NBA Playoff 2008

NBA is the only professional sports that Chor Yen watches. the 07/08 season was full of surprises, who'd expect the Hornets to go so far under the young and talented sophomore Chris Paul?who'd expect Pheonix to actually benefit from the O'Neal-Marion deal? and again who would expect the Knicks to continue with Isiah as head-coach? everyone knew Chris Paul is great but this is basketball, a team game, and no one thought Chandler and West would step up their game (they should've done that long ago). when the Suns made the deal with Heat (sun-heat...haha if you know what I'm thinking), everyone was questioning the Sun's decision to bring in big O' arthritis who's way past his prime (but his free-throws improved apparently). when the Knicks had so many losing streaks, Isiah should've been fired long ago! (much as a legend as he is as a player, he's no good coach)

okay now, the playoffs is at the last stage of the 2 round. the only teams still fighting for a place in the conference finals are the Spurs and Hornets and both teams haven't win any game at the opponent's house. the 7th game is in New Orleans and I really hope the Hornets advance. why? because the way Spurs won their last home game was very very ugly. basically I thought it was erroneous refereeing. some may say that refereeing is only a small component of the game, it's the way players execute! but no, refereeing affects how the players play and it's impact is often underestimated. besides getting players into foul trouble, it puts a mental block on the players' aggressiveness, which is extremely important in such competitive basketball. without being aggressive, one cannot expect to win games at all.

although I'd prefer that Hornets would advance, I place my bet for the eventual champion on the Lakers. they are playing fantastic basketball (beating Utah Jazz in their house [Utah has the best home record in the season]) even without their young rising centre Bynum. if Bynum were to return to the roster for the finals, Celtics can wave goodbye to their championship dream