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Sports & More
Daily rants and opinions...because we're THAT bored. |
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Tired of looking at this page? Go back home and look at other stuff. |
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Sports > General |
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Monday Morning Quarterback #2
by Spaen - 5/12/08 |
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FIRST QUARTER
LAKERS VS JAZZ, GAME 4 |
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Alright, Disney/ABC/ESPN, let's get this out of the way right now...I do not want you advertising your stupid pre-teen crap on Disney Channel in an NBA game. I don't want to hear about two celebrity teens making out during a game that's more important than both of their lives combined, and knowing that they're probably engaging in sexual intercourse more often than the ball went through the hoop in this game.
I don't care, I'll never care, I never knew there was even a High School Musical 2, and I won't care about this one, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or even the 264th one. So stop it. If you must interject your stupid teen celebrities, have Miley Cyrus and Ashley Tisdale to a Laker game and have them make out during the middle of it. |
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Alright, now that that's out of the way, it's time for me to analyze this game through the eyes of a Lakers fan. I won't be able to have an unbiased opinion on it, so it's the way it's got to be. The Lakers have no reason to not come out of Utah during this two game stretch without a victory, more so this game than Game 3. There were little turnovers at the end of the last game that cost them the victory, but there were many more questionable decisions and calls in this game that makes it a much harder pill to swallow as a Lakers fan.
Before I analyze what went wrong, let me say one thing to the assholes that only speak up when the Lakers lose and who keep calling Kobe Bryant overrated: Shut up. Your jealousy strengthens after each game the Lakers play. I'm sorry your GM didn't make your favorite team good enough. I'm sorry he can't get the players to win a championship. But when a team closely loses on the road in both games where there have been only a few select teams to win in Utah, there is no reason to start calling out this team. So shut up, stop your glowing jealousy, and talk to me when the series is over. |
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With all that being said, I'm going to have to put the loss of this game on Kobe Bryant and the refs. Kobe may have been struggling with his back all game long, but his decisions in the fourth quarter and overtime were very questionable. Phil Jackson stated that he thought the team kind of bailed and put the game on Kobe's shoulders by continuing to give him the ball. I think otherwise. Kobe was trying to make something happen during overtime, and he was trying to play through his injury. When your jump shots aren't going down, stop taking them! The Lakers have so much size up front, all you need to do is pound it into the hole every freaking time. Kobe only missed a few when he went inside. The majority of those misses were jump shots in the fourth quarter and overtime. He finally have it up to his team in fourth for the most part, but he had 0 assists in overtime. As the 2008 MVP, he should have not been out on the floor during the entire overtime. His back was hurting, and the Lakers need him in the long run. Pau Gasol could easily deliver |
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And Steve Nash is on the sideline...wait a minute! |
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it to the rack, and Fisher and Odom were hot enough from the fourth quarter to continue it in overtime. The presence of Kobe on the court playing a decoy would have alright, but it's not worth the risk, and do you think that Kobe would actually go for a plan that involved him as a decoy? No, he wants a championship bad, and he will not be a decoy. So you have to sit him. Now, the second reason is something I hate to blame. I always try to not do so, but it was so blatantly obvious in many ways on how the officiating helped Utah win this game, and you can take it all the way to the second quarter with one of the big reasons why they lost this game. |
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The flagrant-2 on Ronny Turiaf was pathetic. Almost all the flagrant-2 fouls have been pathetic during the playoffs. He was going for the ball and obviously the fall looked and sounded worse than it really was. This is f**king playoff basketball, each game becomes more chippier than the game before it between the two teams, that's only common sense. The loss of him effected the game because of the Lakers' weakness in offensive rebounds, and it didn't help that the Lakers got called all the time there was a foul on an offensive rebound. I could talk about the walking in certain important parts of the game, but I'll let that slide...there is no traveling in the NBA anymore. Utah got many more breaks in this game than they should of, and don't tell me to take of my Laker glasses...watch the game again, write down every foul (there's a lot of them, since the refs called everything at times), and put your real, strongest reaction on each one of them.
Still, missing a lot of free throws, a lot more standing around then usual during the latter part of the game, and Kobe's questionable decisions forced at least another two games in this series. But are the Lakers in trouble? Possible, but no. If Kobe can come back from his back injury, the Jazz are not going to win at LA, even if they do force a Game 7. It's not going to happen. Utah is a bad road team. While I missed on the amount of games the Lakers would win, they are still going to win this series, and they are still going to face the Spurs in the Western Conference Finals.
