FrontRowSportsReport.com: Sports Blog

So the NBA season is slowly winding down and the playoff picture is getting a bit more clear as we have only a few more weeks left to play. Even though the seedings will probably change a bit 2 things are very clear - the Eastern Conference has only two teams with a real shot at winning the NBA Championship and the Western Conference will have the best playoff basketball by far. With that being said lets take a closer took at each Conference and where they stand.

NBA Eastern Conference

No offense to any team in the Eastern Conference but outside of the Boston Celtics, Detroit Pistons and maybe the Orlando Magic does any team really have a shot against a Western Conference team? The Eastern Conference will have at least 1, maybe 2 teams make the playoffs with a losing record and its not like they are playing in the hyper-competitive Western Conference. Having a losing record when you play teams like the Miami Heat and New York Knicks does not say a lot about your team. Could one of the lower seeded teams make a run? Sure, anyone can but in the NBA’s Eastern Conference there are the Celtics and Pistons and then everyone else. In fact, the team I feel has the best chance of winning the NBA Championship is the Celtics, the Pistons are over-rated in a bad conference.

NBA Western Conference

The NBA should do away with the Eastern and Western titles and call these two conferences Division 1 and Division 2. The talent from top to bottom in the Western Conference is insane. Every single team that will make the NBA Playoffs will have at least 45 wins - the Eastern Conference will be lucky to have 3. In fact I would say that any Western Conference playoff team, from seed 1 through 8, have a shot at winning the NBA Championship if they make it that far. Right now the 7th seed is the Dallas Mavericks. The Dallas Mavericks! That means as of today the Los Angeles Lakers would play the Dallas Mavericks in the first round of the NBA Playoffs. That is just a bit different then the Detroit Pistons playing the Philadelphia 76ers don’t you think?

NBA Playoff Predictions

So here is how I see it going down this year in the NBA Playoffs. In the Eastern Conference it will be the Celtics vs. the Pistons in the Conference Finals with the Celtics winning in a series that goes the full 7 games. In the Western Conference I actually see Phoenix winning out, even though I am torn between them and the Lakers. With the NBA Finals being the Suns versus the Celtics I see the Suns winning.

So there you have it, I am predicting the Phoenix Suns as the 2007 - 2008 NBA Champions.

I think the entire state of Arizona breathed a collective sigh of relief last night as the Phoenix Suns beat the San Antonio Spurs 94-87. Yes it was just one game and it doesn’t mean the trade to bring in Shaquille O’Neal is now working. However, if the Suns lost it would have meant they would have lost 3 in a row for the first time all season and stopping the Spurs / Tim Duncan was the main reason they brought in the Big Cactus.

Shaq showed some bursts of energy and toughness that made most NBA experts think that the trade might work out for the Suns. Shaq did his thing as usual, he scored 14 points and grabbed 16 rebounds, but if you watch the game you will see that his biggest impact was how Duncan did not play his usual game against the Suns. All night long Duncan was hesitant to stand under the basket and stayed for most of the game outside. Also, having Shaq in the middle meant that the Suns didn’t have to double team Duncan, which freed up the other 4 Suns on the court to play their man and not worry about rolling off to guard someone else. However, this was just one game lets see how this works out if they play each other in the NBA playoffs.

The Spurs were led by Manu Ginobili who put in a game-high 22 points and Tony Parker who has 21. Tim Duncan put in 17 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, however Duncan was 6 of 19 shooting. Duncan was obviously not happy with his performance. “I had two turnovers and two missed layups down the stretch, we’re up five with three-something left — a situation where we usually play a lot better than that.”

The Suns were led by Steve Nash who had 19 points and a game-high 14 assists.  Oh, and did you see the Big Cactus flying into the stands?

Not sure what was more surprising to me yesterday - the fact that the Phoenix Suns beat the San Antonio Spurs or Shaq / Big Cactus did his own Superman imitation. What was he thinking? Did you see the look on those kids faces in the front row when Shaq came flying into the stands? I admire his effort but come on is it worth crushing 2 kids?



