Archive for the ‘hockey’ Category

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: February 10, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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The Denver Broncos won Super Bowl 50 over the Carolina Panthers 24-10 on Sunday. Denver used the best defense in the NFL to shutdown the Cam Newton led Panthers offense. Newton was sacked 6 times threw an interception and was hit 13 other times on top of the sacks. It was the first time all season that the Carolina offense was shutdown like it was in the Super Bowl. The Broncos defense actually had 7 sacks on the night, but one of them was on Ted Ginn Jr. on a trick play that the Panthers where trying to run. Newton ended the game 18 of 41 for 265 yards. Newton also ended the game as the Panthers leading rusher. Newton had 45 yards on 6 rushing attempts. The Carolina offense also fumbled the football 4 times losing 3 of them. Carolina’s receivers where producing, but they just couldn’t string any plays together because of the pressure Newton was under all game. Corey (Philly) Brown, Greg Olson and Ginn all had 4 receptions in the game. Brown went for 80 yards and looked like he was in position to be the key to Carolina’s offense, but had to leave the game with concussion symptoms. Carolina’s defense played a good game as well and actually kept them in it. Peyton Manning was 13 for 23 for just a 141 yards with 1 interception. Manning was also sacked 5 times. Even Denver’s running game couldn’t really get going. C.J. Anderson did carry the football 23 times for 90 yards and 1 touchdown; he only averaged 3.9 yards per carry. To be fair Anderson’s rushing touchdown was a gift from the Broncos defense and if T.J. Ward would’ve been able to stand up he would’ve scored that touchdown. Emmanuel Sanders was Manning’s main target as he had 6 receptions for 83 yards. Anderson did add 4 catches as well, but went for just 10 yards on those catches. With the game playing out the way it did you knew that someone from the Broncos defense would be the MVP The award went to Von Miller who had  tackles, 2 1/2 sacks and a forced fumble. Miller set the tone for the game as he just took the football away from Newton down on the goal line and Malik Jackson recovered it in the end zone for the 1st score of the game. Miller was far and away the best player on the Broncos and deserved the award. I believe that if the Panthers would’ve found a way t comeback and win the game Kony Early would’ve been the MVP. Early had 3 sacks and 1 interception for the Panthers defense. Of course I was happy to see Miller get the MVP as he was my pick in the Saturday blog.

Our Super Bowl predictions where decent this season. Mr. Fantasy and I had Denver winning and I mentioned that I some how got the MVP right. Sadly Dan the Man and Schaumburg Stu had Carolina winning. No one got the final score right, but Mr. Fantasy did have Denver’s point total correct. Overall for our playoff predictions Mr. Fantasy and I went 8-4, but since he got Denver’s point total right he would win the tiebreaker. Dan the Man went 7-5 for the playoffs and Schaumburg Stu finished at 6-6 overall.

With the game being a defensive battle there where a lot of people complaining that they didn’t like it. I’m sure everyone and even the NFL expected more of an offensive battle, but both defenses controlled the action. Neither team had an answer for the others pass rush and turnovers made the difference in the game. I don’t have the energy to go through the post game stuff that went on wit Cam Newton, but what I want to know is did you enjoy the game?

The Ottawa Senators made a deal yesterday with the Toronto Maple Leafs to try to get themselves into the playoffs. It was a 9-player deal between the 2 teams with the center piece being Dion Phaneuf going from Toronto to Ottawa. Along with Phanuef the Senators received forward Matt Frattin, forward Casey Bailey, forward Ryan Rupert and defense prospect Cody Donaghey from the Maple Leafs. In return the Maple Leafs got defenseman Jared Cowen, forwards Colin Greening, Milan Michalek and Tobias Lindberg, and Ottawa’s second-round pick in the 2017 NHL draft. What may have been the biggest key to the deal for the Maple Leafs is that Ottawa was willing to pick up the remainder of Phanuef’s contract which has 5 years still on it and is a salary cap hit of $7 million. As it appears Toronto will rebuild with the extra salary cap room will the Maple Leafs go after free agent to be Steven Stamkos now of the Tampa Bay Lighting. Phaneuf spent the first four-plus years of his career in Calgary before being traded to Toronto in January 2010. The three-time All-Star has 45 goals, 151 assists and is a minus-30 in his career. This may be the first of a few deals the Maple Leafs are involved in if they’re going to try and clear some salary cap room.

The Senators are currently 25-23-6 on the season for 56 points. That puts them 5 points behind the Pittsburgh Penguins and 6 points behind the Boston Bruins for a Eastern Conference wild card spot. Ottawa has won it’s last 2 games putting up 11 goals total in those games. The Senators will play 3 games in 4 days starting tonight against the Detroit Red Wings in Detroit. They head home for Thursday’s game against the Colorado Avalanche and then Ottawa has a day off before going back on the road to play the Columbus Blue Jackets. That’s a tough set of games; so we’ll have to see if the Senators can make up some ground in the wild card race over these next 4 days.

Is anyone else confused by the Sacramento Kings. At the start of the season there was talk that they where going to fire head coach George Karl. That move seemed to stem from Karl’s suggestion of trading Sacramento’s best player DeMarcus Cousins. The team got off to a good start and the firing talk went away. Well as soon as the team hit a bad stretch the talk of removing Karl as coach came right back. There where quite a few reports that Karl would be removed over the All-Star break which is this weekend. Then there was a report yesterday that Karl met with the Kings owner and he would remain coach for the rest of the season. I guess at this point in time; why would Karl want to coach this team? Sacramento is 21-31 and is 5 games out of the 8th and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. Here you go; say the Kings rebound and get themselves into that #8 seed and make the playoffs. How do you think they would do against the Golden State Warriors in the 1st round of the playoffs?

You can listen to Sports Time Radio on BlogTalkRadio.com and today (Wednesday) Schaumburg Stu is filling in for Dan the Man.

