The 2nd Round

The origin of what we will be celebrating this Sunday is a hybrid mix of mythological, legendary, religious, traditional and commercial. Considering the economic impact, I would say the latter is more appropriate. Whatever. But if truth be told, every living thing belonging to different species won't come to existence without a mate to reproduce. 

To be specific, mothers are the best thing that happened when God created the world and everything on it. To all the moms, mom-in-laws and the moms-to-be, specially the mother of my children, Denise, enjoy this Sunday. It's your day, we are just mere husbands. Happy Mother's Day!

Nanay D expects a nice Mother's Day gift from aaah, you know. It would be a fitting present for Jinkie and the Pambansang Nanay if PacMan disposes of Shane Mosley in the earlier rounds. Go, Manny, go! go! go!

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The last eight teams in the second round of the NBA playoffs have started their battles and it has been quite an interesting watch, although there are major disappointments on my part as my favored teams have gone AWOL from their usual games. Or is it over-confidence? Anyways, here's my take on the conference semis.

Atlanta vs Chicago - Basketball purists were surprised by Atlanta with an almost unbelievable 4-2 upset of Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic. They again surprised many by taking Game 1 from Chicago in their 2nd round series. Atlanta more than likely will go thinner than Prince William's receeding hairline in the long run and get gored by the Bulls.

Chicago ended the season displaying the NBA's best win-loss record despite missing Carlos Boozer and Joakim Noah to injuries for sometime. With the two playing healthy and regular season MVP Derrick Rose showing the way, the Bulls are on their way to a 4-2 victory over the Hawks.

Miami vs Boston - The Big Three has finally jelled and has become slicker than Pat Riley's perpetually-gelled hair. They now lead 2 games to none over The Old Three of Boston. The Heat chose the right time to go scalding hot and they are boiling those green Celtic eggs to perfection. Boston should be wonderfully longing for Kendrick Perkins this time of the year.

I want the Celtics to prevail on this series but things point the other way.  I'm old school and I always go for the traditional match-ups. But I risk ridicule from my fellow sports scribes if I stick to green. I don't wanna say this but circumstances are favoring a 4-1 Miami series victory.

Going to the other side of the conference, two traditional entrants to the post-season are fighting for the conference finals. The other two are both expansion teams loaded with young and developing talents who will be the NBA's future poster boys.

Memphis vs Oklahoma - Basing from results of their first round assignments, this could be a tight series and they are now even with both sporting 1-1 score cards. Grizzly forward Rudy Gay would have been a nice complement to Zack Randolph and give the NBA's scoring leader and the Thunder's Kevin Durant some headaches inside the perimeter. This series could go the 7-game distance with Oklahoma eventually advancing.

Los Angeles vs Dallas - It looks like the playoff woes of Dallas are behind them with a commanding 2-0 lead over the Lakers. Including the recent loss yesterday, LA, since 2008 holds an imposing 33-7 post-season homecourt record. 4 of those losses are in Game 1 series at Staples Center. Including New Orleans two weeks ago and Dallas recently, only Boston, Houston and Denver have won at Staples in the last four post-seasons. So why the screw up?

For the first time in playoff history, Kobe Bryant and Dirk Nowitzki are up against each other in the post-season and Dirk is having the upper hand. They go to Dallas for the next three games and they can finish off the Lakers there. Gi atay na. This is not a typo but if the unthinkable happens, let's call them the Loss Angeles Failures. And it is starting to break my freaking heart and rumbling the deepest recesses of my bowels. Wake up people!

The only match-up that favors Dallas in this series is in the guard position. Derek Fisher is nearing extinction and Shannon Brown still is incapable to man the point. Jason Kidd, although just as ancient as D-Fish, has an able back-up JJ Barrea. LA has the edge in the other departments but still they suck and had been consistently inconsistent. If the Lakers can get two games in Dallas, then the series goes the whole seven games. Who wins? Guess.

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