Month: February 2014

Ben McLemore headed to the Slam Dunk Contest

Published on by Charlie O. MalloneeLeave a comment

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Photo credit: NBA.com

By Charlie O. Mallonee

The Sacramento Kings will have a representative at the 2014 NBA All-Star Weekend in New Orleans. Rookie guard Ben McLemore has been selected to participate in the Sprite Slam Dunk contest. The last Kings’ player to take part in the Slam Dunk contest was Gerald Wallace in 2002.

 McLemore will join Toronto guard and defending champion Terrence Ross, Indiana forward Paul George, Portland guard Damian Lillard, Washington guard John Wall and Golden State forward Harrison Barnes in the contest. The high profile event will give McLemore exposure to a national audience of NBA fans.

 McLemore, a 6-5 guard out of Kansas, has averaged 7.7 points in 23.5 minutes per game for the Kings. The rookie shooting guard has had moments of brillance and has had his struggles as you would expect from a first year player in “the Association”. McLemore has been very impressive when he drives the lane and attacks the basket.

 The Slam Dunk contest will be a part of the All-Star Saturday Night. The event will be televised nationally on the TNT.

Curry leads shorthanded Warriors past Bulls, 102-87

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By Gabe Schapiro

The Golden State Warriors (30-20) overcame a sluggish start, easing their way over the Chicago Bulls (24-25), 102-87, Thursday night, at Oracle Arena. The Warriors were without their two best big men, an already thin position, as Andrew Bogut and David Lee sat out due to injuries. Jermaine O’Neal and Draymond Green got the starts in their place. Despite the depleted roster, Golden State made much of the game look easy in a nice bounce back win.

The Bulls quickly opened up a 15-point lead in the first quarter, as the Warriors had an ugly start. The mood seemed grim, as it looked like it could be another poor outing for the scuffling Dubs squad. In the waning minutes of the first they seemed to slowly start righting the ship, ultimately carrying their regained composure through the rest of the game.

After chipping away at the lead in the second quarter, Golden State grabbed their first lead with 47 seconds left in the half. By the time the buzzer went off they had turned a 13-point deficit into a four-point advantage. They never turned back, building on their lead at the end of the third, and ultimately cruising to the victory with a strong fourth.

With two starters out, Stephen Curry stepped up with a great game. He scored a game-high 34 points on 13-19 shooting, 4-6 from three-point range, to go along with nine assists.

The other half of the splash brothers, Klay Thompson, did his part as well. He chipped in 22 points, 3-6 beyond the arc, to go with solid defense.

Harrison Barnes, who has been struggling as of late, had a good game off the bench. He scored 11, including a big three-pointer late to hammer the last nail into the Bulls coffin. He added six rebounds and two steals, in 29 minutes. Jordan Crawford also played well, scoring another 11 points in 21 minutes.

Four Chicago players finished in double figures, led by a double-double from Taj Gibson. He notched 26 points and 14 rebounds. Joakim Noah accomplished the rare rebounds-assists double-double, finishing with just seven points, but 10 boards and 11 assists.

The Warriors hope this is step one in regaining some consistency to their play. They’ve got the Phoenix Suns next up on the docket, when they travel to Arizona this Saturday, February 8. The game begins at 6:00 pm.

Up a tree: Cal’s issues reappear in loss to Stanford

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By Morris Phillips

Knowing it could happen didn’t make it any easier to watch happen over almost all 40 minutes of basketball Wednesday night at Haas Pavilion.

Mike Montgomery warned his Bears that momentum could swing dramatically if they weren’t the most engaged team for the opening tip in their next assignment against Stanford.  But Cal played lethargically early as the national-story Bears from Saturday night morphed into lesser lights around campus in a 80-69 loss to Stanford.

Montgomery’s expressive face filled with hurt laced with befuddlement during the post-game rounds told the whole story:  his guys weren’t jacked from the start for the fourth time in the last five games just days removed from pulling the biggest upset of the season in beating Arizona.

“If you play well, if you play hard you can beat anybody,” Montgomery said.  “If you don’t, you can get beat by anybody.  It’s no more complex than that.  We have breakdowns and those hurt us.”

In fact, the difference between Wednesday’s game and those at UCLA and USC previously was probably no bigger than a matter of minutes.  Cal (15-8, 6-4) played eight quality minutes against the Bruins, maybe 10 or 12 against the Trojans, and only six plus against Stanford—right before halftime, and after they fell behind 38-20 to the Cardinal.

