Opening Day - MLB

Opening day came and went for another MLB season. I don't like the fact that the opening day and the NCAA finals are on the same day. I would rather have thee two major sporting events on different days of the calendar. This has been happening the last few years and this year was no different. Lots of focus this opening day on the San Francisco Giants because of the two Barrys. One is chasing Hank Aaron and the other, the ghost of Kevin Brown! I am an A's (and DBacks in the NL) fan and I like Barry Zito a lot, but I can't believe the Giants of all teams paid him 126 mill for 7 years. That's not the way they do business. Zito is not worth it only because no pitcher is! But he is at least healthy by pitcher standards. I'll give him that. But both Barrys disappointed this opening day. Zito lost after giving up 3 runs (2 earned) and Bonds went 1/3 with a walk and no home runs. He is still 22 HRs short of the record

The season need to warm up. Not many story lines right now. We always hear about watered-down pitching and I never really knew what to think of it. I realize there are more teams now, but in 2007 there should also be more people in general, more athletes, more money, more motivation to become a great pitcher, better workout programs, health sciences etc. So I always thought we should have enough pitching talent in this day and age and having 30 teams instead of 18 or 24 or whatever shouldn't matter all that much. So I decided to look at the starting pitchers for all the teams and the list is as follows.

Padres - Jake Peavy
Giants - Barry Zito
Diamondbacks - Brandon Webb
Rockies - Aaron Cook
Dodgers - Derek Lowe

Cardinals - Chris Carpenter
Brewers - Ben Sheets
Cubs - Carlos Zambrano
Reds - Aaron Harang
Pirates - Zack Duke
Astros - Roy Oswalt

NY Mets - Tom Glavine
Braves - John Smoltz
Marlins - Dontrelle Willis
Nationals - John Patterson
Phillies - Brett Myers

Athletics - Dan Haren
Mariners - Felix Hernandez
Texas - Kevin Millwood
Angels - John Lackey.

Royals - Gil Meche
Twins - Johan Santana
Tigers - Jeremy Bonderman
Indians - C.C.Sabathia
White Sox - Jose Contreras

Blue Jays - Roy Halladay
Yankees - Carl Pavano
Devil Rays - Scott Kazmir
Red Sox - Curt Schilling
Orioles - Erik Bedard

You look at this list and go "what the hell?". I know that a couple of guys are injured like Mark Prior and Francisco Liriano and some teams have multiple aces like Smoltz and Tim Hudson, but still, this list is real slim pickings! Now I totally agree that pitching is watered way down. Either kids are not taking up pitching these days or all the medical, health and other advances have helped only the hitters and hurt the pitchers along with all the other changes to the game over the years. Whatever the reason is, the pitching talent is just not there in the game today. There are not more than 10 to 12 true aces in that list. That's bad for an opening day. Now just imagine if I list the 5-Th day starter for all these teams! Should look brutal!

Mavs win without Nowitzki - NBA notes - 04/03/2007

Dallas won a tough game today on the road at Sacto even without Dirk Nowitzki. Mavs were able to close out a close game at a tough place without Dirk. This should do their confidence a lot of good. They showed their talent, versatility and depth. Josh Howard led the way with 29-8, Jason Terry had 27 and Stack had 23. All 3 stepped up to compensate for Dirk's offense and they sure can. Artest had 25 in the loss.

Toronto beat Miami at home the other day, but it was Miami's turn today. They won by 3 as Shaq had 16-12 with 3 blocks. He is a factor again and with Wade starting to practice, high hopes and interesting times in Miami. The Heat are still a game behind the Raptors for the third spot in the L-East. Melo' 31 was more effective than Kobe's 39 on this night as the Lakers lost to Denver at home. Denver is a 1.5 behind LA. It's not often you see somebody jacking up 7 shots more than AI, but given Kobe's current run and AI's reduced role as a scorer these days, I guess Kobe can't be blamed too much.

Bron-Bron came back from his knee injury and had 31-12-6 today as the Cavs won against the T-Wolves. Looks like the Cavs are doing really well with Larry Hughes at point and Sasha Pavlovic in the starting lineup. Suns won on the road at Memphis in a game that got a little too close for comfort. Amare had 27 and scored 11 straight at one point to seal the deal despite his foul troubles. Nash had a perfect shooting night - 4/4 from the field, 3/3 from 3 and 4/4 from the charity stripe. That's 15 points to go with 17 dimes. I don't know how this guy does it, but he just does. Matrix filled up the box score with 17-12-2-3-3 and the Brazilian blur scored 24. Tayshaun Prince scored 24 as the Pistons dumped the Pacers pretty easily. Tay is having a great run lately. It's been fun watching this guy's game evolve in the NBA coming out of Kentucky. Not bad for a 23-rd pick. How many guys thought he would have the career he is having? Me neither.

Dallas @ Sacramento - 97-93
Toronto @ Miami - 89-92
Denver@ LA Lakers - 111-105

Interesting games on the board for Apr 4-Th (Wednesday)

Chicago @ Detorit - It feels like Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland play each other every other day. Can't complain because it' the L-East and they don't have anything better.

LA Lakers @ LA Clippers - Who's the better team in LA?

Final Notes on the Final Four.

