Bad News Bulls
I spent most of the weekend wallowing in the Florida Panthers Game 7 loss and Derrick Rose’s knee asplosion.
The worst part about the Rose injury is we just don’t know when he’ll be back to 100% or if he ever will. His game relies so much on contortion, getting to the basket, and hard stops that a knee injury is the kind of thing that can linger. This is just depressing. Here’s hoping Rose’s doctors go HAM in repairing it and he gets back soon.
Contrary to a lot of people, I don’t think you can blame Thibodeau for Rose being in the game, the shortened schedule, or his shoe manufacturer (PS: This guy is a tactless prick). It’s just one of those things that happens sometimes to people who are huge and pushing their bodies to extremes. Chris Paul, Ricky Rubio, Iman Shumpert all suffered the same injury and Jeremy Lin suffered a lesser knee injury this year. It seems like something that is plaguing point guards more and more. Someone put Steve Nash on watch.
In good news, here’s another reason these NHL playoffs are awesome. Of the remaining teams there is no repeat seed. Meaning one of each seed won their first round. It breaks out like this: 1. Rangers, 2. Blues, 3. Coyotes, 4. Predators, 5. Flyers, 6. Devils, 7. Capitals, 8. Kings. Hat tip to John Buccigross for pointing this out the other day.
Meanwhile, nothing but empathy for bettors who had Memphis last night and nothing but high fives for anyone who had the Clippers. I didn’t watch the game because honestly, I thought it was over. Boy was I wrong. Here’s the comeback if you haven’t seen it. Crazy.
Here’s some NBA picks for the next couple days.
NBA Regular Season Pickathon
It’s the last night of the NBA regular season. Let’s pick every game against the spread with little to no research!!!! It’s crazy because literally none of these games has meaning.
Let’s do it!
Raptors -7.5 vs Nets: “Hey jersey! Eat a d! We’re out!”
Florida Panthers Revisited
I dunno about you, but I think these hockey playoffs have been awesome. I’ve been reminded why I love the sport so much. It’s unfortunate the lockout killed momentum and we had to deal with years of the left wing lock that practically murdered the sport in the United States. But, here we are.
Watching the Panthers has been great.I was, at one time, a HUGE Florida Panthers fan. One of my favorite sports memories is rooting for the Panthers in their 1996 Stanley Cup run. Full disclosure, I became a fan when they were an expansion team because I loved their color scheme and logo. That’s about 45% of how I choose who to root for. Not the most macho way to go about things, but whatevs. The other ways are geography connection and players. Growing up in Columbus I could have gone with the Red Wings (barf) or Penguins (barf). So geography was out.
He broke your hockey stick before he mauls you. Srsly Scary.
I loved the Panthers roster. Scott Mellanby, Ed Jovanovski, Martin Straka, John Vanbiesbrouck (every vowel is in his last name!), hell, I even liked Brian Skrudland. My favorite on the roster was hands down Rob Neidermayer. If it wasn’t for Peter Forsberg, Niedermayer would be my favorite NHL player from the last 20 years. Congratulations, you just witnessed history as those two sentences have never been typed in that order by anyone. Ever.
NCAA Title Game and The Bulls
Realized I don’t think I made a single NCAA basketball pick this season. That’s because I am bad at it. Here you go:
Kansas +6.5 vs Kentucky: Everyone seems to lurve Kentucky. With good reason. They’re pretty good. This just seems like a lot of points to cover on a neutral floor against a very good team. There’s also a lot of pressure on Calipari to win this one. I rarely like picking the people with more to lose. Kansas is playing with house money at this point.
And since I am going to the Bulls game tonight…
Bulls -8 vs Rockets: Rockets are coming off an OT game against Indiana last night. Bulls got blowed out against the Thunder. That might have lowered this line a little bit. Either way I think the Bulls will come out to prove they aren’t complete and total garbage. Plus I want to root for the Bulls. No Rose tonight. At some point I am almost wonder if they should just hold him out for the rest of the regular season. He’s gonna be well rested come playoff time while most of his opponents will be worn down from the condensed regular season.
Yowza
It’s been a lot longer since I updated this than I realized. Well, I’m back for a few days before heading to Vegas. Now seems like as good a time as any to let you know that I am AWFUL at picking college basketball. It’s brutal. Maybe I’ll share a bracket with you so you can follow along in my incompetence. Until then…
NBA Streak Picks
Bucks -3 @ Nets: The Nets stink.
Bulls -8 vs Knicks: The Knicks have really shut it down. This is also the type of game where Derrick Rose goes HAM to prove he’s the best.
Clippers -5.5 vs Celtics: The Celtics have looked awful this season.
I <3 All-Star Games
That’s a heart after “I” by the way.
Some folks rag on All-Star games, including Roger Goodell. The complaints are that the quality of play is atrocious, no one seems to care, and it’s just showboating. Yes. It is. And it is awesome. Who cares that the NBA All-Star game looks like NBA Jam? I enjoyed watching all 21 goals from the NHL All-Star game. Goodell is pissed that 400lb lineman aren’t risking exploding their knees in an exhibition game while hyping up concern over player safety. The game is what it is. A chance to put a bunch of awesome athletes on one team to play with nothing at stake.
And that’s fine.
We have the Olympics to show us what it is like to see these guys going HAM. There’s no way to replicate that in the middle of the season. Just ask Bud Selig. If they really want to make it interesting, do a skills competition (to reduce likelihood of injury) where each player on the winning team gets $50,000 to donate to a charity. It is unreasonable for us to expect people to risk injury mid-season in a game that means nothing or a football player risk injury that could end his career because we need a filler the week before the Super Bowl.
Mavs -10 vs Nets: Lord knows I can’t pick the Nets. But I can pick against them.
Kings -3 vs Jazz: The Kings have been playing pretty well lately. Bet the crowd will be excited since this is their first game after it was announced they’ll be staying in Sacramento. Which is fantastic.
Non-Streak
Warriors +6 @ Pacers: I have no reason other than I have been fading the Pacers lately.
Bulls -13.5 vs Hornets: Rose is back to full health. They should have no problem with the Hornets.
Rockets -9.5 vs Raptors: If this were a couple points lower I would take the Rockets. This line just seems too high.
Super Sketchy Line of the Day
Cavs +3.5 vs Celtics: I thought maybe the C’s had a game with the Heat or Knicks or Bulls up next and this was a trap game. Nope. Just playin’ the Bucks. Which makes this line even shadier.
Runner up: Pistons +4 vs Sixers: Apparently I am the only person who does not know the final score of this game.
Current Streak: 6
Longest Streak: 15
2012 Streak Picks Record: 40-28-2
All-Star Over
I’m kinda sad this will be my last chance to take an over in an All-Star game this year. Oh well.
NBA All-Star Game Over 279.5
Is it weird that that total seems a little low? I imagine someone is getting to 150 points today.
Oscars are tonight too. If you’re into that sort of thing.
That’s all I got.
