Posts Tagged ‘Chicago Bulls’

New York Knicks 117 Chicago Bulls 104

Posted: November 4, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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Joakim Noah and Derrick Rose both received warm receptions from there from home crowd as they where introduced although there where some boos mixed in for Rose. Rose who is a Chicago native was also booed every time he touch the basketball during the first couple minutes of the game. The Bulls played a tribute video to Rose and Noah during the first timeout of the game. Maybe all that inspired the former Bulls as their new team the New York Knicks jumped out to a 22-6 lead on there way to a 9-points 1st quarter lead at 32-23. It looked as though the Bulls might be in trouble, but they rallied in a big way in the 2nd quarter. The Bulls put up 34 2nd quarter points and held the Knicks to 24 2md quarter points. With that the Bulls went into halftime with a 1-point lead 57-56. The 3rd quarter stayed pretty even, but the Knicks did outscored the Bulls 28-24 in the 3rd quarter and took an 84-81 lead headed into the last quarter. The Knicks where able to break away from the Bulls by scoring 10 straight points to start the 4th quarter. The Knicks opened up a 15-point lead at 98-83, but this is the NBA and true to form the Bulls made a run. The Bulls went on a 19 to 5 run and cut the Knicks lead to 6 at 108-102 with just under two minutes to play. On the next Knicks possession Rose put an end to the Bulls comeback hopes as he completed a 3-point play. Carmelo Anthony added a 3 with .50 seconds left in the game and then the Knicks hit 3 of the 4 free throws they shot to get the game to it’s final score 117-104.

All 5 Knicks starters scored in double figures led by Kristaps Porzingis with 27 points. Carmelo Anthony had 25 points, Courtney Lee had 17 points while Derrick Rose scored 15 points and had a game high 11 assists. Joakim Noah also chipped in with 15 points and a team high 9 rebounds. Every Knicks starter played 33 minutes or more with Lee playing a game high 41 minutes.

Dwayne Wade led all scorers with 35 points and also led everyone in rebounds with 10. Jimmy Butler scored 26 points while Nikola Mirotic was the only other Bulls player in double figures coming off the bench to score 14 points. Rajon Rondo was the team leader in assists with 5, but had a terrible shooting night going 2 for 10 on the night.

With the win the Knicks improve to 2-3. They’ll head back to New York to take on the Utah Jazz on Sunday.

The Bulls suffered their 2nd consecutive loss and their first home loss. The Bulls fell to 3-2 with the loss and have to turn right around and play the Indiana Pacers in Indiana tomorrow night.

 

Boston Celtics 107 Chicago Bulls 100

Posted: November 3, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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The Boston Celtics avenged their only loss of the season and handed the Chicago Bulls there first loss of the season with a 107-100 win Wednesday night. Boston’s big off season acquisition Al Horford missed the game. Horford was placed in the concussion protocol Tuesday after exhibiting concussive symptoms during practice. With the game tied at 10 the Celtics went on a 26-15 run to end the 1st quarter and pull away to a 36-25 lead. The Bulls made a big run in the 2nd quarter outscoring the Celtics 27-19 in the quarter and went into halftime trailing by 3 at 55-52. The Bulls had there lowest offensive output in a quarter this season when they out up just 18 points in the 3rd quarter. Celtics forward Amir Johnson almost outscored the Bulls on his own as he put up 16 points in the quarter. Boston had a 26 point quarter and headed into the 4th quarter with an 11 point lead at 81-70. The Bulls made a run and a Jimmy Butler 3-pointer with just under 6 minutes left cut the Celtics lead to 3 at 94-91. The Bulls then managed to tie the game at 100 all with two Nikola Mirotic free throws. Of course those where the last points the Bulls would score as the Celtics scored the next 7 points to get the 107-100 victory. The Bulls actually outscored the Celtics 30-26 in the 4th quarter, but it wasn’t enough.

Amir Johnson and Isaiah Thomas each put up 23 points to lead Boston in scoring. All 5 Boston starters scored in double figures as Avery Bradley had 13 points, Tyler Zeller had 11 pints and Jae Crowder scored 10 points. Thomas had a game high 10 assists while Johnson tied with Jonas Jerebko grabbing a team high 6 rebounds. Johnson also set a career high in 3-pointers as he went 4 for 4 from the 3-point stripe.

The Bulls where led by Jimmy Butler who had 23 points. Dwayne Wade had 15 points while Rajon Rondo scored 12 points handed out a team high 5 assists and grabbed a game high 10 rebounds. Nikola Mirotic came off the Bulls bench to put up 17 points. The Bulls had some turnover issues in the game as they had a season high 19 in the game.

The Celtics improved to 3-1 with the win, but they have to turn right around and hit the road as they face the undefeated (4-0) Cleveland Cavaliers. Chicago is now 3-1 with the loss and they get to head home. On Friday the Bulls host the 1-3 New York Knicks and their former teammates Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah.

