MLB has started

The MLB has started! And we are all waiting to see what is going to happen with teams like the Yankees that have lost Roger Clemens for the season, and now the Mets is the team to watch in New York as they acquired Johan Santana last season and it truly makes them the team to beat in the NL.

The White Sox have the services of Javier Vazquez, and this definitely should give a boost to the team, while the Athletics have Frank Thomas and Milton Bradley and are true title contenders.

While the defending champions, the Red Sox might be in trouble since Josh Beckett didn’t even made the trip to Japan due to a sore back and Curt Schilling is still down with a shoulder injury which apparently will leave him sidelined until July, really no good news for Boston.

On the other hand, the Cardinals are in excellent shape and might very well win the Central conference, but the Indians are strong contenders also and I think the true fight will be between the Tigers and Arizona.

Let’s give it at least a couple more weeks so we can get clear on how are the teams really standing, I as a Mets fan, can’t be more pleased with Santana on the team, let’s see what he can do for a squad that's always being shadowed by you know who...

Pistons clinch Central Division title

The Pistons didn't had it easy yesterday against the Heat, a team that has lost 13 of their 15 games, and who couldn’t managed to score more than 70 points on the game that gave Detroit their fourth consecutive Central division title, and their 6^th in 7 seasons.

But in despite of clinching the title, things hasn’t being really good for Detroit who have lost 3 of their last 4 and had a hard time surpassing Miami, the worst team in the league.

Richard Hamilton did not started for the Pistons, and it was the perfect chance for rookie Arron Afflalo, who scored a season-high 15 points.

"I'm out there with four All-Star-caliber players, so they aren't going to be paying much attention to me, I hit a couple shots early, and that let me get comfortable." Afflalo said.

The Pistons definitely need to get their act together if they want to make some noise at the playoffs, as if they keep on their current slow rhythm, the guys at the West will crush them without prior notice.

Garnett leads Celtics over Suns

I cannot say that the Suns have suffered now that they have Shaquille O’Neal playing for them, they even get in a 7-game winning streak since he came to the team, but yesterday they lost their second in a row, this time against Celtics, a team that have struggled to have victories over Phoenix, the numbers speak by themselves, as this is the first time in six games that Boston achieve a win over the Celts.

Final score for the game was 117-97 and Boston playing at home at the all-new TD Banknorth Garden, with fans chanting “MVP” to Kevin Garnett, who had a great night and scored 30 for the Celtics, while team mate Paul Pierce had 12 in the fourth quarter of his total of 27 and Kendrick Perkins didn’t disappoint with 13 points and 10 rebounds.

The Celtics started great with a 15 point lead but then allowed the Suns to tied them at 57 by the end of the second quarter, then would rallied Phoenix again to put things 80-69 with 1:24 to play in the third, and from that point on, it was all things Celtics.

Both teams have great chances to make it pass the first round of the playoffs, but I am betting the Celtics to make it to the finals, as they have been a truly solid on their last matches, beting the guys including the Texas triangle.

Hornets match Lakers at West top conference spot

The Hornets are a team that has climbed their way to the top of the Western Conference with a low profile, and they are trying to prove wrong those who judge them or don’t give them that much credit as a team that can compete for the championship.

"We're a hungry basketball team. We're trying to prove people wrong" Said David West, who finished with 35 points and led New Orleans to their latest victory yesterday against the Pacers, who are now without CEO Donnie Walsh.

Also for New Orleans, Chris Paul finished with 31 points and team mate Peja Stojakovic added 16, while for the Pacers, Danny Granger leaded with 26 and Mike Dunleavy and Shawne Williams both had 17 for Indiana, who are in the battle with the Hawks for the last playoff spot of the Eastern Conference.

This is the Hornets fourth straight and it helped them to keep the best record (48-21) in the West, they are also matching the Lakers for the top spot in the West.

Beckham chosen by Capello for friendly against France

Not so long ago the English national soccer team struggled with the fact that they were ruled out from the Euro Cup, the main event in soccer in Europe, and their symbolic captain David Beckham chose to leave one of the best clubs in the world, the Real Madrid to pursue a $200 million dollar contract with the Los Angeles Galaxy and an acting career in Hollywood? Funny thing for a guy who, before such contract was one of the best paid players in the world.

