Forget about it in the morning

The NBA draft happened last night and the best thing for fans to do is skip all the grade reports that will, inevitably, come out praising the Chicago Bulls for obtaining Tyrus Thomas, Viktor Khryapa (who the Blazers were extremely high on just a couple years ago), and Thabo Sefolosha and bashing the NY Knicks for reaching for Renaldo Balkman at #20 and adding Mardy Collins to an already crowded backcourt at #29. I know, there is a demand for analysis now, but how many people thought Dwayne Wade was going to blossom into a mega-star while Carmelo Anthony has levelled out a bit just below all-star level? However, I don't want to read any reviews 3, 5, or 10 years down the road either. It is all just speculation. Sure, you can point to statistics compiled over the years, but would Wade have flourished in Detroit (who took Darko), Denver (Carmelo) or Toronto (Bosh)? The most important thing for teams to do is to try to find guys who fit with their team and have a chance to contribute when they need them. In that regard, I think the Knicks may have made a good move taking Balkman because he is a high-energy, athletic wing who will defend ... everyone knows a team with Stephon Marbury, Steve Francis, Jamal Crawford, and Jalen Rose does not need anyone to handle the ball (Marcus Williams was still available) and needs someone to play defense. Sure, you can look back and analyze how well picks worked (or didn't work), but speculation on what would have happened if the Rockets had grabbed J.J. Redick at #8 or the Bobcats had taken Gay at #3 is just that, speculation. Therefore, don't hold your breath for a post-draft analysis on There's a Catch, at least not one that addresses specific players and/or teams.

Two Left Heels?

University of North Carolina 2nd baseman Ryan Steed committed a throwing error in a 2-2 game with two outs in the bottom of the 8th against the Oregon State Beavers. The throwing error allowed the go ahead run to score. While Steed made a poor throw, he isn't totally at fault. It looked like a routine play and it should have been, so the UNC first baseman treated it as such. The first baseman was playing deep and took his time getting to the bag, expecting a throw right to him. Unfortunately for the Tar Heels, the throw wasn't perfect. It wasn't awful either. It was on the OF side of the bag, so the first baseman had to reach against his motion to try to catch the ball ... and it didn't work well. If the first baseman had hustled to the bag and set up and then stretched in the correct direction for the ball, he would have made the catch, prevented the unearned run, and saved his 2nd baseman. Too bad he lollygagged and combined with his teammate to give the Beavers the national championship.

What happened?

The NBA Finals ended two nights ago. I got to work yesterday and my brother informed me that he was surprised I hadn't posted anything about game 6. Even now, a couple days removed, I don't have anything major to say. However, I have a number of issues to address so I'll get started.

1. The NBA and the Mavericks were both right about Jerry Stackhouse. He had to be suspended because Udonis Haslem got a game for throwing his mouthpiece in the area of the feet of a ref, James Posey got a game for running over a Bull (I think Kirk Hinrich), Raja Bell got a game for taking Kobe Bryant down by grabbing him around the upper torso, etc. So, precedent determined that Stackhouse should be suspended, his foul on Shaquille O'neal was flagrant and excessive and he didn't make a play on the ball. However, personally, I don't think any of those acts warrants a suspension, so that is where the Mavericks were right and David Stern dropped the ball.

2. The officials need to figure out what they are going to call and make it consistent. During the finals, the refs decided to call 3-seconds in the key. This call affected the Heat because Shaq was the dominant low-post player in the series. I think Alonzo Mourning may have been whistled for the infraction as well. However, I don't remember any carrying calls. My problem is this: certain rules affect different players and different teams more than others. If Shaq is allowed to camp under the basket, he's almost unstoppable. If you allow Josh Howard to palm the ball, he becomes much more effective. Thus, you need to enforce all the rules similarly, if you are going to call 3-in-the-key, you need to call travelling, palming, etc. The refs seem to have pet calls that they like to focus on and it's stupid.

