After the 1st quarter of tonight's Game 4 of the NBA Finals, it looked like the Celtics' goose, for the moment, had its head in the oven. They had missed their opportunity to take control of the series by allowing the Lakers to take Game 3, thanks largely to incredibly bad performances from Paul Pierce (2/14 shooting) and Kevin Garnett (6/21). They were the proud owners of the largest end-of-1st-frame deficit in the history of the NBA Finals. And L.A. was doing it all without the services of Messr. Kobe Bean Bryant.But, in the 3rd, the Celts made their inevitable run, ripping off a 21-3 run in the final 5 minutes of the 3rd quarter, and the Lakers never responded. Bryant posted an underwhelming 19 points on 6/19 shooting, Ray Allen continued his run for a Finals MVP award, and Pau Gasol continued his quest to lull me into a false sense of security by not impressing me in any game I watch him play.
The Lakers never really showed up in the 4th, and when they graciously allowed Allen to make a pretty much uncontested layup with 16 seconds to play, that pretty much shoved the fork into the Lakers. They lost the game 97-91. Now Showtime is down 3-1 in the series, with 2 games left in Boston. No team has ever come back from down 3-1 to win the Finals. Maybe there's a first time for everything, but I doubt this year is it.
Other stuff that happened today:
The Cubs win - no matter what year it is. Full disclosure - I'm a Cubs fan. There will be a post very soon describing the incredible surreality of the 2008 season for me. Today was yet another example of how the Cubs make the once-impossible late-inning comebacks seem like a formality. While the team celebrated 60 years of WGN baseball with throwback uniforms and 2 innings of black and white 'retro-style' broadcasting, the most recent hero was Jim Edmonds, who found the basket in the LF bleachers to tie the game at 2 in the 9th inning. In the 11th, after the Cubs loaded the bases with no one out, Reed Johnson pinch-hit for Edmonds against the lefty pitcher Jeff Ridgway of Atlanta. Ridgway promptly hit Johnson to end the game with his first pitch. The win gives Chicago a 43-24 record - the best in baseball by two games - including a completely ridiculous 29-8 record at Wrigley Field. Although Alfonso Soriano is still out a while with that fractured hand, I have a feeling they'll be alright.
Billy, Mr. Randolph would like a word with you. A few days ago, Billy Wagner was fine as closer of the Mets. He was 13/15 in save chances, was sporting an 0.36 ERA and was generally regarded as one cog in the underperforming Mets' machine that didn't need to be worried about. Well, Wagner has blown three straight saves, all multiple-run leads to boot, and today's was perhaps the most damaging, as NY lost to the D-Backs 5-4, falling to three below .500, 7.5 behind Philadelphia, and also 7.5 out of the wild card. For a team that was universally considered to be Arizona's biggest threat to keep them out of the World Series this year, it's not working out so well there. At least Randolph's job's not in jeopardy, right? Umm...right?
You don't care about steroids, but here it comes anyway. Although baseball fans - including myself - have pretty much decided to ignore that anything steroid-related has ever happened (except for making fun of any fans of a team whose player gets caught), the news keeps leaking out. Today comes word that Congress wants to hear more from Bud Selig and Don Fehr, who the lawmakers suspect may not have been entirely truthful in the original 2005 steroids hearings. Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Tom Davis (R-VA) are particularly intrerested in passages of the Mitchell Report that claim "that the random testing program was suspended for a large part of the 2004 baseball season" and "that players may have been told of upcoming tests". Hmmmm.
Chad Johnson shows up, but is he healthy? As he promised to do a while back, that master of celebration Chadwick Johnson arrived on time for Bengals minicamp today. But he never said he'd actually do anything. Johnson claims to have bone chips in his ankle, although the Bengals' medical staff gave him a physical and found nothing of the sort. Bengals QB Carson Palmer (remember those other guys on the team?) tellingly refused to talk about Johnson, saying he's pretty sure everyone's "sick of hearing about him, so I'm not going to talk about him". I dunno about you, Carson, but I'm never sick of hearing about Mr. Johnson.
Here's to you, Alex Ovechkin. The most electrifying talent in the NHL this side of Pittsburgh, as expected, took home the Hart Trophy as the league's MVP tonight, receiving 128 out of 134 first-place votes. Speaking as someone who can name no other Capital despite their division championship this season, that sounds like a pretty good choice. Ovie said he has his sights set on a Stanley Cup, though. We shall see...
Last Word: Is anyone remotely surprised that with all the Tim Donaghy crap going on that the Feds are looking to see if there are any more crooked refs? And is anyone remotely surprised that in their hunt for crooked refs, the Feds are honing in on the one and only Dick Bavetta, universally considered the worst remaining ref in the NBA?
Image Credit: New York Times
No comments:
Post a Comment