December 29th, 2014

In the last couple of weeks, we learned a lot about the Lakers, you probably just didn’t realize it though.  Most of you were focused on Kobe and his health.  What you should have noticed, is that fact the Lakers could have easily traded for Rajon Rondo, signed Josh Smith, and traded for Lance Stephenson, and rebuilt the team on the fly.    They had a draft pick and an expiring contract the Celtics wanted for Rondo and they said no.  They had the money for Smith, but they decided against signing him.  They also had the pieces to get Stephenson, but decided against it.  This should tell you that the Lakers aren’t looking for some short-term, quick fix to get competitive again.  They are willing to slowly rebuild to build a consistent winner again.  That means enduring more losses, like the one last night at home against Phoenix, to secure a top 5 lottery pick.  Sounds like a good plan, if it weren’t Jim Buss that was a part of it.

Makes sense that Josh Smith signed with Houston.  Dwight Howard needs somebody to laugh at his jokes.  The irony of it is, I was really hoping the Lakers would sign Smith because it would make them much worse, and give them a better chance at a top 5 draft pick.  Speaking of Dwight, Santa sends his apologies to everyone for the delay after having to stop by Dwight’s 57 different kids’ houses first.

As for the Clippers, just when you think they turned the corner by beating Golden State, they come back and disappoint you with a home loss to Toronto.  For a while, it looked like Blake Griffin improved his game by adding a jump shot and improving his free throw shooting.  Except now he takes too many jump shots, and still doesn’t have enough post moves.  Blake should be a beast on the block, who should be punishing smaller defenders over and over again.  He might eventually figure this out, but by that time, the window of opportunity for this group of Clippers might have closed.

On to college football, where the Trojans found themselves in a big shootout with Nebraska at the Holiday Bowl on Saturday night.  For a few moments there USC fans were re-living the nightmares of the Arizona State and Utah collapses.   They survived, and finished up what amounted to be an ok season in Steve Sarkisian’s 1st year as head coach.  SC will probably lose three players to the NFL Draft: Defensive lineman Leonard Williams, tailback Javorius Allen and receiver Nelson Agholor.  All are nice talents, but not crippling losses.  Cody Kessler is coming back for his Senior year, and I’m not sure why all of you are so pumped that’s the case.  He’s a solid but not spectacular quarterback, and truly a game manager.  All those gaudy stats come against bad defenses.  Don’t you want to see if Max Browne can become an elite quarterback?  Sounds like it’s going to be just another ok year for USC next year with Kessler under center.

I don’t know what’s worse.  The fact that UCLA basketball can’t beat anybody that’s a halfway decent team, or the fact that nobody is even noticing how mediocre the program is becoming.  I talked to 5 UCLA alums this weekend, and when I mentioned the game against Alabama, they said “oh I completely forgot we were playing today.”  I couldn’t even find coverage of the game in the LA Times Sports Section.  The only thing worse than being bad, is being irrelevant, and that’s where AD Dan Guerrero is taking this program.  The storyline against decent teams is the same.  Terrible shooting, even worse free throw shooting, and lots of turnovers.  Oklahoma, North Carolina, Gonzaga, Kentucky, and Alabama were all the same disastrous losses.  The Bruins could easily get exposed in conference play next month if they keep this up.  Then again, at least that might make people angry enough to make them relevant.

On the ice, the Kings finally looked like the Kings on Saturday against the Sharks.  The power play is on fire, Drew Doughty looks like an elite defenseman again, and Anze Kopitar has remembered how to put points on the board.  The Ducks are still racking up those regular season points as well, including last night’s OT win against Vancouver.  The Western Conference playoff race is tighter than a Beyoncé jumpsuit.  Why is Jonathan Quick 9th among goaltenders for all-star voting?  I didn’t realize most hockey fans drink when filling out their ballots.  If you’re a hockey fan on Twitter, you’ve gotta follow @PumperNicholl.  He’s hilarious…….

This museum has a perfectly preserved Sharks fan who died in the waning moments of Game 7 after #ItWas3to0 pic.twitter.com/41fvbZtVWs

— PumperNicholl (@PumperNicholl) December 27, 2014

The NFL regular season is in the books, and the final weekend had plenty of drama.  I guess nobody told the Chargers that if they had won yesterday, they would have been in the playoffs.  It doesn’t seem to matter who is coaching this team or who is on the field, this team just has a knack for coming up short in the biggest moments.  JJ Watt is a damn good football player, and if he had a halfway decent quarterback, he would probably be the MVP of the league this year.  Demarco Murray and Dez Bryant are going to make some serious money from somebody.  I’m just not so sure the Cowboys will be paying both of them.  RG III wasn’t all that bad yesterday, but the ‘Skins defense was.  Great tank job by the Bucs yesterday against the Saints.  It’s like the front office called Lovie Smith at halftime on the sidelines, and told him he better take out the starters so they can lose and secure the #1 overall pick.  That showing was so pathetic by the Falcons yesterday, that it shouldn’t be the Panthers in the NFC Playoffs.  It should be Baylor.  The last time the Lions won in Green Bay I was in the third grade.  The 49ers parting ways with Jim Harbaugh still makes no sense to me.  He’s been in three of the last four NFC title games, including one Super Bowl, and even made decent QB’s out of Alex Smith and Colin Kaepernick.  The only reason the Niners went 8-8 this year was because of injuries and off the field issues.  He’ll turn Michigan around then be back in the NFL in 3-4 years.  He’s the Larry Brown of football.  It sure would have been interesting to see him try to turn it around in Oakland.

As for Wild Card Weekend, that Steelers-Ravens showdown should be another classic, but if Pittsburgh is without Le’Veon Bell, they might as well kiss their playoff hopes goodbye.  The Cardinals caught a huge break by matching up with the Panthers in the 1st round, even though Arizona might be playing with their 3rd string quarterback again.  The Cardinals asked Santa for another QB for Christmas, and another one when that QB gets hurt, and a new ambulance.  The Lions have tons of talent, but can’t beat a decent team on the road, so I’m going with the Cowboys.  The Colts should take the Bengals as well since Andy Dalton is usually a disaster come January.

Another plane got lost?  How does this happen?  How do you lose a plane?  I guess these black boxes aren’t as useful as we thought.

Did anybody actually see The Interview?  It was funny and all, but the movie got way too much hype.  Most of us didn’t even know about it until we knew there were terrorists trying to prevent us from seeing it.  In fact, that’s probably the only reason why people went to see it, which ended up making the movie a huge success.

December 22nd, 2014

It’s finally here.  The decline of Kobe Bryant.  It feels weird saying that about a guy who is averaging 25-5-5 in his 19th year.  However, his shooting percentage has been horrendous: a career low 37%.  That’s almost 8 percent lower than his career average.  For a guy who has made a career out of making ridiculous shots, this makes sense.  He’s still taking the same ridiculous shots, but just not making them.  Then again, he’s also not making the typical ones either.  It’s pretty tough to win games when your franchise player is 36 years old, and shooting this badly.  The Lakers have plenty of other problems too, but if they are serious about protecting their $48 million investment over the next two seasons, they’ll start sitting Kobe out for some games.  Byron Scott should also bring his minutes down from the 35 he’s averaging on the season.

You probably thought for just a second, the Lakers had a shot at acquiring Rajon Rondo.  They didn’t because like I’ve been saying for months, they don’t have the assets.  Hoping for major free agents to sign in LA is great and all, but most of them are traded and re-signed before they really hit the market.  It takes young players, draft picks, and expiring contracts to make this happen.  Had the Lakers traded Pau Gasol before he left them in free agency, they might have had some of those assets to acquire a player like Rondo.  Amazing how the NBA glamour franchises are all in the toilet: Lakers, Celtics, and Knicks.  Only the Celtics have embraced the idea of rebuilding.  The sooner the Lakers and Knicks do, the sooner they’ll be competitive again.

Then there’s the Clippers.  You want to believe they are good enough to at least make it to the West Finals.  Then you watch them play, and you realize it’s a long shot.  The Clipps are going to need to get the right matchup just to make it out of the 1st round.  They’ll probably get dominated by the depth of the Warriors, the experience of the Spurs, the grit of the Grizzlies, and the athleticism of the Thunder.  However, they’d probably survive a series against the soft Rockets, inexperienced Blazers, or aging Mavericks.  This team is only going to go as far as Blake Griffin’s game improves.  He showed flashes of brilliance last season, and was an MVP candidate.  While his jump shooting has improved, he’s averaging 2 rebounds per game less than last season.  You know the saying: no rebounds, no rings.

The Warriors are 22-3.  The Knicks are 5-25.  That was a close call Steve Kerr.

Speaking of terrible basketball, UCLA got completely embarrassed on Saturday against Kentucky.  I’m sure UCLA AD Dan Guerrero is frantically trying to reach Kentucky AD Mitch Barnhart right now to cancel next year’s home and home with the Wildcats.  That game felt like a driveway game of basketball between a father and his 8 year old son.  Seven points in the first half? Kentucky had more blocks and forced turnovers than that.  I get that Kentucky is great, and that they’ve won every game by double digits this year.  However, Saturday’s game was a cold, hard reminder, of just how far the Bruins basketball program has fallen since it was going to Final Fours a few years ago.  Welcome to the Steve Alford era.

