One Minute Sports

A basketball team with a couple of All Star players coming off a disappointing year where they lost late in the post-season, facing off against a scrappy superstar-less team emphasizing defense. Sound familiar? This pretty well describes the current Miami Heat vs. Indiana Pacers Eastern Conference Semifinal Series but it also described the 2003-04 NBA Finals that featured the LA Lakers facing off against the Detroit Pistons.

The Similarities:

Rosters – The Lakers and Heat both feature(d) two superstar players in the prime of their careers. The Lakers had Shaq and Kobe Bryant while the Heat have Dwayne Wade and LeBron James. The Pistons and Pacers both have successful teams without having a superstar.

Records – The Lakers and the Heat both finished in first place in their divisions with a nearly identical wining percentage. The Pistons and the Pacers both finished in second place in the Central Division and third in the Eastern Conference.

Off-Season Acquisitions – Both the Lakers and Heat after a disappointing postseason the year before added a couple of veteran players below their market value. The Lakers signed Gary Payton and Karl Malone, while the Heat acquire Shane Battier and Eddy Curry.

Style of Play – The Heat and the Lakers both feature(d) an offense that focused on their stars doing all of the scoring. While, both the Pistons and Pacers were/are defensive-minded teams that held their opponents to about 81 ppg in the series. (Pistons – 80.2, Pacers – 81.67)*

Differences:

While the stakes aren’t quite the same, the Pistons/Lakers were playing in the NBA Finals and the Heat/Pacers are in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, the results of these eerily similar match-ups may be. The Pacers are currently leading the series against the Heat 2-1 with game 4 Sunday in Indiana.

*The Pacers statistics are through 3 games of the series so far.

The top 5 sports stories of the day.

5) MLB – Oft injured Chicago Cubs pitcher Kerry Wood announces his retirement from the major leagues. Wood was on the disabled list 14 times in his career and had a career 3.67 era.

4) NCAAF – Ohio State University self-reports 46 minor NCAA rules violations since the Jim Tressel scandal. Among the violations include football coach Urban Meyer wishing a recruit good luck before a game during a non-contact period.

3) NBA – The Philadelphia 76ers come back from an 18 point deficit in the 3rd quarter to defeat the Boston Celtics 92-83 and tie their series up at 2 games a piece. Andre Iguodala, and Evan Turner had 16 points for the 76ers.

2) NBA – Kobe Bryant scores 36 points including shooting 18-18 from the free throw line as the Lakers come back to win a must-win game 3 against the OKC Thunder 99-96. The Lakers as a team were 41-42 from the free throw line.

1) MLB – Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander looses his no-hit bid with one out in the 9th inning as the Tigers beat the Colorado Rockies 6-0. Verlander would have been the youngest player ever to have 3 no-hitters.

The newest Texas Rangers ace Yu Darvish is not your typical rookie. At only 25 years of age, Darvish has already led his country to a 4th place finish in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, a 1st place finish in the 2009 World Baseball Classic, and been a 5-time all star and 2-time league MVP.

But all of those impressive achievements didn’t mean anything when Darvish made his major league debut against the Seattle Mariners on April 9th. Darvish took to the mound and got knocked around for 5 earned runs but was still able to get the victory.

It took 5 more starts for Darvish to surrender the same amount of earned runs as he did in that first game and since that first game in 8 starts he has only surrendered 10 earned runs.

Darvish is currently 6-1, with a 2.60 era. With a potent offense to support him Darvish is poised to run away with the AL Rookie of the Year award and be in the talks for the Cy Young.

The long bus rides from campus to campus must get pretty boring for collegiate athletes. But two teams decided to have a little fun during their rides and record themselves doing dance routines in the car while driving to songs.

The Harvard Baseball team started the craze when they recorded themselves dancing to the Carly Rae Jepsen hit “Call Me Maybe” and a few days later the LSU Lady Tigers posted a video of them performing a dance routine to the song “Sweat” by Filly.

Which team do you think had the better routine? Vote in the comment section.

The top 5 sports stories of the day.

5) NHL – The Edmonton Oilers announce that after 2 disappointing seasons they have fired coach Tom Renney. The Oilers finished 32-40-10 last season.

4) NFL – Philadelphia Eagles running back LeSean McCoy agrees to a 5-year extension with the team worth $45 million, with $20.765 million guaranteed. While the New Orleans Saints and quarter back Drew Brees remain far apart in their contract extension negotiations.

3) NBA – The Indiana Pacers blow out the Miami Heat 94-75 to take a commanding 2-1 series lead. Miami Heat guard Dwayne Wade scored only 5 points in the game, shooting 2 for 13 from the floor.

2) NBA – Tony Parker celebrating his 30th birthday led the San Antonio Spurs with 22 points to defeat the LA Clippers 105-88 to take a 2-0 series lead. The series moves back to LA on Saturday.

