Exciting Playoff Basketball: Round 1

I said it last year too--the playoff ball you want to be watching is not in the "Ultra Competitive West." No, your eyes should be glued to every Eastern Conference game.

To be fair, the regular season did not offer much by way of drama if you were an East Coast team aficionado. The top three teams were all separated by more than two games, and Cleveland (1) finished a full 7 games ahead of Orlando (3). The next closest team, Atlanta (4) was a full twelve games behind Orlando and 19 games behind first place Cleveland. Let's put that in perspective. This means that if they had wanted to, Cleveland could have simply not played the last quarter of the season and still have finished fourth in the conference!

The bottom four teams, while closer in regular season record where all more or less equally inconsistent, while the bottom three finished by breaking even (Chicago and Philly) or with a loosing record (Detroit). Again, let's put a little perspective to this. If they played in the Western Conference, only the top three teams in the East would even have made the playoffs.

For 82 games, the West was where it was at. With the exception of the Lakers (1), all the playoff teams finished with a nearly identical record. Denver, Portland, and San Antonio (2,3,4) all finished the season trailing the Lakers by 11 games while the number five seed, Houston, was only a game behind them. And the bottom three, Dallas, New Orleans, and Utah, were each separated by a single game. Final playoff seeding wasn't decided until the last day of regular season play. It was great fun to watch it all unfold.

But in retrospect, the drama built up to a rather disappointing climax. So far, on the Portland/Houston series has ended up being even remotely interesting, but Houston has the opportunity to close things out in six games on their home court tomorrow (Thursday). As for the other series in the UCW (Ultra Competitive West), the Lakers beat up the Jazz in five, Dallas finished off San Antonio last night in five, and tonight Denver will very likely complete their humiliation of New Orleans who tied an NBA record for biggest loosing margin in a playoff game when they lost their last game by a staggering 58 points. Let's be clear... this is anything but ultra competitive.

But if you've been keeping up with exciting playoff basketball, you know where the good ball is at. First off, Orlando was supposed to pound Philadelphia. Not so much. Philly has managed to grab two games in the series (one in Orlando) and they are set up nicely to go seven games. So is every other Eastern Conference match up unless you had the miss fortune of being the Detroit Pistons who were unmercifully swept from the first round by the Cavs after having reached the conference finals each of the past seven years. The Hawks/D-Wade series has been hugely entertaining. One of them will go up by a game tonight and I wouldn't be at all surprised if this one comes down to game seven too. But by far the best basketball at this point in the season is the Bulls/Celtics series. Right now the Celtics are up 3 games to two, but four of the five games have been decided by three points or less. Three of the games have gone into overtime including one double overtime classic where everyone was hitting the clutch three pointer. Ray Allen has been an assassin. Rajon Rondo has been a beast. Rookie of the Year Derrick Rose tied Kareem Abdul Jabbar for most points scored in a rookie's playoff debue (36). Brad Miller came away from last nights game with a bloody mouth inflicted on the last play. Of course it will really depend on how this series ends, but so far it rivals the 2006 first round clash between Dallas and Golden State for most entertaining playoff series in recent history, and to be honest, I'll be disappointed if this game goes to seven games because I wish it could go nine.

But for all the hype, disappointment, and unexpected East Coast drama this year's playoffs will undoubtedly end in futility for everyone not named Lakers or Cavs. Unless the basketball gods have some kind of sick sense of humor, they will be the only two teams left standing in June. Until then, I'm watching the Ultra Competitive East.

Star Wars: My Rebound Girl

I know what you're thinking: "Your first posting is about a Star Wars cartoon?" Yes. While you deal with that reality I'm going to move on.

Dave turned me on the the series several months ago but I've only now gotten around to watching what my TiVo has graciously committed to its hard drive. The verdict? I love this show. In some ways it has what I wish Battlestar Galactica had more of, namely stuff blowing up in spectacular ways...in space. But SW:tCW can't honestly be compared to BSG. They're more different than they are similar. No, what this show really is to me is the spiritual successor to Robotech.

To be fair, SW:tCW will never hold that near and dear place in my heart that Robotech will forever occupy. It was my first anime (I know, it wasn't really anime), it featured my first TV romance (I was absolutely in love with Miriya), it had my first TV role model (Max Sterling... in 2nd grade I seriously wanted to dye my hair blue), and it was my first exposure to death (Roy and Ben, rest in piece my brothers). So no, tCW will never be all that to me.

It does have a shadow of some of these elements however. First and foremost, like BSG, stuff blows up in space. A lot. There is apparently a tender spot in my throbbing heart for epic space battles and tCW does this as well or better than anything else on TV or even theatre. I never grow weary of watching star destroyers crack in half before exploding or crash landing onto unsuspecting planets. And the clashes between the Republic and Separatist armies always remind me of my boyhood days parked in front of my television set wrapped in wonder was a lone, nearly fossilized relic of a forgotten alien race... the Super Defense Fortress 1 (aka SDF-1) heroically battled the Zentrati hoards.

But what really drove the Robotech series was the interpersonal relationships between the crew and civilians on board the SDF-1. Claudia and Roy, the Rick-Minmae-Lisa Hayes love triangle, the stalwart and wise Captain Gloval, and who could forget the forbidden yet glorious love between Micronian and Zentrati top pilots, Max Sterling and Miriya Pyrina? And all of their lives hung upon the hidden and mysterious nature of something called Protoculture. The same hold true of tCW. There is a real and tenuous relationship between Anakin and Obiwan. A forbidden love between a young senator from Nabu and an even younger jedi, the wisdom and power of jedi high counsel members Yoda and Mace Windu. And binding them all together we have The Force in place of Protoculture.

So while it will never rival my first and most exquisite love, it at least wears the same perfume. And whenever I smell it, it reminds me of a time when I was a blue haired boy in love.