Chicago Bulls 118 Brooklyn Nets 88

Posted: November 1, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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The Chicago Bulls picked up there 3rd win of this young NBA and there 1st road win as they cruised past the Brooklyn Nets by 30 points 118-88. The Bulls jumped out to a quick lead, but the Nets came back to tie the game at 7-7. From there the Bulls went on a 31 to 13 run and the Bulls found themselves ahead 38-20 at the end of the 1st quarter. The 2nd quarter played out much more evenly, but the Bulls did add 3 points to there lead as they outscored the Nets 27-24 and went into halftime with a 65-44 lead. After halftime the Bulls where able to add to there lead in both the 3rd quarter outscoring Brooklyn 28-22 and with the starters on the bench for most of it the Bulls outscored the Nets in the 4th quarter 25-22. This was the fourth time in a row the Bulls have won on the Nets home court.

Brooklyn had been the best 3-point shooting team early in the season as they where making 37.3% of the 3-point shots they took last night they made just 5 of 31 from behind the 3-point line or just 16%. For the game the Nets where 33 of 96 from the floor for a 34.4%. In comparison the Bulls shot 50.6% overall in the game going 45 for 89. From behind the 3-point line the Bulls shot 40.7% going 11 of 27.

Four of the five Bulls starters scored in double figures led by Jimmy Butler with 22 points. Taj Gibson had 14 points and a game high 11 rebounds. Dwayne Wade added 12 points while Rajon Rondo put up 10 points. Nikola Mirotic came off the Bulls bench to score 16 points and grab 10 rebounds while Isaiah Canaan 15 points and a game high 6 assists. Doug McDermott also got into double figures off the Bulls bench putting up 12 points.

Bulls guard Michael Carter-Williams went down in the first half with a knee injury. It was called a sprained knee, but Carter-Williams will have an MRI today to check it out.

Bojan Bogdanovic led the Nets on scoring with 15 points. Jeremy Lin had 14 points, a team high 4 assists and 4 steals. Brook Lopez had 13 points and Sean Kilpatrick came in off the Brooklyn bench to score 13 points. Trevor Booker and Luis Scola where the Nets leading rebounders in the game with 8 boards apiece.

With the win the Bulls improved to 3-0. The Bulls stay on the road as they head to Boston to take on the 2-1 Celtics on Wednesday. The game will be national televised on ESPN. The Nets fell to 1-3 and also play again Wednesday as they host the 2-1 Detroit Pistons.

 

Chicago Bulls 118 Indiana Pacers 101

Posted: October 29, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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The Chicago Bulls used a big 2nd quarter to pull away from the Indiana Pacers and improve to 2-0 early in the 2016-17 season. The made nine changes to their roster this off season with three of those changes being to the starting line up. With all those moves you might think the Bulls would struggle at the start of the season, but not so far. It’s just two games, but it’s two games and two wins against two teams that where predicted to make the Eastern Conference playoffs.

It was a tight 1st quarter with the teams being tied 8 different times before the Bulls where able to gain a four point advantage 24-20 at the end of the quarter. The Bulls had a 3-point lead with 9:52 left in the 2nd quarter and then went on a 16-point run to pull away from the Pacers. The Bulls outscored Indiana 38-21 and went into halftime with a 21-point lead 62 to 41. The 3rd quarter was pretty evenly matched, but the Bulls found a way to add 4 more points to their lead outscoring the Pacers 30-26. With the score 92-67 heading into the 4th quarter Jimmy Butler, Dwayne Wade and Rajon Rondo where given the 4th quarter off. With those three on the bench the Pacers manage to cut the lead to 11 points at 112-101, but there was just two minutes left in the game. The Pacers did outscore the Bulls in the 4th quarter 34-26, but the Bulls scored the final 6 points of the game to get to  the 118-101 final score.

Doug McDermott came off the Bulls bench and made five of the six 3-pointers he took as he led the Bulls in scoring with 23 points. Jimmy Butler had 16, points Dwayne Wade scored 14 points while Taj Gibson and Robin Lopez each added 12 points. Gibson also grabbed a game high 8 rebounds. While Rondo may have been the only Bulls starter to not score in double figures he did hand a game high 13 assists. Isaiah Canaan added 11 points off the bench as well for the Bulls.

The Pacers where led in scoring by Myles Turner and Paul George who each tallied 20 points. Joe Young and Glen Robinson III came off the Pacers bench to each score 11 points. Thaddeus Young also scored in double figures scoring 10 points and grabbing a team high 5 rebounds. Jeff Teague Had a rough night shooting the basketball going 0 for 7 in the game as well as missing the only 3-point shot he took. While Teague didn’t score in the game he did hand out 8 assists to lead the team in that category.

On Monday the 2-0 Bulls play there first road game of the season as they head to Brooklyn to take on the Nets. The Pacers who fell to 1-2 with the loss Head home to host the Los Angeles Lakers.

Chicago Bulls 105 Boston Celtics 99

Posted: October 28, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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The NBA season started for the Chicago Bulls last night and they got a 105-99 win over the Boston Celtics. This is a good win for the new look Bulls to start the season with. The Celtics are predicted to be one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference while the Bulls are predicted in most cases to miss the playoffs. Of course it’s just the first game of the season; so don’t buy those Bulls playoff tickets just yet, but it’s still better to start with a won than a loss.

