Topsy-Turvy NBA West

Who would have thunk at the beginning of this season that late in to this season, the Fakers would be seeded number 1 in the mighty West with the Suns sitting at number 5. Granted, the Suns are just 2 games behind and the West is packed tight, but thats where we are now and this goes to show how quickly Championship windows can open and close. Especially with a big market team like the Lakers, they don't stay down for long. Frustrating if you are a Laker-hater like me. They are very much for real and their future only looks brighter. They were good even before the Gasol trade with their young players developing and role players on the bench stepping up. Now with the Gasol trade, the Lakers are scary good and are just blowing teams out.

I wish Mike D'Antoni knew how to use his bench. The Suns might already have a ring because they did have a bench the last 2 years. May be this is a downside of not having a system and just running and gunning. The team is like a chicken with it's head cut off as soon as Nash goes to the bench. Whereas with a system like the triangle, Phillip actually teaches and makes his bench play and produce. Bynum is still out and they may only get better when he comes back though they may not be able to get much better offensively. But Bynum might make them better defensively. Experts are beginning to pick them to win the West and thats BIG news given that this league has been about the Spurs, Suns and Dallas the last few years.

The Suns clearly are lost a little bit. Their bad performance against good teams continue. They are 2-3 since the Shaq trade, mostly because their schedule has been tough lately. They started against the Lakers at home, then Boston and Detroit at home. Then at Memphis and New Orleans. They won against Boston and Memphis. They got embarrassed by Detroit and were not much better against New Orleans. At least against the Lakers, they looked good and it was a close loss. They did look bad against Boston, but Boston was even worse and they won because of that. Essentially the Suns have been up and down and are clearly out of sync at times when Shaq is on the floor. He has actually out-performed my expectations numbers-wise. He is playing more minutes (29) scoring more per game (10.8) and rebounding more per game (10.4) than I expected, but he is still not entirely fitting in. He has not affected the bottom-line because the Suns are still losing to the better teams in the league and now the losses can get ugly because the offense is not what it used to be.

Shaq is explaining it all on the "adjustment period" and I don't think thats it. Thats part of it, but Shaq is just may not be the best fit for this team at this stage of his career. He just cannot make a move and score. Thats how offensively limited he is these days. He scores mostly on put-backs, alley hoops or open dunks and some free throws. I am yet to see him take the ball, make a move on his defender and score with authority. He is also causing spacing issues since he can't shoot from any kind of distance. Plus Tim Legler of ESPN is saying he has also made the Suns worse defensively - if thats even possible. He is saying between Amare, Shaq and Nash, they can't guard any pick-and-roll situation with any perimeter guard and there might be some truth to it. All in all, it feels like the Suns have not gotten much better and I don't know where the team goes from here in the brutal West.

Steve Kerr might get what I think he wants - firing coach D'Antoni if the Suns don't do very well this year. May be they can try next year with more of an half-court team, but this era of Suns basketball might be over unless the Suns go deep in to the playoffs this year in a difficult West. A lot of that will depend on how D'Antoni and Shaq make this whole marriage work. I sure hope time will heal things and make everything fit, but the jury is still out on this trade as of today.

Shaq seems OK, now go get Brent Barry.

Shaq's first game with the Suns against his nemesis Lakers might have proven 2 different things, both good and bad for the Suns fan. The Shaq experiment might be a big success after all, but it might still not matter because the Lakers might be the best team in the West. Even if the Lakers are not the best, they may just be better than the Suns. I sure hope the Suns can get better chemistry wise as Shaq plays every day for the next 30 games, but still the Lakers are just too good and the Suns can't stop them. And they are only going to get better when Bynumm comes back. For the Suns, I think it becomes a sightly better match-up if Bynum plays because Shaq can stay with him. I think Gasol and Odom are nightmare match-ups for both Shaq and Amare. Speaking of Amare, we could clearly see him getting freed up with Shaq out there. I feel like we are ready to see his full potential now for the first time since 2004. It's just too hard for defenses to keep an eye on both these guys.

Of course Kobe had a monstrous game. He is still the Lakers heart and soul and he is tough to defend for the entire World. The Suns tried to defend him with Raja and Hill, but couldn't do it that well. Plus Gasol looks awesome for the Lakers. He is way more than a side-kick and Kobe should love to have him by his side. Like I said before, the Suns need one more perimeter defender who can also shoot and try and defend guys like Kobe once in a while. Brent Barry anyone? Apparently the Spurs traded him hoping for the Sonics to buy him out so they can get him back. I think the Suns should get him. He can fill a couple of different roles for the Suns. This is a must. If Grant Hill gets hurt, they can't guard a single small forward in this league with this team. They need some backup there.

At the end of the day, the Suns are still playing near 500 ball against the West and until they go on a Western tear, the confidence level in this team is going to be low for some folks. But I definitely expect them to handle Boston on Friday and Detroit on Sunday at home. Should be great games, but with Shaq on the court, they should be able to handle the Eastern teams like they always did.

Enough Already!

Here's a great idea for the US congress. They should all sit and watch the Suns-Lakers game tomorrow on Capitol Hill on ESPN HD. Top-notch Shaq-V-Kobe entertainment. This would be a much better way to spend their time and our tax dollars than what those guys are doing these days. Only thing more stupid than Congress spending time on money on Clemens-V-McNamee (and spy-gate) is how partisan the whole hearing was. Are you kidding me? If democrats and republicans can't work together on a stupid steroid issue in baseball, what hope do we have in our country? Not to get too political, but as it seem to happen so often these days, the republicans were on the wrong side of things. They were supporting the Rocket - why exactly that was I really don't know. Apparently he is a close friend of both the Bushes - fellow Texans and the republicans wanted to stick by him for that. Very mature!

Seems like if you are a white guy who looks, speaks and conducts himself like a main-stream, white-bred American, the Republicans will stick with you because "you are American!". Anything American cannot be bad according to these guys. Of course if you are from the South and have a southern twang, that can't hurt either. Clemens played it perfectly and he made it a point to mention how he represented USA in the baseball World Championships. Gimme a break. He was talking about it like he went to fight the Iraq war for the US or something and some of the Congressmen drank it all in. God save us all! At least the Democrats were smart enough to see that the Rocket was lying and had no credibility whatsoever. Anyways, the experts are still saying Clemens is in a World of trouble. McNamee and Pettitte have both told the truth and Clemens only hope here might be his high-paid Lawyers.

After all this circus, Pettitte showed up at the Yankees camp and had an interview for an hour. Now the entire Sports World is debating whether or not he was believable, was he really contrite?, did he tell the truth? blah, blah, blah. Enough already! I am sick and tired of this media circus with all these cheats. Who cares about what they say and how genuine Buster Olney thinks that guy was with his apology. Nobody accepts to anything. Some of them get busted and then they cop to it. They are forced to come out and apologize and then we all go "oh what a sincere apology" and give them a standing ovation during the home opener. This is getting to be a bigger joke than the steroid era itself. I am sick and tired of all this waste of time. Just ignore these steroid cheats and let me know when one of 2 things happen - these cheats get suspended for upward of 50 games or they go to jail. In some cases, both of these things needs to happen. In every case, these guys should be suspended big-time. Unfortunately, we have a league and a commish with no powers or balls.

So we are reduced to measuring the sincerity of fake apologies and decibel levels on the subsequent standing ovations. No accountability, no punishment, no corrections, no asterix, nothing. All we get out of this steroid era is few fake apologies.

Not a bad All-Star Weekend.

