Monthly Archives: March 2017

Ducks Skate By Sharks

March 18th, 2017

Patrick Eaves and Jakob Silfverberg scored goals and the Anaheim Ducks took down San Jose to tighten the Pacific Division race with a 2-1 victory over the Sharks on Saturday night.

Jonathan Bernier made 33 saves, which got him his 5th win in his last 6 starts. Logan Couture scored the lone goal for the Sharks, and Martin Jones made 25 saves.

The Ducks are just four points behind San Jose in the Pacific Division after picking up the win. Ryan Getzlaf hasn’t given up hope on catching them. “This is the team we’re chasing,” he said. “You don’t ever want to let them know that we’ve given up. I’m sure they viewed it as a way to put us away for the year. For our group, it’s nice to come out and respond after a tough overtime loss last night.”

Eaves goal came just 39 seconds into the game. He took advantage of a coverage breakdown by the Sharks in front of their own net. Couture would tie it up on a power play goal with 47 seconds left in the period.

Silfverberg on a breakaway about 6:30 minutes into the second period, and that would be the game winner. San Jose would have their chances in the 3rd, but Bernier continued to make the important saves.

This is the 8th straight game between the Sharks and Ducks that was decided by one goal. Anaheim has won 6 of those 8 games.

The Ducks return to action on Wednesday against the Oilers at the Honda Center.

Lakers Put Up A Fight But Lose To Bucks

Leave a reply

March 17th, 2017

The Lakers and Bucks engaged in a typical NBA style fight which led to a series of ejections in Milwaukee’s 107-103 victory over LA at Staples Center on Friday.

Khris Middleton scored 14 of his 30 points in the 4th quarter, to help get the Bucks their 8th win in the last 9 games. However, the story of the game was ejections.

Malcolm Brogdon fouled Nick Young hard with 36 seconds left in the 3rd quarter, which prompted Young to shove him back. Greg Monroe shoved young, and then D’Angelo Russell and Brandon Ingram came to Young’s defense, shoving back, and so did a Bucks security guard.

Monroe, Russell, and Young were ejected from the game. However, Luke Walton was pleased that the Lakers were standing up for one another. “D’Angelo only responded after Monroe had grabbed Nick by the neck and thrown him,” Walton said. “So if D’Angelo didn’t push him, I would have been (mad) at D’Angelo. He did the right thing. So for the NBA to say that the two of them did the same thing and just canceled each other out is absolute crap to me.”

Young scored 16 points and Russell had 14 before their ejections, but the Bucks appeared to be cruising to an easy win before the prolonged scuffle. They had opened up an 18-point lead while Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 12 points in the first 6:15 of the third. “The Greek Freak” finished with 26 points before fouling out.

The Lakers were led by Jordan Clarkson’s 21 points. They maintained their 2 game “advantage” over Phoenix for the 2nd worst record in the league.

Milwaukee leads eighth-place Miami (34-35) by a half-game, and the Bucks opened up a 1 1/2-game lead over the ninth-place Detroit Pistons (33-36), who lost to Toronto.

The Lakers return to action on Sunday against the Cavs at Staples Center.

Bruins Get A Scare But Beat Kent St.

Leave a reply

March 17, 2017

The Bruins collectively held their breath on Friday night in the 1st half when Lonzo Ball fell to the floor holding his hip. Ball was undercut after receiving a lob pass just before halftime. However, after slowly getting up, he stayed in the game. Ball went on to finish the game with 15 points and the Bruins took care of Kent State 97-80 to advance to the round of 32 in the NCAA tournament.

TJ Leaf scored 23 points and Thomas Welsh added 16, as UCLA pulled away late to get the win in Sacramento. The Bruins jumped out to a 14 point lead in the opening minutes, but Kent State would battle their way back against a UCLA team that didn’t seem very interested in playing defense again.

Despite a 16-2 run in the 1st half, Kent State was only down 47-39 at the half. The Golden Flashes would get as close as four points in the 2nd half after a 3-pointer by Jalen Avery. Jaylin Walker led Kent State with 23 points and Jimmy Hall Jr scored 20 for the Golden Flashes.

However, midway through the 2nd half, UCLA would put the lead back to double-digits. “We kinda let up,” Bruins coach Steve Alford said. “Our shot selection was worse. We didn’t defend. There is a poise to what you want to do offensively, but you’ve got to have poise defensively too. I didn’t think we did that as well in the first half as a team.”

Had Ball been seriously hurt, the Bruins hope for NCAA tournament run would have been crushed. Fortunately, he avoided major injury. “I’m fine,” said Ball. “Finished the game, got up. I’m good.”

UCLA finally found its shooting stroke after last week’s struggles in the conference tournament. The Bruins shot 62% from the field and 50% from the 3-point line.

The Bruins will need to keep that shooting stroke going against a gritty Cincinnati team on Sunday in the round of 32.

Trojans Rally Again To Knock Off SMU

Leave a reply

May 17, 2017

The Trojans pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the NCAA tournament on Friday, defeating #11 SMU 66-65 in Tulsa.