This video of Shaq’s flagrant foul of the Detroit Pistons Amir Johnson made me cringe. It had to hurt, no way you can run into Shaq (or his best new nickname Big Cactus) and not get banged up. Anyone else does this people are going to scuffle - with Shaq what can you do? He is always the biggest guy on the court.



I buy into the argument that it is going to take some time for the Phoenix Suns to gel with Shaquille O’Neal in the mix. Suns coach Mike D’Antoni has to play around with the lineup and see what works and what doesn’t. However, so far I give this trade a D for the Suns as they lost another game last night, at home, to the Detroit Pistons.

The Pistons (41-15) basically dominated the entire game and pretty much embarrassed the Suns (38-18) 116-86. Losing at home to a NBA Eastern Conference team by 30 points is unacceptable. The Pistons also ended the Suns’ 11 game winning streak against Eastern Conference teams.

Rasheed Wallace put up 22 points and 8 rebounds as he was one of six Pistons who had double digits in points scored last night. Besides Wallace, the Pistons were led by Rip Hamilton who had 18 points, Chauncey Billups had 14 points and 11 assists, and Antonio McDyess had 12 points and 13 rebounds.

“This was a big game for us,” Billups said after the game. “You know how we are, man, when we play against other elite teams, we lock in. We lock in big-time. I thought everybody played great today- everybody.”

The Suns were led by Amare Stoudemire who had a game high 31 points. Shaq had another disappointing game offensively  putting up only 7 points but had 11 rebounds in 34 minute of playing time. Shaq was also 1 for 8 at the free throw line.

Suns coach D’Antoni tried to blame the loss on the team being spent.  “Maybe we used all the adrenaline left these last two games. Emotionally, we’ve been on a high for the last three days and you wake up on Sunday at noon and we’re not quite ready to play.” Yeah ok Mike, I have watched a lot of Suns games and this team never looked tired or “spent”.

Again it is a bit to early to say whether this trade was a complete failure or not. However, if the Suns lose another game they should hit panic mode as other Western Conference teams are looking better and better.

Seems as though the once unbeatable Boston Celtics are looking a bit more vulnerable after their trip through the NBA Western Conference. The Celtics are now 0-3 on their 5 game road trip after losing last night to the Phoenix Suns 85-77.

The Suns, who got their first win with Shaquille O’Neal, were led by Amare Stoudemire who put in a game high 28 points. Shaq only had 4 points but controlled the defensive boards grabbing a game high 14 total rebounds. After the game Shaq continued his humble approach and praised Stoudemire. “Amare Stoudemire is the best big man in the game right now - period, bar none,” O’Neal said. “I didn’t know he was that good. But talking to him and watching him play, he’s the best big man in the game at 25, and I mean that. I’m not just saying that to pump him up.”

Stoudemire probably benefited the most from the Shaq trade as having the big man at center lets Amare move to his natural power forward spot. Commenting about the position move he said after the game: “It’s helped me a lot, it’s just allowed me to play basketball. I don’t have to battle so much with the big guys and get in foul trouble, things like that. Tonight was a great step for us.”

The Celtics, who never led last night, were led my Kevin Garnett and his 19 points.? “This West is no joke,” Garnett said. “I said it before the trip that it’s going to be a test, and that’s what it’s become.” The Celtics only put up 30 minutes in the first half, their lowest total this year.

During last nights Phoenix Suns game Shaq daddy made his debut - and showed the good folks in Phoenix how you slam dunk in someone’s face. I believe that was Los Angeles Lakers forward Lamar Odom getting the welcome from Shaq.

Shaquille O’Neal and Jason Kidd both made debuts with their new teams last night, unfortunately both the Phoenix Suns and Dallas Mavericks lost. However, both players impact on their respective team was undeniable.