3. The Heat were really good when they didn't turn the ball over. The problem they had was that they went through stretches where they didn't value possessions. Gary Payton was too busy yapping at an official yesterday to pay attention to where the ball was. He didn't have a clue that the ball was being passed to him ... it hit him ... he was surprised ... the Mavs got the ball. The entire series, it seemed like when the Heat buckled down and played hard, they were the better team. When the Heat lost interest or weren't focused, the Mavs were able to take advantage.

4. My recently retired high school basketball coach had, among his many pet phrases, "KYP! Know your personnel!" Late in game 6, Dirk Nowitzki used a screen by Erick Dampier, then tried to feed Dampier as he was rolling to the basket. The problem was, Dampier wasn't in a position he was comfortable receiving the ball. I'm not going to criticize Dirk too much, but he has to know that the risk-reward ratio of giving the ball to Dampier in that position isn't very favorable. Dampier couldn't handle the pass and the result was a costly turnover. That was an obvious KYP. However, you also have to know your opponents. Does anyone remember when Wade was whistled for a foul because he ran into Devin Harris while Jason Terry was knocking down a three from the corner? Personally, I thought the foul call was atrocious - it should have either been a no-call or a blocking foul on Harris, you can't expect Wade to stop, or change directions, on a dime when someone jumps out in front of him (especially considering Wade wouldn't have been able to challenge Terry's shot). But, the reason Terry was open in the corner was because three Miami Heat defenders, including Wade, flocked to DeSagana Diop (or is it DeSagna Diop ... it's about half and half when I googled it) when he received the ball about 12 feet from the basket. If Dirk got the ball in that position, for all means, come running and get the ball out of his hands. Diop? Let him shoot. Let him put the ball on the floor and cut him off if he drives. Don't come running from the other side of the court and leave Jason Terry wide open for a three-pointer!

5. Congratulations Gary Payton and Alonzo Mourning! Congratulations Michael Doleac! I heard Charles Barkley say he was happy for some of the Heat who won their first championship late in their careers. Good for them. I won a lot of games in high school, including two state championships. But, as fun as winning those titles was, they weren't the crowning achievements of my HS career. Why? I was a role player as a freshman and sophomore on really good teams. My junior year, we beat the defending state champions from the state of Washington and my senior year we made it to the semi-finals at state, beating the number 2 seed in the quarterfinals. Payton may be able to claim he's an NBA Champion, but this one won't be as sweet as it would have been if his Seattle Supersonics had beaten MJ and the Bulls. Mourning was a fantastic player earlier in his career. But, it's not the same as a back-up center as it would have been if he'd been able to win a championship as the centerpiece of a team earlier in his career. At least these players helped the Heat win their first title. It's better that way than jumping to a power (like Payton and Karl Malone did when they went to the Lakers) and piggy-backing their way to a title ... that's why I hate the Yankees. Sports shouldn't be based on "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em." The correct way to look at it is "if you want to be the best, you have to beat the best."

6. I'll finish this off by giving the Heat one piece of advice before next year: dump Antoine Walker. Walker doesn't fit with the Heat. Walker isn't a good defender. Wade should be, but isn't really. Shaq isn't a dominant defender at this stage in his career. Jason Williams isn't a good defender either. Posey and Haslem played terrific defense against the Mavs and both those guys need to be on the floor. Walker doesn't have the make-up to be a role player and that is all he should be on the Heat. He shoots too many 3's, doesn't finish well at the rim, and throws up way too many crappy shots looking for fouls. He's not athletic and you don't need a "point-forward" to monopolize the ball when you have Williams (why else is Williams on the floor if it isn't to be a playmaker?) and Wade on the perimeter and Shaq in the post creating a lot of the offense by making plays for himself and others. Posey shoots the open three very well and the Heat need another wing player who can knock down the three consistently and play solid defense. That man is not Antoine Walker.

