Check out the reaction of the fans in Philadelphia when they heard that Osama Bin Laden was killed.
Author: John Paulsen (Page 36 of 937)
The Sacramento Kings won’t be moving to Anaheim, at least not for the 2011-12 season, per ESPN.
Team co-owner Joe Maloof told The Associated Press the team would remain in Sacramento for one more season to give mayor Kevin Johnson a chance to follow through on his promise for a new arena. If the city doesn’t follow through, the Kings will be relocated to another city, he added.
The move to Anaheim seemed like a done deal, but Mayor Kevin Johnson convinced local businesses to commit to $10 million in sponsorships to keep the Kings in town. The deal buys time for the city to figure out a way to build a new facility to replace the aging Arco Arena. (It’s now called something else, but I’m not going to make the effort to look it up.)
This is good news for the team’s fans in Sacramento, who have been organizing in an attempt to keep the franchise in town. Things were looking pretty grim lately until this last push from the mayor’s office.
The Heat beat the Celtics, 99-90, in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals. Dwyane Wade dropped 38 points (on stellar 14-of-21 shooting), while James Jones hit five threes en route to 25 points off the bench. The difference in the game was Miami’s ability to get to the line. They made 12 more free throws than the Celtics because they did a better job of attacking the rim.
With the Celtics trailing by 13 with 7:00 to play, Paul Pierce was ejected in the fourth quarter after receiving his second technical for jawing with Dwyane Wade. The two collided on a Pierce screen and they both had something to say about it. We don’t know what Pierce said to get tossed by referee Ed Malloy, but it sure seems like Malloy jumped the gun. He knew it meant an ejection because he signaled for that instead of indicating that Pierce got another technical. The Celtics were likely to lose the game anyway, but the ejection pretty much killed any hope of a Boston comeback.
Pierce got his first technical for getting in the face of James Jones, who fouled him hard after Pierce got him in the air with a pump fake. Pierce stuck his head into Jones’ face and while some might call it a headbutt, there was no real velocity or force in the act. He just basically stuck his forehead into Jones’ face. Let’s hope that the league doesn’t overreact and suspend Pierce for Game 2, because it could significantly alter the series.
Game 2 is on Tuesday night on TNT.
This Memphis team deserves a lot of credit. The Grizzlies are playing some very good basketball right now on both ends of the court. In Sunday’s Game 1, they allowed Kevin Durant (33 points) and Russell Westbrook (29 points) to get theirs, but they turned the Thunder over 18 times, which led to a +11 margin in shot attempts, and that turned out to be the difference in the game.
I’ve been harping on Russell Westbrook for a while, but the more I see him play, the more I realize that he’s simply not a point guard. He should play off guard a la Dwyane Wade. That way, he’d still be able to be a big part of the offense, but he wouldn’t be responsible for handling the ball all the time and setting his teammates up, two things that he struggles with. He had seven turnovers and 14 missed shots, so there’s 21 possessions where the Thunder didn’t score. He also gets stuck defensively on ball screens, and if he was playing more off guard, he’d be chasing screens off the ball, an area at which he excels. That said, the Thunder passed on Ricky Rubio and Stephen Curry in the ’09 draft and they don’t seem poised to move Westbrook off the ball anytime soon.
But back to the Grizzlies. Zach Randolph may be playing the best basketball in the playoffs right now. He scored 34 points and snagged 10 rebounds, while Marc Gasol went for 20-13 on 9-of-11 shooting. What’s interesting about this pair is that they wouldn’t be in Memphis if not for owner Michael Heisley’s decision to trade Pau Gasol to the Lakers a few years ago. Marc Gasol came over in the trade, but no one thought he would develop into the all-around big man that he has become. The Grizzlies were able to afford the trade for Randolph since they had the cap space left by the Pau Gasol trade.
At the time, the acquisition of Randolph didn’t look very promising considering he was overpaid and underachieving. But he has settled in nicely in Memphis and the duo have formed one of the best one-two frontcourt punches in the league. The Pau Gasol trade was still terrible on paper, but it has since worked out for both teams (albeit more so for the Lakers).
Game 2 of the series is on Tuesday night on TNT.
It was The Z-Bo Show on Friday night, as Zach Randolph scored 31 points (on 12-of-22 shooting) to go along with 11 rebounds in the Grizzlies’ 99-91 win over the top-seeded Spurs.
Check out the final 6:37 from Randolph:
6:37 Zach Randolph makes layup
4:24 Zach Randolph makes 4-foot two point shot (Shane Battier assists)
3:30 Zach Randolph makes 8-foot two point shot
2:54 Zach Randolph makes two free throws
1:54 Zach Randolph makes 8-foot two point shot
1:10 Zach Randolph makes 8-foot two point shot
0:19 Zach Randolph makes 1 of 2 free throws
0:09 Zach Randolph makes two free throws
Other than a Mike Conley jumper with 3:57 to play, no other Memphis player scored for six minutes while Randolph almost single-handedly stretched the Grizzlies’ lead from three to nine. During that span, he scored 15 points on 5-for-5 shooting from the field and 5-of-6 from the line. It was truly an epic performance from a player who certainly has had his share of ups and downs during his career.
Grizzlies/Thunder in the second round — it should be a lot of fun to watch these two young teams battle for a berth in the Western Conference Finals.
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