Archive for the ‘basketball’ Category

Let’s call it Wednesday!

Posted: May 17, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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The Cleveland Cavaliers didn’t show any rust coming off their 9 day lay off as they easily handled the Toronto Raptors in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals 115-84. The Cavaliers put up 33 points in the 1st quarter to take a 5-point lead 33-28. They followed that up with a 33 point 2nd quarter to really extend the lead going into halftime to 66-44. Still pressing in the 3rd quarter the Cavaliers added 6 points to the lead by outscoring the Raptors 29-23 in the 3rd. With a 95-67 heading into the 4th quarter the Cavaliers still outscored the Raptors in the quarter 20-17 to get the game to the 115-84 final and a 1-0 lead in the series.

Kyrie Irving led the Cavaliers with 27 points and handed out a team high 5 assists. LeBron James shot 11 for 13 from the field on his way to a 24 point night. Kevin Love was the only other Cleveland player to score in double figures with 14 points. Richard Jefferson came off the Cavaliers bench to lead the team in rebounding with 11. The Cavaliers went 41 of 74 (55.4%) from inside the 3-point line in the victory.

Toronto was led by DeMar DeRozan with 18 points. DeRozan also tied for the team lead in assists with Kyle Lowry at 5 apiece.  Bismack Biyombo made every shot he took as he went 5 for 5 from the field and made both his free throw attempts for 12 points. Biyombo also tied for the team lead in rebounds with Lowry and James Johnson at 4. Johnson also came off the Raptors bench to add 10 points. In comparison to  Cleveland’s 55.4% the Raptors shot just 42.1% from inside the 3-point line going 32 for 76.

Game 2 will be tomorrow (Thursday) night in Cleveland. Do the Raptors have a chance to even the series? or will the Cavaliers make it 10 straight playoff victories this season?

If you listened to the Sports Time radio podcast yesterday (Tuesday) I was convinced that the Los Angeles Lakers would move up in the NBA Draft Lottery and get the #1 overall pick. I was wrong; not only didn’t the Lakers move up no one did. The Philadelphia 76ers had the best chance to get the #1 pick and they did. The Lakers stayed at 2 with the Boston Celtics at #3 on a pick they acquired from the Brooklyn Nets. The Phoenix Suns have two lottery picks and the first one is at #4. The Minnesota Timberwolves are at #5 with the New Orleans Pelicans at #6. The Denver Nuggets will pick 6th as they picked up this pick in a deal with the New York Knicks. The Sacramento Kings will pick 8th while the Raptors have the well traveled 9th pick as it was originally owned by Denver, but was sent to the Knicks and then to Toronto. The Milwaukee Bucks are at #10 with Orlando Magic at #11 and Utah Jazz at #12. The Suns show up again at #13 with a pick they acquired from the Washington Wizards. The Chicago Bulls round out the lottery with the 14th pick. The draft will be held in Brooklyn at Barclays Center on Thursday, June 23, 2016.

Both the Eastern and Western Conference finals in the NHL are tied at 1-1. The Pittsburgh Penguins used a quick goal by Sidney Crosby in overtime of Game 2 on Monday to tie up the series with the Tampa Bay Lighting. The series now shifts to Tampa Bay’s Amalie Arena for tonight’s Game 3 and Friday nights Game 4.

Tommy Wingels put the San Jose Sharks up 1-0 in the 1st period of last nights game against the St. Louis Blues. Brent Burns had a power play goal in the 2nd period to make it 2-0 Sharks. Burns added another power play goal at the start of the 3rd period and then a Dainius Zubrus empty net goal made it 4-0 as the Sharks evened the series with the Blues. The series will head out west to San Jose’s SAP Center for Game 3 on Thursday and then Game 4 on Saturday night.

The suspensions where handed down by Major League Baseball (MLB) for the bench clearing brawl in Sunday’s Texas Rangers/Toronto Blue Jays game. To no one’s surprise Roughned Odor got the longest suspension of anyone at 8 games. I was quite surprised to hear that Jose Bautista received just a 1 game suspension. I really thought that Bautista would end up getting something in the 3 to 5 game area, but it turned out to be just 1. Blue Jays manager John Gibbons got a 3 game suspension. Remember Gibbons had been ejected earlier in the game and came back out on the field during the fight. Blue Jays 1st base coach Tim Leiper also got a 1 game suspension as he was also ejected, but came back out onto the field when the fight broke out. The other suspension I was a little surprised by was the 3 game one Jesse Chavez got. While Chavez did hit Prince Fielder in retaliation I thought 3 games was a little high for that. Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus was the other player to receive a suspension; he got 1 game. While Toronto’s Josh Donaldson and Rangers bench coach Steve Buechele where both ejected during the brawl they weren’t suspended, but where fined. It appears as Odor will be accessed the largest fine at a reported $5000. There where four other players who where just fined for the parts in the brawl. Rangers pitchers San Dyson, A.J. Griffin and Matt Bush; who hit Bautista along with catcher Robinson Chirinos where all fined as was Toronto outfielder Kevin Pillar.

The Rangers series clinching victory Sunday was the final regular season meeting between the two clubs. A feud had been simmering between the teams since Bautista’s bat flip in last year’s American League Division Series.

Fredi Gonzalez became the first manager to get fired this season as the 9-28 Atlanta Braves made the move before their game against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday night. Brian Snitker, manager of Atlanta’s Triple-A Gwinnett farm team, will replace Gonzalez as the Braves’ interim manager through the end of the season. Snitker was Atlanta’s third-base coach from 2006 to 2013. Snitker also had two stints with Atlanta as the bullpen coach in 1985 and from 1988 to 1990. Gonzalez learned he was likely to be fired about an hour after Monday night’s loss, when he received an automated email from an airline notifying him that he was scheduled to be on a flight from Pittsburgh to Atlanta on Tuesday, even though the Braves are playing the Pirates through Thursday. Braves general manager John Coppolella and president of baseball operations John Hart had planned to inform him Tuesday morning. Gonzalez, 52, managed the Marlins from 2007 to 2010 and was named manager in Atlanta in 2011 after Hall of Famer Bobby Cox retired. He coached third base for the Braves for four years before landing the Marlins job. Gonzalez wasn’t the only one fired. Braves bench coach Carlos Tosca, an assistant under Gonzalez in Atlanta and Miami, was also let go. First-base coach Terry Pendleton, a former Braves great, will become bench coach, with bullpen coach Eddie Perez moving to first. Gwinnett pitching coach Marty Reed will take Perez’s spot.

