Bleacher Report - Articles by Mike Owens

Dream Final Might Have Been Nightmare For Cavs

Mike Owens — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:49:57 -0400

Kobe vs. LeBron. Lakers vs. Cavaliers. Los Angeles vs. Cleveland. All of those sure have a nice ring to it, don’t they?

It was the dream final that everyone was talking about. To some, it seemed inevitable. Nike already had their ad campaign going, prepping for what seemed to imminent. The basketball world was going to get what it had wanted all season long, and what our so-called experts of the sports world were predicting from the start of the playoffs.

And then, enter the Magic. They came in as the ultimate underdog. They entered the Eastern Conference Finals facing a Cavaliers team that had had a historic first two rounds, winning every game by 10 or more points en route to a pair of series sweeps. They were dominant in every facet of the word, and not many people wanted to give the Magic a chance because of that.

But boy, did they prove everyone wrong.

They beat the Cavaliers inside and out. Dwight Howard dominated and they made threes at an incredible pace. The Magic made LeBron James beat them by himself, shutting down the other 11 guys on that team on an every game basis. And no matter how brilliant James played, it wasn’t going to matter. The Magic took the series 4-2, and it could have easily been won in four games, if not for a miracle three by James in the closing second of game two.

In many ways, this series was reminiscent of how the Cavaliers season went. They beat up on the teams they were supposed to (the Atlanta Hawks and Detroit Pistons) and struggled against the leagues elite. On the season, they went 3-6 against the Magic, Lakers and Celtics. After losing to the Magic in six games, their record dropped to 5-10.

5-10 is not a record you would expect an elite team to have against their other elite opponents. It’s not a record you would expect a championship contender to have. It’s a record you expect the lower playoff teams and higher lottery seeds to have.

Looking at this, you have to wonder if the dream final of Kobe vs. LeBron would have been a dream or a nightmare. The Lakers won both regular season match-ups handily, including one without starting center Andrew Bynum.

The Lakers would have created mismatches at a plethora of positions for the Cavaliers as well. Sure, the Lakers wouldn’t really have a guy who could match up physically with James, but they didn’t need to in the regular season match-ups. In their two match-ups, the Lakers held James to just 19.5 points per game, 31% shooting (14/45 on field goal attempts) and 23% shooting from three-point range (3/13 on three point attempts). All of these numbers are well below his season average.

The other problem the Cavaliers would have had is stopping the Lakers plethora of other weapons. The Lakers are not a one trick pony anymore. Pau Gasol averaged better than 19 points and 9 rebounds per game on the season, giving Kobe a more than viable second option. They also have Trevor Ariza making his coming out party in the playoffs, averaging better than 11 points per game and shooting about 50% from three-point range. And we haven’t even mentioned Lamar Odom, Andrew Bynum and the Lakers potent bench.

So while the match-up was a dream for fans and media alike, one must wonder how much of a dream it might have been for the Cavaliers. While it would have been nice to see them there, playing against Bryant, Gasol and the Lakers, it might not have been much of a match-up.

Even though the NBA didn’t get what it wanted, it does have one thing it can take out of all this: the NBA got the best match-up it could have. While Orlando vs. Los Angeles doesn’t look nearly as sexy as Lakers vs. Cavaliers and Kobe vs. LeBron, it’ll certainly be the more compelling and more competitive series than Lakers vs. Cavaliers would have been.

From Spygate to Steroids: Time for the Government To Let It Die

Mike Owens — Fri, 16 May 2008 17:15:32 -0400

Since when were sports the most important thing on the agenda of our United States politicians?

Well, apparently "now" is the answer to that question—and quite frankly, that’s unfortunate.

From Spygate to steroids, it seems like our government officials care more about what’s going on in the MLB and NFL than what they do for what’s going on overseas in Iraq. It seems like they might care more about sporting scandals more than what they care about our own economy for that matter.

And one really has to wonder, why is this the case? There’s clearly more important things out there to focus on than the Spygate scandal in football or the steroid usage in baseball. To name a few: Iraq, the war on terror, rising oil prices, and the recession.

