Month: March 2014

Kings fall in Chicago 94-87

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Photo credit: NBAE/Getty Images

By Charlie O. Mallonee

The Chicago Bulls defeated the Sacramento Kings 94-87 on Saturday night in Chicago. It was a game that featured daunting defense and lacked on solid offense from the opening tip to the final buzzer.

Both teams shot under 40 percent from the field. The Kings hit on 31 of 85 (.365) shots. They converted just 2 of 14 3-point opportunities. The Bulls shot .397 (31 of 78) and were 6 of 20 from beyond the 3-point line. Defense ruled the game.

The Kings out-rebounded the Bulls 55-40. Sacramento swept 19 balls off the glass to just 7 for Chicago. Even though they controlled the rebounding, it was not enough to give the Kings a win.

Sacramento really fell short in the assists category. They had just 12 assists for the game and had only 4 in the first half. Chicago recorded 21 assists.

Once again the Kings committed more turnovers than they had assists. They turned the ball over 16 times versus the Bulls.

Even with those less than spectacular statistics, the Kings were just 3 points down with 29 seconds left in the game. It was a battle of the defenses.

After the game, Kings’ coach Michael Malone said he was proud of how hard his team played and for keeping the game so competitive. He acknowledged there things that could have been down better, but Malone was happy with the way his team battled versus the Bulls.

Isaiah Thomas led all scorers in the game with 26 points. He also 5 assists. DeMarcus Cousins posted another double-double with 25 points and 14 rebounds despite being double-teamed by the Bulls all game.

Rudy Gay had a quiet game with 13 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists. Gay is drawing the attention of opposing defenses and is having a tough time putting up the kind of numbers he was posting earlier in the season. The Kings need to make some adjustments to allow Gay to be productive on offense.

The Bulls were led by Joakim Noah with 23 points, 11 rebounds and 8 assists. He also had 5 blocked shots and 3 steals.

Taj Gibson scored 19 points on just 9 shots. Mike Dunleavy put up 16 points and was 3 of 6 for 3-pointers.

The loss dropped the Kings record to 23-43 for the season. Chicago is now 37-29 and playoff bound in the Eastern Division.

The Kings wrap up the 7 game road trip on Sunday in Minnesota versus the Timberwolves.

Cain struggles, Milone shines in Cactus League tilt

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By DANIEL DULLUM
Sports Radio Service
Saturday, March 15, 2014

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – For Matt Cain, Saturday’s Cactus League outing was just a singular bad day at the office. On the other hand, Tommy Milone may have answered questions about whether or not he’ll secure a spot in the Oakland rotation.

Milone threw five strong innings in an 8-1 split-squad win by the Athletics before another packed Scottsdale Stadium house. Cain, meanwhile, was roughed up for seven runs on six hits in 2 2/3 innings.

“I never found a good rhythm,” Cain said. “I was behind in the count a lot, had a bunch of hitter’s counts, You might make some different pitches during the regular season, but the game situations are the same and you still have to throw strikes.”

Cain walked three, struck out three and hit a batter in addition to surrendering a two run homer to Luke Montz in the first inning and a three-run bomb by Stephen Vogt in the second.

“They (the home runs) were both on fastballs, middle and away,” Cain said, adding that a bad outing in spring doesn’t necessitate “going back to the drawing board.”

“Sure, there are things you’re going to think about,” Cain added. “This is spring and you just have to let it go. … You never expect to go out there and throw bad like that. But it happens, and it’s good to get it out of the way.”

With injuries to Jarrod Parker and A.J. Griffin, Milone (12-9 in 2013) positioned himself with a golden opportunity to step into the A’s rotation. On Saturday, Milone gave up three hits, struck out two and walked two in his fourth appearance of the spring.

“Even when two guys go down, you still have to go out and compete,” Milone said. “This was definitely my best spring outing so far. I was able to go out and establish the strike zone. I worked in the two-seamer (fastball) a lot more and kept the ball on the ground.”

In the other Bay Area split-squad games for Saturday, San Francisco beat Seattle 13-6 and Texas outlasted Oakland 16-15.

