June 15th, 2015

Let’s start with the most important piece of information from last night’s game 5 of the NBA Finals.  ABC did not show Lebron James’ “Magic Johnson” prior to tip-off.  Sorry ladies.  As for game 5, the Warriors finally got a breakout performance from Steph Curry, torching Matthew Dellavedova like a shrimp on the barbee down under, and Golden State looks poised to close this thing out.  Andre Iguodola gave the Warriors a big boost too, and is currently causing more suffering in Cleveland than the Browns.  Lebron is nearly averaging a triple double in this series, but can only do so much when his coach is a total buffoon.  David Blatt thought it was a good idea to play Timofey Mozgov 9 minutes, after coming off a 28 point game.  I’m also not sure how he couldn’t find any minutes for Shawn Marion, who actually has won an NBA championship a couple of years ago.  It’s tough to count out Lebron James, and this might even go 7 games, but Steph has his groove back and looks like he’s going to finish this.  He’s currently teaching his daughter, Riley, how to bully people…..

Of course everyone is overeacting to having camera men on the baseline after Lebron cut his head in game 4 on a camera lens.  This makes perfect sense right?  Let’s move the camera men because they are too dangerous for players who are dramatically flopping to draw fouls and stumbling an extra 10 feet into the first row.  Those baseline cameras actually serve a purpose, giving us great photos from sites like NBA.com.  One of the things that also makes the NBA more unique than the other 3 major sports is that the media and fans are so close to the players, and can see their faces, which is another reason those cameras are there.  Obviously player safety is of the utmost importance, but to turn this wild dive into the crowd into some type of bigger safety issue is absurd.

On to the Stanley Cup Final, where Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Ben Bishop is a moron.  Bishop and his teammate Victor Hedman collided in the first period of game 5, leaving a wide open net for Chicago’s Patrick Sharp to score in, propelling the Blackhawks to a win.  Bishop said “you can’t really hear anything in the building when it’s that loud.  Obviously, you saw the result.  It’s too loud out there.”  Is this Bishop’s first time playing in front of a crowd?  Yea, it’s the fans fault that you made a foolish decision to come out and play the puck when your teammate was right there to handle it.  Don’t worry Ben, when you go to Chicago tonight, you won’t have to worry about any fans cheering for you.  In fact, you probably won’t have to worry about even playing in front of your fans the rest of the season.

Speaking of hockey, the LA Kings minor league affiliate, the Manchester Monarchs won the Calder Cup Championship of the AHL over the weekend.  It was great to see the Vancouver Canucks prospects already gaining the experience of losing to the Kings in big games.  This says a lot about the talent that is in the Kings farm system, and is just a reminder that even if the Kings say goodbye to the likes of Jarret Stoll, Mike Richards, and Justin Williams, they still have the young depth to replace them.  It also tells me that the Kings have the pieces to acquire another quality scorer like Toronto winger Phil Kessel.  It may take including a defenseman like Alec Martinez and the #13 pick in this years draft, but a move like that would definitely put the Kings back in contention for another cup.

In baseball, another series with the Padres, and the Dodgers take another two out of three games.  LA has now opened up a 3.5 game lead over the hated San Francisco Giants in the NL West, but they’ve got some issues to resolve.  Their bullpen is about as reliable as the local NBC weather forecast, and their starting pitching is an even bigger issue long term.  They are going to need 1 more quality starter if they have any hopes to do any damage in October.  It’s important that starter is an elite one as well, because Zack Greinke will likely opt out of his contract this fall, which means LA would have to replace its #2 starter.  Since Greinke is 31 years old, one could argue it’s too big a risk to re-sign him to a 7 year contract.  There are younger starters on the market this fall who will be just as elite.  The Dodgers should spend that money on the likes of a David Price, Johnny Cueto, or Jordan Zimmermann, who are all younger than Greinke.  Since Cueto is on a team that stinks, he’s the most likely candidate to get moved by the deadline, so LA should go after him.  It might mean moving a guy like Alex Guerrero, since the Dodgers have made some of their other prospects untouchable, but it would be well worth it.  I’m definitely not trading Joc Pederson when he’s making plays like this….

Meanwhile, the Halos took two of three from the A’s over the weekend, and are inching closer to the Astros in the AL West.  This is a huge week for the Angels.  They get the opportunity to beat the crap out of the D’Backs for the next 4 games, while the Astros wrestle with the mile high altitude in Colorado.  By the time they play the Astros next week, they might even be ahead of them in the standings if Albert Pujols continues to mash like this.  There’s also no doubt that Matt Joyce is going to be chained to the bench for a while since he couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a boat at this point.  Here’s an idea: call the Dodgers and see if they would be willing to to trade Andre Ethier straight up for CJ Wilson.  CJ has one more year left on his contract at $20.5 million, while Ethier has 3 years and $56 million left.   Still, it’s Ethier who is currently performing much better, and gives the Halos some solid defense along with some pop.  In any case, the Halos need some production in left field and at third base if they hope to contend again.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter is now reconsidering his resignation.  Ladies and gentleman…….soccer.

I saw Jurassic World over the weekend, and I thought it was great.  I admit, the animatronics used in the first movie were not only impressive for it’s time, but more impressive when you see them today.  However, there was some very creative use of CGI in Jurassic World, that nevertheless, made some scary looking Dinosaurs.  The storyline was even more interesting.  20 years later, somehow, the park actually opened and people weren’t even afraid of Dinosaurs at all.  I do wish they spent more time explaining how the park actually opened after all the previous incidents.  However, seeing the dynamics of how some people were so unfazed by Dinosaurs, and seeing how they were actually more preoccupied with their cell phones while in the park was amazing.  Once the beastly Indominous Rex was introduced, I found myself on the edge of my seat as the chaos in the park broke loose. It was a totally fresh storyline, but it nicely honored its ancestry with casual references to John Hammond, seeing a park employee in a Jurassic Park T-shirt, and seeing some 1992 Jeeps that were used in the first movie.  Chris Pratt was impressive too, and his new character was needed to keep the plot intriguing.  It looks like there’s going to be a sequel of course, but even though this movie restored the franchise, I can’t see them making another movie that’s just as good.   Surely not as good as the original.

And finally, the season finale of Game of Thrones went down last night on HBO.  Major spoiler alert here if you haven’t seen it yet, and there were some key characters killed off, so stop reading if necessary.  Stannis Baratheon was killed in battle, which most people are probably going to say “serves that guy right for killing his daughter!”  Ok you’re right on that, but for all of his terrible qualities, he has some humanistic ones as well.  We saw them in his interaction with Jon Snow earlier in the season, and he’s also one of the more brave characters.  However, once Brienne showed up to kill him, I’m sure he was relieved more than anything.  He did some of the worst things in the world, but it was all for nothing.  However, the real downside to his death was that he might have been able to rescue Sansa.  Speaking of Sansa, it took her long enough to light that damn candle!  I’m really not sure what to make of her fate.  Did she commit suicide?  Or was she actually trying to escape?  Since we are talking about Game of Thrones here, I’m thinking that this was an actual suicide, which is a better alternative than facing Ramsay, and bearing his children.  Props to Theon to for slightly redeeming himself by killing Ramsay’s sadistic lover and jumping with her.

I’ve been hating on the Arya story all season.  It actually got good for a few minutes when she killed Meryn Trant.  Then it got stupid again when Jaquen scolds her for it, because she is supposed to be “faceless.”  The bottom line is she wants revenge and training from Jaquen, which isn’t exactly what he wants to give her.  Where is Uma Thurman when Arya really needs her?  She could show her how she did it in Kill Bill.  I’m a little disappointed this is where we ended up with Daenerys, getting captured by the Dothraki, however, it should make for an interesting start to next season when two guys that are in love with her try to rescue her.  You’ve gotta love how Jamie got to feel what it was like to be a father for about 30 seconds before his daughter died in his arms.  Cersei is gonna be pissed, on top of being humiliated.  After that walk of shame, you’ve gotta feel just a little bit bad for her right?  Then again, I’m sure she will have her revenge….she usually does.  And finally, we lost Jon Snow, and frankly this was somewhat predictable.  I’ve been saying for weeks how terrible of a character he was, and how weak he was, which was going to get him killed.  It finally did.  For those of you upset about his death, you just don’t understand the show.  He wasn’t even killed by a bad guy.  He was killed by a kid he wanted to do right by.  Jon Snow’s honor and integrity got him killed.  It always does in this show.

