Ecstatic Basketball

Cleveland  (73) at Boston (89) 

James vowed to have a better game 2 than his game 1 against the Boston Celtics, and I suppose he did, but not by very much. He was again frustrated by Boston’s tenacious D, and his team mates didn’t offer much assistance either. Cleveland should be kinder to him and his team, and Boston has shown considerable vulnerability on the road (dropped 3 in ATL), but one has to question the trade deadline moves that sought to upgrade the talent around James. If they get swept or fail to get at least one or two wins, look for a very unhappy James to be eying NYC until 2010.

All NBA

First Team: Chris Paul, Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Kevin Garnet, Dwight Howard

Second Team: Steve Nash, Deron Williams, Dirk Nowitzki, Tim Duncan, Amare Stoudemire

Third Team: Manu Ginobil, Tracy McGrady, Paul Pierce, Carlos Boozer, Yao Ming

These honors are always a bit hard to evaluate. How much weight do you give the success of the team, the individual achievement, how much better a player makes his team mates? My feeling is that you take the first 6 guards in MVP voting, then the first 6 forwards, and finally the first 3 centers and call it a day.  The MVP award is similiarly problematic, in that it’s subjective, but generally you pick the best players on the better teams (I’ll look at any playoff team).

Ecstatic Basketball’s Picks

First Team: Chris Paul, Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Kevin Garnet, Amare Stoudemire

Second Team: Deron Williams, Dirk Nowitzki, Paul Pierce, Tim Duncan, Dwight Howard

Third Team: Tracy McGrady, Joe Johnson, Caron Butler, David West, Pau Gasol

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