Playoff Bound Oklahoma Barely Gets By Golden State. Thunder 115- Warriors 114 in OT.

 

What’s up sports fans? In a game that was obvious, it was anything but obvious. This is a game everybody pretty much knew that the Oklahoma City Thunder would drag the Golden State Warriors. Instead it was a game that Oklahoma barely got out of it alive. The Thunder’s leading scorer Kevin Durant averaging 28pts per game, and with Russell Westbrook averaging 22pts. a game this team is without a shadow of a doubt going to the playoffs, the fact that they will probably hold the number 3 or 4 seed the playoffs this game should’ve been decided by the middle of the fourth quarter. The problem is Oklahoma had too much Steph Curry to deal with, but Oklahoma has the NBA’s leading scorer in Kevin Durant, and Westbrook and Durant are NBA All-Stars.

Put that all to the side, this is how the game ultimately went. Both teams traded baskets for most of the first quarter until the second quarter and the Thunder just pulled away. At this point Oklahoma thought they could just relax, uh, uh, sorry,  it’s not that simple. The Warriors went off of a tear of their own. Steph Curry tore right into the Thunder by hitting 35 pts., 5 rebounds, and 5 assists. “Sometimes good players may struggle the whole game and they have an ability to lock in late,” Smart said. “We thought we got the right matchup.” Oklahoma was in command primarily because their scorer Kevin Durant fired off 39pts., 6 rebounds and 5 assists. Russell Westbrook had a less than stellar night for him with only 15pts.  and 8 rebounds. “Russell’s a big-time scorer and we wanted to get him something driving to the basket, which is his strength. We knew they were going to call a foul if he drives so hard and tried to score,” Durant said.

“It was good for either person. I could have posted up at the free-throw line and tried to get a shot or Russell could have took it to the rim.”The Thunder did get good help from Serge Ibaka with 19pts. and 8 rebounds and Kendrick Perkins who chipped in 13 rebounds. James Harden also contributed with 14pts., which adds up as to why Oklahoma stayed competitive throughout the game. During the second half that’s when the game began to reveal itself, because even though Oklahoma on paper was the better team, after watching the game I feel that Golden State played better. Anytime your in a game and you have to anxiously search for a way to win the game that means you are being out played. In the end Oklahoma had to find a way to win this game.

Golden State rallied from a 14pts deficit to cut the lead to two, and eventually they took the lead, only to watch it go back to the Thunder and they moved ahead by 10pts.,  “It is not the way we wanted to execute down the stretch, but we did get the win and I give our guys credit for staying together and hanging in there,” Brooks said. David Lee finished with 24pts. and 15 rebounds another double double night for him. Both teams were evenly matched throughout the game, but the game changer was in overtime. It appeared that Oklahoma City would get the win, but two huge three point shots from Reggie Williams off the right wing and Monta Ellis who finished with 20pts. and 11 assists tied the game with just 6:9 seconds left in the game. Kevin Durant had a last chance to hit a jumper to win the game but missed which sent the game to overtime. Keith Smart sent in a 2-3 zone that really shut down Oklahoma which was another reason the game went into overtime.

Oklahoma couldn’t hit a shot. Coming out of the huddle in overtime, you could see the look on Kevin Durant’s face and he shook his head as if to say, “No I can’t believe were in overtime.” Tha’ts when Oklahoma started trying to find a way to win the game. They even exploited a foul from Steph Curry to get to the free throw line. I say exploit because what is evident about Golden State and everyone in the league knows this Golden State gets more bad calls than any other team in the NBA. The officials will call something against the Warriors before they call it against opposing teams. “That shouldn’t be a call because defensive players, you’re trying to tell your guys to get up on a good player,” Smart said. “If the player’s going to bait you into a foul — and I understand it’s a rule, so there’s nothing we can do about it — but … who has the right to the space? We’ve got to come to a conclusion.”

Kevin Durant himself even stated that whether or not it is fair is in question but until the league changes its stand on the call he would use it. “They’ve said it’s a legal play, so I’m going to keep doing it until they tell me I can’t,” said Durant. “That’s when I’ll stop.” It lead to Durant’s free throw which gave the Thunder the lead. With seconds left in overtime Monta had one more chance to get the win, but the shot rimmed out and Oklahoma got the 115-114 victory. “If you go back and look at last shots I have taken this season, you will notice that I took all of them the same way, even the one tonight,” Ellis said. “It just did not go down.”  Tough loss for the Warriors, one thing for sure Oklahoma can’t say they ran away with this one, or can they? Tell me what you think. Remember folks it’s ALLBAYAREASPORTS.COM Bay Area Sports Magnified!

World Champion Giants Start Season On A Sour Note Lose To The Dodgers. Los Angeles 2- San Francisco 1

What’s up sports fans? Well we’ve had our revelry, we’ve had our parade, and we’ve sent a message to all the teams in the east, and that message is that don’t count on you championship before it’s had. Now comes the ugly part, being able to answer the critics. San Francisco was riding high on their 2010 championship season until the 2011-12 season began. It began with a shutdown of our hitters. That shutdown was us getting laid to rest by the Los Angeles Dodgers pitching staff. The Dodgers Clayton Kershaw kept us at by for 7 innings and struck out 9 batters, and Buster Posey tried to throw out Matt Kemp, and that errant throw is what gave the Dodgers the winning run.

It also gave new Dodger manager Don Mattingly the first opening day win since Lou Pinella did it in 1986 with the Yankees. “It feels good. You’re not going to get too giddy,” he said, a book entitled “Wisdom” by UCLA coaching legend John Wooden sitting on his desk. But we in the San Francisco Bay Area aren’t mad about what happened. It’s what this game is all about. The ups and the downs, as a matter of fact it’s the message we sent to the rest of the league last year. See San Francisco fans were used to that “Torture Season”. Always getting close but never getting the win. So we Giant fans can handle win our guys lose a game or two, we know that the 2010 “Torture Season” crew will be giving everything they have every game, day in and day out.