Elijah Stewart buried a 3-pointer with 36 seconds left, and the Mustang’s Shake Milton missed a floater at the buzzer, sending USC into the round of 32.

Stewart scored 22 points in the game, while Bennie Boatwright and Chimezie Metu scored 14 apiece. Semi Ojeleye had 24 points and 10 rebounds and Sterling Brown had 17 points for SMU, which had won 16 straight coming into the game.

For the 2nd straight game USC rallied from a double digit deficit. Throughout the entire game, they had the lead for just over a minute. SMU built a lead as big as 12 points, and used a 14-3 run in the 1st half to take a 38-30 lead at halftime. After the Trojans got a pair of 3-pointers from Boatwright and Stewart, the game was tied four minutes into the 2nd half. However, SMU went on a 10-1 run, and looked like they would put the game out of reach.

Over the next 6 minutes, the Trojans would fight their way back, tying the game on a Stewart dunk with 7:33 left. It wasn’t until Boatwright’s 3-pointer with just over two minutes left that gave USC their first lead of the game.

Even after Stewart’s big 3-pointer in the final minute, the Mustangs had their chance. SMU’s Ben Moore drew a foul with 12 seconds left, and his team down by 1. However, he missed the first half of a one-and-one foul shot. Chimezie Metu was fouled after that, but missed his free throw as well, setting the stage for Milton’s final opportunity. Milton’s shot bounced off the rim and the Trojans prevailed.

USC now moves on to take on the #3 seed Baylor Bears on Sunday.

Sabres Outlast Ducks

Leave a reply

March 17th, 2017

It took a 10 round shootout, but the Sabres outlasted the Ducks in Anaheim on Friday night 2-1. Zemgus Girgensons scored the decisive goal in the 10th round of the shootout to give Buffalo the win.

Ryan O’Reilly and Rasmus Ristolainen scored in the shootout as well, which helped the Sabres end a 7-game losing skid in Southern California. The last time the Sabres won in SoCal was in February of 2012.

O’Reilly scored his 17th goal of the season for Buffalo. The Ducks goal was scored by Rickard Rakell. Jonathan Bernier made 30 saves for Anaheim, while Anders Nilsson stopped 39 for the Sabres.

Rakell scored on a rebound at 8:12 of the 1st period, which was his 31st goal, and put Anaheim ahead 1-0. However, Buffalo would tie it on O’Reilly’s goal 5 minutes into the 2nd period.

The Ducks were hoping for their first 3-game win streak in over two months, but they were unable to capitalize.

This is the first of back-to-back games for the Ducks, who will be visiting San Jose tomorrow night.

Clippers In Disarray After Loss To Nuggets

Leave a reply

March 17th, 2017

The Clippers troubles continued on Thursday night in Denver with a 129-114 loss to the Nuggets. It was the 3rd straight loss for LA, and their 8th in the last 13 games.

The Clips played without both Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan, who were resting back in LA. However, Nuggets power forward Nikola Jokic took advantage of their absence by dominating in the paint. Jokic scored 17 points, pulled down 14 rebounds, and dished out 11 assists for his 5th triple- double of the season. Will Barton also scored a career-high 35 points for Denver.

Chris Paul had 18 points and 14 assists, J.J. Redick scored a team-high 22 points and Austin Rivers had 17 for the Clippers. Defense was the issue again though. Denver shot both 53% from 3-point land, and 53% from the field.

“That’s on us,” Chris Paul said. “We’ve got to give more effort, be better all around.” Paul also questioned what the Clippers identity was at this point in the season. “Yeah, you would hope to not be trying to figure that out at this point of the season,” he said.

The Nuggets didn’t give the Clippers much of a chance to make a run. Denver built a 103-80 lead heading into the fourth. The advantage grew to as much as 25 and the Clippers never threatened. Barton’s seventh 3-pointer, which tied a career high, capped a 20-point half for the guard.

J.J. Redick doesn’t like where things are going either. “I don’t know what to expect from this team anymore,” he said. “It’s just — we’re in a bad place right now. We’re losing games. We’ve been [a mess] since the All-Star break.”

To make matters worse, the Clippers are losing ground in the Western Conference playoff race. They are now 3 games back of the Jazz for 4th place in the conference. They also have Oklahoma City and Memphis right behind them in the standings, so they could find themselves in 7th place in no time.

Things won’t get much easier for them. They’ll return home on Saturday to take on the defending NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers.

Kings Keep Hope Alive With Win Over Sabres

Leave a reply

March 17th, 2017

The Kings kept their fading playoff hopes alive on Thursday night at Staples Center with a 2-0 win over the Buffalo Sabres.

The game was scoreless until the 3rd period when Jerome Iginla got the Kings on the board 36 seconds into the final frame. It was Iginla’s 3rd goal since being traded to the Kings, which was set up by the hard work of Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown.

About 14 minutes later, rookie Adrian Kempe scored his second goal as King with a beautiful wrist shot from the right circle. Brown earned his second assist of the game on the play.

Jonathan Quick would slam the door after that. The Kings netminder made 26 saves and earned his 1st shutout of the season.