How angry are you Dodger fans? Andy Friedman has completely blown up your championship contending team, for one that he believe will be more “cost effective.”  Funny because Friedman said he understood that Matt Kemp was a talented player, but “you have to give up talent to get talent back.”  That’s great except you didn’t get any talent back Andy!  Friedman also seems to think that because he’s in a big market, he can spend money on getting rid of players, as opposed to spending money on acquiring them.  He once again, foolishly decided to get rid of Brian Wilson in a contract year, before seeing if his performance would improve any.  I mean, the Dodgers owe him $10 million for god sakes! Why not at least see if he can rebound from last season before cutting him loose?  I’m fearful of what idiotic move will come next.

On to week 15 of the NFL, where the Chargers got a massive win over the 49ers.  Philip Rivers manned up and played through pain.  Meanwhile, Jim Harbaugh is already getting a head start on that Raider job by losing to division rival San Diego.  Arian Foster now has as many touchdown passes as Johnny Manziel.  That was some collapse by Joe Flacco.  Is North Korea taking credit for hacking him?  So is the NFC South title game between Carolina and Atlanta next week a play-in game for the College Football Playoff? The Colts were so awful yesterday, they couldn’t even tackle a Florida State football player’s homework assignment.  The Cowboys have completely ruined my NFL coverage because I can’t make any more jokes about them since they are in the playoffs.  RG III is already playing better after his brief benching, but I’m sure Marcus Mariotta is texting Chip Kelly, asking him why he didn’t tank earlier.  Meanwhile, Marshawn Lynch was abusing defenders last night….

If we don’t figure out a way to get “The Interview” back in theaters, we would have let the terrorists win.  When I was growing up I used to think that politicians around the world were among the smartest people in the world.  It turns out they are actually some of the dumbest, especially when you listen to the statements being released by North Korea.  They claim they didn’t have anything to do with the cyberattack on Sony, because they would never do such a thing, but if the US doesn’t shut up, they will launch an attack on us.  Makes perfect sense right?  Of course North Korea also believes that the US government is responsible for the creation of the movie, because their government creates all kind of stupid propaganda all the time.  Come on….not even our socialist President would do such a thing.

Finally, the season finale of Homeland went down on Showtime last night.  Spoiler alert for those of you waiting to watch it on DVR.  Actually, to come to think of it, if you didn’t watch it you didn’t miss anything, so there really is nothing to spoil.  This was possibly the most disappointing hour of television I have ever watched.  In fact, I want my hour back.  NOTHING HAPPENED!  We waited a full season for this ending?  Nobody died.  All we got was a brief romantic scene between Carrie and Quinn.  This show doesn’t know how to stick with what works.  We want intense CIA drama.  Not some boring family drama, which this episode was filled with, as we learned about Carrie’s mother and how she abandoned her.  Do you know how bad this episode was?  It was so bad that bringing Dana back for one of her lame love scenes would have made it interesting!

December 15th, 2014

I don’t even know where to begin to express my frustration.  When you have a leak under your kitchen sink, you don’t remodel the entire house, while not even fixing the leak.  This is exactly what Andrew Friedman and his band of small market jocks have done to the Dodgers.   They took a team that was on the verge of winning a World Series, and managed to put all kinds of holes in their lineup, because that’s what the computer told them to do.  This isn’t Tampa Bay, Oakland, Kansas City, or some other third world country.  It’s Los Angeles, where we actually have the financial resources to assemble a team.  Dee Gordon was a cost controlled, all-star 2nd baseman, who was only going to get better.  Matt Kemp is still the best hitter in the National League when healthy.  The Dodgers gave them away for a pile of crap.  Kemp is going to murder the Dodgers when he faces them 18 times next year with the Padres, while Joc Pederson probably won’t even be able to hit a baseball.   I also hope Corey Seager is good enough to play 3rd, short, and 2nd at the same time, since Juan Uribe, Jimmy Rollins, and Howie Kendrick are all free agents next year.  Somebody please take the kiddie Monopoly Board away from Andrew Friedman.

On the other hand, the Angels actually benefitted from the Dodgers small market stupidity.  They acquired left-hander Andrew Heaney, who gives them some much needed young pitching depth.  The Angels suddenly have some decent young arms: Heaney, Garrett Richards, Matt Shoemaker, Tyler Skaggs, and Hector Santiago.  That leaves the team in pretty good shape, as Jered Weaver gracefully ages, and CJ Wilson ungracefully stinks.  I think the Halos should take a chance on Stephen Drew, who played some 2nd base next year, and can at least compete for the job with newly acquired Josh Rutledge, from Colorado.  It’s a low risk move for the Halos, who also need Josh Hamilton to start earning his paycheck next year to make up for the offense that Howie Kendrick brought to the lineup.

Then there’s just nonstop drama with the Lakers.  Let’s start with the Jeanie and Jim Buss interview that they did together with ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne.  Just reading through the transcript of this interview made me uncomfortable.  When they discussed Phil Jackson, as I expected, Jeanie and Jim still had a major difference of opinion on what happened, and the only thing they could agree upon was that they had moved on.  However, what I found alarming, is that these two still don’t even seem like they are in agreement on the plan moving forward.  Jim was asked where the Lakers will be in 5 years, and he said back on top, while Jeanie said she’d like to know more about how that was going to happen.  She also didn’t really seem to give his plan to exclusively pursue free agents a ringing endorsement, and seemed more supportive of developing young players.  Even more shocking was the fact that Jeanie left the door open that it’s not totally improbable for the Lakers to trade Kobe.  I’m not even sure these two could agree on what to order for lunch.  The fact the Laker owners still aren’t on the same page tells you they’re in real trouble.

Congratulations to Kobe for passing Michael Jordan for 3rd on the all-time scoring list.  However, I’m going to lose my mind when the Lakers get the 6th of 7th pick in this years NBA draft, and have to give it over to the Suns.   Even Magic Johnson knows that the Lakers are better off losing right now, and there’s nothing wrong with him saying what many of the rest of us are thinking.  If Kobe weren’t playing every damn game like it was game 7 of the NBA Finals, the Lakers might actually keep their pick and speed up the rebuild.  I do find it amusing that people were shocked to see Kobe yelling at his teammates in practice and talking trash, like they’ve never seen an NBA practice before, or never knew he was doing this for the last 20 years.   You may not like his leadership style, but it has worked for him and the Lakers.  Still, Mitch Kupchak said he doesn’t see Kobe playing after next season, so enjoy him while he’s around.  For some reason, this feels like he’s putting Kobe on notice that the Lakers are planning on moving on after his contract is up.

It’s funny how the Clippers are currently the better basketball team in Los Angeles, but not a single person is talking about them.  Probably because they don’t exactly look like “Lob City” anymore.  They didn’t even look like “Lob Small Apartment Complex” this past weekend against Washington and Milwaukee.  The defense consistently stinks, and slowly, bigger questions are starting to be raised.  Is CP3 still the best point guard in the NBA?  I’m sure Stephen Curry, Tony Parker, and John Wall have something to say about that.  Is the CP3-Blake combo truly championship caliber?  The more I watch the team play, the more I think the 2nd round is as far as this core is going to go.

I think we can all agree that UCLA basketball just isn’t that good after watching them get dismantled by Gonzaga over the weekend.  This team definitely isn’t top 25 worthy, and they’ll be lucky to finish 4th in the Pac-12.  They only have two non-conference games left, and can you imagine what Kentucky is going to do to the Bruins next Saturday in Chicago?  This could get ugly.  I’m thinking the Bruins are going to lose by 30, and it’s going to feel like a #1 seed vs a #16 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

On to Week 15 of the NFL.  Looks like the 49ers have clinched a bye.  A bye in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th round of this year’s playoffs.  Weren’t the Chargers supposed to have a much improved running game this year? Keenan Allen isn’t even an elite receiver anymore.  Odell Beckham did more damage to Washington yesterday than the Obama administration.  Was that mental toughness I actually saw from the Cowboys last night in December?  I hear that Al Qaeda tortured its POW’s yesterday by making them watch the Jets-Titans game.  If you thought Thursday night’s Rams-Cardinals game was exciting, wait until next Thursday’s Jaguars-Titans game!  The NFC South doesn’t even have a team that would be bowl eligible if they played in the NCAA.   Can you imagine if you played a drinking game while watching that Cincy-Cleveland game where you took a shot for every time you saw somebody do that “Johnny Football” money gesture?  You would have been dead after the 1st quarter.  I think Johnny Football’s BAC was higher than his quarterback rating during that game.  The Raiders have released a new T-Shirt for their fans…..

To the NHL, where ESPN posted an article this week about how the LA Kings are vulnerable, and could miss the playoffs.  The article talked about how the Kings are allowing opponents much greater possession time, easier entry into the zone, and more shots on goal.  After watching road losses to Montreal and Toronto, it’s easy to think that.  However, this is explained by everything I’ve been saying for months: the Kings style of play isn’t conducive to regular season success.  The Kings are defined by physical play, running into people, and wearing them down with their size.  This style takes a toll on the Kings themselves, and they cannot play like this for 82 games at a high level, which explains why the opponents possession and shot stats look so good.  It’s because the Kings aren’t knocking people off the puck like they do in the playoffs.  LA just needs to make sure they get into the playoffs, and they’ve got as good a chance as anyone to raise another Cup.

Big props to my high school alma matter St. Margaret’s, as the Tartan football team will be playing for the state championship this coming Friday at the Stub Hub Center in Carson!