Overall, it was a good season, but not quite where I hoped the show would go when the season started.  Didn’t we all think that Daenerys was going to take Kings Landing this season?  Or that somebody else would try to take down the Lannisters and another battle would ensure?  Well none of that happened because the battles that were taking place were actually in the kingdoms they resided in.  In season 6 we’ll probably see how Tyrion can govern a kingdom with Daenerys tied up with the Dothraki’s.  Ser Jorah probably saves Daenerys from the Dothraki right before dying from Greyscale, and Cersei and her new mountain man knight will destroy everyone.  Seems like the only Stark left is Arya, who isn’t doing much for us.  What will Brienne do with herself if Sansa is dead?  There’s lots of questions to be answered, and a series of cliff hangers to be resolved.  Season 6 is a long ways away, but can’t wait!

June 8th, 2015

Let me tell you something folks.  If Lebron James and the Cavaliers pull off winning the NBA Finals with this roster, he is going to have a legacy like no other.  He’s got no Kyrie Irving, no Kevin Love, no coach, some New York Knick rejects, and some dude named Delladova that looks like Jerry Ferrara.  Hats off to The King just for winning a game.   This is one hell of a series, and it might even go 7 games.  I can’t believe I’m saying this after two games, but Lebron has been that good, and that’s while getting totally screwed by the refs last night.  The Warriors definitely relaxed after learning that Kyrie was done for the series, and they are screwing around way too much. The Cavs are giving them all they can handle.  Steph Curry may not go 2-10 for only 8 pts again, but then again Lebron may not go 11-34 again either.  This one is going to be a classic battle folks.

The long wait between the NBA Finals always leads fans to the never ending argument about whose legacy is the greatest or comparing some of the best players in the NBA history.  This past week, much of that discussion focused around comparing Lebron vs Kobe.  It was actually Shaquille O’Neal who sparked much of the conversation by saying he would take Kobe over Lebron in their prime’s.  Truth be told, even though these are really very different players from difference eras, I’m “a Kobe guy”.  He has the benefit of having a legacy that is already written, and the championships to back him up.   While Lebron’s story is still in progress, he has the stats to back him up, while playing in an era that revolves around advanced statistics.  The other problem with these arguments is nobody ever knows what we are basing the argument off of: best player? best legacy? Saying one is simply better than the other is for the simple minded.  Being “a Lebron guy” doesn’t make you a Kobe hater, and being “a Kobe guy” doesn’t make you a Lebron hater. However, failing to realize that a minimum, both of these guys are top 10 NBA players of all time exposes you as a hater, and makes you look like an idiot.

I love what Shaq had to say about Kobe.  He said that he wouldn’t have changed a thing about their relationship, and that relationship, even to this day, is very special.  This is definitely bitter sweet for any Laker fan, knowing that they probably left a couple of championships on the table.  Despite Kobe’s respect for Shaq, he admits that he wasn’t going to play with him anymore after 2004 because he wanted to take on the naysayers that said he couldn’t win without Shaq.  That’s actually a huge reason why Shaq likes Kobe so much: he pushed him to be great.  He pushed him to be great when Shaq was a Laker, and after that.  The irony of it is, as great as Shaq was, he could have easily been the greatest center ever if he wanted to.  He just preferred to have a little more fun.  The duo was fun for Laker fans while it lasted.

On to baseball where this is getting old.  The Dodgers got owned by the St Louis Cardinals for the 2nd straight weekend.  The Dodgers may be in 1st place, but they are 4-12 against the Giants and Cardinals this season.  They are 28-13 against everybody else.  It just so happens that the Giants and Cardinals are currently the only teams they’ve faced with winning records.  The story is the same, the bullpen stinks, and the Dodgers can’t hit in the clutch against the Cards pitching.  On the bright side, Clayton Kershaw got angry and shut down St Louis on Saturday night.  However, he’s going to need to do it in the playoffs to shake the stigma that he can’t win the big game.  Make no mistake about it…..if the Dodgers make the playoffs, they are going to have to go through the Cards and overcome the demons that have haunted them the last two seasons.  I can’t say I’ve seen anything so far to make me think that they will overcome them.  Especially without adding another pitcher to their starting staff, and without fixing their middle relief.

Brutal weekend for the Angels against the Yankees.  The Halos top 3 starters got bombed in all 3 games, and they were swept away by New York.  For the first two plus months of the season, it’s like they’ve been stuck in 2nd gear.  They consistently have not been able to hit.  Their starting pitching has looked good at times, and like monkey crap at others.  At this point it’s fair to say the Angels need something to jump start their team.  The Halos could call up Andrew Heaney and give him a shot in their starting rotation, which might even push some of their veterans to get their act together.  However, what they really need is another bat at third base or left field.   The Diamondbacks, Dodgers, and Padres have plenty to spare, so Jerry Dipoto should pick up the phone and start making dials before he finds his team further spiraling down the AL West.

I never imagined that I would see a Triple Crown winner in my lifetime, and sure enough we saw one on Saturday, in American Pharoah.  On second thought, American Pharoah is the first Triple Crown since JR Smith’s drink order at the bar after game 1 of the NBA Finals.  That was exciting to watch.  The only shame, as is the case with many of these horses, is that we may not get to see very much of him again, if at all.  These race horses careers are even shorter than the career of Vanilla Ice.  You’ve gotta enjoy the greatness while it lasts, because it could be a while before we see another Triple Crown winner.  Nice expletive by jockey Victor Espinoza when it was over…..

The NHL Finals area headed back to Chicago tied 1-1, but the Tampa Bay Lightning are ridiculous.  Tampa restricted ticket sales to Florida only zip codes, in order to make it difficult for the Blackhawk fans to get their hands on tickets and fill up Amalie Arena.  That move was a little obnoxious, but somewhat tolerable.  However, they took a step further.  They are preventing any fan from wearing any Blackhawks apparel in certain parts of the arena.  That feels like some kind of first amendment violation to me.  I realize that the Hawks fans travel well, but such policies just make it look like you know you have a fan base with no excitement or passion for your team.  Can you imagine if they did this at the Honda Center?  When the Kings came to town, there would just be a bunch of empty seats since Kings fans wouldn’t be allowed to show up.

So Sepp Blatter stepped down as FIFA President.  Too bad Blatter is still going to be pulling all the strings behind the scenes, and probably hand pick his successor.  I’m sure he’ll continue to bully people behind the scenes, while Russia and Qatar get to keep their upcoming World Cup bids.  If only we could get Roger Goodell to step down after Blatter did.  Oh, in case you missed it, here’s a live look at Blatter stepping down……

Has anybody seen Entourage yet?  The movie didn’t seem to get great reviews, however, I saw it and i loved it.  There were a number of laugh out loud moments, mostly because of Ari’s big mouth, but if you loved the show you will love the movie.  The movie should have come out about 3 years ago, but I’m still hoping there is a sequel.  Each of the characters quickly reminds you why you loved the show when it was on, and the ending was perfect.  The only downside to having a sequel is that the ending might not possibly be as perfect as this one was.

Game of Thrones went down against on HBO last night.  For the most part, the show hasn’t gotten too crazy with over the top fantasy like elements.  However, the ending of the last two episodes has moved a lot closer to that.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it.  How the heck did Drogon (her favorite dragon) get loose?  Wasn’t he chained in the basement?  His arrival was great timing to save Dany, but what about the rest of her friends?  We’re just supposed to believe they are going to be ok?  Ok, I admit that seeing her jump on the dragon and ride it was cool, but completely departing from the realistic nature of the show we’ve seen up to this point.  That and last week’s battle with the White Walkers.  I’m glad to see Ser Jorah back in Dany’s good graces, even though he probably doesn’t have much time left to live.  Meanwhile, the death of Shireen was horrific.  Just when you think Stannis is starting to develop some sanity and humanity in him, he goes and murders his own daughter.  What a bunch of nut jobs he, his wife, and Melisandre are.  Melisandre watches flames like most people watch Netflix.  Of course in Stannis’ mind, he probably thinks starving an army of people is worse than burning his own daughter alive.  Too bad he’s not sane enough to realize they have nothing to do with each other.  It’s obvious that Jon Snow is going to get himself or others killed with his integrity.  The only thing more annoying than the Arya story in general is the fact that when she finally had the chance to kill somebody on her list, she didn’t even do it.  Anyway, hoping for an action packed season finale next week.

