i hate mark with a passion lol like scorpion hates quan chi

The last time I had any suspension updates for the playoffs, all the suspensions involved stuff that happened on the court; from flagrant fouls, to throwing mouthpieces at refs.

This time, however, a suspension has occurred for something OFF the court during the playoffs.

New Jersey Nets forward Clifford Robinson was suspended for five games by the league today for violating the league and its players union's anti-drug program. Said suspension begins tonight. And if the Heat win three more games, I think Clifford Robinson's suspension will continue with the first two games of the regular season, since the Heat need to win three more games to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals. Turns out he's a repeat offender, and it looks like the drug he tested positive for is marijuana, so here's the policy on marijuana in the league, according to the Collective Bargaining Agreement:

(A) For the first such violation, the player shall be required to enter the Marijuana Program;

(B) For the second such violation, the player shall be fined $25,000 and, if the player is not then subject to in-patient or aftercare treatment in the Marijuana Program, be required to enter the Marijuana Program;

(C) For the third such violation, the player shall be suspended for five (5) games and, if the player is not then subject to in-patient or aftercare treatment in the Marijuana Program, be required to enter the Marijuana Program; and

(D) For any subsequent violation, the player shall be suspended for five (5) games longer than his immediately preceding suspension for violating the Marijuana Program and, if the player is not then subject to in-patient or aftercare treatment in the Marijuana Program, be required to enter the Marijuana Program.

Turns out this is his third offense for testing positive for marijuana.

Heat and Nets was a good game, miami made a good run in the fourth to go up 2-1 in the series. Im surprised to becuase shaq didnt have a good game and he normally domintes in East Rutherfield.

After watching the game between dallas and the spurs i m convinced these are 2 of the best 3 teams in the league without a shadow of a doubt. That was to me the best game of the playoffs even better then game 4 between suns and lakers. It was competitive both teams fighting as avery johnson said their warriors. Who ever wins this series will no doubt in my mind get to the nba finals and if they play any team besides the pistons they will easily win the finals. Speaking of pistons they played poorly and still only lost by a lucky last few min from the cavs who just caught fire at the end. If the pistons were even 50% yesterday the cavs would have lost. I do give it up to lebron we must witness him prob the best overall player in the nba with kobe a triple double the pistons will win game 4.

It's sad that Larry Hughes had to miss last night's Cleveland/Detroit Game 3 due to the death of his younger brother from a heart condition (his brother) was born with. Nonetheless, all the Cavs wore those black bands on their jerseys yesterday, and left Larry Hughes' jersey hanging in his locker room, and dedicated the game to his younger brother. In only his ninth playoff game of his career, LeBron put up his second post-season triple double. I was surprised the Cavs were even able to win a game against the Pistons. The Cavs may win another game in this series, but I doubt the Cavs will win the series.

And I have to agree that the Mavs/Spurs series is gonna be a good one. However, I am still questioning the officiating in Game 2, and it's not because I'm biased. It's because I saw a shitload of calls that the officials made incorrectly, and most of them were fouls called on the wrong person (ie, calling Parker for a foul when he was the one who got pushed off by Josh Howard's off-arm, calling Duncan for a foul when Jason Terry did the same to him, calling Michael Finley and Manu Ginobili for fouls when BOTH were hit in the face, though both happened on separate plays, Brent Barry getting called for a blocking foul when he had position for a good 5 seconds before he was run over by a player on the other team with the ball, which should've been a charging foul on the other player due to the timing Barry had legal position to take the charge, etc.). What did it for me was when Manu attempted a layup that hit the back of the rim, and then went downward in the hoop, but before it could go all the way through, Dirk Nowitzki grabbed the ball. Now, according to the rules, that is goaltending, and since a person on the defensive end grabbed that ball, that should have been an automatic two points, because the ball was in that restricted zone. Instead of calling goaltending on that one, they credited Dirk with a rebound.

Now, the Mavs were playing with a lot more energy than the Spurs were, so they probably would've won Game 2, regardless of whether or not the officiating was fair and/or correct. However, I do think the officiating was a factor in Game 2. It was almost as if the game was rigged. And I would still be complaining about unfair officiating if it benefitted the Spurs. And most players and coaches who do complain about officiating, are a bunch of crybabies. And I usually don't complain about officiating unless I'm absolutely certain it holds water. Well, look at the bad examples of officiating in the above paragraph and tell me whether or not my complaints about Game 2's officiating holds water.

