Posts Tagged ‘golden state warriors’

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: March 2, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in Auto Racing, basketball, fantasy, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,
0

Stephen Curry sat out last nights games because of the left ankle he hurt on Saturday against the Oklahoma City Thunder. With Curry out of the Warriors line up the game may not have went the way anyone expected it to go, but Golden State still got a win over the Atlanta Hawks 109-105 in overtime. It was the 6th win in a row for Golden State and they also stayed perfect at home (Oracle Arena) this season. The last loss Golden State had at home was January 27, 2015 (113-111) against the Chicago Bulls. Golden State was up 32-26 after the 1st quarter and extended the lead to 59-48 at halftime and it started to look like the Warriors would cruise to another home win. The Warriors managed just 16 3rd quarter points and Atlanta was able to cut the lead to 5 at 75-70. Of course since the game went into overtime it means that Atlanta outscored Golden State 27-22 in the 4th quarter. The Warriors put up 12 points in overtime to Atlanta’s 9 points to get the victory. With Curry out injured Klay Thompson stepped up to lead the Warriors in scoring with 26 points. While the Warriors have become known for “small ball” last night there center Andrew Bogut chipped in 19 points. Bogut made 8 of the 9 shots he took from the field. Draymond Green had   15 points and led the team on rebounds with 13 and assists with 9. Harrison Barnes was the 4th Warriors starter to score in double digits with 12 points. Marreese Speights added 10 points off of the Golden State bench. Speights went 2 for 2 from behind the 3-point line making both of them in the 4th quarter. Golden State turned to Shaun Livingston as a starter and Leandro Barbosa off the bench to help fill the void with Curry out. Livingston played the bulk of the minutes (34), but Barbosa added the offense with 11 points. Livingston added 6 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assist and 2 steals in the game. Atlanta was led in scoring by Paul Milsap with 19 points. Al Horford and Dennis Schroder (off the bench) each had 17 points. Kent Bazemore had 15 points and tied with Horford for the team lead in rebounds with 9. Kyle Korver and Mike Scott each had 11 points and did their damage from behind the 3-point line. Korver went 3 of 6 while Scott was 3 of 5 from behind the 3-point line. Jeff Teague was the Hawks team leader in assists with 6.With the win Golden State improved to 54-5 on the season. Atlanta fell to 33-28 and are holding on to the #5 seed in the Eastern Conference right now. Atlanta will stay in California and play the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday. Golden State will play host to Oklahoma City on Thursday. It’s a rematch of Saturday nights game that the Warriors won 121-118 in overtime.

If you’re playing daily fantasy or your fantasy league is still going on here are some of the guys I hope you had in your line up last night. D’Angelo Russell scored 39 points and grabbed 6 rebounds in the Lakers 170-101 win over the Brooklyn Nets. Brook Lopez had 23 points for the Nets in a losing effort. Damian Lillard had his 3rd consecutive 30 plus point night in a row scoring 30 points exactly as the Portland Trail Blazers cruise to a 104-85 win over the New York Knicks. Carmelo Anthony put up 23 points for the Knicks. Hassan Whiteside had 26 points and grabbed 14 rebounds as the Miami Heat beat the Chicago Bulls 129-111. Kemba Walker also had a 26 point night in the Charlotte Hornets 126-92 win over the Phoenix Suns. Wesley Matthews scored 21 points to lead the Dallas Mavericks as they beat the Orlando Magic 121-108. Ersan Ilyasova scored 22 for the Magic in the loss. Hopefully some of these guys where in your winning line up last night.

Jimmie Johnson used a pit strategy to win the 2nd race of the NASCAR season at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. Kevin Harvick had led the most laps and he appeared to have the car to beat, but Johnson pitted as soon as he could get enough gas in the car to make it to the end of the race. For some reason Harvick and the other drivers at the front of the field stayed on the race track longer than expected and with Johnson on new tires he was able to build a lead that no one could cut into. While there was a late caution giving the rest of the field a shot at Johnson; he took the inside lane and was able to hold the field off for the win. Johnson’s teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. came 2nd with Kyle Busch in 3rd his brother Kurt in 4th and Carl Edwards rounding out the Top 5. Harvick led 131 of the 330 laps, but ended up coming home in 6th place. Kyle Busch was one of Chris Olmstead’s choice on the Sunday morning edition of Sports Time Radio; so he did have a Top 5 finish. Now his other two choices; that’s a different story. Chris had Matt Kenseth who did lead 47 laps, but had a pit road penalty and then was black flagged. Even with all that Kenseth finished 19th. Kasey Kahne was Chris’ other choice and he never really factored in the race and came home in 23rd place. With 2 drivers locked into The Chase with wins the series heads out to Las Vegas for the Kobalt 400 Sunday at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Will we have a new drivers name entered into The Chase or will Johnson or Denny Hamlin get their 2nd win of the season?

