LeBron James answered all the critics with one of the greatest performances in NBA Playoff history.

LeBron James used one of the most spectacular performances in playoff history to lift the Cleveland Cavaliers to the verge of their greatest season.

James’ career playoff-high 48 points — including 29 of his team’s final 30 — carried the Cavaliers to within a win of the NBA finals for the first time in franchise history with a 109-107 double-overtime victory over the Detroit Pistons on Thursday night.

James made a go-ahead layup with 2.2 seconds left and Detroit’s Chauncey Billups missed a shot in the lane on the ensuing possession.

LeBron was coasting in the first half of the season and took some heat, and he’s always taking crap from critics trying to put down his game. Thursday night he showed that he is one of the great ones.

Plenty of people are up in arms over Alex Rodriguez’s “Mine!” or “Ha!” call while running behind Blue Jays’ third basemen Howie Clark in the Yankees’ 10-5 victory Wednesday night. Jays manager John Gibbons called the play “bush league” after the game:

“Everybody in the games respects the Yankees; they play the game right,” Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. “They play hard, and that’s what they are known for. But I thought it was bush league. That’s not Yankee baseball, man. Everybody respects them, but maybe I am wrong, I haven’t been around that long.”

First and foremost, I agree with Gibbons in that this move wasn’t very Yankee-like. The New York Yankees are always supposed to be the epitome of a team that respects the game to its fullest. However, isn’t this being blown up a bit because it was A-Rod? I would never expect Derek Jeter, Albert Pujols or Torii Hunter to pull a stunt like this, but what if they had? I guarantee some people would have called it a “strategic move”, but because it was an ass like Rodriguez, everybody just piles on. I’m not defending what he did, because really, we never see this kind of thing and I don’t want the MLB to turn into a Little League atmosphere where anything said, goes. But lets keep everything in perspective here. When you factor in how some first basemen fake throws back to the pitcher after pickoff attempts and how infielders sometimes fake tags in order to keep a runner from taking an extra base, what A-Rod did is kind of pair for the course. Bush league? Maybe, considering most players would never do something like that for respect of the game, but overblown? Definitely.

Plus nobody bitched when Willie Mays Hayes from “Major League” did it for the Cleveland Indians back in 1989.

In Bill Simmons’ latest column, “20 reasons to heart Cavs-Pistons,” one of his readers steals the show.

I thoroughly enjoyed this e-mail from Rob in Kailua, Hawaii: “I’ve been noticing that during the Detroit-Cleveland series Gooden and Rasheed get into arguments or little scuffles at least 2-3 times a game. Is there a history there? My theory is that Gooden’s little patch of hair on his neck used to be the little patch of hair missing from Rasheed’s head. Drew must have won some epic battle and now wears that patch as a medal of honor. That’s the only logical explanation for such a ridiculous hairdo right?”

That’s some great stuff, Rob.

Should I stay or should I go?

It appears that Kobe Bryant has been listening to the Clash lately; the guy can’t decide if he wants a trade. On Wednesday, Bryant changed his tune at least twice, which has fueled speculation about potential trades that could go down. One thing’s for sure - something is going to happen with the Lakers this summer. Either they’ll bring in another star to play alongside Bryant, or they’ll deal him to another team.

In my latest column, I examine how Bryant and the Lakers got to this point and also identify some possible places the talented guard might land.

Despite struggling of late, the Brewers will get back in the win column at home in Milwaukee tonight in their series opener against the visiting Florida Marlins. Milwaukee’s Claudio Vargas is 20-10 against the moneyline when playing against a team with a losing record over the last three seasons. The Brewers are 32-13 against the moneyline in home games vs. teams who strand 7.5 or more runners on base per game over the last three seasons and 30-13 against the moneyline in home games when playing against a marginal losing team (Win Pct. 46% to 49%) over the last three seasons. Florida doesn’t stand a chance on the road tonight.

