submitted on Friday, April 15, 2011 at 9:49:29 PM

Originally posted on The Sports Oratory

Welcome to Part 2 of our NBA Playoff Preview, where we'll be looking at the Eastern Conference matchups. If you missed Part 1, you can read it here.



There isn't too much to say about this matchup. The Pacers could pose some problems for the Bulls as they're a smaller, more athletic team which can be tough for the Bulls to handle at times. That being said, the Pacers are 37-45 and allow over 100 points per game. Plus, there's this gem from Danny Granger when discussing the prospect of facing either the Celtics or the Bulls:

"Boston's a different monster," he said. "They don't have the best record in the East, but they won championships; they know how to do it. They have four, five guys you have to worry about.

"Chicago, they go as Derrick Rose goes. If you make a concerted effort to stop Derrick Rose, you have a better chance of beating them."

Now, Derrick Rose is no Michael Jordan. He's not going to spend all series shutting down Granger single-handedly or dropping 50 points in Game 1 to prove a point. However, he does bear a resemblance to Jordan in that he remembers slights like that. It doesn't take much, but you want to throw out any disrespect in his direction, he'll take it in, and use it as motivation to beat you the next time you play. The Pacers don't need any help to lose this series, so it was a somewhat foolish comment on Granger's part.

By now everyone knows the story of the Bulls. After winning 42 games last year, the team brought in a new head coach (Tom Thibodeau), a new All-Star caliber forward (Carlos Boozer), and a bunch of role players (Kyle Korver, Ronnie Brewer, Keith Bogans, CJ Watson) to complement the existing core of players (Derrick Rose, Luol Deng, Joakim Noah, and Taj Gibson). 62 wins later, they have the best record in the NBA, the probable NBA MVP (Rose), potential Coach of the Year (Thibodeau), and lead the league in defensive efficiency and are second in rebounding per game (44.2) behind Minnesota while leading in rebounding differential (+5.8). While Rose is the clear leader of the team, scoring 25.0ppg, they also have secondary scorers in Deng and Boozer scoring 17.5ppg, and Noah also averaging double digits at 11.7ppg. They are also a deep team, with eight players averaging over 20 minutes a game, and another three playing at least 12 a game. It should be interesting to see how this plays out in the postseason, as teams generally stick to a seven or eight man rotation and put more minutes on their starters.

One of the big criticisms of the Bulls right now is their lack of playoff success. In the past two years Rose's Bulls have gone out in the first round, although they took the Celtics to seven games in a memorable series in 2009 and falling to the top seeded Cavs in five games last year, so the odds were stacked against them in both years. They should be able to overcome that issue this year with an easy matchup against the worst team in the playoffs, getting them some confidence heading into the second round, as well as some more time for Joakim Noah to fully recover from his sprained ankle. The Pacers may be able to sneak in a win in Indiana, but don't be surprised to see a flat out sweep either.

Bulls in 4



The Heat went through a rough stretch in late February/early March where they lost six of seven games to the Bulls (twice), the Knicks, the Magic, the Spurs, and the Blazers. Since then, they've gone 15-3 including a big win over Boston to take over the #2 seed in the playoffs. Watching them the last few weeks, it looks like they might be figuring it out. However, their success could also be a little over-inflated considering their last ten games, only two (Boston and Atlanta) were against actual playoff teams. But watching them, it seems as though Wade and James might be getting it a little bit better. At the very least they should have it together enough to dispatch the Philadelphia 76ers.

The Sixers are a bit of a feel good story, overachieving their way to a .500 record with new coach Doug Collins and a relatively unheralded cast of characters. Elton Brand (15.0ppg, 8.3rpg) and Andre Iguodala (14.1ppg, 5.8rpg, 6.3apg) are the two main talents on this team, and they're surrounded by role players like Thaddeus Young and Jrue Holiday. However, unfortunately for the Sixers, the Heat's main weakness (size in the frontcourt) is not something the Sixers are able to take advantage of, with the plodding Spencer Hawes starting at center (Sharing time with Marreese Speights and Tony Battie), and an effective but not overly big Elton Brand in the frontcourt.

Miami's defense will also wreak havoc on the Sixers, as the Heat come into the series fifth in defensive efficiency while Philadelphia is only seventeenth in offensive efficiency. Miami is sixth in the league in points allowed per game (94.6) and second in field goal % allowed (43.0%). With Lebron James on Iguodala the Sixers will be very dependent on Elton Brand to put up big numbers, as he's their main offensive threat that will have a favorable defensive matchup against Chris Bosh. The Heat won the season series 3-0 and each game was won by at least 9 points. Look for Miami to have similar success in the playoffs and Philly would be fortunate to even win a game.

Heat in 4



Well, this is certainly one of the more intriguing first round matchups. There are quite a few different storylines to look at in this series. There is the sharp contrast in styles, with New York's high-flying offense (while little-to-no defense being played) compared to Boston's commitment to being a defense-first team, while struggling at times on the offensive end. There's the question mark surrounding Boston's struggles lately, specifically Rajon Rondo. There's Amare & Carmelo on a team that is on paper inferior to the Celtics, but at the same time are true bonafide superstars capable of winning games for the Knicks. The expected result is that Boston will end up defeating the Knicks, but there are enough question marks to at least make it interesting.

