Month: May 2014

Warriors lose to Clippers, go home

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By George Devine, Sr.

The Golden State Warriors took the first round of the NBA playoffs as far as they could, playing the underdog throughout seven games and making it count until the end. But when the final buzzer sounded, the Los Angeles Clippers won the best-of-seven series Tonight’s determining game at Staples Center in Los Angeles was close much of the time, and Golden State led by 8 at the half. The final score of 126-121 in the Clippers’ favor sends them to the next round and sends the Warriors back to Oakland to deal with speculation and rumors concerning the future of head coach Mark Jackson.

In a way, the back story for the series was written before it began, once it became clear that center Andrew Bogut would be out for the duration. This enabled the opposition — in this case the Clippers — to score in the paint to a higher degree than Golden State did, given the determining factor of Bogut’s defensive ability. In tonight’s game, Los Angeles outscored the visitors from inside by 62-38, and that told the tale of the showdown.

Warriors center Jermaine O’Neal was unable to be of great help. He underwent an MRI on Friday that revealed a bone bruise of his right knee cap. He was listed as questionable for Game 7 and played for only 2:55. He was thus unable to fill in for Bogut on preventing field goals, and only scored one of his own, out of two attempts. He suffered the injury at the 9:39 mark in the second quarter of the previous game at Oracle Arena in Oakland.

Most of the Warriors’ starters played for the bulk of the game. Stephen Curry was in for 45:50 and had 33 points, going 16-16 from the charity stripe. He also contributed 9 assists. Draymond Green played for 39:41, pouring in 24 points and contributing 7 rebounds. Klay Thompson was good for 38:51, scoring 13 poiints and making an equal number of rebounds. Jordan Crawford scored 12 points.

For Los Angeles, Blake Griffin was the key player. He scored 24 points and contributed 6 assists in 42;10. His ability to draw fouls and make the subsequent free throws made the difference in the final score. DeAndre Jordan was in for 41:21, scored 15 points and had 18 boards. Chris Paul played 42;06, scored 22 points and had 14 assists.

Whitecaps top Earthquakes

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Photograph by: Steve Bosch, PNG

By Pearl Allison Lo

Vancouver’s three goals in the first 20 minutes were able to top San Jose’s late comeback in a 3-2 decision Saturday, as the Whitecaps celebrated their 40th anniversary.

The game winner came off Pedro Morales’s first goal of the game and the Whitecaps’ penalty kick. It came in the 19th minute and was preceded by a Jordan Stewart giveaway, before the slight touch by Victor Bernardez against Darren Mattocks who had a breakaway.

Vancouver outshot the Quakes 17-7.

In the first half, the ‘Caps controlled the majority of the ball possession. The possession San Jose did have was usually intercepted, deflected, given away or more.

The game’s first goal was braced by San Jose’s Yannick Djalo going down twice on the turf. Already suffering from groin tightness, when he went down the first time, play continued.

Vancouver’s Kekuta Manneh ‘s initial shot went off the left post then came back to him. The rebound shot then went to the right post and into the net in the 10th minute.

Djalo’s second time down again forced coach Mark Watson to go early to his bench for Alan Gordon in the 13th minute. It was Djalo’s first start for the team.

Morales’s second goal came almost straightaway outside the box and just a minute after his first to make it 3-0, as he took off his shirt in celebration.

All of the Whitecaps’ goals came before the Quakes’ first shot.

In the 28th minute, Mattocks went down on his own as well with a hamstring injury. Erik Hurtado came in to replace him.

San Jose’s Sam Cronin was in net to prevent a fourth goal when Morales passed the ball to Manneh who passed the ball to Hurtado before his shot in the 34th minute.

In the 45th minute, the Quakes spoiled David Ousted’s clean sheet and got a goal back when Chris Wondolowski took the penalty kick. Alan Gordon had got knocked down by Jay DeMerit after Gordon headed the ball.

The Quakes prevented another fourth goal when the rookie Hurtado came attacking. Goalie Jon Busch went equally hard forward to challenge Hurtado and with the block, joined the 1,000 save club in the 59th minute.

