Author: clay

Categories
LA Lakers

Around the Rim: The showdown repeated beatdown in Tinseltown


1. The purple and gold is getting old for GS
The Lakers and Warriors came into Sunday’s game tied for second place in the Pacific Division, but Kobe Bryant exploded in the second half to ensure the tie would break in LA’s favor. Bryant scored 20 of his game-high 28 points in the final two quarters and the Lakers won their third consecutive game, 123-113. Kobe also dished out a season-high eight assists as six other Lakers finished with double-digit points. Andrew Bynum tied his career-high, scoring 20 points to go along with 11 boards and five blocked shots as Los Angeles defeated the Warriors for the ninth consecutive time and the 14th time out of 15 tries. After the game, a disappointed Baron Davis hit the nail on the head.

They’re a big team, and we just got outhustled.

“Somebody for them is always having a career game against us.

Look on the bright side though, B. You guys sure can beat up on the Mavericks.

2. World’s Greatest Bosh

Chris Bosh missed five games with a strained groin and the Raptors proceeded to lose three of those games. Unfortunately for Houston, they had to face a healthy Bosh and ended up dropping their third game in five tries. Bosh was solid in his return, scoring 21 points, grabbing 10 rebounds and blocking four shots. Equally important to the 93-80 home victory for Toronto was their bench production, totaling 45 points and 23 rebounds. For Houston, Tracy McGrady led his squad offensively with 23 points while Carl Landry, playing in just his second career game, led the team in rebounds with seven. We don’t know how on earth a 6-foot-7 rookie outrebounds Yao Ming (six rebounds) in just 10 minutes of action, but it happened. Of course, Landry also picked up five fouls in those 10 minutes while Yao had just one in 38 minutes. But, c’mon, six boards?! He does know he’s 7-foot-6 and weighs over 300 pounds, right?

3. Even slumpbusters need slumpbusters sometimes
There’s no doubt that when a team hits a slump, they start scanning for the Clippers on their schedule. Usually, that’s an easy win. However, when you’re the Miami Heat, there is no such thing as an easy win. It took 35 points and 10 assists from Dwyane Wade, but the Heat escaped Los Angeles with a 100-94 victory, the 1,200th of Pat Riley’s career. But with a 5-15 record, there was probably no champagne corks popping in the locker room celebrating the occasion. After demanding he receive the ball more, Shaquille O’Neal finished with eight points on eight attempts and was thoroughly outplayed by the Clippers’ Chris Kaman (14 pts, 12 reb). Miami hasn’t won consecutive games yet this year and don’t expect this win to trigger a streak either because the Heat will likely get burnt by the Suns tonight.

Sunday’s Player of the Day: Brandon Roy vs. Milwaukee 45 min, 26 pts (FG: 11-13, FT: 4-4), 8 reb, 9 ast, 2 stl, 1 blk

Monday’s Game to Watch: Atlanta (9-10) @ Orlando (16-5)
A few years ago you would have been committed for saying that Orlando and Atlanta were the top two teams in the Southeast Division and playoff bound. Nowadays you can get away with it because Dwight Howard is manning the middle in the Magic Kingdom and the hatchling Hawks are beginning to spread their wings. In addition to having four double-digit scorers, led by Joe Johnson’s 20.5 points per game, Atlanta also possesses the league’s top shot blocker in Josh Smith who is getting over three swats a contest (3.56 bpg). Orlando has slowed down a bit after jumping out to a 9-2 start, but Howard seems to be just heating up. At just 22 years old, the man child has upped his scoring average from 17.6 last year to 23.5 this year and currently ranks first in the league in rebounds (15.0 rpg), second in field goal percentage (61.43%) and fourth in blocks (2.90 bpg).

Buzzer Beater: In case you missed it on Saturday, the Timberwolves upset the Suns. Yes, the Timberwolves. Al Jefferson had a huge coming out party, racking up 32 points and 20 rebounds. Needless to say, the T-Wolves were pretty stoked.

Definitely this season, it’s the biggest of all three of our victories,” Marko Jaric said.

Unfortunately for Marko and the Wolves, he could be saying the same exact thing at the end of the season.

Categories
College Football

Isn’t throat slashing illegal in college football?


This was a horribly scary and sobering weekend to be an athlete. Not only did Jamaal Tinsley get blasted at by some green-eyed goons out way past their bedtimes, but a South Carolina football player got his throat slashed in a fight near campus.