With a win last night the Edmonton Oilers improved to 24-34-7. With last nights loss the Buffalo Sabres are 23-31-8. Now neither of these teams are a threat to make the playoffs this season, but their match up last night drew some interest because it featured Connor McDavid the #1 overall pick in the 2015 draft taking on the #2 draft pick in the same draft Jack Eichel. The Oilers beat the Sabres 2-1 in overtime last night and McDavid scored both of the Edmonton goals in the win. It was almost Eichel who had the game winner in overtime as he spun an Oilers defenseman around, but missed a backhanded attempt on goal. Just seconds later McDavid raced by the Buffalo defense and beat Sabres goalie Robin Lehner for the game winner. While right now this match up might not mean anything as far as a playoff race might go, but are we looking at two guys who could become long term stars in the NHL.

You can find me on Twitter @Burketime

Listen to Sports Time Radio at BlogTalkRadio.com

 

How was your week

Posted: February 27, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,
0

Friday night Kyle Lowry scored a career high 43 points including the game winning shot with 3.8 seconds left in the Toronto Raptors 99-97 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. The win was also Toronto’s 10th in a row at home tying a franchise record. Lowry was 15 of 20 from the floor. He made 11 of his 15 free throw attempts while picking up 4 steals, 5 rebounds and handing out a team high 9 assists. Lowry’s night proved to be even bigger as Toronto’s leading scorer DeMar DeRozan struggled. DeRozen scored just 6 points going 1 of 11 from the field in the game. Terrence Ross came off the bench t score 15 points. Toronto’s big man Jonas Valanciunas and Bismack Biyombo each scored 11 points. Valanciunas also grabbed a team high 9 rebounds. I’m sure if you asked any player on the Raptors or their head coach Dwayne Casey they’d tell you this was just another regular season game. You do have to wonder if getting a win over the Cavaliers the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference might give some confidence to the #2 seed in the East. The Cavaliers where led in scoring by LeBron James wit 25 points. James had a chance to win the game for Cleveland with a last second shot, but was unable to get the shot to drop. James also handed out a team high 7 assists. James was 9 of 18 from the field and made 5 of the 9 3-point shots he took. Kevin Love added 20 points for the Cavaliers while J.R. Smith had 13 points and Kyrie Irving scored 10 points. Tristan Thompson led the Cavaliers in rebounding grabbing 10 of them. With the win the Raptors improved to 39-18 just 2 games behind the Cavaliers (41-16) for the top spot in the Eastern Conference. Would the Raptors moving into that #1 seed help them in a playoff match up against the Cavaliers? I guess having home court couldn’t hurt.

Lowry wasn’t the only NBA player to score 40 points last night. Chris Paul of the Los Angeles Clippers scored 40 points exactly in his teams 117-107 win over the Sacramento Kings. Paul also added 13 assists and grabbed 8 rebounds as well. Paul was 13 of 20 from the field going 4 of 9 from behind the 3-point line. Paul also made all 10 of his free throw attempts. There was just one 30 point scorer last night. Paul George of the Indiana Pacers put up 32 points in a losing effort as the Pacers fell 96-95 to the Charlotte Hornets. George went 13 for 26 from the field, but was just 2 of 8 from behind the 3-point line. Hopefully you had Lowry, Paul and George in your daily fantasy line up last night.

The NBA has really been doing a good job of getting marquee match ups for their nationally televised Saturday night games and tonight is no exceptions. Tonight we’ll see the Golden State Warriors (52-5) against the Oklahoma City Thunder (41-17) at Chesapeake Energy Arena. The Warriors are 9-1 in there last 10 games and are on a 4 game winning streak. The Thunder are just 6-4 in there last 10 games and dropped their last game 123-119 on Thursday to the New Orleans Pelicans. Is it possible the Thunder was looking ahead t this match up against the Warriors and got caught off guard by the Pelicans?

Golden State is led by Stephen Curry and his 30.4 points per game average, but Curry is also grabbing 5.3 rebounds per game and averages 6.7 assists per game. Klay Thompson is scoring an average of 21.6 points per game and then there’s the all around game of Draymond Green. Green averages 14 points per game along with 9.6 rebounds and 7.3 assists per game as well. You have to wonder though if Oklahoma City is the team that can match the Golden State offense. Kevin Durant leads Oklahoma City in scoring at 27.7 points per game, but I bet a lot of people don’t know that he’s also the teams leading rebounder grabbing an average of 8 boards a game. Russell Westbrook can go for a triple-double at any time. Westbrook averages 24.3 points per game, 10.2 assists per game and 7.5 rebounds per game. Oklahoma City’s big men Serge Ibaka and Enes Kanter add to the offense as well. Ibaka averages 12.8 points per game, 6.7 rebounds per game and is the tam leader in blocked shots with an average of 2.1 per game. Kanter scores an average of 11.8 points per game and grabs and average of 7.6 rebounds per game. The difficult part for Oklahoma City is Kanter is ineffective against the Golden State small ball line up. While Ibaka will have to be able to handle Green on defense to give Oklahoma City a chance to win. When Oklahoma City has the basketball Thompson will have to be able to keep Westbrook in check and Green will have to help out on Durant. It should be big time NBA offense with a lot of 3-point shots being taken.

