What a disgrace...

The Suns-Spurs series ended last night, and frankly, I'm disgusted by the fact that Spurs won in six. For sure, a lot had to do with coaching decisions, contrast in styles, etc. but the deciding factor was the fact that Robert Horry decided it would be fun to perform a perfect hockey-styled hip check to Steve Nash. OK, so Stoudemire and Diaw left the bench, big whoop, so did Duncan and Bowen in the second quarter. But they didn't get suspended, why? Cause apparently, James Jones wasn't trying to hurt Francisco Elson, so it wasn't an altercation, and so Duncan and Bowen don't need to be suspended. OooooKkkkkk, let me get this straight: Spurs were rewarded for sending in a scrub to take out Nash in order to prevoke a few of the Suns players, and Stoudemire and Diaw were punished for being good teammates and trying to check up on Nash eventhough they did nothing to escalate the confrontation. I get it now, thanks for teach the teams some valuable lessons, commissioners. Next time when Elson hits the floor, Jones should turn around and talk some trash to make it a confrontation and get Bowen and Duncan suspended. Next time when you stray on to the court during a confrontation, might as well escalate it, hell, you're already going to be suspended anyways, so you might as well try to tempt a few players on the other side off their bench. And perhaps most importantly, next time get a benchwarmer to deck Tim Duncan, maybe Tony Parker and Manu Ginobli will get suspended then. Great, with these weapons at their disposal, I don't see how the Suns can loose next time the two teams meet.

I know there are many people who thought the Spurs would have won regardless of the suspensions, but I only present two arguments, a: these are probably the same people said that the Warriors were too disorganized (I'm a bit guilty of this) to beat the Mavs and predicted a sweep, b: there is such a thing as momentum. Phoenix just battled back to win game four despite being down 10 in the fourth, going back to their home, the Suns confidence could have been sky high. But instead we get a tainted 6 game series in which the Spurs were rewarded for being dirty, specifically Bruce Bowen, he who kicked Amare's heel as he went up for a rebound, kneed Nash in the groin, and slapped Nash's arms everything Nash went in the paint for a drive. At this point, Bowen apparently has immunity from the league office and is free to do whatever he wants.

There are a lot of rumours out there that say the Suns are going to reload around Nash or just take apart the team, trade everyone except Nash and Amare to get Kevin Durant. Of the first one, I just have to say that I really doubt a guy like Kevin Garnett is going to be a better fit in Phoenix than Marion or Stoudemire. Stoudemire is an inside presence while Garnett likes mid-range shots, not to mention Stoudemire is 6 years younger. Marion in the Suns best defender (yes, better than Raja Bell), and Garnett isn't exactly known for his defensive presence. As for rebuilding, I hate to say it, but why not just trade Nash? His value has never been as high, maybe you can get some real talent for him. By trading both him and Marion, you have a new core of Barbosa, Stoudemire, and Diaw: 24, 24, and 23 respectively, and Nash and Marion should bring in some real good players, like Durant and someone like Brendan Wright, and then with your probable fourth pick you can get a Noah or a Julian Wright. Imagine a core of Barbosa, Stoudemire, Diaw, Durant, Wright, and Noah, I think they can dominate the NBA for years to come, plus, the team will be WAY under the luxury tax limit.

Houston finally fired Van Gundy as the head coach. I didn't really like the decision, cause it looks like Rick Adelman might be taking over, and he's purely an offensive coach who like his players fast and athletic, of which Yao is not. What a shame, I was hoping Houston would consider Larry Brown. (yes, everyone hates him, but if he comes back, I'd say he's one of the top 5 coaches in the league)

That's it for now, folks

First Post of May, Woot

Wow, about a third of the way into the month and still not a single post, if this keeps up, it’ll be our lowest posting month since last November…but never fear, karlkarlson is here…

So let’s start off with a bit of entertainment news, which I don’t normally do. But this is so juicy that I just had to post it: Paris Hilton is going to jail for 45 days! Let me be the millionth person to say, “hahahahaha”. This is just too funny. And Reuters reported that there are petitions arguing for her to serve the sentence regardless of appeal. Of course, my first reaction to this news was: “Where do I sign?!” Unfortunately, I was too lazy to find it, but if anyone does find it, let me know.

