Tragic ending to a great drama.

Game 1 of the Suns-Spurs was much better than advertised. Thats saying something considering the Western playoffs this year has been hyped by everybody including your truly in this blog. Still, this game surpassed all expectations. It was played at such a high-level, it was gripping drama start-to-finish. Tim Duncan said it felt like a Finals game. Even Chris Paul talked about this game in his post-game presser. Jon Barry says this is the best playoff game he has ever seen. Thats all well and good and I enjoyed it every bit of the way except for the ending. My Suns lost!

The Suns lost after leading by 16 in the first half, 9 in the 4-Th quarter and by 5 in the first OT. Suns lost despite taking the last shot in both regulation and OT. Barbosa and Diaw missed those, and unfortunately, Ginobli wouldn't miss his last shot in the 2-Nd OT after Nashty tied it for the Suns with a ridiculous fade-away 3! Suns lost because the Spurs tied it in regulation and then in OT with 3 pointers from Michael Finley and then by Tim Duncan. Are you kidding me? Tim Duncan hits his first 3 of the season to tie a playoff game against the Suns in OT. Mike D'Antoni's reaction was classic, but you can't leave him that open whether or not you think he can hit a 3.

Speaking of Mike D'Antoni, I think he was a big part of this loss. I am not one of those fans who blames the coach after every loss, but D'Antoni needs to get his act together. I am done with this guy's "man-love" for Barbosa and Diaw. As a Suns fan, I like these guys as much as anybody, especially Barbosa who is a great guy and a terrific player. Diaw has not been the same player he was 2 years back and he has been inconsistent to say the least, but he actually played a great game against the Spurs. But D'Antoni should stop putting the ball in these guys hands at the buzzer like Barbosa is Dwayne Wade and Diaw is freakin LeBron James. When you have Nash, Amare (in regulation) and Shaq why is the ball going to anybody else? Why put the ball in Diaw's hands with 3 seconds to go when this guy is known to pass up open lay-ups and kick the ball out to a team-mate in the corner. What's he gonna manufacture in 3 seconds? Draw up some freakin play for Nash, your lunch ticket.

Also the Suns defense sucked like it always has under D'Antoni. Tony Parker and Ginoble got to the rim at will. Parker single-handedly brought them back in the second quarter when they fell behind 16 as Nash or Barbosa couldn't stay in front of him. Later in the OT, when Shaq was in foul trouble and Amare was already fouled out, Ginobli just had a red-carpet to the rim as he kept driving left. I hate to admit it, defense wins such games and the Spurs got the stops they needed while the Suns couldn't. The Suns make so many mistakes on defense, Popovich will probably shoot somebody during the game if he was coaching this team. Coaching is a huge factor in such games and Pop once again showed why he is so good. When Nash hit the 3 late to tie the game in second OT, the Spurs had just a few seconds to setup a game winning play. But Pop put the ball in Manu's hands and let him run because he knew Shaq was on the bench for offense and if he took a timeout, D'Antoni would put Shaq back in. So Pop wanted his offense to go against the midgets that were on the floor for the Suns at that time and it worked perfectly as Ginobli got a game-winning layup with nobody protecting the paint.

Sad ending to a great game. I am not sure if the Suns can come back and win game 2. They are a resilient team and they need all of their resiliency in game 2. Nash and Amare will come back with a vengence, but will the role players do anything to help? Nash played a great game. The 3 at the end was unbelievable, but he was good the entire second half and the OTs. Bowen didn't play extended minutes in this game for whatever reason and I think Nash was the beneficiary. Apart from that one possession late in the game when the suns had a shot-clock violation, Nash was on-point. But in a game like this, these mistakes stick out as Suns just could not close out the leads they had at various points. Amare was awesome, but he fouled out. Shaq was in foul trouble too. Thats one complaint I had with this game. The refs have to let these guys play. One of the early offensive foul called on Shaq was garbage and it probably changed the complexion of this game, at least for Shaq. There are way too many floppers in the Spurs lineup and the refs just keep giving them what they want.

In any case, I can't wait for game 2.This is exactly the kind of excitement we expected from this year's West.