Now, there's not much too the Knicks. They score a conference best 106.5ppg. They also give up a conference worst 105.7ppg. Carmelo Anthony, Amare Stoudemire, Chauncey Billups, Shawne Williams, these guys are not really leading candidates for the All-Defense Team. Their best defender might be Ronny Turiaf, and he plays 18 minutes a game. That being said, they have Amare averaging 25.3ppg and 8.2rpg while shooting 50.2% from the field. Carmelo Anthony is averaging 26.3ppg with 6.7rpg and shooting 46.1% from the field and an impressive 42.4% from three. Anthony is also arguably the most dangerous shooter in end of game situations, so if the Knicks can keep it close with the Celtics he could be a huge asset for them in a game.

Then there's the Celtics. Some analysts are trying to cling to the idea that the Celtics struggled down the stretch in 2010, the turned it on in the playoffs and never looked back. But that was a different team. They struggled to find cohesiveness down the stretch and they had the characteristics of a veteran team that struggles to play at its peak in the regular season. This year? The team looked fine, they looked cohesive. They can't blame injuries, as Paul Pierce and Ray Allen both played 80 games, Kevin Garnett played 71, Rondo played 68. The problem? Kendrick Perkins. Yes, he only played in 12 games for them this season after tearing his ACL in the NBA Finals last season. But, as has been discussed in the media ad nauseum, he was an integral part to the team's chemistry. Perkins, Rondo, Allen, Pierce, Garnett, that was their starting five, that was their strength. That was the lineup that Doc Rivers proclaimed never lost a playoff series. Then he was traded to the Thunder. And what changed in the Celtics was anything specific on the court. Again, he only played in 12 games. It was deeper than that. It affected the other Celtics players personally. And none more than Rondo. Perkins was Rondo's one good friend on the team. It can't be sheer coincidence that the noticeable decline in his numbers coincides with Perkins' trade. His April stats are terrible, shooting 40.3% from the field, 9.5apg, 1.8spg, and he hasn't made a three pointer since February (0-7 in March, 0-5 in April). Compare this to his pre-All-Star break numbers, he was shooting 50.2% from the field, averaging 12.2apg, 2.4spg, and was at least shooting 30.0% from behind the arc.

It's clear from watching him that his game is a complete mess, his head is totally out of it, and his issues have plagued the rest of the team. Rondo doesn't get enough credit for helping the Celtics win the title in 2008, and he has been the team's best player the last two years. He is the point guard, he sets the tempo and flow for that team. Whatever he was doing earlier this season, it's completely gone right now, and it shows when watching the Celtics' offense. Their defense is still very effective, and because of that they should be able to stop the Knicks enough to win the series. However, it's not out of the realm of possibility for the Knicks to cause trouble for the Celtics, especially if Rondo continues to struggle.

Boston in 6



There is this fantasy world where some of us would like to live in, where the Atlanta Hawks can utilize the immense talents of Joe Johnson, Josh Smith, Al Horford, and Jamal Crawford, and put together a scary team that can compete in the Eastern Conference. However, in the real world, instead there is the dysfunctional Hawks that have all the talent in the world, and not a single clue on how to actually take that talent and put it into a team. They don't try hard, they don't listen to their coach, they don't play with an identity. It's possibly one of the most frustrating things to watch in the NBA, because everyone is so blatantly aware of their underachieving, and yet no one on the Hawks seems to care or want to do anything about it. Josh Smith puts up 16.5ppg and 8.5rpg, but settles too much for long jump shots instead of using his power to take the ball to the rim. Joe Johnson averages 18.2ppg with 4.0rpg and 4.7apg, but seems to be somewhat lethargic now that the Hawks are paying him $120 million. Al Horford scores 15.3ppg to go along with 9.3rpg and is one of the most dynamic big men in the league, but should really be playing power forward and doesn't always get to play his true position. Jamal Crawford is a great burst of energy off the bench but can be inconsistent and takes ridiculous shots at times and needs to be reined in. Kirk Hinrich is a solid defender but is not a great scorer. And so on. The team is an unfortunate mess, and instead of being one of the top teams in the conference, they stumbled to a 44-38 record. There is Jason Collins to think about, who had a lot of success guarding Dwight Howard this year and helped the Hawks take the season series 3-1, but they need more than that if they're going to win a best-of-seven series.

Now, the Magic are not without their dysfunction. They had an aging Vince Carter starting for them, and an overpaid Marcin Gortat rotting away on their bench, along with a struggling Rashard Lewis really hurting the team offensively. They traded these pieces away, and added a solid scorer in Jason Richardson, a backup point guard in Gilbert Arenas, and the return of Hedo Turkoglu after walking when the Magic wouldn't give him the contract he wanted. But after bombing in Toronto and Phoenix, he's back with Orlando. Dwight Howard is still the center of the team, putting up ridiculous numbers, 22.9ppg, 14.1rpg, 2.38bpg. Jason Richardson gives them a nice second scoring option, averaging 13.9ppg and shooting 38.4% from three. Hedo Turkoglu has filled in the void Rashard Lewis left, averaging 11.4ppg and shooting 40.4% from three. Jameer Nelson averages 13.1ppg and shoots 40.1% from three. Off the bench Ryan Anderson shoots 39.3% from three. JJ Redick shoots 39.7% from three. See a trend developing here? Orlando lives, and dies, by the three point shot. They can absolutely murder teams with a barrage of three point shooting. But on the flip side, if the shot's not there, they are a very vulnerable team.

Again, in theory it would be nice to see Atlanta show up with a chip on their shoulder, some kind of attitude or edge, or really any kind of anything that would make you believe they have a shot in this series. But instead they'll probably treat us all with their usual messy inconsistent play while Orlando moves on to the next round.

