Lakers Salvage Game 5

Before my analysis, I want to bitch about every NBA Finals game ending at past midnight in the eastern time zone and every single one was on a school/work night too. BOO David Stern and I hope the ratings suck like your refs.

Twice the NBA has waited from Thursday to Sunday night to play the next game while teams were in the SAME city but when the location changes and teams are forced to travel across country, they play the next game on a Tuesday night after a Sunday night game.

It makes absolutely zero sense for the players, coaches, and fans but we know their interests always are behind those of TV honchos counting up their ad dollars.

After a monumental choke job in Game 4, the Lakers scrapped out a Game 5 victory. I want to publicly eat some crow and be held accountable for my Finals prediction of the Lakers winning in 5. The Celtics simply are a better team and they will easily close this series out at home in one of the two remaining games.

The Lakers have no answer for Paul Pierce and even Kobe is having hard time checking him. The crisp offensive execution and lock down defense that I saw out of the Lakers in series wins over Jazz/Spurs has been non existent.

Shockingly the Zen master is getting out coach by a 500 career coach in Doc Rivers, who seems more like a cheerleader than a coaching tactician. Rivers still puzzles me with his subbing patterns but sitting Rondo for long stretches helped win game 4 and the same decision almost pulled out game 5 too.

Surrounding KG and Pierce with shooters is a key coaching move by Rivers. Posey and House have been instrumental in hitting big shots and making Kobe stay on his man, which prevents him from playing roaming help D that he does while guarding Rondo.

Phil has not found a great subbing mix and Vlad Radmanovic should be ridding pine, not playing matador defense on the Celtics best player. The Lakers seem unwilling to take a charge and that is a direct reflection of coaching.

The Lakers rode their big 3 to save themselves from the brink of elimination. Although the Mamba will not go down without a fight, I see the Celtics big 3 feeding off the energy of their home building to win the championship.

BTW, Crow tastes the same as how Kendrick Perkink's untucked dress shirt looked, awful.


Props to Getty Images/Yahoo Sports for the pictures.

Penguins Dont Die, Keep Marching

Spelling Bee's, WNBA, Arena Football, and Poker tournament reruns constantly litter the ESPN family of channels but NHL hockey is nowhere to be found.

Throughout the season locating NHL on your TV dial was as painstaking difficult as sitting through an episode of "The L Word," waiting for a steamy lezbo scene. Hockey coverage on the sports blogs is non existent too.

Luckily NBC had last night's thrilling Red Wings/Penguins Game 5 Stanley Cup battle.

The Wings were less than a minute away from the hoisting the cup with a series clinching victory and the Penguins had pulled their goalie, which more than likely means the team ends up allowing a cheap empty netter. This was not the case as this crazy play happened to tie the game.



The game moved into a 3rd OT when Penguins Petr Sykora fired this game winner. Before hand Sykora proclaimed in an interview that he would score the deciding goal.



The Wings totally outplayed the Pens and the appear to be the better team so far in the series. The Pens goalie Marc-Andre Fleury was outstanding with 55 saves and one hockey fan considers it one of the best Stanley Cup Finals games ever.

The Penguins do not die and keep marching on back to Pittsburgh for game 6 with the Wings still up 3-2 in the series.

Photo is from Getty Images
Update: My man Uncle Rico gave hockey a shout out a few weeks ago.
Mac Gs World

One Down, Two to Go

If anyone in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood of Washington DC heard 2 loud screams shortly after 8:30pm est last night, it was not a case of domestic abuse but just me yelling as the result of these 2 plays.





The odds are still long for the Wizards to win the series but all of the pressure is now on Lebron James to close them out. The Wiz are supposed to lose to the King.

I feel more karma payback for the Jay Z dis song upcoming.

Darius Songalia did not punch Lebron either even though on TNT's angle it appears that way. I was watching the local DC Comcast TV and they had another camera angle, which it clearly shows Lebron's arm was hooked inside Darius' arm.

Lebron pulled his arm out, causing Darius's hand to fly towards him. I hope the NBA sees the real angle and does not rely solely on TNT's shot for future punishment.

Caron Butler reminded everyone last night he is an all star and good to see that he finally realized that Wally Szczerbiak is trying to check him in this series.
A final word from Butler, who has not participated in the goofy stuff throughout this series and was a little ticked off by it:

"Don't judge this team by comments," he said. "LeBron made a statement: 'these guys are talkers' but unless you hear something from the captains, which would be myself and Antawn, don't label that as the team. I'm the voice of this team and Antawn is the spiritual and emotional leader so unless you hear it from one of us, keep it moving."

Check out Bullets Forever for all information that you need on this series.

Thanks to Yahoo Sports/Getty Images for the sick Tuff Juice photo
Mac Gs World