Author: clay

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Toronto Raptors

Around the Rim: Fire away Jose!


1. Runnin’ down a dream
Toronto still has a long way to go before taking control of the Atlantic Division, but they took a giant leap forward on Wednesday night. Jose Calderon led the Raptors past the Celtics with 13 assists and 24 points, including an old fashioned three-point play that ended the night’s scoring and gave Toronto a 114-112 victory in Boston. The Raptors played one of their best games of the season, hitting 40-of-69 shots, including 15-of-21 from behind the arc and a perfect night from the charity stripe (19-19). While the Raptors are peaking, winning six of their previous eight, the Cs seem to have hit the wall, losing four of eight since starting the season with a 29-3 record. But with an 11-game cushion still separating them from second-place Toronto for division honors, they can afford a mini slump.

2. Lighting strikes twice in Minnesota

Eclipses used to be rare occurrences, but nowadays anytime Minnesota takes the hardwood against Phoenix the Suns get overshadowed. For the second time in three tries, the T-Wolves have knocked off the Suns, this time with a convincing 117-107 victory in which the Minnesota lead grew to 21 points in the second half thanks to a career-high 39 points from Al Jefferson. The results of this loss are felt conference wide because thanks to a 96-91 victory over Portland, the New Orleans Hornets now own the best record in the west at 29-12 (.707). Nope, not a misprint; those New Orleans Hornets. Coincidentally, Nawlins also owns the league’s longest current win streak with six consecutive. But getting back to the Minnesota/Phoenix shocker, something about the Suns turns Jefferson into an absolute beast. In the pair of upsets, Jefferson has averaged 35.5 points and 17.5 rebounds.

3. Tale of two halves
After being bullied in their own gym for the first 24 minutes of play, the San Antonio Spurs came out of the locker room and took back their court. With a 31-12 explosion in the third quarter, San Antonio turned a nine-point halftime deficit into a 10-point lead going into the final frame before going on for a 103-91 victory. Tim Duncan went to school on the Lakers front court, finishing the night with 28 points, 17 rebounds, four assists and three blocks while Ime Udoka scored 18 off the bench, including three-of-four shooting from behind the arc. But Udoka still didn’t steal Manu Ginobili’s substitution thunder as he filled the box score with 12 points, six boards, four assists and a whopping eight steals. Kobe Bryant finished with 29 points and 12 rebounds.

Wednesday’s Player of the Day: Al Jefferson vs. Phoenix 35 min, 39 pts (FG: 15-29, FT: 9-14), 15 reb, 1 ast, 2 stl

Thursday’s Games to Watch: It’s a very special “Pick Your Poison Thursday.” Due to the fact the NBA is virtually devoid of serious competition tonight, we’re giving you free reign to watch any crummy contest you desire.

San Antonio (27-13) @ Miami (8-32)
Unless it’s the Heat playing the Sonics then Miami has about a snowball’s chance in South Beach of grabbing a W. Even against Seattle we’re kind of leaning toward the new kid on the block.

Indiana (19-24) @ Milwaukee (16-26)
These teams are still battling it out to see if either can grab one of the bottom end playoff berths in the East, but so are the Nets, Hawks, Bulls, Bobcats, Sixers and even the Knicks. In other words, YAAAaaaawwwwnnn.

New Jersey (18-23) @ Golden State (25-18)
Normally we’d have no problem making this our “Game to Watch”, but considering the Nets are on a six game slide and the Warriors just dropped a home game to the Timberwolves, we just couldn’t do it.

Buzzer Beater: Orlando obliterated the Grizzlies in Memphis last night, winning by 27 points, 112-85, hitting a team-record 18 3-pointers. Only four Magic players failed to hit a trifecta in the contest – Dwight Howard, Adonal Foyle, James Augustine and Pat Garrity (Augustine and Garrity played just three minutes apiece). Led by Hedo Turkoglu (6-8 3FG), the Magic connected on 18-of-33 long bombers. In fact, things were going so well from downtown for Orlando that fouling didn’t even stop the rain as Rashard Lewis converted a four-point play after superbust Darko Milicic made contact at the top of the arc.

