Miami Heat Eastern Conference Champions T-Shirt, and Hats
The Miami Heat beat the Chicago Bulls to become the 2011 NBA Eastern Conference Champions. When it became time for the "Big Three" to step up big in the playoffs, they didn't disappoint. They went on a 16-2 run in Game 5 to eliminate the Bulls from the playoffs. The Heat will advance to the Conference Finals to play the Dallas Mavericks, a repeat from the 2006 NBA Finals.
Seems as though I missed all the excitement vis a vis Terry Francona and Joe West as well as Rajon Rondo's gritty performance in Game 3- well....I caught some of it on the radio, but that doesn't always effectively convey the moment.
AP Photo
NBA: After a game 2 in the Garden on Saturday that saw Rajon Rondo playing for 38 minutes with a dislocated elbow and was capped off with a 97-81 win against the Miami Heat, the series continued on Monday night.
Alas, while the C's led for much of the game there was no rallying point like Rondo's return in Game 3. With the clock counting down the final seconds of regulation and the game tied 86-86, Paul Perce attempted a jumper that ended up rimming out and forcing a rather anticlimatic overtime in which the Heat would go on a 12-4 run and win by the final of 98-90, putting the Celtics in a 3-1 hole [not the first time a Boston team has been in a 3-1 hole in the postseason, mind you, but an uphill climb nonetheless- NANESB!].
Rajon Rondo- unquestionably the hero of Game 3, was on the floor for 38 minutes and had 10 points, 2 rebounds and 5 assists. Paul Pierce led in scoring with 27 points, followed by Ray Allen with 17. For the Heat, LeBron James had 35 points on the night followed by Dwayne Wade with 28 and Chris Bosh with 20.
Game 5- which is do or die for Boston- is set to take place Wednesday night at Miami starting at 7PM ET, 4PM Pacific and will be broadcast on TNT.
OTHER NBA NEWS: Elsewhere, the Los Angeles Lakers season ended abruptly after being swept in 4 games by the Dallas Mavericks. Even with the C's one game away from elimination, I still find myself smiling a little bit typing that above sentence. NHL: Speaking of 4-game sweeps, the Bruins ensured that there wouldn't be a repeat of last year's epic collapse by eliminating the Philadelphia Flyers to advance to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 1992.
Boston got on the board late in the first with a power play goal from Milan Lucic and Philly would come right back to tie it in the 2nd with an even strength goal from Kris Versteeg.
Boston would re-take the lead early in the 3rd on a Johnny Boychuck tally, but given what happened against the Flyers last year, one could be forgiven for not being convinced that a 1-goal lead late in the 3rd period was sufficient insurance. However, Lucic was able to provide some of that insurance when he managed to find the back of the net at the 15 minute mark. This was followed up by empty netters from Brad Marchand and Daniel Paille to seal the game by a 5-1 final for the Bruins, and ending the Flyers season.
Tim Thomas stopped 22 of 23 shots faced (it seemed like the overwhelming majority of them came midway through the 3rd period) while Philly's Sergei Bobrovski stopped 22 of 25 faced.
The win means that the Bruins will face the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference finals. Tampa is coming off their own 4-game sweep of the underwhelming Washington Capitols. Game 1 won't get underway until Saturday evening, with both (presumably well-rested) teams facing off at the Garden starting at 8PM ET.
OTHER BRUINS NEWS: Patrice Bergeron left Game 4 with what was diagnosed a 'mild' concussion after a hit from Claude Grioux and is expected to miss at least two games. Bergeron, who has a history of concussions, will be replaced by 1st round draft pick Tyler Seguin in the meantime.
RED SOX: After splitting the home series against the Angels and dropping the 1st game to Minnesota on Friday night, the Red Sox finished up their homestand with a 3-game win streak Monday night.
Monday night's game was a little closer than I would've liked and not exactly problem free, given that Papelbon blew his a save opportunity for the 1st time this season and the Sox stranded 11 baserunners.
Adrian Gonzalez had an RBI single, driving in Varitek to make it a 1-0 game and the Sox would tenuously cling to the lead heading into the top of the 8th. With Alfredo Aceves struggling, Jonathan Papelbon came on for a 4-out save, but gave up an RBI single to Jason Kubel, driving in the speedy Denard Span to tie the game at 1-1.
