New Day, Same Result

Christmas day was as usual a big day in the NBA today. ABC kicked off it's season with 2 great games. Unfortunately for the Suns, it was a new game, but the result was the same. They played as well as they can against the Spurs and lost at the buzzer to a 3 pointer. Lately the Suns are losing to the Spurs via the dagger 3. Who can forget the stupid 3 that Timmy hit last playoffs. But then again, the dagger 3's have killed the Suns since the days of Mario Elie. This time it was someone called Roger Mason. Pop put him and other 3 point shooters in and the Suns should have played it safe with the 3-point line. Instead J-Rich left Mason to help Grant Hill on Parker's penetration and Tony found Mason for the open 3. Amare was as always ready to let Finley hit a open 3 too, but the ball went to Mason instead. You could say it was bad D, but it does take more than one guy to stop Parker and what are you gonna do? It is what it is and just another loss for the Suns.

The prime-time game was Lakers-V-Celtics. ESPN has been pimping this game forever and I guess it lived up to it. The Lakers team and the fans were ready for revenge after the Celtics embarrassed them in the Finals last season. It was a lot more important for the Lakers to win this one, especially since they were at home. But give them credit. They did win and stopped the 19 game winning streak of the Celtics. Thats no joke. Kobe was great and he repeatedly setup Pau for basket after basket at the end of the game. Of course Pau's ability to score and finish is really what has put this team over the top since his arrival. He is probably the only guy Kobe trusts on offense. Pau even got a key block, which is really not his deal. This is probably a finals preview and it should be a better series this year given that both teams are even better than they were last year. Lakers might have closed the gap, but the Celtics are still better. But of course you need a body or two to guard Kobe.

Cleveland won again at home against the weak Wizards team. They are 15-0 at home. They are a legit contender and the Celtics-Cavs games this season should be as good as the Celtics-Lakers. The Cavs can definitely hang with anybody. LeBron didn't have a great game, but he is a load. It's amazing how many 3-point opportunities he gets in a game. Like Barkley says, when something that big and strong comes at you at full speed, you can't kiss it, you have to hit it! A lot of fouls are like somebody kissing him and has no impact on his shot. Dallas won the night-cap on TNT at Portland. Dirk was impressive, but it's amazing to watch little J.J.Barea do so much for this team. That guy killed the Blazers late in the game. Brandon Roy ran out of magic finally and this was a tough loss for the Blazers. Looks like the Mavs are back to being the Mavs of old. Interesting Christmas day overall. It started with Roger Mason and ended with J.J.Barea.

Yankees are making it rain

The Yanks signed Mark Teixeira today to a eight-year, 180 million contract. Thats looks a bargain if you compare it to C.C.Sabathia's 7 year, 161 million contract and it's an outright steal next to A.J.Burnett's 5 year, 82.5 mill. Between the 3 players, the Yankees have spent more than 420 mill this off-season. Amazing. I like AJ, but has he ever pitched more than 2 consecutive starts without getting injured? CC is good, but why overpay the guy when they knew he didn't have many options? Plus they are assuming a huge risk signing a fat pitcher to such a long-term deal. Considering this and other deals the Yanks have signed over the last few years, I would say Teix is probably one of the better signings for them. He is still young and is a very reliable bat.

Even though I understand the business of new stadiums and why every team wants them, I am still amazed at the amount of money the real big market teams generate out of these mega-stadiums. There are two stadiums thats making a lot of news right now. The new Yankees stadium and the Cowboys stadium in Dallas. These 2 teams are just minting money and I don't understand how people and/or corporations are paying 100 K+ for seat licenses in Dallas. That too in this economy. This whole stadium business is getting out of control. Pretty soon, only the millionaires are going to be able to attend games in person in most parts of this country.

The RedSox are again looking like the Kansas City Royals in front of the Yankees after few years of near-parity in the expense department. You better believe that their ownership group is going to start complaining pretty soon. They were not happy even when they spent 180 mill a year and the Yanks spent 200 a year or something while the rest of the league averaged a robust 60 mill or whatever. Now the Yanks might double the Sox payroll at this rate. The MLB might as well cancel the Yankees V Royals and the Yankees V Baltimore games starting next year. There should be a payroll differential law in Sports. If a team spends more than 3 times the other team, they can't play against each other. That might pretty much mean the Yankees and the Sox have to play each other 162 times a year. ESPN will be happy for sure if that happens.