For free basketball and baseball picks and to listen to an hysterically funny and informative daily webcast please visit us at www.madwinners.com

Surry Commonwealth prosecutor Gerald Poindexter says he has evidence that links Michael Vick directly to dog fighting, or more specifically, has two informants who can. Whoop-dee-doo. Wait about an hour and Poindexter – who is about as fickle as a cat – will say he doesn’t have any evidence and note the investigation is still ongoing. If I hear any real news, I’ll post it, but for now, lets move on to something else, shall we?

One of the more popular statements being thrown out by radio host, newspaper columnist and bloggers everywhere, is that the Falcons traded the wrong quarterback when they dealt backup Matt Schaub to the Houston Texans in March. Considering Vick’s recent dog days, it’s easy to say Atlanta was complete fools in trading a talented prospect like Schaub.

Lets take a closer look, however:

-Schaub was set to become a free agent after the 2007 season and therefore was no guarantee he would re-sign with the Falcons. After playing second fiddle to Vick for four years, why would he want to re-sign?

-No matter how good Schaub has looked in preseason and in spot duty, he’s never won a game in which he’s started. He’s a talented prospect, but the jury is still out on if Schaub can win in this league.

-Vick’s contract is absurd until he becomes a free agent in 2014, so even if Atlanta wanted to trade him, there’s no guarantee any team would have took on his salary. Therefore, trading or outright releasing him would have put the Falcons in cap hell and make it hard to re-sign Schaub to a big contract anyway. And don’t believe the Raiders were “highly interested” because that was just Internet-fodder.

-The Falcons were 7-9 last year and had a ton of pre-draft holes. Depth was an issue at virtually all posistions and they needed starters on the defensive line, secondary and left guard.

-To go along with the above pivot point, the Falcons landed DE Jamaal Anderson and G Justin Blalock – two potential rookie starters – thanks to the swap with Houston, plus they still have a second round pick coming in ’08.

-There’s no way the Falcons could have foreseen all of this controversy with dog fighting, even with Vick’s “Watergate” incident and flipping off the Georgia Dome patrons. Sorry, but dog fighting is on another level than having a trick water bottle in an airport.

So, did the Falcons trade the wrong quarterback? I think there’s a valid argument either way, especially when you consider Vick’s off field issues and on field consistency problems, but it’s not as clear cut as people are making it out to be. If anything, the Falcons are more foolish for the absurd contract they gave Vick in ‘04 than for dealing Schaub.

A new football league is apparently in the works and ready to rival the NFL, according to FOXSports.com. The United Football League, which was created by Bill Hambrecht, a Wall Street businessman, and Tim Armstrong, a senior executive at Google, apparently wants to kick off its preseason in August of 2008. Hambrecht and Armstrong already have one owner on board: Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.

“(Former NFL coach) Bill Walsh used to tell me that the last 20 players cut from every team were almost interchangeable with the last 20 players to make the team,” Hambrecht says.

So let me get this straight, these two boy wonders are standing around the water cooler one day and say, “Hey, we’ve got a ton of money, let’s start a new football league to rival the NFL!” One of the major complaints in the NFL now is that the league is too watered down. Yet these guys think people are actually going to tune in to watch the NFL’s scrubs? Nevertheless compete against the NFL during the NFL’s regular season? I could see a league trying to challenge the NFL in its offseason, but not parallel to America’s most popular regular season. I believe the last football league to attempt this feat was the XFL, and anyone unfortunate enough to actually remember that debacle recalls it only lasted a year and because nobody gave a crap.

Not to rain on your parade fellas, but I think it would be easier to resurrect Britney Spears’ career right now than trying to compete with the popularity of the NFL.

Sincerely,

“He Hate Me”

I know I’m turning the middle of this week into pick on ESPN time, but I’ve got yet another grip about the infamous, “Word’s leader in sports” network.

Why does it feel like I’m watching the NFL Draft every time I tune into SportsCenter? I appreciate the idea of having all of the highlights and stories listed along the right side of the screen, but it just seems like too much. Anyway, that’s not my real gripe. The real issue I have is with the way the network stacks the news for SportsCenter. Why was a meaningless regular season baseball game ahead of Marquise Hill’s death on Tuesday? Why is a 0 for 2 with three walks Bonds-night or a recap of Roger Clemens’ third minor league appearance ahead of the Stanley Cup series? I realize hockey isn’t the most popular sport these days in the US, but come on already.

