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Not So Fast

After a dominating game 3 win for the Boston Celtics against the Philadelphia 76ers, Philly knew they had to play their heart out to tie this series up or else the future would be very bleak.  It didn't start off so well for Philly, because Boston came out firing on all cylinders.  Boston outscored Philly 24-12 in the first quarter & then 22-19 in the 2nd, leading to an impressive 46-31 lead at halftime.  The game was so lopsided that Philadelphia was booed by their homecourt fans.

Some teams would probably crawl into their shell after a half like that.  It was the biggest game of the year for a young team that nobody even expected to be in this round & they were getting punk'd out.  The fans booing them may have a motivating factor, though, because they came out ready to play in the 3rd quarter.  Philly's offense emerged in the 3rd quarter as they dropped 28 points on Boston & only gave up 17 to the Celtics.  The 76ers were back in the game.  Still, Boston had the lead going into the 4th, Philly would have to play that much better to complete this miraculous comeback.  They did just that.  Philly is a team centered around depth, they don't really have that prototypical "superstar" player.  Their proverbial "best" player showed up last night, though.  Their potential Olympic representative Andre Iguodala put the team on his back & led the 76ers to an improbable victory against the mighty Celtics.  It was Iggy's 16 points that helped propel the 76ers, including 5 straight points for Philly in the final minute & a half when the game was tied.  With less than 2 minutes left, Iguodala calmly took a step back jumper & drained a go-ahead shot to put the 76ers up 85-83.  Immediately after that, Rajon Rondo had his shot blocked & Philly was back on the attack.  Iguodala sank a 3 point shot for the dagger, giving Philly a 5 point lead & causing the passionate fans, the very ones who were booing this team earlier, to go into a frenzy.  76ers somehow win 92-83.

I wrote in my small prediction yesterday that I believed if the Celtics could get the kind of stellar production they got from Rondo, Kevin Garnett, & Paul Pierce in game 3, then game 4 would be just as easy for them.  It started off that way, but they fizzled fast.  Garnett no longer looked like he was 10 years younger, he looked old again.  Only 9 points after his epic game 3 is definitely not what Boston was looking for.  Pierce played well, getting 24 points, but seemed to take a backseat as he watched Rondo try to make plays by himself, even though he is not a play-making point guard. Brandon Bass had a good first half, but disappeared in the 2nd half, finishing with 15 points.  What's really hurting the Celtics is the lack of production from their former all-star shooting guard, Ray Allen.  He played 31 minutes but only scored 5 points.  He has been disturbingly quiet this series & God knows they could have used him last night.  This supporting cast is awful for Boston, the stars need to make the plays & they just didn't last night in the 2nd half.  Keyon Dooling was bricking shots left & right while no one else could even pray to hit the rim.  Philly, on the other hand, has great depth & put their trust in all of their players to complete the comeback.  Evan Turner, their much maligned former lottery pick, poured in 16 points for them while the runner-up for 6th Man of the Year, Lou Williams, scored 15 points off the bench, 13 of which he scored in the 2nd half.  Williams was really the spark this team desperately needed in the 2nd half.  All of Philly's starters had a negative +/- rating, save for Evan Turner who finished neutral at 0.  Williams, on the other hand, finished with an impeccable +28 rating.  Add in 12 points off the bench from Thaddeus Young, 9 from Jodie Meeks, & 8 from Lavoy Allen & you've got some pretty solid bench production.  Philly's bench outscored Boston's 44-12.

Game 5 will be played on Monday as this series has quickly become one of the more exciting ones left in the playoffs.  It's anyone's guess as to how the next game will play out.  After watching Boston dominate game 3 & the first half of game 4, you gotta believe they have what it takes to shut down this young 76ers team.  The thing that keeps Philly more than just alive, but with legitimate reason to believe they can win is their depth & confidence.  Boston has their big 3 of Rondo, Pierce, & Garnett, but that's about it.  If they don't perform, they're screwed.  Philadelphia, however, has a rotation that goes about 8 men deep.  Boston will be playing at home on Monday, which should give them the emotional charge they may need to shake off this heartbreaking loss.  Philly seems to play off the energy their crowd gives them, it's time for this young team to prove they can win pivotal games on the road.  I still believe Boston ultimately wins this series, but this has 7 games written all over it.

