Couple of interesting games on ABC today. The usual Suns-Spurs contest had a typical ending. The Suns lost and they lost a heart-breaker. Jason Richardson, the former slam-dunk champion, missed a wide-open dunk that would have tied the game with 40 seconds to go. The Suns then had to play catchup by fouling and Nash still had the ball in his hands with 3+ seconds to go trailing by just 3. This was because he hit a ridiculous 3 a few seconds back, but now he decided to make an ill-decided pass to Frye and the clock ran out on them before a shot even went up. Bad ending for the Suns as always at San Antonio. The only difference for both these teams these days is that they are both in the bottom half of the Western standings. Actually, I was mentally treating the Spurs as a better team all game long because they have the pedigree and they have Timmy, but they are actually behind the Suns in the standings. Even more reason why the Suns should have won this game today.
The other game today on ABC was between a couple of teams in the top half of the West - Denver at the Lakers. The Lakers got booed in the first half by the home crowd, but they came through in the second. The rich and creamies couldn't take advantage of some horrible shooting by Kobe - 3/17. It's interesting to watch Kenyon Martin defend Kobe for stretches and he usually does a good job. Thats an amazing assignment for a power forward. This game was also probably the first real payoff for the Lakers as far as having Ron Artest on the roster. He defended Melo well and actually forced a 6-Th foul on him. It was a horrible call by the ref, but Artest induced the stupidity anyways. It is good to see George Karl coaching amidst all his cancer treatment. I wonder how long he can keep going like this. In other news, Shaq is out till the playoffs since his thumb might require surgery. I don't think the Cavs will miss him, at least not until the playoffs. Canada beats the US in OT in the Olympics hockey finals. The nation of Canada is more relieved than excited.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Amare stays put
The trade deadline came and went and I was happy about it. Amare stayed back and that’s good for the Suns. It’s good in the sense that most of the rumored deals to me looked like a pure salary dump and not necessarily something that was focused on rebuilding. I don’t mind them not wanting to resign Amare for a lot of money. I am probably of the opinion that he is not a max contract guy myself. So that’s not the issue. If you are letting him walk next year, then you don’t get anything in return. So you try and trade and get something in return. Agreed. But what’s the point of trading him for big Z’s large contract and buying that out? Essentially you are swapping expiring contracts and dumping big Z right away to save some cash the rest of this season. That ain’t rebuilding. That’s just saving cash.
I was hoping for more talent and may be draft picks and obviously Cavs can’t give you top picks being an elite team themselves. To be fair to Kerr, looks like he did want J.J.Hickson and that’s apparently why the Cavs didn’t do the deal. But still J.J.Hickson is not what I was looking for when it comes to trading Amare. So I never liked this deal and I am glad it didn’t go through. It would have just been another data-point to show how Robert Sarver would rather save some money than build a team. Also the Suns are in the playoff race and they have been sliding up and down the standing all the way from 1 to 9. That tells me they have some talent, but are inconsistent. They are not a contender, but shouldn’t they have been buyers and not sellers in the trade market? I am surprised Sarver gets away with all this. I am just happy they are not rebuilding mid-stream and wasting Nash’s time.
The Cavs got Jamison and did not have to give up Hickson. Good trade for them, though Jamison shot 0-12 in his first game and they promptly lost his first 2 games. It will work out in the long run. The Cavs will also get Z back after whole buyout dance with the Wizards. Wizards are now completely transformed. Not sure where they are going next season. The Cavs still have the best record in the league after losing 3 straight. They are good. Kobe came back today and hit another game winner against Memphis today. This guy’s legend is growing everyday this season even more than it did with his 4-Th championship. He has hit 5 game winners and that’s impressive to say the least. Apparently Melo had that many a couple of years back, which is also amazing. Suns won today on the road against a good Thunder team and the shocking thing was, they won without Nash.
