami would eat them alive. Further evidence that this playoffs needs Artest more than life itself: only Ron Ron could slow Wade down. Good and evil square off on every possession. And if you were making an all-tough team, those two would have to be in the starting five.

I wish Dallas seemed at all evil. But they're kind of like the Kings were with Webber--hard to hate, but not all that easy too love, either. Is there anyone out there not from Dallas or Germany whose favorite player is on the Mavs?