Greetings all... not a big "storyline" day yesterday, but some nice game action... let's get to it...
- NBA First... The Lakers lose their 3rd in a row? Yes, it happened last night in Memphis thanks to Mike Conley's 28 points (carving up Derek Fisher, no doubt)... no time for panic, but they aren't playing at the level they did in their first 10... Timmy D!... Tim Duncan put up his first triple-double since 2006 with 15 pts, 18 boards, 11 dimes in a 20 point road win in Golden State... the Spurs are playing so, so well... Brook Lopez awoke from his early-season slumber a bit last night with 36 points in a road loss to the Knicks... that said, NY continues to play well and are now at a comfortable 10-9 behind Amare's 35 and 9 (and moreso Wilson Chandler's 27 and 11) in the same game... Trouble in Portland? Another road loss last night, this time to a bad Philly team that had no one score over 18 points (Elton Brand)... and Boston continues to beat up on people... a 106-87 thrashing in Cleveland led by Rondo's 23 and 12... he's playing at a crazy level...
- The Troy Tulowitzki deal guarantees him $157.75 million in the next 10 seasons including 7-years for $134 after his original deal is done... that seems like... alot?... Here are the positives... he plays a premium defensive position (SS) at a very high level... he doesn't have a body type that will decline (i.e. Ryan Howard's atrocity of a contract)... and he's a top-10 position player in the Majors.... Negatives?... Pure length... The fact that they didn't need to lock him up for 3 more years (at least) so basically they bid against themselves to lock a guy up well before they needed to for an exorbitant amount (Huh)... Likely? This won't be a complete disaster... but any time you're giving a 10-year giant contract to a guy who usually doesn't play the full season and will be in his upper-mid 30s by the end (at shortstop)... it's cause for some concern..
- Miami still wants Jon Gruden... after repeated denials (publicly even)... they still list him as their top candidate... here's a thought... why fire Randy Shannon?... Top 20 recruiting classes 3 years in a row... cleaned up the program... and if he had a healthy Jacory Harris (ever) he'd have probably 5 more wins over the last 2 years...
- James Harrison fined $25K for a hit on Sunday... yes, the same amount that Andre Johnson got for beating the daylights out of a helmet-less Courtland Finnegan... Yes, I know Harrison is a repeat-repeat-repeat offender and Johnson is, by all accounts, a first-timer who's a great guy, blah blah blah... this still doesn't line up....
- College Hoops - Georgetown/Missouri was a barnburner... 111-102 in OT and that game was played at a high level all night... Austin Freeman (31 points), Chris Wright, and Jason Clark combined for 79 points from the 3 guard front for GTown... Ohio State got a pretty impressive 58-44 road win despite not shooting well... a nice sign when you win convincingly on the road against a decent team and shoot 32%.... Does anyone still think North Carolina is big-time? They go down again last night in Champaign to the Illini by 12, and all that talent seems misled... especially Harrison Barnes, the consensus #1 pick preseason, who's averaging an ordinary 11 points per game including a 2-9 shooting 8 point effort last night.. I'm underwhelmed... break up the Wolverines!... 69-61 on the road over Clemson (who was a 9 point favorite) and they showed up that Beilein offense we've been wanting to see... I was impressed by freshman Evan Smotrycz who put up 18 and 6... and because I need to shout-out Travis and John... Northwestern throttles Ga. Tech... 91 points and it could've been more... a combination of embarrassing perimeter defense from GT and unreal shooting from NW (12-19 threes) beat up on the Jackets... Glen Rice, Jr. was really the only bright spot for Tech (7-10, 16 points, 6 boards)...
- Miguel Tejada signs with the Giants for 1 year, 6.5 million... they are really trying to have every aging MLB shortstop at some point... Uribe... Renteria... now Tejada... he was decent enough last year (.269, 15 hr, 71 rbi) but 6.5 million struck me as a lot...
What to watch for...
- Michigan State @ Duke - ESPN 9:30 - The game of the year so far in college hoops and the headliner of the Big 10/ACC challenge... I'm picking Duke in every game until other notice... but if anyone can beat them, it's Sparty... both teams are deep with talent (veteran talent even, a rarity in CBB) and this should be fun
- Purdue @ Virginia Tech - ESPN 7:30 - 2 teams who have played below expectations so far... Purdue has 2 marquee guys (Moore and Johnson) and VT is sporting Malcolm Delaney (who has been there for about 9 years)...
- Grizzlies @ Hawks - SportSouth 7:00 - Is it me or have there been longer stretches without Hawks games this year?... anyway... a chance to see Mike Conley go to work on Bibby and Crawford! lol... I'm kidding... sort of... Joe Johnson is a game-time decision.... interesting if he doesn't go how the minutes get dispersed...
- Blazers @ Celtics - NBA TV 7:30 - Quality matchup... both teams well coached... with both on a back-to-back it's always interesting to see who shows up...
- Spurs @ Clippers - NBA TV 10:30 - Spurs playing fantastic... but on the 2nd of a road back-to-back this could be tough spot... yes, even against LAC...
Enjoy it...
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