Playoff Preview

The NBA playoffs are here and the Western lineup is looking awesome right now. The only problem I see is that the projected Western Finals match-up - Suns-V-Spurs is now a first round match-up instead. This is both a sign of how tough the West is a well as how these 2 teams may not be the best in the West to deserve a finals match-up. It kinda sucks for me to admit that teams like the Lakers and may be even the Hornets and Jazz are as good, if not better than the Suns and the Champion Spurs. This means the potential path to the Finals for the Suns is Spurs-Hornets-Lakers. Thats brutal, but it could easily be Spurs-Dallas-Utah as well. I can definitely see Utah beating the Lakers if they meet each other. Same with any other Western match-up. West is just that crazy.

Here are my predictions for the first round. I'll start with the top match-up of the first round - Suns-Spurs. I think with Shaq the Suns are clearly a load to handle for the Spurs. The Suns are 3-1 against the Spurs this season and they are one of the few top teams that the Suns have a winning record against. Clearly this is an important match-up for the Suns and the Shaq move helps them more against the Spurs than any other team in the league. So I pick them to win 4-3. This won't be a cake-walk for sure, especially without home-court, but I really think the Suns can pull this out if they play smart. Nash should play smart. Bowen will make it hard for him on offense and he should make the right decisions. He is the head of the snake and he needs to guide us through this. Amare should stay out of foul trouble. The rest of it will fall in place if Nash and Amare take care of business. I am picking the Suns in 7.

Kobe is back on top as the first seed and it's an amazing rise for the Lakers. They run into AI, Melo and the Nuggets. This is a very sexy match-up on paper and it'll be a prime-time affair, but the Lakers should take it easily. I say 4-1. Dallas-New Orleans is another fascinating match-up. A little bit of an "has-been" versus "wannabe" here as the Mavs used to be where the Hornets are this season. I think the Hornets can handle Dallas though the experience of the Mavs could be a huge factor here. Also Nowitzki has been ballin like a mad-man since he came back from injury. But CP3 is too good and Chris Paul takes his team home in 6 games - 4-2. Utah and Houston will renew there rivalry from last season again when this was an interesting, 7 game first round series. Houston started hot, but T-Mac got bumped out of the first round at the end. Same story here. It should even be easier this year for the Jazz because there is no Yao and the Jazz have been untouchable at home recently. Jazz win 4-1. At least they should, but they might take 6 games. I am not under-estimating the Rockets, but I can't see them beating the Jazz especially with Rafer Alston banged up.

Do I even have to talk about the L-Eastern playoffs? Can't we just cancel the first 2 rounds and start with the Celtics-Pistons finals? We can't because then we will miss watching the King. LeBron James is the wild-card like none other in these playoffs. This guy will single-handedly decide whether or not the Cavs get eliminated in the first round, or go all the way to the finals. Talent-wise, the trash-talking Gilbert Arenas and the rest of the Wizards are probably better. They sure can beat the Cavs, but who can stop LeBron if he has one of those nights? And the way he has been playing this season, he can have 3 of those nights in a seven game stretch and then you got no hope. The Wizards have a lot of talent in Gil, Butler and Twan, but can the sum of these parts exceed the total package that is King James! I say no. Cleveland takes it 4-3. Toronto-Orlando is also an interesting series, but Toronto will fail again in it's quest to go past the first round. D12 and Hedo are too much for Bosh and gang to handle. Magic takes it 4-2. Detroit and Boston should sweep Philly and Atlanta respectively, but Detroit has this habit of sleep-walking for a game or 2 in the playoffs. So I say 4-1 Detroit. But Boston is too focussed and hungry. They get the only sweep of this playoffs.

Let the games begin.

Are you ready for some playoffs?

This is something you hear every year around this time - "I can't wait for the NBA playoffs. This year's Western playoffs should be awesome!". This has been the case for more than 5 years now, but this year's Western playoffs are gonna be off-the-hook. This set of Western teams have taken things to HNL ('hole 'nother 'level). With just 2 days to go in the regular season, the situation at the top is still as fluid as ever. Just 2 games separate teams 1-6. Teams 1-3 are separated by just 1 game and 4-6 by another game. It's wild and of course I am not too happy since the Suns are merely a 6-th seeded team though they are just 2 behind the leader.

