The move puts the Celtics back on top as the Eastern Conference favorite. Assuming Kevin Garnett is healthy, KG, Wallace, and Kendrick Perkins give Boston flexibility down low. The Cleveland Cavaliers have to respond by signing Lamar Odom or Shawn Marion, and it’s widely believed LO is returning to LA so that leaves Marion. And even then Boston is still slightly better.

Wallace commits to Celtics [Celtics Blog]

The info section on the YouTube page for this video says Darius Miles was playing against a kid. If that’s true it means Miles is the type of dude that congratulates himself over for the most mundane task… I made it to practice on time.. Double fisted head bump. I took a leak and didn’t get any on the floor.. Double fisted head bump. I didn’t violate the NBA’s anti-Drug program.. Double fisted oohh.. oooops.

Two good notes for Darius Miles.. At least he doesn’t sound punch drunk in the above video like he did in this Slam Ball interview:

and none of his homies are getting busted for having a couple ounces some weed.

The U.S. Olympic basketball team is in Las Vegas getting ready for a run at the gold while the Boston Celtics are living it up. KG, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, Sam Cassell and Rajon Rondo put their Sin City partying on pause to check out Manny Pacquiao vs. David Diaz. As you can hear in the video one of Pacman’s dreams was to meet Kevin Garnett, and the two share a mutual respect for one another.

There’s no telling when Youtube will pull this video down so enjoy it while you can. Slow motion and several angles of Manny Pacquiao’s 9th round knockout of David Diaz:

People were worried that Manny Pacquiao would lose some speed when he moved up to 135 lbs. I have some bad news for his competition.. He didn’t. Pacquiao looked just as fast and he says he’s even stronger. David Diaz’s face and the ring canvas agree.

Manny Pacquiao, David Diaz, knockout, Boston Celtics, video, youtube, utube

There are always two things you can count on following a sports championship. A parade and a riot. Boston held its riot after 4-2 series victory over the Los Angeles Lakers for the NBA championship. If this is how Boston acts after the Celtics win the title it’s a good thing the New England Patriots didn’t go 19-0. Clouds of smoke would still be covering the city.

Boston Celtics, rioting, video, youtube, utube

Congratulations to the 2007-08 NBA Champion Boston Celtics for picking up their 17th league championship and embarrassing their hated rivals in the process. The Celtics’ 131-92 victory over the Lakers is the largest margin of victory in a championship finale. Paul Pierce was named the finals MVP, but the last and deciding game was a team effort… Right down to the post game press conferences.

It looks like the new trend is athletes interviewing the media.. And Scalabrine’s right. Everybody picked the Lakers while Boston was clearly the better team, meaning the experts don’t know shit. The only thing that could’ve strengthened Scalabrine’s position is if he had actually played in the finals.

Boston Celtics, NBA Champions, Los Angeles Lakers, sports

The Hulk and some guy in yellow face paint decided to rep Boston and LA “There Can Only Be One” style. The best 6th man or 15th man, whatever you wanna call it has to go to the Celtics fans. All you have to do is look at the difference between game two in Boston and game four in Los Angeles. When the Lakers tried to make a historic comeback in game two, the Boston crowd never gave up. They seemed nervous but they had faith. The second half of game four in Los Angeles turned into a wake.

NBA Finals, There Can Only Be One, Lakers Fan, Celtics Fan, commercial, video, youtube, utube

The Boston Celtics came back from a 24 point deficit to win game four of the NBA finals and take a 3-1 series lead over the Los Angeles Lakers. I don’t wanna say the finals are over, but kids in third world countries are wearing Los Angeles Lakers 2008 NBA Champions t-shirts today.

Kobe Bryant showed up for his post game interview looking like he was trying to summon the mental powers that they had in Scanners. Judging by the look on Kobe’s face, Sasha Vujacic would be wise not to open the door if the Mamba’s knocking. Kobe was asked how the team will bounce back from the kick in the balls loss and shared his remedy for one of the greatest choke jobs ever.

KB: Whine about it tonight. A lot of wine, lotta beer. A coupla shots.. Maybe like 20 of ‘em.. Digest it.. Get back to work tomorrow. Nothing you can do.

I knew Kobe likes to shoot a lot but damn.. 20 shots of liquor? He does that and he won’t be around for game five.

Another interesting part of KB24’s post game interview came when Los Angeles sports talk radio host Vic “The Brick” Jacobs was handed the microphone. If you’re unfamiliar with Vic you can check him out here.

VtBJ: Kobe, Vic the Brick, AM570 KLAC..

KB: I know I’m gonna get a positive question outta you.. Something optimistic.. It’s not like I’m the only optimist in this whole room..

VtBJ: 48 minutes left man. 48 minutes. Every game is unique and singular in its own way. You know that…. Third quarter though, opportunity to go for the jugular, up 18 at the half, what prevented it? Prevented the squad from really going to the next level emotionally and going for the kill?

KB: Nothing we just wet the bed. A nice big one too. One of the ones you can’t put a towel over. It’s terrible. There’s nothing you can do about it. They played great in the third quarter, we played like crap. They got back in the game and pulled out a great win, now it’s time to move on to the next one. Period.

I don’t know what Kobe meant by “One of the ones you can’t put a towel over“, but if you got some pissy sheets, TAKE THEM OFF THE BED KOBE. Laying on the wet spot sucks, lying in urine is dumb.

Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers, NBA Finals, postgame interview

Boston Celtics head coach Doc Rivers has reportedly bought a penthouse at Palms Place in Las Vegas making him neighbors with Jessica Simpson, Paul Stanley, and Linda Hogan. Palms Place (on the right in the photo) is the latest addition to George Maloof’s Palms casino, and boasts three styles of residence a 50,000-square-foot pool, a co-ed Turkish bath treatment, and a Sunset Tan studio.

The 520-foot tower features 442 600-square-foot studio units, 136 1,200-square-foot one-bedroom suites and 21 penthouse units that range from 2,000 to 7,000 square feet.

The price of the units rises with height. The studio apartments started at $450,000, increasing by about $7,000 per floor to $650,000. The one-bedroom units ranged from $700,000 to $1.2 million while the penthouses – on the top four floors of the tower – are priced to as much as $5 million.

I don’t know when Doc Rivers decided to pick-up a new condo, but I see where he’s going with this. Forget that he’ll obviously be renting the place for the majority of the season.. If the Celtics with the title, Doc will be in Vegas partying his ass off. If Boston loses to the Lakers, Doc will be in Sin City drowning his sorrows.

Doc Rivers purchases penthouse at Palms Place. Courtesy of the Las Vegas Review-Journal

Doc Rivers, Boston Celtics, Las Vegas, penthouse, Palms Place

Now that one of the greatest regular seasons in NBA history is finished it’s time for the 2007-08 playoffs to take us to the next level. Other than Celtics/Hawks, the match-ups should give us entertaining basketball. All of the series won’t go seven games, but the level of competition will be at an all-time high.

I’m only gonna post my first round predictions right now, but my entire NBA Playoffs bracket will be over at Ball Hype. They’re having an NBA Playoffs Pick ‘Em Contest that’s free to enter, and the top prize is an iPod touch. I have the Eastern Conference sticking to the script for the most part, but deciding the Western Conference was painful..

Here are my first round picks:

Eastern Conference:

(1)Boston 4 (8)Atlanta 0: The Hawks can hang their hat on the fact that they made the playoffs. After getting swept out, they should fire Mike Woodson and start getting ready for next season. The Cs will wanna handle their biz and rest for..

(4)Cleveland 4 (5)Washington 3: The best series in the EC’s first round and you know how it goes.. Same two teams, same result. Gilbert trash talking King James isn’t helping the Wizards’ chances. I was probably leaning towards Washington until Gilbert went off.. But if anybody was gonna back it up, it’s Agent Zero.
(2)Detroit 4 (7)Philadelphia 1: I’m a diehard Sixers fan and I’m pulling for the upset but I gotta be real. This squad is too young to do anything but steal a game from the Pistons.. I might pop bottles if they take two games.

Looking to the future, what’s the front office gonna do about beefing up the lineup? They need to add more firepower and size to build on the gains made this season. Andre Iguodala, Andre Miller, Samuel Dalembert, and Thaddeus Young make a good nucleus. Willie Green, Louis Williams, and Reggie Evans should contribute to a nice bench. Even though the Eastern Conference is regarded as weak, things are getting a lot tougher and the Sixers need to plan accordingly.

LeBron’s always in contention, the Bulls will eventually figure it out, the Celtics and Pistons have cores they can count on for a few more years, Washington’s group looks like they’ll be staying together, Miami has D-Wade and Marion as a foundation, Dwight Howard is a force to be reckoned with, the Raptors have better young talent, Indiana should be better next year, and the Hawks look like they’re headed in the right direction. Unless the franchise is content with squeaking in the playoffs and making a first round exit, they need to get aggressive in the offseason.. Elton Brand aggressive.

(3)Orlando 4 (6)Toronto 2: Who is this? Oh yeah, the Orlando Magic.. They haven’t been talked about since Dwight Howard did the Superman dunk, but they quietly won 52 games. Howard, Hedo Turkoglu (should be the Most Improved Player), and Rashard Lewis give the Magic one of the best frontcourts in basketball. They should cruise past the Raptors.

Western Conference:

(1)Los Angeles 4 (8)Denver 3 : Can the Nuggets do what the Warriors did last year and eliminate the number one seed? It would be called an upset, but shouldn’t we expect a team that has two number one overall picks, a second overall pick, and a third (shoulda been second) overall pick in the starting lineup to go deep into the playoffs? I see some 130-121 games and Denver’s inability to get key stops hurting them more than the Lakers inability to get key stops.

(4)Utah 4 (5)Houston 3: Man… If there’s ever a pick I wanted to be wrong about. I think the Jazz are the better team, but for T-Mac’s sanity I wouldn’t mind if the Rockets won the series. Last year, I tried to use The Secret to help Houston and it obviously didn’t work. This year, the Rockets should get Benedict XVI to swing through H-Town and hit ‘em with some Pope Juice.

(6)Phoenix 4 (3)San Antonio 3: Either Shaq or Tim Duncan have appeared in every NBA finals since the Bulls sixth championship in 1998, and 10 of the last 14. They’ve both picked up four rings along the way, but with all of that said, Amare Stoudemire will dominate this series. He’s always a beast against the Spurs in the playoffs and with Shaq giving him more freedom on offense I see Phoenix riding Stat to the second round.

(7)Dallas 4 (2)New Orleans 2: The Mavericks get a chance to play the underdog upset role this postseason. It’s not gonna erase what happened last year, and with the competitiveness of the Western Conference this year, it shouldn’t be surprise if the team with the reigning MVP and Jason Kidd beats a team with no playoff experience.

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