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: February 3, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, fantasy, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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The National Hockey League returned to the ice last night after the All-Star break with 12 games on the schedule. Connor McDavid returned to action for the Edmonton Oilers and scored a goal and picked up 2 assists in the Oilers 6-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets. Sidney Crosby scored 3 goals and added an assists in the Pittsburgh Penquins 6-5 victory over the Ottawa Senators. Crosby had a natural hat tick meaning his 3 goals came in a row. In a battle of 1st place teams the Atlantic leading Florida Panthers beat the Metropolitan leading Washington Capitals 5-2. Jonathan Huberdeau scored 2 goals and had an assists in the Panthers victory.Brian Elliott of the St. Louis Blies faced just 16 shots stopping them all as St. Louis picked up a 1-0 win over the Nashville Predators. Pekka Rinne stopped 22 of the 23 shots he faced, but all St. Louis needed was that 1 goal to get the win. In the other games the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Colorado Avalanche 2-1. The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Boston Bruins 4-3. The New Jersey Devils beat the New York Rangers 3-2.The New York Islanders beat the Minnesota Wild 5-3. The Philadelphia beat the Montreal Canadiens 4-2. The Dallas Stars beat the Winnipeg Jets 5-3. The Los Angeles Kings beat the Arizona Coyotes 6-2 and the Anaheim Ducks beat the San Jose Sharks 3-2. There are just 3 games on the ice tonight and the Canadiens are the only team that is playing back to back as they’re hosting the Buffalo Sabres. Also playing tonight the Detroit Red Wings are at the Tampa Bay Lighting and the Carolina Hurricanes are at the Calgary Flames. After tonight’s games the only team that hasn’t played a game after the All-Star break is the Vancouver Canucks.

The NHL has rescheduled the 3 games that where cancelled because of the snow storm that hit the east coast. The Pittsburgh/Washington game will be played March 1st in Washington. The other two games Anaheim at Washington and Philadelphia at New York (Islanders) will be played on April 10th and will end the regular season.

Behind 38 points from Kobe Bryant the Los Angeles Lakers ended their 10 game losing streak last night beating the Minnesota Timberwolves 119-115 at the Staples Center. Bryant played 33 minutes going 10-21 from the field. 11 of his attempts where 3 pointers and he made 7 of them. Bryant added 5 rebounds, a team leading 5 assists and 2 steals on the night. Louis Williams scored 20 points. D’Angelo Russell came off the Lakers bench to score 18 points. Jordan Clarkson scored 16 points while Julius Randle added 15 points and a team high 12 rebounds. The Timberwolves had 6 players score in double figures led by Andrew Wiggins with 30 in 41 minutes. Gorgui Dieng had 19 points. Zach LaVine and Karl-Anthony Towns had 14 points; Towns also had a team high 9 rebounds. Shabazz Muhammad had 12 points while Rickey Rubio scored 10 points and had a team leading 15 assists.

The win improved the Lakers record to 10-41 this season. Los Angeles will try to extend there winning streak Thursday night as they start a 4 games road trip against the New Orleans Pelicans. After New Orleans the Lakers road trip will see them face the San Antonio Spurs, the Indiana Pacers and then they wrap up the road trip against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

In other NBA action the Boston Celtics beat the New York Knicks 97-89. Isaiah Thomas led the Celtics with 20 points while Arron Afflalo had 18 points to lead the Knicks. The Houston Rockets beat the Miami Heat 115-102. James Harden led the Rockets with 26 points while Luol Deng had 17 points to lead the Heat. The Toronto raptors beat the Phoenix Suns 104-97. Kyle Lowry led the Raptors 26 points while Markieff Morris put up a double-double 30 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Suns. The Portland Trailblazers beat the Milwaukee Bucks 107-95. C.J. McCollum led the Trailblazers with 30 points while Khris Middleton led Milwaukee with 21 points.

There are quite a few games on the NBA schedule tonight. There are 11 games on the court tonight and it’s an ESPN television night. The first game on ESPN has the Golden State warriors at the Washington Wizards while the night cap features the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Los Angeles Clippers. Interestingly Minnesota is playing back to back games on the road against different teams in the same arena. Alright; maybe that’s just interesting to me.

I have to tell you I’m still not all that excited about the Super Bowl. I guess there could be some solid story lines. If the Denver Broncos win and Peyton Manning could ride off into the sunset as a Super Bowl champion. On the other hand if the Carolina Panthers get the win will that establish Cam Newton as the top player in the NFL. The original line had Carolina as a 4 point favorite. The betting line has jump and now Carolina is a 6 point favorite. The over/under for the game is at 45 and I believe it started around 44 or 44 1/2; so there wasn’t much movement in that betting line. If your not interested in betting your money on either of those two lines there are 37 other prop bets you can wager on. You can bet on stuff like what will the coin flip be heads or tails. How about putting some money down on what Stephen Curry will be wearing if he’s shown on television. Since the game is in San Francisco or I guess technically it’s Santa Clara, but you can actual bet on if there will be an earthquake during the game. On the Sunday Sports Time Radio podcast I’ll have to pull up some of these prop bets and see where Mr. Fantasy stands on these. The Sunday podcast is from 10:00 a.m. until Noon on http://www.BlogTalkRadio.com As always will make our picks for the game, but will extend those a little as Dan the Man, Schaumburg Stu, Mr. Fantasy and myself will not only pick the winner of the game, but also what we think the final score will be and who we think will win the MVP. Mr. Fantasy and I will also try to put together a winning FanDuel line up for you as well as a breakdown of Super Bowl 50.

Who’s your pick to win?

You can find me on Twitter @Burketime

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: January 27, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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Believe it or not the Golden State Warriors did it to another contender. This time the San Antonio Spurs fell victim to a 30 point Warriors blow out 120-90 on Monday night. Tim Duncan was held out of the game due to a knee issue, but even if Duncan had played it wouldn’t of changed the outcome of the game. The Warriors took a 6-point lead after the 1st quarter 29-23. Golden State added 9 points to the lead going into halftime 62-47. The Warriors out the game away in the 3rd quarter adding 14 points to there lead 95-66. The Golden State lead was big enough after 3 quarters for Stephan Curry to sit out the entire 4th quarter. Even without Curry in the 4th the Warriors outscored the Spurs 25-24 to get another 30 point victory over a team many experts thought might be an NBA title contender.

Curry led the way for Golden State with 37 points in 28 minutes of game action. Draymond Green and Klay Thompson were the other Warriors starters scoring in double figures with 11 points apiece. Brandon Rush and Shaun Livingston came off the Warriors bench to score 13 points; Marreese Speights added 12 points off the Golden State bench as well. Green led Golden State in both rebounds with 9 and assists with 6.