Just today Denver clinched the 8-Th seed as the Warriors lost to the Suns and got eliminated. The Warriors will be the first team in 16 years to have won 48 games and still miss the big dance. Thats amazing if you consider that the teams in the West also have a tougher schedule and still have managed so many wins. They have beat each other up with almost every team in the top 9 beating up every other team throughout the season. Of course, these teams were all way better than the Eastern teams and hence won their share of the match-ups against the JV league to post impressive win totals.

In stark contrast, Atlanta is in the playoffs in the L-East with an impressive 37-43 record. While 7 games separate the top 8 teams in the West, Atlanta is a good 27.5 games behind the L-East leading Boston. If you are into under-dogs and upsets, you should be pulling for Atlanta big-time because rarely do such bad teams get a shot in the playoffs. Despite this situation in the L-East, I have the utmost respect for the top teams there. I consider both Boston and Detroit as legitimate contenders with LeBron being the wild-card.

Boston has 65 wins and thats something. They got the big 3 and they play incredible defense. It's amazing how winning is contagious and 70% of all of sports (may be even life) is confidence. The role players in this team play so well and with so much energy and confidence, you wonder why did the same guys suck so bad last year. Of course they didn't have a MVP candidate in KG and Ray Allen, but even individually, the fringe players are playing real well. And of course Detroit is Detroit. They are as good as ever and this time, they won't let LeBron destroy them single-handedly. A Boston-Detroit Eastern Finals should be almost as good as any Western match-up this year.

Coming back to the West, I can't even talk about match-ups yet because nothing is set. But everybody is saying that anything can happen and even if the 8-Th seed beats the 1-St, that wouldn't even be considered an upset. Thats how close things are. As for the Suns, they still are up and down. They had a bad loss to the Mavs 2 weekends back and then against Houston sand-witched around another impressive win against the Spurs. The Shaq trade is working just as planned against the Spurs. I think the Suns can actually beat the Spurs in the playoffs. The Spurs can't handle both Amare and Shaq. This is what the trade was for and it's working as intended. But the problem is, there might be a couple of teams like the Lakers who might be better than both the Suns and Spurs. The Lakers killed the Spurs last weekend and it was shocking to watch. Considering all this, the Suns with no home-court can lose either in the first-round or go all the way.

Bottom-line, nobody knows what's going to happen in the wild, wild West.

Rock-chalk Jayhawk

It's been a few days since the NCAA championship game, but I still had to blog about it. Thats because of 2 reasons. It was one of the best championship game I have ever seen and secondly, it helped me win the bracket! I am more of a pro-guy than a college guy and hence I am neither good nor lucky with the brackets usually. But this year, I went in to the final game all tied and the thrilling Kansas win put me on top.

John Calipari has been defending his team's poor free throw shooting all-season. How ironic that it came back to haunt him at the worst possible time. His team never paid for it's poor performance at the line all-season and actually did much better during the tournament making coach Cal look good with his theories about free throw shooting. But then came the crucial late stretch in the title game and they couldn't hit anything from the line. They let a 8 point lead melt away rather easily in the final minutes. This tiger just could not change it's stripes. On top of that, Cal also seemed to mismanage the last possession on D. With the Jayhawks trailing by 3, he could have just fouled them. Instead Mario Chalmers nailed the 3 and sent the game into OT.

Once it went to OT, you know it was over. Memphis had come from ahead to tie and it was only a matter of time before they lost. A crushing game for Cal and Memphis. I wouldn't be surprised if Coach Cal still has trouble sleeping after this loss. The winning coach, Bill Self, is the biggest beneficiary of this game. No more questions about him and he has done something that even Roy Williams couldn't do in Lawrence. Speaking of Roy Williams, not sure how the NC fans view him wearing a Kansas patch to the game. That was definitely weird. It would have been half-way acceptable if he had not lost to them in the semi-final game. Back to Self. Oki state was already coming hard after him with a tonne of money and he should now feel like he is on top of the World. He did say "NO" to Oki state, but he is expecting Kansas fans will embrace him completely now.

