Month: February 2014

Golden State Warriors commentary: Offense and passing need an upgrade going up against Miami

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by David Zizmor

OAKLAND–After the Warriors beat the Philadelphia 76ers they can take in very little as they play the Miami Heat on Wednesday night at the Coliseum Arena. While beating the 76ers by 44 is great, it gives the starters a chance not to have to exert themselves especially going into a big game against Miami, but you don’t learn too much by beating Philadelphia by 44 because the Sixers are a very bad team.

They lost to the Warriors and the night before they lost by 46 to the LA Clippers by a almost identical score, really what it tells you is not that the Warriors are good but that the Sixers are bad. The best it does is paper over some of the problems the Warriors have had lately. The looked great against Philadelphia but if they want to succeed going away they really need to work on several things.

Not least of which is figuring out which ways to score that don’t involve isolation plays every other possession. That’s the biggest problem that head coach Mark Jackson is having right now and it’s just a lack of creativity on the offensive end of the floor. Obviously defense and consistency on defense is an issue with the Warriors. Their not as strong a defensive team as you would like but their improving over the previous years with Andre Iguodala getting healthy.

Clay Thompson has improved on the defensive end and Iguodala and Thompson are making a big difference. On offense this team runs hot and cold when their shots don’t fall they get in a lot of trouble a good way to counter act that is try to score inside. The Warriors don’t do that, they don’t cut to the lane, they don’t drive, they don’t throw the ball inside enough.

What they the Warriors end up doing is they end up doing isolation plays and having guys shoot 18 footers for three pointers and when those shots aren’t falling they basically give up and they start falling behind by huge amounts and their not able to come back or they have to spend so much effort and energy coming back by the time they get to the end of the game they just can’t sustain it anymore.

The fact that their running isolation plays on a team where all five of the starters are excellent passers and Clay Thompson is the worst and he’s not a bad passer. Steph Curry he’s a great passer, Iguodala and Bogut are great passers. Bogut for a big guy is a great passer and David Lee is a great passer and to not have ball movement to have one guy take the ball and take the shot when he gets open is criminal, it’s really lousy offense. The Warriors cannot have a lousy offense when the face the Miami Heat on Wednesday night.

David Zizmor covers the NBA for Sportstalk Radio

Michael Duca and Morris Phillips on Cal basketball: After Arizona win and Stanford loss Cal needs pick me up at Pullman

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by Michael Duca and Morris Phillips

BERKELEY–If you watched the Arizona game with something other than your heart in your mouth and you stop and looked at the stopped and looked at the stats as the game was developing Cal was shooting over 50 percent for the first 32 minutes of the game. Arizona missed their first three shots and did not shoot above 25 percent at any point in the first half.

Part of that is defense is just a cold shooting night on the part of the Wild Cats through all of that. Arizona was shooting 21 percent in the first 14 minutes of the game and Cal was shooting over 50 percent they still had a six point lead at the time. They are not a dominant offensive team unless and until Cal’s Justin Cobbs decides he’s going he’s going to be a shooter from the moment he falls out of bed to start every game they don’t have the outside threat to run the outside game.

The question that I asked Cal head coach Mike Montgomery after the game against Arizona while everyone else was focusing on the last seven minutes of the game was about Cobbs scoring the last 12 points of the game and so on. What was really intresting was the fact that the six point lead barely eight minutes into the game against Arizona Montgomery had three true freshman on the floor.

He said part of that was just due to the match up that he thought that there are a few teams that the Wild Cats Shawn Rooks could have a very solid effect against and Arizona is one of them with their taller inside game. It’s also indicative of the fact that whether he likes it or not and we know he doesn’t particularly like it Montgomery has been forced to rely on more inexperienced freshman than he normally has.

One indicator is that Cal is an NCAA team for the tournament if they lose to USC at home they will not get into it no matter if they win the seven other games. Even if they beat Arizona a second time, if they have two loses to USC at home nobody is going to be able to stomach that. The Bears have to go 6-2 the rest of the way to insure a spot, 5-3 their going to be a bubble team

The thing you have to look for in games like this is the hangover effect after a game like Arizona you may not be coming out thirsting for blood early on. Monty said it was crystal clear in the Arizona game that he had kids in there at ten o’clock in the morning and you could tell that they were already hyped up for the game and you knew they were going to be absolutely ready when the whistle blew.

