Built Ford Tough

Ed Davis >>>> Blake Griffin.

It is a joke at how few games Gillies and Martin got, though, at least as far as I am concerned. Gillies charges a guy, eblows him in the head, proceeds to pound on him while he is laying on the ice concussed and then has the audacity to start taunting him from the ramp, yet he only gets three more games than Tom Kostopolous did for his hit on Stuart? I may be way off base here, but I think he should've gotten at least 15 games for that absolute joke of an act that he put on. As far as Martin, how does that sucker punch only get him 4 games? It was nearly identical to the Bertuzzi one on Moore (both players looking for revenge, both coming up from behind/beside the guy and suckering them) and he only gets 4 games? Who cares if Talbot wasn't injured or not, he definitely should've gotten a hell of a lot more than 4 games for that. Colin Campbell and the NHL's Disciplinary Board (or whatever they are called) proving once again how incompetent they are.

Only Calderon can make Baron Davis look like an efficient offensive player. PS: Any particular reason why the D-League scrub is playing instead of Bayless? I'm getting really sick of Triano [expletive]ing Bayless around so much. Guy goes out and scores 20 points in the 4th last night and now he is benched for a 10-day contract scrub. at DeAndre Jordan airballing a free throw. That is the 2nd time he has done that against the Raptors in his short career.

Just got home from work to see Ed Davis going to work in the post! Granted it was only against Baron Davis, but lets just ignore that for a second.

Who thinks that Bosh is a superstar? The highest praise he has ever gotten on OTR, at least from during the time that I have been here, was that he is a borderline top 3 power forward in the game. I just don't understand how a guy can be overrated when nobody even praises his game. The only time people even mention him is to point out his flaws and to say just how overrated he is. Hell, a lot of people are saying that he is barely a top 7 power foward anymore and are saying that LaMarcus Aldridge is better than him. If anything, Bosh has become underrated since joining the Heat, but he gets [expletive] on so much because he is an easy target and players/former players don't have the balls to call out somebody like LeBron or Wade because of their names.

Funny, when I hear that phrase the first thing to come to mind is this: http://www.bigmoeproductions.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/2nkigc9.jpg.gif

First round was pretty even. I gave it to Fedor, as well as two of the judges. However, the 2nd round was a huge mismatch. Silva took him down in the first 5 seconds of the round, had him mounted for a good 2-3 minutes (had Fedor's back during this time as well as Fedor tried to scramble out) and you could argue that the fight could've been stopped a couple of times, but with it being Fedor, he was given every opportunity to survive, which he did. The round was a definite 10-8 in my opinion, although I think only one judge scored it like that. Then once the round finished he went to his corner and his right eye was completely jacked up. His nose was bleeding from earlier in the fight, he had a decent cut over his right eye and that eye was also swollen completely shut. It looked worse than Koscheck's eye against GSP. Here is a picture of his eye, although it doesn't do it justice: http://a323.yahoofs.com/ymg/ept_sports_mma_experts__28/ept_sports_mma_experts-606074330-1297573337.jpg?ymZnPjEDVZJpsbbv

Even though there aren't many MMA fans on here, this is a big enough deal that it deserves its own thread. We may have just seen the greatest MMA fighter in history for the very last time tonight. Say what you want about him not going to the UFC or whatever, the man is a legend of the sport and if he does retire after this fight, it is a shame that we had to see him go out like this.

He got caught by Werdum, but he was absolutely dominated in this fight. I don't know if he is out of his prime per say, but he just can't overcome the ridiculous size disadvantage that he faces every night. Like I posted above, it is pretty [expletive]ing hard to beat a guy who is 5 inches taller, about 40-50 pounds heaver and has nearly three quarters of a foot reach advantage. I don't care how good a guy is, those are just ridiculous odds to overcome. I'm kind of glad that he lost to Silva tonight, though. If he managed to pull something out of his [expletive] in the 3rd round (had there been one) and get a win, I think that Overeem might've legitimately killed the guy when they fought. If Silva was able to dominate him like this, Ubereem would've killed the guy.

