Monthly Archives: February 2017

Bruins Come Alive in 2nd Half To Beat Oregon State

February 12th, 2017

Lonzo Ball is now taking over on both ends of the floor. His evolution continued against Oregon State on Sunday, as UCLA ran away from the Beavers with a 78-60 win.

Ball had 22 points and 9 assists, while TJ Leaf added 13 points in a game that UCLA led by only 5 points at the end of the first half.

The Bruins shot 52% on the way to their fourth straight win, but it wasn’t easy in the early going. UCLA was trailing 27-24 with three minutes left in the half. They managed to score the half’s final 8 points, but played with little energy in the game’s first 20 minutes.

UCLA broke the game open in the 2nd half with a 14-3 run, and with 5:37 left they had their biggest lead of the game at 71-48. The run was sparked by a full court press that the Bruins unveiled for the first time this season. They held the Beavers to 40% shooting for the game.

Bruins Coach Steve Alford was pleased with the effort, but stressed the importance of keeping it in perspective. “There’s obviously been a lot of talk about our defense, which after doing this for almost 26 years, it’s almost comical because other teams aren’t critiqued like we are,” he said. “It’s who you are as your identity. Our team is a very efficient offensive team. Yes, we do want to continue to improve defensively, that’s a huge key for us. But we’re not all of a sudden going to start playing a 50-possession game to hold people in the 50s.”

The win gave the Bruins a weekend sweep of the Oregon schools at home. It was also their first season sweep of OSU since 2012. The last time the Bruins played the Beavers at Pauley Pavilion, the suffered an 85-82 loss on March 5th, 2016.

UCLA maintained its grip on 3rd place in the Pac 12, and will now get ready for a showdown against USC next week. The Bruins will try to avenge an 84-76 loss to the Trojans last month.

Trojans Fall To Oregon

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February 11th, 2017

Tyler Dorsey hit two three pointers in the final 3 minutes of the game, and #5 Oregon defeated USC for the 14^th straight time, 81-70 on Saturday night.

Chimezi Metsu scored 16 points for the Trojans, while Bennie Boatwright and Elijah Stewart had 15 in a losing effort. Turnovers were a problem for USC. They committed 16, which comes after committing 17 in their 1^st game against the Ducks this season.

USC took their first lead of the game early in the 2^nd half, and a Boatwright 3-point play gave the Trojans a 50-46 lead.

However, the Ducks went on a 22-8 run, which gave them a 68-58 lead, led by the strong play of star Dillon Brooks. Brooks scored 21 points before fouling out, while Dorsey added 19.

It was a tough shooting night for the Trojans. Boatwright was only 3-15 from the field, and 1-9 from behind the 3-point line. As a team, USC shot just 37% in the game.

Oregon’s win streak is its longest ever against the Trojans, and the Ducks’ longest against any Pac 12 opponent. They also held on to second place in the Pac 12, keeping pace with Arizona, who defeated Cal on Saturday night.

The Trojans now have a week until their next game at UCLA on February 18^th. USC upset the Bruins last month, which extended their winning streak to four straight games over their crosstown rivals.

Ducks Rally Falls Short Against Caps

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February 11th, 2017

The Ducks road troubles continued Saturday in our nation’s capital. Anaheim rallied from a three-goal deficit, but gave up a goal late in the 3rd, ultimately ending in a 6-4 loss to the Capitals.

Capitals rookie Zach Sanford scored the game-winning goal, which was the first goal of his NHL career. Marcus Johansson added an empty net goal with 13 seconds left.

Anaheim fell behind 3-0 after the 1st period before getting on the scoreboard in the 2nd. Jakob Silfverberg got the Ducks on the board, but just over 5 minutes later, the Capitals made it 4-1 on a goal by Daniel Winnik. Hampus Lindolm made it 4-2 before the period was over, then goals by Ryan Kessler followed by Ryan Getzlaf tied it up midway through the 3rd period.

Getzlaf had a goal and two assists for the Ducks, while John Gibson made 33 saves in the losing effort. Anaheim is just 1-3-1 with one game left on this six game road trip.

The Capitals have 84 points and own the NHL’s best record. Despite the loss, Getzlaf was encouraged. “It showed a lot of character, hanging in there and playing with a team like that and making that comeback,” Getzlaf said. “That’s not an easy team to do that against, and not an easy building to be in.”

The Ducks will wrap up their road trip on Tuesday against the Minnesota Wild. Former Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau is behind the bench, and it’s no surprise the Wild are sitting at the top of the Western Conference standings given his track record for regular season success.

Anaheim remains in 2nd place in the Pacific Division. After playing at Minnesota and returning home to play Florida, the Ducks will have another showdown with their cross-town rivals, the Kings, on Sunday night.

