Wednesday, April 23, 2008

4/23: Playoff Action, Shaun Alexander, etc.

Gotta lead with the playoffs...
  • Spurs take down the Suns....coming from behind...again....a 2nd half utter explosion propels the Spurs behind Tony Parker's 32 and 7 (even making some jumpshots too! lol)....I thought Pop made a great adjustment at halftime to clear the floor and let Parker (or Manu) go to work in the pick 'n roll game especially against Shaq...and the layup line was back in full effect last night late....The Suns just can't stop the pick 'n roll (especially without Grant Hill) and now that Pop has seen that, don't think he'll stop putting it out there....Boris Diaw was a trainwreck last night, repeatedly having Parker and Ginobili on him in the post and failing to score (even turning the ball over) and being a complete liability on the defensive end (usually his "strength")....Amare and Nash were both outstanding sans the lack of rebounding by Amare, but they'll need alot more from Barbosa and they could use Grant Hill healthy and back....
  • Hornets throttle the Mavs....Chris Paul was absolutely masterful....it was honestly a pleasure to watch him work at his craft last night...and no, I'm not insane...32 points...17! assists...and complete control of the game throughout...Now, the Hornets offense was clicking on every cylinder (David West was unconscious and the team shot 61% collectively) but most of that is due to CP3 just tearing up the defense...he was great....As good as Dirk was last night also, the Mavs just look overmatched...Kidd looks old (and is old) and in order for the Mavs to win in this series, Josh Howard has to be a legit #2 guy and he's failed to be that....
  • Magic hang on over Toronto....First of all, thanks to my good friends at Charter Communications in Carrollton, GA....I didn't get this game...I saw the live look-ins, etc. but have no real sense of what went down....I can tell you Dwight Howard just put up back-to-back 20/20 games (29 and 20 last night) and that Jason Kapono is "quickly becoming Ryan's favorite Raptor"....that's really all I have....if Bosh hits that jumper at the buzzer, it goes the other way...all there is to it....

Onto other things....

  • Shaun Alexander cut....well, we all saw this coming when they went and got TJ Duckett and Julius Jones (plus are talking about drafting a round 1 RB) so no shock here....but the mighty have fallen...I was always sort of down on Alexander but his productivity over a 5-year period can't be taken down.....I think he's done though....
  • Isiah banned from contact? I laughed...alot...when I heard this...Isiah Thomas has been banned from any CONTACT with any member of the Knicks organization (including players) except for Donnie Walsh....ummm, get out?
  • Jared Allen traded to Minny.... The Chiefs got a 1st rounder and an additional useful pick here for the All-pro here and its clear the chiefs are in full rebuilding....And I guess they think they can get Chris Long at 5 if the chips fall their way?
  • Baseball stuff: John Smoltz gets his 3,000th K last night...saw it live...nice moment....but the Braves lose because of 1) failure to chalk a run....and 2) ANOTHER bullpen implosion late that put it out of reach anyway.....I laughed aloud at the mention of Micah Owings as the D-Backs 2nd best starter...um Dan Haren please...but Brandon Webb is definitely the man there...5-0 start and a Cy Young does that to you....CC Sabathia is back (6 IP, 0 ER, 11K)....missed you big fella....Has anyone decided which Detroit team is which? The 2-10 start or the 6-3 since? No one?...me either...hoping it's the latter....
  • Last thing....Mike Bibby, who happened to lay a gigantic egg in game 1 the other night for Atlanta....now is somehow running his mouth about Boston fans being on the bandwagon or something....listen, Mike...you're a vet, you played terrible the other night, you're on the clearly inferior team...just stop talking...please? I beg you...anything that can get KG even MORE crazily fired up is a bad thing....

Oh yea...Go Hawks tonight....maybe we can steal one? Cough, cough...

1 comment:

Ryan said...

Just as a small sidebar,Zito was pitching well until Webb tagged him