Impressive win for the Gators. I wish I was a Florida alum. How cool is it to have both the football and the basketball championships at the same time? Actually, a football ring sandwiched between 2 basketball rings. Amazing feat for a team that would have had 3 lottery picks last year - Joakim Noah, Corey Brewer and Al Hoford. All 3 decide to come back and they stay on course all season and win their back-to-back championship as planned. Over the weekend, Florida beat UCLA again fairly comfortably and so did Ohio State against the Hoyas. It's amazing how these match ups work in the NCAAs. When I saw the suck-eyes against the Hoyas, it felt like there was a huge talent gap in favor of OSU and it felt like the Hoyas were fighting an uphill battle all game. OSU just seemed to have more talent both on the perimeter and the interior. When they played the Gators, I got the same feeling, but this time it was Ohio State that looked over matched and under talented. The Gators are just too good and too complete a team. They got athletes, big bodies, big-bodied athletes, great shooters and great shooting athletes! Lee Humphrey is just too good. I didn't see him miss a single open 3 the entire final four. Florida shot 55% from 3 and OSU shot 17%. That was the difference in the game right there. If OSU just hit a few more of those threes, this would have been a very interesting game since Greg Oden was on fire.

The outside shooting let Greg Oden down today. He was just awesome today. He showed me everything I needed to see in a NBA top pick. He had 25 points, 12 boards and 4 blocks. He is pretty athletic and effective in the low-block. He stayed out of foul trouble today and the Gators couldn't do much to stop him. He hit 10/15 shots and also had a couple of awesome blocks. Unfortunately, the loose balls even after a block always seemed to land in the hands of an open Gator and Humphrey or somebody hit an open 3 to completely negate his defense. Oden helped close the gap early in the second half as they came out of half-time trailing by 11. But Florida just didn't let them get all the way back to tie or take the lead. The best way to neutralize a big man is to play from ahead if you can help it. When you are trailing by 10 or 12, it's just hard to pound the ball in to the low block, dribble twice, wait for the double team, kick it out, re-post, get the ball back again and make your move or kick out for an open jumper. Teams always panic a bit and they settle for threes or let the guards drive the lane and try and do something that way. Also Florida switched to a zone often that took Oden out of the game. That was good strategy from Billy Donovan. Mike Conley Jr had a good game too, but may be should have been more assertive early.

Oden's foul troubles were a story throughout the tournament and the much anticipated big-man match up in the semis never happened as both Oden and Hibbert were in foul trouble. But he came through in the Finals big time. I think Oden should be the consensus number 1 pick now. I am a huge Kevin Durant guy. So much so that I picked Texas to go all the way knowing fully well that I was probably making a mistake! But this guy is just too good if he can stay on the floor. He does pick up stupid fouls, but is big, strong, tough, athletic, decent low-post game, excellent instincts for blocking shots. Nuff said. The Gators have their own set of lottery picks and I love this Corey Brewer guy. Long, athletic 6'9" guy who can run the floor, hit the 3, handle the ball and D' up. You think a NBA team or 30 can use a guy like that?

Now it's all about where these guy get drafted and if Billy the kid goes to Kentucky. I think Billy can go either way here. It's probably never going to get better than 2 consecutive championships at Florida.

Scores
------
Georgetown V Ohio State - 60-67
UCLA V Florida - 66-76

Ohio State V Florida - 75-84

Suns cruise. - NBA notes - 04/01/2007

The Suns surprisingly won easily today against their arch-rival Dallas. The game was back and forth and close in the first half, but the Suns pulled away in the third and put the game away in the fourth with white-hot shooting in the second half. The entire team played well. MP3 was as good as ever with a 23-3-11 night. Amare and Stackhouse continued from where they left off the last time these 2 teams met. They had ridiculous shooting nights. Amare had 24 on 10/14 shots and stack had 25 on 11/16 shots for the Mavs. Marion had 20 and Barbosa led the Suns with 29 points. It's amazing how routinely Barbosa leads this team in both scoring and shots. It' a tribute to his game, but it's also a tribute to how much coach D'Antoni has trusted him from day 1 and let him develop in to an offensive juggernaut. But above all, it shows you the great chemistry and team-work of these Suns. The big 3 love him and have no problem letting him score in bunches because he can. He is such a good, friendly kid with a mad game. Dirk had a tough shooting game with a 6/18 showing for just 21 points. Howard carried them in the first half, but the Suns were just too hot tonight. They shot 65% for the game and 80+ in the fourth. I think Dallas is good, may be even championship good, but I never bought the hype about their defense. It's much improved from their Nelly days, but it's nowhere near championship level. They have to win with their offense and in that sense, they are very similar to the Suns. I think these teams are pretty close and the hot-shooting team on a given night will win the game. It' as simple as that. The only half way decent defence you'll see in these game are when Howard in on Nash and Marion on Dirk. Even that's rarely effective because we are talking about two MVP candidates here and they can't be stopped most of the time.

The Suns win kept them 3 games ahead of the Spurs who surprisingly lost at Indiana. The Pacers, after losing all those games, beat Timmy and the boys even without Jermaine O'Neal on a driving layup by Jamaal Tinsley. Diogu had a 18-13 night. This guy is going to be good if they play him consistently. Detroit won against Miami with a good fourth quarter despite 23 from Shaq. Close game, but the Pistons turned up the D late in the fourth. The Pistons are looking good right now. Big win today for the Jazz at Houston. They "contained" Yao who had 35-16 and T-Mac who had 20. Good number, but both guys didn't shoot particularly well.

Kobe had a quiet game today as the Lakers took care of the Kings to pretty much put an end to their faint playoff hopes. He had a season-high 13 assists to go with his 19 points. They won even without a strong showing from Lamar Odom. King James missed the game at Boston and the Cavs lost to the Celtics who played without The Truth, Paul Pierce. The Warriors beat the Grizz today even though Boom-Dizzle got ejected in the first quarter. J-Rich had another strong night for the W's with 26-6-8 and the W's stayed a 1.5 behind the Clips. Looking at the schedule, I think it'll be tough for the W' to catch the Clips.

