Recapping the Week 5/16-5/22

Owners vs. Players- Once again it was a week of little news in the NFL and as a result the league is fast approaching the 70 day mark in the lockout. Besides the lockout Ravens star linebacker Ray Lewis proclaimed that if there isn’t a season next year the crime rate will rise. This really isn’t rocket science because what is going to hold NFL players back if they don’t have head coaches to report to? I think an interesting prop bet for the NFL next year if there isn’t a season would be which team has the most players get arrested. The early favorite would be the Cincinnati Bengals but there are plenty of other teams that could challenge the Bengals.

NBA- To oppose the East coast bias the Western Conference Finals will get reviewed first. As seen in the blog post preceding this one I had predicted the Thunder to advance in 6 games but after the first three games it’s not looking too good for my prediction which shouldn’t surprise anyone. Game one was all about Dirk Nowitzki who put up a stunning shooting display en route to 48 points; he only missed three of his 39 shot attempts (12-15 from the field and 24-24 from the free throw line). There were plenty of well warranted gripes about touchy foul calls but its going to be quite some time before we see another shooting display like the one that Dirk Nowitzki (Nomisski). Somehow the Thunder remained in this game until the very end behind Kevin Durant’s 40 points but it ultimately wasn’t enough as the Thunder fell to the Mavericks 121-112. Game two was a back and forth affair that came down to the wire in somewhat shocking fashion. The shocking thing about the Thunder victory in game two was that they pulled away in the fourth quarter without the services of Russell Westbrook who was benched for the entirety of the fourth quarter. Westbrook was also joined on the bench for the entire fourth quarter with all other Thunder starters minus Durant as the Thunder played four bench players down the stretch. I’ve defended Westbrook this playoffs as someone that I feel is unfairly targeted by the media but it’s kind of hard to defend him when the Thunder play better with him on the bench in the fourth quarter of a tight game. In his defense its not like Westbrook was benched in favor of some complete scrub as Eric Maynor is a more than capable backup but its hard to wrap your mind around the fact that Westbrook, an All-Star and second team all NBA player this year, was benched for the fourth quarter of the biggest game of the Thunder’s year. Westbrook wasn’t just benched the Thunder actually pulled away for the victory while Westbrook watched on from the bench. Westbrook said all the right things after the game and it appears like this is a non-issue going forward which is good news for the Thunder because they are going to need him if they want to win this series. The other shocking thing about the Thunder’s fourth quarter and game two victory was that Durant only scored four points in the fourth quarter. This speaks volumes about the Thunder’s bench, which is probably as good if not better than the starting fives of half the NBA’s teams. Tied at one game apiece the Thunder returned home to OKC for game three although it appeared no one told the Thunder that they had a game to play as the Mavericks jumped out to an early 23 point lead in the second quarter. I can’t completely blame the Thunder for this though as they were probably under the impression that Game 3 would be canceled due to the great rapture that was supposed to take place on May 21st. Back to the actual game, this wasn’t a pretty game to watch by any measure as both teams struggled immensely at times to put the ball in the basket. Both Nowitzki and Durant were off their games for much of the night leading to both relying on secondary options, a battle that the Mavericks decisively won. Besides Russell Westbrook and Durant there was no other player on the Thunder that registered a double digit scoring output, exemplifying this was Kendrick Perkins goose egg in thirty minutes. Meanwhile the Mavericks were helped out by a big game from Shawn Marion, 18 points, and Tyson Chandler, 8 points 15 rebounds. The Thunder made the game close down the stretch but the early 23 point deficit proved to be too much as the Thunder eventually fell by a score of 93-87.

