Saturday’s Slate of Sports Doesn’t Disappoint
Saturday’s slate of sports is one for the ages. We start in Women’s Tennis where Maria Sharapova will face Sara Errani in the final of the Women’s French Open. The action then shifts to the action in EURO 2012 and the Belmont Stakes. You can add the 3rd round of the St. Jude’s Classic on the PGA Tour where Rory McIlroy is in position to grab another win before heading into the U.S. Open at Olympic Club next week. Then , of course, we move to to Game 6 of the NHL Finals and Game 7 of the NBA Finals in Miami. All-in-all it is a great day to sit on the couch and watch a full slate of sports. To read more check this out: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/spt–lebron–pacquaio–maria-sharapova–stanley-cup–euro-2012-and-you–welcome-to-a-saturday-of-sports-bliss.html
LeBron Rises to the Occasion
For all the slack that LeBron James takes for not being “clutch” he sure does have a nag for showing up for the biggest games in the playoffs.
With the Heat down 3-2, facing elimination and playing in Boston James put up 45 points on 19 of 26 shooting, 15 rebounds and 5 assists when his team needed him most.
The array of shots that James hit all night were ridiculous! Turnaround jumpers, floaters in the lane, three pointers over defenders, and fast break lay-in’s, not to mention the put back dunk that basically broke the Celtics’ back’s (see below).
This isn’t the first time that LeBron has done something like this in the postseason. In 2009 against Orlando LeBron scored 49 points, grabbed 6 boards, and dished out 8 assists in a Game 1 loss. In 2007 against Detroit he dropped 48 points, 9 rebounds, and 7 assists on the Pistons in a 109-107 win in double overtime. He scored 29 of his 48 points in the fourth quarter and overtimes. He also scored 47 points, and added 12 rebounds and 8 assists in a 2009 playoff game against the Atlanta Hawks to move the Cavaliers to a 3-0 lead in the series. Even earlier in these playoffs James scored 40 points with 18 rebounds in Game 4 against Indiana with the Heat down 2-1 in the series.
The point here is that for all the criticism James takes for this and that, he is the most dominating player in the NBA and when he is called upon to carry his team he, more often than not, rises to the occasion.
"Best Athlete" Bracket Semis Announced
It’s time for the unveiling of the Sports Action “Best Athlete” Bracket Semi-Finals. For those of you who don’t know yet Jonnie Motomochi and myself are on a quest to find the best athlete in professional sports today. On our show, Sports Action on 88.7 KBVR, this past week Jonnie and myself debated about who should be considered the best athlete. We got nowhere so we decided to make a bracket with the top-16 athletes in professional sports today and break it down until there was only one athlete left standing. We have just finished the quarter-finals and here is how the bracket now breaks down for the semis.
LeBron James of the NBA‘s Miami Heat will face Calvin “Megatron” Johnson of the NFL‘s Detroit Lions in the finals of the Deion Sanders Bracket. James, the number one overall seed in the bracket, was able to beat out the UFC‘s Jon “Bones” Jones while Megatron, the number two seed in this half of the bracket, beat out the talented Carl Crawford.
In the Bo Jackson Bracket the number one seed, Blake Griffin of the NBA, will square off with Russell Westbrook of the NBA. Westbrook was the number two seed in this bracket and dispatched Cam Newton in the closest vote that the Bo Jackson Bracket has seen yet. Griffin was able to advance by beating out fellow NBAer Dwight Howard.
Again, the Finals of the bracket will be released at the beginning of our show, Sports Action, on Sunday when we first come on air at 8pm. Be sure to tune in to 88.7 KBVR or stream live at kbvr.com/listen. We will then announce the best athlete in professional sports today in the last half hour of the show.
"Best Athlete" Quarter-Finals
We have advanced to the quarter-finals of the first ever Sports Action “Best Athlete” Bracket. There were several upsets in the first round and could be many more before this bracket is all said and done. Here is how the bracket now breaks down.
