Today's Best - 12.17.07

5. the vikings, i guess - in a game that was largely uninteresting, the vikings beat the bears 20-13 or perhaps by another generic football score. the minnesota vikings now have won twice as many games as the minnesota timberwolves and have thereby improved their playoff chances while eliminating the rival bears from contention. the bears played a game typical of their season so far as a decent defensive effort, led by brian urlacher's two sacks, interception, and fumble recovery, was wasted by a tame orton-led offense. vikings quarterback tarvaris jackson wasn't much better as he turned it over four times. luckily, adrian peterson, who was mostly bottled up all night, picked up the slack and found a way to score two touchdowns, the second of which came on a play that began with him and brooks bollinger colliding in the backfield and put minnesota ahead for good. and now because of their recent play down the stretch, a lot of people are saying that the vikings are the team that no one wants to face in the playoffs. well no one except the bears, who i'm pretty sure would like to play anyone in the playoffs.

4. teams that beat the jazz 2 weeks ago - the jazz have only won one of their last eight games and after a 116-111 loss to atlanta last night, it's obvious that beating utah is no longer a very impressive victory. as it stands, the jazz only hold a half game lead on the final playoff spot over the blazers, who have now won 8 straight. it's hard to pinpoint exactly why the jazz have been playing so poorly especially as someone who avoids watching their games. i assume it has something to do with mehmet okur's injury which has forced a collins brother into minutes. i would love to see jason and jarron collins enter a two-on-two basketball tournament for twins. not only would they lose to every team of twins, they'd lose to numerous other teams of people who played by themselves because they didn't have a twin.

3. rudy gay - last night, the grizzlies lost 125-117 to the warriors of golden state in a high-paced, frenetic game. for the third consecutive game, pau gasol sat out nursing a jammed big toe. in his absence, rudy gay took over the reins of marc iavaroni's offense. he scored 32 points which tied the career high he set in his previous game, a win against the magic in orlando. and even more impressively, yesterday rudy gay tied a long standing nba record by collecting six total personal fouls over the course of a game. and anyone can foul the other team seven times in a single game, it's rudy gay. but even if he doesn't, he'll still likely remain memphis' leading scorer especially considering that he's the the nba's 9th highest scorer in december with 23.6 points per game and 5th in the league with 40 dunks.

2. mike d'antoni - the suns and spurs played in a close, hard-fought game last night that ended with a 100-95 phoenix win. this was the spurs first home loss of the season and it came while tony parker sat out his third consecutive game. it's easy to say that had parker played the spurs would have won. but in a game where the lead changed hands five times in the final 90 seconds, i think the spurs could have easily won had gregg popovich not been completely out-coached. because after grant hill made two free throws to push the lead to 98-95 with 9 seconds to go, the spurs made an egregious error when with a chance to tie the game, ginobili lost the ball to boris diaw. then egregiously almost as if the spurs didn't know the suns were 0-5 when they didn't reach 100 points, matt bonner committed a clear path foul. this gave the suns two free throws and possession. uh, spurs, the score is 98-95 and the suns are winless when they fail to score 100 points. if you don't give them those two free throws, chances are you'll win. amazingly, boris diaw missed one of two. the score sat at 99-95 and the spurs were given new life. surely they must now know that if they simply keep the suns from scoring another point, victory will likely be theirs. incredibly, the spurs fouled again and steve nash scored the 100th point for phoenix on a free throw that clinched the suns victory. gregg popovich has lost this team.

1. fernando viña - i'm sure andy pettitte couldn't have been very pleased that a few days after explaining that he only used hgh to recover from an injury, fernando viña used the exact same excuse to explain his inclusion in the mitchell report. soon enough, everyone who gets caught with performance enhancing drugs will use this same flimsy excuse as if this was somehow not still cheating. anyways, since the yankees dynasty of the late 90s has come under fire for the numerous alleged steroid and hgh users on their rosters including the aforementioned andy pettitte, i think it's only fair that similar suspicions are raised about fernando viña's castmates on baseball tonight. steroids and hgh could explain why peter gammons was able to return to work less than three months after a brain aneurysm or why tim kurkjian knows so many stats or why john kruk is able to wear non-sweatpants to work.