The Bulls came out with a solid 30 point 1st quarter and took a 10 point lead 30-20 going into the 2nd quarter. It took the Celtics some time, but they started to chip away at the lead. Boston was able to knock a couple of points off the Bulls lead by outscoring them 29-27 in the 2nd quarter. On the plus side the Bulls where still up 8 points headed into halftime 57-49. The Celtics knocked a couple of more points off the Bulls lead in the 3rd quarter, but again it was just 2 points as they outscored the Bulls 24-22. That gave the Bulls a 79-73 lead heading into the final quarter. It looked as though the Bulls would cruise to a victory as the stretched their lead to 14 points (95-81) in the middle of the 4th quarter. Of course it’s never that easy in the NBA as every team seems to have a run in them and Boston had there’s as they scored 11 straight points to make it a 95-92 game. The teams traded buckets to make it a 101-99 game. Then with about 30 seconds left in the game the Celtics committed a turnover and Dwayne Wade nailed a 3-pointer to give the Bulls a 5-point lead and seal the victory.

Jimmy Butler played a team high 37 minutes and led the Bulls in scoring with 24 points. Butler made 4 of the 6 3-point shots he took in the game. Wade also made 4 of the 6 3-pointers he took and ended the night with 22 points. In a starting role Taj Gibson put up 18 points and grabbed a game high 10 rebounds. Nikola Mirotic came off the Bulls bench to add 15 points. Like Wade Rajon Rondo was making his Bulls debut and he handed out a game high 9 assists against his former team.

Boston’s Isaiah Thomas was the game’s leading scorer with 25 points. Avery Bradley played a game high 41 minutes and scored 16 points for the Celtics. Jae Crowder chipped in 14 points and got into a heated exchange with Butler in the 4th quarter, Interestingly Crowder and Butler where college teammates at Marquette. Al Horford was Boston’s big off season signing and he scored 11 points and grabbed a team high 7 rebounds in his debut with the team. Horford also tied with Bradley for the team lead in assists with 5 of them.

The 1-0 Bulls host the 1-0 Indiana Pacers on Saturday night while the 1-1 Celtics stay on the road as they take on the 1-0 Charlotte Hornets also on Saturday night.

How was your week

Posted: March 5, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in Auto Racing, baseball, basketball, sports, Uncategorized
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With the start of the baseball season less than a month away spring training is up and running at full speed. This week 3 teams suffered their first injuries where players will miss regular season time. The defending champion Kansas City Royals lost outfielder Jarrod Dyson for 6 weeks with a Grade 2 strain of his right oblique. Dyson is going into his 7th season with the Royals, but has been used mostly as a defensive replacement and pinch runner. This season the Royals where hoping that Dyson would be part of there right field platoon with Paulo Orlando. With Dyson out Travis Snider might be given the first chance to fill his role at the start of the season. Snider was signed as a free agent this off season. The Detroit Tigers also lost and outfielder as Cameron Maybin was hit by a pitch and suffered a non-displaced fracture of his left wrist and is expected to miss the first couple of weeks of the regular season. After struggling through most of his career Maybin seemed to find something with the Atlanta Braves last season hitting .267 with 10 home runs while stealing 23 bases in 141 games. The Tigers sent 2 pitchers Gabe Speier and Ian Kroll to the Braves this off season for Maybin so he could compete with Anthony Gose for playing time in center field. Gose should be the full time center fielder while Maybin tries to recover from his wrist injury. The first pitcher to go down with a serious injury was Los Angeles Dodgers left-hander Brett Anderson. Anderson was found to have a bulging disc in his lower back that will require surgery. The time frame for Anderson return has been set between 3 and 5 months. Anderson has had various injuries tough his career, but stayed healthy during the 2015 season making 31 starts. Anderson went 10-9 with a 3.69 Earner Run Average (ERA) last season. Even with Anderson out and Brandon McCarthy not scheduled to return from his injury until the All-Star break the Dodgers still have some depth in there staring rotation. Of course Clayton Kershaw is at the top of the rotation. Hyun-jin Ryu is returning from injury and looks like he’ll be ready to go for the start of the season. The Dodgers signed Scott Kazmir as a free agent as well as Japanese free agent and Kenta Maeda this off season. The Dodgers also have Alex Wood and Mike Bolsinger as 5th starter options. Will have to see which pitcher ends up filling Anderson’s rotation spot. There are always injuries in spring training you just have to hope that it’s not a key player who gets hurt or that your team has a player who can fill his role on the team.

