Pitch Perfect 2 and the NBA playoffs--does it get any better?

I may have just seen the greatest commercial ever.  I'm not even joking.  Pitch Perfect is one of my favorite movies.  The NBA postseason is one of my favorite things, period.  And now they're all rolled up into one.

I couldn't find this on YouTube, so I had to film it with my phone right off the television:



There's also this one with the Raptors' Kyle Lowry:



The only thing that could make this better would be if it featured Brad Stevens.

Three years ago I wrote a blog called "I don't like commercials for two things at once that are totally unrelated."  Hmm, I guess I have to revise my stance on that, as long as it's the right two things...


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Why is Facebook doing a security check when I post things on my page?

Lately when I have gone to post articles on my LucidSportsFan and CelticsLife Facebook pages, this security check has been popping up:

What the heck Facebook?  This is super annoying and really slows me down.  Why do I need a security check to post things on my own page?  Has anybody else noticed this?  What's the point?


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How good are the Celtics? Is Isaiah Thomas 6th man of the year? Plus other crazy NBA stats...

Here are a few tweets I sent out last night after Luigi Datome of all people scored 22 points to lead Boston to it's 40th win of the year:

Celtics close the regular season with 6-game winning streak overall, 7 in a row on the road, & 8 straight on the 2nd night of back-to-backs
— CelticsLife.com (@CelticsLife) April 16, 2015

The Celtics just went 24-12 (.667) in their last 36 games. That's 44% of the season that they were basically an elite NBA team. @CelticsLife
— Mark Vandeusen (@LucidSportsFan) April 16, 2015

Imagine if the Celtics had started the season 24-12? People would be freaking out. #CelticsTalk
— Mark Vandeusen (@LucidSportsFan) April 16, 2015

Think about that for a second.  If the NBA season had begun in early February, the Celtics might be viewed as one of the best teams in basketball:

One last time, the NBA's best records since February 2: Warriors 30-7 Spurs 25-9 Cavs 24-9 Rockets 23-11 Clippers 23-11 CELTICS 24-12
— CelticsLife.com (@CelticsLife) April 16, 2015

Topic No. 2, there's a very strong case for Isaiah Thomas to win the league's Sixth Man of the Year Award.  As I wrote on CelticsLife this morning, he's got the best stats, but he was also traded mid-season and Boston actually did just as well without him (10-5) after the magical February 2 date mentioned above.

And finally, check out my Stat Central feature today on Hoops Habit: Final NBA Leaders And Other Historical Performances.  Quick teaser: The top two rebounders in the league this season also both shot under 40 percent on free throws, the second and third worst percentages of all time.


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So, bring on LeBron, I guess?

When Jae Crowder buried this absurd jumper to lift the Celtics to victory over the Raptors last night, the TD Garden crowd erupted in celebration:

Jae Crowder for the game-winner! Celtics win, 95-93! pic.twitter.com/BT6Vs8iwN5
— Peter Stringer (@peterstringer) April 15, 2015

I just sat in my seat and laughed.

Obviously I'm never one to root for a loss, but I was hoping the Celtics would fall to No. 8 and match up with the Hawks in Round 1 of the playoffs.  Instead, Crowder's basket locked Boston into the No. 7 seed and a trip to Cleveland.

There are two reasons why I wanted Atlanta instead of the LeBrons:

1.  I think the Celtics had a significantly greater chance to be competitive against the Hawks.

2.  Much more importantly, getting beat by the Cavs is going to be extremely annoying.  In case you're not a regular visitor to LucidSportsFan.com, I am not a fan of LeBron James.  Roughly 99 percent of what he does irritates me.  Watching my Celtics struggle against an obviously much more talented LeBron team in the playoffs will aggravate me to no end.  By comparison, falling to Atlanta would've been no big deal.

Losing to your arch enemy is a lot worse than losing to somebody you don't care about.

On the other hand, I also wrote a piece this morning for CelticsLife called Red hot Celtics riding wave of momentum into playoffs.  What Boston has done over the past 11 weeks is borderline unbelievable.


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Legendary Brady-Ortiz first pitch, and magical Mookie

My two biggest takeaways from the Red Sox home opener yesterday at Fenway Park:

1.  A four-time Super Bowl champion and likely the greatest quarterback ever to play the game of football, threw out the ceremonial first pitch to a three-time World Series champion who is also arguably the greatest MLB player ever at his position.  Both guys are responsible for changing the cultures of their respective franchises from losers to winners.

We don't necessarily realize it because it's happening now, but Tom Brady and David Ortiz are legendary professional athletes.  The two of them combining on a first pitch is just about as good as it gets.  The best Boston-centric analogy I can think of requires some time travel, and would involve Larry Bird or Bill Russell, fresh of a most-recent title, dropping the puck for Bobby Orr at a Bruins game--if Orr won another Stanley Cup or two first.

2.  Mookie Betts hit a home run and robbed Bryce Harper of another, but neither feat compares to him stealing two bases on one pitch.  My favorite play in baseball may be when a runner steals second, then takes third after forcing an errant throw into center field.  Betts managed to do it without the help of a bad throw.

Mookie Betts mastered the art of the pop-up slide and it was #JustRidiculous https://t.co/ajwc0aINfR
— 120 Sports (@120Sports) April 14, 2015

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I can't wait for the 4-way tie for 2nd place in the NBA's Western Conference

The other day the San Antonio Spurs were sixth in the West.  Now they are second.  Similarly, the Houston Rockets dropped from second to sixth with a single defeat.  With two games remaining (one for the Spurs), there are four Western Conference team that have 26 losses.  Here's a screenshot of the current standings from ESPN.com (the Trail Blazers are guaranteed the fourth seed by virtue of winning their division):

There's a very real chance San Antonio, Houston, the Clippers and Memphis could all finish 56-26 or 55-27.  The tiebreaker to determine who is second, third, fifth and sixth would be determined by division winners (Spurs, Grizzlies or Rockets, which would have their own tiebreakers first), followed by each club's record in games played among those teams teams, followed by overall conference record if it's still tied.  It took me long enough to figure that out for the Celtics, Nets and Pacers (read how Boston can avoid the Cavs in Round 1 on CelticsLife), so there's no way I'm going to dive into that for four teams out west...

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Awesome Old Song of the Week: "Lie in Our Graves" by the Dave Mathews Band

I can't believe it's been 20 years since I first listened to the Dave Mathews Band.  Their album Under the Table and Dreaming got me hooked just as I was graduating high school.  The following year when I went to college, everybody loved DMB.

Over the summer between my freshman and sophomore years, Crash came out.  On the first day back at school in the fall of 1996, the CD was blaring from 99 percent of the dorm rooms on campus.  I'm not even joking.  Maybe it was only 98 percent--but I definitely remember hearing it non-stop all afternoon as I moved my stuff in.

My favorite track on the disc is one that was never released as a single, Lie In Our Graves.



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