Mets took on Dodgers by 8-4

Yesterday was not a good day for Dodgers manager Joe Torre, who was back in New York for the first time since he left the Yankees to coach in Los Angeles. The 67 year old Torre handled the Yankees for 12 seasons and leaded them to 4 World Series titles.

Last night at Shea Stadium his team fell by 8-4 and gained the Dodgers their fourth consecutive loss, while for the Mets, it meant their 3^rd victory in a row.

David Wright sentenced the game with a couple of home runs, one at the third and one at the fourth innings.

Now, the Mets won in despite of playing without Pedro Martinez who has being coming in and out of the Mets starting lineup since he’s being in recovery due to a left arm string, it’s being two months since his odd appearances started, and now he should be ready to play more consistently, starting with Tuesday’s game against the Giants, he will be replacing Carlos Delgado, who went 2-for-4 with a run last night against the Dodgers.

Without any doubts, the Mets are a clear candidate for the title this year, and yesterday’s game was not a real challenge for New York, but next when they visit San Francisco we’ll see if they can keep on rolling with this strike of wins the’ve had lately.

Betancourt gave Mariners 1-0 victory over Red Sox

A really close game was what the people that assisted to Safeco Field witnessed last night as the Mariners won their 3-game series against the Red Sox by 2-1.

The game finished 1-0 with Yuniesky Betancourt hitting a home run in the third, and that was enough for the Mariners to grant the Red Sox their 2^h straight road loss, it could be nine, but Boston achieved their only victory in 10 games a couple of days ago against Seattle.

And so everybody was expecting to see Manny Ramirez to hit his 500^th home run, but the Dominican will have to wait until he gets to play against the Orioles on Friday in order to become the 24^th player in the MLB to achieve such quantity.

Tim Wakefield had a great picthing night, and without the exception of Betancourt’s hit, he did almost perfect on the 8 innings he played, and surely I don’t think Daisuke Matsuzaka could have done it better. Matsuzaka will stay off the fields for a little while as he left the previous match between the Red Sox and the Mariners with a fatigued shoulder and is expected to have an MRI this coming Friday in order to check the his medical status.

Wakefield struggled the first game of this series, but after his performance from last night, it seems like he’s ready to replace Matsuzaka at any time.

Sharapova advanced to second round of French Open

Maria Sharapova, the number one of the world had problems fighting for a victory against the 103th ranked Evgeniya Rodina at the first round of the French Open.

It was a battle between two russians, but the courage from Rodina couldn’t go over Sharapova’s experience, and so the lattest won by 6-1 3-6 8-6. "I was far from my best tennis today, but at the end of the day I won. I fought to the last point, not many things were okay today." Sharapova said.

It’s interesting that Maria Sharapova has gotten to the top of the rank in world Tennis being only 21 years old, in fact, she is the holder of 3 Grand Slam singles titles, and as of 2006, she was the highest paid female athtlete in the planet.

As of now, Sharapova is looking to win her first Roland Garros, and this is the only tournament she is left to win in order to obtain a complete career Grand Slam.

On the other side, Bethanie Mattek defeated fellow american Madison Brengle by 6-3 2-6 6-4, and advanced to the second round to become Sharapova’s next rival at the Open.

The D-League

Back in 2001, the NBA came up with the idea of creating a paralel league, and so the NBA Development league or D-league was borned.

The league is a true minor league farm system that is supported by NBA teams, and each D-League team is composed of 12 players: around 10 D-League’s and 2 or more NBA’s.

There are notable players from the NBA that had played in the D-League, as Rafer Alston and Gerald Green, who currently plays for the Houston Rockets and whom won the 2005 McDonald's All-American Slam Dunk Contest from the NBA.

Since it began, the league has had different champions every year, except for the Asheville Altitude whom got two straight titles from 2003 to 2005.

The NBA is looking to expand in different ways, as now the talks are on the table in order to expand the league to Europe, which would include 5 teams that will compete for the NBA championship, so it will be more frequent to see players from Spain or Italy playing for USA teams or viceversa.

Essentially, What the NBA is looking with the D-League is to come up with different ways of adding talented players to the league, and so allowing future prospects to gain minutes on the court in order to be ready when called by a professional team.

