Month: February 2014

Warriors bullrushed in Chicago

Published on by jhawkes51Leave a comment

By Joe Hawkes

CHICAGO — The Golden State Warriors saw their four-game winning streak come to screeching halt with a 103-83 loss to the Bulls in Chicago Wednesday night.

Taj Gibson led all scorers with 21 points off the bench for Chicago (31-26), who won for the seventh time in eight games.

Carlos Boozer had 15 points and 13 rebounds, while Mike Dunleavy scored 15 points on 3-of-6 shooting from 3-point range. Joakim Noah scored eight points, but couldn’t be kept off the boards, raking in 17 rebounds. Chicago held a 56-41 edge on the boards, and scored 19 points on 16 Warriors’ turnovers.

Golden State (35-23) just didn’t have it going tonight.

Jordan Crawford led all Warriors with 16 points and David Lee came off the bench to score 11 points. Lee missed the previous two games with a stomach flu, met the team in Chicago after not traveling with the team initially.

Chicago really put the clamps on Stephen Curry, holding the All-Star point guard to just five points on 2-for-10 shooing. Curry exploded on the Bulls back on Feb. 6, scoring 34 points on 13-for-19 from the field to go along with nine assists in Golden State’s 107-82 victory in Oakland.

After leading 24-21 at the end of the first quarter, Golden State was gut-punched by Chicago being outscored by the Bulls 82-58 the rest of the way. Chicago neutralized Golden State by forcing the Warriors to shoot 35.7 percent from the field (30-for-84).

But Golden State didn’t have their best game as a whole.

Outside of bigs Andrew Bogut and Jermaine O’Neal combining for 17 points on 8-for-10 shooting, Andre Iguodala and Klay Thompson combined for 13 points, but were 4-for-16 from the floor. Iguodala was 1-for-8.

No one in the Warriors’ starting lineup scored in double figures, which hasn’t happen since 1999.

The Warriors continue their current six-game road trip in New York Friday against Carmelo Anthony and the Knicks.

 

 

 

 

 

Michael Duca & Morris Phillips on Cal basketball: Arizona may have a lock with the favorites but Cal can turn it into a game again

Published on by lleonardbwLeave a comment

by Michael Duca and Morris Phillips

TUCSON AZ–The Arizona Wild Cats are going to be looking to stay ahead of UCLA in their meeting with the Cal Bears tonight Arizona University in the conference race. That situation is still open to possible outcomes there so we’ll see how it goes. Arizona lost to Cal in their last meeting at Haas Pavilion that’s the only team that’s beaten them in the Pac 12 or anywhere for that matter.

The Wild Cats will have to reasert and reestablish for this game in Arizona tonight in order to get that number one seed. Meanwhile for Cal the goal is very simple between now and the end of the season they need to finish somewhere in the top four. The Bears really want to avoid adding two extra games in the conference tournament.

Arizona just doesn’t lose at home and let’s be honest about that, the last time Cal won a game at Arizona Hubert Hoover was in the White House 1929-1933 and it feels like that long ago anyway. The Wild Cats don’t lose at home, this is a very good team and they were missing a key player when they were in Berkeley.

The Bears came within one Justin Cobbs step back shot at the buzzer of winning that game. The Wild Cats aren’t terribly worried about their chances in this game, they feel their in pretty good shape. As far as Justin Cobbs is concerned he’s one of those rare people in college basketball we call them “seniors.”

You don’t get a lot of guys who stay and play for four years and the majority of the experience show at crunch time. If it weren’t for the fact that Cal had the top player in the conference in the last four years you would think that you could end the discussion for that so is Richard Solomon.

The truth is politics gets involved, your just not going to see having player of the year four out of five years it’s not going to happen. Arizona State is coming up next for Saturday night and ASU is a real interesting team they’ve spent most the time above or around Cal in the standings.

They were we’re very spotty and Cal was a very up and down team, they’ve lost to Stanford and Utah so Cal has a chance to do alright on the road and they have a chance of splitting these two games tonight and Saturday.

Morris Phillips and Michael Duca cover the Cal Bears for Sportstalk radio each week

Sharks commentary: What players did on their time away from the game

Published on by lleonardbwLeave a comment

by Larry Leavitt

SAN JOSE–Some members of the San Jose Sharks got away during the Olympic break and went to Cabo San Lucas in the warm sunshine of Mexico and they had a wonderful time there. It was a lot fun they actually went fishing and caught a shark. So the Sharks caught a shark and they ate it.

