Scott Berinato is a senior writer at PC Week and a regular contributor to Outdoor's magazine. E-mail him at scottwb@mail.com.
8. Give Milwaukee credit. They eked into the playoffs like a bunch of
17-year olds with fake IDs trying to dupe their way into a strip club.
Personally, I wanted to see Orlando (good on Doc Rivers, coach of the year).
But now that the Bucks got their invitation, they appear ready to make the
most of it. Losing to Indiana by just three, to me, is a victory, albeit a
small one.
7. Pippen showed up. Finally. I kind of wish
I think Shaq will score 70 one of these nights...
the Wolves took one of the
first two. They're too good a team to lose in the first round. Credit to
Garnett and company for hanging in, but not a lot of credit. This is, after
all, win or go home time.
6. Thanks for a nice, unbalanced, sometimes exciting, sometimes frustrating,
always flashy season, Sacramento. We have some nice parting gifts, and a
question: was the 1999-2000 season your fifteen minutes or the start of
something?
5. Lighten up, Jackson and Van Gundy. Both coaches are pretty much where
they want to be and both are whining about poor practices, like their backs
are against the wall or something. Rip your players. Shout at practice. Make
them run. I don't care. Just don't use the media to do it.
4. Sometimes, I think Shaq will score 70 one of these nights.
3. I'm devoting the top three observations to what has clearly been the best
series yet: Knicks-Raptors. First, swapping in Muggsy Bogues in the
backcourt is not the answer. Unfortunately for the Raps, I think the missing
ingredient can't be found on the bench. I think the missing piece is playoff
experience. There's not enough here this year.
2. Vince Carter's last-second dish to Dee Brown was not scripted, but what I
want to know is, what happened to driving to the basket? Dee will still be
on the perimeter if there's no daylight and if you do penetrate, a close-in
two will win the game for you. Some poor decision making there that I think
is far more damaging than the wound-tighter-than-a-Titleist 3-for-20
shooting from Carter in Game 1.
1. Defense wins championships.
Enjoy the full weekend of action on TNT and TBS, and don't forget to try out
the interactive Bracket. It's pretty cool.
