Is it the Spurs year again?

The Spurs are playing .875 ball. They have a habit of winning championships in the odd numbered years and you have to wonder if 2011 is their year again. Their game against the Mavs today was not as big as originally projected because of the injury to Nowitzki. Coach Popovich termed it a lose-lose game because if they won, it's no big deal since Nowitzki was out and if they lose, they will have to deal with the fact that they couldn't even beat a Mavs team without Nowitzki. But the Spurs beat the Mavs anyways for an impressive 28-4 record to end 2010. They are entering 2011 as the best team in all of the NBA and they are a completely different team this season. They have de-emphasized Tim Duncan a little bit and play a more up-tempo style. They let their versatile offensive stars like Parker and Ginobli strut their stuff and they have a couple of young, athletic scorers to run and gun with them. As a consequence, their defense is not as good as it used to be, but they are scoring more than enough to win games.

Greg Popovich is one of the smartest coaches in the league. He has not won a championship since 2007 and seems to have put some thought into how to win again with this roster. His teams have always won with Timmy and defense, but father time is slowly catching up to Timmy and he has slowed down a little. More importantly, their game-plan has not been working the last couple of years and Pop has decided to switch things up. Actually, the Spurs have always had some offensive talent ever since they got Parker and Ginobli, but that was not the emphasis in Pop's world by design. He wanted the team to think defense first, Duncan in the low post second and everything else was a distant third. Now, he is unlocking the offensive potential of this team and trading off some defense and Tim Duncan in the process. And the beauty is, this is the right strategy at the right time for the Spurs given where Duncan is in his career and where the Spurs have been with respect to the rest of the league the last couple of years.

The challenge for Pop is going to be the playoffs. It would be interesting to see if the Spurs play this style or go back to basics in the playoffs. They do have Timmy available, but is it practical to turn him on and off like that? Would the rookies and the younger Spurs be able to adjust to a different style in the playoffs if Pop decides to go that route? These are interesting questions I am sure Pop is thinking about already. They did beat the Lakers the other day with Timmy having a 2 point, 4 rebound night, but that dog probably aint gonna hunt in the playoffs. Lets see if the Spurs get all the way to the finals behind this new strategy and an improved offense. In the East, the Heat are still rolling. They spanked the Lakers on Christmas day and are looking unbeatable these days. Dwayne Wade has had 2 consecutive 40 point nights to lead them over the Knicks and the Rockets. The Celtics are still the favorites in the East, but with Garnett out for a couple of weeks and with the new look Magic, the East is going to get really interesting. Great way to start 2011 in the NBA.

Lets go bowling

To nobody's surprise, we are well into the college bowl season now. The length, the number of bowls and the stupidity of the sponsors are all getting worse every year. This year, the national championship game is not until the 10-Th of January. Pretty soon, we will be watching college football on Martin Luther King's day. There are 35 bowl games in all with bowls named after "uDrove", "R+L carriers" and "AdvoCare V100". It would be cool to get one of them bowl games named after myself next year. I am a huge sports fan, but have never really gotten into these bowl games since I don't see a point in a lot of them. I will watch them if I am at home and there are no other pro games to watch at that time. And some of these games are fun and nail-biting like any sporting event has the potential to be, but outside of the elite bowls, there is not much for me to get excited about. So clearly, you can see where I fall on the college football playoffs discussion. Absolutely bring on the playoffs and nuke some of these bowls. And playoffs will nuke some of these bowls. Thats exactly why the NCAA doesn't want it.

