The Oklahoma City Thunder, nee Seattle Supersonics, are in the NBA finals for the 4th time in franchise history and a first time as the Thunder, in just their 4th season in Oklahoma City after moving from Seattle following the 2007-2008 season.
Oklahoma City features a three pronged attack of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, (both of whom wear glasses at the post game press conferences), and the bearded James Harden. They beat the San Antonio Spurs in six games after losing the first two games. After winning the first two games, San Antonio had won 20 straight games including 10 in the playoffs but the Thunder became just the third NBA team to lose the first two games of a best of 7 NBA semi-final and then win the next four.
Oddly, the Thunder may face a team attempting to become the 4th team to pull “the lose 2, win 4” feat in the NBA semi-finals in the Finals. That is because after losing the first two games at Miami, the Boston Celtics won the next three.
The Thunder will have the home court advantage in the finals whether their opponent is the Boston Celtics or Miami Heat. While the state of Oklahoma won many college football “mythical” titles with Oklahoma University, this is their first chance at a major professional league title and it is in just the 4th year of any such major sport’s league involvement in Oklahoma.
This is the Los Angeles Kings’ second appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals. In their other appearance, the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Kings in 5 games, winning 3 games in overtime. That was in 1993,the last of the Canadiens’ record 24 titles, when they went (10-1) in overtime games, winning the last 10.
The Kings are (5-0) in overtime and far more impressive are (10-0) on the road in these playoffs. Game 3 of the finals in Los Angeles is on the 44th anniversary of the tragic shooting death of Robert F. Kennedy in Los Angeles. The Kings had completed their first season and now in their 44th are prohibitive favorites to win the Stanley Cup.
Earlier on the night of Tuesday June 4,1968, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Don Drysdale set a major league record with his 6th consecutive shutout. Senator Kennedy took time during his speech following the California primary to congratulate Drysdale. “Big D” (Drysdale) died of a heart attack in 1993, less than 2 months after the Kings lost in the Stanley Cup finals.
Finally, in the way of Los Angeles sports and perspective, LeRoy Ellis, a valuable reserve on the great Los Angeles Laker’s championship team of 1971-1972, died at the age of 72 last week. Sadly, Ellis is the third member of that great and some say greatest NBA team, that won a major sports league record 33 consecutive games, to pass away. Wilt Chamberlain and Harold “Happy” Hairston also are deceased. “HHH” evokes the name, Hubert Horatio Humphrey, who was the Democratic presidential candidate in 1968. He lost the election to Richard Nixon and the Lakers had a fine 2 Title teams, guard named Norm Nixon. Oh stop me from “wandering” but better to think of trivia and degrees of separation than the RFK senseless killing.
LeRoy Ellis
I truly liked the play, “Lonely,I’m Not” which stars Topher Grace and Olivia Thirlby as two complicated, troubled people (aren’t we all?!) who hope to find love with each other. Olivia’s “Heather” character lost her eyesight at age 2 and she is beyond driven at work, frequently working on Sundays. Topher Grace, best known to audiences as Eric Forman on “That ’70s Show” plays a character named Porter a “Ninja” in his day, whose “drive” at work manifested in a nervous breakdown. The chemistry between Grace and Thirlby is great and it is a quite touching story.
The cast also includes Maureen Sebastian, Christopher Jackson, Lisa Emery and Mark Blum, all of whom play at least 2 roles and in most cases three. They include Porter’s father, who is distant and fraudulent and Heather’s protective mother. Another character had introduced Porter and Heather thinking they would hit it off because they were both screwed up. Again, aren’t we all, but these two characters show they are good people, ones to wish well. “Lonely I’m Not” is far from unrealistic and proved a memorable, very good theater experience. It is playing at the Second Stage Theatre.
The day before I saw the show, I heard Topher Grace on the radio show “New York and Company,” hosted by Leonard Lopate. He talked about “making out” with Scarlett Johansson in another Paul Weitz story, “In Good Company.”
After the play, I was flipping channels and happened upon Topher’s Eric kissing Laura Prepon’s character, Donna on “That ’70’s Show. “So Topher gets to kiss these three beautiful women. As I once said to Jack Scalia, who played love scenes with Linda Gray on “Dallas” (Gray and Dallas again starting mid month) “tough work but someone has to do it.”
Recently a great event was held at an equally great place, Rick’s Cabaret in New York City. The occasion was a birthday party for Alexis Ford, the current “Pet of the Month” in Penthouse magazine.
There were celebrities, fine food, and a really friendly, tasteful atmosphere. Rick’s Cabaret is the epitome of a classy gentleman’s club and this night illustrated their great hospitality. The press was out in abundance asking questions and taking pictures of and with Alexis Ford, who handled all the requests with charm.
Alexis is a beautiful woman and she exudes sensuality. She answered all questions candidly and professionally. It was quite an impressive showing by this “June 2012 Penthouse Pet” and we wish her a great deal of luck in her time with Penthouse as well as her future endeavors.
Alexis will have quite a busy schedule in the coming weeks but I think her candid answers and determination will be great advantages for her during the publicity campaign. It was great to see her and interview her on a great night at Rick’s Cabaret in New York City.