Former Braves All-Star Chipper Jones is said to not interested in managing the Braves this season,

You can listen to The Podcast by clicking the link

You can find me on Twitter @Burketime

How was your week

Posted: May 14, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, hockey, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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We had what has to be considered the first upset in the NBA playoffs. On Thursday the Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the San Antonio Spurs 113-99 to take Game 6 and win that playoffs series 4 games to 2. As Oklahoma City advances to the Western Conference Finals to face the Golden State Warriors the talk turned to what will San Antonio look like next season. The media stupidly wanted an immediate decision from Tim Duncan on if he would be back next season, but of course he didn’t have an answer. Duncan who just turn 40 years of age on April 25th was the #1 pick in the draft by the Spurs in 1997 and has spent the last 19 seasons with the Spurs. Duncan had a down year in 2015-16.San Antonio did what they could to keep Duncan healthy. He played in 61 games and averaged just 25.2 minutes per game which was a career low. Duncan also had his lowest points per game average (8.6) and rebounds per game (7.3) averages in his career. If Duncan does decide to retire he is a sure fire Hall of Fame selection. Duncan won 5 NBA championships with San Antonio and was Finals MVP 3 times. He was a 15 time All-Star and won the MVP of that game 1 time. He was also the league MVP in back to back seasons in 2001-02 and 2002-03. Duncan also won the Rookie of the Year in 1997-98. Besides Duncan the Spurs will also have to wait and see if Manu Ginobili decides to retire. Ginobili will turn 39 on July 28 and just completed his 14th NBA season. Don’t forget Ginobili didn’t start playing in the NBA until he was 25. Ginoblil played professionally in Argentine starting in 1995 before moving to Europe to play in Italy. San Antonio drafted Ginobili drafted in the 2nd round of the 1999 draft, but he choose to stay with his Italian team Kinder Bologna, which he helped win the 2001 Italian Championship, the 2001 and 2002 Italian Cups, and the 2001 Euroleague, where he was named the Euroleague 2000–01 Euroleague Finals MVP.[6] He was also named the Italian League MVP in 2000–01 and 2001–02, and made the Italian League’s All-Star Game three times during this period. Ginobili has won 4 NBA tiles with the Spurs. He is also a 2-time All-Star and was elected 6-Man of the Year in  2008. The 2015-16 season was the first time since his rookie season that Ginobili didn’t average double digit points per game. Will Duncan and Ginobili decide to retire? or will they try to make one more championship run in 2016-17?

Now over in the Eastern Conference it seems as though the Cleveland Cavaliers have been waiting two weeks to find out if they’ll play the Toronto Raptors or Miami Heat in the conference finals. Miami picked up a 103-91 victory on Friday night to force the series to a 7th game. The teams meet Sunday afternoon to decide who will move on t face the Cavaliers. Besides possible to much these playoffs couldn’t of went better for Cleveland. The Cavaliers are a perfect 8-0 in the playoffs with sweeps of the Detroit Pistons in the first round and the Atlanta Hawks in the second round. As the Cavaliers wait for their next opponent you have to wonder what kind of shape that opponent will be in. Hasan Whiteside has a sprained MCL and has already been ruled out of Game 7 against Toronto and who knows if he’ll be ready to play in the conference finals. Luol Deng did play for Miami last night, but took just 5 shots as he’s dealing wit a wrist injury and is less than 100%. If the Heat do advance Deng’s injury will linger through that series. On the Toronto side Jonas Valanciunas left the series in Game 5 with a ankle injury and has been ruled out for the remained of this series. Would that ankle be healthy enough to allow him to play in a series against Cleveland. Also for Toronto Demarre Carroll played just 25 minutes in Game 6 because of a wrist injury. Carroll also took just 4 shots in Game 6. He’ll play in Game 7 and would also play if the Raptors advance, but he’s another player who won’t be 100%. It looks as though no matter which team advances to face Cleveland the Cavaliers are going to have a huge advantage health wise heading into the Eastern Conference Finals.

The NHL is down to just 4 teams and the Tampa Bay Lighting took the first game of the Eastern Conference Finals 3-1 over the Pittsburgh Penguins. It appeared with Steven Stamkos already out for Tampa Bay that Pittsburgh would have an advantage. Then when the Lighting’s Tyler Johnson went knee to knee with the Penguins Chris Kunitz and had to miss some ice time Tampa Bay had to wonder what was next. Sadly for the Lighting what happened next was goaltender Ben Bishop needed to be stretchered off the ice with 7:35 left in the 1st period. It looked as though Bishop caught a skate on the ice and fell awkwardly injuring a knee. It was reported that Bishop’s x-rays where negative for structural damage, but his status for Game 2 in uncertain. Bishop is a Vezina Trophy nominee, but like last seasons playoffs if he’s going to miss time back up  Andrei Vasilevskiy will take over in net. Tampa Bay got out to a 1-0 lead when Alex Killorn scored his 4th goal of the playoffs at 14:46 of the 1st period. The Lighting extended that lead to 3-0 on 2nd period goals by Ondrej Palat at 2:33 of the period and then Jonathan Drouin at 18:25. Pittsburgh picked up it’s only goal of the game in the 2nd period as well when Patric Hornqvist scored at 19:05 of the period. Pittsburgh had 16 shots on goal in the 3rd period, Vasilevskiy turned them all away. For the game he stopped 25 of the 26 shots he faced after replacing Bishop. Game 2 is Monday night in Pittsburgh. The Western Conference Finals doesn’t start until Sunday night and that features the San Jose Sharks and the St. Louis Blues. The Blues have home ice and have reached the Conference finals by knocking off the defending champion Chicago Blackhawks in the 1st round and the #1 seeded Dallas Stars in the 2nd round. San Jose reached the Conference finals by beating the Los Angeles Kings in 5 games and then winning a Game 7 against the Nashville Predators to take that series.

Just to get it a record Dan the Man has picked Pittsburgh to come out of the Eastern conference after they knocked off his Washington Capitals. Dan also likes San Jose to represent the Western Conference in the Stanley Cup finals.

You can listen to The Podcast by clicking the link

You can find me on Twitter @Burketime

How was your week

Posted: April 30, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in Auto Racing, baseball, basketball, NASCAR, sports
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During the 1st round of the NHL playoffs they gave us two quality Game 7’s. After last night it’s the NBA’s turn to try and give us two quality Game 7’s. There where three NBA playoff series played last night that all could’ve ended. Two of them are going to a Game 7 on Sunday while just one of them came to a conclusion.

NBA

Game 1 featured the Toronto Raptors trying to close out the Indiana Pacers. It was a tight game early on. Toronto had a 2 point lead after the 1st quarter 22-20 and was able to extend that lead to 4 points going into half time at 44-40. The 2nd half belong to the Pacers. Indiana outscored Toronto 31-20 in the 3rd quarter to take a 71-64 lead. There was no 4th quarter comeback by the Raptors like in Game 5 as the Pacers kept the pressure on and put up 30 points in the 4th quarter to just 19 points for Toronto yo get us t the 101-83 final and force a Game 7 Sunday in Toronto Air Canada Centre.

Every starter for the Pacers scored put up double digit points led by Paul George with 21. George also led the Pacers in rebounds with 11 and assists in 6. Myles Turner had 15 points, Monta Ellis scored 14 points while George Hill and Ian Mahinmi each scored 12 points for Indiana. DeMarre Carroll and Corey Joseph (off the bench) led Toronto in scoring with 15 points apiece. Jonas Valanciunas with 14 points and Kyle Lowry with 10 points where the other two Raptors to score in double figures. Lowry also led Toronto with 10 assists while Bismack Biyombo came off the Toronto bench to lead the team with 10 rebounds.

