Heat - Celtics Game Four Top 40 Takeaways

40) Ray Allen showed veteran savvy by playing horribly for much of the year, then turning it on tonight

39) I didn't think that a team could make Rajon Rondo look better than the Sixers did, but I was wrong

38) Someone needs to tell Dwyane Wade that the game starts in the first half

37) When Keyon Dooling is hitting three pointers, plural, you know something weird is going on

36) No one on ESPN has been told that Wade actually has point guard tendencies, or that he plays like one when Mario Chalmers is out

35) Taking several steps before shooting isn't traveling if you are Paul Pierce

34) At some point, Erik Spoelstra might want to let his players know that 61 points in a half against a slow pace team really isn't good defense

33) Rondo kicked Shane Battier in the nads, then puled about the foul, because he truly believes that retribution is justified, and everything he does is not a foul

32) The Celtics and their fans seem to have a need to make this about the officiating no matter what

31) Rondo answered Doris Burke's question about offensive play by insulting the refs and Heat, because that's clearly working for him to date

30) Judging from my Twitter feed, Cleveland Fan is rooting for Boston, which is just silly, considering that the Celtics ended them before, and it's far more fun to watch James fail in the Finals

29) Spoelstra called his team's first half defensive effort unacceptable, at least to ESPN

28) Rondo got away with a clear path / flagrant without even giving up free throws, because he's a guard, rather than a big man

27) James' hammer slam with 4:40 left in the third speaks to how vulnerable the Celtics are on defense when Garnett is out

26) I'm not sure why Rondo forced multiple post ups against Norris Cole, especially after it resulted in the PG's fourth foul

25) Jeff van Gundy talked about cup stacking, because Jeff van Gundy redefines irrelevance

24) The Heat's defensive rebounding really is not up to the standards you would expect of a high seed

23) Norris Cole gave the Heat some good minutes, or at least, timed his appearance well with the Celtics' offensive collapse

22) The Heat erased an 18-point lead in 15 minutes, because that's what dramatically better defense can get you

21) When James complains to the refs, he usually has cause, but he still looks like such a whiner, it's hard to give him too much credit for this

20) Cole drew Bass's fifth on a shot fake outside of the arc, which looked like anything but a rookie who doesn't get minutes

19) Bass's tip non-turnover, leading to another Ray Allen three, was more than a six point play, given the momentum swing

18) Some fine day, the Celtics will face an opponent that actually hits their free throws

17) None of James' three final fouls was a foul

16) As the 4-2 overtime scoring showed, both teams really needed to win this game in regulation

15) NBA playoff games could be five minutes faster if defenses would just pressure the rolled up inbounds pass

14) If you can get the Heat close and late, you have to like your chances, since James refuses to drive and go to the line

13) Udonis Haslem and Mikael Pietrus aren't much as players go, but both are awesome at keeping offensive possessions alive

12) Mario Chalmers got to the rim for a huge make with a minute left, mostly because he was Ray Allen's guy

11) James made the wide-open three to force overtime, which will be quickly forgotten about in the narrative of James is horrible in the clutch

10) It's not a tough call when a man hooks another man's arm, makes a wish, and yanks him to the ground to prevent help defense, even when it's a home game for the Celtics

9) When the game is on the line, you can count on James to not put an awful lot of pressure on the defense

8) Pierce fouled out for the third time in the last five games, which has to be some kind of record for a name wing player

7) Mikael Pietrus drew James' sixth foul with 1:51 left in overtime on a hook and fall where he nearly grabbed the man by the jeweles, which isn't something you normally see happen to the league's MVP

6) Wade's final shot was pretty good, since it was an uncontested three for the win... but it didn't go up until late, which meant there no chance of the offensive rebound putback to tie it

5) If you liked the officiating in this game, please tell us what it's like to be related to Joey Crawford

4) Why the younger team was looking for 3 or nothing, rather than tying it to force a second overtime, I'll never know

3) Wade shot 7 for 22 from the floor, didn't show up in the first half, missed the game-winner, and will take a tenth of the grief that James will for wimping on the final shot in regulation and getting three bogus whistles, because people really, really hate him

2) Despite two of the four games going to overtime, I'm really still not in love with this series, just because it seems so dependent on officiating

1) We officially have a series, which fills me with a not inconsiderable amount of dread

A Small And Obvious Point To Jerry Jones About The Cowboys' Super Bowl Window Closing

You have one playoff win in this century. (Actually, one in the last 17 years, but I'm feeling generous today. After all, you are old, possibly senile, and the very best thing that has ever happened to my laundry, with the possible exception of Daniel Snyder.)