Silva wins by Referee stoppage. Fedor's eye is completely [expletive]ed!

As much as I hate to say it, Arlovski needs to retire. He has absolutely no chin at this point in his career (not that having a Rampage-esque chin would've helped him take those bombs from Sergei) and that makes it 4 fights in a row where he has been knocked out cold. He still has the talent to be a top 10 heavyweight, but he just doesn't have the chin to withstand any sort of punch anymore. He needs to retire before he suffers some sort of permanent damage. EDIT: Lol at how much size Fedor is giving up in this fight. He is about 5 inches shorter, 34 pounds lighter (probably more considering Silva weighed in at 264. I'd bet he is a lot more than that now) and has a reach of 8.5 less inches than Bigfoot. It just goes to show how insane it is that he is the best heavyweight in MMA history considering he is smaller than a lot of light heavyweights.

Calderon comes back into the game with about 4 minutes left and the Raptors up by 4. WIth just over a minute left, the Raptors are down by 6 and Andre Miller has scored 5 or 6 points in the last 2 minutes.

Couldn't really tell you, unfortunately. I have a class from 5PM-6:30PM Monday-Thursday and I usually work from 2:30-10:30 on Friday's and Saturdays, which has greatly reduced the amount of Raptor games I've been able to watch. This is the first full game I've watched for a long time. From what I have seen from him he has been pretty brutal, though. He has had a few nice games since coming back from that back/hip injury but for the most part he seems to be really struggling with his offense and his defense has been bad all year long. I don't really think that he is a guy that you shoudl expect much from a fantasy perspective. He has been a pretty big disappointment this season, at least from my perspective. Aldridge has really put the Blazers on his back over the past few minutes. He seemed to score about 8 straight points for Portland. And if you ever want an example of how bad Calderon is at defense, just show them a clip of the last play. How the [expletive] do you let Andre Miller blow by you one-on-one like that?

Wow, Portland has a 4-1 and Fernandez throws the ball out of bounds. And Bayless hits another 3. That is 4 3's in the quarter for Bayless. Guy is lighting it up and loving every minute of torching his old team. He is pretty much the reason why the Raptors have a 5 point lead right now. Not good for the tank, but I'm loving watching him play right now. Between him, DeRozan and Davis, this game has actually been enjoyable to watch.

McMillian complains wayyyy too much. It is about time that he got T'd up. I don't even undrestand what he is crying about considering the officiating has been fantastic tonight. They have let both teams play and aren't calling the ticky-tack calls. If anything, you could say that Portland has been on the better end of the officiating, but I think it has been even. Great block by Dorsey. Even better was the fact that he absolutely floored Mathews in the process of blocking his shot into the 5th row. Bayless is loving playing his old team. 2 big threes in this quarter and both times he has talked [expletive] to the Blazers bench immediately after hitting them.

This Aldirdge/Bargnani matchup has actually been pretty fun to watch. Both of them have had fairly solid games and whenever they are matched up together, they both seem to really want to one up the other.