In the 2nd game of the night it was the Miami Heat’s turn to force a Game 7 as they  picked up a 97-90 victory over the Charlotte Hornets. Now the series returns to Miami’s American Airlines Arena for Sunday’s Game 7. It was a tight game most of the way as Miami managed to take a 3 point lead 27-24 after the 1st quarter. They where able to extend the lead to 59-50 going into halftime by outscoring Charlotte 32-26 in the 2nd quarter. The Hornets where able to cut into the Miami lead in the 3rd quarter by 4 points. Charlotte outscored Miami 20-16 in the 3rd quarter and went into the 4th quarter trailing 75-70. The Heat went on to use a 22-20 scoring advantage in the 4th quarter to pull out the 97-90 victory and force that Game 7.

All of Miami’s starters scored in double figures led by Dwayne Wade wit 23 points. Wade also led the Heat in assists with 4. Luol Deng had 21 points, Goran Dragic had 14 points, Hasan Whiteside had 12 points and Joe Johnson added 11 points for Miami. Whiteside, Dragic and Udonis Haslem (off the bench) each grabbed 7 rebounds to tie for the team lead. Whiteside also blocked 4 shots in the game. Only three Hornets players scored in double figures in the game. Kemba Walker had a team high and game high 37 points and added a team leading 5 assists. Al Jefferson added 18 points and a team leading 9 rebounds while Cody Zeller came off the Hornets bench to add 12 points.

The Charlotte/Miami is scheduled to tip off Sunday’s NBA action at Noon while the Indiana/Toronto game is the third game of the night and is schedule t tip off at 7:00 p.m. While these 1st round series are wrapping up a couple of 2nd round series will be getting underway. The Oklahoma City Thunder visit the San Antonio Spurs to start Round 2 of the playoffs and on Sunday the Portland Trail Blazers are at the Golden State Warriors (Sunday at 2:30 pm) to get their series started.

Speaking of the Trail Blazers. They had a hard fought 106-103 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers to advance to the 2nd round of the playoffs. Even missing there top two players the Clippers held tough. The game was tied at 24 after the 1st quarter and at the half Portland had just a 2 point lead 50-48. It was the Clippers who came out in the 3rd quarter and took the lead outscoring the Trail Blazers 34-30 and went into the 4th quarter with there own 2 point lead 82-80. The Trail Blazers appeared to pull away when C.J. McCollum’s 3-pointer made it 98-91 with 4:49 left, but the Clippers came back. Los Angeles had cut the lead to 98-95 before McCollum hit another 3-pointer to make it 101-95 with about 2 minutes to play. The Clippers again came back and tied the game on a pair of Jamal Crawford free throws at 103. It was Mason Plumlee putting the game away for the Trail Blazers hitting 3 of the 4 free throws he took and when a 42 foot Austin Rivers last second shot was off the mark Portland was leaded to the 2nd round.

Damian Lillard led Portland in scoring with 28 points and a team high 7 assists while McCollum added 20 points. Three other Trail Blazers scored in double digits. Maurice Harkless had 14 points, Allen Crabbe came off the bench t add 13 points and Al-Farouq Aminu added 10 points. Plumlee not only hit those late free throws, but he grabbed 14 rebounds to lead the team. Jamal Crawford showed everyone why he was the NBA’s 6th man of the year as he had a game high 32 points off the bench to lead the Clippers. Austin Rivers scored 21 points and had a team high 8 assists. J.J. Reddick and DeAndre Jordan added 15 points with Jordan grabbing a game high 20 rebounds before spraining his ankle and having to leave the game. Jeff Green also scored 11 points for the Clippers.

MLB

Dee Gordon was suspended 80 games this week for testing positive for multiple performance enhancing drugs. Gordon tested positive for two anabolic steroids, exogenous testosterone and clostebol. This is known as a “Stack” but these two drugs aren’t commonly used in a “Stack”. Clostebol is described as a simple testosterone derivative, adding one molecule to the standard hormone, so rather than adding different properties in, it’s essentially doubling the dose. The testosterone that Gordon had in his system was cypionate. You may have actually seen that name before in the ads for “Low T” as it’s the commonly prescribed drug for that. It seems odd looking at Gordon’s body type that he would test positive for PED’s.  He issued a statement apologizing for the positive test while going on to say he didn’t knowingly ingest the banned substances. Knowingly or not the positive test is going to cost Gordon 80 games away from the 11-11 Miami Marlins and it will also cost him about $1.3 million dollars this season.

NASCAR

The NASCAR Sprint Cup series moves the the Talladega Superspeedway for the Geico 500 on Sunday. Qualifying will be held today for the pole position. Chris Olmstead from Beyond the Flag will join the Sunday podcast to preview the race. Every week Chris will also give you his 3 drivers to look for in victory lane. Last week Chris went with Matt Kenseth (7th), Joey Logano (8th) and Chase Elliott (12th); who does Chris have this week? Tune in tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. and listen to The Podcast to hear Chris and find out who he’s picking.

You can find me on Twitter @Burketime

 

 

 

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: April 27, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, hockey, post season, sports, Uncategorized
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Out of the big four sports I’d have to say that basketball is my least favorite. It always seem to me that the games are just dunks and 3-point shots. I always try to catch a little bit of the game just to keep up with the score and see what’s going on. Now last night was the first time in a long time that I was sorry I missed a game. I noticed that there was a very early start time for the Indiana Pacers/Toronto Raptors game yesterday. I guess it was because they had two Eastern Conference games on the television schedule. The series was tied at 2-2 with Game 5 being played at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre. By the time I actually got to the game it was coming to the end of the 3rd quarter and the Pacers had a 13 point lead 90-77. I had pretty much given Indiana the game which would’ve also given then a 4 games to 3 games lead in the series. Little did I know that the Pacers would score just 9 points in the 4th quarter. Toronto was able to even the score at 92-92 and then after back to back 3-pointers by DeMar DeRozan and Corey Joseph sandwiched around a missed 3-point shot by Indiana’s Monta Ellis the Raptors found themselves with a 98-92 lead. Solomon Hill hit a big 3-pointer for the Pacers to cut Toronto’s lead to 100-99. DeRozen made two free throws to make the score Toronto 102, Indiana 99. The Pacers had the basketball under Toronto’s basket with 2.7 seconds left. Ellis inbounded the basketball to Paul George who you’d expect to take the last shot, but he was double teamed and passed the ball to Solomon Hill who appeared to hit a game winning 3-pointer for the Pacers. After the referees reviewed the play it was ruled that the ball left Hill’s hand after the game clock had expired. With those 3 points taken off the board the Raptors get the win 102-99 and they take a 3 games to 3 lead in the series. You have t wonder if this is the kind of loss that might stick with the Pacers. Not only did they give away a 13 point lead in the 4th quarter they appeared to have saved the game for themselves only to have the referees change that on a review. Will this impact Indiana’s play in Game 6 which isn’t until Friday night at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indiana.

DeRozen had what many are saying was his “best playoff performance” leading Toronto with 34 points. Kyle Lowry scored 14 points and had a team high 5 assists while  Jonas Valanciunas added 11 points. Off the Raptors bench Norman Powell and Bismack Biyombo each scored 10 points and Biyombo grabbed a team high 16 rebounds. Paul George had a game high 39 points for the Pacers and also led Indiana in rebounds and assists with 8 of each. George Hill had 15 points while Myles Turner scored 14 points; Turner also grabbed 8 rebounds to tie George for the team lead.  Solomon Hill was the only Indiana player to score double digits points off the bench and he ad 11 points.