OK, we just finished off Romeo and Juliet, and some of the class actually think that a)Romeo’s love for Juliet is real, and b)Romeo has changed during the play. That is just wrong for so many reasons. First of all, how is Romeo’s love real? The only real things he says about her is how hot she is, talk about judging a book by its cover. I’m telling you, anyone who falls in love in life 2 hours cannot be experiencing true love. Second of all, how the hell has he changed, sure he takes the poison as a sacrifice, but he probably read it in a book and thought it’d be cool to be together in the afterlife. And what is the difference between the love for Rosaline and Juliet? The only reason he got over Rosaline is cause she didn’t like him back, it’s like he’s on the rebound. Another fact that is not mentioned enough is the fact that Romeo suicides by taking a poison that kills him quickly and painlessly, but Juliet has to stab herself with a dagger! You tell which one hurts the most. By the way, my friends and I were discussing how Romeo is pretty much a criminal, here are the illegal things he does: trespassing(capulet party), stalking(how did he know where Juliet’s room was?), spying, trespassing again(capulet garden), murder(tybalt), statutory rape(Juliet is 13), illegal drug dealing(poison was illegal to sell or buy), violating terms of sentence by coming back to Verona, trespasses AGAIN(capulet tomb), tomb raidng, murder AGAIN, and finally suicides…not such a hero after all, eh.

Now onto my regular sports garbage, before I go on, for the eastern conference finals, I have Ottawa in 6 games, anyways, the western conference final is finally upon us. Since I picked the Ducks to go all the way, I have to pick them against Detroit. Ok, I was a bit shocked that the wings won the last round to be honest. But whatever, I still say they don’t have enough to beat the ducks, especially since Giggy is on a roll now (he has something like a .952 save percentage!!!). Pronger and Niedermeyer are just too good for them, and Mathieu Schneider hurt too. I really don’t think Detroit can win. I’m not 100% sure the Ducks can win game 7 in mo-town, so I guess I say Ducks in 6 too.

Rockets lost, so that sucked balls. (Yeah, I do watch them cause of Yao Ming, but there’s no shame in that, and I want all of you Chinese Yao haters to know that you’re just being a banana by haterizing on him.) I could see this series wasn’t going to go well judging by the fact that the Rockets could only win by a close margin in Houston by loose by so much on the road. So now, someone has to go. Let’s face it, with everyone healthy, this is as good as the Rockets are gonna get with these players. So either t-mac or yao has to be traded to make the team more balanced, or team owner les Alexander will have to open the piggy bank.

Contrary to popular belief, Phoenix CAN beat Spurs in a 7 game series, or at least that’s what I think. The spurs basically have 3 offensive weapons to hurt you and other wise grind it out, but the suns can counter that almost perfectly: kurt Thomas on tim Duncan, raja bell on manu ginobli, shawn marion on tony parker. If all three spurs are taken out, san Antonio has no chance.

I don’t get why the nba doesn't do like the nhl and reseed ppl, now they have the four best teams left meet in the conferences semis: Detroit-chicago, phoenix-san Antonio. I think it’s pretty save to say that the winners of this match will roll over the winners of cavs-nets and utah-gstate. But you look at the nhl, I think it’s pretty safe to say that sens, sabers, wings, and ducks are at least 4 of the top six teams in the league.

Finally, I’ll have my nba predictions: cavs in 5, pistons in 6, gstate in 6, and phoenix in 7.

Well, that's it for now.

LONNNNNNNNNNNNNG And Crazy Rant About How Horrible The Weekend Was

Editor's Note: Wow, I just realized that we're the #1 hit on Google for the entry "teemu salami injuries", I think that deserves a pat on the back...

Wow, where to start, there were just so many things to complain about. I'll just start with my job:

K, I tutor this 7th grader right? So his mom called a few days ago and told me that I needed to work on his English from now on instead of math. So great, I'm game. On Friday, I thought he was coming, so I had to cancel going to registration for my online learning thing. Guess what? He didn't show up, apparently, his mom was busy and told his dad to take him, but he managed to talk his dad into going to the gym or something...seriously, and you wonder why he's grades need improvement. So his mom called me Saturday to reschedule; fine, I guess I have nothing better to do on weekends. Whatever, I'm getting paid. So the kid comes over. Here is the exchange:

Me: Hey
Him: Hey
Me: Where's your English book?
Him: Didn't bring it.
Me: I see, but your mom told me to work on English with you.
Him: *shrugs*