The NHL has another Stadium Series game tonight as the Detroit Red Wings and the Colorado Avalanche will play outside at Coors Field. The Red Wings have 71 points and the Avalanche have 68 points. Both teams are hanging out to Wild Card playoff spots right now. The Red Wings are in the 7th spot in the Eastern Conference 3 points ahead of the 8th place Pittsburgh Penguins. The Avalanche currently hold the 8th and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. Colorado is 3 points behind the 7th place Nashville Predators and has a 4 point lead on the 9th place Minnesota Wild.

On Sunday we may be seeing a preview of the Stanley Cup finals as the defending champion Chicago Blackhawks host the best team in the NHL this season the Washington Capitals. Washington has 94 points in just 60 games this season and is running away with the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference. The Blackhawks have 81 points and are just 1 point behind the Dallas Stars for 1st place in the Central division of the Western Conference. Patrick Kane is the NHL’s scoring leader and has a 14 point lead over Jamie Benn of Dallas, but Washington’s Alexander Overchkin has 5 more goals (40) than Kane has (35) this season. We should also get to see the Branden Holtby and Corey Crawford in goal for their respective teams. Holtby leads all goaltenders in wins with 39 wins while Crawford is 2nd with 32 wins. It’s incredibly difficult to repeat as champion in the NHL; so will the Blackhawks even get the Stanley Cup finals. The NHL playoffs also feature quite a few upsets; so the Capitals have to be careful just to get to the finals themselves.

You can find me on Twitter @Burketime

Listen to Sports Time Radio at BlogTalkRadio.com

How was your week

Posted: February 6, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, football, sports, Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,
0

We have what looks like another quality match in the NBA tonight. These Saturday marquee match ups that ESPN has been running out there to us look good and hopefully tonight’s will produce a good game. Will get to see the Oklahoma City Thunder at the Golden State Warriors. It seems like every time the Warriors is in one of these type of games they end up winning by 30 points; can Oklahoma City be that team that stays in the game with the Warriors. Golden State should easily be the favorite since they’re 45-4 overall and a perfect 22-0 at Oracle arena where the game will be played tonight. Oklahoma City is 38-13 on the season and are currently 3rd in the Western Conference. Both teams are 9-1 over the last 10 games. Golden State has won their last 8 games in a row while Oklahoma City is coming into tonight’s match up having won their last 5 games in a row. Oklahoma City maybe the only team in the NBA that can score with Golden State. Golden State is far and away the highest scoring team in the NBA averaging 115.4 points per game, but did you know that Oklahoma City is the 2nd highest scoring team on average in the NBA with 109.7 points per game. Oklahoma City’s scoring defense on average is actually a little better than Golden State’s. The Thunder give up 101.6 points per game on average while the Warriors average giving up 102.7 points per game. What does Oklahoma City have to do tonight to hand Golden State their first home loss of the season. Kevin Durant averages 27.4 points per game this season. Does he need to go for 40 or 50 points tonight for Oklahoma City to win this game? What about Russell Westbrook who averages 24 points per game, 7.6 rebounds per game and 10 assists per game this season and has 8 triple-doubles. Westbrook’s 8 triple-doubles put him 2nd in the NBA this season; who is he tailing? That would be Draymond Green of Golden State who has 10 triple-doubles to lead the league. Does Westbrook need his 9th triple-double of the season for Oklahoma City to win this game? Would big games by Durant and Westbrook even be enough for Oklahoma City to get a win or would they need someone else or possible two someone else’s to step up and have a big night. While Serge Ibaka (12.8), Enes Kanter (11.8) and Dion Waiters (10.0) all average in double figures for Oklahoma City can they elevate their game enough to help the Thunder get a big win. On the Friday Sports Time Radio podcast Dan the Man took Golden State to win this game. Now Dan doesn’t play the betting line he just makes picks, but if you’re a betting man Golden State is anywhere from a 8 1/2 to a 9 point favorite in the game. The over/under for the game which is the combined score of both teams is between 230 and 231.5 total points.Where are you pout your money tonight?

