pantaloons

Macca, I'll take 5 of those division winners - Green Bay, San Francisco, New England, Baltimore and Houston. I'll also have Kansas City winning the West. The NFC east is always a bit of a coin toss, but I'll take the G-Men. I'd normally have the Saints in the South, but after their offseason I might join you and take Atlanta. Wildcards: AFC - I'm trying to squeeze three teams into two spots, but I'll be boring and pick Denver and Pittsburgh. Buffalo was the other, I think they've made some great moves. NFC - I'll say Dallas and Detroit. There's not a great deal of expertise to my NFC picks though.

Very happy to see that OneHD is still covering the NFL this season. Three games a week again. Bring it on. I thoroughly enjoy getting up a couple hours early on a Monday morning for some NFL. Good times. http://nfldownunder.com/read/news/one-hdten-sport-tv-announces-coverage-of-2012-nfl-season

I love that we put random stuff like 'slam dunk champion' and 'prep player of the year' on his bio. Might as well put 'Disneyworld annual pass holder' on there. Jodie Meeks was another good signing, which followed a day after Howard. $3M 2 year deal, so he's come for less than offered elsewhere and provides the good long-range shooting we've lacked off the bench and a capable backup for Kobe, who pretty much had to take all the SG minutes because he had no backup last year. Phoenix picked up J O'Neal on the weekend. Hopefully for their sake he can resurrect his game.

Hahahaha! Seriously, where do people find these memes? Classic. Yes, absolutely thrilled with the trade. It's been an incredible offseason from lakers GM Mitch Kupchak. Well over the cap and with next to no wiggle room, to get Howard and Nash for three first round picks and Bynum, as well as Jamison for less than 10% of what he earned last season and re-signing Hill for well under minnesota's offer, is insane. Yes, they all chose to play for the Lakers, but it's still got to be pulled off, so kudos to him. Massive stuff.

Ha! Look, I don't see a Howard to LA trade happening, and while it could be great for us, I think right now our bench is a more pressing need. We've probably got the league's best starting lineup and worst bench right now. Need to re-sign Hill and add another couple of quality role players if we're going to go anywhere. It was reported Antawn Jamison was signed by LA today but that proved premature. Could be imminent though. OJ Mayo is off to Dallas. The Mavs have recovered reasonably well when it looked like they were about to fall off the face of the planet.

Houston going all out for Dwight. Smart thinking. Mediocrity is death in the NBA, and while they've been very honest for years, the Rockets are never going to win another championship until they get some superstar talent on the roster. They've gutted the roster in preparation for Howard. If he goes there, then it's mission accomplished and they build around him. If he doesn't go there, then they stink it up for a season and wind up with a top 3 pick and plenty of salary cap space.

NASH A LAKER!! Very excited about this. We've used the Odom traded player exception to absorb his $27M contract and sent Phoenix our 2013 and 2015 first round picks and 2013 and 2014 second round picks. We won't attempt to re-sign Sessions now. Attention turns to Howard.

Thanks Jack. I don't have the time or inclination to sift through Brooklyn's salary details, but I'd be utterly stunned to the point of heart attack if they could fit Howard, Williams, Johnson, Wallace and Turkoglu under the cap. They'd be up for close to $100M a year right there on those 5 players.

The Johnson deal today is a good example of the changing face of trading and list management in the NBA and in sport over the past few years. Traditionally, you don't want to give up a dollar coin for bits of shrapnel totalling $1, but what Danny Ferry has done here is take on a bunch of mediocre guys with contracts that expire after the 2012/13 season. They'll no doubt be hoping that with a stack of money available at that time they'll be able to land one or both of Dwight Howard and Chris Paul. From what I've read, the Nets must have been sure they had no chance of landing Howard before making the deal, because this eliminates them from Howard contention, given Johnson's huge contract. Interesting times.

Just got back from 3 weeks in the US, the last week at Disneyland. I think I saw more people wearing LA Kings gear in that week than I did at a Kings game a few years ago. They love a winner! Oh, and Quick -amazing performance. When isn't the cup won by a team with a red hot goaltender? Seems to happen every year.

Thanks mate! Look I'll say a few things: 1. While the Thunder are certainly the better team, and I predicted us to go down 4-1, we were the better team in 3 of the 5 games, so at least we didn't disgrace ourselves. 2. That flagrant against Artest was a disgrace. Purely based on reputation - no way Durant gets that treatment. 3. Really hope the Spurs win it all now. Pacers or Sixers would be fine but unrealistic. 4. Bring on the offseason and some bg decisions for LA. 5. Disappointed it ended today. I leave for a week in LA on Tuesday so was dead keen to get to the WCF if we were still alive!

You cannot lose games in the playoffs when you are the better team on the day, and the Lakers have done this twice this series, as we did against Dallas last year. Aargh!!!!!!!! Season ends tomorrow, that much is absolutely guaranteed.