June 1st, 2015

The Ducks had you fooled.  You thought they had overcome the playoff demons.  You thought wrong.  For the third straight year in a row, the Ducks lost a game 7 at home.  In each one of those series, the Ducks had series leads of 3-1, 3-2, and 3-2.  If I didn’t know better I’d say this team was coached by Bruce Boudreau.  Oh wait….they are.  Boudreau has now been behind the bench for 6 losses in game 7 at home in the playoffs.  Do you realize that accounts for 10% of the 63 teams that have lost game 7 at home in NHL history? In all these game 7’s the story has been the same as it was on Saturday at the Honda Center.  The big names like Ryan Getzlaf failed to perform, and there was a total lack of poise and discipline.  Another nice regular season followed by a playoff disaster.  If the Ducks are serious about winning a cup, they’ll go out and get themselves a coach who can put them over the top.  Their fans however don’t seem that serious though, because the arena was filled with Blackhawk fans on Saturday night.  The only parade they’ll be seeing in Anaheim this year will involve cartoon characters at Disneyland.

To baseball, where it was a very familiar scene this weekend in St. Louis.  The Dodgers take on the Cardinals.  They can’t score any runs.  The Cards make them look like chumps and LA loses two out of three.  I don’t care how talented the Dodgers may seem.  The season is going to come down to the same thing we’ve seen the last two seasons.  Can they beat the Cardinals in the playoffs?  Can they beat the Giants when it matters?  Right now, both of those teams have a much greater championship pedigree than the Boys in Blue, who not only can’t score runs against these elite teams, as I predicted, but are also struggling to find rotation depth.  The new nerdy front office also managed to trade another quality player last week, Juan Uribe, for pennies on the dollar in return.  The Dodgers have infield and outfield depth coming out of their ears, they are desperate for starting pitching, but these baseball nerds keep unloading talent just to have more clubhouse harmony, and without filling those other needs.

As for the Angels, they may have swept the Tigers over the weekend, but how annoying is it seeing Josh Hamilton tear it up back in Texas?  The Halos are desperate for production in left field, as the Collin Cowgill and Matt Joyce tag team has been about as successful as two bad little leaguers in the lineup everyday.  Although Joyce has been better of late, those two have been so bad that the front office actually thinks that acquiring Kirk Nieuwenhuis, a career .230 hitter, will solve their problems.  If Arte Moreno had never opened up his big mouth in the first place, the Angels might be getting some return on their ridiculous investment.  It’s probably also about time the Angels stopped messing around and made Carlos Perez their everyday catcher.  All things considered, things could be a lot worse for the Angels, but they certainly need to be a lot better.

Who the hell is Jared Dudley anyway?  The Milwaukee Bucks forward went on a media blitz last weekend, seemingly trying to preview his broadcasting career.  In an interview with Colin Cowherd, he claimed that nobody wants to play with Kobe, it will be a while before the Lakers are good again, and went on to say some other nonsense like how Carmelo Anthony is the most overrated player in the league.  Look Jared, 5 championship rings aren’t for everyone, and certainly not for you.  You may not want to play with Kobe, but I’m sure if I ask a whole lot other guys (Pau Gasol, Steve Blake, Derek Fisher, and Matt Barnes just to name a few) they would love to.  Some guys just don’t want the pressure of having to win championships every year, and apparently you don’t want that which is why you’d rather play in a small town like Milwaukee.  Too bad when your contract is up, there aren’t going to be many teams that want you.   Jared is still probably upset about Kobe doing this to him a few years ago…..

As for the recent rumors about Dwayne Wade leaving Miami, I’ll believe it when I see it.  Wade is upset, and rightfully so, that he opted out of his contract last year in order to take less money so the team could re-sign Lebron James.  Since that didn’t happen, Wade now wants to be paid max dollars since he’s the face of the franchise.  He may be the face of the franchise, and still productive when healthy, but those healthy times are rare.  Nobody is going to pay Wade more than the $16 million per season Miami could next season.  The notion that the Lakers would is silly.  They’d be tying up money in two players in Kobe and Wade that would be on the injured list most of the time.  Then again, this seems like something the Knicks would do if Wade doesn’t work things out with the Heat.

I can’t believe we have to wait a whole week for the NBA Finals.  This is good news for both the Cavs and the Warriors since both Klay Thompson and Kyrie Irving have time to recover from injuries.  I’m thinking the Warriors are going to take this in 6, especially without Kyrie being 100% healthy.  The Warriors have a deeper bench, and as good as Lebron is, he can’t guard everybody.  Even though the East is a JV league, the fact Lebron got his injured team this far is impressive.  Speaking of those injured teammates, Kevin Love said he expects to play opening night next season with the Cavs.  He must be assuming that the Cavs will be playing the Lakers that evening.

What a total embarrassment the Chicago Bulls organization was last week.  As expected, Chicago fired Tom Thibodeau.  However, not only did they fire him, they completely trashed him on his way out, and the front office looked like nothing but a bunch of classless and jealous clowns.  NBA coaches aren’t exactly treated all that well, often like that trashy girl that hooked up with every guy in high school.  The Bulls are notorious for this over the years with all their coaches, including the greatest NBA coach of all-time, Phil Jackson.  I’m surprised that any coach, including Fred Hoiberg, wants to take a job like that knowing the front office could stab him in the back at any time.  Thibodeau has his flaws, but he’s still one of the better coaches in the NBA, and will be back on his feet in no time.

Speaking of embarrassments, Sepp Blatter and FIFA are just that, after that story broke last week about all the FIFA officials being arrested.  Blatter’s re-election, along with his embarrassing statement that threatened those that didn’t vote for him, are a reminder of how much political corruption exists abroad.  Blatter is aligning himself with those states that see the sport as a means to cement their position on the world stage.  In return, those nations help Blatter maintain a grip on the job.  Did the U.S. and England try and set up Blatter for the fall?  Probably, but I can’t blame them.  However, the sad part in all this is that US sponsors probably don’t care enough about soccer to stop their support of FIFA.  If enough people really cared about soccer, public pressure would force those sponsors to re-consider their support.  That tells you just how little people care about soccer in this country.

This Adrian Peterson situation may seem like a lost cause since he has no leverage, but he’s trying to fight a bigger battle.  Peterson says that his decision not to participate in OTA’s with the Vikings is not about wanting a trade, but rather securing his future with the Vikings.  Peterson believes he’s trying to fight for the Players Union, and ultimately move them closer to guaranteed contracts.  Unfortunately, Peterson is the wrong guy to lead this fight.  He’s a player coming off some off the field issues that make him look like a child abuser in the eyes of some.  Whatever you think of Peterson, he isn’t the guy for this fight.  It should be a a guy like Russell Wilson, who commands respect from the owners, and who’s big payday is around the corner.  He also shouldn’t be leading this fight because it’s going to be devastating to my fantasy team if he holds out.

Finally, Game of Thrones went down on HBO last night, and by the end, it proved to be an exciting episode.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it.  The Tyrion and Dany banter was a nice little appetizer for the audience before the big battle at the end.  Even though when Tyrion mentioned that Ser Jorah was in love with Dany and it seemed to hit her hard, I was a little surprised that he was exiled once again.  It seemed like Tyrion’s motive for recommending this was to make Dany more dependent on him, even though she needs all the help she can get.  I loved the moment when Tyrion was defending Jamie and Varys.  It was like he was trying to apply for a job, while his would-be references all tried to murder his would-be boss.  I’m still amazed that after 7 episodes, we know nothing about what happened to Bran.

The imprisonment of Cersei would have been way more entertaining had she been in the same cell as Margaery.  How terrible is Tommen as a King since he can’t get his mother or his wife out of prison?  Cersei’s plan was to use Tommen’s weakness to have Margaery imprisoned, except the irony is that his weakness won’t be able to get Cersei out of prison now either.  Poor King Tommen….he’s now deprived of boobs and mom.  Then of course the big battle with the White Walkers ensued.  Who knew that a Valyrian sword could kill a White Walker?  I’ve gotta hand it to the writers of the show.  I wasn’t really sure how they would incorporate the White Walkers without some over the top fantasy elements.  However, they managed to retain the show’s dramatic yet sensible elements.  Hope the last two episodes of the season are just as good.

May 25th, 2015

Suddenly, everything might be ok in Lakerland.  Last week the ping-pong balls bounced their way, and they not only kept this years first round pick because it was in the top 5, they ended up with the 2nd pick.  Laker fans haven’t been this happy since the Clippers were eliminated from the playoffs a few days earlier.  Even on a night where it’s just the NBA’s losers separating themselves from other losers, the Lakers gave their fans reason for hope.  In fact, you can actually get excited about having at least 3 young players to build with including Jordan Clarkson, Julius Randle, and this years lottery pick.  This also starts to make the Lakers a slightly better free agent destination this summer.  Had they lost the pick, the front office might have done something reckless to make up for it.  Meanwhile in New York, Knick fans were jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge when they settled for the 4th pick.  I guess New York forgot that the tanking was supposed to stop after the season ended.  Those bozos will probably trade the pick to Cleveland for JR Smith.

