I wouldn't book a trip to visit D'Antoni in Phoenix next fall is all I'm saying. It might be the best thing for him. He'll avoid the downhill ride with the Suns and become a hot commodity on the coaching market. They're looking for someone to head up that D-league team that plays at Madison Square Garden, you know.
The Mavericks got Kidd as a short-term upgrade on Devin Harris at point guard, but more than that they got him to be the veteran go-to warrior guy in the playoffs that Dirk Nowitzki is not. It didn't work. The Mavs were 35-18 before Kidd suited up, 16-13 when he played. And they didn't provide much opposition for the Hornets.
They can try it again next year. Kidd is a year older than Nash and already in decline, but he's a year younger than O'Neal and not declining at nearly the same rate. But it looks like the window is closing for the Mavericks too. Jason Kidd would have been a great guy to have around last year, when the Mavs had the best record in the league, or two years ago, when they went to the Finals.
Next year he figures to be what he was in the second half of this year, and what he spent years being in Jersey: A great player on a good team that's not good enough to seriously contend for the title.
That is, unless a blockbuster trade or three changes everything.
Wanted: Wild, wild West [PERMALINK]
Has anybody seen the Western Conference? Where'd it go? What happened to the wide-open, anyone-can-win-this-thing West, where the difference between the No. 1 seed and the last team in was almost imperceptible?
Three of the four series are over in at most five games, the higher seed winning all three, the average margin of victory more than 11 points. Only the Utah Jazz and Houston Rockets, the 4 and 5 seeds, have turned in a series, thanks to Houston's 95-69 rout in Game 5, which staved off elimination. The Jazz take a 3-2 series lead into Game 6 in Salt Lake City Friday night.
Thank goodness for the East, where the Atlanta Hawks had no chance against the top-seed Boston Celtics -- series score: 2-2 -- and the Philadelphia 76ers, 19 games worse than the Detroit Pistons, figured to get drilled. Score in that series: 3-2 Detroit after the Pistons' 98-81 win Tuesday.
The Pistons took a lot of heat as overfed, unmotivated underachievers when they fell behind the Sixers two games to one, but you dismiss this team at your peril. The Pistons can sleepwalk through games with the best of them, but they have a playoff switch. They flipped it in the first quarter Tuesday and cruised to the win.
Hey, a "Law & Order" rerun [PERMALINK]
So was there anything on TV Tuesday night? Could you find any sports to watch?
Cripes, there were four NBA playoff games, three of them potential elimination games, plus three NHL playoff games. That's aside from whatever baseball games were on where you live, not to mention the various races and fights and whatnot. We're just talking about the big stuff.
The NHL had three series turn into blowouts. All three were at 2-0, and alas the leading teams went 3-for-3. The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the New York Rangers 5-3, the Detroit Red Wings beat the Colorado Avalanche 4-3, both on the road, and the Dallas Stars followed their two road wins by beating the San Jose Sharks at home in overtime, 2-1.
Now some of you may have heard about the Boston Red Sox overcoming a 3-0 deficit and beating the New York Yankees in the 2004 American League playoffs, and maybe that made you question an assumption or two about lopsided series. But hockey was way ahead of the curve on that. It's the only major American sport that's had two teams rebound from being down 3-0 and win a seven-game series.
The Toronto Maple Leafs did it to the Red Wings in 1942 and the New York Islanders did it to the Penguins in 1975. Thirty-three years between those two and 33 years since the latter one. Detect a pattern there?
Me neither. Sure wish one of those trailing teams had gotten a win. It's up to the Montreal Canadiens and Philadelphia Flyers to make the second round interesting. Game 4 is Wednesday in Philly. The underdog Flyers lead 2-1. And there are only two NBA playoff games on opposite: Hawks-Celtics and Washington Wizards-Cleveland Cavaliers, both Game 5.
Three games? It'll be like a TV wasteland.
Previous column: NBA blows call on Kidd
About the writer
King Kaufman is a senior writer for Salon. You can e-mail him at king at salon dot com or visit his Facebook page.
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