PHX wins the first two games at home -- they were close! -- and now it appears that they get Chris Paul back while Kawhi Leonard is not back (will he be back at all?). Game 1 was a phenomenal display of shot making with Devin Booker showing the world that he is an emerging superstar with a 40-point triple double. Still, the game came down to the last minute in a swiftly played fourth quarter. I counted only two stoppages of play in the last 4:46. That's almost unheard of, I'm saying that there wasn't even a ball out of bounds or anything except for twice in almost half a quarter. LAC carved a 10 point lead down to two, but PHX made free throws at :22 and held on.
Game 2 was a different animal as each team scored about 20 fewer points. Booker was human and you could tell that by all the blood he spilled when Patrick Beverly (inadvertently) head butted him and re-arranged his nose. Still, PHX held a lead until the last minute or so when LAC, not giving up, forged ahead. With about 10 seconds left, LAC could have pushed the lead to three, but Paul George, an 85% free thrower, bricked two. PHX rebounded and took the ball down the court, not spending their remaining time out. That proved fortuitous. With 0.9 left, the Clippers knocked the rebound of a desperation three out in the corner baseline and PHX used their timeout. Coach Monty Williams drew a play for a lob dunk, Jae Crowder made a perfect lob pass and Deandre Ayton, who killed it on both ends of the floor all night slammed it home. Pandemonium. Sort of. Because there had to be a review. Oh did we need a review. After the crisply played fourth quarter of game 1, the ending of game 2 was marred by a series of lengthy reviews that stretched the last 90 seconds out to an unbelievably long 27 minutes of real time. From my perspective, it added to the tension, but the NBA, in their well-meaning attempt to get calls right -- you haven't heard much about games being rigged in the last several years -- found themselves in this game reviewing pretty much every play of any consequence down the stretch, including overturning an out of bounds call that -- even though it was correct -- seemed wrong. But, in the end, the headline was the game winning play. What a play.
On Sunday, ATL eliminated PHI and the recriminations have started. Trae Young was pretty terrible in game 7, but the Hawks survived and all eyes turned towards Ben Simmons, the 76ers supremely talented 6'10 point guard who took a grand total of, count 'em, three shots in the fourth quarter in the entire series. He also posted the worst FT % of any player in a single playoffs with at least 70 attempts. Worse than Shaq. Worst than Wilt. It feels like the end for Simmons in PHI and I don't want him in a Wolves uniform because a point guard who shoots worse that Rubio is not what we need.
Last time I posted, I had MIL as the favorite because of the uncertainty surrounding Chris Paul. MIL is healthy, they've gotten a favorable draw in the Eastern Conference Finals and they have home court advantage. I expect them in the finals. However, my ranking of the remaining teams in terms of likelihood of winning the title is as follows:
1. PHX
2. MIL
3. LAC
4. ATL
The Suns final play is an all-timer; brilliance all around from the play itself, the difficult inbounds pass, Ayton's ability to get the timing perfect. Just one of those plays that reminds you why it can be worth it to sit through review after review.
Drake ran a very similar play with Ajay Calvin back when I was there.
It was one of those things where the entire student section knew it was coming, so why did the other team not?
But those reviews, OMG! Something needs to be done about that and that something is to get rid of instant replay in all sports.
I think they should have a time limit. If it isn't obvious in thirty seconds, it shouldn't be overturned.
That's why I say just get rid of it altogether because there have been time limits in other sports and they are just totally ignored 100% of the time.
I think it would harm the legitimacy of the league when vastly more people can watch these instant replays and realize the league is getting it wrong.
Yes. The narrative for years was, OMG, the NBA is rigged. Now they have the replays and do all they can to get it right. I'm not in favor of eliminating the reviews, but last night was... a lot.
I didn't watch live. Why all the reviews? The ball went through the net with plenty of time left. Can't goaltend on an inbounds pass. What else were they looking for?
Steve Foster needed his showtime.
There were a bunch of plays that were reviewed, not just that play.
also, they had to check the clock, because the clock operator almost foo-barred the dunk by starting it on the pass instead of on the catch.