I was hoping for more talent and may be draft picks and obviously Cavs can’t give you top picks being an elite team themselves. To be fair to Kerr, looks like he did want J.J.Hickson and that’s apparently why the Cavs didn’t do the deal. But still J.J.Hickson is not what I was looking for when it comes to trading Amare. So I never liked this deal and I am glad it didn’t go through. It would have just been another data-point to show how Robert Sarver would rather save some money than build a team. Also the Suns are in the playoff race and they have been sliding up and down the standing all the way from 1 to 9. That tells me they have some talent, but are inconsistent. They are not a contender, but shouldn’t they have been buyers and not sellers in the trade market? I am surprised Sarver gets away with all this. I am just happy they are not rebuilding mid-stream and wasting Nash’s time.
The Cavs got Jamison and did not have to give up Hickson. Good trade for them, though Jamison shot 0-12 in his first game and they promptly lost his first 2 games. It will work out in the long run. The Cavs will also get Z back after whole buyout dance with the Wizards. Wizards are now completely transformed. Not sure where they are going next season. The Cavs still have the best record in the league after losing 3 straight. They are good. Kobe came back today and hit another game winner against Memphis today. This guy’s legend is growing everyday this season even more than it did with his 4-Th championship. He has hit 5 game winners and that’s impressive to say the least. Apparently Melo had that many a couple of years back, which is also amazing. Suns won today on the road against a good Thunder team and the shocking thing was, they won without Nash.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
All-star weekend
Another NBA all-star weekend is in the books. The Saturday night festivities this year were worse than usual. The slam-dunk contest was uninspired and boring. It might have taken a step or 3 back. The last few years have been marginally exciting. Not so much this time. The 3-point shooting contest was also sub-par and the "HORSE" contest is just plain stupid. I don't know if I am biased, but the skills competition which Steve Nash won was the only interesting part of Saturday night. Thats because it tests some skills and there's a clock that guys have to beat. It's kinda exciting to some extent. I would expand it and make it more interesting and take a serious look at revamping all of the other events. They need better contests and better contestants. I was disappointed in Shannon Brown of the Lakers. The guy can literally jump out of the gym and his dunks were not even half as impressive as his dunks in a real game. Did he even think about this contest or did he just show up? He even dragged Kobe out for a stupid dunk that half of the NBA can do in a real game. Demar Derozan of the Toronto Raptors came with a plan, but he was over-matched. NBA needs better contestants or they should shut this slam-dunk contest down.
Today's game was not too bad. I mean all All-Star games suck, but this was lower on the suckage scale compared to the usual fare. It was close at the end and the East won it. I was amazed that more than 108,000 people showed up to watch this thing. I am sure somebody made a lot of money. I just hope the people working the concessions etc. made some good money too. It was probably not a bad all-star game to try and score some tickets for considering the size of that stadium. But then again, what are you going to see from the nose-bleeds in that monster? Both LeBron and Shakira probably look like David Stern from up there. One of the most retarded things I have ever seen happened towards the end of this game. Deron Williams actually fouled D-Wade with just 13 seconds to go and with the score all tied up. The dude had no idea what the score was. If this doesn't tell us how irrelevant these All-Star games are, not sure what will. And that too it was Deron Williams - a guy who is coached everyday by Jerry Sloan. But then he got off the hook as the game featured a few more fouls on both sides as guys couldn't keep their hands off the other team. But at least those morons didn't foul intentionally like Deron did.
