Thoughts for the Night

Don't know how often I'll update but here goes:

11:14 p.m.

Three technicals in two minutes - here we go again.

11:12 p.m.

Did I curse Birdman? He just got dunked on for the second time tonight - neither by Kobe Bryant or Pau Gasol.

10:33 p.m.

Nice ESPN2 shot of A.J. Burnett packing a huge wad of dip in the Yankees clubhouse. Is that the key to his shutout tonight?

9:35 p.m.

Cool story about Nuggets forward Chris Anderson. While traveling with the Mount men's basketball team this winter we happened to be staying in the same hotel (The Embassy Suites in Secaucus, N.J.) as Denver before they played the Nets.

I got in the elevator to go down to the bus before our game and who else was standing there but the Birdman? I had watched part of the Nuggets game the night before and he had gotten off to a hot start. When I asked him how he finished for the night (in a Denver victory) his numbers weren't much more than what I had seen in the beginning of the first half.

"I had to shut it down," Anderson told me. "We got another game tonight." It was interesting to hear a professional athlete talking about the need to save energy. If you think about all the traveling they do, though, it makes sense - especially after playing road games on consecutive nights. And the way he's playing this postseason it seems as if that was energy well-conserved.

Sidenote: Courtney Nyce of the Mount women's team got two autographs from Carmelo Anthony - one of them for me. That was a pretty good road trip.

8:10 p.m.

I'm torn as to who to root for in the Blackhawks vs. Red Wings Game 5. Detroit is a near lock to join Pittsburgh in its second consecutive Stanley Cup Finals, but there are pros and cons to the game ending tonight.

If Chicago wins, that will mean Detroit will have had to play at least one additional game before facing the Pens.

If they lose, however, Pittsburgh will have nearly a two-week wait between Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals and Game 1 of the Stanley Cup. Not only is that too long for a hot team to have off (see Colorado Rockies 2007), but it would also be a complete buzzkill to the excitement of the NHL Playoffs. (Didn't think I'd say that anytime soon.)

I guess more rest while the opponent gets beat up would be better than seeing Game 1 a few days sooner. Go 'Hawks.

One before Two except after C and in the NBA

Two things are really bothering me today. The first one is the fact that the NBA starts second-round games before all the first-round series have played out. i.e. game one of Magic vs. Pistons followed by game one Suns vs. Spurs on TNT right now, which precedes Hawks vs. Celtics game seven tomorrow.
The second thing that bothers me is that I never realized the NBA did this in the past. I'm pretty sure MLB and the NHL don't do something so stupid. And obviously with one-game rounds neither does the NFL.
So how is it fair to have two mildly rested teams begin the second round while one of the teams on the other side of the bracket in the conference has to play a game seven before a quick turnaround to begin the second round themselves?
This is like walking a bride down the aisle with the best man ready at the altar, but not the groom.
This serves as one more reason why the general sports fan has a hard time putting the NBA on the same level as the NFL, and even MLB for that matter.

Wammi Youuu: Crank dat DeShawn

On a night when Soulja Boy attends the Wizards-Cavs game, Carlos Boozer knocks Carl Landry's tooth out, a courtside Jazz fan gets tossed for reasons I still am not clear about and Tracy McGrady scores his first fourth quarter field goal of the series, I wonder why some people still refuse to accept the NBA Playoffs as one of the great sports spectacles.
Caron Butler even did a little crankin' after his and-one late in a game that was well out of hand at the time. I can't wait to see how DeShawn Stevenson responds to his own performance last night. He'll probably attribute the success to his mentor Soulja Boy while LeBron AKA Jay-Z was unable to carry his team to a 3-0 series lead.
Back to McGrady for a second though -- he is a sad excuse for a playoff baller. That brick he threw up at the end of the game was embarrassing. Charles Barkley's golf swing is pretty than McGrady's fourth quarter playoff performances.
I'm still not sure how the Rockets managed to win this game. After Kyle Korver hit that three to bring the Jazz within what I think was four points (93-89?), it looked as if the Western Conference Semifinals would only take eight games combined.

In the East, I think if the Wizards really want to have a shot, they should sign Frank Thomas and have him go Marty McSorley on LeBron and save Brendan Haywood the technicals. Otherwise he's going to come back more pissed off than ever for the rest of the series en route to a rematch with the Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals.

And speaking of McSorley/hockey, can we just skip to the Penguins-Red Wings already? Someone tell me A. Who will stop Sidney Crosby B. Who will stop Detroit C. Who in their right mind would trade for Pacman Jones.

Nevermind on part C.