Finally, another wild episode of Homeland last night on Showtime.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it.  What was Dar Adal doing in the car with Haqqani after they both fled the scene?  He had to have set up everything from Haqqani’s fake death, Sandy’s murder, Saul’s kidnapping, and the American withdrawal from Pakistan, all to force Lockhart out.  Most of the episode was Carrie playing cat and mouse with Quinn.  I think Carrie’s dad passing away was a reminder that she’s losing everybody: Brody, Ayaan, Fara, and now her father, which makes her seem so desperate to prevent Quinn from putting himself in danger.  Carrie is so screwed up that I think she acknowledge her daughter for about 30 seconds or so when Max embraced her.  This can only end with a showdown with Dar Adal, and some blood shed.  I’m thinking Quinn is the most likely candidate to die here, and possibly even Max, who seems to be losing his mind over Fara and could do something stupid.  Looking forward to the season finale next week!

December 8th, 2014

That picture tells you everything you need to know about the Lakers’ season.  Even Kobe Bryant is yawning.  Last night’s loss against the Pelicans was another game where the team looked completely disinterested.  The only thing remotely interesting last week about the Lakers was Kobe’s breakfast with Rajon Rondo in Boston.  Cue the “Kobe won’t pass the syrup” jokes.  That meeting doesn’t make me think the Lakers are going to trade for Rondo, but brings about the next obvious question, which is whether or not they should sign him this summer.  This is really an issue I’ve wrestled with quite a bit over the last few days.  He’s a Celtic, with a questionable attitude, and questionable shooting ability.  However, he’s a guy that they need to sign.  He’s a great playmaker, who will speed up the rebuild, and will make things easier on Kobe in his last year.  More importantly, he’s a player that would give Kevin Durant a reason to sign with the Lakers in 2016, which would thrust the franchise back into contention.

Here come the Clippers.  Well, sort of.  The Clipps have won 7 in a row, and you would think they are one of the hottest teams in the NBA.  Except 6 of their 7 wins have come against teams below .500, and the other came against a Houston team without Dwight Howard.  Say what you will about their lackluster defense, but the Clipps power puff schedule over the next few weeks could give them a great chance to put a grip on one of the top seeds in the West.  The bad news is that the Clippers might need to give DeAndre Jordan a 5 year $103 million extension if they want to retain him.  This is exactly the problem with the NBA.  There’s no way Jordan is worth a max contract.  However, the Clippers will have to give him one because they need to retain him.  The more I watch them play against real competition, the more I think the window of opportunity for this group has closed.  Giving Jordan such a contract would only further lock the Clippers into 2nd round playoff purgatory.

On to college football, where the inevitable happened: two teams got screwed yesterday in the new playoff format.  We went from an imperfect system that screwed a few teams, to another imperfect system that screwed a few teams.  Let’s just have a 16 team playoff already.  I hate the idea of punishing a team for not having a conference championship game.  However, without a more extensive playoff,  that was bound to happen.  This is the worst thing to happen to Baylor since all their players found out they had to spend the next 4 years of their lives in Waco, Texas.  As for TCU, it’s mind boggling to think that they just dropped three spots after blowing out their last opponent.  However, they probably never should have been ranked that high.  As dirty of a program we all know Ohio State and Florida State run, they are both very deserving of moving on.

Meanwhile, our locals were given bowl bids over the weekend.  UCLA received a bid from the Alamo Bowl, where they will take on Kansas State.  Given what we saw from the Bruins in their game against Stanford, and what we saw against Baylor in the Holiday Bowl in 2012, I fully expect UCLA to get their asses kicked in this game.  This team appears completely checked out after beating USC, and even at the risk of embarrassing themselves, I can’t imagine them being too interested in this game.  The Trojans will be a bit more excited because they get to stay local, and go to the Holiday Bowl against Nebraska.  This is practically going to be a home game for SC, as most Trojan fans will make the drive down the 5 freeway, then celebrate after by going to those dirty clubs in Tijuana.  Nebraska is a team in transition right now after hiring Mike Riley, while the Trojans have some momentum coming off their win against Notre Dame.  Speaking of Notre Dame, they shouldn’t have even accepted their bowl bid with the way they just laid down the past few weeks.

Does anybody have any idea what the Dodgers and Angels plans are going into the winter meetings this week?  I feel like somebody needs to remind the Dodger front office that they are actually in “win now” mode, and should consider that with every move they make.  They almost made a solid move by trading Andre Ethier to Arizona for catcher Miguel Montero, but the D’Backs ownership squashed that.  Now that they attempted to trade him and the cat’s out of the bag, Ethier needs to be traded, or else he will show up at spring training complaining like a housewife who’s husband hasn’t mowed the lawn.  I’m also still wondering what the Angels are doing to improve their team.  Unless they have the balls to move a guy like Howie Kendrick, I can’t see anything major happening this off-season.  That’s also ok, because they really just need a healthy Garret Richards.

On to Week 14 of the NFL where Jim Harbaugh is already leading the Raiders to victories before officially being named coach this off-season.  That interception by Manti Te’o last night was extra special, because it marked the 5th anniversary of his 4th date with Lennay Kukua.  Didn’t seem to matter because the Pats took care of business against the Chargers.  Has anybody seen the 53 men in Louisiana that call themselves The Saints? It was very fitting that Thursday night’s Romo vs Cutler game ended with an interception.  Le’Veon Bell is quietly becoming one of the best running back’s in the NFL.  When a Jets game goes to overtime, it’s the fans that are the real losers.  The Rams feel like the best 6-7 team I’ve ever seen.  Peyton Manning clearly doesn’t care about any of your fantasy football teams.  His Broncos keep rolling.  The Seahawks look like they are back, and just as dangerous as last year.

To the ice, where the the Kings are pretty much wasting our time right now.  LA didn’t even show up for Saturday’s matinee against the Flyers, and played like they were out chasing tail in Manhattan Beach the night before.  If the Kings are going to play half the season bored and uninterested, then maybe we just shouldn’t care until April?  I mean that’s usually when the Kings get their act together anyway.  On the bright side, I love the fact Dean Lombardi re-signed defenseman Alec Martinez to a 6 year $24 million contract.  This defense is going to be good for a while.  As for the Ducks, they continued to cruise with their 4th straight win last night.  Anaheim’s only real concern right now is the knee injury to Corey Perry.  The Ducks have a lot of fire power, but won’t be going anywhere in the long run without their leading scorer.

I’d like to thank The Discovery Channel for completely wasting two hours our life last night.  We all were under the impression that a man was going to be eaten alive by an Anaconda.  Instead, we waited two hours to watch some dude hunt down an Anaconda, and then cuddle with it for 15 minutes.  Unlike the movie Anaconda, if Ice Cube and Jennifer Lopez were involved in this, it might have actually made it better.  If i really wanted to see something eaten alive, I would just watch the hopes of Washington Redskin fans every September.

Finally, Homeland is so much better this season, and this actually has the potential to be the best season yet.  Slight spoiler alert if you haven’t seen last night’s episode.  I love how the show has finally gotten away from that stupid storyline with Brody’s annoying family.  Frankly, I questioned how the show would go once he died, but it’s turned out to be much better.  The show has a way of luring you into things that you want emotionally, even though you know that they are intellectually wrong.  The show has also given us a look into how complex the issues are when our country tries to assert its imperialistic will overseas.  I’m really looking forward to seeing what happens to Quinn  in the last few episodes, after he has completely gone rogue.  I have a feeling he might get justice, but will lose his life in the process.

December 1st, 2014

I had the displeasure of seeing not one, but two horrendous college football games this weekend.  Let’s start with Saturday’s debacle at the Coliseum, where USC ripped Notre Dame to shreds, 49-14.  Do you know how bad this game was?  It was so bad that people actually think that Cody Kessler is a Heisman Trophy candidate next year! It was so bad, it was the worst game that I never saw (since I spent much of the first and fourth quarters in the parking lot tailgating).  The real question though is why The Trojans didn’t throw the ball to George Farmer more this year? This guy is easily the fastest player in the team, and probably would have helped in those losses against BC and Arizona State.  Still, 8 regular season wins may not be what most Trojan fans were hoping for, but considering that Sark beat Notre Dame for the first time in two years, any realistic SC fan can’t be all that angry.

As for my Fighting Irish of Notre Dame, what a disgrace they were on Saturday, and in the 2nd half of the season.  After the loss to ASU, which they were totally unprepared for, they looked completely disinterested in the rest of the season.  Brian Kelly, not only didn’t prepare his team and didn’t keep them focused, but crushed the confidence of his starting quarterback Everett Golson, who was afraid of just making a mistake in the last few games.  The collapse on defense is understandable with all the injuries, but the offense is inexcusable.  Getting your ass kicked by USC is a very Charlie Weiss like ending to the regular season.  I’m not ready to fire Brian Kelly, but much of this season’s collapse is on him.  On my way home last night a dog jumped in front of my car.  I guess that dog is a Notre Dame fan too.

Speaking of disgraceful performances, I also had the misfortunate of watching that UCLA-Stanford game on Friday.  Laying an egg against Stanford was so typical of this UCLA team.  Brett Hundley spent a whole week telling the media how he accomplished everything he wanted to at UCLA, and how he’s going to the NFL.  Maybe if he had shut up about that, and talked about how he wanted to beat Stanford and win the Pac 12, the Bruins might be playing a meaningful game next week.  Beating USC should not be good enough for UCLA Football.  It wasn’t that long ago that UCLA would actually win the conference and win Rose Bowls.  I guess nobody seems to care about that, and especially not Brett Hundley, because that’s exactly how he played.  This team will probably get smoked in the Holiday Bowl against a Big 12 team.  They may be young, but they’ll need a new quarterback next year, and they’ll have to actually expect more from themselves.  Apparently, everyone else expected too much from these underachievers.