Michael Duca and Morris Phillips covers Cal Bears basketball for Sportstalk radio

Kings mauled by Cavs, 109-99

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By George Devine, Sr.

In tonight’s game at Cleveland, the Cavaliers beat the Kings 109-99 and Anthony Bennett showed why he was a top draft pick, scoring 19 points and contributing 10 rebounds. 7 of them defensive. The win for the Cavs has them in a good frame of mind approaching the All-Star break and has the opposite effect for the Kings who have had a tough road trip, losing 7 in a row away from Sleep Train Arena.

Rudy Gay, who had been the star for Sacramento in most of his recent games, scored only 14 points although he did have 9 boards, 7 on defense. The high scorer for the visitors was DeMarcus Cousins, with 21 points; he had 10 rebounds, 6 of them defensive. Isaiah Thomas scored 16 points and contributed 8 assists. However, 6 of Cousins’ rebounds and 11 of his points were in the first quarter, and then he was quiescent until halftime. At the other end of the evening, a 7-point run for the Cavaliers — sparked by Kyrie Irving beyond the trey line — made a crucial difference despite the Kings leading the scoring in that final frame but in no other.

The field goal percentages were roughly comparable with 47.7% for Cleveland and 45.9% for Sacramento.

For Cleveland, Luol Deng led the scoring with 22, and contributed 4 assists; Dion Waiters scored 20 points and had 8 assists. Bennett had 19 with 10 rebounds, 7 of them on D. Irving had 13 points and 6 assists and Tristan Thompson poured in 16 points, making 13 rebounds, 7 of them defensive.

The Kings next play at New York in Madison Square Garden on Wednesday, February 12 at 4:30 p.m. PST.

Speights’ career night leads Warriors blowout over 76ers, 123-80

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By Gabe Schapiro

The Golden State Warriors (31-21) thoroughly dominated the rebuilding Philadelphia 76ers (15-33), 123-80, Monday night, at Oracle Arena. The 76ers came into this contest as one of the league’s worst, and the shorthanded Warriors made them look like it. The game was never close, as Golden State had the clear edge in every respect. Marreese Speights was going up against the team that drafted him, and certainly made it a special one.

In what would be a good indicator of the rest of the night, the game began with a Philadelphia turnover leading to a Stephen Curry three-pointer. As a team they hit four of their first five shots, including 3-3 from beyond the arc. They kept pouring it on from there.

It was the surprising Speights who provided the majority of the entertainment tonight. He has spent most of the season as a bench player with minimal impact. He was once again a bench player, but on this night his impact was anything but minimal He entered the game with four minutes remaining in the first quarter, and seemingly out of nowhere turned into the human highlight reel.

Soon after entering, Speights was fouled and hit two free-throws, and much like the Warriors as a whole, he just kept scoring. He hit his first seven shots from the field, including a rare three-pointer, and 5-5 from the free throw line. At the half he already had 22 points, his season-high. Heading into the locker rooms, Speights had helped the team build an already insurmountable 66-33 lead.

He kept it up in the second half. Golden State coasted to the easy win, and when the dust had settled, he had scored a career-high 32 points, in just 26 minutes. For good measure, he added eight rebounds and three blocks. At one point the beaming Warriors faithful rained “M-V-P” chants down on him. He received a resounding standing ovation once he was removed, when the Warriors emptied their bench in the final minutes.

In all, six Dubs finished in double figures. On a rare night when he won’t dominate the headlines, Curry was still fantastic. He contributed 23 points, including 6-9 from three-point range, along with eight assists.

Draymond Green started for the third consecutive night, with Andrew Bogut still out, and notched his first career regular season double-double. He posted 11 points, 10 boards, and four blocks.

For the 76ers, Michael Carter-Williams was probably the only bright spot. He had a team-high 24 points, as one of three Philly players to finish in double figures.

The Warriors have one more game before the All-Star break. It’s not one they can write off, however, as they always dangerous Miami Heat are coming to town. The game is this Wednesday, at 7:30 pm.

Larry Leavitt on pro hockey: Niemi leads the way for Sharks in Sochi Olympics

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SAN JOSE–San Jose Sharks goaltender Annti Niemi is the quiet one that no one is talking about Niemi of the Finland team. They could be a dark horse to sneak in the back door. Everybody expects or least some of the hockey folks I’ve been talking to expects the U.S. to play Canada in the finals but they also got to look out for Russia.