Time to get back to the regular season. I am hoping the Phoenix Suns continue their good run and bounce all the way back. The trade deadline is this Thursday and it would be interesting to see what happens with Amare. Dallas has already traded Josh Howard as part of a package for Caron Butler and a bunch of pieces from Washington. Great trade for Dallas. A healthy Howard is probably more useful all-around player than Caron Butler, but he has never been healthy lately. Plus all his off-field transgressions has upset the Dallas fan-base. He had to go. Butler brings a lot of scoring to Big-D and he will take some pressure off Dirk - the same help that Marion was supposed to provide, but he never did. Matrix has not shot over 25% from beyond the arc since he left Steve Nash. Dallas also gets some size in Brendan Haywood. It's a good trade for Dallas, though I Don't know how much better they are with Butler. One problem is, he is not that different from Marion and Nowitzki from a position and role perspective. Suns will see them soon and it should be a fun game. Even as a big-time NBA fan, I have to say, the sports world is just not the same without the NFL. There was winter Olympics, Daytona 500, NBA all-star game and college basketball this weekend, but all of that combined can't replace the NFL. The guys suffering the most should be the sports talk show and TV show guys. There is nothing to talk about and hence people won't tune in. NFL is truly the king in this country.
Today's game was not too bad. I mean all All-Star games suck, but this was lower on the suckage scale compared to the usual fare. It was close at the end and the East won it. I was amazed that more than 108,000 people showed up to watch this thing. I am sure somebody made a lot of money. I just hope the people working the concessions etc. made some good money too. It was probably not a bad all-star game to try and score some tickets for considering the size of that stadium. But then again, what are you going to see from the nose-bleeds in that monster? Both LeBron and Shakira probably look like David Stern from up there. One of the most retarded things I have ever seen happened towards the end of this game. Deron Williams actually fouled D-Wade with just 13 seconds to go and with the score all tied up. The dude had no idea what the score was. If this doesn't tell us how irrelevant these All-Star games are, not sure what will. And that too it was Deron Williams - a guy who is coached everyday by Jerry Sloan. But then he got off the hook as the game featured a few more fouls on both sides as guys couldn't keep their hands off the other team. But at least those morons didn't foul intentionally like Deron did.
Time to get back to the regular season. I am hoping the Phoenix Suns continue their good run and bounce all the way back. The trade deadline is this Thursday and it would be interesting to see what happens with Amare. Dallas has already traded Josh Howard as part of a package for Caron Butler and a bunch of pieces from Washington. Great trade for Dallas. A healthy Howard is probably more useful all-around player than Caron Butler, but he has never been healthy lately. Plus all his off-field transgressions has upset the Dallas fan-base. He had to go. Butler brings a lot of scoring to Big-D and he will take some pressure off Dirk - the same help that Marion was supposed to provide, but he never did. Matrix has not shot over 25% from beyond the arc since he left Steve Nash. Dallas also gets some size in Brendan Haywood. It's a good trade for Dallas, though I Don't know how much better they are with Butler. One problem is, he is not that different from Marion and Nowitzki from a position and role perspective. Suns will see them soon and it should be a fun game. Even as a big-time NBA fan, I have to say, the sports world is just not the same without the NFL. There was winter Olympics, Daytona 500, NBA all-star game and college basketball this weekend, but all of that combined can't replace the NFL. The guys suffering the most should be the sports talk show and TV show guys. There is nothing to talk about and hence people won't tune in. NFL is truly the king in this country.
Monday, February 08, 2010
Who Dat'
Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints won the Super Bowl yesterday. They were clearly the sentimental favorites and they came through in this game. I was expecting the Colts to win it and they started the game looking like the better team. But I don't know what happened to Manning and the Colts after that. He did not score a TD after the first quarter though he had 333 yards passing in the game. The Saints as always started slow and seemed to wake up in the second half. They had 2 field goals in the first half, but they did not give up any points to the Colts in the second quarter. So they went into half-time just trailing 10-6. Saints were actually stopped on a 4-Th and goal by the Colts on a gutsy call by Sean Payton. It was amazing to see such a call in the Super Bowl. But that was just an appetizer served by Sean Payton
Then came the call of the day on the other side of the half-time. Once the stupid "who" went to bed after the half-time show, the Colts were supposed to get the ball on the second half kick-off. But the Saints went for an on-side kick and got the ball. This was an amazing call and a great momentum changer. Drew Brees took advantage right away and scored on that drive to give the Saints their first lead in the game. The game then went back and forth in the 3-Rd quarter as Manning and the Colts played well and scored easily as well. But just like the second quarter, the colts couldn't score in the 4-Th quarter and the clinching point was Tracy Porter's pick-6 with just 3:12 to go. Manning got the ball with about 5 minutes to go and it looked like he was on one of his patented late game drives to tie this game. But it was not meant to be. He had problems getting the ball to Reggie Wayne all game and when he tried again, Porter jumped the route and sealed the deal. This one pass kinda affects Manning's legacy since he has now lost one super bowl and won only one. A victory yesterday would have cemented his legacy as the best ever given his numbers, rings and 4 MVPs. He had 333 yards, but went scoreless in the 2-Nd and 4-Th quarters. Tough ending for the Manning family on this one.
