November 24th, 2014

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 November 17th, 2014

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

November 10th, 2014

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

November 3rd, 2014

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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