Of course Beckham has suffered the consequences of leaving a really competitive team to play with one that is fairly new as the MLB itself, he was even left out from the friendly match between England and Switzerland in Wembley last month.

But it seems like things are changing, I’m not sure if for England but at least for Beckham, who was chosen by Fabio Capello for their next friendly against France tomorrow.

This will be Beckham’s 100^th game with the international squad, but he says that he still have alot of talent to be displayed and that his retirement is not even near.

"I never thought a year ago or two years ago that I would make 95 caps, never mind 100. I'm honoured that I'm making, hopefully, my 100th appearance in an England shirt but I'm also honoured to be doing it against one of the best teams in the world.” He said.

Victory of the Warriors over the Lakers at Staples Center

The Warriors had a long time without seeing a victory at the Staples Center, 9 games exactly, but yesterday that was over when Golden State defeated the Lakers at their house by 115-111 with Stephen Jackson scoring 6 of his 31 points in the last 38 seconds of the game, in general this was the second straight victory for Golden State over the Lakers.

The Lakers successfully recovered from a 26 point lead by the Warriors, but when entering the last moments of the game, Jackson and Kobe Bryant were throwing in everything shot, things were 112-108 and Kobe scored the last 3 points for his team, and so Jackson responded and gave the Warriors the final lead.

For the Warriors, Monta Ellis had 31 points and Baron Davis scored a total of 18 to give Golden State their 10^th victory in a 14 game span, while for the Lakers, Kobe finished with 36 and had a season-high 14 rebounds and teammate Lamar Odom had 19 points.

"It's been a long time since we won a game here, they tell me, I haven't been with this team that long, but it's always a tough win here, and it always has been no matter what team I've been coaching." Warriors Coach Don Nelson said. "

This is the fifth game that Pau Gasol has missed for the Lakers but he is expected to come back any time this week and might see action this coming Wednesday against the Bobcats.

Lakers finished with Jazz 19 game winning streak at home

The Rockets were not the only team in the league guarding a long winning strike record, as the Utah Jazz had 19 straight victories playing at home before their defeat to the Lakers yesterday night.

The leaders of the Pacific division didn’t had much trouble beating the Jazz 106-95, leaded by Kobe Bryant who finished with 27 points, while Lamar Odom helped with 21 and Derek Fisher ended with 11 points, while Pau Gasol didn’t played for the Lakers for the third straight game due to a sprained ankle, and we all wonder when AndrewBynum will return?no words on that by Los Angeles yet...

One Laker that was taking this game personally was Derek Fisher, who spent the last season with the Jazz, and asked for his way out due to family reasons, and when Los Angeles played at Utah on last November, Fishers was heavily booed, but this time he got a better welcome by ramping Jazz fans.

Even Kobe had something to mention about it: "Derek's the type of guy that's not going to say anything, but I'll say it for him. He took it personally tonight and we wanted to send a message," he said.

And tonight the Lakers are facing of the easiest teams in the NBA, the Sonics, who are 9 games down, and from December 31 to January 27 they fell for 14 consecutive times.

Almost official, CEO Donnie Walsh is heading to New York

Those were the days when the Madison Squre Garden was full of ramping fans waiting for Patrick Ewing to jump on the court. Well the Knicks haven’t being that caliber team for a while, in fact, you rarely hear good things about the Knickerbockers any more.

But it seems like things are turning in favor of New York, since owner James Dolan is closing a deal that will bring current Pacers CEO Donnie Walsh.

The Knicks is not the only team interested in the services of Walsh, the Bucks are also in the run to hire him, but New York has an edge on the whole thing since Dolan had two trips to Indiana in less than 24 hours, and when Walsh and his representative were asked on the matter, they declined to make any comments at all, which means that the deal might get closed soon.

An interesting fact is that Donnie Walsh is the guy who fired Isiah Thomas as Pacers coach, and now that he will be coming to try to give the Knicks a different face, he’ll surely won’t like to have Thomas as coach, but owner Dolan insists that Thomas will remain in the institution asumming a different roll.

Will the Knicks change their route and be that team that everybody was pleased to watch playing against the Lakers? Well it all depend who they will bring on and who’s leaving.

Hornets pass Bulls thanks to Chris Paul

Not even the Irish colors brought any luck to the Bulls, who wore green uniforms in tribute to St. Patricks day yesterday night when they fell to the Hornets by 108-97.

