Death and Texas

Mark Cuban must be about ready for an aneurism, but so far he's kept his cool and held his tongue and let yesterday's no-call at the end speak for itself. But you know, with the number of fouls that WERE called in that game, what are the Mavs doing with a foul to give at the end of the fourth quarter anyway? There are some who might say that the officiating had been a little unbalanced right from the opening tip, and that those who live by the no-call die by the no-call. That sort of thing. But at the final buzzer, the Nuggets are up 3-0, and the Mavs are all but toast -- playing now for a little pride to avoid a sweep against a team that is hot, hot, hot and playing loose....

Meanwhile, down in Houston Yao Ming is gone for the season, but the Rockets responded by blasting off and evening things up with the Lakers now 2-2. And I still believe this year is destined to become an LA/Cleveland (Kobe/LeBron) showdown, but the Lakers are going to have to show me a lot better defense if they want to get past a Houston team that in many ways is a lot quicker and more difficult to match up against without Yao than with him. And with Denver waiting patiently for the winner...well, let's just hope that Dallas can extend that series long enough that the Nuggets don't get rusty sitting around waiting.

And what is really amazing to me is San Antonio's early exit. Or even just the idea that the Spurs are actually now only the third best basketball team in Texas, rather than number ONE. I guess I've just learned to expect another Spurs championship in every odd-numbered year. But they'll be back again next year for real I'm sure. And a week from now, nobody will still be playing basketball in Texas anyway....