Some of the other interesting things that they did was goaltender Alex Stalock actually went home to Minnesota and went ice fishing. He had the chance to go anywhere in the world and he went to the freezing cold of Minnesota of his hometown to go ice fishing and he caught quiet a few fish.

Also there were fans who watched the Olympic hockey games from some of the strangest places and the strangest place was in Bally where Sharks broadcaster Randy Hahn went all the way to Bally. He was in Bally and he did not hear a thing about Olympics the whole time he was there until he found out that Canada was playing for the gold.

Hahn searched out and found a small sportsbar in Bally, and when he walked in at one in the morning for the game, he found four or five Canadians there and they all huddled up together and watched the game and in Bally of all places. He was in Hong Kong and then Hahn went to Bally.

On Monday night members of the Sharks did a fundraiser at Club Auto Sports a wine tasting in San Jose, it’s part of the Sharks foundation big fundraising and they do many good fund raisers throughout the year but the wine tasting is one of the better events.

It’s classier, dress up, no autographs, plenty of pictures taken, really good food, and they had a silent auction and then they had a live auction and some of the live auction was very interesting and one of the best ones was going wine tasting with Jim Johnson and head coach Todd McClellan up in Napa.

Very happy to say that went for $10,000 and two people bid on it and it got up to $10,000 and instead of four people going with Johnson and McClellan it’s going to be eight people going with Johnson and McClellan. The winner of the whole thing is the Sharks Foundation.

Which the foundation is a very good cause, something that I believe in, and it was a great event, very classy, and it was a beautiful time to be had by all.

Larry Leavitt does San Jose Sharks commentary each week for Sportstalk radio

Rockets Gas the Kings

Published on by tonyrenteriaLeave a comment

By Tony Renteria

 Sacramento CA:  The Sacramento Kings coming of two straight wins invited the second place Houston Rockets into Sleep Train Arena and were routed by the score of 129-103.

Any headed way the Kings had made was lost in the first moments as James Harden(43 points on 11-20 shooting)  looked like he was a video game player blowing past confused King’s.  The Rockets opened up a huge first quarter lead of 42-17.  The game quickly became of game of garbage minutes for both teams as the Kings failed to even make a game of it.

The Kings were led by Rudy Gay and his 25 points but most of them came after the Rockets went into cruise control.  This game was really a true tail of two different teams, with much different paths.  The Kings wanted to slow the game down to let Demarcus Cousins 16 points work in the paint, but Harden keep his foot on the gas as the Rockets just simply out ran the Kings on their own court.

Houston headed to face the Clippers tomorrow, while the Kings go to face Lakers on Friday.

Note Jimmer Fredette contract is being bought out by the Kings who plan to release him very soon.  Fredette was no at the arena tonight

That’s Amaurys News and Commentary: Expect a media circus with the return of Bonds

Published on by lleonardbwLeave a comment

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary

SCOTTSDALE AZ–The Giants who hired Barry Bonds for a week as a hitting instructor and as we know he has a record for obstruction of justice and has a dark cloud over his head and yes you can expect a media frenzy when he arrives in camp on March 9th.

The stay is expected to be brief he will depart the Giants training camp on March 17th. Bonds is going to teach a little more paitence and he might have to have some with Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval who just recently lost 40 pounds where everybody thinks Pablo is going to be Ted Williams all of a sudden.

Baseball is a funny sport, look at guys like Tony Gwynn who won eight batting titles in the National League for the Padres. Baseball doesn’t go by your physic, it goes by your endurance and your abilities. Bonds is going to work on guys hitting with the young players and the guys in the line up and that’s fine.

It will be a circus with Bonds returning the media will follow him and ask him about his new job with the Giants as hitting instructor, he might get asked about his chances to get into the Hall of Fame. This is the first step of rehabilitation for Bonds. He wants to rehabilitate his image, the only place in this country where Bonds might get an ovation is at AT&T Park.

Any other park in this country he would get booed out of the buidling, here’s the dangerous thing Bonds is the home run king and yes technically we can add an asterisk there, frankly former home run king Hank Aaron does more as an ambassador for baseball and he’s not the home run king although he’s the legitimate home run king with no scandals.

Bonds you would think is the home run king but would baseball commissioner Bud Selig invite him to throw the first pitch a few years ago at the All-Star game? He never gets invited to any of these games and what that tells you is that MLB doesn’t want anything to do with Bonds and now the Giants have hired him back for spring training and he’s back in uniform.

Probably this is the Giants opening the door, the Giants have not embraced Bonds like they did back in his home run hitting years. This is a big step towards to rehabilitate Bonds, change his image with the public that’s really the whole deal here.