The Sacramento Kings have dropped their last two games and 6 out of there last 7 games. On Wednesday they lost a home game 107-102 to the Chicago Bulls. Well the Bulls are going to be a playoff team and even though it’s a home game and the Kings had their chances to win the game; so not a bad loss, but a loss just the same. Then last night the Kings gave up 128 points to the Brooklyn Nets in their 128-119 loss. The win improved the Nets record to 13-38. The Nets are 14 out of 15 teams in the Eastern Conference. The only team that Brooklyn has a better record than are the 7-43 Philadelphia 76ers. With these two losses the talk has started again if George Karl is the right coach for Sacramento. It seems as Sacramento might try and stay with Karl until the All-Star break which is just 3 games away. The Kings face the Boston Celtics on Sunday, the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday and then the 76ers on Wednesday heading into the All-Star break. These 3 games are on the road and there’s a chance that Sacramento will go into the All-Star break on a 5 game losing streak. Even if Sacramento goes 2-1 in these 3 games would that be enough to save Karl’s job. Would a loss to Philadelphia doom Karl? If Sacramento makes a change it is unlikely assistant coach Nancy Lieberman would take over. It looks more like they would elevate assistant coach and former Kings forward Corliss Williamson to interim coach. It was roughly this time a year ago that the Kings struck a deal to hire Karl away from ESPN to replace then-interim coach Tyrone Corbin. A five-game winning streak in mid-January improved Sacramento’s record to 20-23 and lifted the Kings into the No. 8 spot in the Western Conference, but the 1-6 nosedive has left them 3 1/2 games behind the Utah Jazz for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. Kings owner Vivek Ranadive has made it known that he expected the team to push for a playoff berth this season and bring an end to a postseason drought dating to 2006. Karl’s job appeared to be in trouble in early November, but he survived those storms. If the 64-year-old is ultimately dismissed now; it would be Sacramento’s third coaching change since December 2014. Mike Malone was fired after an 11-13 start last season, and Karl was brought in on a four-year, $15 million deal after Sacramento went 7-21 under Corbin.

Now on tomorrow’s (Sunday) edition of Sports Time Radio Mr. Fantasy and I will let you know who Dan the Man, Schaumburg Stu and Mr. Fantasy himself are taking to win Super Bowl 50 this Sunday. Not only will you learn who they think will win the game, but what they think the final score will be and who’s going home with the MVP trophy. I am actually going to go ahead and give you my picks right here for Super Bowl Sunday. I’m going with the Denver Broncos to pull off the upset and beat the Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl 50. I do believe that it will be a close game and that a field goal will decide it. I’m going with a final score of Denver 27 Carolina 24. It’s always easy to pick the quarterback of the Super Bowl winning team to take home the MVP but I asked everyone to be creative and find someone else too pick; so I’ll stay away from Peyton Manning as MVP. So I am going to go out on a limb and say that for the first time since Super Bowl 35 a defensive player will win the MVP By the way that player was Ray Lewis of the Baltimore Ravens. My choice for MVP of Super Bowl 50 is Von Miller!

Listen to Sports Time Radio on BlogTalkRadio.com

You can find me on Twitter @Burketme

 

How was your week

Posted: January 30, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, sports, tennis, Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,
0

Does the NBA have a problem? There are reports that ratings for TNT and ESPN are down this season. TNT has lost close to 8 points in the ratings while ESPN was said to be down about 5 ratings points. It seems as though fans are only interested in seeing the Golden State Warriors, San Antonio Spurs and the Cleveland Cavaliers in primetime. No these teams are the Top 3 teams in the NBA and barring an upset in the playoffs you’d have to think Cleveland will play either San Antonio or Golden State in the NBA Finals. So can you blame fans for only really wanted to watch these 3 teams play?

While the Cavaliers lead in the Eastern Conference is just 2 1/2 games over the Toronto Raptors does anyone think that in a 7 game series the Raptors could beat the Cavaliers. The Chicago Bulls are currently 3rd in the Eastern Conference 7 games behind the Cavaliers. Now the Bulls have actually had some success against Cleveland, but have they had enough success to win 4 games in a 7 game series. Then it’s the Atlanta Hawks and the Boston Celtics who are ties for 4th place in the Eastern Conference. The Celtics did show some flashes against the Cavaliers in last years playoffs, but not enough to win the series. Atlanta had the best record in the Eastern Conference last season, but it was still the Cavaliers who went to the NBA Finals. Right no the Eastern Conference playoffs would round out with the Miami Heat (6th seed), Detroit Pistons (7th seed) and the Indiana Pacers (8th seed) as the final teams in. There are a few teams that the Cavaliers might drop a game or even two to in a series, but is there a team on that list that’s going to beat the Cavaliers in a 7 game series.

Golden State leads the Western Conference with a record of 42-4. San Antonio is 3 games behind with a record of 39-7. Did you know that neither team has lost a home game this season. The Warriors are 22-0 at home while the Spurs are 25-0 at home. So with the way these two teams are playing on their home courts could a team going into there arena and get a playoff road win? Is that team the Oklahoma City Thunder. With a healthy Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook you’d have t think that Oklahoma City has the best chance to get by either Golden State or San Antonio in a 7 game playoff series. Durant averages 27.2 points per game to go with an average of 8 rebounds a game. Durant also hands out an average of 4.5 assists a game as well. Westbrook is just a triple-double waiting to happen no matter who the opponent is. Westbrook is averaging 24.1 points per game, 7.3 rebounds per game and 9.9 assists per game. Oklahoma City also has a big man who can protect the rim in Serge Ibaka who blocks 2.1 shots per game to go along with 12.8 points per game and 6.8 rebounds per game.  Enes Kanter (11.8) and Dion Waiters (10.1) also average double digit points per game for Oklahoma City. This could be the toughest match up besides each other for either Golden State or San Antonio come playoff time. The Los Angeles Clippers are 31-16 and in 4th place in the Western Conference, but with the Blake Griffin situation going on it seems as though the team is more of a dumpster fire than a championship contender. The Clippers will have time to put it together when Griffin returns in 4 to 6 weeks from his broken hand, but can the team gel for a playoff run. The rest of the Western Conference looks like this right now. The Memphis Grizzlies are 5th at 27-20. The Dallas Mavericks are 6th at 27-22. The Houston Rockets are 7th at 25-24 and the Portland Trailblazers currently hold the 8th and final playoff spot with a record of 22-26, but are just a 1/2 ahead of the Utah Jazz. Do you think that the Grizzlies, Mavericks, Rockets, Trailblazers or possible Jazz will have what it takes to beat the Warriors or the Spurs in a 7 game playoff series?