Good thing Mississippi State lost, and will likely be out of the playoff now.  That way, us Southern Californians won’t have to worry about all those red neck southerners and their Ford pickup trucks invading the Southland in a few weeks.  Instead, you’ll have to deal with half as many rednecks and a bunch of smelly, unshaven tree huggers when Oregon and Florida State come to town.

On to the disaster that is the Lakers.  Byron Scott is angry.  After Friday’s loss to the Timberwolves, Scott said that “right now, we are the worst team in the West.”  Actually Byron, you’ve been the worst team in the West since July, when this roster was put together.  The worst part of this debacle is that the team isn’t rebuilding.  They are just bad.  Rebuilding involves playing young players with upside.  The Lakers aren’t playing any young players.  Julius Randle is hurt.   Ryan Kelly can’t stay healthy for 5 minutes, and Jordan Clarkson is in the D-League.  Nobody else is young.  This has the makings of a long road back to competitiveness.  The T-Wolves may stink, but they’ve got young players they are building around.  I think  Zach Lavine scored more points on Friday than he did at UCLA all of last season.  On a positive note, 6,000 assists is a great accomplishment for Kobe, and pretty good for a guy that is a “ball hog”.  Last night was a nice win against a good team,  but it doesn’t matter if Kobe plays the facilitator or the scorer.  The Lakers are going to lose a whole lot more this season.

As for the Clippers, don’t be fooled.  They went 6-1 on their 7 game trip, but they collected all those wins against the bums of the NBA.  Four of the six wins came against teams that were below .500, and another came against a Houston team that was missing Dwight Howard.  It doesn’t mean much, but then again, the Clipps are going to fatten up on a lot of these scrub teams because 7 of their next 10 games are against teams with records below .500.  LA could make its way further up the Western Conference standings in that stretch, which will probably fool everyone, including themselves, into thinking that they are for real.

Speaking of basketball teams fooling us, as Dennis Green would say, the UCLA Bruin basketball team is exactly who we thought they were.  After a 4-0 start and sneaking into the top 25, the Bruins got schooled by Oklahoma, then blown out of the gym by North Carolina.  The best thing the Bruins can say about last week, is that nobody noticed because they were all stuffing their faces with Turkey.  When UCLA faces elite teams, they resort to lots of turnovers and missed free throws.  That’s the sign of a team that just isn’t ready to compete against the elite.

On to Week 14 of the NFL, where the Seahawks were very thankful for Colin Kaepernick and his inability to complete a pass on Thursday.  The Cowboys have already begun their late season collapse.  I’m running out of adjectives to describe how bad the Bears have been.  Aaron Rodgers connected with Rich Rodgers in the Packers win over New England.  This is where Jon Gruden would say “Wow that Rodgers to Rodgers connection right there really blew my mind!”  Just when you think Drew Brees is getting old, he shows you he can still throw for 5 TD passes.  The Rams did more damage to the Raiders than those St. Louis protestors did to that Little Caesar’s earlier in the week.  They should change the Snickers ad to “Eat this Johnny.  When you are hungry you play more like Brian Hoyer.”  Gotta love the fact that RGII was in a “sub” commercial.  The Chargers don’t know how to do anything easily, but they are still in the AFC playoff chase.  Andy Dalton was so inaccurate against the Bucs, I actually got scared that I was gonna get hit in the head with a football while sitting in my living room…..

You didn’t really think that the Kings were playing well enough to beat the Blackhawks did you?  Chicago is pacing themselves just like the Kings, but they are still a matchup nightmare for LA.  The Kings have to be at the top of their game to beat Chicago, which at the present time is something they are not.  Saturday’s loss also is further proof that LA needs another top defenseman.  Meanwhile, the Ducks aren’t exactly rolling anymore.  They lost consecutive games against the Hawks and Sharks, and Frederik Anderson is not looking like the goaltender they thought he would be.  If this keeps up, Anaheim is going to be looking to trade for another goaltender.

So let me get this straight…..they are making another Jurassic Park?  Let’s see….in the first movie, a small group of people went to the island and were eaten by Dinosaurs.  In the second movie, another group of people went to the island and were eaten by Dinosaurs, while more people were eaten when the Dinosaurs came to the mainland.  In the third movie, another group of people went to the island and were killed by Dinosaurs.  Now in the 4th movie, they actually thought it was a good idea to open the park, and tons of people thought it was a good idea to go? That makes sense.   I think the real question is what lunatic actuary is insuring the park?  The bigger issue I have with the movie is that it didn’t require any discipline to make it.  The producers stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something.

On a more serious note, I’m not gonna pretend like racial profiling doesn’t exist in this country.  I also think the number of times that Michael Brown was shot is highly questionable.  However, it’s hard for me to have any sympathy for a kid that just robbed a convenience store, then thought it was a good idea to get physical with a cop.  This kind of stuff happens way too often, and it’s killing the reputation of law enforcement in our country.  Still, these liberal morons that were in the streets protesting are either homeless, criminals, or the same idiots who were participating in an election for the first time ever during the last Presidential race.  Clearly, nothing memorializes the death of Michael Brown like burning down a Payless Shoes.

Finally, the mid-season finale of The Walking Dead went down last night on AMC.  This is a big time spoiler alert if you haven’t seen it yet, so stop reading if you intend to do so later on.  Here’s a quick summary.  The episode begins with Rick chasing down Bob in a cop car.  He breaks officer Bob’s back, then guns him down, which felt a little unnecessary.  Then it was time for the “Father Gabriel Amateur Hour”, where he led zombies from the overrun school back to the church, and got some help from Carl and Michonne.  Michonne goes “Kill Bill” on the Walkers, and when they are safe, they reunite with Abraham’s group.  With the church gone and news of Beth’s whereabouts discussed, the group decides to join the fun in Atlanta.  Speaking of Beth, she gets caught up in the middle of a nasty fight between Dawn and some jerk cop named O’Donnell.  Beth shoves O’Donnell down the elevator shaft.  Rick then meets up with two other Grady cops and proposes a swap for Beth and Carol.  They go to the hospital and the stage is set for the swap.  All goes according to plan until Dawn says she wants Noah.  Reluctantly, Noah obliges.  Beth then confronts Dawn, and stabbed her in the shoulder with scissors, while Dawn responded by shooting her in the head.  Darryl then shoots Dawn in the head.  Both sides then agree to lower their weapons so nobody else dies.  The episode ends with Darry walking out of the hospital and Maggie sobbing when she Beth’s dead body in the arms of Darryl.

This was a fantastic episode, yet a sad one with the loss of Beth.  Once again, typical Walking Dead with the way she died, at the hands of a human being over a stupid fight.  Beth became a much more interesting character over the past season, but losing her is one we will all get over quickly, as opposed to losing a Darryl, Carol, or even Glen.  This show has a tendency to kill off characters that transform from weak to strong, and just when you think they have it together, they die.  Andrea, Dale, Hershel, and Beth all fall into this category.  I think all along Rick’s group should have gone in with the original “guns blazing” plan to storm the hospital.  We saw some of the new violent Rick at the beginning of the episode when he killed officer Bob.  What a dumb a-hole Gabriel is.  The guy is a total coward, deciding to bring back a group of Walkers to the church and endangering Carl, Michonne, and the baby.  That dude is a liability, and has to go.  I feel like the writers tried to establish a very deep connection between Dawn and Beth, but I just didn’t see it.  Ultimately, the show didn’t need both Beth and Carol, so it was easy to kill her off.  In a lot of ways, Beth knew that was she was doing by stabbing Dawn was like committing suicide, which was strange over someone that she basically just met in Noah.  At least there will be no more singing.    A sad ending that even caused Beth to cry on Talking Dead last night.  When Darryl cries, we all cry.

November 24th, 2014

I think Ron Burgundy said it best.  “That escalated quickly.  That really got out of hand.”  Yup.  That’s what went down at the Rose Bowl on Saturday, as the Bruins took down the Trojans for the third year in a row.  I thought it would be the running ability of Brett Hundley that would beat the Trojans.  So did Sark, who’s Trojans did not allow the UCLA QB to run.  Instead, it was Hundley’s throwing ability that picked apart the Trojan defense all night.  He spread the ball around to 10 different receivers, while throwing three touchdown passes.  When you really think about it, this was about as surprising as Kim Kardashian appearing naked in a magazine.  Brett Hundley is a much better player than Cody Kessler.  The Bruins are more talented at the key positions, and have more depth than USC.  Let’s not get carried away and say that UCLA “owns LA” because that would be as naive as saying the Clippers own LA.  The Bruins still have to prove they belong with the big boys by getting to the Pac-12 title game, beating Oregon, then maybe showing what they can do on the national stage, if they are lucky.

As for the Trojans, most USC alums lost their minds last year when they went 10-4, with three different coaches.  With only seven wins right now, they could burn Tommy Trojan to the ground.   They might also refer to their coach as “Seven Win Sark”, as UW fans did in previous years.  Despite a solid recruiting class last year, this wasn’t going to be a smooth transition for Sark.  They still need to recover from their scholarship ban, and Sark needs to get his own recruits in the program.  Reality is that this is more like a 3 year rebuilding project, which many myopic Trojan fans didn’t come to grips with until Saturday night.  I’m surprised we didn’t see more playing time for recently reinstated cornerback Josh Shaw .  USC was really drowning without him.