The 3-2 score occurred in the 91st minute. Wondolowski scored his second goal of the game, fifth of the teams’ eight goals during the season and ninth in his career against Vancouver as the ball slid right past Ousted. Stoppage time ended in the 94th.

Game notes: It was the first meeting between Steven Beitashour and San Jose since they parted. Morales had to go off the field temporarily in the second half. Gordon got yellow carded in the 70th minute. The Quake’s Billy Schuler experienced his first action of the season when he subbed in for Brandon Barklage.

Remember the Alamo: Sharks Have A Lot To Think About

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By Mary Walsh

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, they say. Then again, sometimes things that can kill you do, in fact, kill you, and many things that cause you no pain at all can make you stronger. Pain, loss and failure are not necessary ingredients for success, they are just common obstacles you must overcome on the road to pretty much anywhere. So what do you do with a humiliating meltdown performed at the very worst moment, on a national stage? Assuming it has not killed you, you can remember it and nurse that awful feeling until you have a chance to redeem yourself. Or not.

Friday, some Sharks shared their present thoughts with the media. It had been less than 48 hours since the team made a historically noteworthy playoff exit. As one of only four teams to give up a 3-0 series lead to be defeated in the seventh game, they will be remembered for choking in the worst way.

Todd McLellan was asked what went wrong, what lead to the loss of a series the Sharks lead by three games to none.

I spoke about this at the press conference after the game and my opinion hasn’t changed one bit. In fact, I’m a little more frustrated at this point than I was even at that point, if you can believe it. We got beat in a number of different areas. The core of their group stepped up and performed at a very high level, ours fell off a little bit and my disappointment is as much or greater now than it was at at that moment.

What added to the frustration?

Probably having the chance to go back and look at it again. It is what it is, we went and looked at it again and it just makes us more frustrated.

Joe Thornton was asked if he had any explanation for what went on in the last four games.

No. I think I’ll think about that, you know, probably until next year sometime. You know, the way we played in the first three games and then what we did in the last four, it’s mind-boggling. And I think I will lose sleep probably for the next couple of months for sure on that.

Tommy Wingels was asked if playing in World Championships next week would help get the taste of the loss out of his mouth.

It won’t do it. It’s an honor to play for them and to an extent you’re excited when you get asked but without a doubt I’d much rather be playing for a Stanley Cup still. Regardless of what happens over there the disappointment of what happened isn’t going to go away, and to be honest that’ll be on my mind the entire time.

Patrick Marleau was asked about this series as a defining moment for the Sharks.

Yeah, it’s obviously a low point for us. Like you said it’s going to be with us for a long time so we have to use that as a motivational tool to get better and to learn from it and to know that you never want to feel this way again.

Scott Hannan was asked if, after time to think about it, there were any answers to how the series came unravelled.

No, there’s not, it’s disappointing, it’s gut wrenching that this happened. We’re going to have to deal with that for a while until we can set things right and turn it around. It’s going to eat away at you all summer and all next year.

Brent Burns was asked if he had any additional thoughts after a day and a half.

I think it’s still pretty fresh. It’s still tough, you’re not really prepared for it to be over. Nothing new. Waking up today it’s tough, it’s hard to imagine what happened but it’s sure to take a long time.

Dan Boyle was asked how his last couple of days had gone.

Horrible. This is the first time I left my house since I got back after the game. It’s definitely the worst loss of my career and yeah, I’m not going to get over this for a long time. This one hurts a lot.

Marc-Edouard Vlasic was asked if this is a series worth remembering.

I mean, Boston won the Cup the year after they did what we did this year.

Did he think that humiliation motivated the Bruins?

Probably, they had something to prove. When you sweep and then get swept it’s embarrassing and hopefully we do the same.

