2013 NBA All Star Reserves

The 2012-2013 NBA All Star reserves will be announced today, since we here at the SoCalSportsGuys haven't blogged about anything since Juan Manuel Marquez' brutal knockout victory over arch nemesis Manny Pacquiao, I will make a case for whom I think should make the cut. Let's get to the nitty gritty.

Western Conference

Russell Westbrook - I haven't been much of a fan of WestBRICK as a point guard, but this season he has been as good a facilitator than he has ever been. Alot of it has to do with the fact he has Kevin Durant nailing nearly every shot he attempts this season. Kidding aside, Westbrook is the most physical PG in the game because of his size advantage and cut throat approach to the game. Westbrook is averaging 22.7 points per game, 8.1 assists and 5.3 rebounds. Westbrook is a sure lock to make the cut, but I needed to say something about him.

Tony Parker - The suave but gritty Frenchman is doing nothing out of the ordinary, just posting a typical Tony Parker season. He still gets to the basket with, almost seemingly scoring at ease in Coach Pops' system. TP averages just under 20 PPG at 19.8, 7.4 AST and 2.9 REB in just under 33 minutes per game. Another sure lock for the ASG, Parker will have fun competing in the Skills Challenge and possibly lobbing up a few passes for Blake Griffin.

Stephen Curry - Steph Curry has been a warrior (no pun intended) from beyond the arc all season long shooting a lights out 46 percent. Coming off a game where he bested his counterpart and ASG lock Westbrook, Curry further justified his bid to make the team with 31 pts, 7 ast, 4 steals and 3 boards. Curry is averaging 20.9 ppg, 6.6 ast, 4.1 reb and a whooping 3.2 three pointers made per game. If Curry is snubbed from a trip to Houston, David Lee better represent the Golden State.



James Harden - Another fill in, don't believe me check his stat line. 25.8 ppg, 5.4 ast, 4.5 reb and 1.9 steals. Need I say more? Thanks.

David Lee - D.Lee has been my favorite player to watch for some odd reason since his days in New York playing along Danilo Galinari another favorite player of mine to watch. I have driven my Facebook friends and Twitter followers crazy with my banter of Lee being a top-3 power forward, and the big fella has done nothing but back up every statement I have made of him. A few weeks ago, he was the only player in the league averaging over 20 ppg and 10 boards a night. His scoring has dropped to 19.6 ppg but he still grabs 10.8 boards a night. Add that along with a finesse you only see in European players, a soft touch makes him a triple double waiting to happen every night, averaging 3.7 ast a game. Lee's play is one of the biggest reasons the Warriors are in second place in the Pacific Division. They don't have the best record in the league, but they have three statement wins over the Clippers, a season tempo win over the Thunder and a victory of the defending champions, the Heat. Lee may get snubbed this season for the likes of a Zach Randolph or LaMarcus Aldridge and if that happens, I'm boycotting the all star game. I promise.

Tim Duncan - Old Faithful! Duncan is still amazing posting some of the best numbers of his career at the age of 36. He still has the sweetest touch, still has flawless footwork, still kisses the ball off the glass prettier than anyone I've ever seen do it. 17.5 ppg, 9.8 reb, 2.8 ast and 2.7 blocks per game. The old man can't run up and down the court like he used to but he will still block the living day light out of the ball if you drive the lane on him and your name isn't Blake Griffin. Duncan should be the starting center alone based of his numbers, but unfortunately this is just a popularity contest, just ask Jeremy Lin.

I glance at my clock and I realize it is 4 p.m. and the reserves are minutes away from being announced, I wish I had time to get into why I think Marc Gasol should make the squad and the Eastern Conference, but time wasn't on my side this time. I will try to write my reaction to the rosters in the coming days, but until then, be easy y'all.

