Spurs desert Joe, then the Eastern Conference mugs him

Picks and Pans
• 2001 Finals Prognostications
• Playoff Prognostications III: Conference Finals picks.
• Pickpocketed II: how our Conference Semi-Final picks went.
• Playoff Prognostications II: Conference Semi-Finals picks.
• Pickpocketed: how our our First Round picks panned out.
• Playoff Prognostications, First Round. Includes our long-range forecasts for Conference Finals teams, Conference Winners, Finals teams and 2001 NBA Champions.
• The Nets-Centric Playoff Prediction System. See how it did in the First Round.

June 5 , 2001
Pickpocketed III –
Conference Finals
Hmmm. For pure viewing pleasure the Lakers/Spurs series wasn't exactly the be-all-end-all, was it? No Eastern Conference team packed anywhere near the Lakers' annihilating superpower punch – conference finals-wise, that was a good thing. Philly/Bucks was like a drawn out struggle in the Balkans fought with hotel-glass-shattering shoulder-carried arms. The Bucks got deeply frightened in the fourth quarter of their finest moment, Game 6, by The Answer waging guerilla war, more or less single-handedly erasing 2/3rds of a 33 point Philly debt. Allen and Cassell, underappreciated and not well known nationally, have probably altered that status with this well-fought series. And the Bucks have established themselves as an contender in the East for years to come. The Spurs just ended up looking pathetic.

Western Conference
(1) San Antonio Spurs vs (2) Los Angeles Lakers
Winners: Los Angeles (4-0), Champagne, the Nets-Centric Playoff Prediction System.
Loser: Joe.
Joe: Does anyone know if there was any basketball played in the Western Conference? Boy, do I have egg all over my pick of San Antonio to win it all. Last time I saw this thorough a domination, lions and Christians were involved. Will they ever lose? Lakers running full tilt, high-octane, and basically with Shaq and Kobe, what else do they need? Even Tim Duncan looked a bit preoccupied after game 1 - that should have told Joe everything he needed. Yup, San Antonio was soft, soft, soft - they should start looking for Charmin endorcements. Lakers, while not the best team ever (sorry Shaq, there's a pretty impressive couple of teams ahead of you, including the Showtime Lakers), should have no trouble winning it all.
Champagne: In the light of the ungodly power of the Lakers to make the normally intelligent Spurs look stupid (has David Robinson ever played dumber?) Greg Popovich's failure to calm his lost and newly faithless flock might not seem as fire-worthy to San Antonio managerial minds as it is to mine. Popovich's "we're three-point shooters who just aren't hitting them yet" message snapped the mental locks down on his perimeter guys' psyches and banged at them with a hammer. Not once did the Spurs shooters get "hot" – a purely fictional state of being representing sports "magical thinking" about the streakiness of fortune. Your Grandma wishes to achieve a similar state when she's choking "her machines" at the Indian Casino with the insurance pay-out on Grandpa while chainsmoking her way to oblivion.

Eastern Conference
(1) Philadelphia 76ers vs (2) Milwaukee Bucks
Winners: Philadelphia (4-3), Joe, Champagne.
Loser: The Nets-Centric Playoff Prediction System.
Joe: What a tough, seven game war between two stubborn teams. Sixers had more horses but also more injuries; frankly, as far as I'm concerned, the Bucks should have been able to win this series. But hats off to The Answer, who played his, um, ass off in this series. Mutombo and McKie, along with Eric Snow, pretty much made any contribution that Iverson didn't. Bucks should have kicked the Sixers when they were down, instead, they laid an egg in Philly. Well, at least the NBA office ought to be pleased. It has the best possible outcome - the two best teams, in two big markets.
Champagne: Game Five was the Bucks missed chance. Had Glenn Robinson's shot gone in at the buzzer it might have been the decisive play of the series, and altered my perception of The Big Dog as the weakest link in the Bucks' Big Three. I say this even though Cassell didn't play that great this round, but he was sore-ribbed all along and had certainly helped them get past the Magic and the Hornets. Big Dog had a bad playoffs. I must say here, also, that Ervin Johnson played much better than I ever imagined he could, and despite having picked Philly, I hoped the Bucks as a team had surprised me too. I would have enjoyed the second meeting of Phil Jackson and George Karl in the Finals (Karl's Sonics fell to Jackson's Bulls), and their propaganda war in the media.

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© 2001 Shawn Belschwender and Michael Kozlowski