Clippers drop the Hornets

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February 12th, 2016

The Clippers made it two in a row with a 107-102 victory over the Hornets on Saturday night in Charlotte. Blake Griffin had 20 points and 12 rebounds, and Austin Rivers added 18 points of his own.

The Clipps got off to a slow start, missing their first six shots, as Charlotte jumped out to an 11 point lead in the first quarter. However, Griffin’s 11 points sparked the Clippers to a 29-27 lead at the end of the 1st.

LA’s bench did most of the damage after that, outscoring Charlotte 47-30, behind Jamal Crawford’s 22 points and 5 three pointers. Crawford passed Vince Carter for the fifth-most 3-pointers made in NBA history.

Nicolas Batum had 25 points, 6 rebounds, and 8 assists for the Hornets. Charlotte has now lost 9 of their last 10 games.

The Hornets came as close as 3 points in the final minute, but Blake Griffin rebounded a miss from Austin Rivers to help seal the win. It was the Clippers first two game win streak since January 14th-16th.

The Clippers wrap up their road trip on Tuesday with a game against the Utah Jazz. Then they’ll host the Hawks on Wednesday in their final game before the All-Star game.

Eight Clap? Bruins Behind The Eight Ball

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February 11^th, 2017

Remember when you thought the Bruins were going to be a #1 seed in this year’s tournament? Well the odds of that happening now are about as good as going a whole day without hearing anybody talk about Donald Trump.

For the first time, the NCAA released a midseason preview of what the top four seeds would look like in each region if the tournament started today. The Bruins were the fourth seeded team in the East Region. That region also had Villanova, Louisville, and Kentucky as the top three seeds. Villanova was the #1 overall seed, with Kansas, Baylor, and Gonzaga as the other three #1 seeds.

The real problem for UCLA is Oregon and Arizona, who are likely to finish ahead of them in the Pac 12 standings. Even after defeating Oregon on Thursday night, the Ducks were the #2 seed in the West. Arizona, who was recently defeated by Oregon by 27 points, is a #3 seed in the Midwest.

UCLA is 2 games behind Arizona for 1^st place in the conference, and 1 game behind Oregon. The Bruins get to play Arizona 1 more time during the regular season, but Arizona and Oregon don’t play again. That means it would take a Hillary Clinton like collapse by The Wildcats and Ducks to be passed in the standings heading into the Pac 12 tournament.

The committee didn’t seem to put much weight into recent wins when they came up with their rankings. North Carolina was still a #2 seed despite losing to Duke on Thursday. Florida hammered Kentucky a week ago, yet they have the same #3 seed as Kentucky, who also lost at home to the Bruins. It’s also strange that a team like West Virginia, who has 5 losses and 2 against teams rated outside the top 75, has the same #4 seed as UCLA.

The best hope for the Bruins is to get hot in March and win the Pac 12 tournament. That might get them a #2 seed and slightly closer to home in the West Region. The Bruins will try to keep things rolling tomorrow afternoon at home against Oregon State.

What Is Magic Really Saying?

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February 11th, 2017

Magic is back with the Lakers, but only Jeanie Buss really knows what’s going to happen. However, since Magic has been named an advisor, he’s been making noise by telling the media that he wants to be the one “calling the shots”.

Since he was named an advisor, all I’ve heard are the Colin Cowherd’s of the world criticize the Lakers for being unable to turn the page from the past, and that it would be silly to let Magic be the one in charge of the Lakers Basketball Operations Department. For those people that think that, you are missing the point.

Magic Johnson has made nearly half a billion dollars since retiring from the NBA. He’s one of the most successful business men in the country. The man currently has too many successful businesses to count, yet it feels like he jumps from one business to the other in a very short amount of time. How is this possible? The answer is that he knows how to delegate, and how to surround himself with smart people that will make him successful. That’s why his businesses continue to run while he moves on to his next venture.

When Magic Johnson says he hopes he will be “calling the shots” with the Lakers Basketball Operations Department, most of you are envisioning that he’s going to be the teams’ Scout, General Manager, and Capologist all in one. That’s not the case. All Magic is saying is that just like with his businesses, he wants to have the final say. He’s smart enough to know that only by adding more smart people in the room, he will make these smarter final decisions.

Some of the smartest executives in the NBA (R.C. Buford, Travis Schlenk, Masai Ujiri, etc) are guys you’ve never heard of. However, if Magic is put in charge, his success will be determined by whether or not he can pluck those kinds of executives from other teams. Based on his track record of success, it seems like a pretty good bet he can pull something like this off. That’s not to say that Mitch Kupchak and Jim Buss won’t be with the Lakers anymore. They’ve done enough to prove their worth. They might just need more help given the challenges of the new collective bargaining agreement.