Orlando in 5

No big surprises in Round 1, all the favorites should win with relative ease. Round 2 would give us Chicago/Orlando and the much anticipated Boston/Miami matchup. With Orlando's perimeter shooting prowess, they have the ability to beat anyone, but Chicago's ability to throw big men onto Dwight Howard without having to focus too much attention on double teaming him should be able to limit their offensive ability enough to win that series, probably in six games. Boston might be able to struggle their way past the Knicks, but Miami will present too great of a challenge, especially with home court advantage. Miami steals one in Boston and takes all their momentum to close out the Celtics in five. Miami/Chicago is an appropriate conference final matchup, as those two teams have clearly been the top two teams in the East. Chicago has history going against it as teams that didn't win a playoff series the year before generally do not make it to the NBA Finals. However, the Bulls have the best defense in the NBA, they have the league's MVP, they have a deeper team than the Heat, and they have more focus and determination to win, and do it as a team, than anyone else in the conference. Either team could win this series, but ultimately the Bulls will win in seven.

So, to recap:

Bulls over Pacers in 4
Heat over 76ers in 4
Celtics over Knicks in 6
Orlando over Altanta in 5

Bulls over Magic in 6
Heat over Celtics in 5

Bulls over Heat in 7

And, for the NBA Finals, I think the Bulls' determination only takes them so far. The Boozer vs. Bynum/Odom matchup will be the downfall of the Bulls, and their lack of experience will definitely play more of a factor against a veteran, polished team like the Lakers. Lakers win another three peat in six games.

Lakers over Bulls in 6

That's all, thanks for reading.

  submitted on Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 9:02:44 PM

Originally posted on The Sports Oratory


Hello everyone, with an incredibly anticipated set of playoffs this year, I’m here with a preview of each matchup. This will be a two-parter, and the first part will take a look at the Western Conference, with part two covering, you guessed it, the Eastern Conference. I’ve added in my predictions for each series, and then at the end I’ve got my predictions for how the rest of the bracket will play out. Let’s get started...



Well, the Spurs have once again had another ho hum 60-win season. Tim Duncan, who is now approaching 50 years of age, has his team ready to go as the number one seed in the Western Conference. Well, it’s not quite as much Tim Duncan’s team as in years past, with The Big Fundamental only averaging 28 minutes a game to go along with 13.4ppg and 8.9rpg, all easily career lows for him. But, in his fourteenth season, he can’t go all out and play the 35+ minutes a game that he was playing a few years ago. And so the Spurs have adapted. Gregg Popovich has the team putting up an obscene 103.7ppg, by far their highest average in the past 10 years. The only year that comes close is last year when they averaged 101.4ppg. However, they’ve also taken on a different identity on defense, as well. Gone are the days of giving up an average of 85ppg. Instead they’re giving up 98ppg, and are 11th in defensive efficiency.

While their defense may not draw many comparisons to the other top seed, the Chicago Bulls, there is some similarity in how their team plays as a unit. There are nine players on the roster that have averaged at least 19 minutes a game, and none play more than Tony Parker at 32.4mpg (The bulls have eight players that average over 20 minutes a game and Keith Bogans averages 17.8mpg). This has led to five players averaging between 11 and 17.5ppg, and the team pulling down 41.9rpg while no one player grabs more than 9 rebounds on average. There is a ton of balance on the Spurs, but that also means there is no real superstar. Tony Parker, Manu Ginobli, Tim Duncan, all three are clearly the class of the team, and it will be interesting to see how that synergy plays out as the playoffs progress when they might be missing that alpha dog presence in key situations.

That being said, the makeup of their team shouldn’t affect them too much against the Memphis Grizzlies. They are powered behind the post presence of Zach Randolph and the ball distribution of Mike Conley. They can be a stingy team on defense with the help of Marc Gasol, Tony Allen, Shane Battier, Leon Powe, and OJ Mayo. But, they’re missing their number two scorer and primary perimeter threat, Rudy Gay. Gay was averaging 19.8ppg, 6.2rpg, 1.7spg while shooting 47.1% from the field and 39.6% from beyond the arc. That is key production, and the Grizzlies can’t just put OJ Mayo into that spot and pretend it’s business as usual. If Gay was healthy, this would be a very dangerous Grizzlies team; but as they stand now, they just don’t have the personnel to match up with the Spurs.

Spurs in 5



Last year the Boston Celtics went 3-7 in their last 10 games of the regular season and 10-11 in their last 21 games. There was talk of the Celtics struggling, or perhaps coasting through the regular season, just waiting to get to the playoffs, as can happen to veteran teams at times. Once again this season, the Celtics finished the season with a mediocre record, leading to comparisons to last year’s team. Last year they “turned it on” in the playoffs and advanced to the NBA Finals. However, I feel that comparisons to last year’s team is misplaced, and actually if any team reminds me of the 2009-10 Celtics it’s this year’s Los Angeles Lakers (You thought I forgot which matchup I was supposed to be talking about here, didn’t you?). After winning 17 of 18 games, the Lakers then dropped five in a row before winning their last two to clinch the #2 seed. There seems to be a certain complacency, with even head coach Phil Jackson admitting the team isn’t trying very hard. And yet, this is a team rife with talent. The team’s Big Four, Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom, and Andrew Bynum, average 69.8ppg. Gasol and Bynum combine to pull down 19.6rpg, with Odom adding an additional 8.7rpg. All three of them shoot at least 53% from the field, with Bryant shooting a respectable 45.1%.

Despite their struggles, this is a team built for the playoffs. Bryant has only averaged 33.9mpg this year, but there is little doubt that his minutes will increase in the postseason. A front line of Gasol, Bynum and Odom with a little Ron Artest thrown in for defensive purposes along with Bryant in the back court is devastating. Ultimately, the Lakers fate in the playoffs will probably rest with the health and effectiveness of Andrew Bynum. When he’s playing as well as he’s capable of playing, the Lakers are all but unstoppable. But durability is an issue with him, and after only playing in 54 games this season, and suffering a bruised knee in the regular season finale, there are concerns that he may not be able to stay healthy, in which case the Lakers do become vulnerable.

