Quick round 2 thoughts

Hornets-Spurs

Back at the beginning of the year, I picked out the Hornets-Warriors game for Shally and me to go to as our first Oracle Arena experience of the '07-'08 season. When I bought the tickets, my reasoning went something like this:

- the Hornets ought to be one of the teams battling the Warriors for the last playoff spot (based on their out-of-the-playoffs finish in '06-'07), so it should be competitive
- good PG play and passing is always fun to watch, even for the casual fan

Little did I know that the Hornets squad would springboard off that win to go 35-15 in 2008 and turn into one of the elite teams in the West.

Watching Chris Paul last year, he clearly had talent, but you could play off of him to force him to take an inconsistent jumper, and you could go at him on defense. To his credit, he's put in the work on his outside shot to make it competent and turn him into an unstoppable offensive weapon.

Not only that, the Hornets' fun style of play (offensive efficiency and defensive scrambling) has even turned Shally into a fan... so while I'm kicking chairs and muttering under my breath as they dismantle the Spurs, I guess there's two edges of silver lining:
1) these playoffs may help turn my gf into a basketball fan
2) once the emotions die down, the Hornets are extremely fun to watch

Incidentally, for you guy sports fans, if you could only choose one, would you rather your significant other enjoy watching sports with you, or enjoy doing some other typically guy-centric activity (like video games) with you?

Lakers-Jazz

As a Bay Area guy, I'm trying really hard to despise the Lakers. I really am. I can remember the early part of this decade when Shaq, Rick Fox, and Floppin' Fisher would would raise my ire just thinking about their obvious disdain and lack of respect for other teams in the league (rather similar to what the Pistons have become, actually).

Thing is... this Lakers team is really fun to watch.

Their interior passing is exquisite. Gasol is tailor-made for the triangle offense (thanks again to Lakers GM Chris Wallace... yup, you heard me), Odom looks rejuvenated when he doesn't have to pull up for 15-foot bricks and can just focus on rebounding, passing, and driving to the hoop, and Kobe has clearly matured into a guy who knows when to elevate his teammates and when to take over.

The Jazz, despite their knocking off the Warriors last year, is another enjoyably efficient team to watch. Honestly, as a basketball fan, I'd be pretty pleased with any of the Western Conference squads repping the West in the Finals.

Eastern Conference

Compared to the West, offensive execution has been awfully lacking so far. Go Magic. Go Celts. That is all.