In the Deion Sanders Bracket the top overall seed, LeBron James, moved on over Miami Heat teammate Dwyane Wade. He will face the only UFC athlete in the competition, Jon “Bones” Jones, in the next round after Jones upset fourth seeded Bryce Harper of the MLB‘s Washington Nationals. The Boston Red Sox’s Carl Crawford, a three-sport all-state athlete in high school and number six seed in this bracket, also pulled the upset over the Philadelphia Eagles’ DeSean Jackson and will face Calvin “Megatron” Johnson in the quarters.
In the Bo Jackson half of the bracket the second overall seed Blake Griffin advanced easily, and now will face Dwight Howard who beat out the Atlanta Falcons’ Tony Gonzalez, who has been called one of the best athletes in NFL history. Finally Cam Newton of the Carolina Panthers upset fellow NFLer Jimmy Graham of the New Orleans Saints, who played both basketball and football at The University of Miami, and will be facing Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder who dispatched the only soccer player in the bracket, Christiano Ronaldo.
Here is how the quarters look:
Deion Sanders Bracket
1. LeBron James vs. 5. Jon “Bones” Jones
2. Calvin Johnson vs. 6. Carl Crawford
Bo Jackson Bracket
1. Blake Griffin vs. 5. Dwight Howard
2. Russell Westbrook vs. 6. Cam Newton
We will post these on social media so people can vote, or you can vote by leaving a comment on this page. Voting will close tonight at midnight and the results will be announced in the morning tomorrow.
Unfair Suspension Mar’s Heat/Pacers Game 6
The Miami Heat‘s starter, and top “enforcer”, Udonis Haslem has been suspended for tonight’s game 6. For any of you who watched game 5 you have a pretty good idea about why he was suspended. Early in the second quarter on Tuesday Indiana forward Tyler Hansbrough committed a flagrant foul, later moved to a flagrant two, on Miami star Dwayne Wade. Later on in the quarter Hansbrough was driving to the basket when Haslem came in from the left side of the key and laid a hard foul on Indiana’s enforcer.
Now if both players had been suspended I would have no problem with it at all. But the NBA came out yesterday and announced that Haslem had been suspended for tonight’s game, and Hansbrough had not.
Now I understand that, for the most part, the person who acts in retaliation for an act like the one that Hansbrough committed is usually the one to get the technical in the NBA. But this is a special situation because the NBA went back, looked at the replays, and then based it’s decision for suspensions on that.
It is a travesty that the NBA, after looking at the replays, came to the conclusion that it would suspend only Haslem and not Hansbrough simply because Hansbrough’s foul was a more blatant flagrant, it LED to Haslem’s retaliation, and Hansbrough’s foul on Wade resulted in a cut on Wade’s face while Hansbrough popped right back up after being fouled by Haslem.
Official NBA Playoffs Picks
Almost mid-way through the NBA Playoffs me and Jonnie Motomochi have gone back and forth on our picks and who we feel is playing the best. This week on the show I made my final picks for the rest of the playoffs. Here they are:
Conference Semis
Spurs already advanced
Lakers/Thunder- Thunder in 5 (ends tonight)
Celtics/Sixers- Sixers in 6 (hasn’t changed)
Heat/Pacers- Heat in 7 (had them in a sweep, didn’t happen that way I guess)
Conference Finals
Thunder/Spurs-Thunder in 7 (best series of the playoffs thus far)
Heat/Sixers- Heat in 5 (Philly doesn’t have the height of Indiana, but the Sixers will make the games close)
NBA Finals
Heat/Thunder-Heat in 6 (Bosh will be back and finally at full strength, LeBron finally wins title)
The individual match ups in the NBA Finals will make it one for the ages. LeBron and Durant will battle, Westbrook and Wade will provide highlight reel plays, Bosh and Ibaka will bang down low and hit their outside jumpers. Spoelstra and Brooks are two of the best young coaches in the NBA right now. This will be the best NBA Finals since the 1998 Bulls/Jazz Finals.
NBA Playoffs Begin
Blowouts, Bull injured, big comebacks, and bumping into referees. The NBA Playoffs have officially started ladies and gentlemen and through the first two days there has been more to talk about than there was the entire season.
Courtesy of afagen |