Dallas @ Phoenix - 104-126
Miami @ Detroit - 88-94
Utah @ Houston - 86-83
Sacramento @ LA Lakers - 103-126

Interesting games on the board for Apr 2-Nd (Monday)

NCAA Finals. No NBA games on the board.

King comes through! - NBA notes - 03/31/2007

The King came through big-time today as he had 39 points and dominated the OT to win the game in style. He drove to the hoop hard and often in the final minutes and went head-to-head with Ben Gordon. Benny had 37 himself, but couldn't outperform the King. Good win for the Cavs, but as always, they win the big game if and only if the King plays real big. That's a problem because the King is still young, he is more like a prince. And he cannot always dominate the game like a Kobe and that results in a lot of defeats for the Cavs. They need to have better help around him. Pavlovic and Hughes both had 21 tonight. The Cavs can definitely use more consistency from those 2 guys. In other games, Clips win again on the road at Portland to stay in front of the Warriors. Big night for Eddie Curry who had 34-13, but his Knicks lost in Oklahoma City anyways.

Cleveland @ Chicago - 112-108 (OT)

Interesting games on the board for Apr 1-St (Sunday)

Dallas @ Phoenix - Best match up in the league bar none.

Miami @ Detroit - L-Eastern finals preview.

Utah @ Houston - These teams will probably meet in the playoffs and should be a tough series.

Sacramento @ LA Lakers - Sacto would love to beat their old rivals, but a monster named Kobe is on the way.

Kobe dominates, but loses to a better team. - NBA notes - 03/30/2007

Michael Ruffin had an interesting game today. He got the ball at the end of the game and heaved the ball in a celebratory gesture with a couple o seconds to go as his Wizards were ahead by 3. Only one problem. There was too much time left and the ball was not heaved high enough. So it came down right in to the hands of Morris Peterson who nailed the 3 to send the game to OT. That was Mo Pete's only shot attempt of the game and Michael Ruffin's only brain cramp of the game! Once the game went in to OT,C-Bosh did the rest to seal the game for the Raptors. He had a 37-15-5 night. He is some kind of player. Toronto has to deal with injuries to both Jorge Garbajosa and Andrea Bargnani. Too bad because they can do some real damage in the L-East if completely healthy.

Kobe had 53 big ones, but lost to Houston as Yao had 39 and T-Mac had 30. Kobe did take 44 shots and miss 25 of those, most of the misses coming in the third. But it was amazing to see him dominate the first half and then again lead the team from behind in the fourth. Houston fouled Kwame intentionally to prevent the game-tying 3 - a strategy you see rarely and we also saw why you see it rarely. Kwame rimmed both throws but the second one bounced long and Kobe tracked it down. Of course Kobe took and made a ridiculous 3 to send the game to OT as T-Mac missed the buzzer beater at the other end. In OT, Kobe was still doing good, but they called a travel at mid-court on Kobe, another rare sight - a NBA ref making a tough travel call on a super-star in the final minutes of a game. Houston then closed the door on the Lakers and Kobe had nothing to show for after his great night. He saw first hand what a good team can do as Yao was unstoppable. T-Mac just has such a much easier life than Kobe with Yao to lean on.

Phoenix put Denver away behind a monster night by Marion. The Matrix has been MIA the last few weeks and he came back strong today as he had 33-9. He then suggested he was not in any kind of slump, but just that he doesn't see the ball enough. Typical Matrix, always feeling under-appreciated and over-criticized. D'Antoni said "If he supplies the energy we'll supply the possibilities on the floor" . Typical D'Antoni. These 2 guys have an interesting relationship. Melo had 32-10, but tweaked his ankle towards the end. The Suns needed this game and won it in style.

Spurs did the same with the Jazz as the big 3, Timmy, Tony and Manu, all had good games. Jazz didn't get the big win they were looking for. Dallas kept pace with the Suns and the Spurs as they won an exciting game against the Knicks. They had to deal with Starbury who was on fire. He had 43 today and looked determined to single handedly beat the best team in the league. But he couldn't quite close the deal and Dirk hit some big shots for the Mavs. Nowitzki scored 17 of his 30 in the fourth with 9 of those coming in the last 2 minutes. Good win for him personally. The Clip-joint went in to Sacto and won a big game. They are doing really well now. Some experts are saying they play better without Sam Cassell! Jason Hart is doing a great job at the point. In the East, big night for Chauncey Billups as he had 32 and 14 dimes to take care of the Nets.

Utah @ San Antonio - 93-102
Denver @ Phoenix - 108-125
Houston @ LA Lakers - 107-104 (OT)
Toronto @ Washington - 123-118 (OT)
LA Clippers @ Sacramento - 105-101

Interesting games on the board for Mar 31-St (Saturday)

Cleveland @ Chicago - Another good one in the Central, may be the most balanced division in the league.

J-Rich is too rich for the Suns - NBA notes - 03/29/2007

J-Rich and the Warriors shot the lights out today against the Suns and they won a big game. Bad loss for the Suns as they got hammered in this one. They got back in to this game in the fourth as they held the W's to 15 points, and their bench, led by Barbosa, closed the game strong. But the W's play a similar style as the Suns and they just played it better today. J-Rich shot 5-6 3-pointers in the first quarter and the W's had 45 points after one! The Suns have to play better D than this if they want to win. This Warriors team looked absolutely pathetic against the Spurs D the other night and today they looked unstoppable. I understand J-Rich had a hot shooting night after the zero point game he had against the Spurs, but still the Suns D was non-existent. J-Rich had 36 points on 14/23 shooting with 8/13 coming from downtown. Stephen Jacko had 29 himself and Boom-Dizzle had 21-8-12 night. Not a great night for any of the Suns except may be Diaw who had a decent game with 18-6-7 night. D'Antoni probably got upset with their effort and put most of the starters on the bench in the third never to return again. I thought he should have put some of them back in when the game got close, but the coach let the guys who got them there finish it for him. Marcus Banks defended Baron Davis pretty well in the fourth and helped the recovery along with Kurt Thomas, James Jones, Barbosa and Diaw. Good win for the Warriors as they showed they play the same style as Phoenix and Dallas and they can match up with them pretty well. Bad loss for the Suns as they also showed that their defense can be very suspect sometimes.

