Wednesday, May 21, 2014

I told you not to lose any sleep over it.  The Eastern Conference Finals series is now tied at a game apiece, after the Heat took back the home court advantage last night, beating  the Indiana Pacers by the score of 87-83.  Miami has now won 11 consecutive playoff games after a loss.  The Heat played much better on the defensive side of the court, but it was a fourth quarter domination by LeBron James and Dwyane Wade that gave the Heat the win.  LeBron and D-Wade combined for 22 points in the quarter, outscoring the Pacers as a team, 22-20.  James finished with 22 points, Wade led the Heat with 23.  

A good effort yesterday by the bench as well, as Chris Andersen and Norris Cole stepped it up as well.  The Birdman continues to do good things when he is on the court, and Cole found his shot and was a nuisance guarding Lance Stephenson in the fourth quarter.  Andersen dominated on the boards, taking down 12 rebounds, and Cole scored 11 points with no turnovers in his 27 minutes of action.

One thing to look at as the series heads back to Miami for game three on Saturday:  when the Heat has opted to have both Andersen and Chris Bosh on the court at the same time against the Pacers, Miami has outscored the Pacers by 25 points in 80 minutes over the last two seasons, including during the playoffs.  Last night, in the 29 minutes that Andersen was on the court, Miami outscored the  Pacers by 25 points, holding them to a 29% shooting percentage from the floor.  Birdman’s presence has definitely been felt.

Mark your  calendars . . . Game Three is on Saturday, at 8:30 pm, and game four will be on Monday, also at 8:30.  Saturday’s game will be broadcast on ABC, while Monday’s encounter will be televised by ESPN.  

Out west, the San Antonio Spurs host the Oklahoma City Thunder tonight in game two of their Western Conference Final series.  San Antonio leads that series 1-0, after beating the Thunder 122-105, thanks mostly to Tim Duncan, who scored 27 points to lead five players in double figures.  Manu Ginobili came off the bench to score 18, Danny Green and Kawhi Leonard each tallied 16, and Tony Parker scored 14 and dished out 12 assists.  The Spurs and the Thunder take the court tonight is at 9:00 pm, and you can catch the game on TNT on your cable or satellite system.  

TODAY’S TRIVIA QUESTION:  The San Antonio Spurs entered this year’s conference finals without a single player averaging over 20 points a game.  Over the last 20 years, no team without a 20-point scorer has won an NBA championship.  Who was the last team to accomplish this feat?  The answer comes later, alligator.



Let’s go to MLB:

The Marlins opened up their series against the Phillies last night on the wrong foot, falling 6-5.  AJ Burnett struggled but managed to last 5 innings to notch the win against his former team.  The Fish, who lost for the first time since May 3rd at Marlins Park,  made it interesting in the ninth inning against closer Jonathan Papelbon, but fell just short.  Their home record is still the best in the major leagues, at 17-6.  

Miami will send Nathan Eovaldi to the hill tonight against Kyle Kendrick as they try to get back to their winning ways at home.

Here are the projected starters for the rest of the Phillies series:

Wednesday     Kyle Kendrick vs Nathan Eovaldi            7:10 pm

Thursday        Cole Hamels vs Henderson Alvarez        7:10 pm

Click below for yesterday’s recaps and results in the major leagues:



Here are the standings in MLB:


Today’s complete schedule in the major leagues:


Some things I’m keeping my eye on around the diamonds:

Jose Fernandez admitted that he was pitching in pain and keeping it from the Marlins.  The Sentinel and the Herald are all over this:



We know now that Yankees pitcher Masahiro Tanaka is human.  Tanaka lost his first game in the majors last night, falling to the lowly Chicago Cubs, 6-1.  Tanaka lost for the first time in 42 regular season games, having gone 34-0 in Japan and in the majors the last two season.

The Braves got another outstanding pitching performance, last night it came from Julio Teheran, who shut out the Brewers, 5-0.  Teheran allowed only three hits and struck out eight. 

In a “kids will be kids” moment, there was a dugout fight between Cuban infielder Alex Guerrero and catcher Miguel Olivo during a game for the Dodgers AAA team in Albuquerque. Guerrero lost part of his ear during the scuffle.  Here’s the story from Fox Sports, along with some video:  


The Red Sox continue to struggle, losing five in a row.  They really miss Jacoby Ellsbury and Jarod Saltalamachia.  After going from last to first last year, 2014 may be the opposite.  