As for the Lakers pick itself, the choice is simple: Karl Anthony Towns or Jahlil Okafor.  Either player would be a fantastic addition, and would put two cornerstones in LA’s front court for the foreseeable future.  The notion that the team should pick D’Angelo Russell #2 because “it’s a point guard driven league” is just foolish.  Impact big men are rare, whereas there are players like Russell available every year.    Towns is a great defensive player, but Okafor has amazing post moves, and is a high enough IQ player to learn to be a good defender.  The choice is Okafor.  Some may want to trade the pick as well, but what’s the point of gutting your team for Demarcus Cousins or even Kevin Durant if there’s nothing left to keep you competitive?

It’s amazing how everyone completely forgot about the Clippers a couple of days after they were eliminated, and once the Lakers had their lottery luck.  For an owner like Steve Ballmer, at some point after he bought the team, he had to have asked himself if he should move the team up to Seattle, a town that is begging for the return of the NBA.  If the Clippers left tomorrow, would anybody around here really care?  I doubt it.  The only thing that’s here for them is money, but that’s enough to keep them around.  Meanwhile, the conference finals are just terrible match ups.  Lebron James could win the Eastern Conference with his children on his team.  In the West, Dwight Howard is softer than a pillow fight between Drake and Chris Brown.  This play sums up his entire career….

Why are people already talking about a Super Bowl coming to LA in 2020 when we don’t even have a new stadium yet?  It sounds to me like the NFL wants two teams back in LA a lot more than people around here do.  I also find it interesting that the Chargers and the Raiders are making all this noise about their stadium situations in their respective cities, but Stan Kroenke is being very quiet and not saying a word.  That’s the sign of an owner who is going to move the Rams one day, no matter what legal action the league might take against him.  It looks like there is a lot less red tape to getting a stadium done in Inglewood than getting one done in Carson.  The question is whether or not the Raiders or Chargers would want to share a stadium with the Rams if they move first.  I doubt it.

Let’s go to the ice where the Ducks and Blackhawks are having a pretty good battle in their Western Conference Finals best of seven series.  This series may be tied at 2-2, but in the first four games, it has felt like Anaheim has been the better team.  In every moment of this series it has felt like you are just waiting for Anaheim to start dominating.  They are bigger than the Hawks, and just as skilled.  In game 4, they wiped away a two goal deficit by scoring twice in a 37 second span.  I came back from the restroom and a 3-1 deficit had turned into a 4-3 lead.  They are that good, while the Hawks have been opportunistic.  More importantly, Anaheim is getting phenomenal goaltending from Freddy Anderson, who has shown that he’s capable of stealing a playoff game or two.  It may take 7 games, but I think Anaheim has this.  Even though most of their fans are still trying to figure out why they didn’t get a point the other night when they went to overtime.

I was beginning to think the Dodgers might never score again with the way they played last week.  These are the type of offensive droughts I feared when this roster was put together.  To make matters worse, watching LA play against the Giants is like watching a bad little league team go up against professionals.  This new Dodger regime has no idea about the importance beating your hated rivals, and it’s costing them in the standings.  Is Clayton Kershaw ever going to pitch like the $215 million MVP he was last year?  Is Carlos Frias going to toss more stink bombs like he did yesterday?  The Dodgers need help in their starting rotation now that Hyun-Jin Ryu is done, and they need to get back to scoring runs.  When you really think about it though, getting shut out shouldn’t be too difficult for LA to take, considering that 70% of their fans have been experiencing it for a couple of seasons without Time Warner Cable.

It looked like the Halos were coming on.  Then you look at the standings, and they are still stuck in mud.  After a tough week in Toronto and Boston, the Halos are still 6.5 games back of the Astros in the AL West.  The Angels have been held to two or fewer runs 5 times this season.  That’s a disaster for a team with Albert Pujols and Mike Trout in their lineup.  We keep waiting for this offense to break out, or for Houston to come back to the pack.  Neither has happened yet through 44 games, and it may take a trade to turn this season around.

We are getting ANOTHER MLS team in LA?  I realize that the MLS is growing, and that there’s an opportunity with the growing hispanic population, but building a new stadium for a new team by the Coliseum just seems like a foolish business venture.  There’s a reason why Chivas USA failed, and it was more than just bad ownership.  This town can’t support two soccer teams.

Finally, Game of Thrones went down last night on HBO.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it.  Overall, it feels like not much has happened in the first seven episodes of this season.  However, last night we had a series of interesting developments.  Now that Tyrion and Danny have finally met, it’s a powerful moment for the audience.  We have two of the most prominent and intriguing characters that we’ve been dying to see interact finally together.  It’s amazing how just a couple of episodes ago Tyrion had no interest in Danny and her dragons.  Now he’s very interested in joining forces with her.  As for Jorah, I’m still not entirely convinced he’s back in the queen’s good graces.  I also like how Danny is a lot smarter than other protagonists like Rob Stark.  She isn’t foolish enough to marry Daario like he is suggesting, but rather knows she needs to marry Hizdahr for the good of her kingdom.  Meanwhile, Stannis is sure to make a stupid decision in battle, even if it means sacrificing his daughter.  We saw this before with Renly, and it didn’t end well for the family.  Sansa is getting exactly what she deserves.  She’s getting raped and tormented by Ramsay, which could have been completely avoided had she just trusted Brienne.

Leave it to Game of Thrones to have everything revolve around rape.  Gilly is about to get raped by two dudes, and Sam saves her.  That leads to a sex scene with Sam.  Obviously nothing gets a women whose been raped all her life ready for some love ‘makin like getting raped by two guys right?  I think the writers lost some self-awareness here.  The irony of Cersei is that she is completely destroying Tommen’s ability to rule just to get her own revenge on the Tyrells.  I smiled a little when Cersei visited Margaery to torment her.  She is enjoying the same type of sadistic role play that Ramsay is.  This was classic moment for the show.  I had completely forgotten about that Lannister cousin she slept with and basically had kill Robert Baratheon.  Even though she’s now in a cell, I’m sure she’s far from finished.  Hopefully the last 3 episodes of the season are as intriguing as this one was.

May 18th, 2015

You thought things had changed.  You thought the Clippers were done being “the Clippers”.  Then in a matter of days they reverted to being “the Clippers”.  Yesterday, LA became just the 9th team in NBA history to lose a series after being up 3-1.  The Clipps and Rockets were two pyschologically flawed teams, but the Clippers proved to have the bigger flaws when it was over.  I realize LA doesn’t have much of a bench.  But the reality of it is, this was legacy defining for Chris Paul and Blake Griffin.  Those two players were far and away the most talented players in the series.  Yet when their teams needed them most in games 6 and 7, they failed to impose their will.  Blake went scoreless in the 4th quarter of game 6, and had more turnovers than Better Crocker in game 7.  Paul failed to go into attack mode late in game 6 and early in game 7 when the Clippers needed him most.  Winning in the NBA is a process.  However, the Clippers aren’t going through that process because they have yet to make it out of the 2nd round, even with the most talented team they have assembled in their franchises’ history.  When the moment gets big, the Clippers get small.  This is sob city, not lob city.

As for the off-season, it’s easy to say that the Clippers need to blow things up because the team can’t win as constructed.  However, blowing things up will probably set the Clippers back much further away from where they are now.   The first thing they need to hope for is re-signing DeAndre Jordan, even if it means giving him a max contract.  Once the salary cap goes up next summer, they need to hope they can lure a big name free agent like Kevin Durant to make them real contenders.  Even if they can’t make such a home run scenario happen,  the Clippers can still bring in some quality role players with championship experience to not only give them depth, but also give them the mental toughness they need to get to the next level.  This better happen quickly though, or Steve Ballmer might become a racist too.

