Sixers and Celtics Game 4

Game 3 was an utter disappointment to Sixers fans all over the world, yes all ten of us. The Sixers flat-out did not show up defensively, allowing the Celts to shoot a ridiculous 50 percent from the field. While every part of me hated the fact that the Sixers got blown out at home where they were perfect so far this postseason, a little bit of me is optimistic about the blowout. The Sixers for the most part had been playing extremely poorly offensively since about game two of the Chicago series, yet they had been in every game and were finding ways to win without putting the ball in the hoop. The Sixers have the ability to score, they were doing it all year, and maybe this will serve as their wake up call. If you want to win in the playoffs, you need to play well on offense and defense night in and night out. You can’t afford to take nights off, and I think the young 76ers learned that lesson on Wednesday night. With that being said, I expect the Sixers to come out tonight strong. I think the every other day format the Celtics have been playing over the last 2 weeks will take its toll on the old timers and we could see a double-digit win for my Sixers tonight. Thad Young was the lone bright spot for the Sixers Wednesday night, and if he has truly found his game which he hasn’t been able to do since the playoffs began, and that can be a huge advantage going forward in the series. I think the Sixers bench had been their biggest advantage all season, and it had been shortened in the playoffs because quite frankly, Thad and Jodie Meeks had seemed to have checked out. Another positive for the Sixers is that realistically speaking, KG won’t hit every shot like he did the other night. I think Doug Collins can use the last games loss to inspire his team to play well tonight, which is something he has been doing all season. Look for the Sixers to play a strong first half, and to have a 3rd quarter like they had been used to all season where they come out from halftime and out-hustle and out-work the other team. Let’s see a 2-2 series heading to Boston on Monday, Sixers 87 Celtics 74.

Capitals packing it in?

It’s more than likely that John Erskine is going to suit up tonight for the Caps which will inevitably mean the Bruins have the series in the bag. I have watched this series and many other series going on right now, and it’s the least physical of all of them. Maybe the Capitals have never been hit before this season, but the hits the Bruins are putting on guys are clean and quite frankly this isn’t even the most physical they can play. We all know the rational thing to do when your down in a series is to dress your goon fighter who hasn’t played in two months to get on the ice for 8 minutes and spend 10+ in the penalty box. Sure he will probably take Lucic off the ice for baiting him into a fight but trading Backstrom for Erskine is just stupid. Game four isn’t the time or place to try and make a physical statement in the series. You had your chance the first 3 games and the best you could do was have one of your best players take a stupid match penalty at the END of the game which meant nothing. Caps you missed your chance.

Now to be completely fair, Erskine isn’t totally useless. Oh wait, wait, yes he is my mistake. Unless scoring 11 goals over your 10 year NHL career, and having 2 points in 28 games this year isn’t useless then Claude should be sending a thank you letter to Dale Hunter. And I thought Bruce Boudreau was bad in the playoffs. You know what, I like hockey fights so I won’t complain. If I was a Capitals fan however, I would be very concerned.

Hilarious Buffalo Sabres fans

So I was flipping through the channels and noticed the Sacko Bowl was on NHL Network. Buffalo scored a goal to give there playoff chances a tiny bit of hope and then this is what happened:

I am not sure what is worse. The fact that these kids were so into this game or the fact that NHL Network couldn’t find a better game to put on television. Sure Buffalo had a chance to make playoffs but they aren’t very good and Toronto just fell off the face of the planet after the first few weeks of the season. I guess that’s just Canada, eh?

Final Four Locks

Tip off is in a few minutes down in New Orleans, and I am here to the rescue to give some of you some last-minute betting help. The line for the first game which is Kentucky and Louisville is Kentucky -8.5. Excuse me what? If you had any clue you would take Louisville, and hey I would even take the money line which will make you rich. Louisville is hot, and we saw last year what hot Big East teams who won the conference could do against all odds. I like Louisville to pull this one out in a thriller. I even like Louisville to win the whole thing. They had their one scare game which was last week when they should have lost but Florida handed them the win. It’s games like that which put a season in perspective.

The second game is Ohio St. and Kansas. The line has Ohio State at 3 point favorites. I think Vegas might actually have this right. Ohio State has looked pretty solid and I am going to have to back the line and take the favorites in this one. Get your bets in and get rich and if you want you can throw some money at me for the help.