Just a bit outside

Miguel Cabrera just hit an intentional ball into center field to plate the go-ahead run against the Orioles in the top of the tenth inning. Todd Williams was trying to issue Cabrera an IBB with a runner on second and first base open. To his dismay, he lobbed his first pitch a little too close to the plate. Cabrera calmly reached out from his stance and slapped it over second base. Something tells me Williams will be a little more careful next time. But for now, I suspect, he's the most embarrassed player in the league. This is the funniest baseball play I've seen in a long time.

Read more at ESPN.

Defending Phil (kind of)

Phil Mickelson made a major mistake on the 18th hole of the U.S. Open, costing him a chance at the "Mickelslam" when the British Open rolls around. But, his major mistake was hitting driver off the tee box, not trying to run a low cut up on the green after his tee shot went WAY1 left. How many birdies were there on 18 yesterday? There were 20 birdies over the four days and I think only 2 yesterday. There were 227 pars, 160 bogeys, 24 double bogeys, and 6 other (meaning triple bogey or worse, because there weren't any aces (double eagles) or eagles).

What I'm getting at is that if Mickelson had gone the "safe route" and pitched out into the fairway, chances are that he would have made bogey and been tied with Geoff Ogilvy. Why? Essentially, hitting a tee shot into the trees/gallery/deep rough and then knocking the ball back to the fairway does in two shots what should be done in one shot (assuming the one shot is a solid drive). Of everyone who played 18 during the week, of all the people who hit the ball in the fairway2, at most 20 made birdie. So, the chances of making par hitting your third from the fairway after taking the "safe" way out would have, in all likelihood, doomed Phil to, at best, a playoff. Or, he could have pulled a Monty (see 2 below) and lost it outright bailing out too.

So, Mickelson's best chance at winning on Sunday was to play the shot he played on his 2nd, given the horrible drive. I find it hard to believe that Mickelson is too arrogant or stupid to try a shot that wasn't reasonable. I think he just didn't execute correctly (Shaq doesn't shoot 2-12 from the FT line because free throws are difficult or because he can't make the shot, when he misses, it's a failure to execute properly), just like he didn't execute his drive properly. The interesting thing is that the commentators had remarked previously that Mickelson usually comes through in tight situations. The rationale given is that when he has a narrow target he focuses better and is able to execute the shot just like he is planning. It didn't work out for him on 18 on Sunday, but I'm pretty sure he played a similar type of shot just a few holes earlier and pulled off the low cut around the trees. I think he ended up running that ball up onto the front of the green. If he had obtained a similar result on 18, he probably would have ended up in about the same position as Ogilvy had for his third, after Ogilvy's shot rolled off the false front. Ogilvy made par, allowing him to escape Winged Foot with a 5-over for the tournament. Given Phil's short game, he probably would have ended up doing the same (making 4, that is) and he would have ended up 1 shot ahead of Ogilvy at 4-over. He'd be the U.S. Open Champion.

Comparisons to Frenchman Jean Van de Velde will be made, but that isn't really fair. The average score on 18 for the week was 4.5. Mickelson needed a four to win the tournament. Van de Velde needed a 6 on a par 4 to win the British Open. He ended up carding a 7 and ending up in a 3-way tie and didn't win that playoff. If a 5 would have won the tournament for Mickelson, I doubt he would have used driver and I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have gone for the green in two given his predicament off the tee. But, he wasn't allowed the luxury. Van de Velde had a meltdown. Mickelson didn't execute well, but what do I care, I wasn't pulling for him3 anyway.

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1 Was anyone else disgusted that Mickelson had a chance to go for the green after hitting his tee shot off the tent left of the gallery (for reference, the gallery was left of the rough that was left of the fairway on 18)? What do you have to do to hit the ball out-of-bounds at the U.S. Open? At best, hitting a ball that far off-center, Mickelson should have had a lie that made it difficult to get the ball back out to the fairway, he shouldn't have even had the opportunity to go for the green in two. At some point, a shot needs to be bad enough to warrant a penalty. Structures, like the one Mickelson hit, should be far enough away from the fairway that they rarely come into play, and when they do, they should be treated under a special provision: if you hit the tent that is so far to the left that even a 30 handicapper would rarely venture into that territory, you just have to rehit your tee shot and you're hitting 3 (so, it would be like hitting it in the water, or out-of-bounds ... go figure!).