Congratulations to the Rockets and Hawks, who have earned themselves the right to get swept in the conference finals.  If the Bulls couldn’t beat the Cavaliers without Kevin Love and a hobbled Kyrie Irving, they will never be able to beat a team with Lebron James on it.  With the Capitals and Wizards losing in the playoffs, last week was the worst week in DC since Obama was re-elected.  Looks like Dwight Howard fell one rebound short of the amount of illegitimate children he has in yesterday’s ball game.  If the Warriors can win a title this year, they will be the first team since Isaiah Thomas’ Pistons that has won a championship with a team that is built around its point guard.  So much for those of you who believe “it’s a point guard driven league”.  The Bulls may have lost, but Joakim Noah is still right about this……

Meanwhile, the Lakers are getting ready for an extremely pivotal moment for their franchise with Tuesday’s draft lottery.  The Lakers had the fourth worst record in the NBA, but they only get to keep their pick if it falls within the top 5, otherwise it goes to Philadelphia.  Do you realize that in the thirty NBA draft lotteries, only 13% of the time, has the team with the worst record gotten the top pick?  The team with the 4th worst record has won it once (1987 when the Spurs selected David Robinson),  while the team with the 3rd worst record has actually won it the highest percentage of the time, at 23%.  Just knowing about those odds should make you feel like the whole thing is rigged, and that the Lakers could very well lose their pick.  Given how “anti-Lakers” the NBA has seemed since the last lockout, I’m thinking LA will either get the 5th pick, or lose their first round pick.  If they lose the pick, that sets the Lakers back a good three years in their rebuilding process.

Let’s go to the ice, where the Ducks and Hawks finally faced off for game 1 of the Western Conference Finals yesterday, and Anaheim handled Chicago easily 4-1 to take a 1-0 lead in their best of seven series.  The Ducks are getting goals from guys named Nate Thompson.  That sounds like the name of a guy who should be selling used cars and not playing in the Western Conference Finals.  Neither teams star players did much in game 1, however, the difference was the Ducks got big offensive contributions from their 3rd and 4th liners as well as great goaltending, while the Hawks got neither.  I picked the Hawks when the series began, but Anaheim’s confidence is growing with every game, and looking like serious threat to win the cup.  Teemu Selanne was at the game, and he found a jacket that is uglier than the Masters green jacket…….

On to baseball, where the Dodgers came away with a 4 game split against the Rockies over the weekend.  They say a tie is like kissing your sister, but this felt a lot worse than that considering the Rockies are in last place in the NL West.  I still have no idea how the Dodgers have managed to put together the 4th best team ERA in the NL given that they only really have two legit starting pitchers, and Clayton Kershaw hasn’t even been his usual dominant self.  The irony of the Dodger is that 36 games into the season, despite being near the top of the NL, they have exactly  same issues as last year.  They have a stud closer in Kenley Jansen, but no reliable middle relievers to get the ball to him.  There are questions at the back of their starting rotation, and they have have a log jam of infielders, at third base in particular.  Andrew Friedman claimed the Dodgers were poorly constructed when he took over.  The reality is, they are just as talented, yet he still hasn’t fixed the flaws to get them over the hump.  Perhaps dealing an infielders like Juan Uribe or one of their outfielders might net them the extra rotation help they need.

Then there’s the Angels, who managed to take two of three against the struggling Orioles over the weekend, and are now winners of 5 of their last 6.  The good news for the Halos is that their pitching has come around, Jeff Weaver can get people out again, and they now have the best team ERA in the American League.  The bad news is that I’ve seen pimpled faced freshman scoring more than the Angels have this season.  Only the White Sox have scored fewer runs in the AL than the Halos, and just two teams have a lower team batting average.  Albert Pujols and David Freese are giving the Angels very little hitting at the corner infield spots, while the team is also getting nothing from their revolving door of left fielders.  Sitting at 5.5 games back of 1st place Houston, the Halos need to acquire a productive bat or two or else they will find themselves out of contention in no time.

Leave it Roger Goodell to keep Deflate Gate in the news last week.  In every other sport, we wouldn’t be talking about this anymore because we have consistent rules for punishment, and swift and decisive action taking place.  Now Goodell will probably sit down with Tom Brady and come up with some compromise.  Goodell is pretending like he’s running a league defined by integrity.  A league where he’s got an owner insisting on keeping a racial slur as its team’s nickname, and where all the owners are paying hundreds of millions to get their former concussed employees to go away and keep their mouths shut.  Tom Brady didn’t cheat.  Cheating is defined as having an unfair advantage over the playing field.  There’s no unfair advantage to be gained when the teams can provide their own footballs.  Besides, can you really blame Brady not wanting to turn over his cell phone to investigators?  He would gladly take a 4 game suspension than have Gisele find out who he has been doing on the side.

Last night’s Game of Thrones had a pretty intense and disturbing ending. Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it.  Sana Stark gets raped by her new husband, Ramsay Bolton, on their wedding night.  As if that wasn’t horrifying enough, Ramsay made Theon watch is all go down.  Some of you actually thought Sansa’s first time was going to be with a good guy after Joffrey died.  WRONG.  She ended up with an even more screwed up husband who not only raped her, but made a guy without a penis watch.  I know a lot of people are going to criticize the writers for incorporating another rape scene into the show, but were talking about Medieval Times here people.  This is how things went down unfortunately.  I had way too much Arya in this episode.  Her story gets more uninteresting by the episode.  Has there ever been a weaker King than Tommen?  His wife gets detained in front of him, and he looks as befuddled as the Clippers do in a game 7.  Cersei is winning this battle, and she seems like she’s determined to do so no matter what the cost.  Tyrion talked his way out of another situation in which his fate appeared to be imminent death, and he’s still one of the show’s best characters.  Why the hell is Stannis taking so long to get to Wintefell?  I’m hoping things pick up in the last four episodes of the show!

May 11th, 2015

The Clippers are looking like a championship team.  In a related story, record low temperatures are expected to hit the world today, confirming that indeed, hell has frozen over.  No really, the Clippers confidence is through the roof right now, as they have opened up a 3-1 series lead vs the Houston Rockets.  Blake Griffin looks like one of the best players in the NBA right now, Chris Paul has recovered from his hamstring injury, and suddenly Austin Rivers is an effective role player off the bench.  The Rockets look like a bunch of soft, whining, sore losers, that don’t have an answer for Blake Griffin, while the Clipps are just toying with them.  If there was ever a time for the Clipps to catch lightening in a bottle and try to win a title, now is the time.

There is clearly going to be some modification to the intentional fouling rule, given all the hacking of DeAndre Jordan and other crummy free throw shooters.  Yes, it was painful to watch that first half yesterday, but everyone loves to overreact to this stuff.  The league doesn’t have some ratings crisis on their hands because of this, and the notion that they should completely do away with the intentional fouling is silly.  If a player can’t make his free throws, we shouldn’t make rules to allowing them to get out of that accountability.  These are professional basketball players.  Try practicing free throws instead of dunks all summer.

The NBA playoff action over the weekend was spectacular.  I haven’t seen that many banks go down since the financial crisis in 2008.  The Bulls are going to regret not being able to put the Cavs away yesterday since the Cavs are dealing with even more injuries than them.  Lebron may be inefficient, but he’s still the best player in the league and that will be the difference in the series.  By the way, I love how when Lebron goes 10-30 and they win he’s a hero, but when Kobe goes 10-30 and his team wins in the playoffs he’s a ball hog.  The Warriors are suddenly realizing why jump shooting teams without playoff experience get bounced from the playoffs.  Steve Kerr is going to have to run down to Sports Authority to buy a clip board because he will have to do some coaching for the first time this season.  Meanwhile,  that Wizards-Hawks series was about as interesting as watching paint dry, until Paul Pierce made that buzzer beater and started firing off great one-liners.

This is usually the look on dude’s face when bae says she’s pregnant but he know that he pulled out early……

    This Deflate Gate story is unbelievable.  Why are we still talking about this?  Look, I’m a complete Boston sports town hater, but the notion that Brady and the Patriots are some kind of cheaters whose legacy is tarnished is ridiculous.  The Patriots could have been playing the AFC Championship game with medicine balls, and they would have still destroyed the Colts.  I guess we’ll never know if without deflating the footballs a little, the Pats would have only won by 31.  Deflating the footballs also doesn’t change the fact that Pete Carroll called the biggest bonehead play in the history of the league during the Super Bowl.  Sure it would be nice if Brady could actually give us straight answers about the footballs, which he likely had doctored, but are we really going to suspend one of the marquee faces of the NFL for this? This whole incident is another bumbling for Roger Goodell, who put together a “Keystone Cops” like investigation, without any real evidence here to suspend Brady.  When he does suspend him, it’s going to be another situation of him making rules up along the way.   In just a matter of months Goodell is quickly cementing himself among the worst CEO’s in America.  We’re talking right up there with the likes of Chuck Conway of Kmart and Ken Lay of Enron.  What are your thoughts Gronk?……

The fact the Dodgers have a 4.5 game lead in the NL West is amazing.  They have an all-star team worth of players on the disabled list, and their ace, Clayton Kershaw, has been average at best.  It also makes you think that once Joc Pederson and Alex Guerrero stop playing like Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, the Boys in Blue could take a tumble in the standings.  It sure would be nice for the Dodgers to get Dan Haren back to fill in the back end of their rotation.  He’s 4-1 with a 2.68 era for the Marlins, and the Dodgers are paying his entire $11 million salary.  Instead, the Dodgers are paying guys like Brandon McCarthy $12 million a year, who will spend much of the next four years on the DL.

