There are two assignments to start for HiPlains and MooreSports this week, with a third one depending on whether the NBA Finals reaches seven games.

If the Mavericks win Tuesday night's Game 6 to force a Game 7, check back here Wednesday morning for the third assignment.

But for now, on with the two assignments already in place:

Assignment No. 1

Pick one of the following six subjects and write a piece specifically on them. These are people who have been written about extensively over the last two weeks, so the key will be to find a new, original angle that someone will still be interested in reading after hearing so much about them already.

The six subjects to choose from:

Dirk Nowitzki
Avery Johnson
Mark Cuban
Dwyane Wade
Shaquille O'Neal
Pat Riley

Now this assignment isn't due until Friday at noon ET, so there is plenty of time and plenty of possible ways to go with this. But one thing to keep in mind is that should the NBA Finals end Tuesday night, it might be tough to post a compelling read on one of these figures on Friday, three days after the Finals are over. This isn't to say it can't be done, it's just something to keep in mind. Also keep in mind, that if there is a Game 7, the deadline for that piece will likely be at a comparable time (meaning Thursday/Friday). I'm not telling you how to juggle your time or what angles to take, just something to keep in mind. 

And you really can take this piece in any direction you want, but the piece must center on one of the six figures listed above.

Assignment No. 2

This one is a carbon copy from the final round of NGSI.

The topic is completely your choice. This one is probably the one I'll be looking at most closely because I'll be working with the winner on his 20 pieces for the site, and I tend to give a lot of freedom to what writers think are their strengths. And I want to see what's the best work the finalists can come up with when they are given complete freedom.

It can be any topic, any sport, any format, but has to be about sports and not something ridiculous akin to "Here's why I should win." I want the writers to think of it as something that really showcases the best possible work they can produce.

This one is due Saturday by 6 p.m. ET.

Congratulations on making it this far, and good luck.

-Tom

Here are the comments for last week's deadline assignment on either Game 3 or Game 4 of the NBA Finals. The voting was very close, but overall the scores weren't as high as they have been in past weeks.

HiPlainsDrifter
Peter: Well-researched and written in your distinct voice. I liked the "90 Cent" nickname. But "Dallas still trailed 42-46 and the Heat" seems off. All in all, not your best work. But still strong.
Dime: Incorrectly hyphenating "six minutes" in the first three words is no way to start a piece. Other than that though, it's a solid post. We appreciate the stance - missed foul shots by NBA players make us nuts.
Tom: This was not one of my favorites this week. It's just not a compelling read. It starts well with a good lead and a good transition into the heart of the piece, but fades very quickly after that. The "trailed 42-46" is a bad mistake. This isn't tennis, and putting the lower score first in any sports article will just trip up anyone reading it and cost the author a lot of credibility. Also saying "145 seconds" in the ninth paragraph seems a little random. Sure "nearly two and a half minutes" might be a little longer, but I think saying "145 seconds" is a lot more likely to trip up the reader.

MooreSports
Peter: Really good angle. The line about Walker being like the " lazy friend with bad pick-up lines get a job, a haircut ..." wasn't bad,  just not sure it works within the tone of this column. Article flows from start to finish, though, and might very well be your best effort of the competition. But the Dunkin' Donuts line wasn't funny and made no sense; jokes like that are not necessary in these types of pieces.
Dime:  A solid, well-written post. It's not spectacular, but in a week when no one seems to really be on top of their game, "solid" is decent.
Tom: This was also not one of my favorites this week, as it just seems to be a kind of a ho-hum game recap that didn't really have a very original take. Talking about the momentum in a series is OK, but it's hardly original and the piece didn't take an angle that really made it very compelling. But I also liked the line about Antoine Walker.

nappytemple
Peter: Fun angle with the Justice League stuff. Pretty nicely written and well researched. Would have loved if you parlayed this postgame report into a bit of a preview for Game 4. Also, I think the Hasselhoff stuff has been done quite a bit by now, and in this article, there was no reason to mention it where you did. Reads like a forced "hip" reference.
Dime:  We dig the Justice League, so we appreciate the angle and the creativity. But please, please, PLEASE no more about Hasselhoff.
Tom: This was a pretty decent read, and I liked the Gary Payton "Glove/mitten" line and the stat about Dallas' record when Howard goes for more than 20. But a couple little things struck me like the Kobe reference is the first paragraph seemed unnecessary and following the good line about "Glove/mitten" with something as painfully cliched as "But when crunch time rolls around, ice water still flows in the veins of the Heat's 37-year-old point guard" made me cringe.

joshhoskins55
Peter: Great angle. Haslem's been one of the under-the-radar grit guys in the NBA his entire career. But it seems like you really forced the issue with the jokes and wisecracks here. The article was good enough on its own without that. Estefan joke was a major dud, and just didn't fit. The Jim Abbott line? Eh. If you're going to make that joke, which doesn't work in a serious postgame analysis, I would have gone with the drummer from Def Leppard instead.
Dime:  We like the topic -- Udonis is definitely one of the most important players in this series -- but the execution just isn't that nice. A lot of the humor feels forced and some lines just don't feel like Josh's usual work (Gloria Estefan, Jim Abbott, "the greasy-haired Riley"). He has set the bar really, really high over the past few weeks with great post after great post, so when one entry doesn't bring the heat, it's glaring. But even D-Wade doesn't always have his best stuff.
Tom: This was actually my favorite piece from this round; a round when unfortunately I found almost all of the pieces pretty mediocre. This was a good example of finding what you deemed an underappreciated gem and calling it out and really using the details to support your argument. The Jim Abbott line is pretty touchy (especially since "Abbott" was misspelled) and if you're going to go that route when you know you're probably going to offend some people, you better make sure it's a great line that even those of us with somewhat twisted senses of humor will appreciate. I'm not sure this one was one of those lines. 

This week's voting has concluded, and we must bid farewell to the two finalists who had the lowest-rated blogs this week:

joshhoskins55

nappytemple

Voting for Week 4
1. HiPlainsDrifter -- Avg rating this week: 3.16
2. MooreSports -- 3.12

Eliminated:
3. nappytemple -- 2.79
4. joshhoskins55 -- 2.65