Unfortunately for the Hornets, Bynum is expected to be fine for the first round, which is going to present serious issues, particularly in the frontcourt. The Hornets are not a great rebounding team, ranking 24th in the league in rebounds at 40.1 per game, compared to the Lakers who are 3rd with 44.0 per game. Emeka Okafor and David West are both undersized and are not a good matchup for Gasol and Bynum, and West will struggle to cover Odom when he is playing power forward. Trevor Ariza will be an effective defender on Bryant, but that large lineup will create solid opportunities for the Lakers at every frontcourt position. The Hornets only true advantage in this series is Chris Paul, who should be able to have his way with the ancient Derek Fisher covering him. However, Paul seems to be a step slower this season with knee problems, and just doesn’t have the team around him to be able to take a game over, let alone four. The Lakers could drop a game as they might not yet be totally motivated in this first round, but other than that they shouldn’t really be threatened by New Orleans at all.

Lakers in 5



Quick, name the Mavericks fourth-leading scorer (excluding Caron Butler). How about their fifth? If you said Tyson Chandler and Jose Barea, congrats, you must watch a lot of Mavs basketball. In other words, the Dallas Mavericks have Dirk Nowitzki, and not a whole lot else. He leads the team in points per game (23.0) and is second in rebounds per game (7.0). Dallas managed to win 57 games despite Jason Terry being the number two scorer for the team and Caron Butler, their number three scorer, missing two thirds of the season due to injury. They don’t rebound particularly well, (14th in the league, 41.4rpg), have a one dimensional point guard (In 33.2mpg Jason Kidd averages 7.9 points on 36.1% shooting, but does provide 8.2apg), and a center who is an above average rebounder (9.4 per game) but can’t create his own shot.

But, here they are. The #3 seed, it’s tough to know what to make of the Mavericks. They lost 5 of 8 games, only to win 5 in a row, followed by a 4 game losing streak, then a 4 game winning streak to finish the season. Who knows which Mavericks team we’ll see up against Portland.

The Trailblazers are almost the opposite of the Mavericks, with a number of quality players, and depth all around, compared to Dallas who has to rely on Nowitzki for much of its success. Led by LaMarcus Aldridge (21.8ppg, 8.8rpg), Portland also gets production from Wesley Matthews (15.9ppg), Gerald Wallace (15.8ppg, 7.6rpg), Andre Miller (12.7ppg, 7.0apg), and also get double digit points from Nicolas Batum and Brandon Roy, along with 10.3rpg from the ageless wonder Marcus Camby. That’s a solid seven man rotation, most notably Gerald Wallace, the mid-season acquisition who provides excellent production at the 2/3 spot and takes a lot of pressure off of Brandon Roy, whose knee problems could have derailed the Blazers’ season were it not for the trade for Wallace. Now, Roy can limit his minutes to around 20 per game and the Blazers don’t really suffer because of it.

The general consensus seems to be to anoint the Blazers as the spoilers and give them the upset win over the Mavericks right off the bat. The two teams split the season series, with the Mavs winning the first two, and the Blazers winning the last two. However, a couple of stats point to the idea of an upset being more difficult than expected. First, there’s Dallas’ home court advantage. The Mavs were good, not great at home at 29-12, however Portland was a paltry 18-23 on the road. Portland is going to have to win on the road at least once to win this series. Second, despite Dallas’ mediocre rebounding numbers, Portland is decidedly worse, tied with Atlanta for 27th in the league with 39.3 per game. So despite Marcus Camby averaging over 10 rebounds per game in 26 minutes of duty, this is a weak area for them and could be a place for Dallas to get an advantage. Portland will probably end up taking this series, as they just have more talent and a better team than Dallas, but it will by no means be an easy victory, especially if they happen to slip up and lose a game at home.

Portland in 7



So, the Denver Nuggets lose their top two leading scorers, top assist guy, and leading rebounder, and then proceed to go on a tear the rest of the season and finish up as the #5 seed in the Western Conference. Instead of struggling when Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups were traded to the New York Knicks, they took the pieces they already had, added in Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler and Raymond Felton, and didn’t skip a beat with all three averaging double figures over the last 20 games of the season. The Nuggets truly are an ensemble cast, with no standout star, but a number of role players. Aside from Gallinari, Chandler, and Felton, there’s Nene, Arron Afflalo, JR Smith, Ty Lawson, Al Harrington, Kenyon Martin, and of course, Chris Andersen. Andersen’s averaging 16.3mpg, everyone else is playing at least 22.8mpg. It’s a diverse cast that can give you a lot of different looks on the court, and George Karl seems to have rallied the team around the absence of Carmelo and his drama to allow them to play at this high level.

It’s certainly a great story, but in the NBA it’s tough for a Cinderella story to make it too far into the playoffs. Especially when Cinderella’s first round opponent is Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. The Thunder are a team reborn with the addition of Kendrick Perkins to start at center and play the role of enforcer in the paint he once occupied in Boston. Perkins and Serge Ibaka make for a dangerous duo in the frontcourt, in addition to Durant’s length and ability to score. Thabo Seflosha provides solid defense, and Russell Westbrook might be the most underrated point guard in the league. Westbrook’s game can best be compared to that of Derrick Rose’s, but Rose is the better all-around player, so Westbrook’s ability tends to fly under the radar. But make no mistake, Westbrook’s ability to score as well as distribute the ball in addition to Durant’s scoring talents are a large part of why the Thunder averaged 104.8ppg. Now, with Seflosha, Ibaka and now Perkins stepping up defensively on the other end, this has become a very dangerous team. Denver is outmatched here and the series won’t be as close as the seeding numbers would otherwise indicate.