The other NBA playoff game last night saw the Atlanta Hawks take a 3 games to 2 lead in their series with the Boston Celtics by winning Game 5 110-83. After the 1st quarter Atlanta found themselves down by 5 points at 20-15, but a 32 point 2nd quarter gave the Hawks a 47-39 lead at halftime. Atlanta continued to put up the point as they had a 42 point 4th quarter to pretty much put the game away. At the end of that 3rd quarter Atlanta led 89-62 and the Celtics never got any closer. Both teams scored 21 points in the 4th quarter to get to the final of 110-83. Atlanta was led by Mike Scott who came off the bench to score 17 points. Jeff Teague and Kent Bazemore each scored 16 points while Kyle Korver scored 13 points and Paul Milsap added 10 points. Milsap and Al Horford led the Hawks with 8 rebounds apiece while Milsap tied with Thabo Sefolosha for the team lead in assists with 6. The Celtics where led by Evan Turner with 15 points. Jae Crowder, Marcus Smart and Jared Sullinger each had 10 points for Boston. Terry Rozier led Boston with 4 assists and Jonas Jerebko grabbed a team high 8 rebounds for Boston. The series heads back to TD Garden in Boston for Game 6 on Thursday night. The home team has won each of the 5 games played in this series; so will Boston be able to hold serve on Thursday night or can Atlanta close them out and move on to the 2nd round.

So besides the two games last night injuries seem to be the story of the NBA playoffs right now. First Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors goes down with a sprained knee in Game 4 against the Houston Rockets. Golden State still won the game (121-94) and have a 3 games to 1 lead in the series. Curry is scheduled to be out at least 2 weeks; so with another win Golden State will go into Round 2 of the playoffs without Curry. Golden State will meet the winner of the Los Angeles Clippers/Portland Trail Blazers series which is tied at 2 games apiece right now. The Clippers where another team that suffered from the injury bug in their Game 4, but they not only lost one player they lost two. First Chris Paul suffered a broken hand in the game. He had surgery on that hand yesterday and has been ruled out indefinitely. Then the Clippers announced that Blake Griffin would miss the rest of the playoffs with a left quadriceps injury. Now it looks as though the Warriors will be able to advance without their best player, but how are the Clippers going to do in a series that’s even and missing their two best players. All four teams are on the court tonight; so we’ll see if the Warriors can close out that series and we’ll see how the Clippers play without Paul and Griffin.

NHL

While the 2nd round of the NHL playoffs gets started tonight with the New York Islanders at the Tampa Bay Lighting there’s still one 1st round series left to be decided. The Anaheim Ducks are hosting the Nashville Predators tonight at 10:00 p.m. on the NBC Sports Network. The winner goes on to face the San Jose Sharks in the 2nd round of the playoffs while the loser heads home. Frederik Andersen has picked up all 3 of the Ducks wins this series and has a Goal Against Average (GAA) of 1.26. You have to think that Anaheim will go with Andersen in net over John Gibson who’s 0-2 with a GAA of 3.08. For Nashville it will be Pekka Rinne in goal since he’s played all 6 games of this series and has a GAA of 2.68. Who do you have winning this Game 7? If it helps you at all Dan the Man had Anaheim winning this series when he made his picks at the start of the 1st round.

Listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast on BlogTalkRadio.com and you can find me on Twitter @Burketime

 

 

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: April 20, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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NFL

Last week the Tennessee Titans sent the #1 overall pick in next weeks NFL draft to the Los Angeles Rams for multiple draft choices. It appears as tough Los Angeles will use that pick on a quarterback either Jared Goff or Carson Wentz. Now there are reports that multiple teams have contacted the Cleveland Browns in hopes that they would be interested in dealing the #2 pick in the draft. Is there a team out there that wants t move up and make sure they get the quarterback that Los Angeles doesn’t take? It appears as they may be more than one team. Now this is exactly what Cleveland needs. They signed Robert Griffin III (RG III) this off season to be their quarterback; so taking another quarterback with that #2 pick might not be the smartest move. Looking at Cleveland no matter who they would end up taking with that #2 pick is going to turn this team into a contender; they are a few years away from that. What Cleveland needs is players; so if they can deal the #2 pick in the draft for more draft picks it may be the best thing to happen to Cleveland. While multiple draft picks still won;t make Cleveland a contender this season it gives them a chance to rebuild a team that hasn’t made a playoff appearance since 2002 and haven’t won a playoff game since 1994. The difficult part in all of this is it’s Cleveland we’re talking about here and it seems as though they don’t do what’s best for the  organization; so will see how they handle that 2nd pick. It’s doubtful Cleveland would get as much for that #2 pick as Tennessee did for the #1 pick, but even if they moved down in the 1st round and where able to add the extra draft picks; it would seem like the right move for Cleveland. Tennessee received 6 draft picks for the #1 pick; so if Cleveland could get 4 or 5 draft picks to deal the #2 pick; should they take that?

Teams that are still in the market for a quarterback had a new name added to the market as the Houston Texans cut Brian Hoyer yesterday. Hoyer started 9 regular season games for Houston last season and appeared in 11 games total. Hoyer threw for 2606 yards last season with 19 touchdowns and 7 interceptions. I’m sure what most people remember about Hoyer’s 2015 season was the terrible playoff game he had against the Kansas City Chiefs. Kansas City won that game 30-0. Hoyer was 15 for 34 for 136 yards and he threw 4 interceptions. The playoff game aside Hoyer has made 26 career starts and has a winning record at 15-11. With the late addition of Hoyer to the off season quarterback market you have to wonder how this will affect the contract demands of Ryan Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick was the top quarterback left on the market and it appeared as though his contract demands reflected that. Hoyer and Fitzpatrick are very comparable quarterbacks; so will see if the teams that Fitzpatrick turned down or couldn’t come to a contract agreement with contact Hoyer. It didn’t take Fitzpatrick’s former team long to meet with Hoyer as the New York Jets had him in for a visit on Tuesday. It seemed as though Hoyer’s time in Houston was over when they signed quarterback Brock Osweiler to a 4-year $72 million dollar free agent deal this off season. Houston was Hoyer’s fourth career stop. He spent 3 seasons with the New England Patriots, a year with the Arizona Cardinals, 2 seasons with the Cleveland Browns and last season with the Texans. We’ll see where Hoyer’s next stop is and if he’s brought in there as a starter or if he ends up being a back up. On a side note the Texans also cut Hoyer’s back up on Tuesday as they released quarterback B.J. Daniels.

