What would you be thinking if you’re a Cleveland Cavaliers fan. You’re easily the best team in the Eastern Conference at 28-11. Even if you don’t finish with the best record in your conference are you concerned that the Toronto Raptors would beat you in a 7 game series if they had home court? What you have to start trying to figure out is the fact that you lost to the Golden State Warriors on Christmas Day 89-83. Okay a close game on the road and Oracle Arena can be a tough place to play; so you can deal with that loss. January 14th a 99-95 loss to the San Antonio Spurs. Alright another close game on the road that ended up being a loss. You look and think that the Cavaliers where in those two games and when the Warriors and Spurs come to Cleveland the Cavaliers should be able to get a couple of wins at home. Well Golden State came to Cleveland for a visit on Monday. The Warriors where coming off of a surprising loss to the Detroit Pistons on Saturday. Maybe they were looking ahead to this game against the Cavaliers. If they where they showed it by easily beating Cleveland 132-98. The Warriors built a 30-point lead in the first half, pushed their advantage to 43 after halftime. Only a late flurry of points helped the Cavaliers avoid their worst home loss in franchise history. Stephen Curry scored 35 points to lead all scorers and he didn’t play in the 4th quarter. Andre Iguodala came off of the Warriors bench to score 20 points while starters Draymond Green )16 points), Klay Thompson (15 points) and Harrison Barnes (12 points) all scored in double figures for Golden State. Green also grabbed a tam high 10 rebounds and also handed out a team high 7 assists. LeBron James did lead Cleveland in scoring, but with just 16 points. James went 7-16 from the field including 0-3 from behind the 3-point line. J.R. Smith was the only other Cavaliers starter to score in double figures with 14 points, but Matthew Dellavedova (11 points) and Iman Shumpert (10 points) each scored double digits off the bench. Kevin Love who only managed to score 3 points in the game did grab 6 rebounds to lead the Cavaliers while Dellavedova led the team in assists with 6. The Cavaliers return to the court tonight in Brooklyn against the 11-31 Brooklyn Nets before beginning a 4-game homestand that will see the Cavaliers host the Los Angeles Clippers, the Chicago Bulls, the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Phoenix Suns. If the Cavaliers are going to contend for the NBA title they’re going to have to find a way to beat the best teams in the Western Conference. The Clippers have the 3rd best record (27-14) in the Western Conference; so it will be interesting to see how the Cavaliers perform against them. Then on January 30th San Antonio will visit Quicken Loans Arena for their match up with Cleveland. This game will really be a test for the Cavaliers and will see if they can put up a fight against the Spurs unlike they did against the Warriors. Maybe Cleveland will catch a break and Spurs coach Greg Popovich will decide to rest some of his top players like he likes to do in these games.
It’s conference championship weekend in the NFL; so that means there are only 4 teams left with a chance to win the Super Bowl. The AFC plays first on Sunday with a scheduled 2:05 p.m. kickoff time as the Denver Broncos host the New England Patriots. The NFC championship game is scheduled to kickoff at 5:40 p.m. with the Carolina Panthers hosting the Arizona Cardinals. Mr. Fantasy and I will do the Sports Time Radio podcast on BlogTalkRadio.com from 10:00 a.m. until Noon on Sunday like we always do. We’ll let you know who we think will win these games as well as let you know who Dan the Man and Scxhaumburg Stu are picking to win as well. Then will do our best to put together the best FanDuel line ups for your money. Now after two weeks of playoffs Dan the man and I are leading the way in the playoff picks 6-2. Schaumburg Stu and Mr. Fantasy are just a game behind at 5-3. In a bit of an odd twist when anyone of us is the only person picking a team that team has lost every time.
If you’ve been listening to the Sports Time Radio podcast you know that I’ve been having Dan the Man pick winners in the NBA or NHL depending on how the schedule is set up. Dan is 24-12 after last night; so he’s doing quite well. I decided last Sunday to try and have Mr. Fantasy make some predictions on top of just picking the games. I gave him 4 categories; the player with the most passing yards, the players with the most passing touchdowns, the player with the most rushing yards and the player with the most receiving yards. These where Sunday only predictions. Mr. Fantasy liked Peyton Manning to throw for the most yards and most touchdowns. Manning went for 222 yards and 0 touchdowns as it was Russell Wilson 366 yards and 3 touchdowns who ended up being the leader in those categories. Mr, Fantasy was right on with which player would have the most rushing yards as Jonathan Stewart ran for 106 yards. Since Mr. Fantasy liked Manning to throw for a lot of yards he tried to pair up Demaryius Thomas with him as the player who would get the most receiving yards. While he did have the right game it was Martavis Bryant with 154 yards who ended up with the most receiving yards. So in the end Mr. Fantasy went 1-3 on his predictions. We’ll have to see if he can bounce back this Sunday.
John Scott, as it turns out, is still headed to the NHL All-Star Game in Nashville. The NHL announced Tuesday it decided to allow Scott to captain the Pacific Division team even though he got traded out of the conference. On Friday it seemed as Scott’s All-Star appearance was in jeopardy after being traded from the Arizona Coyotes to the Montreal Canadiens and subsequently being demoted to AHL team St. John’s. That came after some in NHL front offices questioned whether Scott and his five career goals deserved an All-Star berth at all. Scott had been voted in by fans as the Pacific Division captain in large part due to the Twitter movement #VoteJohnScott. So even though he’s in the minors right now and it doesn’t look as though the Canadiens will be calling him up any time soon Scott will be allowed to go to the All-Star game and fulfill his captaincy.
You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime
Sports Time Radio 