LeBron wills a Win

Photo via ESPN.com

It was another legacy making night for LeBron James. He racked up another triple-double for his postseason career, as well as getting the 95-93 OT win over the Golden State Warriors. The series is now knotted up at 1-1 and headed to Cleveland, where we are all sure the fans will be rocking the Quicken Loans Arena. 

James had a game high 39 points, to go with 16 rebounds, 11 assists, 1 steal and 1 block. Overall, just an unbelievable artsy of basketball. LeBron has dominated both games and inflicts is will on the Golden State defense and keeps taking what they give him and trying to create the rest with his remaining healthy teammates. The only other players for the Cavs to reach double digits were Timofey Mosgov with 17 points and 11 boards, and J.R. Smith who chipped in 13 points. As most people are saying, if James can carry this team of nobodies to the promised land, it could easily be one of the greatest playoff performances ever!

Photo via ESPN.com

The Warriors live and die by the jump shot. Many could be claiming that Stephen Curry is choking here in the finals, going 5-for-23 in Game 2 with only 19 points to go with 6 rebounds and 5 assists. My gut says he will have much better games on the road without feeling the pressure from his home crowd. On the flip side of that Klay Thompson lead the Warriors with 34 points on 14-for-28 shooting. This team will not go down without a fight, that's for sure. Just look at what Draymond Green did yesterday, 10 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists, 5 steals, and 4 blocks. He is without questions an defensive star.Luckily for all of us, with both games going to overtime, my wish of a 7 game series is looking more and more realistic!










Read the Game 2 review here

NBA Finals Preview

Courtesy of NBA.com via Instagram

We have quite a match-up for the NBA Finals, Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Golden State Warriors. The best player of the era, LeBron James vs the best player of the year, Stephen Curry. Both players can dominate a game in their own way. LeBron can force double teams and looks to find the open man, while Curry forces you to step a few steps farther away from the basket since you have to respect his deep shot, which then opens up the lane and other alleyways for teammates.

This is also about the coaches. This is the first time in Finals history that 2 first year head coaches are facing each other. As for how the public sees both coaches is about as different as it gets. Steve Kerr was the most wanted coach going into the off-season last year and everyone thought he was going to follow Phil Jackson to New York. Instead he took his 5 championship rings as a player, multiple years of experience in the front office and his exposure to the public as a TNT basketball color commentator. It also helped hitting a few jumpers for MJ, help make it easier to remember. Now going into the Finals, everyone has been singing his praises for molding this team and getting way more out of it then his predecessor, Mark Jackson, did.

As for David Platt on the other hand, has been fighting criticism ever since he was hired. Widely an unknown going into this year, since he coached the 2013-2014 season in Israel. Other than that, the only other way anyone knew him was from coaching the Russian national team in the 2012 London Olympics. After some bonehead coaching moves and dumb sound bites during interviews with the press, many believe he will be fired even if they win the championship.

No matter won eventually wins this series, we all I'm sure are hoping for an exciting challenge for both superstars and teams. I don't think anyone is expecting a quick series like what we got in both conference finals, but at least we all got the match-up, most of us wanted.

My prediction: Cavs in 7 games

Coverage begins at 8pm on ABC

NBA Finals Preview

Tuesday's Top 10... a day late

So I've thought long and hard today to figure out what my Top Ten Sports Rivalries would be. I always hear people talking about what the best matchups are, but never really saw a list. Even though I'm sure ESPN has done a list at some point, I just never saw it. I'm sure some of you may disagree, please do. I've consulted with others to help shape my list and have been advised to stay away from my own bias of rivalries, otherwise we would have Minnesota and Chicago teams littering the entire list.  So I hope you enjoy and debate.

TOP TEN SPORTS RIVALRIES

Honorable Mention: Any In-State Rivalry like Oregon v Oregon St., This list would have been much longer.

10. These are my favorite rivalries including my favorite teams:

• Minnesota Vikings v. Green Bay Packers
• Minnesota Twins v. Chicago White Sox
• Chicago White Sox v. Chicago Cubs
• Minnesota Wild v. Dallas Stars
• Minnesota Gophers v. Wisconsin Badgers
• Chicago Cubs v. St Louis Cardinals

9. Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs. USC Trojans Football

8. Los Angles Dodgers v. San Francisco Giants Baseball

7. Celtic v. Rangers Football (Soccer)

6. Army v. Navy Football

5. Los Angles Lakers v. Boston Celtics

4. Tom Brady v. Peyton Manning

3. Michigan Wolverines v. Ohio State Buckeyes Football

2. Duke Blue Devils v. North Carolina Tar Heels Basketball

1. New York Yankees v. Boston Red Sox

*NOTE* - I did not watch every one of these, sorry if they aren't the best quality.