The Trojan loss coupled with the Notre Dame disaster against Louisville means that USC and Notre Dame will play in the toilet bowl next weekend at the Coliseum.  This is going to be one of the most irrelevant games in the history or this rivalry.  The Irish have now blown two games this season because of their kicking game.  Not to mention the fact that for the last three weeks, Brian Kelly’s team is completely disinterested, and unprepared for games against mediocre opponents.  After making it all the way to the National Championship game two years ago and with Everett Golson returning, I no longer expected this kind of crap from Notre Dame Football.  They are too talented for this kind of stupidity.   I guess not.  Florida State and Alabama look like locks for the playoff.  Mississippi State, Oregon, and even Baylor still have some tough games to get through.  A loss from those teams and we have a major two loss team controversy on our hands.

Another 43 minutes for Kobe last night, and the Lakers lose again.  I’m sure Kobe and Byron Scott believe that he can just rest when he’s dead.  At this rate, that should be in the next two weeks.  When Nick Young returned, I was actually worried the Lakers might actually be good again, but if they can’t beat Denver at home, they really do stink.  I know it’s only natural to want the Lakers to win as a fan right now.  But the reality is we need them to lose, in order for them to keep their 1st round pick this year, rather than give it to Phoenix.  Without it, this team may get set back another 3 years.   A top 5 pick, to go along with Houston’s 1st round pick, a healthy Julius Randle, and two max salary slots in the summer of 2016 is a very good start to rebuilding this club.  The next 8 games will be a critical stretch in determining whether or not the Lakers really have a shot at keeping their 1st round pick.  Kobe is taking his anger out on everybody……….
    Lebron is really happy right now in Cleveland……  

So what’s really wrong with the Clippers?  If the playoffs started today, they would be watching at home just like you and me.  They are in the bottom 3rd in defensive field goal percentage, they are one of the worst rebounding teams in the league, and they really don’t have a single impressive win so far this season.  I admit that the West is competitive, but the sum of the parts just aren’t adding up for this team.  They also need more production out of the small forward position on both ends of the floor.  If this nonsense continues for the next 10 games, LA is going to need a trade to jumpstart this team, and actually play to their potential.  At some point when you don’t fulfill your potential, you become overrated.  The Clipps are slowly heading in that direction.

I’m totally alright with the Dodgers letting Hanley Ramirez sign with the Red Sox.  For 5 years and $90 million, he isn’t a National League player.  However, Andy Friedman and the Dodger front office is scaring me.  I don’t understand how a 39 year old reliever, and another 26 year old that had an ERA over 5 help improve their bullpen.  Also, in the last two weeks, we’ve heard rumor after rumor about the team looking to move an outfielder, or even two.  Matt Kemp’s name has been circulating the most.  I realize that trading Kemp would give LA the biggest return, but moving him would be idiotic.  Kemp is healthy again, and at full strength, he’s arguably the best hitter in the National League.  The remaining money left on his contract isn’t even that bad either.  The Dodgers seem so determined to get Joc Pederson in their lineup that they might recklessly trade two outfielders, while eating lots of salary.  When Pederson is in the lineup everyday hitting .200 next year, I’m sure they will regret this decision.  If Crawford or Ethier can be moved in a deal that makes sense, then great.  Otherwise, they shouldn’t just move them for the sake of clearing salary or roster space.  Sorry Mr Friedman, but this is actually how you operate in a big market, not a small one.

On to week 12 of the NFL, where I wish my fantasy football team played in the NFC South.  That way, I would be in first place with a mediocre record.  What an idiotic play by Shaun Hill throwing an interception at the end of the Chargers-Rams game.  That was an early Christmas present for San Diego.  There’s definitely something wrong with my CBS Sports app.  It’s telling me that the Raiders won a football game this week.  Yesterday looked like the end of RGIII’s football career with the Redskins.  I get the feeling the coaching staff was looking for a little more than 106 yards passing when his job was on the line.  The Broncos injuries are putting them in survival mode right now.  The Patriots are still in beast mode and don’t look like they’ll be losing anytime soon.  LeSean McCoy got angry yesterday, and clearly wanted to make a statement in the Eagles win over the Titans.  I almost forgot the Packers had a running game until yesterday.  That’s how good their offense has been.  The Cowboys are 8-3.  In perfect position to blow it in the last 5 weeks of the season.  How good was this catch by Odell Beckham? Then there’s this annoying dude in Detroit……

To the ice, where the Kings still haven’t figured out how to win on the road this season.  They’ve got a lot of points to make up in the ultra competitive Western Conference, but the bigger news last week was about defenseman Slava Voynov getting charged with assault.  Fortunately for LA, they were granted salary cap relief for Voynov’s suspension, and can add a player equal to his $4.1 million salary.  Make no mistake about it, the Kings are looking to move on from Voynov, and are in the market for a top defenseman now.  Whether Voynov is convicted or not, the NHL will probably not reinstate him.  Even if they did, he would likely lose his work visa in the US, which means he’s probably headed back to Russia.  Voynov can thank Ray Rice for ending his NHL career.

Finally, episode 7 of this season’s The Walking Dead aired on AMC last night.  Spoiler alert for those of you that have yet to see it.  Here’s a quick recap.  Rick decides to go with Darryl, Sasha, and Noah, while Carl, Michonne, and Gabriel stay back at the church.  Michonne tries to sympathize with Gabriel at one point, but he remains in solitude, and escapes from the church back into the woods later on.  He encounters a Walker he avoids, but cannot actually come to killing it.  Eugene remains unconscious, while Tara tries to give Abraham water and he refuses.  They have a confrontation, and Maggie interjects by threatening Abraham by pointing a gun at him.  Glenn, Tara, and Rosita head to a nearby creek to get supplies.  The three bond and get to know each other a little better.  When they get back Eugene begins to wake up.  Abraham now considers taking a sip of water because he doesn’t have to punish himself if Eugene is really alive.  Beth learns that Carol is in grave condition, and conspires with Lerner to get her the proper medication to survive, despite opposition from others in the hospital.  Rick and his crew take two officers from the hospital as hostages to start their rescue mission.  At the end of the episode, Sasha offers to eliminate the remains of a friend of the officer, only to have the officer slam her into a window and then escape.

This was a relatively restrained episode.  Watching the last scene was like watching a horror movie where you’re thinking “how stupid is this person for walking in a dark room where you know they are going to get murdered?”.  That’s exactly how I felt about Sasha, knowing that she was going to get attacked.  Maybe the craziest moment I’ve ever witnessed in the show was when Darryl ripped off the head of a Walker and bashed the cop over the head with it.  I actually had to rewind my DVR to make sure that really just happened.  What happened to Maggie saying that she and Glenn will never split up again?  Funny, because they just split up when Glenn went to go find some supplies.  Father Gabriel is just going to slow the group down and get somebody killed.  We’re going to be losing some characters next week, I’m just not quite sure who yet.  My first guess would be Beth.  Carol has had such an incredible character transformation, it would really be a shame for the show to lose her.  The mid-season finale is going to be huge.

 November 17th, 2014

They are bums I tell you……bums!  I think the Lakers slogan should be pretty obvious at this point.  “WE’RE GOING TO SUCK, BUT AT LEAST KOBE WILL ENTERTAIN YOU!”  Most Laker fans are smart enough to realize that entertainment doesn’t matter.  Winning does, no matter how boring it is.  What Kobe is doing is remarkable at his age, but it simply doesn’t matter because the team is so atrocious.  Even Kobe knows that.  Can you actually stand watching these stiffs play ball?  Can you actually endure another 72 games of this garbage?  Kobe deserves better than this.  The fans certainly deserve better than this.  Especially since they are paying some the highest prices in the league for tickets.  The Lakers should start handing out free shots of tequila when they shoot under 40%.  Since the fans aren’t going to get too many free tacos this year, at least that might help them get through watching these games.

The Clippers haven’t played too much basketball in the last week, but they sure did look out of their league against the Spurs on Monday.   The Spurs were playing back to back road games, and the Clippers had a chance to show they were among the best in the West.  Instead, they let the old geezer Spurs come in and show them that the West still goes through them.  Even on Saturday against the Suns, the Clipps struggled to get the win.  People are actually picking this team to go to the Finals?  People are thinking this team is one of the best in the NBA?  What am I missing?  It may be early, but where is the defensive brilliance of the great Doc Rivers?  Sounds pretty overrated to me.

To College Football where suddenly, UCLA and USC are going to have a huge showdown next week at the Rose Bowl.  This looked to be another rivalry game between two disappointing teams.  Now UCLA has a chance to win the Pac-12 South if it wins its last two games.  Even SC can still win the Pac 12 South by winning and having Arizona beat Arizona State the following week.  I can’t remember a matchup between these two teams in recent memory where it felt like both teams were evenly matched and could easily beat the other.  The one thing the Trojans will have to contend with however, is Brett Hundley, who’s mobility has given USC problems over the last two matchups.  For that reason alone, you gotta like the Bruins to take this one.

Elsewhere around College Football, Notre Dame is wondering if there is an NIT Tournament.  The remainder of the Irish season is meaningless, after getting upset by Northwestern on Saturday in South Bend.  Once again, the Irish know how to make their fans lose their minds.  The defense couldn’t stop a period with a tampon.  The team is completely undisciplined, and has more turnovers than Betty Crocker.  These guys make you want to just burn your jersey when they lose. Meanwhile, Florida State may still be #1 in the rankings, but listening to coach Jimbo Fisher talk is hilarious.  It feels like he made a deal with the Devil:  “you can either coach a winning team, or sound like an intelligent person.”  We know which one he picked.  408 yards rushing for Melvin Gordon?  He caused more suffering in Nebraska than cholesterol.  I’m still not really sure how this whole playoff works when TCU is ranked ahead of Baylor after losing to them.

