April 27th, 2015
The Clippers aren’t dead…..yet. In fact, for the first time in the Chris Paul era (which might as well be the whole history of the franchise), they showed some mental toughness by beating the Spurs in game 4. So now it’s a 3 game series, with the Clippers having the home court advantage. After everything you’ve seen, do you really believe the Clipp Show is going to win this series? That’s about as likely as a successful Kardashian marriage. For one game, Austin Rivers played out of his mind, and the Clippers bench didn’t stink. That’s unlikely to happen again. The Clipps have the talent and the athleticism, but at this point, it’s hard not to like the Spurs depth, experience, and mental toughness. I’m also not convinced the Clippers can actually win a close game when it realy matters. I thought the Spurs would win in 6 games, and I see no reason to think otherwise at this point.
Elsewhere in the playoffs, the NBA should revoke Mike Budenholdzer’s coach of the year award since the Hawks didn’t sweep the Nets. Remember when Deron Williams was the best point guard in the league along with CP3? D-Will is the richest bum in New York now. I’m amazed at what the Wizards did to the Raptors. Paul Pierce was in full fledged trash talking mode, and backed it up. The Cavs may have swept the Celtics, but they’ll probably be without Kevin Love for much of the next round, and maybe even JR Smith for a game if he’s suspended. There were some dumb non-basketball plays made by the Cavs in that game, and they should get some major discipline for it. I guess Derek Rose forgot he returned on that last play against Milwaukee on Saturday. The Bulls should finish the job tonight. Meanwhile, Steph Curry caused more suffering in New Orleans than the Saints defense. Memphis is fortunate that they are playing a Portland team more injured than them, and Houston should finish Dallas next week.
On to Major League Baseball where we are about to get some closure to this Josh Hamilton situation any moment now. The Angels are about to pay Josh Hamilton $68 million to go play for their division rivals, the Texas Rangers, over the next three years. Not only that, the Angels get absolutely nothing in return. Arte Moreno is getting exactly what he deserves for his emotional outburst, when he found out that Hamilton had fallen off the wagon. It’s going to be hilarious when Hamilton kills the Angels every time they face them, especially knowing the Angels are going to be paying his salary. At least on the field, the Halos can put this behind them, as they took 3 of 4 from the Rangers over the weekend. The pitching is coming around but only the Rangers have a lower team batting average in the American League. The Angels better start swinging those bats or its going to be another frustrating season.
As for the Dodgers, they took two of three against the Padres, but they suffered some injuries along the way. Yasiel Puig injured his hamstring on Friday night, so he’s on the disabled list, as is Joel Peralta who has “dead arm”. Then there’s Brandon McCarthy, whose been throwing “dead ducks” and giving up home runs like the steroid era is in still in full effect. McCarthy is now dealing with elbow soreness as well. Who could have seen this coming? Oh that’s right, I could when those morons in the Dodger front office signed him to a $48 million contract. One thing Don Mattingly needs to do is find a place for Alex Guerrero to play everyday. He’s hitting .500 and only two players in the NL have more home runs than him. Things look good in the standings right now for the Boys in Blue, but there’s this “imminent doom” feel to this team later in the season. Is this what it’s like to be a Cubs fan?
Speaking of the Dodgers, there is still no progress toward getting SportsNet LA distributed. That means that still, only 30% of Southern California can watch the Dodgers. Time Warner Cable and the Dodgers badly overestimated the demand for their baseball channel. When the Lakers started their own cable channel, it took a matter of weeks to get it distributed to other cable networks. That’s because all the local cable providers knew that viewers could not live without the Lakers. Unfortunately, the Dodgers just don’t command the same viewership, and neither does baseball. The Dodgers are doing great selling tickets, but baseball is nothing more than a regional sport, that is slowly becoming less relevant with younger generations. The Dodgers don’t seem to care because they are still getting boat loads of money out of this cable deal, even though people aren’t watching their games. Over time however, they are pushing Major League Baseball into further obscurity.
Let’s go to the ice where the Ducks swept away the Winnipeg Jets, and are getting ready for round 2 against the Flames. Anaheim could have been on the ropes several times against Winnipeg, but the Jets had no idea how to hold a lead in a playoff game. Now things get really interesting, as goaltender Jonas Hiller faces his former team, which cut him loose last summer. Think Hiller won’t have just a little chip on his shoulder facing the Ducks? The Flames feel like the luckiest team in the NHL this year, and have been playing way over their heads. On paper the Ducks have way more talent, and should win the series. Then again, everything Calgary has done has defied logic, so why should that stop now? Should be a great series.
The Blues, Sharks, and Canucks have all been eliminated from the NHL playoffs. So it’s kind of like the LA Kings are in the playoffs isn’t it?
In the NFL, Tony Romo declared that the Dallas Cowboys will be next seasons Super Bowl Champions. In a related story, the NFL has suspended Romo for drug use.
I think the Bruce Jenner interview can only be described with one word: confusing. Everyone you talk to that watched it came away wondering whether the guy is considered a lesbian, transgender, gay, or what. Nobody really knows. Frankly, at this point in his life nobody should care. People can be who they want to be and nobody should care. The unfortunate part of this however, is that many younger people don’t know who Jenner is, other than the interview that he just completed, which means they’ll remember him more for that than being a great athlete.
Ok people, let’s talk Game of Thrones. Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see last night’s episode. For the first time ever, I actually felt bad for Cersei. No really. We always want to scream about how much of an evil bitch she is, however, Margaery puts everything in her face including the fact she’s already having exhausting sex with her son. It was like Cersei was completely defanged. I haven’t seen this side of her since season 1, when she had a heart to heart with Robert before he died. I’m sure we’ll return to hating her in the next episode. Amazing how Sansa is now going to have been married to the two biggest psychopaths in the show, after she marries Ramsay Snow. Only Sansa is stupid enough to fall for Littlefingers argument that by getting back into power, she can then kill Roose Bolton. I don’t think she’s tough enough to kill anybody. Jon Snow finally manned up and killed Slynt, however, Stannis points out what is obvious by now: his nobility will eventually get him killed. The Arya storyline is becoming less and less interesting. She’s got a long list of people to kill, but they’d probably all be willing to kill themselves by the time she’s ready to kill them. I’m disappointed that we didn’t get to see our favorite Mother of Dragons in this episode. However, I’m curious to see whether or not Ser Jorah is taking Tyrion to Cersei or to Dany. My guess is that he’s going to take him to Cersei, so she can get the revenge that she always wanted on him. Something tells me the next episode could be bigger than we think.