San Antonio was led by Kawhi Leonard in scoring with 16 points. David West was the only other Spurs starter to score in double figures with 12. but Boban Marjanovic did come off the San Antonio bench to score 12 points. Marjanovic also grabbed a team high 6 rebounds while Tony Parker, Danny Green and Manu Ginobili all tied for the team lead in assists with 3.

The Warriors improved to 21-0 at home and 41-4 overall. The loss was the Spurs 7th of the season; all on the road and there record dropped to 38-7. Golden State is back in action tonight as they play host to the Dallas Mavericks. The Mavericks are 26-21 on the season, but just 13-13 on the road. Can they be the team to hand the Warriors their 1st home loss of the season? If Golden State gets a win tonight over Dallas they’ll take their winning streak on a 3 game road trip starting Saturday in Philadelphia against the 76ers. The game against the 76ers is the first of a back to back as Sunday night the Warriors face off against the New York Knicks. After the back to back the Warriors get a couple of days off before going up against the Washington Wizards to end the road trip. Philadelphia is 7-39 on the season and it would be the biggest upset in I don’t know how long if they beat the Warriors. Back to backs are always tough for teams; so maybe the Knicks have an outside shot at getting a win against Golden State. The Knicks are 22-25, but do have a winning record (13-10) at home. The Wizards have been a bit of a disappointment this season. They’re 20-23 this season and have actually played better on the road than they have at home. Don’t forget that the Warriors did stumble on their last road trip and lost a game to the Detroit Pistons. Could we see something like that happen on this road trip? It’s doubtful with the match ups they have; Detroit is 24-21 and looking to grab an Eastern Conference playoff spot this season.

There are 4 games left on the NHL schedule tonight before the teams head into the All-Star break. The Toronto Maple Leafs take on the Tampa Bay Lighting. The Philadelphia Flyers take on the Washington Capitals. The Nashville Predators take on the Calgary Flames and the night wraps up with the Colorado Avalanche against the Los Angeles Kings. Win or lose tonight the Capitals will head into the All-Star break with the most points. Washington has 73 points heading into tonight’s game against Philadelphia. Washington is followed by the Chicago Blackhawks with 70 points. The Dallas Stars are next with 67 points. Then the St. Louis Blues have 64 points while the Kings and the Florida Panthers are tied at 63 points. Three of the those teams (Blackhawks, Stars and Blues) all come from the Western Conference Central division.

The Blackhawks Patrick Kane leads the NHL in scoring with 73 points. Kane also leads in goals with 30 and assists with 43. Jamie Benn of the Stars is 2nd in scoring with 58 points and his teammate Tyler Seguin is 3rd with 53 points. Ottawa Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson is 4th in scoring with 52 points and Joe Pavelski of the San Jose Sharks rounds out the Top 5 scorers with 49 points. Benn and Washington’s Alex Ovechkin trail Kane by 2 goals with 28 each then comes Sequin, Pavelski and the Blues Vladimir Tarasenko with 26 goals each. Karlsson trails Kane by 2 assists with 41 on the season. Blake Wheeler of the Winnipeg Jets is 3rd with 35 assists. John Klingberg from the Stars is 4th with 34 assists and then P.K. Subban of the Montreal Canadiens and Evgeny Kuznetsov of the Capitals are tied for 5th with 33 assists.

Washington’s Braden Holtby leads all goaltenders in wins with 30. Chicago’s Corey Crawford is next with 28 wins then Jonathan Quick of the Kings comes in with 26 wins.  Henrik Lundqvist of the New York Rangers and Martin Jones of the Sharks are tied with 23 wins. John Gibson of the Anaheim Ducks has the best Goals Against Average at 1.91. Holtby is next at 2.01 with Ben Bishop of the Tampa Bay Lighting eight behind him at 2.02. Peter Mrazek of the Detroit Red Wings and Cory Schneider of the New Jersey Devils are tied at 2.03. Chicago’s Crawford leads all goaltenders with 7 shutouts on the season. Jake Allen of the Blues is next with 5 shutouts while there are 7 goalies tied with 4 shutouts.

I’m sure you noticed going through the stats, but the teams with the better records seem to have the most players on top of the stat sheet. If your favorite is doing well they’ll need their top players to continue to produce to stay in playoff contention.

We’ve got our Super Bowl match up. It will be the #1 seeds from each conference as the Denver Broncos will represent the AFC as they take on the Carolina Panthers of the NFC. The Broncos had a little tougher time getting to the Super Bowl as they held on for a 20-18 victory over the New England Patriots. The Panthers had a much easier time advancing to the Super Bowl as they cruised to a 49-15 victory over the Arizona Cardinals. There’s plenty of time to break this game down; so I’m not going to start on it today. What I will tell you is Carolina opened as a 4 point favorite for the game with the over/under being set at 44 1/2 points.

Listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast on http://www.BlogTalkRadio.com

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

 

How was your week

Posted: January 23, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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Thursday night the Chicago Blackhawks took their 12 game winning streak into Amalie Arena to face the Tampa Bay Lighting in a rematch of last seasons Stanley Cup finals. The Lighting where coming in on a 6 game winning streak of their own. It was a close game 2-1, but it was the Blackhawks that saw there team record winning streak end. It looked good for the Blackhawks early as Artem Anisimov put them up 1-0 on his 17 goal of the season early in the 1st period. Patrick Kane picked up an assists on the goal. Just about 7 minutes later Anton Stralman tied it up with his 6th goal of the season to make it a 1-1 game. Victor Hedman and Valteri Flippula assisted on Hedman’s goal. The teams entered the 2nd period tied 1-1. Late in the 2nd period on the power play Nikita Kucherov scored his 20th goal of the season; which turned out to be the game winner. Hedman and Alex Killorn assisted on the goal. Each team had scoring chances in the 3rd period, but both Corey Crawford (Blackhawks) and Ben Bishop (Tampa Bay) kept the puck out of the net. Crawford stopped all 10 shots he saw in the 3rd period. For the game Crawford stopped 31 of the 33 shots he faced. Bishop stopped 9 shots in the 3rd period, but overall had a lighter night in goal than Crawford as the Blackhawks only registered 18 total shots on goal. Bishop stopped 17 of the 18 shots he faced. Tampa bay will take it’s 7-game winning streak on the road tonight (Saturday) as they face the Florida Panthers. With their record breaking streak snapped you had to wonder how the Blackhawks would bounce back and they didn’t have to wait long to take the ice again as they where scheduled for back to back games as they took the ice last night to play the Panthers. The Panthers had there own 12 game winning streak just a couple of weeks ago, but came into last nights game on a 4 game losing streak. Crawford got the night off in goal for the Blackhawks as Scott Darling got the start. The Panthers didn’t waste any time getting to Darling as Reilly Smith (14), former Blackhawk Brian Campbell (3) and Quinton Howden (5) all tallied 1st period goals to give the Panthers a 3-0 after one. Aaron Eckblad picked up his 10th goal of the season in the 2nd period and as it turned out the Panthers didn’t need anymore than 1 goal as Roberto Luongo turned away all 27 of the Blackhawks shots he faced for his 4th shutout of the season in Florida’s 4-0 victory. So it’s went from winning 12 in a row to losing 2 in a row for the Blackhawks and it doesn’t get any easier as they face the St. Louis Blues on Sunday, but it is a home game for the Blackhawks. St. Louis is in 3rd place in the Central division of the Western Conference behind the Blackhawks and the Dallas Stars. The Blues will also be coming into Sunday’s game off a loss as they suffered a 2-1 shootout loss to the Colorado Avalanche Friday night.

