The Informer’s 50 NBA Blogs in 50 Nights Day 14: A “Game 7 Weekend” Mailbag

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Can you believe this?

As The Informer is writing this article we are scheduled for an NBA record five Game 7s this weekend, with the Houston Rockets currently trying to make it six. Never before in the history of the NBA has there been a weekend like the one we are about to have.

It’s unprecedented, unbelievable, incredible, delightful, wonderful, extraordinary, unparalleled, astonishing, steak sauce, mind-bottling, unlikely, great, hard to believe, implausible, Blimpies, far-fetched; but most of all it is FANTASTIC!!!

The Informer honestly can’t ever remember being this excited for a weekend of basketball. Everything is on the line and anything can happen. Since there are so many questions about the upcoming weekend The Informer figured there was only one way to handle the blog for Day 14 of the 2014 NBA Playoffs –A “Game 7 Weekend” Mailbag.

As always, every one of the questions answered today has been supplied by a fake reader The Informer made up in his head to feel more popular.

So without any further adu Shaq-Fu, let’s MAILBAG!!!

Zach Randolph got suspended for barley shoving Steven Adams: Are you kidding me Informer? Obviously the NBA didn’t want to risk having Kevin Durant eliminated from the playoffs so they had to stack the deck in favor of Oklahoma City. This is complete garbage. I only have three words to describe the NBA; IT’s F****** RIGGED!!!

First of all The Informer does not appreciate the language. Second, and more importantly, Randolph sucker punched Adams in the middle of a basketball game; of course he is going to get suspended.

Listen, it doesn’t matter that Adams is unfazed by human pain and thus didn’t react to being punched in the face by the “baddest man” in the NBA causing it to look like a love-tap. At the end of the day a punch is a punch and the rules clearly state if you throw one in an NBA game you are going to get suspended.

This has nothing to do with the NBA trying to “RIG” a Thunder victory. This has everything to do with the fact that Randolph lost his cool, threw a punch, and now has to pay his punishment.

It’s that simple.

This is unreal; the NBA just suspended Zach Randolph for sort of shoving Steven Adams. What a joke. At this point why don’t they just raise Memphis’ hoop to 15ft and make every Thunder shot worth six points? You are probably pretty happy with yourself aren’t you Informer? Your precious Thunder have been handed a free trip to the second round. You and the NBA officials who made this bogus suspension should die of Gonorrhea and rot in hell with Dan Marino.

Wow . . . That escalated quickly.

Seriously though, why are you mad at The Informer, or for that matter the NBA? Why are you not mad at Randolph for not being able to control his temper?

In the starting to get loud voice of Stephen A. Smith . . . THE GUY THREW A PUNCH IN AN NBA GAME!!! THIS CAN”T HAPPEN!!!

And no, it was not a shove. It was a deliberate elbow followed by a closed fist sucker punch. Truthfully, Randolph is lucky all he did was get a suspension. I mean, have you seen what Adams does to basketballs that piss him off?

The Informer does want to ask one question: Why is everyone saying the Thunder have been handed Game 7? This is the 2014 NBA Playoffs, there are no guarantees. Hell, the road teams are over .500 in these playoffs.

Also, let’s not forget that the NBA rules clearly state that anything can happen in a Game 7. Maybe Mike Miller shows up and drains seven three-pointers igniting Memphis (he has done it before against Oklahoma City in a close out game). Or maybe Marc Gasol puts up a monster 35-20-10 game and leads the Grizzlies to victory. It is possible.

The Informer is just trying to say that the outcome of this game is not a foregone conclusion.

In fact, The Informer is starting to get worried that the Thunder may come into this game a little over confident which could lead to poor play and a Grizzlies victory. So in hindsight, the Randolph suspension really is more of a blessing in disguise for Memphis than it is a gift for the Thunder (Yes, The Informer is 100 percent trolling Memphis fans right now).

With all that said: Does the Randolph suspension hurt? Of course it does. Is the Conley injury going to be hard to overcome? Of course it is. Are the Thunder now going to win this series? Of course they are.

