The Pistons and Cavs have a lot of history together, which is fortunate, because that's the only thing that makes this series the least bit compelling. The Cavs finished the season as the most dominant team in the NBA, leading the league with a franchise record 66 wins and terrorizing opponents with an 8.9 point differential. The Pistons, on the other hand, posted their first losing record since 2001, winning just 18 times in their last 50 games. This could get ugly.
That whole exceeding expectations bit was fun while it lasted, Bulls.
Chicago, needing a victory for the No. 6 seed (which may or may not be more valuable than the No. 7 seed), blew it against Toronto. (To that point) 32-win Toronto. John Salmons shot 1-7, Kirk Hinrich went 0-6 and the Bulls front line gave up 16 offensive rebounds in 45 opportunities. Bad stuff all around.
But! Chicago could hold on to the No. 6 with a Philadelphia loss to ... Cleveland, a team which sat four starters (including LeBron) and had only a share of the all-time home win record at stake. Cleveland's remaining crew actually led much of the game, and Daniel Gibson sent the game to overtime with a deep deep three. Philly took a lead in overtime, though, and despite Andre Miller missing two free throws in the final seconds pulled out a one-point victory for the 76ers.
As such, Philadelphia gets Orlando instead of Boston, and the Bulls find themselves facing the defending champs. Awesome work, Bulls. It's almost as if they worked hard so that they could control their own destiny ... so they could blow it.
The Cavaliers have successfully made the jump from "very good" to "elite" by absolutely destroying opponents on both sides of the ball. They've defied logic by proving that stingy defense and dominant offense can go hand in hand, allowing the fewest points in the league (90.4) while scoring the second-most (104.0). This isn't just a legitimate championship contender, folks; if they keep this up, it will go down as one of the best seasons of all-time.
But while the team has caught all the breaks so far, their depth will be tested in the short-term. Sixth-man Daniel Gibson sprained a toe last night and will rest for the next two weeks, at which point he'll be re-evaluated. Can the Cavs keep chugging along?
Considering their average point difference is +13.6 points, it stands to reason they can lose a guy averaging just 9.4 points a night without too much concern. Not to pile on, but Cavs might actually be better for it. Gibson has started to turn things around the last few games, but on the season he's shooting just .402, including .310 from beyond the arc. Statistically speaking, letting a combination of Sasha Pavlovic (.415 / .389), Delonte West (.472 / .411) and Wally Szczerbiak (.480 / .349) absorb Gibson's 24.3 minutes a game should make the Cavs even more efficient, especially when you factor his non-existent defense.
There is nothing more exciting in sports than a Game 7. Expect perhaps finding out that both Mike Brown and Doc Rviers have been kidnapped before this game and that there will actually be some offense. Since that is unlikely to happen -- and certainly not endorsed to happen by anyone here -- we'll have to settle for seeing whether LeBron James can have his best game of this series on the biggest stage.
He has slowly been stepping his game up after abysmal Games one and two, possibly in the pretense of going off during the Eastern Conference Finals and trudging the Cavs back into the Finals. But first things first -- the Celtics are staring at most scrutiny they have faced in years, without a road playoff win and with another Game 7 against a team they should have closed out already, if they were anything like the Boston team of the regular season.
Whatever hopes the Cavaliers had of winning the final two games of the series against the Celtics just took a huge hit, as sharp-shooter Daniel Gibsonhas been ruled out of Game 6 with a separated shoulder. Gibson left Game 5 early in the fourth quarter with the injury, which will keep him out of action for at least one-two weeks. Which, you know, is bad news for Cleveland, because this series definitely won't last past Sunday, and might not even get that far.
While Gibson's only big game of the series came in Game 4 where he dropped in 14 points, the fact that he's a long range threat tends to open things up for the all-important one, LeBron James. So even though Gibson's firepower won't necessarily be missed, his presence will be, and that might be just enough to get the Celtics over the hump on the road in Game 6.
I think that we, generally speaking for basketball fans, don't believe that the Cavs can beat the Celtics. Which is weird, because Cleveland has LeBron James. And the Celtics just squeaked by the Hawks. Or maybe we don't think that. But Las Vegas -- who is generally fairly close to the public opinion -- sure does, staking the Celtics a whopping 9.5 points tonight (BoDog).
I find this odd. LeBron went off on the Celtics throughout the regular season, averaging 32.3 points, 9.7 assists and 7.0 rebounds. Of course, you could probably argue that LeBron went off against everyone. You could also argue that when LeBron averages 41% from the floor, not only is he trying to hard but he's not being efficient and that could lead to blowouts by Boston. Then you could go on to point out that I'm running the live blog, so a blow out is already a mortal lock (0-3 on close games if you're scoring at home.)