With a little over half of the season gone it looks as though the Washington Capitals are the best team in the NHL. Washington is 35-8-3 for 73 points on the season. The Blackhawks at 68 points and the Stars at 65 points are the two closet teams to the Capitals. While I’m sure you’re not surprised that Alexander Ovechkin leads the Capitals on goals with 28. It might be a bit of a surprise to you that he;s just 3rd on the team in overall scoring. With 15 goals and 33 assists  Evgeny Kuznetsov leads Washington with 48 points. Nicklas Backstrom has 15 goals and 29 assists and is 2nd on the team in scoring with 44 points. Ovechkin is actually 3rd on the team in scoring with 42 points. While Ovechkin, Kuznetsov and Backstrom have led the Capitals offense t the best record in hockey it’s Braden Holtby who holds things down in goal. Holtby has started 38 out of Washington’s 46 games this season. Holtby is 30-5-2 and his 30 wins leads the league. He has the 3rd best Goals Against Average at 2.01 and his Save Percentage of .930 ranks 5th among regular starting goalies. Holtby doesn’t garner much attention, but he’s a big reason the Capitals are playing like the best team in the NHL.

The NFL will decide this Sunday who gets to play in the Super Bowl as the Conference championships take place. It starts with the New England Patriots at the Denver Broncos which is scheduled to kickoff at 2:05. The night game features the Arizona Cardinals at the Carolina Panthers. These 4 teams where the top seeds in their conferences; so I guess you could say they’re suppose to be here. I have to tell you I’ve been very disappointed in the playoff games so far. I think there’s only been 1 or maybe 2 games that have been good or even interesting to watch. I’m hoping that these 2 games will come through and give me something to look forward to as we head into the week off before the Super Bowl. Like we always do on the Sunday edition of Sports Time Radio Mr. Fantasy and I will do our best to break these games down and let you know who we think will win and why. Of course will let you in on who Dan the Man and Schaumburg are picking to win the games as well. In our playoff picks Dan the Man and I are tied at 6-2 while Schaumburg Stu and Mr. Fantasy are just a game behind at 5-3. Not to give too much away, but I did have Arizona winning the Super Bowl when we made our pre-season predictions; so you might be able to guess who I’ll be raking to win the Arizona/Carolina game. For the rest of the picks you’ll have to tune in between 10:00 a.m. and Noon on BlogTalkRadio.com to hear who everyone is going with to win.

I’m sure you’ve heard by now that the Cleveland Cavaliers made a change at head coach yesterday. Even with a career record of 83-40 in a season and a half and a trip to the NBA Finals David Blatt was fired by the Cavaliers. It may seem like an odd firing, but remember that he wasn’t LeBron James’ guy and it’s no real surprise that after they where embarrassed by the Golden State Warriors on Monday that they used this to fire Blatt. Tyronn Lue was immediately hired as head coach and given a 3 year deal. Lue gets to coach his first game as head coach tonight as the Cavaliers face the Chicago Bulls. Now I heard it reported over and over yesterday that James wasn’t consulted in the decision to fire Blatt. There is no possible way that you’ll every get me to believe that. There is no way the team didn’t go to James before they made this decision and asked his opinion. If Blatt was a guy James liked playing for there’s no chance that this move would’ve been made. In general teams don’t like to anger their best player. Of course this is the Cavaliers we’re talking about; so you never know. Lue inherits the best team in the Eastern Conference and should have no trouble at all taking the Cavaliers to the NBA Finals where he’ll probably suffer the same fate as Blatt. A loss to a better Western Conference team.

You can find me on Twitter @Burketime

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: January 20, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, fantasy, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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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

 

 

 

How was your week

Posted: January 16, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, hockey, sports
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The NBA season is just about to it’s halfway point and I heard an interesting comment about the league the other day. I wish I could remember who I could attribute this to, but sadly I can’t. Anyway this NBA analyst went on to say that there are only 3 teams that are serious NBA championship contenders. So if you’re not a fan of the Golden State Warriors, San Antonio Spurs or the Cleveland Cavaliers your season is over. Is that tough for you to hear? Golden State has the best record in the NBA at 37-3 while San Antonio is 35-6. Neither team has lost a home game so far this season as the Warriors are 19-0 at home and the Spurs are 23-0 at home. Cleveland is 28-10, but is far and away the best team in the Eastern Conference. While the Cavaliers may have the easiest road to the finals they have lost both of their games against the top to teams in the west. On Christmas Day Golden State beat the Cavaliers 89-83 and then just this Thursday Cleveland was beaten by San Antonio 99-95. To be fair both of these match ups where on the road and now the Cavaliers will get to host Golden State this coming Monday, but they don’t host San Antonio until January 30th. Cleveland’s only loss at home was on December 1st; a 97-85 defeat by the Washington Wizards. The Toronto Raptors are 25-15 and look like the 2nd best team in the Eastern Conference, but are they a threat to beat the Cavaliers for a trip to the NBA Finals. In the Western Conference the Oklahoma City Thunder are 19-12 and the Los Angeles Clippers are 26-13 and look like the 3rd and 4th best teams in the Western Conference. Are the Thunder and the Clippers a threat to go to the NBA Finals? If someone besides the Warriors or the Spurs is going to represent the Western Conference in the NBA Finals they’ll have to beat both of those teams in a 7 game series. Say a team like the Thunder or the Clippers did manage to get past both the Warriors and the Spurs during the playoffs. How much would they have left for an NBA Finals match up against a team like Cleveland?