All-Star games and festivities are over-rated. But I think NBA's might actually be a little under-rated. They have done a good job of coming up with a lot of events on Saturday that are half-way decent. The game on Sunday itself can be lame sometimes and people always say the baseball all-star game is the best. What the MLB all-star game has going for it is the competitive nature of it's game because it's a pitcher-V-hitter duel at it's core. But even there, the MLB all-star game is not all that competitive because top pitchers (and hitters) stay for a inning or 2 and they just keep rolling the bench guys in. Also the MLB all-star has nothing else around the game worth watching. Don't even get me started on the home-run derby.

Granted, the slam-dunk contest is not too fresh of an idea anymore, but I think the last couple of years the contestants have tried to make it interesting. This year had a lot of creativity and wrinkles mixed in with the dunks. Dwight Howard won it easily with 4 creative and fun dunks. I thought everybody got a little carried away with his superstar dunk, but I liked the other 3 better. Gerald Green blowing out the candle while in the air was a great idea too. But on this day, D12 was too hard to stop. I always like the 3-point shootout. I like to see sweet shooting that can be missing at times in the real NBA games these days. Kapono killed it this year and I was surprised to see the MP3 doing so bad. Nash scoring just 9 points? What happened there!

The real story of the All-Star weekend was the on-again, off-again Jason Kidd Trade. I thought it was funny Devean George blocked the trade in the first place. Obviously he was hoping Dallas will get someone else involved in the trade. I can't believe he would have enjoyed his stay there if Kidd never ended up in Dallas. The fans would have killed him and Dirk doesn't sound too excited either. Apparently Dirk wants Kidd in Dallas badly. He sure is missing his buddy, the other PG they did have - Steve Nash and this trade is basically Dallas accepting that it was a mistake to let Stevie go. Good PGs are HARD to find.

I was actually disappointed that Devean blocked the trade because I don't think it's a great deal for Dallas. Sure, Kidd is awesome, but they were supposed to give up Devin Harris, Jerry Stackhouse and DaSagana Diop in addition to other pieces and 2 future picks. Those 3 guys are key contributors. Diop was their only defensive presence and the other 2 guys were key cogs in their offense. I am not sure if Kidd can compensate for all of this because the Kidd still can't shoot and this team relied a lot on perimeter offense. Of course Stackhouse said he expects to be bought out and join the Mavs back after a 30 day lockout. That makes it a little better for the Mavs, but now NBA is pissed he spoke about the underground dealings so openly.

NBA is a beauty! We all know NBA trades are all about matching salaries, dumping veterans with high salaries, buyouts, re-signing them for veteran minimum etc. We have seen it many times. But NBA still want to pretend like Stack shocked the World with his revelation. So now apparently Dallas have to replace both Devean and Stack from the trade. So they are now digging up Keith Van Horn from the dead, asking him to un-retire, and use his salary to consummate the trade. How is this any more credible than Stack going back and forth? They are saying NBA might have a problem with Van Horn as well, but it's widely believed this trade will go through. If I was the NBA, I would rather let Stack be open about something thats legal rather than un-retire a big salary!

Anyways, seems like Kidd will be in Dallas and now on to the stretch run. Should be fun in the West. Atlanta did itself a favor in the East by getting Mike Bibby. That should help them big. Too bad, the Cavs couldn't get Bibby. The Hawks can make the playoffs now and Joe Johnson can finally smile. The Kings got a bunch of expiring contracts in return and if they can dump Ron Artest and Brad Miller's salary as well, they will be in good shape. I sure can trust Geoff Petrie with all that cap space. He can fix that team. When NBA games resume this week, all eyes will still be on Shaq when he makes his Suns debut, hopefully against Kobe and the Fakers. That should be electric.

Shaq already has a new nickname - the Big Cactus. I like it!

It's all about the Diesel now

Now that THE TRADE is done and the initial wave of criticisms are done, it's time to look at it again. I think this needs to be called THE TRADE, especially for the Suns. Blockbusters are dime a dozen in the NBA these days and even for Shaq, this is his 4-Th stop in his career. But this one was still special because it was bold, it was done by a team that was leading the West and was widely considered a championship contender. Steve Kerr, in some sense, ripped the blue print apart and went in a new direction right in the middle of a successful season. Suns got a huge superstar in Shaq and lost one of their key pieces in the Matrix. So this is a big trade for the Suns any way you look at it.

I would say the second wave of reaction pretty much is in favor of THE TRADE. A lot of people like ESPN's Scoop Jackson are saying this is a genius move and only Kerr and D'Antoni get it. Granted, Scoop Jackson should not be quoted like an expert, but he is not alone in the approval of the trade. Many people think this can work. And of course as a Suns fan, I am always hoping these trades work out like a charm. I still have my doubts, but I can't wait to see Shaq run with these Suns. Shaq is very interesting if not anything else and he was his usual charming self in his introductory presser. It was awesome when he said "I'm very upset. You just don't want to get me really upset. When I'm upset, I'm known to do certain things . . . like win championships." Only Shaq!

It will be very interesting to see what Shaq brings to this team. Like I said, D'Antoni and Shaq both have to adjust to make it work and Nash is the glue who can make it all happen. "I've never had a point guard like him," O'Neal said. "As I was telling Steve, I haven't got an easy bucket in six years." He is now practicing with the team and all the talk is about when he will make his Suns debut. Suns are on national TV for the foreseeable future! Their next 5 games are on national TV and now the speculation is that he'll play on Thursday at home against Dallas on TNT instead of the front-end of the back-to-back at Golden State on ESPN. I want him to play if he's ready. Winning is more important than making a splash at home. Plus the Suns have trouble these days in Oakland. They need help. Nash can't guard Baron or Monta and without Marion, I am not sure how they are going to stop the W's. Monta scored 15 straight the last time the Suns were in Oakland. Nelly kills Nash on the defensive end by constantly going at him with either the bigger Baron or the quicker Monta. Of course Shaq can't guard either, but the point is, the Suns can use any defensive help they can get without Marion.

At the end of the day, I am also willing to give Kerr the benefit of the doubt. I am not sure how this'll work and defensively their perimeter got even worse now with Marion gone - who guards Nowitzki now?. But I do realize that the team pre-trade was not going anywhere. They have a glitzy record to lead the West, which is pretty impressive, but they are 21-2 against the East and just 15-13 in the West. Thats not going to get it done in the playoffs unless David Stern decides to move the Suns to the Eastern conference to atone for his sins against the Suns during last year's playoffs. And with the Lakers getting Gasol, the Suns life only got tougher in the West. So they had to do something. Is this the right move?, time will tell, but at least it's a big move. They finally went out and got a hall of fame center and it's worth the risk. May be it's just wishful thinking, but I am going to watch this with great expectations. I would just feel a little more comfortable if they pick up another solid perimeter defender who can also shoot the 3 a little bit. I would say those are the 2 deficiencies as of now.

Strap on your seat-belts. The Diesel powered Ferrari might just got started.

Panic Orange!

The Suns world officially went from Planet Orange to Panic Orange. Last week was a real bad week for the Suns. I wanted to blog about it, but got distracted by the other game called the Super Bowl. First, they lost to the Spurs at home. Never fun losing to those guys, but seems to happen all the time. This time they were without Tony Parker. More than losing, the issue was the way they lost even without Parker who kills the Suns usually. It was another drag-out, knock-down game played at the Spurs pace. Its amazing how often the Suns can't run their style against this team. They always talk about "how their offense was not in sync today or the shots didn't fall tonight" or whatever. Lets wake-up and smell the coffee. We are not in sync because the Spurs are VERY GOOD defensively. It's not a coincidence that this happens 8 out of 10 times we play them. So the loss was not just a bad loss, but it just made the question mark hanging over the Suns head that much bigger.

