The Lakers have the best record in the Western Conference -- tied with Phoenix, but since they've beaten Phoenix twice head to head, which is the first tiebreaker, they're in first place as of today.
Enjoy it while you can, if you're of the Laker Faith: Andrew Bynum's out for 8 weeks -- about a third of the season. If he gets back in mid-March, he has 17 games to round himself back into shape before the playoffs start.
The Lakers' title hopes were a little wishful even before this -- without Bynum they're going to have a hard time staying in the top half of the Western Conference. Now, they look like a bottom half seed, again, and even with a healthy Bynum, winning 4 series without home court advantage is probably beyond them. Winning one might be.
Enjoy it now. The Lakers are better than the Spurs, better than the Suns, better than the Mavericks, and at the top of the NBA.com and Fox Sports Power Rankings. I didn't expect to see that this year -- I half figured Kobe would be traded by now -- and by God, I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts. (Hell, the Celtics even lost 3 of their last four. This is a good week, and I will not look at the Ugliness to Come ... the Lakers play fourteen out of fifteen games on the road starting in late January, all without Andrew. I Will Not Look, And Maybe It Will Go Away.)
~~~~~
Congratulations to the New England Patriots. They're the only team I've seen as an adult I really thought had a real shot at going undefeated, and so they did. And now they get to play the San Diego Chargers in the AFC Championship game, and either the Packers or Giants (they hope) in the Super Bowl. In any event, the only teams I really thought had a shot at upending the Pats -- Dallas and Indianapolis -- are out. So There Is No Chance The Patriots Can Lose Now. No Chance. No Chance At All.
.... Pats fans, I'm doing my best to help out here. I know you appreciate it. No Chance They Can Lose. Period.
~~~~~
Sports is stupid and trivial, and all my SF readers tune out as soon as I start writing about it: through the keyboard I can actually feel eyes glazing over. But that's OK. Greatest thing about a blog, particularly one not selling ads -- all I have to write about is what interests me. If this intersects with what people want to read, then, to quote Jack Handy: "Hey, Progress."
14 comments:
Actually, I'm all in favor of sports. I'm really looking forward to watching the Patriots and Packers games I DVR'd on Saturday. And then maybe I can finally start working on the high school football championship games I recorded back in November.
But I must admit that pro basketball makes my eyes glaze over. :)
As both one of your sci fi readers and a Boston dweller, I can safely say that this was not in fact my favorite blog post of all time. ;-)
But -- The Blazers came from last place to first in the great Northwest, and they have a bench ...
I grew up in Oregon Steve, so the only pro team I root for over any Boston team is the Blazers. :-)
Steve,
I do like the Blazers this year. They're not as good as they've looked recently, but they're much better than I expected them to be. It wouldn't shock me any for them to miss the playoffs this year -- but this whole year is gravy. Next year they get Oden back, and you have to like a lineup built around Roy and Oden.
The rest of this road trip will be telling. They lost in double OT to the Raptors, smacked the Nets so hard Jason Kidd's ears are still ringing ... but now they get Boston, Miami, Atlanta and New Orleans all on the road. Figure Boston for a probable loss, despite Boston's 1-3 last week; Miami's terrible, Atlanta's OK this year, and the Magic are likewise OK. If the Blazers come home from this roadie at 4-3 or better, I'll be on my way to being convinced.
Presently I figure them toward the bottom of the playoff ladder in the West -- a spot or two behind where, sadly, I think the Lakers are going to end up.
Mmmmmm...glazed.
Not true, Dan.
I am both an SF fan and an avid Sports fan. Of course, I'm a Celtics fan, so that probably counts as points against me in your book.
As for the Pats, they are a joy to watch and I think the fan base has known from pretty early on that something very special is going on in this season.
I just finished watching this week's Patriots game. What awesome football! Garrard played a great game. It seemed like they could have beaten anyone with a game like that -- and NE just steamrolled them.
Now, is there anything we can help to do to get AI War out?
Yeah, the locals have come a long way from when they were known as The Jailblazers. Guy who beat their wives, choked the coach, got busted for dope and whatnot.
Nobody raped anybody and got caught I can recall, but still, there were some bad boys up here.
I confess I am not the fan I was when there were some decent guys on the team, Clyde, Terry, Duckworth, Jerome, Buck, Cliffy -- players who had the crowds up on their feet and were a pure joy to watch, even if they couldn't beat the Bulls.
Neil -- I look at Celtics fans the way I look at heroin addicts. Somebody got you hooked early on with a free hit, and since then you've been unable to get free ... of course, that's me being generous. :-)
Steve -- sorry, you're forgetting Ruben Patterson. The Kobe Stopper, or, as we called him at LakersTalk, the Nanny Stopper.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruben_Patterson
"Patterson has been involved in a number of off-the-court issues during his basketball career. Patterson must register himself as a sex offender in the state where he lives due to pleading guilty in 2001 to attempted rape of his child's nanny in September 2000.[4] It was reported that he forced the nanny to perform a sex act on him."
You could make a crack about Kobe now, but that would just make me feel bad, so there's no real point. :-)
Oh, yeah, we had a guy who fought dogs, too, but they were after the dream team, when I had more or less tuned them out.
Kobe? What I remember is the size of that diamond ring his (ex)-wife sported right after he was accused of that hanky-panky out there in yon hotel. Said worlds to married guys, that rock, big enough to choke a horse.
I agree with strype "Mmmmmm...glazed," and I am from Portland. But like you said, your blog. If I thought I could do better I would do my own.
Thanks for the sql stuff though, I know wrong post, I am currently learning database stuff in a class I am taking, haven't got to sql yet though. I am looking forward to it, if for no other reason than to understand what you had typed.
Oh, the Packers are far preferable, for two -- no, three reasons.
First, Brett Favre gets edgy under pressure and makes mistakes, and the Patriots are exceedingly good at taking advantage of mistakes. The Packers are not a disciplined team. The Giants, at the moment, are.
Second, the Giants have the memory of their recent defeat to inspire them. They can think of themselves as a team that came close to beating the Pats on the first try.
Third, revenge for Super Bowl XXXI. The only thing that would make that better is if Parcells were coaching the Pack.
Fourth (damn), everyone in the world will cheer the Packers. The Patriots do better when they can make up reasons why they're disrespected.
Regarding the Celtics: yes, that old hit of 8 titles in a row was mighty potent. As was Dave Cowens. As was the great Larry Bird. As is Kevin Garnett, who is so happy to be here you can feel it from 60 miles away on game night.
Booyah.
"So There Is No Chance The Patriots Can Lose Now. No Chance. No Chance At All.
.... Pats fans, I'm doing my best to help out here. I know you appreciate it. No Chance They Can Lose. Period."
I'm sure Patriot fans appreciate the help, Dan'l -- and you were right.
Post a Comment