The leading scorer of the NBA Carmelo Anthony of the Denver Nuggets was left off the Western Conference All Star reserves today.  Do you think this has anything to do with showing his A$$ in Madison Square Garden a couple of months ago in the melee with the Knicks?  You damn right it does and it makes me very happy because it finally seems the NBA is trying hard to clean up its image and not prop up the players who bring them down.

Terry vs White Chocolate, Shaq vs Diop, Nowitzki vs Haslem, Wade vs Howard, Avery vs Riley and Cuban vs Miami (I could go for hours)…this series should be a GREAT ONE. StonecoldJZ is happy to say his prediction and desire have both come together to create one HELL of a NBA finals. There is a lot involved with this matchup so all the components set this up for a seven game series. In the last few years the Finals have been weak overall. Let’s clean the slate of bad memories and schedule time to watch each and every battle forthcoming.

The last time Edmonton won the Stanley Cup was 1990 and that was the fifth time they had done so in seven seasons.  The years with Gretzky, Messier, Kurri and others have long since been gone though and so was Edmonton’s prominence until now.  Last night Edmonton became the first eight-seed ever to make the Stanley Cup with a 2-1 victory over the Anaheim Mighty Ducks.  The Oilers won the series 4-1 and relied heavily on their goalie Dwayne Roloson.  The Ducks outshot Edmonton in every game including a 33-25 performance last night, but Roloson stopped all but one of them.  The Stanley Cup normally ends up over the head of the goalie who gets in the zone during the playoffs and right now Roloson looks like that man.

I know it’s a little early to tell, but I feel the question needs to be brought up.  It seems every year recently Dallas is talked about as a true Western Conference contender yet they find a way to squander away important games which ultimately sends them on summer vacation.  I really feel like today was one of those games against the San Antonio Spurs because Dallas lost 87-85.  First and foremost, the Mavericks almost had been off for an entire week when San Antonio was basically on 36 hours rest.  Secondly, Dallas was ahead at the end of every single quarter except the final one.  This was a game they desparately needed to gain confidence against the favorite, but instead it appears to me they are still a pretender.  I hope I’m wrong, but most of the time I’m not.