That ranks 23rd in the NFL, ahead of only the Lions, Browns, Bengals, Bills, and Chiefs.

You are tied, on this marker, with the Redskins, Titans, Jaguars and Dolphins.

None of those teams, with the exception of the Titans who got their win last year with a third-string QB, has the temerity to be talking about reaching the Super Bowl.

That is because they understand that one playoff win in this century does not make them Super Bowl contenders. It makes them struggling franchises who have an awfully long way to go before anyone can, or should, take them seriously.

It makes them teams that have to prove themselves.

You know, with playoff wins.

So, um...

What the hell are you smoking, why won't you share, and what kind of photographs do you have of the national media to report what you say without laughing?

Spurs - Thunder Game Four Top 30 Takeaways

30) Kendrick Perkins likes to shoot early in games, just on the off chance that he has a game like this one

29) Reggie Miller learned that there are other languages that he could have talked trash in, because Reggie Miller is a moron

28) The Spurs picked up a ton of early paint points, mostly because they remembered to penetrate and push off

27) OKC runs out on breaks so hard, they frequently score uncontested after a miss

26) Gregg Popovich actually answered a question from Craig Sager as if he didn't want to immediately set him on fire

25) Kevin Durant played rope a dope with the early close physical defense

24) When the Thunder bigs are playing this well, and Tim Duncan is struggling, the Spurs look as soft as, well, Boris Diaw

23) Say this for Thunder Fan, they get as quiet as church when their guys shoot FTs

22) Serge Ibaka blocks so many shots, he can just goaltend without consequence

21) When you get the first 8 dunks, you should be up by more than 8 points

20) Despite everything going the Thunder's way, the Spurs never fell out of range

19) DaJuan Blair for Anthony Bonner is a genius move by Popovich, but so would Any Live Body

18) Ibaka shot tonight like he was in a video game, on easy setting, with a cheat code

17) This Durant fellow is downright dangerous, especially when he doesn't have to carry his team all game long

16) James Harden to Durant for the perfect alley oop, early in the shot clock with three minutes left, showed the impudence and utter confidence of youth, and is worth at least another 500 words of overwrought, but I'm not a Celtic Fan

15) When the Spurs need a bucket, they go... to whoever is open, just like the first 46 minutes, and tonight, it was Kawhi Leonard, who drained threes to keep the pressure on

14) Thabo Sefolosha's steal with 34 seconds left showed that, yes, he does have a role in close and late situations

13) San Antonio has gone from a team that looked like they were going to go unbeaten in the playoffs to a best of 3 elimination

12) I'm not saying that Danny Green didn't show up in this game, but he was 7 points away from a milk carton, and three came at the buzzer to make it a 6-point game

11) The Thunder might have the biggest home court advantage in the NBA, and it extends to the post-game little kid game

10) Stephen Jackson actually said that "if you are scared to play, tomorrow's Sunday, go to church" as if church was purely for the weak

9) When either of these teams are playing at their best, they both seem utterly unbeatable

8) The single best thing about tonight's outcome is that it means that we're going to get at least two more games of this series

7) I can't tell you how irritated I am by the Goodyear blimp's offensive goaltending

6) Manu Ginobili was -13 tonight, and in case you think that stat means nothing, the six turnovers are the reason why

5) Craig Sager interviewed Kendrick Perkins' very little kid in the post game, who turns out to be nearly as eloquent as his dad

4) While Popovich went 12 deep tonight with minutes, he still gave Duncan 36 minutes, which could be a factor in the next three games

3) Westbrook had a 7-4-5 line tonight with 2 of 10 shooting and 3 turnovers, which was the secret sauce of how the Thunder didn't win in a blowout when their bigs shot 22 of 25 (!)