Chris Paul was the man who led the Hornets with 37 points and 13 assists while Bonzi Wells added 19 to seal the victory over the Bulls who’s Ben Gordon 31 were not enough to make it pass the inspired New Orleans.

The Bulls were leading with less than 3 minutes on the fourth but Chris Paul put things even at 96 with a 3 point shooter and from that point on, it was all about the Hornets.

"It was all Chris Paul, the little man was all over the floor. He was aggressive. He does it offensively. He does it defensively. He was our spark plug tonight. It was like he took the game over." said team mate Tyson Chandler.

Chandler is a former player from the Bulls, but he is doing way much better with New Orleans than what he did in Chicago, he’s now a true believer about his team’s options to make it further into the playoffs.

"I've seen what we've done playing against the Spurs, I've seen what we've done playing against the Suns, I've what we've done against the Mavericks, the top teams in the West. We've played well against them, but other teams have played well against us." He said

Alston’s 31 points were enough for Rockets 22nd straight

I am pretty much sure that when Yao Ming got injured for the rest of the season, most fans were with their faces down waiting for the worst.

Little did they knew that Houston would make a run for the second best win streak in NBA history.

Their victory over the Lakers yesterday night marked their 22^nd straight, now they are 11 short of the 33 consecutive wins by 72’ Los Angeles.

I wouldn’t have given the Rockets so much chances over the Lakers, but when a team is putting their hopes on team effort, good things can happen, and the Rockets are definitely not a one-man show.

Proof of this is Tracy McGrady, who is the guy everybody looks up after Yao Ming, but even NBA All Stars have rough times from time to time, and yesterday McGrady fell short of his point average per game since he managed to go clean for the first half and finished with just 11 points, all in the second. The man who saved the Rockets yesterday was Rafer Alston, who had a career best 31 points.

So McGrady had a bad night? So what, the Rockets are high on hopes and high on motivation, let’s see if they can keep on the roll for a few more games.

Is Kobe moving to Chicago?

Yes, it is a possibility, but a far one, since there are still a few black spots in the trading agreement between the Bulls and the Lakers.

One of the main reasons why the deal might go down is fact that Los Angeles are asking for Luol Deng, Ben Gordon, Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah, whom are the base of the Bulls.

So Kobe is not willing to be traded to a team that doesn’t have championship caliber, and whatever it happens, either Chicago wants to go for it and give up his 4 starters or Los Angeles are not willing to back up on their demands, Bryant might as well don’t leave the Lakers, since he will be arriving to a team that gave up the core of their current potentiality.

The talks for the trade are from way back, and things started to get serious within the last week, but the dome of the Lakers seemed to disagree on Bryant’s future.

That’s the problem when too many people are leading the way concerning important decisions, specially when it comes to the destination of possibly the best forward in the league right now.

So there is still not a final word on this matter and my guess is that Kobe will remain a Laker for the rest of his career

Wizards finally say no to the Cavs and beat them at Verizon Center

The Wizards were tired of watching how Lebron James and company beated them every single time they had to face them, but this time things were different for Washington that played yesterday at home and won 101-99 to the Cavs at Verizon Center.

DeShawn Stevenson was the man in charge of adding pressure to Lebron’s plays, and so he went in a back-to-back dirty talk with him within the last moments of the game, and it seems like the distraction favored the Wizards, as James missed a 3 pointer that could have given his team the victory with less than 20 seconds on the clock.

"Every time we play them they have this certain swag to them that they can just beat us, and I'm tired of going out there and them jumping on us." Stevenson said.

But what marked the difference for Washington was the return of Caron Butler who was left out for 16 straight games due to a hip injury. He scored the first basket of the game and finished with 19 points, the most for his team.

While also for the Wizards, Antawn Jamison had 17 and 10 rebounds and Darius Songaila ended with 15, and for the Cavs, Lebron James scored 25 and Sasha Pavlovic had 24, 19 of those in the first half.

The Wizards are about to clich a post season seat, their fourth straight and even though they have a not so good 31-32 record, numbers are just numbers and lately teams that are averaging a mark below the .500 are giving a good fight to the big guys in the East, and Washington is one of those.

Rockets with 20 straight!

The Rockets managed to come up with their 20^th straight victory yesterday night playing at home against the Hawks. With this victory they are entering the exclusive club of jsut 3 teams to come up with more than 20 wins in a row in all NBA history.