Then comes the Lakers trade. They get Pau Gasol for Kwame Brown, the rookie PG Jarvis Crittendon and 2 future picks. Just giving up Kwame is an upgrade for the Lakers! They also get Gasol in addition? The Lakers were also cruel enough to add his brother Mark Gasol in the trade. Why can't they let the brothers play together? Anyways, this was huge for the Lakers. With Andrew Bynum's development this season, the Lakers were already good and their future already looked bright. Now they get another young stud in Pau Gasol. Look at this starting lineup - Derek Fisher, Kobe Bryant, Lamar Odom, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum. That might be enough to make the finals this year. Imagine next year or the year after when the chemistry improves and Bynum matures. Only Kobe hogging the ball can stop this team. Otherwise they should contend for the next 4 years. Great trade for the Lakers.

So as a Suns fan, I thought they had to do something. They can't stand pat. Their window was already shrinking as I had written a few weeks back. New Orleans and the Fakers seem to be passing them by and with this trade, their window became literally 6 months. This team as currently constituted had no shot next year. So what do they do? Then press the panic button with both their hands and feet. The Suns trade Marcus Banks and the Matrix for Shaq. Great trade, just 4 years too late! Shaq is done and has been done for 18 months now. He did nothing last season. Couldn't really carry the Heat without Wade and has looked much worse this season. The dude was extended at 20 million a year and has 2 more years on it. The Suns, after trading away salaries and talented draft picks for years to save money, pick up a huge bad contract for a 36 year old, broken down has-been! Plus the Suns play an up-temp style which would not have been a good fit even for a 28-year old Shaq. So this trade makes absolutely no sense at any level.

But I am still hoping it works. It would be interesting to see Shaq-Diesel run in this offense at least for the first couple of games. The hope is, Shaq makes an impact in the half-court and on defense. It might work when the game slows down in the playoffs. They are also saying the Suns have asked him to be a defensive presence and not demand the ball too much and he has happily agreed. But the problem is, Shaq is not effective these days, period. He can't stop Duncan. So it's really intriguing to see what he can do with this team and in this offense. Plus it would suck if he is injured most of the time. Of course Steve Nash can always pepper over most of the deficiencies on offense. As always, in Nash we trust. Hopefully he can set the Diesel up better than his Miami friends.

What's happening here is that, basically Steve Kerr rolling the dice and also saying this style does not work. Kerr has always been saying the right things publicly, but he wants to change things up. He agrees with Amare that this style doesn't give him many touches. The Brazilian blur out-shoots everybody routinely in this style. I can't imagine Barbosa getting more touches than Shaq, but thats what this weird marriage is set up to do. Kerr is essentially forcing Mike D'Antoni's hand - making him play a more deliberate style and asking him to play defense in the playoffs. It would be very interesting to see how he adjusts. Everybody has to adjust in this deal - D'Antoni, Shaq, Amare and Nash. Lets see how it goes. And nobody is talking about what the Suns have lost. They lost the Matrix - one of the most versatile, athletic wings in the league. I am not sure Shaq can replace what Matrix gave this team, let alone get us a championship. If he does get another ring, his legacy will be cemented forever. I am hoping that will serve as the motivation for him and he'll give us one great season like he did in Miami. Speaking of Miami, what a deal for them? Got Shaq, won a ring and almost immediately got rid of him. Fascinating. I thought they were stuck with Shaq and mediocrity for a few years. Now it might be the Suns!

Put on the seat belt. The Suns season just got very interesting.

WOW!

There is only one word to explain today's Super Bowl game - WOW! What a game it was. End to end entertainment with not a minute of it following the script everybody including myself predicted for this game. It was surprising from the first play to the last. It was close, nail-biting and went to the last minute. And of course these games are always much more fun when the result is what you want :-) Yes the New York Giants won and shocked us all.

I am not sure how many people realized the significance of this Super Bowl. This was a HUGE game. History was at stake at many different level. The Patriots were coming of an unbeaten regular season, which only one other team has done. This win would have given them a perfect season and would have been better than the Dolphins' season because that was a 14-game regular season in the pre-free-agency era. In this day and age, what the Patriots accomplished was truly amazing. Thats just one angle. The more important ones to me were the historic positioning of this coach and QB. Both had won 3 Super Bowls and have not lost one and both were already in the conversation for the best ever. Amazing for Tom Brady because the kid is just 30 and is just entering his peak. Him and Bill Belichick were slowly but surely replacing Bill Walsh (or Lombardi or whoever) and Joe Montana as the best ever coach and QB. Joe and Terry Bradshaw were the only other QBs to have won 4 rings.

Tom and the hoody can still capture the "Best Ever" status and they probably will, but they would have clinched it if they had won their 4-Th Super Bowl today and any more wins in the future would have only cemented their legacy further. A loss at least opens the door for an argument because Walsh (or whoever) and Montana have never lost a Super Bowl. In addition to all of this, the Patriots with their unblemished record would have also been anointed as the best ever NFL team in history. Some would have even argued they were the best ever team in American sports history ahead of teams like the Chicago Bulls with MJ. I made sure I mentioned "American Sports" because a friend in my Super Bowl party reminded us that other countries also play Sports and apparently AC Milan had an impressive 56 game win streak or something in soccer and he also brought up Roger Federer. This is neither here nor there, but my point is the Pats were knocking on the door of greatness.

So I really wanted the Patriots to lose to put an end to all this conversation. Not sure why I didn't want them to enjoy this status but I just didn't. I am kind of a purist when it comes to history and I don't like greatness being redefined all the time. Plus, I don't like the whole North-East hype and I don't like anything about Bill Belichick (except his expertise at his job). In fact, I think the Hoody is probably the best coach of all-time, I just don't want him to be universally recognized as such :-) As for Tom, I seriously think he is incredibly lucky to be in the "best ever" conversation. He is good, may be even great, but he was just the right guy at the right time who got a whole bunch of breaks and a great coach and franchise-head in the Hoody. I still wonder where Brady would be if Drew Bledsoe was not injured that season. So "Best ever" to a 30-year old Brady is just not acceptable to me.

Thanks to the Giants we don't have to worry about any of this now. They come to play tonight and Eli was as cool as the other side of the pillow. He was completing 3-Rd downs all night like nobody's business. He moved the ball pretty impressively in their first possession and I immediately knew something was up. Giants are always good if the Good Eli shows up and you could tell Eli was on today. The guy was totally untouched by the Super Bowl hype. His oft-maligned stoic demeanor and lack of emotion became his strength. He was completely unaffected by this game or his opponent and not many QBs can pull that off. The Giants got just 3 points out of that impressive drive, but then their defense took over. I seriously thought they were playing 12 men instead of 11 because I have never seen this kind of pressure on pretty boy Tom Brady. He was on his back every time you looked and it clearly affected his long ball. It's amazing how QBs just are not the same when you bring serious pressure that can get to there in time. The Giants got there today. Got there early, got there often and got there in time.

It was their defense that won this game for them. The Giants offense struggled for a while, but their defense made sure the Pats offense struggled even more. The game was 7-3 forever and then the Giants scored in the 4-Th quarter for a 10-7 lead. Then came the usual Tom Brady 4-Th quarter comeback where he led the Pats to a long time-consuming TD drive. The Giants D looked a little tired and Randy Moss scored to give the Pats a 14-10 lead with less than 3 minutes to go. Wes Welker was a pest the entire second half and the Giants double teamed him and let Moss score on one-on-one coverage. With less than 3 minutes left, I was not sure what to expect from Eli Manning. I was thinking even the Great Peyton has not had great success under similar circumstances against this team. Even this season, Peyton was in the exact same situation against the Pats and he threw a game-ending interception.

