Mark Jackson is a great coach. I said it, he's only in his second year now, but he learned from Pat Riley how to manipulate the media and the refs. Him calling attention to hard play is going to have the coach's watching out for Curry. But it will also make them watch out for things that Bogut does too. But Jackson's playing the odds and Curry is a 10 star player and Bogut maybe 3.5.

This may open up the lanes and keep Farreid a little tentative. Phil Jackson used to do the same thing when the Knicks played the Bulls. He would whine about Michael not getting calls, even when Rodman was at his worst in antagonizing the other team.

I think GS wins and beats Denver, but I hope it goes 7. It's by far the best series of them all.

Oh and to take Jackson to task for calling the Golden State backcourt the best scoring backcourt ever. I'd take Gail Goodrich and Jerry West as #1 and Walt Frazier and Earl "the Pearl" Monroe as the second best ever. After that just give me Jordan and any point guard he played with. and 4th would be Hardaway and Richmond. Those two could be quite devastating.

One more thing. This is the playoffs, you better get used to extra hard screens and NO ONE should be getting an easy layup...NO ONE!

I am enjoying the thunder and rocket series the games have been fun to watch.

Caught some of the OKC/HOU game earlier. Who is this Parsons guy? I like his hustling style of play.

He's a second year player drafted out of Florida I want to say. Yeah, he's a good player.

OKC reeked of desperation going to the Hack-a-shaq with like 5 minutes left. So glad that backfired. I hate any time I see that. Takes sportsmanship right out of it.

Billy Donovan (coach at UF) has done great at getting his players ready for the NBA. If you even watch some of his older players like Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller, you see hustle ballplayers who never quit on plays and do things that more athletically gifted players don't do. I see that in Parsons and Joakim Noah and other guys he's had.

I see it as a strategy. One that's not pleasant to watch, but you're attacking a weakness. Best way to handle that...shoot free throws better. Seriously it's not that hard. One hour after practice, nothing but free throws. That should be good for at least a 5% increase over the course of a year.

Agreed on both counts. It's a shameless tactic, but a valid one thus far.

The Thunder and Knicks both blew it last night. A chance to close it out at home and they both choked. OKC looked listless and the Knicks looked bored.

I agree. You just don't see this with Dwight Howard and others though. It's an end of game startegy that coaches employ in the hopes that they can start to whittle down a lead. A lot of times though, it hurts as much as it helps. If your team was on a roll, now you're taking them out of a rhythm and giving the other team a chance to make substitutions to take you out of that strategy.

Eh, you used see it with Dwight all the time. It's just in the playoffs that you notice it more. The last few years it wasn't an issue as his team wasn't good enough for it to be an issue.

I disagree. Taking a knee in football to run out the clock is a strategy. Taking a safety so you can kick a free kick is a strategy. Throwing the ball off your opponent so it's out of bounds on them, is a strategy. Exploiting the penalty system consecutively time after time after time, is bad sportsmanship IMO. It's a fine line, but I think the league should do something to curtail that. I couldn't believe that the "good guy" of the NBA's (Durant's) team would resort to that. I was a little disgusted by it.

The hurdle there Silver, and I agree with the mindset, is curtailing the excessive fouling without excessively punishing the endgame foulers who are fouling to stop the clock. It shouldn't be too hard, but that's something to consider. Durant may be seen as the good guy in comparison to the Lakers or Heat, but Durant gets several cheap foul calls in his favor every game.

I see your point IR, yeah, fouling to stop the clock is obviously legit. That may be why they haven't really done anything about the hack-a-shaq. If you saw last nights game, I think that the refs were a little frustrated with the hack a shaq and that led to two back to back ticky tack fouls on Durant. Including an offensive one. It was funny watching Scotty Brooks and KD whine about the fouls when they were stooping down to the hack a shaq tactic. What hypocrites. I was also surprised they weren't calling delay of game on Harden when he kept lobbing the ball across the court every time they fouled Asik. I know it wasn't technically delay of game if it was a foul, but it was still annoying. Its as if he was doing it to pout. And that's coming from a big Harden fan. Would love to see him make OKC eat crow though by coming back from 3-0 to advance.

Harden was frustrated. I did not catch any of the games last night, but it sounds like frustration. As for whining, it's just the way of the world now. I ref soccer and it's the same thing. The players politely ask me to watch something the other team is doing wrong, then two minutes later they're frickin mugging someone. It's two-faced idiocy at its best. I like Harden, wish he'd fallen to Minnesota in that draft. Think about that combo, Harden+Rubio+Love, yes please.

At this point, I'll be grateful if anyone but the Heat win the whole thing. I'm dreaming, but Lebron James forever put himself beneath Jordan in the discussion of all time greats by going to Miami.

And Dwayne Wade and Kevin Garnett are the two dirtiest players in the league. Every time I see them face off, I was half hoping for a mutual injury collision.