Just don’t doubt Magic Johnson. The man knows his strengths and his limitations. That self-awareness is actually what really makes everything he works on a success. That’s exactly why Jeanie Buss brought him back into the picture.

Lakers Buck The Trend

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February 10th, 2017

The Lakers started fast and held on in Milwaukee on Friday for a 122-114 win over the Bucks. Nick Young scored 26 points while Lou Williams poured in 21 off the bench, to overcome a career-high from Bucks All-Star forward Giannis Antetokounmpo. Antetokounmpo scored 41 points but it wasn’t enough, as the Bucks played their first game without Jabari Parker since losing him to a torn ACL.

LA scored 47 points in the 1st quarter, which was the most by any team in the league this season. They led 76-55 at the half, setting their season high in points in any half this season, while shooting a blazing 69% from the field.

The Lakers led by as many 27 points, and 19 going into the 4th quarter, but the Bucks wouldn’t go away. Greg Monroe’s layup with a minute left brought Milwaukee within 5 points, but they would get no closer. LA knocked down 8 straight free throws to put the game away. It was their 2nd victory in the last 3 games.

The win wraps up a 5 game trip for LA, in which they went 2-3. It also comes just one day after Coach Luke Walton put the team through one of their toughest practices of the season. That practice was filled with tons of running, which was unusual for the team at the end of a long trip. With seven players in double figures and 25 assists, it looks like they benefitted from it.

The Lakers return home to play Sacramento on Tuesday night, followed by a trip to Phoenix for their last game before the All-Star break. LA is now 19-37, which is already two more wins than the team had all of last season. And some of you thought the Lakers wouldn’t be better.

Monday Morning Coffee

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February 6th, 2017

That turned out to a be a much better Super Bowl than it appeared. I’m not sure what was worse, the Patriots play in the 1st half, or all of the Super Bowl commercials. Even the Cleveland Browns scored as many points as the Falcons and Patriots did in the 1st quarter on Super Bowl Sunday. Bill Belichick was about ready to replace Brady with Lady Gaga as his quarterback. Then came the second half of the game, which had to be extremely disappointing to the 8 Falcons fans that made the drive to Houston. In the end, the Falcons looked like such big losers for blowing that lead, nobody would be surprised if they moved to LA next season. This was like the Warriors blowing a 3-1 lead all over again. I don’t know if Tom Brady is the best quarterback of all time, but he’s certainly in the discussion with Joe Montana. Just listening to his teammates talk about him after the game made you realize how much they believe in him and their coach. How the hell did Julian Edelman catch that ball? I have never seen a team make second half adjustments like the Patriots do in all their games. Bill Belichick is really that good. Why did the Falcons keep throwing the football in the fourth quarter? They had two of the best running backs in football, and they didn’t take nearly enough time off the clock. It was experience vs inexperience. Roger Goodell congratulating Tom Brady on the podium when it was over was like Obama meeting Trump at the White House. What a great finish to the NFL season.

The one thing I look forward to every Super Bowl is the commercials. However, there was not a single commercial that was good. Nothing made me laugh. In fact, I think for the last several years, the Super Bowl commercials have been progressively getting more conservative, as well as less funny and entertaining. Lady Gaga’s performance was good, but it was almost surprising that she wasn’t wearing less clothing, and didn’t make any kind of political statement. I’m guessing the NFL gave her some pretty strict guidelines to follow for her performance, which did not allow for any of that.

The Lakers announced that Magic Johnson is returning to the team. Magic says that he is available to the team in any way they would like to use him. Good thing because I think it’s most ideal if Magic can be the team’s starting point guard and center. Magic indicated that the Lakers are one superstar away from competing, so hopefully he was talking about himself, because acquiring one through free agency or a trade is going to be more difficult than ever before. There is actually a lot that Magic can do for the organization right now, both on and off the floor. In the eyes of the public, he immediately will add some much needed credibility to the front office. If and when Jeanie Buss moves Jim out of basketball operations in the coming months, Magic will also pave the way for someone else to provide more help to run basketball operations. Perhaps someone with some fresh thinking. I also suspect that Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak will not be going anywhere, nor should they. They will simply be ascending to higher advisory type roles. We see Fortune 500 Companies do this all the time, bringing in new CEO’s after just a few years for that type of thinking. Magic can also help mentor D’Angelo Russell, and work with him in practice to get him to fulfill all that potential he has. Acquiring talent is going to be tougher than ever in the NBA, but if there’s somebody who can help the Lakers rebuild, it’s the Magic man.

