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By Tony Renteria

Sacramento CA:  The Sacramento Kings (23-44) had just come off the second the longest road in the history of Sacramento era and were looking to get some home cooking by taking on the Washington Wizards (35-31) and got that with a dramatic overtime win of 117-110

DeMarcus Cousins who missed last game due to a knee injury was looking forward to getting back into the flow but was hurt by early foul trouble but came alive in the fourth quarter with 24 points and 14 rebounds.    Rudy Gay and Isaiah Thomas also added in 24 points as well.   This well balanced attacked has seemed to gel since the trade for Gay.

The Wizards who had two scorers with 19 points in Marcin Gortat and Bradley Beal

The Kings host the San Antonio Spurs on Friday while the Wizards continue the west coast trip by heading up north to take on the Portland Trailblazers.

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.

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

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

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

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)

By Daniel Dullum

Sports Radio Service

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Stanford jumped on Arizona State early and never let up as the Cardinal upended the No. 3-seed Sun Devils 79-58 in the quarterfinal round of the Pac-12 men’s basketball tournament in Las Vegas, Nev.

The win doesn’t guarantee that Stanford will be selected to the NCAA tournament field, but was a huge step in that direction. It was the Cardinal’s second win over Arizona State in three meetings this season.

The Cardinal built a 10-point lead early –helped by ASU missing its first seven shots – eventually holding a 30-27 halftime advantage. Stanford meets No. 2-seed UCLA in Friday’s semifinals.

Stanford (21-11) hit six of its first eight shots to open the second half while holding the Sun Devils without a field goal for over 4 minutes. A 3-pointer by John Gage stretched the Cardinal’s lead to 45-34.

ASU (21-11), which got off to a sluggish start, tried to battled back with a couple of second-half runs, but the Cardinal responded by hitting 17 of 24 floor shots to stretch its lead.

Chasson Randle led the Cardinal with 21 points, followed by Dwight Powell with 15 as Stanford shot 54 percent from the floor. John Huestis pulled down seven of the Cardinal’s 30 boards.

Jonathan Gilling scored 13 points to lead the Sun Devils in their most lopsided loss of the season. Bo Barnes added 12 points, and point guard Jahii Carson was held to 10 points on 4-of-13 shooting.

By Jeremy Harness

 

It wasn’t a huge blowout like the game played earlier this season at Maples Pavilion, but the Stanford basketball team is still moving on in the Pac-12 tournament nonetheless.

 

The Cardinal began their push to attempt to get into the NCAA Tournament Wednesday night, as they used a big second half to ward off Washington State, 74-63, at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas.

 

Even though the score a little tighter than when these two teams last met, but the script was pretty much the same. Stanford had much more balanced scoring than did the Cougars, who again mainly relied on two players to keep them close.

 

For Stanford, Chasson Randle led with 22 points while Dwight Powell chipped in with 16. Meanwhile, Anthony Brown and Josh Huestis each added 12 points to help the Cardinal move to the second round, during which they will face Arizona State Thursday night.

 

DaVonte’ Lacy led all scorers with 25 for Washington State, while D.J Shelton had 15 points while pulling down 11 rebounds.

 

Both teams started each half shooting the ball very well, but the difference was that Stanford was able to sustain the attack while the Cougars were not.

 

The Cardinal split their season series with Arizona State, winning at Maples Pavilion while faltering when they made their annual trip to Arizona two weeks ago.

 

Obviously, the work isn’t close to being done for the Cardinal. Having lost three of their last four games of the regular season, they need to make a big run in the Pac-12 tournament to get a serious look at an NCAA berth.

 

If Stanford beats Arizona State Thursday night, the No. 3 seed would likely draw No. 2 UCLA, a team that they have also beaten at Maples this season before they have a chance of a rematch with Arizona in the tournament final.