Final 2

This year's NCAA tournament has not been blessed with many close games since the sweet 16 weekend. The games are always fun and interesting because this time of the year is all about college hoops, but the nail-biters have been missing since last week. The Final 4 was no different. It's a really interesting match-up when you got all 4 number 1's lined up. You never know which number is better than which other number one. Memphis looked like they were way better than the UCLA bruins. I was surprised how ordinary UCLA looked against this team. The Tigers are a beast. Calipari had done a great job at Memphis. This guy recruits like a mother. They are loaded with great athletes and they look like a NBA team in disguise the way they run up and down the court and finish the breaks.

Derrick Rose, CDR and Joey Dorsey were too much to handle for UCLA. Dorsey was a factor even without scoring a point. They defended real well and zoned up on Kevin Love. He rarely saw the ball and when he did, had to settle for long jumpers. They locked up Love and gambled on the rest of the Bruins and won the game rather easily. CDR was all over the place and Derrick Rose is the real deal. This quote from John Calipari might be the quote of the tournament. When asked about Derrick Rose going to the NBA next year, Calipari said "if he wants to do what's right for him and his family, he'll go pro. If he wants to do what's right for me and my family, he'll stay". Thats awesome. Rose will be a huge factor in the finals on Monday and might win the MVP of the final 4 when all is said and done.

The other game had a weird start and an weird end and was even weirder in-between. Before people could settle into their seats, North Carolina was down 40-12! People were like "what in the name of Dean Smith is goin on here?" Nothing went right for the heels and Kansas took it to them with tremendous energy and effort. Kansas was all over the place and it looked like they had their hands on every one of NC's passes. Turnovers helped them race to this huge lead and then the game settled down in to a more normal flow. Suddenly Kansas was stuck at 40 as NC started a long-drawn comeback. The heels got all the way back to within 4 points from 28 down and it was an amazing sight. I think Bill Self would have been fired right there if Kansas lost this game. Finally Kansas woke up and went on another big run to win the game 84-66. I have never seem such wild fluctuations in a game quite like this.

So now we have a great championship game between Memphis and Kansas, though the TV channels might have preferred a UCLA-NC finals. We got 2 great teams with a lot of talent and athleticism, and not afraid to play up-tempo, that will go at each other at full-tilt. I think Memphis gets it done. Calipari and Derrick Rose seem too focussed and committed to let this one slip away. I expect a close game. Or who knows, the game could be 40-12 after just 8 minutes.

Jury still out on Shaq.

The jury is still out on the Shaq trade for the most part. Things are looking much better than it did during his first 2 weeks with the Suns, but they still are not quite the World-beaters they need to be to get out of the brutal West. He has gelled really well and is putting up more than decent numbers. He doesn't want the ball and ignites quite a few fast-breaks just like he said he would. There are not too many chemistry issues on the court and the Suns rarely get out-rebounded badly these days, which is a a big difference from the last 3 plus seasons. Despite all this, the Suns are not considered a favorite at this point. They still lose to real good teams. They lost to both the Pistons and the Celtics on the road recently and split the home-and-away with Denver. Those 2 Denver games were awesome, especially the first one when they came back from a 19 point half-time deficit. That win had a potential to be a season-changer much like the Spurs win a few weeks earlier if only the Suns didn't lose the very next day at Denver in another close, high-scoring contest. As of now, even I can't tell you where the Suns really stand. The pecking order in the West changes daily and you would think getting in to the top-4 would be very good for any team because of the home-court.

