It's only getting better.

Just when you thought it can't get any better, the Bulls-Celtics series just did. The series went from featuring 3 OT games in the first 5 games to 4 out of 6. And this one was a triple OT beauty. The series has now featured 7 OT sessions. It's not just that the games have been close, the quality of play has been tremendous. The talent on the floor is spectacular and the series has featured everything. Ray Allen has just been clutch. He had a 51 point game shooting 18/32 from the floor and 9/18 from downtown. He has been strictly alternating between on and off - bad game 1, 3 and 5 and great game 2, 4 and 6. He didn't get any help from Rando today.

The Bulls on the other hand, got another great game from D-Rose and John Salmons gave them the 35 that they usually get from Ben Gordon, who had an off night. All in all, the two teams are evenly matched and there is no quit in either of them. Can't wait for game 7, though the home teams have a great edge in those games usually. We have seen a lot of blowouts in game 7's, but it's hard to imagine a blowout in this series. The edge definitely goes to Boston and there are even some rumors KG might suit up. That would drive the home crowd nuts. Either way, it should be a fun one Saturday.

Orlando put the Sixers to bed today. I was kind of concerned that this series might go 7. Every year, you see a bad series or 2 go to 7 and you are like, why can't the other fun series go 7? That might still happen with Miami-Atlanta, but so far, we only have one quality game 7 lined up. All of the Western series are over. Houston made it to round 2 by beating the young Blazers today. The Blazers are probably disappointed, but they are a young team and they can learn from this. The Rockets were a tough matchup for them and the Rockets may even cause the Lakers some trouble. They have a huge guy in Yao to cause some issues for the Lakers in the paint and they can throw a couple of good defenders at Kobe in the form of Shane Battier and Ron Artest.

Speaking of Ron-Ron, a great series for him. T-Mac has never gotten out of the first round and this year, he gets injured and Ron and Yao get tot he second round. How ironic is that? T-Mac should be pissed. Of course it's not all his fault and T-Mac thinks they have a great team this year. But still, there is something about the overall toughness and the complete game that Artest brings. Overall, it probably helps a team more than T-Mac's offensive powers. Ron Artest now says Brandon Roy is the best player he has ever defended. He adds that he is the only guy to have scored 40 on him. He ranks him higher than even Kobe and that should be interesting to watch next series. He is essentially challenging Kobe to score 40 on him.

It was funny listening to Ron. The guy says Roy is the best player and refuses to acknowledge anybody else. Then he says somebody from his hood who is in jail used to be the best player he has ever played against and now Roy is the best. You can tell the dude is a little out there in the left field. Not that we didn't know it already, but who talks like that? But he looks genuine and sincere. There is something genuine about this guy. He is genuinely nuts and what can you do? He speaks his mind and does his thing. Plays hard and the fans love him as long as they are winning and he is reasonably under control. But then he can flip out anytime and go completely bonkers. An interesting character for sure.

Thanks KG

The NBA playoffs can sometimes feel too long, especially during the early rounds. But thanks to KG, we have a great first round series. The Celts-Bulls series is just awesome. 3 of the 5 games have gone to OT and we have seen some macho performance from D-Rose, Ben Gordon, Rando, Ray-Ray and today, the Truth. With KG, this is probably a easy score for the Celts. But without him, these team are pretty well-matched and they have been going at each other pretty ferociously. D-Rose has slowed down since that ridiculous first game, but Rando has been consistent. This is becoming a breakout series for both these guards, though both of them had a great regular season. Can't wait for the next game on Thursday.

The Cavs and Lakers are done for now. Cavs were realy impressive sweeping the Pistons. The Lakers have been a little less impressive, but still they won the series 4-1 rather easily. The surprise so far has been the early elimination of the hobbled Spurs. A new challenge for their stellar front-office. I am very curious to see what they do and how they rebuild. This series could have been very different with Ginobli and a healthy Duncan, but they are getting old now. Except Tony Parker, everybody is old and even if they had won against the Mavs, they were not going too far anyways. So they got to make some changes. As for Dallas, they are looking good and may even make it to the Western Finals.

