Is Sterling Trying to Bamboozle Us?

June 21, 2013

The Clippers on again, off again trade with the Boston Celtics is off again. In this bizarre saga that has unfolded over the last week, the Clippers were initially trying to acquire Celtics coach Doc Rivers and Kevin Garnett for DeAndre Jordan and 2 1st round picks. However, NBA Commissioner and Dictator David Stern would not allow the deal because it is against NBA rules to trade coaches. It is also against NBA rules to make two trades that are contingent upon one another, which further complicates the Clippers ever acquiring both Rivers and Garnett.

Nevertheless, the Clippers claim their focus shifted to acquiring just Doc Rivers and worry about Garnett later. But if that’s the case why wasn’t this deal done days ago? The Clippers were going to give up two 1st round picks in the initial proposal, and now they are reportedly only offering one 2nd round pick. Really? This deal is being held up over draft picks that will eventually be terrible first round picks anyway? This smells fishier than a Florida election, and Donald Sterling is behind it.

The Clippers had initially called off the negotiations earlier in the week, until Chris Paul urged the front office to keep negotiating. Paul also sat down with Clippers broadcaster Ralph Lawler this week, and Lawler tweeted he was informed by Paul that he badly wanted to play for Rivers. Despite these pleas from the team’s franchise player, Sterling never had any intention of giving any coach a 5 year deal, let alone paying him nearly $7 million per season.

Donald Sterling simply does not value his coaches. When Sterling fired Bill Fitch in 1998, he refused to pay him, and even sued him when he claimed he wasn’t looking for another job. When he fired Mike Dunleavy in 2010, he refused to pay him, and was eventually forced to pay $13.5 million after an arbitrator made him. When he hired Vinny Del Negro in 2010, the Bulls were paying part of his salary. Now he’s got Byron Scott high on his list or replacements because the Cavs are paying part of his salary.

This saga won’t officially end until the Clippers actually hire a new head coach, however, Donald Sterling thinks were as dumb as Miss Teen South Carolina. Sterling and the Clippers front office will come to Chris Paul and tell him they tried really hard to bring in Doc Rivers, but they’ll claim the league stopped it. Now, Paul has the right to do whatever he wants because he’s a free agent, and if he leaves town the Clippers will be bombed back to the stone age.

The Clippers had a chance to completely alter the trajectory of their franchise for the next decade over the coming weeks, starting with making Doc Rivers their head coach. Hiring Rivers would not only guarantee that Paul would re-sign with the team, but he would give the team instant credibility, and rid them of all the previous skepticism about the franchise. The acquisition of Garnett and eventually Paul Pierce would have made them the favorite to win the Western Conference next season, and an instant championship contender. Even after Garnett and Pierce retire, free agents would be lining up to play with the Clippers.

Instead, Donald Sterling is finding a way to screw this up. Throughout the negotiations, several members in the Celtics organization were reportedly baffled by the Clippers erratic demands, and were unsure where the decisions were coming from. To make matters worse, the Clippers have slowly begun to alienate Blake Griffin, when their front office started rumors of a potential sign and trade to the Lakers for Dwight Howard.

The Clippers are at a pivotal point in the history of their franchise. If someone in the organization could actually convince Sterling to step up and spend money, they could actually have a championship contender next season and beyond. However, it doesn’t even seem that Chris Paul can convince him. Soon enough, they could return to being the same old Clippers.

Voynov Agrees To Deal

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June 19th, 2013

The Kings took care of one of their biggest off-season priorities on Tuesday. They re-signed defenseman Slava Voynov to a 6 year $25 million contract. I know most of you were told there would be no math here at Jock Talk LA, however, that results in a very reasonable $4.1 million cap hit over the next 6 years.

Voynov is a 23 year old native of Russia, and is emerging as one of the best young defenseman in the league. He had 6 goals, 19 assists, and was a +5 in the shortened 48 games season this year. He also led the Kings with 6 goals and 13 points during this year’s playoff run. Voynov set Kings playoff records this year for most goals scored by a defenseman in one year, and most game winning goals in one year.