Hideki Okajima gave up two hits in two shaky but scoreless innings of work for the Sox, but Jim Hoey would come on and give up an RBI single to Carl Crawford, driving in pinch-runner Jose Iglesias, giving the struggling outfielder his second walk-off hit in nearly a week.
Boston will next travel to Toronto for a brief 2-game series before travelling to the Bronx to take on the Yankees over the weekend.
MLB: After a fairly unimpressive continuation of their West Coast road trip where they dropped 2 out of 3 to the Orioles, the Red Sox made their way back to Fenway on Friday to start off an 11-game homestand. That didn't go too well, either- although struggling OF Carl Crawford got his 3rd RBI of the season at Fenway (7th overall) to break a 2-2 deadlock in the bottom of the 9th for a 3-2 Boston win.
AP Photo
On Monday, the Red Sox continued their homestand against one of the few teams they had early success against this season as they played host to the Angels.
However, despite the 4 game sweep on the Angels on the road the Red Sox had yet to face Jered Weaver, who was coming into Monday night's game undefeated in his 6 starts and with a 0.99 ERA.
The Angels took the 2-1 lead in the top of the 5th inning off of Clay Bluccholz but after a 1-out double from the Carl Crawford [should I use the adejctive 'struggling' anymore?- NANESB!] and walking Varitek, Jacoby Ellsbury hit into a fielder's choice ('Tek was out at second). With 2 away, Ellsbury managed to steal second while 2B Dustin Pedroia was fouling pitch after pitch from Weaver off in a tenacious 13-pitch at bat that culminated in a 2-RBI single to put the Red Sox up for good.
Adrian Gonzalez added some considerable insurance with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 7th with a bases-clearing double, followed by Youk bringing in Gonzalez with another RBI double and Big Papi cranking one into the Monster seats to make it 9-2 Boston. The Angels would get a couple of runs back in the top of the 8th and 9th, but Hideki Okajima would close things out and Boston wins by a final of 9-5.
Tonight's matchup will feature Jon Lester (3-1; 2.52 ERA) getting the start against Dan Haren (4-1; 1.23 ERA). First pitch will be at 7:10 ET on NESN. NHL: After winning game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals by a 7-3 final, the Bruins would need overtime for the 4th time in this year's playoffs.
Philly took the early 2-0 lead on two goals from James Van Riemsdyk about nine minutes apart in the first before the Bruins would tie it up on goals from Chris Kelly and Brad Marchand to close out the first at 2-2.
And that was all the scoring there was in regulation, believe it or not. Philly netminder Brian Boucher would leave halfway through the second with some sort of injury and have Sergei Bobrovsky fill in for him between the pipes until returning in the 3rd period- Bobrovsky would stop all 6 shots faced.
Tim Thomas, on the other hand, stayed in net throughout the entire game stopping 52 out of 54 shots faced, including all 46 shots sent his way by the Flyers after allowing goal #2 in the first.
David Krejci would break the deadlock 6 minutes into the OT, getting one past Boucher even though the lineman signalled 'no goal' and play continued for another 18 seconds. The play was then reviewed by video and Kejci's shot was ruled a goal.
This puts Boston ahead 2 games to none with the series heading back to Boston on Wednesday ngiht. As glad as I am they're up, it's still pretty early to bust out the champagne and start drunkenly slurring 'Na na na na Hey hey hey.....good byyye!' in light of what happened in last year's eastern conference finals and- more recently- the fact that Montreal started off the last series with back to back wins on the road.
The series resumes on Wed, May 4 at the garden at 7PM ET. The game will be televised on the VS network.
Mike Ehrmann/Getty
NBA: With a whole week off before facing their next opponent, it probably wouldn't be too surprising that there would be some rust as the Celtics took on the Miami Heat.
Dwayne Wade had a 38 point night for Miami while Guard James Jones came off the bench for 25 points on Sunday afternoon's game.
Ray Allen led the Celtics scoring with 25 points in the 99-90 loss to Miami in Sunday's game- Paul Pierce had 19- everybody else was held to single digits.