I was thinking about Dallas. Cuban looked stupid when he let Nash walk and Nash killed them the very next playoffs. It was BEAUTIFUL to watch! He also let Finley walk soon after. But a few years later, the Mavs are still playing and Finley and the Spurs are eliminated and the Suns are not even in the playoffs. Cubes should be happy. But it was still a mistake to let Nash go and by trading for Kidd and paying a steep price for him (Devin Harris), I guess he accepted it. I hope Nash and the Suns do better than the Mavs at least next year. I hear some interesting rumors involving Shaq and Tyson Chandler. Not sure why the Hornets will do it, but it's all about money these days and Shaq's salary comes off the books after next year. Chandler might be an interesting center to pair up with Amare and Nash.

I heard something I couldn't believe. The Yankees have seats that cost $300+ per for season tickets. Thats around 25K for a 81 game season. Damn expensive for a baseball ticket. Apparently they are having problems selling their seats and are giving "half-off" deals. That I can believe in this economic climate. I hope you all saw the 23-V-24 ad from Vitamin water. Genius timing for this AD. Not sure how much they are paying LeBron and Kobe for this AD. We are going to see this Kobe/LeBron hype all spring and it's going to be awesome if they both make it to the Finals. Kobe's nickname "Black Mamba" is getting popular these days. I think it's a cool nickname to have.

Day of the Stafford

The Lions picked Matthew Stafford with their number 1 pick and signed him to a 78 million dollar deal of which 41.7 mill is guaranteed. Amazing, considering how bad the economy is doing. We always knew top athletes made boatloads of money and I personally had no issues with that. I am not one of those guys who begrudged these guys making a lot of money or said things like "I can't believe he makes 16 mill for throwing a stupid ball around". In fact, I sometimes argue that top-notch athletes like LeBron or MJ during his peak were grossly underpaid if you consider their overall impact on the business. But even I look at this 78 million differently in the light of today's economic climate. It sounds too high and kinda wrong that a kid out of school is making that kinda money, especially Stafford who was not that big a name in college football and especially in a town like Detroit which is in economic shambles. I have not even heard of this guy until the draft-hype kicked in.

Two interesting points to note here. One, looks like the economy has had close to zero impact on the NFL. We all know the NFL is the king in our culture and I don't think they are going to have any issues selling season tickets. They may lose some money on TV ads from businesses, but I guess thats more of a problem for the TV channels who have already signed long-time contracts with NFL. I see a lot of reports about how the NBA is going to be in trouble because of the economy and I see some impact on MLB too early this season. This Stafford contract is another proof that NFL is just different. Secondly, timing is everything in life. We see this time and again with QBs in the draft. You can make 10 times more than what you deserve if you enter the draft in a year with not too many good QB options and if the team at the top needs a QB. The Niners and Alex Smith are a good example of this from a few years back. I don't know how good Stafford is going to be, but he is pretty lucky to be where he is today. This is not a loaded draft and the Lions were desperate.

Speaking of the Lions, they changed their uniforms recently and I thought that should fix all their problems after their 0-16 season! Why even spend time and money on the draft? Anyways, they had 3 drafts on day 1 and I hope they do better in their first, full, post-Matt Millen year. The draft this year was not too interesting. Not many big-time names. Not many offensive stars. Very few explosive running backs in this draft. Mark Sanchez was probably the most popular name and he went to the Jets. Thats a good match for now. The Raiders as usual shocked everybody with their 7-Th pick by drafting somebody who is tall and runs very fast. I think that dude might have been available on Monday post-draft! Thats how much of a reach that pick was. The Niners picked the bigger-named WR in Michael Crabtree, who for some reason had fallen down the draft-boards. At the end of the day, this draft was kinda boring with very little action and recognizable faces.

