Big Thursday in Sports

-Breeny, Van Gundy and Mark Jackson have stepped it up as a great announcing team. They are very critical of the officiating crew, and while it's with good reason at times it detracts from the game. That said, I like their style, maybe I'm biased as Jeff Van Gundy was my favorite coach and Mark Jackson is a NYC PG legend so of course I think he's the man (could we get Erik Barkley in the booth?). The way Mark Jackson enunciates his words is hilarious. Love when he uses cheesy puns. The only way this could be better would be if Hubie Brown and Gus Johnson were in the booth, not only is Gus the most exciting announcer in sports, he is also the coolest, as the first 30 seconds of this clip prove:

-The Lake Show got it done in overtime last night, thanks in large part to Dwight Howard clanking a pair of free throws with under a minute left that would've put the game away. I'll give Kobe credit, I thought he played a pretty terrible game for his standards again last night, but fouling Dwight there and not letting him get the dunk turned out to win the Lakers the game. I also must admit that I agree with Phil Jackson, who said in his press conference that Kobe ripping that one rebound away from Dwight Howard was the turning point. How did that happen? How good / strong is Kobe? How much of a bitch is Kobe?
Jameer messed up by not getting out on D Fish, but no one would've criticized his defense if D Fish wasn't so cold blooded, taking the game into his own hands and knocking down a long three with Nelson's hand in his face. A lot of players would've looked to get Kobe the ball there, especially at 0-5 from behind the line at that point in the game, D Fish continues to be one of the all-time role playing point guards.
What I really don't understand is why Jameer was on the floor in the first place. He made two plays down the stretch, one nice pass and then a standard dump-in to Dwight in the post. He looked lethargic out there and really provided the Magic with nothing, Stan Van's tossing Skip aside this series really doesn't make sense to me. Seems when Skip gets it going the Magic roll..but Jameer is giving them nothing and cutting into Skip's time and rhythm.
Rashard Lewis where were you?
Dwight Howard had some monster numbers: 16 pts, 21 boards, 9 blocks. 5-12, 6-14 FT, and 7 turnovers killed the Magic though.
A lot of praise is being heaped on Trevor Ariza and with good reason. Sure is one player I never wanted to see the Knicks get rid of (but hey at least we got Steve Francis out of it!) and watching him develop a shooting stroke (have you seen the pretty rotation on his three-balls? I'm officially a believer) tells me he is going to be a valuable player for years to come.
To borrow a horse racing term, the Lakers are just too classy for the Magic. The Magic play so sloppy..they commit untimely turnovers, clank free throws and have serious mental lapses on defense. Even Hedo admitted this after last night, calling the team stupid.
On the Gasol-Pietrus play - I don't love Gasol dunking it there, but he is right under the hoop, it is a little different then if he came dribbling up the court and ran in. Pietrus needs to keep his head there, if you want to foul him to send a message just give him a good clean, hard foul..don't just throw your forearms into his back. Now Stern is going to be forced to suspend him. Nothing better than watching a couple softy Euros mix it up though.

-On the baseball scene, the Yankees suffered another heart-breaking loss in what was the most entertaining baseball game year-to-date in my opinion. I'm not going to turn the loss into some sort of big deal that I'm sure the rest of the media will. If anything I think it was encouraging on some accounts..they finally got to the Sox bullpen and CC pitched great, Girardi just left him in too long. The big problem is that Aceves is the go-to guy to try and get them out of the jam there. I know he pitched the night before and was unavailable but if they are going to put Hughes in the pen, they should at least give him a chance to be the guy they go to when they need an out and can't go to Mo yet. I'm sure Girardi will be getting a lot of heat from the media and it's all well deserved in my eyes. Sox win 8 straight off Yanks to start the season for the first time since 1912.

Meanwhile, the Mets were busy dropping another heart-breaker to the Phils when Ibanez cracked a 3-run homer in the tenth. This is probably a more crushing loss than the Yanks as this Mets team has proven to be such a fragile bunch over the past few years.

Both the Mets and Yanks come into this first subway series at the new Yankee Stadium reeling...I don't want to play up the importance of this series but both teams will be looking to get some momentum back. I've already profiled the pitching matchups in a previous post, should be an exciting weekend in baseball though.