Senior defensive end Jordin Lindsey, who was ineligible to play this year because of poor grades, got into a fight with two men early Saturday morning when he was cut by something, possibly a broken bottle. And talk about a tough kid, Lindsey needed surgery but was released on Sunday.

The elder Lindsey [father Billy] said Jordin Lindsey and his twin, Dustin, also a Gamecocks player, were walking early Saturday morning in Five Points, a neighborhood known for its college bar scene and restaurants.

Two men yelled at the brothers from across a street, but the twins didn’t think much about it — until they heard footsteps and Jordin Lindsey was stabbed, Billy Lindsey said.

We’re glad to hear that Lindsey is recovering, but we’re somewhat disappointed to hear that being 6-foot-3 and weighing 256 pounds just doesn’t intimidate like it use to. Then again, these punks did have to attack from behind, displaying the yellow streaks running down their backs. But don’t worry, according to Dr. Gordon Nuber, in 50 years or so, athletes might not ever have to worry about someone trying to pick a fight with them.

Links:

[AJC.com]: Attacker slashes Gamecock’s neck

Categories
All Other Sports

Even Steve-O thinks Jeb Corliss is a lunatic

If you thought it took a pair of plums for Anthony Smith to awake an insomniatic giant then Jeb Corliss must have a couple cantaloupes in his trousers because he’s intent on jumping out of a helicopter without a parachute. Oh, and he plans to live to tell about it to.

Actually, Jeb isn’t alone in his insanity. A bunch of people are hoping to pull the stunt off. In fact, it has even engaged a bit of competition between nations to see who can engineer the technology fastest. As of now, the `technology’ in question consists of a suit that makes him look like a sugar glider and a $2-million-dollar, specially-constructed runway for landing. And the freefall, the brief period of time when Jeb begins regretting going chuteless, should look a little something like this:

All of this is technically possible,” said Jean Potvin, a physics professor at Saint Louis University and a skydiver who does parachute research for the Army. But he acknowledged a problem: “The thing I’m not sure of is your margins in terms of safety, or likelihood to crash.”

Loïc Jean-Albert of France, better known as Flying Dude in a popular YouTube video, put it more bluntly: “You might do it well one time and try another time and crash and die.

Links:

[The New York Times]: Flying Humans, Hoping to Land With No Chute

Categories
Indiana Pacers

Jamaal Tinsley was in the wrong place at defiantly the wrong time


Jamaal Tinsley and his crew were shot at early Sunday morning near a downtown Indianapolis hotel after some apparently jealous thugs took issue with the group at a club. The incident went down around 3:40 a.m. when the unknown assailants opened fire with an assault rifle at the three vehicles Tinsley’s friends were in. The group detoured to the hotel once they realized they were being followed. The Pacers equipment manager, sitting in the back seat of Tinsley’s car, was shot in both elbows.

Jamaal’s brother, James Tinsley, opened fire on a gray Chrysler and a dark pickup as two of the cars chased the shooters approximately two blocks away. Jamaal was not involved in the subsequent chase.

And of course, this whole thing is really based on something completely senseless. According to the Indy Star:

A group was giving members of Tinsley’s crew a hard time about the expensive cars they were driving – a Mercedes, Rolls Royce and Dodge Charger – and the amount of money they made.

So you’re telling us that these morons basically approached Tinsley’s crew and said “You guys are rich and have really nice cars. You’re a bunch of losers!” Whatever happened to just being jealous from afar?

Needless to say, even though Pacers coach Jim O’Brien was happy to hear his player wasn’t hurt and gave him the day off because he “wanted him to get away from basketball for the day,” O’Brien wasn’t exactly sympathetic to Tinsley’s situation.

We leave it up to individuals to be responsible. Was I happy that somebody was out at 3 o’clock in the morning? No, I wasn’t. But that’s a decision that was made, and it was the wrong decision to make.

“It wasn’t on a game night. We had off yesterday and we were practicing at 11 o’clock today.

“I would think as we all suspect, nothing good happens after 1 o’clock if you’re around alcohol or around an environment where there could be weapons. Nothing good can happen in that situation.

But the Heat’s Alonzo Mourning went a step further, blaming the flashy NBA lifestyle for bringing the player haters out.

You’ve got to understand that we all are vulnerable when it comes to putting ourselves in situations where the public has access to us. And if we go out and flaunt and expose our luxuries, there are some jealous people out there who want it and put us in a position where we’re targets,” Mourning said. “I’m not saying you’ve got to hide it, but don’t be flamboyant. Don’t walk into a club with a crowd of people wearing a $250,000 chain around your neck or pull out a wad of hundreds for everybody to see. Pull out a credit card instead. I mean, you’re asking for attention and you’re asking for trouble.

