The Miami Heat got absolutely hammered last night, by the Indiana Pacers!
That’s right, the third seeded Pacers had a fantastic team performance and delivered a gritty defensive effort in a 94-75 win over the Heat to take a 2-1 series lead in the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals.
The Heat got zero first half points from Dwyane Wade in this one and only five overall. When Canadian Joel Anthony scores twice as many points as Wade, who ended the game with five points, you know you’re doing something right when your team is protecting the basket.
It was a great day for Canadian basketball fans Tuesday night as the Indiana Pacers defeated the Miami Heat 78-75.
David West, who has valuable playoff experience with the New Orleans Hornets led the way by recording a double double, 16 points and 10 rebounds.
The reason why this is a positive move for Canadian basketball is because the Heat have ex-Raptor Chris Bosh on their roster, because of an abdomen injury. Bosh is sidelined indefinitely. The other reason why Canadians are pro-Indiana is because of the whole mentality of the Heat– which has a overconfident cockiness in the way they play the game.
LeBron James of the Miami Heat has been named the Most Valuable Player of the National Basketball Association.
On Saturday, the announcement was made official.
James was third in scoring with 27.1 points per game, and second in overall points with 1683. My pick was Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Durant meanwhile had 1850 points, almost 200 more points than James.
My other arguments for Durant is that Oklahoma City (47-19) had a better record than Miami (46-20), play in a stronger conference and if you take Durant out of the lineup the Thunder are nothing. If you take James out of Miami’s lineup, they still have Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
In other NBA news, the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Denver Nuggets 96-87 last night. Pau Gasol led the way with 23 points after playing poorly in game six. The Lakers now play the Thunder in the second round. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Clippers play the Memphis Grizzlies this morning.
The only upset on paper in the first round was Philadelphia’s series win over Chicago. But I saw that coming as soon as Jalen Rose tore his ACL in game one.
Three game sevens (and possibly a fourth) will dominate my sports viewing this weekend.
In the NHL, there is a game seven in the Eastern Conference Semi-Final between the Washington Capitals and New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. This will be a battle of Alexander Ovechkin versus Henrik Lundqvist. Despite limited ice time, Ovechkin leads the Capitals in scoring with nine points, but will have to get by Hart Trophy nominee Lundqvist to move on to the Eastern Conference Final for the first time in his career. The game can be seen on CBC tonight at 5:30pm.
In the NBA, there are two game sevens, both involving the Los Angeles teams. Tonight the Los Angeles Lakers host the Denver Nuggets in game seven of the Western Conference Quarterfinal tonight (TSN2, 8:30pm). Questions are surrounding the health of Lakers star Kobe Bryant who played with the stomach flu in game six on Thursday. Afterwards, he was not happy with Pau Gasol for his lack of effort and had no problem telling him so.
Then tomorrow the Memphis Grizzlies host the Los Angeles Clippers (ABC, 11am) in game seven of another Western Conference Semi-Final. Like the Nuggets, the Grizzlies were once down 3-1 in the series but have clawed their way back to force a game seven. Last night in Los Angeles, the Grizzlies won game six 90-88 on Marc Gasol’s 23 points.
This week on the show, we look at the tragic death of former NFL star Junior Seau and the latest bounty suspensions from that league, as well as news from the NHL that Raffi Torres is appealing his lengthy suspension. We also look at the situation in the Nashville Predators camp, along with speculation that the NY Islanders might soon have a new home.
In the GABBYs: Leo Messi, Jose Mourinho, Jered Weaver, the NY Knicks, the Montreal Canadiens and Jeremy Affeldt. The Punchline this week is, once again, the Charlotte Bobcats!
Team Canada will have a chance to build off of their tight 3-2 victory over Slovakia yesterday when they face their American archrival nemesis this morning at the World Hockey Championships in Helsinki (TSN, 10am).
The Americans are coming off a commanding opening victory over France yesterday where they won 7-2.
Even though, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Devan Dubnyk and Jordan Eberle missed the playoffs for the Edmonton Oilers, this tournament could be valuable experience for them.
An American Oilers fans would be familiar with is defenceman Jeff Petry, who is joined on the American blueline with Jack Johnson, Alex Goligoski and Cam Fowler.
Here are the other events I’ll be watching this weekend:
Saturday–NHL Eastern Conference Semi-Final Game 4–New York Rangers @ Washington Capitals–10:30am–NBC–After coming off the longest game of the playoffs Wednesday night (game went into triple overtime), the Capitals will try to tie the series at two games apiece. Brad Richards continues to produce in the playoffs. The former Conn Smythe Trophy winner leads the Rangers in playoff scoring with nine points. For the Rangers to get by Washington however, they will need more from Artem Anisimov and Ruslan Fedotenko. They combined for 25 regular season goals, but only have a combined total of one goal in the playoffs.
Saturday–MLB–Arizona Diamondacks @ New York Mets–1:30pm–FOX–Despite only hitting .254 last season, Mets third baseman David Wright has got off to a great start in 2012, batting .395 with eight extra base hits. Last night J.J. Putz recorded his sixth save of the season as Arizona defeated the New York Mets 5-4. Arizona is 14-13 while the NY Mets are 13-13.
It’s been a while since we’ve delved into the world of fantastic sports videos on the internet, but don’t worry – When Sports Go Viral is back!