And so this are all good news for hoops fans around the world, including me.

Red Wings wins first game for the Stanley Cup to Penguins

As expected, the Red Wings made it to the NHL 2008 finals for the Stanley cup after beating the Texas Stars finishing that series 4-2 and winning the Western conference championship title, while on the Eastern, the Penguins advanced after ending with the Flyers hopes in a series that finished 4-1.

The Finals are on, with the Red Wings having won the first match by 4-0, is truly clear that Detroit is going to make themselves respect at their house, and Pittsburgh will need to show that their younger roster is as capable as the experienced Detroit.

Now, The Red Wings had managed to win without the firepower of Johan Franzen, the symbol of Detroit’s offensive, and everything points to a comeback from the scorer for game 2 to the Penguins. So, if the Swede returns to the ice, Pittsburgh have more reasons to be worried about.

Franzen has missed 6 straight matches, and when he returns he will surely not be at his best shape, but he’s going to give a good fight, and everybody is concious of that.

Pacman owes $20,000 and might face jail time

A few days ago it was Charles Barkley who was making news due to his gambling debts in Vegas; Barkley already paid, and those are old news, now we got the always-troubled Pacman Jones who is being charged for not covering a $20,000 debt to the Ceasars Palace in Vegas.

Something I deny to believe is that Jones doesn’t have cash to pay that sum, as that is the explanation that his attorney Robert Langford is giving to the press: “Jones hasn’t been playing football, so he hasn’t been able to pay it back.” He said.

Doesn’t that sound lame enough? Well, Pacman Jones is about to sign a contract with the Cowboys, and so if he gets prosecuted for the debt, he might as well not ending playing for Texas, but watching NFL games from his prison cell.

And so Pacman Jones is cursed by fate, since he has being arrested 6 times since 2005, and now he’s looking to be restituted to the NFL since he was suspended for all of the 2007 for violating some of the league’s conduct policy rules.

Hopefully Jones will stay out of trouble and pay his debt so we can watching with a Cowboys shirt next season.

What is the fate of Elijah Dukes

Elijah Dukes, many Washington fans knows him for his ability to hit home runs, and many also knows him for his disturbed behaviour out of the plate.

Dukes is considered among the top 10 prospects of the Nationals and has being catalogued by professionals as one of the promises in professional baseball, though, his bipolar mentality is what has kept him out of good deals, with only Washington showing an interest on him when he left the the Tampa Bay Rays.

Since 98’ he’s being arrested on 6 opportunities; last year he called his ex-wife and threatened her life and the life of her kids whom are his own too, at the same time, he was accused by a 17 year old girl who was living at his step-grandmother’s house for impregnating her, but police officers in charge of the case ended up determining that the sex was consensual.

Playing in high school, he got the chance to choose between baseball and football, and due to his temper, it would surely have favored him more to go for the lattest, but he probably knew that his raw talent would be much more appreciated in baseball fields.

Who knows what is left for him, he’ll surely would need to stay away from trouble and exploit his highs if he wants to get better contracts and make a career in the MLB.

When Elijah Dukes is hitting home runs to the outer space nobody is thinking about his turbulent private life, all people is thinking is about when that ball is going to get back to the ground.

Bulls gets number one pick

The Heat was expecting to get the number one pick yesterday when the NBA lottery took place at New Jersey, but instead they got the second and the Bulls who had smaller chances are now thinking of choosing Chicago native Derrick Rose at the coming NBA draft in June.

Bulls management is thinking of what is going to be the best for the team, as they can also pick Michael Beasley but Rose has a slight advantage on that take.

The Bulls are surely in need of a future All-Star, and as of now, they also need to make it with the services of a good coach as Mike D’Antoni preffered the Knicks over Chicago.

So we could say that the wind city just got lucky, as they made it to the top over teams like Miami and the Twolves, who finished third. And the Sonics? Well it seems like they are cursed as they had a terrible season and on top of that they finished the lottery with the fourth overall pick, real bad for a team that is still uncertain about where they will be playing ball next season as they might cease to exist as the Seattle Sonics and might become the Oklahoma City SuperSonics.