NHL

The St. Louis Blues beat the Chicago Blackhawks last night 4-3 to take a 3 games to 1 lead in the opening round playoff series. The Blackhawks are the defending Stanley Cup champions; so you have to think that if a team could comeback from a 3 games to 1 hole it would be the Blackhawks. If the Blackhawks are going to comeback in this series they might have to do it without Andrew Shaw. Shaw was sent off for interference at 17:56 of the third period. While sitting in the penalty box; Shaw pounded on the glass with his stick and then yelled what looked like a slur toward someone on the ice.  Shaw scored a goal in the second period and had two assists in the game, but when he was asked about the incident Shaw said he “didn’t remember”. The NHL said they are investigating the incident. The NHL has a working relationship with the You Can Play Project. The Project aims to ensure equality, respect and safety for all athletes, without regard to sexual orientation. The You Can Play Project immediately reached out to the NHL. Coincidently the Blackhawks highlighted its partnership with the You Can Play Project. Defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson and goaltender Scott Darling participated in a video supporting the group’s mission. The nest game in this series is on the schedule for Thursday night in St. Louis; so you’d expect the NHL to rule quickly on the Shaw incident. If there’s a suspension involved with this and the Blackhawks just one loss away from elimination Shaw may have played his last game for the 2015-16 season.

NBA

Do the Golden State Warriors need Stephen Curry to win their 1st round series against the Houston Rockets? The Warriors did win Game 2 of the series as Curry sat out with an injured ankle. Curry had an MRI on Tuesday and the test didn’t show anything of concern. Curry is listed as questionable for Thursday nights Game 3, but should he play is the question. Golden State is up 2 games to none on the Rockets; so there is a bit of a cushion right now for Golden State to rest Curry. Even without Curry I don’t think Golden State would lose a 1st round series to the Rockets, but they’re going to need him down the road in the playoffs. It seems to make sense to rest him and not bring him back until he’s 100%, but that will be Golden State’s head coach Steve Kerr’s decision. Curry did try to warm up before Game 2; so you think he might try the same thing before Game 3 and then Kerr will make his decision on Curry’s game status.

Listen to Sports Time Radio on BlogTalkRadio.com and you can find me on Twitter @Burketime

How was your week

Posted: April 16, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in Auto Racing, basketball, football, NASCAR, sports
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NFL

The 1st round of the NFL draft is 12 days away. This week the Tennessee Titans traded the #1 overall pick in the draft to the Los Angeles Rams. What did the Titans get for that pick? Tennessee got the Rams 1st round pick this season which is the 15th pick. Tennessee also got two 2nd round picks; the 43rd and 45th pick of this draft as well as a 3rd round pick; 76th pick in this draft. Wait there’s more as Tennessee will also receive the Rams 1st round draft pick in the 2017 draft along with a 2nd rd round pick in next years draft. Besides the #1 overall pick the Rams will also receive the Titans 4th round pick; at 113th and Tennessee’s 6th round pick which is 177th pick in this years draft. So Tennessee gave up 3 draft picks and moved back 14 spots in the 1st round while Los Angeles gave up 6 draft picks to move up to the top spot in the draft. Was it too much for Los Angeles to give up?

It appears as though the Rams made the trade so they could select their franchise quarterback be it Jared Goff or Carson Wentz. There was even a report saying the Rams wanted to make this deal as early as they did so they would have the time to decide between the two quarterbacks. It’s doubtful that the Rams could’ve stayed at pick #15 and been able to draft one of these two quarterbacks; so if they wanted one they had to move up. Did they have to move up to #1 is the question. Now all off season long the experts have been saying there not sure if there’s a franchise quarterback in this draft. Do the Rams see something in Goff or Wentz that makes them think that they’ll be that franchise guy or was Tennessee the only team they could work out a trade with pre-draft?

Just a few seasons ago in 2012 the Rams where on the opposite end of a deal similar to this. In 2012 the Rams sent the #2 pick in the draft to the Washington Redskins in return for 4 draft picks. The Rams received Washington’s 1st round pick in 2012 which was 6th overall as well as a 2012 2nd round pick which was the 39th pick. The Rams also received the Redskins 1st round picks in 2013 and 2014. Washington traded up to select a quarterback as well. They took Robert  Griffin III with that 2nd pick. The Rams drafted Morris Claireborne at #6 and Janoris Jenkins at #39 in 2012. The 2013 1st round pick they aqcuired ended up in another trade as it was sent with a 2015 7th round pick to the Atlanta Falcons for 3 draft picks. The Rams picked up the Falcons 2013 1st round pick which was #30 and they selected Alec Ogletree. The other 2 draft picks the Rams got where a 3rd rounder (#92) and a 6th (#198) in the 2013 draft.The other 1st round draft pick the Rams got from the Redskins ended up being the #2 pick in the 2014 draft and the Rams used it to select offensive lineman Greg Robinson. Now that the Rams are the team giving up multiple draft picks it will be interesting to see who Tennessee ends up drafting with them.

The NFL also released it’s schedule for the upcoming 2016 season. As they like to do the opening Thursday night game is a Super Bowl rematch as the Denver Broncos host the Carolina Panthers. If you’re interested in looking at the NFL schedule here’s a link for you to check it out. 

NBS

The first round of the NBA playoffs start today (Saturday) with 4 games. There are two Eastern Conference match ups and two Western Conference match ups on the schedule. The 7th seeded Indiana Pacers  at the 2nd seeded Toronto Raptors  tip-off their Game 1 at 11:30 a.m. Central Standard Time (cst) that’s followed by the 8th seeded Houston Rockets  at the #1 seeded Golden State Warriors are at 2:30 c.s.t. The third game of the day has the 5th seeded Boston Celtics at the 4th seeded Atlanta Hawks and the night wraps up with the 6th seeded Dallas Mavericks at the 3rd seeded Oklahoma City Thunder.  On Sunday the NBA action tips off at 2:00 p.m. cst with the 8th seeded Detroit Pistons taking on the #1 seeded Cleveland Cavaliers. Game two has the 6th seeded Charlotte Hornets facing off against the 3rd seeded Miami Heat. Game 3 has the 7th seeded Memphis Grizzlies at the #2 seeded San Antonio Spurs and the night cap has the 5th seeded Portland Trail Blazers at the 4th seeded Los Angeles Clippers.

On yesterday’s Sports Time Radio podcast Dan the Man made his picks for the series winners in the NBA. Starting in the Eastern Conference he has the #1 Cleveland Cavaliers over the #8 Detroit Pistons. Dan likes the #7 Indiana Paces over the #2 Toronto Raptors. He went with the #3 Miami heat over the Charlotte Hornets and Dan also likes the #5 Boston Celtics over the #4 Atlanta Hawks. Over in the Western Conference Dan has the #1 Golden State Warriors over the #8 Houston Rockets. Dan also mentioned that he thins this series will be a sweep for the Warriors. Dan likes #2 San Antonio Spurs over the #7 Memphis Grizzlies. He also likes #3 Oklahoma City Thunder over the #6 Dallas Mavericks and he also has the #5 Portland Trail Blazers over the #4 Los Angeles Clippers. Feel free to leave your picks here in the comments or reach out to Dan on Twitter @SportsTimeRadio or @DanZeeeMan and let him know what you think about his picks.