Interestingly enough, in 6 years from now, both Drew Doughty and Slava Voynov’s contract will expire at the same time. Most Kings fans should be experiencing a heart attack at that point. Still, the Kings salary cap issues this off-season pale in comparison to many other teams. The club currently has $56.7 million committed to 15 players for next season, which still leaves some room under the $64 million salary cap. Dean Lombardi’s next challenge will be trying to re-sign veteran defenseman Rob Scuderi, who has been a key cog for LA’s defense. The Kings also have 6 restricted free agents who will be due raises, along with unrestricted free agents Dustin Penner and Brad Richardson as well.

Lombardi is also shopping backup goaltender Jonathan Bernier, who has expressed a desire to be a number one goaltender for another team. There are currently about 10 teams who are interested according to ESPN’s Pierre Lebrun. One of those teams is the Flyers, who have been a frequent trade partner with the Kings.

The Kings don’t need to waste their time adding any players that are old, underachieving, or that just aren’t worth a crap anymore like Jerome Iginla, Brad Richards, or Daniel Briere. They simply need to try their best to retain as much of their current team as possible. If they can bring back Scuderi on a reasonable deal, they will maintain the strength of their team, which is defense and goaltending. That is what wins championships.

Monday Morning Coffee

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June 17th, 2013

Well folks, it’s that time of the week where I remind you all how much our So Cal baseball teams stink. The Angels found a way to be pathetic on and off the field this weekend. The Angels were promoting Yankees reliever Mariano Rivera coming to town this weekend, and even gave out collectible certificates commemorating his career. Are you kidding? Don’t we have enough douchy Yankee fans that are showing up to the Big A when NY comes to town? Arte Moreno must be getting desperate to fill all the empty seats at the stadium.

The team was equally as horrible on the field yesterday as well, with a 6-5 loss against the Yankees. Once again, Jered Weaver looked more like Sigourney Weaver after getting lit up for 5 runs and 7 hits in 6 innings of work. The Halos tried to rally, but Albert Pujols proved that $250 million just doesn’t buy what it used to, when he struck out with the bases loaded to end the game. One a positive note, Josh Hamilton’s batting average didn’t drop any further, and that’s a relief because Mike Scioscia kept him chained to the bench. Oh by the way, Torii Hunter is making half of what Hamilton is this year, and he’s batting nearly 100 points higher and driven in more runs.

Then there’s the Dodgers, who continued to take one step forward followed by three steps backward. The Boys in Blue dropped 2 of 3 to the Pirates, and are now a season worst 10 games under .500. This team couldn’t hit water if it fell out of a boat. Yasiel Puig is hitting .479, and he can’t even save this team. Don Mattingly did announced that Puig is going to remain in the major leagues for the rest of the season, so at least the team will be entertaining. The Dodgers are 5.5 games behind the Padres, who have a payroll that’s not even one-third of LA’s. Now I see what the Dodgers meant by “A Whole New Blue”. Watching this season hurts more than blue balls.

Why is Clayton Kershaw so upset over details of his contract extension leaking? Kershaw claims it’s a distraction, but let’s be honest, we all need a distraction from this piece of crap season the Dodgers are giving us.

The NBA rumors surrounding the Clippers this weekend were crazier than Justin Bieber speeding through a neighborhood full of kids. The Clipps were deep into negotiations with the Celtics, and were attempting to acquire Doc Rivers, Kevin Garnett, and eventually Paul Pierce, while giving up Deandre Jordan, Caron Butler, and some draft picks. Both sides reached an impasse after the Clippers refused to put Eric Bledsoe in the deal. The most shocking part of this deal would be the fact that Donald Sterling would be willing to pay Doc Rivers $7 million per year. I’m still waiting for Sterling to call the deal off when he finds out it’s really Doc Rivers and not Doctor Jack Ramsey.

Even if the Clippers pull this off without including Bledsoe in the deal, the rumor that Blake Griffin and Bledsoe could be dealt in a sign and trade for Dwight Howard is hard to imagine. Although Griffin and Bledsoe solve a lot of the Lakers current problems, Jim Buss isn’t going to help another franchise in his own building put together a super team with Chris Paul and Dwight Howard. The Lakers end game is to try and acquire Lebron next summer, even if the chances of an asteroid hitting LA are greater. Letting Dwight Howard go to the Clippers would not only reduce the Lakers chances of landing Lebron, but would also increase the chances of the Clippers landing Lebron next summer if Pierce and Garnett retire. In other words, Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak would have to be drinking jet fuel in order for them to trade Howard to the Clippers.

