Owners vs. Players- After last week’s brief excitement about the end of the lockout this week gave us absolutely nothing as the courts didn’t provide a ruling on the temporary stay which halted league operations on April 29th. The ruling is expected to be in at some point this week but then again that’s what they told us last week so there are of course no guarantees. The only other real offseason “news” this week was that Steelers running back Rashard Mendenhall and Champion athletic sportswear ended their business relationship following Mendenhall’s controversial comments about the killing of Osama Bin Laden. Mendenhall can obviously say whatever he pleases but did he really think anything good was going to come out of posting what he did? If you don’t know what I’m talking about just Google “Mendenhall controversial comments” and you’ll understand the uproar. The only upside of this whole situation is that this now gives the Steelers the most hated backfield pairing in the league with Mendenhall and Ben Roethlisberger. The funny thing is that I’m not sure that the Steelers backfield wasn’t the most hated already due to Roethlisberger and his constant off the field antics but with Mendenhall’s recent action the Steelers are a lock for most hated backfield in 2011. This of course assumes that we have a season in 2011 and that Brett Favre doesn’t make another comeback. Sadly there is no Madden Cover breakdown this week to save the Owners vs. Players column. On second thought I could probably write a fair amount trying to figure out how in the world Peyton Hillis won the Madden Cover athlete in the first place.
NBA- This playoffs looks to be shaping up like this years March Madness which means that everybody would be better served by flipping coins to see who reaches the NBA Finals. The main storyline of this past week has to be the Lakers getting swept by the Dallas Mavericks thus ending the Lakers dreams of a three peat and also ending Phil Jackson’s historic coaching career. I think that the best way to put this sweep into perspective would be that I don’t think even the most biased Mavericks fans would even dream that they would sweep the Lakers. The other thing that puts this into perspective is that with the Lakers down two games to zero games I still probably would have bet on the Lakers to win and even with them down three games I wouldn’t have said that a comeback is out of the question. I would say that the obvious good news from the Lakers getting eliminated from the playoffs is that we won’t be subject to the sight of Steve Blake wearing a headband again but Blake apparently realized that the whole headband look didn’t really work for him and stopped wearing the headband at the beginning of the Lakers vs. Mavericks series. Moving on from Steve Blake who will probably never be mentioned again, unless he does this again **** (I tried to find the YouTube link of him failing at dunking but that video seems to have disappeared), I’m still not quite sure what to make of the Mavericks but if they can stay hot shooting the ball they have to like their chances against whomever they will be facing in the Western Conference Semifinals. Side note having two teammates go 15 for 16 from behind the three point line, like Peja Stojakovic and Jason Terry did in game four, will never happen again, those guys just couldn’t miss. I will say this about Andrew Bynum’s cheap shot on JJ Barea, it was obviously one of the dirty plays of the year but I don’t think any Blazer fans have a problem with whom it happened to. This moment also marked the first time that all Blazer players cheered for a Lakers player at the same time. For whatever reason when your favorite team is playing in a playoff series there always seems to be a player on the other team that you hate for no apparent reason. Barea was that player this year for Blazer fans following last years Channing Frye/Jared Dudley split and Luis Scola two years ago.
The other Western Conference semifinal matchup currently stands with the Memphis Grizzlies leading the Oklahoma City Thunder by a count of two games to one. Most people didn’t even have the Grizzlies beating the Spurs in the first place and if they were to beat the Thunder it would be one of the more shocking playoff runs in NBA history. Of course the other historic thing about this series is that game three in Memphis marked the first time in playoff history that fans swam to a game. That probably crossed the line in terms of jokes but we will continue on like nothing happened. Zach Randolph fell victim to my legendary curse in game three as he resorted back to his Blazer ways in game three after I hyped him up in last weeks post. For those that missed it Randolph took himself out of the game in the first quarter due to him not liking the Memphis offense at the time. Really Zach Randolph walking out on your team in the first quarter of the most important game in Grizzlies history? Of course Randolph offset this in the second half, which I missed as I was in transit, by leading the Grizzlies back from a double digit second half deficit. This game also marked what may go down as one of the best timing moments in history as I was able to reach my house (and TV) in time for the final possession of the game. The last possession of course didn’t turn out to be anything special as Randolph took a double teamed fall away jumper at the three-point line. Side note the final possession of any game should always go to a guard or small forward because they are infinitely better at creating with limited time on the clock. The Grizzlies dominated overtime which then meant that it was time to hammer Russell Westbrook because he is apparently the only reason the Thunder lose games. Obviously Westbrook has struggled at times with his shot selection but to blame him for every lost Thunder game is a little ridiculous. It’s not his fault that Kevin Durant at times can’t get the ball in the big moments so what else do you want him to do? When Durant gets locked down Westbrook becomes the number one option and often when they run a play for Durant and can’t get him the ball Westbrook is left with only a handful of seconds on the shot clock. This leads to him taking him some bad shots that aren’t even his fault. I’m not totally defending him for his shot selection but it’s gotten a little ridiculous in terms of the blame that Westbrook is receiving.