NASCAR

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is at Bristol Motor Speedway this week for the Food City 500 and Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) started off the weekend about as good as you can. Not only did JGR driver Carl Edwards win the pole with a speed of 127.997 mph but 4 of the Top 5 starting spots in the race went to JGR drivers. Edwards teammate Matt Kenseth will start next to Edwards in 2nd while JGR’s Denny Hamlin starts 4th and final JGR driver in the race Kyle Busch goes off 5th. The only non-JGR driver in the Top is Joey Logano from Penske Motorsports. Will qualifying success lead to victory lane you never know, but it’s better to start up front at Bristol than in the rear. Just a side note Dan the Man’s favorite driver Clint Bowyer will start 36th for Sunday’s race.

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast on BlogTalkRadio.com and you can find me on Twitter @Burketime

 

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: April 13, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in Auto Racing, basketball, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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NBA

The NBA wraps up there regular season tonight and there are still a couple things to be decided. The big story is the Golden State Warriors going for the 73rd win tonight. That would set a new record for wins in a season if they get it. The Warriors play host to the Memphis Grizzlies tonight. Memphis is currently the 7th seed in the Western Conference, but record wise they are tied with the Dallas Mavericks; so a win might be the difference between the Grizzlies opening the playoffs against the San Antonio Spurs (which they would as the 7th seed) or the Oklahoma City Thunder. It will be a difficult game for the Grizzlies to win as Golden State is 38-2 at Oracle Arena this season. Memphis has had it’s share of injuries this season as leading scorer Marc Gasol to a foot injury that ended his season after 52 games. Point guard Mike Conley hasn’t played since March 6th and it doesn’t appear that he’ll play tonight against Golden State. Memphis does still have Zack Randolph (Z-Bo) and Lance Stephenson has played better in Memphis than he has in his stops with the Charlotte Hornets and Los Angeles Clippers. No one expected Golden State to lose to the Boston Celtics or the Minnesota Timberwolves at home, but you have to wonder if Memphis has enough quality healthy players to make this a game. It would be a bit of a surprise if they could and you have to expect that the Warriors will cruise to their 73rd victory and a new NBA record.

Tonight is also the last game in the great career of Kobe Bryant. Bryant’s Los Angeles Lakers host the Utah Jazz. Not only is it an important game because Bryant is ending his 20 year NBA career, but the Jazz find themselves tied for the 8th and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. Utah is tied with the Houston Rockets for that final playoff spot and the Rockets hold the tiebreaker over the Jazz. Houston is hosting the Sacramento Kings tonight and if they win they’ll claim that final Western Conference playoff spot, but if the lose they’ll open the door for the Jazz to grab it. I don’t think I can say anything about Bryant that hasn’t already been said. Bryant is an 18 time All-Star and won the MVP of that game 4 times. Bryant has won 5 NBA Championships and was voted finals MVP in 2 of those 5 finals. Surprisingly Bryant won just 1 league MVP Bryant is the 3rd highest scorer in NBA history with 33,583 points trailing only Karl Malone who is 2nd and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar the career scoring leader. Bryant has had his injury issues the last few seasons, but tonight will be his 66th game of the season. He is averaging 16.9 points per game to go along with an average of 3.7 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game. It’s been a down year for the Lakers as they are 16-65 entering tonight’s game. Since it’s looking like it’s a must have game for the Jazz can Bryant’s teammates send him off with one more win?

NHL

The NHL playoffs start tonight with 3 of the 8 opening round series getting started. On this evenings'(Wednesday) podcast of Sports Time Radio Dan the Man will give you his predictions for the opening round. Not only will he be picking which team he thinks will win the series, but how many games that series will go. Tonight starts with the Detroit Red Wings at the Tampa Bay Lighting followed by the New York Rangers at the Pittsburgh Penquins and the nightcap is the Chicago Blackhawks at the St. Louis Blues. Thursday night start with the Philadelphia Flyers at the Washington Capitals. I can guarantee you that Dan will be taking the Capitals to win this series since they where his pre-season pick to win the Stanley Cup. Then it’s the New York Islanders at the Florida Panthers after that we’ll get the Minnesota Wild at the Dallas Stars with the nightcap being the San Jose Sharks at the Los Angeles Kings. Now the Kings where my pre-season pick to win the Stanley Cup; so will see if Dan picks them to advance. There is one series that won’t open until Friday night as the Nashville Predators are at the Anaheim Ducks for their Game 1 while the other teams that play tonight will be playing their Game 2. I haven’t heard why the Nashville/Anaheim series is starting later than the other ones, but I guess they’ll all even out down the line. Since you’ll be able to get Dan’s picks tonight; who do you have winning the Stanley Cup?

NASCAR

Kyle Busch took the win Saturday night in the Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. With the win Busch joined Jimmie Johnson as the only drivers with 2 victories this season. Busch got the win with Dale Earnhardt Jr. finishing 2nd, Joey Logano who was the pole sitter finished 3rd, Johnson came home 4th and rookie Chase Elliott rounded out the Top 5 in 5th place. The Sprint cup drivers are headed to Bristol Motor Speedway for Sunday’s Food City 500. Can Busch or Johnson be the first guy to get his 3rd win this season or might we see someone new get their 1st win of the season and qualify for The Chase. Of course we might also see Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin or Brad Keslowski get their 2nd victory of the season.

Tony Stewart was awarded the Major General Thomas Sadler Award while the Sprint Cup series was at Texas Motor Speedway. Stewart received the award for his charitable contributions to the Texas chapter of the Speedway Children’s Charities organization. During Stewart’s acceptance speech fans had hoped that he might reveal when he would return to the #14 car. However Stewart did give any timetable for his return. He suffered a serious back injury in an all-terrain vehicle accident just prior to the start of the season and has been out of the driver’s seat recovering. Stewart made it clear in his speech that he looked forward to being back in the car competing alongside those active drivers. He has been doing rehabilitation work for his back injury. The thought was that Stewart would return right around the time of the All-Star race, but right now no one knows for sure.

 

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast on BlogTalkRadio.com

 

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: April 6, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, College Basketball, sports, Uncategorized
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The MLB

The Major League baseball season got under way Sunday with 3 regular season games and 1 exhibition game. I’m always going to bring that 1 game up because it was so stupid I just can’t let it go. Now I watched all 3 games on Sunday and I’ve been spending quite a bit of time watching the free preview of the MLB Extra Innings package. I don’t have any issue sitting down watching an out of market game to see what other teams look like. Now we’re just 2 games into the 2016 season and it’s way, way too early to start taking away anything from these games, but fans will. I understand the excitement of a fan when a player starts the season out with a hit and he thinks he’ll hit 1.000 for the season. There’s also the negative side where if a player takes an 0 for 4 in Game 1 of the season there are fans who think he’s not going to get a hit all season long. Now with fans it’s just the rooting interest for that team inside them that brings it out. Now when a teams announcers do it; it’s just plain stupid. After Bryce Harper and Freddie Freeman homered for their respective teams on opening day I heard an announcer from one of the tams mention that there both on pace to hit 162 home runs this season. Now I’m guessing this announcer thought it would be cute or funny, but it’s not; sadly it’s just plain stupid to say. Let the fans make those kind of statements and you spend your time giving us useful information about the players. This wasn’t the only example I saw. As the Chicago Cubs where on their way to a 2 game series sweep over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim they couldn’t help pointing out that there next opponent the Arizona Diamondbacks have gotten of to an 0-2 start and a couple of there off season additions Zack Greinke and Shelby Miller had rough outings. While I don;t know how much it affected his pitching performance, but after the game it was revealed that Greinke had the flu. As far as I know Miller just had a rough outing to start the season. I don;t understand why you’d post these stats on the screen when your team is playing so well to start the season. Are we suppose to believe that Greinke and Miller are going to be this bad all season long. I’m guessing the Cubs announcers where pointing this out because the Cubs will face Greinke and Miller in there series against the Diamondbacks, but it seemed as though they expected to pitch the same way against the Cubs. I actual wondered if there was some bitterness on the Cubs part as they had a couple of chances to acquire Miller, but couldn’t get a deal done; so they want to point out to there fans that they did the right thing. Now maybe they both will go out and have another tough outing against a Cubs team that can really hit the baseball, but even if they do it’s only 2 starts of 30 plus they should make this season. Of course this is also the Diamondbacks opening series at home for the 2016 season and they could both easily come out and have quality starts against the Cubs. Now if your a Cubs fan you know that it can be difficult to keep their television announcers focused on what’s actually going on in the game. They have a tendency to wander off topic for one reason or another, but I’m hoping since the Cubs are suppose to be a very good team this season that won’t happen as much. I’m sure there are many, many, many more examples of this, but these where the two that stuck out to me. Please stop doing this and just call the damn game. Oh by the way sorry Cubs fans, but the St. Louis cardinals will win some games this season.