As for the Angels, they settled for a split with the 1st place Houston Astros over the weekend.  That was one bitter pill to swallow given the fact that the Halos should have taken 3 out of 4 after Huston Street blew another save on Thursday night.  The good news for the Halos is their starting pitching is coming around, including the likes of Jered Weaver and CJ Wilson.  The bad news is the offense stinks.  I guess $240 million doesn’t buy what it used to because Albert Pujols is hitting .230.  The Halos also are getting no production from their left fielders either.  There’s still plenty of time to get it together, and the rest of the division isn’t exactly setting the world on fire, so if the Halos can just come up with a few more runs they might actually find themselves back in 1st.

Mercifully, the Flames-Ducks series has come to an end.  I’m amazed the Flames were able to even push that series to five games.  Corey Perry had a complete Paul Pierce moment last night, taking a blow to the knee and crawling off the ice, while even being carried into the locker room by trainers.  Just a couple of shifts later dude was back on the ice.  Was Oral Roberts back in the locker room or what?  Some hockey player you are Corey Perry.  As for the next round of the playoffs, I’m looking forward to the Ducks actually playing a team that will not be overmatched against them.  I picked the Hawks to win the cup at the beginning of the season, and even though this will be a long series, I see no reason to pick Anaheim.

It’s a shame we learned that Notre Dame quarterback Everett Golson is leaving Notre Dame and transferring to another school.  It was just two years ago that Golson led the Irish to the national championship game.  His first half of 2014 was pretty solid too, and then Brian Kelly crushed his confidence.  Kelly has done a lot of good things while coaching the Fighting Irish, but this isn’t one of them.  Golson clearly felt like Kelly was not going to give him the starting job back from Malik Zaire, which made him jump ship.  Still like your quarterback situation better than Ohio State’s Coach Kelly?  So much for all that quarterback depth you were happy about .

It’s a real bummer Bill Simmonds is leaving ESPN after a year full of drama with them.  What’s really a shame is that Simmonds isn’t going to take Grantland with him when he leaves.  It’s really his website, and it should go with him wherever he goes.  We saw this type of situation dating back to the Dan Patrick days.  If you have even the slightest bit of controversy surrounding you, ESPN is waiving you goodbye.  Frankly, I’m shocked that Stephen A. Smith hasn’t been kicked out yet.  He’s had a few close calls.  Simmonds will be fine, and like Dan Patrick found out, there are greener pastures elsewhere.  Heck, I’d love to see him to do some LA Kings coverage, but I don’t think that’s really his passion.    

Finally, Game of Thrones went down last night on HBO, and we are now halfway through the fifth season of the show.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see last night’s episode.  I almost completely forgot about Bran.  Are we ever going to hear from him again?  His story was a little tiresome and farfetched, but the show could still use him in other ways.  This episode was another reminder of why Jon Snow isn’t a good character.  He has nobody to answer to, and is in a position of power, yet is looking to others for answers.  That’s a big “no-no” in the Game of Thrones and will get you killed.  Much of the episode was focused on Snow and the North, which could be a sign he won’t be around much longer.  Ramsay has quickly become this seasons’ top villain.  He’s a sick man who is getting joy out of others pain which we saw again when he forced Reek/Theon to apologize to Sansa for killing her brothers (even though he knows they aren’t dead).  The sudden love affair of between Grey Worm and Missandei seems odd, but when you think about it, the fact is that Dany is making The Unsullied more human over time.  The issues that Dany is having within her own Kingdom are interesting, but somewhat of a drag on the show.  I was really hoping for more interaction between her and the people of Westeros, but that seems like a storyline for another season.

May 4th, 2015

Has anybody seen Steve Ballmer?  He’s probably streaking naked across the 405 freeway after the Clippers eliminated the defending champion Spurs over the weekend.  I’ve gotta hand it to both CP3 and Blake Griffin.  CP3 channeled his inner Isaiah Thomas, and played a great game 7 with a pulled hamstring.  As for Blake, he finally imposed his will when it mattered most by recording a triple double.  The one thing that always separated the Clipps from being elite was that their two superstars were never at their best when their best was needed.  When that changed Saturday and the Clipps showed mental toughness, it suddenly became believable that the Clippers are a contender.  Then again, after seeing both CP3 and Steve Ballmer cry, I’m not sure they actually realize there are three more rounds to be played.  As for the Spurs, this is the worst thing to happen to San Antonio since border patrol.  I’m sure Tim Duncan and his band of senior citizens will be back in contention next year.  They always are.

The Clippers vs Rockets quarterfinals will be interesting.  When the playoffs started, there was no way you could trust either one of these two teams when it mattered, and both appeared to have the mental toughness of a flea.  The Clipps have to just be radiating with confidence after taking down the defending champs.  Even though the Rockets have a dangerous James Harden and a deep bench, Blake and CP should easily be the best players on the court (assuming Paul is healthy).  Meanwhile, Dwight Yokum has more toughness than Dwight Howard at this point in the season.  I’m taking the Clippers in 6 games, before they get taken down by the Warriors.

Everyone who ordered the fight on Saturday now knows how the Bengals feel after giving Andy Dalton $100 million.  I can’t believe we waited four years to watch that.  To the average person, it looked like neither Floyd nor Manny “won” the fight.  Ok, so Floyd may have landed a couple of more punches to get the decision, but I’ve seen more contact in a WNBA game than in that fight.  Floyd might be the best in his era, which lacked any dominant fighters, but he’s far from the best of all time.  Not even top 10.  Still, I do love the narrative as well that if you are watching the fight, you are supporting domestic violence and bigotry.  If you’re going to watch sports depending on the character of the people you are watching, I’ve got bad news: you’re probably not going to be watching any sports.  There are plenty of professional athletes committing adultery, smoking weed, and probably doing all kinds of things you don’t approve of.  If you can’t separate the performance from the person than you should just forget watching.  You gotta admit though, the fight between Floyd and his side chick had more contact than what we saw Saturday.

I was unable to get a bet in for the Kentucky Derby, despite some last minute efforts.  If you have never been to Churchill Downs on the first weekend of May, it’s absolutely worth doing at least once.  The victory by American Pharaoh was great, and the race was exciting, however, I have a sad confession to make.  I don’t actually know how place a bet on horses at the racetrack.  Yes, it’s true.  I have to go ask the person at the counter about the meaning of things like “trifecta” and “box”, which always annoys the hell out of them.  I better stick to making my bets online.

The Halos have been getting spanked.  They just got destroyed over the weekend in San Francisco, and they are already 7 games behind the Astros in the AL West.  No really…the Houston Astros are in 1st place!  That’s right people.  Hold onto your loved ones, and better ask forgiveness for all your sins, because the universe must be coming to an end.  The Angels look more the team we saw two years ago that struggled to hit early, and later on couldn’t come up with consistent starting pitching.  Jered Weaver looks like he’s completely finished.  The man is throwing about 82 miles per hour, and getting punked every time he goes to the mound.  CJ Wilson has been underwhelming too, and those two are supposed to be at the forefront of the Angels rotation.  To make matters worse, the Angels have the 2nd worst team batting average in the AL.  The Angels better hope this month was just an aberration, otherwise their season is going to hell quickly.

As for the Dodgers, I have no idea how this team is in 1st place with their starting pitching being held together by duct tape.  The Dodgers offense appears to have more fire power than ISIS right now, but the injuries and the pitching are very concerning.  Clayton Kershaw has been average, Brandon McCarthy is done, Hyun-Jin Ryu will forever have shoulder issues, and Brett Anderson is bound to get hurt any day.  Who are these guys getting the starts? Scott Baker?  I’m not sure how long Don Mattingly can keep giving the ball to these no names and hoping for the offense to carry them.  Especially not with Donny Baseball blowing out the bullpen like he does.  The Boys in Blue might need to make a trade, and it may involve giving up some big time prospects for Cole Hamels.  It’s going to be a steep price but much needed if they are serious about contending.  Yesterday’s walk off was nice though…..