CACTUS NEEDLES: Oakland 1B Daric Barton played for the first time since March 8. He’s been hampered by an injured left hamstring. Barton wound up with a single, an RBI, a run and three walks on Saturday. … A’s OF Billy Burns, a non-roster invitee, is tied for the overall Spring Training lead in stolen bases with eight. … The Giants reassigned INF Nick Noonan and OF Roger Kieschnick, optioning both to Triple-A Fresno. Both players will report to the Giants’ minor league camp Monday. … Giants OF Angel Pagan is listed as day-to-day with back stiffness. And OF Michael Morse is expected to be out four to five days with calf tightness. … San Francisco INF Marco Scutaro has yet to appear in a Cactus League game due to a sore back. Scutaro has taken batting practice and grounders the last four days. … A somewhat slimmer 3B Pablo Sandoval is swinging a hot bat this spring for the Giants, going 9-for-26 with a home run and seven RBI in 11 games. …
The Athletics had their first experience with instant replay Thursday night against Colorado. A’s manager Bob Melvin was successful in one of two challenges.

Sharks commentary: Sharks looking to extend five game win streak against Rangers on Sunday

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by Larry Leavitt

NEW YORK–Sharks head coach Todd McClellan says he would be happy about a win but he never shows it and much the same after the win in Uniondale on Friday night 4-3 against the Islanders. He’s really simple in his post game answers to the press and he knows there’s plenty of hockey left. He’s not going to say “this is the best game and were done” he’s always aiming to succeed. In the NHL that’s what you have to do continually fix what’s broken.

There’s always something that’s broken and right now it’s the power play, the best part of these wins are getting secondary scoring which is imnportant because you can’t aways count on your big guy up front to do the work and carry the load. Seconardary scoring can come from every line even the third line with Tommy Wingles, Andrew Desjardins, and Marty Havlet.

Havlet was absolutely fantastic with a goal and an assist, on offense they were shooting at their former teammate Evegeni Nabokov and when your in goal and the puck is in the corner you got to cover that corner shot you can’t leave that open and when the puck comes out front so quickly it’s hard to get ready and set up in time.

The Sharks passing has been absolutely pheonomenal in front of the net and that’s why they’ve had four goals in 26 shots on Friday night. They tried to stay open and find that soft spot in front the blue line and go in for it. The other member of the crew who helped make a difference was James Sheppard he’s on that third line.

Sheppard was filling that hole that Joe Pavelski left open and he’s really elevated his game tremendously, Friday night was a well fought game and to win by one goal against the Islanders show how well this team is going. They played an extrememly tight game for while. The zone coverage doesn’t always say everything because the other night the Sharks were losing on Thursday night when they were in Columbus and won in the shootout.

The Sharks had the edge in the zone and had some good offensive zone time, but the key is find your position and not having a lapse there and making sure if they break out you get all five guys there to help out. There was one goal that kind of trickled through and it looked like Niemi stopped it but it happens sometimes.

The Sharks play at Madison Square Garden on Sunday night against the New York Rangers and the last time these two teams met the Sharks Tomas Hertl really opened the game up when the played at SAP Center. This time Hertl is out with a knee injury so that could be good or bad as far as getting revenge against them or someone who had a grudge against Hertl because of the way he scored that goal against the Rangers. Either way expect a showdown at the Garden on Sunday.

Larry Leavitt does Sharks commentary each week for Sportstalk radio

Warrior commentary: Dubs in Portland can’t afford another late collapse Sunday

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by David Zizmor

OAKLAND–There is a little bit of concern the loss to the Clippers in Los Angeles last Wednesday night in a 111-98 at the Staples Center it was a loss at the time you could kind of brush off, for one the Warriors were on the second game of a back to back which is always done when the second game is on the road. Also the Clippers are one of the best teams in the NBA.

The Clips were one of the only other teams that were hotter the Warriors at the tine of that game so the Warriors losing to the Clippers on the road was no biggie. You like to get the win but you can understand, losing to Cleveland last Friday night at the Coliseum Arena 103-94 is inexcusable. The Warriors were equally disturbed by it after the game.

That was a really bad loss the W’s went up by 18 early in this game and then they gave back every single one of those points and more and ended up losing and it wasn’t even close at the end and it didn’t help that Clay Thompson was out of the game due to a death in the family. That’s no excuse the Warriors have been missing various players at various times and they still managed to get wins this season.

The loss to Cleveland was just awful for Golden State, the Cavs are one of the worst teams on the raod and their just a lousy team in general. There is no way that Cleveland should score as much as they did against the Warriors. The Warriors have a pretty good defense and letting Cleveland score kind of at will was just awful.

The Warriors have had these issues earlier in the season where they kind of had defensive lapses where players were not in position where they weren’t putting in the effort. That seemed like the case and the extreme on Friday night. They seemed to know it based on the closed door meetings that they were having afterwards in the statements by head coach Mark Jackson after the game.

The Warriors seemed to be very much aware that this was an awful game and their very embarrassed about it they don’t do anything about it in the next game. They will have conversations that hopefully will be effective before the next game this Sunday in Portland. The Warriors have a big stretch here and their in playoff position but there by no means in a playoff spot.