I’ve mentioned on the podcast that I don;t enjoy the style of play that is going on in the NBA right now and I also feel that all I ever really need to watch is the 4th quarter of a game. It’s a drive and kick league now, but when someone kicks the basketball out it’s to the 3-point line for a shot. How many jump shots are taken from within 20 feet in an NBA game? Sadly I could never make it through an entire game to count, but one of these days I might have to try. Of course you wouldn’t count lay ups or dunks. I also have a big issue with the way the referees call the game and it’s really just one simple thing; call traveling. I understand that they want the monster dunks on the highlights, but there are so many other traveling violations in a game that are uncalled. Just last week I was checking in on the Cavaliers game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. While I had the game on I watched a player catch the ball at the 3-point line and his defender came out with him and faced him up. The player with the basketball changed his pivot foot 4 different times to get space from his defender to make a pass and no traveling was called on the play. Now I was able to see this on television; so how did the referee who was just a few feet away from these two players not see the multiple changes of the players pivot feet. Now I’m not saying that you can’t give that guy the extra step on his way too the basket for a monster dunk, but call it when it’s out on the floor in pain sight. Or maybe it’s just time to get rid of the traveling call all together.

While I’m not a huge fan of tennis I do enjoy watching some of a match if Serena Williams is involved. Earlier this morning Williams was in the finals of the Australian Open. While I didn’t get up to watch the match live i did read that Williams lost in the finals 4-6, 6-3, 4-6 to the #7 ranked player in the world Angelique Kerber. It was a big comeback for Kerber who was just 1 point away from being eliminated from the tournament in the opening round. Kerber went from almost going home to winning her 1st Grand Slam title.

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: January 27, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,
0

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 16, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, hockey, sports
Tags: , , , ,
0

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: December 26, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, fantasy, football, sports, Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,
0

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.

Listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast on BlogTalkRadio.com

You can find me on Twitter @Burketime

 

 

 

How was your week

Posted: December 19, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, fantasy, football, sports, Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,
0

Week 15 in the NFL kicked off with the St. Louis Rams getting a 31-23 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in what may be the last game the Rams play in St. Louis. The Rams are one of the teams looking to make the move to California. Te Rams jumped out to a 14-3 lead after the 1st quarter. 2 Case Keenum touchdown passes a 17-yarder to Tavon Austin and then a 60-yarder to Kenny Britt sandwich a 53-yard Connor Barth field goal to give the Rams their lead. Todd Gurley’s 3-yard touchdown run was the only scoring in the 3rd quarter and the Rams went into halftime with a 21-3 lead and you had to think we had another Thursday night blowout on our hands. A 32-yard field goal by Barth got the Buccaneers on the board first in the 3rd quarter, but the Rams came back with a Austin 21-yard touchdown run; his 2nd touchdown of the night and the Rams had a 28-6 lead going into the final quarter. Tampa Bay turned things around in the 4th quarter. Luke Stocker caught a 3-yard touchdown pass to get the Buccaneers in the end zone for the first time. Greg Zuerlein’s 19-yard field goal ended up being the last points of the night for St. Louis. Barth hit his 3rd field goal of the night a 24-yarder to make the score 31-16 St. Louis. Tampa Bay was able to get into the end zone one more time with a Austin Seferian-Jenkins 9-yard touchdown catch with 1:34 left in the game to get to the final score of 31-23. Both teams are now 6-8 with very little chance of making the playoffs.

Jamies Winston threw the football 50 times in the game. He completed 29 of then for 363 yards and 2 touchdowns. Winston did throw 1 interceptions and lost a fumble, but wasn’t sacked and ran the football 2 times for 5 yards. Case Keenum threw just 3 incompletions on the night. Keenum was 14 of 17 for 234 yards and touchdowns, but was sacked 2 ties for 13 yards. Keenum did have 3 rushing attempts, but they went for -3 yards.

Tampa Bay had a good night running the football, but fantasy wise they where hurt by not scoring a touchdown. Doug Martin carried the football 18 times for 91 yards and caught 1 pass for 6 yards.Charles Sims had 7 attempts for 50 yards and caught 3 passes for 22 yards. The Buccaneers defense was really focused on stopping Gurley as he had 21 carries for just 48 yards, but did score a touchdown. Gurley also caught 2 passes for 31 yards. Tre Mason added 3 carries for 13 yards and Bennie Cunningham carried the football 2 times for 8 yards.