Speaking of Boston, it's amazing what the Celtics are doing. They keep on keeping on and they are becoming almost as big as the RedSox in Beantown. This team is just too good and I can't wait to see them play the Lakers on Christmas day.

Dallas Lose

Good game this NFL Saturday. Baltimore at Dallas to close down the Texas stadium. The Ravens running backs spoiled the party for the boys singlehandedly. The game was close late in the fourth quarter with the Ravens leading 19-10. The Cowboys scored to make it 19-17 and the crowd was all pumped up for a Romo-powered comeback. But within 18 seconds, the Ravens scored a 77 yard rushing TD. Romo answered back with just 1:36 left in the game to make it 26-24. But guess what. The Ravens scored again in 18 seconds with Le'Ron McClain rushing for a 82 yard TD to put the game away and suck the air out of Dallas. This is not like the Bartimore Ravens at all. They usually don't score this much or this fast. I guess the Dallas D is this bad. This game puts the Cowboys in a tough spot as far as making the playoffs go.

If the Ravens can do this even semi-consistently, I won't be surprised if they go all the way and win the Super Bowl. There are many teams that seem to be coming on late this NFL season. The Indianapolis Colts and the Carolina Panthers come to mind as 2 other teams that may be legitimate contenders after a shaky start to the season. Peyton is in full form right now. He threw for 364 yards and 3 TDs on Thursday to take care of the Jacksonville. I am not sure if anybody wants to play the Colts in the playoffs especially if they get their running backs in gear. The Panthers are another interesting team. Their game tomorrow against the other 11-3 team in the NFC, - the Giants, should tell us more about where both these teams are headed. This is a fun time of the year as we try and get the playoff lineups all figured out.

Deja Vu

It's good to be back blogging again after a short break. I have just been busy with a couple of random things. Many interesting and weird things happened while I was away, but there are 2 things that I find very odd. I could have gone away for 3 years and it's like nothing has changed. I am talking about TO fighting with his QB, offensive coordinator, WR coach and anybody else who comes his way in his own locker room. This is like a flashback of what happened in Philly, which was a flashback of what happened in San Francisco. I feel like TO has been single-handedly keeping the sports media busy for 30 of the last 60 months. ESPN should send him a paycheck instead of sending Screamin' A Smith to ask him some dumb questions. On the bright side, at least TO will not be calling Tony Romo gay like he did Jeff Garcia. Or at least lets hope so because if he did do that, he would be implying Jessica Simpson is a man !! That would be stupid even by TO standard.

The other deja-vu story of the day is Brett Favre starting to talk about retirement again. Enough already !! Shut up and play, make the playoffs and throw an interception to end that playoff game like you always do. I have no use for his retirement story - not until 3 games into the season after the supposed retirement. Unless he stays retired 3 games into the next season, I don't consider Brett Favre gone. He can come back any time to any team and would any of us be surprised? This guy is worse than the poor 60 year-olds who thought they were retiring this year and thanks to the financial meltdown, they can't for the next 8 years. Brett has been trying to retire for 5 or 6 years now. Somebody check what's going on with his 401 K or something! May be he should stop going to Mississippi during the off-season. Of course he wants to get out of there after 6 months and he wants a job in "big cities" like Green Bay. But to be fair to him, he has played really well and I can't believe the Jets can potentially keep the Patriots off the playoff. Thats impressive.

In the NBA, the Suns got J-Rich from the Bobcats for Boris Diaw and Raja Bell. I love the trade for the Suns and I have no idea what MJ is doing there in Charlotte. This gives the Suns some much-needed athleticism and scoring power. They lose the defensive prowess of Raja Bell, but the returns have been diminishing on that front anyways given Raja's advancing age. He'll always be fondly remembered for clotheslining Kobe and may be his jersey should go up on the rafters just for that, but he has not done much in a couple of years. Even his trey was not falling at the same frequency last season. I think Kerr pulled off a good one with this trade and apparently these guys were causing some trouble for the new coach Terry Porter. The Suns defense, if anything, is worse now than it was under Mike D'Antoni and thats a clear indication that the cats are not trying hard enough. There was stretch couple of weeks back when every guard and his mother came into Phoenix, scored 40+ and went back home a winner. I am sure Kerr wants to fix this culture with some new bodies. I like J-Rich. He is a true professional who has gotten better every year he has been in the league. I wish him good luck. Hopefully he can be at the business-end of some of them alley-oops from Nashty!

But the league as a whole is on a roll with the Lakers, Celtics and the Cavs. These 3 teams just don't lose.