NBA Playoffs: Final four a bore?

<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>I love this...coming from the WORST major sports town on the globe.</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br>
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<!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.ajc.com/print/content/epaper/editions/tuesday/sports_e39c4cf8007e423b00f5.html" target="top">Atlanta Journal-Constitution</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br>
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<!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>NBA PLAYOFFS: With Lakers gone, final four just a bore</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br>
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Terence Moore - Staff<br>
Tuesday, May 20, 2003<br>
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With the Los Angeles Lakers only seconds away from losing their hopes for a four-peat, Derek Fisher cried on the bench. His tears were for more than just his teammates, himself and others partial to purple and gold. <br>
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Try America. <br>
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Just like that, we're stuck with a Final Four in the NBA featuring the (yawn) San Antonio Spurs, a Detroit Pistons bunch with virtually nobody worth mentioning, that other team from near the Hudson River and the Dallas Mavericks, with their tribute to the Cowboys' Doomsday Defense. <br>
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We're talking about "doomsday" for the Mavericks, not for their opponents. <br>
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They haven't guarded anybody since their days of Dick Motta and Uwe Blab. As a result, the Mavericks can't afford to become anything less than their prolific selves on offense. <br>
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Courtesy of the (yawn) Spurs' Game 6 victory last week in Los Angeles, they are playing the Mavericks in the Western Conference finals. It's the Battle of Texas, which means it's much of the talk from Amarillo to Corpus Christi. <br>
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Unfortunately, for the league, it's little of the talk everywhere else. <br>
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As for the East, the New Jersey Nets and the Pistons are just hoping to score again before the end of the decade. They spent Sunday's Game 1 challenging the unofficial record for most inept shots during a playoff game. <br>
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So, Fisher cried, along with the masses. <br>
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When it came to the final weeks of the previous three NBA playoffs, it was like this: Love them or hate them, at least you knew the Lakers. Such knowledge was only Shaq, Kobe and the original Dr. Phil for casual fans. Even so, the people who make or break leagues financially during the postseason are casual fans. <br>
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In baseball, the New York Yankees and their pinstripes always generate a slew of kisses and hisses after September. We've seen as much from Ruth to Mantle to Jeter. In the NFL, you never can go wrong with heavy doses of the Oakland Raiders, Green Bay Packers or the Pittsburgh Steelers from late December through January. <br>
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Among colleges, any Notre Dame football team slightly better than average creates a national buzz, and the same goes for its Kentucky equivalent in basketball. Just the name "Muhammad Ali" brought those beyond diehards to boxing, and the Williams sisters have a similar effect on tennis. <br>
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You get the idea. It's good that the most noted person involved with the NBA's Eastern Conference finals is the Nets' Jason Kidd. It's bad that the runner-up in that category is Kidd's 4-year-old son, T.J. Actually, it's a tie between T.J. and Kidd's wife, Joumana. <br>
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Nobody knows the rest of the Nets. Nobody really cares. That's why last year's NBA Finals --- even though they included the Lakers --- were the least-watched in 21 years. <br>
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Elsewhere, the only thing that most know about the Pistons is that they have a guy with funny hair. His name is Ben Wallace, but he might as well be named Mike Wallace to the rest of the world. <br>
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Then you have the (yawn) Spurs, led by Tim Duncan, owner of consecutive Most Valuable Player awards. His game is so wonderfully methodical that it lulls opponents and observers to sleep. <br>
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At least the Mavericks have scoring wizards such as Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki and Nick Van Exel to dazzle you for a while. They also have Mark Cuban as their highly excitable owner at courtside. <br>
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He has spent much of his three years with the Mavericks in the doghouse of NBA commissioner David Stern. As a result, maybe Cuban will come out barking. These playoffs need more noise to counter all of the yawning. <br>
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People still whine about this? I thought the NBA finals were supposed to be about the best team winning, not the most popular.. *sigh* Obviously this guy hasn't watched the Spurs play. <p></p><i></i>

this is complete BS created by morons who can't appreciate anything besides a fancy slam dunks...<br>
that guy who wrote that "no LA, no excitement" is obviously a novice in basketball appreciation<br>
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first, the Lakers aren't that exciting<br>
yes, Kobe is exciting, but that's about it<br>
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second, Dallas is much more fun to watch than the Lakers...Nowitzki's inside and outside game and Nash and Van Exel better at making impossible shots better than anybody<br>
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third, THE SPURS, tho killed the lakers have a great combination of defensive tenacity (Bowen), fundamentals(Duncan) as well as energy (Manu) and incredibly talented and explosive guards (Tony, SJax) who can shoot from anywhere<br>
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has anyone seen Tony drive the ball and throw a perfect tear drop shot? How about Manu with amazing engergy on both ends of the court? How about Bowen on defense and from the arc?<br>
Of course, then there's is Duncan. yeah, he's not fancy, but anyone that knows anything about basketball has to appreciate his footwork and all around game on both ends of the court.<br>
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I'm so sick of these whiners yapping about nba being boring...why don't we just get rid of the whole damn season and let kobe and t-mac play one on one then?<br>
damn-whiny-ass-brainwashed by mtv-watching -i'll start a riot when the lakers win -fake ass basketball fans... <br>
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<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>Moved from another post that was supposed to be a reply to this post.</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br>
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