Do you think that soccer should do away with assistant referees because it adds time to the game for the referee to confer with his assistants sometimes? Or should we get rid of check-swing appeal calls because it adds time to the game, even if we know the 1B and 3B umpires are better suited to make those calls?
Televised sports need to have some input from video angles, because otherwise you wind up in situations where the viewer at home has better information than the person in charge of making the call. There just needs to be an appropriate protocol for consulting with the on-field officials, just like there are protocols for officials to consult with each other on the field.
I recorded the game and was watching after the fact, as Stick knows. What I didn't tell him was that my recording (I'd added an extra 30 minutes!!!) ended just before the Clippers last desperation inbound play with 0.7 remaining.
For more than a decade, the question has been, for the most part, will LeBron win the title? This season, he's out early and instead what we've gotten is a league full of exciting players trying to grab the brass ring and it has been scintillating.
Regarding the NBA lottery: at least the Wolves moved down. The seventh pick is a lot less painful to lose than the fourth pick.
Yes, and the Wolves could end up picking #4 next year.
Minor Details has been posted.
New Patio at the joint launches tonight with a VIP type private event for those who helped make this happen. I am halfway through a stretch of 11 days in which I am here 12-16 hours but adrenaline is my friend. Late last night the construction foreman and I christened the patio with the first 2 beers out of the outdoor taps. Honestly, I envisioned a super cool patio and the final product is even better than I ever dreamed. As we were working out there guests kept peeking in and there were gasps of awe which literally brought tears to my eyes. A dream is only a dream until you make it happen. Can't wait to see some of my WGOMer friends sipping on a beer or cocktail in this space.
Get your yacht rock playlist ready to pipe in!
Congratulations--it's been wonderful to follow this along from afar and I hope you get a few more moments to celebrate!
I'm going up to ND at the end of July. If all goes well, I'm gonna stop in with the whole crew.
I'm not brave or patient enough to nab an outdoor seating tonight, but I'm having a beer with a friend at the bar. It's a pretty electric feeling. I've missed this.
I've talked to four or five of the cribbage league folks in the last couple of weeks. Pumped for this fall!
I miss Sergio Romo
While I understand the frustration with the ham-fisted response by the MLB, I don't get why pitchers are getting so indignant about this. They were basically cheating, right?
You mean pitchers, who will throw 95 mph at someone because they tossed their bat a bit or walked slowly out of the batter's box? No way they'd ever get indignant!
Last night, I was sitting in my office at home when the doorbell rang. It was the guy who mows the lawn at the parsonage. He said, "Do you know you have a skunk in your window well?"
I resisted the urge to say, "No, hum a few bars" and went outside with him. Sure enough, there was a small, young skunk in the window well. He didn't seem at all upset or anything--in fact, he really looked kind of cute. But obviously I didn't want him trapped in the window well. We looked at the skunk, and we looked at each other, not knowing quite what to do. So, I called the local police, and they said they'd call somebody to come take care of it.
About a half hour later this fifty-ish guy comes out in a old pickup. He apparently is The Skunk Whisperer. He takes a wire cage out of his pickup, and also a pole with sort of a crook on the end. He approaches the window well quietly and starts talking softly to the skunk. He reaches in with the pole, gets the skunk in the crook, and gently puts him in the wire cage. He picks up the cage and puts it in the back of his pickup. He then drove it out somewhere in the country and released it, where presumably he will live his best skunk life.
There's no point to this or anything, but it was pretty amazing to see this guy work. I hope I don't have to call him again, but it's good to know there's someone like that out there.
If skunks weren't so predisposed to rabies (and roadkill), they'd be much better thought of.
If skunks weren't so predisposed to rabies (and roadkill)
Way to bury the lead on their odor.
If they are left alone, the odor is not a problem. Skunks are a lot less of a problem than rabbits, raccoons, squirrels, possums, ...
...Bengal tigers, hippos, black widows, killer bees, bears...
That may be so, their spray is the primary reason they aren't "better thought of."
He really was kind of a cute little guy. Well, I don't know if it was actually a guy, but it was kind of cute.