The biggest insult and keep in mind I got to travel with Bonds and the Giants in those years with the team during the time when the Giants were at Candlestick and then AT&T, the Dusty Baker teams and the World Series team of 2002, we know from experience that he’s not going to answer anything about steroids we know that.

It will be interesting to see how he reacts when he will get asked and it might even turn out to be too much again and he might go back into retirement after about a month of this we’ll see.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for Oakland A’s baseball and does News and Commentary each week for Sportstalk radio

No Lee, No Problem as Streaking Warriors Grind Down Pistons for Win

Published on by Matthew HarringtonLeave a comment

By Matthew Harrington

It would be hard to believe on a night when David Lee wasn’t even in the building, Andrew Bogut nursed a nagging shoulder injury and Stephen Curry‘s silky-smooth shooting touch went rough that the Warriors would walk away with a W. Monday night proved that anything is possible with the red-hot Dubs, winners now of four in a row since the All-Star break. The Detroit Pistons (23-34) became victim number four, falling at the hands of the Warriors 104-96 at the Palace of Auburn Hills despite Curry nailing just 6 of 15 field goals attempted.

With Andrew Bogut returning to play after injuring his shoulder seven games ago and David Lee missing his second-straight contest with the flu, the load was placed firmly on the shoulders of the Warriors’ lone All-Star Curry. The Human Torch remained relatively damp, hitting only 3 of 9 three-pointers for 19 points but fed his teammates plenty while collecting nine assists. Guard Klay Thompson also had 19 points for the Warriors (35-22), including two that came on a dunk over Kyle Singler that sent the Pistons guard staggering into the stands.

Jermaine O’Neal, starting for Lee who didn’t join the Warriors on the trip, put together another solid performance, netting a second-straight double-double on 16 points and 10 rebounds. O’Neal previously sparked the Warriors 93-86 win over Brooklyn with 23 points and 13 rebounds Saturday night at Oracle Arena. Jordan Crawford had his best night in the blue and gold since coming over in a January trade, picking up 15 points in the Warriors first game of a six-game road trip.

The Piston big men took advantage of the absence of Lee and a limited Bogut (due to injury and foul trouble) with all three members of the starting frontcourt cracking double-digits in scoring. Forward Greg Monroe had a game-high 23 points and Josh Smith converted the double-double on 18 points and 11 boards. Starting center Andre Drummond picked up 11 points while Singler bounced back from the debilitating dunk to pick up a respectable 18 points.

The Pistons controlled play early, taking a 10-point lead with just over 5 minutes left in the 1st and the Warriors trailing 22-12. The Dubs closed out the quarter on a 21-15 lead to get within striking distance at 37-33. Golden State took its first lead since the 2:14 mark of the game after Harrison Barnes nailed a trey with 1:11 gone in the quarter. Just 35 seconds later, Crawford hit one from downtown to pad the Warriors edge to 41-37.

The two teams traded the lead twice over the rest of the half with the Warriors wresting it away from the Pistons for good on an Andre Iguodala layup with three minutes remaining to make it 55-54 for the visitors. The Warriors would head to the intermission clinging to a slim 63-62 advantage.

The two teams fought tooth and nail yet again in the second half, exchanging leads five times in the third to give the Pistons am 83-81 lead after 36 minutes of regulation. Down the stretch the Warriors limited Detroit to just 13 points while scoring 23 of their own to take home the victory, Golden State’s sixth consecutive victory over the Pistons.

Up next for the Warriors, three games back of the Los Angeles Clippers for first in the Pacific Division standings, is a trip to the United Airlines Center in Chicago for a Wednesday night showdown with the Chicago Bulls. The six game road trip also includes stops in New York, Toronto, Indiana and Boston.

Cal makes the adjustments, gets past USC

Published on by moepeaLeave a comment

By Morris Phillips

Last place USC without their leading scorer versus NCAA tournament hopeful California sounds like a 40-point win for the host Bears. Right, Mike Montgomery?

“That’s a natural expectation,” Montgomery sarcastically opined.

The iconic coach was dropping his one-liners upon entry to the post-game press room as usual. But his game plan for the Trojans was dead serious. Montgomery’s Bears need all the wins they can get, having lost five of their last eight, including an embarrassing 20-point loss to UCLA on Wednesday. On top of that, USC, a big, physical opponent sensed an opportunity against the Bears, the last team USC beat over a month ago.

So throw out the records. In this one Cal (18-9, 9-5) had to make the adjustments to pull out a 77-64 win that keeps them in a third-place tie with Stanford in the Pac-12 race.