Russia has a strong team and they have the home ice advantage, probably the most interesting thing so far in the Olympics is the women’s U.S. hockey team and it’s kind of hard to follow because they play in the middle of the night for us on the west coast. Apparently they had 9-0 a trouncing last Sunday night for a big win and they did really well with the U.S. who had three goals in 55 seconds.

The Sharks Patrick Marleau and Marc-Edouard Vlasic whose representing Canada and then you have Captain America Joe Pavelski who is not the captain of the U.S. team but who got the nickname because of his clutch play in the last two months. For Marleau he’s been to multiple Olympiads but for Vlasic this is his first time and listening to a radio interview he had earlier he was saying how he was looking forward to bringing the gold home period.

Intresting pieces of the puzzle some of the players now that are going to be Vlasic’s teammates in the NHL who he plays against but he put that all aside for a couple of weeks and is playing for the team for your country. I don’t know how that would work for me if I were on team USA knowing that Dustin Brown from the L.A. Kings took out the Sharks Tomas Hertl in a regular season game was my co-captain from my Olympic team.

I might be tempted during practice to give him a little extra rub on the boards, but this is about playing for your country. It’s a special time for everybody.

As far as the safety is concerned I know that Marleau left his kids at home to a nice twitter feed of and his kids who gave him a nice hug goodbye not wanting him to leave. The great mix of players who have been on the Olympic team and a few new faces will just add to the attraction from having a great team together it’s all about chemestry.

They all have their own ways of playing and it’s how they blend those ways together in the two weeks they have together they have about three practices before they get ready for the real deal, they have to put away the jet lag, time differences, some players were living on the west coast some players from the east coast have to fly half way around the world to Russia.

They have to get aquainted with their new hotel or bed surrounding because there’s been nothing but craziness as far as the accomendations are going down there in Sochi. It will be interesting to see how they battle all those little mynute little ingredients that will be taking a toll on their body and their mind before they actually start playing the game.

Larry Leavitt does commentary on the NHL each week for Sportstalk radio

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: Kent’s coaching college ball gives former Giant different prospective on the game

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That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary

It’s commendable is the word that some Major Leaguers including former San Francisco Giant Jeff Kent’s whose caliber and whose name has been mentioned for the Hall of Fame there are guys in baseball who make money but Kent is doing it for the love of the game. He’s coaching college baseball and he’s getting a nominal fee nothing like the mnoney he made in the show.

Yes, you can not compare Kent’s coaching baseball in college to being in the big leagues and contracts such as they are today. I applaude Kent and he’s committed to the game of baseball. He loves the game he’s an on and off guy with the media when he was with the Giants and I was there covering the team for their Spanish radio broadcasts when he was there.

If former Giant Barry Bonds sat in one area of the clubhouse Kent would sit farthest away from Bonds, they didn’t get along we all knew that but they were great players. Bonds with the streroid controversey, Kent never had that problem by the way Kent was a very good player, he was an excellent player. Kent started out as a third baseman with the Mets. He wound up playing second base for the Giants and now today he coaches college baseball at Southwestern University.

Brandon Arroyo was signed to a $23 million deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks, we talked about the amount of money that these players make in Major League Baseball and God bless them I don’t envy them, their great athletes but here’s a typical example, Arroyo is going to be 37 in two weeks he pitches over 200 innings a year and he got such a large contract.

This reminds me when you go to a car dealer and you love that car and you say “thats a nice car” and then you check with the salesman who says “well Mr.Gonzalez this has over 25,000 miles on it already” but it’s a good car, it’s going to go over 100,000 miles” and I would say “how do you know that.”

However with Arroyo he has a very good track record, he’s never been hurt for a prolonged time, he throws 200 innings per year, it’s a risk and you take a risk. It’s a big investment, the Diamondbacks again are loaded with talent and their going to be there. ESPN has picked the Dodgers to finish first and the Diamondbacks maybe close to the Dodgers and the Giants will finish in third place.

So Arroyo is joining the Diamondbacks pitching staff and their getting loaded with talent and Arroyo was a good acquistion. The money surprises me but then now that’s the way it is. Arroyo signed a huge deal for two years with the D-Backs for $23.5 million.

