NBA 2011 Playoffs Love Index -- First Round

I get a bit of whiny heat from some spotty-bottomed conservative sports types (you know who you are) about not having a single basketball team that I root for.  Yeah, I understand the homer thing -- and I'm a dyed-in-the-wool-since-9-yrs-old Seattle Sonics fan (whoops!) -- but for me in the NBA there are too many plots and subplots going on to be focussed on one team.  In fact, when I look at my sports allegiances, where I'm the most rabidly focussed on the same team are the sports areas where I'm generally the most ignorant, where I have a team that I watch to the exclusion of others, where I have narrow knowledge.  Like my Souths.

So I'll try not to extrapolate that homer = ignorance argument too heavily, but I bet I could even get nicely-developing Clips fan Jaabal-Abdul Simmons himself to agree with me..

At any rate, to help me keep track of the stories I'll put down (for myself at least) a Love Index for each round of the NBA playoffs.  I'd like to look back and see just how prescient I really am -- and have a baseline for some of the playoff stories as they evolve.

So these are the teams that I want to win, and a little about why:

1) Chicago Bulls -- Derrick Rose is a babe.  So far he's been tenacious, hard-working, and focussed.  And he knows how to single-handedly carry a team.  Still TBD if he can *will* a playoff victory a la MJ, but stay tuned.  And please, take notes Mr. James.  There's a decent journeyman-chemistry supporting cast here -- Noah, Boozer, Deng, Korver, etc. -- and I like Thibodeau (so far so good), but Rose doesn't have nearly the same level of coaching and support that Kobe has had his whole career, so in my book he's clearly MVP material with some big upside.  (Random detail rant: Rose got an MRI for his gimpy ankle, negative, he'll play.  Granstanding Kobe "refused" an MRI for his gimpy ankle..  Oooohh  Willis Reed Jr.?  Got the wood piled nicely around your cross Mr. Purple Diamond Ring?  Need a light?)

2) Portland Trailblazers -- I know Roy isn't *really* back, but I would love to see All-Star snubbed LMA step up and prove that he's a big part of why Portland is still playing ball and Kevin Love is at home dreaming up more ways to pad his double-double numbers.  I love Nate (Sonics!) and this whole team is good guys, a big upgrade from the Jailblazers era.  Not sure they have the legs to go far, but this is my wishlist, not some power-ranking nonsense so "Go Blazers."

3) New Orleans Hornets -- CP3 is for real.  And his relationship with Jack is very cool. And the Ariza grudge subplot is nice.. Again, not sure how deep these guys can go, but making the Lakers play 6 games is far enough for me.  Actually it's not, I'd like them to win a couple more in LA.  Yeah, I'm dreaming.

4) Denver Nuggets -- The Nuggets shouldn't even be in the playoffs after trading their two biggest stars to NYC, but guess who's playing deeper into the playoffs?  Not Carmello, that's for sure (props to Beantown too..).  Yes, Karl is bigger than Carmello.  Dude can coach.  And the Nuggets played insane-outta-their-mind last night.  Frenzied.  Birdman, JR, just tattoo-ink-to-the-head nutso.  Not sure there are 3 more games like that left in the fridge, but it was nice that they didn't get swept at home.  Would love this to be a turning point..

5) Memphis Grizzlies -- WTF?  That rag-tag bunch taking the West #1 seed to the wall?  No-one's more surprised than the Spurs.  Conley looks like a mini-Rose.  Marc looks like a mini Pau.  Randolph looks like.. the same old ballhog he's always been.  Not sure what Coach Hollins is putting the Gatorade, but I'd like some..

6)  Atlanta Hawks -- Another WTF chemistry experiment.  Awesome.  Against a "Goliath" opponent who just looks lazy and entitled.  Down with the lazy top seeds already!  I started this series cheering hard for the Magic but the largely ho-hum Hawks are actually looking like a basketball team and not just an exercise in overpaying mediocre players.. Wow..  Go dudes.

7) Indiana Pacers -- Yeah, I want the Bulls to steamroll them, but heck, these guys have played their guts out.  Sure, they have a little nest of douche-y white guys (Jeff Foster?  Tyler Hansbrough?  Ick..) but they're playing inspired Butler-esque ball, with a coach that I would swear is Brad Stevens.  Freaky, eh?  Whatever, chemistry is good, even with all that douche mixed in, so party on gentlemen.

8) Boston Celtics -- Dropping that big turd Perkins at the trade deadline helped me like these guys a bit more.  The "young turds" -- Rondo, Big Baby, and Perkins -- were over-nastifying a team that has solid toughness from the big three already.  I respect Doc now, finally.  And I adore the three amigos.  We'll see how I feel as the series moves along, but the C's are at the middle of my love list.  Giving the Heat a spanking would probably help.

9) San Antonio Spurs -- Man, I love Pop, and The Big Fundamental, and Ginobli -- Parker, meh..  But this team is cooked.  Not sure what it is.  Wouldn't be surprised if something crazy is going on, like Pop has cancer or Duncan had leg replacement surgery last week or something.  But these aren't the Spurs.  Manhandled by the Griz?  Wow.  I can't wait to find out what's really going on here.  Something big is going to happen in the offseason, that's for sure.