*Sigh* Fine, I guessed that I'll have to do something else. So I had him do a haiku and a limerick to see where he's at. Anyways, the poems weren't great, but he said that they were just starting the unit, so I let it go. Then, I asked him to do a paragraph. After 10 minutes of coaxing, he finally agreed. The paragraph was only 5 sentences, yet it still took him like half an hour. During which time, I was looking up a lesson plan thingy. Anyways, he finishes the paragraph, with horrible hand writing I might add. I let him read over the lesson plan and let him see what is wrong with his paragraph. Of course, being done, he refused to correct it and insisted that it was good. By the way, I was already a little pissed at the attitude. But whatever, I told him to do another paragraph, this time it was a bit harder, he argued for half an hour and still refused to do a paragraph. Fed up with the crappy attitude, I explain to him why he had to do it, but the guy just threw it back into my face. Fine, I'm done, I asked him what he wanted to do if not a paragraph, and he told me he wanted to do an online activity. Great, right? But you have to understand, there was no freaking way I was going to let him go on the computer when he's just going to get off-track and go on hotmail. So for the next half hour, we argued about his attitude problem, we're not even done and the mother tells me to let him out. I asked whether it'd be a good idea to let him go even though his not finished, but the mom just told me to continue next time. Great, the guy gets that stupid smirk on his face to remind me that he got saved by mommy...again...Whatever, I'm done, if he doesn't want to work on English, he can explain it to his mom, from now on it's just math.

***

Another thing I had to do this weekend was work on melodic scales and a few songs...so needless to say, that sucked. Don't get me wrong, I get the whole thing about doing scale helps playing, especially the runs, but I don't really see the point of memorizing all 12 melodic ones. Some of them are just so little used. The songs I was working on weren't too hard, Blue and the Gray, a piece called Viva Espania, and a passage from a piece called Sleeping Place of the Stars. So the actual songs weren't so bad, but what pissed me off was that I would have to go play 2 concerts next month, all on PD days. It just sucks. We're playing for the Graduation, and the year end concert is the night after. Seriously, that's just horrible. I can't even do anything that weekend now.

***

K, so I missed out on summer school last year cause I had to move right. Well, no way it happens again to me. So I registered last week. But what caught my eye was the online course that runs through July for CALM(career/life management=career/civics). So I got a form from the counselor and everything. Then I found out that the online course has to be registered in person in some really far away place. And guess what, the registration office hours are Monday to Friday 9 to 4. Really, that is just a bit much for me. Who works like 6 hour days? Not only do you go to work at 9 and get to sleep in, but you have to get off at 4? You must have some union. Glad to see tax dollars getting paid to hard working citizens.

***

So then I still have a slimmer of hope for a good weekend, sports! But that too was dashed. Rockets, Raptors, Mavericks, Ducks, Sens, they ALL lost over the weekend, the Raptors and the Mavericks TWICE! But there were basically 2 loses that really pissed me off, Mavericks on Friday, and Rockets on Saturday. The other ones were bad too, but the Sens and Ducks lost very close games, and let's face it, the Raptors are just so inexperienced, especially without Garbajosa. But the Rockets and Mavericks were just disgraceful.

So the Mavericks got totally blown out of the water on Friday. The game wasn't even as close as the final score indicated. They were just totally lost. They lost their composure. And Dirk Nowizki was just bad, not even close to MVP form. No wonder they lost. The Warriors were just way too fast for them, just swarming the Mavs. And the thing is, Dirk's +/- rating is so low right now, I don't get why Avery Johnson just doesn't take him out. I know he's suppose to be the man and everything, but can't you see that he's just not a good match up for this team? Geez, I say either go small and beat the Warriors at their own game or go San Antonio's way and impose your will, if you can. But don't go to a small line-up, but still leave Nowizki on.

The Rockets got destroyed too. It was just so bad. They have nobody on the team capable of doing anything but Yao and Tmac. One play said it all: there was a break away in the 3rd, I think, and two guys, probably Alston and Head or something are against Fisher, but neither wanted to take the bucket, after like 5 passes, Fisher stole the ball! What the hell!!! Fisher is tiny and very old, why wouldn't you just take it to the hole!!! It's like the entire Rockets team are just waiting for either Yao or Tmac to score, it's disgraceful. And there was no urgency either, the team just seemed so relaxed and didn't care about heading back to Houston 2-2. The coach wasn't great either. I think JVG is a great coach, but I really thought it would have been a good idea to bench Yao to start the 4th, for similar reasons as the Dirk argument. If the Rockets miss the 2nd round again, I'll be so pissed. And if it happens, someone needs to be traded, either Tmac or Yao, cause let's face it, this is about as good as this group is going to get what with everyone healthy and all. So here's hoping.

K, I'm finally done...p.s. I guess it wasn't all bad, I got to see Brady Quinn's freefall...

