Today's Best - 01.20.08

5. punctuality - with miami's losing it's 12th and 13th consecutive games this weekend, it's gotten to the point where we can set our watches to miami's continued failures. and i don't know about you but i haven't been late to anything in the last two weeks. most recently, in both their last two games, miami held leads heading into the fourth quarter. on friday, the blazers outscored the heat 29-15 in the fourth and won 98-91. then to prove that wasn't a fluke, the knicks outscored the heat 23-15 in the fourth and won 88-84. thankfully for the heat, they didn't play on sunday. but as a result, i had no clue what time it was all day and walked around impossibly disoriented. i woke up at 4 pm, ate lunch, took a 2-hour nap, then woke up and ate breakfast. hopefully tomorrow when the heat host the cavs, things get back to normal so i don't accidentally get locked inside the mall again.

4. detroit pistons - apparently, deeeee-troit baaaaaa-sketball involves giving two different teams their 16th win of the season in back to back games this weekend. on friday, the kings went into detroit and won 100-93 then the following day the pistons got run out of chicago 97-81. of the pistons 12 losses this year, three have been to the bulls while two have been to the kings. luckily, they have no more games scheduled against sacramento while only having one more versus chicago for the rest of the season. unfortunately, unless the can solve the bulls, it looks like detroit's chances of tying the 97-98 bulls' record for most wins in a season are in serious jeopardy.

3. the murrland turrapins - murland handed number 1 ranked unc their first loss of the year with an 82-80 win in chapel hill. this leaves memphis and kansas as division i's only undefeated teams. while unc now joins a large group of one-loss teams and murland remains in an even bigger group of seven-loss teams. i didn't watch the game very intently so i can't give any insight into how the terror-pins were able to win other than just general good play. in fact, the main thing i'm taking away from this is an increased intense excitement for march madness. i have a feeling this year we're going to see a number 16 knock off a number 1 seed. assuming this was a bad enough loss to drop unc to a 16 seed.

2. lawrence tynes - the giants-packers nfc championship game ended in dramatic fashion with a 47-yard overtime field goal from giants kicker lawrence tynes. after the make, giants fans mobbed their teammate and carried him out of the stadium on his shoulders. or i'm sure they would have had he not missed two previous field goals that would have made this game far less dramatic. instead the giants probably celebrated by not throwing all of tynes' clothes in the shower and not making him walk back to new york.

1. greedy nate kaeding - nate kaeding had a field day yesterday as he drilled four field goals in yesterday's afc championship game against new england. unfortunately, his individual success was at the cost of his team's as the chargers lost 21-12 to an unspectacular patriots team. if san diego could have finished any of their drives in the end zone, perhaps the outcome would have been different, especially considering the chargers forced three brady interceptions. but, they ultimately lost because they suspiciously couldn't convert when it mattered the most. i suspect this had something to do with kaeding stealing norv turner's headset on 3rd down plays and calling "60-stretch far left (yawn)".