College Basketball really snuck up on us.  UCLA is already 2-0 after this weekend, and even though they didn’t play anybody, they looked a little better than I thought they would after losing a few key contributors to the NBA.  Freshman forward Kevin Looney has been very impressive so far, and he’s averaged nearly 20 and 10 in his first two games.  I’ve even gotta give credit to Bryce Alford, who’s looked good, even though most of you hate him because he’s Steve Alford’s son.  The Bruins don’t really play anybody until the Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament the week of Thanksgiving, so we can at least pretend like they are going to be good until then.

As for USC basketball, this season started the same exact way last season did: with a loss.  The Trojans were a turnover machine against Portland State on Saturday night.  What exactly is considered a success for Andy Einfeld in his 2nd season?  If he wins more than 2 games in conference play?  That’s all he won last year.  USC basketball has gone relatively unnoticed the last few years, however, it shouldn’t be that difficult to put together a respectable team given their location.  Then again, I’m not sure SC alums really care that much.

To baseball, where they both earned it.  Angels center fielder Mike Trout and Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw were named MVP’s of the American and National League, respectively, this week.  The irony of Mike Trout is that he won the MVP in a year where he was actually far less impressive than the previous two seasons.  Trout was still great, but in a much different way.  His batting average and stolen bases were down, but his home runs and RBI’s were up.  Trout is still the best all around player in baseball, but if the Angels had gotten the Mike Trout from the previous two years in the playoffs, they might have gone a little further.  As for Kershaw, he is clearly the best pitcher in the game, and his impact on the bullpen and the rest of the pitching staff when he pitches demonstrates his value.  The only knock on him is his inability to beat the Cardinals in the postseason.  I’m sure that both of these guys would gladly trade in their MVP’s for a World Series appearance.

On to Week 11 of the NFL.  The Colts still aren’t there yet.  They got destroyed by the Patriots last night at home, and Rob Gronkowski and Jonas Gray looked like Godzilla on the football field.  Mark Sanchez turned back into Mark Sanchez yesterday against the Packers.  The Chargers may have beaten the Raiders, but they’ve blown their chances at the post season.  The Bears actually won a game at home?  That’s unfortunate, because I was really looking forward to Brandon Marshall tearing Jay Cutler apart in the post game.  I think JJ Watt has more touchdowns than the entire Oakland Raider team this year.  I think Eli Manning just threw another interception.  The Saints can’t even win at home anymore, while the Redskins can’t even beat the Bucs.  Fat guy touchdown alert…..

On the ice, the Kings and Ducks seem to play one great game after another against each other.  On Thursday, the Ducks beat the Kings at the Honda Center 6-5 in a shootout, after the Kings were up 5-3 in the final minutes or regulation.  On Saturday, the Kings turned the tables by defeating the Ducks 3-2 in overtime, and had a comeback of their own in the 3rd period.  After last spring’s seven game series between these two clubs, the rivalry is becoming one of the NHL’s best, and one of SoCal’s best.  Both teams are dealing with their own respective injury (and illness) woes, but when they are at their best, they are easily two of the best in the league.  Hope to see these two meet again in this spring’s post season.

Finally, we inched closer to the Winter finale of The Walking Dead last night on AMC.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it.  This episode was all about Daryl and Carol.  We see a flashback to when Carol sees the fire at the prison following the Governor’s death.  Then we move forward in time to see Daryl and Carol in the car, following the Grady Memorial Vehicle.  Daryl fills Carol in on Beth.  They follow the car and eventually see the guards coming out of it, but decide to delay their attack and spend the night at a Shelter for abused children.  The facility was overrun with Walkers, and several young children had already turned.  The next morning Daryl puts down the young Walkers, and even gives them a burial.  When they resume their pursuit of Beth, they ran into Noah, who ambushed them with a gun, and stole Daryl’s crossbow.  Later on, they ambush Noah, and get the weapon back, while pushing a bookcase on top of him.  A Walker threatens to eat him, but eventually, Darryl decides to save Noah.  Shortly after, Daryl and Carol discover that Noah knows Beth, and they strategize to get her back as the guards show up.  In the chaos from running from the guards, Carol is run over by their car and taken to the hospital. Noah holds Daryl back from chasing them down, and instead carefully plans an attack to get her back.

This episode was really the perfect blend of character development and action.  The dynamics between Daryl and Carol are one aspect of the show that viewers have been wanting for quite some time.  While there doesn’t appear to be anything romantic between these two, at least yet, the similarities between the two of them are very fascinating.  Both of these characters give off the impression that they are not affected by the horrors of the world they live in.  However, in this episode we are reminded how noble each of them are.  We see this when Daryl dispatches of the bodies at the shelter, so Carol doesn’t have to deal with the trauma of it.  Carol and Daryl also show some humanity and let Noah live too when he is trapped under the book shelf.  I also found it interesting that Carol didn’t want to talk about what happened with the girls, but when she was about to confess to killing Lizzie, Daryl said he didn’t need to hear the details but understood.  In other words, he knows that her nobility is much greater, than whatever it was she did.  There’s something about this episode that makes me think that Carol or Beth may not live through the rescue attempt.  In any case, can’t wait for the final two episodes of the first half of the season!

November 10th, 2014

Congratulations to Charles Barkley!  Charles you can finally eat a meal, now that the Lakers won their first game of the season last night against Charlotte.  Good thing too, because if they didn’t win last night you might have died.  Not only did the Lakers win, but the fans got tacos too.  That may never happen again this season.  The more I watch this team, the more I wonder whether or not the front office actually had any intention of putting a competitive team together this season.  On the bright side, it is remarkable that in his 19th year in the league, Kobe entered yesterday’s game leading the league in scoring.  Even more impressive is the fact that he’s playing every game like his house is on fire.  Although this is entertaining, it’s also somewhat stupid.  The Lakers are wasting the remaining good basketball Kobe has left, and they are also running him into the ground with the amount of minutes he’s taking on.  If you’re going to spend $48 million on someone, you should probably take good care of the investment, which the Lakers aren’t.

What was Steve Nash thinking?  Nash decided to post a video on Instagram of himself hitting golf balls last week.  Once he saw the criticism he was receiving through social media, he immediately went into damage control and wrote an open letter to Laker fans.  In the letter, he claimed that swinging a golf club is a lot different than playing NBA basketball every night against great players. I’m no golf pro, but I’m pretty sure you need to have a healthy back to be able to swing a golf club, which makes Nash look really bad here.  He probably can’t remain healthy on a weekly basis in the NBA, but he looks like he came back to do nothing more than collect a paycheck, while starting his retirement early.  He’s also guilty of just plain stupidity.

Meanwhile, the Clippers are still an unimpressive 4-2 after beating Portland on Saturday.  Everyone seems to be under the impression that the Clipps were this young team on the rise, that was improving with every game they played.  However, that’s only because most of you are comparing them to the laughing stock across the hallway.  The reality of it is, other than Blake Griffin, the Clippers look like a good team that has reached their ceiling, and not a championship contender.  They got blown off the floor against the Warriors, and have struggled against some very mediocre teams.  Look it’s early, and we always tend to overanalyze what we see in the NBA. However, the Clippers have given us nothing to make us think things are any different from the last couple of seasons.

Speaking of the Clippers, Gillian Zucker was introduced last week as the new president of business operations.  Gillian proclaimed that “the Clippers are well on their way to becoming Los Angeles’ team.”  That’s cute.  She’s spent the last 9 years in auto racing, so she started watching the NBA last week.   Gillian obviously hasn’t walked into Staples Center and seen the 16 championship banners that belong to the LA Lakers.  You should probably take an NBA history lesson first Gillian.

To college football, where Bruins are exactly who I told you they were.  A good team, but not quite a great team.  For really just the 2nd time this season, UCLA looked like an elite team by taking down Washington on the road.  The hot again, cold again, Brett Hundley got hot again, throwing for 302 yards and 2 touchdowns, while running for two more.  If you didn’t expect these guys to be a national championship contender a few months ago, you might actually be impressed.  Dare I say it? UCLA is peaking at the right time.  They have two weeks to prepare for USC at home, then host Stanford.  Two very winnable games, while needing Arizona State to lose one of its last three, in order to play for the Pac-12 title.  Before it’s over, UCLA could still find themselves in a pretty good bowl game.

Elsewhere around college football, Notre Dame had its hopes and dreams for the playoffs shattered after losing to Arizona State.  Nobody beats Notre Dame like Notre Dame.  Everett Golson threw 4 interceptions, and lost a fumble, and the Irish were toast by the end of the 1st half.  Amazing how unprepared that team looked against an ASU team that everyone knew was going to blitz on nearly every play.  I suppose the Irish can still go to a pretty good bowl game, but you can kiss the playoffs goodbye.  Too bad because the Auburn, Michigan State, and Kansas State losses would have vaulted ND a long way up the rankings.  Great game between Alabama and LSU, and what a comeback by the Crimson Tide to win it.  That’s gotta be the best thing to happen in the state of Alabama since incest was downgraded to a misdemeanor.  Oh and this actually happened in that game……
There was also this bonehead play in the Utah vs Oregon game……..

