Cup of Coffee: January 3, 2008
Posted by SBG on Thursday, January 3rd, 2008 at 6:36 am
KG scores a bunch down the stretch, guards Yao, Cs win close one. 27-3, tied for the best 30 game start in league history. I guess KG's all right.
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For those of you who think it's Paul Pierce's team, a little difference of opinion from the Boston Herald:
"fire and benevolence" -- nice. How many NBA players can you validly apply those attributes to? (yes, it ends with a preposition - get over it)
I couldn't see past the shoddy punctuation.
Isn't Tony Massarotti a two bit hack?
So which jersey will KG wear in the HOF?
He may be. But, he's at least smart enough to have command of the obvious.
The HOF doesn't have a selected jersey like the cap in baseball. It will list all of his teams.
For all the teeth gnashing, you have to be pleased that Garnett is getting the chance to fulfill his potential, rather than rot here in Minny. Seriously, did you see any conceivable way the Wolves could have assembled a worthy enough supporting cast to get the same kind of results the Celts are getting to date? Lastly, what would you say to the critics if for some chance the Celtics, were to say, be eliminated in the 2nd round of the playoffs this year..or if they fail to get to the finals.
Hell yes, I'm ecstatic for KG and I keep track of every Cs game. I'm even updating the KG Watch, which I hardly did last year.
I don't even want to think of the Cs not making the ECF.
I just love how the media perceptions have changed on him so quickly. It's gone from "Duncan would never miss the playoffs in back-to-back seasons" to "fire and benevolence."
Garnett hasn't changed. His surroundings have changed and he's on the East Coast. That makes him relevant again and he's finally getting the attention he deserves.
I'm still waiting for all of those articles where the writers admit how wrong they were about KG in 2005-2007. Especially from the Boston Sports Guy.
Hell, TJ said last year that KG wasn't among the top 15 players in the league. I heard him say it on the radio and was using a tone of voice as if it wasn't even questionable.
But, then again, he's a certifiable idiot. Here's to Joe Mauer playing 145 games and hitting .320/.410/.500 in 2008.
The East is a two-team race. Flip's gang has won 10 in a row and sports the second best record in the league, 25-7.
Don't count out Orlando.
Dwight Howard is a some sort of a combination between a man-child and a meast. His shoulders look like 2x4s. He's huge. He's only 6 months older than me. I can't get over that.
That Orlando frontcourt of Howard-Turkoglu-Lewis should be a formidable matchup problem for any opponent in the playoffs, including Boston.
That front-line is nice, no doubt about it. Still, their guard play is sketchy, at best. Nelson and Arroyo at the point don't inspire much confidence.
What the hell, it's all speculation at this point anyway.;)
I'm not afraid of O-town. This thing is going to be about one McHale castoff against another. Actually, Detroit has two McHale castoffs (Flip and Chauncey), so maybe they have the edge. Then again, Boston has KG and Ray Allen, so maybe it's closer than I thought.
Who knows whether Orlando has assembled a championship team. I'm just saying that any team with a frontcourt like that has better than a puncher's chance in the playoffs.
Btw, amidst all the hoopla over KG's a-mayy-zing 97-93 triumph (at home) over Houston, it should be noted that the Rockets have a losing record and were missing Tracy McGrady last night. The Sports Guy's favorite Harvey Keitel line ("popsicles") might be applied here.
'scuse me while I kiss the sky
Dwight Howard's pre-game ritual: The Kiss.
Dwight Howard putting a sticker at 12' 6" during the Slam Dunk contest
That's some vert.
I just got a chance to look at the Celtics' recaps and box scores from their victories in Utah and LA in the past week. The Utah game in particular looks like the likely blueprint for Boston success in the playoffs. Matched up against Carlos Boozer, KG had 15 pts, 9 rbs (and Boozer had 19 pts, 11 rbs). But Allen chipped in 23, and Pierce scored 24 (only 6-17 shooting, while taking the most shots on the team, but 10-11 from the line) to take a 104-98 victory. The last 4 and a half minutes, in a tight game against a respectable team with a strong presence in the paint, the Boston offense was pretty much Pierce and Allen. KG took his last shot at the 4:54 mark.
In the final minute, which began with Boston up 98-97... Pierce missed a 15-footer at 0:59; Pierce made a driving layup at 0:28 to put Boston up, 100-98; Pierce drew a foul and made both free throws at 0:11 to pad the lead, 102-98; and Tony Allen made a layup at 0:01 (Pierce assists) to cap the game. In that minute, Paul Pierce also had 3 defensive rebounds.
In LA, each of the C's Big Three had a strong night in an easy 110-91 victory. But Pierce led the team with 33 points (9-19, 11-13) and 8 rbs. He took the most shots from the field and was the most likely to get to the line. He was the main man on offense.
KG may bring fire and theatrics, and he may do other things to help the team win; but in two recent road games against a couple of the better teams out West, it was still Paul Pierce who took charge of his team and led the way to victories. In the big games, I expect the Celtics will continue to live or die by that blueprint more often than not.
It'd be hard to tell which jersey was which by the tiny bit of shoulder straps included (if any) on a bust of his head.
If it says in the newspaper that a guy is the FOTF, it must be true.
