Must Wins and Must Sees

Game 2 is a must game for Cleveland. The 232 format makes it impossible for teams down 0-2 to win. My disdain for the 232 is recorded in my previous post. As with any long series the most important adjustments are made between games 1 and 2. If I were holed up in a hotel suite in San Antonio with Mike Brown these would be my suggestions for getting back in the series:

• Run guard guard screen rolls on the wing with LeBron setting the screen for Gibson/Hughes/Pavlovic. Since the Spurs jump and double LeBron on ball screens this gives him the opportunity to force a mismatch and if they still double you have a ball handler with an open drive or a shooter on the strong side of the floor. It also gets the ball in LeBron’s hands going toward the basket.

• Play some zone defense to make the Spurs play outside in rather than running the offense through Duncan. The Spurs shooters are pretty streaky, I’d rather live and die by them than Duncan. You should also bring strong doubles to Duncan on the catch early in the game, if you can frustrate him early on he tends to fade for a while.

• Need more Boobie – Daniel Gibson needs to play more, he is the only guy they have who can attempt to control Tony Parker off the dribble, it would be a different story with a healthy Hughes. He also presents a legitimate shooter who you should be able to open up with the doubles on LeBron. The other guards need to feed off his fearlessness and find ways to assert themselves.

• Transition conversion percentage – There will not be many opportunities to run because San Antonio gets back and recovers better than just about any team I've ever seen but when you get a chance you can’t brick a layup, you have to convert.

A few quick thoughts:

Knocked Up – Funniest movie I’ve seen since Wedding Crashers, easily the funniest and maybe one of the 5 best of the year so far. It isn’t perfect, it drags and some of the characters are superfluous, but it is well worth the admission price. It was nice to see a movie that was genuinely funny without resorting primarily to bodily humor jokes. Plus Katherine Heigl is worth seeing.

Ocean’s 13 – Was disappointed by Ocean’s 13, it was clearly better than 12 but nowhere near as fun and stylish as 11. The tone was off and it the plot was confusing. Yeah its fun to see all the characters you are familiar with, Clooney and Pitt are charming, the other guys play their roles well but it was just missing something. I walked out thinking it was just an excuse for Clooney and Pitt to hang out and get paid. On a side note, it didn’t help that the guy behind me took off his shoes and put his feet up on top of the seat next to me then answered 3 phone calls with his ringer on loud and felt the need to comment back to the movie after every joke/comment/surprise.

Early Oscar Watch – Saw a preview for American Gangster with Denzel and Russell Crowe and directed by Ridley Scott. It’s based on the true story of Frank Lucas from the 70s. It’s got gangsters, cops, Vietnam and two of the best actors of our generation. Set to arrive in theaters in November.

Yankees – Nice to see the Yankees found out the season started already. People will credit Clemens’ comeback and ARod’s walk off vs. Papelbon but the real story behind the comeback is the return to small ball. They have started to hit and run, bunt and actually score runners from third with less than two outs. Don’t overlook them in the second half if Pettitte can stay healthy.

Springsteen – Even if you are not a hardcore Springsteen fan, I defy you to pick up his new live cd and tell me you don’t enjoy it. It is composed of songs recorded in Dublin on his last tour with the Seeger Sessions Band. A 20 or so piece band he put together that plays folk music inspired by Pete Seeger. They also rework some of the Boss’ staples. I especially enjoy his rewrite of How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live. A song originally by Blind Alfred Reed that Springsteen reworked and first covered at the New Orleans Jazz Festival last year. It is undisputed that The Rising is the single best commentary on 9/11, and this song is as good a description of the wake of Katrina as I have heard.

Television – Though Summer is traditionally home to bad TV I must recommend the Fox reality show, On the Lot. It’s a filmmaker reality show that is refreshing in the amount of talent of the contestants. The show runs usually on Tuesdays and is like seeing a good Short Film Festival. I would also be remiss if I left out the new comedy central show Lil Bush which follows little George W. Bush and his friends (Condi, Dick and Rummy) through harrowing adventures. It debuts Wednesday at 10:30. If you have seen the previews you know that this is clearly must see TV.

Sopranos – For those who care, and I’m fairly certain at least half of my co-bloggers don’t, I predict Little Carmine will come back, eliminate Phil, retake his rightful place as the Boss of NY and broker a peace with Tony. The most important thing is that Silvio pulls through.

I’ll meet you further on up the road