3 votes – Dirk Nowitzki. Hard to deny Dirk the 3-votes today, leading his Mavs into the second round in a game I honestly did not expect them to win. A bit of tough playoff resolve on the road – not exactly the Mavs forte in recent years. But thanks to Dirk saving his best [...]

I found it really hard to give the three votes today. For the first time in these playoffs, there wasn’t really a single dominant performance that demanded the three votes. The three winning teams won comfortably thanks to a balanced team effort with multiple contributors. I guess that’s why they won comfortably, eh?
3 votes – [...]

Before we get into it today, some quick exciting news. The folks over at NBA.com have kindly asked us to help them promote this game we so dearly love by showing their Daily Zap video here at NBAMate. We of course obliged. We’ll be including the Daily Zap video within our latest Playoff Diary post which is [...]

After the craziness of the first couple of days of this playoff series, today was a return to normality, where the top seeds re-established their dominance over the upstart lower seeds and won games they should have in LA and San Antonio, while the Team Formerly Known As The Sonics jumped out to a big [...]

Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
It was a game the Celtics absolutely had to win, and their defensive effort in the first quarter showed they understood this all too well. The Lakers, to their credit, matched that intensity and the result was a hard-fought Finals game, even though the standard overall was pretty poor.
Before we get [...]

Boston versus LA is far and away the sexiest matchup basketball has ever produced. The record books speak for themselves, the titles between them illustrate that and the utter disgust for one another is pure gold. Lakers reserve guard Sasha Vujacic can’t stand the sight of green. Celtics fans can’t wait for their next opportunity [...]

 (Photo by Noah Graham/NBAE via Getty Images)
I don’t mean to make this all about Kobe, but this Christmas Day theme has kind of become an NBAMate tradition (2007, 2008) so we might as well run with it. I missed the first quarter of this game because I was sleeping – seriously, do the NBA schedulers [...]

(AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
Don’t bash the Cavs just yet. Having watched the first half of yesterday’s Celtics vs Cavs game, and the last quarter of today’s Raptors vs Cavs game (thank you ILP), I find myself for once agreeing with the Big Diesel (or “The Big Witness Protection” as he’s now apparently known in Cleveland). “You [...]

ONE: Andrew Bynum, who has been playing out of his mind recently, has gone down with a knee injury, against the Memphis Grizzlies, and had to be carried off the court. Deja vu anyone? Of course, the exact same thing happened last year, and we all know what ensued. The Lakers still ended up #1 [...]

After spending two days trying to stay dry amidst the “drought-ending storm” at Meredith Musical Festival, and the next five days trying to stay on the fairways in Yarrawonga, I’m now back in Melbourne town and life is kind of back to normal again (although my liver will never be the same). After being away [...]