The Bears traded buckets early in the second half but faded late, failing to cut Stanford’s lead to single digits in the final ten minutes.  To be fair, Cal got the absolute most out of what little good basketball they’ve played lately by beating Arizona.  But in a balanced, deep Pac-12 race that won’t cut it, especially when Cal’s problems, according to starting forward Tyrone Wallace, are numerous.

“When we miss layups and they come back down and score, then obviously we’re going to be at a disadvantage,” Wallace said.  “They isolated a lot and we couldn’t really help off the shooters; so it hurts us there.  We just have to play better and people who are capable of making plays have to make plays.”

Against Stanford, what began as uninspired play and an 18-point deficit, then turned into Cal players pressing, probably leading to the missed shots.  The Bears shot 40 percent after halftime, and most of those were from outside the paint.  Once again, the freshman—basically half the rotation—were non-contributors.  Jabari Bird and Jordan Mathews fared worst, combining to shoot 1 for 11.

Meanwhile, Stanford continued their improvement over the last three weeks by challenging Cal in the paint just like they did at Maples, but much more effectively.  The disparity in free throws shot and made bore that out as did the overall shooting percentage, but the physicality of the visitors really hit home with Montgomery.

“We didn’t handle that very well.  As a result we got ourselves in a huge hole,” he said.

Dwight Powell paced Stanford (15-7, 6-4) with 22 points, six assists giving the Cardinal a little bit more half court creativity than in the first meeting.  Chasson Randle added 19, and Anthony Brown had 16.  Randle skillfully announced the night as Stanford’s with a pretty lay-in around Richard Solomon that put Stanford up 56-47 with 11:20 remaining.

Justin Cobbs had 24 for Cal and Wallace added 21.  Solomon missed his first six shots after making his first six against Arizona.  The Bears also missed nine of their 21 free throw attempts.

Ricky Kreklow returned after an 11-game absence to heal his broken hand and played nine minutes without scoring.

Cal fell to 11-2 at Haas Pavilion with both losses coming on this completed 3-game home stand.

Cal has a week off before traveling to Pullman to meet Washington State, then on to Washington on that Saturday.

Martins braces Quakes

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By Pearl Allison Lo

The first preseason game for the San Jose Earthquakes and Seattle Sounders was a Desert Diamond friendly in Tucson, Arizona Wednesday morning, resulting in a win for the team whose city won the Super Bowl.

Sounders goalkeeper Stefan Frei’s activity and the timing of the three goals summarized the flow of the game from Seattle to San Jose.

The battle for most yellow cards went to the Quakes, who had three in the game, including one in the 2nd minute.

Frei only needed to make one save in the first half, and it came against newbie Jean-Baptiste Pierazzi in the 24th minute, in his debut.

Obafemi Martins set up a tough hurdle to overcome, scoring in the 27th and 29th minutes.

San Jose goalkeeper David Bingham’s knocking the ball away and then out of bounds after a free kick attempt, set up the scene for the first goal. After the ensuing corner throw Jalil Anibaba bounced in, Lamar Neagle headed it to Martins who kicked the ball into the net. Anibaba was acquired from the Chicago Fire January 15.

The artful play that led to the second goal came after Neagle kicked the ball. Dylan Remick followed running in from the sideline and sent the ball in an arc over to Andy Rose. Rose then headed the ball to Martins who duplicated right up front to make it 2-0. Bingham was caught going back from defending Rose.

Sounders’ draft pick Jimmy Ockford had two friendly fire collisions in the second half. One was with fellow draft pick Damion Lowe, the other later with Frei after Mike Fucito’s goal.

Fucito was able to get one in the net for the Quakes in the 86th minute. Teammate trialist Andreas Gorlitz kicked the ball into the center and it bounced around blue and green jerseys, Atiba Harris and Fucito for San Jose. When it got loose, Fucito crossed it into Frei’s open side.

Game notes: February 3, the Quakes reported they signed Shea Salinas and Jordan Stewart to new contracts. The second and last Desert Diamond friendly as San Jose tries to even out, is Friday, February 8, at 2pm PST against the Houston Dynamo.

 

Big Pac-12 road win for Cardinal

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By Daniel Dullum
Sports Radio Service
Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Road victories have been tough to come by this season for Stanford men’s basketball, but the Cardinal came up with a huge one Wednesday night at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley.

Thanks, in large part, to Dwight Powell’s third double-double in his last five games, the Cardinal rolled past California 80-59 and pulled into a tie for third place in the Pac-12 standings with the Bears.