1) NHL – Despite playing his best game of the series and saving 26 shots, Mike Smith and the Phoenix Coyotes lose 2-1 to the LA Kings and fall within one game of elimination. Dwight King and Anze Kopitar scored for the Kings.

In this 3 part series I will give you my top ten reasons why unlike the rest of the sports media I refuse to appease Ron Artest and call him by his ridiculous name.

10 – Artest admitted in an interview with Sporting News that when he was a young player with the Chicago Bulls he used to drink alcohol during halftime. Artest said about the alcohol,”I used to drink Hennessy at halftime” “I (kept it) in my locker. I’d just walk to the liquor store (near the stadium) and get it.” In case you haven’t tried, taking shots in the middle of an athletic event usually doesn’t help but it does promote world peace.

9 – In the summer following the 2006 season Artest was interviewed by the Sacramento Bee and was asked about King’s player Bonzi Wells possibly leaving the team. The interviewer asked “Have you talked to him, done any campaigning to get [Bonzi Wells] back?” Artest, always promoting world peace, said “He called me last week. I told him if he leaves, then I’m going to kill him. Unless he wants to die, he’s got to stay (with the Kings).”

8 – He has stupid hair-dos. In 2011, Ron Artest after changing his name decided that with a new name he should get a new hair-do and so he bleached his hair and wrote his new name “Metta World Peace” in Hebrew in his hair. He also in 2010 tried to improve his defense by dying his hair orange/yellow and inscribing the word “defense” into his hair in 3 different languages.

To be continued…

In honor of LeBron James choking in Tuesday’s playoff game against the Pacers and his general ability to somehow travel and get away with other violations that would be called on any other player, I wanted to share a video I came across called the “Top 10 Uncalled Travels (NBA)”.

Officials miss calls every game and it’s something that’s to be expected but some of these non-calls are ridiculous. Many of these feature players taking at least 3 steps before shooting and without being called for traveling. Not surprisingly LeBron James is featured on this list twice.

The top 5 sports stories of the day.

5) MLB – Tampa Bay Rays second baseman Will Rhymes was hit by a pitch in last night games and then collapses at 1st base. Rhymes was given medical care and the x-rays were negative.

4) MLB – The LA Angels, with the help of new hitting coach Jim Eppard, beat the White Sox 7-2 as Albert Pujols hits his only second home run of the season.

3) NBA – Kevin Garnett scores 27 points to lead the Boston Celtics to a 107-91 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers. The Celtics now lead the series 2-1.

2) NHL – David Clarkson deflects in the game-winning goal, his 3rd of the playoffs, with 2:31 left in the 3rd period as the New Jersey Devils tie up their series with the New York Rangers, beating them 3-2.

1) NBA – LA Lakers guard Steve Blake misses a wide open 3-pointer with seconds left as the Lakers fall to the OKC Thunder 77-75 with a 9-0 surge to end the game. The Thunder now lead the series 2-0.

The top 5 sports stories of the day.

5) NBA – Cleveland Cavalier, and last year’s number one pick Kyrie Irving wins the 2012 NBA rookie of the year award. Minnesota Timberwolves’ guard Ricky Rubio finished a distant second.

4) NHL – The Los Angeles Kings with help from Jeff Carter’s hat-trick, defeat the Phoenix Coyotes 4-0 to increase their lead in their series to 2-0.

3) MLB – The Detroit Tigers come back from a 6-run deficit with 8 runs in the 6th inning to beat the Chicago White Sox 10-8. Tigers closer Jose Valverde left the game with back tightness.

2) NBA – Chicago Bull’s star Derrick Rose expected to miss 8-12 months with the knee injury he suffered earlier in the playoffs. Rose could miss the entire 2012-13 season.

1) NBA – The Chris Bosh-less Miami Heat struggle down the stretch and lose to the Indiana Pacers 78-75. No player besides LeBron James and Dwayne Wade had more than 5 points for the Heat.

The top 5 sports stories of the day.

5) Olympics – USA Basketball Coach Mike Krzyzewski says that this will be his last Olympics coaching the US basketball team. Krzyzewski led the US team to Gold in the 2008 Olympics.

4) MLB – Tampa Bay Rays Pitcher Jeff Niemann out 4-6 weeks after fracturing his right leg. Niemann was 2-3 with a 3.38 era with the Rays before his injury.

3) NBA – Jrue Holiday’s 18 points (almost 1/4 of his team’s total points) help the Philadelphia 76ers beat the Boston Celtics 82-81 to tie their series up at one game a piece.

2) NHL – Henrik Lundqvist outduels Martin Brodeur and saves all 21 shots he faced to help the New York Rangers defeat the New Jersey Devils 3-0. Dan Girardi, Artem Anisimov, and Chris Kreider all added a goal and an assist.

1) NBA – Kevin Durant had 25 points and Russell Westbrook had 27 to help the Oklahoma City Thunder blow out the LA Lakers by 29 points (the 12th most in Lakers history) to gain a 1-0 series lead.