It’s not that these things are keeping me up at night (I’m positive in nature, I swear), but I just shake my head with what ESPN finds to be newsworthy these days.

The O’s bats have heated up as they’ve outscored their opponents 31-10 in their last 4 games. Bedard, their ace, has a stellar 2.57 ERA in his last 3 starts. Baltimore has won 4 straight and should win number 5. Gil Meche (KC’s starting pitcher) has been struggling mightily with a terrible 6.61 ERA in his last 3 starts. KC has dropped 7 straight. Take the O’s.

For free basketball and baseball picks and to listen to an hysterically funny and informative daily webcast please visit us at www.madwinners.com

The Utah Jazz took a lot of heat for drafting Deron Williams over Chris Paul in 2005, especially when Paul ran away with the ROY award while Williams spent half the year on the bench. But now that Williams has the Jazz in the conference finals, the doubters have been silenced.

In my latest column, I explore the reasoning behind the pick and take a look at the numbers both players have put up since they entered the league.

This is a great pitching matchup between John Smoltz for the Braves and Ben Sheets for the Brewers. But only one can win, and that will be Smoltz and Atlanta in Milwaukee. This great pitching matchup finds future Hall of Famer John Smoltz in a rare underdog role tonight, and we’ll jump right on him. Aside from having cashed in nine of his 11 starts this season, Smoltz is 4-1 with a 1.21 ERA in his last five efforts, while walking six and striking out 38 batters along the way. He’ll be facing Milwaukee’s Ben Sheets who has pitched well himself since a rocky start to the year. But the Brewers are just 5-5 in his starts and currently riding a 6-game losing streak. Look for the Braves to improve to 7-1 on Tuesdays, their best day of the week, here tonight.

For free basketball and baseball picks and to listen to an hysterically funny and informative daily webcast please visit us at www.madwinners.com

After seeing highlights of yet another Roger Clemens minor league pitching recap and checking out its home page which features two separate articles on the two MLB stars, I’m wondering who ESPN has a bigger hard on for, Barry Bonds or Clemens?

Ever catch a Giants’ highlight anymore? Me neither. I see Bonds flying out, walking and singling, but no actual San Francisco Giants highlights. Do they even bother with posting the final score anymore? And Clemens, do we really need to see how he struck out a minor leaguer who will be working in Target’s CD section next week? Can we get back to just showing the highlights of the previous day please? I can’t even watch Boo-Yah Center anymore.

Anyway, I’m giving my vote to Clemens right now, but just because Bonds has been in a mega slump (he hit a bomb on Sunday, but that was his first since May 8th). Once Clemens makes his 2007 debut, Bonds is going to come storming back into the picture. So, ESPN’s bigger hard on, Bonds or Clemens? Voting is now open.

So, what’s new in LenDale White’s world? Oh, not showing up for a mini camp practice, you know, nothing big. White’s been bothered by a hamstring injury and therefore limited in previous workouts, but completely failed to show up on Tuesday.

Tennessee head coach Jeff Fisher is not amused:

“He had some kind of flight problem or something like that,” Fisher said. “No one else seemed to have flight problems. …

“I’ve been on record with being disappointed with him. I hope to have him back on the practice field, but again everybody else was here and he wasn’t. I’m anxious to hear what kind of excuse he has.”

Let’s see, there have been hamstring problems, rumors of a failed drug test, spitting in the face of a teammate, overweight issues and now missed practices. Hey LenDale, the Titans gave you the keys to the car over the offseason by trading Travis Henry and not re-signing Chris Brown. So how about you get into shape so you don’t have any more injury problems and start justifying why Tennessee gave you $1.3 million in guaranteed money last year. Give a regular “Joe” $1.3 million and I guarantee you he’ll put down the cheeseburgers and get his ass to practice on time. Oh and by the way, Chris Henry is breathing down your neck.