2) Durant deferred for three quarters and still wound up with a 36-6-8 line on 13 of 20 shooting, which is to say, Kevin Durant Is Freaking Unfair

1) If you don't love this series, regardless of whether or not you like pro hoop, you are wrong

I Link, Because We Are Not Dead

So I got an email the other day from a new site to the YardBarker network, asking to be added to the blogroll... which made me, um, check how many sites on the blogroll were still active citizens of Blogfrica. (Blogfrica was a term invented by the genius behind the Nation of Islam Sports Blog... which is also, um, no more.)

The site in question is Gridiron Experts, who would appreciate your attention to their NFL Depth Charts. Still too early for me to start thinking too hard about fantasy football -- jeez, people, the calendar just turned to June, give me another couple of weeks of watching too much NBA, willya? -- but I suspect many of you are already dreaming of a fall championship. Go with greed.

Anyway, getting back to the Blogroll... I cleaned, purged, and found that an awful lot of those links were no more, or at the very least, seemed very shagged out after a long squawk. (I.e., not updated for years.) So that roll has been trimmed back more than a touch.

If you want a link, have a sports blog, were on it before and are just plying your trade at a new place, get in touch. If you are wondering why I'm still at this when so many others have found better things to do with their time, then you probably don't know me very well, and haven't gotten the point of the blog, (Hint: It's About Game. Everything else is noise.) And if you want to mourn the loss of all of that talent, or just get all morbid with me in the middle of the night... Play us out, Jim and Edwin! (And please, people, don't go out like Neville. Ennui is just not a manly way to exit.)

Heat - Celtics Game Three Top 30 Takeaways

30) Paul Pierce's defense on LeBron James with two minutes in, where no foul was called on hard transition defense, was your first clue of the great get-even ref work

29) Miami started 1 for 5 from the line, which is what we call a leading indicator

28) When Greg Stiesma leads with a straight arm at home, he gets to the line

27) I'm not prepared to live in a world where Mario Chalmers is more or less consistently useful

26) Mikael Pietrus tried to take an intentional foul, but the refs refused to call it, which was, well, another clue of how this was going to be called

25) When Keyon Dooling is wildly over-caffienated and able to force backcourt violations with cross body blocks, he can be effective

24) Both teams shot 60% in the first quarter, just to prove this whole defense thing is just a myth

23) Garnett went down like he was shot, then added something new for his cheerleader highlight reel by doing knuckle push ups

22) The Celtics' bench players were extraordinarily fresh, because Doc Rivers is a genius

21) When Miami does not score, they really lose the motivation required to play quality defense, which does not exactly speak to the idea of Erik Spoelstra Is A Good Coach

20) Allen's corner three to make the lead 13 before the half was more or less a clear sign that this wasn't going to be a game

19) The Heat really could miss enough free throws to make this a series

18) Rondo's steal with 3:20 left in the third was a clear sign of knowing his opponent, and the Heat's need for long showy passes in transition

17) Marquis Daniels showed the value of having perhaps the freshest legs in the Association

16) Udonis Haslem gave Rondo the biggest matador ole you've ever seen on a ball fake to lay up

15) Miami really might want to reconsider this only play defense at home strategy

14) James was the only Heat player to really show up in the first three quarters tonight, so it's his fault they were never really in it

13) When Miami goes small, Garnett's flop look even sillier

12) Just because he runs like Fred Sanford doesn't mean Mike Miller can't still shoot from distance and be one of their better players

11) Why the Celtics chose to play up-tempo with a big lead and the Heat going small, we'll never know

10) Boston Fan is outraged that Garnett's reputation for punk behavior is so widespread that even Mario Chalmers can playact a technical from him

9) Shane Battier should realize that he's not getting block/charge calls on the road

8) When the Heat went small, the Celtics got away from Rondo and ball movement and relied on Garnett in the half court, which is rarely a good idea for them

7) If Chalmers and Miller had played any quarter but the fourth, the Heat might have won this game

6) The fact that Spoelstra didn't think to go small and make the game helter-skelter until his club was dead and buried should tell you something about why he rents, rather than owns

5) If you like clearly audible f-bombs on national TV, there really is no substitute for a Celtics game

4) Rondo went Globetrotter for an inbounds play with 2 minutes left, then scored the killshot layup when the Heat just assumed he was going to run clock

3) As much as Boston controlled this game, the Heat could have stolen it by hitting some free throws and going small faster

2) The better team won tonight, just as in the first two games of the series, regardless of the officiating conspiracy

1) Just like OKC, we are one more home team win from officially having a series