It will be the New Jersey Devils vs the Los Angeles Kings in the Stanley Cup Finals. The Kings, who were the 8th seed in the NHL Western Conference, are nearly 9 to 5 favorites to hoist their first Stanley Cup. This despite the fact that the Devils have home ice advantage and that the team with home ice advantage has won 19 of the past 24 finals. However,the team without home ice advantage, has won 2 of the last 3 finals series.
It shapes up as a very good series with two outstanding goaltenders in the Devils’ Martin Brodeur and the Kings’ Jonathan Quick. The Kings are (12-2) in the playoffs while the Devils are (12-6).This has to be the first time in major sports league’s history that both finalists made it winning three playoff series without home advantage.The 1995 Devils are the only NHL team to ever win the Stanley Cup by winning all 4 playoff series sans home ice advantage. That year the Houston Rockets did the same in the NBA playoffs. They are the only teams in major sports league history to accomplish that feat. The Kings have a chance to become the third team to do it and their opponents have also defied the odds by winning three series without home ice advantage.
It was a tremendous evening at the Avon Center in Stamford, Connecticut that featured the great actor Frank Langella. There was a screening of Mr. Langella’s new film “The Robot and Frank.” That was followed by a question and answer session with the 74 year old actor who starred in such films as “Dracula,” “The Twelve Chairs” and “Frost/Nixon.” Finally, Mr.Langella signed copies of his new book “Dropped Names.”
The film, “The Robot and Frank,” is going to dazzle audiences. It is humorous but also realistic about the aging process. Both Susan Sarandon and Liv Tyler have prominent roles and Langella told the audience of how after shooting a scene that was late in the film, Sarandon, Tyler and Langella himself all had to rush off to catch various modes of transportation to work on their next projects.
The book “Dropped Names” promises to be an excellent, page turning read. Mr.Langella recalls his experiences with people he encountered over the years, who are now deceased. I have read about the first few people and the stories were great. What a life! Keep going, Frank, and with new movies (he will play former Chief Justice Warren Berger in a movie about Muhammad Ali’s case before The Supreme Court) and the book it looks as though he will.
The San Antonio Spurs swept their first two playoff series going (8-0) with all but two of the wins by a double digit margin. Their next opponent, likely the Oklahoma City Thunder, will be much more formidable and that semi-final series is much anticipated. At times sporting events approach their hype but quite often they do not. The Thunder have a 3 games to 1 lead vs the Los Angeles Lakers with game 5 in Oklahoma City.
Speaking of Los Angeles as we often have here, the hectic weekend at the Staples Center produced back to back days of Los Angeles teams losing day/night doubleheaders. On Saturday May 19th the Spurs down (33-11) after one quarter, roared back to beat the Los Angeles Clippers by 10 points. At night, the Thunder got 36 points from Kevin Durant and beat the Lakers by 3 points. On Sunday afternoon, the NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes avoided a sweep and sent their semi final series back to the “Desert” with a (2-0) win. The Kings still lead 3 games to 1. At night, the Spurs won by three points to complete a sweep of the Clippers.
Finally, an oddity if you will, about odd or even year championships involving the Spurs. San Antonio, with current player Tim Duncan and current coach Gregg Popovich a part of all four teams, won NBA titles in 1999, 2003, 2005 and 2007. Those are all odd years. These are the only NBA titles for the Spurs (they won none in the defunct ABA, for that matter) and hence are their first four titles. In the history of the 4 major sports leagues only one team has surpassed or even equaled winning their first 4 titles all in either an even or odd year. That franchise is the Dodgers whose first 5 titles were in odd years (1955, 1959, 1963, 1965 and 1981).The Dodgers only other title was in 1988, an even year.
With just over 2 minutes left and the Los Angeles Lakers leading by 7 points in game 2 of their series vs the Oklahoma City Thunder it looked as if my prediction that the Lakers would win at least one of the first two games would be correct. However, the Thunder scored the game’s final 9 points “storming” to victory. The defeat for the Lakers was far worse than the pun in the last sentence, but I still ask your pardon.
Likely, the Western Conference finals will match the Thunder with the San Antonio Spurs, who like the Thunder are (6-0) thus far in the playoffs. The Spurs have not been tested while the Thunder have won three close games. No prediction yet, but if and when they meet it shapes up as quite a series. The winner may be favored in the NBA Finals even against the Miami Heat. They would certainly be big favorites, barring injury, vs any other Eastern Conference team.
Meanwhile like most everyone else I more or less conceded the NBA East to the Heat when the Chicago Bulls’ Derrick Rose got hurt (see “Hot Los Angeles teams” May 1, 2012). However, the Heat suffered an injury of their own, losing Chris Bosh and right now the Indiana Pacers, whose Larry Bird was named NBA executive of the year, lead the Heat 2 games to 1 in their quarterfinal series.
The Celtics currently lead the 76ers 2 games to 1 in their quarterfinal series and wouldn’t it be something if Bird’s Pacers play the Celtics, a team Larry played with during his entire great playing career, in the semi-finals. There is still a long way to go but I would be very surprised if the Spurs, Thunder or Celtics did not win their current series.
