Category: Sacramento Kings

by David Zizmor

San Antonio vs. Oklahoma City: The Spurs who lead the Thunder 2-1 in the series and who had handled the Thunder in the last two games. The Spurs right now are at their most dominate phase in this series. They’re really just destroying OKC so far. One of the big reasons why OKC is struggling their power forward Serge Ibaka is out with a calf injury late in the series against the Clippers and when this Western Conference series started he was moved out for remainder of the playoffs as of Sunday he is listed as day to day.

It was a huge deal because Ibaka is a very unusual power forward, meaning he’s unusual in today’s game because he’s a true power forward, he’s big bodied who can push guys around he can hang with the elite scorers like the Spurs Manu Ginobili around the perimiter. Ibaka is also good at cleaning up on the glass and he’s an excellent shot blocker.

Ibaka is a defender who you have to take care of and be mindful of and he can also score on the offensive end. There aren’t that many two way power forwards in the NBA these days. When you have one guy like him and you lose him it’s a really big deal and Ibaka was kind of a third wheel on that Thunder team.

OKC’s Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook were great on the scoring but they weren’t so fantastic on defense is concerned. Ibaka was the reverse he was a great defender and a good offensive player but he’s great on defense. Ibaka was a great part of OKC’s weaponary and when you lose one part of that trifecta its a huge deal.

Miami vs. Indiana: It’s not going to be too crazy for Indiana trying to get back into this one, Miami hasn’t been able to play lights out basketball. If you look at game three the Pacers were up 15 points and Miami had to stage kind of a serious rally to get back and then right in the middle of the fourth quarter it was getting out of hand and the Heat were able to cruise right at the end of the game.

The Pacers were in the that game until late so if the Pacers can hold on and collect some of those problems in terms of defending LeBron and getting more production out of their team players like Paul George. They’ll make a game of it, keep in mind that George got kneed in the head by the Heat’s Dwayne Wade in game two and a lot of people didn’t think he would be able to play in game three because of a concussion.

It’s entirely possible George who is far and away the Pacers best player was in a little bit of a fog, if George can recover a little bit and get his head about him and play with a little more clarity in game four the Pacers are going to be in better shape. All the other players were doing pretty well, shooting guard Lance Stephenson had a great game for the Pacers in game three.

It just kind of went all for not when LeBron took over later in the game, Indiana has proven that they can hang with this Miami team and game two was very close until the end. In game one the Pacers kind of threw the gaunlet down, Miami has another game at home and if they win it and go up 3-1 they’ll be clearly in the drivers seat.

David Zizmor is covering the NBA Playoffs for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

by Jerry Feitelberg

Proposition B the initiative to limit height restrictions at San Francisco’s Waterfront for any construction over 40 feet unless voter approved was winning with authority prior to the Golden State Warriors land purchase at Mission Bay for their new arena after forfeiting relocating to Piers 30-23 after political pressure from the Waterfront neighborhood.

Prop B was being touted by former San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos, former Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin and Prop B campaign co-chairman Jon Golinger as a shoo in winner in the June election.The tables have since turned and in an odd turn of events as recent polls suggest since the Warriors announced their move to Mission Bay that 1,000 San Franciscians surveyed and 845 who were registered to vote in the city 31 percent were in favor of the measure and 33 were against.

At the time previous to the Warriors purchase of Mission Bay, Prop B was winning at a significant margin some reportedly at almost double of the current polls at close to 60 percent. That number has tapered off now at 31 percent. The Warriors had they not have purchased Mission Bay Prop B might have passed easily.

The Warriors could have made the announcement that they would not build at Piers 30-32 and waited for the election results, if Prop B was to fail they could have had a shot at Piers 30-32. Since the Warriors did purchase Mission Bay land for their new arena voters took it as a victory and abandoned the Proposition as if it won already. Therefore a great number of voters polled previously will not be showing up to the polls in June to vote for Prop B leaving those opposed in the bigger margin.

Since purchasing Mission Bay things have definitely quieted down for Golden State as Agnos and the Waterfront neighborhood are satisfied with the Warriors Mission Bay choice. However the Warriors could have said they wouldn’t build at the Waterfront and waited for the election results to see if B would pass and then make a decision then. A SurveyUSA poll showed that Prop B was losing 29-25 percent another SurveyUSA poll showed those who said they were committed to vote would defeat Prop B 32-27 percent. The San Francisco election is on June 3rd.

Golinger said, “A lot of people think we already won, I have litterally gotten that on the phone” and so with that thought in mind voters who were going to vote in favor of B will not show up at the polls to vote in favor of the measure leaving the opposition a chance to defeat the measure.