Have there been two more disappointing teams this NBA season than the Houston Rockets and the Chicago Bulls? The Rockets are 30-31, but are holding onto the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. The Bulls are 30-30 , but are 1/2 game behind the Detroit Pistons for the final Eastern Conference playoff spot. As the schedule would have it these two disappointing teams are the marquee match up for NBA Saturday night. What are we going to get on a national telecast with these two teams playing. Each team has shown flashes of the team people thought they might be at the beginning of the season, but haven’t shown enough to make people think they could be a factor in the playoffs. At this point right now if both of these teams end up as the #8 seeds in their conferences do you think they’d have a shot at all of beating the #1 seed. They better question might be would they even win a game in that series or would they just be swept out of the playoffs.  The Rockets where so bad at the start of the season that there head coach Kevin McHale lost his job. The coaching change hasn’t made a whole lot of difference with the Rockets. The Rockets feature James Harden along with Dwight Howard. Harden leads the team in scoring with 28.7 points per game and dominates the basketball. Harden does also lead the team in assists averaging 7 a game. Howard is the team leader in rebounds grabbing an average of 12 a game. Howard can still block shots; he’ll block 1.5 per game on average. Howard is also averaging 14.9 points per game. Harden and Howard are the Rockets top two scorers. The Bulls had been a playoff team under defensive minded head coach Tom Thibodeau, but the front office wanted to go another and replaced Thibodeau with a more offensive minded coach in Fred Hoiberg. As the Bulls attempt t adjust to a new system the defense hasn’t been what it was and the offense isn’t where it’s suppose to be. The Bulls are fighting some injuries, but there’s a chance that their best player Jimmy Butler will return tonight. Butler is the Bulls leading scorer averaging 22.4 points per game. Pau Gasol has shown he can still play offense averaging 16.9 points per game and is the tam leader in rebounding at 10.9 rebounds per game. Derrick Rose has played more this season, but still misses games with injuries that wouldn’t keep other players out. Rose is the Bulls 3rd leading scorer at 16.5 points per game, but does lead the team in assists averaging 4.8 assists per game. Rose and Butler have had some issues working together on the court, but it seems as though one of them has always been out injured; so that hasn’t been a huge issue yet. Will we get a good game tonight or we will get a game where two disappointing teams show up.

Just a reminder Chris Olmstead from http://www.BeyondtheFlag.com will join the Sports Time Radio podcast to preview The Kobalt 400 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Kurt Busch won the pole in qualifying with a speed of 196.328 miles per hour. Joey Logano, Matt Kenseth, Brad Keslowski and Austin Dillion round out the Top 5 qualifiers. Will one of these drivers be in Chris’ 3 drivers to look for in victory lane? You’ll have to listen to Sports Time Radio on BlogTalkRadio.com to find out who Chris is going with.

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You can find me on Twitter @Burketime

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: January 13, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, sports, Uncategorized
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Have you ever seen a worst weekend of playoff football? The last game of the set of four featuring the Green bay Packers beating the Washington Redskins was a decent game, but the other 3 stunk. The Kansas City Chiefs/Houston Texans game was over after the opening kickoff; we just didn’t know that yet. Even though the Chiefs went in leading at halftime 13-0; it seemed like Houston had no chance to get back into the game. There are obvious reasons the Pittsburgh Steelers vs. the Cincinnati Bengals game was terrible. Besides the 2 penalties decided the game there was the fact that these 2 teams combined to score just 34 points. I thought for sure that one of these teams would score 34 points; in no way did I think it would take both of them to get to that number. The Seattle Seahawks vs. the Minnesota Vikings game was 3-0 at halftime with Minnesota in the lead. They saved all the excitement for the last field goal attempt by the Vikings when Blair Walsh missed a 26-yarder to allow Seattle to hang on to a 10-9 victory. It was just bad football from start to finish on wild card weekend; so here’s hoping that the divisional round this weekend has some better games. Kansas City gets to start the weekend off again, but this time they are on the road to play the New England Patriots. It’s schedule to be a 3:35 p.m. kickoff on Saturday. Game 2 has the Green Bay Packers against the Arizona Cardinals with a kickoff time scheduled at 7:15 p.m. It’s the first meeting this season for the Chiefs and the Patriots, but the Packers and the Cardinals met in Week 16 when Arizona dominated the game and handed Green Bay a 38-8 loss. The Sunday games are both rematches. The first game has the Seattle Seahawks at the Caroline Panthers. In Week 6 the Panthers went into Seattle and won the game 27-23. This game is scheduled to be the Noon kickoff on Sunday. The second game is a scheduled 3:40 p.m. kickoff has the Pittsburgh Steelers vs. the Denver Broncos. These two teams played in Week 15 in Pittsburgh and the Steelers came away with a 34-27 victory. After last week I’m just not sure if any of these will be good match ups or if they’ll turn ingot good games. Of course like everyone else I’ll be sitting in front of the television watching even if it’s bad football; again!

Who had Gerardo Parra coming off the free agent market before Justin Upton or Yoenis Cespedes? Yesterday Parra got a 3-year $27.5 million dollar deal with from the Colorado Rockies. It was a bit of a surprise that the Rockies made this signing since their outfield looked set. Colorado has Carlos Gonzalez in right field, Charlie Blackmon in center field and Corey Dickerson in left field. Now quite a few teams use a 4 man outfield, but right after this signing the rumors started that one of the Colorado outfielders would be traded. There have been some rumors about the St. Louis Cardinals and Gonzalez, but nothing solid. It seemed that yesterday Blackmon’s name came up more and more with the Detroit Tigers seeming to be the team interested. Of course these are all just rumors right now. I thinking ti also could lead to Gonzalez playing some 1st base to help him stay in the line up. Gonzalez stayed healthy last season playing in 153 games and hit 40 homers. If Blackmon or Gonzalez is dealt you’d have to think that the Rockies would like to get some quality young pitching in return. So with Parra off the board how much longer will it be before Upton and Cespedes sign deals?

