First Time For Everything

For the first time ever in a seven-game series, the number eight-seeded team toppled the top dogs in their conference. The Golden State Warriors made seemingly easy work of the Dallas Mavericks who were coming off a season that had them garnering one of the top-ten win totals of NBA history. Despite their lofty win total, the fact that the Warriors dominated them in the regular season, had great matchups for Dallas' lineup across the board and had former Mavericks coach Don Nelson behind the bench, this nearly seemed destined to happen. While sports fans in Dallas have gone through a lot in the past year, this is definitely the lowest point that they could get to. At the very least, they should feel good that their choke artist Dirk Nowitzki will be taking home the MVP award when it's handed out.

More pieces to the puzzle fall

With the Spurs and Suns sending their opponents to the showers for good last night, the stage is now set for the Suns’ demise. Then, thankfully, the bad example of a basketball player, Steve Nash, will be sent home and kids will actually learn how to play defense by watching a playoff team. Again, how is a man with no defensive skills an MVP?

Last night also so the forgotten about Michael Finley of the Spurs hit eight of his nine three point attempts in the Spurs 93-78 defeat of the Nuggets. Denver is a perfect example of the fact that having superior offensive players (Iverson and Anthony) won’t get you passed a superior defensive team like the Spurs.

Kobe couldn’t carry the weight of an entire series on his shoulders and it’s really becoming very obvious that he needs a better second fiddle than Lamar Odom and a better third fiddle than the likes of Luke Walton, Andrew Bynum or Smush Parker. It would be hard to win a pick-up game at the local courts with those last three guys on your side.

Last night in Baseball

Barry Bonds took yet another step towards topping Hammerin’ Hank’s career home runs record. The slugger hit an off-speed pitch that Rockies lefty Jeff Francis hung over the plate and promptly sent it over the wall for number 743. Later on, the 42 year old Bonds also singled in what turned out to be the winning run.

In Boston, Red Sox starter Josh Beckett became their first starter since Roger Clemens to open the season with a 6-0 record. Beckett has really turned around his game from last year but what I find more amazing about his performance thus far is the fact that he didn’t win AL pitcher of the month for April. Those honours went to Toronto’s Doc Halladay who had a 4-0 record through the month. As it’s standing right now, the AL Cy Young race should be more than a doozy with Johan Santana currently not living up to his overly hyped status.

Seatle announced yesterday that their phenom, King Felix Hernandez, will miss at least one more start and will be skipped over in the Mariner rotation at least one more time. While this is a blow to the Mariners and their fans, there’s a flip side to that coin; Yankee fans can now rejoice that they get to see Jeff Weaver and his spectactular 18.26 ERA toss out batting practice-esque pitches to the Bronx Bombers on Saturday.

More bad Yankee news

The New York Yankees wonder-kid, uber-prospect, future star, etc. Phil Hughes was forced out the Yanks-Rangers game last night in the 7th inning with an apparent leg injury. The phenom injured himself while delivering a pitch and limped around for a bit before being removed. While another Yank getting injured may not surprise you, the fact that this was his second start (you may remember he was shelled in his debut against Toronto) and he hadn't allowed a hit before getting hurt. Hughes said he felt a pop when coming down during the delivery and is now slated to miss four to six weeks.

Big nights for the favourites

I use the word "favourite" loosely in the headline because both of the higher-seeded teams coming into Game 5s last night were actually down in their series 3-1.

The Raptors barely escaped game 5 with their hopes still intact. After going up by 20 at one point, the game ended up coming down to a potentially game-winning missed 3 pointer by Bostjan Nachbar of the Nets. Nachbar went 0-for-7 from 3-point range on the night in sad showing. T.J. Ford was forced out of the game early when he suffered a "stinger" after the most hated man in Toronto, Vince Carter, fell on him in a scramble. Jose Calderon was also forced out of the game after apparently spraining his ankle while coughing up the ball to Jason Kidd during a crucial possession.

Dallas got off to a roaring start against Golden State but weren’t able to sustain it all the way through the game. The Warriors eventually evened up the game and then went up by seven late, but Dirk put up an MVP calibre performance to keep his team in it. Dirk scored 12 of the final 15 Maverick points in the comeback from 112-103. Perfect timing for being a guy being named MVP shortly.

After the Tragedy

Last night the Cardinals played their first game after the tragic loss of Josh Hancock. Hancock was killed in a car accident on Sunday which appropriately caused the Cards Sunday night game to be postponed. It didn’t particularly help that St. Louis had to play against the first place Brewers and lost 7-1 in Milwaukee. This is, sadly the second time in 5 years that a St. Louis player has passed away during a season. In 2002, starting pitcher Darryl Kile was found dead in his hotel room before a game against Chicago.