Game 2 will get underway Tuesday Night in Miami at 7PM ET and will be televised on TNT.
NFL: Looks like the on-again off-again NFL lockout is back on again less than a week after a federal judge in Minnesota had it overturned. An appeals court in St. Louis had issued a temporary ruling in the NFL's favor. The 3-judge panel had ruled 2-1 in favor of the league pending a June 3 hearing.
NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS: The Patriots selcted Colorado University tackle Nate Solder with their first round pick of the 2011 draft. Virginia's Ras-I Dowling at cornerback and Cal RB Shane Vereen picked up in the 2nd round. Of course, there's the whole question of whether or not there's going to be a 2011 season for the Class of 2011, let alone how much playing time they'll get...
MLB: Seattle Mariners hall-of-fame Broadcaster Dave Niehaus passed away in his Bellvue, WA home after suffering a fatal heart attack. The 75 year old play by play announcer had intended to return to the booth for Seattle's 2011 season.
After graduating Indiana University and entering the military in 1957, Niehaus spent time as a broadcaster for Armed Forces Radio. In the late 1960s, he was a broadcast partner with Dick Enberg while calling games for the California Angels. After also doing some radio work with the UCLA Bruins and Los Angeles Rams, Niehaus was in the broadcast booth for the Mariners for their inaugural season in 1977 and has called games for Seattle ever since, making him one of the few broadcasters in any sport who has been calling games since their team's inception.
In 2008, Niehaus entered the Baseball Hall of Fame as a broadcaster by being named the winner of the Ford C Frick Award.
In the Pacific Northwest, he's probably best known for calling Edgar Martinez's walk-off hit in the deciding Game 5 of the 1995 ALDS.
NHL: Wow...the intra-conference matchups giveth, but they sure as hell taketh away, too. Figures I'd miss the game where Boston scores 5 unanswered goals (in one period, no less) but be able to tune in to the one where they get stonewalled in a 3-1 loss.
After the Penguins took a pretty formidable 4-2 lead into the 3rd period on Wednesday at the brand-spanking new Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, the Bruins came right back with goals from Nathan Horton and Zdeno Chara less than 30 seconds apart to tie the contest up 4-4 early in the 3rd. This was followed by what would be Shawn Thronton's game-winner and insurance from Blake Wheeler and an empty netter from Milan Lucic. Tim Thomas would stop 42 of 46 shots faced that night.
Thursday night's game at TD Banknorth Garden was a different story, with Montreal netminder Carey Price turning away all but one of the 35 shots he faced from the Bruins in Montreal's 3-1 win. Although Montreal got on the board quick in the first before Zdeno Chara tied it up at 1-1 with 4 minutes to go in the opening period. Montreal appeared poised to take a 2-1 lead in the second, but a review of the goal indicated that Canadiens C Jeff Halpern redirected the puck with his skate, so the goal was disallowed.
Tukka Rask was in net for Boston, giving Thomas the night off - Rask is still looking for his first win of the 2010-2011 season as Boston comes up short in their first game against the Habs (who were the only team in the Northeast division with a record better than Boston's). Instead, the Habs would make it a 2-1 game on a power play goal by Brian Gionta not even a minute into the 3rd and then get some insurance from a Scott Gomez tally.
The loss puts the Bruins in a virtual tie for 2nd place with their next opponent, the Ottawa Senators (also with 17 points, but with a worse intra-divisional record). The two teams will drop the puck Saturday night at the Garden at 7 PM Eastern, 4 Pacific.
NBA: Hmmm....so much for handing the Miami Heat the Eastern Conference title before the ink on LeBron James' new contract had dried.
Ray Allen, on the other hand, had 35 points including going to 7 for 9 in three point attempts in Boston's 112-107 win in Miami on Thursday night- and even then it wasn't quite as close as the scoreboard indicated. Throughout the game, every time the Heat threatened to close the gap, the C's would start to pour it on and increase their lead.
Despite the late surge by Miami, it was all Boston pretty much all night, with the Celtics never trailing in the contest. Although LeBron James matched Ray Allen's production with 35 points of his own, the C's held Dwayne Wade to just 8 points (more than half of them coming from the free throw line).
