Greetings all... as you can see by my outlandishly excited title line, the favorites held serve last night... let's go...
- LA 87, New Orleans 78 - This was kinda ugly... New Orleans shot just 39%, got outrebounded, and committed more TOs... not exactly a recipe for success... Paul was very good again with 20 and 9, but didn't command the game like he did in game 1, and got very little help outside of a nice game from Ariza (22 points on 15 shots)... on LA's side, they somehow get a win with Kobe and Gasol providing a) only 20 shot attempts, and b) only 5 made field goals... big-ups to Bynum (17 and 11) and Odom (16 and 7) for providing the juice for LA offensively... this win can be attributed to LA's team defense, and as we see (again), the Lakers certainly seem to win more with the fewer shots Kobe attempts...
- San Antonio 93, Memphis 87 - The Spurs even things up.. 5 guys in double figures keyed by 16 and 10 from Timmy, and the return of Manu who didn't play great statistically (5 of 13 FG, 7 of 13 FT), but had a +16 when he was on the court... plainly, this is just a different team when he's out there to break down opposing defenses... all 5 Memphis starters had double-figures, but the team shot just 39% and OJ Mayo attempted 11 shots in 19 minutes (making 2)... yikes.... on to Memphis...
- OKC 106, Denver 89 - The most comfortable win... OKC absolutely dominated the boards 54-31, and held Denver to just 39% from the field, and that'll pretty much do it... Durant and Westbrook combined for 43 on 33 shots, and James Harden had an efficient 18 off the bench... all that said, my collective MVP in this one goes to Ibaka/Perkins/Collison who combined for 31 rebounds, and basically controlled the box for the duration.... Lawson and Felton were the brightspots for Denver, but it's probably not a good sign when no one taller than 6'1 has a good game...
Elsewhere...
- The Dodgers are now run by Major League Baseball... in a fascinating decision, Bud Selig decided to seize control from the McCourts... it's been a franchise in turmoil for a while due to the divorce and the resulting financial woes, but it seems to be a shocker league-wide that this would go down... interesting to see what direction this goes in going forward...
- Kevin Love reportedly wins the NBA most improved player award... not a shocker by any means, and certainly a deserving winner, but one of my pet peeves is how inconsistently this award is handed out...
Baseball....
- The Braves drop another one in LA... Derek Lowe got roughed up early with 5 runs in the first two innings, and that was that... I'm still curious as to why Fredi decided to roll with Lowe on short rest rather than using Minor or another option, but if there was ever a guy to go with on 3 days, it's probably Lowe, so it wasn't egregious... the offense was dormant against Jon Garland... yeah....
- Pitching Line of the Day - Jered Weaver - CG, 6 H, 1 ER, 8 Ks... he's been the best pitcher alive so far this season... dominant stuff
- Batting Line of the Day - Andre Ethier - 3 for 4, HR, 2 RBI, 3 runs... scorching right now...
What to watch for on Thursday...
- Bulls @ Pacers - Game 3 - NBA-TV 7:00 - Obviously a "must-win" for Indy, although it's not as if anyone thinks they have a chance... I do want to see how Chicago responds on the road...
- Heat @ Sixers - Game 3 - TNT 8:00 - Pretty much the exact same feelings as above except with "Miami" instead of "Chicago"...
- Mavs @ Blazers - Game 3 - TNT 10:30 - I still believe Portland can win this series (although I wouldn't pick them now), so this one is pretty interesting... important for the Blazers to contain the 3-point line, especially late....
- Braves @ Dodgers - Jurrjens vs. Kershaw - SportSouth 3:10 - I don't think this is the pitching matchup I want to see in a game to salvage a split, but Kershaw got roughed up a bit last time out, and Jurrjens looked electric...
Enjoy...
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