Talk about the NBA's biggest nightmare which doesn't involve LeBron in a sling.
The NBA Playoffs' conference semifinals, their most exciting postseason round in recent years, became a subset of three noncompetitive sweeps and one noncompetitive series (Cavaliers-Celtics) deadlocked at 2-2. Between baseball's second month, the NHL's playoffs, and a smattering of other niche sports vying for prime-time ratings, the second-round whimper is untimely dismal for the league as they lose out on not only the ADHD-prone Internet sports editors of the world, but also on some much-needed revenue and marketing. Get ready for a week of hype leading up to the Suns-Lakers matchup in the Western Conference Finals. If we're lucky, we'll at least get some viral comedy videos starring Dwight Howard.
Meanwhile, the NHL had one competitive letdown in their second round (the Sharks convincingly skating by the Red Wings), but seemingly lopsided matchups in Chicago-Vancouver and Boston-Philadelphia remain undecided, and the darling Montreal Canadiens have pushed the Cup-defending Pittsburgh Penguins into a seventh game. Advantage, NHL.
(Aside: Then again, San Jose-Detroit was competitive too. The Sharks won four one-goal games and Detroit took their game by a 7-1 count, meaning the Wings actually scored MORE goals in the series. And lost in five. I wonder if that's ever happened before in hockey.)
Now if only, like the Washington Capitals power play, the NHL knew how to close when given the opportunity. This happened last year as well. Hockey had a silly amount of great series, while basketball provided fewer instant classics. Granted, if you're a rock 'n roll guy and you hate metal, then a better metal band will not sway the rock 'n rollers into their concert. Not even when the Jazz is painfully off-key.
Article comments
1 - AH
Your "biggest nightmare" is probably your ineptitude about what ADHD actually is and your grammar, which speaks for itself. Evidently using a hyphen for "second-round" in your second, more than fifty word sentence didn't make the cut for your sixth, and arguably longer sentence.
Plus, the Lakers-Jazz series was far more competitive than the sweep indicates. Utah came close to winning the first three games in the fourth quarter if you actually watched the series other than speculating after seeing the scores.
I guess us "ADHD-prone" pay more attention than you do.
2 - Matthew T. Sussman
Yes, Lakers-Jazz was the most competitive of the sweeps, but it was right on par with the Sharks-Wings series, which was arguably the worst of the NHL's second round.
(BTW: Ooh, a grammarian! Thanks for pointing out my long sentence, too. I hate those. But why no hyphen for "fifty word sentence?" And "second-round whimper," including hyphen, is absolutely correct. Why are you a hyphen hater?
Nitpick all you want at my fuckups but at least get 'em right or your criticism and arguments lose gravitas.)
3 - El Bicho
AH, you ADHD-prone types should have paid attention in English class when they were teaching compound modifiers.