One recurring theme in all of the locker cleanout interviews was  that the loss would take a long time to get over. Will the Sharks’ disastrous 2014 playoff ousting stay with them, in a way that might be productive? How will they respond? Raffi Torres said:

We just gotta figure out what we want to do here. Do we want to be a team that lives with the past, is this going to haunt us and just do the same thing over and over again? Or are we really gonna get pissed off and come back and see what we’re really all about. You gotta have a year, you know. Yeah, we’re gonna win a lot of games next year and probably going to make the playoffs again, but at the end of the day if you don’t show up and really want it, and really want to win, it’s not going to happen.

Of course, Doug Wilson has some work to do. In cases such as these, when an otherwise competitive team falls apart in the clutch, a common response is to fire the coach. That is clearly not something Wilson is in a hurry to do, nor should he be. How do you replace one of the top coaches in the league? It would be, to say the least, a gamble. And it was another recurring theme in the interviews: the players did not blame the coach. Antti Niemi put it concisely:

He’s been a great coach obviously and we played winning hockey all the time. And we have great systems we play, the whole team followed the systems and I think we worked hard. So I think he’s been a great coach, the whole coaching staff has been great.

It is rare for players to voice criticisms of their coach, and in any case it doesn’t answer the question: would another coach get better results, at least in the short run?

To study how teams fare after this particular failure you have to work with an impossibly small sample size. In the most recent example, the Boston Bruins did not replace their coach or significantly alter their core group. They did add several significant players, so the San Jose roster may need to be bolstered. Then again, those were the Bruins, not the Sharks. When you only have four cases and only two in the last quarter century, it would be folly to think you have a pattern to follow.

The only player in this narrative not available for comment Friday was Sharks majority owner Hasso Plattner. What he will make of the situation, what he might do about it, is difficult to even guess at. Possibly the most frustrating part of this is that such humiliation only happens to the best teams. It is not humiliating unless you have a team that should have won. That is why two of those other three were able to win the Stanley Cup so soon after squandering three game leads in the playoffs. It is an awful feeling for Sharks and their fans, but at least it is proof that they are close enough to success to amplify failure into a disaster on a par with the Alamo, minus the fatalities of course.

Three homers leads Giants to victory

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By Jeremy Kahn

Once again, like in the opener of the three-game series against the Atlanta Braves, the San Francisco Giants were backed up by the long ball and a starting pitcher that wants to make to a statement.

Brandon Belt, Michael Morse and Buster Posey each hit solo home runs, while Ryan Vogelsong pitched his second consecutive strong game and the Giants defeated the Braves 3-1 at Turner Field.

The Giants have won four in a row, and eight out of their last nine, while their opponents, the Braves, who are the reigning National League Eastern Division Champions have lost five in a row, their longest losing streak in two seasons.

By hitting three more home runs in the game, the Giants have now hit home runs in 10 straight games, their longest such streak in nearly four years.

Vogelsong allowed just one run in six innings of work, while giving up five hits, walking four and striking out six, as he won for the first time this season.

A trio of relievers helped nail the victory for the Giants, as Jeremy Affeldt allowed one walk in one inning, Jean Machi pitched a perfect eighth inning and Sergio Romo picked up his ninth save in nine opportunities this season.

Julio Teheran allowed a season-high three runs on just four hits on the evening for the Braves, but unfortunately three of those hits were home runs by Belt, Morse and Posey.

After Belt gave the Giants the lead in the top of the second inning, B.J. Upton doubled the Braves lone run of the night that scored Jason Heyward in the bottom of the third inning.

Posey then led off of the top of the fourth inning with a solo home run which proved to the game-winner, as he is now
6-for-8 versus Teheran in his career.

Morse put the finishing touches on the scoring, as he hit a solo home run in the top of the seventh inning.

Kings arena downtown: Blue prints not complete for new arena plans vote on hold at Sac City Hall

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by Jerry Feitelberg

The Sacramento City Council whose planned vote on the new arena will be put on hold as it was scheduled to be voted on May 13th. Details of the new arena plan were not finalized and won’t be ready by the 13th. Without such documents of the plan the city council will have to wait to vote on the plan.