There were a lot of fantasy experts saying that it wasn’t a goof week to play Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans. If you sat him you missed out on 9 receptions and 157 yards. Adam Humphries filling in for the injured Vincent Jackson caught 6 passes for 60 yards. All 3 Tampa Bay tight ends had 3 receptions in the game. Seferian-Jenkins had went for 29 yards and a touchdown. Stocker went for 25 yards and a touchdown while Cameron Brate went for 20 yards. Donteea Dye also added 1 catch for 44 yards. After the long touchdown catch Britt only had 1 other receptions, but he led the Rams with 71 receiving yards. Jared Cook had 3 catches for 64 yards. Austin caught 3 passes for 41 yards and a touchdown. Austin also carried the football 4 times for 32 yards and also scored a rushing touchdown. Lance Kendricks also had 3 catches for 27 yards on the night.

Neither kicker had a miss in the game. Connor Barth hit both of his extra points and was 3 for 3 on field goals with a long of 53 yards. Greg Zuerlein made his only field goal attempt from 19 yards out and made all 4 of his extra point attempts.

With the college football regular season over the NFL has added a Saturday game for you to watch. Tonight they give us the 8-5 New York Jets at the 4-9 Dallas Cowboys. The Jets need a win to stay in playoff contention in the AFC while Dallas has been eliminated from the playoff race. The Jets are 3-3 on the road this season while the Cowboys are just 1-5 at home. I know that Dan the Man, Schaumburg Stu and I have all picked the Jets to win this game. I haven’t received Mr. Fantasy’s pick as he likes to wait to the last minute to make his selection. By the way Dan the Man and I had St. Louis winning on Thursday night while Schaumburg Stu and Mr. Fantasy started their week off 0-1 as they went with Tampa Bay.

The Golden State Warriors got some revenge last night. Golden State beat the only team that had beaten them this season the Milwaukee Bucks 121-112 at Oracle arena. While it was a 9-point win for the Warriors it didn’t come easy. Milwaukee took the lead after the 1st quarter 36-33. The Bucks added 9 points to their lead in the 2nd quarter putting up 36 points to the Warriors 25 points for a 70-58 lead at the half. Golden State only cut 4 points off the Milwaukee lead in the 3rd quarter outscoring the Bucks 27-23. Milwaukee had a 90-81 lead at the start of the 4th quarter. Golden State put up a 36 point 4th quarter while Milwaukee really struggled and scored just 19 points in the 4th quarter. So while the 9-point win for the Warriors might look like it was easy it wasn’t.

Klay Thompson led the Warriors with 27 points while Stephen Curry just missed a triple-double putting up 26 points to go with team high in rebounds with 10 and assists with 9. Draymond Green had 21 points and Brandon Rush added 10. Festus Ezeli was the only Golden State bench player to score more than 10 points. Ezeli had 14 points and tied Curry for the team lead in rebounds with 10. Every Milwaukee starter score 10 or more points and 2 bench players also went over 10 points in the game. Michael Carter-Williams led the Bucks with 24 points. Giannis Antetokounmpo 20 points, Khris Middleton 16 points, Jabari Parker 14 points and Greg Monroe 10 points where the other Milwaukee starters in double digits. Miles Plumlee 13 points and O.J. Mayo 12 points came off the Bucks bench to score on double digits. Monroe also led the Bucks in rebounds with 13 and assists with 7.

On yesterday’s Sports Time Radio podcast Dan the Man predicted the final score of this game and how many points Curry would score. He had Golden State winning 112 to 96 with Curry scoring 36 points. He missed the Warriors score by 9, the Bucks score by 16 and Curry’s point total by 10. What Dan the Man didn’t know is I matched him up against a former Sports Time Radio guest Jamie Faue @BrickWallJamieF on Twitter. She had Golden State winning 121-95 with Curry scoring 35. She was right on the Warriors score, she missed the Bucks total by 17 and Curry’s total by 9 points. It was a pretty close match up, but Jamie getting the Warriors point total right on the number gives her the win.

You can listen to Sports Time Radio on BlogTalkRadio.com

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

 

 

How was your week?

Posted: December 12, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, football, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,
0

The Golden State Warriors improved to 24-0 last night (Friday) with a 124-119 victory over the Boston Celtics in double overtime. It was the 2nd time Golden State has went to overtime to keep the streak alive, nut their first double overtime game. On November 14th the Warriors needed overtime to beat the Brooklyn Nets 107-99. Klay Thompson missed this game with a sprained ankle and the Warriors could’ve used his shooting touch. Golden State shot 39.3% from the floor (42 for 107) in the game. It was an even tougher night from behind the 3-point line where the Warriors shot 29.0% going 9-31. Even shooting poorly Golden State was able to build a 7 point lead 82-75 at the start of the 4th quarter. The Celtics outscored the Warriors 28-21 in the 4th quarter and both tams had chances to win the game late, but neither could score and they headed to overtime tied at 103.  Neither team could get anything going in the 1st overtime. They each managed to score 7 points and we headed to the 2nd overtime period tied at 110. Golden State was able to take advantage of a couple of Boston misses and built a small lead. They where able to hold on by making their free throws late in the 2nd overtime. Golden State scored 14 points in the 2nd overtime while Boston scored just 9 points to get them their 24th straight victory to start the season 124-119.