But if I look closely at the standings, I don't mind it the way it stands today with the Hornets, Spurs, Lakers, Jazz and the Suns at 5. The Jazz are pretty much locked in at 4 because they'll win the division. This means the Suns get in the top 4 only if the Lakers, Spurs or the Hornets drop out. They probably won't catch the Spurs or the Hornets since they are 2 games behind with just 7 games to go. They still can potentially get past the Lakers and get to 3. This means they meet Houston and then the Spurs and probably the Lakers. Thats brutal, though the Suns will beat the Rockets easily. Now if they stay at 5, playing Utah with no home-court will be hell, but the good part is, Spurs and the Lakers will take care of each other. This means the Suns will play the inexperienced Hornets in the second round and have to face either the Spurs or the Lakers in the Western Finals. Granted, the Suns are 0-4 against the Hornets, but some people like the Chuckster are saying the Hornets may even lose in the first round if they play Denver or something. It's never easy in the West, but to me a Utah-New Orleans-San Antonio route sounds better than any route that features both San Antonio and LA.

Final 4 and opening day

The Final 4 lineup is set and what we have is 4 number one seeds. How often have you seen that? Like never! This makes the Final 4 really high-profile and very interesting. We all love the cinderella stories - the Davidsons and the George Masons of the World, but to have the best 4 teams in the nation in the Final 4 is unique and I truly believe that has happened this year. This year's tourney had it's share of upsets and cinderellas, but from day 1 it was clear there were some elite teams and then then there were others. The others were playing the usual tourney while the elite teams were really playing at HNL ('hole 'nother level). All the four top seeds were part of these elite list plus a few others like Texas. Unfortunately for Texas, they ran into an elite Memphis team today and were bounced easily. Derrick Rose of Memphis is a stud! He will look good in any NBA uniform.

These number 1's are better than what you see in the tournament usually. So while the 4-Th and 5-Th seeds were having trouble with 12's and 13's, these guys went straight to the top. This tournament's darling, Davidson almost beat Kansas, but Kansas prevailed. We will all miss Stepehn Curry in the Final 4. He is fun to watch. Instead, what you have are 4 elite teams and they'll fight it out. Memphis is on a roll. I wouldn't be surprised if they take care of UCLA. The NC-Kansas match-up should be a dandy. Thats a lot harder to call in my opinion. Who knows, may be this Final 4 ends up being Psycho-T's coronation. Can't wait for next weekend. Can you imagine how much fun it would be if these 4 teams played a round-robin tourney?

By the way what's happening to the Sporting calendar? We used to be done with the Final 4 when the baseball season started. Then we got to a point where the national championship game coincided with opening day for a few years. And this year the MLB season will almost be a week old by the time the Final 4 rolls around. Close to 2 weeks if you count the As-Sox games in Japan. Speaking of MLB, how ironic is it that the season started off with boos as W threw the first pitch in Washington. A fitting start to another steroid=scandal covered MLB season. Hopefully this will be the last one. Bush's only contribution to the country might have been his efforts in shining some light on the MLB steroid controversy. The highest office he should have gotten to should have been the commissioner of the MLB. Even thats acceptable only because Bud Selig is so bad that W would have been a better choice! Unfortunately we ended up with W running the whole country.

Enough of politics and steroids. Lets pick the MLB division winners. I think my DBacks stay on top and win the West. This year is Milwaukee's year. I like them to win NL central though it's going to be a tough race with the Cubs and the Cards. I pick the Mets to come out of the East. They better do something with all that money and talent. Phily and the Braves will give them a run. The Rockies take the Wild Card in the NL. As for the AL, I think Seattle takes the West. My favorite AL team, the A's are in deep re-building mode and will not even be in the picture this season. Expect to see some real ugly attendance numbers in Oakland. Detroit wins the Central. They look real good right now, though Cleveland might have the better rotation. Same old, same old in the East. Boston stays on top with the Yanks chasing them all season and ending up with the Wild Card. My dream of both these teams missing the playoffs is not going to happen this year, though Toronto is going to be good. Poor guys are stuck in the wrong division in a sport with an unfair economic system.