In Game 3, though, there were like, one or two calls I question, but nowhere near as many as in Game 2. A lot better than Game 2 with regards to the officiating.

I can't believe i m saying this but the cavs acually have a chance to win the series. If detroit keeps shooting like my grand mother they can win the series lol. They got to pound the ball inside there just settling for jump shots and shooting poorly. I m going ot keep saying this i can't believe dallas and a spurs is a conf semi final series were lucky cause were seing an NBA Finals calaiber kind of series. I wouldn't be surprised if the spurs win game 5 n 6 to make this a 7 game series that would be awesome. The only thing the spurs need to do is play decent defence cause their offensive is clicking but dallas offence is also clicking so this is to exciting. Tonight the heat will finish off the nets and the suns will take a 3-2 lead.

Man it sux to be SST, i feel for you man.

Looks like Larry Brown is gone in New York. It must be shit to be a knick fan...

I ain't a knick fan but my bro is and hes really pissed lol.

As big of a Spurs fan as I am, that is highly unlikely. The Spurs have been outplayed the ENTIRE series, plain and simple. I'm looking for the Mavs to go ahead and close out this series.

As of this posting, Sam Cassell has buried a 3-ball to tie the game at 101, but the Suns and the Clips BOTH made costly mistakes (Cassell, an 8-second violation (not crossing half-court within 8 seconds), and Phoenix not calling a time-out after that last rebound), resulting in Overtime. We'll see how this one goes.

Oh, and it's time to rev up that boat again, as the New Jersey Nets have GONE FISHIN'! Now it looks like Clifford Robinson will have to serve the remainder of his suspension on his first two regular season games.

EDIT: Now Raja Bell hit a 3 (with a hand in his face, I might add) to force DOUBLE Overtime! I'll gladly stay up till 6 am to watch this game!

Wo that Clippers and Suns game was crazy!

Raja hit that awesome three with 1.1 seconds left in overtime to force a second one. This could go to a 7th game, this has been the best series of the playoffs so far imo.

Yeah, that clips/suns game tonight was one of the best games I've ever seen. The playoffs this year own ass.

It would of been for me if the Clippers won. I'd hate to see the Clips lose this series. I still got faith tho, Clips in seven baby.

Its been shit for the Knicks for years now..I'm used to it

Yeah. I still have high hopes for the Clippers, though. And even if Phoenix does close out the series on Thursday, it'll be great to look back on this season, and look at it as a success for the Clippers, and not a failure.

Those who have been Clippers fans for a long time know painfully well that the Clippers have had a history of losing, and being the laughing stock of the NBA, but had a few seasons that were quite successful, going back to the 1975-76 season, when they last went to the second round of the playoffs. They were the Buffalo Braves back then. Since moving to San Diego, and later, Los Angeles, they've been a horrible team. Thus, it was a given for many years that the Lakers were LA's top team. In the 1992-93 season, they made their first post-season appearance in a long time; of course, their head coach during that season was Larry Brown. They again made the post-season the next year, but the last time they made the post-season was in the 1996-97 season.

