UngsungBlog: A (Fantasy) Sports Blog

No quick-hitters, but one quick aside:  tonight at the Nokia Theater LA Live, Vin Scully & John Wooden will be on-stage together, and yours truly has tickets to the affair.  Two legends of their respective sports—and arguably life itself—and the proceeds go to cancer research?  Awesome.

I can’t wait!

- So after having a night to sleep on the disaster that was Game Four, I woke up, dropped by ESPN.com, and happened to notice that Bill Simmons posted a running diary of the game.

(Yeah, it just so happened that he was keeping a running diary of arguably the greatest combination comeback/gag job in NBA Finals history.  Uh-huh.)

Let the hysteria/myopia begin:

1) “Special thanks to Gasol for not helping in time — I’m starting to think Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittenton and two draft picks was a fair trade.”  By this logic, the Randy Moss trade was an awful one for the Pats.

Does anyone think the Lakers would be anywhere close to where they are without Gasol?  And would be singing a different tune if Bynum were healthy?

2) “Just when I thought this couldn’t get any better, they just cut to a replay of Vujacic punching a chair and fighting back tears on the bench. That wasn’t just the best moment of the Celtics season, I think it was the best moment of my life.”  Talk about kicking a guy (and all of Los Angeles, for that matter) while he’s down.  Seriously?  The best moment of your life?

3) “RAY ALLEN!

RAY ALLEN!

RAY ALLEN!”

As great as Allen has played in this series, the MVP has to go to Pierce (his Game One “theatrics” aside), right?  The Celts’ comeback only got rolling when Pierce finally realized that the likes of Vlad, Walton, Ariza, and even Kobe couldn’t guard him.  In addition, Pierce had as much to do with Kobe’s lackluster game than Kobe himself.

4) “The Kobe-MJ thing … done. Over. Jordan never would have let that happen in the Finals. Ever. Under any circumstances. Nobody is ever allowed to bring this up again.”

Done and done.  Kobe could win the next four rings by himself, and I wouldn’t rank him up there with MJ.  Simmons couldn’t be more right on.

5) “For all my bitching about Doc Rivers over the years, I have to hand it to him — he played the right guys at the right time and helped facilitate one of the great moments in Boston Celtics history. The man deserves all the credit in the world. He outcoached the Zen Master. It happened. His focus was on winning, and they won.”

See #4.  Rivers could easily have over-coached, but he didn’t.  He was as integral to the Celtics’ winning, I’d argue, as the Big Three.

When Simmons was expressing his lust for the Patriots during the last NFL season, his articles were completely unreadable to me.  I really couldn’t stand them.  For some reason though, his love-fest for both the Red Sox and the Celtics don’t annoy me nearly as much.  I guess it might have something to do with my added hatred for Beli-cheat, Brady, et al.

- Some more NBA Finals parting thoughts:

1) Tell me John Hollinger did not just rate Dwyane Wade’s 2006 FT-shooting contest performance as the greatest Finals performance of all time.

(If you want to award Wade an Oscar after the fact for his performance, on the other hand, I’m fine with that.)

Wade’s performance was better than any of MJ’s six Finals’ performances?  Really?  You can say that with a straight face?

2) Every LA fan has to wonder how much different our interior defense would be with a healthy Bynum out there.

By “different,” of course I mean “better.”

I’ll think about it…for another week or so.

3) Does this game do more to Kobe’s legacy than the three rings he won with Shaq?

I’m inclined to say “absolutely.”

I guess I can now return my Sceptre LCD TV I bought from Costco early last year :P.  Do you blame me?  I’ve got a summer to look forward to of watching the Dodgers stink (in HD, at least!), Boston Celtics’ championship DVDs (”Witness the greatest comeback in NBA Finals History!  AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”), and decent summer shows—My Boys, Burn Notice, to name a couple—that aren’t in HD because Time Warner hasn’t yet offered USA in HD yet.

(That was supposed to be a Bostonian “AHHHHHHHHH!” like in Good Will Hunting, and not a scream.  I’m terrible at phonetically spelling stuff :P)

Later.