My dad had a pet skunk as a kid (small town), and they were very popular for a while. The mayor asked to come visit to see the skunk, and the skunk promptly sprayed they mayor's wife in the face. They were then ordered to get rid of the skunk.
When we lived on the farm in Indiana we had a baby skunk wander into our yard one afternoon. My older brothers got some chicken wire and fashioned a little corral for it so the dog wouldn't get to it, although the dog never showed any signs of wanting to get very close, which shows you which of them had more sense. In the process they both got sprayed a bit, although the skunk was so small it didn't have much scent to squirt. Around dusk the mother came calling and we let the baby out to go with her and never saw them again.
When we lived in New Mexico, our town had a skunk whisperer too. It makes sense that there is a demand for that service, but it sure isn't something you think about until you need it.
Is there, like, a tech school course a guy can take for that kind of thing?
That said, we live backed up to a wetland. Plenty of critters around, but I'm not sure I've ever actually seen a skunk in all the years here.
The Giants and Angels are tied 1-1 going to the twelfth inning. Even with the Manfred rule, neither team scored in either the tenth or the eleventh.
In the twelfth, Kurt Suzuki got hurt and the Angels had already used their backup catcher, so outfielder Taylor Ward is coming in to catch. He caught in college and in the minors through 2017. Pitcher Griffin Canning is playing left field, as the Angels are out of position players.
The Giants scored one in the top of the twelfth. It appeared that the Angels had scored two in the bottom of the twelfth, but a safe call at home plate was reversed. The Angels are still batting in the twelfth.
And they will play on to the thirteenth.
The Giants have scored seven in the thirteenth. One assumes that will be enough.
The game lasted so long that Dave Fleming, the Giants' radio announcer, had to bail on the game because of a commitment to broadcast the Dodgers/Padres game for ESPN tonight. The Giants' radio network is carrying the TV feed for the bottom of the thirteenth.
It is enough. 9-3 final in thirteen innings.
Have a feeling they wont let Ohtani hit in his next start
Enjoying the local 9 after the town Lions' BBQ on a beautiful evening with fireworks to follow. A good beer in hand too. Life is amazing.
NBA Playoffs.
PHX wins the first two games at home -- they were close! -- and now it appears that they get Chris Paul back while Kawhi Leonard is not back (will he be back at all?). Game 1 was a phenomenal display of shot making with Devin Booker showing the world that he is an emerging superstar with a 40-point triple double. Still, the game came down to the last minute in a swiftly played fourth quarter. I counted only two stoppages of play in the last 4:46. That's almost unheard of, I'm saying that there wasn't even a ball out of bounds or anything except for twice in almost half a quarter. LAC carved a 10 point lead down to two, but PHX made free throws at :22 and held on.
Game 2 was a different animal as each team scored about 20 fewer points. Booker was human and you could tell that by all the blood he spilled when Patrick Beverly (inadvertently) head butted him and re-arranged his nose. Still, PHX held a lead until the last minute or so when LAC, not giving up, forged ahead. With about 10 seconds left, LAC could have pushed the lead to three, but Paul George, an 85% free thrower, bricked two. PHX rebounded and took the ball down the court, not spending their remaining time out. That proved fortuitous. With 0.9 left, the Clippers knocked the rebound of a desperation three out in the corner baseline and PHX used their timeout. Coach Monty Williams drew a play for a lob dunk, Jae Crowder made a perfect lob pass and Deandre Ayton, who killed it on both ends of the floor all night slammed it home. Pandemonium. Sort of. Because there had to be a review. Oh did we need a review. After the crisply played fourth quarter of game 1, the ending of game 2 was marred by a series of lengthy reviews that stretched the last 90 seconds out to an unbelievably long 27 minutes of real time. From my perspective, it added to the tension, but the NBA, in their well-meaning attempt to get calls right -- you haven't heard much about games being rigged in the last several years -- found themselves in this game reviewing pretty much every play of any consequence down the stretch, including overturning an out of bounds call that -- even though it was correct -- seemed wrong. But, in the end, the headline was the game winning play. What a play.