Thunder in 5

With the predictions above, we would be looking at second round matchups of San Antonio vs. Oklahoma City, and Los Angeles vs. Portland. The Spurs/Thunder matchup is a tough one to call. The Thunder are probably the more talented team, but the Spurs are more experienced and better coached, plus they have home court advantage. The Thunder can win the series, but it would probably take six or seven games to do it. With the Lakers/Blazers, Portland is the more athletic team by far, but there is some definite concern that the Lakers will crush Portland on the boards and overpower them with their superior frontcourt. Assuming the Lakers get it into gear for the playoffs, they should dispatch the Blazers. A Lakers/Thunder conference finals matchup would be a fantastic series. Gasol vs. Perkins, Ibaka vs. Bynum, Durant vs. Artest, Bryant vs. Seflosha, Westbrook vs. Fisher. That being said, a full strength duo of Bynum and Gasol will be the difference and will send the Lakers to the NBA Finals once again.

So, to recap:

Spurs over Grizzlies in 5
Lakers over Hornets in 5
Blazers over Mavs in 7
Thunder over Nuggets in 5

Thunder over Spurs in 7
Lakers over Blazers in 6

Lakers over Thunder in 6

Thanks for reading, and make sure to check out my Eastern Conference preview too!

  submitted on Wednesday, May 26, 2010 at 6:20:07 AM

When I switched up how my blog post URLs show up, I didn't realize this affected everyone's ability to comment on the posts. The functionality has been restored, so feel free to comment it up. Unless you're a bot. In which case you suck, and I'd ask that you go elsewhere.

  submitted on Tuesday, May 25, 2010 at 7:22:41 PM

If you missed Part 1, you can find it here.

A couple things that I left off before I get into the flash sideways...

-I got excited of the prospect of Richard Alpert heading off into the civilized world and adjusting to life there a la Crocodile Dundee. Now, obviously Richard is somewhat acclimated with modern day society as evidenced by his recruitment of Juliet when he brought her to the island, but I still find the idea of a guy from the 1860s having to start a new life in the city of Los Angeles quite sitcom-worthy. We've got that, and we've got Sawyer and Miles in their buddy cop show, let's get on it ABC.

-Not to criticize the writers, but holy crap did they drop the ball. In a show that is filled with Star Wars references, when Kate told Jack she loved him, how can you not have Jack respond with "I know." I mean, c'mon, it's not like this show takes itself too seriously to pull that off, they just had Hurley bust out a "I've got a bad feeling about this" earlier in the episode! It would have been beyond greatness. For shame, LOST writers, for shame.

The Flash Sideways. Okay, well, turns out there's nothing sideways about it, but we've been calling it that all season, no need to stop now. I find my brain to be a jumbled mess of thoughts when it comes to the flash sideways that we've been witness to all season. First off, I loved it. All season, I really enjoyed everything they showed us (Well, maybe not Kate's episode. Sorry Kate, old habits). You had this world in which all of the characters we've watched since the beginning of the show were in a completely different place. Well, the same place, but with a completely different destination, and with different lives to lead. And yet, despite all those differences, my favorite parts about the flash sideways were the moments that were reminiscent of the rest of the show. Everything that we remembered, and loved about the show, we were able to relive it, only in a different way. We saw classic scenes between Jack and Locke, Nadia and Sayid, Sawyer and Miles, Desmond and Jack, Hurley and Libby, Charlie and Desmond, Locke and Ben, Jin and Sun, Kate and Sawyer, and on and on it goes. All of these relationships that we had been able to see before, some that we hadn't seen in years, rekindled right in front of us. Ignoring what it meant to the LOST story, it was just plain fun to watch. Much like the on island storyline, with Hurley and Jack finding the caves, or seeing Shannon's inhaler, or Sawyer reflecting by the cages, it was a slice of nostalgia pie, given to the fans to consume. An homage to the thing that made LOST great, the characters, and their relationships with each other.

And yet, it was even more than that. What we got on LOST was a group of troubled, flawed, characters. What we saw in the flash sideways was an insight into what they could be like if they were able to overcome their inner demons (Except for Kate. Again, sorry). Jack, still very much a doctor's son, but this time with the opportunity to change things, to move on past how his father treated him, and build a relationship that he could never have had with his father with the son he never had. Sawyer, perhaps still haunted by the death of his parents as a child, but instead of being consumed by the man that he hated and ultimately becoming him, he becomes a cop, someone who tries to do what's right in the world. Desmond, a man that was always very much afraid, and unable to commit to anything, and was willing to do whatever he could to win the approval of Charles Widmore, the father of the woman that he loves. Now, a man who is in control and has his life together, and very much has the approval of Widmore. Locke, a man who couldn't escape the misfortune of being Anthony Cooper's son, with that misfortune ultimately manifesting itself in the form of a wheelchair, a daily reminder to Locke of what had been done to him. Instead, Locke is still in his wheelchair, but it's for a different reason, and he's still able to live his life, and be with the woman he loves, Helen. Hurley, once was a cursed man, now is the luckiest man in the world. Jin & Sun, before in a troubled marriage because of Sun's father, now in a much happier (and dangerous) secret relationship that does not require such a burden.