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

Morris Phillips and Michael Duca on Cal Bears: Agu death has prefound effect on team, students, and faculty

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by Morris Phillips and Michael Duca

BERKELEY–Ted Agu 21, Cal defensive lineman’s story personally is not a sad story, his life at Cal started as a walk on, he was well respected by his by teammates, he worked very hard to get where he was, he caught the eye of his coaches former head coach Jeff Tedford and current head coach Sonny Dykes. He was a major factor in the Cal football program, he was found to have the sickle cell trait which can manifest itself in numerous ways.

Mr.Agu never had any previous symptoms before this came out this week, what were finding out is that the sickle cell trait which obviously effects the African American athletes is really a major factor in some of the deaths that happens to NCAA athletes. It’s one of the major causes of scholarship athletes in the NCAA. It’s a sad story but hopefully people will find out about this desease but more important about Mr.Agu and what a positive spirit he was.

As for African Americans it’s always been known that the issue of sickle cell trait is out there for many and as years have gone by it’s kind of taken a back seat. Now according to statistics the sickle cell trait comes up frequently when tyring to account for the best of athletes. Everybody needs to open their eyes and find out a little bit more and we plan to find out a little bit more about this we hope we can do something in the future can be done that can prevent that.

The shock of this has devastated the entire Cal campus on Monday, no one saw this coming and Mr.Agu himself didn’t know he had the sickle cell trait, he was speaking when he was felled on Friday at the workout, they got him back to the facility and that’s when he fainted and these workouts are supervised by the medical staff. They were there and we still lost them and it’s unfortunate and it really is and we hope we can learn something from his death.

Now looking forward to the football program and the loss of Mr.Agu for next fall, the program will try to rebound from football players who had some of the worst test exams in the nation, the team suffering loses last season and the worst case now with the death of Mr.Agu. The recruiting class that was just signed Dykes would have hoped it would have been in the top three.

The Cal class is probably not in the top half of the Pac 12, there won’t be that immediate help coming and it would appear it will be later rather than sooner. You can’t judge what happened to Cal last year versus a whole lot of circumstances and probably outside of Dykes control but you have to say one thing their sure testing him on his resolve and his ability as a coach in this tough situation.

The Ted Agu situation doesn’t add to the negativity surrounding the program and Dykes can get things turned around and people will love him. This didn’t happen in the first year but we give coach Dykes a pass.

Michael Duca and Morris Phillips cover the Cal Bears for game day and commentary for Sportstalk radio

Washington Upsets Number Three Ranked Stanford

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By: Joe Lami

Washington did on Sunday what no Pac-12 team has been able to do since 2009, and that is defeat Stanford on home court, thus ending Stanford’s 62-game Pac-12 road winning streak.  The Huskies defeated the Cardinal 87-82, in what is one of the biggest upsets of the season.  Washington coming into the game had a record of 12-10 and 6-5 overall, but the Huskies were able to get by the third-ranked Cardinal.

Stanford was boasting a record of 22-1, with 21 wins coming consecutively.  The last loss that Stanford had was November 11, as they fell on the road to the number one team in the country in Connecticut.

The first half had a lot to do with Stanford’s loss, as they went into the half trailing 41-34.  It was a poor start for the Cardinal, only scoring six points in the first five minutes of the game, giving Washington a 14-6 lead.  Stanford would be able to regain the lead at the 11:48 mark of the first half, 20-19, on a three-pointer drained by Bonnie Samuelson.  However, Mercedes Wetmore answered with a three of her own to give the Huskies the 22-19 lead.  Washington would be able to hold on to the lead for the rest of the first half.

Chiney Ogwumike would get the first bucket of the second half.  Stanford would push to tie the game in the first five minutes of the half and they were able to pull within two, 48-46, with 15:07 remaining in the game.  Stanford would not be able to buy a basket for the next four minutes, allowing the Huskies to go on a 10-0 run to break open the game.  Stanford would try and catch Washington, but the lead was too much for the Cardinal, giving Washington their second win against a ranked opponent on the season.

Washington had an outstanding five players get into double figures, all of them being starters.  Kelsey Plum led the way with 23 points.  Wetmore contributed 18, Aminah Williams had the only Washington double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds.  Jazmine Davis scored 14, and Talia Walton finished out the starters with 13.  Only three points came off of the Husky bench, and it came from the hands of Chantel Osahor.

Ogwumike led the Cardinal in the loss with 23 points, she also brought down 14 rebounds.  Mikaela Ruef had a career performance, as she gained career highs in both points with 16 and rebounds with 22. Samuelson came off of the bench to add 14, she went 4 of 11 from beyond the arc.  Lili Thompson scored 13 points in the loss as well.