Tags: bill simmons, boston celtics, diary, dwyane wade, greatest finals performances, john hollinger, john wooden, los angeles lakers, nba finals, scully & wooden for the kids, vin scully by Peter
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Quick-hitters:

- I just noticed that my blog lists blog categories under “Tags:” at the end of each blog entry, rather than the tags themselves.

I’ve since fixed this, but knowing me, I probably screwed up somewhere.  If anyone sees a problem with the “Tags:” entry in the future, please let me know!

- Current rebate-o-meter:  $1,550 (not counting the two orders I placed in the last hour or so and, obviously, have yet to even consider filing :P).

No changes to my toothpaste-o-meter, but I did pick up six additional bottles of mouthwash.

- Lamar Odom just earned his entire year’s salary tonight.  Too bad it was all for naught.  The Lakers’ bigs finally started running hard in that first quarter.  Where was this during the first three games of the series?  And did someone inject something into Trevor Ariza?

(Random thought:  That crossover that Luke Walton pulled off early in the second quarter might have been the whitest crossover ever :P)

Naturally, Boston was going to make their run in the second quarter, but that three-point play by Fisher was absolutely huge.  And did I read that wrong, or did Kobe really not have a FG in the first half?

Then the third quarter happened, and with that, the series is now over.

(David Stern probably is not a happy camper.  Certainly he wanted this series to go seven.  Well, perhaps he could still do something about it… :P)

There’s just something about the third quarter that just absolutely energizes the Celtics.  21-3 to end the quarter?  +16 for the entire quarter?  That might have been even more impressive than the Lakers winning the first quarter by a record-setting 21 points!  Most importantly, Pierce got rolling, and that’s when I knew the Lakers were in huge trouble.

Championship teams play through adversity.  Boston clutched up.  The Lakers wilted.  Ray Allen gets to the basket untouched?  And why the hell did the Lakers inbound the ball???  And those are the reasons why Boston is going to win the NBA Championship in five or six games.

Worst of all, now I’m going to have to hear how the Lakers choked away a 24-point lead for years to come, especially from the Boston myopians.

(Thanks, Jeff Van Gundy, for the hex, when you declared the series tied 2-2 early in the game :P)

Congrats, Celtics!  You deserved it!

One parting thought:  this series reminds me a bunch of the 2004 Finals, minus the team bickering.  I argued that Detroit actually won that series 5-0, and one could argue that Boston is up 4-0 in this series right now.

Let’s hope the aftermath of the Finals does not include another Kobe Bryant meltdown.

Tags: Blog, boston celtics, categories, lamar odom, los angeles lakers, tags, trevor ariza, wordpress by Peter
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Quick-hitters:

- How come I never realized how addictive graham crackers can be?

Damn graham crackers. Good thing I don’t have any chocolate and marshmallows lying around…

- Current rebate-o-meter: ~$1,400. Apparently I forgot to enter about $400 in rebates that I almost completely forgot about!

And by “enter” I mean “I completely forgot about these items I ordered, and therefore I’m not even close to thinking about filing these rebates.”

I’m lazy.

- Hey Sprint! Did you loan out some of your CSRs to Sirius?

I was shopping through Sirius’ web site via AAA for a radio and subscription service. The site had a pretty nice deal: $14.99 for the Stratus 4 Dock & Play Kit, plus a free month of service and free activation. After notifying my sister of the deal, she quickly told me to order it for her.

When I got to the checkout, though, I saw the $15.00 activation fee in my shopping cart. I looked back at AAA’s website, and made absolutely sure that everything looked good. Free shipping? Check. Free month of service? Check. One year subscription? Check. So where’s my free activation?

I called the Sirius/AAA hotline, and almost immediately, a guy with a thick accent answered. He asked me for my name, phone number, and address, but I pointed out that I was not yet a subscriber, and just had a question or two about a AAA promotion. I pointed out that AAA members get free activation when ordering online, adding the fact that I did sign up for a one year contract.

The moron asked me to read the serial number off the back of my radio. Strike one.

I reminded him that I was not yet a subscriber, and wanted to sign up for service. I stated again that I was supposed to get free activation as a AAA member.

The moron, matter-of-factly, stated that it was “policy” to charge the $15.00 activation fee. Strike two.