It was the Cardinal’s third win over Cal in their last four meetings, and the win avenged an earlier 69-62 loss to the Bears on Jan. 2.

Stanford improved to 3-2 away from Maples Pavilion. Since 2008-09, the Cardinal are 15-34 as road warriors in the conference.

Chasson Randle had his usual strong game, finishing with 19 points. But it was the all-around effort from Powell that sparked the Cardinal. Powell finished with 22 points, 11 rebounds and six assists. Anthony Brown added 16 points and six boards, including an 11-point burst down the stretch that helped seal the win.

Brown sparked an 8-0 run in the second half after Cal pulled to within five at 52-47. But it was a 15-4 run in the first half – with Powell doing much of the damage – that set the tone for the game. Powell scored nine of those 15 points and hit one of Stanford’s six 3-pointers made in the first half.

The Cardinal defense did the rest, forcing numerous Bears turnovers in the second half. That, combined with a four-minute scoreless stretch by Cal, did the Bears in.

Stanford had a decent shooting night, going 43 percent (23 of 53) from the floor and 80 percent at the free throw line (28 of 35).

The Cardinal improved to 15-7 overall and play again in one week, when they travel to the University of Washington for a Feb. 12 contest with the Huskies.

Sharks Third Line Beats the Stars

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By Ivan Makarov

San Jose Sharks have not been getting much offense lately from it’s top lines. After helping them win games all throughout the season, Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau’s lines have been held mostly off the scoresheet in the past few games. They went scoreless again against Dallas Stars on Wednesday night at the SAP Center, but the Sharks went on to win 2-1 in overtime anyway due to the great game by Sharks third line, and yet another strong performance by Sharks backup goaltender Alex Stalock.

Marty Havlat and Tommy Wingels each scored a goal, while Alex Stalock made 20 saves to record his eighth win of this season.

“It was time for some other players to step up and score,” said pleased Sharks head coach Todd McLellan after the game. “To see Marty and Tommy both do it in one game is a good thing for our team.”

Havlat took part in both goals, which is good to see from someone who recorded no points in the last five games since he came back from a month long recovery from injury, and was largely invisible all season long.

“It feels nice to win the game,” said Havlat. “I don’t really care who scored the goal. But it’s nice to score the goal.”

Havlat scored a goal towards the end of the second period, as he redirected a puck from a pass made by Scott Hannan. Later on he assisted Wingels on the game winning overtime goal as Wingels skated towards the net.

“I came over the line and saw someone being late and was trying to make a play,” said Wingels. “It bounced on me, but we got the puck back. Hannan got open there, and knew that Marty was there. Marty made a good play when he slotted [the puck] across the crease to me and I shot it and it went in.”

Scott Hannan was also credited with the secondary assist on the first goal, and like Havlat, he ended the night with two points.

Overall, it was a pretty sloppy game, with not a lot of scoring chances, and both teams struggling to possess the puck and creating very little in terms of chances on their own power plays. Nonetheless, McLellan saw improvement in team’s play after a bad game on Monday against the Flyers.

“The team improved, pretty evidently,” he said commenting on the result. “You look at the game tonight and compare it to the Philadelphia game. It doesn’t mean that we were cleaner or faster or more polished. It’s just that the commitment level went up. We still got to improve.”

Sharks play one more time before the Winter Olympics break in the schedule when they host Columbus Blue Jackets at home on Friday.

Kings beat Toronto, 109-101

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By George Devine, Sr.

The Kings are thriving on home cooking at Sleep Train Arena, having beaten Chicago 99-70 and now Toronto, 109-101.

A key factor was that Rudy Gay and DeMarcus Cousins were both on the court again Cousins accounted for 25 points and 10 rebounds. Gay had 24 points and also 10 rebounds. Jason Thompson was another to achieve 10 boards, and scored 9 points. Isaiah Thomas had 23 points and 5 assists.

For the visitors, Kyle Lowry had 21 points, 8 assists and 7 rebounds. Patrick Patterson had 14 points, and Jonas Valancianas had 12 points with 11 rebounds.

Sacramento led by a substantial margin in all quarters but the fourth, by which time it was too late for Toronto to overcome the lead.