There are nine teams in the Western Conference in line for eight spots. Most of the teams ahead of the Warriors are locked in for those top eight spots. The Warriors are in position to make the playoffs but there is a chance they can lose it if they go on a stumble. So the Warriors can’t take anything for granted they have to play hard every night.

David Zizmor covers the NBA for Sportstalk Radio

Morris Phillips on Cal Basketball: Cal just sputtering on fumes coming into the NIT selections

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by Morris Phillips

BERKELEY–The problem with the Cal Bears is their just are not shooting well, their just not a team that you can really count on. They scored 22 points in the first half of the quarter finals against Colorado barely pulled out the season finale at Haas Pavilion against the same team and their offensive short comings and their ability to make shots is what has got them on the slide.

The Bears have nine loses in their last 14 games, Cal however can get an NIT selection and their in the top 75 in the country so they could get in the NCAA Tournament. The Bears are still in the top 75 in the country and they should be a highly seeded team in the NIT and the NIT should be happy to have them and they maybe happy to have them matched up against St.Marys or USF in the first round.

The Bears just need to play better and this will obviously give them an opportunity and for a team that ended the season as poorly as they had that’s really a great opportunity for them because nobody wants to look as badly as they have been lately. Cal would love to win a game at the end and nobody wants to end a season like this and this is a young basketball team.

Cal really needs to build for next year and one of the ways to do that is to gain some confidence and win some games here. Once again a match up in the NITs against one of the local schools especially St.Mary’s since Cal head coach Mike Montgomery has barely faced them in his college career. The last time Montgomery had coached against the Gaels was probably a good ten or 15 years ago.

There is still a lot for Cal to play for but the way they ended their season was improbable that final victory against Colorado they missed their last ten shots of the game and they didn’t make a shot in overtime and found a way to pull it out. Justin Cobbs led the team with scoring in that game with 21 points but he’s not supposed to be the scoring leader and he’s suppose to be the offensive leader.

He’s supposed to be the distributor, he’s supposed to be the playmaker but time and time again his teammates have missed shots in situations where he has got the ball and Montgomery says if he sees you miss a couple and he’s likely to come to you after that. That puts a lot of pressure on Cobbs to go ahead and do it himself and that’s not necessarily his strong suit.

It’s a tough spot for Cobbs and for the team to struggle and it comes back on the team star and Cobbs is just not a team leading scorer type guy. He’s really a playmaker and facilitator and Montgomery would liked to have seen him play better against Arizona’s Nick Johnson and ASU’s guard Jahii Carson and the two other point guards in the Pac 12 that are NBA type caliber players.

Morris Phillips is talk show host and covers Cal basketball for Sportstalk radio

Michael Duca on A’s and Giants: A’s gearing up for state of the art facilty in Mesa

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by Michael Duca
MESA AZ–The Oakland A’s new stadium for spring training known as Ho Ho Kam Park will have the same foot print as it did before, so the soccer field beyond right field will remain. The clubhouse for the A’s will only be smaller than the entire facility of one of the Cactus League parks by 2,000 feet.

The grounds crew is replanting the fields, here’s a clever way to tell you the difference of beating the Cubs and beating the A’s,for all those years the Cubs were in Ho Ho Camp Stadium and downstairs right next to the entrance was a very large place called the Ho Ho Kam Room.

The Ho Ho Kam Room was where the Cubs posted one of two free meals in Arizona and it was notable because it had draft beer. There was beer on tap, there was a 70 inch television on one side of the room and there were photos of Cubs notables and Ho Ho Kam notables all over the room. Well the Ho Ho Kam Room is going away under the A’s it’s going to become a ticket office.

An A’s executive said that the Cubs actually never had to use the office for game of day sales because the games were sold out to sell any tickets. Also advance ticket sales are just a word in the dictionary. The media will get a patio outside of the pressbox which is pretty traditonal that’s the way it’s done in most place in spring training parks.

The big question that was brought up on Thursday was what to do with all those historical photographs? That’s the latest with the A’s facility which the A’s will move into Spring Training of 2015. Meanwhile in Phoenix Municipal the A’s current camp will be taken over by Arizona State University’s baseball program after the A’s leave for the regular season at the end of this month.

On Thursday night it was historical it was the final Major League night game at Phoenix Municipal Stadium after it’s long and historical time hosting Spring Training baseball. The park is 60 years old and they have four light towers in the outfield that were brought in from the Polo Grounds in 1958 by way of Casa Grande by the Giants.