- Jose

Blinded by Purple and Gold

        As a lifelong Los Angeles Lakers fan this is the first season in which I haven't watched any games. Okay, I may have caught a few minutes of playing time almost equivalent to someone like Luke Walton. Its not because I’m boycotting the Lakers because they fired my favorite Lakers coach of my lifetime, Mike Brown (just kidding no one will ever replace Del Harris). It's mostly in part to the fact that I have DishNetwork and they refuse to come to agreement with Time Warner Cable. I haven’t gone out of my way to catch a game. II periodically glance at a box score, catch a few minutes of highlights and either nod my head in celebration or toss the phone down in disgust. I even destroyed a phone when I read all the Phil Jackson to the Lakers' hype only to find out they dissed him for Mike D’Antoni. That poor iPhone never saw that coming (once again kidding).

Since I brought up the Jackson to the Lakers hype here's my rant. 

What the hell is a matter with Jim Buss? You don’t let your general manager utter the name Phil Jackson, get your entire fan base hyped up and then sneak in the consolation prize. It's equivalent to me texting all my buddies early on Friday morning, “Tonight's gonna be serious, I’m flying all of us to Vegas, I got us a suite you won’t believe. I promise one of us will get lost. We are gonna get plastered and there might even be drugs and a hospital trip involved”. Then Friday night comes and we are headed to a Chuck E. Cheese drinking wine coolers (something tells me Jose would be down for that). They should have let Phil turn down the job or not offer him the job at all. Then if the Lakers get bounced out of the playoffs early I won’t have the what if Phil came back question hanging over my head during the summer. 
*Editor's note: I for one would be down with drinking wine coolers on my way to Chuck E. Cheese. That is probably my favorite pizza of all time and since I am lactose intolerant, I haven't ate that in ages. Let's round up the guys and plan this soon. I'm dead serious.*

The following are headlines that stood out the most during that weekend of PJ coming back and my responses. 

“Lakers fire Mike Brown after 1-4 start” (They should have done this 4 months ago)

“Lakers top coaching candidates Phil Jackson, Mike D’Antoni, and Jerry Sloan” (Phil needs to come back. Mike D’Antoni? He plays no Defense and ruins careers. Jerry Sloan had his time.)

“Lakers announce head coaching job is Phil’s to turn down” (No way Phil turns this down and no way he doesn’t squeeze a back to back out of this starting 5.)

“Lakers Hire Mike D’Antoni” (F*&* F*&* F$^$!!! Never mind I shouldn’t share what happened next I can’t wait for the 30 for 30 on ESPN to explain what happened here.)

As far as Mike D’Antoni goes, I believe he is gonna change the way the Lakers play. He’s possibly going to lead Kobe to another scoring title with his inability to pull the reigns back on him. We all saw the "death stare", D’Antoni wants no part of that. I'm not rooting for his failure, I support him 100 percent, it's just gonna take time for me to accept the consolation prize. He has so much talent in his starting five that it should be title or bust and hopefully he understands that and can figure out a way of delivering another title to a hungry Lakers fan base. 

One of the things that concern me about D’Antoni is he runs players for excessive minutes. Ask A'mare Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony about their 3 game streaks of playing all but just a few minutes. He doesn’t play defense. Okay maybe that really doesn’t concern me since Mike Brown was a defense first guy but yet the Lakers would still have trouble defending the high pick and roll. And that even goes back to the days of Phil Jackson when Dallas exploited that weakness. So I could really careless if he doesn’t play defense. If he preaches it or not, the Lakers has always struggled defending the high screen and roll so I’ll give him that pass. I’m curious to see how he utilizes the talent he has on his hands and what Mitch and Jim do to help build that bench.
*Editor's note: It's about time a Lakers' fan realizes that the Lakers have never been a defensive minded team. Even with a defensive minded coach in Mike Brown. That was one thing that drove me nuts, hearing "D'Antoni doesn't even care about defense". The Lakers have never worried about playing D until crunch time when Kobe and Metta World Peace make their defensive presence felt. Thank you for realizing that unlike good ol' Bruce.*