Still, we're talking about the best player in the Eastern Conference and the future of basketball against three old dudes trying to get some rings in the EC Semis. Besides, the worst case is you just swing by and type "BOOBIE" a bunch of times.
FanHouse's Round Two previews will give you the critical points of every series, so you can talk to your friends like you've been following every team in the Association all season long. Or know what the hell an Ilgauskus is.
Biggest Reason You Should Watch: LeBron James versus Kevin Garnett. No, the two don't guard each other, but the fact is that, for all intents and purposes, LeBron is the Cavs' offense and KG is the Celtics' defense. Oh, and the two teams split their four games this season, with each winning their two at home. We saw how that went for Boston in the first round, and if this thing somehow goes seven, I highly doubt LeBron allows his team to get dropped by 30-something in the deciding game.
Cleveland Can Win If: LeBron can dominate a road game and steal one in Boston. As good as the Celtics were in the regular season, something isn't right with this team yet in the playoffs if they're dropping three games on the road to a 37-regular-season-win Hawks team.
Boston Can Win If: They can hold LeBron to reasonable numbers -- say, less than 30 points per game -- and don't let Cleveland's outside shooters get loose. Delonte West and Daniel Gibson (I'm so over that "Boobie" thing) killed the Wizards in round one, so if the Celtics stay at home on those guys they should be in good shape.
Video Clip to Get You Pumped: All I'm saying is, if LeBron hits from distance like this, Boston has absolutely no chance.
One has to wonder what Sean Williams' reaction to losing to an actual game of any real relevance might be, since he got a little aggressive with a postgame middle finger salutation to either Daniel Gibson or LaMarcus Aldridge (likely the latter) following the Rookie-Sophomore game.
Actually, this was a pretty funny-friendly gesture, he just happened to not be thinking about the eleventy-billion cameras hanging around Nawlins this weekend. I won't hold it against him, although David Stern might.
Whenever the mood strikes, FanHouse will break down the current leaders in the race for league MVP. Ground rules: injuries matter, and so do recent events.
1. LeBron James: Not only has LeBron dominated in two meetings over the player holding down the two spot in these rankings, but he's now dragging his bench to victory on a nightly basis. The Cavs are without -- get this -- Drew Gooden, Anderson Varejao, Sasha Pavlovic, and now Daniel Gibson, who combined have a scoring average of about 37 a night. They're being replaced by the likes of Ira Newble, who sounds like he should be LeBron's tax man, not his starting power forward. Even with all of these players missing, the Cavs are 16-6 over their last 22 games, and it's all thanks to LeBron.
2. Kobe Bryant: His scoring is down a little this year because Kobe's modified his style a bit for the team's greater good: and it's working. Before Andrew Bynum went down, the Lakers were among the league's top teams. With Kobe getting his teammates involved like never before (seriously ... Sasha Vujacic is good all of a sudden?), he may be more deserving then ever of his first MVP, even with the lower scoring average. And with the addition of Pau Gasol, that should only help Kobe's chances because the Lakers will likely be playing deep into the post-season.
As we inch closer to All-Star 2008 in New Orleans, the lineups for the weekend's events are starting to fall into place. Today we found out who will be participating in the "T-Mobile Rookie Challenge & Youth Jam," and just like last year, it's looking like it's going to be an easy win for the Sophomores.
So after looking at the lineups one right after the other like this, how can you not see another Sophomore blowout? In Vegas the Sophs won by 41 points, and although I don't expect the spread to be quite as big this time, it's still a mismatch, and one that the league should change if they want to make this an interesting event.
My solution would be to mix the Rookies and Sophomores up by conference, and play the game East versus West. While that might not always give you the best game, it would be exponentially better than what we have now. I just think that the Sophomores have too much of an advantage every year having that additional season of NBA experience under their belt. By mixing the teams up and playing it by conference, we're likely to get a much more competitive game.
FanHouse previews the first round of the NBA Playoffs. 
That whole exceeding expectations bit was fun while it lasted, Bulls.
The Cavaliers have successfully made the jump from "very good" to "elite" by absolutely destroying opponents on both sides of the ball. They've defied logic by proving that stingy defense and dominant offense can go hand in hand, allowing the fewest points in the league (90.4) while scoring the second-most (104.0). This isn't just a legitimate championship contender, folks; if they keep this up, it will go down as one of the best seasons of all-time.
Whatever hopes the Cavaliers had of winning the final two games of the series against the Celtics just took a huge hit, as sharp-shooter 
As we inch closer to 