The bowl season is a good time for reflection on our lives as a sports fan since it also coincides with the end of the year when we are supposed to do resolutions and evaluate our life and all that nonsense anyways. I split the bowls into 3 parts. The first is the set of games prior to Christmas. These bowls starts earlier and earlier every year and I think it started on the 18-Th this year, but I am not sure. Ideally, it's good if you didn't know there are bowl games going on before christmas, but if you do, pretend like you didn't know. Of course, there will be a few good ones like Utah-V-Boise State, but for the most part, the pre-xmas bowls will feature match-ups like the 7-6 BYU versus the 6-7 UTEP. If you find yourself watching these games with rapt attention, please check yourself into GA - Gambleholics Anonymous! Honestly, gambling is the only reason to watch these games unless you are an alum, or in some cases, even if you are an alum. The march madness play-in game between the 64-Th and 65-Th seed is the only other sporting event that comes close to these bowl games in it's irrelevancy while also being marketed as an important sporting event.

The second phase of bowls are between Christmas and New Year. This is, for the most part used to be the meat of the bowl season leading up to the real big ones. I am not even sure anymore because of all the mish-mash of bowl games strewn across the calendar both before Xmas and after New Years. But if you are watching these bowl games closely, time to get a girlfriend! Something is slightly off in your life and lets go get a new life. It's the holiday season, schools and most of the workplaces have time-off and if all we are doing is watching these bowl games, life is not too bad, but aint great either. At the cost of sounding a little judgmental, I would recommend you shake things up a little. The third and final phase starts with Jan 1-St and this is where you have the big hitters like the grand-daddy Rose and the Orange and the Sugar. These are the games we should be watching and if you are not, then you are too busy. May be it's time to re-evaluate your priorities and re-connect with your inner sports fan. May be you are spending too much time at work or with "honey dues" and you should step back a little to enjoy some sugar (bowl). It will do you some good.

Of course, since they introduced the championship game a week later, they have dirtied up this third phase as well with a bunch of filler bowls leading all the way up to Jan 10-Th. For instance, Pittsburgh is playing Kentucky on Jan 8-Th. They are both better off playing basketball instead this time of the year, but thats neither here nor there. So when I say watch the post-new-year bowl games, I mean the real ones, not the "BBVA Compass Bowl". By the way, how perfectly named is that bowl! As I am writing my thoughts on how to use the bowl season as a compass to our lives, there is actually a bowl called compass bowl. In short, if you are watching the compass bowl start to finish, you need to change direction in your life. That pretty much sums up my 2 cents on the bowl season. As someone who has been on all sides of this bowl compass (except the gambling side), I thought I will share my opinions with you. But lets not forget to have fun with college football this holiday season. Lets go bowling, but hopefully not 35 times.

Dogs beware

This is Michael Vick's world and the rest of the NFL is just living in it. He says dogs are welcome in his new world, but I am not convinced yet. But the guy has been awesome on the field and is a legitimate MVP candidate. Everything he touches or involved in turns to gold this season. The game of week 15 was clearly the Eagles win over the Giants. They were down 31-10 with just 8 minutes to go in the 4-Th quarter and Vick brought them back to tie the game. Then with just a few seconds to go for OT, DeSean Jackson took a ill-advised punt to the house to give the Eagles an improbable and shocking 38-31 victory. Punter Matt Dodge had no business kicking it to Jackson in the first place. This was against a good team and a great defense in the Giants.

Vick has been part of several such jaw-dropping performances this season. The only thing that could have made this better for him is if he had thrown a "buzzer beating" 80 yard TD instead of Jackson scoring on the punt return. Vick has slowed down a little bit since that great game he had against the Redskins. The Giants game was in some sense the mirror image of that game. He scored a load of TDs in the first few minutes against the Redskins and now in the last few minutes against the Giants. He is a legitimate MVP candidate and the other top contender is Tom Brady. Brady has been near flawless this season and Vick is not far behind. I don't love or hate Vick these days, but it's amazing how quickly we forgive athletes if they play well on the field. He got a massive standing ovation at the 76'ers game against the Lakers and even Kobe had to stop and look.

