Russell Westbrook (Keith Allison, Wikimedia Commons)
A significant story in the 2013 NBA Playoffs isn’t who is playing, but who is not. Prior to the playoffs, it was well known the Los Angeles Lakers would not have Kobe Bryant, the Boston Celtics would not have Rajon Rondo and the Chicago Bulls would not have Derrick Rose.
However, the injuries continue to mount in the postseason as well. In the Western Conference quarterfinal, the Golden State Warriors lost their star center David Lee with a hip flexor for the postseason. Lee led the NBA this year with 56 double doubles. Then in game two of the Western Conference quarterfinal, Oklahoma City Thunder all-star point guard Russell Westbrook injured his knee after having surgery to repair a lateral meniscus tear.
Meanwhile, the injuries in Los Angeles continues to mount for the Lakers, with not only Bryant, but Steve Nash, Steve Blake and Jodie Meeks out as well. In game three’s loss to San Antonio, the Lakers were forced to play with their fifth and sixth ranked guards! Yikes!
We’re coming to the second busiest sports month of the year. April. Where has March gone? I know.
Anyways. It is a huge weekend for the Edmonton Oilers as they will be hosting their two western Canadian foes– the Vancouver Canucks tonight (CBC, 8:00 p.m.) and the Calgary Flames on Easter Monday (Sportsnet, 7:30 p.m.).
With 15 games left on the schedule, the Oilers are three points back of the St. Louis Blues for a playoff spot. That means every five games, they will have to pick up a point on the Blues, and hope they are slightly better than three other teams that are in front of them– the Columbus Blue Jackets, Dallas Stars and Nashville Predators.
Here are the other events I’ll be watching this weekend:
Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir (David Carmichael, Wikimedia Commons)
The 2013 World Figure Skating Championships wrap up in London, Ontario today with the ice dance competition (CBC, 2:00 p.m.) an the ladies’ long program (www.cbcsports.ca, 8:00 p.m.).
Canada has a very good shot at two more medals Saturday. Olympic champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of London, Ontario are in second place in the ice dance, while Sherwood Park resident Kaetlyn Osmond is in fourth place after the women’s short program.
If you watched the championship on Friday, you would know that the quality of skating has been poor for a World Figure Skating Championship.
Patrick Chan of Ottawa was completely dreadful last night in winning the men’s competition, but came away with the gold medal. After a great start where he executed the quad, he fell on two triples, double footed another jump and seemed exhausted in the latter half of his performance. At the end of the day, Chan defended his world title.
This week on (the award-nominated) 15MOF we watch the Edmonton Oilers slip further down the standings and try to figure out what’s wrong, we look at a couple of big streaks in the NHL & the NBA (one of which just came to an end), and we look ahead to the main event at UFC 158 between Georges St. Pierre and Nick Diaz.
In the GABBYs: Canadian baseball, bees, Brittney Griner, Brett Cook, Cuneyt Cakir and Beitar Jerusalem. The Punchline this week is the Indoor Football League!
Friday can be summed up in one word for Canadian baseball. Embarrassing. Team Canada’s pitching deserved a failing grade in a 14-4 loss to Italy. With the loss, Canada’s hopes are all but dashed as it is highly unlikely they will advance to the second round.
How bad was it for Team Canada? Well, the ten run mercy rule came into effect after Canada gave up five runs in the eighth.
The playoffs are now set for the 2013 Scotties Tournament of Hearts. After a solid week, Manitoba’s Jennifer Jones made history Friday night in Kingston, Ontario, by becoming the first female skip to go a perfect 12-0 in the round robin of the national curling championship. Manitoba will now play Ontario’s Rachel Homan in the 1-2 playoff game (Saturday, TSN, 5:00 p.m.) with the winner advancing to the final (Sunday, TSN, 5:00 p.m.) and the loser playing the winner of the 3-4 game between British Columbia’s Kelly Scott and Canada’s Heather Nedohin (Saturday, TSN, 12:00 p.m.) in the semi-final (Sunday, TSN, 7:00 a.m.).
This week on the show we look at a tumultuous week of CBA talks between the NHL & the NHLPA, and we recap the latest UFC event and look forward to some big potential fights for 2013.
In the GABBYs: The OKC Barons, Kobe Bryant, Leo Messi, the UFC, Manny Pacquiao & the LA Lakers. The Punchline this week is the New Orleans Hornets.