Categories
General Sports

Grab your jock and pop a top for Mr. Package Protector

Happy days are here again because we’ve come across another classic “Real Men of Genius” promotion and we’ve got to say this commercial is dedicated to quite possibly the most realest man of genius to ever come down the turnpike. After all, do you love to get hit in the twig-n-berries? We didn’t think so.

Categories
Green Bay Packers

Some Packers fans braved the frozen tundra only to get booted from Lambeau


If your team can’t make the championship game then you might as well make some money off the event, right? Eh, only if you want to watch the next three decades worth of NFC Championship games on a correctional center’s rec room television.

A 41-year-old Chicago man has been charged with five counts of forgery for selling counterfeit NFC Championship game tickets.

Kenneth Lee collected more than $4,000 from a handful of people after selling them tickets through the Web site craigslist, according to a criminal complaint filed in Brown County Circuit Court.

Lee was one of five people arrested for selling fake tickets to the game. The four others did not appear in court Tuesday.

About a dozen people paid between $300 and $900 for counterfeit tickets to the game. Some fans didn’t find out their tickets were fake until they sat in the seats and were removed from the stadium by an usher once people with real tickets showed up, police said.

Face value for tickets to Sunday’s game was $148.

A cash bond of $50,000 was issued for Lee, who is scheduled to appear in court again Jan. 29. He faces up to 30 years in prison and $50,000 in fines if convicted.

Wow, 30 years in the slammer for forging tickets!! And Michael Vick might be in an NFL uniform in how long?? Did our counterfeiter electrocute someone we don’t know about?

Links:

[ CBS2Chicago.com]: Chicagoan Charged With Forgery Of Packers Tix

Categories
General Sports

Tennessee’s Smokey lifts his leg on the competition

Ever wonder what it would be like to attend the “National Mascot Competition”? We didn’t think so. But the guys over at Best Week Ever did and they sent one of their cronies to Orlando to get the scoop on all the gigantic-headed action. As we expected, it was a total waste of gas.

So, what’s next for ol’ Smokey. Well, like any mascot who is dedicated his craft, it’s the Mascot Hall of Fame or bust. No, seriously; we’re not making this stuff up.

Links:

[BestWeekEver.tv]: BWE.tv Field Trip: The Secret Society of College Football Mascots

Categories
Cleveland Cavaliers

Around the Rim: It’s gotta be the shoes


1. Tongue in cheek
LeBron James loves the Yankees. In fact, he loves them so much that his latest shoe, James’ Air Zoom V, are dedicated to the pinstripes.

Dominated by the team’s traditional blue-and-white color scheme, the Air Zoom LeBron V shoe features New York’s famed pinstripes as well as James’ No. 23. Under the tongue are the words: “Le-Bron Ja-Mes. Clap. Clap. Clap Clap Clap,” a nod to the cheer New York fans reserve for the Yankees; and on the strap is the phrase: “Fresh for ’08. Suckers!

2. Pass happy Nash gets offensive

Steve Nash is known for his passing prowess, but on Tuesday night it was his scoring that took center stage. The two-time MVP went off for a season-high 37 points on 13-of-23 shooting to go along with his traditional double-digit assist total (10). Nash scored 15 of his points in the fourth quarter, almost single-handedly matching the 22 points scored by the entire Bucks team during the final period of their 114-105 loss. The win improved Phoenix’s record to 30-5 against Milwaukee since the 1990-91 season, the best record by any team against another in that time frame.

3. Sactown rebound
For the first time this year, Sacramento had all their stars in the starting lineup and, boy, did it show. The Kings whooped up on the Nets 128-94 thanks to the on-court reunion between Ron Artest, Kevin Martin and Mike Bibby. All three were in the starting five for Sactown, combining for 61 points in the win. Artest led the way, scoring 27 while Martin put in 19 points and Bibby finished with 15 and seven assists. The Kings still have a long, long way to go before they start making noise in an unbelievable competitive Western Conference, but this game could be the start of an interesting second half of the season for Sacramento.

