2008 Championships: The Answer

5-4, Sour Snails vs Squirtle Squad
By the power of Greyskull, the Sour Snails have done it! From last to first in one short year. Forget just the biggest regular season turnaround in history, the Snails fine tuned their roster all season long and then had the machine perfectly calibrated for a playoff run. Meanwhile, the Squirtles had been dominating their conference all year and with Deron Williams leading the way, they tore through their side of the post-season. However, as they reached the Finals, they were faced with an unenviable task. All of their front line stars would now be nigh useless against the high flying Snails.

For example, what could the Squirtle's Kevin Garnett, Carlos Boozer, David Lee, Jeff Foster, Rasho Nesterovic, Josh Powell, and Ryan Gomes add to the mix? Good rebounds, low turnovers, and field goal percentages were useless. Only Deron Williams (18 PTS, 10.7 AST, 1.2 STL/3PT), Ray Allen (12.7 PTS, 2.3 3PT), and Brandon Roy (17 PTS, 7 AST, 1.7 3PT, 2.0 STL) were really capable of playing run-and-gun.

Check out the Snails stable of horses. Steve Nash (11 AST), Allen Iverson (31.3 PTS, 6 AST, 3 STL), Jason Richardson (27.3 PTS, 3.7 AST/3PT), Kevin Durant (21.7 PTS, 1.3 STL), Steven Jackson (23 PTS, 1.7 STL, 2.7 3PT), and Hedo Turkoglu (19 PTS, 7.8 AST, 1.3 STL/3PT). Heck, even the mighty Chris Quinn added 12.3 PTS, 6.7 AST, 1 STL, and 1.7 3PT this week. All of this and Ron Artest only played one game during the championship period.

This was going to be like Golden State vs Dallas circa 2007. Last week we predicted that the fight would have to be over PTS or FT%. How did that turn out? Well, the Snails obliterated the Squad in PTS (635-481) but lo and behold, lost in FT% (75.9% - 79.4%). That should have equaled a win for Brian's Squirtles right? Not so fast we say. How about that sneaky category, blocks?

The championship game came down to BLKs and it was here that the Snails unexpectedly had two more than the much bigger Squirtles (14-12 BLK). Incredible. Shouldn't three seven footers (Garnett, Foster, Nesterovic) have been able to get a few BLKs in? Apparently not. With a last minute pickup of James Posey (4 BLK) and the clutch Kevin Durant (3 BLK), the Snails pulled through at the end and squeaked out a victory.

Amazingly, both the Snails and the Squirtles had 100 transactions this year (the next closest was Pogiboys with 50), which goes to prove that activity can equal success! So at the conclusion of an amazing NBA campaign -- with an amazing champion for us -- let's join in and congratulate Trieu and his truly Cinderella-esque season. To the Sour Snails!