In Chicago, Carlos Delfino fouled Kirk Hinrich on a three with 2.7 seconds to go and Hinrich hit 2 of 3 to win a close game for the Bulls. Quality win for them and they should feel good about themselves. Tayshaun Prince had 26 and Ben Gordon had 25. In Portland, Zach Randolph scored 43 today, but Memphis won anyways.

Detroit @ Chicago - 81-83
Phoenix @ Golden State - 119-124

Interesting games on the board for Mar 30-Th (Friday)

Utah @ San Antonio - Utah can show us if they are a tier-1 or a tier-2 team in the West.

Denver @ Phoenix - Another fun shootout, but the Suns need the win after Thursday's debacle.

Houston @ LA Lakers - T-Mac V Kobe. The way Kobe is going, this doesn't even look like a great personal match up these days!

Toronto @ Washington - Toronto's rise in the East is one the great stories of this season.

LA Clippers @ Sacramento - Another road test for the road-weary paper-clips.

Dallas wins 60 - NBA notes - 03/28/2007

The Mavs won their 60-Th game today against a Bucks team that just would not go away. The Bucks actually lead most of the night with Redd hitting all kind of shots from all over the court. The Mavs looked shaky with Nowitzki playing just 15 minutes on a bum ankle. Jason Terry lead them with 27 points in the win.

King James had a horrible shooting night at the Garden and the Knicks got enough from Eddie Curry to win this game. The Cavs better hope LeBron doesn't have too many of these 6/20 shooting nights in the playoffs. The other star from the LeBron-Melo-Wade draft, Chris Bosh led the Raptors to a big win against the Heat with a 13-18 night. Indiana, without Jermaine O'Neal today, had no shot at New Jersey. The Nets rolled them up pretty easily. Indiana is 1.5 games behind the 8-Th spot now and the Nets are in the 7-Th spot.

The Clippers lost 1/2 a game in their lead for the 8-Th spot as they couldn't beat the Rockets and the Ming Dynasty. Yao had 24-15 and McGrady had 27 points on 30 shots. T-Mac is not shy about jacking it up and neither is Corey Maggette. If the paper-clips ever realize that getting the ball to Elton Brand is a good thing, this team can do some damage. They are now 1.5 games ahead of the Warriors and 2.5 games ahead of the Hornets who lost to the Spurs and Timmy today. Timmy had 31 points and hit his first 3 pointer of the season. It should be late March or April since Timmy is beginning to get on a nice roll.

Miami @ Toronto - 83-96
Cleveland @ New York - 93-97
Houston @ LA Clippers - 92-87
Indiana @ New Jersey - 94-118

Interesting games on the board for Mar 29-Th (Thursday)

Detroit @ Chicago - As good as it gets in the L-East. Two teams that have won 7 out of their last 10 games face each other.

Phoenix @ Golden State - Should be a fun one since both teams like to run-and-gun and the W's usually play the Suns close.

Sweet Weekend in the NCAA.

The tournament rolled on last weekend with some fun games and great names. The games were tight and a lot of fun. Kansas won by 3 against the Salukis, UCLA won by 9, Memphis by 1 and Ohio State by 1 on Thursday. That's some March madness folks. The Suck-eyes (luck-eyes if you want to go with a classier approach) won by a point against Tennessee after trailing by 17 in the first half. Vols basically choked this one away and the Suck-eyes are living dangerously. Greg Oden was in all kinds of foul trouble in this one, but he put the exclamation point on this game with a block on the final drive of the game. Ramar Smith's shot probably wouldn't have gone in, but Oden blocked it anyways. Suck-eyes move on.

By the way, I don't hate this OSU basketball team. In fact, I like this team and their 42-year old freshmen Greg Oden, but it's just that the Suck-eyes stole my Arizona State's only real chance at a football title in the 1997 Rose Bowl. They scored a TD on multiple pass interference calls after Jake the Snake drove us to what we thought was a game winning touchdown drive with less than 2 minutes to go. Anyways, coming back to Oden, doesn't he look like he is 42 years old? Rick Pitino had the famous rant as the head coach of the Celtics when he said his team was young and improving and the fans should be patient. He said "Larry Bird is not walking through that door, fans. Kevin McHale is not walking through that door, and Robert Parish is not walking through that door". Guess what, if the Celtics end up drafting Greg Oden, I guess Robert Parish will be walking though that door. Oden looks exactly like Parish, only older!

On Friday, Oregon beat UNLV by 4 and Georgetown beat Vandy by a point. Georgetown's game winning bucket from Jeff Green could have easily been called a travel, but it was not and the Hoyas move on. North Carolina and Florida had relatively easier games as they dispatched USC and Butler respectively. So here are the scores from the Sweet 16.