Kobe Bryant isn’t happy with the progress of the Laker turnaround, and after an exit interview (presumably with Mitch Kupchak and Phil Jackson) where Bryant learned that the team has no plans to make a major move this summer, he’s longing for the days of Jerry West.

“My feeling on Jerry West is I trust him completely,” Bryant said, according to the paper. “I don’t want to get into people believing me to be bashing anybody. (Current GM Mitch Kupchak) is a great guy. All I can go by is what has happened with this team the last two years, and I know Jerry West is a guy who’s great at what he does.

“He wants to win and he wants to win right now. I can roll with that, even if we don’t have the complete turnaround we’re hoping to have this summer. Just having him back in the nucleus will help.”

Kupchak is under fire after several sub par seasons. His trade that sent future All-Star (and Kobe’s best friend) Caron Butler to Washington for Kwame Brown didn’t work out, and he hasn’t made any moves to make the team substantially better. If you have Kobe on your roster, you’re pretty much guaranteed 30-40 wins, so the Lakers’ 87 wins the last two seasons is a reflection on the franchise’s front office, coaching and supporting cast. Kupchak reportedly had opportunities to land Carlos Boozer, Baron Davis and Jason Kidd and failed to pull the trigger each time. He’s understandably reluctant to part ways with Lamar Odom to acquire another star, which is why the Butler trade really stings. If Butler were on the roster, it would be much more palatable to trade Odom away.

There are rumblings that Jermaine O’Neal is unhappy playing for the Pacers and might be a viable target for the Lakers. The trade would make sense because O’Neal is a talented post player that would fit in well with Jackson’s triangle offense. Odom would no doubt be a part of the trade, but the Lakers would be wise to make it happen.

Another scenario may bring Kevin Garnett to the team. It’s unlikely that the Timberwolves would want to trade KG to a team in the West, so the Lakers might have to wait until Garnett has the opportunity to opt-out after next season. Since Kobe dominates the ball, it makes more sense to bring a post player in instead of a point guard like Davis or Kidd. But the big question is will Kobe hang around another year if the team doesn’t make a big move this summer?

I wonder if he regrets not signing with the Suns or the Clippers when he was free agent a few years ago. Both teams (especially the Suns) appear to be a lot closer to a championship than the Lakers are, and Kobe’s presence would have probably put each team over the top.

Miami Dolphins wide receiver Ted Ginn Jr. is apparently healing nicely from his Lisfranc sprain and according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, will be ready to attain the Dolphins’ June 7 mini camp.

People are going to continue to criticize Miami for passing on Brady Quinn in last month’s draft, but give Ginn a chance. He’s unbelievably explosive and while his impact will be made on special teams first, he’ll have the chance to develop into a nice deep threat too. I know I’m in the minority, but I still think Quinn looked more appealing than he normally would have because it was a weak draft on the whole. Remember, judge the Dolphins decision to pass on Quinn by including second round pick John Beck too, because obviously they thought the combination of Ginn and Beck were better than Quinn and another receiver in the second. And time may prove their decision was just.

In other news, according to the NFL Network, the Dolphins have upped the anty for quarterback Trent Green. Miami was offering a sixth round pick, but now are offering a conditional sixth round pick, which means if Green reaches playing time incentives, the pick could turn into a fifth rounder. Personally, KC has to take this deal and put an end to the madness.

New England Patriots defensive end Marquise Hill is believed to be missing after a jet ski incident that occurred on a lake in Louisiana Sunday evening. Hill was riding with a young woman when a strong current knocked the two off their watercrafts. According to the Boston Globe, Hill saved the young woman’s life by keeping her calm and eventually getting her a buoy to hang onto. She was eventually saved after people on a boat heard her screams for help, but Hill drifted away and is still missing.

So many times we hear about athletes who are selfish, but obviously that’s not the case with Hill. My thoughts and prayers go out to him and his family and hopefully he’ll be rescued soon.

Update: According to New Orleans Times-Picayune, Hill’s body was recovered at 2:15pm Monday, but he had already passed. Hill was 24.