This was one of the Super Bowls where most people did not have a strong love or animosity for either team. This is because both Brees and Manning are great QBs and classy guys. I didn't have a strong preference for either side, but I am happy for Brees. He is a great QB and a good guy and I have always been a fan since his Purdue days, I was upset at San Diego for letting him go, but I see their point too in that Philip Rivers is younger and is also pretty good. Finally Brees is a super-star and has a ring to back it up. That picture of him with his son in his hands and tears in his eyes is going to be one of the images defining this Super Bowl. Manning on the other hand is going to be thinking of that pick for a while. I am still not sure what happened to the Colts during those stretches. This was a weird game in some sense. It was not as high-scoring a game as most people expected. Neither defenses seemed to do that well, but the scoring was not there for long stretches of this game. Both QBs had great numbers, but again, both offenses were ineffective for long stretches. Brees had Warner type numbers - 32 of 39 for 288 yards and 2 TDs. He carved the Colts D up in the second half and won the MVP.
Brees is a classy superstar with mad game. I am totally happy for him.
Then came the call of the day on the other side of the half-time. Once the stupid "who" went to bed after the half-time show, the Colts were supposed to get the ball on the second half kick-off. But the Saints went for an on-side kick and got the ball. This was an amazing call and a great momentum changer. Drew Brees took advantage right away and scored on that drive to give the Saints their first lead in the game. The game then went back and forth in the 3-Rd quarter as Manning and the Colts played well and scored easily as well. But just like the second quarter, the colts couldn't score in the 4-Th quarter and the clinching point was Tracy Porter's pick-6 with just 3:12 to go. Manning got the ball with about 5 minutes to go and it looked like he was on one of his patented late game drives to tie this game. But it was not meant to be. He had problems getting the ball to Reggie Wayne all game and when he tried again, Porter jumped the route and sealed the deal. This one pass kinda affects Manning's legacy since he has now lost one super bowl and won only one. A victory yesterday would have cemented his legacy as the best ever given his numbers, rings and 4 MVPs. He had 333 yards, but went scoreless in the 2-Nd and 4-Th quarters. Tough ending for the Manning family on this one.
This was one of the Super Bowls where most people did not have a strong love or animosity for either team. This is because both Brees and Manning are great QBs and classy guys. I didn't have a strong preference for either side, but I am happy for Brees. He is a great QB and a good guy and I have always been a fan since his Purdue days, I was upset at San Diego for letting him go, but I see their point too in that Philip Rivers is younger and is also pretty good. Finally Brees is a super-star and has a ring to back it up. That picture of him with his son in his hands and tears in his eyes is going to be one of the images defining this Super Bowl. Manning on the other hand is going to be thinking of that pick for a while. I am still not sure what happened to the Colts during those stretches. This was a weird game in some sense. It was not as high-scoring a game as most people expected. Neither defenses seemed to do that well, but the scoring was not there for long stretches of this game. Both QBs had great numbers, but again, both offenses were ineffective for long stretches. Brees had Warner type numbers - 32 of 39 for 288 yards and 2 TDs. He carved the Colts D up in the second half and won the MVP.