UNLV - Oregon - 72-76
Texas A&M - Memphis - 64-65
USC - North Carolina - 64-74
Pittsburgh - UCLA - 55-64
Vanderbilt - Georgetown - 65-66
Southern Illinois - Kansas - 58-61
Tennessee - Ohio State - 84-85
Butler - Florida - 57-65

The Elite 8 featured 4 1-seeds, 3 2-seeds and a 3-seed. I have never seen a tournament stay this true to form. Very few upsets and the seeding stay true. The committee should be patting itself on the back for it, though some experts criticized them for not picking enough mid-majors and also for slotting the few mid-majors they did pick against each other in the early rounds like Old Dominion and Butler. That took away a lot of the upset potential and the David-V-Goliath feel away from the early rounds. In any case, you can't really complain if you have a Kansas-UCLA match up in the Elite-8. The Bruins got to play this one in San Jose, and it was a home game pretty much for them. They put away Kansas pretty easily behind some great D. This game featured more steals than a busy shopping district in LA during a race riot. UCLA had 15 and Kansas had 17. A hard-fought, high-energy game and Ben Howland jut has his guys playing hard and D'ing up.

The suck-eyes took care of Memphis with a late run and a good 17 point night from Oden to get to the final four. They'll meet the Hoyas who beat the Tar heels on Sunday with a late surge. They got back from 11 down to tie the game and won it in overtime by 12 points as they saw the heels miss shot after shot after shot. The Heels missed 22 of their final 23 shots to lose this one in shocking fashion. The Hoyas have some size and their bigs were clutch late in the game. For the heels, Psycho-T - Tyler Hansbrough was unstoppable with 26-11, but even he went cold at the end. I am glad John Thompson III is going to the final four. I always liked his dad the "towel" Thompson.

Florida beat Oregon in the other game to setup a re-match with UCLA. Oregon's guard Tajuan Porter let them down with a 2/10 shooting night. They did get 27 from Aaron Brooks, but they needed everybody against this tough Florida team.

These are the elite-8 scores for the record.

UCLA-Kansas - 68-55
Memphis-Ohio State - 76-92
Oregon-Florida - 77-85
Georgetown-North Carolina - 96-84

My Final Four predictions, not that my bracket was any good :-)

UCLA beats Georgetown in the finals.

Kobe is back to Earth - NBA notes - 03/27/2007

Kobe came back to Earth finally. He scored 23 on 7/26 shots and the Lakers lost to the lowly Grizzlies who got just 10 points from Pau Gasol and Mike Miller was not even on the court. Bad loss for the Lakers and Kobe. A buzz-kill after all that happened last week. Odom had 3 points in this game though he had 16 boards and 11 dimes.

King James had a 28-7-6 night against the Pacers to hand them another loss. Jermaine O'Neal showed up like a man again with a 32 point night, but the Cavs were not going to lose this one after one of those stupid "players-only meeting" that apparently James called for. It worked for the Cavs for whatever reason and the Pacers have now lost 15 of 17. Poor Jermaine O'Neal should be dying inside.

Crazy win for the Sonics today behind Rashard Lewis's 35 points, 21 of which came in the money quarter. Up by 25 points with five minutes left in the third quarter, Minnesota was outscored 51-18 the rest of the way and 25-2 to end the game, losing 114-106 to the Supersonics . This might effectively end the playoff dream for the T-Wolves. Good news for the Hornets, Clippers and the Warriors.

Memphis @ LA Lakers - 88-86
Cleveland @ Indiana - 105-94

Interesting games on the board for Mar 28-Th (Wednesday)

Miami @ Toronto - Identical records, tough Miami look like the better team these days.

Cleveland @ New York - King James in the Big Apple.

Houston @ LA Clippers - Important game for the Clip-Joint in the playoff race.

Indiana @ New Jersey - Indiana needs this one real, real bad.

March Madness from Sheed - NBA notes - 03/26/2007

The NCAA tournament this season has not had too many buzzer-beating crazy plays. So Sheed decided to compensate for it in the NBA against the Nuggets. The Nuggets were leading by 3, with the ball, and with less than 2 seconds to go. But they couldn't inbound the ball and the Pistons stole the ball. It ended up in Sheed's hands way back in the back-court. He heaves a 60 footer to beat the buzzer and the shot goes in off the glass! A crushing blow to the Nuggets. The game goes to overtime and Denver has no chance in OT. Big-shot-Billups had 34-5-10 in this game. Bad loss for the Nuggets.

Carlos Boozer poured in 41-16 today to beat the Wizard. This guy is a handful when healthy. He hit 15/21 shots to prolong the difficult Western roadie for the Wiz. Luol Deng had 38 points for the Bulls against the Jail-Blazers. Orlando won at New York to stay afloat. New York is struggling again after a good mini-stretch. Starbury was carrying them for a bit, then had a couple of bad games, and was back again today with 32 points, but was not enough. In Phoenix, the Suns beat Memphis behind 27 from Amare and 29 from Raja Bell. Shaq-Daddy had a double double with 22-11 as the Heat beat the Hawks. The Spurs beat the Warriors by 37 a day after beating the Sonics by 41! Timmy and his boys are rolling right now. Duncan looks good and the team seems to be firing on all cylinders. The Spurs are going to be a tough out for both the Suns and/or the Mavs in the playoffs.

Denver @ Detroit - 109-113
Orlando @ New York - 94-89

Interesting games on the board for Mar 27-Th (Tuesday)

Memphis @ LA Lakers - Kobe had 60 the last time these two teams met.

Cleveland @ Indiana - Cavs needs a bounce back game after what happened against Melo and the Nuggets on national TV.