In what I think you could say is another surprise signing it was the Miami Marlins who stepped up and signing left-hander Wei-Yin Chen to a 5-year $80 million dollar deal. Chen’s deal does have an opt out after the second season. Last season Chen went 11-8 with a 3.34 ERA over 31 starts. Chen did go 16-6 in 2014. One of Chen’s most impressive stats is the fact that over 117 career starts he has walked just 172 hitters; 4 of which where intentional. The Marlins needed someone to fill the #2 spot in the rotation behind Jose Fernandez and you have to wonder with the Chen signing if will hear anymore about a possible Fernandez trade. There was a report out yesterday that the Marlins are no longer interested in trading center fielder Marcell Ozuna. The Marlins also added veteran infielder Chris Johnson yesterday. Johnson was let go by the Cleveland Indians after the 2015 season. Johnson should add some left handed as a back up at 3rd and 1st base. Terms of Johnson’s deal were not disclosed as the Indians are on the hook for $7.5 million this season and $9 million next season. Who knows if these moves will be enough for Miami to contend on the N.L. East next season, but remember no one had the New York Met winning that division last season.

The NBA is coming up on it’s halfway point and the Chicago Bulls find themselves at 22-15 in 4th place overall in the Eastern Conference. This is pretty much right where the Bulls found themselves last season under coach Tom Thibodeau. Now the Bulls front office team of john Paxton and Gar Foreman couldn’t wait to get rid of Thibodeau after last season. They even managed to set things up so Thibodeau was pretty much closed out of any other head coaching position for the 2015-16 season. With Thibodeau gone Paxton and Foreman went out and got their guy Fred Hoiberg. Now is Hoiberg the guy to lead this team t an NBA championship? He’s suppose to be an offensive coach, but the Bulls are only 11th in scoring averaging 102.1 points per game. The Bulls used to be a top defensive team under Thibodeau, but now they give up 100.8 points per game. That ranks right in the middle or 15th overall for the average of points given up. So under Hoiberg the Bulls aren’t a top offensive team and they’re no linger a top defensive team. After a 6 game winning streak the Bulls have now looked bad in 3 straight losses. Chicago lost 120-105 to the Atlanta Hawks; a team that is ahead of them in the standings. Then they turned around and played very poorly in a 114-100 loss to the Washington Wizards. To add to it last night the Milwaukee Bucks beat the Bulls 106-101. Now the Wizards are 17-19 and the Bucks are 16-24 with neither team being in the Top 8 of the Eastern Conference. The Bulls take the court tomorrow (Thursday) against the 4-36 Philadelphia 76ers. With the way te Bulls have played these last 3 games and with the game being in Philadelphia; could the Bulls become the 76ers 5th victory of the season?

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You can also follow me on Twitter @Burketime

 

How was your week

Posted: December 26, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, fantasy, football, sports, Uncategorized
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How much of the NBA on Christmas day did you watch? While I didn’t see an entire game start to finish I did see parts of all 5 games and almost all of the 2nd and 3rd games. I’d be very impressed if you watch every minute of every game. I believe that was a little over 11 hours of NBA basketball.

The day started with the Miami Heat getting a 94-88 win in overtime over the New Orleans Pelicans. Looking at the box score for this game Miami was good in the 1st and 3rd quarters while New Orleans was the better team in the 2nd and 4th quarter. I guess it makes sense that overtime was the 5th quarter; so Miami picked up the win. Dwayne Wade led the Heat in scoring with 30 points.Hassan Whiteside grabbed 17 rebounds to lead the Heat while Goran Dragic’s 6 assists where a team high. Anthony Davis led New Orleans in scoring with 29 points and rebounds with 15 while playing 50 minutes in the game. Tyreke Evans led the Pelicans in assists with 7.

The second game of the day saw the Chicago Bulls beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 105-96. I got to see all of this game except for the first 2 minutes of the 3rd quarter. The Bulls scored the first 11 points of the game and they seemed to control most of the action. The Bulls would build a lead and then Oklahoma City would make a run. The Thunder made a big run at the Bulls in the 4th quarter, but Chicago was able to hit their free throws down the stretch to seal the win. Jimmy Butler led the Bulls with 23 points. Pau Gasol led the Bulls in rebounds with 13 and assists with 6 to go along with his 21 points. Kevin Durant led Oklahoma City with 29 points while Enes Kanter grabbed a team high 13 rebounds. Russell Westbrook led Oklahoma City with  8 assists while adding 26 points.