What we all saw in the next 2+ minutes was a birth of a super-star. Eli was poised and on-target. The play where he somehow got away form 3 Pats who seemed to have their hands on him at one time or the other was surreal. The only thing more impressive than Eli's escape and the long bomb was David Tyree's catch, who grabbed it over his head using both his hands and his helmet. This was the play of the game and will probably be remembered forever. This play put the Giants in striking distance and made the clock more manageable. Eli then Hit Plaxiglass for the TD and there was still 35 seconds left. The only concern was, is it too much time for Brady with the score at 17-14. But not on this day with this Giants D. They sacked Brady one more time and made sure his hail Marys fell on the ground. A stunning end to a special Super Bowl. Brady, Moss and the Hoody should have a lot of frustration to deal with this off-season. Plaxico predicted a 23-17 Giants win and Brady openly laughed at him for saying his Pats will score only 17. Guess what, they scored only 14 and Brady looks like an arrogant fool right now.

A bitter pill to swallow for the entire Chowd-Nation. At least they got the Celtics to look forward to. And of course their Sox will be in Spring training anytime now.

New York State of Mind!

I am posting this an hour before the Super Bowl. We have all heard the hype and analysis for 2+ weeks. It's a really a simple call. The Patriots are way better and they are 18-0. I can't see them losing now. So I think the Pats will win, but I want the Giants to win. Not that I am a Giants fan or anything, but I hate the Hoody and the Pats. Brady is a nice guy, but can't stand the hype. A loss would shut all the Boston apologists up for a long time and that silence would be golden. But I don't see that happening.

All I hope for is a great Super Bowl Party and a relatively close game. A Giants win is way too much to ask for, but if it happens, I'll take it gleefully like of most of America would. More on the game later.

Super Bowl means down time

Super Bowl these days comes with a 2-week hype break. This is a very excruciating time for Sports fans where suddenly we don't have football after almost 5 months of continuous football. Plus we have to put up with 24 hour sports outlets analyzing every conceivable angle of this game. By Friday of the first week, we have suffered information-overload and we know what the 3-Rd tight-end on the bench is eating for breakfast! NBA is the only other sports league in business (I don't count the NHL) and it is still in it's early season mode. Actually NBA doesn't get serious until the second round of the playoffs. So not many people care about it in Late January. May be because of all this downtime, there have been too many controversies the last couple of weeks.

It started off with people ripping apart Ladainian Tomlinson for his behavior during the AFC title game. Some people questioned his toughness, but most people were critical of his demeanor during the game where he just sat their with his helmet and didn't really mingle with the team. Also with Philip Rivers playing hurt and injured, LT looked worse in contrast. Jim Rome was saying on his how LT went from the best ever guy to a bad seed in just a week. I think this has been going on the entire season. I am a huge LT fan, but I have been feeling that he was getting a little "too big" lately. You can't really blame these guys. The money, the attention and the deification is so bad these days in the sports world, even great guys like LT lose their bearings a little bit as things get to their head. I expect Dwayne Wade to be the next classy star making the turn to ego-town. Hopefully LT learns from this controversy and comes back down to earth.

The real controversy involved the golf channel hottie Kelly Tilghman suggesting that one way for young players to deal with the challenge posed by Tiger Woods would be to "lynch him in a back alley". Thats real poor choice of ward. I can't understand how she can be so dumb. I think sometimes these people really say things that are on their mind and get in trouble. May be she really wants to lynch Tiger. Who knows. She got suspended etc, but this was a disturbing one. The other controversy was with ESPN anchor Dana Jacobson. She got liquored up at a roast for Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic and said "F**k Notre Dame. F**k Jesus". My first reaction was, who hosts a roast for Mike and Mike? What have they done to deserve a roast and when do I get one for myself? Secondly, this was offensive, but not as disturbing as Kelly's words. Dana was drunk and stupid and she got punished appropriately.

These chicks must just shut up and do what they are hired for - look good on TV. I am not a sexist and I love talented female sportscasters as much as the next guy, but lets call a spade a spade. Most of these chicks are just eye candy. I respect talent when I see it. In fact, I think ESPN should turn over their entire football operation to Suzy Kolber, Chris Mortensen and Ron Jaworski and fire all the other clowns. Thats how good Suzy is, but these 2 chicks getting in trouble in the same month is 2 female sportscasters way too many.

The other guy to get in hot water was Saint Louis head coach Rick Majerus. He made some pro-choice comments on abortion, leading to condemnation by Roman Catholic Archbishop Raymond Burke, who suggested that officials at Saint Louis University take "appropriate action" against him. Apparently they don't want a Catholic school to employ him. This is ridiculous. Leave the fat man alone. He has a right to his opinion and I don't think that every employee at Catholic schools conform to all of their beliefs. Why force just this guy. Makes no sense whatsoever. This issue got some air-time too on Sports talk because of the Super Bowl downtime. Bring on the game already!

King-V-Mamba

Last Sunday featured some great NBA games on ABC, especially the Lakers-V-Cavs game billed as a Kobe-LeBron match-up. These match-ups rarely live up to the hype, but this one did every second of the way. Not only was it a close, well-played game, the stars played very well start to finish. Actually Kobe and LeBron were spectacular. On top of that, they guarded each other for long stretches of the game, which made it even more fun. Stars rarely guard each other. This is because you don't want to tire out your top scorer on the defensive side chasing the other team's super star and more importantly, you don't want your star to be in foul trouble. But these stars are unique. Kobe always steps up to the plate on both ends of the floor and takes pride in his defense. Thats part of him trying to wear MJ's mask and trying to be him.

These days LeBron is much the same way. LeBron was not too committed to defense (and many other things) until this year. He was getting by on raw talent. In fact, he was accused of sleep-walking through the first-half of last season. It's amazing he could still take the Cavs all the way to the finals. People like Bill Walton also said he was exposed in the Finals. What he means is, LeBron has a long way to go and a lot of work to do. The good news is, the work seems to have started in earnest last summer. Some kind of a switch seemed to have gone off. May be it was the sweep in the finals or may be the time he spent with great players in the Team USA deal. I personally think it was probably the time he spent with Kobe and realizing how hard Kobe works and how committed he is to basketball greatness.

Whatever it is, LeBron has been a much improved player since the start of the season. He is leading the league in scoring and is working hard on both ends of the floor. I am especially impressed with his effort level on defense. The results have been impressive and he is again single-handeedly carrying the Cavs to great places. This game was a great show for LeBron. He was good, aggressive from the start and did a decent job defending Kobe for stretches. Kobe was Kobe and was unstoppable as always and he tried his best to defend LeBron too. At the end, LeBron hit a clutch shot on Kobe and Kobe surprisingly missed a close lay-up that would have tied the game. W for the King and L for the Mamba. LeBron ended up with 41-9-4 on 16/32 shooting and Kobe had 33-12-6 on 10/21 shooting.

All in all a great NBA game to watch and this is what ABC wants every Sunday on it's network. I have always said a Kobe-LeBron finals can save this league and this was a taste of that. But you know what - I wouldn't be surprised if a NASCAR rain delay out-drew even this game! Thats where NBA is right now.

Still Standing

The NFL power weekend is almost here. The Chargers are still standing along with the Pats, Pack and the G-Men. Surprising line-up in the NFC and a not so surprising one in the AFC. People expected these AFC teams to be real good in the pre-season before the Chargers opened the season all shaky and disjointed. Once they righted the ship, they got back to where they originally belonged. I still can't believe the way they ended the Colts season last weekend in Peyton's house.