At this point, I was furious, so I decided to speak in my one-word-at-a-time, near-the-top-of-my-voice voice (which will, from now on, be known as the “IVR voice”), pointing out again that I was signing up through AAA’s site, and the site clearly mentions that AAA members get free shipping AND free activation.

The moron told me that he would research it with “somebody,” and he put me on hold. When he came back, he acknowledged an error on the site, and that I should only be charged $10 for activation. Foul tip…

I screamed, “TEN DOLLARS IS NOT FREE!” That’s when the rep dropped this bomb on me: he said that his coworker insisted that the activation charge was correct!!!

(Now I’m assuming “coworker” != “supervisor.” For all I know, maybe he did mean supervisor. For now, though, I am not giving him the benefit of the doubt.)

One final time, I adamantly pointed out that I should be getting free activation. That’s when I heard his “coworker” in the background utter “It’s right! It’s right!”, to which the trained seal stupid rep responded with something to the effect of “There is a $15.00 activation fee, which is policy to charge for new subscriptions.”

*click*

Strike f**king three.

EDIT: Wanting my sister to share my pain, I had her call back and try to get a supervisor on the line. “Jay” answered her call, and while he wouldn’t transfer her to a supervisor, he did append our order for free activation. There were some issues getting the radio she wanted for $14.99, but he eventually fixed the pricing of the kit as well. He was ready to put the order through, and he asked my sister if it was OK to put her on hold.

She did. And, in-freaking-explicably, she “accidentally” hung up on him.

She immediately called back, and tried to find “Jay.” The first rep explained that she couldn’t do so without his extension. The second rep she spoke to wouldn’t put the order through, insisting that the price of the radio was wrong. While being on hold with a third rep, and she inexplicably hung up while on hold a third time!

(Apparently the rep I dealt with cursed us.)

When she called yet again, she again demanded a supervisor. Tired of waiting being placed on hold for so long, she hung up and called again. Finally, she got a rep that spoke English!

This rep instructed my sister to order the service through sirius.com, and once the order was in the system, the rep was going to manually waive the activation fee. How do you suppose that went?

After the order was submitted, the rep put my sister back on hold, and attempted to manually credit her account. When she came back on the phone, naturally, she told us that she could not credit the account. Instead, she told my sister to call back when she receives the radio, and request the credit upon activation.

Hey, stupid rep: if you couldn’t credit the account right now, what makes you think one of your fellow morons reps is going to be able to credit the account when my sister calls in to activate the radio?

Several calls, zero supervisors, two headaches…and we aren’t even customers yet. Awesome.

- Paul Pierce went 2 for 14. Kevin Garnett went 6 for 21. The Lakers held a double digit lead in the first half. Kobe Bryant shot 18 foul shots. Sasha Vujacic scored 20 points.

And after all that, the Lakers still had to fight for a Game Three win? That can’t bode well for the Lakers’ chances in the series. Then again, Lamar Odom was non-existant for three quarters, Pau Gasol got a couple key offensive rebounds, and Derek Fisher had another ineffective game. So did the Lakers really win, or did they just not lose?

Speaking of Sasha, what a great game he had. Killer treys, irritating defense, but not a single shot of him adjusting that thing he had in his head that keeps his hair manageable? And I loved the little tussle between PJ Brown and Jordan Farmar.

If Pierce and Garnett give Boston anything decent in Game Four, and Odom and Gasol rebound as well, who wins Game Four. You have to give the Lakers a slight edge, all things considered, don’t you? Then again, a dominant Pierce might be all Boston needs to win Game Four and end the series in six games at the most.

Note to Phil Jackson: Trevor Ariza does not belong on the court, much less checking Paul Pierce or Ray Allen.

Until next time!

Tags: boston celtics, free activation, incompetent csr, kevin garnett, kobe bryant, los angeles lakers, paul pierce, sasha vujacic, satellite radio, sirius, stratus 4 by Peter
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No quick-hitters tonight.

- On Friday, my sister had the craving for some chili, and armed with a suggestion from her boss, we swung by Chili My Soul that night.