I'll stand by what I said until I see KG consistently take charge of the floor in crunch time next June. Until then, I wouldn't get too swept up by the hype about fire, benevolence, and theater.
If it says in the newspaper that a guy is the FOTF, it must be true.
Owie. That's a first class zinger.
Frightwig to the rim...and 1!
Just like all of the other great big men in the league. Oh wait....
Big Tuna's cleaning house. I thought Cam Cameron was a hack when he was the Hoosier's head coach. If you are inept enough to stick out as a bad coach at IU, then the NFL is not for you.
on the other hand, they renewed Yogi Williams' contract, according to a brief in the SacBee this morning.
The coverage of the halftime bands at last night's Fiesta Bowl was only slightly improved over the Cotton Bowl debacle. I managed to freeze frame my nephew in his 2 seconds of fame in the Oklahoma tuba section. Last year, he was on camera several times, but the bald head and red headband don't exactly make it a "Where's Waldo?" situation.
WTF? A's trade Nick Swisher to White Sox. Man, the A's are punting on 2008.
maybe.
I've never been as enamored of Swisher as some. And as I've noted several times, the A's outfield looked to be crowded going into next spring (Buck, Denorfia, Kotsay, Putnam, Cust, Shannon Stewart -- who has been offered arbitration, plus a couple other guys on the 40-man who are bumping up against Rule 5 constraints soon, and now Sweeney).
By necessity, Swisher ended up playing too much CF last year (Kotsay injuries) 57 games, to lead the club, compared to only 46 in RF. I'd expect a lot of Buck or Denorfia in RF, Kotsay in CF and Sweeney/Buck in LF, with Putnam fighting for playing time as a backup to all three spots. I don't see why Billy would bother to bring back Shannon Stewart.
Barton and Johnson will compete for the 1b job, Cust (and Piazza, if he decides to return) the DH spot.
I'll be interested in seeing ubelmann's take on Sweeney. He hasn't shown any power in the minors despite a big frame (6'4", 200 lbs), but decent on-base skills. 289/349/401 in 499 minor-league games, including 223 at AAA. but he's still young, so he's got that going for him. Which is nice.
From what I can tell, the guys who develop power from "nowhere" are the ones who are good at basically everything else, have a really strong walk rate, and strike out more than they walk. Sweeney does strike out more than he walks, but his walk rate really isn't all that strong, and he's not that good at everything else. Maybe Sweeney develops power and maybe he doesn't, but it seems unlikely he'll ever be as good a hitter as Swisher is right now. PECOTA likes Sweeney to eventually hit for a .270-.280 EQA in his prime. For a corner OF, that's really nothing special, and since he hasn't actually developed any power yet, that seems like a risky projection to me.
Trading Swisher wasn't necessarily such a bad idea, but I would've thought Beane could get more than two pitching suspects with control problems and a corner outfielder with no power.
For the White Sox, I think this makes a lot of sense, because presently it gives them an upgrade in LF over Sweeney, Podsednik, et al, and in the future, Swisher can be the heir to Jim Thome at DH.
A much more positive spin on the deal in today's Sac Bee.
The two pitching prospects were described as the two best in the ChiSox system according to Baseball America (I think). The ESPN article the Boss cites above notes that 21-year old right-hander Fautino De Los Santos was ranked first in the system by BP and was the Sally's top prospect this year. Gio Gonzalez, 22-year old lefty, is supposed to have an outside shot at making the A's rotation this year.
Reusse: Wolves suck and have no fans.
Reusse states the obvious and has no readers.
Andrew, there might be an alumni contingent heading to DM for one of the Saturday b-ball games in the next couple months.
If I end up meeting Andrew that weekend, I'll have watched hockey with SBG, football with Rhu Ru and basketball with Andrew. Three people I know through a baseball website with whom I would have watched sports other than baseball. Very odd. (Me, not them.)
It's not fair that you didn't identify yourself at the hockey game!
I wasn't a member of the nation at that time. I just knew you had a Twins blog but that was it at the time.
Just take one of the Twins games next year and I guarantee you can meet me if you'd like! There will be 12 games to choose from next year.
It's a deal.
I should be in town most weekends from here to the foreseeable future. The only time I'll be gone is the Daytona 500 February 16-19th. Other than that, I'd love to meet up for a game. We talking Drake or what?
I'm all aboard the bandwagon (not that I've left) now that they beat Souther Illinois. I expect a Top 25 appearance next week.
A friend and I are going to try to find a place that will show the Drake-Evansville game from FSN MW this Sunday.
The Bulldogs have been receiving between 5-9 votes in most polls, garnering a spot in the "Also receiving votes:" section of the polls for the last few weeks. That's far and away the best they've ever been since I've been paying attention (this is the beginning of Year 5). Hopefully, like you said, Top 25 is in the future. Beating the Salukis is a big jump. I remember Jamaal Tatum coming into the Knapp Center a couple of times and completely destroy the Bulldogs.
Me, not them
Well, some of "them", too...
And here I thought that access was everything.
He even looks a bit like Steve Fisher.
Yeah, but can he recruit a Fab
FiveTwenty-Two?Dakar 2008 is cancelled.
Merde!