Remember when there was nothing but complaining about the Eastern Conference and the fact that they had teams with under .500 records getting into the playoffs. I don;t think I’ve heard as much complaining now that all 8 of what would be the Eastern Conference playoff teams would be over .500 and the Western Conference would have a team just 1 game over .500 sneak in and another team that is under .500 make the playoffs. Where did all these guys go who where saying the playoffs needed to be re-seeded and these terrible under.500 teams would ruin the playoffs by making it. Did those teams ruin Golden State’s run to a championship last season by making the playoffs. Yeah; I didn’t think so. Maybe it would affect the NBA if one of these under .500 teams actually made a playoff run and won a championship. It could also attract more casual fans to the NBA as a team that shouldn’t be there is there and that can draw a crowd. The playoff system the NBA uses seems to get good result as I don’t remember a team with an under .500 record win a championship over even go to a conference finals and while it might be tough to see a team with a better record than another team out of the playoffs that’s the way the conferences are set up. What will they say this season if there’s a team with a record above .500 that doesn’t make the playoffs, but it’s in the Eastern Conference this season.

There was a little bit of controversy when the NHL held an online vote to name captains for the All-Star game and John Scott of the Arizona Coyotes won one of those spots. Scott has played in 11 games this season for the Coyotes. Scott has 1 assists in those 11 games, but does have 25 penalty minutes. Now yesterday the Coyotes made a couple of trades. The first trade had Arizona sending defenseman Stefan Elliott to the Nashville Predators for defenseman Victor Bartley. Arizona then turned around and sent Bartley along with Scott to the Montreal Canadiens for defenseman Jarred Tinordi and minor league winger Stefan Fournier. It looks like just an even swap of players; no big deal. Well the Canadiens assigned Scott to their minor league affiliate  St. John’s of the AHL. Now accord to NHL rules Scott has to be on an NHL team to play in the All-Star game. I’m sure the players association will go back and forth with the NHL on this, but Scott himself said he’d follow the league rules. What this is all leading me too and this is normally Dan the Man’s thing on Sports Time Radio, but was this a conspiracy? I’m sure the NHL saw Scot being voted an All-Star captain as embarrassing and while both teams are saying the right things; you have to look at this and wonder.

After the rumors yesterday that the Baltimore Orioles had offered free agent outfielder Yoenis Cespedes a 5-year $90 million dollar contract I was surprised to see that there are reports that say the Orioles and free agent Chris Davis have agreed on a 7-year $161 million dollar deal. Maybe the contract offer to Cespedes was to try and get Davis’ camp moving as they seemed to be dragging their feet in negotiations with Baltimore. Davis hit a league high 47 home runs last season to go with 117 RBI’s and hit .262. Could the Orioles bring Davis back and still sign Cespedes?

The World Series champion Kansas City Royals also added a free agent overnight as it’s being reported that the Royals and Ian Kennedy have agreed on a 5-year $70 million dollar contract. Kennedy spent the last 3 seasons with the San Diego Padres where last season he was 9-15 with a 4.28 ERA in 30 starts.

In our picks for the wild card round Schaumburg Stu, Dan the Man and I went 3-1 while Mr. Fantasy was 2-2. The divisional round kicks off this afternoon with the Kansas City Chiefs at the New England Patriots and then tonight it’s the Green Bay Packers at the Arizona Cardinals. While I didn’t receive Mr. Fantasy’s picks in time to add them to this I can tell you that Dan the Man, Schaumburg Stu and I are all picking New England to win today’s first game, but Dan the Man and Schaumburg Stu have Green Bay winning tonight;s game while I have Arizona getting the win. Sunday’s games are the Seattle Seahawks at the Carolina Panthers to start the day and then the Pittsburgh Steelers at the Denver Broncos in the afternoon to wrap up the divisional round. Tomorrow on the Sports Time radio podcast I’ll give you are picks for the Sunday games as well as a review of how today’s games went. Mr. Fantasy should be their and he’ll be able to adjust his picks to go 2-0 on Saturday. You can find the podcast on http://www.BlogTalkRadio.com live from 10:00 a.m. until Noon.

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

How was your week

Posted: January 2, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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I’m sure you know that we’re not huge college football fans at Sports Time Radio, but it seems as though the bowl season has been disappointing. New Years Eve had the Final 4 match ups and both games ended up being blowouts. The first game was Clemson vs. Oklahoma. Oklahoma actually led this game 17-16 going into halftime and then didn’t score again in the game as Clemson cruised to a 37-17 victory. The second game; if you can even call it a game was Alabama vs. Michigan State. Neither team scored in the first quarter. After that Alabama went on to score 38 straight points while not giving up any points as they easily advanced to the title game with a 38-0 victory. I only saw a little bit of each of these games, but unless you are a fan of these teams was there a reason for you to stay with the game after they became blowouts. Here’ hoping the Clemson vs. Alabama championship game will be better than these semi-final match ups turned out to be.

If you’re still interested in college football the last 4 bowl are are on the schedule for today. It starts off with the Taxslayer Bowl featuring Penn State vs. Georgia. Then there’s the Liberty Bowl with Kansas State vs. Arkansas. The Alamo Bowl is the 3rd bowl game on the schedule with Oregon vs. TCU. The night wraps up with the Cactus Bowl which has West Virginia vs. Arizona State. I’m sure I’ll flip over to check the score a time or two in these games, but I won’t watch more than a minute or two at a time. There are just way too many bowl games for me,but give me your reason for watching one of these or all of these games.

It’s the last week of the regular season in the NFL and the league is doing the best they can to make sure teams don’t know if they can rest their players. Originally the Carolina Panthers where suppose to play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Noon on Sunday. While Schaumburg Stu and I where doing the Thursday podcast I notice that the Panthers/Buccaneers game had been moved to a 3:25 p.m. start time. This game was moved because the Seattle Seahawks vs. the Arizona Cardinals game was scheduled at 3:25 p.m. all along. If Carolina and Tampa Bay had played early and Carolina had won the game they would claim the #1 seed in the NFC. Once Carolina had won that game the Cardinals would be able to rest their players because they would be the #2 seed no matter if they won or lost their game with Seattle. I like this move by the NFL; I’m not sure how it will work out, but will see if any teams will try and get their players some rest during Week 17.