On Sunday, ATL eliminated PHI and the recriminations have started. Trae Young was pretty terrible in game 7, but the Hawks survived and all eyes turned towards Ben Simmons, the 76ers supremely talented 6'10 point guard who took a grand total of, count 'em, three shots in the fourth quarter in the entire series. He also posted the worst FT % of any player in a single playoffs with at least 70 attempts. Worse than Shaq. Worst than Wilt. It feels like the end for Simmons in PHI and I don't want him in a Wolves uniform because a point guard who shoots worse that Rubio is not what we need.
Last time I posted, I had MIL as the favorite because of the uncertainty surrounding Chris Paul. MIL is healthy, they've gotten a favorable draw in the Eastern Conference Finals and they have home court advantage. I expect them in the finals. However, my ranking of the remaining teams in terms of likelihood of winning the title is as follows:
1. PHX
2. MIL
3. LAC
4. ATL
The Suns final play is an all-timer; brilliance all around from the play itself, the difficult inbounds pass, Ayton's ability to get the timing perfect. Just one of those plays that reminds you why it can be worth it to sit through review after review.
Drake ran a very similar play with Ajay Calvin back when I was there.
It was one of those things where the entire student section knew it was coming, so why did the other team not?
But those reviews, OMG! Something needs to be done about that and that something is to get rid of instant replay in all sports.
I think they should have a time limit. If it isn't obvious in thirty seconds, it shouldn't be overturned.
That's why I say just get rid of it altogether because there have been time limits in other sports and they are just totally ignored 100% of the time.
I think it would harm the legitimacy of the league when vastly more people can watch these instant replays and realize the league is getting it wrong.
Yes. The narrative for years was, OMG, the NBA is rigged. Now they have the replays and do all they can to get it right. I'm not in favor of eliminating the reviews, but last night was... a lot.
I didn't watch live. Why all the reviews? The ball went through the net with plenty of time left. Can't goaltend on an inbounds pass. What else were they looking for?
Steve Foster needed his showtime.
There were a bunch of plays that were reviewed, not just that play.
also, they had to check the clock, because the clock operator almost foo-barred the dunk by starting it on the pass instead of on the catch.
Do you think that soccer should do away with assistant referees because it adds time to the game for the referee to confer with his assistants sometimes? Or should we get rid of check-swing appeal calls because it adds time to the game, even if we know the 1B and 3B umpires are better suited to make those calls?
Televised sports need to have some input from video angles, because otherwise you wind up in situations where the viewer at home has better information than the person in charge of making the call. There just needs to be an appropriate protocol for consulting with the on-field officials, just like there are protocols for officials to consult with each other on the field.
I recorded the game and was watching after the fact, as Stick knows. What I didn't tell him was that my recording (I'd added an extra 30 minutes!!!) ended just before the Clippers last desperation inbound play with 0.7 remaining.
For more than a decade, the question has been, for the most part, will LeBron win the title? This season, he's out early and instead what we've gotten is a league full of exciting players trying to grab the brass ring and it has been scintillating.
Regarding the NBA lottery: at least the Wolves moved down. The seventh pick is a lot less painful to lose than the fourth pick.
Yes, and the Wolves could end up picking #4 next year.
Minor Details has been posted.
New Patio at the joint launches tonight with a VIP type private event for those who helped make this happen. I am halfway through a stretch of 11 days in which I am here 12-16 hours but adrenaline is my friend. Late last night the construction foreman and I christened the patio with the first 2 beers out of the outdoor taps. Honestly, I envisioned a super cool patio and the final product is even better than I ever dreamed. As we were working out there guests kept peeking in and there were gasps of awe which literally brought tears to my eyes. A dream is only a dream until you make it happen. Can't wait to see some of my WGOMer friends sipping on a beer or cocktail in this space.
Get your yacht rock playlist ready to pipe in!
Congratulations--it's been wonderful to follow this along from afar and I hope you get a few more moments to celebrate!
I'm going up to ND at the end of July. If all goes well, I'm gonna stop in with the whole crew.
I'm not brave or patient enough to nab an outdoor seating tonight, but I'm having a beer with a friend at the bar. It's a pretty electric feeling. I've missed this.
I've talked to four or five of the cribbage league folks in the last couple of weeks. Pumped for this fall!