Pittsburgh and NY Jets played a great game and the Jets came through 22-17 to stop the bleeding for now. It was an impressive win and it reestablishes them as a contender. Sexy Rexy can now go back to humoring us with more stupid quotes. Speaking of Sexy Rexy, the other Rexy (Grossman) started for Washington and had a good game. I am not sure what Shanahan is doing with Donovan McNabb, but Mike has benched him for the rest of the season. McNabb's agent is saying he has never been disrespected quite like this and I have to agree, McNabb is a star QB and treat him with some respect for God's sake. I don't know what Shanny is trying to do with these moves. Shany has not won a single playoff game since he benched my man Jake Plummer in favor of the baby-faced Cutler. I would chalk it up to bad karma.

In life, showing up is half the battle. If you consistently show up, regardless of what you do, you will do well because most people don't even show up. Brett Favre definitely scores big on this front. I was shocked to see him start the Monday nighter against the Bears after sitting out just 1 week. Unfortunately, he got beat up again and is probably done for the year now. The disastrous season continued for him as the Bears then crushed the Vikings 40-14. In other big games of the week, Ravens beat the Saints and the Colts beat the Jaguars to show them they are still the big boss in that division. Tim Tebow started for the Broncos and God shed some tears of joy resulting in some rain in Oakland. Run DMC and the Raidas won easily, but Tebow did rush well and threw and rushed for a TD each.

The trade to nowhere?

So far, my NBA predictions have been off the mark this season. Thats always going to happen once in a while and thats the beauty of sports, but you still like to think your expert opinions are correct more often than not! I buried the Heat after their shaky start and they seem to have totally turned it around after that trip to Cleveland. The Cavs might have blown it for the entire league with their ineptitude and lack of heart and pride in that game. I still think the Heat are not good enough to win it all or even win the L-East, but they do seem to have a better handle on playing together and might be good enough go really deep in the playoffs. I also thought the Fakers are looking good enough to may be threaten the 70 win plateau. I was wrong, though I was not entirely serious about the 70 win mark. Some years, teams do look like they are threatening 70 when they go on a long streak and it never really happens. But my point was, the Fakers looked really unbeatable and I think they still are very good. They are still everybody's pick to win it all, but they are nowhere near 70-win good. I am totally fine with it given I am no Faker-fan. I also thought the Warriors were going to be decent, but they seem to be back to where they always belong - the cellar. The suns looked good to me despite their early season record through a tough schedule.

The suns are hovering around 500 though their schedule has been rough. It's not as rough as it was to start the season as the schedule has evened out a little bit given that we have played 25 games, but they are looking more and more like a true .500 team. The loss of Amare has taken it's toll and it's kinda revealing how important he was and how good he is considering that the Knicks are rolling at 16-12 while the suns are 12-13. There is always this discussion about whether guys get over-valued because they look so good playing with Nash and if they will do well without Nash. Guys like Marion have proved that Nash adds more value to them than they ever did to Nash, but with Amare, it's not the case. Amare has proved that he is a true superstar by averaging 26-9 for the Knicks. Coincidentally, Nash's assist numbers are slightly down and his 3-point shooting is down to 33%. I don't think thats directly related to Amare's departure, but one has to wonder. He is still shooting a career high 51.4% and has more than 10 assists a game - both very impressive given his age and the state of this team. We all know the Suns were going to take a step back without Amare, because you need talent in this league and Nash can't compensate for everything. But the more surprising part has been how good Amare has looked in his new colors. Also, the new pieces for the Suns like Hedo have not really jelled and hence the tough predicament.

