Tag: NBA

Categories
NBA General

Bulls and Pacers, you’re next up on the tee



Man amongst boys

Well, the 6 and 7 seeds are out of the Easter Conference playoffs as both the Bulls and Pacers headed off to summer vacation.

First, the Bulls. Despite a couple of nice efforts at home in games 3 and 4, they showed their inexperience and disparity in talent level by getting blown out in the final two games. In a home elimination game, with Dwyane Wade hurting, the Bulls were never even able to make a game of it, getting down by 10 after the first period. Tyson Chandler and Michael Sweetney were completely dominated by Shaq. Talk about a man amongst boys. Despite a first round exit, the Bulls have much to look forward to as they get at least a top 5 pick in the lottery this year thanks to Isiah Thomas’s ten-cent head.

Next up, the Pacers. When Anthony Johnson scores 40 points, you’re in trouble. After stealing game 1 of this series, the Pacers were unable to do anything with the home court advantage because Peja couldn’t play with his knee injury. Would Artest have made a difference in this series? Absolutely. There was a shot of Larry Bird and Donnie Walsh in the stands wondering what the hell they were going to do to improve the team. How do you build around Jermaine O’Neal? Do you keep Peja? Somehow this team went from perennial contenders to an easy out in the playoffs in 2 years. How the hell did this happen? Oh right, the Malice in the Palace.

Links:

[Frank the Tank’s Slant]: Bulls Can’t Take the Heat but Summertime Should be Fun
[Kolsky’s Bulls Blog]: No More Mr. Nice Shaq: Daddy is Back
[20 second timeout]: Anthony Johnson Scores 40, but the Nets Eliminate the Pacers
[Big Willie Style]: Pacers Post-Season Wrap-Up

Categories
Calgary Flames

Flames and Bucks, please report to the first tee


The last of the top rated western conference seeds went down yesterday as the Ducks dropped the Flames 3-0 in Calgary. Watching the game on OLN, the Pengrowth Saddledome (what an awkward name) was dead silent when Salei scored to make it 2-0. Flames fans knew that a comeback was highly unlikely they way Ducks goaltender Bryzgalov was playing.

At the end of the game, they showed a Flames fan offering congratulations to a Ducks fan in the stands. Dare we say that if this was Philly, that would never have happened, unless the handshake was a ploy to drag the opposing fan closer for a punch in the face. We were rooting hard for the Flames too. Not because we have an interest in the club, but we imagine that a run through the Stanley Cup playoffs would have brought us more pictures like these. Ahhh… missed opportunities.

Meanwhile, in Detroit, the Pistons felt they had had enough of the Bucks and blew them out to clinch their series. With the other series going 6 or 7 games, the Pistons will get some rest as they await their next opponent.

Categories
NBA General

Gentlemen, you’re next up on the tee

Memphis Grizzlies: The poor Grizzlies. They have a superstar that’s not really marketable. They are survivors from a terrible situation in Vancouver. And they still haven’t won a playoff game in 12 tries. This is the third straight sweep. This time at the hands of the Dallas Mavericks. Just think, if they’d have lost that (now meaningful) last game against the Clippers, they would’ve gotten the Nuggets who were soft as can be.

Denver Nuggets: Speaking of the Nuggets, they didn’t put up any resistence in the elimination game last night. After averaging slightly over 100 points in the regular season, the Nugs averaged only 87 points against the Clippers. Meanwhile, Carmello Anthony’s scoring average dropped 5.5 points from the regular season to the playoffs. Way to step it up in crunch time, Melo. Oh, and don’t even mention Kenyon Martin.

Congratulations to the Clippers, who ended a 30 year playoff drought to advance to the second round.

Detroit Red Wings: Finally, we have the Red Wings. The #1 seed in the Western Conference. (That’s NHL if you aren’t paying attention.) So how did they lose to the Edmonton Oilers, a team that they beat in the standings by 29 points! The Red Wings gave up 4 goals and blew 2 leads in the third period. This Detroit fan is pretty calm considering what happened to his team. While this guy takes it in stride because they wouldn’t have beaten Calgary or New Jersey anyway. Interesting way to look at it. But it doesn’t take away the shame of losing to an 8 seed.

Congratulations to the Oilers and their fans. It was a surreal sight at the Rexall Center last night and we always pull for the underdogs.

Categories
LA Lakers

Kobe demands a recount


You think perhaps the writers who voted for Steve Nash over Kobe simply because they don’t like Kobe want their ballots back? And you think maybe the Arizona Republic cost the Suns a playoff series by breaking the story and pissing Kobe off?

Not only did Kobe come up huge yesterday with a game-tying and a game-winning shot, he did it at the same time that Steve Nash came up very small in the 4th quarter and overtime. Of course, the fact that the refs swallowed their whistles didn’t help Nash.

From the Arizona Republic website comes this segment of live blogging: (Is there anything better than live blogging? It might be a top 10 blog invention.)

OVERTIME

:00: Bryant hits a last second shot for the win. Heartbreak hotel for the Suns. Tim Thomas looks stunned as Kobe spends time chest thumping. A sickening loss for the Suns.

Luke Walton fouled Nash when they got the jump ball call. Bad officiating in the playoffs is inexcusable.