In the NBA, Kobe killed the Jazz. As simple as that. After missing 19 of 24 shots in game 3, he come out today and made 18 of 24 shots. I don't remember seeing anybody look that unstoppable. He was just scary-good today. If I am LeBron, I hate what I saw today in Kobe and I hope he doesn't pull something like this against the Cavs in the finals. He rarely even hit the rim today with his jumpers. It seems like the Spurs are done. Timmy is not healthy, Ginobli is out and the rest of the Spurs are too old. Parker can only do so much and his 43 was not enough against the Mavs. Like I had predicted, dope-head Josh Howard is killing the Spurs and when he is on, the Mavs are not easy to deal with. We might have a 6 over 3 upset here and a Denver-Dallas semis in the future. Thats not too bad because the Spurs can be boring at times. It might be rebuild time for the Spurs and Timmy might be slowing down finally.

You can hear the draft

This weekend is the NFL draft. So tread carefully around the sports TV channels. This is the week you brace yourself for some serious information-overload. You will hear irrelevant details incessantly about dudes you have never heard of and some of whom, you may never hear about again. This is the week when ESPN will pimp Mel Kiper Jr. more than it does Derek Jeter, MJ and LeBron combined. And the draft day is Christmas and New Years rolled into one for Mel Kiper Jr. Luckily for us, there is some NBA playoffs for a little distraction if these guys start going nuts on us.

I know that NFL is king and it has become a year-round sport for ESPN. They could probably telecast a live show just showing all the 60 year-old assistant coaches in the NFL shaving their grey beards, and it'll outdraw most other sports on TV. But still, ESPN can get on your nerves with how serious they take this draft stuff. It's almost like they are running a never-ending half-time show since the last Super Bowl. It's like the season never ended for these guys. Even the GMs take a few days off from football, but ESPN doesn't. Now, they have also started following college football year-around. It's hard to decide what's worse - watching Auburn offense play against Auburn defense in Mid-April or watching Mel Kiper go on and on about a place kicker.

So If you hear stupid terms like "high-motor" and "4.4-40", don't think they are talking about some washing machine. They are indeed talking about real and rather large human beings. If you see a giant table with 16 guys sitting around and talking about a 20 year-old, you know you are where you want to be - or where you don't want to be, depending on where your head is. Don't be surprised that Mel Kiper keeps saying "he is 5-Th on my board". Yes, nobody cares about Mel's board, but ESPN has convinced him otherwise. He seriously thinks the GMs are drafting straight out of his draft-board. So sit back, relax and be prepared to hear Mel Kiper Jr speak without breathing for 5 straight minutes about an outside linebacker who may or may not be drafted in the fifth round.

Rose rocks

The NBA playoffs are underway and the weekend featured a bunch of games - some of them good, some of them bad and few of them great. There were also some great personal performances from some names old and some new. LeBron and Kobe didn't do anything to change our opinion that they are on a collision course. LeBron had a 38-8-7 game on Saturday and Kobe was Kobe on Sunday - nailing ridiculous jumpers to kill Utah runs. They both won without being really challenged. There were also some strange results as a bunch of road teams won. Philly beat Orlando and Dallas beat San Antonio on the road. Rockets beat Portland which had no answer for Yao Ming. I thought Portland was the team thats supposed to be loaded with young, big bodies, but seems like none of them are big enough for Yao as Yao didn't even miss a shot.

The guy who was really impressive and who served me a plate of crow for lunch was Derrick Rose. I love his game, but he had a big-time coming out party on Saturday against the Celtics. I was dogging the Bulls and saying how the Celtics can beat them with or without KG, but Derrick Rose was so awesome he showed me why and how the Bulls could beat the Celts with or without KG! Dude had 36-4-11 and shot 12-19. Numbers that are some kind of rookie records at various levels. I think nobody except MJ has scored like that in a playoff debut. The Celtics clearly missed KG and both Ray-ray and Pierce went AWOL. Rando was the only guy who showed up, but his 29-9-7 was not enough as the Bulls took it in OT.