Dismal Shooting Dooms Dubs in Decisive 91-75 Defeat to Charlotte

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By Matthew Harrington

What a difference a month makes. The Golden State Warriors started January smack dab in the middle of what would be a 10-game win streak, the second-longest in franchise history. In Tuesday night’s 91-75 loss to the Charlotte Bobcats at Oracle Arena the Warriors opened the second month on the calendar on a far less meritorious note. A 75-point output courtesy of a 31.2 shooting percentage against Charlotte (22-28) represented single-game lows in both categories for Golden State this season. The usually sharp-shooting Warriors (29-20) nailed only four shots from beyond the arc on 20 attempts in a night when the home team hoop had an air-tight lid over it.

No Warrior reached double-digits in field goals, with Stephen Curry (8 for 18), Klay Thompson (5 for 13) and David Lee (3-13) all struggling to make the baskets fall in front of the sell-out crowd. Curry’s 17 points topped all Warriors player, while Thompson added 12.

Al Jefferson led the Bobcats to the win on a game-high 30 points and Bobcat-best 13 rebounds for the double-double and guard Gerald Henderson dropped 17. Warriors center Andrew Bogut pulled down 15 boards to lead all players.

Things appeared to be going the Warriors way early, with the home team leading 7-5 just under three minutes into play, but Charlotte held the hosts to only three field goals to close out the first quarter holding a 26-13 lead. Golden State struggled to gain ground in the second 12 minutes, cutting the deficit to nine points a handful of times, but couldn’t sustain momentum. They faced a 51-39 Bobcat lead at the half.

The second half was another 24 minutes of futility for the Warriors, as Charlotte outscored Golden State 40-36 to maintain the lead and sweep the season series against. Charlotte is now 10-9 in its last 19 meetings with Golden State.

The loss proved another example for Coach Mark Jackson who called out the Warriors, losers of 6 of their last 10, for playing down to the ability of a lesser opponent during the tough stretch. Dually disappointing for Jackson’s squad is the missed opportunity for the Warriors, despite their struggles to move past the Phoenix Suns into second place in the Pacific Division. Phoenix, entering play Tuesday night a half-game up on the Warriors, lost earlier in the night 101-92 at home to the Chicago Bulls. The Bulls will travel further west to square off with Golden State at Oracle Arena Thursday night. After the Bulls come to town, the Warriors hit the road, heading to the desert to face the team directly above them in the standings for a Saturday night contest in Phoenix.

Sizzling Stars enjoy a stop in the desert

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NHL COMMENTARY
By DANIEL DULLUM
Sports Radio Service
Tuesday, February 4, 2014

GLENDALE, Ariz. – With the Olympic break just days away, every team in the National Hockey League finds itself trying to get some needed standings points by the end of the week.

Along that line, Dallas arrived at Jobing.com Arena Tuesday looking to extend it’s current hot streak, while the Phoenix Coyotes hoped to build on a much-needed win last Saturday against Pittsburgh.

Dallas came in as one of the hottest teams in the NHL, despite what its overall record may indicate. Since Jan. 14, the Stars have gone 6-3-2 after halting a six-game losing streak with a win over Edmonton.

It’s worth noting that the Stars’ wins in that stretch included decisions over Anaheim, Minnesota, Toronto, Pittsburgh, and, on Tuesday, over Phoenix by a 3-1 count.

Asked about the Stars’ recent turnaround, Antoine Roussel, who scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period, said it was a matter of “getting well.”

“And increasing our tenacity,” Roussel said. “That’s what kept us in the game tonight, “

Ryan Garbutt added, “We’ve just been playing hard every night, using our speed and the guys are playing to the best of their abilities, and having fun at the same time.

“Everybody’s working hard every night, and it’s fun to be a part of it.”

Stars Coach Lindy Ruff didn’t address his team’s recent success precisely, but said, “We’ve just been able to battle through. Tonight, we had two teams that are very similar. We’re in a tight game and somebody is going to take advantage of an opportunity and win the game.”

It made for an interesting matchup with the Coyotes, who have had their own issues of late – lack of scoring and a leaky defense in particular.

The 12,257 in attendance watched a close-checking defensive affair until Antoine Vermette pushed an unassisted shot from the slot through Karl Lehtonen’s 5-hole to put the Coyotes up 1-0 midway through the second period. Two and a half minutes later, Shawn Horcoff flipped a rebound past Mike Smith on the power play, and the game was again deadlocked at 1-1.

Dallas outshot the Coyotes 31-18 after two periods, and the shooting advantage paid off early in the third period when Antoine Roussel ratted the puck around the pipes and past Smith to put the Stars ahead to stay at .2-1.