March Greatness

Last couple of weeks have been a busy time in my life. Couldn't blog about the March Madness last weekend as much as I would have liked to. The first weekend of the tournament is the best weekend, may be of the entire year, because of the sheer volume of the games and the unique single-elimination drama of it all. A BIG upset on the first day was averted as Duke almost lost to Belmont. I am sure a 71-70 win against a 15-Th seed was not what coach-K was looking for. Right there you knew Duke was in trouble the rest of the way. They lost to West Virginia the very next round. Friday was more spectacular than Thursday. 12-Th and 13-Th seeds this year won all over the place. Western Kentucky beat Drake. San Diego eliminated Connecticut and Villanova took care of Clemson. Davidson and Gonzaga played a beauty and Davidson went on to beat no-2 Georgetown in the second round. Davidson is the official cinderella team. They are in the sweet-16 as a 10-Th seed and are now waiting for Wisconsin. Should be a great game.

As for the big names and superstars, North Carolina has looked real unbeatable so far. Kansas is not too shabby either. Memphis had a tough time against Mississippi state and UCLA had to struggle a bit against Texas A&M. Michael Beasley and OJ Mayo for Kansas State and USC didn't do much. They played each other in round 1 and USC and Mayo were disappointing. Kansas State was not much better in round 2 against Wisconsin. The other great game of the first weekend was Marquette-Stanford. Stanford's coach got kicked out on Ts and the Cardinals still figured out a way to win at the end. Now they have to face Texas in the sweet-16. Many great match-ups coming up this weekend and I just love this time of the year. I don't know whether to pick Memphis-Michigan State or Louisville-Tennessee or Davidson-Wisconsin as the best game. I wish I sit at home and watch all of them.

The star of the tourney so far has been Stephen Curry. He is Dell Curry's son and is averaging 35 points in the first 2 games. Impressive! He is a little under-sized but can shoot lights-out like his old man. He will be one of the main attractions at the sweet-16 as the 10-Th seed Davidson try to keep dancing. Plus the TV cameras are all over his mom Sonya Curry, who is not too bad to look at. As for upsets, I know there will be some, but hard to pick the right one. I am never super lucky, but my worst performance is always with the NCAA bracket. I rarely do well and this year is no different. I don't follow the NCAA as closely as the NBA and with my shaky luck, it's just not a great combo for bracket success. Lets see how the rest of the tournament goes. It should be a lot of fun.

ASU Snubbed

ASU was left off the big dance again. With a decent 9-9 PAC-10 record including 2 wins against Arizona (though the wildcats had a down year) and a 19-12 overall record, they will be sitting at home watching the tournament and I don't like that one bit. I think ASU deserved a bid, though the loss at Oregon after the USC win was a killer. There are way too many decent teams being left off of a 65 team bracket and I am wondering where the bids go? I have never been a fan of expanding the field, but it might be time. The automatic bids are a killer. I support the mid-majors and they make this tournament what it is, but still the automatic bids rob a lot of good major conference teams. I don't want to leave it all to at-large picks either because then the mid-majors will definitely get screwed. So thats why you expand. I don't want a 128 team field like coach Knight is suggesting or even a 96 team field. I am proposing a 80 team field with 16 extra games among the bottom 32 to round off the final 64. Basically a complete play-in round much like the stupid play-in game. Can you imagine how much fun it would be if there are 8 games each on Tues and Wed leading up to the usual Thurs through Sun games? I am turned on just thinking about it :-) The best time of the year would get even better.

In the bizarro world of the NBA, the Houston Rockets are on top of the Western conference with the Fakers at 2 and the Hornets at 3. The Suns, Spurs and the Mavs are at the 5-Th, 6-Th and 7-Th spot respectively. Are you kidding me? Show me anybody who predicted this at the beginning of the season, I will show you a liar or an idiot or may be both. Of course the race is air-tight and anything can still happen, but still it's amazing that the Rockets are at the top after a 22 game winning streak. They seem to be fine without Yao, though I think that won't be the case in the playoffs. They will miss the big guy in the NBA's version of the big dance. They have had some lucky breaks like today they when they beat the Fakers without Pau Gasol. But anyway you cut it, a 22 game winning streak is impressive. The only thing more impressive might be the Denver Nuggets scoring 168 against the Sonics tonight. Thats 2 games worth of scoring right there for most of the Eastern conference teams. This, after the Sonics gave up 138 points to these same Nuggets in February. The Sonics have lost these 2 games against the Nuggets by a total of 94 points. Noce! How do you score 116 points and still lose 52 points!