Early on in the season I talked about the idea of the flash sideways being an epilogue of sorts. With a show like LOST, how do you just say goodbye to your characters at the end without dragging it out? You want to see them one last time, just to see them. And not just the handful that manage to escape the show alive. I don't know if I compared it to this or not, but it made me think of the final Lord of the Rings movie, Return of the King. Yes, the ending of the movie was longer than the rest of the movie itself, but it was because we had experienced such a journey with all of these characters, it seemed only fitting that we see what happens to them. But how do you do that with LOST? You can't just have the last four episodes be an epilogue, it's beyond anti-climactic. But if you spread it out over the course of the season, giving bits and pieces here and there, so that people don't know it's an epilogue until the end, that could work. It's like introducing us to the concept of the flash forward, only instead of revealing it at the end of the episode, you keep the wool over our eyes all season.

Now, the major flaw with this idea was that if this flash sideways truly was an epilogue, then it would imply that the past 5 years were effectively rendered meaningless, since the plane landed, nothing we saw actually happened, and that's just not good for anybody. You can't give us an ending that negates the entire series and expect fans to be okay with that. And, as we saw, that's not what they did. In the end, they did give us what basically amounts to an epilogue, only it really had nothing to do with the rest of the show.

Knowing that now, and looking back at it all, they really went out of their way to mess with us. And it's not the first time they've done this, either. With the initial flash forward, they didn't screw with us too much aside from Jack drunkenly talking about his father despite the fact he was really dead. But I'm also reminded of an episode in Season 4, a Jin & Sun episode. Up to that point in the season, every episode had been flash forwards only, no flashbacks. So we get to see Sun's flashforwards, and she's pregnant, going into labor, and is a little delirious from everything that's going on and asks for her husband. Then, in a separate set of scenes, we see Jin running to the store to buy a stuffed animal as a gift, and he's in a rush to get to the hospital. The scenes are interwoven to make us believe Jin is taking the stuffed bear to the hospital to give to Ji Yeon, but instead it turns out Jin was in a flashback, and in the flashforward he was actually dead. I remember really disliking the episode, as I felt the swerve was cheap, and made me feel like they were pulling that on us for the sake of doing it. The introduction of the flashback into Season 4 wasn't done as a storytelling device, merely as something to enhance the con they were pulling on all of us.

But with this season, I feel different about it. Deception and concealment of the flash sideways world's true purpose was necessary, because its secret just isn't something they could have told us until the very end. I find myself looking back and thinking how crazy everything was that we were meant to look at in a completely different way from what it actually was. Take the Incident, for example. The ultimate red herring. At the end of Season 5, a bomb went off directly over the pocket of electromagnetic energy where the hatch was being built. Jack & Co. believed that the bomb going off would prevent the Incident, that it would lead to the hatch not being built, which meant Desmond wouldn't push the button, which meant their plane wouldn't crash, and everything would start over, with the plane landing in LAX. On the flip side, though, perhaps the bomb going off was the Incident, and by detonating the bomb, they were simply doing their part in the history of the island. And so we were left with that ambiguity at the end of Season 5, did the bomb going off work, or didn't it? How do we start off Season 6? With two storylines, one in which Oceanic Flight 815 lands at LAX in 2004, and one in which Jack & Co. wake up in 2007, wearing their Dharma jumpsuits, standing by the imploded hatch. So immediately we label the flash sideways as somehow being related to the Incident. The ambiguity continues! Did it work, or didn't it? But now that we can look back, we can see that clearly the Incident was the bomb going off. They prevented nothing, and instead everything played out just the way it was supposed to. Whatever happened, happened. The Incident had absolutely nothing to do with the flash sideways world. But of course we didn't know that at the time. And it didn't stop there. Damon & Carlton basically alluded to the idea of the flash sideways world being somehow related to the Incident in their interviews and podcasts. Or one of my favorite moments now looking back, Juliet's "final words" to Sawyer as told by Miles (the guy that can hear dead people's thoughts, appropriately), "it worked". A very vague and confusing comment at the time, since it clearly didn't seem to work given the fact Sawyer and everyone else was still on the island. But we all believed it to mean that in the flash sideways, it did work, and her comments before she died about getting coffee, etc., meant that we would see that happen in the flash sideways world. Instead, we learn that "it worked" was simply referring to Sawyer getting his Apollo candy bar out of the vending machine by unplugging it! Love it.

Okay, but let's bring it all back around. What is the flash sideways world? It's a place where (most) everyone we knew went to when they died. Everyone died at different times, but eventually they all did, and went to this place, to see one another one last time before they moved on to whatever awaited them in the afterlife. Could it be purgatory? I suppose, although I feel like it's a place that is similar to purgatory, but without the requirement of purification or punishment, or anything like that. I look at it more as how Christian put it, a place for everyone to find each other, to remember, one last time. As much as it was a place for awareness and reflection on what their lives were with each other, I think that's what it was for us as viewers, as well. I don't think about it too much in terms of the rest of the LOST story, because the flash sideways is really it's own entity. You could remove it from the show, and the story still plays out the same. The value of the flash sideways is not the story, but the characters. If you are watching LOST because you are invested in the characters, then the flash sideways world was made for you, so that you could enjoy and appreciate everything that they are one last time. I've seen discussions on whether this place is supposed to be for everyone, or if it's only Jack that is truly experiencing this, which is a fair point since there are hints that that is the case (Jack being the last to remember, his final conversation with his father), but I guess for me, that stuff isn't all that important. Watching everyone suddenly wake up, and remember their lives, and remember the people they spent their lives with, and even fitting in one last sappy LOST reunion inside the church, that's what was important to me. Ultimately, that's what I got out of the flash sideways. And that's why I loved it. It was really everything I could have asked for from an epilogue.

