Saturday, May 7, 2011

5/7: End of the Kobe Era?

Greetings all... my apologies for the extended absence, but thanks to Ryan for filling in... let's get right to it...
  • Dallas takes a 3-0 lead over the Lakers... I honestly can't figure out how LA lost this game late, but Dallas made play after play down the stretch (with some help from LA's defense), creating open threes for Terry and Dirk as well as open shots for Peja... Overall, I thought Peja was huge for Dallas with 15 points off the pine, but the always under-appreciated Jet Terry had 23 huge points... for LA, they got efficient games from Odom, Gasol, and Kobe, but no one played above-average for them except Bynum, and they just couldn't make plays down the stretch (example: the sequence where Odom threw up an off-balanced leaner, and then the failed inbounds pass the next trip)... big-ups to Dallas for putting this one away for the most part... if this is the end to the Kobe era, it's been a good run...
  • Chicago throttles Atlanta 99-82... Derrick Rose was the truth all night for Chicago... 44 points on 16 of 27... the Hawks inexplicably relapsed into trying to fight over the top of screens and Rose took advantage... props to Gibson and Noah for absolutely locking down the Hawks front line and contributing 26 total boards between them... Al Horford is in a shooting funk right now (5 of 12) and Noah may be in his head... Joe Johnson with another stinkbomb (4 of 12, 10 points) and they can't afford any more of them... Josh Smith had his best game of the series (not saying much) but shot 3 of 8 from the line, and was generally baffling as usual... I need to stop writing...
Elsewhere...
  • Gary Williams retires as Maryland's basketball coach... this one kinda surprised me because it seemed to come out of nowhere, and he's a national championship coach at that school... probably under-appreciated nationally, but he's done a pretty legit job with the Terps...
  • Andre Ethier has a 30-game hitting streak... only 26 short of Dimaggio!... oh.. that's a lot of games... pretty impressive though...
Baseball roundup...
  • Derek Lowe threw 6 2-hit innings before exiting with a blister problem on his foot, and the Braves got a 5-0 win in Philly... Cliff Lee had a ridiculous 16 K performance for Philly, but allowed 3 runs, and the Braves tacked on 2 more against Baez in the 9th... a very nice start to the series, and it's nice to see Lowe going well...
  • Roy Oswalt hits the DL for Philly with a back issue... that's something to keep an eye on...
  • Pitching Line of the Day - Jaime Garcia - With apologies to Cliff Lee... Garcia threw a 2-hit shutout with 8 Ks, and that takes precedent over 16 Ks...
  • Batting Line of the Day - Curtis Granderson - 2 for 4, 2 HR, 3 RBI for the Yankee outfielder...
What to watch for on Saturday...
  • Thunder @ Grizz - Game 3 - ESPN 5:00 - Crucial game for both teams... OKC needs to regain homecourt, and Memphis knows they can't afford to drop a home game... Keep an eye on the Randolph/Ibaka matchup... and of course, whether Russ Westbrook can play how he's capable of playing
  • Heat @ Celtics - Game 3 - ABC 8:00 - Win or go home time for Boston... I think they respond and get a win here... Rondo is the x-factor...
  • Cubs @ Cardinals - Arroyo vs. Coleman - 1:00 FOX - If you have nothing else to do...
  • Braves @ Phillies - Teheran vs. Kendrick - 7:00 SportSouth - the MLB debut of Julio Teheran is the headliner for any Braves fan... the #1 prospect in the system gets a chance to pitch (instead of Mike Minor for some reason!?) and that's worth a look...
  • White Sox @ Mariners - Floyd vs. Fister - 9:00 WGN - Because we can...
Enjoy it...

1 comment:

Bethy said...

How the HECK do you keep up with all of this?!

Genius.

Or lunatic.

... they go hand in hand.