Tim Lincecum after 7 innings  gave up a run after 5 hits and walked three. It’s to be expected, Timmy’s human, and he still pitched a good game, “I felt like I had a good rhythm going,” he said. “Other than that, it was just location more than anything that kind of hurt me. But I was able to iron that out and stayed consistent.” I’m sure once the buzz around the league hit places like New York and Boston that they were happy, Why? Because you know what the statement was, “Giants lossed to their cross state rivals the Dodgers.” I think the Posey throw was a good baseball decision, I’m not sure on the information decision, “I just thought, especially with the ball in the dirt, I might have had a chance of catching him there with his head down. I wouldn’t have thrown it if I didn’t think he was (too far off the bag),” Posey said. “His body blocked Pablo off from it. It was an instinctual play, and I just didn’t execute it.”

See that’s what I’m talking about, I think if he could’ve seen how he was standing next to Sandoval he would’ve probably not thrown the ball. The Dodgers got on base with a grounder from James Loney which Miguel Tejada tried to force and allowed Matt Kemp to take third base. Dodgers also replaced Russell Martin as catcher with Rod Barajas. Barajas liked Kershaws mechanics toward the game, “Clayton is special. He’s got a gift,” Barajas said. “He just continues to develop and gets better every time he goes out there. He makes a couple bad pitches and he’s able to stay at the same level.” L.A. have close Jonathan Broxton who was a closer for them in the past, and he seemed to be comfortable in that role for L.A. until Pat Burrell hit a homer in the ninth inning.

It didn’t keep him off his game he continued to pitch well until the game was put away,  “It’s better than a walk. You never want to walk anybody,” Broxton said about the homer. “I felt fine. Last year is last year. I ain’t going to talk about it.” It’s okay L.A. beat us this time It’s not like we haven’t had that happed before. We’re the World Champs. The rest of the league is trying to catch us, so we are going to lose some games. The main thing is that we stay in constant contention, and defend our title. Do you think we can do it? Tell me what you think? Rember folks it’s ALLBAYAREASPORTS.COM Bay Area Sports Magnified!

Dustin Brown Shootout Goal Brings San Jose Back Down To Earth. Kings 4- Sharks 3

 

 

What’s up sports fans? Well you know what they say, ” You can eat all the cake.” Actually I don’t think they say that. San Jose losses to the L.A. Kings 4-3 in a shootout in the fifth round by the Kings captain Dustin Brown. With the playoffs looming nearby the Sharks let one get by them that allowed the Kings to stay tied with the Nashville Predators and be just 5pts. behind San Jose. Each game is crucial for San Jose now because of the point differential. The Sharks don’t want any teams getting playoff availability simply because of them losing to teams that are in contention for a playoff spot. Dustin Brown of the Kings is one of those players that can smell playoff redemption with each win, “It’s nice to score some goals for this team,” Brown said. “That’s the spark we needed on the power play. But we need to tighten up defensively. There’s no way we can give up that goal to them. Those are the type of plays that’ll come back to haunt you.”

But we have to keep things real for a moment. After all there’s no need to panic, but for die hard Shark fans it does bring a little worry to them. See Shark fans know this situation all too much.  They remember the many times this franchise went to the playoffs smelled the Stanley Cup and watched another team come and take it away. L.A. Kings coach Terry Murray enjoyed the win, “I’m not disappointed and I’m not surprised that stuff like that happens,”  said Murray. “I’m watching games in this league right now, and it is incredible what has been happening late in games. We would love to have it shut down when you have a face off with 11 seconds left. But they’ve got some very good players and got the bounce that they needed.” Joe Pavelski put the puck through the net which allowed San Jose to move into a tie with the Detroit Red Wings for second place because of the consolation point during the loss.  L. A. Kings defenseman Willie Mitchell scored and 2 assists were supplied by Alex Martinez.

The Kings goalie stopped 25 attempts by the Sharks on 28 shots which helped the Kings seal the win, and this is back to what I had blogged before concerning previous Shark games, and that is that this game is a clear cut example that just because you shoot more doesn’t necessarily mean you win more games, but it gives you a better opportunity. We out shot the Kings and still lossed.  Patrick Marleau had another sensational game during a difficult loss. He scored twice, which was nice to look at because he’s been one of their go to guys all season. “Patty’s really played well lately and he’s scored big goals for our team,” coach Todd McLellan said. “I thought that even from the beginning of the game, he showed up to play. But I thought we were missing some players early. You can’t win at this time of the year with only 12 or 13, and the rest only watching or gliding along.”

The problem was L.A.’s captain Dustin Brown also scored two goals, one of them during a crucial and pivotal time of the game, during a shoot out that would decide the game. This is definitely one San Jose would have liked to get back, the reason is because of the division race. It was also significant in the fact that before this game the Sharks ruled Los Angeles on the power-play. Against the Sharks on the power-play the Kings were 0-10 this season, until Dustin Brown tied the game with just a 1:17 seconds in the second quarter.

Kings goalie Quick, even though they got the win still wasn’t totally satisfied with the outcome, “That’s the one disappointing thing about this game—we had a lead with 11 seconds left and they got a point out of it,” goalie Jonathan Quick  said. “We want to win this division. We know we’re capable of doing it, and it’s unfortunate that they got a point out of it. But the good thing is we got two out of it.” Whether we like it or not we have to brunt the loss and hope the Sharks can go back to their winning ways in Phoenix against the Coyotes, or will they? Tell me what you think. Remember folks it’s ALLBAYAREASPORTS.COM Bay Area Sports Magnified!