My biggest concern is the "Just wait until Nash returns, things will work themselves out" and the laundry list of excuses that come after every loss and poor performance. Somebody needs to take accountability or at least start pointing the finger. 
*Editor's note: It's true, just wait until Nash returns. It's going to get NASH-ty for the rest of the NBA*

Now back to my original idea and purpose of writing this. I wanted to shine some light on NBA statistics and put them to the test this season. Since I’m not watching games until Dish finally comes to terms to televise them. I have followed this Lakers' season purely on box scores and short highlight videos. I want to see if the stats really can determine the way a season is going or if they don’t even tell half the story and just are merely added numbers of individual performance. I’m going with the latter.

Unlike Baseball a sport in which there is a statistic for everything and allows us to truly gauge a players ability with just numbers. Not necessarily entirely accurate but if Billy Beane can build winners with a computer stats must be very strong in MLB. The NBA on the other hand is a sport in which artistry plays a part and team play is essential. There is no statistic for how hard you play defense and how fast you hustle. It's not that you got 20 points, it's how you did it that separates the stars from the scrubs. 

Example: Player A may have a stat line 20 points, six rebounds, seven assists. Player B's stat-line, 18 points, seven rebounds, two assists. Obviously Player A statistically contributed more to his team's performance. But what you don’t get out of box scores is that Player B may have scored nine straight points in the final two minutes of a seven point game to seal a win for his team. So, who really contributed more? How we measure players in the NBA has always bothered me. I never have truly agreed with an MVP award in about 15 seasons since Michael Jordan received an award in that case he was truly the Most Valuable Player. Yes I just snuck in a Jordan praise. 

Here is the Lakers stats I pulled up the following morning after the Indiana loss and my reactions to each one.

 Indiana 79 Los Angeles 77. Really? A game in the 70's with D’Antoni’s offense. WTF? Was my first question. The Pacers only put up 79? A Kardashian must have been distracting them. 
*Editor's note: This made me LOL.*

Kobe Bryant 40 points. My eyes got big until I found out he played 44 minutes and went 12-28 shooting, 11 of those 3’s. 10 turnovers. Interesting fact, Kobe has scored 40+ points 127 times now and has lost only 38 of those games. That's 71 percent of the games that Kobe drops 40+ points the Lakers have won. 

Dwight Howard 17 points. Cool. That's the range he should be getting. Eight rebounds. What? Only Kobe registered double digit rebounds, something is wrong with that. 3-12 free throws made. Figures! 

Gasol 10 points. That's it?!?! 2-9 shooting. Kobe should have fed him more. 

Just looking at the box score, it looks like Kobe was doing everything he could to get a win. Since he had 10 turnovers, I’m assuming he was trying to drive the ball and one too many times got his pocket picked or he was making too many bad attempts at trying to feed Pau and Dwight. And he had flu like symptoms that may have played a part. 

Lakers point gaurds got a whopping three total assists, which will be corrected once Steve Nash returns (says D’Antoni). Here’s what you can’t get out of looking at the box score, it doesn’t say Kobe drained a 3 to tie the game at 77. Or that the Lakers had a shot to win until George Hill drained a layup off the glass. He looked like J.J. Barea putting a dagger in the Lakers a few years ago in the playoffs. Still not over the fact the Lakers can’t defend the simplest of plays, Dwight should have put him on his back. In other words this may have been one of the worst performances between two NBA franchises in quite sometime.
*Editor's note: I thought the same exact thing when I saw Hill kiss it off the glass just over the finger tips of Dwight to win the game. It reminded me of Barea doing that just out of the  reach of our old buddy Andrew Bynum.*

After following the Lakers in this manner it takes away from the romance of following your team. Had I actually watched, I would be more bitter looking at trades and moves that could benefit this roster. In this manner its just me peeking in the room to see what's going on and walking away. For now I will continue checking box scores, ignoring texts from friends that say “are you watching Lake show?” and continue watching highlights the following morning. Its not the same as watching live and watching it all play it out. Hopefully I can return in time to witness something special. 