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 Sweating in Miami

Remember game 2 of the series between the Pacers & Heat?  The Pacers managed to get out of Miami stealing a win on the Heat's homecourt & they were amped about it.  The Heat players were none too pleased by Indiana's reaction to the win & thought their celebration was too over the top.  So you gotta bet that the next game, the Heat would be ready to embarrass the Pacers for such a thing, the motivation had to be through the roof.  Uhh...I guess not.  The Pacers gave the Heat the biggest beat down they've seen all year long & it was in the biggest game (until the next game) of the year.

The game started off according to script.  Another low scoring game with some physicality.  The Pacers came out red hot to open the game as Roy Hibbert managed to completely embarrass Erik Spoelstra's new starting center, Dexter Pittman.  The Pacers went on an 11-2 run to open the game in front of their golden crowd & were flying high.  Unfortunately for them, LeBron James led the Chris Bosh-less Heat on an impressive run of their own, managing to outscore the Pacers 24-6 to end the quarter & take a 26-17 lead at the end of 1.  The first quarter was a tale of 2 runs, the Pacers made theirs while the Heat did as well.  James was playing fantastic & carrying his team along with, not Dwyane Wade, but rather, Mario Chalmers.  Wade struggled mightily from the field.  The 2nd quarter was the same story, but played by opposite roles.  The Heat watched their 9 point lead diminish as Indiana went ahead & outscored them 26-17 in the 2nd to lead to a 43-43 tie at halftime.  The Heat had to feel okay, considering they were on the road, LeBron had played great with 16 first half points & despite Wade having an atrocious game so far, they were still very much in it.

It seemed as though, once the 3rd quarter began, the Pacers decided to stop messing around with the Heat.  Indiana dominated the 3rd quarter in every aspect, their defense holding Miami's electric offense to a measly 12 points.  Wade continued to struggle as LeBron stopped dominating.  The Heat's best player on the floor was Mario Chalmers, which doesn't bode well for them.  The Pacers spread the ball around, the major standout being their 7'2 center, Roy Hibbert who finished the game with 19 points, 18 rebounds, & 5 blocks.  There is not a soul on this Miami team that can dream of stopping him, Roy is setting himself for quite a hefty contract whenever these playoffs end for him.  The loss of Chris Bosh is such a crushing blow for Miami, not only for his ability to be the best 3rd option in the NBA, something that would have been vital for this team in game 3, seeing as how much Wade struggled, but also for his ability to at least be a big body down low.  No Bosh means LeBron has to play out of position as a power forward & you can tell it is exhausting LeBron.  He just doesn't have as much energy in this series as he normally does.  Danny Granger, whose main objective this series is to guard LeBron (which he did & got in his face for the 3rd consecutive game) got hot, he finished with 17 points & David West, their emotional leader on the floor who got face to face with Mario Chalmers at one point, finished with 14 points.  Their starting PG, someone Larry Bird brought over from San Antonio in the offseason, George Hill, was the one who really shut the door on any idea of a Heat comeback in the 2nd half.  He finished with a team leading 20 points, including 3-4 from 3 point land.  The Pacers bullied the Heat in the 2nd half & were clearly the better team, walking away celebrating a 94-75 victory.

LeBron had a very pedestrian game, finishing with 22 points (only 6 in the 2nd half), 6 rebounds, & 3 assists.  Dwyane Wade had his worst game, possibly ever, with 5 points & only 1 assist, compared to 5 turnovers.  The boiling point came in the 3rd quarter after another missed Wade shot led to an Indiana fast break and easy bucket.  Wade didn't hustle back on defense & coach Erik Spoelstra called a timeout & basically told Wade to sit his ass on the bench.  Well, Dwyane being the emotional prima donna that he is, did not approve of his coach telling him what to do (even though that's his job) and could be seen verbally sparing with Spoelstra.  He had to be calmed down by Udonis Haslem & Juwan Howard.  I know what you're thinking; yes, Juwan is still in the league.  Wade was 2-13 from the field & had a whopping -25 rating.  Mario Chalmers seemed to be the only one who really wanted to play the entire game, because he ended up with a game high 25 points with 6 rebounds & 5 assists.