The win helped the Kings keep pace with the St. Louis Blues, who defeated the Sharks on Thursday to remain 4 points ahead of LA in the race for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. Both teams have 12 games left.

“We need to win every game,” forward Tyler Toffoli said earlier this week. “We need to get rolling here and find a way to get two points in all these games coming up.”

LA finished their 7 game home stand with a 4-2-1 record, which sounds good, but not under the circumstances. The Kings started the homestand just 2 points out of a playoff spot, and now they are 4 points back after critical losses to the Blues and Coyotes.

Now the Kings hit the road for two more critical games. The first comes Sunday night at Calgary, followed by Monday night in Edmonton. Perhaps one of the few bright spots for LA in their chase for the final playoff spot is that they have a total of 6 games remaining against the Flames and Oilers, who can still be caught before the season is over.

Trojans Rally Past Providence To Advance

Leave a reply

March 16th, 2017

USC came back from a 17 point deficit in Dayton on Wednesday night to defeat Providence 75-71, in a First Four game and advance in the NCAA tournament.

Bennie Boatwright scored a career-high 24 points and the Trojans got some payback for losing to Providence at the buzzer in last year’s opening round of the tournament.

The Friars used a 15-0 run and a stifling zone defense in the 1st half to jump out to a 44-29 lead at halftime.

However, USC would put together a furious comeback and close the deficit to five points by the 10-minute mark. Chimezie Metu finally gave the Trojans the lead with under 7 minutes left after making a jump shot. Metu finished the game with 15 points and 8 rebounds.

The big surprise of the night was freshman Nick Rakocevic, the 6’11 forward scored 9 points off the bench in 19 minutes, but provided a great deal of energy for USC to feed off of and get back in the game. He also had the best plus-minus in the game, finishing with a +10.

“This win’s probably his,” guard Elijah Stewart said. “Honestly, we should be at the crib right now.”

After digging themselves a whole in the first half, USC coach Andy Enfield fired up his players, but was also displeased according to several of them.

“I think it’s just — give Coach a heart attack or something,” Rakocevic said. “I don’t really know why we do it.” According to Elijah Stewart, Enfield said “What are you scared of?”

It turns out in the 2nd half they weren’t scared of anything. The Trojans will now face #6 SMU in the opening round of the tournament on Friday in Tulsa, Oklahoma. USC defeated SMU earlier in the season, but they’ll be facing a much improved team since then.

Lakers Take Another Beating

Leave a reply

March 16th, 2017

The Lakers are taking this whole tanking thing to a new level. This time they lost to Houston 139-100 on Wednesday in Texas. It was their 2nd 39-point loss to the Rockets this season.

Corey Brewer blamed it on the Lakers youth. “We’re young, we’re young,” Brewer said. “We don’t know what it takes yet. I’ve been in it for a long time, we don’t know what it takes. No matter what’s happening, in an NBA game, you can get back in it. I’ve been down 25, 30 points and got back in games and won games like that. You gotta understand you always have a chance if you’re playing hard and doing the right things.”

James Harden had 18 points, 13 assists, and 12 rebounds for Houston, and Lou Williams scored 30 points against his former team. The Lakers lost for the 11th time in 12 games.

Julius Randle had a career-high 32 points, to go along with eight rebounds and two assists. Brandon Ingram scored 18 points, and Jordan Clarkson also scored 18. Clarkson again started in place of D’Angelo Russell at point guard. He added two steals, three assists and three turnovers.

It was a rough night for Russell, who is adjusting to his new role. He fouled out for the first time in his career after playing 25 minute. He made two of 10 shots, missing all five of his three-point attempts. He finished with five points and committed seven turnovers.

Russell didn’t sound very confident about his new role. “Still trying to figure it out,” he said. “Different role and stuff like that. It’s whatever.”

The Lakers still have the 2nd worst record in the league with 14 games left, and they are two games worse than the 3rd worst Phoenix Suns. That’s important to watch because the Lakers only keep their 1st round pick if it ends up in the top 3.

The Lakers will return home on Friday to take on the Bucks at Staples Center.

Rakell Get’s 30th Goal In Ducks Win Over Blues

Leave a reply

March 16th, 2017

Rickard Rakell scored his 30th goal of the season as the Ducks defeated the Blues 2-1 on Tuesday night at the Honda Center.

Ryan Getzlaf added a goal and Jonathan Bernier made 26 saves as the Ducks have regained 2nd place in the Pacific Division.

As many hockey players are, Rakell sounded very selfless. “It’s fun to score to goals. I always wanted to score goals as much as I could. But as long as we win, I just want to help the team in any way,” he said.

Rakell scored 6 minutes into the game after the Ducks took advantage of a turnover by the Blues. Getzlaf got the puck to him to help make it happen.

At the 6:37 mark of the 2nd period, Getzlaf made it 2-0 with a wrist shot that beat Jake Allen. It was his 14th of the season, and turned out to be the game winner.

The Blues got on the board at 9:52 of the 3rd period on Ivan Barbashev’s goal but they wouldn’t come any closer.

The Ducks return to action on Friday at home against the Sabres.