The Yankees aren’t exactly lighting it up out there themselves.  Two of their three top starters (CC Sabathia and Michael Pineda) are on the DL, with no timetable for their return in sight.  They need Hiroki Kuroda to get back to his usual level of effectiveness, and their youngsters (David Phelps, Vidal Nuno, and Chase Whitley) need to come through on a consistent level.  The bullpen needs to kick it up a notch as well.  Kudos, however, to new closer David Robertson.  D-Rob has done a terrific job so far this year in filling the huge shoes of Mariano Rivera.  Robertson is 8-8 in save opportunities in 2014, including a couple of games in which he had to enter the game in the eighth inning.  In 11 ⅔ innings, he has 15 strikeouts vs only two walks, and has held opposing batters to a .128 average.    

The best team you never hear or talk about?  The Oakland A’s.  The A’s have won 9 out of their last 10, and have outscored their opposition so far this season by a whopping 98 runs.  

Tony LaRussa is back in baseball, joining the Arizona Diamondbacks as chief baseball officer.  The D-backs are a franchise in disarray, as their 18-29 record will attest.  Their front office has made some awful trades recently, and they have the worst pitching staff ERA in the majors (4.79). 
LaRussa is totally against today’s philosophies of computer metrics, business school graduates, and “Moneyball”.  It will be interesting to see how he fares.  As history has shown us, LaRussa has been successful at every stop  during his baseball career.

More from MLB:



Let us move on to the Miami Dolphins and the NFL.

Dolphins owner Steven Ross is pushing ahead with plans to refurbish and re-do the 8-name Stadium and bring it into the 21st century.  He is backing off his original request for sales tax relief from the state of Florida, and working on a proposal that would compensate the team if they bring in major sporting events to the stadium, including Super Bowls, College football championship games, and international soccer games.  A small incentive would be paid based on the economic impact these major events have on the South Florida economy.  Here’s the full story from the Sentinel and the Herald:



Here’s the latest on the Miami Dolphins from Armando Salguero:


Chris Perkins and Omar Kelly bring us their Dolphin blog:


The countdown begins until the Dolphins take the field.  Here are both the Preseason and Regular Season schedules:

2014 MIAMI DOLPHINS Preseason schedule: 

Aug. 8         at Atlanta Falcons             (Fri)    7:00 pm
Aug. 16       at Tampa Bay Bucs           (Sat)     7:00 pm
Aug. 23       Dallas Cowboys                (Sat)     7:00 pm
Aug. 28       St. Louis Rams                 (Thu)    7:00 pm

2014 MIAMI DOLPHINS Regular Season schedule:

Sep. 7         New England Patriots                    1:00 pm
Sep. 14       at Buffalo Bills                              1:00 pm
Sep. 21       Kansas City Chiefs                         4:25 pm
Sep. 28       at Oakland Raiders  (London)         6:00 pm
Oct. 5         BYE
Oct. 12       Green Bay Packers                         1:00 pm
Oct. 19       at Chicago Bears                            1:00 pm
Oct. 26       at Jacksonville Jaguars                  1:00 pm
Nov. 2        San Diego Chargers                         1:00 pm
Nov. 9        at Detroit Lions                              1:00 pm
Nov. 13      Buffalo Bills              (Thu)              8:25 pm
Nov. 23      at Denver Broncos                           4:25 pm
Dec. 1        at New York Jets      (Mon)              8:30 pm
Dec. 7        Baltimore Ravens                           1:00 pm
Dec. 14      at New England Patriots                  1:00 pm
Dec. 21      Minnesota Vikings                           1:00 pm
Dec. 28      New York Jets                                 1:00 pm

For more from around the NFL, here is NFL NATION:


Of course, we can all continue to sleep at night, knowing full well that Aaron Hernandez remains in jail, where he belongs. 

Manny Navarro and Susan Miller Degnan have more from the University of Miami.


From FIU,  David J. Neal of the Herald has the latest in his blog:


Here’s the latest from Tallahassee and the Seminoles:


From Gainesville and the University of Florida:


The Central Florida Knights are in the house:


In other sports,

In case you missed it, I usually don’t bring you a lot (if anything) on NASCAR, but today is one of those rare days.  How often do you see "Camaguey, Cuba" and "NASCAR" in the same sentence?  Please read this wonderful story:


Here is Santos Perez’ weekly boxing column for the Miami Herald:


Dan Rafael of ESPN is ready for Juan Manuel Marquez - Manny Pacquiao 5.


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THE ANSWER TO TODAY’S TRIVIA QUESTION:  The San Antonio Spurs entered this year’s conference finals without a single player averaging over 20 points a game.  Over the last 20 years, no team without a 20-point scorer has won an NBA championship.  Who was the last team to accomplish this feat?  

The 1989-90 Detroit Pistons.  Adrian Dantley and Isiah Thomas led the Pistons in scoring that season, averaging 18.4 and 18.2 points per game respectively.


Behave yourselves, and always remember that tomorrow will bring us a brand new day.

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