The C's will next travel to Memphis to take on the Grizzlies on Saturday night at 8PM Eastern, 7 Central.
NCAA FOOTBALL: The Pitt Panthers appeared to be in control of Thursday night's game with a 21-13 lead against the UConn Huskies well into the 3rd quarter.
However, the Huskies responded right away with a kickoff returned 95 yards for a UConn touchdown thanks to Nick Williams to make it a 1 point game before another UConn drive was capped off with a 25 yard Dave Teggart FG to make it 23-20 UConn lead.
Pitt gave UConn another opening when the ensuing kickoff was fumbled at the Pitt 25 yard line and the Huskies were again able to find the end zone, extending their lead to 21-30. The Panthers were able to put together a quick drive and make it a 28-30 game on a 20 yard pass to Pitt WR Jon Baldwin, but once UConn got the ball back, they were able to bleed out the clock thanks to some key 4th down conversions by RB Jordan Toddman (who already had 200+ yards on the night.
The Huskies run out the clock and come away with the 30-28 win over Pitt- their 1st lost to a conference opponent this season.
UConn's next game will be on November 20th against the Syracuse Orangemen at the Carrier Dome.
NFL Are you ready for some Football? Some Thursday night football?
Thursday night was the debut of NFL's Thursday night games for the 2010 season. OK- a couple of things to start off with; I remember the Thursday Night games
A) Starting a few weeks later in the season- like after Thanksgiving
B) Usually being a lopsided contest between two cellar dwellers (like Buffalo versus Carolina)
In years past, Thursday night's contest between the Atlanta Falcons and Baltimore Ravens might've matched that description, but not last night.
In the interest of full disclosure, last night I mostly spent the night after work doing some errands and taking Applebee's up on their Veteran's Day promo, so I was almost constantly flipping between the Bruins/Habs, Celtics/Heat and UConn/Pitt game on the satellite radio. I did however, tune into the the final couple of minutes of regulation in the Falcons/Ravens game. Turns out that was a very pivotal final few minutes....I snuck in on the game earlier and figured with the score being 20-7 Atlanta, it was more or less over for Baltimore.
Flash forward to the 4th quarter where after starting on their own 25, Ravens QB Joe Flacco engineered a five and a half minute, 75-yard drive to the Falcons end zone to make it 14-20 and a 1-score game.
After the ensuing Atlanta drive sputtered mid-field Baltimore got the ball back on their own 28 yard line with just under three minutes in regulation. This time Flacco and the Ravens offense put together a much quicker drive, including a 22 yard gain from WR Derrick Mason and 25 yards from RB Ray Rice to put them on top 21-20.
But with just a minute left in regulation, Boston College alumni Matt Ryan would put together a drive (aided by some Baltimore penalties) from the Atlanta 20 to put the Falcons up for good. The 2-point conversion attempt failed, but Atlanta hangs on to win by a final of 26-21.
Hope all the Thursday night games will be this interesting.
I was flipping around between the World Series, the Bruins and the NC State/Florida State games last night, so instead of being able to tune in to all three games, it was more like trying to get caught up on all three games.
WORLD SERIES: And just like that, the San Francisco Giants are out to a 2-0 lead in the 2010 World Series. I'm not really surprised by that as much as I am the margin of San Francisco's victories.
They jumped all over Cliff Lee in Wednesday night's 11-7 win- the Ranger's starter didn't even make it through the 5th inning, getting yanked with two away after giving up an RBI double to Freddy Sanchez and RBI singles to Aubrey Huff and Cody Ross. It got even worse for the Ranger (who did lead 2-0 early in the game) when Darren O'Day came on and gave up a homerun to deep left off the bat of Juan Uribe to make it 8-2 by the time the 5th inning was finished. Despite that, the Rangers were able to cut into the lead on a Bengie Molina RBI double and a David Murphy single to make it an 8-4 game. However, the Texas bullpen would continue to self immolate, giving up three more runs in the bottom of the 8th, and while the Rangers were able to score 3 more runs in the bottom of the 9th, it was too little too late.
