The Big FUMBLE-Mental

I fully expected the Jazz to win Game 3. They hadn't lost a home playoff game this year. The Spurs have never won a playoff game at Utah. If the Jazz went down 3-0, they were going to get swept, and they're too good a team to be swept. So, I'm not surprised at all that Utah won.

What I am absolutely shocked at is how incredibly AWFUL Tim Duncan was in this game. It was as if he had never picked up a basketball in his life. He couldn't hold onto the ball and he couldn't stay out of foul trouble the entire game. And though it took a half, the Jazz finally capitalized on Duncan's rarest of egg layings.

The Spurs will be in big, BIG trouble if they lose Game 4. It will be up to Duncan to get it together and make sure that doesn't happen.

And while on the subject of what aggravates me, I cannot STAND that new Wendy's commercial where everyone's out in the forest kicking trees while some nutjob in a bright red Wendy Thomas shock wig (complete with the patented Pippi Longstocking pigtails) leads these idiots in yell practice. Who are the AD WIZARDS who came up with THAT one?!?

Jack to the Future

Well, that certainly was a mind-bending season finale of Lost! We actually got the first-ever non-Desmond flash FORWARD, where we learn that Jack is more of a train wreck than ever before. Not only does he nearly attempt suicide, but he's a pill-popping alcoholic hell-bent on self-destruction. At the end, we learn that both he and Kate are off the island, but the real question at this point is whether or not anyone else is still back at the island.

I'm almost positive that MOST of our beloved castaways remain stranded there, and that's one of the things that's torturing Jack the most. The biggest mystery to me right now is who was in that casket? Locke? Sawyer?? BEN??? I don't know if I can wait until NEXT FEBRUARY to find out!!!

17 and Counting...

When does 1+1+1=17? That would be the combination of Duncan, Parker and Ginobili leading to 17 straight home victories over their opponents in the Western Conference Finals, the Utah Jazz. Time was, back during The Robinson Era, Utah always ended up sending the Spurs home packing. And though there's still a chance that could happen here, the aforementioned 17-game streak along with the outcome of Game 1 leads me to think that's probably a long shot.

Game 2 is tonight, so we'll have a better idea of what's in store. The Jazz will win in San Antonio eventually, let's just hope it's not during this series!

SPF 21

The three brightest stars on the Spurs all came through in Game 6, with Parker, Ginobili and Duncan each delivering 11 baskets and tons more clutch rebounds, assists and all-around hustle plays. But as has so often been the case during their previous three title runs, it is #21 who once again proved to be the greatest of them all.

More than any other single stat in this entire series, the one that proved to be the ultimate difference maker was the blocked shot total put up by Duncan: nine. That's not only one short of giving TD a triple-double, it's one short of the NBA's all-time single-game playoff record. While Amare Stoudemire proved his equal on the offensive end and on the boards throughout the series, just as he did in 2005, Duncan emphatically proved his defensive superiority over his younger, more athletically spectacular counterpart.

In the end, it probably can even be further distilled to a significant gap between the two in the oft-referenced "Basketball IQ." Duncan still knows how to play through foul trouble, whereas Stoudemire repeatedly dug himself an even deeper hole by not adjusting his game whenever the refs whistled him for contact. So, even as he approaches the twilight of his illustrious career, Tim Duncan remains the Superior Playoff Finisher.