Finally the LA schedule I have talked about manifested in back to back home games for both the Lakers and Clippers. The amazing NHL Los Angeles Kings play Sunday afternoon looking for their second straight series sweep. They may be favored in the Stanley Cup Finals despite being an 8th seed, the lowest seed, in the NHL West. Sunday night, the Los Angeles Clippers play the Spurs. Tonight it is Thunder/Lakers, tomorrow Spurs/Clippers in the day with Thunder/Lakers at night. All the games are at The Staples Center.
A few weeks back, I talked about the Los Angeles teams and their fine play. Now their play might be termed incredible. It also poses scheduling problems, but that is a small burden, one would think, for the Kings, Lakers and yes the long maligned Clippers, all of whom play at Staples Center in Los Angeles. All three teams are into their next round and all three open or opened on the road in consecutive days. All three will play Games 3 and 4 at home at about the same time. Arrangements have been made for 2 game days on Saturday and Sunday at Staples Center.
The Los Angeles Kings are the most impressive team in the NHL or NBA playoffs thus far. The Kings are(9-1) and(6-0) on the road. They doubled phoenix (4-2) in their semi-finals opener at Phoenix and are big favorites to reach just their 2nd Stanley Cup Final in this their 44th season. Goaltender Jonathan Quick has been brilliant while Dustin Brown has scored a number of big goals.
The Los Angeles Clippers had a 3 games to 1 series lead vs the Memphis Grizzlies but needed to win game 7 at Memphis. The lords of television dictated a noon start in Memphis and 10 am Los Angeles time. The Clippers coming from hotel beds were fresher than the Grizzlies, who slept in their own beds, and won just their 2nd series as the Clippers. Los Angeles won by 10 points as 8 point underdogs. The Grizzlies are (1-5) in playoff series and lost their last two in a noon start. The Clippers franchise in its 42nd season began as the Buffalo Braves in 1970-1971. The Braves’ lone playoff series win was a best of 3 prelim vs the Philadelphia 76ers in 1976.
The Los Angeles Lakers are accustomed to success having won 11 NBA championships in Los Angeles, the first one 40 years and one week ago today. They were favored to beat the Denver Nuggets and struggled to do it. As was the case with the Clippers, the Lakers were forced to win a game 7 after having a (3-1) series lead. Unlike the Clippers, the Lakers were home for game 7 and for the 11th straight time the Lakers prevailed in a home game 7.
Last and perhaps least (after all it is only 34 games into a 162 game season that allows 5 teams from each league into its post season), the Los Angeles Dodgers are off to a rather impressive (23-11) start and lead their division by six games. They have the reigning Cy Young Award winner in Clayton Kershaw and also last year’s MVP in Matt Kemp.
So where will all this lead for the hot Los Angeles teams? The Kings, who have never won the Stanley Cup need to win it this season. Their(9-1) record notwithstanding, Los Angeles has a ways to go. They will likely be slight underdogs vs either the New York Rangers or the New Jersey Devils if they get to the Stanley Cup Finals. Both the Lakers and Clippers opening on the road are big underdogs in their quarterfinal series vs the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs respectively. One never knows but I think the Spurs will prevail vs the Clippers. I think the Lakers have a decent shot vs the Thunder as I see the Lakers winning one of the first two at Oklahoma City. Easy to say now, but I did see the Dodgers being a contender this season thus I will stick with them.
Only three teams in baseball history have lost two straight World Series and then won a third consecutive pennant. No team has done so since the Yankees in 1923 (they won the first of their 27 titles that year avenging two straight Series losses to the New York Giants). The two other teams to accomplish the feat lost in all 3 World Series. Both the Detroit Tigers with Ty Cobb (1907-1909) and the New York Giants (1911-1913) lost in all 3 World Series.
The Texas Rangers hope to join the 1923 Yankees as the only team to win a World Series after losing the Series the previous two seasons. They are off to a (20-10) start which I feel is remarkable after last season’s heartbreaking World Series loss to the St.Louis Cardinals. In Game 6 of last year’s World Series, Texas had a (7-5) lead with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th inning and were one strike away from a World Series victory. However, eventual World Series MVP David Freese delivered a 2 run triple that tied the epic game. Texas had a (9-7) lead after Josh Hamilton’s 2 run homer in the top of the 10th inning but again failed to hold the lead. This time, Lance Berkman had a 2 out, 2 strike game tying single. The Cardinals won the game on Freese’s homer in the bottom of the 11th inning and then won their 11th title in Game 7 the following night.
Josh Hamilton hit four home runs (all 2 run homers) in a win vs the Baltimore Orioles on May 8th. Texas also has a nice divisional lead early this season. However, no matter their regular season (I do not think it will be so great), it assures the Rangers or any other team very little. Baseball has become a tournament requiring the World Series winner to win at least 3 playoff rounds. Home field advantage in the World Series is determined by which league wins the All Star Game. The team with home advantage has won the World Series an incredible 21 of the last 26 times. Texas faces a long road ahead in its title quest.