The Suns seem to be on a roll coming off the Spurs win. They then beat the Warriors on Thursday with a high-scoring game and kinda got their run-and-gun mojo back for the first time since the trade. They continued that against the Kings with a rather impressive performance. There was a stretch in the second quarter when they were in that zone where they were running up and down and hitting everything. When the Suns are playing that way, it's a thing of beauty like no other. They have not been in this kind of flow in may be a year. Finally the joy of playing and winning seem to be back and if thats the case, that might be the biggest gain from this whole Shaq trade. They seem to have gotten their swagger back after beating the Spurs and they should keep this momentum going. As a matter of fact, I am not even sure anymore if that Spurs win was actually that impressive because the Spurs are just 5-5 in their last 10 and have lost 3 straight. But most of Sports is mental and beating the Spurs seems to have kick-started the Suns. It's ironic that both the Spurs and Suns are streaking in the opposite direction since that game. Oh by the way, STAT is back completely. It has taken a year and a half, but Amare is as good as he has ever been. 30-10 is an average game these days for him and more importantly, his hop seem to have reached the pre-surgery levels. Another gain from the Shaq trade could be Amare's renewed energy, his slightly different role on offense and his commitment on defense.

Big Win For LOSSUNS

Big win for the Suns finally this season. They beat the hated Spurs on Sunday on ABC. I expected Shaq to be of help against the Spurs and sure enough, he was huge yesterday. Of course I didn't know the Suns would be so bad with Shaq against everybody else, but I did expect them to do better against the Spurs with Shaq and that indeed was the case. Granted, it's not like they took care of the Spurs easily. The Spurs were still very tough and a miss here or a make there, this game could have very easily gone the other way and we would all be singing a different tune today. But thats the nature of Sports and the Suns did pull out a close win that required every ounce of their defensive energy. I still do not know who wins more games if these two teams play 10 times (or 7 for that matter). But at least for one day, everything was fine in the new Suns Shaq-land.

The good part is, the Suns played VERY hard especially on the defensive end. I guess it's obvious by now that the Suns have been horrible defensively since THE Trade. I guess the players figured they can't win without a superior defensive effort and they brought it today. The tough part is, can they do this day-in and day-out, play-in and play-out? They have to if they want to win anything meaningful this season. Thats how wanting they are defensively. If they don't play this hard, it aint happening. Jeff Van Gundy started the game yesterday calling out Steve Nash and his defense. It was shocking! The MP3 is under the microscope these days now that Matrix is gone and he has to guard a perimeter-stud nightly because most teams have at least 2 of those and Raja can't guard both. In fact, Raja can barely guard even one these days, but thats neither here nor there.

Nash was good offensively as always. It's ridiculous how bad the +/- is when he is in the game versus when he is not. Makes you think he is still the MVP of the league. Shaq is rebounding like a monster since the trade. Granted, he is the only one in this Suns roster who even tries to get a board, but still his 11.3 per game is impressive. Against the Spurs, he had 14-16 to go with Nash's 19 and 14 dimes. Those 2 got it done. Parker didn't kill Nash like I expected he would. I think Parker is still a little rusty, but the team D got it done yesterday. Mike D'Antoni was real good coaching the final few minutes as well and Shaq had some key plays on D at the end. They toughed it out and now they have to do it consistently. Their Jerseys said Lossuns due to some Hispanic-related promotion and it looked ominous to me at the start since they have been losing consistently lately. Now I want it every day. I think it's lucky.

Perfect Sunday since the Suns beat the Spurs and the Fakers lost at home to the Kings with Kobe missing the potential game winner at the buzzer.