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2 Colin Montgomerie hit his tee shot on 18 on Sunday into a great position on the right side of the fairway. However, he came up short and right with his 2nd shot and ended up making a double bogey 6 on the hole.

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3 The biggest problem I have with Mickelson is having to look at him when I watch golf. The man has breasts! This isn't the LPGA! As Ozzie Guillen said (I'm paraphrasing because I don't have the quote - in which I believe he was speaking, to some extent at least, about closer Bobby Jenks) "If you're heavy and good, you're strong, but if you're heavy and bad, you're fat." Mickelson is given a pass on his conditioning because he has a lot of skill. I don't know Mickelson, he may actually be in relatively good shape. But, it's hard to imagine that being in better shape would hurt his golf game. Is it too much to ask professional athletes to at least pretend to be in shape?

Keep the balls out of the galleries

We're well into the second round of the U.S. Open at Winged Foot and Phil Mickelson just pulled his opening tee shot way to the right. Well, actually, he just hit his second shot and recently pulled his tee shot and is not taking his shot for birdie. Anyway, as has been well-documented, the rough at Winged Foot has been grown to 5-8 inches to penalize errant shots. Mickelson's ball wasn't in the fairway or the 1st (intermediate) cut that is 6 feet wide on either side of the fairway. It wasn't in the next 20 feet of the 1st cut of primary rough, which is a meager 3.5 inches. It should have been in the deep stuff and he should have been hacking at it with his only goal being to get it back in the short grass. However, because his shot was so far away from the fairway, it landed in grass that had been trampled by the gallery. The result: Mickelson had a clean lie from about 150 yards and was able to knock the ball up within a few feet of the front of the green. The idea behind the graduated rough system was to have an increasingly bad penalty for an increasingly bad shot.

I'm not taking a shot at Mickelson, he just happened to be the person I saw benefit from this system. Mickelson just pulled his 2nd tee shot to the right, not as bad as on #1. However, he didn't get it to the gallery, so he's in the deep stuff. Ok, let's get back on topic. There are also grand stands behind the greens on some of the holes. Tiger Woods hit a ball into them yesterday. He had to play his next shot from a designated drop area just in front of them. The USGA should have drop areas for wayward tee shots that end up in the galleries. The players should have to drop their balls into the deep rough, rather than benefit by being able to play off areas of trampled grass. I can't be the first person to think of this.

One alternative would be to get rid of galleries altogether, but I doubt that is going to happen. All the tv viewers would be upset too, we wouldn't get to hear people yell "Get in the hole" on tee shots. What would we do without such brilliant commentary ... oh wait, we get similar stuff from the "professionals."

Suspend Ozzie

Ozzie Guillen was out of line for yelling at rookie pitcher Sean Tracey after Tracey failed to hit Hank Blalock in retaliation for A.J. Pierzynski being hit twice earlier in the game. Why should Tracey get ejected and take a suspension for hitting Blalock? The White Sox were down 6-0, en route to an 8-0 loss. Guillen is full of shit when he claims he didn't want Tracey in the game to face Blalock. Obviously, he wanted the rookie to hit Blalock. You don't worry about situations when you are down 6-0 late in the game. When you are getting your butt handed to you, you take your lumps, use your second-tier relievers and try to get through the game. If Guillen didn't want the rookie in that situation, and it was his fault for having him out there to face Blalock, he would have congratulated him after he got Blalock out. He definitely wouldn't have berated him in the dugout after he removed him from the game, or demoted him after the game. Usually, getting players out is a good thing!