It was however assured that the Kings and developers will have a plan in place in the very near future perhaps as soon as late May or early June. With such an enormous project in hand the final touches of the designs and doucments of the plan are still in the process of being matched up with the foot print of the new arena site at downtown plaza.

The city proposed $225 million subsidy is being detailed under the watchful eye of the Kings ownership and city officials as they’re looking at everything from the windows of the arena to the planned entertainment grounds and surrounding areas outside of the building. The Kings have assured the city council that the delay will not disrupt the October 2016 finish date.

“The definitive agreements are in the last stages of completion and will be finalized soon” the city said. The contract requirement is $1 million and had to be completed according to the city ten days in advance of the crucial May 13 city council vote and the agreement was not ready yet because the Kings were still working on some details of the agreement.

“There are a lot of documents, a lot of comprehensive documents, they all have to work together. It’s going to take a little more time.” said Sacramento Assistant Manager John Dangberg. Kings president Chris Granger said the deal is about 99.9 percent done. The Kings will be contributing $222 million and the City is in for $255 for a total of $477 million on the project.

Jerry Feitelberg is covering the arena developments for the Sacramento Kings and Golden State Warriors for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Larry Leavitt on the Stanley Cup playoffs: Will Sharks be looking at coaching and player changes;plus a look at the Stanley Cup Playoffs

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by Larry Leavitt

I’m not as much shocked that the San Jose Sharks were eliminated in that the Los Angeles Kings came back and won it and they are an extremely good team. The Kings are strong and powerful and they’re well coached. I’m more shocked that the Sharks didn’t give them a better fight when they had them up 3-0. That just amazes me how they could not finish this off.

As far as changes in coaching or player personnel what history shows us the Sharks organization always takes its time to disect what is happening in the past. They very metodically go through top to bottom, there is no stone unturned everybody will have a talk with the general manager Doug Wilson and the coaches and eventually Wilson will have to give his reccomendations to the ownership.

The owners have a right to override it or do whatever they want, the question will start with Wilson whether they want him to stay or do they go down to the coaches or do they go down to the players? There will have to be some change and for the players, it looks like head coach Todd McClellan will still be there.

Unless there is a coach who is available from another team and if the Sharks like that coach much better, we’ll just have to wait and see time will tell.

Minnesota vs. Chicago playoff preview: The Blackhawks are the dominate team and everyone expects them to roll through this and Minnesota has really been making a good series out of this. If you compare this to the Sharks-Kings series can Chicago come back and make it past the Wild in a seven game series anything can happen.

New York Rangers vs. Pittsburgh: Both of these teams have that hot and cold streak in them and right now it’s just who’s riding the hot hand, the Rangers are doing really well. The Penguins you can’t count them out with Syd Crosby this should go seven games and this will be a back and forth series.They really match each other up very well.

Montreal vs. Boston: The Canadiens after sweeping to get into the second round has had time to get ready for this second round series with the Bruins. The Habs have had a lot of time to watch the Bruins struggle and get into this series and what’s not to like about both of these teams going into this head to head.

Montreal has a lot of pressure in this series, there the only Canadian team in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and the toal country is behind them pushing and they have a lot of pressure from the country to do well. On the other hand Boston their always there, their a tough team the Bruins are well rounded they have four good lines and they push hard.

Anaheim vs. Los Angeles: The Southland can be very proud of both of their teams getting to the second round and facing each other. The interesting part of this is both of these clubs they played in the Winter Classic at Dodger Stadium this year and they played each other very hard this year.

This will be about bragging rights who is going to win this series? I don’t know how to pick the winner on this one and I don’t want either one of them to win but kind of proud that California has two great teams in the race still. This is going to be a tough series, I’ll give the edge to the Kings believe it or not even though their the lower seed and they just keep battling back and the toughness they showed in coming back from behind down 3-0 against San Jose to win it.

Larry Leavitt will be doing commentary throughout the Stanley Cup playoffs for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Warriors Playoff commentary: Clippers owner most likely will litigate lifetime ban

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by David Zizmor

LOS ANGELES–It’s most likely the NBA owners will vote to have Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling banned for the league for life and force him to sell the franchise. There is no question about that, Sterling he got caught red handed and there’s not much he could do about it.