This time around we’ve got some hilarious stuff from the NBA, a pretty funny blooper from some NCAA track and field action, and an instructional video about how to get fired from your post as the manager of a professional soccer club!
Let’s start out with the NBA, where model Kate Upton has teamed up with the Oklahoma City Thunder for “Take a Supermodel to Work” day.
I am a little mad at myself today. I thought when the Memphis Grizzlies had a 21 point lead in the third quarter Sunday night that game one of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinal was over.
I recorded Harry’s Law, the season finale of The Good Wife and Law & Order, and watched those programs instead of a basketball game that was all but over.
Well, I guess it wasn’t over. The Grizzlies actually extended their lead to 27 points before blowing it. In one of the greatest collapses of all-time, the Grizzlies gave up 26 of 27 points in the fourth quarter. The Grizzlies actually had a fourth quarter lead of 95-71 with 9:12 left before the Clippers went on an improbable 26-1 run to take a 97-96 lead. Were these the Memphis Grizzlies or Vancouver Grizzlies?
The teams exchanged baskets before the Clippers pulled our a 99-98 win. Nick Young led the way with 19 points coming off the bench.
In other action, Andrew Bynum tied an NBA record for most blocks in a game with 10 as the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Denver Nuggets 103-88 in game one of the Western Conference Quarterfinal. Other players to have recorded 10 blocks in a playoff game are Hakeem Olajuwon of the Houston Rockets and Mark Eaton of the Utah Jazz.
This week on the show we’re looking at the second round of the NHL playoffs, the Roberto Luongo situation in Vancouver, some racist comments from Boston Bruins “fans” in reaction to Joel Ward’s series clinching overtime winner and the latest IIHF rankings.
In the GABBYs: Mark Visentin, the Edmonton Oil Kings, Tyrone Crawford, Mohamed Sanu, the Miami Marlins and a couple of Texas Rangers fans. The Punchline this week is the Charlotte Bobcats!
The Chicago Bulls will have a difficult time now in their attempt to win their seventh championship in franchise history and first since the Michael Jordan dynasty.
On Saturday in Chicago, Bulls star guard Derrick Rose tore his anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee and will be out for the postseason.
If you were interested in watching Chicago’s 103-91 win over Philadelphia, you needed NBA Canada, a station only available on a higher subscription package than the regular sports package available to Shaw subscribers.
Even though the Bulls won the game by a dozen, they will automatically not be the clear favourite to win the series. The 76ers definitely have the tools, even as the number eight seed in the East, to beat the Bulls without Rose.
The best game yesterday was in Oklahoma City where the Thunder defeated the Dallas Mavericks 99-98 as Kevin Durant made a 15 foot jump shot with two seconds left.
In taking a glance at the first round matchups of the NBA Playoffs, there is one series that stands out among all the others– the Los Angeles Clippers and the Memphis Grizzlies.
It’s remarkable I’m talking about them because both organizations were so bad for so long.
But on paper this will be by far and away the closest and most highly contested opening round conference quarterfinal.
During the regular season, both sides were separated by a single game. The Grizzlies at 41-25, and the Clippers at 40-26.
The Grizzlies score by committee under head coach Lionel Hollins. None of the Grizzlies starting five scored 20 points a game, with forward Rudy Gay leading the way with 19 points.
The Clippers meanwhile are the flashier bunch, led by Chris Paul and Blake Griffin. The team is no longer playing in the shadows of the Lakers, which is saying something.
I’m picking the Clippers in seven, as my only first round upset.
As we approach the NBA playoffs, the talk of the league is about Metta World Peace, a.k.a. Ron Artest, who in actuality delivers no peace on the basketball court whatsoever.
Should the basketball world be surprised of Peace’s elbow of James Harden of the Oklahoma City Thunder while he was celebrating a dunk last week? No, remembering the fact he was suspended 86 games for being the focal point of the brawl in the stands in one of the darkest nights in basketball history in 2004 during a game between the Detroit Pistons and Indiana Pacers.
Since then Artest changed his name to Metta World Peace. It seemed to have helped a little bit for the now Los Angeles Laker until Sunday. Peace was changing his image, being active in the Los Angeles community, donating a portion of his salary to mental health advocacy groups and raising the awareness of ethical treatment toward animals.
This week on the show we’re talking NHL playoffs & suspensions, along with some of the first teams to move on to the next round and another clock controversy from last week’s action. Also: we discuss a perfect game in the MLB and a legend leaving women’s basketball.
In the GABBYs: Martin Brodeur, Jamie Moyer, Washington Capitals fans, an Alabama parent, the Charlotte Bobcats and the Orlando Magic. The Punchline this week is high school baseball player Jameson Painter.
It is a little suspicious that Dwight Howard, the star center for the Orlando Magic is about to have back surgery.
Now? Is it me or do you find this a little suspicious that is occurring only a week before the NBA Playoffs are about to begin and his Magic headed toward the postseason and Howard clearly not getting along with his Head Coach Stan Van Gundy?
But in actuality this is exactly what is going on. It does seem a little strange because Howard did score 20 points and had 22 rebounds on April 7 in a 88-82 win over the Philadelphia 76ers. I watched the game and he looked fine. Howard hasn’t played since and because of his current weak relationship with the Magic coaching staff, fans have the right to question his commitment to the Magic organization, especially that he has a termination option in his contract that he can utilize at the end of the season if he chooses to.
The Miami Heat got absolutely hammered last night, by the Indiana Pacers!
Loading ...