To baseball, where the Dodgers must have more people in their baseball operations department than any franchise in the history of the league.  They hired Farhan Zaidi as their GM last week, who used to be Oakland’s assistant GM.  They also hired Josh Byrnes as Senior VP of Baseball Operations.  Weren’t both of these guys supposed to be GM candidates?  Wasn’t Andy Friedman supposed to be a GM candidate too?  And isn’t Ned Colletti still somewhat of a GM as well?  All of a sudden, the Dodger front office looks more crowded than their outfield.  Although I’m going to reserve judgement until I see what moves are actually made, the fact that all these guys seem like Moneyball jocks has me concerned.  The Dodgers don’t need to spend $300 million a year to win, but they also shouldn’t be operated like some small market team like Tampa or Kansas City.  Whatever happens with Hanley Ramirez in the next few weeks will be a big sign of what these guys plan to do.  I say give the man a 3 year $45 million deal, and buy some time to develop a replacement.

On to week 10 of the NFL, where someone must have told Andy Dalton that Thursday was a playoff game, because he played terrible, and the Bengals got pounded by the Browns.   Last night, Jay Cutler was about as accurate as Helen Keller playing darts, and Chicago was “emBEARassing” against the Packers.  Just when you think the Steelers are elite, they completely embarrass themselves by losing to an embarrassing Jets team.  I can just imagine how loud NFL gamblers screamed when they saw Jimmy Graham push off on the final play of regulation against the 49ers, which negated his hail mary touchdown.  Great acting job by the 49ers defensive back on that play.  Just as Dr. Jerry Jones told us, Tony Romo played, and the Cowboys dominated the Jaguars.  Things haven’t been this bad for the Dolphins since Snowflake was stolen and they had to hire Ace Ventura to find him.  The Cardinals may have lost Carson Palmer to an injury, but John Brown’s celebration was even better than the TD he scored….

To the ice, where the Kings pounded the Canucks on Saturday night, but have some issues to work out.  Drew Doughty and Dustin Brown make $7 million a year, and they have a total of 2 goals in 15 games this season.  Would they just let Slava Voynov play already!  Either charge the guy and let the legal process take its course, or let him play again.  The Kings will have their first showdown of the season with the Ducks on Wednesday night at the Honda Center.  Anaheim is rolling, and doing it with defense.  They had the best record in the league coming into Sunday, and they were tied with the Kings for having allowed the 2nd fewest amount of goals in the league.  After John Gibson’s injury, it looks like Frederick Anderson is firmly the teams #1 goalie as well.

And finally, another interesting episode of the Walking Dead last night on AMC.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it.  Let’s recap quickly.  Abraham, Rosita, Glen, Maggie, Eugene, and Tara have taken a short bus, leaving the rest of the group behind to get to Washington, DC.  The bus mysteriously crashes, and the group must fend off Walkers.  Throughout the episode we see flashbacks of Abraham’s life as a father and husband.  The group gets to an abandoned bookstore for refuge.  Eugene is peeping and perving while Abraham and Rosita have sex.  When Tara catches him, he admits that he caused the bus crash, by putting crushed glass in the fuel line.  Tara promises to keep his secret.  The group finds a firetruck and heads out of town, but not before killing another herd of Walkers.  Finally, the group faces another herd on their drive and is forced to stop.  When the group argues what to do, Eugene admits that he isn’t a scientist, but was just using everyone to get to DC, where he believes their best chance of survival is.  He also believes he is smarter than everyone else.  Abraham proceeds to beat the crap out of Eugene.  The final flashback shows Abraham’s dead wife and son, and just before Abraham is about to kill himself, he saves Eugene from Walkers.  Eugene then convinces Abraham to help him get to DC.

Ok, this episode was much slower than the first 4 episodes of the season.  It was bound to happen.  However, we’re so used to complete chaos, and things falling apart around the group.  In this episode, we actually see the group getting closer, which is a nice contrast.  In the end, in a much more subtle way, Eugene is a dangerous character.  People have died trying to protect him, when he is offering nothing in return.  He’s a fraud.  There’s also a great deal of symbolism in this episode, like when Eugene is in the bookstore admitting his lie to Tara.  He’s actually in a row with a book called “We All Fall Down” by Nic Sheff.  The symbolism goes even further.  Maggie mentioned a riddle to Eugene, which involved Sampson telling a riddle, which was really a lie that caused a great deal of death.  Symbolically, Eugene is like Sampson, in that his lie, ultimately caused a lot of death.  These types of episodes really make you think about the plot, but they are still enjoyable, albeit a lot slower.

November 3rd, 2014

Yup…..the Lakers are a disaster.  The NBA clearly does not feel bad about the Chris Paul trade, because they just screwed them in the first week of the NBA season.  LA has played 4 games in 5 nights, and is 0-4, their worst start since your parents were born.  You think it’s bad now? Look at the schedule.  They might win 2 games in their first 10.  Their season is over before it even starts.  Kobe still looks like Kobe.  Jordan Hill and Ed Davis are serviceable, however, everyone else stinks.  Jeremy Lin is not a starting point guard in the NBA, and Carlos Boozer is totally past his prime.  The development of Julius Randle was going to be the only glimmer of hope this season, but now that he broke his leg, this season is pointless.  This has the makings of a very long and painful rebuild.

As for the Clippers, they are 2-1, but they’ve looked rather underwhelming in the first week.  They barely got by an Oklahoma City Thunder team that was missing its two best players.  Then they barely beat the Lakers, which would have been an embarrassing loss, then lost to Sacramento. The good news for the Clippers is that Blake Griffin looks like he improved his offensive game.  Dude can actually shoot a free throw, make some 3 pointers, and even be a go to guy late in the game.  The bad news is the team’s shooting, defense, and rebounding has been bad, which is never a recipe for success.  Wasn’t Doc Rivers supposed to be a defensive genius?  Sure seems like that genius actually came from Tom Thibodeau.  It’s early, but the Clippers have a lot to clean up if they are truly contenders.

The contracts extensions that are being handed out in the NBA are completely ridiculous.  Where was I when NBA GM’s were handing out money?  Nikola Vucevic has nobody on his team, and that makes him a $48 million player for the next four years.  Ricky Rubio couldn’t even shoot a basketball last year.  I’m sure he’s a great bull fighter in Spain, but for some reason he’s making $54 million for the next 4 years.  The Jazz were one of the worst teams in the NBA last season, but locked up Alec Burks, Gordon Hayward, and Derek Favors for $154 million over the next four years.  What the hell is going on here?  Do all NBA GM’s drink on the job?  It just proves that the real NBA stars are grossly underpaid, while most role players are badly overpaid.

Let’s go to college football, where our unimpressive theme continues with the UCLA Bruins.  UCLA was good, but not great in a win against Arizona on Saturday night at the Rose Bowl.  Ok, I’ll give the Bruins defense some credit here.  They held the Wildcats to a season low 272 yards, which would be extremely impressive if Arizona wasn’t as Jekyll and Hyde as the Bruins.  UCLA had 118 yards in penalties, and it felt like they should have put up about 40 points.  At times, the offense was about as ugly as the jerseys the Bruins were wearing.  They really need to get rid of these ridiculous recruiting gimmicks.  Their running game looks great sometimes with Paul Perkins and Brett Hundley, but their receivers just can’t seem to take the offense to the next level.  Neither can Hundley’s passing.  UCLA is still alive for the Pac-12 South title, but it’s still going to take some more losses from Arizona State and Utah, with the Bruins winning out.  A trip to the San Francisco Bowl (whatever the hell that is) seems much more plausible than another trip to the conference title game.

Meanwhile, the Trojans had no problem at Washington State, blowing them out 44-17.  Admit it, even you die hard Trojan fans fell asleep on your couches by halftime.  This wasn’t exactly like playing Arizona State or Utah, and having to worry about them actually mounting a comeback.  Especially not when Connor Halliday got his leg broken early in the game.  The Trojans won’t actually have to leave Southern California for the rest of the regular season, but they’ll have to avoid the trap game against Cal in two weeks before the big showdown against UCLA and Notre Dame.  SC will need to win it’s final two conference games, and hope ASU starts losing to have a chance at the Pac-12 South title.  That’s a tall order, but one that should make all the Trojan fans feel pretty good about Sark’s first season if it actually comes to fruition.

Notre Dame fans nearly had a heart attack over the past few days.  First, Florida State nearly lost to Louisville, then the Irish had a close call against Navy.  I appreciate the university’s strong affiliation with our armed forces, however, playing the Sea Men does nothing for the Irish other than make them look really bad if they lose.  This college football playoff committee has me skeptical that the Irish can actually make it in the playoff, even if they have only 1 loss.  They already slipped two spots in the AP, so I’d hate to see what the next playoff poll is going to look like.  These SEC teams are so overhyped it’s disgusting.  The difference between #1 Mississippi State and #2 Florida State is that Mississippi State has been struggling against garbage like Arkansas and Kentucky.  Meanwhile, FSU has “struggled” against solid teams like Notre Dame, Louisville, and Clemson.  The SEC love fest is killing me.

On to week 9 in the NFL, where the Jets should start taking auditions from their fans for their starting quarterback job after getting smoked by KC.  Their entire team would have been great……5 years ago.   Yesterday’s Manning vs Brady showdown felt a lot like those beat downs Tom Brady used to lay on the Colts when Peyton was with Indy.  Suddenly, the Pats are in the divers seat for home field.  The Chargers got blown off the field yesterday against Miami, and now they face the toughest part of their schedule.  Typical San Diego.  The 49ers and Seahawks are nothing like the teams they used to be, while the Cardinals have emerged as the class of the NFC. The Steelers are suddenly rolling, but I don’t trust anybody to emerge as an elite team in that division.  I’m not sure why the Redskins didn’t wait until after the bye to start RG III.  This is the kind of thing that could only happen to the Jets…..