Texas has been awful on the road and right-hander Robinson Tejeda has been awful everywhere lately. Back the Oakland
A’s tonight at home versus the Rangers. Texas has lost five straight games. On the road this season the Rangers are 7-17. The Rangers are 7-20 in their last 27 games as an underdog. Robinson Tejeda takes the ball tonight and he’s 1-2 over his last three starts with a 9.26 ERA. Chad Gaudin takes the mound for the A’s and he’s 4-1 this season with a 2.58 ERA. The A’s are 7-3 in his 10 starts. Play on the A’s.

For free basketball and baseball picks and to listen to an hysterically funny and informative daily webcast please visit us at www.madwinners.com

Yet another source is reporting Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick is or has been involved in dog fighting. On ESPN’s most recent broadcast of “Outside the Lines”, a unnamed source said he has not only seen Vick at a dog fight, but has also competed against him (or more specifically, his dog has competed against one of Vick’s dogs).

“He’s a pit bull fighter,” the source says of Vick. “He’s one of the ones that they call ‘the big boys:’ that’s who bets a large dollar. And they have the money to bet large money. As I’m talking about large money — $30,000 to $40,000 — even higher. He’s one of the heavyweights.”

“I’ve fought dogs, I pitted them, I bred them and I’ve done everything with them,” says the source of his three decades in dog fighting. He then went on to describe the scene from that night seven years ago, as he took his 42-pound dog into the pit (the area where dogs fight) to face off against Vick’s dog. He says Vick did not get into the pit, but had a member of his entourage handle his dog, while Vick placed bets with the 20 or so people in attendance.

What’s interesting about this latest news is that this unnamed source told ESPN that he saw Vick at a dogfight as early as 2000, one year before the Falcons drafted him. Where would Vick get $30 to $40 grand to bet on a single dogfight while at Virginia Tech? It’s not unrealistic to assume Vick got some booster money, but $30 to $40 grand just to blow on a dogfight? That seems like a stretch. I’m not saying this source is lying about Vick being evolved, but I can’t see him blowing thousands of dollars on a fight until after he signed his contract with Atlanta. Either way, I bet many athletes in the NFL and NBA are holding their collective breaths in this scandal, because I get the distinct feeling Vick isn’t the only one wrapped up in this mess. Although let me say again for the record, these prosecutors better get more evidence than just a few unnamed sources or Vick is going to walk regardless.

Francisco Liriano took the baseball world by storm last year at the age of 22, becoming the biggest sensation in the game before injuring his elbow. With Liriano on the shelf, who are the must-see young starters in the game? In my latest column for Bullz-Eye.com, I rank baseball’s best pitchers under the age of 25.

To check out the column, click here, or to tell me how wrong I am, feel free to post your opinions right here on The Scores Report.

Orlando Hernandez has already tossed a gem here in Florida this season, and with Sergio Miltre’s recent success padded by some weak opponents, the Mets are the play on the road. The two starters in this game, Mets right-hander Orlando Hernandez and Marlins right-hander Sergio Mitre, have very similarly impressive statistics on the season. Hernandez has a 2.53 ERA and 1.09 WHIP, while Mitre has a 2.25 ERA and 1.10 WHIP, and the Marlins have won his last three starts after dropping his first four outings. On closer inspection however, two of those last three starts have been at Tampa Bay and at Pittsburgh, two of the weakest offenses in all of baseball. Hernandez has been out for about a month with shoulder bursitis, and this is his first start since April 24. The injury was not serious however, and because of the depth of the Mets roster, they have been able to bring El
Duque back slowly. He is definitely ready and recently threw 78 pitches in a simulated game without reporting any problems. He already has a very impressive victory over Florida earlier this year when he went seven solid innings giving up only 10 hits while striking out 10 Marlin batters. The Mets are an incredible 21-8 in their last 29 road games, as well as 10-4 in their last 14 played on grass, while the Marlins are 1-7 in Mitre’s last 8 home starts, so take New
York.

For free basketball and baseball picks and to listen to an hysterically funny and informative daily webcast please visit us at www.madwinners.com