FLOTSAM AND JETSAM: I ramble drunkenly across the white blogspace.

Atrios gives us Rush Limbaugh on the cornerstone of our culture called marriage.

Subcomandante Blow Hard is stirring up the rubes again.

Also, Jer is worried about this game tonight (Sunday). As am I. Especially after the shellacking Magic gave them in the press. If this "Lakers in six" mantra is to hold true, obviously the Lakers have to win tonight. The scary part is, if they're going to win they're going to have to do something completely unexpected, something that will confirm the supergenius status of Phil Jackson and the Jordan-in-waiting status of Kobe. (Shaq will be Shaq. He usually does the same thing game to game.) That, or the Pistons will inexplicably let up as they do sometimes. If it's the former, it means the Pistons are broken and it really will be Lakers in six. If it's the latter, the series is still the Pistons' to win.

And I can kind of see what Magic is doing, singling out Gary Payton in particular, but if he doesn't get the triangle by now he's not going to get it because Magic told him to. I can't see the wisdom in criticizing Karl at this point, though, for taking a poke at that fan. What's done is done; harping on it only points to how dysfunctional the Lakers are at this point.

I liked this comparison: "There’s really no NBA champion to compare the Pistons to. To strike an analogy, you have to think of the Patriots in the NFL or the Devils in the NHL – teams that win by total teamwork, unstinting effort, defensive brilliance, and an unselfish offense that does just enough to get the job done." By Mike Celizic. Reading somewhere about the Pistons giving a press conference as a team reminded me about how different they really are. And they're almost as cool as the Patriots, though nothing's cooler than when the whole Patriots team walking out together at the beginning of their first Superbowl win. Still, the title of Celizic's piece is "Pistons title would be greatest upset ever" and it's all about how the NBA is the worst sport ever as far as upsets go, so if you're sold on the Pistons now, there's still every reason in the world to believe they will not get it done. I hate to type that, but they are fighting a lot of NBA history.

On the early early morning of Game Four and still no Bill Simmons NBA finals column. I thought his new deal with ESPN was going to give us three columns a week. Wot gives?

I was checking out Tim Kraus' blog--just one of the many Blogspot blogs I don't get to read as much anymore, due to my hateful office firewall--and he's fallen off for the finals. But I was going through his links and got reacquainted with the hoopsjunkie.net guy, whom, I am pleased to say, is bringing the Lakers hate.

Even Yglesias and MaxSpeak are bringing the Lakers hate. Shouldn't the Lakers be the team of the left, representing, as they do, the nefarious Hollywood left? And the hardworking, getting-ahead-by-the-sweat-of-their-collective-brow Pistons be the team of the right? Maybe the right (the mythical hegemonic right--you know who they all are) just doesn't watch a lot of basketball.

Matt also has something up on my favorite pet topic of his: laying the smack down on Samuel Huntington.

Jack Shafer in Slate talks about something I've known about for a few years now: the journalistic greatness of the National Enquirer. And how even now people confuse it will the Batboy/Elvis sightings/400-pound baby papers it looks exactly like.

I will be back tomorrow, no doubt full of fear again before or during Game Four. I haven't pulled for the upset liked this, nor been more aware that the underdog had a good chance at succeeding, since that crazy Diamondbacks/Yankees series of a few years back. Remember when the D-Backs got to the unhittable Mariano Rivera in the seventh game? Impossible stuff happens in sports sometimes. Perhaps a Phil Jackson team can be "gotten to" in the championship round. But, you know, whatever.