Closing Time?

Rather than write my thoughts on tonight, I thought I would reprint my views on this series before the series began.

From the April 22, 2005 entry on this Blog …

As for the Rockets-Mavericks series, as opposed to writing a long essay on why the Mavericks should win this series, allow me to cut to the chase: They are better. The Rockets have plenty of reasons to be proud, but in a 7-game series, the team with the bigger guns and better weapons tend to rise to the top by the end of the two weeks. When you cancel McGrady with Dirk, and then just size up one team’s remainders (Yao, Wesley, Sura) with the other team’s (Finley, Stackhouse, Howard, Terry, Van Horn, Dampier) you see why I feel like I do. Mavericks in 6.

By the way, I might anticipate that this series will be tied at 1-1 and 2-2 before the Mavs win games 5 and 6 to advance. We shall see.

I may not have nailed it perfectly, but I stand behind it…

Links:

Van Gundy becomes a Houston Hero …

Now he's our guy. He fought for us, and now we're standing behind him.

He's a native New Yorker, but, at the moment, couldn't be any more of a Texan if he showed up with cream gravy on his tie and a Dan Jenkins novel under his arm.
As for the man himself, he seems both dazed and amazed by the reaction.

"That's why I love living here," he said Wednesday afternoon as the Rockets prepared to play Game 6 of a best-of-seven series against the Dallas Mavericks tonight. "People are genuine, they're nice, they're kind, they're compassionate."
He declined the money offers, saying: "I had choices to make. I made 'em. I have to live with the choices."

This is the same guy — or is it? — who was widely viewed with distrust during most of his first two seasons here.

"I didn't mean to make myself the rallying point," he said.

Too late.

Galloway on the Van Gundy controversy …

Mavericks come together as a team – Art Garcia …

Pick and Roll all night in Game 6 ...

Chan Ho Shelled, Rangers sweep A’s …

The win gave the Rangers a sweep and their first three-game winning streak of the season. Since the night of the brawl that ended with Frank Francisco pitching a chair into the stands, Texas is 9-2 against Oakland.

It stands in stark contrast to the Rangers' prior fortunes against the A's. From the start of 2002 through the night of the brawl, the Rangers were 14-28 against Oakland.

NFL’s unresolved issues …

Here is a pretty decent racing blog: That’s Racin …

If you love Liverpool (I know, not many here do), here is some video that will make you happy: From Tuesday Night …



UW College student, above, beat up; Badgers RB arrested for fight …

Star Wars selling products …

Junior plays lame game …

So, who's to blame, because NASCAR Nation needs to know.

During interviews immediately after the incident, every driver from Mike Wallace to Rusty Wallace to Mark Martin to Ricky Rudd took the high road. They passed it off as the inevitable "Big One" inherent in every Cup race run with a carburetor restrictor plate.

Maybe that was a rare instance of political correctness, prompted by live network TV cameras and the knowledge that any real - and certainly obscene - ranting would be met by a fine and loss of points from the sanctioning body.

Two days later, Junior tagged Johnson as an "idiot" - a statement equal to the kiss of death - while apparently absolving himself.

Having reviewed the same replays over and over as everyone else out there, Junior's words sound like a belated attempt to cover his butt.

The accusation is unworthy of Junior, a five-time winner at Talladega.

Or, maybe it's Junior's way of dancing around the fact that Hendrick Motorsports has caught up to and perhaps surpassed Dale Earnhardt Inc.'s engine program on NASCAR's plate tracks.

I know I am a bit late on this, but it is still worth the read! Sports Guy kills Fever Pitch …