Thanks Macca. Phew. A generally poor performance from LA this series, but our reward for being ordinary is to have Artest back for OKC and tuned up in today's Game 7. I doubt we'll get over the top of them, but losing to OKC won't be the historic disgrace that losing today would have been. This will be the first series we enter as underdogs since the 2008 Finals against Boston. Memphis/Clippers tomorrow. Should be fantastic - two success-starved clubs going at it in a Game 7.

Absolutely furious with the team's lack of effort in Game 5, particularly Bynum. That guy has talent galore and has been heavily invested in, and yet he refused to show up for every playoff game. Disgraceful. That said, at the start of the series I picked Lakers in 7, so I'm not surprised it's gone this far. The only way Denver wins Game 7 is if LA is truly a team disunited, but I think we've been down this road many times before and will pull it out. If we're not up by double digits at quarter time tomorrow though, the nerves will start. I'm expecting a furious LA to start the game.

I think we're 42-1 in best of 7 series after leading 2-0. The one loss was in the 1969 series against a Boston team that won 11 championships in 13 years. Not to be uppity, but it would take the lightning in a bottle scenario of the greatest performance in Denver history and the worst choke in Laker history for LA to lose this series to an overmatched Nuggets team. The loss does mean that Ron Ron will only miss a maximum of one game in the second round now, which is the bonus from the loss. Personally, I'd have rested our better players for longer yesterday after we threw the game away in ten comical minutes. Oh, and NBAtv is great. I've pretty much caught every Laker game this season, and can watch the games at my own pace and see them after work or whenever is convenient. I get too nervous watching games live now anyway, so being able to speed through stages of games where we're getting flogged or the opposition is storming back is great. I'll likely make the investment again next season. It's around the $200 mark, and has been well worth it. I ended up choosing it over NHL Gamecenter mainly because you get the playoffs thrown in with NBA League Pass.

Unless you're a mavs fan, Cuban tantrums are great to watch. This one is self-inflicted though. His decision to gut a newly-crowned championship team for the hope that Deron might come as a free agent at the end of this season ended any chance they had this year. Office space is a cult classic. Vintage Gary Cole. I like the Brooklyn logo. It's very simple and old school. It looks like its been on the wall on a gym in Brooklyn for 70 years. Their excited claims of 'we're the only NBA team in black and white' is laughable though. The Spurs have sported that look, albeit with a touch of silver/grey for decades and made it their own. Big game for the Bulls tomorrow in the match of the day.

Just tragic. That's a championship gone begging for a very good, honest Bulls team. They deserved better than that.

Blues v kings Coyotes v predators Rangers v Capitals Flyers v devils A lot of fresh faces. Anyone's game!

It won't be much of a jinx. I fully expect us to not make it to the WCF, and whether we win one series or none, its not much to be celebrated, just more avoiding the humiliation of being upset in the playoffs two years running. Talk's cheap in sport, but I absoltely love Kobe's attitude. As a fan looking in at the team, I can't see any way we, or 25 other teams, can win the championship, but I love that he is confident that we can. Hopefully that belief is contagious amongst the rest of the team. The guy has won more than anyone else currently in the NBA (except Fish) so naturally they should take on board what he says. It is funny that it's a headline though. It would be a shame if any player involved in a playoff team didn't think their team could win the championship. It's a pretty clear cut first round. I can't really make a case for any upsets at this stage.

Maybe a couple games more than I thought but it could have been worse. If we take care of business in six games in the first round he'll be good to go against OKC in the second round. Clippers just lost so we'll be the #3 seed and avoid Memphis. Can't see us getting past the second round, but I sincerely hope we do as I'll be in LA in late May-June.

Very sad stuff from metta world war III. Thankfully we pulled out our best win since game 7 in 2010, but this was just brainless. I think Rudy T summed it up best yesterday when he said that the reason his incident, where he was punched square in the face by Kermit Washington, is still so famous, is that none of the many punches since thrown in the NBA have connected. It's dangerous to try to get inside artest's head, but I imagine he was full of adrenalin after the dunk, and when harden bumped him he swung an elbow without considering the potential consequences or fully believing he would connect in such a vicious manner. He certainly knew he was there- harden got in his way and had his forearms into Ron, so he must have felt him, which pretty much blows his case that it was an accidental part of his celebration. I hate suspensions in general, but I'd suspend him for 5 games, taking into account prior history, lack of premeditation, and the fact that we've seen some horrid incidents receive much less than 5 recently, such as wade intentionally smacking Kobe in the face and breaking his nose, and love stepping on scola's face. Horrible incident whatever happens, and his absence will hurt the team.

Thanks DD. I used to have foxtel and was tempted with the footy, but can't justify the expense at the moment. I bought NBA league pass as my Christmas extravagance and that's been well worth it.

Vale season 2011-12. Beaten by a better team. Good luck to the rest of you.

Seriously, that just sums it all up - crushing loss in overtime, own goal, Nabokov stinking it up when it counted most. His blatant choking cost us at least one cup. Thankfully we won the next three games against Colorado to take the series in question.

I don't have much confidence. We blew numerous chances over the last eight seasons unfortunately.