With a new live-action/CGI movie coming out in mere weeks, it makes sense to reminisce about Optimus Prime locking horns with Megatron. Pound for pound they stand very evenly matched in a classic showdown between good and evil. Our second round continues to transform and roll out as we review the match-ups from last week and serve up two more confrontations to ponder. So take a break from your football cheat sheets for a few minutes, and flip it back to hoops!

The premise: (if you know how this tourney operates, feel free to skip down!)

The rules are simple. 32 of today’s biggest stars, plus some fantasy forces and a few players of the “x-factor” ilk have been chosen to participate in this exercise. Assume each player is in perfect health and in peak condition, based on their current age and abilities. Suppose these players play each other in a game of one-on-one: games to 11, two points for a three-pointer, and winners out. You can make your comment after each article, or if you like, send me an e-mail at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). You can now also make your comments on our Facebook group discussion board. Please vote just once for each match-up. If you are so inclined, feel free to make up an imaginary commentary of how you see the battle going down and I will try to include your input in future articles. You have one week to vote, then the results will be published and a new pair of match-ups will be announced. So check back here every week!

Review of last week’s matches:

Round 2, Game 1: Shawn Marion vs. Dwyane Wade

Will: So it turns out Will lives in Dallas with no cable. It must be tough to watch NBA ball. Here’s what he had to say on the match that opens our second round…“Wade still has the quickness in his feet and creativity down low to get some good looks. Also MARION HAS NO HANDLES!...Plus Marion shoots from his waist which will be easy to block one on one.”

Patrick from Give Me The Rock: “...this tournament has become one of the things that I most look forward to on Sundays. I’ll let the readers decide how high on the lame-o-meter that last sentence falls.”

Patrick put up an interesting idea; I know Bill Simmons of ESPN has done a revenge-o-meter. This deserves its very own post, but in terms of a quick brainstorm, here’s an idea of where your “lameness” falls compared to other degress of lameness, Patrick. Ratings are based on a scale of 0 to 10.

0.12…“our one-on-one tournament becoming one of the things that I most look forward to on Sundays.” To me, this ranks pretty low. There is nothing wrong with embracing one’s geekiness. So play with your made-to-scale lightsaber, hit the comic book store, and read all the computer code you want, my brother. But…

0.3…“our one-on-one tournament becoming one of the things that I most look forward to on Sundays.” But if you are going to be lame, do it whole-heartedly. Forget your other obligations. Cancel that brunch with your girlfriend. Do the Sunday crossword on the subway tomorrow. Wake up, look outside and bask in the nice weather, get the coffee started and then race to the computer to see if I woke up earlier than you to post the next chapter of our feature here. This is your Sunday morning from now on.

1.2…wearing knee-high dress shorts with your khaki shorts, an all-time lame look.

3.0…Not liking a movie because you don’t like the lead actresses’ lips. You already know who is going ot be in the movie. So you know walking into the theater whose lips you will be seeing on screen. And you already know you don’t like the lips. So why do you go? And why do you still hate the movie only because of his voice? And why did you waste your money on a movie you were bound to hate no matter what? This type of review does not help your friends out when they are trying to find how to blow their ten dollars away!

3.9…giving your newborn child the longest name in history. I saw this newsbit on Yahoo this morning. That kid’s getting his arse kicked repeatedly on the playground.

4.7…The NBA’s rule on leaving the bench i.e. what probably cost the Suns the title this year. Yes, I know, they were in position to win Game 5, and I should not bust on San Antonio just because they have won multiple times and they play in that low-profile, effective manner. Maybe it’s not the rule so much as it is the league’s stubborness and refusal to acknowledge that common sense was so utterly lacking.

5.4…Taking your sister to the prom/big formal dance…and she’s not hot.

6.3…You are Kobe Bryant and you are requesting a trade from the Los Angeles Lakers. When you were a teenager, you forced a trade to the Lakers. You Hollywood, ain’t you? So where are you going to go? I know the West is tough, and you don’t exactly have a Tonto to your Lone Ranger gunner mentality, but the millions upon millions of dollars, the wife who forgave you, and the three titles you already have, plus the ass-kicking you are doing in this tourney should make up for that.

8.6…You’ve never been on a date since high school because you consider yourself “picky.” You ain’t picky, my friend, you’s chicken.

10.0…whatever the starlet du jour (Britney, Lindsay, Paris et al. is up to these days.

Enough of that. Let us get back to the tourney! Here are Patrick’s comments on the match-up.

“Marion’s height would prove tough for Wade to defend, and I can certainly see this game being close, as Marion would be all up in Wade’s bizness, blocking shots and generally being long. But Wade has skills to get to the hoop and get there quickly, and if he falls down seven times, I’m sure he’ll get up eight. I tend to side with big guys in this tournament, but not this time.”

Sarge: “While Marion’s a stud fantasy asset, we’ll have to revert back to true hoops skills…While Matrix may block a few shots or use his ‘length’ to rip a few steals, Wade’s slashing will get it done in the end.”

Zack from The Fantasy Lounge: “Gotta go with D-Wade here…(Marion) has the height advantage, but Wade knows how to get to the hoop…Marion is fast, but not fast enough here.” Zack was on the Dropping Dimes staff for a cup of coffee. He has also contributed to The Fantasy Lounge, which I see is back on the radar, and then some. Glad you joined our Facebook group, Zack, and hope to hear from you regularly!