What a complete joke this Ducks vs Flames semifinals series is.  It’s like watching grown men go up against a pee wee hockey team.  The Ducks are bigger, faster, more physical, and more experienced than the Flames.  Calgary doesn’t even know who to start in goal anymore.  Even if Calgary wins a couple of games at home, which they won’t, the last time they won in Anaheim Disneyland hadn’t even been built yet.  This is like watching a #1 seed vs a #16 seed in the NCAA tournament, except you have to endure it for a whole week.  Just give us Ducks vs Blackhawks already.

The NFL draft was also part of this past weekends sports insanity.  Brett Hundley was selected by the Packers, but not until the 5th round.  He was also the 6th quarterback taken, which shows you just what scouts think of his throwing ability.  Maybe Hundley should have stayed in school for his senior year.  Four USC players were also chosen Saturday, including Buck Allen and Josh Shaw.  68 Trojans have now been selected in round 1 since 1967, which is 10 more than any other school.  Does Chip Kelly realize that there are other conferences other than the Pac-12?  He only drafts Pac-12 players.  Chip was also reportedly offering blood money, unborn children, players, draft picks, and his soul to the Titans for Marcus Mariotta.  The Titans are now only 11 players away from being a championship contender.  Pray for Amari Cooper everyone.  He was drafted by the Raiders.  The Cowboys spent much of the week scouting local prisons for late round sleepers. The Redskins helped their offensive line, but the bad news for their fans is that RGIII might have time to throw.

What a great episode of Game of Thrones last night on HBO.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it.  The one thing I really enjoyed from this episode was the backstories told by Ser Barristan to Dany, about her brother and the Mad King.  I also enjoyed hearing the backstory that Littlefinger told to Sansa about Rhaegar Targeryen.  Interesting that Sansa and Dany’s perception of each of those people are much different than the stories they were told.  I was so disappointed in Tommen that he proved to be a weak King when Margaery asked him to get her brother out of jail.  At least if it were Joffrey, he would have had as much bloodshed as necessary to get the job done.  I’m sure Lady Olenna will get involved now, so the Lannisters are really in trouble!  Stannis actually seemed like a decent human being in this episode. He complimented Jon Snow when his wife referred to him as just another bastard child.  Then, he seemed like a really good father when he explained to Shereen, how he cared for her when she had Greyscale.  Based on the preview for the next episode, it seems as though Ser Barristan is dead.  I think this sets the stage for Jorah to really get back in to Dany’s trusted inner circle.

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.

April 20th, 2015

The Clippers got what appeared to be the worst possible first round matchup in the San Antonio Spurs.  However, last night, the Clipps made the Spurs look old geezers.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen father time and Tim Duncan on the floor at the same time.  Last night i saw it.  Meanwhile, Blake Griffin looked like a beast with real post moves.  If there’s one thing that’s always made me doubt the Clippers, other than the fact that they are “The Clippers”, it’s the fact that Blake was not a go to guy.  He was every bit of that last night, and if he continues to play like that, the Clipps could be for real.  That’s a very big if though.  The Spurs have never won back to back titles in the Tim Duncan era, but they’ve also never had this much rest.  That might not seem to matter though because Tony Parker looked pretty banged up going up against Chris Paul.  I thought the Spurs were gonna win in 6, but I’m not feeling so great about my prediction at the moment.  Isn’t this how kids look when their mother’s tell them to go to sleep hours ago, but they didn’t, and the mom comes back in the room?

As for the Lakers, mercifully their season is over.  Unfortunately, the nightmare may not be though.  Everyone seems to be assuming that the Lakers are going to have a pick in the top 5.  Once the NBA rigs the draft lottery like they usually do, and allows a team like Oklahoma City to jump up into one of the top 3 picks, there’s a good chance the Lakers could actually fall out of the top 5 and lose their pick to Philadelphia.  That means all LA would be left with would be a late first round pick.  They may also strike out in free agency too, with all the big names like Gasol, Aldridge, and Love staying with their respective teams.  That of course means another year of pulling your hair out while hoping the Lakers lose games to get another high draft pick.  It’s a very fine line between getting excited, and pissing and moaning for another year.  We’ll have to wait until May 19th to figure out which side of the line Laker fans end up on.

I had no idea that the Winnipeg Jets were such a charitable organization.  The Jets completely gave away the first two games of their 1st round series vs the Ducks.  Anaheim scored three times in the third period of game 1, and two more times in the third period of game 2 to take a 2-0 series lead.  This series is all about experience, and the Jets lack thereof has been evident.  More importantly for the Ducks, Freddy Anderson has looked pretty solid in goal, but if he comes up with a bad game, will Bruce Boudreau panic and start John Gibson instead?  The Ducks have responded to the 3rd period challenges they’ve faced so far, but there will likely be much more adversity to come.  We’ll see how they respond, but if they keep getting clutch play like this they’ll be ok…..

As for the LA Kings, who are sitting on their couches watching the playoffs, the offseason has begun in tumultuous fashion.  Jarrett Stoll got arrested for suspicion of cocaine in Vegas on Friday.  It’s time for the Kings to cut ties with the guys who are creating problems.  Stoll isn’t productive anymore and is creating trouble, so shouldn’t be re-signed.  Voynov is a wife beater, who was becoming more and more unproductive prior to his legal troubles.  Mike Richards can’t play anymore either and should be bought out.  The Kings need to move on from these clowns, and give some of their young prospects a chance.  LA still has one of the best cores in the league with Drew Doughty, Anze Kopitar, and Jonathan Quick.  Dean Lombardi has some warm and fuzzy feelings about these guys because they’ve helped them win two Stanley Cups, but it’s time to re-load with guys that are more reliable on and off the ice.  They say an addict can’t begin recovery until he hits rock bottom.  That mean’s Stoll should sign with the Oilers this offseason, and then he’ll be well on his way.

Ok, I get it.  You all think the Dodgers look like the 1927 New york Yankees and will never lose again.  Stay in your shoes people.  We’re only two weeks in.  I realize that they’ve already beaten some good teams, and that they lead the league in home runs.  However, Adrian Gonzales, Howie Kendrick, and Joc Pederson aren’t going to look like “Murderers Row” all season.  When they come back to earth, I’m still curious to see how this team is going to manufacture runs, and if the bullpen is going to hold up.  Those pesky Padres aren’t going to go away anytime soon either, although it’s good to see those hated San Francisco Giants in dead last.  Speaking of the hated ones, the Boys in Blue will be traveling up north for a 3 game set with San Francisco starting Tuesday night.

As for the Angels, they are off to a very mediocre start, especially offensively.  They’ve got 5 position players that are hitting under .215 thus far.  One of those is Albert Pujols, who is hitting just .186, despite going deep yesterday.  However, it was very good to see Garrett Richards back on the mound after suffering a knee injury last year.  Richards wasn’t terrible in his first start, and things figure to get better for him as he gets more starts.  It was only two seasons ago that the Angels had a very good roster on paper, like they do this year, yet lost a lot of games early in the season and couldn’t recover.  The Angels need to be careful that they don’t let these early games slip away from them and get too far behind to make up ground.  No need to panic yet, but  I sure hope the Halos resolve the Josh Hamilton situation quickly to get rid of that distraction.  Things are getting pretty awkward between the players and the front office.  It’s about as comfortable as watching a sex scene with your parents.

On to the NFL where trade rumors are swirling around the Chargers.  The Bolts and Tennessee Titans are rumored to be considering a blockbuster deal, with Philip Rivers going to the Titans for the #2 pick.  The Chargers would then draft Marcus Mariotta as their quarterback of the future.  The real issue here is what this rumor says about the Chargers potentially moving to LA.  Rivers contract is up at the end of next season, and his preference is finish his career in San Diego, and not uproot his family to LA.  The Chargers are well aware of this, and are considering the swap because they are seriously considering moving to LA.  If the Chargers really know that they are going to be in LA and that they are going to lose Rivers for nothing after next year, this makes sense, but it’s still a gamble.  Mariotta could be a good player, but it will take a while, and is by no means a can’t miss prospect.  If the Chargers are smart, they’ll hang on to Rivers, renegotiate with him at the end of next season, and in the meantime, fix their problems on the offensive line and at running back.  You’re never really that far away from competing in the NFL, but if the Bolts make this trade, they will be.