For Game 2, Branch Rickey's quote about baseball being a game of inches never seemed more accurate when Ian Kinsler led off the top of the 5th inning with a booming double off of Giants starter Matt Cain that bounced off the top of the wall and teetered back into play. Had it rolled the other way, it would've been a 1-0 Texas game. Instead, Kinsler was stranded at second and Edgar Renteria belted a solo homer that put San Francisco up 1-0. Texas' CJ Wilson went 6 decent innings, allowing two earned runs on three hits. But all of that would be forgotten when the Rangers bullpen once again took over and self-immolated, giving up 7 earned runs on fice hits and four walks to give San Francisco a 9-0 lead. The Giant's Matt Cain threw 7 and 2/3rds shutout innings, allowing four hits and striking out two for the Giants' 9-0 win on Thursday night.
For Game 3, the series heads to Arlington, TX with Colby Lewis getting the start against Jonathan Sanchez on Saturday night. Lewis has gone from closing out the Yankees to being the last, best hope for the Rangers in this World Series. First pitch is at 6:57 PM Eastern Time. NHL: Phil Kessel earned the gratitude of the crowd at TD Banknorth Garden Thursday night when the Bruins played host to the Maple Leafs after 1st round draft pick Tyler Seguin tallied an insurance goal. Almost as soon as the red light went off behind Toronto's Jonas Gustavsson, the Bruins faithful broke out into a spontaneous, taunting chant of "Thank you, Kessel!".
Kessel's demands for a new, pricey contract or else be traded from Boston culminated in the September 2009 deal where he wound up in Toronto in exchange for Toronto's first overall draft pick in the 2010 NHL Draft as well as another one in the 2011 draft. Let us not forget that the Maple Leafs are responsible for giving us Tukka Rask as well....
But back to last night's game....Patrice Bergeron opened the scoring with his first goal of the season coming on a Bruins power play with less than a minute left in the first period. Seguin's goal- even strength- came in the second period with assists from Michael Ryder and Dennis Seidenberg and Tim Thomas faced on 20 shots from the Leafs in Boston's 2-0 shutout win. The Bruins head into Saturday night's game at Ottawa with a 5-2-0 record.
The Bruins had the option of sending Seguin down to Providence after nine games, but after the game, Claude Julien announced that they plan on keeping him in Boston for the rest of the year.
NBA: Can you believe the NBA season's here already? After beating Lebron James' new team pretty convincingly, the Celtics stumbled against a LeBron-less Cavs. In the 4th quarter, with the game tied 86-86, Cavs Guard Anthony Parker hit a 3 pointer that was subject to review over whether or not the shot clock had expired and if his toes were on the line. Doc Rivers, not surprisingly, objected- saying it was one of the longest seconds in NBA history.
So after beating the Miami Heat at home Tuesday night by a final of 88-80 (this coming despite a 31 point night by LeBron), the C's fall to Cleveland by a final of 87-95, giving them a .500 record. The C's will next host the Knicks on Friday night.
NCAA FOOTBALL: The North Carolina State Wolfpack managed to come back from a 21-7 halftime deficit against #16 Florida State on Thursday night. Facing a 4th and goal from the 1-foot line with 2:44 left, the Wolfpack decided to go for the go-ahead touchdown instead of the game tying field goal, and it paid dividends, putting NC State up 24-28. But Florida state would march right back down the field from their own 29 yard line on the next possession, and when it looked as though the Seminoles would score the go-ahead TD with less than a minute left. However, 'Noles QB Chris Ponder fumbled the ball inside the NC State 10 yard line, effectively putting away the game for the Wolfpack by the 28-24 final.
ELSEWHERE IN THE NCAA: A 20-year old Notre Dame Student died Wednesday when a tower used to film the football team's practices collapsed. Declan Sullivan was filming the practice from a hydraulic scissors lift for ND's athletic department. Most of the Midwest had been experiencing harsh weather for the past few days and the National Weather Service reported that there was wind gusts of up to 51 MPH in the area at the time of the incident.
NFL: The Minnesota Vikings have listed QB Brett Favre as questionable for starting Sunday's game against the New England Patriots. Two fractures were discovered in Favre's ankle after the Viking's Sunday night game against Green Bay. The latest injury puts Favre's NFL-record of 291 consecutive starts in jeopardy. Head coach Brad Childress announced that it will likely be a gametime decision on his part.