Just think of how much trouble Pacman Jones could have avoided if he had whipped out his Visa card instead of making it rain the old fashioned way.

Links:

[IndyStar.com]: Shots fired at Pacers’ Jamaal Tinsley
[USAToday.com]: Heat curb Clippers, make Riley third NBA coach with 1,200 wins

Categories
General Sports

The new American Gladiators looks an awful lot like 300

See, we weren’t `taking a little dip into our Bolivian marching powder‘ when we brought you the news of a revamped American Gladiators. Just check out this completely overdramatic commercial for the premier of A.G.

“A mystical breed of warrior”?? Somehow we just don’t see mystical warriors sporting names like Malibu, Lace, Sunny, Bronco, Gold, Tower, Dallas, Sky, Laser or Zap.

Categories
Miami Heat

Around the Rim: The Miami Meek


1. Even the Blazers are punking out Miami
The Heat were easily extinguished by the Blazers last night as the Portland upstarts came through in the crunch. Meanwhile, the vets on Miami just let another game slip through their fingers, their fourth consecutive botched contest. Pat Riley appears to have finally accepted the fact that his squad is pitiful, 4-14 pitiful to be exact. Dwayne Wade did all could, coming up one assist short of a triple-double, but Brandon Roy torched the Heat for 25 points while Travis Outlaw chipped in with 20 off the bench to go with one humongous slam dunk in the 112-106 victory. Shaq’s performance continues to decline in the twilight of his career, but he still managed to give a facial to Portland center Joel Przybilla, just not in the manner you’d think. Less than a minute into the game, Shaq sent Przybilla to the floor and then proceeded to smash the ball into his face, bloodying his nose, as the Diesel stumbled over the top of the fallen Blazer. Enjoy this face-smashing view from the cheap seats.

2. They just got (everybody now) MIC’D UP!!

The Nuggets and Mavericks got together last night for a contest that saw Denver take a 122-109 victory, giving Dallas their sixth loss in nine games. But the play on the court was only half the story, coaches Avery Johnson and George Karl became the guinea pigs for the NBA’s latest experiment. The coaches in general don’t seem too happy about the league’s decision to mic up coaches, which is mandatory, and players, which is optional. So, how exactly does the average fan benefit from the latest multimedia move? Well, you get tremendous insight that you never had access to before. Besides the newly implemented and binding media timeout interview with coaches, there are all sorts of other juicy sound bites for your pleasure. Check out this stuff and just try to keep your mind from melting.

Soon after, TNT showed a montage of audio collected from the microphones.

“Let’s go, enjoy this thing,” Karl said at the start of the game.

“Good hustle men, keep it up,” Johnson said during a timeout.

“Let’s go. Let’s go, let’s go,” Stackhouse said, clapping his hands on the court.

“Way to go, Stack,” Johnson was later shown saying following a basket by his microphone-wearing swingman.

3. Now Jason Kidd probably has a headache
Wait, wait, wait; you mean to tell us that Jason Kidd might have actually had a migraine headache on Tuesday? That’s not possible, it was a power play to highjack the Nets’ cash or to get traded. Remember, he was “on strike.” Or maybe not. Kidd laid out his side of the story and, guess what, it makes sense. He had a headache and he didn’t play, simple as that. Give the guy a little credit, he’s a veteran and a professional when it comes to the game of basketball. Heck, the guy is 34 years old and he’s 1.3 rebounds away from averaging a triple-double for the sorry franchise. We don’t doubt that he might want out of Jersey, nobody could blame him for that, but Kidd has never given any indication of being a complete numbskull like, oh we don’t know, Stephon Marbury.

Thursday’s Player of the Day: Josh Smith vs. Minnesota 45 min, 28 pts (FG: 11-19, FT: 6-7), 7 reb, 2 ast, 2 stl, 7 blk

Friday’s Game to Watch: Utah (13-6) @ San Antonio (16-3)
Less than a week ago things were looking grim for the San Antonio Spurs after Tim Duncan was carried off the court by his teammates. Four days and a huge win over Dallas later, Gregg Popovich is saying the Big Fundamental has a 50/50 shot to be in the starting lineup against the Jazz. Duncan’s return only adds to Utah’s uphill battle. The Jazz are 13-6 and went to the Western Conference Finals last season, but the franchise hasn’t won a game in San Antonio since Feb. 28, 1999 – 19 consecutive losses. But you can’t count out the Jazz based on history alone because even if Duncan logs some minutes, he’ll have his hands full trying to stop the NBA’s player of the month for the West. Carlos Boozer averages 24.9 points, 11.4 boards and 2.9 assists for the Northwest Division leaders.