I still think Boston takes this series, but nothing is going to be easy without KG. You realize how important he is on both ends of the floor when he is not playing. They came back and won today's game behind some solid shooting by Ray-ray. We can't over-analyze 2 close games, but if I have to put some money, I'll still put it on Boston. But Rose had 36 the other day and Ben Gordon dropped 42 today - another MJ type performance and apparently he is only the second guy outside of MJ to score 40+ for the Bulls in the playoffs. Of course MJ did it 38 times or something. Ridiculous! So lets see what they do the rest of this series. It should be a good one.

San Antonio came back and won against Dallas at home today as well after losing to the Mavs on Saturday. I expect the Spurs to win too when it's all said and done. Tony had 38 today and he needs to play at a high level to get the Spurs through. Manu is out and Timmy is hurt. But Timmy holds the cards for the Spurs and the dope-head Josh Howard is the key for the Mavs. That guy is hard to handle if he is doing good. This should be an interesting series too. Orlando lost at home to Philly and I still think the rest of that series may not even be that interesting if Orlando wakes up, which I expect them to anytime now. Denver blew out New Orleans as Chauncey went nuts with 36 points. He has been a God-send for the rich-and-creamies and lets see where they end up. At the end of the day, this playoffs is about 3 teams - Lakers, Cavs and may be the Rockets. Denver and Magic have an opportunity to step up and fill some of the void especially if Duncan is ineffective. But will they ? We will know over the next few days and weeks.

Playoff time

The NBA playoffs are starting tomorrow. First and foremost, I have to mention that the Phoenix Suns won't be in it. I was watching their last game against the Warriors and was wondering if anybody thought at the beginning of the season that this would be a game between 2 lottery teams. But here were the Suns, just finishing their slide down the down-slope and closing shut the proverbial window of opportunity. It was amazing to see how the Suns looked like a championship caliber team against the Warriors and even the Warrior announcers talk about the Suns like they are so much better than Warriors. But the bottom-line is, they are both lottery teams. Thats how crazy the West is. The Suns are 10 games over 500 and 17 games over the Warriors and they both looking in from the outside. Some people say the Suns are old while the others say they under-achieved big-time. I think the truth is somewhere in-between. Thats life in the West I guess.

The playoffs should be good, though it's gonna be long and slow as usual. With KG being questionable for the playoffs, I think we might as well cancel the Eastern playoffs and send the King to the Finals. The Orlando Magic can make some noise, but I think the Cavs are too tough and too legit for the Magic. There's no point doing any in-depth analysis of the Eastern playoffs, but it'll still be fun to watch because of the great talent on display in the form of LeBron James and Dwayne Wade. I am sure Wade will give us a highlight reel or three before it's all said and done. The Cavs-Pistons first round series will be mildly interesting because of the history and the rivalry, though these Pistons are not the same. It's too bad that KG's injuury alters the Eastern landscape. The Bulls still think the Celtics are lying. Two things. First and foremost, how the hell did the Bulls make the playoffs? What kind of conference is this stupid L-East? Secondly, why would the Celtics lie to beat the lowly Bulls? The Celts can probably beat the Bulls without KG, Pierce or Allen and with Eddie House's right hand tied up.

The real games are going to be in the West, though even the Western contests are not going to be as good as in the past. Couple of reasons for that. The Lakers are too good and they are going to go all the way to the Finals anyways. The other teams may be very good, but they still don't have a chance against the Lake-show. Secondly, the Spurs are not as strong as they used to be. Duncan is hobbled, Ginobli is out and the team is glacier-old. I can't believe they were one shot away from ending up 5-Th and starting the playoffs on the road. But the Mavs-Spurs series should be fun though. I will watch it for old time's sake. Utah would have been a challenger, but they have been injured all year and they have to deal with the Lakers in the very first round. New Orleans and Portland are still too young and Denver is Denver. I can't believe that Denver finished second in the West. That proves my point about how West is not "THE WEST" anymore. That leaves Houston. I think Houston is a sleeper and we will see how they do. They can cause some trouble even to the mighty Fakers.