Brees is a classy superstar with mad game. I am totally happy for him.
Monday, February 01, 2010
Manning and Brees
These 2 weeks leading up to the Super Bowl should be split into a Manning week and a Brees week. They are the biggest stories of this Super Bowl - Dwight Freeney's ankle notwithstanding. There has never been a better QB match-up probably ever in the Super Bowl. These are 2 classy, charismatic quarterbacks who have put up some insane numbers during the season. Usually such prolific offenses fall along the wayside during the playoffs. They don't make it all the way to the Super Bowl. We are lucky this year that these 2 stud QBs have made it this far and are locked and loaded to fire on all cylinders. Peyton Manning's numbers were 68.8 % completion percentage for 4500 yards and 33 TDs. Brees went for 70.6 % completion for 4388 yards and 34 TDs. Thats some solid QB play right there.
With all that said, Peyton Manning and the Colts should probably be the favorites. The Saints and Brees are great, but Peyton Manning is Peyton Manning. How are you going to pick against him? Plus the concern for me with the Saints is that their offense is just a little slowed down these days. Why and how I am not sure, but they are not hurting fools like they used to. I am sure they will be back a little bit for the Super Bowl and will give us a great game, but if I have to pick one team in that game, it has to be the Colts. But both are great franchises with good coaches and great QBs. So I won't be rooting for or against anyone and I won't mind if either Brees or Manning wins. Part of me wants Brees to win because he doesn't have a ring yet and I feel like Manning will also have a better chance at making it to the Super Bowl again more so than Drew Brees. Colts just seem to be a better run franchise.
In the NBA, the Suns are on a 3 game wining streak after losing to everybody and their mom for a few weeks. Amare's name is all over the trade rumors and this time, it feels real. I would like to think they will take a step forward with the new pieces they acquire, but I don't see how. Even with all his deficiencies, Amare is not an easy player to replace. He is dominant around the basket and you can't teach that size, athleticism and attitude. It's kinda sad he is not learning to defend or rebound - 2 things that can be taught, especially given Amare's physical tools. At least with Nash, the excuse for his bad defense is his lack of lateral quickness and athleticism. We will obviously stay tuned for any Amare news the rest of the way. I am really concerned about what this trade will mean to Nash's career. Suns can and will rebuild, but Nash and rebuilding can't go together at this age. Thats the concern.
With all that said, Peyton Manning and the Colts should probably be the favorites. The Saints and Brees are great, but Peyton Manning is Peyton Manning. How are you going to pick against him? Plus the concern for me with the Saints is that their offense is just a little slowed down these days. Why and how I am not sure, but they are not hurting fools like they used to. I am sure they will be back a little bit for the Super Bowl and will give us a great game, but if I have to pick one team in that game, it has to be the Colts. But both are great franchises with good coaches and great QBs. So I won't be rooting for or against anyone and I won't mind if either Brees or Manning wins. Part of me wants Brees to win because he doesn't have a ring yet and I feel like Manning will also have a better chance at making it to the Super Bowl again more so than Drew Brees. Colts just seem to be a better run franchise.
In the NBA, the Suns are on a 3 game wining streak after losing to everybody and their mom for a few weeks. Amare's name is all over the trade rumors and this time, it feels real. I would like to think they will take a step forward with the new pieces they acquire, but I don't see how. Even with all his deficiencies, Amare is not an easy player to replace. He is dominant around the basket and you can't teach that size, athleticism and attitude. It's kinda sad he is not learning to defend or rebound - 2 things that can be taught, especially given Amare's physical tools. At least with Nash, the excuse for his bad defense is his lack of lateral quickness and athleticism. We will obviously stay tuned for any Amare news the rest of the way. I am really concerned about what this trade will mean to Nash's career. Suns can and will rebuild, but Nash and rebuilding can't go together at this age. Thats the concern.
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