Let’s start with Shaq and his game against the Los Angeles Lakers. Shaq contributed last night with 15 points and 9 rebounds, not bad since he hasn’t played in a few weeks. Despite the 130-124 loss to the Lakers, the Suns obviously can and will play better once Shaq gets his “legs back” and / or used to his new teammates. At times Shaq looked lost when he wasn’t hanging below the rim as usual. Shaq definitely made an effort to move around more and even ran some fast breaks, but really how long can that last? Shaq needs to find his place in the Suns game that suits both him and his team. After the game Shaq played the good teammate card. “I haven’t been this happy in a long time. I will take the blame for this loss because I wasn’t in tune with the guys. But give me four or five days to really get in tune and I’ll get it.”

Now on to Jason Kidd’s debut with the Dallas Mavericks. It is obvious from watching this game that Kidd is going to really help the Mavericks, his ability to make plays and find people is unmatched. Last night he spent a bit to much time trying to pass it to his new teammates, but that is to be expected. Just looking at the box score you can see that it was not a typical Kidd night, he only scored 8 points and had only 5 assists. However, do not let last nights game or the box score fool you, once this team starts to click and the big guns, Josh Howard and Dirk Nowitzki, get a feel for how Kidd plays everyone better watch out.

It is obviously to early to make any sort of judgment, in fact we can only truly judge the trades after the NBA season is over, but from what I saw last night both teams will be better off then before the trades. The only question is did they improve enough to win a NBA title.

Oh and on another NBA note, the New York Knicks lose to the Philadelphia 76ers last night by 40 points. 40 points! The 76ers aren’t even a good team, again how does Isiah Thomas still have a job?

Shaquille O’Neal will be making his first start as a member of the Phoenix Suns against his old team the Los Angeles Lakers tomorrow night. Suns coach Mike D’Antoni announced the news after today’s practice. This has to be making the NBA gods drool with glee - the Lakers, as you all should know, is the team Shaq Daddy helped to win three NBA championships and we all know about the “feud” that went on between Kobe Bryant and Shaq.

Shaq, who was acquired in a trade with the Miami Heat, hasn’t played in a game since January 21st and will probably play around 20 minutes tomorrow night. Shaq playing the good team player role said “I’m not looking to put up historical numbers. Whatever these guys ask me to do, that’s what I’ll do.”

When actually playing this season Shaq has averaged a un-Shaq like 14.2 points and 7.8 rebounds per game. However, the bigger question is how the Suns and Steve Nash will fit Big Daddy into the their Run and Gun offense. Shaq can neither run or gun…he kind of jogs and pounds.

According to numerous sources within the NBA, the Miami Heat and the Phoenix Suns are close to a deal that would send aging center Shaquille O’Neal to the desert for All-Star forward Shawn Marion and guard Marcus Banks. Wait Shaq is still playing?

The Heat have already agreed to the deal and are waiting on the final word from the Suns - the Suns are waiting on a medical evaluation of O’Neal before giving the go-ahead. ESPN reported last night that O’Neal was in Phoenix and will undergo a physical this morning.

I have to say that if this trade goes through I will be almost as shocked as when the Lakers got Pau Gasol for a can of tuna. Shaq daddy is 35 and has had rough season filled with injuries and it is not like he is going to get healthier. I do understand the Heats need to get rid of him - they need to get into rebuilding mode after the awful season they are having. But, how does Shaq fit into the fast paced offense of the Suns? Do they need a big body to compete in the NBS Western Conference that bad?  Shaq would also bring with him to Phoenix a 2-year / $40 million contract - I thought the Suns were trying to reduce payroll and stay away from the NBA luxury-tax?

If this trade does go through I will be sitting right in front of the television watching Shaq’s first game in purple - seeing Steve Nash trying to get Shaq involved in the offense is going to be very entertaining.

Here are the 2007/2008 stats for the players involved:

Shaquille O’Neal
32 games played: 14.2 points per game, 7.8 rebounds per game, 1.66 blocks per game

Shawn Marion
47 games played: 15.8 points per game, 9.9 rebounds per game, 1.49 blocks per game

Marcus Banks
24 games played: 5.2 points per game, 1 assist per game