Tuesday’s Player of the Day: Steve Nash @ Milwaukee 37 min, 37 pts (FG: 13-23, 3FG: 5-9, FT: 6-7), 4 reb, 10 ast, 2 stl

Wednesday’s Game to Watch: Los Angeles Lakers (27-12) @ San Antonio (26-13)
This isn’t the rivalry it used to be, but it is defiantly on the rebound. With the Spurs suffering through a minor slump and the Lakers playing their best ball since the Diesel drove cross country to Miami, this is once again a statement game for both clubs. Kobe Bryant continues to shock and awe fans by seemingly growing into a leader before our very eyes, making pedestrian players a vital part of the game plan. Of course, the loss of Andrew Bynum will play a major part in this contest as Los Angeles will be severely undermanned against Tim Duncan in the paint. San Antonio is currently sitting at sixth in the West, dangerously close to sliding out of the playoff picture after losing five of their previous 10 games.

Buzzer Beater: Talk about going from bad to worse. The Heat found out on Tuesday that Shaquille O’Neal will miss at least the next two weeks with acute inflammation in his hip and his quadriceps muscle. Just a former shell of himself, Shaq’s presence wasn’t exactly doing the Heat any favors, but his absence still hurts. With Alonzo Mourning done and Shaq riding the injury list, Mark Blount will most likely take over the starting center spot. Can you say 15-game losing streak?

Categories
New England Patriots

Tom Brady broke Marsha’s nose?! Are you friggin’ kidding us!

Usually you have to be a fallen star in order to wind up on E!‘s True Hollywood Story series, but the same doesn’t hold true for the fellas at ESPN. Since Brett Favre is out of the playoff picture, the SportsCenter crew is clamoring for crap to fill in the now empty, humongous gaps of time previously dedicated to their football deity. So, without No. 4 around, the crew shifted their attention to the next best thing, Tom Brady and his rarely mentioned childhood as one of THE Brady kids.

Okay, can we please go back to hearing about what kind of shoes/boot Tom is wearing?

Categories
College Basketball

Best conference call ever!


You might think that conference call’s are just for the media, but you should try to listen in every now and again because you never know what your favorite coach might say next. Or what your favorite media member might say next. Or what your favorite fake media member might say next.

Tuesday’s SEC women’s basketball coaches’ teleconference took a turn for the funny when a couple of wisenheimers managed to get on the air and went `Jerky Boys’ all over some SEC asses.

The prank callers, who were claiming to be legitimate reporters from actual media outlets, managed to get on and ask at least six questions to more than half of the league’s 12 coaches. The questions were graphic in nature and included inquiries about coaches having sexual relations with players and players’ performances based on their menstrual cycles.

“It was a little surreal,” said [associate director for media relations at the SEC, Tammy] Wilson, who was moderating the call between the media and the head coaches.

“The very first question that was asked, honestly, I thought this was some crazy media person who was trying to ask a question and didn’t know quite how to ask it,” she said.

Tom Collen, the Arkansas coach who was asked the first faux question, also seemed to think something similar because he responded to it as if it were a legitimate question.

Nobody seems to know how the pranksters managed to get through on a line that is supposed to be secure to media members, but because of the infiltration, the men’s teleconference set for Thursday might get postponed until this problem gets ironed out. That would be a shame because we were really interested to hear backstabber Billy Donovan comment on how Joakim Noah handled his menstrual cycle during the season.

Links:

[Kentucky.com]: Prank callers disrupt SEC coaches’ teleconference

Categories
High School Sports

High school water polo players get unwanted attention on the internet


We feel sorry for all the teenage water polo players in California and it’s not just because they are teenage water polo players. Turns out that a number of pictures of adolescent H2Oers are winding up on a handful of gay Web sites. Apparently it isn’t all fast cars, fist fights and hot chicks in the O.C. Damn show lied to us.