There where reports all week that the Indianapolis Colts won’t be bringing back there head coach Chuck Pagano. This isn’t really a big surprise. This was the last year on Pagano’s contract and after the Colts offered him just a 1 year extension you had to think there where some issues between coach and front office.  The Colts are a very disappointing 7-8 this season and while there still is a chance for them too find there way into the playoffs I wouldn’t count on that happening. This is Pagano’s 4th season as Colts head coach. In Pagano’s first 3 season with the Colts they finished 11-5 every season and made the playoffs. The Colts where a trendy Super Bowl pick at the start of the season, but with the u=injury to starting quarterback Andrew Luck the Colts have struggled to get to 7-8. There was another report that came out this week that said Pagano and General Manager Ryan Grigson don’t even speak to each other. That sounds like a difficult way to run an NFL team when the guy coaching the players and the guy picking the players don’t talk. Pagano has no say in personnel decisions as Grigson handles all of that. This is a big rif for any NFL team to deal with and someone has to go and since Pagano is in the last year of his deal it appears as he’s the one who will be leaving Indianapolis.

The Miami Dolphins where the first team t let there coach go this season. Then the Tennessee Titans fired their head coach. The Philadelphia Eagles made that same move this week letting Chip Kelly go. If the Colts do let Pagano go there are 3 head coaching openings, but what other teams may try to change coaches. It’s been reported that the Cleveland Browns will be joining this list after the season.  Will the San Diego Chargers, New York Giants and Detroit Lions be looking for new head coaches as well. What are the chances that the New Orleans Saints or Dallas Cowboys look to change head coaches. In the Saints case it may be a head coach leaving as Sean Payton seems to be linked to every NFL opening. Minus the Cowboys and the Saints; which opening would be the best one for a new head coach? Would you lean to taking the Colts job where a healthy Andrew Luck could get you right back into the playoffs. Maybe the Lions job looks good to you with a quarterback in place and a couple of capable wide receivers. The Chargers and Giants also have veteran starting quarterbacks in place. Maybe you would lean to taking a team with a young quarterback you could develop; like Marcus Mariotta in Tennessee. If you had the choice what job would you take? and how would you rank these teams if the jobs become open?

There are 11 games on the NBA schedule today with 2 of those games being carried on NBA-TV. The Phoenix Suns vs. the Sacramento Kings start the NBA-TV coverage at 4:00 p.m. The second game on NBA-TV is the Houston Rockets vs. the San Antonio Spurs at 7:30 p.m.

After featuring the outdoor game yesterday which the Montreal Canadiens won 5-1 over the Boston Bruins the NHL has 23 games on the schedule today. While there are a lot of NHL games today the only one I could find on national television is the New York Rangers vs. the Pittsburgh Penguins on the NHL Network at 6:00 p.m.

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

You can find me on Twitter @Burketime

 

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: December 23, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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Week 15 ended up being a good week for us as we all got into double digit wins. I won the week with a 13-3 record. Mr. Fantasy finished 2nd going 12-4. It was Dan the Man in 3rd place for the week with a record of 11-5; so that means Schaumburg Stu ended up at the bottom on the week at 10-6. With just a couple of weeks left in the season I find myself in the overall lead with a record of 138-85. Dan the Man is 7 games behind me with an overall record of 131-92. Mr. Fantasy has found his way out of the cellar and is in 3rd with an overall record of 125-98. That means that Schaumburg Stu is back in the cellar, but only by a game as his overall record is 124-99. Week 16 starts tomorrow (Thursday) with an AFC West match up as it’s the San Diego Chargers vs. the Oakland Raiders. Let’s see how the picks go for us.

I’m sure by now you’ve seen or heard about what took place on the field between Odell Beckham Jr. and Josh Norman during the New York Giants/Carolina Panthers game. Beckham Jr. ended up being suspended for 1 game and if it was me I would’ve sent him packing for the rest of the season which would’ve been 2 games. I’ve heard the excuses the Giant tried to make for Beckham Jr, and I don;t believe any of them. I’m not here to go into any of that garbage. What I’m interested in is how this affect the Panthers. Remember at one point in time the Panthers where up 35-7 on the Giants and ended up winning 38-35. So now the Panthers take their 14-0 record to the Georgia Dome to face the Atlanta Falcons. Two weeks ago the Panthers easily defeated the Falcons 38-0, but I’m not sure that this game will go the same way.  First off the Falcons are at home; so that should help a little. What I think may have an even bigger effect on this game might be the fact that the Panthers could have an emotional let down. With all the Beckham Jr./Norman garbage and now the fallout from that it may also start to prove as a distraction to the Panthers. Are the Panthers a better team than the Falcons; yes of course they are, but you know from watching the NFL that the best team doesn’t always win the game. It may also be possible that Atlanta found something last week in their 23-17 victory over the Jacksonville Jaquars. The win snapped a 6 game losing streak for the Falcons. Remember Atlanta reeled off 5 wins to start the season. Call it a hunch or maybe I’m just stupid, but I think that Atlanta has a better than average chance to win this game. I don;t have to make a pick on this game right now, but Sunday on the Sports Time Radio podcast you’ll get to hear who I decided to go with in this game.

