Sports Time Radio

How much NBA basketball did you watch on Christmas day?

There are certain sports that you can relate with certain holidays. I think the one that sticks out the most is the NFL and Thanksgiving, but the NBA is doing their best to make people think of them on Christmas day.

There where 5 games on the NBA’s Christmas day schedule. They started out with the Philadelphia 76ers getting a 105-98 win over the New York Knicks. The second game was the marquee match up. The Golden State warriors still playing without Stephen Curry still beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 99-92. Game 3 had the Washington Wizards over the Boston Celtics 111-103. Then we saw the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Houston Rockets 112-107. The night cap had the Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Los Angeles Lakers 121-104.

So now with 5 games and all that talent on the court there seems to be just one play that everyone in the media wants to talk about. Did Kevin Durant foul LeBron James? The question really should be, who cares if Durant fouled James?

It’s a December game during the NBA regular season and it doesn’t appear as the play would’ve had any outcome on the games final score. Of course since it’s Golden State and Cleveland involved along with James being in the play it draws everyone’s attention. I didn’t see the play live, but I’ve seen countless highlights of it since I think it was the only thing that ESPN showed from all of the Christmas games. On the slow motion instant replay it appears as though Durant fouls James. Of course the replay has the right angle and it’s been slowed down; so you can get a better look at the play. With the game going at full speed and if the referee was behind or to the side of the play he might not have seen a foul.

I’m completely baffled by the interest of this play and the flat out over coverage about it by the media. I’m hoping somewhere down the line someone will be able to explain it too me, but right now I just don’t get it. Was it just the fact that it was the Warriors and the Cavaliers and everyone expects them to meet in the finals again. Was it the fact that James normally gets those type of calls and everyone was shocked when no whistle was blown. I don’t know what else it could be, but it seems stupid to just focus on this one play when there where 4 other games played. Let’s be honest while this was the marquee match of the day it’s wasn’t the best game of the day, I’m not even sure if it was the second best game of the day. Sadly though it’s all the media wants to talk about and those other 4 games are just side notes in a long day of basketball.

Now I’m not the biggest NBA fan out there, but I did watch quite a bit of the first Christmas day game. After that I just checked in on the other games from time to time. A situation like this where the media focuses on just one play for an entire day of basketball makes me less and less interested in playing attention to the NBA.

The NFL M.V.P. race seems to be down to just two players. Are you casting your vote for New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady or is your vote going to Los Angeles Rams running back Todd Gurley?

Brady is a two time M.V.P. award winner. He won his first one in 2007 and then took the award home again in 20010. Brady has made himself an M.V.P. contender this season by leading the NFL in completions with 367, yards with 4387, yards per pass attempt at 8.1 and average passing yards per game at 292 1/2. Brady has thrown 30 touchdowns pass against 8 interceptions. Oddly Brady has thrown 6 of his 8 interceptions in his last five games. The Patriots are 12-3 with one game left to play. They face the New York Jets on Sunday to wrap up their regular season. New England has clinched the #1 seed in the AFC; so they’ll play all their playoff games at home.

Gurley has really had a breakout type of season. He did rush for 1106 yards as a rookie, but last season was a down year as he gained just 885 yards. This season Gurley is leading the NFL with 1305 rushing yards. He is also the leader in rushing touchdowns with 13. Gurley also has more combined rushing and receiving 2093 than anyone else in football and he also has more combined rushing and receiving touchdowns 19 than anyone else. The Rams are 11-4 as they head into their final game of the season against the San Francisco 49ers. Los Angeles has clinched a playoff spot, but still has a chance to grab the #2 seed and get a first round bye. Interestingly with a possible first round bye on the line and Gurley’s M.V.P. candidacy hanging in the balance Rams head coach Sean McVay has mentioned that he might rest his starters against the 49ers. You’d have to think that Gurley not playing on Sunday would end any chance of him winning the M.V.P. I guess will have to wait and see.

Yesterday the Minnesota Twins announced that they had signed reliever Zach Duke to a one year deal. Terms of Duke’s contract where not released, but it is believed that he’ll make between $1.5 and $2 million dollars this season.

Duke had Tommy John surgery in October of 2016, but did come back to pitch in 27 games for the St. Louis Cardinals last season. Duke went 1-1 with an E.R.A. of 3.93 in those 27 games that covered 18 1/3rd innings.

Duke had been one of the better left handed set up men in baseball before the Tommy John surgery and now that he’s on kind of a one year prove it contract it will be interesting to see how he performs.

With the addition of Duke the Twins have remade the back end of their bullpen. Duke will be setting up for Minnesota’s new closer the 40 year old Fernando Rodney.

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