In a great game seven (it would have been so much more enjoyable to watch if Marv Albert, not the ubiquitous Kevin Harlan, was the lead announcer) the Los Angeles Clippers advanced to just their 4th quarterfinal series, ousting the defending champion San Antonio Spurs, winning by 2 points (111-109).
Chris Paul’s shot was decisive for the Clippers, who now face the Houston Rockets in the quarterfinal round.
Meanwhile the Spurs are out, which is (sadly) something Disney/ABC is happy about because despite the Spurs being a great team, they are not a ratings bonanza for the all powerful network(s.)
Tim Duncan, not a great free throw shooter, but a great, great player and a classy individual, showed me so much, making two pressure free throws with the Spurs down by two points, and 8 seconds remaining.
Subsequently, Paul hit the winning shot but I hail the Spurs: Duncan with 5 titles, bearded coach Gregg Popovich also with 5, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili with 4 each. Even the networks and face it the fans perception, can not take that away from the Spurs.
Last night the Atlanta Hawks advanced to the quarterfinal round of the NBA playoffs by routing the Brooklyn Nets to win their first round series in six games.
Saying the Hawks have had problems in the NBA quarterfinals is a vast understatement. Incredibly, the Hawks have lost 15 straight quarterfinal series, last winning in 1970.
They will face the Washington Wizards and are about 2 to 1 series favorites. This will not be an easy series for the East top seed Hawks.
However, in a reverse of sorts from 1979, when a heavy underdog Hawks’ team battled the defending champion Bullets (now the Wizards) to 7 games before falling, my prediction is Atlanta to win the upcoming series in 7 games.
Click on photo to enlarge.
1970 Atlanta Hawks
I am pretty sure I have tomorrow night’s Floyd Mayweather vs Manny Pacquiao much hyped title fight in perspective, both socially and from a historical point of view.
The 100 million dollars Mayweather will earn–win, lose or (can you imagine a draw!!)–is another sign of societal decay.
Yet the market dictated it and far be it from me to tell Mayweather not to take the money. A suggested donation to earthquake victims in Nepal is as far as I will go.
This is so far from Muhammad Ali/Joe Frazier and not just for sociological reasons, but also for boxing reasons, as not to even compare it.
Certainly both are very good fighters, Mayweather perhaps a great one. “Sugar Ray” Robinson he is not, and Pacquiao is not Jake La Motta.
Having said that, the 2 to 1 favorite Mayweather does have reason to be concerned, as this could be a very competitive fight.
Styles make a fight. My opinion that Pacquiao has no “style advantage,” plus that Mayweather appears to be the better, bigger fighter, I predict Mayweather to win a unanimous, fairly hard fought decision.
Tomorrow will be quite a sports day with the Kentucky Derby and the big Mayweather/Pacquiao boxing event scheduled, and now add a game seven matching the San Antonio Spurs and L.A. Clippers.
Both the Spurs and Clippers have won 2 of 3 games on the road in the series. Game 7 is in Los Angeles.
Meanwhile though it was a nice season for the Milwaukee Bucks, improving from the NBA’s worst record to the “6” seed, albeit in the far weaker NBA East, last night’s Chicago Bulls (120-66) win, which eliminated the Bucks, has to be a bit humiliating.
It also produced interesting notes you know I had to cite.
Playing on the 44th anniversary of their lone NBA title (the 1971 NBA playoffs ended on April 30th, now television and greed, almost the same thing, push the season well into June), the Bucks managed just 33 points (33 being their great player Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s number) in each half.
Additionally and forgive the “stretch,” the 66 points, a disgracefully low point total for an NBA game, can be juxtaposed with the 66 wins, a great NBA season victories total, that the 1971 NBA champion Bucks’ team achieved.
1971 Milwaukee Bucks
After last night’s Tampa Bay Lightning game seven win vs the Detroit Red Wings, the NHL quarterfinal round is set.
The top ranked New York Rangers face the Washington Capitals, while the Montreal Canadiens meet the Lightning in the other Eastern Conference battle.
In the Western Conference, the one seed Anaheim Ducks face the Calgary Flames while the Chicago Blackhawks tangle with the Minnesota Wild in this round for the second straight year.