NCAA

The NCAA basketball season ended for the men on Monday night and the woman last night. The men’s game featured a great finish to the game between North Carolina and Villanova. Now I wish I could say that I saw every minute of the game and it was the greatest tournament final of all time, but I can’t. I turned the game on just in time to see Marcus Paige of North Carolina hit that split legged 3-pointer to tie the game up. I was smart enough to stay with this game to watch the final play. Villanove inbounded the basketball with 4.7 seconds left. They rushed the ball down the floor and Kris Jenkins hit buzzer beating 3-pointer to give Villanove the win and the national championship. Seems to me like I flipped over the game at the perfect time. Now I didn’t see any of the woman’s championship game, but looking at the final score it went like a lot of people have been saying it would. The Connecticut Huskies defeated the Syracuse Orange woman 82-51. I believe Connecticut had been beating teams in the tournament by an average of 40 plus points; so this game was closer than people thought it might be. I wish I could crag as I did pick Connecticut to win the tournament in my women’s bracket, but given the fact that they where dominant all season and undefeated coming into the tournament; I’m guessing they where a very, very popular pick. The Connecticut victory capped off a great college career for Breanna Stewart. She was part of 151 victories and only five losses at Connecticut. She was Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four an unprecedented four times. She won the Wade Trophy twice. Stewart, fellow senior Moriah Jefferson and red-shirt junior Morgan Tuck, became the first college basketball players, men or women, to win four titles.

NBA

With a handful of games left in the NBA regular season and the Golden State Warriors 4 wins away from setting the record for most wins in the regular season you have to wonder if they should go for it. Golden State has loss it’s last two home games. One to the Boston Celtics and then last night in overtime to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Is it time for Golden State to give their starters some rest and focus on defending there NBA championship or is the wins record that important. Golden State was untouchable at home and now to have dropped two games to teams that most people think they shouldn’t of lost to has to bring up that question. If Golden State gets that 73rd win and sets the record, but doesn’t win the NBA championship was it worth it. While records are nice; they can be broken. Championships however go down in history.

You can find me on Twitter @Burketime

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast on BlogTalkRadio.com

How was your week

Posted: March 26, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, College Basketball, sports, Uncategorized
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If you’re a fan of the NBA or maybe just a basketball fan or how about just a fan of the Cleveland Cavaliers. I have to ask you; is this LeBron James media circus good for your team? There have been the passive aggressive tweets that James has sent out that makes it seem like he doesn’t want to play for the Cavaliers after this season. Then there was more social media drama when James stopped following the Cavaliers on there Twitter and Instagram accounts. James used the excuse that he was getting into “playoff mode’ as his reasoning for doing this. Then James came out and said that he’d like to put a “Super team” together wit his friends Carmelo Anthony, Dwayne Wade and Chris Paul. And then the worst one of all to me is the Cavaliers went out on Thursday night and lost to the Brooklyn Nets 104-95. Yes you read that right the Brooklyn Nets. Now James actually had a very good game against the Nets. James shot 13 for 16 from the field on the night. He made 1 of the 2 3-pointers he took; while making 3 of his 4 free throws he took for a total of 30 points. James also had 6 rebounds; handed out 5 assists and had a steal in the game. If you take James shooting totals away from the rest of the Cavaliers that night they where 23 of 73 (31.5%) from the field. Now even with that loss to the Nets the Cavaliers are 52-21 and barring a complete collapse in their final 10 games they’ll be the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference. 4 of the Cavaliers remaining games are at home; so that means there’s 6 games on the road, but none of the games are against what you’d describe as top tier competition. The Cavaliers face the New York Knicks tonight in New York, but the only teams they’ll face that are in the playoffs right now are the Houston Rockets on March 29th, the Atlanta Hawks twice on April 1st and April 11th and they play the Indiana Pacers on April 6th. So with the schedule the Cavaliers have they should be able to get their players rest if they decide to and still coast into the playoffs. While there might be a team that the Cavaliers run into in the Eastern Conference playoffs that might win a game or two in that series. Even with all of the LeBron James stuff going on. Is there really a team out there that could be a threat of actually winning a 7 game series against them? What would be interesting to me to find out is how the other Cavaliers feel about some of the stuff that James has been saying or doing, but none of them are going to say anything right now. Maybe will catch a break and when the season is over someone like J.R. Smith will come out and let the media know how he feels about what happened. Is there another player on the Cavaliers besides Smith that might actual come out and say something?

The NCAA men’s basketball tournament is down to the Elite 8. Now if you’ve listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast I did a bracket, but I also admitted I don’t know a whole lot about college basketball. If you remember I had Michigan State winning the tournament and they got beat in the 1st round. There’s always talk going into the tournament about the best conference and from the looks of the final eight teams left you’d have to say it’s the ACC. Out of the 8 teams left the ACC has 4 of them. You have long time conference members North Carolina and Virginia along with conference new comers Syracuse and Notre Dame. Now with the way the bracket happens to be set up this year only one of these teams can end up in the championship game. On Sunday out of the East bracket North Carolina who was a #1 seed faces #6 seeded Notre Dame. Also this Sunday out of the Midwest bracket Virginia who was also a #1 seed faces #10 seeded Syracuse. Now the winners of these games will meet in a Final 4 game for the right to play for the national championship. The ACC or Atlantic Coast Conference will set a record for money earned in a tournament. According to Darren Rovell each game played in this year’s tournament is worth $265,791. Through Friday night, ACC teams have earned 23 units, counting their Elite Eight games. They’ll earn another two from the Final Four, putting the total at 25 units. That’s where the conference will finish, because no units are awarded for the title game. The previous record for the most units earned in a single NCAA tournament was 24 by the Big East in 2009. The 25 units are worth at least $39.9 million. The ACC guaranteed itself at least $32.8 million from the 21 units it brought home in last year’s tournament. I’d have to guess as this information gets out we’ll start talking about players being paid again. While the ACC has dominated one side of the bracket; there are 4 other teams left. The South bracket and the West bracket went just as they where seeded. In the South bracket it will be #1 seeded Kansas against #2 seeded Villanova. Over in the West bracket we’ll see #1 seeded Oregon against #2 seeded Oklahoma. These two brackets may actually be the bigger surprise with the way they played out. Didn’t we hear at the start of the tournament about the parity in college basketball and none of the experts expected any bracket to go as it was seeded. How’s your bracket?

