Number 19

Amare Stoudamire Power Forward Phoenix Suns
(7th season)

Amare has fought injuries, both serious, and those not so much so throughout his career. He still remains one of the fiercest big men in the game today. No big man in the league finishes better. When Amare attacks the basket, there is a real good chance he is either dunking on someone's head or going to the free throw line, a lot of the time for a "and one".

The Suns this season struggled with their identity, but at the times when they were playing their best, Amare was the reason. When the offense ran through Amare, the offense was the most efficient. Some of the credit will go to Nash, but Amare is amazing on the pick and roll. and pick and pop. His improvements in his mid-range shooting game has pretty much made him unguardable. He shoots with a high release point, and is great off the dribble for a man with his size.

Stoudamire matched his career numbers across the board this year. 21 ppg, 9 rebounds, and 54% shooting. There are very few players who average 20+ and 9 rpg in today's NBA.

Amare has the ability to be a top 10 player in the league. Last NBA season he made first team All-NBA. Amare still has a bright, bright future. I believe that more than likely it won't be in Phoenix. The Suns owner is set to cut salary, and Amare should be able to get them some good players in return.

BL Sports Top 20 Kicks off with....

Ray Allen Shooting Guard Boston Celtics (13th Season)

Jesus Shuttlesworth is still ballin. He is on a team with two other future Hall of Famers, and an all-star caliber Point Guard so from time to time we as NBA fans forget how good Ray Allen still is.

For my money Ray Allen is still the best shooter in the league. He is fabulous from the Free throw line. Absolutely deadly from Mid-Range, and one of the best 3 point shooters of all-time. He also is one of the top CLUTCH shooters in the league, as we all witnessed in the first round of the playoffs versus the Bulls, and even in this series against Orlando.

Ray Allen has a career average of 21 PPG, and averaged 19 this season. Ray Ray shot 48 from the field, 41 from the 3 point line, and 95 from the FT line. Those are numbers that won't be matched by too many players, only the elite of elite shooters.

Allen is a 9 time all-star who still plays at or above that level. Ray Allen had an awful postseason last season, having some question whether his best days were behind them. Most Celtics fans will tell you that he is their team MVP this season, quieting all talk about Ray being past his best days.

Nuggets Use Offensive Attack to Advance

7 straight Conference Finals for Chauncey, first of career for Melo.

The Nuggets rode one heck of a shooting performance to their series victory against the Mavs. Denver scored 69 first half points and shot almost 60% for the game. Melo and Billups combined for 58 points on 23/38 shooting. These two have a future together in the Western Conference (you hear that Joe, Chauncey STILL has a future in the NBA).

The Mavs are a talented team, but Josh Howard was hurt, and after Dirk and JET the Mavs struggled in this series to find a third scoring option. Dirk played great against stellar defense, but Dirk was not enough. I wonder how much the Mavs wish they had Devin Harris right now.

The Nuggets now more than likely await a powerhouse match-up with the LA Lakers in the West Finals. That will be a match-up of the two best teams in the West from the beginning to the end of the NBA season out west. I won't go too much into this series now because their will definitely be a series preview, well that, and it's not official yet.

ALL NBA TEAM

To me this is a great sign for the NBA. The All NBA Team consists of 4 of the 5 players off of the All-NBA Defensive team. Only Dirk is a new addition (over KG on ALL-D team)

That's one hell of a first team, and I would guess that if KG would have been healthy all year the All-Defense and All-NBA team would have been exactly the same.

The Celtics are pretty good at.....

well WINNING

Tonight was a game where the team that played better definitely lost. The Magic led throughout the game, and for 3 and a half quarters it appeared that the Celtics were never going to get it going. Then of course, came the Celtics usual 4th quarter push. The Celtics would end up with 33 4th quarter points, and come out with another tight victory.

Glen "Big Baby" Davis led the Celtics with 22 points and continued his stellar play in the postseason, filling in for KG.

Ray Allen hit big shots for the Celtics in the final minutes, and up 3 Doc Rivers fouled on the inbounds on consecutive possessions to shorten the game in effect, by trading Ray Allen Free Throws for Magic players free throws.

Dwight Howards intentional miss at the FT ended up in the hands of Glen Davis, and after he sunk 2 Free Throws the game was over.

Celtics 92 Magic 88
C's take a 3-2 lead in the series despite being thoroughly outplayed for most of the night

The Lebrons move to 8-0

Cleveland Sweeps again, moves on to Conference Finals

Lebron is definitely the King right now. King of the NBA is still for debate, but the East is no longer a mystery. LBJ does what he wants, when he wants. He doesn't lose, and probably won't for a while.

Lebron makes every guy on that team a better player. The Cavs are full of guys that other teams didn't want. A bunch of career bench guys or role players and they seem to do just enough to keep the Cavs a powerhouse in the Eastern Conference.

Tonight it was Delonte West. Delonte took control when Bron went to the bench, he decided to be the aggressor when James was sitting. West had 21 points and 6 assists, playing 45 minutes.

They now must wait, and rest. Sit at home and enjoy watching good games between the Celtics and Magic like the rest of us. Whoever wins that series will know they have one hell of a battle in front of them in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Yao Done for the Playoffs

Yao is out, and I am going to assume that means the Rockets are done. This franchise probably has the worst luck out of any professional sports team. If it's not T-Mac, it's Yao, or maybe even both.

Tough luck for Houston, it will be interesting to see how the Rockets respond.