The Bears trailed at the half, 30-27, and things were still tight with 10 minutes remaining, when Cal took off behind Justin Cobbs and Jabari Bird, who contributed eight, quick points to create some separation late. A subtle adjustment by Montgomery was the answer to USC’s not too subtle size and strength.

“We spread the court,” Montgomery said. “We changed what we were doing. We opened up the court a little bit and it made it easier for (Cobbs) to go. In the stuff we were trying to do earlier, they were really jamming the paint. We got the post up away from the basket and it opened up some driving lanes.”

On the defensive end, the Bears needed to find away to keep USC from running their offense through 7’2″ Omar Oraby, a Ben Braun recruit at Rice, who left after two seasons to come to Los Angeles. With David Kravish fronting, and a quick double team when Oraby touched the ball, the Bears limited the Trojans’ big man to one basket and two assists.

Cal’s 60 percent shooting in the second half produced 50 points and the Bears ran away late. The majority of the Bears’ nine blocked shots and 10 steals came after halftime as well as Montgomery got the jump on Andy Enfield, the breakout coach of the 2013 NCAA tournament who got his Florida Gulf Coast squad to the Sweet 16. While the Trojans were engaged and capable, ultimately their lack of offense in the absence of leading scorer Byron Wesley who served the second game of a team-imposed suspension led to their demise on Sunday.

The Bears were led by Justin Cobbs with 22 points on 8 of 10 shooting. Ricky Kreklow added 12 and Tyrone Wallace and Jabari Bird chipped in 10 each.

Point guard Pe’Shon Howard led USC (10-17, 1-13) with 17 points. The Trojans fell for the eighth straight game since beating Cal 77-69 on January 22.

The Bears travel to Arizona this week where they will face potential No. 1 seed Arizona and NCAA-bubble team Arizona State.

Paparatto helps Quakes

Published on by smallforceLeave a comment

By Pearl Allison Lo

Two Portland Timbers went down in front of the net, and for Norberto Paparatto, it was from disbelief, as he headed the ball to give the San Jose Earthquakes a 1-0 win Sunday in both teams’ first Rose City Invitational game,

San Jose, while luckily and skillfully defending the multitude of chances in front of their net, were sporting their new red and white kit. It was their first win of the preseason.

Off a corner kick from Shea Salinas, Clarence Goodson took the pass from Sam Cronin, and headed the ball to Steven Lenhart in front of the net. Paparatto was trying to get the ball out in the 26th minute, as he collied with his goalie Donovan Ricketts. It would be the closest Ricketts would come to defending the ball during the game.

In the 7th minute, Portland’s Gaston Fernandez had a dangerous free kick. His teammates followed it by two more chances, the latter leading to a corner kick.

Though the Timbers controlled ball possession, once the ball got close enough to the box, it was stopped by Quakes players. Portland outshot San Jose 17-6 and Jon Busch made seven saves.

Both teams went from end to end at one point. Salinas nearly netted the ball, earning himself a corner kick. Victor Bernardez received a deflected ball, but Diego Chara blocked him. Maxilimiano Urruti got the ball up front and beat Busch who slid forward to defend, but a teammate got back and kicked the ball away before Urruti could get another chance.

Timbers’ Paul Kah nearly made it 2-0.

Busch, the other half of defensive equation, made crucial saves as well, in the final 15 minutes, including stoppage time. The quickness of Portland’s attack at one point, even stupefied Fernandez, who received the ball unknowingly, three times, spaced just a second apart.

After the 90th minute, the Timbers got the ball to a player right in front of the net twice, but they were unable to convert.

Game notes: The Quakes were without Jean-Baptiste Pierazzi and Portland without Will Johnson. It was the first time this preseason Busch played all game. It was a physical match, 27 fouls in all, with San Jose awarded four yellows. Last Thursday, the Quakes and San Jose Sharks played their own friendly of Olympic curling. The hockey team won 4-2. Wednesday at 5p, San Jose will next face Vancouver Whitecaps FC in Game 2 of the invitational.

Stanford Clinches Pac-12 Title

Published on by joelamiLeave a comment

By: Joe Lami

Sunday was an eventful day for the number five team in the country, as the Stanford Cardinal (26-2,15-1) defeated the UCLA Bruins (12-16,6-10) 65-56.  The win means that Stanford has officially clinched their 14th straight conference title and the number one seed in the Pac-12 tournament to be held in Seattle early next month.