:06: Nash was mauled in the double team and its a jump ball. Nash was attempting to call a time out.

:15: Lakers ball after a messy Bell attempt. Why was Kobe on the bench? He will be undoubtedly in for the final seconds of this first OT.

:45: MVP Steve Nash hits a three. Ice water.

Fanboy probably wants that last statement back.

Links:
[You Tube]: Very nice video of highlights from the Lakers-Suns playoff series. (Not recommended for Suns fans)
[NBA.com]: Flea’s Lakers blog. Either he thinks the world is all poetry or he can’t figure out his blogging software.
[MSNBC]: Kobe plays like MVP, lifts Lakers to tie
[Fox Sports]: Nash over Kobe for MVP? What a joke

Categories
Phoenix Suns

Hating on Steve Nash



2nd MVP? I’m shocked!

When Steve Nash won the MVP last year, a lot of people cried foul and said Shaq should have won it. Hell, some even said he was the worst MVP of all time. Well, people got even more apoplectic this year when it was announced he would win his second straight MVP, beating out Kobe, LeBron and Chauncey Billups.

From around the web comes these reactions:

[Dime Magazine]: “Kobe perfectly fits the two criteria that voters traditionally use when deciding on an MVP: he’s the best player in the League and he’s invaluable to his team. Kobe Bryant is the NBA’s Most Valuable Player. It’s not even close.”

[The Gambler]: “Every night, against the superior competition of the West, Kobe carries the Lakers. If he doesn’t have a great game, they don’t win. He is easily leading the league in scoring (35.3 points per game) in the context of winning basketball games…

People say that Kobe doesn’t make his teammates better. But that’s bull. He averages 4.5 assists per game and he frequently passes up shots at the beginning of games in order to let his teammates find their groove. He turns it on when he needs to. And all the attention he draws creates tons of open shots for them.”

[Sweet Emotion Iverson]: “I can’t remember a worse MVP in all of professional sports winning once, much less twice. While the sportswriters may be trying to make a point of where they want the NBA to go, they are emphatically neglecting the best player in the league, which can be an argument about Kobe and Lebron.”

[Pety Cash]: “Is steve Nash the best player in the NBA? no. Did Steve Nash have a better season then every other player in the NBA? no. Then why does he have 2 straight mvp trophies putting him in elite company with magic johnson? He has solid numbers and also has a solid supporting cast. This year Nash averaged 18 pts. and 10.5 assists per game. These numbers do beat out Chauncey Billups, despite being on the NBA’s best team (18.5 pts 8.6 assists p/g).”

Categories
General Sports

The Weekly Sports Roundup Podcast for April 25 2006

Welcome to another episode of the Sportscolumn podcast. If you’d like to be a guest on the podcast (which is recorded Tuesday nights) or you want to suggest a topic, drop me a line at [email protected].

You can download this week’s podcast directly (running time 40 mins) or subscribe to the feed.  

If you use iTunes, just click here and then click subscribe and iTunes will take care of the rest.



Kelly Calabrese

This week’s topics include:

  • NBA Playoffs
  • NHL Playoffs
  • NASCAR sucks
  • Naked man stuck in chimney
  • Colin Finnerty’s curfew
  • Keith Hernandez… which of course leads to a discussion on helping people move
  • Celtics Dance Team and what’s wrong with the NBA
  • Women We Love Nominees

Hope you guys enjoy the podcast.  If you did enjoy it, please go to this page on Yahoo and give us a good rating so we can rise up in the rankings. If you didn’t send us an email ([email protected]) or add a comment below. Thanks for listening.

Categories
Boston Celtics

Boston Celtics’ smoke and mirrors


The Celtics finally figured out a way to confuse their fans into thinking that Danny Ainge can build a contender. After a 33-49 season, the C’s decided to add a dance team to their entertainment becoming the last NBA franchise to do so. It’s a very simple rule: put enough hot chicks in short skirts and guys won’t care if you have a 7 foot stiff named Raef who only shoots 3-pointers.

Understably, some old school C’s fans are not happy.


Why do the Celtics want to be like all the other teams? The Celtics were unique with the way they did things. Now all of a sudden they want to be like all the horrible teams. Having dancers is something expansion teams have to do to draw people. I just think the Celtics are messing with their tradition, and I don’t think that’s going to be good for them in the long run.

He’s got a point. All this packaged entertainment has largely ruined the NBA. Escalating salaries meant that owners/GMs had to find a way to fill high priced seats and instead of building a contender, they decided to give us William Hung performing at halftime of a Warriors game or cheesy contests instead. Last year, there was a contest during a Celtics halftime involving layups and tic-tac-toe that was so retarded, the marketing person who dreamt it up was summarily shot behind the arena afterward.

So instead of going to a game to watch your team win or even good basketball, you’re presented with selfish basketball, corporate branded schwag, and D-list pop stars at halftime. Are we not entertained? Actually, we’re not.

A note on the Boston.com “Staff photo illustration” of what a Celtics Dance Team member would look like: It looks like they took a file photo of a stripper and photoshopped on a Celtics logo… which will pretty much be accurate.

Links:
[Boston.com]: Celtics dance into the 21st century