If Guillen is going to punish guys for not following stupid directions, the White Sox players will either get fed up with Guillen very quickly and/or do what they are told. Baseball needs to take a hard look at this. The next time a White Sox pitcher retaliates, it's hard to blame them. I wouldn't want to be demoted. So, the pitcher should be held accountable, but Guillen should be seen as the ringleader. Thus, the hammer should be dropped on him by the commish's office. Suspend Guillen, let him know that this sort of behavior will not be tolerated. It's possible that Padilla just happened to hit Pierzynski twice on accident. Do the White Sox need to be retaliating? If it was a close game, would Ozzie have wanted Tracey to throw at Blalock? It's akin to a hockey team throwing their goons out on the ice in the 3rd period of a lopsided loss to try to inflict damage on the other team. Is anyone in support of that?

The Wright kind of deceit

The announcers on the ESPN broadcast of the Mets v. Phillies game were applauding Mets 3B David Wright by trying to trick Aaron Rowand into slowing down before he got to 3rd base after tagging at 2nd on a fly ball. Quite frequently, infielders will put their hands up to signal to the baserunner that there isn't going to be a throw or there has been a foul ball or something else has happened so the baserunner doesn't need to go balls out into the base. It is a sportsmanlike gesture. However, using the same hand signals to try to trick baserunners is deceitful, bush-league baseball and it shouldn't be lauded or applauded. Now, Rowand will either have to trust no opposing IF's, learn which ones to trust, or face the possibility of being made a fool of.

Do I need to remind David Wright and the announcers that sports aren't about hidden ball tricks, flops to draw charges, and dives to get penalties in soccer? Sports are about competition and determining who is the better player/team. Enough with the scenanigans ... just play. Be respectful or your peers or don't, but don't resort to underhandedness to try to gain an advantage.

Josh!

Last night, Josh Howard accumulated 21 points in the first three quarters against the Heat. He failed to score in the 4th quarter and the Mavericks failed to win the game despite being up by thirteen points at one point in the last period. So, let me recap: a) Josh Howard scored 21 points and b) the Mavericks lost the game.

Wait one minute! The Mavericks were undefeated this year when Howard scored at least 20 points. They won 100% of the games when he reached the 20-point mark. So, what does this all mean? Not much, just like it didn't really mean anything that they hadn't lost this year when Howard scored at least 20 points. Now, the Mavericks are undefeated in games Howard scores at least 22 points! As my brother is always telling me, the hardest events to predict are the ones that haven't happened yet. Dallas was bound to lose a game when Howard scored at least 20, it just happened to be game 3 of the NBA Finals.

NBA Finals: Game 1 Musings

The Heat let game 1 get away. I'm not going to tell you why they lost, or what they need to do in game 2 to send the series back to South Beach tied at 1-1. It seems fairly obvious that they need to take care of the ball a little better and go through C Shaquille O'neal early in the possessions. Rather, I'm going to take a look at a few things I noticed during the game.

SG Dwayne Wade is incredible! He's quick and explodes to the rim and his block on Mavs F Dirk Nowitzki at the beginning of the game helped the Heat take a big lead early. However, he cost his team on a number of occasions by acting like an NBA player, rather than acting like a basketball player. Wade doesn't hustle back on defense, especially when he turns the ball over or misses a shot and thinks he's been wronged. Maybe he was fouled and has a valid point to argue, maybe he wasn't and doesn't. Either way, the Mavericks are too good at pushing the ball - and the Heat aren't good enough at transition defense - to have Wade dwell on the previous play. Pat Riley, early in the game, was motioning for Wade to get back on defense after a mistake and needs to sit Wade down and get it in his young star's head that Wade needs to wait for a break in the action to work on officials.