“That first period was a little sloppy on both sides,” Ruff said. “I thought it was just disjointed play. In the second and third periods, we really turned the corner.”

A sloppy empty-net tally by Ryan Garbutt with 26 seconds left gave Dallas a 3-1 win. Phoenix pulled Smith with 1:12 to play, and the shot by Garbutt from his own blue line barely crossed the goal line and didn’t have enough steam to hit the back of the net. But they all count, right?

New image?
Elsewhere, in Coyotes news, the team announced earlier this week plans to bow to the whims of the Glendale City Council and rename themselves the Arizona Coyotes next season, along with yet to be determined marketing changes. One thing is known for sure – the new owners are bringing back the old Southwest/Mayan-styled jerseys from the mid-1990s as throwback gear.

While there’s nothing wrong with the current Coyotes garb, it’s apparent that the new owners want to try and eradicate the bankruptcy/Wayne Gretzky coaching/NHL ownership period image. That’s understandable.

Changing the name from Phoenix to Arizona is senseless. The state name only works in areas like the Twin Cities or Raleigh, N.C., where the Hurricanes reside. Arizona could be anywhere in the state (well, some think that does apply to Glendale). People tend to know where Phoenix is, and as a marketing focal point, there was no logical reason to change it.

Teams like the NFL Cardinals and the NL Diamondbacks like to claim that by using the state name, “we represent the whole state.” Maybe. But it hasn’t done anything to cure the transient fan bases for Valley pro teams with the exception of the NBA Suns.

Generic marketing just isn’t a logical move for a market so identifiable by the largest city. Seems like a desperate move. We’ll see how well it works.

Daniel Dullum covers the NHL for SportsTalk.

(TAGS: NHL,Phoenix,Coyotes,Dallas,Stars,Arizona,Glendale)

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: A’s Fanfest will see a reunion of great A’s stars from World Series teams of the 70s

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That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary

OAKLAND–The San Francisco Giants had 35,000 fans at AT&T Park last weekend for their Fanfest day that was a big success and the A’s might have that many for their Fanfest but their going to have a big crowd maybe with 15,000-20,000 and I’m going to be part of that, the A’s asked me to be a master of ceremonies for the Yoenis Cepedes question and answer session in section 105 at the Coliseum in Oakland.

The time for the show to begin is between 1-2pm at the Coliseum, you’ll see such former A’s stars there such as Vida Blue, Blue Moon Odom, Campy Campaneris, alot of the old A’s players are going to be there of course some of the current A’ who will be playing this season will be there.

Campaneris lives in Scottsdale and we usually see him in spring training, last year he was signing autographs with Rollie Fingers and other ex-A’s players of the 70s and 80s. Campy is a great guy, probably the best shortstop they’ve ever had because Miguel Tejada only played a handful of years and Campy played the bulk of his career with the Oakland A’s. He was a real great player as a matter of fact in 72, 73,and 74 is when they won the World Series.

Reggie Jackson said our real MVP was Campy Campaneris when he got on base things happened. He was a terrific player, a great shortstop, and a great teammate. One year Campy hit over 20 home runs and he had a little pop and a little power and he was never a power hitter but he got on base. He stole a lot of bases, he hit for average, sometimes he bunted, he was a great bunter, by the way that’s a lost art.

Today you don’t see many players bunting the ball, Campaneris was a great player and he was nicknamed the Roadrunner by former A’s radio announcer Monte Moore, the A’s honored him a few years ago and they should retire his number, number 19 why not? The old A’s of the 70s who are coming back to visit the Coliseum and the fans remember there wasn’t the marketing there was like now and the salaries were not much.

Campaneris didn’t make much not even a $1 million not even close, I doubt it, it was a different type of baseball, it was not the power game that it is today. Campy right now will be a very good player but still he’s not a slugger, so he probably wouldn’t make the $15-20 million a year like some of these other players make.

Everytime I see him now I said to him he would make $5-10 million, he would say, “don’t tell me that” but it’s true Campaneris in today’s game he would make $5 million a year. With all respect to former owner Charlie Finley may he rest in peace, I think he wouldn’t give a dollar in the Salvation Army bucket outside of Macy’s during Christmas time. He was really a tight man, and he didn’t want to spend any money at all.

Even with the media Finley used to serve Kentucky Fried Chicken to the media every single game, year in year out all 81 games a year. God Bless him, that’s the way he was and he knew the game but he never paid anyone any big money and that’s why he lost all his players in 1976.

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