Buzzer Beater: With 2.2 seconds left on the clock following Marko Jaric’s layup, it appeared that Minnesota was about to grab their third win on the season. But appearances can be deceiving, just ask Joe Johnson who nailed a jumper at the buzzer to give Atlanta the slightest of victories, 90-89. While winning is normally good enough, when you barely eek out a win against the most pathetic team in the league, even a buzzer-beater leaves you bummed out.

It’s got to stop sooner or later, man,” he said. “I honestly thought this was a 25-30 point win for us tonight.

25-30 point win? Don’t flatter yourself Joe. You do know that your team’s average margin of victory during its eight wins is just 7.5 points, right?

Categories
General Sports

Darius Miles is down with the `Superman layout into a scoliosis spine compressor slamma jam’

We were completely shocked to come across a clip of Slamball this morning. After all, we figured that Spike TV would have destroyed all evidence of the “sport’s” existence. But, amazingly enough, the dumb trampolines and silly acrobatics weren’t the only dinosaurs that were unearthed. We know it’s hard to believe, but there has been an on-court Darius Miles sighting.

Okay, we’ve had our fill. Now can we avoid the double-fisted forehead bump for another three years or so?

Links:

[Can’t Stop The Bleeding]: Darius Miles Has Really Slipped Since “The Perfect Score”

Categories
New England Patriots

50 Cent ain’t got jack on Mercury Morris

You might not like the Patriots; hell, you might hate the Patriots. Hell, we hate the Patriots (that damn Tom Brady and his stunning good looks). But you have to be rooting for an undefeated season and clean sweep of the playoffs; even if it’s for no other reason than to simply shut Mercury Morris the heck up.

Oh, this guy isn’t living in the past. His beats are even ancient. We’re surprised his rap didn’t start off “I’m Mercury Morris and I’m here to say…“. Man we hope karma bites Morris right in the butt. Nothing would be sweeter than to see New England run the table AND Miami pull the ultimate 0-16 choke job. Hey, he’d always have ’72.

Categories
Phoenix Suns

Around the Rim: Pass happy


1. Phoenix sharpshooter -passer
Everybody knows that Steve Nash is a passing machine, but this is getting to be plain silly. In his last four games, all wins, Nashty dished out a whopping 64 assists! The pass fest began on Nov. 30 when he had 14 assists at home against the Magic. Then the Suns began their current five-game, east coast road trip and the two-time MVP went off for 15 on the Knicks, followed by a 17-assist display against Indiana and culminating with Wednesday’s season-high 18 dimes against the Raptors. Of course, Sebastian Telfair could probably pick up 18 assists if he had scorers like Grant Hill (15.7 ppg), Shawn Marion (16.3), Amare Stoudemire (21.1), Raja Bell (11.7), Boris Diaw (7.4) and Leandro Barbosoa (17.7) running the floor with him. Okay, so maybe Se-Bass couldn’t do it, but a good point guard could.

2. Old friends?

Wednesday’s game between the Bull and the Bobcats served as a reunion of sorts for a pair of former teammates. Not on the floor, but on the sidelines. Chicago coach Scott Skiles and Charlotte big cheese Sam Vincent played ball together in college at Michigan State and then again in the pros when they both landed in the Orlando. Skiles’ Bulls took the game in Charlotte and afterwards the two reminisced on their initial memories of one another.

Skiles said he didn’t think Vincent would end up a coach when he was leading the Spartans in scoring. “I thought he was going to end up being an actor,” Skiles said.

“I thought he was a little [expletive] who couldn’t play basketball,” Vincent joked.

3. Guard-ian angles
Despite playing at home, the Spurs were facing an uphill battle against Dallas as Tim Duncan sat on the sidelines with an injury. But what probably should have been a loss turned into a welcomed W, 97-95, thanks to some outstanding backcourt play by the silver and black. Manu Ginobili was unstoppable as he found himself in the starting lineup for the first time this year, scoring a season-high 37 points (50% FG) to go with four rebounds, six assists, two steals and a block. Tony Parker chipped in 23, but struggled offensively, while Michael Finley came off the bench to score 14 on his former squad. All together, the trio of Spurs guards scored 74 of San Antonio’s 97 points. The Mavericks shot the ball very well, out rebounded the Spurs and scored 23 points off turnovers, but Dirk Nowitzki’s last-second trey from the corner didn’t connect and Dallas went down for the second time in three games.