It wasn’t the best game for the Rockets, as they scored a low season 32 points on the first half, something Houston is not proud at all about, but out of their worst game, came their most valuable achievement so far.

Final score was 83-75 with Tracy McGrady scoring 21 of his 28 points in the second half, while Joe Johnson led the Hawks with another 28.

This is the 11^th game for Houston without Yao Ming and before this match, the Rockets had 10 wins by 10 or more points.

Everybody thought this was going to be an easy game for the Rockets, now that they are going for their 21^st straight against the Bobcats, which will be their last regular team to face before the real test comes with 3 difficult games, the first two at home against the Lakers and Celtics, then they will go on a 3 game road trip facing the Hornets, Warriors and finally the Suns.

It’s not that I am doubting the Rockets, I just think the Los Angeles and Boston are really better teams than Houston, and without Yao, things can get rough for them, unless luck keeps on their side.

Lakers step up on the Raptors and take the advantage on the West

It seems like the Lakers are recovering quite well from their turn down against the Kings, as their victory over the Raptors can inject them with the energy they need for the 4 difficult road games they have ahead.

They will be facing the Hornets, Rockets, Mavericks and Jazz, the first 3 big contenders for the championship. Final score for the game was 117-108 with 34 points from Kobe Bryant , 20 for Lamar Odom, 18 for Derek Fisher and 12 for Pau Gasol who had a quite night overall.

Kobe scored 12 of his total on the fourth, much different than his performance on the same period against Sacramento where he managed to score only one point.

Bryant gave the Raptors a really bad time the last time they faced each other at the Staples center, as he scored a total of 81 points, and when he shot for 3 straight 3 pointers at the beginning of the match, it looked like things were heading the same way.

The Lakers were even with the Spurs with a record of 45-19 after their loss to the Kings, but with this victory over Toronto, Los Angeles are picking up an idle advantage of just half game over San Antonio.

Bad second period for Kobe gave Kings the victory

The Lakers lost their second match in 15 games, yesterday when they fell to Sacramento by just one point.

Maybe the problem was that they allowed too many points and didn’t knew how to keep Kobe Bryant scoring, since he scored 20 of his total 26 points in the first and got blocked for his final 19-foot jumper that could have given his team the victory.

Again, this is only proof that the Lakers are completely dependent of Kobe’s performance, if he’s doing fine, they have peace of mind, if Bryant is having a bad hair day, everybody else will too.

For Los Angeles, Pau Gasol had 25 and Lamar Odom ended with 16, while for the Kings, Beno Udrih finished with 25, Francisco Garcia 15, Mikki Moore and Spence Hawes 14 each.

Sacramento is coming from a couple of humiliating defeats against low time teams like the Clippers and the Twolves, so this win against one of the main contenders for the title might have being the best thing they could have asked for, and keeping Bryant blocked side to side by Hawes and Moore is something worth to mention and to be praised.

Kobe says that his injured pinky finger is not a problem, but people is question if his physical and mental attitudes are the best ones right now.

"I'm OK, the team just doubled me and got the ball out of my hands, and you know, I'm moving on." Bryant said.

The Rockets victory over the Mavs is their 17th straight

Everybody thought it was going to be an impossible task for the Rockets to make it to the playoffs, but the truth is that Houston is doing great without Yao Ming.

Yesterday they came up with their 17^th consecutive victory, the fifth without Yao, this time against the Mavs who were playing without Dirk Nowitzki.

"We definitely missed him, but that’s no excuse for our performance tonight. We just had an awful, awful third quarter." Dallas coach Avery Johnson said of Nowitzki

Final score was 113-98, with 31 from Tracy McGrady and 24 from Rafer Alston for the Rockets, while Josh Howard had 21 and guard Jason Terry helped with 17 for the Mavs.

It’s interesting that everybody was criticizing the Suns for signing old timer Shaq, and everyone was praising the arrival of Jason Kidd to Dallas, but it seems like the formula has worked better for Phoenix, as the Mavs have lost 3 straight and 4 of 5 games since Kidd’s arrival. This time he finished with 7 points, a real low number for him.

The Rocket’s franchise winning record is matching the 7^th best in NBA history, and if they can make it against the Hornets, one of the teams fighting for a top playoff seed in the Western Conference, they will drop it to 4^th.