So what's next?  Game 4 takes place on Indiana's floor, so no party atmosphere for Miami to lift them.  When there's two minutes left in the quarter, they won't hear the ear cringingly annoying "2 MINUTES...DOS!!!!"  Indiana is a basketball crowd, not a party waiting to happen that just so happens to catch a couple moments of the game in front of them.  The Heat need to come out and prove that they are the better team that every single expert chose to win, including ESPN analyst & former NBA player, Jon Barry, who even said the Heat would sweep.  I swear, I look at some of these predictions & think to myself how it would be so awesome to be a sports columnist.  You make awful predictions, you're basically the weather man, you can suck at your job but somehow continue to keep doing it.  Seems nice.

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Stop Me If You've Heard This Story Before

The Los Angeles Lakers came into yesterday's game 2 against the Oklahoma City Thunder down 1 game & looking to fight back after a humiliating loss.  Unlike the last game, this was a low-scoring affair.  The two teams combined for 209 points in game 1 & just 152 in game 2.  The prevailing message after this game, a game in which we saw the Thunder rally from 7 points down with just 2 minutes left to win, is that the Lakers cannot beat Oklahoma City.  It seems as though the Thunder are younger, deeper, more cohesive, & just plain better than the Lakers.

Remember game 2 between the Pacers & Heat?  A low-scoring game, superstars not showing up down the stretch, & an unlikely player taking the final shot being the headline of the game?  This Lakers/Thunder game 2 is eerily similar to that.  During the Thunder comeback, there were no issues with their superstar, the MVP runner-up, Kevin Durant.  Durant, who finished with 22 points, 7 rebounds, & 5 assists, hit a floater just outside the paint with just 18 seconds left that gave the Thunder a 1 point lead.  Durant scored the final 9 points for this Thunder team, playing very much like an MVP.  Kobe Bryant, on the other hand, struggled.  He was guarded by Durant the whole night & had a very mediocre shooting night, going just 9-25 from the field for 20 points.  It was the Lakers ineptitude to perform during the final several minutes of the 4th quarter that did them in, missing on their final 6 possessions.  Kobe just wasn't very Kobe-like in this game.  James Harden managed to block a Bryant jumper which led to the Thunder cutting the lead to just 1 & it was a missed 3 point shot from Kobe that led to Durant putting the Thunder up for good.  

A raucous Oklahoma City crowd, perfectly sequenced in white & blue, sat in anticipation as the Lakers gathered for the final shot.  The Lakers were only down by 1 & had the ball coming off a timeout.  Metta World Peace had the ball standing out of bounds & gazed ahead of him & saw Thabo Sefolosha draped all over Kobe Bryant.  Down by 1, Steve Blake received the pass from World Peace & fired a corner 3, which bounced off the rim & into the hands of Kevin Durant.  Thunder win, up 2-0 in the series.

Kobe Bryant was visibly upset when he saw Blake had gotten the shot over him, but fact of the matter is this, he wasn't open.  It was a bad playcall coming off the timeout & bad management of timeouts from the Lakers, considering they couldn't call one once they saw Kobe wasn't open.  Blake finished the game 1-5 from behind the arc & should not have been the man to take that final shot.  The fact that the Lakers settled for a low percentage shot like that, when they shot only 25% in the 4th quarter is just absurd.  They handed the Thunder this game & probably the series.  6 turnovers in the final quarter is not the play of a championship team.  The Thunder have blown out the Lakers & now stolen a game from them, they're in the Lakers psyche & this series is going to be over sooner, rather than later.

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The Pacers Are Who We Thought They Were!