3-5 - The Suns saga

Another loss for the Suns tonight. This time at Denver. No defense again. They won yesterday at Portland, which is not a bad team. But it was an ugly win as well. They are now 3-5 with Shaq and some of the games have been ugly. I am not sure whether to be happy or sad with the ugly wins. One theory says uglies are good because that means they can now play and win muck-up, defensive basketball. I am not so sure. I think they are only winning winnable games in a ugly way while they used to do it in style. I still have not seen them win a big game or games they would typically lose. They get their chance this Sunday as they play the mighty Spurs on ABC-HD. I had very low expectations from the Shaq trade, but I thought the one team he can help us with are the Spurs because the Spurs always force the Suns to go half-court. But the Suns defense has clearly taken a step back since the trade. They gave up 126 to Denver today. They could never guard Tony Parker and Manu Ginobli and it can only get worse this Sunday with this new perimeter defense or the lack thereof.

My worst fears have come through as far as missing Marion goes. I think they miss him bad on the perimeter. Raja Bell has been average at best this season at either end of the floor and Marion was the only other threat on defense. Now thats gone. Shaq can guard the paint, but he has never been that great defensively. Also you can't be a sieve on the perimeter and hope the paint will be guarded by the bigs. It doesn't work that way. The really ironic part of the whole deal is this. Can Nash be missing Marion more than Marion is missing Nash? Many people thought that Marion was dumb to want to get away from Nash and all the easy baskets he gets him. While thats true, suddenly there is a lot of talk among the Suns fans about how Nash is struggling. The MP3 was UNTOUCHABLE and he owned the city of Phoenix until 3 weeks back. But now there are some murmurs in the valley of the Sun about how his game has slipped. His turnover numbers are up and he is not spraying assists like he used to. He did get 13 dimes today but had just 4 against Portland yesterday. No wonder that win was ugly.

With Shaq in there instead of Marion, the spacing is all gone and Nash doesn't get as many assists on open 3's. It's easier to predict where the ball goes now and that explains some of the turnovers. Also, no easy fast-break dunks and alley-oops without Marion in there. My fear with the trade was that Marion did a lot for this team, for which he never got too much credit and we will miss him bad when he is gone. Even if Shaq did what he was supposed to, who's going to replace Marion? Because they are 2 entirely different players and the Suns need both those skill-sets. Shaq is actually not doing too bad. For instance, he had 12-18 today. I think this whole thing is not really about Marion or Shaq being good or bad or better than the other, it's all about who fits this team and this system better. Thats definitely Marion and not Shaq if you ask me. Shaq will help if they also get a good replacement for Marion. Now they have Gordan Giricek. Dude played 20 minutes and shot 4/8 for 11 points against Denver. Thats a good start. I think he can help, but where are the 6-Th seed Suns going this season when all is said and done? Only time will tell.

Favre is done. Or is he really?

No sooner had Brett Favre announced his retirement than people started talking about his comeback! Number 4 announced his retirement on Mar 4-Th and shocked the Packer nation. The very next day, people are saying he may have second thoughts by the time August rolls around. I guess thats because usually Favre is waffling until late into spring/summer and he always decides to play. Now he made a decision early like he said he would and people think he might have second thoughts later. That would be weird if his retirement is shorter than Roidger Clemens a few years back. Leagues should enforce a rule that if you retire, you got to at least stay retired for one full season.

The other curious factor was Favre retiring the day after Moss re-signed with the Patriots. I believe those 2 events were related. Favre wanted Moss and probably thought he can put them over the top since they were so good last season. Once Moss was gone, I think Favre made up his mind to retire. He did say that winning a Super Bowl would have been the only reason for him to come back. In his mind, Moss was that guy. Now it's A-Rod's team. I wonder if Aaron Rodgers will be as good as Alex Rodriguez is in baseball. I always liked this guy and it's his time to shine now. He also inherits a great team and is lucky Favre retired now and not when the team was real bad.

I was lucky I made the trip to Green Bay last year. I have been postponing my trip for years and I should thank my cousin in Milwaukee for hooking me up with the tickets. If I had postponed one more year, I would have missed Brett Favre at Lambeau. He really owned that place. Warren Sapp also retired yesterday and unfortunately for him, nobody cares. He picked the wrong day. He will probably make the Hall Of Fame in 5 years if anybody remembers he actually retired yesterday! Speaking of the HOF, apparently Packer fans are already planning for the Canton trip in 5 years. Thats a committed fan base.

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.