Even in some of the statements from the last week he knows that he’s been caught, the most recent comment from Sterling was that he wished that he paid the woman (V.Stiviano) off. No one knows whether that means she was trying to black mail him with the recordings of him that she released.

Sterling is not denying what was in those recordings he’s admitting everyting that was said all those racist comments were his and that he essentially believed them and he hasn’t made any excuses about them. This is the thing Sterling has been a lousy owner for three decades, the racism is part of it also he’s been charged in the past with sexism.

Then there’s him being a bad owner it’s not him just being sexist, racist, he’s just an awful owner and an awful person by all accounts. This is a guy who when the Clippers season would end in early April every year because they never made the playoffs would fire his entire front office sales staff because he didn’t want to pay them for the four or five months until October until the season started again.

Sterling didn’t care that they needed to make ends meet, that they needed to pay their bills and the Clippers should have had people selling themselves to help make money for the team. This is a bad business practice that turned stupid. Were talking aobut a person who doesn’t care about other people beyond himself.

There was another story that another employee in the Clippers front office was suffering from cancer and needed a serious operation to get it taken care of except Sterling didn’t offer a health care plan and this man’s cancer treatment was not covered by whatever Sterling was offering.

Further Sterling wouldn’t give him anything so he could be treated and fortunately the players on the Clippers were quite generous and chipped in about $120,000 for this man to get his cancer treatment. This is Sterling people, this is a guy who wouldn’t even help one of his employees get treated for cancer. Ironically Sterling said he had prostate cancer himself this past week.

Daivd Zizmor covers the NBA for Sportsralk radio

Straily And Relievers Have A Night To Forget, A’s Lose 7-1

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By Kahlil Najar

BOSTON – Tonight was a night that the A’s pitching staff wishes they could forget. Dan Straily (1-2) threw more balls than strikes and the A’s relieving crew of Otero, Cook and Pomeranz gave up five runs in the last four innings including a grand slam to give Boston a 7-1 victory over the Athletics.

The A’s gave up two runs in the bottom of the second with a single from A.J. Pierzynski who was able to score Grady Sizemore and Jackie Bradley Jr. who hit a double to drive home Pierzynski. The A’s were able to get on the board in the third when Clay Buchholz threw a wild pitch and John Jaso was able to score from third.

The big hurt came in the bottom of the sixth when Dustin Pedroia hit a grand slam over the Green Monster and give the Red Sox a 6-1 lead. Pedroia now joins Carl Yastrzemski as the only players to hit 100 home runs and steal 100 bases in a Red Sox uniform. Mike Napoli added one more run in the bottom of the eighth when he singled home Shane Victorino and made it a 7-1 final.

On the A’s leaving 21 men on base Head Coach Bob Melvin said, “We hit some balls hard. We hit a lot of balls hard, actually — right at people and then didn’t get some hits when we did have some guys on base.”

For his pitching performance Straily said “I felt like every single time, every batter I was behind 2-0. That’s just not the way to pitch. It’s just a frustrating day.”

Boston and Oakland head back out tomorrow afternoon as Boston sends LHP Jon Lester (2-4) against Tommy Milone (0-2).

 

Morse and Pagan help Lincecum in win

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By Jeremy Kahn

Michael Morse and Angel Pagan helped get the San Francisco Giants 10-game road trip off to a great start with two swings of the bat.

Pagan led off the game for the second time this week with a home run, and Morse added a solo blast to the opposite field in the top of the sixth inning and the Giants defeated the Atlanta Braves 2-1 at Turner Field.

With the victory, the Giants have won seven out of their last eight and increase their lead in the National League West to two games over the Los Angeles Dodgers, who lost to the Miami Marlins at Marlins Ballpark by the final score of 6-3.

Tim Lincecum won his second game of the season, as he went six innings, allowing one run on three walks and striking out four.

The win by the Giants spoiled the season debut of Mike Minor, who missed the first month of the season with tendinitis in his left (pitching) shoulder.