While I was sadly getting close to being resigned to a season of giving (away wins) and mediocrity, the suns have engineered a trade. It's very interesting in the sense that any change and shake-up is good and trades are great because it shakes up 2 teams. The Magic, for instance, have done exactly that with these trades. They get Hedo back and J-Rich and also Gilbert Arenas for Rashard Lewis from the Wizards. The Magic are making some desperate moves to win now and have given up some cap flexibility, but they have improved. They have gotten a little smaller and have some duplication at certain positions - JRich and Gilbert, but overall they are better. They had no business getting rid of Hedo in the first place. He was perfect for them. As for the suns, I am surprised a old team even got older at a key position, They now have a 33 year old shooting guard instead of a 31 year-old guy in J-Rich. They also hope that Vinsanity now replaces the productivity of J-Rich, who was the scoring leader for the suns. The suns also get some cash in return. With this stupid ownership group, the money part of it was probably the main motivation for the trade - they get some cash, flexibility plus they get out of Hedo's contract. This ownership group has constantly acted cheap and thrown away expensive assets. So I expect them to do the same with the first round pick they got.

However the official reason for the trade is defense. The suns are as usual leading the league in points scored, but they have the worst FG% against in the league and they give up the 2-Nd most points in the league and that explains the record. So they wanted size and defense and are hoping Marcin Gortat will give them both. Also, Pietrus should be a good defender as well. Thats the hope, but I am not entirely buying it. Vinsanity is old and flaky and I am not sure if he can even match J-Rich's consistency and scoring. The potential is there, but a whole lot of other things have been missing with this guy his entire career. I like his talent, but I don't trust him. As for the other pieces, they are nice, but I am not sure how much Gortat is going to provide over and above Lopez and how do those 2 play together? I like Pietrus as a piece around Nash and he can even defend some fools, but he needs to get healthy as well. As a fan, you always have hope, but I feel like this is a trade to nowhere or at best, a lateral move. They are hoping for better chemistry around Nash and I would definitely be curios to check it out. But I don't have much expectations and I still feel like this team is going nowhere. I sure hope my suns prove me wrong with this prediction as well. Speaking of predictions, the Magic just proved me right with 2 of my prior takes. I said the Rashard Lewis contract was stupid and they would do worse with Vince than with Hedo. Let me pat myself on the back for those on the way out.

On a totally unrelated note, fellow sun-devil James Harden is just awesome!

The roof caves in

The scariest and the most fascinating sight in the NFL last weekend was the roof at the Metrodome in Minnesota collapsing under the weight of a lot of snow. Thank God nobody was in the stadium when this happened since it was early in the morning. I can't even imagine what would have happened if this had occurred during the game. This video is a must-see on youtube if you had not seen it yet. Vikings game against the Giants was moved to Detroit on Monday night. This scene was a metaphor for the Vikings and Brett Favre's season. Despite the extra day, Favre could not go ending his impressive streaks of continuous starts at 297. This has been an utterly disastrous season for the ole' gunslinger. Between his 10 TD, 18 interception season, a 5-8 record, 2 losses against the Packers, the sexting scandal, firing of Childress and now the end of the amazing streak, the roof has definitely caved in on Brett Favre as well.

This has been one of those seasons where Favre would have gained more reputation sitting at home instead of playing. Good for him that he gets to deposit his 12 mill plus incentives in the bank and derive some comfort out of it. Of course the Vikings have no replacement for him and Tarvaris Jackson proved that at Detroit against the Giants. Now experts are saying the Vikings should audition Jackson for 3 weeks so they can decide what to do with the QB position next season since Favre should be definitely gone. There is really no point in playing Favre though Leslie Frazier still says he will play again this year if healthy. I think they should just shut Favre down and get this team to turn the page. The Favre era is over after one unbelievably great seasons and one horrible season. Whatever the Favre-haters and Packer fans wanted last year from Favre, they got it all this year and then some!

Speaking of the Packers, Aaron Rodgers suffered a concussion and the Packers shockingly lost at Detroit. This severely hurts their playoff chances given how difficult the rest of their schedule is. They may end up 9-7 and still miss the playoffs. My dream of a sub-500 team from the NFC West making the playoffs is still alive. 13 weeks in, the entire division is sill under 500. The only team in the entire NFL that has clinched the playoff position is the NE Patriots. They went into Chicago and creamed the Bears in inclement weather. It's amazing how good this team plays in bad weather. They may be the only team that does not change their passing game for the snow and handle the weather like it's no big deal. I don't know how the Pats and Brady do it, especially without Randy Moss or any top receiver of that caliber. The best game of the weekend was the Raiders at Jaguars. It's a better league if the Raiders are good and they seem to be almost there. Darren McFadden is an absolute stud and the Raiders almost won a big game on the road after many moons. They are almost there but not yet.