(Tangent:  I’m not much of a fan of heat, and by that, I mean that I’m a wuss when it comes to peppers.  My tolerance for heat is pretty low, and it wasn’t long ago that my tolerance was even lower than it is now.  My sister, on the other hand, could probably chow down on five-alarm chili.)

After sampling two chilis—the Texas Pride, rated 5/10, and a little bit of the Gunslinger (8/10)—I opted for the Texas Pride.  My sister sampled the Gunslinger and declared it “as hot as ketchup,” sampled the Demon (10/10), loved it, but came to her senses and went with the Gunslinger.

I forgot to take into account the fact that sour cream and cheese can kill a significant amount of heat in something peppery, but I was still quite satisfied with the chili.  Maybe next time I’ll go up to a 6 or a 7.

(My sister was pissed after adding the sour cream to her chili.  She’s definitely getting the Demon next time).

- That sound you hear is the Lakers’ bandwagon derailing and crashing into a ravine.

(Please wait for the bandwagon to come to a COMPLETE stop before exiting.  Thanks and see you next year!  And be sure to put away those stupid flags!)

The NBA might as well etch Paul Pierce’s name onto the MVP trophy right now.  I’m not even sure the series is going to return to Boston (well, unless the refs have something to say about that…it wouldn’t surprise me if Kobe attempts forty FTs in Game Three.)

As much as I would love to give the refs a share of the blame in the Lakers’ loss (seriously, look at the FT disparity, and that second foul on Kobe was absolute garbage), that would be deflecting the blame from where it belongs:  the Celtics’ suffocating defense.  When Kobe Bryant doesn’t get into the paint, the Lakers aren’t going to win any games.  Also, when did the Lakers become a terrible rebounding team?  I mean, they were never elite, but is Boston really destroying the Lakers that badly on the glass because of Boston’s superior rebounding, or the Lakers’ lack of desire?

(Tangent:  Please, ESPN/ABC, enough of Paul Pierce’s “heroics” in Game One.  When is Disney going to release the made for TV movie based on what happened?  Kobe Bryant’s image repair over the last few years is sick of hearing about Pierce’s “heroics.”)

By the way…Leon freaking Powe???  And why is it that Pau Gasol plays well for only one or two quarters per game (Game One v Denver excepted)?

(Note:  I typed everything above after the third quarter, when I finally turned off the TV.  I did not watch the Lakers’ near-comeback.)

More thoughts about this game, once the anger subsides, next time!

Tags: boston celtics, chili my soul, demon, gunslinger, kobe bryant, leon powe, los angeles lakers, mvp, paul pierce, texas pride by Peter
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No quick-hitters today.

- So thanks to SlickDeals, I scored a pair of cheap field level tixs for Tuesday’s Rockies-Dodgers game.  I expected to see two struggling offenses (check), solid pitching (nope), and the typical rude, obnoxious Dodger fans (check, naturally).

What I didn’t expect was a scrum, which is exactly what we got in the bottom of the eighth inning.

I remember seeing Matt Kemp strike out on that wild pitch, and as I went to sit back down in my seat, I saw the Rockies bullpen all of a sudden pour out.  I stood back up immediately, and that’s when I saw Kemp fall to the ground.

Nothing like a brawl to energize an otherwise moribund crowd!  For the rest of the game, the fans chanted  “Rockies suck!”  I wanted to remind the fans that the scoreboard said otherwise, but I had no intention of spending the night in a hospital room.

When the hell is Rafael Furcal coming back?

(After seeing the replay of the events that led up to the brawl, Kemp clearly overreacted.  Torrealba didn’t even shove him, and Kemp acted like he got sucker punched.  Yeah, Torrealba shouldn’t have shoved Kemp in the throat, but Kemp was clearly the instigator.  I thought Kemp deserved a five game suspension—one more than he got—and Torrealba should only have gotten two—one less than he got.)

- Once Paul Pierce returned from the locker room after his injury, you could just feel the game slipping away from the Lakers right into the laps of the Celtics. Add some great lockdown defense on the Lakers down the stretch, and it wasn’t hard to see how the Celtics surged ahead of the Lakers in the second half.