So if Derrick Rose actually gets to play for the Bulls next season, he will need to forget about his shirt number as he has weared the 23 for as long as he have played, and everybody knows who was the owner of that number back in the days: Michael Jordan.

Hornets loss at home cost them conference finals ticket, Spurs advance

The Hornets had their last chance to make it big in the playoffs by defeating the reigning champs, but the Spurs had different plans, and a whole new different attitude, they got the best out of themselves and came out with a 91-82 victory over New Orleans that just gave them the ticket to face the Lakers in the series for the NBA Western Conference finals.

Maybe the 3 days of rest between the 6^th and the 7^th meeting were more useful for the old Spurs than for the tough and unexperienced Hornets, maybe New Orleans would had done better if the old timers hadn’t had any other option but to play those games one day after the other, but things weren’t like that, and so with some quality time between those decissive matches, the Spurs were fully energized to show why they are the current crown holders.

At the end of the game, Chris Paul just sat down at the bench wondering what was going on, thinking about how close they were of making history for a franchise that belongs to a town in need of hope and big moments, and in fact, yesterday’s game was the biggest event in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina stiked the city, and well, at least the Hornets are at home for good.

I think both conference finals are quite good and interesting, but the one for the West is the less predictable of the two, with the Lakers being favorites and the Spurs being the current champions, anything is possible.

Celtics and Pistons begin series for conference finals tomorrow

With their victory of yesterday night to the Cavs, the Celtics came out of the Garden with 9 straight victories, and 12 straight at home, and so tomorrow the first game of the conference finals will also be played at the same court and Boston is ready to receive the Pistons for the first match of their series in order to clinch a spot in the NBA finals.

The Celtics are still my favorites by far, but they need to get their set straight in what road games concerns, since they have fallen terribly against smaller rivals like the Hawks, whom nobody thought would have gave Boston such a good fight in the first round, and the same thing occur to them facing the Cavs in the second, so if they want to take on the Pistons quick they should win at least one at The Palace of Auburn Hills, that is if they truly don’t want to gamble with their chances of winning the NBA title this year.

But to keep on praising these Celtics, we have to say that as of now, they are considered the best team in the NBA, and that is rare to say of an Eastern Conference team, and they certainly are aware of this, but on the other side, the Pistons have been at the last 5 conference finals and managed to make it to the league finals and conquer the championship back in 2005, so they are surely a force to be recon, but they falled to Western Conference teams the other 4 ocassions, so I think Boston would be more ready to face the winner of the West, with that team being most likely the Lakers.

And so a final between the biggest rivals in the NBA is in the air, and so you might as well go get your dvd recorder and be ready to tape this finals, as they won’t come so outstanding in a while.

Red Wings received first defeat in nine matches

The Red Wings lost on game 4 for the Western Conference division title, and it was their first defeat after 9 straight victories, and it was a look back into the real world for the Wings nonetheless.

The Stars are trusting his goal keeper Marty Turco to play well on meeting five on Detroit in order to look a second victory on the series that the Red Wings is winning 3-1. But there is something Dallas would preffer to forget before flying to Detroit: the Red Wings have won 7 straight meetings playing at home.

Now, they must be glad as Detroit’s leading scorer Johan Frazen will miss his fourth straight meeting due to injuries, at least that should come as a sign of comfort for a team that is facing porbably the best team in the history of the NHL and that has advanced to the Stanley Cup finals 5 times in the past 11 years.

If everthing turn in the Red Wings favor, they will wait for the winner of the Eastern Conference semifinal series between the Penguins and the Flyers, with Pittsburgh leading 3-1 and standing as the favored to advance.

Kobe leads Lakers pass Jazz, series is 3-2

Ok, it’s true that the Lakers are 3-2 in their series against the Jazz after their 111-104 victory yesterday at Staples Center, but next game will be at Salt Lake City and it is more likely that Utah will matcht he series than the Lakers classifying for the Conference finals on game six.

Why, let’s put it this way, the Jazz has being outstading on the playoffs and they lost only 4 games playing at home during the regular season, so, the chances for the Lakers are dim, though they have a bigger advantage: the are closing the series at home, and it’s rarely to see the Lakers losing games of that caliber and playing in their home court.