Stanford hopes to continue its’ success in Seattle, as they will be going for their 12th straight Pac-12 championship.  Stanford is a shoe-in for the NCAA tournament, but hopes to win out to keep its’ hopes alive for a number one seed in the West Region, which will be held at Maples Pavilion this year.

Once again, the Cardinal had a poor start to the game.  They fell behind early, being down as much as five points multiple times in the first half.  However, with one minute remaining in the first half Stanford was able to catch up and take the 27-25 lead.  They wouldn’t give it up the rest of the game.

Stanford has been starting slow of late, but they have been able to comeback each and every time giving them adversity going late into the season.

Chiney Ogwumike led the Cardinal in scoring once again with 26 points.  The 26 points has brought her career point total to 2,511 putting her in second place on all-time Cardinal scoring list, as she surpassed her sister older sister, Nnemaki.  Chiney is now just 118 points away from tying Stanford’s all-time leading scorer, Candice Wiggins.  Ogwumike is going down in Cardinal history, as she is the all-time leading field goal percentage leader, as well as the Pac-12 all-time leading rebounder.  She added 15 more rebounds to her total in the win over the Bruins.

There were other players on the court besides Ogwumike, one of them being Amber Orrange, as she was the Cardinal’s second leading scorer on Sunday. She contributed 14 points.  The Junior Point Guard also had three rebounds, three assists, and two steals in 37 minutes played.  Mikaela Ruef came off of the bench for the first time this season to bring down 11 rebounds.

Nirra Fields was strong once again for the Bruins as she notched 24 points.  Thea Lemberger was the other Bruin that got into double digit scoring, as she put up 14 points.

The Cardinal officially end their Pac-12 regular season next weekend, as they host the two schools from Washington.  They look to get their revenge on Thursday, as they host the Huskies, who upset them earlier this month in Seattle by the score of 87-82.  On Saturday, Chiney Ogwumike will end her regular season career with Stanford, as they host Washington State in the final game of the year.

Kings win big in Denver 109-95

Published on by Charlie O. MalloneeLeave a comment

Image

 

Photo credit: media.corp.yahoo.com

By Charlie O. Mallonee

As the Sacramento Kings prepared to play the Nuggets in Denver, there were a number of questions that needed to be answered. Would DeMarcus Cousins be able to play after tweaking is hip from carrying Kris Humphries on his back during the entire Boston game on Saturday? How would the play in the second game of a back-to-back in the high altitude and thin air of Denver? How would the Nuggets play with only 10 players available? Would any of this prove to be a factor in determining who won the game?

The Kings were able to overcome a four point halftime deficit by scoring 61 points in the second half to down the Nuggets 109-95. The win gave the Kings a two game winning streak and built momentum for Sacramento as they ready themselves for Houston on Tuesday at home.

DeMarcus Cousins was able to start the game and scored 11 points in nine plus minutes of playing time in the first quarter. After some rest on the bench, Cousins added four points in the second quarter for 15 points in the first half. Cousins did not let up in the second half and finished with 27 points while shooting 50% (8/16) from the field.

Rudy Gay posted a double-double for the Kings as he scored 32 points and pulled down 11 rebounds. Isaiah Thomas put up 33 points and added six assist.

The Kings jumped out to an early lead in the first quarter, but the Nuggets started using the fast break and pulled up even 27-27 after one quarter of play.

The Nuggets came out strong in the second quarter. After putting an 8-0 run, Denver was able to up its lead to 13 points before the Kings began to work their way back into the game. Sacramento used five rebounds by the newly acquired Reggie Evans and five quick points from Isaiah Thomas to close the scoring gap. At halftime, the Kings had reduced the Nuggets lead to just four points, 52-48.

The one glaring stat from the first half was Sacramento’s 12 turnovers. Coach Michael Malone has been calling on his team to reduce the turnovers and the points off turnovers.

The Kings came out after halftime ready to play. Sacramento went on an early 10-0 run, and it was off to the races. The Kings would go on to outscore the Nuggets 35-18 in the third quarter. It was the play of the big three – Cousins, Gay and Thomas – that was the key to opening the 17 point third quarter lead. Ben McLemore was not scoring but was hustling on defense and contributing to the game.

Denver played better ball in the fourth quarter as the Kings second unit saw more action, but it was too little, too late. The Nuggets outscored the Kings 25-22 in the fourth to make the final score Sacramento 109 Denver 95.

In the postgame press conference, Kings Head Coach Michael Malone was obviously happy with his team and with the win. The one point of emphasis on the negative side was the 21 points scored off 21 turnovers. Malone pointed out that his team would have to do better versus Houston on Tuesday in Sacramento.