NO 50-YEAR-OLD COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
Caught the Thomas Jefferson-John Adams dueling death bed scenes in HBO's John Adams last night. Have you seen it? Paul Giammati, as Adams, moans the immortal and -- it must be eternally exasperating to him -- inaccurate line, "Thomas Jefferson survives." (If only they'd had text-messaging back then)
Then Giammati's face goes limp, his eyes wide open, and a tiny river of spittle runs down his chin. It's a nice career-circling achievement in saliva for Giammati, whose first big movie scene was in Singles as the dude making out with his girlfriend in the restaurant booth. Giammati is practically swallowing her face, until he notices an unnerved Campbell Scott. He turns around and just says, slightly annoyed, "What?!?"
MR. LONGORIA
Oh, that was impressive. Tony Parker and the Spurs rode into town last night and played their best game of the series. If not the year. The Spurs quickly went up by 10 and, except for a brief second-quarter hiccup when Phoenix moved to within 37-31, the defending champs never led by less than 10. Parker was on fire and really, the entire game seemed like one long Spurs swishing contest. That, and watching Shaquille O'Neal slowly die on the free throw line.
Would the series have turned out differently if Tim Duncan misses that overtime three in Game 1? We'll never know. I do think, however, that San Antonio is the type of team who'd rebound from that loss. The Suns, who were so emotionally charged for vengeance entering this series, seem to not have overcome it. As Steve Nash told the PTI guys on Thursday, "Game 1 was a punch in the groin; Game 2 was a punch in the face."
And Nash should know. Bruce Bowen did both to him last year.
Still, the Spurs won easily without Tim Duncan even having a very good game. San Antonio is absolutely, as one friend said, "methodical", on offense. Defensively, they guard the paint and make the Suns settle for Amare Stoudemire 15-footers.
Should Phoenix ever have traded Shawn Marion? That will be the question of the postseason in the land of three-digit temperatures. Definitely, Phoenix would have been a more entertaining team with Marion. It would have been interesting, from a Suns fan's perspective, to see what might have happened if the Suns had never let Kurt Thomas go and had retained Marion.
That said, Tony Parker served notice last night that he's looking forward to meeting Chris Paul in the second round. And the Spurs demonstrated last night that any Western Conference finals not including both them and the Lakers will be a lost opportunity.
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NBCSports.com's John Walters goes into the world of college sports and well beyond. From Notre Dame to the latest in pop culture, JDub tackles it all.
I'm waiting for the Sam Adams miniseries, though I'm not sure if it'd be more intriguing as a 12-part profile of the patriot beermaker or the Seahawks defensive tackle. Either way, I hope the phrase "river of spittle" can find its way into a review at some point.