#LongLiveDurant #LetRussBeRuss #SteveAdams4President

Informer is Steven Adams human? I mean for the love of “Tim Tebow” he took a punch to the face from a guy who is considered by many to be the scariest man in the NBA and he didn’t even change his facial expression. In the words of the Russian from Rocky 4, “He is not human, he is like a piece of iron”.

The Informer has watched enough pro wrestling over the years to know that Giants can’t be fazed by a single punch. So in no way was The Informer surprised to see Adams react to the punch like he had just gotten a kiss from his sister.

All “if I wanted a kiss I would have called your sister” jokes aside, the craziest thing about this whole situation is the fact that Randolph is the third guy this season to get suspended (joining Vince Carter & Jordan Hamilton) after getting into an altercation with Adams. If you add in Nate Robinson (fined for striking Adams) and Larry Sanders (ejected for elbowing Adams) and you have a whopping five players who have been disciplined this season because of the 7’2″ giant.

Which begs the question: What is Adams doing to piss everyone off?

Is it because he is so large he can’t be moved, so guys get frustrated? Is he making “Yo Mama” jokes in foreign languages? Does he have bad “B.O.” to the point that you would rather get suspended than play against him? Do all the other player’s wives/girlfriends/mistresses/stripper friends secretly love Adams because of his accent so all the guys hates him?

Sadly, we may never know the answer to what makes Adams the greatest instigator of all time. One thing we do know, after watching Adams get sucker-punched without flinching The Informer is making it official –Steven Adams is my favorite basketball player not named Kobe Bryant, Durant or Russell Westbrook.

Informer did you see the end of the Houston Rockets-Portland Trailblazers game? Holy crap it was an instant classic.

The Informer knows the Blazers-Rockets game went down to the wire and that James Harden was channeling 1992 NBA Finals Michael Jordan in the first quarter (Harden started the game 3-3 from down time, shades of Jordan making his first six threes to start Game 1 of the 1992 Finals).

Other than that The Informer has yet to watch the second half.

The thing is, The Informer works a third shift job in real life; therefore he only gets to watch the beginning of the late games before going to work. Because of this The Informer does what every normal human in his position would do; he ignores everyone at work so he doesn’t get a score update, he stays off the internet/radio/televisions/Smartphone’s/Kindles/IPods/IPads and then he watches the games live via the VHS tape when he gets home.

Obviously this is not a full proof system because most of the time someone will let the cat out of the bag before The Informer makes it to his basement. But . . . Every once in awhile all the breaks go The Informer’s way and he gets to watch a tape-delayed game live eight hours later.

So right now, barring an unforeseen incident, The Informer is planning on watching the end of the Rockets-Blazers game the morning of May 3rd.

Fingers crossed.

(The Informer note – At approximately four am this morning one of The Informer’s co-workers “instant messaged” him asking if he had seen the Blazers 99-98 victory and the shot that Damian Lillard made to win the game. So yea . . . The Informer will not be watching the game live via the VCR. For some reason The Informer can’t help but think this is all Obama’s fault.)

Hey Informer did you see Dirk Nowitzki going “Diggler” on the San Antonio Spurs in Game 6? “DA Big German” maybe a step slower but there is no one else in the NBA that I would rather have in an elimination game than Dirk. He couldn’t miss last night. If Dirk plays like this again I think the Mavs are going to win Game 7.

You bet your long blonde German hair The Informer saw Dirk going all “Diggler” on the Spurs. “Da German” was hitting that one legged step back, making those rainbow jumpers and he was even running the break for some easy layups.

It was a vintage Dirk playoff performance.

Now, many people may look at his numbers (22pt 5reb 3ast) and try to say that Dirk had a good game, but in no way was it a dominant game. Let The Informer assure you all, those people would be wrong. In this case Dirk’s numbers are lying.

Trust me, last night’s “Diggler” game needs to be added to an already long Hall-of-Fame list of great playoff performances Nowitzki has had in his career.