Stephen Curry scored 38 points to lead the Warriors, but didn’t shoot very well. Curry was 9 of 27 overall, but did go 6 of 13 from the 3-point line and did make all of his 14 free throw attempts. Curry also tied for the team lead in assists with 8. With Thompsom out Draymond Green tried to fill that scoring void. Green played a game high 50 minutes and scored 20 points and tied Curry with 8 assists. Andre Iguodala saw increased playing time with Thompson out. Iguodala played 44 minutes and scored 13 points. Festus Ezeli and Shaun Livingston also came off the Warriors bench to score 12 points. Ezeli also had a team high 12 rebounds. Golden State shot 39 free throws in the game compared to just 16 for Boston.

Kelly Olynyk came off the Celtics bench and went 11 of 21 shooting overall, 3 of 6 from the 3-point line and 3 of 4 on free throws to lead Boston wit 28 points. Avery Bradley scored 19 points before fouling out while Isaiah Thomas 18 points and a team high 10 assists and Jae Crowder 15 points where the Celtics starters who scored in double figures.Besides Olynyk Evan Turner (13 points) and David Lee (10 points) scored in double figures off the Boston bench. Jared Sullinger grabbed a game high 13 rebounds for Boston.
Golden State wraps up their road trip tonight as they’re in Milwaukee to play the Bucks. Milwaukee has lost it’s last 2 games including a 90-83 loss to the Toronto Raptors Friday night. Milwaukee is 9-15 on the season, but with Thompson’s injury and Golden State coming off a double overtime game could tonight be the night they suffer there first loss?
There was another close game on Thursday night as the Arizona Cardinals beat the Minnesota Vikings 23-20. With the victory the Cardinals improved to 11-2 and clinched a playoff berth in the NFC. Minnesota fell to 8-5 good for 2nd place in the NFC North right now 1/2 game behind the Green Bay Packers.

There was quite a bit of discussion about the end of this game and who to place the blame for the Minnesota loss on. The Vikings had the football last and with about 12 seconds or so on the clock they decided to run 1 more play instead of try a 48 yard field goal to tie the game. Minnesota quarterback Teddy Bridgewater dropped back to pass and was sacked by Arizona defensive lineman Dwight Freeney. Freeney was also able to strip the football from Bridgewater. The Cardinals recovered the fumble, but with the Vikings out of timeouts they wouldn’t of been able to get the field goal unit set up in time to even make an attempt to tie the game. This is where all the debate starts. Is it Teddy Bridgewater’s fault for not throwing the football away? Or is it Mike Zimmer and the Vikings coaching staffs fault for the play call? While all these experts where trying to assign blame to someone they where all assuming that Blair Walsh would’ve made the 48 yard field goal to tie the game in the closing seconds. maybe it’s just me, but I don’t remember 48 yard field goals being gimmes, but they sure acted like it was. Now on the ill fated play it’s been pointed out that Bridgewater took a 5-step drop. In most late game situation like that you’ll see the quarterback take a 3-step drop and try to get rid of the football quickly. As the play develops it looks like Bridgewater wants to throw the football down the field instead of an out to the sideline. A shot at the end zone would be an interesting play call in that situation, but I don’t know if that’s what the Vikings where going for. While Bridgewater is dropping back to throw the Arizona defense does a great job of keeping him in the pocket and only allowing him a little room to step up. Now let me remind you that while Freeney might be at the end of his career he does have 115 1/2 career sacks and leads the Cardinals in that category this season with 4. Arizona signed him for just this type of play and they monitor how many snaps he takes so he’s ready for this type of situation. Freeney used a spin move to beat Vikings left tackle Matt Kalil giving himself a clear path to Bridgewater. With the Arizona defense doing there job and containing Bridgewater in the pocket there was nowhere for him to go. Bridgewater tries to step up into what little room he has and throw the football, but Freeney was able to close the distance and strip the football while he was taking Bridgewater down. So if you still feel the need to find fault in the Minnesota loss maybe it was Dwight Freeney’s fault they lost.

 

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

You can also follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Matt Kalil

How was your week

Posted: November 28, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, fantasy, football, sports, Sports Time Radio
Tags: , , , ,
0

For Thanksgiving the NFL gave us 2 blowouts and an upset. The day in football started out with a game I thought would be closer than it turned out to be as the Detroit Lions blew out the Philadelphia Eagles 45-14. In the second game the Dallas Cowboys where a 1 point favorite going into it. I hope you bet what would’ve been the underdog and took the 1 point and went with the Carolina Panthers. Even before Tony Romo got injured and had to leave the game Carolina was far and away the better team in this game and easily won 33-14. The third game of the night brought us an upset as the Chicago Bears went into Lambeau Field and defeated the Green Bay Packers 17-13.  Green Bay had 4 chances inside the Bears 10-yard line with under a minute to go in the Chicago defense kept the Packers out of the end zone to win the game.

