NBA: The TM Williamson Guide to the Conference Finals: The Internet

Youtube has more than just the latest Avril Lavigne video. It features a plethora of NBA action as well!

So now that we’re all NBA TV watching experts, thanks to my last Conference Finals Guide, I figure it’s time that I enlighten everyone as to the best way to keep up with everything between games.  24 hours is a long ass time to be live basketball-less, and living in Canada, you can bet that TSN and The Score would rather give you an update on Sidney Crosby’s morning deuce (light coloured and a bit chunky, apparently) than discuss the outrageously epic Conference Finals that are happening on the hardcourt.

Luckily, we live in an era of technological advancements.  Toilets are flushing themselves, scientists have found a way to combine the efficiency of the square with the tastiness of the bagel (the Squagel!), and vital information – basketball or otherwise – is readily available online.

So today I present you with a guide aimed to get you through those long daytime hours.  Whether you’re at the office, in school, or just sitting at home (lazy ass), this guide to the basketball portion of the internet should help you get your fix while you await the next round of Lebron vs. Dwight or Birdman vs. Mbenga.  (As for nights that feature no NBA games, you’re on your own there.  I suggest NBA Live ’09, Youtubing Shawn Kemp clips, or the 2004 classic Guarding Eddy, which features a special guest appearance by Keyon Dooling!!)

The very first thing you should do after arriving at work/rolling out of bed is check the previous night’s box scores, which will adequately prepare you to digest the rest of the information you’ll be taking in that day.  Now, during the playoffs, when there aren’t many games every night, you’re probably watching most games.  If that’s the case, you might want to skip this part, but I still tend to find the box scores worth a run through, as it’s hard to keep up with all of each individual player’s stats during the game.  During the season this step is vital, of course, as there’s no way you watched more than 2 of the previous night’s games.  There are a billion places to get box scores, but I would recommend ESPN.com or Yahoo Sports, because NBA.com often sucks at updating them.  If highlights are your thing, NBA.com probably has you covered best, and they also feature a daily Top 10 plays, which is always good watchin’.

Immediately following this, you’re going to want to head over to Ball Don’t Lie, the Yahoo Sports NBA blog, which is operated by fellow Canadian (and all around hilarious individual) JE Skeets.  Each Monday to Friday morning, you’ll find three pieces of valuable reading.  First is Kelly Dwyer’s Behind the Boxscore column, which takes a look at the previous night’s game beyond what you can deduce from numbers and highlights.  It is, in my opinion, the best NBA recap out there, consistently providing readers with insights they may have missed during the game.  He also plays no favorites and holds nothing back.  If someone shit the bed, he’ll call them out on it, and if someone has the game of their life, he’ll praise them for it.  If you only read one piece of basketball related material every day, make this the one. (Although if you only read one piece of basketball related material every day, I don’t know what the hell you’re doing reading this.)  Secondly, take a look at BDL’s ‘Net Reaction post, which compiles pieces from around the internet about the previous night’s games, and about the NBA in general.  Here you’ll generally find the articles from local papers about last night’s game, as well as stuff from national papers or websites.  Early in the morning, that’s about all you’re going to find on BDL, (Oh, you get to sleep in on weekdays, you say?  Well guess what?  Fuck you!  This guide will follow the schedule of the working man) but you’ll be back later on in the day.

From there, you’re going to head over to Insidehoops.com, where their daily rumour page should have its morning updates ready to go.  This is another site that compiles articles from around the country and around the web, and then condenses them into the key points that you need to know from each.  Here you’re going to find stories relating to the previous night’s game as well as offseason news like coaching search updates and draft buzz.  Following a run through of this rumours page, you should be totally up to date on everything that has happened since Marv, EJ, or Mike signed off.

At this point, you’ve earned yourself a break.  If you’re at work, you can use this time to put a cover sheet on that TPS report.  Or, as I enjoy doing, you can go grab a coffee and take your morning shit (which, if you’re lucky, will receive a little less media coverage than Sidney’s.)  If you’re at home?  Again, fuck you.   But if I were you, I’d probably grab a coffee, blow a stink, and get right back at it!

OK, so now there are two more required visits for NBA fans.  First, head over to interruptionhasbeenpardoned.blogspot.com and check if it has been updated.  It likely won’t have been, but if it is, leave a comment.  He’ll appreciate it.

Finally, head back over to BDL, or over to thebasketballjones.net for The Basketball Jones podcast/vidcast.  Run by JE Skeets, Tas Melas, and JD, this is one of the longest running sports podcasts in the business, and easily the best in my opinion.  These guys fire out a show every day, and it’s always entertaining.  Obviously, you’re not going to be able to watch it at work, but you can download it and listen at lunch, or just wait until you get home.

Those are the necessary daily stops for every self respecting NBA fan.  However, your journey shouldn’t end there.  At this point, explore the interwebs via the blogroll of BDL or other popular basketball sites.  Personally, I would suggest the following sites:

TrueHoop – Long running basketball blog that was engulfed by the beast that is ESPN.  Intelligent, high level basketball discussion here.

82games.com – The stat geek’s wet dream.  Filled with next level statistics that go beyond simple points and rebounds per game.

SLAMOnline – The online home of basketball’s best magazine.  Features a lot of exclusive content, and Lang Whitaker has been blogging since before blogging was blogging.

Free Darko – You saw those Dwight Howard and Derrick Rose Adidas commercials that dropped the other day?  Yup, that was these guys.  Often strange, esoteric, and tough for even the best of us to understand, but always spot on with the analysis.

There are also a number of excellent team specific blogs out there.  These are going to take a little more searching, particularly if you’re a fan of some obscure team.  However, for those of you who favour the Raptors, as I do, I recommend Scott Carefoot’s RaptorBlog as well as Raptors Republic.  Both are knowledgeable basketball blogs that update regularly, even through the offseason.

As you can see, there’s a lot of stuff out there.  This is only the tip of the iceberg, and through these sites you’ll likely find plenty of other top notch NBA content that I didn’t mention.  This is just a starting point, to provide you with some excellent reading as you await the evening’s tip off.

Tonight we’ve got the Cavs vs. the Magic in game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals.  Will Lebron duplicate his spectacular individual performance from game 1, but this time in a win?  Will Cleveland’s supporting cast show up tonight?  Will Dwight and the Magic stay in the game during the first half, and then blow out Cleveland at home?  Has famed prognosticator Robert Frankel gotten greedy by calling this to be a 4 point game?  Will Hedo Turkoglu limit himself to 2 pre game stinks, or will he go for the full 3?

The answers to these questions and more, tonight on TNT!

- TM Williamson