LOST. When it comes to television shows, for me LOST is in its own category. I don't claim to be a TV guru, despite the massive amounts of TV I may watch. There are many "great" shows that I have never seen, The Wire (I know, I'm working on it), MASH, Twin Peaks, Breaking Bad, etc. But based on what I have seen, nothing is better than LOST. It was compelling, complex television, with interesting characters, great relationships, lots of mysteries, plenty of suspense, just enough science fiction to whet my appetite, and a well thought out universe for the story to take place in. It's not a show without flaws, of course, but in the end, I think the positives far outweighed the negatives. I loved the experience, especially the sense of community and discussion that was created as a result of it all. The show has really changed how I look at TV, for better or worse. I think I'm going to have to lower the bar going forward, because I just think it will be pretty hard to top what LOST has meant to me.

Anyways, it's been a fun ride, I really enjoyed being able to share in the discussion of the show with everyone, and I'm glad you all liked what I had to say enough to read my blog every week. This will probably be my last LOST-related post, at least for the foreseeable future. Don't forget about Chronologically LOST, where you can see the whole show in chronological order. I expect to start releasing episodes in the next few days, which you can feel free to watch and enjoy at your convenience. That's all for me, thanks for reading.

  submitted on Monday, May 24, 2010 at 11:19:40 PM

Emotionally drained.

I couldn't think of a better way to describe my experience of watching the series finale of LOST. It's not like the end was a surprise to me, I've known about it for three and a half years. And I felt like I had a pretty good idea going into the finale what was going to happen. Jack and the Nemesis would have a confrontation. I had a feeling one if not both would die. I thought Hurley might end up taking over. And yet, at the same time, I really had no idea what would happen. What could happen. And then there's the flash-sideways world, a place I found interesting to the extent that I felt like there were a lot of great character moments, great parallels and call backs to scenes from the entire history of the show. I knew there was something more to it than just that, but I didn't know what it was, and really, how could I? So I found myself quite taken with the whole episode. It wasn't a perfect episode, but the things it did well, it did really, really well. And it completely sucked me in, so much so that two and a half hours felt much shorter than that. In the end, the combination of Jack walking to his death, Jack's final conversation with his father, and the last LOST reunion we'll ever see was just too overwhelming for me, and I had myself a little cry. I'm one of those people that doesn't really cry. My eyes might get a little glassy at times, but me being the male that I am, it's certainly a natural instinct for me to make sure it never goes further than that. Couldn't do it this time. It caught me off guard, it really did. It was all just so, beautiful, the way everything ended, I couldn't help but be swept up in it all.

I feel like there's a lot that I want to discuss, but I also feel like it's all still swirling around in my head, and I'm not sure I can make complete sense of it all quite yet. But writing's therapeutic for me, so let's see if putting it all onto paper helps.

The Real World. Our final confrontation. Jack vs. Locke. Good vs. Evil. All of that good stuff. The on island storyline was somewhat formulaic to finish things out, but I guess I was a little comforted by that, because it's the end of the show, don't we need a little normalcy to close things out? I ended up feeling like this was the weaker of the two realities in the finale, but there were some positives to take away as well.

-I really liked all the little moments that the writers still managed to put into the show, even though they were focused on finishing the story. Hurley had a lot of great moments, commenting on how sweet Kate & Jack's moment was together if they weren't all about to die, busting out the infamous Star Wars quote "I've got a bad feeling about this", and his final scene with Jack was as good as it gets. We also got to see Rose & Bernard one last time, which could be looked at as a pointless scene, but from a character standpoint, it was nice to see them again, although they're clearly justified in keeping themselves isolated from everyone else on the island.

-I thought Julius Goat made a very poignant prediction (for once) when he proclaimed that either all of the remaining candidates would die on the finale, or none of them would. It felt right to me at the time, but not just for the candidates. I went in thinking that this could go one of two ways, either pretty much everyone was going to die, and we were only going to be left with two or three characters still alive, or we got our deaths out of the way in "What They Died For", and whomever survived that episode was going to make it out alive. It turned out to be the latter, with only Jack and the Nemesis dying, and everyone else either finding their way off the island, or remaining there to live out their lives. As usual, I did a terrible job of following my own advice when I talked about how a LOST character generally isn't dead until you actually see them die. And then there I go talking about how Frank's probably dead even though we didn't actually see him die, because he's not relevant enough to get a true character death. Relevant enough? What was I talking about? Hello, he's part of the main cast! Hell, if Frogurt and Karl can get official death scenes, why wouldn't Frank? Idiot. At least I was right about Richard. Certainly if Richard was going to die he needed a better death than flying through the air at the hands of the smoke monster. And ultimately, neither one of them died. Neither did red-shirt Miles. It was certainly a surprise seeing them survive, but a welcome one. (For the record, I do believe that everyone on that Ajira plane survived and made it to, wherever Lapidus took them. While we don't know for sure, I think we have some evidence and can infer that this is the case. In the flash-sideways, Kate told Jack that she had missed him for a long time, implying she lived on for a while after Jack died. If she had died on the plane, their deaths would have only been minutes, or hours apart.)