While I think most people thought the 3rd game a finals rematch between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors was looked at as the marquee match up. It didn’t really live up to the hype or any offensive predictions everyone made about the game. Golden State did pick up a 6-point victory 89-83. The Warriors looked good coming out of the gate and took a 9 point lead. Then Stephen Curry went to the locker room with either a foot or a calf issue and things started to go Cleveland’s way. Curry came out of the locker room to return to the game just as the television announcers where saying it would be a good idea if he didn’t return to the game. While Curry helped the Warriors to the victory it was Draymond Green who was the Warriors star. Green led Golden State in scoring with 22 points; he also grabbed a team high 15 rebounds and tied Curry for the team lead in assists with 7. LeBron James was the Cavaliers leading scorer with 25 points. Kevin Love grabbed 18 rebounds to lead Cleveland and Love also had a team high 4 assists. Part of the Cavaliers issues in the game was the fact that Love and Kyrie Irving where a combined 9 for 31 on the night and 0 for 11 from behind the 3-point line.

The 4th game of the night saw the Houston Rockets surprise the San Antonio Spurs 88-84. The Rockets where able to build a consistent lead of about 8 points; so San Antonio started to employ the “Hack-a Player” method.  The Player of choice was Dwight Howard who went 3 of 8 from the free throw line and helped keep San Antonio in the game. Even though Howard had issues at the free throw line the Spurs couldn’t convert those misses into points and the Rockets held on for the win. James Harden led the Rockets with 20; Harden also handed out a team high 9 assists while Howard grabbed 12 rebounds to lead Houston. Kawhi Leonard led San Antonio in scoring with 20 points and assists with 4. Tim Duncan hauled down 11 rebounds to lead the Spurs.The win pushed the Rockets over .500 at 16-15. It was San Antonio’s (25-6) 6th loss of the season all on the road.

The night in the NBA wrapped up with the Los Angeles Clippers cruising to a 94-84 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers. The Clippers might’ve had a larger margin of victory, but a 9 point 4th quarter along with the Lakers putting up 27 4th quarter points cut the winning margin to 10 points. Chris Paul led the Clippers in scoring with 23 points. DeAndre Jordan grabbed 14 rebounds to lead the Clippers. Blake Griffin was the Clippers leader in assists with 7 and grabbed 12 rebounds as well. D’Angelo Russell led the Lakers in scoring with 16 points.Julius Randle had 8 rebounds to lead the Lakers. Russell and Randle came off the Lakers bench. Kobe Bryant and Jordan Clarkson tied for the team lead in assists with 3 apiece. I know everyone is going to want to know how Bryant did. Kobe was 4 of 10 shooting on the night, but made 3 of the 5 3-point shots he took. Bryant had a poor night at the free throw line making just 1 of 4 attempts. Bryant did grab 3 rebounds; had 2 steals and committed 3 turnovers.

Did you like the Christmas day scheduling? It was interesting that the two worst teams record wise from the Western Conference the Lakers and the Pelicans where in the game line up. The Lakers are 5-25, but of course they have Kobe Bryant and it’s his farewell season. The Pelicans are 9-20, but they have an up and coming superstar in Anthony Davis. Otherwise we saw the top 4 teams in the Western Conference along with the 7th team in the standings. From the Eastern Conference we got to see the #1, #3 and #5 teams record wise. Was their a team or a player that you would’ve wanted to see play and which team would you take out?

Our week in NFL picks started off well on Thursday night as we all had the Oakland raiders to win, but it wasn’t easy. The Raiders needed overtime to beat the San Diego Chargers 23-20. We’ve got another Saturday night NFL game as the 1st place Washington Redskins look to wrap up the vaunted NFC East as they travel to Philadelphia to take on the 2nd place Eagles. A win by the Redskins would make them 8-7 and would drop the eagles to 6-9 knocking them out of any playoff spot. If the Redskins do get a win tonight the only thing standing in there way of winning the NFC East would the 6=8 New York Giants. The Giants are featured on Sunday Night Football this week as they play the Minnesota Vikings. Things are lining up for the Redskins to win their division and they might even have a winning record on top of that. Pick wise for us Schaumburg Stu and I like Washington to win, but Dan the Man thinks that Philadelphia gets the win and keeps there playoff hopes alive. As always I can’t tell you who Mr. Fantasy is going with in tonight’s game as he’ll let me know right before kickoff.