The Chargers have to play at an extremely high-level to repeat that kind of an upset this weekend. The Pats are no Colts. They are more talented, healthier, deeper, smarter, are on a roll and they'll be playing with much more help from the home town weather than the Colts. LT has to have a great game and more importantly, Norv Turner needs to be very good. Hoody usually out-coaches everybody and Norv has a tendency to be out-coached in big games. Thats not a good combination for the lightning Bolts. I am not sure if it's good or a bad thing if Rivers doesn't play. He is not that good, plus Billy Volek used to be good the last time I saw him start games for the Titans. Plus the Hoody might have less dirt on him to game plan against. I wonder if Volek plays instead of the River-man, if he can go in there and surprise them like A.J.Feely did for the Eagles. In any case, my heart is with the Bolts, but my brain says Pats move on to the Super Bowl.

Packers are on a roll as well, But so are the Giants. Brett Favre and the Packers have been the story of this NFL season. People have been waiting for them to come back to Earth but they are still flying high. They are as legit as they come and that offense with Ryan Grant, Greg Jennings and Brett Favre is awesome. They have a strong D to go with it and are a dangerous team for anybody. Too bad we don't get to see the Pats go into Lambeau to play the Pack in the Super Bowl. That would have been awesome. The Pats probably are better in a neutral site, but a big game like that at Lambeau would have been real nice for the fans. Of course, I am not assuming that either the Pats or the Pack are a lock for the Super Bowl. The Giants and even the Chargers have a shot at screwing things up for these teams. The Giants have a lot of momentum as well and they seem to have a QB in Eli who finally seems to know what he is doing. The Giants will not be intimidated going into Green Bay for sure. Should be a good game, but I pick number 4 to play in his third Super Bowl.

Surprises in the NFL

I have been complaining that the NFL this season has been bland, one-sided and predictable. We all kinda got this feeling that the Pats were going to win it all since week 5 or 6. That might still happen, but this weekend's playoffs produced spectacularly shocking results. There were 2 big upsets, but a third one - Packers big win was a little unexpected to me as well. I am sure the frozen tundra played a role in the bad performance by the Seahawks. I expected the Seahawks to put up a better fight, but the Packers surprised me.

The Packers dominated this game and looked awesome. They ran the ball up and down the Seahawks throat and Ryan Grant seems to have solved all their rushing problems. Brett was efficient and effective like he has been all season and now we get to see him in the NFC championship game. Can't complain. The theory that this Packers team cannot handle the Green Bay weather sounds silly right now. The Seahawks are at a crossroad. Not sure what's going to happen with their coach and Shaun Alexander seems done. Surprisingly quick and steep fall for the former MVP.

The Pats killed the Jags pretty methodically. Brady completed 26 of 28 passes for an amazing 92% efficiency. What's up with this guy? He is beyond white hot right now. The only thing more ridiculous than this stat is the Jags defender saying post-game that "Brady is not all that". I wish that was true too, though I am not able to defend my anti-Brady sentiments any longer. Brady does seem like "all that" and some this season. Anyways, this moron's contention was that it was all dump-off and check-downs and that any QB can complete these passes. Well, apparently that was his defense's strategy - to force Brady into dump-offs by doubling Moss and taking away the deep-ball. Brady took what the Jags gave him and absolutely annihilated them. Dunno what else this defender wants him to do. Shut-up after a loss and go away.

The real shocker of the weekend came on Sunday when the Chargers lost LT and Rivers to injuries. They lost everything except the game! They came back and beat the Colts behind Billy Volek. Crushing loss for Peyton despite 402 passing yards. Tough season for the Colts. Things never went their way this season since Marvin's injury. I still didn't expect them to lose at home to the Chargers, but their execution was not as good as last year in any facet of the game. At least with Peyton, you got a shot every year. As for the Chargers, Norv Turner is looking good right now. Every down they play from this point on is a bonus and should be regarded as such by even their fans. Lets see if they can upset the Pats with LT and Rivers back from their injuries.

The most controversial upset of the week was Tony Romo's loss to the younger Manning and the Giants. Who would have thought that Eli would be playing this late in the season while Peyton is at home. Anyways, Romo is in a lot of hot-water because of his alleged vacation during the break with dumb-ass Jessica Simpson in Mexico. Romo does have some issues. Just slow the heck down and lie low. Why can't you wait until the end of the season for the vacation? Just "enjoy her company" at home until then.

I don't understand why he is always pushing the controversial buttons. He either truly doesn't care or may be he is also a publicity hound. I think he is good guy. He probably just doesn't care and his point to us may be is "I am not doing anything illegal or even against team rules. So what's the big deal and what's your problem?". The problem is, life is 80% perception and 20% reality and you got to worry about the perceptions as much as you do with reality. Every playoffs seems to bring it's own set of issues to this guy's door-step. The Cowboys did look good for a half and then came out in the second half looking like the entire team had been to Mexico on a vacation with Jessica during the half-time! America's team can now go anywhere in the world on vacation and nobody cares for the next 7 months.

LSU finishes on top. Pats may join them.

After a whole bunch of churn in this year's college football season and a very entertaining topsy-turvy ride up and down the weekly rankings, LSU finished pretty close to where it started the season - at the very top. They were either 1 or 2 at the beginning of the season right behind USC and they ended up winning the championship at the end. The funny thing is, LSU and USC were probably the best teams at the end of the season and they ended up at 1 and 2 in the final USA today poll. USC was 3-Rd in the AP poll behind Georgia. Too bad for USC that they lost 2 games and dropped out of the championship run somewhere mid-season. After all the upsets this season, it would have been real strange if LSU and USC played for the ring after all.

I was a little disappointed when the BCS match-ups came out initially because LSU-OSU is a traditional powerhouse match-up and I would have preferred something totally off the wall like Kansas-West Virginia or Missouri-Georgia or something. That would have established true parity at the end of a truly unique college football season. Plus I knew OSU will lose for sure. A real weird match-up would have also dealt a blow to NCAA and the TV networks ratings wise. I am always for landing body-blows to the NCAA. After watching Notre Dame getting crushed in one BCS bowl game after the other for ratings reason, it would have been ironic if they had ended up with a non-traditional, low ratings match-up for the BCS championship game. BCS ratings were not too impressive anyways this year with the championship game dropping down 17.2% from last year. Plus most other BCS games dropped in ratings as well because of these lesser-known team teams playing in those games.

Now all the football eyes are on the NFL. Great games this weekend with the Chargers playing the Colts and the Jaguars playing the mighty Pats. This weekend is always the best NFL weekend of the season. The number of games goes down after this weekend and the quality of the games are usually better than the wild-card weekend where we do get the same 4 games. The Chargers beat the Colts at home earlier in the season in a weird game. The Chargers offense didn't do much but their D and special teams won the game for them. Manning threw like a million interceptions in that game and still almost won it. That victory is now a huge burden for the Chargers. The Colts are going to be extra motivated and are at home. There's no way Manning has such a bad game again. If you add all of that up, the Chargers should be a huge under-dog in this one. The only saving grace for the Chargers is that they are a better team now than they were then. But I pick the Colts by at least 10 in this one.