I wrote in my last I Like Sportz post that the Pacers absolutely had what it took to stand up to the daunting Miami Heat & Tuesday, they proved that.  After a very competitive game 1 that ended with the Heat just outplaying the Pacers down the stretch run, the Pacers regained momentum in the series by holding on to win a very ugly & gritty game 2.  Chris Bosh, the Heat's all-star power forward, will be missing the rest of this series due to an abdominal injury, which is a huge blow to Miami.  The Heat rely heavily on LeBron & Wade to carry the load & Bosh was that anchor who could help out should they need it.  Now he's gone & this already thin team is looking all that more beatable.

The Heat had a 5 point lead at halftime at home, the first half being a very low scoring & physical affair.  The Pacers came out hot in the 3rd quarter & exploded for 28 points & held Miami to only 14 3rd quarter points, giving them a 9 point lead going into the 4th quarter, which even blossomed to an 11 point lead.  The Heat are no strangers to miraculous comebacks, especially in the playoffs, & they fought back.  Indiana missed 24 of their final 29 shots, costing them the lead on the road against the team that most "experts" claim to be the best in the world.  Recipe for a loss & going down 2 games, right?  Wrong.

What's one of the biggest knocks against this talented Heat team, besides their lack of depth?  It's the ineptitude to perform in clutch situations that has taxed this team for the past 2 years.  Those ugly demons surfaced again last night as the two players they rely on the most to propel them to victory, didn't deliver.  If you look at the box score, you'll say Wade & LeBron had great games, which they did, as a whole.  It's those last couple minutes of the game that can change everything.  Dwyane Wade misses an open lay-up that would have tied the game with less than 30 seconds left & all of a sudden his 24 point game is a bit tainted.  LeBron misses 2 free throws with his team down 1 with less than a minute left & his 28 point, 9 rebound effort is pushed to the backseat.  The game ended with Indiana nursing a 3 point lead & trying to stop Miami from hitting a game-tying buzzer beater.  The final shot came & who took it?  Wade?  Nope.  Surely LeBron, right?  Na uh.  Mario Chalmers, who finished the game 2-10 shooting, took the final shot that he failed to sink & Indiana was going home, managing to steal 1 game away from the Heat in Miami.

Before we go to the smaller stories of the day, let's analyze what exactly happened at the end of this Pacers/Heat game 2.  Tough game, full of physical play & comebacks.  Any team would feel good coming off the floor with a win.  Once Chalmers missed his final shot, a number of Pacers began to celebrate on the court in front of the Miami, err..faithful, if you can call them that.  Fist pumping, chest bumping, & cheering from Paul George, Danny Granger, & Darren Collison were pretty prominent.  The Heat took notice.  Some condescending reactionary comments from Wade, LeBron, Udonis Haslem, & Chalmers were given & it left this sports fan a bit perplexed.  This is the same Heat team that screams & pounds their chest after every big play.  This is LeBron who used to dance before games & do choreographed stunts with his teammates.  The very same team who provide the NBA with the gaudiest & flashiest live presentation of a game in all of sports, creating a party like atmosphere in their arena.  All of a sudden, they have an issue with celebrating?  Me thinks the Heat are being a bit hypocritical.  The fact of the matter is this; the Heat, with their over the top attitudes & bigger than life image, give other teams the motivation to celebrate.  When you beat a team as arrogant as them, you want to rub their face in it.  They're the bullies who do all the pushing, but when they get pushed back, they run off & tell the adults.  Last year you were telling your fans to "Fan up," Miami, seems like it's time for you to man up.

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Who the hell is Rob Lowe?

Some actor named Rob Lowe took to Twitter yesterday to announce some Earth shattering news.  Peyton Manning is going to retire.  Lowe, who is apparently good friends with the Colts owner Jim Irsay, said that his "people" have informed him that Manning is going to retire.  Regardless if it's true or not (I don't think it is) why would he run to Twitter and tell everyone instead of allowing Manning, a future Hall of Fame inductee when he DOES retire, to announce it to everyone on his own time.  Classy move of Lowe to steal the spotlight away.  Doing some remedial research on this dude, I've found out that he was in Wayne's World (which I have never seen) and Tommy Boy (a role in which he plays a douche bag, which seems to fit him well) He is also in the television show Parks and Recreation (another one I've never seen and is currently rumored to be on the chopping block) For what it's worth, Peyton's father Archie has said he doesn't think his son will retire.  I hope Manning himself comes out soon and announces his intentions soon.