To be honest here, it’s understandable as to why our government officials are giving sporting scandals so much attention. Sports are a multibillion dollar industry that brings in huge amounts of money on a yearly basis. It’s understandable that they’d want to clear things up in these to make sure that they keep bringing in the money they do on a yearly basis.

Beyond this, sports are a huge part of our culture. Not only do they bring in a huge surplus of money every year, but they’re popular. From the NBA to the NFL, there’s a huge following of each sport in this country, and most fans would love to know what’s going on internally. Most fans probably appreciate knowing if players are cheating or if a team is getting an unfair advantage.

And to our government’s credit, they have done this. They’ve given all of us fans an opportunity to know who is cheating and who isn’t.

But now, enough is enough. It needs to stop. Quite frankly, there can’t be much more they can accomplish anyways.

The Patriots have already been penalized for cheating, The NFL thinks it's enough—and in their eyes, Spygate is closed.

While baseball hasn’t punished its steroid users for their past usage, they’ve laid down strict policies and set up random drug testing to prevent this from happening again.

Beyond that, some of the big culprits are already in court over the issue. Barry Bonds was recently indicted on 14 counts of perjury from the BALCO case while Roger Clemens is facing potential perjury charges from his day in Congress against Brian McNamee.

In reality, these cases are probably all far from over. If our government has its way, they’ll continue to dig at this. Arlen Specter has already called for further investigation into Spygate while there seems to be more and more news coming from the Clemens case on a weekly basis.

However, it’s really unfortunate that this is continuing. While sports are important in our society, there are clearly more important things to focus on than the scandals that are involved in them.

Unfortunately, our government doesn’t seem to completely see it this way.

NBA: Wizards Could Be Eastern Conference Darkhorse

Mike Owens — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 15:09:31 -0400

It seems like a pretty consistent trend in every sport that a team comes out of nowhere to stun the world.

This year the New York Giants did it in football, while Davidson surprised us all by making the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tourney. Even last year saw the Golden State Warriors shock the basketball world by knocking out the top seeded Mavericks in the most thrilling upset in recent NBA memory.

This season's NBA playoffs will be no different.

With all the talk about the East revolving around the Celtics and the Pistons, one team is finally getting healthy while closing in on home court advantage at the same time. That team is the Washington Wizards.

Now, quite frankly, this team deserves a whole lot of credit. Despite missing All-Star Gilbert Arenas for 67 games this year and fellow All-Star Caron Butler for 19, the Wizards never fell off.

In fact, they did the opposite. They kept winning, despite injuries to two very key players.

Now things are finally beginning to turn around for the Wizards. They are getting healthy, and that could really shake things up in the East.

While everyone is going to focus on the return of Gilbert Arenas as the key to this team making a deep playoff run, they could very well overlook a huge factor.

I am not going to deny that Arenas will make a difference. His presence alone will change the way teams play the Wizards. Teams will have to give him his due attention. Otherwise, he will torch them.

However, they have to make sure not to sag off Butler or Antawn Jamison either, because each of them has the capability to have a big night as well.

The biggest difference maker for this team, though, will not be any of its stars. No, the biggest difference here will be the role players.

While some critics and analysts may say that the Arenas injury hurt this team, I have to disagree. The injury, if anything, was a blessing in disguise.

It gave players opportunities that they might not have gotten had this team been healthy all year.

If you sit and look at it, can you honestly say to yourself that Roger Mason, Jr. or Deshawn Stevenson would have gotten the same opportunities if Arenas had been healthy all year and if Butler didn't get hurt on a few occasions?

Would Andray Blatche or Brendan Haywood have a career year if everyone were healthy?

The one thing that the injuries did for this team? They gave everyone else confidence. It gave players that might not get that many opportunities more playing time, and in turn, they produced.

The injuries have also helped head coach Eddie Jordan. He now knows that come crunch time, he can depend on Mason, Jr. or Stevenson or Nick Young to come in and make plays.

He does not have to worry as much if Butler or Arenas get in early foul trouble because he knows that the guys he has on his bench can come and make plays and keep momentum rolling.

And that is why these Wizards will be a team that no one will want to face come playoff time. Not only are they finally getting healthy, but they are a team playing with confidence.

They have persevered through injuries to their two best players, while staying afloat in the playoff race. And now it is paying off.