In around 2001-ish, the Clippers' fortunes began to turn around, as Clippers owner Don Sterling aborted his previous practice of signing players, then letting them go once their contracts were up, and began opening his checkbook, and initiating the trading block. First, the Clippers moved from the Los Angeles Sports Arena to the Staples Center as soon as the latter arena opened up (the Lakers moved from the Great Western Forum to the Staples Center upon the opening of that arena, as well, as did the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks and the NHL's Los Angeles Kings). Sterling hired former Lakers great and Hall of Famer Elgin Baylor as the team's GM, and hired Mike Dunleavy, Sr. (I have to include the Sr. here, because his son, also named Mike Dunleavy, plays for the Golden State Warriors) as the team's head coach. Then began the player acquisitions that eventually led to the Clippers' success this season. They traded the draft rights to Tyson Chandler to the Chicago Bulls and in return got Elton Brand. They also got Corey Maggette in a trade. And while they did not match the offer sheet signed by Andre Miller, they did match offer sheets signed by Elton Brand and Corey Maggette, as well as drafting Chris Kaman. And while they failed to make the playoffs yet again last season, they did send a few shockwaves among the league's fans and followers, especially in Los Angeles, by finishing the Regular Season with a better record than the Lakers. The question lingered; would it happen again, or was it a one-season wonder? The Clippers front office were determined to repeat that again this season, and two key off-season moves were made by the Clippers. First, they signed free agent Cuttino Mobley. Next, they made a blockbuster trade that sent Marko Jaric packing to the Minnesota Timberwolves, and in return, the Clippers got veteran journeyman point guard and two-time back-to-back NBA Champion Sam Cassell, along with a conditional first round draft pick (the Timberwolves finished in the bottom 10 of the league, so they keep their first round draft pick). The Sam Cassell trade, as it turns out, would be the X-factor in all of this, as Cassell has brought a swagger to pretty much every NBA team he's ever played for. The Clippers got off to a surprising start at the beginning of the season, and looked as if they were going to win the Pacific Division. Then, Corey Maggette gets what appeared to be a season-ending injury at the time, and the Clippers cooled off. But the Clippers didn't cool off enough to be in danger of missing the playoffs. And, for the second consecutive season, the Clippers finished with a better record than their fellow hometown team, the Lakers. Not only that, but for the first time since the 1996-97 season, the Clippers made the playoffs, and drew the number 3 seeded Denver Nuggets in the First Round. Now, people called their elimination of the Nugs an upset due to the Clips' lower seed. That was not an upset, because not only did the Clips finish with a better regular season record than the Nuggets, the Clippers had homecourt advantage over the Nuggets because of it, thus exposing the flaws in the current Playoff seeding system. And for the first time in 30 years, the Clippers won a playoff series. It's still possible that they can go to the Conference Finals for the first time in franchise history.

However, Sam Cassell becomes a free agent at the end of this season, so that begs the question: Will the Clippers re-sign him? Will Cassell sign with another team? Or will Cassell retire? I'm certain many teams will be pursuing Cassell in the coming off-season based on the swagger he gave to the Clippers. And if Cassell does not re-sign with the Clippers, that also begs the question: Will the Clippers' playoff contention be another one-season wonder? Or will the Clippers still be a playoff contender in the future? This should be something to think about as the Clippers will be facing elimination in Game 6. And it certainly is something to think about, because I remember when the Clippers went off to a hot start, and I asked one member of this site what he thought of it, and he told me that reality will set in, and they'll just suck again, as usual. Well, reality set in, alright. They're already in the second round of the playoffs. AND finished with a better record than the Lakers for the second consecutive season. If Sam Cassell does not re-sign with the Clippers, does anyone think Shaun Livingston will do a good job in carrying the torch for the Clippers as the starting point guard? Even if he doesn't, you can count on the expectations of Elton Brand to be much higher next season, seeing how this was his break-out season, despite being pretty damn consistent his whole career. But you really can't blame him for playing 500+ consecutive regular season games before making his playoff debut. He was one of those cases of good players on bad teams. The Clippers' success this season pretty much put all eyes on Elton Brand, and he was a likely MVP candidate, mind you. He did receive MVP votes this year, but obviously, Steve Nash won that by a landslide.

Anyway, and since I brought up the subject of a playoff seeding fuck-up earlier in this thread, and briefly in this post, I would like to bring your attention to a proposition by David Stern for a reform of the Playoff Seeding. Under the current seeding system, the top three seeds in each conference go to each of that Conference's three division winners, in order by regular season record, and seeds 4-8 go to the teams with the five best records that did not win their division. Again, the Mavs and the Spurs exposed that fuck-up by having the best two records in the Western Conference, and being in the same division. Under the proposed system, the top four seeds would go to the three division winners plus the non-division winner with the best regular season record, all four in order of regular season record, while seeds 5-8 would work the same way they do now. Under that system, Dallas would've been a 2-seed in the Western Conference instead of a 4-seed, while Cleveland would've been a 3-seed in the Eastern Conference instead of a 4-seed, meaning Dallas and San Antonio would not be facing each other until the Conference Finals, and the same with Cleveland and Detroit. While the seeding fuck-up didn't show up at all last year, and hasn't shown itself to be an issue in the Eastern Conference this year, it has already shown itself to be an issue TWICE in the Western Conference, and could very well show itself to be an issue in the third consecutive round of the playoffs.

