Rough night in Philly

I was working behind the bar last night, and I hardly got to see any of the Boston/Philly game(s).  What are the odds of a Celtics road playoff game and a Red Sox interleague game happening simultaneously just a few hundred yards apart?

Since I don't like to dwell on the negative, I'm not going to watch the DVR of the C's game.  But from looking at the box score, two strange things jump out at me.  For the second consecutive game Ray Allen had more rebounds than points.  It was surprising the first time it happened, but twice in a row is just weird.  In fact, he's never done that in his career before, ever.  And for the first time in a long time, Greg Stiemsma had a DNP CD (for you non hoops nerds that's "Did Not Play, Coaches Decision").  Ryan Hollins has been eating into Stiemsma's back up center minutes, and now it appears he's taken over completely.  I'm not sure how I feel about this.  I may not get another chance to where my favorite new shirt.

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Do you know about the L.A. Kings?

I was under the impression that the NHL season ended three weeks ago.  But apparently it's still going, and there is a crazy story brewing in Los Angeles.  The Kings 2-1 victory last night over the Phoenix Coyotes (yes, it's L.A. vs Phoenix for the Western Conference title; in hockey, not basketball) put them on the verge of the Stanley Cup Finals with a 3-0 series lead.  L.A. has won 8 straight games, and is a spectacular 11-1 in the playoffs so far.  Led by their suddenly untouchable goalie Jonathan Quick, the Kings have yet to give up more than two goals in a single post season game.  All of these numbers are pretty remarkable on their own, but here's the kicker: L.A. is the #8 seed.  That's right, the last team in the conference to make the playoffs.  And they have absolutely dominated.

This helps confirm two things I believe about hockey: One, as soon as the NHL playoffs begin, it's an absolute crap shoot who wins.  And two, the only thing that really matters is a hot goalie.  Having said that, I'm kind of a fan of the L.A. Kings.  Back when I used to play NHL '94 for Super Nintendo with my buddies in high school, they we're my team.  But not cause of Gretzky, I liked Luc Robitaille, who's now their team President.  I thought I'd written something about NHL '94 in the past, but I can't seem to find it in my archives.  Anyway, it's one of the greatest video games of all time, and definitely worth a blog of it's own in the future.

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The old guys still bring it when they need to

It's time for everybody to stop making "KG turned back the clock last night" references over and over again.  And we don't need to hear anymore of those "Garnett gave us a a vintage 2004 performance" comments every other day.  It's just dumb.  Kevin Garnett is very very good.  Right now.  Over the last four games he's averaging 25 points and 12.5 rebounds (and those numbers could easily be higher, his 27 and 13 last night came in only thirty minutes of action).  For the entire post season he's averaging 21 and 11, which ranks him as the 6th best scorer and 2nd best rebounder still playing.  With him on the floor the Celtics are +121 in the playoffs.  With Garnett on the bench they are -71.  One could make a good case that he has been the MVP of the post season so far.

Oh, and you know who else is still really good?  Paul Pierce.  Last night Pierce scored 24 points (including two monster dunks) and grabbed 12 rebounds, while allegedly nursing a bad knee.  Combined with Rajon Rondo's 23 points and 14 assists, the three of them became the first trio of teammates to post 20-10 double doubles in a playoff game in four years.  Ray Allen only attempted one field goal (matching his career low), but it hardly mattered.  Boston used a 50-21 run over an 18 minute span in the 2nd/3rd quarters to run the Sixers right out of their own building.

As I've said before, old guys win in the playoffs.  The Celtics keep coming up big in the games that they need to.  It's almost as if they hoped they could get by Philly without their best effort, but the home loss on Monday forced them to bring their "A" game last night.  And their "A" game is still very very good.

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Is neon coming back?

When I was in 8th grade I dressed like this:

I'm actually blown away that google images found this picture for me.  I used to have that exact windbreaker.  At the time it was probably my favorite piece of clothing ever.  I had baseball caps in fluorescent pink, green, and yellow.  Tennis shorts in all three of those colors as well.  A lot of the credit has to go to Andre Agassi and Nike, which were pretty much the two coolest things going.

Nike Air Tech Challenge II (1990)

  But it wasn't just me, in the late '80s/early '90s people everywhere wore neon.  And now, twenty-some years later, I have a feeling it may be coming back, and again I wonder if Nike is the culprit.  In the last few weeks I've seen women everywhere wearing neon shirts and shoes while jogging.  That's how it starts, just creeping it's way back in, one small niche at a time.  Next thing you know we'll be back to this:

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I don't think the Chris Bosh injury matters

I have heard and read a lot of opinions the last couple days on what Chris Bosh's abdominal strain means to the Miami Heat.  But I have yet to see someone express the same view as mine: I think the absence of Bosh will have no effect on the Heat's success whatsoever.  They may win the title, they may lose to the Pacers this round, but I think the outcome will be the same with or without Bosh.  I know they went 4-5 without him this season.  I know their other bigs are terrible and their bench is very thin.  But honestly the only player who really matters for Miami is Lebron James.

In 2009 the Cavs finished an NBA best 66-16.  The next best player on that team was... Mo Williams?  Zydrunas Ilgauskas?  Anderson Varejao?  Sasha Pavlovic?  Ok, maybe not Sasha, but Cleveland was just a team featuring Lebron and a bunch of other regular NBA players.  They lost in the Eastern Conference Finals to an Orlando squad that got crazy hot hitting threes.  The following year Lebron and a similarly mediocre roster again had the best record in the league (59-23), but they lost in the Eastern Conference Semifinals to Boston when he seemed lost and disinterested for half the series (possibly because one of his teammates was sleeping with his mom).  And finally last year, in the first post "decision" season in Miami, Lebron and the Heat made it to the NBA Finals.  However "King" James put forth one of the worst playoff series any superstar has ever had, and Miami lost the championship to Dallas.

My point is this: Lebron and any four average NBA players have the talent to win the title.  But for whatever reason up to this point he has been unable to get it done.  Whether it happens this year or not has everything to do with him and very little to do with the health of Chris Bosh.

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Awesome Old Song of the Week: "Pictures of You" by The Cure

The single Pictures of You was released in 1990, but I definitely wasn't aware of it then.  In fact I didn't really know anything about The Cure until Friday I'm in Love became a huge mainstream pop hit a couple years later.  I'm not exactly sure at what point I discovered this song.  It's been in many many TV commercials over the years; I remember one in particular for Hewlett Packard digital photography that I thought was fairly recent, but it turns out is from 2003.  I swear Kodak or Polaroid or somebody must have used the song in another ad since then, because I can't believe the one I'm thinking of is nine years old.  The interweb seems to disagree with me though.  Anyway, moving on, here's the video:

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This Rondo triple double nonsense is getting out of hand. Also, the Sox aren't dead yet

Here's the most recent (and 5th overall) photo of my television displaying a ridiculous Rajon Rondo triple double stat on espn:

In the entire history of the NBA, there are exactly four guys with more career playoff triple doubles than Rondo.  Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Jason Kidd, and Wilt Chamberlain.  That's it.  He's got the same number as Oscar Robertson, and one more than the newly crowned MVP of the league down in South Beach.

Also, the Red Sox are showing some signs of life.  You can read about the triumphant return of Daniel Nava in my article for clnsradio.com.

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