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Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: October 28, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football
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I’m not sure if we could’ve gotten a better Game 1 to start the World Series off with. The scoring started off with something I never thought I would see. A inside the park home run by Kansas City Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar in the bottom of the 1st inning to give the Royals an early 1-0 lead. The New York Mets came back with single runs in the 4th, 5th and 6th inning off of Kansas City starter Edinson Volquez for a 3-1 lead. With the way Matt Harvey had settled down after the home run in the 1st it looked like the Royals could be in trouble. Harvey had some issues in the bottom of the 6th giving up a double and a couple of singles that led to the Royals being able to tie the game up 3-3 after 6. Both starters exited the game after pitching 6 innings; so it became a bullpen game. With 2 outs in the top of the 8th Juan Lagares singled and stole 2nd. Wilmer Flores hit what looked like an inning ending ground ball to 1st, but Eric Hosmer made an error and Lagares came around to score. Honestly with Jeurys Familia on the mound for the Mets in the bottom of the 9th inning I really thought they where going to get a big Game 1 win in Kansas City, but with 1 out in the inning Alex Gordon hit a solo home run to center field to tie the game at 4-4. Familia got the next 2 Royals hitters and Game 1 was headed to extra innings. Neither team threatened in the 10th as all 3 Mets hitters struck out swinging and 2 of the 3 Royals hitters struck out in the bottom of the inning. Lagares led of the top of the 11th with a single and was sacrificed to 2nd, but was stranded there as the Mets went strikeout, walk, strikeout to end the inning. The Royals got an infield single with 2 outs in the bottom half of the inning, but didn’t threaten. All 3 Mets hitters struck out in the top of the 12th inning. Kansas City got an infield single by Paulo Orlando who was sacrificed to 2nd. An intentional walk put runners on 1st and 2nd. A ground out to 1st moved the runners up, but was the 2nd out of the inning and the next batter flew out to center field to end the inning. All the Mets could manage in the top of the 13th was a 2 out walk. The Royals did get a lead off single to start the bottom of the inning, but after that they had a pop out and 2 ground outs to end the inning. The Mets went down 1, 2, 3 in the top of the 14th. Escobar started the bottom of the inning for the Royals by reaching safely on a throwing error by Mets 3rd baseman David Wright. Ben Zobrist singled to right field and Escobar went to 3rd base. Lorenzo Cain was intentionally walked to load the bases for Hosmer. Hosmer was 0 for 3 as he stepped to the plate to fave Bartolo Colon, but he did hit a sacrifice fly earlier in the game to drive in a run. Hosmer hit a deep fly ball to Mets rightfielder Curtis Granderson. It looked as though Escobar would score easily to win the game for the Roayls and while he did score the game winning run Granderson made the play at home plate much, much closer than anyone thought it would be. Colon took the loss for the Mets pitching 2 1/3rd innings giving up 1 run on 3 hits and he did walk 3, but they where all intentional. Chris Young who is scheduled to start Game 4 for Kansas City worked 3 innings in relief and got the win. Young pitched 3 innings in relief walking 1 ans striking out 3. So the longest game in World Series history ends in a 5-4 win for the Royals after 14 innings.

Game 2 is tonight in Kansas City and the Mets will send Jacob deGroom to the mound to start. The Royals will counter with Johnny Cueto as they look to win both games at home. deGroom has won all 4 of his post season starts and has an E.R.A. of 1.80 over 20 innings. He has also struck out 27 batters, but has given up 2 home runs. Cueto has also made 3 post season starts, but is 1-1 with an E.R.A. of 7.88. Cueto has logged just 16 innings in his 3 starts and has giving up 15 hits. After a long Game 1 that saw the Mets use 5 pitchers and the Royals use 6 pitchers in relief you have to think that both managers would like to get into the 7th inning with there starter, but it is the World Series and if a pitcher is struggling you can’t stay wit him. It looks like the Mets have an advantage in starting pitching tonight, but this is why the Royals dealt for Cueto at the trade deadline, but will he come through for them?

Over shadowed for me by Game 1 of the World Series was the start of the NBA season. There where 3 games on the schedule; 2 of which where on national television. It started with the Chicago Bulls getting a 97-95 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. Nikola Mirotic led the Bulls with 19 points, Yaj Gibson led the team with 10 rebounds and Derrick Rose led the team with 5 assists. LeBron James led the Cavaliers in scoring with 25 points, Tristan Thompson grabbed 12 rebounds to lead the team and Mo Williams had team high 7 assists. The game you didn’t see on national television saw the Detroit Pistons beat the Atlanta Hawks 106-94. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope scored 21 points to lead the Pistons, Andre Drummond had 19 rebounds to lead the team and Reggie Jackson handed out 5 assists to lead Detroit. Dennis Schroder came off the Atlanta bench to lead the team with 20 points, Paul Milsap grabbed a team high 8 rebounds and Schroder, Jeff Teague and Al Horford tied for the lead in assists with 4. The 3rd and final game of the night saw the defending champion Golden State Warriors beat the New Orleans Pelicans 111-95. Stephen Curry looked to be in MVP form as he scored 40 points and handed out 7 assists to lead Golden State in both categories, Harrison Barnes led the tam with 9 rebounds. Anthony Davis scored 18 points to lead New Orleans, Davis and Ryan Anderson each grabbed 9 rebounds t tie for the team lead in that category and Ish Smith had 9 assists to lead New Orleans.

Schaumburg Stu won our pick contest for Week 7 in the NFL going 9-5. Dan the Man and Mr. Fantasy tied at 8-6 and I was at the bottom going 7-7. Dan the Man held on to his 1 game lead overall at 64-41. Mr. Fantasy is 63-42 while Schaumburg Stu and I are tied at 58-47. Let;s see what Week 8 has in store for us.

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

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

How was your Week?