The Pats-Jags is a culture clash and should be a good one. I don't think America still realizes how good the Jags are. There is something special about this team. Great defense, great toughness, heart and great coaching. I expect a tough one for the Pats. They still win, but only after a bloody dog-fight. In the NFC, the games should be equally fun. The Dallas-Giants game should be a high-scoring affair and as always, the Giants will live or die based on which Manning shows up - Peyton-Junior or the Anti-Peyton. It's 50-50 with Eli and the Giants will lose either way. But if Eli plays like Anti-Peyton, this will be ugly. Otherwise this will be a fun game to watch. The Packers-Seahawks game takes Holmgren and Hasselback back to Green Bay just like a few years back when Matty won the OT toss and called his shot on the microphone only to see his pass get intercepted and run back for a game-ending Packers TD. He'll keep his pie-hole shut this time, but will desperately try to avenge that defeat. The Hawks or on a roll and are definitely in this one. I pick them to win it in an upset.

Suns and their foes

The Suns have had a unique basketball team the last 4 seasons. A fun, high-flying offensive minded team that can't be stopped. It's an unfortunate truth in all of sports that defense wins championships. I have tried to live in denial of this fact for years, but it is a reality in sports. Defensive minded teams not only win championships, but they also tend to contend for a long time as long as their core talent stays together. Thats not the case with offensive teams.

Couple of things always happen with unique, offenses like the Suns. First of all, other teams start copying the style. There is always a danger of some team eventually learning to play the style better than the original. Secondly, after a couple of years, these offenses get figured out. For example, in the NFL, teams the Rams of the Warner-Martz era was the best show on turf for a while, but before you know it, their run ended. The reason is that the defenses around the league figure out ways to slow such systems. This never happens to great defenses because defense by definition is reactive and the onus is on the offenses to stay a step ahead and they can't do that forever.

The Suns are still a step ahead. It's not easy to stop the Suns though they are pretty much "figured out" in the sense teams know what they want to do. But stopping them is easier said than done. Teams have tried to adjust to the Suns offense by doing things like sending everybody back on defense instead of crashing the offensive boards etc. Things that are usually considered a violation of basketball common-sense, but necessary evil when you are playing the Suns. There is still no stopping the Suns for the most part.

But lately, there have been a team or two that seem to trouble the Suns every-time and I find that very interesting. This could just be a case of bad match-ups, but it's also possible it's something more. Obviously the Suns troubles against the Spurs, especially in the playoffs are well chronicled. I would just explain that as the Spurs being a better team. They play great defense, but they have Timmy Duncan and hence more championship caliber talent. But the number of teams that the Suns have troubles against is slowly increasing.

The Suns lost to the Hornets couple of days back. This is the second time they are losing to this team. They have also lost to the Fakers twice and are having problems handling the Warriors these days. These are all good teams, but is there a pattern here? Are teams beginning to learn to "match-up" better against the Suns? Before you know, you'll start hearing talks about how the Suns window is closing. Of course the Suns have a old team and this version does not have a lot of time on it's hand. But often times, the window doesn't close as much as other team's window opens up a bit wider. In other words, you are as good as you have always been, but some other team just passed you by. Both the Hornets and the Lakers might be en-route to accomplishing this.

So the questions is, are these teams just one of those difficult match-up for the Suns? Or are they just great teams with an ability to beat anybody on any given night? Or have they specifically figured out the Suns system? Or are these teams flat out getting to be better than the Suns period? I guess these are the questions that will be answered this spring in the NBA playoffs. The bottom-line is, the Suns better win one this year or things could get much tougher in a hurry.

"Who-Cares" round of the playoffs

While the Pats, Colts, Boys and the Packers are chilling at home and waiting for their next opponent, the NFL wild-card playoffs are starting this weekend. It feels more like a "who cares" round this year more than in the past. I don't think the wild-card teams ever had a great shot at winning the Super Bowl in the NFL, but they seem to have even less of a chance this year mostly because of how good the 4 teams with the bye are. I would say the Packers are the most vulnerable among the 4 at home and the Chargers and the Jaguars are the best teams playing this weekend. I still don't know how and why the Tennessee Titans made the playoffs. Wasn't the AFC supposed to be the better and tougher conference? In the NFC, Washington sneaked in and is now playing Seattle with the Giants playing the Bucs. Decent games though none of these teams seem to be in the same class as the Cowboys or the Packers and even those 2 teams in turn are not in the same class as the Colts or Pats.

With all that said, it's still the NFL playoffs and I can't wait for it to begin. The games will be fun and the Jville-Pitt game in particular should be a dandy. Two good teams that play a physical style and look like a mirror-image of each other slugging it out for all the playoff marbles. This one will be close, but I am tempted to pick Jville. San Diego should handle VY And the Titans. They better, or else Norvell will be in a world of trouble. Chargers need to win a playoff contest one of these days. In the JV, I like Seattle and the Giants to get the job done this weekend. Two teams on a roll though not great teams by any stretch of the imagination. The Bucs aren't too bad either. At the end of the day, the games will be fun and somebody will move on to lose in the next round.

The Bowl season is also winding down. I have been ignoring it ever since Texas man-handled my Sun Devils! But the bigger bowls in Jan are always fun. Some surprising results and upsets made it even more fun. I can't believe Michigan ended the season by beating a good SEC team in Florida featuring a Heisman winning QB after beginning this season with a loss against Appalachian state! Talk about night and day. I suppose the guys really stepped up to send Lloyd Carr off in style. In the Fiesta bowl, number 11 West Virginia crushed the 3-Rd ranked Oklahoma in another upset and how pissed are the West Virginians now? If they are this good, how the heck did they lose to a bad Pitt team at home with a national championship berth at stake? What a waste of a season. Well at least they got their BCS dollars and embarrassed a big name program like the Sooners. Easier said than done for most schools. Number 8 Kansas took care of number 5 Va-Tech in an interesting game at the Orange Bowl.

The college football season was crazy with multiple upsets and great parity this year. I am happy some of these lesser known schools continued their good run in the bowls and showed the nation their wins during the regular season were no flukes. Rose and Sugar stayed true to form as USC crushed Illinois at Pasadena and Georgia took care of business against a over-matched Hawaii squad. Now all eyes are on the BCS national championship game. I pick LSU to win, win big and win it in style against the Suck-eyes. Michigan's upset not withstanding, I don't expect this Big-10 team to beat a real good SEC team like the tigers. OSU better hope it's not a repeat of last year's final.

Happy New Year (to everybody except the Pats)

2007 was a rough year for sports, may be the roughest in recent memory. Between the dog killers, crooked refs and roid-heads across all athletic endeavors, no sport or league - minor or major was spared major embarrassment. I am sure all league commissioners are excited to turn the page on the calendar, not that 08 is going to magically erase all their problems. As we enter 08, MLB might still have the bigger problem of the 3 followed by the NFL and the NBA. Nobody since the start of the season has made the crooked ref a big issue for the NBA except for the trash-talking by the fans at the arenas fter bad calls. People seem to be quite indifferent to NBA's Donaghy issue. But then again, isn't indifference the biggest problem for the association? People seem to be indifferent to the league in general since number 23 retired back in the 1900s!

So may be NBA still has the biggest problem in terms of it's popularity and market value. Even LeBron's trip to the finals didn't help anything. That was quite shocking to me and I am not sure what can resurrect the NBA if the King can't. My last hope now is a LeBron-Kobe finals, but then again, Kobe in the Finals is not what we should be counting on considering how he managed his career in 07. I still love this game, but the rest of America doesn't seem to. It would be interesting to see how many people stayed away from the TV or the NBA arenas because of the crooked ref. Lots and lots of people post messages to the effect "the game is always fixed", but most of them sound like disgruntled fans of losing teams that night or "conspiracy theory" fans who always thought NBA was fixed, but they now feel vindicated and are coming out and are being louder because of the recent scandal.