Another thing to point is that Kobe Bryant, who finished with 26 points last night, hurt his back and even though he will surely play this coming match against Utah, he might not be at his best shape, and the weight of the victory would have to fall under different shoulders this time, probably Pau Gasol’s.

For the Lakers, Lamar Odom ended with 22 points, while team mate Gasol finished with 21, and for the Jazz, Deron Williams put up a good effort and threw for 27 and 10 assists, and the Jazz truly gave a fight to Los Angeles on game 5, much different than games 1 and 2 where they never seemed to have a chance.

Next games:

6^th : Friday, May 16 @ Energy Solutions Arena, Utah

If Necessary:

7^th : Monday, May 19 @ Staples Center Arena, Los Angeles

A look into the 2008 NBA Playoffs

Alot of things are going to be defined today as the NBA playoffs are getting to the final stages, with only the Pistons with a secured ticket to the Eastern Conference finals as they upset the Magic 4-1 and are waiting for the outcome of the coming games between the Celtics and the Cavs whom are tied 2-2 and are facing each other tonight at the Garden.

I’m still taking Boston over Detroit for the NBA finals, but nobody can deny that the team from the motor city is meeting expectations better than the Celtics, and so if Boston has had it difficult on the post season, when they come to meet the Pistons they are surely going to have their biggest playoffs rival in front, that is if they can top the Cavs.

On the other side of the wall we got the reigning champions, the Spurs, fighting against a team that is one game short to make it to the Western Conference finals: The Hornets.

New Orleans took a 3-2 lead yesterday playing at home, and topping the Spurs outstandingly, as they won by more than 20 points, leaving the final score at 101-79 with David West playing his best basketball and scoring 38 for the Hornets.

Another important game tonight is Jazz and Lakers, whom are tied 2-2 and are meeting at the Staples Center, for a game that Los Angeles is forced to win if they want to show that they are contenders for the 2008 NBA title this year, and so Utah being one of the surprises on this playoffs, will try to come up with a decent performance and take a lead with a victory on the road, and in one of the hardest courts on the NBA.

We’ll surely have a better picture on May 16 when all teams have played game 5.

NHL : Red Wings lead series 3-0 to Stars

It seems like it’s never good enough for the Red Wings, they are arguably the best team in the NHL, and they've being at the top for many years.

Now they are just one game away from the NHL finals for the Stanley cup, as they won their third consecutive game in their series against the Stars, a team that hasn’t seeing the light in front of Detroit this post season.

Pavel Datsyuk was the man who gave Detroit he victory with 3 goals, with two of those in the first period and closing the third with one more.

Apart from that, they are undefeated on the playoffs, as they have won 9 straight and are setting up a franchise record, and so what else is left out there for the Red Wings? Well, a championship will truly close an outstanding season.

In despite of a good effort, the Dallas Stars were down at the end of each period, finishing the first at 2-1, the second at 3-2 and finally allowing 2 more goals for the Red Wings finishing the game at 5-2.

The Stars will certainly not recover, and now the Red Wings are thinking on the Penguins, who are leading their series in the Eastern Conference finals against the Flyers 2-0.

There were good chances for the final four on this road to the Stanley Cup, but Philadelphia and Detroit have shown lately that they are far superior, and so we’ll see who has more control on the skates when they face each other.

Pistons takes 3-1 lead on series with Magic

Ok, I’ve being talking mostly about the Lakers and the Celtics lately, but there is a series that is quite interesting, and the only one to be 3-1 at this stage. I’m talking about the Pistons – Magic, and Detroit is just one game away to make it to the NBA Estern Conference finals for the sixth consecutive time.

Just one point defined the victory for the Pistons since final score was 90-89, with Richard Hamilton coming with a game-high 32 points and Rasheed Wallace finishing with 16 points, 8 rebounds and 2 steals for Detroit. While for the Magic, Dwight Howard has being held to only 15 points per game in average which has contributed alot to the recent Orlando’s losses.

Rasheed Wallace has also slowed down on his point percentage per game, but he’s being the one with the task on putting a stop to Howard, who averages 29 per game in most of his career, and so Wallace is not the type of player who get frustrated about his numbers, instead, he preffers to focus on team victories, and that is what has the Pistons where they are right now... for Detroit is all about team work, period.