(Damn PJ Brown! That guy was EVERYWHERE in the fourth quarter! Someone give me some of the magical potion someone obviously gave him :P)

Everything that could have gone wrong in this game probably did for the Lakers. And even as I typed that, I knew that Boston didn’t play their best game either. It might only be one game out of a possible seven, but the Celtics are clearly the better team right now.

KG got off (Gasol’s got no chance against him), Allen got off to a great start, and then there was Pierce. And it seemed like, every time Boston needed a play, one of their role players happened to be there to do so.

(Freaking PJ Brown.)

At our lunch last weekend, I was told that the key to the series was stopping Paul Pierce. Personally, I thought the key was figuring out which Kobe Bryant was going to show up. We can both be right, no?

And what was with the Lakers committing so many stupid, away-from-the-basket, in-the-penalty fouls?

(Mark Jackson just said that the Lakers need Kobe to make the right play, and then Kobe goes ahead and takes a terrible three-point shot.)

The Lakers better plan on stealing Game Two if they want any chance of winning this series. Otherwise, this series could be over in as soon as five games.

If there’s anything to be positive about, the Lakers got trounced pretty well in the first road game of their series against Utah and San Antonio.

And the Lakers can’t possibly miss that many open shots in Game Two, right?

Right?

Tags: boston celtics, colorado rockies, los angeles dodgers, los angeles lakers, matt kemp, yorvit torrealba by Peter
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Argh!  This was supposed to be posted two nights ago!

Quick-hitters:

- You know you watch way too much TV when you can nearly recite that entire Taco Bell burrito rap.

(Speaking of commercials, I’m getting sick and tired of that song in the latest Zune commercial that goes “I’m here, and I ain’t going nowhere!” Please, go.)

- So I’m about ready to get a new cell phone (more on that another day; thanks Sprint). What should I get? A Palm Centro? A Moto Q (not the 9c, as that is $100 too expensive for my liking)? Or should I just keep my Sanyo Katana?

Decisions, decisions.

- They say one should not go grocery shopping while hungry. I should avoid online shopping while hungry as well.

I’m this close to ordering about $50 worth of Oberto beef jerky from Amazon. Thank goodness for free GCs through my Amazon Visa card + a $15/39 coupon (OBERSAVE).

- Every time I go to a supermarket that happens to have Gatorade, Powerade, or a similar bottled drink on sale, I cannot resist the temptation to buy several bottles. I do this for two reasons: one, I love sports drinks; and two, I re-use the bottles for drinking water.

(Let’s not get into the potential health hazards of re-using drink bottles.)

Anyway, I’ve now developed an even more ridiculous habit of not finishing a bottle before I start on a new bottle, typically of a different flavor. It has gotten to the point where I could walk from my living room computer to my bedroom, and pass anywhere from two to six unfinished bottles of Gatorade.

(Case in point: one day, there was a bottle of Gatorade on my computer desk, a bottle of water and a bottle of Crystal Light on my coffee table, and two bottles of Sobe Life Water on my kitchen counter. None of the five bottles were empty, and none of them were more than half full.)

Naturally, I’ve begun to take advantage of this. Every time I get up to go to the bathroom, the office, or my bedroom, I pretend to be an endurance runner, quickly taking a swig out of one of the bottles as I pass by.

Simple things like this amuse me, if you people haven’t already figured that out.

- Last night’s Pens-Wings 3OT game (that’s hockey…you remember that sport, right?) was one of the greatest sporting events I’ve seen in some time.

Too bad hockey has fallen so far off the map that not many people give a damn anymore.

But seriously, what else could you have asked for? Two plus bonus periods of hockey? A young goalie stopping 50+ shots in over 100 minutes of game time? A young team 30 seconds from losing, scrapping a game-tying goal to force the extra periods? A guy allegedly calling his shot, saying that he was going to score the game-winner, and actually doing so (Petr Sykora)? Close calls, big saves, and stupid penalties throughout the OTs (the Wings got hosed on the second goalie interference call, btw)?

If only my LA Kings didn’t suck…

and if only I could find hockey games on a network (Versus) that doesn’t require me to shell out $15 for that and a few other channels that I will never watch…

and if only the latest strike/lockout didn’t occur, causing me to not give a damn about hockey…

then maybe I’d still be a hockey fan.