Believe it or not we actually pick 2 out of the 3 games correctly for a 2-1 start to our week in picks. Schaumburg Stu, Dan the Man, Mr, Fantasy and I all had Detroit, Carolina and even though we all live in the Chicago suburbs we had Green Bay. Of course I think us living in the Chicago suburbs may have made us pick Green Bay to win that game.

Fantasy football wise in Thanksgiving if you had Matthew Stafford as your quarterback you got off to a good start. Stafford scored right around or in the 40 point range depending on how your league is scored. No matter how it’s scored he was the best quarterback on Thanksgiving.Cam Newton came in right around the 20 point mark while Mark Sanchez, Jay Cutler and Aaron Rodgers all finished in the 12 to 15 point range. Matt Cassell actually outscored Tony Romo as Cassell end up at about 10 points and Romo was in the negatives if your league scores negative points. With the way our longest running league is scored Stafford had 37.54 points. Then it was Newton (16.66), Sanchez (11.88), Cutler (11,40), Rodgers (11.34), Cassell (10.76) and Romo with -4.38 points.

Eddie Lacy was the top fantasy running back on Thanksgiving. Lacy ran for 105 yards and caught a touchdown pass as well. Lacy totaled 25.15 points in our fantasy league. Two Lions running backs came in 2nd and 3rd on the day. Joique Bell scored 17.45 points and Theo Riddick scoced 17.05 points. Bell rushed for 57 yards, but out one in the end zone. Riddick rushed for just 6 yards, but caught 5 passes for 62 yards and a touchdown. Carolina’s Jonathan Stewart scored 15.20 fantasy points with 68 rushing yards and the Bears Jeremy Langford scored  15.05 points 48 rushing yards and a touchdown to round out the Top 5 running backs.

It’s not a big surprise that the Lions had the 2 highest scoring wide receivers on Thursday. Calvin Johnson led the way with 33.30 fantasy points. Johnson caught 8 passes for 93 yards and scored 3 touchdowns. Golden Tate was 2nd with 16,43 points. Tate caught 7 catches for 50 yards and 1 touchdown. Cole Beasley is a free agent right now in our longest running league. Beasley scored 14.90 points on 6 catches, 44 yards and a touchdown. Jordan Matthews and Alshon Jeffeys tied for 4th with 14.25 points. Jefferys had more catches 7 to 3 and more yards 90 to 60, but Matthews scored a touchdown and Jefferys didn’t. Randall Cobb rounds out the Top 5 receivers with 11.92 points catching 6 passes for 74 yards.

Greg Olsen of Carolina was the top scoring tight end on the day with 10.75 fantasy points. We start 2 tight ends a week in our league and no one has Philadelphia tight end Trey Burton who ended up being the 2nd highest scoring tight end on the day with 8.90 points. The other Philadelphia tight end Brent Celek was tied with Zach Miller of the Bears for 3rd with 8.50 points. Jason Witten was 4th with 6.60 points and Richard Rodgers was 5th with 6.00 points.

Carolina’s Graham Gano was the best kicker to have as he totaled 20 points on the day.  Matt Prated (Detroit) and Mason Crosby (Green Bay) each had 10 points. Dan Bailey had 7 fantasy points for the Cowboys while Robbie Gould put up 5 in the Bears victory. The eagles Caleb Sturgis came in at the bottom of the kicker list with 2 points on the day.

It was Carolina’s defense that led in fantasy scoring with 22.62 points. They where followed by the Bears (13.26), Detroit (12.90), Green Bay (6.57(, Dallas (3.57) and Philadelphia (-2.38); I’m hoping you didn’t play Philadelphia’s defense.

As far as my team. I had Jay Cutler, Eddie Lacy and Green Bay’s defense; so I ended up with a total of 43.12 fantasy points. I am off to a little better start than I was projected to have. My outlook for the day was 37.87 points; so all in all it was a good fantasy day for my team.

The Golden State Warriors improved to 17-0 last night with a 135-116 win over the Phoenix Suns. The Warriors set the tone for the game with a 44 point 1st quarter. Stephen Curry led the way for the Warriors with 41 points. Curry was 11 for 20 from the field going 9 of 16 from behind the 3-point line. Draymond Green grabbed 10 rebounds and handed out 10 assists to lead Golden State in those categories. Green also had 14 points on the night for a triple-double.  Leandro Barbosa came off the Golden State bench to score 21 points while T.J. Warren came off the Suns bench to lead them in scoring with 28 points. The Golden State 17th win to start the season was the first of back to back games as tonight they host the 6-11 Sacramento Kings. Will it be 18-0 for Golden State? Or can the Kings be the team that hands then their 1st loss?

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

You can also follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Older Entries
Newer Entries