Last night in the NHL the marquee match up was the defending champion Chicago Blackhawks vs. the team with the most points (54) in the NHL the Dallas Stars. Even with the season not quite to the halfway point this was still a bit of a statement game. Both teams where coming into this game with a win. On Sunday the Blackhawks beat the San Jose Sharks 4-3 in overtime while on Monday the Stars topped the Minnesota Wild 6-3. It appeared as though the Blackhawks had a couple of things working in their favor going into the game. Dallas had to fly into Chicago for the game and it was the 2nd game of a back to back for the Stars. As it turned out none of that mattered as it was the Stars that made the statement in the game. There was no scoring in the 1st period, but the Blackhawks did have 2 power plays. Oddly the Blackhawks didn’t get a shot off on either of those 2 power plays and had just 3 shots on goal in the 1st period. Dallas out shot the Blackhawks 7 to 3 in the 1st period, but no scoring. The Blackhawks got quite a few more shots on goal 914) in the 2nd period, but Dallas goaltender and former Blackhawk Antti Niemi stopped them all. Dallas had 8 shots on goal in the 2nd period and Jason Spezza was able to put 1 of those shots past Blackhawks goaltender Corey Crawford for a 1-0 Dallas lead. Patrick Sharp and John Klingberg got the assists on Spezza’s goal. That was the only goal of the period and the teams went to the ;locker room with the Stars ahead 1-0. The Stars got on the scoreboard very quickly in the 3rd period as the former Blackhawk Sharp scored his 12th goal of the season with assists from Jamie Benn and Jason Demers to give the Stars a 2-0 lead. Colton Sceviour was the next Dallas player to light the lamp with his 2nd goal of the season giving the Stars a 3-0 lead. Jordie Benn and Antoine Roussel assisted on Sceviour goal. Mattias Janmark ended the scoring for the Stars and for the game with his 8th goal of the season to put the Stars up 4-0. Demers picked up his 2nd assist of the night on Janmark’s goal. Former Blackhawk Johnny Oduya also picked up an assist on the Janmark goal.

Antti Neimi was the #1 star of the game with the shutout. Neimi stopped all 20 of the Blackhawks shots. With 1 goal and 1 assist Patrick Sharp was the #2 star of the game. With the first goal of the game Jason Spezza was the 3rd star of the game.

The NHL takes a few days off for the Christmas holiday. The schedule picks up on Saturday when the Stars will face the St. Louis Blues; in St. Louis. The Blackhawks get an extra day off as they take the ice Sunday as they play host to the Carolina Hurricanes.

I mentioned that Dallas has the most points in the NHL with 54, but their lead isn’t that big. Dan the Man;s pick to win the Stanley Cup the Washington Capitals have 52 points on the season and the Stars have played 2 more games the Capitals have. The Stars and the Capitals are the only two teams over 50 points, but there are some teams closing in on 50 points. The St. Louis Blues have 46 points. While the Blackhawks and the New York Rangers are at 44 points with the Montreal Canadiens sitting at 43 points.

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

You can also find me on Twitter @Burketime

 

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: December 16, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, fantasy, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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We’re through 14 weeks in our NFL picks. For Week 14 Dan the Man and I went 10-6 while Schaumburg Stu and Mr. Fantasy went 8-8. For the season I’m in the lead with a record of 125-82. Dan the Man is in 2nd place with a record of 120-87. Schaumburg Stu is in 3rd place with a record of 114-93. That means Mr. Fantasy finds himself in the cellar, but by only 1 game with a record of 113-94. Week 15 starts tomorrow (Thursday) night and then there’s also a Saturday game this week; so will see how are picks go this week.

What’s the worst division in the NFL? Is it the NFC East where 3 teams are tied for the lead with records of 6-7. Or is it the AFC South where 6-7 is also the record you need to lead that division as 2 teams have. It’s looking like 8-8 or a 7-9 record will send a team into the playoffs. I don;t have so much of an issue with teams from these divisions making the playoffs. I believe that you should get something for winning your division even if it’s a bad division. I don’t like the fact that these teams get to host a playoff game. I’d be surprised to see either of these divisions winners getting past the wild card weekend of the playoffs, but you never know. Maybe the Indianapolis Colts could make some kind of run if their quarterback Andrew Luck comes back healthy. If the New York Giants win the NFC East could they get something going in the playoffs and win a game or two. I’m not as sold on teams like the Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Redskins or Houston Texans getting a playoff win. The difficult part is I’m not sure if there’s a good way to reconfigure the playoffs when teams win divisions with .500 or below records. I’d be open to listening to ideas if you guys have any.

Patrick Kane’s scoring streak came to an end last night at 26 games. Kane’s Chicago Blackhawks where shutout by the Colorado Avalanche 3-0 on Tuesday night to end the streak. It was the longest scoring streak in the NHL since Mats Sundin picked up a point in 30 straight games during the 1992-93 season. Kane’s 26 game scoring streak ranks as the 6th longest scoring streak in NHL history. Guy Lafleur (1976-77), Wayne Gretzky (1984-85), Mario Lemieux (1985-86), Paul Coffey (1985-86) and Steve Yzerman (1988-89) had points streaks of 28 games. Gretzky had a 30 game scoring streak in 1982-83. Sundin had his 30 game streak in 1992-93. Gretzky also had a 39 game scoring streak in 1985-86. Lemieux had a scoring streak of 46 games in 2989-90. Gretzky has the longest scoring streak in NHL history at 51 games in 2983-84. While it was a great streak for Kane it’s hard to believe he was 25 games away from catching Gretzky.

With the NHL season coming up on it’s halfway point the Dallas Stars have  the most points in the league with 48. The Washington Capitals are 2nd and the leader in the Eastern conference with 44 points. The Montreal Canadiens are 3rd with 43 points. The New York Rangers are 4th with 42 points and the New York Islanders round out the Top 5 with 41 points. While the Stars have looked like the best team in the NHL you’ll notice that the next 4 teams are all from the Eastern conference. The Western conference has won the last 4 Stanley Cups and 5 out of the last 6. Is Dallas the team in the Western conference to keep that going or will one of those Eastern conference teams step up and take the Cup home.

We have a fantasy hockey league associated with the Sports Time Radio podcast. We do an auction style draft for hockey and this season we put in a minimum  of 3 starts per week for a teams goaltenders. This rule has been difficult for some owners to work with. It’s just Dan the Man and I who are playing in the 16 team league. Dan is currently 8th overall in the standings while my team is 3rd right now. With his 26 game scoring streak Patrick Kane has been the  top player in our league. Tyler Seguin and his teammate Jamie Benn of the Stars are ranked #2 and #3. Taylor Hall of the Edmonton Oilers ranks as the 4th best player and rounding out the Top 5 is Daniel Sedin of the Vancouver Canucks. Sadly for Dan and I none of these 5 players are on our teams.