(BTW, hockey in Hi-Def is incredible.)

- Here are some quick thoughts I have regarding the Celtics-Lakers NBA finals:

1) People have been saying that the key in the series is whether or not the Lakers can stop Paul Pierce.

Am I the only one that thinks that stopping Kevin Garnett is as important? And am I the only one that doesn’t see anyone on the Lakers guarding his well? Gasol’s too slow, and Odom’s not long enough. Yeah, we know that KG is not clutch, but if the Lakers are forced to double-team him, you don’t think that Posey, Pierce, or even Allen is going to hit a wide-open shot?

2) I fear that Gasol is going to play like a “weenie” again. I fear that Odom will do too much, and will be shut down by KG. And I fear that Pierce will do enough to slow down Kobe. All that spells disaster for the Lakers.

Laker fans should breath a huge sigh of relief, though, knowing that Doc “I’ll blame anyone buy myself, even God” Rivers is Boston’s coach.

(I’m not being facetious when I say that Rivers will blame God if something happens; I recall, during one of those coach’s interviews, Rivers blaming God for the Celtics’ shots not falling!)

Talk about a coaching mismatch!

3) Despite the coaching advantage and (I’d argue) the bench advantage, I think the Celts are just too strong. I don’t expect to see the same Celts team that took seven games to oust Atlanta to show up in the Finals. For now, I expect Boston to take the first two in Boston, and then win either Game Four or Five, and close out the Lakers in six.

I’m so confident of that prediction that I will bet $20 on Boston winning the NBA Finals.

(Boston fans, you may begin to send me hate mail :P)

Tags: 3 OT, amazon.com, beef jerky, boston celtics, commercial, detroit red wings, hockey, los angeles lakers, moto q, oberto, palm centro, pittsburgh penguins, rap, sprint, taco bell, water bottles by Peter
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Quick-hitters:

- One of the fun things about installing a SlingBox-like device on my mom’s cable box is the occasional phone call I get from her, hysterically screaming “Why is my cable box changing channels on its own???”

(That pretty much spoils part 3 of my covert ops mission, I realize.)

I’ve explained to her several times now that the Sony LF-B10 I installed on her cable box, and yet she still insists that her cable box is haunted :P.

As I’ve whined about before, she really needs to upgrade to an HD STB. What a waste of a $1,000 TV!

- Thank you yet again, Time Warner. A SlickDealer posted a deal for free HBO (and potentially Showtime) with just a simple phone call. Then again, based on my experiences with Time Warner, I don’t think there is such a thing as a simple phone call with them.

I called CS, and got an English speaking woman. Yes!, I thought to myself. Once I gave her my phone number, she immediately transferred me to the sales department. Booooooo!

When I got reconnected, I got a woman with a VERY heavy accent. I asked her about the promotion, and she put me on hold…for about 15 minutes. When she came back on the line, she advised me to contact another phone number to inquire about this promotion.

The number sent me to Time Warner’s Business Development Operations Group, said the recording on the other end of the line. I’m going to take a wild guess and assume that they sent me to the wrong place.

Thank you, Time Warner.

- It’s time for the latest rebate processor rant, and it deals with Logitech Rebates/rebatestatus.com. Logitech must be bleeding money, because I’ve seen several excellent deals on computer peripherals in the past months—mice, webcams, keyboards, etc.—all with rebates attached to them. According to my records, I’ve purchased six Logitech items in the last few months, and submitted all six rebates well before the postmark deadline.

Of the six rebates, ONE was processed without issue. Two are now in processing, and only after I emailed copies of my rebate submission, and the other three were mailed out recently (though one is approaching 30 days since the date of mailing without a notification from rebatestatus.com).

Grrrrrr…

- Raise your hand if you saw Game Five of the WCF go like that: the Spurs rolled out to a big lead, the Lakers’ bench rallied the team close, and then the Spurs’ age showed big time in the second half.

Honestly, I did not expect the Spurs to fold like they did in the fourth quarter, even while watching Ginobili limp and stumble around in the fourth quarter. Parker was a factor early, but he wasn’t really heard from again until it was too late. Duncan was a beast again, but (I can’t believe I’m going to say this) he needs more help around him! When the Spurs had the big lead early in the game, they were a few missed treys from stretching the lead to 20+. Once the first half ended, you kinda sensed that the Spurs were in huge trouble, if not finished altogether.