Once again this weekend I’ll be watching four kinds of football from both side of the border.
Th most interesting matchup will be the Western Final on Sunday afternoon between the Calgary Stampeders (12-6) and the British Columbia Lions (13-5) (2:30pm, TSN). This week there has been more drama in the Stampeders’ dressing room than an entire week of the Young and the Restless, and for that I give the Lions the advantage.
Travis Lulay is expected to be at the top of his game and the Lions are well rested. My only concern however is that it has been a while since they played a very meaningful game, so it will be interesting to see how they come out mentally.
The Los Angeles Lakers shocked the basketball world by hiring Mike D’Antoni as their next basketball coach over Phil Jackson.
D’Antoni has an excellent relationship with Canadian all-star Steve Nash, who he coached successfully in Phoenix. It was D’Antoni that coached Nash when he won his two most valuable player awards in the NBA.
But the question is are the right people in place in Los Angeles for D’Antoni’s offensive run-and-gun style to be effective? I’m not so sure. For one, Dwight Howard doesn’t seem to be the fastest on the court, and would be better suited in a Jackson triangle type system.
However it should suit Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol well, who seem to adapt well to any offensive strategy. I think Bryant has shown strong support for D’Antoni because he realizes how tight he has become with Nash in recent years.
The greatest Canadian basketball player ever, and one of Canada’s greatest athletes ever is joining one of the most successful franchises in basketball history.
It was confirmed tonight that the Los Angeles Lakers acquired Steve Nash from the Phoenix Suns for four draft picks–two first round picks and two second round picks over the next three years. They then signed Nash to a three year deal worth $25 million).
Nash is still one of the best point guards in basketball today and now can pass the ball frequently to Kobe Bryant, Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol. Oh yeah, and he still had a free throw percentage of .894.
The biggest losers in today’s decision by Nash was clearly the Toronto Raptors who acquired restricted free agent Landry Fields this week in an attempt to block a possible trade between the New York Knicks and Phoenix Suns. The move backfired because at the end of the day I think Nash realized the Raptors weren’t that much in a better position than the Suns, and at his age, he clearly has a small window of time to win a Championship.
For the first time in franchise history, the Edmonton Rush are in championship game. Tonight in New York state, the Rush take on the Rochester Knighthawks for the 2012 Champion’s Cup (Shaw HD, 5:30pm).
Now I’m not a huge supporter of a team with a losing record in the regular season making the playoffs, as the Rush were 6-10 and in fourth place in the Western Division, but you have to give the team credit for getting hot at just the right time.
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 15MOF, we’re talking coaching injuries in the NHL and long goal droughts (Scott Goalmez!), the NBA’s Tim Tebow and we discuss whether or not we will ever see the “super fight” between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao!
In the GABBYs: Paul Pierce & Kobe Bryant, Tomas Holmstrom & Nick Lidstrom, the Penticton Vees, Gisele Bundchen, Kevin Love and Tiquan Underwood. The Punchline this week is soccer player Adriano!
One of the most exciting sporting events of the entire year got under way last night in Vancouver.
For only the fourth time since 1923, Canada is in the main World Group of the Davis Cup, and yes folks there are reasons to be very excited.
Last night, Milos Raonic was dominant with his serve in his 6-2, 6-4, 7-5 win over France’s Julien Benneteau. Equally as dominant though was France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga who beat Canada’s Vasek Pospisil yesterday afternoon 6-1, 6-3, 6-3.
Now the stage is set for exciting doubles action today. I know Milos Raonic is the best Canadian tennis player today, but you could make the serious case that Daniel Nestor is the greatest Canadian tennis player ever. Nestor is a doubles specialist, who has a remarkable career record of 830-318. The seven-time major winner is still going great at age 39 and is currently ranked number three in the world. Like Steve Nash who I discussed yesterday, Daniel Nestor is playing at an elite level which is truly amazing to watch. Nestor along with Pospisil will play the French duo of Michael Llodra and Benneteau with the Canadian team favoured to win the match (Sportsnet, 3pm).
Play will continue Sunday (Sportsnet, 3pm) with Raonic taking on Tsonga and a fifth match with possible meaning. The two have never faced each other.
Here are the other events I’ll be watching this weekend:
Loading ...