I still ranked NFL's problems higher because the dog fighting is just not going away. Vick is very much in the news and so is Pacman and NFL can't kick them away. I am sure NFL's king status among sports is as strong as ever and apparently their Pats-Colts regular season game was a ratings bonanza like never seen before. Personally I think the NFL has some issues to deal with. I felt like I could not watch most of their games on any given Sunday. I have always felt like NFL's version of parity is flawed and it was just a road to mediocrity. This year it has come true. The league is full of mediocre play and the QBs suck big-time! This can't be healthy for the league in the long run. NFL needs to tweak it's bad financial system to fix this. They should move towards a more flexible salary cap structure like the NBA. What parity are we talking about when teams are going 16-0. Even if we agree that it was a function of one extremely well-run franchise, what about the quality of the other teams in the league? Except the Colts, Cowboys, Chargers, Packers and may be the Jaguars and the Steelers there are no teams worth watching.

I am not talking about teams with chances of winning it all. I know thats just an handful in every league. But it's just the Patriots in the NFL and only a handful of teams are even watchable in this league. We could swap the other lower-half teams in the playoffs with a completely different set of teams and I don't think we will even notice. Anyways, it's all good for the Pats. They went 16-0 though they had some difficulty in some contests. This is what gives us pats-haters some hope. The Giants played them tough in the final contest and almost beat them much like the Eagles and Ravens before them. The Pats might be beatable after all. They are one team that probably is sad 2007 is over. They had an awesome year and they can only hope 08 is even close. Can they go 3-0 now to win the big one? Lets see. In the spirit of the New Year, I would like to see the glass half-full. The good news with their 16-0 is that we don't have to deal with the 72 dolphins and their champagne bottles anymore. Also, the spy-gate thing still hovers over the Pats. I think any number of 40-0 trashing of teams could not have washed away that asterix. I like it that way.

Speaking of the asterix, MLB has been carrying one for around 10 years now. Mitchell report only made it bolder and bigger, but lets see how the MLB reacts. It's still entertainment and people show up for games, but MLB and their experts just don't seem to get the long-term effects of this roid-era. There's a huge loss in opportunity costs with scandals surrounding historic figures like Bonds and Clemens. It's hard to quantify this, but it's strange that a history-rich and history-dependent sport like Baseball doesn't seem to understand this at all. They seem happy to collect the gate receipts and the check from FOX and pretend like the roid-era has had ZERO impact. Good luck with that assumption.

Holiday jeer

Holiday season is supposed to be rough on single people sometimes. I have not really felt this pain though I can see how some single people, especially chicks can feel lonely and depressed this time of the year. To me, Christmas pretty much means the NBA kick-off on ABC. Considering that the Lakers play every year, my mood is directly linked to them in some ways. I am happier if they lose and am a little sadder if they win! So you can imagine how I feel this Christmas day given that not only did the Lakers win, they actually beat my beloved Suns today fairly convincingly.

VERY, VERY disturbing loss for the Suns. They have now lost 10 games this season. I wrote a while back that their loss against the Warriors was disturbing because the Warriors might be the one team that might play the Suns style better and match-up very well with the Suns. This Lakers loss is even worse. First of all, this is not a fluke because the Lakers are now 2-0 against the Suns this season. They embarrassed the Suns at Phoenix in their home opener. At the end of that game, there was even some jawing between Mike D'Antoni and Phillip where D'Antoni said "we will see you again. we are good". Unfortunately, the Suns saw the Lakers again and they didn't see what wanted to see.

The Lakers are actually very good as well. Record wise, the Lakers were even better last year and then they faded away. This trend has been going on for a few years now. I hope it's similar this year, but this Lakers team is different. The reason they are different is their young guys Andrew Bynum and Jordan Farmar. These guys have taken a HUGE step forward this season and are taking the Lakers team with them. The scary part for the Suns is, this is a team on the up and up and they still have Kobe Bryant in his prime. The Suns on the other hand are supposed to win it all this season, but seem inadequate defensively as always and now they can't even handle the up and coming Lakers team. This is the scary part.

This game might have been a changing of the guard moment in some sense. Is it possible that the Suns window is closing shut and now even for the Pacific division crown, they have to fight with the Lakers? The Suns are not getting any younger and the D'Antoni's style can't withstand another non-finals season. There's huge pressure on him and this game exposed the same set of problems - defense, rebounding, lack of size etc. The Lakers look deeper, bigger, better defensively and more complete as a team. Sooner or later, you got to ask the question, "why can't the Suns be a complete team?" and back it up with the question "is this style impeding that?".

I love this style as much as the other guy and I want this style to succeed for the better of the league. NBA has become un-watchable before D'Antoni showed up. Even today, I couldn't watch the Heat-Cavs game despite wanting to watch the Wade-LeBron match-up. The style just sucks. So I want the Suns and D'Antoni to win desperately. Trust me, we will all be better for it. But is this a championship caliber style? Dan Bickley in the AZ republic referenced something I have been amazed by for a long time. Every day I look at the Suns box-score and am amazed that Leandro Barbosa routinely out-shoots Amare Stoudemire. Bickley has been raising a lot of "chemistry questions" and keeps saying that Amare is unhappy with the style. He recently said there's something wrong with it if LB shoots more for the season than Amare. Kind of my point. I don't know how Amare thinks or feels. May be Bickley knows more than me or may be he is just a pessimistic, negative kinda guy who is afraid something bad will happen with this team. But it is weird that this system doesn't really use Amare all that much. He gets killed for his defense, but to me, that only means you got to maximize his potential on offense even more.

I am still not giving up on this season or the style. But I have always been critical of D'Antoni on one thing - not using his bench enough. I think thats is still valid. He has to learn to use his bench -PERIOD. I don't know if he can go to a coaching school at ASU or something, he needs to learn to trust his bench. I have always felt like the Suns in the past have had good talent on the bench, but Mike doesn't use them. Now they may not have that good a bench, but he got to do something anyways. Secondly, he can't just play Diaw like he is some kind of a god. Diaw is not as good as D'Antoni wants him to be. Raja Bell is not what he used to be either. I am almost tempted to say put Raja on the bench and start Brian Skinner. But then again, with this offensive system, thats just not enough 3 point shooting.

Both Van Gundy and Mark Jackson made some interesting comments about these 2 teams towards the end of the game. Van Gundy says that the Lakers will beat the Suns if they play a 7 game series right now. Huge difference from the last 2 years when the Suns won in the playoffs. Mark Jackson also said how the Lakers are deeper and more talented top to bottom than the Suns. Amazing how far the dysfunctional Laker team have come in just 8 weeks since Kobe was rumored to be on the trading block.

As for the Suns, many questions and not too many answers right now. I would say D'Antoni should start with the 3 recommendations I made. 1) Use Amare more. 2) Use Diaw less 3) Use your bench. Infuse new talent.

Air Ball!

Suns lost today at Dallas. It was a fascinating game as always, but the Suns dug too deep a hole to dig themselves out of. They were down by 17 early and fell behind 10, 12, 13 points many times in the game. Still it was impressive how they kept crawling their way back. They were down double digits even late in the 4-Th, but they came back from nowhere and the next thing you know, they are down 3 with 8 seconds to go. This offense is impressive for sure. It can score in bunches. But the Suns couldn't get that tying 3 pointer which would have sent the game to overtime under almost similar circumstances to the game last year which the Suns won in double OT. I would have loved to see the long faces of the Mavs and their fans if that had happened. Speaking of faces, I didn't see Cubes today. But unfortunately none of that happened and the Suns lost the game. In fact, Nash threw up an air-ball despite getting a decent look at a 3 off a good fake. That never happens for Nash especially against the Mavs.