An Orange County Register investigation has found that some of the pictures, of boys as young as 14, were displayed next to photos of nude young men and graphic sexual content.

An international water polo official and a spokeswoman for a group of Orange County water polo parents says it’s “just horrible” for someone to “take what these kids are doing and take it out of context and exploit these images.”

Police at the University of California, Irvine, say they are investigating whether a campus police dispatcher had photographed the high school athletes for gay-oriented sites.

The man has not been charged.

Wait a stinkin’ minute. We didn’t know Herbert was working again. And in California no less.

Links:

[CBS2.com]: Teen Athletes Unwittingly Featured On Porn Sites

Categories
Dallas Cowboys

Adolf Hitler is not happy with the Cowboys latest performance

If you thought Terrell Owens was torn up after the Cowboys monumental gaffe against the Super Bowl bound Giants, just get a load of how `der Fuhrer’ took the news.

Categories
Miami Heat

Around the Rim: How low can you go?


1. Miami Heatless
Dwyane Wade scored 42 points against the Cavs, but it just didn’t matter. For the 14th consecutive game, the Heat found themselves on the losing side of things as Cleveland turned a three-point halftime deficit into a seven-point road victory, 97-90. D-Wade put on a offensive clinic down the stretch, setting franchise records by scoring 32 in the second half, including the team’s final 18 points. Unfortunately, the rest of the fellas didn’t even bother to come out of the locker room for the final 24 minutes, combing for an embarrassing six points on three-of-21 shooting. LeBron James put in 28 points for the defending Eastern Conference champs and beat his draft classmate in Miami for the first time in his career (1-9).

2. Outwit, outplay, outlast, Outlaw

Before the season began, a Portland/Atlanta matchup on the schedule had about as much appeal as a Hanson reunion tour. With Greg Oden sidelined for the season and the Hawks being, well, the Hawks, nobody would have expected to see an overtime thriller on MLK day, but these aren’t your granddaddy’s conference doormats. It took a team-high 23 points from Travis Outlaw off the bench, including the last-second backbreaker in overtime to finally finish off a new look, face-paced Hotlanta squad, 111-109. Joe Johnson hoisted an unsuccessful 30-foot attempt to win at the buzzer and finished with 37 points and seven assists in a losing effort.

3. Road warriors
Even the T-Wolves got to sit back and chuckle at Miami’s miseries on Monday because they snatched their sixth victory of the season and snapped a 16-game road losing streak by beating the Warriors 109-108 in Oakland. Ryan Gomes scored a career-high 35 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in just the second road victory of the season for Minnesota. Marko Jaric also had a huge game for the Timberwolves, finishing two rebounds shy of a triple-double with 16 points, 10 assists and eight boards. After the game, Warriors coach Don Nelson summed up a disappointing and humiliating loss by saying “We’ve been playing very well but we laid an egg tonight. What can I tell you.”

Monday’s Player of the Day: Dwyane Wade vs. Cleveland 40 min, 42 pts (FG: 17-29, 3FG: 1-3, FT: 7-8), 6 reb, 7 ast, 3 stl, 1 blk

Tuesday’s Game to Watch: Phoenix (29-12) @ Milwaukee (16-25)
Look, we could try and sell you this game until we’re blue in the face, but we really don’t need to. After a full day of basketball on Monday there are just two games on the slate for Tuesday and your other option is New Jersey at Sacramento. So, `nuf said.

Buzzer Beater: Good, everyday people are known to turn into gore gawkers when coming across the scene of a car crash and we’re no different. That’s why we’re already looking ahead to what could be one of the biggest mangles of metal the NBA produces this year. Miami and Seattle are scheduled to meet on Feb. 29 and if both teams remain on their current losing skids until this epic contest then the Heat will take a 29-game losing streak into Seattle to play a Sonics team that would have a 27-game nosedive under their belts. Sound impossible? Well, consider the two teams only play a combined 12 games, six apiece, against teams under .500 before they meet and none of those are against Minnesota, the only team with a worse record than these two league whipping boys’.