Game of Thrones went down again last night on HBO.  Spoiler alert in case you haven’t seen episode 2 of the 5th season.  This felt like the reunion episode, with so many characters coming back into the picture and re-uniting with so many others.  Funny how Brienne found both Sansa and Arya at different points in the show, and is turned away by both of them.  The irony of it is, both of these girls could easily use her help, but turn her away.  It’s just a reminder of how idiotic these girls have become (especially Sansa).  Brienne is a total badass and we saw that again when she took down that Vale Guard by herself.  Now that Arya has found Jaqen, he’s probably going to train her into some sword fighting machine.  Too bad all the people she wants to kill will probably all be dead by the time she’s actually ready to fight them.  Jon Snow is becoming a character I feel less of an emotional attachment to.  He gets offered the chance to become a legitimate Stark and turns it down, which symbolizes his lack of ambition.  That will eventually get you killed in the Game of Thrones.  Cersei’s power play against the small council feels like a desperate effort to regain power. That can’t last long.  As for our favorite Mother of Dragons, killing Mossador was a bad idea, but that’s just another example of her striving for justice in a world that is unjust.  However, everything feels better when we see one of the Dragons show up at the end of the episode.  Looking forward to episode 3 next week!

April 13th, 2015

The Kings were exhausted.  Nobody wanted to believe it, but like I had been saying for months, they were out of gas.  That’s why they were eliminated from the playoff race last week.  It isn’t just the amount of hockey they’ve played while winning two of the last three cups.  It’s their bruising style of play to go along with it.  The Kings finished the season with 95 points, the exact same amount as they had in 2012 when they won the cup.   However, this time it wasn’t good enough.  The Kings best players just didn’t produce like in years past.  They had a 3-15 record in shootouts, which cost them the playoffs.  Anze Kopitar had only 16 goals, and Dustin Brown had 11.  That’s about half of what they should be producing.  Mike Richards and Jarret Stoll were not the same players.  This is definitely not the end for the Kings.  They’ve got the pieces in place to contend for Stanley Cup for the next few years.  However, you can count on some significant changes taking place this summer.  In any case, I think Kings fans are at peace with what they’ve accomplished the past three years.  Plus the fact the Sharks aren’t in the playoffs either makes it even more bearable.

Meanwhile, the Ducks clinched the number 1 seed in the Western Conference over the weekend, and will get ready for a 1st round showdown with the Winnipeg Jets.  This has the makings of another Bruce Boudreau disaster.  Anaheim hasn’t played meaningful hockey in weeks, and they don’t even know who their starting goaltender is.  That’s a recipe for playoff disappointment, especially facing a Jets team that is physical and been on a roll for months.  I like how Boudreau is even trying to lower the bar and prepare everyone for more playoff failure by saying “it would not surprise me if everyone picked them and we’re the underdog”.  So what you’re really saying Bruce is you won’t be surprised if your team gets bounced again in the playoffs.

For the first time since 2005, there will be no playoffs for both the LA Kings and the LA Lakers.  On the bright side, for those of you logical Laker fans, you can return to rooting for them to win games since they are locked into having the 4th worst record in the NBA this season.  Gotta love the timing of the Lakers asking their fans to renew their season tickets.  This year, the Lakers are asking their fans to renew their season tickets by May 18th, which is the day before the draft lottery.  Convenient isn’t it?  There are definitely fans that would have decided to renew based on whether or not the Lakers were keeping their pick.  In any case, as frustrating and torturous as the season has been, it’s probably smart to renew.  If the Lakers get to keep their 1st round pick this year, and suddenly sign a player like Lamarcus Aldridge in July, who is reportedly now in play, you might be kicking yourself.  Ok, all that may be wishful thinking, but at the very least, I’m thinking next years team will be a young team that people will actually enjoy watching again.

Meanwhile, the Clippers are fooling people again.  Some might look at the standings and think the Clipps are the hottest team in the NBA, after winning 12 of their last 13 games.  However, a closer look at that streak reveals that 8 of those wins came against teams below .500, and two others came against Portland and Memphis, who have been ravaged by injuries.  We’ve reached the point where Matt Barnes is begging for fans to show up to the games and cheer.  I’m beginning to wonder when Doc Rivers will be hanging 7 different posters of his son Austin in the rafters at Staples Center, in order to cover up those Lakers championship banners.  The best thing that the Clipps can hope for is to get the #2 seed and play Dallas, while hoping they won’t run into Golden State or San Antonio until the conference finals.  Houston or Memphis won’t be easy, but the Clipps stand a better chance of advancing with those matchups.

After all these years, has anybody figured out what the NBA MVP award it?  Is it the best player on the best team?  Is it the best player?  Or is it the best player on the team that has lifted his team to the greatest heights?  It’s amazing we have an award that doesn’t have a clear cut criteria for how to select it.  That’s why I think the NBA needs to have a player of the year award, and an MVP award, because they really should be two different awards.  This year, Steph Curry should be named the MVP.  He’s been the best player on the best team, which is how most of the writers have voted in recent history.  James Harden, on the other hand, has probably been the best player in the league throughout this entire season, which would make him the player of the year, if the award existed.  It’s a screwy system, but one which the NBA probably enjoys because it gives us something to talk about.

To baseball, where the Dodgers got off to a so-so week 1 of the baseball season.  They took two of three from the Padres, but lost two of three against Arizona.  So far, Clayton Kershaw hasn’t found his game.  The bullpen has been up and down, and Don Mattingly has been using pitchers as though he’s been slamming tic tacs.  No wonder the bullpen is always worn out by October.  Adrian Gonzales has looked like the second coming of Babe Ruth, but as I predicted, he has little to no protection in the lineup, especially when Yasiel Puig forgets how to hit a baseball.  I also don’t think there’s any question that Matt Kemp is going to kick the crap out of the Dodgers every time he sees them this year.  Good thing that’s only about 15 more times or so.

Meanwhile, the Angels are off to a rough start, and they look like a distracted bunch.  They took two of three from the Mariners, but then got swept away by Kansas City, who still seems to think they are playing October baseball.  CJ Wilson and Jered Weaver just didn’t have it over the weekend.  Wilson also made no secret about how he felt about how the front office is handling the Josh Hamilton situation.  Wilson said if Hamilton we’re actually playing good baseball, the Halos would want him back.  The more this story unfolds, the bigger scumbag Arte Moreno looks like.  Hamilton has made tremendous mistakes, but at this point, he is ill.  Moreno is treating him like a criminal, and his lack of support can only lead Hamilton down a path to do further damage to himself.  The Angels have a pretty good team, but the longer this situation lingers, the quicker this season can get away from them.

Jordan Spieth was spectacular at the Masters yesterday, winning by shooting a record -21.  Spieth treated that Augusta course like Augusta treats women.  All I heard about yesterday was the “new generation” of golf that we are about to see, that should be dominated by Spieth and Rory McIlroy.  However, to me the story was still Tiger Woods, and the fact he managed to put together a respectable performance after dealing with so many injuries.  To the casual golf fan, Tiger is by far the most intriguing storyline, and golf will need him if it hopes to drive ratings.  As for Spieth, he seems to have everything going for him at 21 years old, except for the fact he’s a Dallas Cowboys fan.  He’s also a very mediocre at putting on green jackets…..

Last night Game of Thrones returned on HBO, for the first episode of the fifth season.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it.  The show is off to a solid, but slow start, which is expected for the HBO series.  It feels like there are now fewer and fewer characters that we are really emotionally invested in.  We’re down to Tyrion and Daenerys, and they appear to be on a collision course in the near future.  Jon Snow possibly?  But that’s about it.  I don’t think anyone was really that upset when Mance Rayder was burned at the stake, however, it was just a reminder how Stannis and his band of weirdos are just terrible people.  At least Jon Snow had a little bit of mercy on Mance Rayder by shooting him with an arrow to put him out of his misery, but it can’t put him in good standing with the new regime.  Since Tyrion doesn’t really give a shit about anything anymore, it’s hard to see how much value he can really bring to Daenerys’ quest for the Iron Throne, although she seems desperately in need of a trusted advisor.   I think the reason why we love her so much is the fact that she has a humble side to her as well, admitting that she no longer has control of the dragons.  Cersei seems broken right now, but i suspect she will soon form an alliance with Lancel (remember the cousin she was sleeping with in season 1 and 2?), and find a way to regain some power.  However, Margery is obviously devising a plan to get rid of Cersei, and I’m dying to find out what that plan is.  Finally, I’m still trying to figure out what Littlefinger’s plan for Sansa is.  My bold prediction for the season: either he will try to rape her, or she will kill him.  Possibly both, with one leading to the other.