Jeff: “...D Wade will destroy Matrix. Matrix is my boy, but he can’t create his own shot.” Marion was Jeff’s first pick in our head-to-head league and Jeff had a very successful season. That cannot sway him to go against the grain. Winner: Dwyane Wade.

I will make it set point and also give the nod to Wade. I really hope he comes back healthy next year. He can drive to the hoop at will, is both quick and fast, and although he does not have a reliable three-point shot, he should be able to create enough separation to launch high percentage jumpers on a guy like Marion. Marion would likely rack up a few swipes, but Wade would swipe the rock right back. I am sure with rabbit ears like Marion would cringe a bit at the notion that we all think he does not have any handles. However even he would have to concede that he is at a huge disadvantage in this area when being sized up against Flash.

Round 2, Game 2: Kobe Bryant vs. Paul Pierce

Will: “Both are great players, but Kobe just outdoes Pierce in about everything…It might be a somewhat close game, but Kobe could beat Pierce every time.”

Patrick: “Kobe. He’s Robert Patrick’s T-1000 to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T-101. Basically Kobe’s a better, faster, more skilled version of Paul Pierce. If Pierce had Eddie Furlong on his side, I’d like the match-up, however, I’m going to have to go with the soulless machine known as Kobe Bryant in this one.” Even if we gave Pierce Eddie to make it “two” on one, I doubt that would swing the momentum towards Paul. I have never seen Eddie ball, and the guy has to be in his 30s by now! So it does not bode well for Pierce, unless Eddie has another brainstorm on how to break into Cyberdyne Industries and take out “Skynet” Kobe…without his mother having to resort to killing innocent people! Damn you, Miles Dyson, you were so naive!

Sarge: “...Kobe in a landslide.” Is that Dixie Chicks’ “Landslide,” Sarge? Or are you kicking it old school all the way to prime time Smashing Pumpkins? Or are you truly a classic guru and are mackin’ to Fleetwood Mac? I looked up the lyrics of the song to see if I could do more than just play on the word, but there wasn’t anything there. I got nothin’, unless you think “Well, I’ve been afraid of changing ‘cause I built my life around you, but time makes you bolder, children get older, I’m getting older, too” could be Kobe’s way of telling Shaq he’s sorry!

Zack: “As much as Pierce is my boy, I think this one is clearly a win for Kobe. Pierce has got game, but I don’t think he’ll be able to stop Kobe at all. In a high-scoring game, Kobe takes this one.” Damn, Paul, if you cannot win the primary in New England, what chance do you have?

Jeff: “Kobe will beat Pierce cuz Pierce still got bursitis in his shooting elbow…” And that’s a shot for my friend, Jeff, for not paying attention to the instructions. See in our tournament, copping out in picking a winner by citing injury is a no-no because all players are assumed to be in peak health and condition for their current age. Now, it’s possible you have access to more direct knowledge on the Truth and figure that even at his best, Pierce is hurtin’, but I doubt it. Not that it matters in the grand scheme of things. Winner: Kobe Bryant.

So Kobe Bryant of “No Fixed Address” takes out the franchise player in Bean-town. Speaking of Boston, how quickly did KG squash those trade rumblings that had him pegged as a Celtic? And then semi-unsquashed them?

And now on to this week’s feature match-ups:

Round 2, Game 3: Chris Bosh vs. Tony Parker

CB4 bested Nash in the first round. Parker is probably faster than Nash, but can Tony conjure up enough defense to slow down Bosh? Parker trumped Ben Wallace in the first round, but Bosh is a massive upgrade in terms of big men and their offensive skills. Nash can shoot the three-pointer with good accuracy, but our readers thought that was not enough to defeat Bosh. Parker rarely shoots threes, but he does have that sweet tear-dropper in the lane. Everyone thought he would just blow past Big Ben so can he do the same against Bosh and come up with the “W”? Most of the reasoning from our readers during this tourney have revolved around the concepts of size, speed, skills, guts and experience. So does Bosh beat any guard out there because of his skill-set, length and relatively great speed for a big man? Or just it depend more on the individual and whatever makes them unique?

Round 2, Game 4: Tim Duncan vs. Dwight Howard

In a sense TD overcame the experience disadvantage when he bested Shaq in Round 1. It’s not like Duncan lacks experience, but Shaq was an established veteran when TD first broke into the league. One could argue whether The Big Fundamental has surpassed Big Diesel in building a legacy on the court. Now Duncan plays the cagey vet against the much younger Dwight Howard, who himself hopes to climb the all-time big man charts. Howard squeaked by Andrei Kirilenko in the first round voting. His raw offensive skills are sure to be exposed by Duncan’s polished and unassuming game. The question is whether his 6’11” and 265 pound body and his 40-inch vertical are enough to barrel straight into, and jump over TD. This reeks of another landslide, but if anyone can build a solid case for Howard, I would love to hear it. It certainly would not even register a small tremor on the lame-o-meter.

See you next week! For those just joining us, you can follow this link to a previous post for access to all of the first round match-ups. Just scroll to the bottom of the page.

Peace.