Speaking of the NBA, ESPN insider Marc Stein is a fantastic and reliable reporter, however, he’s a bitch. Back in 2002, Stein refused to come on my Jock Talk radio show at UC Irvine, and he said “sorry, you are an Anteater, and I’m a Triton, can’t do it. Great show though”. Good reporting this weekend Marc. You’re still a bitch though.

Phil Mickelson is the Kevin Durant of the PGA. Mr. 2nd place!

Did anybody catch the Miss USA pageant yesterday? Miss Utah stumbled and rambled through a question regarding income disparity in the U.S., and ended her bizarre statement with a “to create better education” phrase. This was not as bad as Miss Teen South Carolina’s legendary jibberish back in 2007, but still gave everyone watching a good laugh. I’ve never really understood the concept of the Q&A portions of these pageants. More often than not, it just makes these women look like morons. It’s a beauty pageant, not a Model United Nations Conference!

Getting Mean At The Ravine

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June 12th, 2013

These brawls never seem to go well for the Dodgers. The boys in blue got into another brawl with a division rival on Tuesday night at the Ravine, but this time, Zach Greinke wasn’t dumb enough to charge into somebody and break his collarbone. Even though nobody was injured and the Dodgers won the game, that doesn’t mean it won’t prove to be costly for LA.

The Dodgers rookie sensation Yasiel Puig may be suspended for his role in the brawl, which would be another blow to a team that has been sinking faster than the Titanic. Puig has suddenly become the team’s best player, which explains why his teammates protected him after he was hit in the nose in the 6th inning on a pitch by D’Backs ace Ian Kennedy. Zach Greinke does deserve credit for fearlessly plunking Miguel Montero in the next inning, but the game of revenge should have stopped there. Greinke was plunked by Kennedy near his head in the bottom of the inning, which resulted in the bench clearing brawl.

The best part of the brawl was the fact that the old-timers on both sides took center stage. Mark McGwire tossed around Matt Williams, and Don Mattingly took down Alan Trammell. The only thing that would have made this more entertaining is if Charlie Steiner had stormed into the Diamondbacks broadcast booth and body slammed Bob Brenly.

Why the hell is baseball the only sport that allows this nonsense to go on? Even in hockey, where they allow fighting, they never allow the benches to clear. Then again, I’m trying to rationalize the rules of a league that refuses to eliminate cheating and use more instant replay to help its umpires. I forgot that Bud Selig must be trying to preserve “the purity of the game”.

Regardless of this ridiculous culture, pitchers should never throw at anyone’s head. They are messing with players careers when they do it, and they need to be punished for it. Ian Kennedy should be suspended for at least a month for doing this not once, but twice!

As for the Dodgers, the notion that “they finally put up a fight” is absurd. Most of the fight was handled by the old-timers on their bench anyway. That’s like your grandpa standing up for you when you’re getting your ass kicked in a bar by somebody half your size. The real fight these guys need to put up is in the batters box, where with the exception of Puig, the Dodgers have been getting a beat down.

Monday Morning Coffee

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June 10th, 2013

Saturday night was a reminder to all Kings fans what being a sports fan is all about. That is enduring 99% kicks to the ball and 1% glory. Kings fans experienced that 1% glory last year, but it’s back to another kick in the balls this year. This came after Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane ended the Kings bid to repeat as Stanley Cup champions with his game winning goal in double overtime of game 5 of the Western Conference Finals.

The Kings fought harder than Mel Gibson resisting arrest in this game. They could have easily packed it in after trailing 2-0, and 3-2 late in the game. However, LA continued to battle back while I sulked and threw pillows across my living room.

Now that its over, we’ve learned that the Kings were more beaten up than Rhianna when she hangs with Chris Brown. Justin Williams played with a separated shoulder, Dustin Brown had a torn PCL in his knee, and Drew Doughty had an injured ankle. Anze Kopitar insists that he wasn’t hurt, but he looked like he was skating with a piano on his back for much of the playoffs. Nevertheless, the Kings made too many mistakes against a skilled Chicago team. Jonathan Quick wasn’t quite as sharp as he was previously, and the Kings made costly turnovers that the Blackhawks capitalized on.