While it’s already too late for the Warriors as they are now committed to Mission Bay, the Giants would be free to build their towering retail and condo mega village near AT&T in Parking Lot A and Forest City which owns the real estate at Pier 70 would be freed up too to build towering retail and condos and with no height limits in the way if B loses and they would be free to build the towers they wanted for that local in the Dog Patch neighborhood off third street.

The real losers in this would be the Warriors who could have had an brand new arena at Piers 30-32 just like they wanted if they waited out the election and not have had purchased the land at Mission Bay, but too late they already are committed to Mission Bay.

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

by David Zizmor

Miami vs. Indiana: The second game of this series was not pretty by any stretch of the imagination, when you look at the final score 87-83 your defintely not going to get very pretty basketball but the bottom line for Miami is that they won a game on the road in Indiana and the series is tied 1-1.

The old adage is the playoffs series doen’t start until the team wins a game on the road and Miami just did that. So were into the thick of it now, it’s 1-1 going back to Miami and the Heat are the defending champs despite Indiana having the number one seed.

This will be a tough series and what we’ve seen so far is the Pacers has kind of regained it’s mojo whatever they had at the end of last season when the started off at 40-12. The Pacers seemed to have found it again and it almost got them booted out of the playoffs while they were finding it.

Somehow in the middle of that series against Washington the Pacers rediscovered themselves and their playing really good sound basketball and they won that first game 107-96 rather handily. They had the problem that the Heat had in game one that the Pacers didn’t perform and they didn’t get any production out of their back up guys. So this could very well be a see-saw series.

Oklahoma City vs. San Antonio: The Spurs who lead the series and the Spurs did a good job in game one of asserting themselves and establishing their game. You have to figure after game one that OKC is going to go out and make a few adjustments to try and counter that.

I’m not getting a great feel from this OKC team they’ve had issues back and forth all season long in terms of their consistency and their defense and I’m not sure if they’re going to be able to hang with San Antonio over seven games without Serge Ibaka. That was the big blow to OKC and it didn’t happen in this series as Ibaka went out in the tail end of that Clippers series.

Ibaka was such a key player for them and everybody talked about Durant and Westbrook for OKC and rightfully so because their fantastic players they’re All-Stars and Durant is an MVP, Westbrook is one of the best point guards in the league.

Ibaka is a very good scorer and a fantastic defender and when you going against a team that has Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobli and Duncan who put up 20 points and ten boards you need Ibaka out there and make him work. Remember Duncan is getting the numbers but you he’s 39 years old, to have Ibaka out there it’s like in the Miami series the Pacers Paul George makes LeBron work for those points in rebounds.

David Zizmor covers the NBA Playoffs for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

by David Zizmor

San Antonio vs. Oklahoma: The Spurs have the home court advantage opeing up their first two games against the Thunder and they already took game one by a wide margin 122-105. It really wasn’t much of a battle on Monday night in San Antonio.

They outscored the Oklahoma City Thunder by 17 and the Spurs outscored the Thunder in the fourth quarter by 14 points. OKC came within striking range in the first three quarters but the Spurs pulled away and got the victory. The Spurs Tim Duncan had a very Tim Duncan like game he came out there and dropped 27 points, seven boards, 11-19.

Because San Antonio had such a nice lead late in the game Duncan only had to play 29 mintues in this one and that was even a bigger plus for them. The older guy has the impact and doesn’t even have to stick around for all 48 minutes of this because OKC didn’t even keep it close enough.

Duncan is going to be very fresh for game number two on Wednesday and it’s kind of what you expect from the Spurs, they just go about their business and get it done. They’ve been there so many times at this point it’s almost like clock work. It’s not going to be this easy in game number two on Wednesday night or the rest of the series because the Thunder are too good of a team.

Indiana vs. Miami: The Indiana Pacers victory over the Miami Heat is surprising in game number one 107-96, and we’ve been saying all along the Pacers have not been playing well for maybe half of this season. It’s one thing when you have a lousy game for a stretch of a couple of weeks, the Pacers have not been good since January 1.

The Pacers were struggling for five and half months and were almost in June at this point, The Pacers were not playing well in some five months.Then all of sudden against Washington in the last couple of games in round two they kind of seem to find their mojo again.

The Pacers Roy Hibbert came around finally and got his offensive game back and got his defensive game back and sort of made an impact and took Indiana past Washington in six games. Then they go into game number one against Miami the defending World Champs and they beat them by 11.

The Pacers were in control most of the game they took the lead in the first quarter and just carried it all the way through the Pacers made a game of it. It wasn’t a blow out by any means as the Pacers won by 11. At the same time the Pacers were never really close enough for the game to be in doubt. It’s definitely surprising lets keep in mind the Pacers are the number one seed and they have home court advantage.

The Heat are back for game two in Indiana on Tuesday night.