When you win, say little. When you lose, say less.

That was Tom Brady quoting his head coach after their game against the Jets. As much as I would like to hate these 2 guys, it's getting really hard with each passing week as their body of work just seems to get better and better. At 10-2, they have the best record in the AFC in a year that was supposed to be a rebuilding year and on top of that, they traded away Randy Moss, their most potent weapon on offense. These 2 guys are ultimate professionals and great role-models for professionalism. It's amazing to watch Brady bite his teeth and rally his troops on the sidelines even during games they are leading 30-6 or whatever. Even today, he plays with a chip on his shoulder and seems like a perfectionist. No wonder he is married to a super-model. The hoody seems like a perfectionist too. He is the ultimate operator of a franchise. The Patriot are so consistent with how they approach players, situations, media etc. top to bottom in that organization. If somebody veers off the beaten path, he is gone. And other organizations have tried to steal their system through assistant coaches like Charlie Weis, Romeo Crennel and Josh McDaniels, but none of them have been the same without the hoody. McDaniels was a disaster and Denver finally let him go before he got rid of few more studs from the Broncos roster.

The hoody and Brady made sure the much hyped Jets-Pats Monday night game was a non-event. This was supposedly for all the AFC East marbles between 2 coaches and teams so culturally different. At the end of the night, Rex Ryan had to eat a 45-3 score wrapped in a humble pie. Brady scored 4 TDs and threw for 326 yards against the vaunted Jets defense. The talking heads on TV went gaga over hoody's game-plan and the quick, precision passing offense Brady ran all night to slice and dice the Jets. One more feather in the cap of these Pats. They may have another Super Bowl in them this year and if he Steelers are on the way, we know the Pats will walk all over them. Speaking of the Stillers, is there a better rivalry in the NFL than the Ravens-V-Steelers? While the Jets-Pats fell way short of expectation, Ravens-Steelers was every bit as exciting as advertised. It was a hard-fought game with some amazing hits and collisions. The game started off with a broken nose for Ben Roethlisberger, but Ben closed the deal at the end thanks to Troy Polamalu's hit on Flacco and the subsequent fumble. Is there a better defensive player in the league than Polamalu? This guy's speed, strength and aggression stands out even during a physical Ravens-Steelers game.

Manning and the Colts are moving in the wrong direction. Lots of passing yards and lots of scoring, but Manning is also throwing lots of interceptions and pick-6's and the Colts are riding a 3 game losing streak. It's no coincidence that Manning's interception numbers have sky-rocketed since Dallas Clark's injury. The Colts have some issues right now and if they don't fix them soon, they may miss the playoffs. In the NFC, the Bears are continuing to win. I don't understand this team at all, but I have to start giving them their due. At 8-4, the Packers may not even make the playoffs because of these Bears and a few other quality teams in the NFC. Of course, the NFC West still stinks and some bad team is going to make it and give us a bad playoff game. In the NBA, the Suns are still going back and forth and seem to be settling into a 500 bteam. Thats not good. The Heat are making my prediction of their demise seem pre-mature. They went into Cleveland and crushed the Cavs. That seems to have rejuvenated the team and are on a surprising 6 game winning streak. The schedule is soft right now, but they are winning some road games and today's win at Utah was impressive. Let see if this is something permanent.

Week 13 also means the fantasy football regular season is done. Unfortunately, I missed the playoffs in both my leagues despite having 2 good teams. I need to take responsibility for the bad showing. I guess I am no Bill Belichick.

You heard it here first!

