A few items before looking ahead to the playoffs:

– An incredible season, all in all. Congrats to Paul Allen, Kevin Pritchard, Tom Penn, Larry Miller, Nate McMillan and the dozens of dedicated Trail Blazer employees who make it a very special organization. My hat is off to them. The success they have had this season is well deserved.

– Wednesday night’s game was perhaps the weirdest of the season. Can you remember a game where the winning team’s starting lineup didn’t produce a single player who scored in double figures? How about a game where the starters combined for just 32 points — yet the team scored 104 and won by 28? That’s borderline ridiculous.

– Sergio Rodriguez had one of those games where you wonder just how good he could be for a team that wants to push the ball all the time. Man, he’d be good for the Knicks.

– Rudy Fernandez had a great night — but he looks awfully gimpy to me. His back was bothering him, big time, by the end of the game. And I also believe the two men from Spain are the only ones who really understand how to feed the ball to a big guy at the rim.

– The Blazers have had so much more energy than the teams they’ve been playing lately and Wednesday was no exception.

– Carmelo Anthony was worse, even, than his 3-for-18 shooting night indicated. The guy is easily distracted.

– LaMarcus Aldridge and Brandon Roy combined for 15 points on 6-for-17 shooting. And the Blazers won by 28 — that’s not likely to happen again for a decade or so.

– Man, New Orleans let Michael Finley get off a clear three-point shot to tie that game at the end of regulation down in San Antonio and it messed up the seeding all through the conference. Foul the guy.

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Tags: Brandon Roy, Carmelo Anthony, Denver Nuggets, Dwight Jaynes, LaMarcus Aldridge, Michael Finley, Portland Trail Blazers, Rudy Fernandez, Sergio Rodriguez

 You could see the ball still in Finley’s hands as the shot clock expired. The irate Kings were told that shot-clock calls were “non-reviewable.” I’m not saying Sacramento was going to win, but they sure weren’t after this call.

UPDATE: Mark Mason, in the comments, makes a great point. It appears the shot-clock horn is about a full second behind the clock. I believe he launched the shot prior to the horn… so you really can’t blame the officials for counting the shot. NBA rules, I believe, dictate, though that the clock is what matters — not the horn. So it should NOT have counted… but this shows you why they need replay because the officials almost have to go with the sound, rather than trying to watch the clock and the play at the same time. And they also need to get the clock synched up with the horn.

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Tags: Michael Finley, NBA playoffs, Sacramento Kings, San Antonio Spurs