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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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No more classes means I actually have time to do this every day.

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All NBA Edition!

The Miami Heat scorched the one-man show known as the New York Knicks in round 1 & the Indiana Pacers took out the no-man show in Orlando, knocking out the Dwight Howard-less Magic.  Both teams did so in just 5 games, the Pacers finishing the job before the Heat.  So what does this mean for round 2? Round 1 featured a pretty easy fluff match for the Pacers, seeing as the Magic are a shell of their former self.  Then again, it is a young team, one that gave the number 1 seed Chicago Bulls fits last year.  They're learning & have improved since then, there isn't a chance they'll be taking the Heat lightly.  

What about the Heat?  This was a team that pretty much dominated the Knicks in the first round, which was a pretty easy match-up considering they only had to stop Carmelo Anthony & they knew they were set.  New York didn't help things by having ball-chucker J.R. Smith playing point for most of game 5.  

The Heat/Pacers round 2 series may not have the glitz & glamour of other playoff series, but it may be the best one yet.  In a 1st round filled with duds, the NBA playoffs are eagerly anticipating a series with some heart & excitement.  This one may be just what they are looking for.  The Heat took care of Indiana in the regular season, winning 3 of 4 games, so take that as you will.  

The reason why I like Indiana so much in this series is because their strengths are Miami's weaknesses.  The Pacers are anchored by their all-star center, 7'2 Roy Hibbert, who has a chance to absolutely dominate this series.  This could be his coming out party if he plays his cards right.  The Pacers also have a legitimate point guard in Darren Collison who, unlike the Heat's Mario Chalmers, can control a game & run an offense.  He has been coming off the bench as of late, giving George Hill the spotlight, but he played very well in the final 2 games of the 1st series with the Magic, scoring 30 points with 15 assists to close out the last games of the series.  The depth of the Pacers is nothing to sneeze at either.  I just mentioned the depth at point guard with Collison & Hill, but it doesn't end there.  The frontcourt was bolstered this past offseason when they added former all-star forward David West.  He's no focal point on this team, not while Hibbert, Danny Granger, & Paul George are around, but he doesn't have to be.  With Miami's less than fleet footed frontcourt of Joel Anthony & Ronny Turiaf, all West has to do is set up at the top of the key & hit some mid-range jumpers.  This clears the paint for a guy like Paul George, Indiana's young budding star, to drive to the hoop like he does best.  Like Collison, Tyler Hansbrough was starting for this team last year, but thanks to offseason additions, they just fill out a very formidable bench.  Leandro Barbosa was added at the trade deadline, but injuries have affected his game so far in the playoffs.  Maybe these couple days off will improve his health, it would be a huge boost for Indiana to have a scoring option like him coming off the bench & playing well.  

Some people may think I was overly focused on the Pacers here, but let's be honest, we all know about the Heat.  It's the 2 & a half man show.  LeBron is the best basketball player on the planet & Dwyane Wade is in the top 5.  Chris Bosh is probably the greatest 3rd option of all-time, even if he plays soft.  Other than that, save for an occasionally productive Mario Chalmers, this team doesn't have much else.  That's fine, because LeBron & company have been proving they can handle the load. I just live in a world where I can see the Pacers pushing them to the brink, scaring them, making them think that they just might lose.  The series begins Sunday & I'll be watching.  I expect this game to go 6 or 7 games, provided Indiana plays up to the level I have come to expect from them.  Ultimately, I believe the Heat will get the series win, just because the East is so weak, but it will be the first & only true test until they get to the Finals.

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Brady Quinn Wishes He Was Still Relevant

Remember Brady Quinn?  No?  I didn't think so.  Let me give you a quick crash course on the guy.  He was the quarterback for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish for four seasons and set a copious amount of records and his name is sprinkled among some NCAA passing records.  He was named to a few All-American Teams and even graced the cover of Sports Illustrated.  He & Notre Dame never could win the big game, Quinn did at least take home a few awards, including a the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award for the best quarterback in the NCAA in 2006.  Fast-forward to his NFL career where Quinn was drafted by the Cleveland Browns with the 22nd pick.  The kid had moxie, after the Miami Dolphins passed on him with the 9th pick, he was seen saying "they'll be sorry."  Well, unfortunately for Brady, the only team that was sorry were the Browns who gave him the reigns only for him to bust.  In a spectacular move for the Browns, they traded the disappointing Quinn to the Denver Broncos for running-back Peyton Hillis who went on to make the Pro-Bowl with them while Quinn became a perennial back-up.  This past season, Tim Tebow helped lead the Broncos to a surprising playoff berth with miraculous comebacks while Quinn watched from the sidelines.  Now in the offseason, Quinn is speaking up saying that he felt it was unfair Tebow was given the starting role over him and he was upset Tebow was given more publicity in Denver than he got.  He then called out Tebow for praying on the field for the cameras saying that that is something he would have done with his teammates.  While Brady may have a point there, he simply sounds like someone who's trying to paint himself as the ultimate teammate while tarnishing Tebow at the same time.  All in all, Quinn just sounds like an entitled brat who's throwing a hissy-fit over the fact that Tebow played well and got a chance.  Here's a newsflash for Brady Quinn -- you had your chance and blew it in Cleveland. This was Tebow's first chance and he excelled.  While Brady Quinn was losing every Bowl game he was in in college, Tebow was winning National Championships.  Reputation proceeds you, Brady.  Quinn has since apologized for his comments, which he really didn't NEED to do.  He was just speaking his mind, even if he came off like a bitter douche bag.

And to wrap things up eloquently, a friend of mine, Christian Antonio aka Adoginawig puts it the only way he knows how - "tl;dr Tebow is a godfag and Quinn doesn't like it"

Sports Teams I Bandwagoned as a Child

     In the sports world, bandwagoning is a mortal sin.  Like butt-fucking a priest on the Sabbath, rooting for a team simply because they're good is something that can get you ostracized in your community.  I've always been the type of person who is inclined to believe that you should root for your local teams.  I don't see how anyone gets all that much gratification from watching the Pittsburgh Steelers win the Super Bowl from Seattle.  Of course, there are extenuating circumstances, such as moving to another city and still rooting for your original team.  If I met a Patriots fan living in Miami that informed me that he moved as a teenager, I would not feel the need to call him a raging bandwagoning loser.  I think having a "2nd team" to root for besides your primary one is just as bad as well.  Call me a snobby sports fan, but that's just how I feel.  I believe we all go through that time in our lives, mainly while growing up, where we decide to root for other teams.  Call it intrigue or boredom, but it tends to happen.  I am no exception to the rule, because you'll see in this post the most prominent teams I had cheering allegiances to for various reasons growing up.

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.