The Stanley Cup will be awarded on Friday night in Detroit one way or another. 9 months of preparation all comes down to a single game to determine who is the best team in the league. Clearly we know who the two best teams are again this year, but will Friday bring a changing of the guard, or further cement a true dynasty? I chose Detroit to win it at the beginning of the series and I am sticking with the home team for this one. Crosby scares me a lot in a single game situation, especially for what he has been practicing for since he could skate. I expect a close game and I am rooting for Hossa to get the winner just to stick it to those pesky Penguins fans that extra little bit!
I showed you the luckily skilled “inverted triangle” last week and at their next event Bellator scored another highlight reel video when Yahir Reyes knocked out Estevan Payan. Using the “Mr. International” AKA Shonie Carter, Reyes caught Payan with a spinning backfist right on the button. Check the full facial landing…
So the Bulls and the Celtics series has FINALLY ended with the good guys coming out on top!!! With Boston winning and the Hawks pulling out the “W” over Miami, the door has opened to the glorious second round of the playoffs. As I love to do, I am going to force feed you all my theories on how these series will play out and then when I am horribly wrong, I will blame it all on you!!!
Orlando vs. Boston
If Kevin Garnett were able bodied (don’t they have cortisone in Boston?) I wouldn’t even waste my massively valuable time writing up this synopsis but since he isn’t, here I GO!!! After a long series with Chicago we learned a few things about the “new” Celts, #1 Paul Pierce isn’t as good as he thinks. Sure he made some big shots but he also effed up a lot, i.e) fouling Noah on a bonehead play that probably cost them the game if not another over time. #2 Boston can get REALLY thin, REALLY fast up front (I am really trying to get a Big Baby joke in here but I am tired) and #3 Brian Scalabrine and Tony Allen are part of an elaborate rouse by Ashton Kutcher to Punk the whole world into thinking these 2 DUDS could actually make and NBA squad. As for Orlando, I think they are way too big for the Celts but not too deep for them. If they can get O Town in foul trouble, I think they will be able to pressure their back up players into a big enough hole that they can’t recover but that is a LOOONG stretch….Magic in 6
Atlanta vs. Cleveland
If you skipped the first match up to get to this one you may want to go back to the first sentence and read slowly. My time is valuable and the Cavaliers time is too. I mean how is LeBron going to celebrate being MVP at 24 years old when he has to play these damn playoff games. Cavs = good, Hawks = not good enough. Cavs in 4
Lakers vs. Rockets
I think this is a match up I am anticipating more than most people. One of 2 of the worlds best players (depending on who you like better) vs. one of the worlds best defenders and piss off artists. And if you don’t know who I am talking about, its Yao Ming and Sasha Vujacic…..No seriously, earlier in the year Kobe vs. Artest was AWESOME and gave me my favourite clip of the year which I posted on the site here. I think people are MAJORLY looking past the Big Man and his band of merry men and just thinking LeBron/Kobe finals. Houston is here for a reason, they have a deep team filled with role players that just come to play basketball. Sure they don’t have T-Mac but T-Mac doesn’t have knees or a back so he would only slow them down. What I think this series will come down to is how well Ming can play Gasol and how bad Artest can piss off Kobe. If Ming gets in foul trouble consistently, Houston loses. If Artest can piss Kobe off enough to make him shoot 50 times and forget his teammates, I think LA loses. But…LA in 6
Denver vs. Dallas
I have previously stated my disdain for the Mavericks and their style of play and nothing afforded me more happiness then seeing them get beat on Sunday while I was nursing a WICKED hangover (THANK YOU PACQUIAO). I think Denver is WAY too deep, too dirty and too well rounded to even get sucked into the Diggler’s one man band act. Billups is better than Kidd (at this point in their career), anyone is better than JJ Barea, JR Smith is Jason Terry with attitude, Melo and Dirk are fairly even, Martin is a real thug as opposed to Josh Howard and Nene is a REAL beast as opposed to Ericka Dampier (shout out to the Big Shaqtus). I can see the Mavs lulling the Nuggets to sleep for a game or two so I will say….Denver in 6
Let me know what you guys think in the comments section….PROVE ME WRONG CELTICS!!!
I’ve said it a million times on this site “I love MMA” and to most of you out there on the internets there is only one place to watch MMA, the UFC. For a MMA freak like me, there are plenty of places offering fights but far few put on anything that is even worth my time and definitely my money for PPV. Don’t get me wrong, there are more than a handful of organizations that DO put out good fights and I love supporting the little guys but some people just try to cash in on the “craze” and really make the sport look bad.