As for your second point: You are absolutely right, the Mavs have a great chance to win this series.

Right now Monta Ellis is proving he can go toe to toe with Tony Parker , Dirk looks like Dirk and he is 4-0 all-time in Game 7s, Vince Carter is the best bench player in this series and the last time the Spurs played a Game 7 they lost (There has to be some lingering doubts still in their minds about the 2013 NBA Finals, right?).

With all that said; if The Informer was a gambling man, or new a guy named “Franky” who took illegal fake money-line wagers, his money would be on the Spurs in Game 7. At the end of the day the Spurs at home in a must win is where the smart money should go.

(P.S. –The Informer actually bought his friend “Franky” a new Corvette last month thanks to fake wagers just like this one. So if you are a Mavericks fan you should be very excited that The Informer wants to allegedly wager against your team in Game 7.)

Informer is anyone going to watch Game 7 between the Indiana Pacers and the Atlanta Hawks?

The Hawks-Pacers series is still going on?

Informer at the beginning of the playoffs you predicted the Brooklyn Nets would beat the Toronto Raptors in seven games. Are you still confident in your prediction?

If you go back and read the prediction, The Informer gave the nod to Brooklyn on the road in Game 7 because he felt their experience in pressure games would serve them well against the youth of Toronto. After watching the first six games of this series, The Informer still firmly believes this is going to be the case on Sunday.

Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Andre Kirilenko, Jason Kidd, Derron Williams and Joe Johnson have all been there before. Can you name one player on the Raptors who can say the same?

Just saying, usually in a Game 7 the winning team is the team with the experience. And in this case the experience belongs to the Nets. Therefore, putting two and two together, the wise prediction is to take the road veterans.

And yes, The Informer just said the smart prediction is taking a road team in a Game 7, even though over the course of NBA history the home team has a 91-23 record.

Lesson as always, The Informer drinks too much.

I will keep this question short and sweet Informer: Los Angeles Clippers or Golden State Warriors?

The Informer predicted Golden State was going to win this series so he is going to stick with his original pick.

Even though The Informer is sticking with his Warriors pick, it should be pointed out that the Clippers are the better basketball team, they are playing at home and they have two of the three best players in this series (Chris Paul, Blake Griffin). So in no way shape or form would The Informer be surprised if the Clippers win.

Luckily, for the sake of my prediction, The Warriors do have a few things going for them heading into Game 7.

First of all, we don’t know if Chris Paul is fully healthy. Secondly, we don’t know how emotionally drained LA is because of the never ending Donald Sterling saga. And finally, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson are both coming off of poor shooting nights.

Now there are no concrete stats or factual evidence to back this up, but The Informer is pretty sure that neither Curry nor Thompson has ever had back to back poor shooting nights. So, if neither player has ever had back to back poor games than one could assume that there is a better than good chance both Curry and Thompson will get hot on Saturday. And if both Curry and Thompson are going to get hot then The Informer likes the Warriors chances of shooting themselves into the second round.

Informer, as a so-called NBA writer aren’t you contractually obligated to mention LeBron James in every single article you write?

Oh crap . . . The figment of my imagination is one hundred percent correct. Thank you for reminding me. The Informer has heard people have been “water-boarded” if they don’t mention “King James” at least once every article.

So before we go, here are some LeBron James Game 7 facts: James averages 34 points 9 rebounds and 4 assist in Game 7s. In Game 7 of the 2013 NBA Finals James put up a monster 37-12-4 night. In his career “The King” is 4-1 when facing the pressure of a Game 7. And finally, LeBron has absolutely nothing to do with this weekend’s games.

That is all for now; thanks to everyone for reading. Good luck to your respective teams and hopefully you all have an enjoyable “Game 7 Weekend”.

It is going to be FANTASTIC!!!



(After the blog note – Here is the Michael Jordan video The Informer referenced in the James Harden segment. If you have never seen Jordan destroy Clyde Drexler I highly recommend you watch. It even has a classic Marv Alberts “facial” reference. )