Here are my predictions of where this season might go based on this roster. I don’t see them going much deeper than the second round of the the playoffs. The bench is weak. Seven players are under the age of 25 and trading Gasol for three players with experience would greatly benefit the team. Yeah, I said it. If D’Antoni can get everyone on the same page with Nash running the offense they can be dangerous, given they have weapons in this starting rotation that makes us drool. The lack of talent on the bench is holding them back and makes me want to vomit. And yes when you see "zeros" on the bench stat lines its easy to tell how their season is going. I give D’Antoni a first season pass and expect a title next year. Typical that a Lakers fan expects a title. 

Game 162

As the 2012 MLB season dwindles down to the final home-stretch, we as Baseball fans are looking forward to the final day of the season.

Last season, the Tampa Bay Rays, Boston Red Sox, Atlanta Braves, and the St. Louis Cardinals saw their seasons come down to the 162nd game of the season.

The Red Sox needed a win in Baltimore or a Tampa Bay loss, as the Rays hosted the New York Yankees. In a weird turn of events, the Red Sox lost after Carl Crawford couldn't field a sinking line-drive off the bat of Robert Andino. The Orioles walked off the field, celebrating knocking off the powerhouse Red Sox. Over in Tampa Bay, the Rays fought back after the Yanks took a 7-0 lead. In the 9th inning, pinch hitter Dan Johnson steps to the plate. Crack! Johnson ties the game at 7.

Moments after the Red Sox lost in Baltimore, Evan Longoria steps to the plate to face Scott Proctor. Longoria, sent a fastball just over the fence in left field to vault the Rays in to the final wild-card spot.

What was special about this moment, was the whole sports world was watching. Prior to 2011, the regular MLB season would end on a Sunday. If we were lucky, we would get a one-game playoff the following night. The only dilemma, Baseball was losing viewers to Football. So what's the best way to gain back viewers? Move the season's ending date to a Wednesday night.

Baseball, if even for one night, had the sports-world on the edge of their seats. The MLB is looking to recreate that same feeling. What better way than adding one extra wild-card team? More contenders involved mean for more meaningful games in early October.

The Dodgers have seen their hopes for a division crown flush slowly down the toilet. Had it not been for the final wild-card spot, their season would essentially be done after losing two of three in Washington.

More contenders = more viewers, more viewers = more excitement, more excitement = more revenue. The MLB has figured out a formula that they will test to see how it fares.

What better story is there in Baseball, than the team who had no business being in the playoffs wins the World Series? That's exactly what the 2011 Cardinals did.

The Cardinals found their way into the playoffs after beating the Houston Astros and Atlanta lost to the Philadelphia Phillies in the final game of the season. The Cardinals carried that momentum in to the World Series against the Rangers.

The Cardinals proved what happens when you give a reluctant team another chance. Who can forget that memorable Game-6 between the Texas Rangers and the Cardinals? Hometown-hero David Freese circling the bases after hitting a walk-off homerun in extra innings after Josh Hamiliton gave Texas a lead. That is a moment Hollywood can't even script.

Stay tuned over the course of the final games of the season. You can be sure to expect fireworks, maybe a little bit of history, or maybe a little bit of David vs. Goliath. The great thing about the game of Baseball - it is not over until the fat-lady sings. A play clock doesn't determine your fate in Baseball. You can't hide from the final three outs in baseball. You can drop to a knee to run down the clock in Football. In Basketball, you can dribble around the court to make sure your opponent doesn't get the ball back. When it comes to Baseball, you can't do anything to take the 27th out of the picture.

This is Baseball at it's finest. Don't take it for granted, you never know what kind of action you will miss. Even in a 7-0 blow-out heading into the seventh inning as the Rays did, you never know what you can miss. Tune in and enjoy what looks like it will be a great post-season.

- Jose