Mesa has always had a team, they had the A’s for awhile and then they have the Cubs and now they will have two teams because it’s kind of in a no man’s land where Scottdale, Mesa, and Tempe all share a demilitarize zone right there and there’s a huge shopping center right next to where they are but your still technically in Mesa.

What people don’t understand is how large the suburbs are, Tempe has almost 400,000 residents now and Mesa is the largest city in the United States that doesn’t not have a Major League Baseball team. There are over 600,000 people living there in Mesa and it’s just astonishing how big these cities are.

Michael Duca is covering the Giants and A’s for Sportstalk radio in Arizona at the Cactus League

Sharks beat Islanders in Big Apple

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By: Phillip Torres

NEW YORK- The San Jose Sharks (44-17-7) defeated the New York Islanders (25-24-9) in New York on Friday night. The Sharks defeated the Islanders 4-3 pushing their winning streak to five games. The win came against Evgeni Nabokov, the former San Jose Shark’s goaltender.The victory put the Sharks in first place tie with the Anaheim Ducks in the Pacific Division. 

San Jose got on the board first at 13:27 after Matt Nieto scored his tenth goal of the season on a wrist sheet. Patrick Marleau and Logan Couture earned the two assists on the play. The sharks doubled their lead to make it 2-0 after a goal from Jason Demers. His wrist shot at 14:46 was assisted James Sheppard and Marty Havlat. 

New York answered quickly in the second period with a goal less than one minute in. Anders Lee knocked in a backhand shot into the net at 32 seconds into the second frame. Kyle Okposo and Frans Nielsen assisted the score to pull the Islanders to within one goal. 

The second frame of the game was the most explosive period offensively in the contest. Joe Thornton put the Sharks lead back to two goals with his tenth of the season. Thornton’s wrist shot into the net was assisted by Brent Burns at 9:32. 

Brock Nelson made it a 3-2 game with a goal for the Islanders late in the frame. Nelson tipped the puck in after assisted by Josh Bailey and Matt Donovan. The last score of the period belonged to the Sharks. Havlat knocked in a wrist shot at 18:15. Sheppard earned the lone assist on the play.

Nielsen scored the last goal of the game with less than one minute remaining to make it 4-3. The score was the eventual final score and the Sharks victory made it their fifth consecutive.

The Sharks will be back on the ice on Sunday as they will stay in New York to face off against the New York Rangers. The Rangers will be a tougher challenge as they are currently have 26 wins on the season. The puck will drop at 1:00 PM. 

UCLA ousts Cardinal from Pac-12 tourney

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By Daniel Dullum
Sports Radio Service
Friday, March 14, 2014

Stanford’s run in the Pac-12 men’s basketball tournament came to a halt Friday, as a sluggish shooting night for the Cardinal led, in part, to an 84-59 semifinal defeat by UCLA at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas, Nev.

While the Cardinal (21-12) struggled offensively in both halves, UCLA’s Norman Powell bagged 22 points and Travis Wear added 16 more for the Bruins (25-8) as the Bruins shot 65 percent from the floor. Also for UCLA, Kyle Anderson contributed 13 points, eight rebounds and seven assists.

Dwight Powell led the Cardinal with 16 points, followed by Chasson Randle with 11.

The win gives UCLA a 2-1 edge in the season series. After the Bruins won their first meeting at Pauley Pavilion, Stanford won the rematch 83-74 at Maples Pavilion.

The Bruins opened the game with a 14-2 run and cruised from there. UCLA hit 18 of 29 floor shots in the first half, building a 44-29 lead at the break.

Stanford opened the second half making 2 of 9 from the field, while the Bruins made seven of their first nine shots to build a 62-34 advantage.

UCLA moves on to the tournament championship game against Arizona. Despite the loss, Stanford’s otherwise strong showing in the Pac-12 tournament could punch the Cardinal’s ticket to the Big Dance.

Stanford earned wins over Washington State and Arizona State before facing UCLA in its third game in three days. Now, the Cardinal will be tuned in for Selection Sunday to see which postseason tournament they’re headed for.

(TAGS: Stanford,UCLA,Pac-12 men’s basketball tournament)

Warriors squander fast start, lose an ugly one to the Cavs 103-94

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By Gabe Schapiro

The Golden State Warriors (41-26) only managed to put together one good quarter, ultimately falling to the Cleveland Cavaliers (26-40), 103-94, Friday night, at Oracle Arena. Early on Golden State led by as many as 18, only to find themselves down by as many as 16 in the second half of the contest. The disappointing loss snaps a five game home winning streak for the Warriors. Klay Thompson missed a rare game to attend his grandfathers’ funeral, and it appeared that his presence was missed. At times it appeared that Stephen Curry was playing by himself, and they simply couldn’t get stops when they had to.