Now Laker haters, go bug Boston and their inability to win on the road, which brings me to... |
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SECOND QUARTER
NBA PLAYOFFS RECAP, PART 2 |
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LeBron has sucked. A lot. He's been horrible. As an MVP candidate he's been awful, a disgrace, and the worst player percentage of anyone who's taken 50 shots in the first three games of the playoffs.
But Cleveland holds an advantage. Take a look at the bigger picture. Boston has sucked. A lot. They've been horrible. As a team with the most wins in the NBA regular season, the inability to win a road game against Atlanta is pathetic, a disgrace, and they were screaming for the worst 1st seed loss in the history of the entire game. Yeah, they blew out Atlanta at home. Big whoop. Tons of home teams have blown out the road team at home this postseason. The turning point is going to be winning games on the road, and if Cleveland wins Game 4 tonight, Game 5 is going to be monumental for Boston. And don't give Boston the series if does go to a Game 7. In my eyes, Boston is done. They're just bait for Detroit as they should close the series against Orlando with ease tomorrow night. |
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The Hornets and Spurs are deadlocked at two, which is surprising considering I thought the Spurs could steal a game at New Orleans. Home teams have dominated though, and the Spurs have been much more dominating at home than the Hornets. Now, I do think the Spurs have the psychological advantage back, but it's more about their experienced talent of why I think they'll win the series. But it's not over. Experts are calling this series done, and while I agree the Spurs will win, it ain't over. You never count out a team that has the advantage in home games. New Orleans could win by 32 and steal the psychological advantage right back, and they could decimate the Spurs in Game 6. While I believe the Pistons/Magic series is over (and was since tipoff of Game 1), the next couple of games of the Celtics/Cavs series are must watches (as long as they are watchable, unlike the first 3) as well as tomorrow's Game 5 of the Hornets/Spurs.
Series Capsules
1)Boston leads 4)Cleveland, 2-1 ... Game 4: Tonight at 7pm CT, TNT
2)Detroit leads 3)Orlando, 3-1 ... Game 5: Tuesday at 6pm CT, TNT
2)New Orleans ties 3)San Antonio, 2-2 ... Game 5: Tuesday at 8:30pm CT, TNT |
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THIRD QUARTER
THE PLAYER'S CHAMPIONSHIP AND SERGIO |
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Remember Sergio Garcia? I know, I know, it's hard to remember someone that hasn't won a major, but he has been our next Phil Mickelson for quite some time. He finally took a step in the right direction this past weekend winning PGA's unofficial 5th major, The Player's Championship. Featuring TV coverage well beyond the normal and one of golf's most amazing holes (#17), everyone had a chance to Sergio hold off what's-his-nuts and whoever else was behind him.
So yes, even though the field was watered down to a bunch of no-names, you can't hold that back on Sergio. He even admitted it himself, saying that he thanked Tiger for this championship by not being there. Everyone had a chuckle, and we would move on to a bunch of other worthless events until the US Open in June. Right? |
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Enter Skip Bayless and a bunch of other idiots from Bristol, CT. Bayless said that he was ready to say that Sergio was in a position to beat Tiger in the US Open. First of all, I call shenanigans on him even going to say that, because we all know Skip Bayless likes to say stupid things to make him popular. Like Gregg Doyel, who can't spell his first name correctly. Secondly, you can't call Sergio out for saying that because in reality, it's probably true. Tiger could have played through the wind even better than Sergio did. So give him a break. He probably won't win another event for the remainder of the year, or even be in contention, so cut him some slack and let him enjoy this victory.
I just hope Bayless and Doyel never have offspring. |
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FOURTH QUARTER
MLB WEEKEND RECAP |
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Not be a sore loser or anything, but I don't really want to talk about the MLB anymore. That and the fact that it took until Wednesday to complete this article, I'm already behind on a recap.
So.. The Bad: Yankees still suck and might now even finish behind Canada, Detroit's back to loser-ville, Seattle should also get rid of their baseball, the NL East is still the worst division for letting Florida still lead it, and the NL West is back to being the worst division record wise, even though his has the best team in the NL.
The Good? There's absolutely nothing notable about this season yet. When you have both Chicago teams leading their division, and my Giants en route to a 60-102 season, it's hard to get motivated. Speaking of motivation, you'd think the NL East's better teams would get some seeing Florida lead the division for a while. And you'd think Detroit would continue their winning ways.
Yeah, that's about it, I'm done for the day. I'll have a better recap next week because it's interleague play! |
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Page edited by Spaen and Skinner. Anything you wanna say to them, send it to Spaen here or Skinner here. |
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