Three parting thoughts:

1) Throughout the series, I kept wondering how Luis Scola (remember, he was traded to Houston before the season started) would have looked in a Spurs uniform, especially in this series. Could he have checked Odom on defense? Probably not. Could he have helped, offensively, against the Lakers? I think so. At the very least, he could have taken some pressure off Duncan on the offensive side of things, right?

2) What is the legacy of this series? Is it the end of the Spurs’ every-other-year dynasty? Is it a start of a new reign of dominance for the Lakers in the West? Or is the series forever stained by the non-call at the end of Game Four? And how different does this series look if the call was made, and the Spurs ended up winning the game in OT? Or what would have happened if the Spurs didn’t choke leads of 20 and 17 in Games One and Four, respectively?

What if…right?

3) Sasha Vujacic…what were you doing launching that triple at the end of the game?  It would not have surprised me to see Cheap Shot Rob Horry offer a forearm to Vujacic during the end-of-game handshakes.

Until next time!

Tags: free hbo, logitech rebates, los angeles lakers, luis scola, promotion, rebatestatus.com, san antonio spurs, showtime, time warner, western conference finals by Peter
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Sorry for not blogging for a while.

Quick-hitters:

- Argh.  My back has been killing me all day!

I think it’s time to go see somebody

- Current rebate-o-meter:  $1,290.  I can’t believe I didn’t buy anything over the weekend!

- What a dogfight that game was. The Lakers got off to a fantastic start (shades of LAL-UTA, Game Six, Western Semis), but you knew that the Spurs were going to get back into the game. I just didn’t expect the Spurs to get back into it THAT quickly. The fourth quarter was filled with great drama—Kobe proved that he deserved the MVP, eh?—but too bad it ended with that terrible missed call.

(Phil Jackson had the quote of the year. When asked what changed in the last few minutes of the quarter, when the Spurs made a push to get back in the game, Jackson said, “You want me to be honest with you? The guys with the whistles.” Unfortunately for the NBA, he was right on the money.)

Even if you argue that fouls that occur during the course of the game aren’t going to be called down the stretch, Fisher clearly bumped Barry. Why Barry didn’t jump directly into Fisher, though, is anyone’s guess. If he does that, then we’re probably looking at a 2-2 series going back to LA. Then again, If the refs had called that foul, Barry should have been awarded two shots and not three. As Reggie Miller said, he shied away from the contact, and only after Fisher hit him did Barry go into a shooting motion.

(EDIT: When the Lakers took their final shot, I wondered why the shot clock didn’t reset. I could’ve sworn that Fisher’s shot hit the rim. TNT just showed a replay, and it sure looked like the ball glanced off the rim. That’s TWO terrible calls down the stretch. For the next few hours, we’re going to hear about how the Fisher non-call was a “make up” call. Ugh.)

(EDIT #2: What a class act that Brent Barry is. He could easily have been screaming, “YES that was a foul!” Instead, he took the high road, admitting that that call probably wasn’t going to be made.)

(EDIT #3: Wow. Even Pop insisted that that was not a foul.)

Back to the fourth quarter: the Spurs were colder than the polar ice caps down the stretch (they reminded me of the Kings in the fourth quarter, Game Seven, 2002 WCF), and it sure looked like the Lakers were going to win the game going away.

And then the last minute happened. And then the missed calls happened.

Are the Spurs dead? Not a chance. Can they recover? They’re champs, are they not? Will they come back to win this series? Sorry, I just don’t see the Lakers losing three straight, with two games at home. Maybe if Joey Crawford referees all three of the remaining games…

Next time:  my Memorial Day weekend recap, and eventually, I’ll finish up my covert ops mission story

Tags: brent barry, derek fisher, kobe bryant, los angeles lakers, missed call, referees, san antonio spurs by Peter
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Quick thoughts regarding Spurs-Lakers Game Two:

- There isn’t much I could say about tonight’s game.  With the game tied at 37, Doug Collins made the point that the Spurs, despite their shooting woes, were “close.”  That’s when the Lakers rattled off a 9-0 run that was the start of the Spurs’ second-half collapse.

