4 down, 12 to go

(Photo by Noah Graham/NBAE via Getty Images)

Go TEAM.

(Photo by AP)

I’m hi-fiving Lamar vicariously through the guy on the right. Great game LO!: 26pts, 15reb. Lakes take Round 1, 4-1!

Steve Nash = Funny

I’ve always liked Steve Nash, not just because of the sick passes he makes or his dead-on jumpers, but also because he seems like a guy who you could really just have a fun time hanging around with. Couple of examples of some comedic Steve Nash moments that I remember and/or recently found, both in-game and off the court:

Funny even when while disputing a call w/ refs:

This one with Baron Davis (pretty sweet dance moves!):

Interview after chipping his tooth in the game (hilarious):

Vitamin Water commercials:

“It’s BaNASH.”
“…but I’m faster than sharks, so that’s not a problem.”

On a more serious note, he does sponsor a lot of eco-friendly activities and backs it up with his foundations (stevenash.org), and backs it up with actions—like sporting shoes made out of recycled material. Much respect. Too bad we’re missing him in the playoffs this year…

Chosen One

Got some fries for lunch with my Philly Cheesesteak. Check out his crazy one out of the bunch:

Imagine how big the potato must've been...

Longest fry I’ve ever seen! It’s like the LeBron of fries… the Chosen One.

…or like the Shawn Bradley / Manute Bol of fries…

Music Post #1

Expanding the blog to include some thoughts on music.

Highly recommended:

"The Fray" (2009), by The Fray

A solid follow up to their previous album, How To Save A Life. I can listen to it all the way through without skipping a track. Almost all albums that I’ve listened to have a few songs that I don’t care for / that I would skip to get to the next track, so the fact that I can listen to it all the way through says something good about the album.

Deluxe CD w/ acoustic version of track 2, “Absolute,” is def. worth a listen. Check it out yourself.

Favorite tracks include 1, 2, 5, 10.

Wild, Wild West

"None of this, six gun in this, brotha runnin' this!"

Last night, I was watching the Utah-Denver game (by the way, Denver’s ‘Green Week‘ uniforms were really ugly/confusing), and really started to see how crazy this playoff picture is in the Western Conference is (again!) this year.

The West race is tighter than ever, with seeds 2 – 8 separated by only 4.5 games, and especially between seeds 3 – 6, which are all within 1 game in the standings. With the win, Denver held onto their current status as the 2nd seed, while the loss brought Utah one step closer to dropping to the 8th seed, with Dallas looming just a game behind.

A quick look at the west standings as of 4/2/09:

		W	L	Pct	GB
z-	Lakers	59	16	.787	0.0
x-	Nuggets	50	26	.658	9.5
x-	Spurs	48	26	.649	10.5
x-	Rockets	48	27	.640	11.0
	Hornets	47	27	.635	11.5
	Trail Blazers	47	27	.635	11.5
	Jazz	46	29	.613	13.0
	Mavericks	45	30	.600	14.0
	Suns	41	34	.547	18.0

The Lakers (59-16) sit atop comfortably, having clinched the best record in the West—-but they still have something to play for in trying to gain home court advantage throughout the playoffs. I doubt they’d catch the Cavs (61-14), who are still ahead by 2 games in the loss column, but the Cavs did just lose to the Wizards (Gil’s back!) and have a tough match up against Orlando tonight, so you never know. At the least, though, the Lakers should continue to play hard enough to secure a better record than Orlando and Boston, both with 19 losses currently.

This makes tonight’s match up between the Lakers and Rockets (48-27) interesting, because the Rockets are fighting for positioning/home court, and they’re right in the middle of the pack as the current 4th seed. Houston is a 1/2 game behind San Antonio (48-26), and a 1/2 game ahead of New Orleans and Portland (tied at 47-27), making tonight’s game a must-win in terms of maintaining an advantage on playoff seeding.

I think we’re going to see some real nice match ups in the closing weeks of the 08-09 NBA season, and I can’t wait to see the competitive fire of each team’s stars burn ablaze. Here’s a great summary of key remaining games by Henry Abbott at True Hoop. I hope Utah can get it together and move up the standings to make a #4/#5 or #3/#6 Jazz vs Hornets match up come true, so I can watch Deron Williams and Chris Paul go back-and-forth on every possession for 7 games. Wishful thinking? Maybe. But it’ll definitely be something wild.

Tropicana

This morning I discovered that… the cap of my orange juice is shaped like an actual orange!

check out the cap!

It has the dimpled-texture just like an orange, complete with a knot at the tip. pretty nice design concept. props to Tropicana.