Dangerous A

Even ESPN.com is starting to suck. I go there this morning to read up on the game 5 of the Spurs/Kings series. You know, that series with the defending champions. Well, there was no link on the front page. OK, there's gotta be a link in the NBA section, right? Wrong. There is a link about Luke Jackson having back surgery, but no link on a game 5 tiebreaker with the defending NBA champs? Fucking whatever.

I hope the presentation is better than the spoilers read because this sounds like a dead show.

Again, replays showed that those elbows were nowhere near Bell's face. He flopped like a bitch everytime. Even Barkley commented on how if you slow down the replay, Kobe' elbow is inches away from his face. Please. Alright, Give me your predictions for GAME 6 on Thursday. I have a feeling it's going to be one of the highest rated games in awhile. My prediction: Suns 92, Lakers 104 Competitive games are highly rated. No one tunes in to watch an execution. Suns showed fight in them tonight and shut me up, but this isn't going past Staples. Bell is going to be suspended and he deserves it. What I don't get is how Luke Walton didn't get suspended after his foul in game 3. He didnt' even make a play on the ball, yet he skates and everyone champions Ron Artest getting suspended in game 2. Whatever.

Sac playing the Spurs tough through the half. Lets see if they can sustain the intensity. Spurs have no answer for Bonzi Wells.

Of course he didn't do it. His first name begins with K and ends with E and he plays for the Lakers. That's automatice exemption and when your name has those qualities, it means at least once in your life, you will be accused of sexual assault. So the next Laker named Kyle, watch out!

If that is indeed what the program is going to be for Nash to return, he is going to kill the X Division. There is no rub to get from Nash whether you are X Division or Heavyweight. I have no idea why they are still dealing with this man and the only thing I can think of is they are clueless.

I feel worse for Rey because they botched his run and reign from the get go. This thing was doomed to fail. Not one part of Rey's chase and winning the belt has been done correctly. It's to the point where they had him cut promos in the back and not in the ring post Mania because he was going to get booed.

Guys, he's not lying... I guess Kwame can ask his team captain about something other than tips on his game.

So, so true Jingus. There are a ton more complications that stem from smoking and shooting street heroin.

The Pacers need to do themselves a favor and let Peja go or do a sign and trade. He's not worth the trouble and he has bad foot problems stemming back since 2003. Get something for him, but don't re-sign this guy.

But part of the reason Hogan worked in helping WCW was because they were competition. What WCW was doing was a true alternative to what WWF was doing at the time. Now, WWE has no competition. A DX vs Vince feud can create a buzz amongst people who are already wrestling fans, but the casuals, who make up the prime reason for a boom period would see it and say, "been there, done that" as far as who is involved. A boom period isn't happening until the next wave of stars is ready to break through to the next level.

I'm just hoping the Kings can make a serious run next year (I just don't see it happening this year from a realistic standpoint) and they can get a ring out of him before he burns the organization. Don't get me wrong. I hope things work out with Artest and the Kings, but in the back of my mind, I know he is just a stupid move away from fucking up a whole season and I'll end up like Alfdogg: a bitter, bitter man.

As a Kings fan, it took me awhile to get over this particular game. It did feel like the Kings were being jobbed out. However, with time and more perspective, I have come to some conclusions. While I don't believe in the conspiracy, teams that are hosting know that refs will help them out if they help themselves. The Lakers got fouled up the wazzoo taking it to the basket and drawing lots of fouls. I believe Shaq fouled out 2-3 guys by himself. The game took damn near 4 hours because of all the foul stoppages. Now, the thing is, the Lakers still have to make the free throws and shots off of second oppurtunities. They did that. IIRC, Shaq was like 13-16 from the foul line. He has to hit those and he did. Same with the other Lakers. Refs can only do so much. Yes, it comes off fishy and the Kings did what they could, but it wasn't enough. The Kings still fucked it all up by 1) losing game 4 when they had it in hand and 2) losing game 7 when that game was on their floor and as a team they missed something like 10-12 free throws and Peja airballs a 3 to win in the waning seconds of regulation. I'd say the Kings lost the series more than the Lakers won it, however the Lakers took advantage of the Kings mistakes.

As far as NBA ref bias goes, there is some, but it's not exclusive to the Lakers. I've attended to a ton of NBA games live and been watching the league now for 19 years. Biased officiating goes in this order for the NBA... 1) Home team 2) Star players (notice how guys like Kobe, Shaq, AI, or LeBron can get up in an officials face and scream whereas if you are a mere mortal NBA player, you get T'd up and don't get me started on foul calls and jump steps) 3) Against Problem child players (Rasheed pre-2004, Artest) Home teams get the most calls. It's not to say they get every call, but they get a decent share of "WTF?" calls where the fans cheer even though they know the call might be bogus. Although I'm calling the Lakers to finish the Suns off tonight, I'll bet we see the Suns getting some calls down the stretch if it's close.

That's gotta be a hardcore grudge because I hate Kobe as much as the next Laker hater and even I wouldn't endorse calling him a rapist or going along with the league conspiracy to help the Lakers win ball games.

I think we are in line more towards fun TV than another boom period. Creatively, they can get better, but for another boom period to happen, it needs to be with fresh stars. A boom period is not going to happen with guys from the past. They need to be new guys who are the happening thing right now. For all we know, we still may not have been introduced yet to the next breakout star/s who will lead the next boom, if there is one.

I think they are still testing the waters to see if a DX reunion would still work. They teased it just right so far that they can still pull back on it if the idea starts to get cold.

Mike is the most energized of the group and he has potential to be a great character worker in WWE for a long time because he's so over the top. He won't ever main event because of his size though. Johnny Jeter is going to have the same problems. He has mass, but he isn't very tall and will have to get some huge oppurtunities to get over, but the talent is there. I don't know if it'll take 2-3 years, but Kenny will main event a Wrestlemania. Quote me on it.

As they say on sports talk radio: scoreboard.

I hate defending the Lakers in any situation, but we don't know when the photo was snapped. Nothing is going to change anyways, so people should talk about game 5 now. I felt really good about watching the Clippers advance to the next round. They have some of the good guys in the league like Elton Brand and Corey Maggette on their squad. (although this will be Maggette's last season with the Clippers) The "hallway series" should be interesting to see how these two teams respond to being home. Like Kenny Smith said last night in postgame, after each game, the visiting and home teams don't have to board a plane and go on the road. You get to go to your home. You get to practice at your practice facility. They should rename this the "pampered series" since both teams are esentially getting 1 1/2-2 weeks of home games.

The small arena also helps hide the size of the workers. ECW was not known as the land of the giants like WWE is. In a smaller setting, the workers size isn't as exposed on camera.

The promo by Styles was good. You could tell he method acted that thing and it's probrably the promo he'd like to cut in real life on Vince and Co. Besides the promo, this show was totally missable.

You aren't that far off, Rendclaw. The Pistons can do themselves a huge favor and go up 3-1 to end it in 5. I could very easily see the other 3 eastern conference series going 7 games.

Putting aside the knowledge Dana White would never go for this, this was good stuff. Not sure if I'd have used Jarrett for taking Dana out since it babyfaces him to a degree, but he's as good as anyone on the roster to do it. What were your plans for Joe? I figure you'd have him come behind Dana to choke him out and show him a pro wrestler could choke a person out as good as a UFC Fighter could?

If the Bucks take it to 7, I think it'll be because Flip Saunders isn't making the playoff adjustments that he should be.