Nevertheless, the Kings made it further than the last 3 defending champions have, and are poised to be contenders for at least 2 or 3 more years. Many of their core players are under contract for quite some time, and in case you haven’t noticed, their twitter handle is hilarious! After Saturday’s loss, they tweeted this gem: “@penguins you guys wanna grab a drink later?”

Now that the NHL is over, we can all focus on how crappy the Angels and Dodgers are. Do the Halos really not have anyone better than Joe Blanton to send to the mound every 5 days? This guy is a human launching pad, giving up 3 more home runs in Boston yesterday, and he’s now on pace to lose 20 games. Blanton was asked if his next start was a critical one, and he responded by saying “Why should I feel urgency now? I don’t have anything to prove.” Nice to see you are ok being the worst starting pitcher in baseball Joe.

As for the Dodgers, it’s becoming clear now that even Yasiel Puig can’t save their season. They’ll need to win about two-thirds of their remaining games, and that’s not happening if they have to send Stephen Fife and Matt McGill to the mound on a regular basis. At least Puig has given the Dodgers something exciting to watch despite the carnage that is their season.

I like how the new Dodger owners are trying to conceal the details of their business partnership with Frank McCourt, because they claim it will hurt their chances of the NFL wanting to bring a team to LA. I’m pretty sure that just by admitting that they have torpedoed their chances of an NFL team coming to LA. At this point it’s pretty obvious that the NFL is only going to do a deal that works for them. They like the idea of a stadium at Chavez Ravine, but they aren’t dumb enough to do a deal that involves McCourt.

So Lane Kiffin just recruited a 13 year old quarterback who hasn’t even played a down of high school football yet. What good does it do any 13 year old to commit to a school when you are in 8th grade? And will Lane Kiffin even still have a job with USC in 2015? My guess is he won’t.

Why haven’t the Clippers hired a coach yet? They should have contact George Karl 5 seconds after he was fired by the Nuggets. The Clippers seem to have lots of good options in Karl, Brian Shaw, and Lionnel Hollins, however, the real issue is whether or not Donald Sterling’s people can convince him to pay one of these guys what they are looking for. The Clipps should be getting really nervous because the Chris Paul and Dwight Howard to Houston rumors are heating up, and Chris Paul has been strangely quiet about the entire process.

The irony of the Nuggets firing George Karl is that Mike D’Antoni is the perfect fit for them. The Nuggets roster is loaded with young and athletic players that would allow D’Antoni to play his uptempo system. Unfortunately, the Nuggets probably won’t call the Lakers about him, since they currently have a few options on the coaching market. That means the Dwight Howard breakup with the Lakers is coming. This is starting to have the feel of that sometimes crazy girlfriend that you want to stay with, but you can slowly start to feel her pulling away. The really depressing part is that when Dwight signs with the Rockets, it will be as though your girlfriend left you for Urkel.

Finally, season 3 of Game of Thrones is in the books, and it was outstanding. Although the season finale was not quite as exciting as the previous week’s episode, the show is riveting. I’m still astonished at the morons that are threatening to cancel their HBO subscriptions after complaining about the deaths of Rob, Talisa, and Catelyn Stark. If you’ve been watching the show from the beginning, you know that the show isn’t about love, happiness, and moral righteousness. It’s about a world where those who use cruel, devious, and underhanded tactics come out on top. Not that I’ve read the books, but the writers of the show seem determined to deviate from plot in the books a bit in order to emphasize these points. It’s going to be a long wait until season 4, but looking forward to it!

Noooooo!!!!

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June 7th, 2013

Where the hell was Anze Kopitar? Where the hell was captain Dustin Brown? This would be an excellent time for you guys to show up and start contributing offensively! For all intents and purposes, the Kings season is over. The Kings lost to Chicago 3-2 in game 4 of the Western Conference Finals at Staples Center, and are now down 3-1 in the best of 7 series.

