It happened to the Spurs only a week ago: after years of on-again off-again dominance, an aging team fell to a younger, zippier foe in what, by the end of the series, was no upset. It was, rather, a changing of the guard, as Zach Randolph man-handled the great Tim Duncan, replacing him in a matter of days as one of the best power forwards in the game, and the Memphis Grizzlies pushed Duncan's Spurs into early retirement. Tony Parker, still young, is likely to have another day in the sun, as are Gary Neal and George Hill and DeJuan Blair. But for Duncan, Antonio McDyess, Richard Jefferson and Ginobili, there may not be too many glory days left.
Now comes May and with it more guard-changing, in Los Angeles and Boston. Finals foes last year, these two face defeat before they even get out of the second round. The Lakers, not only down 2-0 to Dallas, but staring at 3 out of the next 4 games in Dallas and also without the services of their talented, tough, mercurial, "small" forward Ron Artest, who had been among the team's most consistent playoff performers this year, for Game 3. In their series first two games in Miami, meanwhile, the Celtics showed all the pep of roadkill. The younger Dwayne Wade, LeBron James, Chris Bosh, and even James Jones and the elderly Mike Bibby, outshot, outran and outdefended the Celts, who've reached the Finals two out of the last three years and won the title in 2008. For their Hall of Fame triumvirate this is likely the last dance. Do they have the fire and the will -- and the energy -- to make this a series?
For the Lakers, reigning two-time champions, the fall is more precipitous. It seems a decade ago now, but only a year ago they battled Boston memorably in the Finals, exchanging body blows for seven games until, without an injured Kendrick Perkins, the Celts fell in the final round. If the Lakers do go down here it's an early exit and an embarrassing end to the Phil Jackson era in Los Angeles. After three championships with Shaq and Kobe, then a few lean years, Lakers brass teamed Phil and Kobe with Pau and Bynum and Odom and started another run. Phil, in what he says will be his final year of coaching, wanted to go into the sunset with his fourth three-peat, an almost unimaginable coaching accomplishment. Now it looks like it won't happen.
Like Duncan and Ginobili before them, Gasol and Kobe look old. So do Garnett and Pierce and Allen. It's one of those years in the NBA, when it's out with the old and in with the new, and everything's a bit topsy-turvy. How did the 8th-seeded Grizzlies knock off the top-seeded Spurs? Have the Atlanta Hawks been resurrected from near-dead to knock out the formerly-contending Orlando Magic and now challenge the top-seeded Bulls? Might we see Oklahoma City in the Finals?
Stay tuned.
Where I will mentally meander across the fields, courts and pitches of American and international sport, focusing primarily on my favorite teams but also discussing any sports-related topic that suits my fancy.