David Zizmor is covering the NBA for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

by Daivd Zizmor

San Antonio vs. Oklahoma: The Spurs took out the Trailblazers in the second round four games to one and that’s what was expected. The Spurs are just on another level than Portland and while the Blazers have some very good young players they’re very inexperienced in the post season and throughout NBA history these are teams that are young with freshlegs.

The Trailblazers will need some experience to find their way into the finals and the Blazers are a team that’s on the way up. Michael Jordan took three or four tries before he won his title, the Blazers have the pieces in place to be a competitive team for several years.

San Antonio is a team that has won multiple championships, they’ve been in the playoffs every year forever and their a fantastic team with players that are in the twilights of their careers their still a fantastic team. All credit to guys like Tony Parker, Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and also their great coach Gregg Poppovich whose going to be in the Hall of Fame someday.

The match up which starts on Monday night with the Oklahoma Thunder and the Spurs who are the top two teams in the west. These two teams that have met in the post season in the last couple of years has been in a big battle and it was so for OKC last season when Russell Westbrook got hurt in the playoffs.

Westbrook didn’t play against the Spurs and that was a huge loss and Westbrook is one of the best players in the league at his point guard position. Westbrook is a leader on that OKC team and to not have him against the Spurs was a big loss last year. This post season he’s healthy, he’s back and OKC should give the Spurs a great series starting Monday night.

Indiana vs. Miami: The Indiana Pacers suddenly flipped the switch and are playing very well in these playoffs after strugging in the first round against the Atlanta Hawks and in the second round they got by the Washington Wizards winning that series 4-2.

They didn’t look fantastic, they had plenty moments of weakness the big difference was the Pacers Roy Hibbert was finally playing like Roy Hibbert and he was back to scoring. The Hawks in that first round had somehow figured out a magic potion to nuetralize the Pacers and Hibbert woke up against Washington and did a fantastic job all series including scoring 11 points to help the Pacers beat the Wizard 93-80 in game six on Thursday night.

After the first game when the Wiz knocked the Pacers around 102-96 the Pacers woke up and came to life and took the series in six games. The Pacers are a team that can compete with Miami and we’ve seen them do it several times this season. We saw them do it in the conference finals last year it’s just that Indiana has been lousy for the last few months.

It’s tough to feel confident that they can hang with the Heat, the Pacers have been playing a little bit better but the Heat have had a chance to rest up after really dispatching with the Nets pretty quickly. The Heat are so good on top of being the World Champions and having the best player on the planet in LeBron James. The Heat will be prepared for Indiana and game one is scheduled for Sunday night in Indiana.

David Zizmor covers the NBA for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

OAKLAND–LeBron James said on Wednesday that he will not play next season if the LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling refuses to sell the team. It gives this story a really interesting angle as LeBron is the biggest star in the universe not only in the NBA but in all sports. I really don’t understand this and I really think they should let things go the way their going to go.

Sterling apologized in an interview with Anderson Cooper on CNN but this is headed to being litagated and Sterling’s wife whose part owner of the team is also planning to fight and will not relinquish her share of the team. This story has a lot of legs and LeBron saying he won’t play won’t help the situation. The NBA has more tapes of Sterling talking and they have more proof.

Regarding the NBA by laws and that Sterling violated a lot of them and if that’s the case he might have to sell. I have written and have spoken on the radio and said I don’t think he should be forced to sell, I don’t think a person that owns the team can be forced to sell because he’s a racist. The NBA has proof of what he said and that they want him out.

LeBron James doesn’t help matters by saying he’ll boycott next season but no matter Sterling is going to fight and the Clippers are a private enterprise, it’s their business and they pay their taxes and they haven’t committed any crimes and they can’t take their business away. I never heard of that, that’s not the laws of this country but again the NBA by laws might have teeth and they might know something that people don’t know.

LeBron is just reacting right now, yes everybody wants Sterling out but it may not be enough legally because everybody like you and I want him out and they might try to force him to sell and that’s another story and it’s going to the courts and it will be settled there.

Magic Johnson has had his share of air time in the Sterling controversy, and Magic says he wants to buy the Clippers. Why does Magic need to get involved with another team ? Magic knows he’s huge in L.A. and he owns a chain of Magic Theaters and he’s part owner of the Dodgers.

I don’t know what Magic needs? Does he need the limelight that much? Is his ego that big? I’m starting to worry about all these guys who want to buy the Clippers and boxer Oscar DeLaHoya wants to buy the Clippers too. This whole thing is becoming a circus.

Sterling is being ridiculized in the court of public opinon and half of this country is against him. Still isn’t that enough to make Sterling sell the team? We’re going to have to let it play out in the court of law. Legally I don’t think they can make him sell the team in that case it would set a legal presidence.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice of Oakland A’s baseball and does News and Commentary on http://www.sportsradioservie.com