(I’m watching the replay of the game on TNT right now, and I’m still in shock by that rejection by Farmar.  No, it was not Tayshaun Prince-esque, but it was pretty sweet nonetheless.)

Fisher rebounded nicely.  Odom was very good, though he did commit two bad offensive fouls.  Gasol still worries me, especially with the way Duncan has dominated him in the first two games (I thought Gasol’s two early fouls were going to crush the Lakers’ chances).  Most importantly, the Lakers backcourt reserves—Farmer and Vujacic—played excellent ball.  And was that a Trevor Ariza sighting?

(Tangent:  Please, TNT announcers…enough with the jokes about The Bill Engvall Show and House of Payne.  Very funny.)

If I’m a Spurs fan, I’m worried sick about Manu Ginobili.  I’m starting to think that the ankle is MUCH worse than he’s letting on.  Without a 100% Manu, I don’t see any way the Spurs beat the Lakers four times in five games.

Laker fans, on the other hand, should worry about the following:

1) Duncan’s continued dominance of Gasol.  I expect Duncan to carry his team to victory in at least one of the next two games in San Antonio.

2) The Spurs’ outside shooting.  Finley, Bowen, Barry, and Horry are going to drain outside shots sooner or later, no?

3) Tony Parker’s gonna play a complete game sooner or later, right?  And if Manu Ginobili suddenly gets healthy…

I’m probably going to skip blogging about the NBA for the next couple of days (quick-hitters only, if anything), just to get some non-sports thoughts out of the way.

Tags: doug collins, los angeles lakers, manu ginobili, san antonio spurs, trevor ariza, wii fit, wnba by Peter
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Quick-hitters:

- Awesome. Time Warner just aired a commercial touting their awesome picture quality.

The commercial (and the channel it aired on) was snowy…when there was actually a picture. In fact, my entire High Definition lineup is now out.

You rule, Time Warner!

- Current rebate-o-meter: $1,350. I got some spending cash in the mail today :D.

(I also have $500 in rebates or so that need to be filed by next week. :P)

- During the Dodgers-Reds game earlier tonight, Vin Scully mentioned that STL Cardinals’ 1B Albert Pujols “took out the whole Padres’ battery” tonight.

I thought he meant it figuratively!

- Tim Duncan was nearly unstoppable. Tony Parker played great for three quarters (there’s an APB out on him now; where did he go in the fourth?).

Manu Ginobili? Next question.

As soon as the Spurs got out to their twenty point lead, I couldn’t help but start wondering if the Spurs were just going to sweep the Lakers right out of the playoffs. Duncan was ridiculously efficient (if one can be “ridiculously efficient”), and Tony Parker carved the Lakers up. Most importantly, as TNT analyst Doug Collins pointed out, the Spurs did not have a dry spell in the first half. Really, the Spurs could easily have been up by double figures at the half.

Predictably, thanks to the announcer hex, the Spurs cooled off and the Lakers made their push. Not surprisingly, the push was led by the MVP. Even at the end of the third, when the Spurs still had a seven point lead, I thought the Spurs were in control of the game. Little did I expect the Spurs’ drought to extend into the fourth. Did you see that stat late in the fourth? The Spurs went 5-for-25 with 7 TOs??? The San Antonio Spurs?

As far as the officiating is concerned…next question :P. To say Kobe got away with a few things would be a slight understatement. And didn’t Manu get absolutely mauled on the second to last Spurs’ possession, or are playground scrums perfectly legal now? Speaking of Manu, I’ve never seen so many “What, me?” looks in a single game! Even Michael Finley had that look on one play! Maybe I’m just not watching Spurs’ games closely enough.

Excellent point by Kenny Smith in the postgame show: (paraphrasing) You don’t know how many times you’ll get an exceptional performance by Kobe, but you know the Spurs will bring their game consistently. If we replayed this exact game 100 times, the Spurs probably win 75% of the time.

Tags: kobe bryant, los angeles lakers, manu ginobili, san antonio spurs, tim duncan, time warner, tony parker by Peter
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