One thing is for sure though. The NBA badly wants a Lakers-Cavs finals and it wants the Cavs and LeBron to win it all even worse.

NC stands for No Contest

North Carolina showed us all how superior they are to the rest of the competition. They put Michigan State in it's place just minutes in to the game. It was obvious that there was a huge class difference between the two teams. It was like a Ferrari racing against a Geo Metro. The Spartans could not match Carolina's size, speed or shooting. They proved Tom Izzo right since he had said earlier that if both teams played well, Carolina will win for sure. I was expecting Izzo's coaching to be the great equalizer, but there was just too much talent differential for him to make a difference.

Too bad Michigan State couldn't hang with the Heels. There was a lot of talk about how the state of Michigan was battered by the economic downturn and how this teams kinda brought them together and provided some distraction. I was not there to see the communal impact of this event, but from all accounts, it sounded like it had some potential to be a feel-good story. But it was not meant to be. Unfortunately the Spartans ended up spoiling the finals because I am sure UConn would have given NC a much better fight. But then again, we can't blame the Spartans for UConn's under-achievement.

Roy Williams now has 2 rings in 4 years. He has cemented in place among legends and in the hall-of-fame. He has probably replaced coach K as the premier coach in the Carolinas and might even surpass Dean Smith as a legend when all is said and done. Of course thats assuming he doesn't get caught pimping for one of his recruits or something crazy like that. It's amazing how he was considered incapable of "winning the big one" just a few years ago at Kansas. He moves to NC, wins the big one and all of a sudden he is now a genius among geniuses. His team was just to good and was never even challenged in this tourney.

North Carolina made this year's tourney a little uninteresting at times. I don't remember a NCAA tournament in recent years with so little drama. Ironically, the big-name schools seem to be getting bigger and better in the NCAA tournament which is supposed to be the great equalizer while the talk of parity is rampant these days in other sports like NFL and college football. The NCAA committee should screw up more to make the tournament more competitive. It seems like they are on-the-dot with their seeding and ranking of these teams the last few years.

In other news, the MLB season is off and running. How do you know it's early days yet? When you check the standings and see the Toronto Bluejays at the top of the AL East. Thats a dead giveaway that the season is still too young to matter. The World champs have lost both games to the Braves and Tim Lincecum didn't have a great start today for the San Francisco Giants. Neither did Brandon Webb for the Arizona Diamondbacks. I just thought those are some mentionable things from the first 2 days of the season.

Sunset!

The Suns finally are done for the season. They are still mathematically alive, but barely. After todays embarrassing loss to the hated Mavs, they are 4 games back with 5 games to go. Even the Mavs can't choke this one away orr can they! As a true fan, I am disappointed and would have loved to see them in the playoffs. Actually I think I am more disappointed just because they lost to the Mavs. I hate that. I want Nash to kick their butt every time. But part of me is happy that they didn't make it to the playoffs. They have no shot against the Fakers, especially without Amare and what's the point getting there and losing to the Fakers? Let the Mavs do the honors instead.

Also, making the playoffs gives the team and the management a false sense of accomplishment and pride (I never understood why) and I don't think Sarver and Kerr deserve it this season. In the NBA, 16 out of the 30 teams make it and it only means you are not in the bottom half. Big deal! If you don't make it to the NBA playoffs, it is an insult, but I don't think making it is any kind of achievement. Plus the NBA playoffs with it's 7 game format is probably the hardest to pull off any kind of upset. It's not a one-and-done deal like the NCAA or even the NFL playoffs and you don't have any specialists like a baseball pitcher who can swing a series one way or the other. I understand the playoffs are a lot of fun for the fans and the players and is more money for the owners, but if you are not a young team and you are not going to get out of the first round, it's no big deal.