This Lebron James vs the Cavs, and Lebron James vs Charles Barkley saga is so overblown. Even though Lebron could have done it without going public, there is nothing wrong with him pushing his front office to make more moves to improve the team. If you remember correctly, it was Kobe Bryant who did the exact same thing in 2007-2008, which pressured the Laker front office into making a big trade for Pau Gasol. We always used to accuse Lebron of not being pathologically obsessed with winning. As he’s gotten older and is trying to enhance his legacy, he has resorted to this type of “crack the whip” leadership with the entire organization. You may not like it, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be effective. There’s a good chance Lebron already had this talk with the Cavs privately, yet they haven’t acted, so he resorted to scolding them publicly for not continuously trying to improve the team. I have no problem with that an even admire him for it. On the other hand, it’s Barkley’s job to give his opinion on these types of situations, and Leborn knows that. There’s nothing wrong with Barkley’s criticism of Lebron, and it’s no disrespect toward his legacy. There’s a difference between criticizing the person and the performance, and Barkley is able to separate the two, so there’s no reason Lebron shouldn’t be able to. Lebron on the other hand felt the need to criticize Barkley on a personal level, which was totally unnecessary.

Normally it’s the Raiders that find a way to screw things up. This time however, it’s the NFL that screwed things up for the Raiders, likely ruining any chance for them to move to Vegas. That’s because the league advised the Raiders to negotiate a deal to move to Vegas without Casino magnate, Sheldon Adelson. After months of talks with Adelson, the team went behind his back multiple times, in attempt to get the deal done without him. The real stupidity behind this decision is the fact that Adelson practically owns Vegas. To get the deal done without him, the Raiders need the support of the local politicians, and Goldman Sachs. Too bad Goldman has been advising Adelson’s firm for decades, and Adelson is very close with those local politicians. There’s no chance they would go behind his back and make the deal without him. With each passing day, I get the sense that the NFL is really run by idiots, who naively believe their football product is invincible. That belief didn’t hold up in San Diego, who let the Chargers go when they refused to use public money to build a stadium, and the same thing is happening in Las Vegas. Ultimately, what could destroy the NFL years from now is the people running it.

I’m not a huge believer in the merits of College Football’s National signing day. However, there was a stark difference in the recruiting classes of USC and UCLA. When you have a top 5 recruiting class, you are pulling in the best of the best, and a handful of five-star recruits. That’s exactly what USC did, finishing with a class as high as #4 in some rankings. The Trojans absolutely killed it, headlined by linebacker Levi Jones, a four star recruit, wide receiver Joseph Lewis, and his high school teammate Greg Johnson. That also goes along with five star running back Stephen Carr, and a number of other highly touted recruits. That not only fills the void left by the Trojan players departing for the NFL draft or graduating, but also adds much needed depth we haven’t seen since the Pete Carroll era. I think it’s safe to say that Clay Helton has no problem recruiting. Whether he can develop and coach over the long-haul remains to be seem, but I don’t hear anybody complaining about him anymore. USC has returned to not even really recruiting players, but just selecting the top ones because the football brand is strong again. As for the Bruins, a recruiting class ranked as high as #19 doesn’t sound bad, except when you find out that there were no running backs or wide receivers recruited. Considering those were two of the Bruins biggest problems last year, it’s hard to imagine the team getting a whole lot better. For a while, it seemed like UCLA was back on track, and even eclipsing USC within the Pac 12 Conference. That feels like a distant memory now, and Jim Mora’s job might actually be in bigger jeopardy than most think.

Why are the Dodgers trying to sign Giants reliever Sergio Romo? His fastball probably wouldn’t even get a speeding ticket on the highway these days, and he definitely knows how to serve up some home runs. Then again, he was injured last season, and his arm is about to fall off, so it makes perfect sense why Andrew Friedman would be interested in him. If the Dodgers are going to take flyers on relievers like this, it would be nice if they also signed Joe Blanton as well. However, let’s not pretend like the bullpen and the pitching is going to be reliable beyond Clayton Kershaw and Kenley Jansen. Those two guys are probably going to be asked to do some stupid things come October, like pitching way more innings than they really should.

Finally, get ready for The Bachelor Tonight. You don’t actually think that both Taylor and Corrine are going to get kicked off the show tonight do you? Don’t be surprised if not only Corrine stays, but Taylor as well. I think in the last episode I heard the term “emotional intelligence” more than I did in my senior year psychology class in college. Whether you like her or hate her, you had to have fallen out of your chair laughing when Corrine said “make America Corrine again.” If a guy dated 25 girls at one time, a girl would call him a player and a jerk. On The Bachelor though, that guy is the man of every woman’s dreams. The hilarious part about that is that all of these women are being duped and that Nick really just out to get some tail.