On the other side of the bracket in the Eastern Conference the Chicago Bulls and Atlanta Hawks are currently locked at two games apiece with a critical game five looming in Chicago on this coming Tuesday. The Hawks like the Grizzlies and Mavericks are a team that most people didn’t expect to be here but they currently find themselves two wins away from reaching the conference semifinals. The Hawks remain an inconsistent team capable of anything like they were in the regular season but the insertion of lightning quick Jeff Teague into the starting lineup has seemingly given them a more effective offensive unit. With Teague in the lineup the Hawks appear to be pushing the ball more often, I say appear because its not like I had a chance to watch the Hawks that much on national television during the regular season, which fits there current group of players better than a half court offense. Side note I dare you to find one player in the NBA that consistently has worse body language than Josh Smith. I’m not trying to bag on the guy, he’s actually one of my favorite players to watch, but he complains about every single call or non-call that goes against the Hawks. On the other hand it’s become pretty apparent that the Bulls are basically playing one on five on the offensive side of the court with Derrick Rose shouldering the load night in and night out. It’s not like this is anything new but its almost like the secondary players on the Bulls have regressed as the season has gone along. Prized free agent acquisition Carlos Boozer was supposed to be that second option but at this point he’s having trouble just staying on the court in the big moments due to his poor production in the playoffs this far. The obvious answer would be to activate Brian Scalabrine and insert him into the game rotation but for some reason the Bulls have kept Scalabrine in street clothes to the shock of many. There may or may not have been sarcasm in that last sentence.
Lastly we have the much-hyped matchup of the Miami Heat versus the Boston Celtics that currently stands with the Heat holding a two games to one matchup over the Celtics. The one thing that has been shown in this series so far is that it is in fact possible to play basketball with only one arm which is what Rajon Rondo proved in game four by playing with a dislocated left elbow. That isn’t a typo Rondo did in fact play with a dislocated left elbow. The only basketball injury that can compare to how grotesque Rondo’s injury was is the image of Shaun Livingston ruining his leg attempting a layup; both are automatic appetite losers. If you watch a replay of how he dislocated his elbow it is absolutely mind-blowing that Rondo came back in and was able to play at a decent level following the dislocation of his elbow. For the record I think that Dwayne Wade did intentionally bring Rondo down but I don’t think he meant to seriously injure Rondo like he did. Its not like Wade suddenly thought something along the lines of “now’s the perfect chance for me to obliterate Rondo’s arm”, the play was just a freak accident. Considering that Rondo probably (definitely) shouldn’t be playing on a dislocated elbow this is a devastating injury for the Celtics because Rondo versus the Heat point guards was the only real matchup advantage that the Celtics enjoyed over the Heat. The real question is if Rondo plays how far are the Heat defenders going to sag off of him? Normally when someone is defending Rondo at the three-point line they sag off to the free throw line so how much further can they sag off? Is it actually possible that the Heat point guards just don’t play defense and stay on the other side of the court? Kidding but all jokes aside serious props to Rondo but I’m not quite sure what a one-armed point guard can accomplish out on the basketball court going forward. Luckily enough Chris Bosh himself provided some good ammunition for the weekly make fun of Chris Bosh section (two week streak for those counting) as Bosh stated after game three’s spectacular performance, six points and five rebounds (LIKE A BOSH), that his nerves got the best of him and hurt his game play. Nothing else needs to be said here, the Heat are 2.5 players not three players there is no way a “star player” ever says that. Can’t Bosh at least come up with something more creative than to mask the fact that he’s too afraid to play in big games. I’m really not sure he could have said something stupider, even something like I didn’t play as well because my pregame meal sucked sounds better.
MLB- My fearless prediction of last week being the week that a no-hitter would be thrown was proven true first by Twins pitcher Francisco Liriano and then again by Tigers ace Justin Verlander. I’m not quite sure you will ever see a weirder pitching performance than Liriano’s, he seemed to have no idea where the ball was ending as evidenced by his six walks but he somehow kept the White Sox from recording a hit. Verlander’s performance was on the other end of the spectrum as he dominated the Blue Jays en route to his second career hitter that was one eighth inning walk away from being a perfect game. For all the talk of last year being the year of the pitcher this year, at least early on, looks like the pitchers will dominate even more. It seems like at least every other night there is a near no hitter and if its not a no hitter than its pitchers putting up an absurd number of strikeouts (Cliff Lee 16 strike outs in seven innings). The only shocking thing about all of this is that the Mariners haven’t been nearly no hit yet but don’t worry there will be multiple occasions as the season progresses. In other news Andre Eithier had his hitting streak snapped at 30 games on Saturday against the Mets which leads me to think that the fifty six game hitting streak won't be snapped any time soon. The reason I say this is that now days compared to when Joe DiMaggio set the record there are specialized pitchers (lefty specialists), infinitely better scouting reports, and intense media pressure. It would be a great achievement to see but we hardly ever see players crack the half way point in recent years which can be attributed to the factors listed above. Continuing with the MLB the Cleveland Indians continue to shock the world by leading the AL Central by 4.5 games. Looking back on it I must have switched the names of the Indians and White Sox in my baseball preview because the Indians are in first where the White Sox supposed to be according to my preview and the White Sox are in last which is where I had the Indians in my preview. That typo aside you can’t even really say that it is a fluke either because the Indians lead the majors in run differential with a plus 48 run differential.
The Week Moving Forward
Owners vs. Players- Hopefully this is the week the lockout was lifted but I would be fine either way as I had Tuesday May 24 as the day the lockout ends in my betting pool. No these betting pools don’t actually exist, but what else would you like me to write here?
NBA- Do I really have to tell you what’s going on in the NBA right now? Here are the updated picks, the fact that there updated really doesn’t improve the odds that I’m correct but whatever; Bulls in 7, Thunder in 7, and Heat in 5.
MLB- We are just now reaching the first quarter mark of the season, you really can’t tell me that the MLB season isn’t a little too long.
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