NBA Age Limit Revisited

Mike Owens — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 16:57:36 -0400

It was just a short while ago when David Stern first introduced an age limit to the NBA.

The rule states that no one under the age of 19 or hasn’t been out of high school for at least a year to declare eligibility for the NBA draft. Both stipulations seemed fair at the time and still do.

If Stern has it his way, though, we might be seeing an increase in that.

In a recent report, Stern has said that he would like to raise that age limit to 20, basically killing any true freshman’s ability from entering the draft.

On the surface, this looks like it could be a good idea. By making players stay another year, their games may become more polished and they might become even more NBA-ready than what they may already be.

There is one problem with this idea though: it is pointless.

It was understandable the first time through, and it did work.

By putting it on there, it prevented us from having the super projects in the NBA. No longer did players like Andrew Bynum or a young Jermaine O’Neal have to sit on the bench.

Instead, they were getting the experience they needed by dominating college ball.

This is exactly why Kevin Durant came to the league and was able to be a 20-point per game scorer. Granted, he has been somewhat of a volume scorer, the thought of a rookie scoring at that rate still is incredible.

Had he come straight from high school, he probably would not be doing this either.

To get to the point here, there is no point in putting a leash on players like Durant, Michael Beasley and Greg Oden. All these players are or were more than ready for the NBA after one year.

Durant won player of the year and dominated the Big 12 with ease, Oden dominated the rough Big 10 with one hand, and Beasley basically is doing everything Durant did last year and a little more.

None of those players would benefit much more from an extra year of college. They might polish their game a little bit, but their games are largely ready for the rigors of the long NBA season.

The other issue that could stem from adding a year to this is the mass amount of “what-if?” situations that could arise. What if that player gets injured? What if they are less than spectacular as a sophomore? What if, what if, what if? You get the point here.

So, while some may vouch for adding another year to the age limit, it just does not seem like a good idea over here. Sure, players get that added year of experience, but, for some, it just is not necessary.

Why put a leash on a player who is already ready for the NBA? Why put them in a situation where they can hurt their future with an injury or a bad sophomore season? There is no point to it.

The NBA age limit is just fine where it is, and there is no point to changing it. It is that simple.

Kobe Bryant Making Case for the MVP

Mike Owens — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 15:19:01 -0400

If the NBA is going to reward the best player on one of the best teams in the NBA with the MVP for the past few seasons, why not continue the trend this year?

Kobe Bryant has not just led the Lakers to best record in the West, but he is also having his best season as a pro. Throw out the back to back scoring titles and his three NBA Finals wins with Shaquille O’Neal, this is the season where we have seen Bryant at his best.

After a slow start to the season, many people were writing the Lakers off immediately. No one was giving them a chance in the stacked Western Conference and many thought that Bryant was on his way out.

Oh how things have changed.

Since an atrociously slow start to the year, the Lakers have been one of the best teams in the NBA and have moved to the top spot of the Western Conference, and that’s in large thanks to Bryant.

Bryant has gone from a gunner looking to score early and often, to a player who is more than willing to pass up a shot and it has shown this year. For examples, just take a look at Jordan Farmar and Andrew Bynum.

Each of them are very young players who were just okay last year when Kobe was having to win games by himself. Now look at them. Farmar has been one of the better sixth men in this league while Bynum was in the midst of a career season before his knee injury.

To further show how good he’s been, take the fact that the Lakers have not missed a beat since the roster shake up of adding Pau Gasol. He has been seamlessly added into the Lakers formula and Bryant has been more than willing to give a large amount of the work load to him. The fact that they were so good so quick is astonishing, especially when you compare it to some of the other trades that were made, specifically the Shaq trade.

To say the least, if Kobe does not win the MVP this year, he might never get it. He is having his best season as a pro and the Lakers are currently the best team in Western Conference, which just happens to be the best conference in the NBA. To say the least, he is more than deserving of the MVP. The only issue is whether or not the voters will se it in the same way. If previous voting is any indication, it seems imminent that he’ll win it.

But, this is Kobe Bryant we’re talking about, and the media hasn’t looked at him in a positive light in years. Who knows though, maybe this year will change their tune.