The Oklahoma City Thunder lost Game 4 for many reasons.
James Harden had no confidence on the court, Derek Fisher didn’t pass the ball on a 5-on-3 fast break, and Russell Westbrook fouled Mario Chalmers when he shouldn’t have.
But we wouldn’t be talking about any of those things if Westbrook got a fair shake from Mike Callahan, Scott Foster and Bill Kennedy.
Westbrook took 32 shots last night and had just three free throws to show for his trouble. The All-Star point guard had 14 shots in the paint but two of his three shots came off a foul on a pull up jumper.
Just look at the guy’s shot chart from last night. How does he not go to the line at least 10 times?
Full disclosure: I hate the Heat and I will be significantly happier this summer if the Thunder win three in a row and take the series.
The Miami Heat are looking so hot these days but they’re still the favorite to win the NBA title. That’s not surprising. If you want to fade the Heat on the futures board, the best way to do it might be to take the Western Conference to win the title at plus-money.
Outside of Miami, the Chicago Bulls are the only serious (sorry Boston fans) championship contenders from the East. The West’s field, however, includes the Lakers, Spurs, Thunder, Mavericks and Thunder – five teams that are good enough to win it all.
Sportsbook.com and a few other books have the West at +115 to win the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
Remember the last three champs (Mavs and Lakers twice) have come from the West, the Thunder are the second overall fave and the Grizz might be the hottest team in the league.
The Dallas Mavericks are 1-5 SU and ATS over their last six games and part of the reason for the skid, according to point guard Jason Kidd, is a lack of respect from the referees.
"We don't get the benefit of the whistle," Kidd told ESPN Dallas after losing 95-91 to the Oklahoma City Thunder. "I don't think we're looked upon as champions, but that's a whole other story. Dirk should live at the line if they would call it the way it's supposed to be. But he doesn't."
The Mavs were up by four with 2:44 to go in the fourth quarter but didn't score another point the rest of the way. The Thunder scored eight, five of which came at the charity strip. OKC 23 more free-throw attempts than Dallas, overall in the game.
I don't know. Sounds like Kidd is reaching. The Thunder like to shoot long jumpers as much as the Mavs but Westbrook, Durant and Harden all attack the rim too. Dirk doesn't. When he gets close, he still prefers to take that fall-away jumper off his back foot. The shot doesn't get blocked but it doesn't draw a lot of contact either.
The other thing that was weird was Kidd talking about being looked upon as champions by the refs. I've heard of star calls but never championship calls. Am I being naive here?
I was flicking through the channels the other day waiting for the early NBA games to start while avoiding hopping on the treadmill when I stumped onto one of my favorite childhood movies from the 80s: Commando.
It was really the first movie that I remember recording on television and watching 50 to 75 times. It had action and “Who's the Boss” star Alyssa Milano, but most of all it had Arnold Schwarzenegger kicking ass and taking names.
I threw out to my follwers on Twitter if the flick deserved to be mentioned among the best of the decade. I was of course laughed at but it got me thinking - maybe Commando, as awesome as it was for me from age 7 to 10, might not even make my all-time Arnold Top 5 movie list.
I must not be the only one watching classic Schwarzenegger films because TMZ is leading me to believe Maria Shriver isn't ready to say "hasta la vista, baby" to her hubby even though he plowed and impregnated that ugly nanny.
OK, back on topic. Here are my Top 5 favorite Arnold movies:
No. 1 - Predator
There's no questioning this flick's place in history. It's the perfect combination of sci-fi and action jammed into 107 minutes.
It's wonderfully cast with Carl Weathers, Bill Duke and Jesse "The Body" Ventura playing strong supporting roles behind Schwarz’s lead character Dutch.
The movie's success spawned a series of disappointing sequels and branch offs, the worst of which was the sequel starring Danny Glover - who as it turns out, is definitely too old for this shit.
My favorite parts of Predator mostly include Bill Duke and Carl Weathers exchanging pleasantries - "You're ghosting us motherf*&ker!" - but there's no doubt which part is the best sequence in the move. The handshake.
No. 2 - Terminator Although James Cameron does a helluva job with the sequel, I've got the original a notch above because we see Arnold in an unfamiliar role as the villain.
Seeing the Schwarz as the bad guy is pretty bad ass. The scene at the police station of him blowing apart all those cops... legendary.
No. 3 - Terminator 2 (Judgement Day)Probably a better movie than the original but Arnold isn't as nearly as recklessly violent in this one. I don't want to see The Terminator high-fiving Eddie Furlong. I wanna see him driving a car through a f$%cking police station.
That's why there's no doubt this is the best part of Terminator 2:
No. 4 - Total RecallThere's an element of cheese in this movie but really it was another beautiful action/sci-fi combo. You've got Mars, Sharon Stone in her prime and three-boobed aliens. What more could a guy want?
Oh yeah, eyes popping out!
No. 5 - CommandoWhew. You made it, Matrix. It was down to you or Eraser – an underrated Arnold move, in my opinion. I already told you all the reasons I loved Commando. I'll leave you with one of Arnold's best lines ever.
What do you guys think? Did I miss any from my list?
It could be argued that Andrew Luck, Stanford’s quarterback and the Heisman trophy favorite, is making more headlines in the NFL than college football right now.
Luck is the best quarterback prospect John Elway and it’s assumed he’s the automatic first overall pick unless you’re on some high-quality hallucinogens.
The “Suck for Luck” campaign has been well documented. After Week 7 we’ve still got three winless teams and two one-win teams.
But now we’re hearing whispers that Luck might pull a move made famous by another one-time Cardinal quarterback, John Elway, and put into practice most recently by Peyton Manning’s little brother Eli.
The “I ain’t going to your shit-bag team so don’t bother drafting me” move.
That got me thinking. Which team(s) is on the prodigy’s no-go list?
Off the three teams still seeking win No. 1, the Rams appear to be the least likely to draft Luck. Sam Bradford was drafted first overall just a year and a half ago.
That leaves the Dolphins and Colts left of the winless bunch, two franchises that don’t share much in common other than their embarrassing win-loss records this season.
Indianapolis is maybe the most stable franchise in the league. Bill Polian has been the GM since ’98, they still run Tom Moore’s offense and Tony Dungy’s defense even though both coaches left the franchise. And of course they still have Peyton.
Miami, on the other hand, has gone through coaches and front-office types and even different owners in the last decade with limited success. The Dolphins are expected to do another house cleaning this offseason, with head coach Tony Sparano likely the first to be shown the door.
Still for all Miami’s faults there are some bonuses, like Jake Long. You know, that mountain of a man who holds the fort down on the left side of the line. Some consider him the best left tackle in football and he’s only 26 years old. It’s got to be a nice feeling knowing Long’s blocking your blindside.
The young talent doesn’t stop there. DB Vontae Davis, WR Brandon Marshall and OL Mike Pouncey are all on the right side of 28.
You could even make a case that Miami has more above-average players than the Colts, thanks to two or three consecutive bad drafts by Polian.
And then of course, if you go to Miami, you’ll start right away. Indy can’t make the same type of promise. Manning is expected to be healthy – although who can say for sure – by next season and he hasn’t hinted at retiring anytime soon.
Some might say that sitting and learning from a guy like Peyton could do Luck a world of good, but who’s to say Manning would welcome a mentor role. Brett Favre didn’t with Aaron Rodgers. Manning may seem like a nice guy and a good teammate but he’s never had his status on the team threatened.
The coaching and front-office structure is in a mess in Miami, but getting Andrew Luck should create a Field of Dreams scenario. If you draft him, they will come.
Miami's the better of the two destinations in my opinion. What do you guys think?