One of those up and comers that I respect is Bellator fighting and at their last event I saw a fight finish in a way I have absolutely NEVER seen before. The only video I could find of this actually runs 1:06 and kind of shows how the fight was going up to the point of the mystery move (I will reveal the move after the clip) So with that I ask you readers : Was this luck or skill??? Check the video and let me know.
The move was actually an inverted triangle choke. Most of you have seen a triangle but it is usually applied by the fighter on the bottom of the guard with their victim postured over top of them. This move was sick and definitely original as far as “in fight” goes. Well done Toby Imada and Bellator for putting on a good card.
OK, I have NO evidence to back that up but Jackson must REALLY like Rondo. For those that don’t know, Jackson is the NBA’s fun police. Anything goes wrong, Jackson slaps your ass with the proper suspension, for example, Dwight Howard’s “people’s elbow” on Sammy Dalembert which Jackson thought warranted a 1 game suspension. (So did I, for the record).
As I mentioned/showed before, Rondo Bruce Lee’d Brad Miller on a pivotal play in OT on Tuesday and wasn’t penalized by Stu Jackson like D12 was for his mishap. Then last night during the best basketball game I have watched EVER, Rondo and Kirk “the Hobbit” Hinrich got in a wee skirmish in the first quarter. During a rebounding scenario, Hinrich and Rondo were out near the 3 point line when they got “tangled” up, so Rondo deciding he didn’t like the manwich he was making with Kirk decided to toss him into the scorers table. Rajon was assessed a flagrant foul and it was said the league was going to look at the play again. Last night, Stu Jackson reviewed the tape and proclaimed there would not be any additional penalties assessed to either Hinrich or Rondo.
I know the foul on Miller was tic-tac and this foul wasn’t necessarily ALL Rajon’s fault. But I can only imagine the penalty a guy like Artest or even ‘Sheed would receive if they pulled this move off, especially, two days after they went after a dudes head! I am posting the video below so you guys can let me know what you think. Does Stu have a man crush on Rajon or is he just the victim of wrong place wrong time all the time???
P.S I like how Hinrich responds after he bounces off the scorers table. I didn’t expect him to be so GANGSTA, he gets some street cred from me for that move and subsequently I lose TONS of street cred for admitting that in a public forum.
I know the quality isn’t that great and its not as cool as the MacAskill vid but you HAVE to stick around to the VERY end to see the last trick he pulls off,.it’s pretty amazing. The video shows skater William Spencer doing very unorthodox tricks with and without his skateboard. Spencer seems like quite the unique fellow, as you will see in the first few seconds of the video, constantly yelling at himself (Yes! That’s him yelling at the start) and just the stuff he thinks of doing with the skateboard is…well…pretty unique itself. Check the video out below and MAKE SURE YOU STICK AROUND TILL THE END..AND DON’T SKIP FORWARD…I’M WATCHING!!!
Written on April 29th, 2009 by goatdieselone shout
Last night during two pretty intense bball games a couple of fouls transpired that caught attention. First off I will talk about Dwight Howard’s elbow to Sammy Dalembert dome in the Orlando vs. Philly game. During the first quarter of the game D12 and Dalembert were battling under the basket for position on a Rashard Lewis 3 pointer. When Lewis sank/sunk the 3, Dalembert went to walk under the basket to pass the ball in. Instead, Howard grabbed his arm and brought him in for a nice elbow to the back of the head. After reviewing the play the NBA has suspended Howard for game 6 .
In final seconds of OT in the Celtics/Bulls game, Brad Miller had a WIDE open lay up to tie the game and essentially bring the game into double OT. On his way to the basket, Miller was met by 3 Celtics, Rondo, Pierce and Perkins. Both Perkins and Rondo fouled Miller but Perkins was legitimately going for the ball, while Rondo was WAY behind Miller and went for his head.. All Rondo could really do to prevent the lay up at that point was slap Miller in the face and that is exactly what he did.
Now this where I have a problem with the Howard suspension. Should D12 have been suspended? Most definitely! Everyone knows Dwight is one of the biggest dudes on Earth and a cheap shot to the head by him or anyone else should not be tolerated. With that being said, why wasn’t Rondo assessed a game suspension as well? As far as I know, the NBA states that any blow to the head its considered a flagrant and then the league reviews the play and decides if any further action should be taken. I have heard that the league reviewed both plays but I would really like to know the difference? Is it because Rondo is a smaller person or because it looked “less lethal”? I watched both things happen and it really looked like Miller was worse for the wear compared to Dalembert?
