Noj

Happy Birthday!

Thanks Agg. The Spurs are a tough team to hate, I really appreciate their professionalism in the interviews and their refusal to make excuses despite having a lot of excuses. Though SS1 would greatly disagree, they're all class. When they're not playing against the Lakers, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker are two of my favorite players to watch.

OK, this is just plain mean. Sorry.

To be honest, as far as I'm concerned the game was only close because of bad calls by the refs against the Lakers and non-calls for the Spurs. Duncan waltzing down the lane with like four steps for a dunk, Duncan hacking all over the place and not getting called for it, Kobe getting fouled by Bowen on at least three shots without calls (Kobe=zero free throw attempts), Odom and Fisher getting quick ticky-tack calls and riding the pine...but I'm a Laker fan. If I were a Spurs fan, I'd be bellyaching about that non-call for years to come.

If there's a team that can come back from being down 1-3, it's the Spurs. They're a grind-it-out, defensive team. Anyway, it's added bad blood between the two teams because there won't be a consensus. When Ginobili hit that three, then Kobe stupidly forced up and missed that layup leading to Parker's breakaway, I had flashes of karma from Fisher's 0.4 second shot coming back to haunt the Lakers. I thought, "they're about to get us back for that one. It's their turn."

In the post-game, Reggie Miller made several comments about how Barry needed to "sell the foul," and no one would understand how this call works more than Reggie. In watching the replay, Barry has Fisher in the air. All he needs to do is go into his shot immediately, Fisher lands on him while he's shooting, and he would go to the line to shoot three. Instead, Barry leans forward and takes a dribble, and makes room to take a shot. Now, the right call is the foul is on the floor, Barry goes to the line to shoot two. However, with the clock winding down, the officials are always hesitant to make that call because they do not want to decide the outcome of the game at the free throw line. What if Barry's ensuing shot, which would have been waved off had they blown the whistle, gone in? The refs had a split second to decide whether or not to blow the whistle and have it be a dead ball, or let the ensuing shot go up. 9 times out of 10 they let the shot go up. Personally, I'm with Phil Jackson--Fisher's previous shot hit the rim before bouncing off Horry's leg out of bounds, and the Lakers should have had a fresh 24 second clock with 5 seconds left. This would have put the Spurs in a position to either get a steal on the inbounds or foul. Instead, Kobe had two seconds to force up a fall-away prayer that wasn't answered. Spurs rebound, get timeout, and the play with Brent Barry happens. One missed call deserves another.

Barry should have been given two free throws. From the officials' standpoint, they rarely blow the whistle to decide games at the line. If Barry had shot the ball on Fisher's contact, instead of putting the ball on the floor, he would have gone to the line. Instead, he dribbled and was still able to get the shot off. What if he made the shot, but the officials had whistled it dead? Not sure if Kobe would have gone to the line last night with Bowen fouling him, seeing as Kobe didn't shoot a single free throw all game.

Boy the Lakers sure tried to choke. I'm not really feeling too sorry for the Spurs on that last call though, they had half the Laker team in foul trouble most of the game on ticky-tack calls.

Happy Birthday, Sundog!

Damn, I didn't see this until now. I'll be listening to some of his great albums in his honor. RIP

Happy Birthday, Jim!

Much like with the Newton case, I believe the outcome will be determined by whether or not the rap songs in question used Farrell's composition without permission. In the case of Newton vs. The Beastie Boys, it was determined that the portion of Newton's song used was too short and too completely removed from context to be considered Newton's composition. I wish there were a happy medium, but the more I've thought about the issue the more I do not believe a happy medium is possible. The laws protect the musicians being sampled but cripple the art of sampling. There is no consensus on the merits of sampling and never will be, for at times it is blatant stealing and at others it is brilliant collage, and at times it is both (though there will be no consensus here as to when sampling has ever achieved anything of artistic merit).

50% (Yankee). Barely into the Yankee category. Might be accurate, seeing as I've never lived in the Northeast or the Southeast (or even visited).

The way Shawn moves around, I've got my own theory as to his true identity...

Interesting stat about the Pistons having now won something like their last 10 game 2's.

All mistakes thus far, terminated early, not all as a result of faults belonging to the woman in question, but knucklehead Noj. The paint is peelin' off the walls The floor is as cold as it can be As I lay here hummin' a tune I'm goin' crazy in my lonely room Lord please tell me what is wrong Why must I be so all alone Where can she be, when she should be at home Here in my lonely room I'm goin' cra-a-azy soon Here in my lonely room...

"Ignoring myself" is actually a pretty good description of the mindstate I try to achieve in order to fall asleep at night.

Happy Birthday!

This series is going to be a dogfight. The Lakers can't expect to pull miracles out of their asses against the Spurs, who outplayed them for 2+ quarters. Some awful friendly calls down the stretch, won't get those in San Antonio. Better win at home. Odom and Fisher need to shoot better. Happy to win, but not happy at all with the execution overall.

She's immediately vaulted to the top of the MILF ranks. I'm thinking she's the Giant Steps type...

Catering to unreasonable requests and enabling weakness instead of empowering her by making her expand her self-imposed limits. Time to stop coddling.

I'm hoping you lose that dub, SS1. Go Lakeshow!

Happy Birthday, Chuck!