The Warriors got off to a lightning fast start, opening up a 20-4 lead within the first six minutes of the game. The Cavaliers composed themselves a bit, but were still looking up at a 32-16 deficit heading into the second quarter. All five Golden State starters had an assist, and the bench scored four field goals, more than they did in the entire contest against the Los Angeles Clippers two days ago.

That’s where most of the good news would end for the Warriors, however, as Cleveland caught fire and Golden State’s wheels all but flew off. In the second frame the Dubs were badly outplayed, and helped the Cavaliers case with far too many turnovers. Heading into the locker room the Warriors lead had shrunk to just one point, at 53-52.

Unfortunately for Golden State, the third quarter was more of the same. Their mistakes didn’t stop, which led to them being outscored 68-39 in the second and third quarters combined. Heading into the final 12 minutes, the Warriors found themselves down 84-71.

Golden State tried to put together some semblance of a comeback, but nine points would be as close as they could get to the lead. Cleveland finished out the game with relative ease, in one of the Warriors more disappointing losses of the season.

Curry had a pretty strong game amidst the sloppy play, finishing with a game-high 27 points and eight assists. He was five-of-10 from beyond the arc, and added three steals. Draymond Green was fantastic off the bench for another glimmer of a bright spot, tying a career-high with 18 points, to go along with nine rebounds and as always good hustle defense. The most glaring stat of the night, however, was probably the Warriors 17 turnovers.

For the Cavs Spencer Hawes was a force in the paint, posting a double-double. He had a team-high 22 points, and a game-high 13 rebounds. Their young backcourt of Kyrie Irving and Dion Waiters had good games as well, combining to score 34 points, dish out eight rebounds, and grab five steals.

The Warriors followed up a five-game win streak by losing their last two. They’ll look to get back to their winning ways this Sunday, March 16, against the Portland Trail Blazers.

Warriors arena at Piers 30-32: With height measure voted down new arena might have a shot at piers

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by Ken Gimblin

SAN FRANCISCO–Waterfront advocates lost a major volley after putting up a strong fight and nearly getting a ballot measure for the June election that would ask voters if there should be a height restriction for waterfront buidlings. Propositon B was voted down by the San Francisco Democratic party in a 13-12 vote to keep the measure off the ballot.

The measure would require voter approval for any new buildings at the waterfront over 40-105 feet, the party wanted to keep the measure off the ballot because without it it would allow development proposals such as the Golden State Warriors proposed arena at Piers 30-32 who almost considered looking at other alternatives. The Warriors want to build at Piers 30-32 a new 12 story arena, a 17 story luxury condo, and a ten story hotel.

The condo and hotel would be built across the street from Piers 30-32 where the new Warriors arena would play. The condo and hotel would be owned by the Warriors and the condo and hotel would help pay for the new arena. The political machine of San Francisco came out and got the vote out with the political help of the local trade unions who want jobs and to get the contstruction for the new arena.

The Union memebers called Proposition B a job killer if the ballot measure made the June election and with the knowledge that the voters would surely vote to restrict the height limit at the waterfront no unlimited height they would miss out on construction jobs for the new arena. With the party voting down the measure it could create a path for construction on the new arena, condo and hotel for the Warriors.

Committee member Hene Kelly who voted for the measure said that the proposition was not anti labor, “I do not beleive Proposition B is an enemy of the building trades.” There were other committee members who chose to abstain and did not vote in the narrow vote. Jon Golinger who is running the Yes on Proposition B campaign said that this was all politics with the real estate establishment of San Francisco, “It’s a sign that the real estate lobby is fully in control of this Democratic Party.”

The measure now goes to a legal challenge which will be argued in front of San Francisco Superior Court Judge Marla Miller. The hearing is designed to strike the measure from appearing in the June election. The lawsuit was filed by Tim Colen executive director of the San Francisco Housing Action Coalition, Michael Theriault, a leader of the Building and Construction Trades and Corrine Woods, a neighbor of the project site.

The Giants who said they wanted to construct a retail and condo complex at a parking lot by AT&T Park are underwriting the lawsuit. The Giants are in the fight for keeping the height limit measure off the ballot and it means profit for the team if they can get the complex started. The Warriors were mentioned for constructing the new arena in the Giants lot A if they can’t build at Piers 30-32 but with no height restriction in place the Warriors could construct at Piers 30-32 if the judge throws out the proposition on Monday.

Ken Gimblin is covering the arena developments for the Golden State Warriors and the Sacramento Kings for Sportstalk radio