Wednesday’s Player of the Day: Allen Iverson vs. Los Angeles Lakers 48 min, 51 pts (FG: 18-27, 3FG: 0-1, FT: 15-18), 2 reb, 8 ast, 1 stl

Thursday’s Game to Watch: Denver (11-8) @ Dallas (12-7)
Both of these teams are coming off Wednesday losses in which some significant truths were revealed. The Nuggets were fortunate to learn that Allen Iverson has still got it. The Answer blew up against the Lakers for a mile-high game-high 51 points, the most he’s scored as a Nugget and the most by any Denver player since Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf scored an identical amount in 1995. Unfortunately for the Mavs, their revelation is a lot more depressing. Dirk Nowitzki must reinvent himself if he is ever going to lead his team to a championship. His skills are incredible, but his style of play is incredibly soft. The seven-foot jump-shooter has a phobia of the lane and continues to be shut down by smaller players, as he was by Bruce Bowen on Wednesday. Granted, Bowen is a tremendous defender, but he is also giving up five inches and 45 pounds to the German MVP. Nowitzki shot four-of-11 for 15 points in the loss while Tim Duncan’s absence left a huge hole in the lane.

Buzzer Beater: Believe it or not, but Tracy McGrady only had two career triple-doubles before hitting Memphis up for 17 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists on Wednesday. The last time he accomplished the feat was nearly five ago when he had 46, 13 and 10 against the Nets on Feb. 23, 2003. Last night was certainly a good time to give an all around effort because his normally reliable shooting motion was out of order. T-Mac opened the game by going three-of-15 from the field before finishing with a less than respectable seven-of-22 performance.

Categories
College Football

Fans? Hawaii don’t need no stinkin’ fans


The Hawaii football team busted its asses all year long to go undefeated and earn a BCS bowl bid, but now that they’ve done the unthinkable, the school has gone out and done the unthinkable.

The university decided not to take their full allotment of tickets for the Sugar Bowl on New Years Day, thus turning the valuable tickets and seats over to an elated group of Bulldog faithful. Georgia gained 4,000 extras tickets in the exchange, bringing their total to 21,500 while dropping Hawaii down to 13,500 tickets. Needless to say, Warriors fans were not happy. And that was before Vili the Warrior even made the announcement on the late local newscast.

With Hawaii quickly selling out its reduced allotment of 13,500 tickets by Tuesday, many angry Warriors’ fans and season-ticket holders were left scrambling to find tickets to the school’s first bowl game outside the Aloha State since the 1992 Holiday Bowl.

Tickets, ranging from $125 to $145, were first made available to the Warriors’ 23,000 season-ticket holders and sold out quickly. Tickets were supposed go on sale to the general public Wednesday, but that never happened.

The university has created a waiting list and is offering to buy back tickets if purchasers were unable to make travel arrangements.

Guess June Jones isn’t the only islander who acts irrationally and then later comes to regret it.

Turns out that Hawaii is trying to get the Sugar Bowl to take some responsibility for this gaffe by saying that they didn’t think they could sell all the tickets and that the move was “at the suggestion of the Sugar Bowl, who was trying to accommodate the SEC team with more tickets to satisfy their demand.”

Sugar Bowl officials say it was Hawaii’s decision.

“They chose not to take their full allotment. That was Hawaii’s decision,” Sugar Bowl spokesman Duane Lewis said. “We definitely didn’t tell them not to take it, it was their choice.

We know that traveling from Hawaii to the mainland is a bitch, but this isn’t the 1992 Holiday Bowl, their last bowl appearance in the continental states. This is a coveted BCS bowl and you’re a measly WAC school, those things should be flying like hotcakes. At least give your fans the opportunity to buy the tickets before you give the other team an even greater `home field feel’ advantage. No wonder nobody wanted you guys to crack the top 12 in the BCS, you treat your own fans and team worse than you treat the opposition.

What’s next, are you going to conduct a raffle amongst the Gainesville population for your share of seats in the Swamp at next season’s opener?

Links:

[MSNBC.com]: Hawaii angers fans by giving tickets to Georgia