Shaq should try not to miss his first 8 attempts from the foul line the next time they roll the ball out (interesting note: he missed at least one more, but a Maverick was called for a lane violation so Shaq got another chance). But, Shaq's 1-9 from the FT line wasn't as bad as it might seem. At least Shaq was missing both free throws with regularity; Dwayne Wade kept missing the first one and making the second one, limiting the Heat to one point on a number of possessions. I didn't keep tabs on the plays after Shaq's misses, but I know that on one occasion the Heat got an offensive rebound and, subsequently, Antoine Walker hit a three-pointer. Thus, it was actually beneficial for the Heat for Shaq to miss the FT's. If he had made the first one and missed the second, then Walker had hit and 3 and been fouled, that would have been the best scenario. But, getting three points on a possession is, obviously, better than getting two points (unless the Heat want to lose so they have to see David Stern give Mark Cuban the NBA Championship trophy). FT shooting can be important, I'm not saying that it isn't important to make FT's, but misses can be opportunities for offensive rebounds and additional shots at the basket. The Heat scored at least 4 points off of Shaq's 9 FT attempts, and possibly more. I think that is the more meaningful stat than just reporting that he was 1-9.

It's definitely a good thing that Jason Terry didn't listen to that lady on ESPNEWS ... he shot 13-18 for 32 points in game one. He scored 20 of the Mavs 46 in the first half and tied the Heat (12 points) in the 4th quarter, when the Mavs ran away for the win.

Is it just me or is Antoine Walker lacking the athleticism it takes to be a quality contributor in the NBA (or, at least on the Heat)? He had Dirk 1-on-1 in the open court and was able to get Nowitzki turned around, but he couldn't finish the play. Udonis Haslem got a bogus foul call on what should have been a jump ball going for the rebound, but that was just one of the many questionable calls, going both ways, during the game. Walker isn't the NBA's best long-distance shooter, although it seems like he thinks he's pretty good. It seems like Walker is a much better shooter when he's wide open than when he has a hand in his face. That leads to the question, why does he shoot when the defender is right on him? With Shaq in the post, you shouldn't have to settle for highly-contested 3's ... you should get open 3's. Walker also clears out with his off arm on drives (and gets called for it) because he lacks the athleticism to go strong to the basket against good shot blockers. Why isn't James Posey playing more? Posey shoots the 3 at a higher percentage (or at least he did during the season) and is a better defender. Plus, he doesn't thrive on controlling the ball. Walker isn't given the freedom to create for teammates because the offense runs through Wade and O'neal, so why is he on the court? Oh, it's for those funky runners he throws up, obviously.

Stupid Things "The Professionals" Say

05.31.06 - A lady on ESPNEWS reported that Jason Terry, despite shooting 10-28 in the two games the Mavericks have lost to the Suns, intends to continue to be agressive. She insinuates that Terry is in a slump. However, the two Mavs losses have occurred in games one and four ... they won games two and three. Terry was close to 50% in the last four games (he played)against the Spurs and had a good game (9-20) in game three against the Suns. In game two, he shot just 6-15 from the field, but got to the FT line and made 6 of 7 from the charity stripe. Perhaps, if Terry knew which games the Mavs were going to lose, he wouldn't shoot so much. But, considering he doesn't know the outcome before the games even start, it's probably best that he continues to play the same way he has been playing.

Jason Terry has been an important piece of the Mavs run. However, he isn't a guy who shoots an exceptionally high percentage. His career FG% is 44.0% and he shot 47.0% from the field this regular season. Couple that with the fact that the intensity, and defensive effort, increases in the playoffs, and it's not surprising that he's shooting 42.2% from the field for the playoffs. He shot 41.9% in the first round, against the Grizzlies. He was a little better against the Spurs, 43.8%, and has been a bit worse against the Suns, 39.7%. Terry scores in the high teens, so regardless of his struggles in games 1 and 4 against the Suns, he's going to keep shooting and will probably continue to make about 40-45% of his shots. Only once in the playoffs (14 games), has Terry made more than 50% of his shots in a game; he was 8-15 in game 3 against the Spurs.