The Pistons won this game without their captain and All-Star Chauncey Billups due to injuries, and with this victory, the Pistons are the only team who was won a road game on this second round of the 2008 NBA playoffs.

Celtics has had it easier with Cavs than with Hawks

It’s a surprise, and at the same time is not, what am I talking about? Well about the Celtics that has done better this second round of the playoffs against a better team than the Hawks, with whom they struggled until game 7 for being where they are right now.

Yesterday Boston hold on the Cavs and Lebron James, who received chants of “overated” by Celtics fans at the Garden after the Celts victory of 89-73; James finished with 22 points, at least 7 short of his average, and so with Cleveland’s former MVP candidate playing at a lower level and being retained, things doesn’t look good for the Cavs, who are truly dependant of James to win games.

Now with this recent scores, things are pretty much the same on both conferences, since one series is 2-0 (Celtics – Cavs on the East, Lakers – Jazz on the West) and the other one is 2-1 (Magic – Pistons on the East and Spurs – Hornets on the West) on each side of the fence, so this coming game schedule is defining, and it would define alot, since anyone who comes up with a third victory, can secure their way to the finals.

Though the Celtics have being irregular on the post season, I still regard them high, and in my opinion, they will make it to the NBA finals, and why not, come up with a championship that will close an excellent season for Boston.

Tigers will look to even the series at two with the Red Sox tonight

The Tigers are one of those teams that have the potential to go further into this season, and so yesterday they showed why, as they took down the reigning champions, the Red Sox by 10-9, and so they ended with Boston’s 5 straight victories.

Placido Polanco hitted a single, and that was enough for Edgar Renteria to come up with the run that gave the Tigers a victory that was well deserved. This was the third game on a series of four that will be played at Comerica Park, and tonight Detroit will try to go for their second victory in a row against Boston, as they lost the first two games.

Detroit has struggled this year, injuries have affected their roster, but they have their starters back in shape and victory is all they have in their minds.

Just back in April the Red Sox won 2 of 3 to the Tigers, but last year the story was different as Detroit swept them in a 3 game span at Comerica Park, so there is certainly a rivalry going on between these teams, and Boston’s Jonathan Papelbon will need to come up with a better performance than last night’s if they want to hold the Tigers.

Apart from Papelbon, The Red Sox are setting their hopes on Josh Beckett, while for Detroit, Justin Verlander is the man that can make the difference tonight, with one more victory, Boston will win the series and the Tigers will put things even, so even though is just a regular season game, to win a series means motivation in the future for coming matches.

Celtics kept Lebron with low points and are leading the series 1-0 to the Cavs

How come Celtics and Cavs finished the first match of their semifinal series with such a low score? It’s rare when you see any of these two shooting for less than 80 points, and yesterday was one of those days, as final score was Boston 76 and Cavs 72.

Out of the big three from the Celts, only Kevin Garnett had a good linkage with the basket as he finished the game with 28 points, while Paul Pierce, in one of the worst performances of his career managed to score for only 4 points and Ray Allen was scoreless for the first time since 1997.

While for the Cavs, Lebron James has hold to only 16 points, and so the Celtics came to the Garden with a deffensive mentality, they knew they had to have their eyes on James, and so they were sucessful in that task, but an ex-Celtic, proved his former team that he’s also ready to play at his best this semifinals:Zydrunas Ilgauskas shot for 22 points and finished with 12 rebounds.

The game was quite balanced, nobody took an outstanding lead, and so at the final moments of the fourth quarter, James Posey got fouled with 22 seconds left on the clock with the score 74 to 72, he hit both free throws and with 8 seconds left, everybody at the Garden started chanting and praising the Celtics victory, even though the Cavs got the possesion and could run for one more chance of trying to put things even, but they missed that shot and so Boston is now 1-0 to Cleveland in their best-of-seven run.

Pistons knew the way and are 2-0 over the Magic

Some say that the Pistons got a little help from the clock that was malfunctioning yesterday when Detroit took a 2-0 lead in the series against the Magic by winning 100 to 93.

