6/11: Celtics Even the Series, World Cup, etc.

Here we go...

• Boston evens the series at 2-2... story of the game? The 30 combined points Boston got from Glen Davis (18) and Nate Robinson (12)... Other than that? Fairly typical nights from Kobe and Gasol... Pierce was efficient... Rondo had a subpar game for him (5 of 15, 10 points, 3 dimes, 5 boards)... but the Lakers got nothing from Bynum or any non-Odom bench guy (and Odom basically is a starter when Bynum plays 12 minutes).... moral of the story? It's officially a long series... and that's a great thing
• The World Cup opened this morning with a 1-1 tie between Mexico and South Africa... just wanted to let everyone know... it seems to be underreported...
• The NCAA is allowing USC juniors & seniors to transfer without sitting out a year... this is probably the best news in years for former #1 recruit (in the country, no less) Mitch Mustain... run for your life Mitch!

Baseball...

• Pitching Line of the Day - Jon Niese... CG 1-hitter with 6 Ks for the Mets
• Batting Line of the Day - Brandon Philips... the undervalued Cincinnati 2B went 4-5 with 2 RBI and 2 runs...
• The Braves get a scratching/clawing victory... 11-7 finals don't indicate that... but Jonny Venters had his first career implosion to blow a 7-4 8th inning lead and the Braves immediately put up 4 more in the 9th to put it away... nice resolve there... I ranted a bit about the Nate McLouth black hole in center on Twitter yesterday... conclusion? Not really panic time IMO... he's playing defense... they can afford to play Melky against lefties in center if they want to (as long as they don't play Melky and Hinske together they'll be fine defensively with Melky/Blanco or Melky/Infante)... and he's not going to hit .180... he's never hit below .250 for a full season, and you didn't get him for his average anyway... I don't think a panic move is the answer simply because they are (for their own reasons) convinced that Jordan Schafer is their guy in Center... so I don't expect a move...

What to watch for..

• White Sox/Cubs - 2:20 WGN... Peavy/Wells... Interleague play, everybody... interleague play
• Braves/Twins - 8:10 SportSouth... Hudson/Liriano... pretty darn good pitching matchup...
• World Cup - Uruguay/France 2:30 ESPN