Conference Semis

Updated/Edited Apr. 28

Alrighty, the first round is over and we're left with Detroit-San Jose and Anaheim-Vancouver. Not too unpredictable, as all the top-seeds advanced except for the Preds. So here are my half-assed analysis.

Wings-Sharks: Sharks are very physical, and the Cheechoo issue turned into a none-issue. While Detroit proved that they can play physical too. However, I didn't like the way the Wings couldn't sweep Calgary after dominating the first 2 games and had to go to 6. Sure, Calgary is like the best home team in the league, but good teams don't loose on the road like that when the opponent is out matched so badly. Hassek has been good in net for Detroit, but then again, he hasn't had to face many shots from Calgary. The Sharks, on the other hand, destroyed a very good Nashville team in the first round. I really like their front line and goalie situation. I think that the Sharks can win the series in a hurry...San Jose in six.

OB!/LB edit: SJ in 5

Anaheim-Vancouver: This is an easy one. I don't care how good Luongo is, they've played 7 games with a few overtime ones too, they have no offense, and the Ducks' D is just too good. Anaheim in 6 just cause Luongo can steal 2, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Ducks got out the brooms.

OB!/LB edit: Anaheim in 7

That's it for now, I'll go in more depth for the Conference Finals.

:::......:::

Eastern:

Buffalo Sabres (1) vs. New York Rangers (6)
After getting owned in G1 and 2, it means that the Rangers have to win the next 4/5 games. Only 3 of them being in MSG. Buffalo's team has played a crapload better than vs NYI. The Rangers might have one of the best players but their team overall doesn't compare to the Sabres. Although sweeping the Thrashers, the Rangers don't really have a chance against Buffalo, who is clearly the superior team.

Verdict: Buffalo in 5

New Jersey Devils (2) vs. Ottawa Senators (4)
After a tight game 1, the Devils will want to bounce back and tie it up at home. However, the Sens will want to beat the Devils in the Meadowlands and hopefully sweep them at home. Brodeur's somewhat shoddy play in G1 P1 made the Devils lose. The lack of D from the Sens in G1 P2 meant that they can be beaten. This is going to be a tight series and either teams could win.

Verdict: Ottawa in 7

Another sports blog/Ducks are through!!!

Editor's Note: I'd write about the Virginia Tech Massacre, but I feel enough people has already chipped in their two cents.

After more than a week of playoffs, let's check up on the western match-ups:

Wings-Flames: So fine, Calgary managed to win 2 games at home, whatever. They're a totally different team away from home, I've never seen anything like this, in the two games in Detroit, they were DESTROYED, but in Calgary, they were just awesome. So I guess it's too bad that they didn't win enough in the regular season to get home-court advantage. Otherwise, I'd pick them to win the Stanley Cup instead of being eliminated in the first round.

Ducks-Wild: Some pregame drama in game five: there was a scuffle and Teemu "Salami" got hit in the face by a puck. Nothing big, Ducks, my eventual champions, gets through first round with no problem.

Canucks-Stars: Another overtime game, but this time Stars won. It looks like Vacouver's going to win, but I'm still sticking with my upset pick and go with Dallas.

Preds-Sharks: Nothing much here, Shark in command of the series and Preds regretting mortgaging the future for Forsberg.

That's it for the western series. In other news: THE CROSBY SHOW HAS BEEN CANCELED, the Pens get shut-out in game five.

Now onto some NBA playoffs analysis:

-Detroit gets through the first round for obvious reasons.

-Cleveland gets through because Washington has the big 1 out of the big 3.

-Nuggets, Warriors, and Lakers all have good players to make the series watchable, but the Dallas-Phoenix-San Antonio big 3 in the west will win, no question.

-Houston and Utah are nowhere nearly as close as the standings indicate. Utah has been sliding near the end of the season and will continue to slide out of the playoffs. Utah has no athleticism, no superstars(compared to 2 for Houston), and no chance (unless Yao or MacGrady gets injured).

Now onto the more interesting match-ups:

-Miami and Chicago play in the first round in what is possibly the most evenly matched series. Chicago's defense and depth is good enough to win. Miami, though, has 4 almost guaranteed Hall of Famers(coach Riley, Shaquille O'Neal, Gary Payton, and Alonzo Mourning) and a young superstar, and I think they'll win because of their experience.

-Toronto will probably beat New Jersey due to the revenge factor. And the Nets don't have anyone to deal with Chris Bosh. The series could go 7 games though just because of Vince Carter and Jason Kidd.

That's it for now...