Celtics secures the first playoffs spot

The Celtics became the first team to clinch a playoff berth after beating the Pistons, their followers on the East Conference general standings.

Boston is a far superior team than the past two seasons when they didn’t had either Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett or Ray Allen, at which time they could not even make it to the playoffs for two straight years.

Final score on the match was 90-78, and the Pistons never took a led in the whole game, they did put the things even at 69 nearly the end of the third, but at the fourth, things were 78-77 and the Celtics scored the final 12 points of the game to give Boston the victory.

On the Celtics, Kevin Garnett finished with 31 points, while Kendrick Perkins had a career-high 20 points and Paul Pierce ended with 15, while for the Pistons, Rasheed Wallace scored 23 and Richard Hamilton 15.

The Pistons are 44-17 while the Celtics are 47-12 and have a slight advantage over the Pistons since they have won 2 of their last 3 matches.

An interesting note on the Celtics is the fact that Garnett is just 23 points away from the 20,000 points mark on his career, something that can be an stimulus for him in order to keep on growing along Boston.

Kobe saves the Lakers in fourth quarter

Pau Gasol has really added alot to the Lakers offensive, but their real saviour has being Kobe Bryant, at least during the past two games, first against Dallas, when he scored a season high 52 points and now he did it again against the Kings, who were leading during the majority of the match, but Bryant gave his team a boost at the end and help his team in their 117-105 victory against Sacramento.

This is the Lakers 12^th victory in 13 games, but individuality is what has reign lately in Los Angeles, something that might worry Phil Jackson at least a bit since playoffs are near, and when it comes to decisive games, team play is more important than show-offs.

The Kings were leading 77-64 with 5 minutes to play in the third, then it came the fourth where Kobe scored 17 of his 34 points to give his team the final lead.

For Los Angeles, Pau Gasol finished with 31 and Lamar Odom ended with 19, while for Sacramento, Kevin Martin and Ron Artest both had 23 points.

I’m not sure, but if we put the Lakers and the Celtics face to face right now, Boston will probably beat Los Angeles easily, with the addition of Sam Cassell, the Celts are even stronger, and team play is something they know about, so it will be hard for the Lakers to start delivering in a more compact way, maybe when Bynum returns, things can get better for them.

Celtics signed Cassell

The 15 year NBA veteran Sam Cassell is finally a Celtic, much rumors had run over the past few months about the interest of Boston to make it with his services, Cassell was asking the Clippers to release his contract so he could sign with a team that had chances of make it to the playoffs, and so they did.

This is the 8^th NBA team that Cassell plays with, including the Houston Rockets with whom he started and with whom he won his first championship ring out of the two he has. So at age 38, Cassell is looking to finish his run in the league with at least one more ring, and to play with Kevin Garnett, his old teammate with the Twolves, and with Ray Allen (Bucks), is a great deal of advantage for both him and the team.

So Sam Cassell has the experience, and still have some fresh air on his lungs, as this season he has had games of 32 and 33 points, which is not bad for a veteran like himself.

With his addition, the Celtics are truly the most competitive team in the league by far, since most teams have one or two important figures, but the Celtics are a compact unity of solid quality, every single starter is well respected by rivals and fans couldn’t ask for more.

Kobe scored 52 and saves the Lakers

As we get closer to the playoffs, regular season matches looks more like finals than anything else, with the run for getting a spot, the line that separates one team from the other is a short one.

Proof of this was yesterday’s match between the Lakers and the renewed Mavs, as Kobe Bryant finished the game with 52 points, the highest on the NBA this season and it was the 22^nd time he scores more than 50 on a single game in his career.

But there is something wrong with this picture, since Kobe scored half of his team’s points, what would the Lakers do if he gets injured? Who are they gonna run after to save them? I guess luck was on Los Angeles side this time.

"Kobe Bryant's probably the reason why we didn't lose." Said coach Phil Jackson.

Kobe didn’t started well since he only made 3 of his first 10 free throws, but quickly he woke up and it seemed like he was playing against no defense, the Mavs tried to stop him, but he was just having a great night.

Bryant scored 22 at the fourth quarter putting the things even at 93 and taking the game to over time where he scored another 8 points, giving the final 108-104 victory to Los Angeles.

This is the 11^th victory for the Lakers in 12 matches and with this win, they are still sharing the top with the Spurs at the Western Conference.