Kings upset the Suns - NBA notes - 03/25/2007

Kobe was held under control today by Golden State. He scored only 43! He started the game on fire and scored at will in the first quarter. Pretty soon, the Lakers were leading by 19 and Kobe cooled off since the game looked to be over. But the feisty Warriors fought their way back in and the game tightened in the third. Kobe was also double teamed and hounded and he missed quite a few shots in the third and early fourth. The Warriors actually led this game with a few minutes to go and Kobe and the Lakers had to come back and win it. The Warriors had a shot to win it at the buzzer when Al Harrington missed a 3. Kobe finished with 43 on 15-33 shooting, which is not as great a percentage as he has been shooting lately. The Warriors lost a tough one and they got eaten up on the boards. Lamar Odom had a 24-19 night and the W's were out-rebounded 63-33.

The Kings surprised the Suns and beat them today in Sacramento. It is a tough place to play, but they are not a great team this season and the Suns were expected to win this one. As always Barbosa had a great game for the Suns with 27 and even scored 17 straight during one stretch in the first half, but Bibby was just too good today. He had 37 on 9/12 from the 3-point land including a couple of big ones in the final minute. I guess the Kings were ready for this one on national TV ad Bibby wanted to outshine the 2-time MP3 Steve Nash. Nashty had 18-9 himself, but was outplayed on this day.

Denver won at Cleveland rather convincingly with Melo pouring in 27 and AI coring 18 to go with 12 dimes. King James had just 18 in this one. Indiana lost again, this time to the Bulls, in spite of Jermaine O'Neal scoring 39 points. The Pacers are on a free-fall. I guess the trade is not working out anymore. The Hornets had a big win against Houston to keep it's playoff drive going. Chris Paul had 28. Both Nowitzki and Howard scored 28 as Dallas beat Atlanta. Detroit won again and the Spurs bitch-slapped the Sonics by 41 points.

Denver @ Cleveland - 105-93
Golden State @ LA Lakers - 113-115

Interesting games on the board for Mar 26-Th (Monday)

Denver @ Detroit - AI and Melo go into play the best of the L-East.

Orlando @ New York - Marginally interesting match-up at the bottom of the L-East.

Vinsanity in Charlotte - NBA notes - 03/24/2007

Vinsanity bailed out the Nets today with a spectacular play. With the Nets trailing by 2, Kidd took a jumper which was well short of the rim, but Vince caught the air-ball and slammed it home for an alley-oop dunk that tied the game. He also dominated the OT period to win the game for the Nets who stayed in the 7-Th spot in the L-East. All in all, Vince had 40 points today.

Clippers won again today against the Wizards. Clippers are on a mini-roll right now. Jason Hart's buzzer-beater at Milwaukee seems to have given them a bolt of new-found energy. After crushing the Jazz yesterday, they beat Agent-0 and the Wizards today to stay a game in front of the Warriors. Maggette had 29 points to offset the Agent's 30. Maggette has been carrying them lately as he had 29 points on 15 made free throws. Brand had 18-14 and the Clippers are surviving pretty well without either of their point guards - Livingston or Cassell. Jason Hart has stepped in and helped them out pretty well. As for the Wizards, this Western roadie has been a painful experience without Caron Butler. They seem to need all 3 (Gil, Tawn and Caron) to do what they do best. Wizards just shot 5/23 from 3. Wizards have no problems jacking up threes, but today they didn't fall. They are barely clinging on to the lead in the Southeast as Miami had their second straight bad loss - at home to the 76'ers.

There's still no definitive news on Wade's return. The Jazz got back on track with a 118-108 victory over Memphis. Deron had 21 and 13 dimes. Who is the better PG now - Chris Paul or Deron Williams? I think it's pretty close right now though Chris Paul looked like the clear-cut winner last year.

Washington @ LA Clippers - 105-111

Interesting games on the board for Mar 25-Th (Sunday)

Denver @ Cleveland - Melo-V-LeBron with AI in the mix.

Golden State @ LA Lakers - The Warriors are fighting for the 8-Th spot and the Lakers are just riding Kobe to wherever he takes them.

65, 50, 60, 50 ... - NBA notes - 03/23/2007

Here's the daily Kobe report. He had 50 today for the 4-Th straight 50 point game to become only the second player in NBA history with at least that many points in four consecutive games. He had 50 points on 16/29 shots and made all of his 16 FTs. He also had 7 boards but just one assist. That assist explains the 50 points I guess! Philip is suggesting he has been motivated by those suspensions to go on this tear. The good news for Kobe is, the Lakers are winning after a prolonged losing stretch. Odom had 15-10-6 to help the cause. Chris Paul had 28-6-12, but who cares!

The Spurs won a tight, hard fought game against the Pistons. It was not easy, but the Spurs just seem to know how to win these games. Both the Clip-joint and the Warriors won as they stayed close in the playoff race. The Warriors played a really fun, high-scoring game against their old friends Antawn Jamison and Gilbert Arenas. Agent-0 had 29 and 13 dimes, but the day clearly belonged to Boom Dizzle. Baron had 34-9-15 for a near triple double as he totally dominated this game. When healthy, this guy is clearly one of the top 3 or 4 point guards in this league. It's a shame he only averages 54 games a year. Biedrins, Monta and J-Rich had great games for the W's as well. Stephen Jacko got himself ejected from this game for some stupid reason and the W's had to survive his absence. Since the big trade, the Warriors have been playing some good ball and have enjoyed a lot of balanced scoring. They should be in the playoff hunt until the end, schedule permitting!

Detroit @ San Antonio - 89-90
Washington @ Golden State - 128-135
LA Lakers @ Hornets - 111-05

Interesting games on the board for Mar 24-Th (Saturday)

Washington @ LA Clippers - Clippers are suddenly on a roll a they are looking to lock up the 8-Th spot.

