Welcome to another edition of "From the Sports Gutter." This week, the topic is the NBA Playoffs. Kobe Bryant was named NBA MVP as his Los Angeles Lakers have started 5-0 in the 2008 playoffs. That news might only fire up Chris Paul, who is already playing at an outstanding level. The Hornets' 2-0 lead over the defending champion San Antonio Spurs is just one of the many intriguing story lines in the second round. To find out what else the sports desk has to say about the playoffs, read on.
Chris Paul doesn't need an MVP award; his statistics speak for themselves
by Steven Fernandez
Let Kobe Bryant have the regular season's Most Valuable Player Award.
What Chris Paul is doing in the 2008 NBA Playoffs is just downright ridiculous and is a stretch that will be remembered for years to come, regardless of how far the Hornets advance.
And that's the thing about Paul - he has obliterated any expectation limits for the young Hornets team, which was supposed to be too inexperienced to hang with the powers of the Western Conference.
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That idea is understandable. As brilliant as Paul was in the regular season, averaging 21.1 points and 11.6 assists and leading the league in steals, you had to think the playoff pressure would make him and the young Hornets take a step back.
Instead, Paul has raised his game in just about every aspect, averaging 24.3 points, 12.1 assists and 4.9 rebounds while committing just 1.3 turnovers per game.
As a direct result, the Hornets are in the second round with a 2-0 lead on the defending champion San Antonio Spurs.
Even though they clinched the No. 2 seed in the West, it was trendy to pick the No. 7 Dallas Mavericks to upset the baby Hornets. Then again, these are the Mavericks that collapsed the past two seasons in the playoffs, so maybe the Hornets beating Dallas in five games shouldn't be all that surprising.
Quick side note to that series: Jason Kidd's foul on Jannero Pargo in Game 4 was one of the most vicious things I have seen in a basketball game. Kidd literally grabbed Pargo by the head and tried to slam his face on the floor. How he wasn't suspended for that still baffles me.
What's not so surprising is that Kidd's frustration level rose that high. I mean, he is one of the greatest point guards in NBA history, and Paul absolutely wiped the floor with him. We all know Kidd isn't at his peak anymore, but Paul made him look foolish.
It was one thing for the Hornets to knock off a perhaps weak-minded No. 7 seed in five games. But what's been exhilarating to watch is how Paul has continued to raise his game against a team the caliber of San Antonio.
The Spurs have been undeniably the team of the decade and seemed poised to make another title run after dismantling the Phoenix Suns in Round 1.
Instead, they are on the brink of being ousted by a team that didn't even make the playoffs last year.
Watching Paul in the first two games in this series has been one of the most enjoyable experiences I've had as a sports fan. Even though the Spurs' Tony Parker is a hilariously awful rapper in his free time and inexplicably landed Eva Longoria, he is no slouch of a point guard himself, having won the NBA Finals MVP last year.
Matched alongside arguably the greatest power forward of all time in Tim Duncan, crunch-time assassin Manu Ginobili and cheap-shot artist yet all-world defender Bruce Bowen, San Antonio should have been far too much of a load for the Hornets.
Yet rather than back down, Paul used the challenge to take his game to an unbelievable next level, fearlessly slashing through San Antonio's defense, getting his teammates absurdly open looks and knocking down big shots when he needed to.
On the defensive end, he plays the passing lanes as well as any guard in the league and has frustrated Parker and Ginobili in the first two games.
Unless the Spurs can find a way to disrupt Paul's rhythm, I don't see things turning around much for San Antonio.
Assuming the Hornets win the series and the Lakers go on to knock out the Utah Jazz, we will be set up with an epic matchup in the Western Conference Finals.
Of course, that series shouldn't decide who should have won MVP. Bryant and Paul play different positions, and a strong argument can be made that Bryant was equipped with better teammates.
Still, watching the two battle on the court would surely produce one of the most competitive series in years. Even though they probably won't spend a lot of time guarding each other, each is the leader of his team, and you just know there would be at least one chippy moment with Paul and Bryant getting in each other's faces, having to be separated by teammates. If the thought of that doesn't intrigue you, I don't know what will.
So while the Lakers and Hornets still have to take care of their second-round opponents, I can't wait for the possibility.
If the Hornets move on, a lot of experts will understandably pick the more stacked Lakers team to advance to the Finals.
Just know that those predictions, coupled with the MVP award going to Bryant, will only make the chip on Paul's shoulder that much bigger. I look forward to it.
Unexpected events make playoffs sound like an episode of 'The Twilight Zone'
by Isaac Avilucea
Did Rod Serling get a hold of the 2008 NBA Playoffs script?
The way things have played out this year, it looks like something straight out of "The Twilight Zone."
Just ask the Boston Three Party. Yes, the Celtics pulverized Atlanta in Game 7, but come on, we're talking about the Hawks. At the beginning of this series, did anyone expect or predict that the Hawks - the same team that went 37-45 in the regular season - would have big, bad Boston on the brink of elimination? If so, please come forward, and I'll arrange for us to fly out to Vegas.
Another bizarre development: San Antonio down 0-2 to the Hornets. I'm not trying to insinuate that the league is fixed, but conveniently, the Finals would provide a shot in the arm to a destitute post-Katrina New Orleans economy. At the very least, if the mighty Spurs happen to be eliminated on the road, they won't have to venture too far to find a strip club - New Orleans is full of them.
I try to avoid mentioning anything relating to the purple-and-gold, but with Kobe Bryant named Most Valuable Player, the Feds need to investigate who's taking kickbacks from the Lakers organization. What's this, the U.S. Senate? I thought pork-barreling was strictly for politicos, not sportswriters. Can we get some government intervention, or would that make things worse?
No disrespect to Bryant and the crew, but taking into account the numbers Chris Paul put up in the regular season - 21.1 points per game and 11.6 assists - he should have been the clear-cutˇchoice.
"But Kobe's the best player who has yet to win," I was told. No, Chris Paul is 2007-08's best, and last time I checked, he hasn't won one either. And Bryant's done it with Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom. Who does Paul have? Not one person I can name without looking at the official roster.
In the Eastern Conference, Washington's attention-starved guard DeSean Stevenson was tired of being overlooked on the roster sheet. Boy, did he make a name for himself, calling LeBron James "overrated." Now, he can mope about on his couch and ponder the comebacks he can tell James next year.
Speaking of smack-talk, I've missed Rasheed Wallace's asinine post-game press conferences where he often blasts officials and predicts wins. Maybe he'll get a chance to do it this round because much like his "Dee-troit basketball" Pistons, he seemed out of character after dropping two to the Sixers. Come on Wallace, we need some soundbites.
Oddly enough, the only series that was devoid of any twists and turns was the Magic-Raptors series, with Magic man Dwight Howard exerting his dominance and helping Orlando coast into the second round of the playoffs.