Suns Clips was nice last nice. I was up until 2:12 in the morning eastern time watching that game That was a bs call on sam casell at the end of the game. The rule states you have 8 consective seconds to bring the ball up. The clips took a time out and after the time out it took casell 7 seconds to get it across half court. So that call should have never happend. I do admit though i gained respect for shawn marion last night. The guy was a monster in the second ot even after he hurt his ankle Trust me as a guy who injured his ankle numerous times that is really painful. I still think the clips can win game 6 even though they had a few chances to win game 5 and they blew it. The shot by raja bell to send it ot the second ot was a great shot he was pretty well defended and barly got it in lol.

Looks like the Spurs just narrowly avoided not only being sent fishin', but also being unseated as defending NBA Champs. I think the Spurs' best chance of staying alive and advancing to the Western Conference Finals is if they took the series as a game-by-game process instead of trying to win both of the next two games at once. Remember, only 8 times in NBA history has a team come back from a 3-1 deficit in a playoff series and won it. The last occurrance: Well, it just happened in the previous round of the playoffs this season. Suns over the Lakers. So I think the Spurs still have a shot. And after all, this is one of just many obstacles the Spurs have to pass in order to repeat. They had quite a few obstacles in their way last year when they won the NBA title. This year, they had some dating back to early in the Regular Season (foot injuries to Manu and Tim Duncan's plantar faciitis, both of which are directly related to yet another obstacle; struggles on playing back-to-back nights). See, unless a team is absolutely phenominal in the post-season (such as the 2001 Lakers championship team), teams can't expect to win a championship with ease; they have to fight for it. Oh, and the last time a team down 3-1 in a playoff series ended up winning the championship in that same post-season: The 1995 Houston Rockets, who were defending champs going into that post-season.

Also, I'm surprised that the Cavaliers were able to beat the Pistons and take a 3-2 lead over them. So now both of the number 1 seeds trail 3-2, while the 4 seeds have that same edge over the 1 seeds. However, don't count the Pistons out just yet; they've been through this before, especially in last year's Eastern Conference Finals, where they and the Heat split the games on each team's homecourt in the first four games, and Miami won Game 5. Detroit bounced back to win Game 6 and forced Game 7. There, the game was forced into Overtime, and the Pistons won that game, and nearly did the same in the Finals. So come Friday, it will be interesting to see if both of the number 1 seeds can stave off elimination on the road and force Game 7, thereby recapturing their respective Homecourt Advantages. Both Game 6es are packaged as a Double Header on ESPN on Friday, starting with the Pistons/Cavs game, followed by the Spurs/Mavs game. Regardless of the outcome of the Pistons/Cavs game, the Cavs WILL be playing on Sunday, the game being televised on ABC, and their game on the road. If the Cavs win on Friday, their game will be against Miami. If the Pistons win, it's a winner-take-all Game 7.

lol im so proud of the clippers.. i may not know their history, but they're doing beautifully in the Playoffs. I'm rooting for them to beat the suns and win the whole damn thing!

Yay for the clipps game 7 will be nice but why waiting until monday???. The spurs caught a big break because of terrys suspension for tonights game. I disagree with the suspension because i doubt terrys punch was intentional they were in a big pile for the ball so its not surprising someone got hit but either way the spurs better pounce on the mavs early tonight if they want a game 7 cause if the mavs somehow stay in it they will have confidence to win the game and that will be bad for the spurs. Same thing wiht the pistons they got to pouce on the cavs early cause if they don't they will lose the game and the series.

Wo!

Game 7 game 7 and more game 7's. I hope cleveland wins the series that way miami has a good chance of going to the finals.

I seriously thought dallas would take it out but the world champs seem to think differently. Im gonna take the spurs to advacne to western confrence finals, but hot dam these have been some awesome NBA playoff basketball.

These playoffs are the best in a while. 3 games 7's all of which i can't wait to watch. I will stay with my predictions before the series began i think the suns mavs and pistons will all win their series.

Big ups to the Spurs for fighting back to force a game 7, should be home favorites.
Big ups to the Cavs for playing a classic series vs. the Pistons when most said they'd be out in 4 or 5 games.
Big ups to he Clippers, that ship has made a complete 270.

Im pulling for the Cavs, it'd be huge for the NBA to have their biggest superstar in the Eastern Conference finals.

Did I miss the Clippers-Suns seventh game?

nope its monday night today its pistons cavs game seven tomorrow is both western conf game 7's

YES! i thought I missed it.