I miss Sergio Romo
While I understand the frustration with the ham-fisted response by the MLB, I don't get why pitchers are getting so indignant about this. They were basically cheating, right?
You mean pitchers, who will throw 95 mph at someone because they tossed their bat a bit or walked slowly out of the batter's box? No way they'd ever get indignant!
Last night, I was sitting in my office at home when the doorbell rang. It was the guy who mows the lawn at the parsonage. He said, "Do you know you have a skunk in your window well?"
I resisted the urge to say, "No, hum a few bars" and went outside with him. Sure enough, there was a small, young skunk in the window well. He didn't seem at all upset or anything--in fact, he really looked kind of cute. But obviously I didn't want him trapped in the window well. We looked at the skunk, and we looked at each other, not knowing quite what to do. So, I called the local police, and they said they'd call somebody to come take care of it.
About a half hour later this fifty-ish guy comes out in a old pickup. He apparently is The Skunk Whisperer. He takes a wire cage out of his pickup, and also a pole with sort of a crook on the end. He approaches the window well quietly and starts talking softly to the skunk. He reaches in with the pole, gets the skunk in the crook, and gently puts him in the wire cage. He picks up the cage and puts it in the back of his pickup. He then drove it out somewhere in the country and released it, where presumably he will live his best skunk life.
There's no point to this or anything, but it was pretty amazing to see this guy work. I hope I don't have to call him again, but it's good to know there's someone like that out there.
If skunks weren't so predisposed to rabies (and roadkill), they'd be much better thought of.
If skunks weren't so predisposed to rabies (and roadkill)
Way to bury the lead on their odor.
If they are left alone, the odor is not a problem. Skunks are a lot less of a problem than rabbits, raccoons, squirrels, possums, ...
...Bengal tigers, hippos, black widows, killer bees, bears...
That may be so, their spray is the primary reason they aren't "better thought of."
He really was kind of a cute little guy. Well, I don't know if it was actually a guy, but it was kind of cute.
My dad had a pet skunk as a kid (small town), and they were very popular for a while. The mayor asked to come visit to see the skunk, and the skunk promptly sprayed they mayor's wife in the face. They were then ordered to get rid of the skunk.
When we lived on the farm in Indiana we had a baby skunk wander into our yard one afternoon. My older brothers got some chicken wire and fashioned a little corral for it so the dog wouldn't get to it, although the dog never showed any signs of wanting to get very close, which shows you which of them had more sense. In the process they both got sprayed a bit, although the skunk was so small it didn't have much scent to squirt. Around dusk the mother came calling and we let the baby out to go with her and never saw them again.
When we lived in New Mexico, our town had a skunk whisperer too. It makes sense that there is a demand for that service, but it sure isn't something you think about until you need it.
Is there, like, a tech school course a guy can take for that kind of thing?
That said, we live backed up to a wetland. Plenty of critters around, but I'm not sure I've ever actually seen a skunk in all the years here.
The Giants and Angels are tied 1-1 going to the twelfth inning. Even with the Manfred rule, neither team scored in either the tenth or the eleventh.
In the twelfth, Kurt Suzuki got hurt and the Angels had already used their backup catcher, so outfielder Taylor Ward is coming in to catch. He caught in college and in the minors through 2017. Pitcher Griffin Canning is playing left field, as the Angels are out of position players.
The Giants scored one in the top of the twelfth. It appeared that the Angels had scored two in the bottom of the twelfth, but a safe call at home plate was reversed. The Angels are still batting in the twelfth.
And they will play on to the thirteenth.
The Giants have scored seven in the thirteenth. One assumes that will be enough.
The game lasted so long that Dave Fleming, the Giants' radio announcer, had to bail on the game because of a commitment to broadcast the Dodgers/Padres game for ESPN tonight. The Giants' radio network is carrying the TV feed for the bottom of the thirteenth.
It is enough. 9-3 final in thirteen innings.
Have a feeling they wont let Ohtani hit in his next start
Enjoying the local 9 after the town Lions' BBQ on a beautiful evening with fireworks to follow. A good beer in hand too. Life is amazing.
Have another beer on us.