But by missing the playoffs completely, Robert Sarver and Steve Kerr have to look in the mirror and come up with a plan. How do you fix this? Where is this thing going and who is going to stay, who's going to go? They can't hide behind the playoffs and they have to come up with some answers for these tough questions. Coach Gentry will be sold as one of the answers and to be fair to him, he is definitely improved the team, but it's going to take more than just him to push this team up the brutal Western playoff hierarchy. Suns may have to take a big step back and reload again. I don't think there is any quick fixes here. Shaq had a decent season thanks to the Suns training staff, but he is not the old Shaq and is grossly over-paid. Can the penny-pinching Robert Sarver deal with that in this economy without the playoff revenue?

Amare and Nash are still good, even great, but they are not the best at their positions anymore. Amare never got there though he looked like he could and Nash has vacated his top spot to Chris Paul. Nash is still awesome like he showed the other day against Houston with a 25-17 game, but he can't defend the young PGs anymore. Not that he was ever too effective stopping them. I think they need to hold on to Nash and try and move the other pieces for younger pieces. Nash is not getting younger and we shouldn't be rebuilding around him, but the dude is still good, he makes everybody around him better, he is fun to watch and good PGs are hard to find. Shaq and Amare can be and should be moved for younger pieces and/or cap space and we will go from there. That would be my recipe, but who knows what Sarver and Kerr will be cooking this summer.

Tomorrow is the NCAA championship game. North Carolina will win easily like it has done all season. I expect a rather lame end to the tournament much like most of the games have been. Too many blowouts all over the place on TV these days including the 2 NBA games today. Somebody from the Spurs stop LeBron James! It's a good time to welcome baseball back again. Philly lost to the Braves 4-1 today though I don't understand why the Giants and the Dodgers were still playing a spring training game today. Weird!

Happy Cutler

Jay Cutler is out of Denver and got what he wanted. He is now a Chicago Bear, though I am not sure if being the Bears QB is what he wanted. I feel like it's good for Chicago and not too good for Cutler. Chicago gets a proven, talented QB - may be it's first since the 18-Th century. Thats the problem for Cutler. I don't know if the coaches there, their system, the city, the weather etc. etc. know how to use and leverage a good QB. I think he would have fit well with the Jets, Vikings or even the Niners, though it might have taken longer with the Niners. But in any case he makes the Bears better for sure. Cutler is good.

Denver won out big in this deal too. The Broncos got quarterback Kyle Orton, two first-round draft picks, a third-rounder and a fifth-rounder thought Cutler was a known problem-child at Denver. Looks like somebody was DESPERATE. I wouldn't have given anything more than Orton and a first rounder. Some would argue even thats a little high. This might explain why the other teams couldn't pull it off. I do think draft picks are a little overrated when it comes to QBs because a proven QB is worth a first rounder for sure. They are not as easily replaceable as other positions through the draft. Finding "A QB" in the draft is easy. But finding "THE QB" is not. But still the Bears overpaid for sure.

The Broncos are screwed in the short run. No QB and a new coach. Broncos' kid-coach Josh McDaniels is the reason for all this mess. What was he thinking when he went after Matt Cassell in a trade? I mean forget the fact that he is a new guy in town and didn't establish any relationship with his spoilt-brat QB. Why did he even want Matt Cassell instead of Cutler in the first place? Just because he worked with him in New England and Cassell did well with Moss in that offense for one year? Cutler has his issues and he does behave like the 20 year old kid-sister of Paris Hilton, but Josh shot himself in the foot not knowing what he has in Cutler - both in terms of his football skills and his personality. I can easily argue Cutler is better than Cassell as a QB.

Now the NFL's only girl QB is in Chicago. She wanted out and she is talented. In some sense everybody won out in this trade.