Posted: May 9, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, football, NASCAR, sports
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Derrick Rose banked in a 3-pointer to give the Chicago Bulls a 99-96 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 3 of their 2nd round playoff series. On the radio there was just as much talk after the game about a couple of other plays as there was Rose’s game winner. Late in the 3rd quarter LeBron James drove to the basket and was clearly tied up by Jimmy Butler for what should’ve been a jump ball. The referees saw it differently and called Butler for a foul. Then on the play right before Rose hit the game winning shot James ran at Rose banged into him and luckily for the Bulls the basketball ended up going out of bounds. I get it; there where 3 seconds left and no referee in the NBA is going to call a foul on the best player in the league in that situation. Fans rooting against the Cavaliers forget how much pull James seems to have. Remember 2 seasons ago he complained that the All-Star break wasn’t long enough and this season they magically had a couple of extra days added to All-Star weekend. Any referee who likes his job and wants to keep it is going to swallow his whistle when it comes to a play like that and James is involved. Was the first play a jump ball; yes. Was the second play a foul; yes. Was either play called correctly; no and they won’t be. I was a little surprised by the Bulls fans being as upset as they were with these two blatantly missed calls. I guess they forgot how the Bulls used to benefit from this same situation when Michael Jordan was wearing a Chicago uniform.

Rose led all scorers with 30 points and finally got to the free throw line in the series making 9 of 10 free throws. Rose was 10 of 26 from the field and 1 of 3 from behind the 3-point line. That means the only 3-pointer Rose hit was the last second bank shot to win the game. Butler had 20 points, Mike Dunleavy scored 16 points and Nikola Mirotic added 12 points off the bench. Pau Gasol was injured and played just a little under 22 minutes in Game 3. James led the Cavaliers with 27 points. James was 8 of 25 from the field and made just 1 of his 7 3-points attempts on the night. Kyrie Irving went 3 of 4 from behind the 3-point line, but those where the only 3 shots he made from the field going 3 for 13 while scoring 11 points. Tristan Thompson was the other Cavaliers starter to score double digit points with 10 while J.R. Smith scored 14 point off the bench included the late 3-pointer that tied the game at 96, .Matthew Dellavedova also came off the cavaliers bench to score 10 points. Game 3 is Sunday afternoon in Chicago with the Bulls holding a 2-1 series lead.

In the late game last night (Friday) the Los Angeles Clippers took a 2 games to 1 lead over the Houston Rockets in their Western conference 2nd round series by winning Game 3 124-99. J.J. Reddick went 5 of 6 from behind the 3-point line and 11 of 14 from the field overall for a game high 31 points. Austin Rivers scored 25 points and Blake Griffin added 20 points as the Clippers shot 55.4% from the field and 44.8% from behind the 3-point line in their win. The Rockets were led by James Harden with 25 points, but shot 39.8% from the field and 33.3% from behind the 3-point line in the game. Harden did hand out 11 assists and Dwight Howard had a double-double 14 each points and rebounds. In true Howard fashion he went 4 of 11 from the free throw line and as a team the Rockets where 18 of 31 (58.1%) from the free throw line. Chris Paul did return for the Clippers and played a little over 23 minutes. Game 3 is Sunday for these two teams in Los Angeles.

Have you ever thought that your favorite NFL team might be cursed or jinxed or something along those lines. If you’re a fan of the Jacksonville Jaquars and I know there are some of you out there you have to be wondering about this. Jacksonville had the 3rd pick in the draft last weekend and they decided to go with a pass rusher to help their defense instead of taking the player that most if not all experts thought was the best player in the draft;; Leonard Williams a defensive lineman. Since Jacksonville wanted a true edge rusher they drafted Dante Fowler Jr. a linebacker/defensive end with the 3rd pick. Well on the 1st day of rookie mini camp Fowler torn the ACL ligament in his left knee and will miss the 2015 season. Fowler was already talked about as a Defensive Rookie of the Year candidate. It was report that Fowler’s left knee bent awkwardly during 11 on 11 drills and he had to be carted off of the field. Fowler was set to play Jacksonville’s “Leo” position in their defense. The Jaquars where also hoping a “high motor” player like Fowler would add to their young defense that finished 6th in the NFL last season with 45 sacks. Even though he;s out of college it looks like Fowler will be taking a red shirt year instead of rushing quarterbacks in the NFL.

The NASCAR circuit heads to the Kansas Speedway for The Spomgebob Squarepants 400 tonight. Joey Logano won the pole in qualifying yesterday  with a speed of 192.397 M.P.H. Kasey Kahne, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr. and Carl Edwards round out the Top 5 qualifiers for the race. Dan the Man’s favorite driver Clint Bowyer starts 21st. This is the first race where Erik Jones will take over the #18 Jo Gibbs Racing (JGR) car from David Ragan who was filling in for an inured Kyle Busch. Ragan is now driving the #55 car for Michael Waltrip Racing (MWR) for what looks like the rest of the race season. Brian Vickers started the season in the #55 car, but has been out with blood clots and there hasn’t been a timetable set for his return. Jeff Gordon is the defending champion and could use a win to lock down a spot in The Chase. Chris Olmstead from BeyondtheFlag.com was unable to join us on the podcast Friday to preview the race and give us his picks, but he will be joining us tomorrow to recap the race. We did receive Chris’s picks via e-mail. Here’s what he said ” I think there is going to be another different winner this weekend so I am going to go with Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon or Kasey Kahne”

So how was your week?

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

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

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