Most Kings fans seem to be blaming Tia Toscano for not singing the national anthem. Tia gets some of the blame, but I think most starts with Kopitar and Brown. When this is all over, we better find out that these guys were hurt because they’ve played like garbage. Jonathan Quick has to be flawless to make up for the crap these guys are pulling. Quick made some stellar saves in game 4, but allowed one soft goal to Bryan Bickell early in the game, which got the Blackhawks going.

Did anyone listen to what I had to say after game 3? I said a critical factor in the rest of the series was which duo could pull their game out of the crapper first: Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane, or Kopitar and Brown. Obviously it was Kane and Toews who pulled it together in game 4, which is why the Kings are almost ready to start booking tee times. Kopitar has been exiled to the third line, and you wouldn’t even be able to tell he’s even in the lineup. Dustin Brown has remained on the 1st line, but you also wouldn’t know he’s there. The Kings are already without an injured Mike Richards, and they might as well be playing without Brown and Kopitar at this point.

Despite Kopitar and Brown’s invisibility, the Kings had plenty of chances to win game 4. They had a one goal lead twice, but Just Williams failed to put the game away on his breakaway, and the Kings couldn’t score on the powerplay in the 3rd when their season depended on it. Who the hell has been calling the Kings line changes the last two games anyway? Vinny Del Negro? The Kings made a terrible line change early in the 3rd and the Hawks scored the game winner as a result. They made the same mistake in game 3, and could have been burned again if it hadn’t been for an offside call.

What the hell was Daryl Evans wearing on the Kings post game show last night? It was some kind of a velvet suit with a strange floral pattern on it. Evans must be shopping with Dwayne Wade these days.

Also, screw you Tim Leiweke! In an interview with a local Toronto TV station, he was asked about how he felt about Leafs fans. He said:

“We didn’t have that in L.A. and we won the Stanley Cup. We finally saw it at the end. It took us getting to the finals in order to awaken that town. It’s not a hockey town.”

“You had more built up passion for this hockey team (Toronto) and that organization on an AWAY playoff game than we EVER did, INCLUDING winning the Stanley Cup, Game 6, Home Ice at Staples Center.”

Tim, for decades Kings fans have come out to Staples Center to see the piece of shit teams that you helped put on the ice. We paid your ridiculous ticket prices to build your precious LA Live, and help finance a football stadium for a team that you were unable to acquire. LA may not be a hockey town, but it’s got plenty of passionate hockey fans that have been showing up to games forever. Also, thanks for giving Gretzky away for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Have fun north of the border in America Jr you lying sack of crap!

Finally, memo to Fred Roggin of NBC: Why haven’t you displayed my awesome picture on the 11:00 pm news? You said you wanted to show great pictures of Kings fans, and I know my picture below is better than most of the pictures you’ve shown!

Puigsanity

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June 5th, 2013

Can Yasiel Puig save the Dodgers? It’s only been two games, but he’s already 5 for 8 with 2 home runs, 5 RBI, and 3 extra base hits. Just to put that in perspective, Puig already has as many home runs as Matt Kemp. He has more extra base hits than Luis Cruz, and nearly half as many hits in 34 fewer games! This dude can play, and he probably should have been playing in the majors 20 games ago.

Puig is much less polished than Angels outfielder Mike Trout was when the Halos called him up last year. However, he is already creating a tremendous buzz at Dodger Stadium that we haven’t seen since everyone was sporting those Manny Ramirez wigs. Puig is going to make mistakes, but there is no doubt the Dodgers need to keep him in the lineup as long as possible because he is currently their best chance to win.

The Dodgers are 7.5 games back in the NL West, and 8.5 games back of the wild card. These are deficits that aren’t insurmountable, but they’ll need Puig and Hanley Ramirez to carry the load offensively. That jolt could pull the Dodgers out of the NL West basement, but at some point Puig figures to regress toward the mean. He may end up being a great player for LA, but he’ll take some time to put it all together.

Puig reminds me of a young Raul Mondesi, which is actually scary because he has the same maturity issues as Mondesi. Nevertheless, every time this guy comes to the plate, everyone stops what they are doing to see how special Puig could really be.

At some point, if the Dodgers are going to do any damage, Matt Kemp or Andre Ethier will have to pull their games out of the crapper. Everyone wants Andre Ethier ejected from the universe immediately after just two solid games from Puig. I say ride the wave until his hot streak ends, and maybe it will push Ethier and Kemp to get their games together. Until then then, enjoy the Puig Party!