On to the Easter Conference Finals, which only gave us two games this week as apparently you can only play basketball on days with high TV ratings potential. I understand the need for high TV ratings but its kind of ludicrous that there were only two games this week as most teams play a minimum of three games a week during the regular season. The TV rating issue is the only reason that the NBA playoffs stretch on for what seems like decades. After the Bulls decisive game one victory the Heat rebounded with a solid Game 2 showing that they won by a score of 85-75. The game was much closer than the score indicates as it was tied before LeBron James led the Heat on a late game run with about four minutes left. The Bulls for most of the game were atrocious offensively as they only shot 34.1 percent from the field and 15 percent from behind the arc which makes it all the more amazing that they were tied with just over four minutes remaining in the game. Unfortunately for the Bulls LeBron decided to get hot at the four minute mark in the fourth quarter and was phenomenal down the stretch for the Heat. Even with that amazing four minute stretch at the end of the game LeBron was the Heat’s worst starter by the plus minus metric only registering a plus 8. The plus minus metric isn’t perfect and a plus 8 is still really strong but it is kind of strange to see that James was the Heat’s worst starter by plus minus. The other two Heat stars, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh registered plus minus’s of +19 and +22 respectively. This game marked the return of rugged big man Udonis Haslem from a foot injury that plagued him all year and judging by Game 2 it appears that Haslem will be a crucial asset for the Heat going forward. As mentioned for the Bulls they really didn’t have anything going for them offensively as only Derrick Rose and Luol Deng where the only Bulls to cross the double digit scoring mark. Even though they both scored double digits neither Rose nor Deng were particularly efficient in getting there as they both took more shots than points scored which is usually the sign of inefficient scoring. Both the Heat and Bulls are excellent defensively so offensive is hard to come by but scoring 75 points in a playoff game like the Bulls did is embarrassing. The Bulls offensive woes continued on into Game 3 as they once again provided a below average offensive game which led to the Heat registering an 11 point victory by the count of 96-85. Chris Bosh (Like a Bosh) probably played his best game of the year putting up 34 points in Game 3 to the dismay of many including myself. Besides Bosh’s big breakout game the main storyline has to be the Bulls inability to score on the Heat. Granted the Heat are one of the top defensive teams by most statistical measures but still the Bulls aren’t getting it done offensively. The Bull’s offensive woes start from the top as MVP Derrick Rose had another so-so game with 20 points on 19 shots. Not to bag on the guy but in Games 2 and 3 Rose has not looked anything like a league MVP. Carlos Boozer even looked the part of solid second option in Game 3 with 26 points and 17 boards but the Bulls were still flat offensively. I’m not sure what they are going to do going forward but if they keep scoring in the seventies and eighties there not going to win this series against the Heat.

MLB- How about them Mariners? I’m going to look past the fact that no one cares about the Mariners for a second and hype them up. At weeks end they only find themselves 1.5 games out of first place, never mind the fact that the Mariners are only 1.5 games out of first place because the rest of the AL West has been awful. This probably isn’t going to be sustainable for the Mariners as they have recently been feasting on a weak schedule but the Mariners don’t appear to be one of the worst teams in the MLB anymore. Most of this has to do with their starting pitching in particular the duo of Felix Hernandez and rookie hurler Michael Pineda. Pineda has been a revelation, as everyone knew he was immensely talented but it was thought he would need at least another year or two before he pitched like he’s pitching now. In other news the Red Sox are back which isn’t exactly a shocker but how fast they’ve righted the ship after their slow start is pretty remarkable. I’m not ready to anoint them team to beat in the AL due to a questionable rotation but there quickly working towards getting there. After another week with a multi-HR game I think that its safe to say that Blue Jays outfielder Jose Bautista has established himself as the premier home run hitter in the MLB. So the question that must be asked is how did everyone miss out him until he was hitting thirty years old? Your guess is as good as mine as to how he went unnoticed all these years but right now he is destroying anything that is thrown in the strike zone. Not to get too far ahead of ourselves but the Cleveland Indians, who everyone including myself expected to be awful, could be on the brink of running away with the AL Central. They got off to a great start and have built from there and are currently seven games ahead of the pack in the AL Central. For the most part people are still waiting for them to trip up but with each passing day they continue to assert themselves as true contenders in the American League.

The Week Moving Forward

Owners vs. Players- At some point there will be an agreement between both the owners and players but when this time is no one knows. As a friend recently pointed out the worst thing about this potential lockout is that there won’t be Hard Knocks if both sides don’t come to terms fairly soon.

NBA- Obviously all eyes are on the conference finals so here’s what all the teams have to do to advance to the Finals. The Mavericks must continue to get solid production from at least one of their plethora of second options (Marion, Jason Terry, JJ Barea) and get Nowitzki the ball in his spots. The Thunder have to get some sort of production from Kendrick Perkins if they’re going to play him thirty minutes and also get Russell Westbrook to play like the All-Star he is. In the Eastern Conference the Bulls have to resurrect Carlos Boozer and get scoring from him and also get scoring from one of their shooting guards. Lastly the Heat must get some one off of their bench going because their starting five has gotten leads only to see their bench turn around and give those leads right back to the opposition.

MLB- Not much to say here as the MLB season continues to roll along, just to add something to this here are the four tiers of MLB teams right now.

Championship Contenders- Boston Red Sox, Cleveland Indians, Philadelphia Phillies, Florida Marlins, St. Louis Cardinals, San Francisco Giants

Playoff Contenders- NY Yankees, Tampa Bay Rays, Detroit Tigers, Chicago White Sox, Texas Rangers, Atlanta Braves, Cincinnati Reds, Milwaukee Brewers, Colorado Rockies

Decent teams- Toronto Blue Jays, Baltimore Orioles, Kansas City Royals, LA Angels, Oakland Athletics, Seattle Mariners, NY Mets, LA Dodgers

Shouldn’t be watched- Minnesota Twins, Washington Nationals, Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago Cubs, Houston Astros, Arizona Diamondbacks, San Diego Padres

A couple quick notes from this; half of the NL Central made the don’t watch list, the NL East might be the strongest in baseball, and the National League has six out of the seven teams that made the don’t watch list.