But in reality those were just a few seconds, nothing out of ordinary, and nothing that could really have changed the fate of the Magic, but hey, when you lose, you always find excuses. The clock started to go wrong after a 3 pointer by guard Chauncey Billups at the end of the third quarter, it stopped incorrectly going from 5.1 seconds to 4.8 and then stopped at 4.1 seconds.

All in all, the Pistons and the Magic played a truly balanced game, there were no outstanding leads, just good ol’ basketball, with Billups scoring 28 points for Detroit and Dwight Howard finishing with 22 for Orlando.

But even though they play equally, there is only one winner, and now the Magic is heading home for game 3 knowing that they must win or the Pistons would put them in a serious situation with a possible 3 in a row, and with the rythm that Detroit is playing lately, it would not come as a surprise if they beat Orlando one more time, after all, they have won 9 straight playoff games against the Magic, and if they manage to win 2 more, they will become the first team since the 84-89 Lakers to make it to the conference title for six straight seasons, not bad at all...

Celtics easily beat Hawks 99 to 65 and now Cavs are on their way

Yeah, nobody can deny that the Hawks gave the Celtics a hard time at the first round of the 2008 NBA playoffs, but somehow, the most dominant team during the regular season managed to win game seven and advance to the second round.

And what a victory, with a final score of 99 to 65, an with the Celts leading 56-28 at the third quarter, the Hawks fate was sealed early on the game.

So yes, Boston find it hard to battle Atlanta, but at the end the statistics won, and the Celtics are advancing to face Lebron James and the Cavs on game one of the conference semifinals on Tuesday.

Now, if we get to compare this two teams during the regular season, well, there is really no possible match, as the Celtics won 66 and the Hawks only 37, and so probably the Celts were coming to the playoffs trusted on sweaping Atlanta easily, but this just proves that even underdog teams can shine on the final stages of the season, exactly when they are forced to do so.

The Celtics have a real test on the Cavs, a team that is leaded by Lebron, who has scored an average of 30 points in their last 10 meetings, and so Boston will need to find a way to keep him off the ring and Cleveland knows that he’s the guy that can make the difference on this second round.

Pistons advance to meet Magic in semifinals

There is no doubt that the Sixers gave the Pistons a hard time in the first round of the 2008 NBA playoffs, as they won games 1 and 3 and pushed the series to game six, which Detroit won convincingly by 100 to 77, yesterday at Philly.

Now the Pistons will meet Dwight Howard’s Magic at the Eastern Conference semifinals, as Orlando eliminated the Raptors in 5 games, the first game of this series will be on Saturday.

This is the 7^th straight season that the Pistons reached the second round of playoffs, and they are trying to make it different this year and go even further, since they have being taking out at this stage of the post season each of those years.

Yesterday Pistons players showed that they are ready for what is coming and Detroit Coach Flip Saunders couldn’t be more agree: “Philadelphia probably woke us up, over the last 10 quarters, we’ve executed as well as we can.” He said.

Richard Hamilton finished with 24 points, Chauncey Billups had 20 and Tayshaun Prince scored for 12 for the Pistons, who won 59 games in the regular season, second behind the Celtics, and Detroit is hoping to come up with their best basketball and show everybody why they are where they are now.

Wizards pushed series to game 6

Just a point saved the Wizards from going home, now they are still in the playoff run thanks to their 88-87 to the Cavs yesterday night at Cleveland.

The Cavs let the victory go since they were leading by 87-82 with less than 2 minutes to play in the fourth quarter, but a six point run from the Wizards came as unexpected and allowed Washington to extend the series to game 6 tomorrow at Washington.

The series is leaded by the Cavs who are 3-2 and, as same as the Celtics, they probably thought they would have it easier in the first round of the playoffs, but the Wizards is a team that has struggled their way into the playoffs and are not planning to say good bye so easily.

Caron Butler was the player who gave the Wizards the victory with a layup and 3.9 seconds left on the clock, he finished with 32 points and with this numbers, it seems like the only team that has had it easy this 2008 NBA playoffs has being the Lakers, who pulled the Nuggets out with 4 straight victories.

Favorites and underdogs are playing shoulder to shoulder and this surely has being one of the most interesting playoffs in NBA history.