The MP3 did have a great game with 21-18 and setup Amare for some monster dunks. Speaking of dunks, Grant Hill's flush on Diop was beyond awesome though he didn't have a great game. Blur and 3-D didn't have good games either and I thought these two guys killed the Suns today with critical, stupid mistakes. I am getting sick and tired of Diaw turning the ball over. He can't make this many mistakes for a guy with such a high basketball IQ. And Blur seems to have slowed down a bit lately after a great November. Amare and Marion had great games. Marion was all over the place and was awesome defending Nowitzki though the German was unstoppable today. Matrix's effort level was off the charts.

The problem with the Suns is consistency. As good as their offense is, it's really painful to watch their defense. There are stretches when you feel like not a single guy on the floor for the Suns can stop the guy he is guarding and this happens a lot when they play good teams. They are too soft inside and it's just frustrating to see their lack of D and also seeing them get killed on the boards. The Mavs got 19 offensive rebounds today. Pretty ugly numbers for a Suns fan and it's been the same story year after year for this team with respect to defense and rebounding. The only way the Suns can overcome all these deficiencies is through consistent effort on the defensive side. For some reason they can do that in spurts and not consistently. That has to change.

The Suns defense and their rebounding still is not at championship level, not even close. Unless they show the consistency, commitment and high effort levels at that end of the floor, they can't win the championship. The offense is fun to watch, but thats about it.

First big NBA game of the season.

The first big game of the young NBA season happened tonight in San Antonio. Suns were visiting the Spurs and the game was as good as advertised. It was much more important for the Suns to win because they are always looking up at the Spurs plus the Spurs were without Tony Parker. But the Suns had their own handicap since this was a road game for them and they were in the midst of a surprising losing stretch having lost 3 of 4. I should have jinxed them because they had lost 2 of 3 before today since the day I wrote about them having only 5 losses.

They lost at home to Miami and then on the road to the Hornets. That match-up was billed as CP3-V-MP3, but Chris Paul got the better of Nash. There is one weakness of Nash which is getting harder and harder to miss as the Suns try to become a championship team and thats his defense. In any of these great point guard match-ups, he never defends the other star because he just can't. He can't stay in front of Chris Paul or Tony Parker or Baron Davis while those guys can guard Nash. They are not going to stop Nash either, but they can at least guard him as well or as bad as anybody else on their respective teams. The only exception are the Spurs where they put their defensive specialist Bowen on Nash instead of Tony Parker. Whereas with the Suns, we have to hide Nash and use Marion or someone else to guard these PGs. This is one weakness in his game that is big.

Back to the game today. The Suns fought their way through it and toughed it out. It was not easy. It never is with the Spurs. The Spurs were very good and it's just too easy for Duncan against the Suns. He had 36-17 on 15/25 shooting to totally dominate the paint. But the Suns did a decent job defending the rest of the guys and the game was really close the entire 4-Th quarter. Finally, Grant Hill and good free throw shooting took us home. How good has Grant Hill been for this team? He was huge today and he is doing everything. I saw him guard Chris Paul the other day and if he can add to the perimeter defense and free up Raja and Marion in that department, it's a huge bonus. I was not expecting that. His offense has been as good as I had expected but he means more to this team than his numbers suggest. He had 22-7-3 today and hit some big free throws. With Nash having just a mediocre game thanks to Bowen, LB, Diaw and Grant carried the day for the Suns.

Speaking of talented veterans, how good has Finley been for the spurs the last few years? Apparently he is getting 19 million this year from the Mavs and 3 mill from the Spurs. Thats nice. He seems to kill the Suns every-time we play and has just been a huge part of that team since he came in. He has been averaging 25 mins and 10 points the last 3 years. The Suns handled Ginobli, Finley and Barry fairly well today and their D carried the day because they just can't run and gun against this team. The blur had a couple of run-outs, but thats about it in the open court. So they had to dig in defensively to have any shot at winning. I wish the Suns play this kind of defense against every team. If they do, they may beat every other team in the league by 20 points! In any case, it was a big win for the Suns as the Spurs lost their first home game this season. Now on to the second big game of the season as the Suns play the Mavs on Wed. Should be another dandy. To be fair, it will be the third big game this season (and this week) because the Celtics play the Pistons just before the Suns game on Wed and thats a legit big game as well.

NFL week's highlights and low-lights

The real big news of the NFL week happened early in the week with the whole Bobby Petrino fiasco. I can't help but laugh every time I think or read about this. It's a pretty serious issue especially if you are associated with the Atlanta Falcons in any way, shape or form. But I laugh because I am amazed at how weird and strange people can be. They can also be incredibly selfish, utterly tactless and plain stupid. The guy packed up his bags and just disappeared in the middle of the night mid-season in year 1 of his NFL coaching career. I never thought I'll see something like this especially in this day and age with 24 hour news channels and eyes following every move of every sports figure.

Apparently he told Falcons owner Arthur Blank that his heart is still in college and would like to return to college. Blank probably thought he was just thinking aloud and told him we can turn this thing with the Falcons around and he would not give him permission to look at college jobs. Bobby still went ahead and interviewed and got a job and resigned, all within a matter of hours though I am sure he had already spoken to Arkansas before he broached the subject with Blank. It's all a big scam and Bobby just flat-out quit on his team. He got killed by his players in the media the next day. All they got was a note from him in their lockers and he didn't even talk to anybody personally. Weird dude. You have done something real bad when Joey Harrington is ripping you for not doing your job right!

Sen. George Mitchell saved Bobby's ass because by mid week people forgot Bobby and it was all about Georgie and his roid report. One thing that I don't agree with though is how the media over-dramatizes everything by saying things like "oh, how will parents entrust their 18 year old kids with a man line Petrino?". I am sure this is a valid question and there are enough decent families that look at things like that. But lets keep it real. College recruiting is all about cash and strippers. NCAA recruiting is so corrupt, even a man like Bobby Petrino cannot pull it's collective integrity any lower than the depths it has already reached.

On the field, my dream season ended today. I am talking about the Dolphins winning their game against the Ravens and making sure they won't go 0-16. The good news is, Brian Billick should be done in Baltimore after this year. The Pats won against the Jets, but the 50-0 drubbing everybody was expecting never happened. It was probably the weather, but they just squeaked past the Jets 20-10 with Brady throwing for 0 TDs. There were some wild winter weather across the league as teams won games with scores like 8-0. In San Francisco, some guy named Shaun Hill played real well at QB and might end up replacing Alex Smith. New hope for the wine-sipping Niner fans. While in Dallas, Romo actually played like Alex Smith in his rookie season. Don't know why he got so rattled just because Jessica Simpson was in the stands.

The real highlight of the weekend was Brian Westbrook taking a knee at the goal-line instead of going in for a sure TD. This guy is one of the most under-rated players in the league and today he showed he is also smart and unselfish. He broke through for a long run with the Eagles leading 10-6 and less than 2 minutes to go. Right at the edge of the end-zone, he gave up a TD for himself and just fell down and took a knee. Dallas had no timeouts and this sealed the win for the Eagles. He could have scored a TD and gone up 17-6, but then Dallas gets the ball and theoritically anything can happen. Dallas probably would have still lost because it was a 2-score game, but what Brian did was much smarter and surer deal. I wish more players think like this. The other feel good news is, Buffalo's Kevin Everett is recovering surprisingly well from the spinal injury he suffered earlier this season. Thats awesome.