Minor allowed both home runs to Morse and Pagan, gave up seven hits, did not walk a batter and struck out four in six innings of work.

Lincecum gave up his only run of the game in the bottom of the fifth inning after he walked Gerald Laird, went to second on a Jason Heyward single and then scored on a Freddie Freeman RBI single.

Once again, it was the Giants bullpen that huge in the end, as Jeremy Affeldt, Santiago Casilla and Sergio Romo closed out the victory and continued to lead the majors in earned run average with a 1.98 ERA.

Casilla was able to get Chris Johnson to strikeout to end the seventh inning with runners on first and second base, and then retired the Braves in order to end the eighth.

Romo came on in the bottom of the ninth, as he got Evan Gattis and Heyward on groundouts to start the inning, but then B.J. Upton singled and Freddie Freeman walked.

However Romo was able to get out of the jam, as he struck out Justin Upton looking to end the game and pickup his eighth save in as many opportunities this season.

Michael Duca on A’s and Giants: Chavez turning out to be key for A’s rotation:Panda’s agent and Giants not talking entering May at .177

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by Michael Duca

The A’s who open up a three game set on Friday night in Fenway Park in Boston are coming off a very successful two city trip after splitting a four game series in Houston and sweeping the Rangers in Arlington.

One of the keys to the A’s success during their five wins out of seven games on this last part of this trip is surprising pitcher Jesse Chavez. Chavez on Wednesday threw a one hit shutout in seven innings of work against the Rangers, the win helped the A’s sweep the Rangers.

Chavez at the beginning of the year was no where near what A’s General Manager Billy Beane or A’s manager Bob Melvin would expect out of his right hander as Chavez came to the A’s with a career 5.48 ERA in 234 2/3 innings which he accomplished over 191 games.

After both pitchers on Oakland’s staff A.J.Griffin and Jarrod Parker both were lost to Tommy John surgery for the season Chavez has stepped up and in his last six starts he’s been 1.89 ERA with the best record on the team in strikeouts at 9.7. He’s averaging 5.1 strikeouts versus walks.

The A’s are also complimented by Sonny Gray (ERA 1.76) and Scott Kazmir (ERA 2.11). The A’s offense against Ranger starters Yu Darvish, Martin Perez, and Robbie Ross had rocketed 22 runs in 11 1/3 innings against.

Giants update, Panda struggling to meet the standard: Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval’s asking price to the Giants is $90 million for five years worth of work which works out to what teammate Hunter Pence is getting.

Sandoval has been told by the team that he must reach a certain plateau on the stat sheet before the Giants would consider paying such a contract. Sandoval’s agent has said that negotiating a new contract now would be in the Giants best interest and that the Panda is worth the investment.

Giants General Manager Brian Sabean and Giants Manager Bruce Bochy disagree and have said that there are certain things that Sandoval needs to do in order to get what he wants, hit for average around the high .290s into the .300s, his run production and RBI production must be in the upper tier of the Giants pack.

Also Sandoval’s fielding must be top standard, errors down and put outs up. So far Sandoval has a lot of work in front of him as he’s hitting well under .200 at .177 entering Friday night’s action at Turner Field against the Braves with 11 runs, six RBIs and two homers.

While the goal standard Pence is hitting .262 with 18 runs, nine RBIs, and two home runs. While those might not be exactly Babe Ruth numbers Sandoval needs to match or pass those to keep his pace and case so at the end of the year he might be able to get what he wants.

As far as Gustavo Vazquez Sandoval’s agent is concern the Giants and Vazquez are at a standstill and are not discussing Sandoval’s contract, Sandoval is seeking upwards to $100 million for five years, he’s 27 years old and will be 32 at the end of such a deal, Sandoval has been an All-Star twice, carries high notoriety with the fans and selling of Panda merchandise.

He’s not in the best shape but trying to get a tad leaner he’s struggling at the plate and some say he might be pressing under the circumstances of trying to make the grade in a contract year.

Michael Duca does Giants and A’s commentary each week for Sportstalk