To the NHL, where the Kings just can’t seem to win on the road.  After going 6-1 at home to start the season, LA’s road trip has been filled with injuries, penalties, suspensions, and a lack of scoring.  When you lose 4 in a row in the West, you can quickly find your way toward the bottom, and that’s what happening to the Kings.  Even though at times it seems like the Kings don’t give a crap about the regular season, it’s a dangerous way to play hockey, in a conference that’s so competitive.  Meanwhile, the Ducks aren’t slowing down, racing out to another 1st place start after last night’s win at Colorado.  Anaheim is actually doing it with defense for a change, as they have the 2nd best goals against average in the league.

Finally, an interesting episode of The Walking Dead last night.  Spoiler alert for those of you who haven’t seen it yet.  This episode was all about what happened to Beth.  She wakes up in a hospital in Atlanta, and a creepy cop tells her “you owe us”.  The hospital is made up of Dr. Steven Edwards, a creepy cop named Goreman, who keeps checking out Beth, as well as an orderly named Noah.  Then there’s the crazy cop Dawn, who runs the show, and seems to just slap Beth whenever she gets major mood swings.  After having her life saved, Beth is forced to work at the hospital for a little before being able to leave.  She has to hold down a patient while her arm is amputated with a sharp wire.

She later on poses the question to Dr. Edwards “why do you stay when you can leave whenever you want?”  He takes her downstairs to see a bunch of Walkers to show her the world is better in here than out there.  Later on Beth accidentally kills a patient by giving the wrong medication to a a patient.  We later find out Dr Edwards facilitated this because he knew the patient was a doctor, and he wanted to be the only doctor alive at the facility to remain valuable.  Beth and Noah try to escape the hospital, and when Beth gets the key she is cornered by Goreman, who tries to rape her.  Beth knocks him out with a bottle, and he is bitten by a patient that turned into a Walker.  As Beth an Noah try to escape, Beth is caught.  At the end of the episode, Carol is wheeled into the hospital on a stretcher.  Based on the end of the last episode, that probably means Noah is in the woods with Darryl.

This was a very different episode, but one that was still very interesting.  It’s become pretty hard to trust any new character in The Walking Dead, so I didn’t believe for a second that Beth was actually safe in the hospital.  It also became pretty obvious when they started dumping dead bodies down an elevator shaft.  I love how Beth totally went into “Uma Thurman Kill Bill Mode” when she was about to be raped by Goreman.  I’m thinking Carol infiltrated the hospital on purpose to save Beth.  This crazy cop Dawn has no idea who she is messing with, and it’s about to go down at the hospital.  Can’t wait to see where this goes next.

October 27th, 2014

You didn’t really think Steve Nash was going to stay healthy and play again did you? Once you have nerve damage in any part of your body, I’m pretty sure that you don’t just heal from that over time.  Nash knew he had no chance to play this year, but simply came back to collect a $9 million social security check from the Lakers.  This is actually a good thing the way I see it.  Jeremy Lin is now going to get a ton of minutes to pump up his stats and increase his value by the trade deadline, which can return some valuable assets for the team.  It’s a sad way to go out for Nash, but it’s still a trade that at the time, it was a no brainer to do.  Thanks for the little you contributed to the Lakers Steve, and the little value you might still bring before it’s over.

I’ve gotta address that stupid article that ESPN writer Henry Abbott wrote about nobody wanting to play with Kobe.  This is a very tired storyline, that people have unsuccessfully tried to write about for twenty years.  Abbot wrote a story just to get some clicks without any balance, and lacking some critical information.  He uses Shaquille O’Neal, Andrew Bynum, and Dwight Howard, as examples of players that had issues with Kobe.  He also failed to mentioned that Shaq had issues with Penny Hardaway and Dwayne Wade, Bynum had issues wherever he went after the Lakers, and the fact that Dwight Howard had accountability issues in Orlando and Houston.  It’s also funny that he got unnamed agents as sources for his story, yet he didn’t ask Pau Gasol, Matt Barnes, Steve Blake, Derek Fisher, or Rick Fox how they felt about Kobe.  That’s because all those guys loved playing with him.  Even Paul George and Carmelo Anthony, free agents that didn’t sign with the Lakers, thought that the story was ridiculous.

Also, for Abbott and everybody else that keep focusing on how “terrible” the Lakers decision was to  pay Kobe $48 million over two years, you are all missing a valuable piece of information.  The Lakers TV contract with Timer Warner includes a provision that says the ratings must remain at a certain level to receive a certain share of profitability.  Without Kobe Bryant, those ratings drop immensely.  In fact, they would drop to a level that ultimately make it much more costly to lose him, than to pay him the $48 million.  It was just as much as basketball decision as it was a business decision.

To college football, where the UCLA Bruins are finding new ways to embarrass themselves.  The Bruins blew a 17 point lead against Colorado, yet pulled out a 40-37 win in overtime.  Colorado?? You can’t be serious right?  These guys shouldn’t even be in Division I football, let alone the Pac 12.  UCLA is setting themselves up for some serious failure over the final month of the regular season.  They appear to be in serious decline, and are putting themselves in position to be embarrassed in their final four games of the season, including a game against the Trojans.  Not only do they have to win out to have a chance to win the Pac 12 South, but they need to hope Utah and Arizona State start losing some conference games as well.

Meanwhile, those Trojans really know how to break your heart right?  USC gave up another lead late, and lost at Utah 24-21.  The Trojans got some good luck at Stanford and Arizona.  This game felt a lot like those games, but USC was due to come up on the short end of one of these road games in conference after those two lucky wins.  Most of you Trojan fans want to murder Sark, but it’s really on the players to make more plays and win more of these close games.  Sark did the right thing by going for it late in the game, since Andre Heidari was banged up.  Heck, if Nelson Agholor stayed in bounds, the Trojans probably would have won.  I also don’t understand why Utah fans rushed the field after winning the game.  They do realize they were actually ranked ahead of the Trojans coming into the game right?  You could even see one of the Utah players utter the words “we’re going to a bowl game” when it was over.  That guy would get slapped if he were playing in a lot of programs.  It just goes to show you the vast difference between these two athletic programs.

On to the NFL where after 7 weeks, the story lines have completely flipped.  I guess Tom Brady and the Patriots aren’t that old and washed up anymore.  Gronk hadn’t done that much damage since the last time he was in Vegas.  I guess that Chargers might not actually be able to compete with the Broncos after.  I guess the Rams and Falcons are actually that bad.  The Seahawks may have beaten Carolina, but their locker room problems suddenly make them nothing like the team we thought.  Can anyone actually take control of the AFC North?  Ben Roethlisberger is the first QB with multiple games of 500 or more passing yards and only two rapes.  Meanwhile, the Saints are filing a petition with the league to play every game at home.  And finally, the Bills and Jets are just full of laughs.  Sammy Watkins cracked the champagne a little too soon on this one…..

Quick thought on the Dodgers and their managerial situation this past week.  When Joe Maddon left the Rays this week, everyone immediately thought it was a foregone conclusion he was going to the Dodgers.  I’m sure Andy Friedman knew all along that Maddon could leave the Rays.  The fact that he immediately told everyone that Don Mattingly was going to manage the Dodgers next year tells you everything you need to know here.  If he thought that Maddon was a better fit than Mattingly, he would have immediately hit the eject button on the LA skipper.  Friedman made the correct choice here.  Don Mattingly may still be improving as an in-game manager, but he is absolutely the best person to manage the egos of the Dodger players, rather than Maddon.

Let’s go to the ice, where the Kings are rolling, but they got a huge scare yesterday.  Anze Kopitar left the game after a collision behind the net.  Make no mistake about it, the Kings cannot actually lose Kopitar for any length of time, or else they will suffer at both ends of the ice.  Coach Darryl Sutter downplayed the injury, but then again, he downplays everything.  Oh yea, the team has also won six in a row, and for the first time in history, they had a 6-0 homestand.

Finally, another great episode of The Walking Dead last night.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it.  Quick summary: Bob tells Gareth and his friends that they are idiots because he’s been bitten, so they ate infected meat.  Gareth and his friends leave Bob in front of the church where Rick and the gang find him.  Bob tells Rick what happened.  Gareth and the cannibals try to ambush the group at the church, but Rick is ready for it.  Rick and the crew kill Gareth and his entire group.  Sadly, Bob dies.  Then, Michonne finds Darryl at the end of the episode in the woods.  She asks “where is Carol?” Darryl says “come out.”  Except we don’t know who he is telling that to when the episode ends.

I definitely thought the Gareth saga would last a lot longer than it did.  I gotta admit, he had kind of a charismatic side to him that we saw early in the episode.  On a more disgusting note, he is basically a cannibal “foodie”, as he talks about his taste for women.  His fate had to be celebrated by all fans of the show.  I’m actually shocked that Gabriel is no mastermind, and is actually just a really big pansy.  I also don’t really know why Bob had such a long ceremonious like death.  There were other characters in the show that had more significance, yet their deaths were not as long and drawn out.  Lastly, I’m not really sure why Maggie acting so cool since her sister was kidnapped by a bunch of strangers.  I guess we’ll find out more on that in the next episode.