5. dallas philanthropy - over the last two nights, mediocre eastern conference teams that are defying logic to remain in the playoff hunt have run roughshod over the mavericks. on sunday, new jersey blew out dallas to remain the 8th best nba team on the east. then yesterday, philadelphia rode terrific defense and a reggie evans-josh howard collision to beat dallas 85-76. the mavericks are now 22-6 against the west and 12-11 against the worst including a 4-9 mark on the east coast. i'm sure there's a reasonable explanation for this. such as, the mavericks really aren't as good as i thought they were. or the mavericks have had to start jj barea in their last five games. or the mavericks don't know what time zones are. either way, i'm not sure the return of devin harris from injury is going solve all of the mavs problems. unless devin harris grew like 10 feet while he was injured. and even then, that'd probably cause more problems than it would solve.
4. the league's best sub-.500 playoff team - the warriors came back from a 23 point deficit to hand the wizards their eight straight loss. the wizards jumped out early but the calm, steadying hand of stephen jackson helped golden state claw back. ultimately, jackson finished with 41 points and the wizards took wild threes and turned it over like they forgot which side of the court they were supposed to shoot on. anyways, as a wizards fan, i'm not sure if i should be encouraged that they've been playing so well recently without caron butler and antonio daniels, or hopping mad that they've let winnable games escape. on one hand, the wizards rookies and role players are getting much needed experience. on the other hand i'm hopping mad that it's been two weeks since they've last won a game. but i guess it could be worse, they could be in the western conference where an eight game losing streak would result in an immediate lottery pick.3. poortland - in a game between the two teams who are angriest that they don't play in the east, the rockets defeated the blazers 95-83 in houston. since their terrific run from december to early january, portland has cooled off considerably. they haven't won consecutive games in over a month and it looks like they might need greg oden next year after all. on the other side, houston has been playing much better of late and have run off 10 wins in their last 11 games. it's going to be interesting to see what each team does around the trade deadline. the rockets have been getting suprisingly good production from their rookies carl landry and aaron brooks, but they still look like a team that's missing a piece. the blazers however, as documented in truehoop, could have as many as 21 players under contract for next season, so they could be very active in the trade market. hopefully, these teams kill two birds with one stone and just trade with each other. my suggestion: mutomobo for oden straight up. it makes perfect sense, the blazers need veteran leadership and the rockets would be willing to trade veteran leadership for greg oden.
2. kansas state - texas handed kansas only their second loss of the season last night in a 72-69 thriller. it was a back and forth game throughout as neither team held a lead larger than seven points. ultimately, texas prevailed thanks to their great play down the stretch. and that's pretty much as generic as a recap can get. but to me, the real story is that with a jayhawks loss, kansas state moves into first place in the big 12. hopefully, this means that michael beasley just leaves school now to go pro. like right now. like i hope today in his physics class when his teacher assigns homework, beasley stands up, throws all his papers in the air, and screams "well, i'm going pro!" although, if his physics teacher is anything like my physics teacher, he better actually go pro. because if he doesn't and shows up for class the next day, he's going to have to clap erasers after physics for the next month.
1. bigotry - yesterday, john rocker, former pitcher-current jerk, alleged that bud selig knew he failed a drug test in 2000 and that the league and the players association "advised him how to effectively use steroids." rocker then alleged that new york "is the most hectic, nerve-racking city" and "having to take the 7 train to the ballpark, looking like you're riding through beirut next to some kid with purple hair, next to some queer with aids, right next to some dude who just got out of jail for the fourth time, right next to some 20-year old mom with four kids" is "depressing." anyways, his intial allegations, if true, would be pretty serious. though they would have been more serious if they weren't from such a classless bigot. also, why did it take so long for this to come out? rocker's been out of baseball for a while why was this the perfect time to say something and not years earlier? but i guess questioning the timing of someone who doesn't think the appropriate time to make ignorant and intolerant comments is never is kind of fruitless.
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