Stanford had an awful day shooting with 35% from the field, where as Washington was absolutely astonishing, shooting 47% from the field. Stanford also outrebounded the Huskies 57-38.

The loss breaks the 21-game winning streak of the Cardinal, pushing their record to 22-2.  The loss also means an almost sure drop in the rankings, as they recently moved up to being ranked third in the country.  Stanford will try and bounce back this Friday, as they host the 11th ranked Sun Devils.

Kings fall to Wizards, 93-84

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By George Devine, Sr.

In another game where neither team scored in triple digits, the Kings went down on the road. This time Rudy Gay joined in the action for 32:17 but only scored 5 points. He is recovering from the flu, which sidelined him in Friday’s loss at Boston, 99-89. This time it appeared he would be well enough to make a major contribution, but in fact he only achieved approximately 25% of his typical production. The Kings are 0-4 with Gay absent, not only due to the recent flu but previously on account of an ankle injury.

The other key to the game was the defense of Washington, led by Nene, who had not only 3 blocks but 18 points. This meant that Sacramento came up 9 points short despite an above-par 86% from the free throw line (down a tad from Friday’s 91.7%) and an advantage in rebounds, 49 to the Wizards’ 38. But on field goals the Kings trailed, 43%-35% and especially on three-pointers where the margin was a staggering 38%-18%. The long ball plus the “D” made enough difference to get Washington back to the .500 mark against the visitors, whose win-loss percentage is approaching the batting average of a successful MLB player.

Isaiah Thomas led the Kings with 30 points and had 8 assists. DeMarcus Cousins had 14 points, with 12 boards and 2 blocks. For the Wizards, 16 points were scored by Bradley Beal, including a pair of treys in the last six minutes of the game. Marcin Gortat scored 17 points and had 8 rebounds.

The Kings outscored the Wizards in the final period, 20-18 and in the third, 19-18, but their slim advantage after halftime was insufficient given the home team’s lead in each of the first two quarters.

The next game for the Kings is on Tuesday, February 11 vs. Cleveland at Quicken Loans Arena. Tipoff is at 4:00 p.m. PST.

Warriors commentary: With Lee and Bogut out, W’s needs Barnes and Curry to ramp it up

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by David Zizmor

OAKLAND–Talking about the Warriors last few games they lost to the Phoenix Suns 122-109 on Saturday night and then they beat the Chicago Bulls the game before on Thursday night 102-87. The Bulls aren’t that good of a team the Warriors should beat a team like the Bulls every time when their playing in Oakland, so it not surprising that the Warriors beat the Bulls.

Just from the fact that the Warriors are struggling a bit in general lately so any win is a surprise right now the way their playing. They had Phoenix on the road last Saturday, that’s not an easy game and everybody thought at the beginning of the season Phoenix was going to be one of the teams that was tanking. Turns out that’s not the case their quite good, the Suns would be a playoff team if the season were to end right now.

The Warriors should be able to make it competitive against a team like Phoenix for three quarters and that’s typically something that happens on the road. You would wonder what would happen to the Warriors if Andrew Bogut and David Lee had been playing, they were both on the sidelines with injuries on Saturday. That definitely had a big impact on the game.

Of course those two were also on the sidelines for the game against Chicago before the Warriors won the Suns game, so it’s a frustrating stretch that the Warriors have been going through. They still have a couple of games before the All-Star break one of them is in Oakland against Miami the defending champs.

That game should be a lot of fun and if you remember back a month or two ago, the Warriors went on the road to Miami and won in Miami during that big ten game win streak that they had and that six game road winning streak that was so impressive. The Warriors are a long ways from that team and their just not consistent on a nightly basis.

Part of the reasons the Warriors lost, the game against Phoenix was because the three point shots were not falling, not from Steph Curry or anybody else. When the Warriors are shooting from the floor their threes aren’t hitting. They can get in a little bit of trouble, let’s face it they’ve avoided crashing the basket. The W’s are not a team that can drive the lane a lot.

This is frustrating for the Warriors because their a team that could, Harrison Barnes’ skill set he could hit jumpers and outside shots. There’s no question but this is a guy who if he wants to be a unique player or a very good one has to be a little more agressive in charging the basket and until Barnes does that and until someone else on the Warriors does that including Clay Thompson the Warriors are going to have trouble if that shot is not falling.

David Zizmor covers the NBA for Sportstalk radio