Two predictions: The Anaheim Ducks to win in 6 games vs the Calgary Flames and the Montreal Canadiens, who last year swept the Lightning in the first round, to win a far longer series, say six games.
“Outside Mullingar,” performed in superb fashion by a stellar cast at Whippoorwill Hall Theatre at the Armonk Library is an outstanding play produced by the Hudson Stage Company.
Its writer is John Patrick Shanley, who also wrote “Doubt” and “Moonstruck,” among other treasures.
The current showing in Armonk (through May 2nd), directed by Dan Foster, provided a mesmerizing and exciting way to spend a Sunday afternoon. It is an “Irish Moonstruck,” and then some!
The four person cast all made their compelling characters resonate as life, time, money, faith and other “little things” like that manifested.
Sean Hayden as “Anthony” and Susannah Schulman Rogers as “Rosemary” sparkle with more than just chemistry, as their feelings, hopes and past are revealed.
Both Davis Hall as Anthony’s father and Susan Pellegrino as Rosemary’s mother set up the play, revealing history and doing so with humor and pathos.
A question and answer period after the show, which included the cast, director Dan Foster and fellow Hudson Stage Company founders and “Mullingar” producers, Denise Bessette and Olivia Sklar, was most informative.
Tidbits included the ways Mr. Hayden and Ms. Rogers eventually mastered their accents. Ms. Pellegrino talked of working with the legendary Kim Hunter while Mr. Hall did the same, regarding the superb character actor John McGiver.
For more info: http://hudsonstage.com/
Nassau Coliseum
Last night the Eastern Conference 8 seed, the Brooklyn Nets squared their first round NBA playoff series with the East one seed Atlanta Hawks by posting a home overtime win.
Meanwhile though the East “3” seed Chicago Bulls still lead the series 3 games to 2, the “6” seed Milwaukee Bucks stayed alive in that series with a surprising win in Chicago.
Coincidentally the Nets, who long since moved their home games from the venerable Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York, got even in their series, playing simultaneously to a Washington Capitals NHL first round game seven victory vs the New York Islanders.
That Capitals/Islanders result not only ended the current Islanders season, but assured no more games at the Nassau Coliseum.
That venue was the scene for three New York Islanders’ Stanley Cup clinching victories. Additionally, the Nets clinched two ABA (that league disbanded after the 1976 season) titles there.
The musical “blues,” though beautiful, relate great sadness if not misery. The same, with very little redemption involved, can be said about the St. Louis Blues hockey team.
As was the case in their first 46 seasons, their 47th season (there was no 2004-2005 NHL season) ended yesterday without a Stanley Cup victory.
For the third straight season this franchise, which has gone longer sans the Stanley Cup than any other without ever winning it, is ousted in six games in the first round of the playoffs, despite having home ice advantage.
Conversely, for the second straight season the Minnesota Wild who “6’d” the Blues and the Chicago Blackhawks, who did the same to the Nashville Predators, will meet in the division final, after winning a first round series, without home ice advantage.
Last year, the Blackhawks who had home ice advantage won in a tough, albeit only 5 game series vs the Wild.
This year again “Chi” has the home advantage, will be favored and will win, say in 6 games.
Todd Ellison’s “Broadway Moves to the Bronx” performed yesterday at Herbert H. Lehman College, was a big hit featuring Mr. Ellison’s piano playing and dialogue/great theater “nuggets” of information with the four talented performers.Erin Mackey performed next and also dazzled the audience with a song (I’m in Love With a Wonderful Guy) from “South Pacific.”
Jose Llana, who performed in “The King and I” on Broadway at age 19, sang two songs, “You are Beautiful” and “Like a God” from the show “Flower Drum Song.”
Klea Blackhurst, who grew up in Salt Lake City and was called “Ethel Mormon,” did a great job singing Merman’s classic “There’s No Business Like Show Business” and also showed great knowledge of Broadway history in general and the great Ethel Merman in particular.
The New York Rangers and Anaheim Ducks won first round series in less than six games.
Those two series were very competitive. The Rangers’ four wins in the series were all by (2-1) scores as they won in five games vs the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Ducks were the first team in NHL playoffs history to trail at some point of the third period, but win in three consecutive games. They did so en route to a four game sweep of the Winnipeg Jets.
The other six NHL opening round series all will go at least six games.