Blackhawk Down

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June 5th, 2013

Another close call, but the Kings came up with another win at home. The Kings jumped out to a 2-0 lead agains the Blackhawks in game 3 of the Western Conference Finals, and held on for dear life in the final minutes before adding an empty net goal, securing the 3-1 victory. Justin Williams came up big again, scoring the first goal of the game, which was his 4th goal in the last 4 games. Williams said “I don’t think we were too uptight at all. We knew what we had to do, plain and simple. We’ve been here before, and we used that to help us tonight.” Really? because I was practically peeing in my pants, just knowing you had to win this game!

Jonathan Quick should be arrested for robbing Bryan Bickell of a goal late in the 3rd period. Quick somehow came up with a save from point blank range with the inside of his blocker. As I predicted, Quick rebounded from his subpar performance in game 2, by playing a spectacular game 3. Meanwhile, Slava Voynov’s agent could hear the cash registers ringing after scoring the game winning goal in the 2nd period. Voynov now has 5 goals in the playoffs, which is a record for Kings defenseman in the playoffs. He’s a restricted free agent this off-season, and the Kings will have to find a way to lock him up long term.

I expect Hawks defenseman Duncan Keith to be suspended for the next two games after high-sticking Jeff Carter. If he isn’t, Kings fan should be lining up with pitch forks and tiki torches outside of Brendan Shanahan’s office. Keith is a repeat offender, and we’ve already seen incidents like this where Shanahan suspended first time offenders for two games. Keith appeared to be sorry for the incident, but he should still be punished regardless of the intent.

Speaking of being sorry, Anze Kopitar needs to send Daryl Sutter an apology of some kind to get out of his coaches dog house. Kopitar was demoted to the third line after continuing his scoring struggles. His play last night wasn’t bad, but he needs to score goals if the Kings hope to win this series.

The Kings did a great job of imposing their style of play on the Blackhawks. LA made sure Chicago couldn’t build up speed through the neutral zone as they did in the first two games, and their defense was tighter than a Beyonce jumpsuit. They also knocked the Hawks around, outhitting them 36-26. The Kings aren’t back in the series yet, but if they bring the same effort to the table Thursday, I like their chances of tying this series up.

Monday Morning Coffee

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June 3rd, 2013

The sky is falling Kings fans! Time to hit the panic button! The Kings were abused in games 1 and and 2 of their Western Conference Finals matchup with the Blackhawks, and find themselves trailing 2-0 in the series, with game 3 Tuesday night at Staples Center. The scary part about game 2, was that the Kings played much better than in game 1, yet they were beaten like Rodney King.

The Kings have won 14 straight at Staples Center, but does anybody really think they can win 4 of the next 5 games after what they saw this weekend? The Hawks are imposing their speedy and uptempo style of play on LA, which is a problem for a Kings team who’s success is dependent on playing a slower, grind-it-out game. Is it too late to get a refund on Robyn Regehr? He signs a 2 year extension with the Kings on Friday, and managed to score an own-goal in game 2 on Jonathan Quick.

Quick has often bounced back after poor outings, but the rest of the team needs to start playing their style of hockey Tuesday night. Otherwise, they will be dusting off their golf clubs later this week.

The Dodgers finally called up Yasiel Puig, but what the hell took so long? The team is going down faster than a Thai hooker, and this guy supposedly has a “Bo Jackson like” set of skills, according to Don Mattingly. Heck, why stop at Puig? With Andre Ethier playing like hell, the Dodgers should bring up Joc Peterson too and stick him in center field, while moving Puig to right. At least that will give LA two outfielders who can potentially earn their paychecks.

Then there’s the Angels, who continue to get dominated by the worst team in the American League, the Houston Astros. The Halos need to create a new promotional opportunity for the fans: every time Josh Hamilton strikes out, all beers go for 10 cents for the next half inning. This really isn’t all that unreasonable, considering the Angels fans will need plenty of booze to make it through the rest of this season.