With the Golden State Warriors running off to a record 24-0 start and even after just dropping their 1st game they’re still getting a lot of the headlines. With all this interest in Golden State the San Antonio Spurs have quietly gotten off to a 21-5 start to the season. As Tim Duncan’s and Tony Parker’s careers head towards the finish the Spurs have seem to become Kawhi Leonard’s team. Leonard leads San Antonio in scoring averaging 20.8 points per game. Leonard is also averaging 7.6 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 2 steals and just over 1 block a game while turning the basketball over an average of 1.3 times per game. Leonard is also averaging more minutes than any other San Antonio player at 33 minutes per game. San Antonio went out in the off season and made a big free agent signing bringing in LaMarcus Aldridge. Aldridge is the 2nd on the Spurs in scoring with an average of 15.8 points per game. Aldridge does lead the team in rebounding averaging 8.8 rebounds per game. Aldridge also plays the 2nd most minutes on the Spurs with an average of 29.2 minutes per game. Now when you talk about the Spurs you’re use to using the names Duncan, Parker and Manu Ginobili; they’re all still there. Duncan is playing 26.5 minutes per game and is averaging 9 points per game. Duncan is also grabbing an average of 8.3 rebounds per game and is the team leader with 1.4 blocked shots per game. Point guard Parker is averaging 26.7 minutes per game. He averages 12.8 points per game and is the Spurs leader in assists with 4.9 per game. With Danny Green filling the role in the starting line up Ginobili is back to his 6th man role. Ginobili is averaging just 19.6 minutes per game, but is scoring 10.8 points per game. As the NBA season moves along will the Spurs be able to continue to control the minutes of Duncan, Parker and Ginobili and will this pay off for them come playoff time. If things go as planned will we see a San Antonio Spurs vs. the Golden State Warriors Western conference finals match up?

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast on http://www.BlogTalkRadio.com

You can also find me on Twitter @Burketime

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: November 25, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, fantasy, football, hockey, sports, Sports Time Radio
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Week 11 went much better for us as everyone ended up over .500 picking the NFL games. I managed to win the week going 10-6 while Dan the Man, Schaumburg Stu and Mr. Fantasy all went 8-6 for the week. Overall Dan the Man is still in the lead with a record of 93-67. I’m in 2nd place 3 games behind Dan the Man at 90-70. Mr. Fantasy is in 3rd place with a record of 87-73 and Schaumburg Stu is still in the cellar with a record of 85-75. There are no byes in Week 12; so we’ll have a full slate of games to pick starting with 3 games tomorrow.

Thanksgiving is definitely a football holiday and it starts with the Philadelphia Eagles at the Detroit Lions. They have an 11:30 a.m. kickoff where I live. Game 2 has the undefeated Carolina Panthers at the Dallas Cowboys. I found it interesting that in the Las Vegas betting line Dallas was the favorite in this game. This game is scheduled to kickoff at 3:30 pm cst as long as the first game doesn’t run long. The night in the NFL wraps up with a big time rivalry game. It’s the Chicago Bears at the Green Bay Packers at 7:30 pm central. I have not received Mr. Fantasy’s picks for the Thursday games, but I can tell you that Dan the Man, Schaumburg Stu and I like Detroit to win Game 1, Carolina to stay undefeated in game 2 and the Packers to night game 3. We’ll see if Mr. Fantasy reads this before he sends me his picks and tries to make up some ground by going a different way with his picks.

The Golden State Warriors set the NBA record for victories to start a season last night by easily beating the Los Angeles Lakers 111-77 at the Oracle Arena. The game was almost never in doubt as Golden State took a 30-11 lead after the 1st quarter. Los Angeles did cut into the lead at little going into halftime as they outscored Golden State 27-24 in the 2nd quarter. Golden State still sent into the half leading 54-38. Golden State pretty much put the game away in the 3rd quarter outscoring the Lakers by 18 points 35-17. Golden State ended the 3rd quarter with a 89-55 lead and the record looked to be there’s. Both teams scored 22 points in the 4th quarter to get the final score of 111-77 and the Warriors had there 16th straight win to start the season. Stephen Curry led Golden State with 24 points going 10 of 21 from the floor, but just 4 of 12 from behind the 3-point line. Draymond Green added 18 points led the team in assists with 5 and tied for the team lead in rebounds with Andrew Bogut and Festus Ezeli with 7. Leandro Barbosa came off the Golden State bench to score 13 points while Klay Thompson also snuck into double digits with 11 points. Julius Randle was the only Lakers stater to score in double digits. Randle scored 10 points and tied for the team lead in scoring with Larry Nance Jr. and Louis Williams. Randle along with Kobe Bryant, Roy Hibbert and Tarik Black tied for the team lead in rebounding with 6. Metta World Peace led the Lakers in assists with 3. As for Bryant he was 1 for 14 from the floor going 1 of 7 from behind the 3-point line. He also went 1 of 2 from the free throw line for a total of 4 points in the game.

Now that the Warriors are at 16 straight wins to start this season the question becomes; how many more can they win. They have a back to back set of games this Friday and Saturday. They play in Phoenix against the Suns on Friday and then they come home to play the Sacramento Kings Saturday. There last game of November is Monday on the road against the Utah Jazz. You’d have t think that Golden State has a very good chance of having an undefeated month. That Monday game in Utah is the first of 7 games in a row on the road as the Warriors head east. Will that road trip be their downfall and they’ll drop a game then.

There where 2 games in the NHL last night and when there is a small amount of games I like t make Dan the Man pick the winners of those games on the Sports Time Radio podcast. He had been doing better with these picks, but that ended last night as he lost both games. The Ottawa Senators scored 7 goals against the Dallas Stars last night; 5 of which cam against Dan the Man’s fantasy goalie Anti Niemi on their way to a 7-4 victory. Mike Hoffman and Jean-Gabriel Pageau each scored 2 goals for the Senators while Jamie Benn had 2 goals for Dallas. I the late game the Anaheim Ducks beat Dan’s pick to win the Calgary Flames 5-3. Michael Frolik netted 2 of the 4 Calgary goals while Rickard Rakell and Corey Perry each scored 2 goals for the Ducks. If you’re a fantasy hockey player hopefully you had Anaheim center Ryan Getzlaf in your line up as he assisted on all 5 goals Anaheim scored.

There are 13 games on the NHL schedule tonight; so I won’t make Dan pick that many games on today’s edition of Sports Time Radio, but it will give you a lot of choices for daily fantasy. The nationally televised game tonight is the Philadelphia Flyers at the New York Islanders. It’s what the NBC Sports Network advertises as rivalry Wednesday.

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

You can Follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Happy Thanksgiving!

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