Elsewhere in major league baseball:

Roy Halladay of the Blue Jays only allowed 5 hits against the Rangers last night while tossing a complete game to move to 4-0. It’s surprising that this is the first time in his career that he’s been 4-0 considering how he’s in the upper-echelon of starters today. Then again, starting against the likes of Boston and the Yankees as often as he does can often result in a loss or two.

Tim Hudson of the Braves saw his ERA rise to an incredible 1.40 after giving up two runs on four hits to the Phillies en route to a 5-2 win. Hudson has really turned it around since last season, but I’m just as much shocked by the fact that Mike Hampton is hurt; seriously, that guy’s a warhorse.

If you’re a Yankee fan, you might just be in trouble according to some interesting stats that ESPN dug up. Since 1982, only 5.6 percent of the teams that made the postseason were three games or more under the .500 mark. This also applies to teams like the Astros, Cardinals and the Cubs meaning the NL Central is somewhat the Brewers’ for the taking. I’m not willing to buy into a Milwaukee postseason trip just yet, but seeing the Yankees excluded from October baseball isn’t too much a stretch – unless they land Clemens, then it’s on.

The Intern on the Raps playoffs

As I am sitting here watching game four of the Warriors vs. Mavs series I am still trying to digest the abomination that took place at the Meadowlands. I can’t really come up with a good sentence to fully describe the angst I am feeling right now. I am struggling to get my head around why the Raptors look so terrible in this series. Their execution and decision-making is definitely playing a role in that. After game three it was abundantly clear that Lawrence Frank had found a way to keep Bosh in check. So just like in a good chess game, Mitchell makes his move and injects Bargnani into the starting line up. Now stop me if I am wrong but you have Bargs towering in at 7 feet tall and playing small forward standing 5” taller than Richard Jefferson. Wouldn’t you want to establish him early? Of course this didn’t happen. BAH! The highlight of the game for me was actually perpetrated by Bruce Willis. After clearly having too many barley pops, Bruce was yammering with the sideline reporter about how amazing the new Die Hard movie is and that it is even better then the original *cough..Bullshit* Then Bruce being the classy fellow he is finished the quasi interview with a “Yippee-ki-yay mother fucker” in all its F-bombing glory. As I finish writing this blog the Warriors have just taken a commanding 3-1 lead in this series. With the Raptors looking as shitty as they are, the Warriors will be my number two team through these playoffs.

Good times at the NFL Draft

With the Raiders taking JaMarcus Russell first overall on Saturday, there wasn’t much surprise at the top the off the draft, except, of course, for the freefall of Brady Quinn. Russell, who will get –if the past trends keep up- something in the $50-60 million range, is worth it on tape at least. This guy can launch a football 83-yards! Even if it’s nothing more than parlour-trick feat, he can also throw a football 63-yards from his knees. If that doesn’t score him a 99 throwing power in Madden 08, I don’t know what will.

The Detroit Lions took the highly touted Calvin Johnson in the two-slot to fill their pressing need at WR. That was obviously sarcasm but sometimes it doesn’t shine through in type. Johnson, who is 6’5” with blazing speed and is one of, if not, the highest rated WRs in the past 10 years of the draft. Too bad Jon Kitna’s throwing to him.

After Cleveland drafted their O-line’s anchor of the future, Joe Thomas, and Miami seriously screwed up their number nine pick by going off the board and selecting Ted Ginn Jr., pretty boy Brady Quinn of the hate-them-or-love-them Notre Dame Fighting Irish began freefalling down the draft board. Quinn, who had been invited to the draft by Commissioner Roger Goodell, was actually escorted into a private room to wait it out while teams without a need at QB passed him over. Finally, the Browns decided to trade away their number one pick next year as well as their second round pick this year to Dallas to take Quinn at number 22. The only upside for Quinn in this whole ordeal is that he now gets to play with lesser expectations of him and a sizable chip on his shoulder.

Former-Heisman trophy winner and BCS choker Troy Smith waited until the very end of the fifth round before he was taken by the Baltimore Ravens. This actually puts him into possibly the best situation of any of the QBs taken this year. Learning for Steve McNair and offensive guru Brian Billick while being on a winning team will help him develop quicker than playing on a Raiders team with absolutely no offensive talent at all, especially after giving away Randy Moss for next to nothing. They did bring in former first-round bust Mike Williams from Detroit, but that’s not going to help.