-I've said it before, but Jack's transformation into something more Locke than Jack has been extremely gratifying as a viewer. He was a flawed, broken man when he arrived on the island, but he just wasn't broken enough to truly achieve the greatness that lay within him. It wasn't until he left the island, and lost everything that he had, that he was able to find the faith that had eluded him for so long, the faith that was passed on to him, in a way, when John Locke died. Instead of trying to live his life by fixing everything and everyone that he could, he placed his life in the destiny of the island, and that gave us the best Jack Shephard we could have hoped for. Gone was the stubborn Jack that only did things his way, and instead in his place was a calmer, more open Jack, willing to take lead if he has to, but also to defer and take a wait and see approach if that's what the situation calls for. The character transformation was really effective, and made people like me, who have been Jack haters since before it was cool, emotionally invested in his character once again. That way, when he died, I was sad. Not just because it represented the end of the show, but because Jack had become someone I had grown to care about. Jack's transformation also provided some peace for all of the Locke supporters out there who felt Locke died for nothing, that he wouldn't get any redemption. Jack picked up Locke's flag, and carried it proudly onto the battlefield against the Nemesis. "You're not John Locke, you disrespect his memory by wearing his face, but you are nothing like him". Tremendous line, and carries with it so much depth and history given Jack's relationship with Locke on the island.

-Now, as much as I enjoyed Jack's character in this episode, I wasn't overly impressed with what he did in this episode. I am okay with a certain amount of ambiguity. I don't need to know everything about the island; heck, I'm not even sure I want to know everything about the island. But I guess I did want to know more about the island than what was given to us. The entire process of lowering Desmond down into the light, the removal of the stone, the draining of the light, the red light emanating from the bottom of the island, just the whole thing, it was done without any kind of explanation, or even without any kind of reason. Neither Jack or the Nemesis really knew what they were doing, they just seemed to be winging it. I don't have a problem with that idea, per say, but it's not like we can find out down the road what it was they were actually doing. It kind of reminded me of Ben moving the island. I don't think Ben knew exactly what he was doing, but he had a general idea, and we of course had absolutely no clue what he was doing, but over time we came to have an understanding of what was going on. I think ultimately I found myself not quite as invested in those scenes involving the light because I honestly didn't know what I was looking at. It was something mysterious, something important, but we just didn't know enough to really truly care one way or another how things played out.

-Oh Kate, you had me at "I saved you a bullet". As anyone who reads my blog knows, I have hatred for Kate like no one else on this show. She has always been one of the most selfish characters, constantly getting in the way of things, and even when she has good intentions they tend to be based on some underlying selfish motivation. If she didn't look so good in her underwear she would have been killed off in Season 2. And yet, in one episode, she completely turns it around, which I still find completely baffling. Her shooting the Nemesis was outstanding, and her line was totally bad ass. Even her moment with Jack before he left was touching and heartfelt. Instead of using Jack or Sawyer to best suit her needs, she just laid it out there, proclaimed her love for Jack, then let him leave. Bravo Kate, I salute you. She also talked Claire into getting on the plane, which is all well and good, but they sort of rushed that scene a bit, and we all knew Claire was getting on the plane, so I'm not going to give her a ton of credit for that one.

-Nothing I could say could possibly improve upon what's already there, so here you go.

-I'm really glad we got one more awesome Michael Emerson moment before the show ended. When Jack picked Hurley to become the new protector of the island, Ben was in the background, but was purposely kept on camera, so that you could see his sheer disappointment in him not being chosen. I really felt bad for the guy. To follow that up with Ben's pure elation at the idea of Hurley asking him, Benjamin Linus, for help in protecting the island, really great stuff, and was a fantastic conclusion to a guy who sacrificed pretty much everything he had for the good of the island, but was never able to be the chosen one, until now.

I do have a couple of various theories that I heard that I don't necessarily believe, but I thought they had some promise and were interesting ways of looking at the show, if nothing else.

First comes from Jimmy Kimmel, that he shared with Matthew Fox in his LOST show on Sunday night (I encourage you to check it out on Hulu if you haven't seen it yet). Jimmy didn't have a real in-depth theory about any specific aspect of the show, but rather a broad idea of what the show was, and the perspective it was shown to us in. I really liked how explained it, and it just sort of felt right the way he said it. Anyways, I've transcribed the theory below:

"In a lot of religions, Christianity being one of them, the idea is that life is a test, that you go through your life, and if you're good you go on to Heaven, or Nirvana, or whatever, and if you're bad you don't, you go to Hell or you don't go anywhere. My theory is that the whole show from beginning to end, we were watching Jack's test, his test, and his life on the island was I think his real life. And obviously Jack passed the test. And maybe the characters, maybe each of the characters has their own story and their own test, but this show, I think was Jack's test."

The other theory I heard on a podcast and read a couple of places, but the general idea is this. At the end of the show, Ben and Hurley are talking about Jack, Desmond, and the responsibility of protecting the island. Ben tells Hurley that he should do his job by doing what he does best, by taking care of people. Hurley wonders how they can help Desmond get home since people can't leave the island. Ben tells Hurley that was a Jacob thing, and says that maybe there is a better way. Now, in the flash-sideways, and I'll probably talk more about this later, but Christian tells Jack that the flash-sideways, it's a place they made to find each other, because the most important part of their lives was the time spent with those people. What if Hurley, as the protector of the island, was able to use his abilities to create that place? He wanted to get Desmond to Penny, and off the island, and so he made that place for them to find each other again.

I don't know that I subscribe to the idea, it seems a little far-fetched, plus I'm of the opinion that Ben suggesting there's a better way, what he really meant was looking to improve upon the way Jacob did things, "progress" if you will. Plus I think the creating of the flash-sideways goes beyond what any of us know about the universe, I don't know that Hurley could create something like that just because he's in charge of the island. Still, it's an intriguing idea to think about.

Alright, I wasn't sure if I was going to get this all into one post or not, but since I'm just now finishing talking about the real world, and haven't even touched the flash sideways world yet, I think we'll go ahead and make this Part 1, and you can look for Part 2 to go up tomorrow. Thanks for reading.