Kobe drops 60 again - NBA notes - 03/22/2007

Kobe scored 60 points again and the Lakers needed every point as they won by 2 against the Grizz. This guy is on an amazing roll right now. This is his 3-rd straight 50 point game. Reminds me of the run he had in 2003 when he scored 40+ in 9 straight games and 35+ in 12 straight or something. He is truly an once in a generation talent. Mike Miller and Pau Gasol had 33 and 35 in the loss and nobody even noticed them because Kobe scored almost both their totals combined. Odom was involved in this game too with 20-15 and that's always good news for the Lakers.

Amare was back to his old self with a monstrous 33-21 night. Good comeback for Amare after the 4 point night against the T-Wolves. Nash helped him with a 17 point 16 assist night to lead the Suns to one of their typical wins. No Artest for the Kings, not that it would have mattered in this game. Tough loss for Denver as Tyrus Thomas tipped in a Ben Gordon's miss at the buzzer to erase a good night from AI and Melo. Detroit's run was stopped by the Rockets at Houston as Yao Ming had 27 points and helped his team win 8 out of 10 games since he returned from injury. "Skip 2 My Lou" Rafer Alston is quietly having a big season for the Rockets. Looks like Van Gundy has a proven way of handling NBA players. I still can't believe this guy threatened to go back to And-1 street ball while he was unhappy in Toronto! That's like someone threatening to stop driving a Ferrari and go back to driving a Geo Metro. Whose exactly is such a threat directed towards?

Detroit @ Houston - 85-91
LA Lakers @ Memphis - 121-119
Sacramento @ Phoenix - 100-118
Denver @ Chicago - 108-109

Interesting games on the board for Mar 23-rd (Friday)

Detroit @ San Antonio - Could this be a Finals preview?

Washington @ Golden State - Agent-0 goes back to his old stomping grounds.

LA Lakers @ Hornets - Laker games might just be must-see TV rest of the season with Kobe going nuts right now.

Cleveland is no Dallas - NBA notes - 03/21/2007

Dallas won rather easily at Cleveland. Not a good shooting night for the King. He had 31 on 12/28 shooting and that's a problem for the Cavs. More often than not, the Cavs need a perfect night from LeBron to win against good teams. He doesn't get great help on a consistent basis though his teammates can't do much if he takes 28 shots and clanks 16 of those like he did today. I like Larry Hughes since he is quite talented, but I am not sure he complements the King all that well. He is more of a really-poor man's LeBron and they need a scorer who can shoot a lot better than Hughes to run alongside LeBron. That's why a Bibby trade would have been awesome. That's also why they pursued Michael Redd before settling on Hughes few years back.

Bad loss for the Kings as the T-Wolves beat them on the road to push the Kings further back in the Western standings. Geoff Petrie needs to re-build this puppy from the ground up. He has done it before and he can do it again, but I am a little surprised he has not started the process yet. Magic got a good game from Grant Hill (24-5), but still lost at Toronto. A promising season is fast going down the drain for the Magic. Bosh had a monster night with 34-16. Tim Duncan made sure Indiana's painful slump continued as he poured in 27 to beat the Pacers 90-72.

Big win for the Paper-Clips on the road at Milwaukee as Jason Hart hit the game winner. This helps them immensely in the race for the 8-Th spot in the West. Agent-0 was back today with 42 big ones at Seattle. He won the game on a buzzer-beater with a strong drive to the hoop a day after he missed a buzzer-beating jumper to lose at Portland. That's how things roll with Agent-0 - you win some and you lose some.

Dallas @ Cleveland - 98-90
Minnesota @ Sacramento - 95-89

Interesting games on the board for Mar 22-st (Thursday)

Detroit @ Houston - Detroit has an decent record against the west.

LA Lakers @ Memphis - What will Kobe do next?

Sacramento @ Phoenix - Phoenix needs to keep winning to keep up with the Mavs.

Denver @ Chicago - Another test for the Nuggets.

March Madness.

The NCAA tournament is THE best event in the American sports calendar. It' better than the NBA finals, Super Bowl, BCS and the World Series. I just love it though I am not even a big college guy. I prefer pro-leagues and there's nothing like the NBA if you want to watch basketball, but the tourney is just special. I watched a lot of games last weekend and there were not too many upsets and crazy finishes in the round of 64. The usual 5 upsetting a 12 was missing. The biggest upset of the first round was also the best game of the first round as no-11 Virginia Commonwealth beat no-6 Duke 79-77. Many Duke-haters were happy though I am not one of them. I like Duke and coach K, but I am all about the small schools and the tournament upsets. It was a great game.

The "money day" of the first weekend was Saturday. Oh boy! That was one great game after the other. The Ohio State-Xavier game went to OT as OSU won 78-71. Then Texas A&M and Louisville played a dandy as A&M won 72-69. Butler beat Maryland 62-59 in another beauty. But the best game of the day might have been the double OT thriller between Vandy and Washington State. Vandy beat the 3-rd seed 78-74. Just one great game after the other and you are sitting on the couch taking it all in and loving life, wishing every month was March! Sunday was a bit of a letdown, but that's how the tournament goes. You have no idea whats going to happen on any given day and this is what sets this apart from every other sporting event. UNLV upsetting Wisconsin was big on Sunday, but for me, Texas losing to USC was a killer as it destroyed my bracket since I had Texas going very, very deep. Way too much trust in Kevin Durant, which I knew was a mistake, but was carried away.

Now on to the sweet 16. Fewer upsets means more great match-ups in the sweet 16. We got some great games coming up. My ranking of the sweet-16 match-ups from best to not-so-best are as follows.

UNLV - Oregon - UNLV is the closest to a Cinderella in this tourney now. I like the Oregon guards, especially Aaron Brooks.