10) Oklahoma City Thunder -- Looking past the Sonic tears, I would have had these guys in my top three on this love list easily if it wasn't for Presti snatching up that nasty piece of work Perk -- rhymes with..  Hey you big baby, keep tangling with KMart and you'll be crying on the sidelines with a fresh set of beggin-for-it boo-boos like last year's playoffs.  Blech.  That said, Durant, Westbrook, even Hammurabi Harden are solids, and I've always had a soft place in my heart for Collison (getting paid double the next highest player on that team, Durant, this year..  Look it up!).  I do like Scotty Brooks coaching as well.  Just ditch that human skidmark Perkins already.

11) Philadelphia 76ers -- What are these guys doing in the playoffs?  WTF-cubed!  This is all Doug Collins.  I love that guy.  Even if Sir Charles doesn't get his coaching tactics (with the "we're not as good at Miami" comment kafluffle).  The Heat will finish them off, but I'm glad they didn't totally roll over..  And that Spencer got some minutes.

12) Orlando Magic -- Time for a new formula in Orlando. Stan's gotta go. And Jameer has gotta go. I really want Howard to do well, but he's too nice and too patient..  He's this generation's David Robinson. I started this year's playoffs thinking that it would be a 4-way scrum in the East between Miami, Chicago, Boston and Orlando.  I guess when Boston kicked the Magic Kingdom in the nuts last year, that pretty much took the fight out of them.  I'm still haunted by Jameer's-heroics screwing up Alston's rhythm and the Magic just going "poof" for the Lakers in the 2009 Finals. I'm done with these guys until they show me they're serious.

13) Dallas Mavericks -- Ha!  The Dirkish fold-o-matic express may make it into the second round, but they can't go farther.  Kidd is awesome, Matrix -- even a diminished Matrix -- gives me warm fuzzies but these guys aren't going anywhere.  Jason Terry is a little prick.  Hey dude, unclench the socks already.  I think Cuban has made some catastrophic calls with that team -- or at least one big one, dissing Nash and riding Dirk -- and with Carlisle I can't help thinking of Jerry Jones and Barry Switzer.  Am I the only one thinking that?  I could live with Cuban if he'd rebuild this team around someone with guts, but that floppy German isn't going to get it done, and watching Cuban put friendship above winning is painful.

14) New York Knicks -- Yes, I want the Knicks -- who are already elminiated, and who feature Carmello "Crybaby" Anthony -- to go farther than the Lakers and the Heat. Let's see what happens in the offseason with these numbnutzen.  Simmons had a genius idea -- Phil to take over as coach (coming home), Mike to go to Golden State where they actually are equipped to run and gun and Keith "who?" Smart could be his assistant for a few years.  Everyone wins.  Right now that team has about as much "direction" as LeBron's mother's hot mess of a love life.  Dude, the Knicks need an owner-ectomy already.

15) Miami Heat -- Good Lord.  Once they summarily execute the Collins 76ers, let's hope that the C's can clock these posturing bozos.  Sad that Wade gets drug into LeBron's BFF club, but there it is.  I used to like Riley too, but this hype-machinery is laying down some major smirchment all over that organization and sad to say Ol' Slick has his mittens all over the steering wheel.  Collusion-palooza!  LBJ should have done it in Cleveland if he was ever planning on "doing it", i.e. win a championship.  Now he's a freakishly talented goofball, more like a smiley Dominique Wilkens than an MJ.  Even when Barkley ended up on a star-studded Houston for his "finals run", that was more like a victory lap for a veteran that earned everything and less like a Cool Kids Club hogging the playground court all afternoon.  Or Payton and Malone trying to ring-grab in L.A.?  Nice try, but again, earned after a career of carrying teams.  I can't wish LBJ enough bad mojo at this point, and I used to be a big fan.  I still have my WITNESS t-shirts to remind me of the time before he made his stoopid decision. And to remind me of the time he smiled at me in the elevator at the BH Peninsula when I kept staring at him (hey, he's, um, huge).

16) Los Angeles Lakers -- Last year I dabbled in liking Kobe Bryant.  A couple snaps and sneers into the playoffs and I just can't do it.  Yeah, Michael snapped at his team-mates too.  And maybe I'm remembering it conveniently, but I don't remember Michael getting "pouty" and "frustrated" like I see out of Kobe.  I remember MJ like a hungry wolf, competitive, and enforcing order with his teeth.  But not this self-defeated lashing out.  Maybe that looks like too fine a point, but it seems like a big deal to me. The difference between using your emotions and being used by your emotions.  You'd think that after he stunk up game 7 of the Finals last year, and had his team carry him over the finish line that Kobe would have developed a speck of humility.  He went the other way.  So poop on your Pau+Bynum threepeat I say.  If MJ would have had Shaq or Pau he would have won 20 titles. I'm now hoping for Phil to be gone next year and Kobe to have a few nicely terrible years here.  I'm looking forward to the day that I feel sorry for him..  Actually, I'm pretty much there.

OK, I'll check back after the next round with an update.  Back to work!