Once again, Donald Sterling is unable to get out of his own way, and he is on the verge of screwing up his franchise again. Sterling opened his big mouth to TJ Simers of the LA Times, and essentially blamed the firing of Vinny Del Negro on Chris Paul. According to ESPN’s Chris Broussard, Paul is very angry with the Clippers for placing the blame on him. This is exactly the excuse that Paul needed all along to take his talents elsewhere, which is what I believe he will do.

I also don’t believe for even one second that the Clippers will land any of the big coaching names that are being talked about such as Jeff Van Gundy, Lionel Hollins, George Karl, or even Brian Shaw. None of these coaches are dumb enough to agree to become the Clippers coach without knowing whether or not Paul will be staying with the team, not to mention the fact Sterling is too cheap to pay any of them the kind of money they are looking for.

I’ve got the Heat over the Pacers tonight in game 7. Lebron isn’t going to let this team lose, and neither is NBA dictator, David Stern.

Kings vs Blackhawks: How They Really Matchup

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May 31st, 2013

Most of the previews I’ve seen for the Kings and Blackhawks take a look at the regular season numbers, and how the teams did in the three match ups against each other. At the risk of stating the obvious, this isn’t the regular season! It’s not always who you play, but when you play them. During the regular season the Hawks won 2 of the 3 games, but that’s about as relevant today as an eight-track player. Vegas lists the Hawks as slight favorites, but let’s take a closer look.

Forwards: The Blackhawks forwards are loaded with talent. The combination of Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Marian Hossa, Patrick Sharp, and Brandon Saad is among the best in the NHL. Their speed and skill will be a challenge for the Kings to defend. Those 5 forwards have combined to score 15 goals in the post season thus far, but appeared to have some trouble with the Red Wings feisty defense in the last round. The Kings combination of Anze Kopitar, Justin Williams, Dustin Brown, Jeff Carter, and Mike Richards has scored a total of just 9 goals throughout the playoffs. They don’t quite have the explosive speed of the Hawks, but they have provided timely scoring throughout the playoffs.

Advantage: Blackhawks

Defense: Both teams have a very versatile group of defenseman. The Hawks Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook are skilled puck movers that can create offense on the rush. Johnny Oduya and Niklas Hjalmarsson have also helped stabilize a Chicago defense that has allowed the 2nd fewest goals in this years playoffs. However, the Kings have allowed the fewest goals of any team in this years playoffs. Drew Doughty is one of the top 5 defenseman in the world, capable of playing in any situation. Slava Voynov is starting to emerge as one of the league’s top defenseman, Matt Greene and Robyn Regehr have been punishing opposing forwards, and Rob Scuderi is always solid. Although the Chicago defense has been reliable, the Kings depth and physicality at this position give them a slight edge.

Advantage: Kings

Goaltending: Corey Crawford has been solid through the first two rounds of the playoffs with a 1.70 goals against average and a .938 save percentage. Crawford let’s in an occasional soft goal, but benefits quite a bit from Chicago’s excellent puck possession game. He is opposed by the reigning Conn Smythe Trophy Winner, and arguably the best goaltender in the world, Jonathan Quick. Quick leads all playoff goaltenders in goal against average, save percentage, shutouts, and appears to be playing even better than last year. The Kings can only hope that Quick can post a shutout or two in Chicago, so they won’t have to hear that dumb ass song they play in the United Center every time the Hawks score a goal.

Advantage: Kings

Special Teams: The Blackhawks powerplay was ranked 19th in the NHL this season, and 10th in the postseason. Their powerplay has been the most ineffective of all the teams remaining in the postseason. This can likely be blamed on special teams coach Jamie Kompon, who was with LA last year, and nearly crapped all over their success. The Blackhawks have been the best penalty killing team in the playoffs, while the Kings have been the 5th best penalty killing group. LA’s powerplay has been effective, and ranks 6th in the playoffs.

Advantage: Blackhawks

Prediction: The Blackhawks have incredible offensive firepower, and a solid defensive core that will present a challenge for LA. However, Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane have had some trouble scoring in the playoffs, and it won’t get any easier against the Kings stingy defense and elite goaltending. There is something to be said for playing a gritty and tough style in the playoffs, as opposed to simply being a finesse team. The Hawks peaked in the regular season, the Kings are starting to peak now, and goaltending is the great equalizer in the NHL. Kings in 6.