The Chicago Cubs got their first scare of spring training when Cy Young award winner Jake Arrieta had to leave his last start after just 1/3rd of an inning due to a blister. Arrieta left his Thursday start against the San Francisco Giants after giving up 5 runs and throwing 34 pitches. The Cubs have come out and said they’d be “cautious” with Arrieta, but Arrieta himself has come out and said he’d be ready for opening day on April 4th. The difficulty may be that Thursday was planned to be Arrieta’s long start of spring training. It was reported he’d throw 80 plus pitches in that game. Now with the blister issue will he be able to get himself stretched out for his opening day start. The Cubs seem to be just about everybody’s pick this season. If you don;t have them winning the World Series you probably at least have them there as the National League representative. If this blister is a recurring issue and Arrieta has to continue to leave starts early or possible miss some starts as the blister heals that Cubs pick might be in some trouble. Can the Cubs find Arrieta some extra work and get him ready for his opening day start or will that start and maybe another be his stretching out period for the season. It will be important to see if the blister issue happens again to Arrieta because he’s the best pitcher on the Cubs and not many teams go far when their best pitcher is having injury issues.

You can listen to Sports Time Radio on BlogTalkRadio.com

You can find me on Twitter @Burketime

Lets call it Wednesday

Posted: March 23, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, sports, Uncategorized
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We’re just about 10 days away from opening day and the last thing a team wants is to lose a player late in spring training to an injury. Unfortunately the Los Angeles Dodgers suffered a big loss as outfielder Andre Either was diagnosed with a fracture of the right tibia and will be out 10 to 14 weeks. Either fouled a ball off his shin in Friday’s exhibition game against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The original X-rays that day revealed no broken bones, but the Dodgers said Tuesday that a follow-up CT scan showed the fracture. The only good news for Either is the fact that he wont need surgery to repair his injury. Either was being projected as the Dodgers starting left fielder for this coming season. With Either out the Dodgers will go with Carl Crawford, Scott Van Slyke or possible Trayce Thompson in left field. Ethier batted .294 with 14 homers and 53 RBIs in 395 at-bats last season. He also had seven triples and a .366 on-base percentage. Ethier ranked second on the Dodgers in OPS (.852) in 2015, nine points shy of Justin Turner for best on the team among those with at least 200 plate appearances. He ranked 18th in the National League in on-base percentage, 20th in slugging percentage (.486) and 17th in OPS among players with at least 300 plate appearances. The Dodgers have been bit hard by the injury bug this spring. Don’t forget they already lost left-hander Brett Anderson for an extended period of time, as his back injury will keep him on the shelf for three to five weeks. Besides Either and Anderson there is quite a list of Dodgers who are either working back from some type of an injury or recovering from an off season procedure. That list includes Alex Wood, Brandon Beachy, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Yasmani Grandal, Adrian Gonzalez, Howie Kendrick, Enrique Hernandez, Corey Seager, Justin Turner, Scott Van Slyke and Julio Urias. Seager should be back from his sprained knee by Opening Day, Gonzalez and Kendrick are at full strength from their nagging injuries and Turner is rounding into form quickly, so at least some areas are headed in the right direction for the Dodgers. The health issue is a concern for all teams, but the Dodgers will have to keep a particularly close eye on things.

It was announced this morning that Sean Payton and the New Orleans Saints have agreed to a 5-year which will keep him with the team until the 2020 season. It is being reported that the deal will pay Payton in excess of $45 million. Payton, who has coached the Saints for 10 years, was already one of the NFL’s highest paid coaches at $8.5 million in his previous deal, which ran through 2017. There was a lot of speculation last season that Payto might leave the Saints for another NFL team if a compensation package could’ve been worked out. Nothing ever materialized and Payton has a new contract to stay with the Saints. In addition, the Saints are continuing negotiations with quarterback Drew Brees on a proposed 4-year contract extension, which would also keep him with the team through the 2020 season. Negotiations with Brees, who has one year remaining on his own contract, has picked up recently as the Saints have incentive to lower his NFL-high salary cap figure of $30 million for 2016.

With the NBA season winding down the Cleveland Cavaliers are still the only team in the Eastern Conference to lock in a playoff spot. Looking at the standings it does appear that the Top 6 teams in the Eastern Conference will eventually lock in a playoff spot. The question becomes; who ends up with the 7th and 8th seeds? The Indiana Pacers are holding down the 7th seed right now at 37-33. The Chicago Bulls are holding onto the 8th seed, but they are just a 1/2 game behind the Pacers at 36-33. On the outside looking in right now are the Detroit Pistons who are 37-34 and just 0.001 percentage points behind the Bulls for that final playoff spot. Then there’s the Washington Wizards who are back to .500 at 35-35 and have the longest current winning streak in the Eastern Conference at 5 games. If you’re the Cavaliers is there a team you prefer to see end up in the 8th spot? While I don’t think the Cavaliers would have any problems winning a playoff series against any of the teams listed there are some teams that might give them more trouble than others. What may be interesting is if a team can get into the 7th spot because the Toronto Raptors have had issues against some of the teams competing for a playoff spot. Is it possible we could see a #2 seed like the Raptors go out in the first round of the playoffs?

Now the Western Conference is looking a little clearer. It looks like the Top 5 teams are set and then it’s just the order of the final 3 teams that will have to play out. There is an outside chance that the Utah Jazz could take away a playoff spot from either the Houston Rockets or the Dallas Mavericks. The Jazz currently trail the Rockets by 1/2 for the 8th spot and the Jazz are just 1 game behind the Mavericks. Is it time to start wondering if getting into the playoffs as the 7th or 8th seed in the Western Conference really a plus for your season. The 7th seed will get to face the San Antonio Spurs in the 1st round and the 8th seed matches up with the Golden State Warriors in Round 1. Would the Rockets, Mavericks or Jazz even win a game in a 1st round playoff series against the Spurs or the Warriors; probably not. We probably shouldn’t lock the Portland Trail Blazers into the playoffs just yet. The Trail Blazers are just 1 1/2 ahead of the Jazz; so a bad streak here in the final 10 games could have them out of the playoffs. You just know any team would like to get themselves into that 6th seed; so they could face the Oklahoma City Thunder in the 1st round.

Barring any major upsets you’d have to think will see the Warriors vs. the Spurs for the Western Conference title and then the winner of that series would move on the play the Cavaliers in the NBA Finals. The outcome has looked like this for a while now and I have to wonder if this will affect the ratings of the opening round playoff games or maybe people will watch rooting for the upset?

You can listen to Sports Time Radio on BlogTalkRadio.com

You can find me on Twitter @Burketime

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