So what do you think? Below is a video of both incidents, so let me know if you think either, neither or both deserved the punishment they got. Try and watch this ASAP as the NBA loves to take their videos down randomly.
Written on April 28th, 2009 by goatdieselone shout
Those of you that know me, know that I have the knees of a octogenarian with a degenerative bone disease. And for those of you that don’t, I am built like Gerard Butler in 300. Needless to say, my knees limit me to pretending to be good at sports such as basketball and soccer but one sport I can scratch off that list is biking. Since I can’t peddle for more then 15 minutes without taking a 15 day break, I like to pretend I’m Danny MacAskill. Who you ask? Danny MacAskill is one of the world’s best trial riders. Whats a trial rider you ask? Oh forget it, just watch the video below and prepare to have your mind blown. There are seriously NO camera tricks here and you may have to watch this video a few times before you realise exactly what it is he is doing. And as an added bonus, the soundtrack is pretty rad too…DANNY MACASKILL, YOU’RE MY HERO!!!
If you thought the video was cool, check out Danny’s website here!
As I was half asleep in bed watching TV last night thinking back on the previous nights escapades, I caught highlight this dunk on the video below. At first when I saw it, I thought it was actually a miss but then they showed it again and it was SICK. Von Wafer of the Houston Rockets takes it to the HOUSE on LaMarcus Aldridge’s face just like I took to the house on these punks in beer pong the night before. Yes! I know I am 27 years old and still playing beer pong but its the only thing I’m good at so leave me be!!!
Curiously, 2 days after AI announced that he would “rather retire than come off the bench”, President of basketball operations for the Pistons Joe Dumars announced AI was being shut down for the rest of the season with “back pains”. My 80 year old Great Aunt in England, who wouldn’t know what a basketball was if she broke her hip on one, knows that is basketball speak for “this guys a dick and we’re sick of his whining”. Ever since the Pistons traded Chauncey for AI it has been a disaster in Detroit. For the first time in YEARS, the Pistons are actually fighting for a playoff seed rather than fighting for home court advantage and I won’t mince words, its all AI’s fault, well and Joe Dumars for making the trade. It all started with Iverson taking Rip Hamiltons spot in the starting line up which obviously didn’t sit well with anyone else who had been part of those Pistons playoff runs. Then Iverson got hurt and Rip came back from an injury and guess what? The Pistons started to win again, MIRACULOUS!
I have been hearing for years how Iverson is a bad seed and all about himself but I just thought it was because he was on crappy Philly teams and had no one there to really help him and he was sick of carrying a team on his shoulders. Then he went to the stacked Nuggets a few years ago and I thought “this is where AI will thrive with some weight off his shoulders” and it didn’t happen there then either. Then he got traded to Detroit which had me shaking my head for weeks and my friend Darkman said it best “That trade was the biggest steal for the Nuggets and the worst for the Pistons, you’ll see”. Lo and behold, he was right. The Nuggets got the sturdy team oriented unselfish PG they have needed to get over that hump in the Western conference and the Pistons got…6th to 8th seed in the East?
Detroit was always a team that got by with their unreal belief in themselves and their team unity. Obviously either the loss of Chauncey really hurt their pysche in Motown or AI is really that bad a teammate or both. I still to this day don’t know why Joe pulled the trigger on that trade because even if it was to save cap for next year, why did he do it so early? That may be something we never know but this is something I do know for sure, he regrets it. The Pistons have looked flat since the trade and I haven’t seen them mount one of their 4th quarter “lets try now” comebacks in a long while, well actually, since Mr. Clutch left town and it must suck for Piston fans.
With AI out for the season we will now get to see if he was the problem or if the Pistons magic has just ran out with their aging stars finally peaking. One thing we know for sure Iverson won’t have to worry about practice anymore!
Curiously, 2 days after AI announced that he would “rather retire than come off the bench”, President of basketball operations for the Pistons Joe Dumars announced AI was being shut down for the rest of the season with “back pains”. My 80 year old Great Aunt in England, who wouldn’t know what a basketball was if she broke her hip on one, knows that is basketball speak for “this guys a dick and we’re sick of his whining”. Ever since the Pistons traded Chauncey for AI it has been a disaster in Detroit. For the first time in YEARS, the Pistons are actually fighting for a playoff seed rather than fighting for home court advantage and I won’t mince words, its all AI’s fault, well and Joe Dumars for making the trade. It all started with Iverson taking Rip Hamiltons spot in the starting line up which obviously didn’t sit well with anyone else who had been part of those Pistons playoff runs. Then Iverson got hurt and Rip came back from an injury and guess what? The Pistons started to win again, MIRACULOUS!