Thursday, February 21, 2008

The Others

Today is dedicated to Baron Davis and the Golden State Warriors. With a game winning fade-away before the buzzer, Davis handed the Boston Celtics their 11th loss. This ensures that the '95-'96 Bulls record of 72-10 will remain the greatest of all time for at least another season. Monte Ellis, one of the leagues best kept secrets, chipped in with 26 points. I was fortunate enough to pick him up off waivers in my fantasy league last season, which raises the question, why was I playing fantasy basketball? It was free, and I needed other people to talk to at work besides Dorger.

A lot of people are talking about how the West has turned into the dominate conference with players like Shaq, Gasol, and Kidd going over to the Suns, Lakers, and Mavs, respectively. But we can't forget that Boston is 16-2 against the West this season, so it will be interesting to see how this plays out in June.

The Blackhawks beat the Wild last night, 3-0. It was Khabibulin's first shutout in almost a year. Ah, another expensive Chicago experiment gone wrong. Joe was lucky enough to catch the game live, and I was able to watch it on TV since the Hawks were playing Minnesota. It's still weird to see Hawks home games on TV--the former dictator, Bill Wirtz, refused to play home games on TV in an attempt to get people to come out to the United Center. That never made sense to me. How can the city get excited about a team when half of their games can only be heard on the radio? People want to see Byfuglien (pronounced BUFF-LIN and not BY-FOOG-LEE-IN like I originally thought) lay out several of the Wild's players with those violent open-ice hip- and cross-checks. By not televising home games, the team is missing out on a lot of local advertising on the boards that could generate extra revenue, money that could be spent on building a better team. This was the Hawks third win in four games, and while they are last in their division, they're above .500 and still in the playoff race. I don't remember the last time the Hawks were over .500 this late in the season.

SIU seems to be getting back on track, too. They blew out Northern Iowa last night and have won four out of their last five games (including one over 15th ranked Drake). Matt Shaw had 23 points (8-9 from the field, 4-4 from 3pt range) and 9 rebounds. Where have you been all season, buddy? It sucks to say, but unless the Salukis win the MVC tournament I don't think they'll have a chance to extend their consecutive appearances in the big dance to seven. They had one of the toughest strength of schedules this year, and they were picked to win their conference in the preseason by all of the experts--the kiss of death.

The Bulls? Disaster. They lost again. They need to go after Chris Bosh (see video below) in the offseason because I don't know how much longer Joe Smith will last. Noah and Wallace aren't offensive-minded players, Thomas can't stay on the floor for more than two minutes without slapping someone, and Gray isn't getting enough playing time. The Bulls don't have a legitimate big-man. Teaming Gray with Bosh would spread the opponent's defense and allow for more open jumps, widen the driving lane, and give Bulls fans a sense of hope.






Baseball season needs to start today. I can't wait.


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bulls

Anonymous said...

Hawks

Anonymous said...

McDoughnut hinted that some Hawks games might be on WGN next year.

Anonymous said...

McDoughnut

DeWolf said...

McDonough is pushing for a Hawks outdoor game next season--possibly at Wrigley!