Texas A&M - Memphis - Tough one to call here. The best name in the tourney, may be ever - Acie Law, the IV-Th!

USC - North Carolina - Tim Floyd is slowly, but surely building a powerhouse at USC. They may become the Florida of the West in a few years given their resources, facilities and access to top-notch talent in the LA area.

Pittsburgh - UCLA - Mentor versus the teacher, both coaches from UC - Santa Barbara of all places.

Vanderbilt - Georgetown - The SEC player of the year Derrick Byars is a stud, but Georgetown is a fashionable pick among experts to go all the way.

Southern Illinois - Kansas - The usually under-achieving Kansas seem really focused this time around.

Tennessee - Ohio State - Bruce Pearl's team likes to run and gun and play a fun style. Lets see if it works against Greg Oden and the Thad-five.

Butler - Florida - Florida should be too tough to handle for Butler, but I'll be rooting for the under-dog like millions of others.

Suns back on track- NBA notes - 03/20/2007

Suns got back on track today and they won without great help from Amare who was in foul trouble all night. D'Antoni made his usual change in the starting lineup that he does whenever the Suns stumble - Barbosa in and Diaw out. Both had decent games. Diaw had 11 points and 9 assists. Thats what the Suns need from him. The Suns shot well from the 3 taking 38 shots from beyond and connecting on 16. Thats too much threes for other teams, but just about right for the Suns. Raja Bell hit a lot of 3's in the second half to help the Suns pull away. He had 22 and Nash had 18-5-11 and the Suns neutralized KG' 30-16 on this night.

Denver won at New Jersey behind Melo's 30. Good road win for the Nuggets. Golden State played a good one at Utah, but came up just short. This would have been a big win for the W's with a tough stretch of their schedule coming up, but it was one of those "so near, yet so far" situation for the Warriors. Al Harrington had 27, J-Rich had 21 and Boom-Dizzle 20. But the problem for the W's as always was defense and size as Boozer had 25-21 and Deron Williams had 17 assists. One guarantee about any Warrior game. Win or lose, the W's will let one of their opponent have a record night - career high or franchise high or a season high or something. Thats a running joke on their post-game shows.

In other games, the Clip-joint won at Chicago to tie with the Warriors for the 8-th spot. Bad losses for the Cavs against the Bobcats and the Wizards against the Blazers. LeBron had 37, but shot only 12/31 in the loss.

Minnesota @ Phoenix - 90-108
Denver @ New Jersey - 94-90
Golden State @ Utah - 100-104

Interesting games on the board for Mar 21-st (Wednesday)

Dallas @ Cleveland - Clearly the headliner for the night. Should be a fun one.

Minnesota @ Sacramento - All the pretenders fighting for the 8-th spot

Bad Loss for the Kings - NBA notes - 03/19/2007

No great action on the court today in the NBA. So I thought I'll start with a funny story. Apparently Tim Duncan is a huge Chicago Bears fan. So soon after the Super Bowl, during one of the Spurs games, Bruce Bowen threw a pretty bad pass at him which Timmy couldn't handle. So Timmy looked at Bruce after the play and said "Nice pass Rex!" in an obvious reference to the Bears beleaguered QB Rex Grossman. That's pretty funny.

The Sacramento Kings are kind of still in the playoff hunt in the West, but they had a bad loss today at Atlanta. The Hawks played without their leader Joe Johnson, but still managed to crush the Kings. The Kings are now 2.5 games behind the 8-Th spot. In the other game, the Hornets blew out the Celtics at home, well, one of their homes - Oklahoma city. Paul Pierce had 28 in the loss.

Sacramento @ Atlanta - 76-99
Boston @ NO/OK Hornets - 88-106

Interesting games on the board for Mar 20-Th (Tuesday)

Minnesota @ Phoenix - Suns have to get out of the 2-game losing streak.

Denver @ New Jersey - Can the rejuvenated Nugget win on the road?

Golden State @ Utah - Utah is struggling and the Warriors are hoping to stay at the 8-Th spot.

50 for Kobe - NBA notes - 03/18/2007

Kobe backed up his 65 point night against the Jail-Blazers with 50 against the T-Wolves. The only way the Lakers can win these days is if Kobe goes over 40 or 50. Not a great strategy to win games especially since the whole story of the first half of the season for the Lakers was the "new, ball-sharing, teammates-trusting Kobe". Now it's a different game and the Lakers are barely clinging onto a playoff spot. Kobe became the first Lakers player with consecutive 50-point games in 44 seasons. Only two other players have recorded back-to-back 50-point games in the last 10 years. Antawn Jamison did it in December 2000 against Seattle and the Lakers (51-51), and Allen Iverson did it in December 2004 against Milwaukee and Utah (54-51). KG had a 26-15-6 night and Ricky Davis had 33-6-6. It should suck for them to lose after playing that well.

Dallas today beat a Detroit team without Chauncey Billups. It was another close game that the Mavs won at the end. Nowitzki seems to be continuing his pursuit of the MVP crown after that minor setback against Nash and the Suns. He had 28-12 today. Heat finally lost today against the Orlando Magic. Magic won on the road and Shaq's 20 was not enough. Houston won by 50 at Phily. Surprising considering the Rockets sometimes play like they just want to score 50 in the entire game and win it defensively. The Kincks won against the Raptors easily to stay just half a game behind the 8-Th playoff spot.

Dallas @ Detroit - 92-88
Minnesota @ LA Lakers - 102-109
Toronto @ New York - 74-92

Interesting games on the board for Mar 19-Th (Monday)

Nothing interesting tomorrow. Just 2 mediocre games.