I am going to go out on a limb and say that they will blow up this Miami Heat team in a year or 2. I actually give them 18 months. By the summer of 2012, they will have to trade away one of the two and let either LeBron or Wade take his talents to some other city. I know it's just 18 games, but I see structural problems. Sure they will get rid of coach Spo and sure, Riles will come down and the team will improve. They will listen to him and he has the stature to implement some interesting things with these fools. Also he will make defense a priority and that in and of itself will be worth 5 more regular season wins. Of course, they have enough talent to make it to the playoffs in the East under coach Spo or under my grandma for that matter. Riley's coaching will only upgrade the team to a much deeper playoff run, but I don't see championship credentials in this team. And thats not just because of the lack of a strong supporting cast or lack of depth. Those are peripheral issues that are actually fixable over a couple of seasons, if not right now.

The fundamental problem I see is that Wade and LeBron are not complimentary pieces. They want to and have no problems playing together, but they are not adding value to each other. Chemistry is a difficult science. It is very important in any sport, but more so in basketball and it's very hard to predict until the players actually play together. Unless you have a great glue guy like Stevie Nash who brings everybody together and makes them all better, it's hard to predict how guys play with each other. So nobody, myself included, ever commented on the potential fit of the Wade-LeBron duo. We all assumed it will work and it does for many stretches, but it's not consistent. You need a Jordan and a Pippen and I am afraid the Heat have 2 Jordans who are not as good as Jordan of course, and they have no Pippen. People don't appreciate Pippen and how important he was for the Bulls. He was very talented, but more importantly, was ultra-versatile. Plus he had the attitude and maturity to fill in any gaps for that Bulls team. He did everything that MJ couldn't or wouldn't do on a given night.

With Wade and LeBron, there are issues. They both came in to the league together and became big-time stars separately. Now they are together, but their games don't work together. The only options for them would be to make a Pippen out of Lebron, Thats not because he is the inferior talent or has been unproductive so far. It is only because he is the more versatile of the 2 and Wade can't do everything a Pippen or a LeBron can do. So turn the offense over to Wade and see if LeBron can do all thats needed to fill in the gaps. But who can make LeBron do that or is it even fair to LeBron to fit him into that role? He is one of the potential all-time greats and how can you make him a second option? So there is no easy way to make these 2 players complimentary. Short of giving them 2 balls and 2 hoops (and possibly 2 strip clubs in south beach), it's going to be hard to maximize their potential. It's not that they are hogging the ball or fighting for it, but they are not able to work well together. When LeBron is dominating the ball, Wade is nowhere to be seen and when Wade is on fire, it looks like they are over-paying LeBron for nothing. They both do similar things and are not both useful at the same time. They are not great rebounders or defenders or 3-point shooters. They don't have a great low-post game or a dependable jump-shot. Their style may be different, but their output and roles are very similar. And this despite the fact that LeBron is a triple-double threat every night.

Of course, chemistry builds over time and players evolve too. One or both can become a great 3-point shooter or an awesome defender and things can change. Richard Jefferson is supposed to have finally found his spot with the Spurs after an entire season. So 18 games doesn't make a season. But like I said, I see structural problems (not dead people :-) ) and I don't see an easy way out. The great expectations and lack of salary cap doesn't help either and I suspect this system collapses under it's own weight and the Heat will be forced to trade either Wade or LeBron after 2 futile seasons. Thats my prediction. Last time, Riley fired Stan Van Gundy and collected a easy ring with Wade and Shaq, but he may not be able to pull that scam again. He can and will fire coach Spo, but he ain't winning the championship with this group. This once again proves it's not easy or efficient to have 2 talented wing players as your superstars and 1-2 punch. It's always easier to build a team with a wing and a big combo - Kobe-Shaq, Shaq-Wade, Kobe-Pau. Their positions and their roles on the court are complimentary by design. Not the case with Wade-LeBron and thats what makes the Jordan-Pippen combo all the more impressive.