March Madness

As we enter Day 2 of the NCAA Tournament, we are all staring at the TV or our brackets. We all hold our breath and watch for 2 weeks, the 19-20 years battle each other for that "One Shining Moment". One of the most exciting 48 hours of basketball with all the Cinderellas attempting to fit into their glass slippers.

I saw a note from ESPN, that after 4 games completed, only a little over 5% of the 11 million brackets, still had a perfect bracket. Most of that was due to Dayton's upset of Ohio St.



I feel as if I have the same Final Four as everyone, which I'm hoping doesn't backfire on me. With the seeding getting such grief for how teams ended up, but I still felt as if there were 4 dominant teams in each bracket.  In most of my brackets I have Florida, Michigan St., Arizona, & Louisville with each of them winning depending on my specific bracket.

I wish everyone the best of luck in their various pools, except for anyone in one of mine. Enjoy the upcoming weekend of basketball!

Check out how my brackets are doing here:

ESPN Bracket-Jack Bauer Pool
Yahoo Billion Dollar Bracket
Yahoo Interwest Work Bracket
Jiffy Lube Challange

Super Bowl XLVIII Matchup

With the matchup all set for New York/New Jersey, we can finally start the fortnight of hype, which I feel I should contribute to. Since both teams are #1 seeds, and were favorite from the beginning, it all makes for a very compelling storyline. Seattle enter the game with the NFL's #1 ranked Defense, while Peyton and the Broncos trot in with the #1 Offense. All I keep hearing are mountains of historical stats on the networks, all that matters is that it should make for a fun football game to watch as well as all the other stuff that will be going on during Super Bowl XLVIII.



Manning's legacy rides on the outcome of possibly getting his second title and matching his brother, Eli. He's a no brainer Hall of Famer, but with Brady in this era with 3, Manning needs to get at least one more. By winning with the Broncos, Peyton would be the first quarterback
to win Super Bowls with two different teams as a starting QB





 Just playing in the game gives the Russell Wilson Brand name and lot more creditbility. It just adds more stats to stuff into his already impressive, yet short resume as a QB. His ability to keep plays alive with his feet have been one of many reasons his team makes it to this point.




I won't bore you with more number and figures, but I will leave you with my favorite note that I have come across. This is the first Super Bowl to host two teams west of the Mississippi River, since the San Francisco 49ers beat down the San Diego Chargers in Super Bowl XXIX. SF 49, SD 26

Championship Weekend Picks!

Now these past few days have been a fun football party. Seahawks and Patriots won in almost blowout fashion, each letting the teams making it interesting in the 4th quarter. The 49ers did the same in the early matchup on Sunday against the Panthers. While it looked to be same formula in the Bronco-Charger game, but Manning managed to hang on. Here are the match-ups for next weekend:

NFC Championship

San Francisco 49ers @ Seattle Seahawks

AFC Championship

New England Patriots @ Denver Broncos

My picks are for the Seahawks & Broncos to meet in 

Super Bowl XLVIII

My NFL Power Rankings

So just like the BCS rankings, I felt that I should finally release my power rankings after seeing the teams play for a few weeks, and let everyone debate my thoughts. Unfortunately I'm not going to breakdown each team like ESPN does for their Power Rankings. Here goes.

1. Denver Broncos 6-0

2. Seattle Seahawks 5-1

3. New England Patroits 5-1

4. New Orleans Saints 5-1

5. Kansas City Chiefs 6-0

6. San Francisco 49ers 4-2

7. Green Bay Packers 3-2

8. Chicago Bears 4-2

9. Indianapolis Colts 4-2

10. Detroit Lions 4-2

11. Miami Dolphins 3-2

12. Cincinnati Bengals 4-2

13. Dallas Cowboys 3-3

14. Tennessee Titans 3-3

15. Baltimore Ravens 3-3

16. New York Jets 3-3

17. Philadelphia Eagles 3-3

18. San Diego Chargers 3-3

19. St. Louis Rams 3-3

20. Cleveland Browns 3-3

21. Arizona Cardinals 3-3

22. Atlanta Falcons 1-4

23. Oakland Raiders 2-4

24. Buffalo Bills 2-4

25. Houston Texans 2-4

26. Carolina Panthers 2-3

27. Washington Redskins 1-4

28. Pittsburgh Steelers 1-4

29. Minnesota Vikings 1-4

30. New York Giants 0-6

31. Tampa Bay Buccaneers 0-5

32. Jacksonville Jaguars 0-6