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Miami Heat come back & defeat San Antonio

A Dwyane Wade-less Miami Heat team hosted the San Antonio Spurs in the American Airlines arena and pulled off a pretty impressive comeback victory.  The 9-5 Spurs were leading 63-49 against the 9-4 Heat at halftime and looked to be on cruise control against a Heat team missing their all-star shooting guard.  Not so fast, there's a reason the Spurs are 0-5 on the road this year.  The Heat erupted for 39 points in the 3rd quarter with LeBron James leading the way with 33 points & 10 assists by game's end while Chris Bosh poured in 30 points of his own.  Mike Miller, who made his season debut, was perfect from 3-point land draining 6 shots for 18 points off the bench.  The Spurs, who looked dominant in the first half, became stagnant in the 2nd and struggled with Miami's stifling defense, only managing to score 12 points in the 3rd quarter.  You know it's a rough day for the offense when Daniel Green scores 20 points and is your team's leading scorer.  The Spurs desperately miss Manu Ginobili, who has missed the past couple weeks worth of games and is still not close to returning.  Richard Jefferson added nothing for the Spurs, playing 23 minutes and not scoring a single point, along with Tim Duncan only getting 8 points.  A signature victory for Miami and a loss San Antonio will want to quickly put in the rear-view mirror.

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USA Men's Basketball Finalists Named

A list of 20 NBA players was revealed yesterday as candidates for the 2012 Olympics and it is a smorgasbord of top tier talent.  Blake Griffin from the Los Angeles Clippers & LaMarcus Aldridge of the Portland Trail Blazers were added to the pool that included the roster from the gold medal winning Olympic team from 2008 and the roster from the 2010 world champions.  The candidates include a slew of MVPs, all-stars, & NBA champions with Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, & Chris Bosh of the Miami Heat, Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls, Russell Westbrook & Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic, Carmelo Anthony & Tyson Chandler of the New York Knicks, Chris Paul & Chauncey Billups of the Los Angeles Clippers, Lamar Odom of the Dallas Mavericks, Deron Williams of the New Jersey Nets, Eric Gordon of the New Orleans Hornets, Rudy Gay of the Memphis Grizzlies, Kevin Love of the Minnesota Timberwolves, & Andre Iguodala of the Philadelphia 76ers.  There will be a final roster of 12 players, with 6 alternates, issued by June 18 and head coach Mike Krzyzewski (also head coach of the Duke Blue Devils) & USA men's basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo will have a heck of a time dwindling it down.  For shits and giggles, here's my personal opinion on who the final 12 & 6 should be...

1 - LeBron James

2 - Dwyane Wade

3 - Kobe Bryant

4 - Derrick Rose

5 - Chris Paul

6 - Kevin Durant

7 - Carmelo Anthony

8 - Dwight Howard

9 - Blake Griffin

10 - Kevin Love

11 - LaMarcus Aldridge

12 - Deron Williams

(Alternates)

1 - Russell Westbrook

2 - Chris Bosh

3 - Rudy Gay

4 - Tyson Chandler

5 - Chauncey Billups

6 - Andre Iguodala

Regardless of their final decisions, this USA men's basketball looks to be dominant and will likely continue their domination of national play.

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Giants, 49ers, Patriots, & Ravens move on to Conference Championships

     In what was an insanely exciting weekend of playoff football, 4 teams emerged victorious and moved one step closer to going to Indianapolis for Superbowl XLVI.  Here's what went down...

- The New England Patriots demolished the Denver Tebows Broncos 45-10.  The Patriots had this game on lock, save for one 1st quarter Brady interception, the Broncos were never in this game.  The New England defense was surprisingly dominant, forcing Tebow to scramble even more so than usual as he threw for an extremely pedestrian 136 yards while only completing 9 of 26 pass attempts.  Tom Brady, on the other hand, had a record-tying performance, matching Steve Young for the most touchdown passes in a single playoff game with 6.

- The Patriots will be facing the Baltimore Ravens who took care of business against the injury riddled Houston Texans.  The Ravens won 20-13 as Houston was able to hang around with rookie quarterback T.J. Yates who struggled mightily throwing 3 interceptions against the tough Baltimore defense.  Of Yates' 184 passing yards, 111 of which went to Andre Johnson.  Arian Foster led the way for Houston's offense with a touchdown and 132 yards rushing, but it wasn't enough.  The Texans had a chance to tie it late in the 4th as they were driving down field when Yates threw an interception to safety Ed Reed who would seal the deal for Baltimore and punched their ticket to the AFC Championship game.

- In what may have been one of the greatest, if not entertaining NFL playoff games of all time, the San Francisco 49ers managed to defeat the New Orleans Saints in a back & forth nail-biter, 36-32.  The stellar 49er defense was able to force 3 turnovers in the first quarter alone against the dynamic Saints offense including a fumble recovery on their own 2 yard line after Pierre Thomas was knocked out of the game with a hit from Donte Whitner.  The 49er offense struggled through most of the game as it remained close despite the dominant showing from the San Francisco defense.  At the beginning of the 4th quarter it was 20-17 San Francisco.  That's when all the fun began.  A David Akers 37 yard field goal made it a 23-17 game with 7:36 to go which was followed up by a 44 yard touchdown pass from Drew Brees to Darren Sproles to put the Saints up 24-23 with 4:02 left in the game, just 1 of Sproles' record-breaking 15 receptions in the game.  The 49ers answered when their quarterback, Alex Smith was able to rush for a 28 yard touchdown on a 3rd & 8 with 2:11 left in the game putting San Francisco up 29-24 after a failed 2 point conversion attempt.  New Orleans answered right back as Drew Brees threw an epic pass to Jimmy Graham that ended up as a 66 yard touchdown pass down the middle, as the Saints were able to tack on the 2 point conversion making it a 32-29 game with only 1:37 left in the game.  Game over, right?  Wrong.  Alex Smith led the 49ers down the field and capped it all off with a 14 yard touchdown pass to Vernon Davis, who had 7 receptions for 180 yards & 2 touchdowns, including the game-winner with just 9 seconds left in the game.  A tearful Davis returned to the sidelines after the catch and embraced his rookie coach Jim Harbaugh in an image that will live on forever.

- The 49ers weren't the only NFC team to pull off what was perceived to be an upset this past weekend.  The best team in the regular season, Green Bay Packers who went 15-1 were defeated at home by the New York Giants 37-20.  This was a game that, surprisingly, the Giants had control for most of the way through.  The Packers defense was their downfall as Eli Manning was able to throw for 330 yard and 3 touchdowns.  The probable MVP of the regular season, Aaron Rodgers had a very pedestrian game for his standards, as he was only able to muster up 264 yards on 2 touchdowns and an interception.  Not all on him though, as his wide receivers dropped several balls that came back to bite Green Bay in the ass.  Hakeem Nicks led the way for the Giants on offense as he caught 7 passes for 165 yards and 2 touchdowns, including a 37 yard bomb to end the first half that he was able to grab in the endzone.

So we have the Ravens & Patriots and the 49ers & Giants.  Personally, I love these matchups and will be rooting for the 49ers and Ravens.  Give me a Har-BOWL!  With Jim in San Francisco and his brother John in Baltimore, this could very well be a very Harbaugh Superbowl.  This 49ers team is a hell of a lot of fun to watch and virtually impossible to root against.  Seriously, unless you're a Giants fan, I don't see why you would want to root against them next weekend.  I know I sure won't be.

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Happy Friday the 13th!

Friday the 13th is a day of superstition and unluckiness, supposedly.  It's had an entire awesome horror film series dedicated to it!  So on this day of woe and uncertainty, how about we delve into the notion of superstitious athletes?  Perhaps the most famous & talked about act of superstition is that of Hall of Fame baseball player, Wade Boggs.  Boggs absolutely HAD to eat chicken before every single game.  If he didn't? He would request to be taken out of the lineup.  Not to mention, for night games, he had to go into the batting cages at precisely 5:17 pm before every game and took his pre-game sprints at exactly 7:17 pm.  Then when he went up to bat, he would draw the Hebrew word for "life" in the dirt.  He's not the only one though, from Tiger Woods wearing red every Sunday, which is the color of luck in Thailand to Michael Jordan wearing his college shorts under his NBA shorts during every game, a lot of players have their superstitions that they think help enhance their games.  NBA player, Caron Butler drinks a liter of Mountain Dew before every game and then another at halftime.  His former teammate, Jason Terry wears the shorts of his next opposition to bed the night before.  Former MLB pitcher, Mark Fidrych would yell at the baseball on the mound and if one was being hit too often, then he had to replace it with another one.  Former NHL player, Bruce Gardiner would dip his hockey stick in the toilet if he was in a slump and at times, would dip the whole blade inside to show the stick he was in charge.  Weird as hell?  Sure.  But these athletes have made it to the top of sports pinnacle, so they must be doing something right!

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LeBron ≠ Clutch

Last night the Miami Heat lost their 2nd straight game, this time to the Los Angeles Clippers.  Some may say the Clippers won this game, but sorry, the Heat LOST it.  Absolutely atrocious play from Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade, & LeBron James led to an implosion during the 4th quarter & overtime.  The free throw shooting is what did Miami in as LeBron proved once again, late in a close game, he cannot be relied upon.  James only made 9 of 17 free throws, including missing on several key ones late in the 4th, which basically cost them the game.  It wasn't just LeBron, to be fair, as the big 3 as a whole played terribly.  Chris Bosh (6-16), Dwyane Wade (6-17), & LeBron James (7-19) all had bad shooting nights while Chris Paul played lights out for the Clippers.  This was a big road test for the Heat, playing against a good team and they didn't live up to expectations, often times screaming at the referees for more calls to go their way.  Caron Butler helped carry the Clippers in the 2nd half, lighting it up for a total of 20 points while Blake Griffin fooled around and got himself a 20 & 12 double-double.  Key defensive plays from DeAndre Jordan helped propelled the Clippers to their biggest win this year and Miami is left wondering, yet again, if LeBron's inability to close out games will be their eventual downfall.

I Like Sportz

     Alright alright, I think it's painfully obvious to everyone who knows me that I like sports.  Embrace it!  The title simply comes from The Lonely Island song "We Like Sportz" (which is phenomenal) Here's a new idea I'm gonna debut for this ol' blog, it's gonna be a daily sports rundown/musing on the recent events.  It's going to be done in the same vein as the guys over at The John Report do things.  One major headline and then several other stories.  I'll try to include all sports in the headlines and will do my best for this to be a daily thing, along with the song of the days.  So here's the first of hopefully many editions of I Like Sportz.

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Kobe!

Last night Kobe Bryant proved to everyone that, well, he's still Kobe Bryant.  He went off for 48 points against the Phoenix Suns, the highest scoring output in the short NBA season thus far.  He closed the game out, scoring 15 of the Lakers final 17 points and led the way to victory for Los Angeles.  A lot of people seem to doubt Kobe, which probably does nothing more than to motivate him to kick even more ass.  This guy is the greatest player to play in the game for the past decade and in the discussion for one of the all-time best.  The fact that there are still people doubting him year in and year out is ludicrous.  He's on a team with guys like Josh McRoberts, Troy Murphy, & Devin Ebanks playing major minutes.  More often than not, Kobe is gonna have to take over games.  It's unclear whether or not that will lead to a successful year for the Lakers, but people better be prepared to deal with a motivated and hungry Black Mamba.