I can understand why somebody would think that Love is overrated. I posted this on another forum about a month or two ago, so the stats may be a bit inaccurate, but the general idea is still the same. Despite scoring 20 points a night, he doesn't exactly have that great of an offensive skill set. He isn't exactly the most efficient player in the world with 56% of his shot attempts being jumpers, which is is shooting a very mediocore 43 eFG% on. He doesn't really finish all that well inside either, at least compared to the best bigs in the league, as he has an eFG% of 57% on Inside shots (guys like Bosh, Amare, Griffin are all in the mid to high 60's). This can be attributed to his lack of height, length and athleticism (which is also why 10% of his shots are blocked). A lot of his points come from put backs and open jumpers off of the pick and pop (which isn't a slight because those are two things he does really well). He isn't really effective when he is forced to manufacture his own offense as he doesn't have the ability to take his man off of the bounce and isn't a huge threat on the low block (again, partly due to his lack of size, length and athleticism). He does a very nice job of reading the defense, setting picks, cutting and finding the open man, though, which definitely need to be considered when talking about somebodies offensive game because it isn't just all about scoring. Throwing his scoring average out of the equation (may sound strange, but bear with me) he doesn't really strike you as a real force offensively. A smart passer and high IQ player who crashes the offensive glass and has the ability to stick jumpers consistently off of pick and pops, but doesn't create well for himself and isn't the most efficient player would basically be the scouting report on his offensive game. Capable of scoring 20 if given enough shots/touches, but not somebody who you would consistently expect to dominate on that end of the floor. He is elite at one thing, good at a few others and average to below average at everying else. When people call him a franchise player, superstar etc..., I can undrestand why somebody would consider him to be overrated becase he is not one of these things.

DeRozan with 11 points on 5/6 shooting, yet he still seems like he is the 4th option on offense behind Bargnani, Calderon and Weems/Barbosa (whoever is on the floor). That is such a joke considering you can make a legit argument that he is now the best scorer on the team. Feed the guy when he is feeling it like this.

Lol, the Raptors defense is making Rudy Fernandez look like the second coming tonight. I [expletive]ing hate this team. Just trade everybody other than DeRozan, Davis, Johnson and Bayless please.

The improvement in DeRozan's mid game range from the beginning of the season to now is absolutely staggering. I haven't caught more than bits and pieces of games for what seems like the last 2 months, but he really does seem to have greatly improved that area of his game.

I know the Raptors suck and that is the reason why their record is as bad as it is, but it is pretty nuts how DeMar DeRozan is now the only Raptor player who hasn't missed a game this season, as Amir is out tonight. Kind of sucks considering he has been playing so well as of late. On the bright side, at least we get to see Davis get some nice minutes tonight, or at least hopefully.

I don't think you have to worry about GSP being too aggressive or losing his composure. Aside from Fedor, GSP is probably the most composed fighter in all of MMA. He is the master at following a gameplan to a tee. Silva can do all of his usual antics, dance around, taunt or anything like that, but I doubt it will goad GSP into doing anything stupid, like it did to Forrest Griffin or Damian Maia. I wouldn't be too worried about him getting hurt from elbows from the bottom. Silva is a lanky bastard, but GSP's top game is too good to get KO'd from elbows from the bottom or something like that. I would be more worried about Silva pulling a triangle out of his [expletive], like he tends to do from time to time (hello, Chael Sonnen). I agree with the general point that you are making, though. I can't see GSP winning this fight either. Just a bad matchup for him due to the size advantage that Silva is going to have over him (Jake Shields makes GSP look small and there is now way that he could fight at 205 like Silva does), and probably even stylistically as well.

I'm sure he will be able to take Silva down, the question is whether or not he will be able to finish Silva when he gets him down because he does not want to fight on the feet with Silva. GSP is a very good striker in his own right, but he doesn't have the KO power to catch Silva and every minute the fight in on the feet, GSP is in serious danger of getting KO'd. The one hole in Silva's game is his takedown defense, and that just happens to be GSP's bread and butter. If Sonnen was able to put Silva on his back so often in their fight, I'm sure GSP will be able to get him to the ground at least a couple of times. I just don't see him being able to get him down 5 rounds in a row before Silva catches him with some sort of flurry. I can't see GSP finishing Silva, so this would have to be a decision win and with how dangerous Silva is on the feet, and even off of his back (like he showed against Sonnen), I don't see anybody decisioning Silva to a win. There are too many opportunities for him to catch you in a 5 round fight and you better believe he will make due on one of those.

http://www.freep.com/article/20110211/SPORTS03/110211035/Pistons-retire-Rodman-s-No-10-jersey I obviously didn't see Rodman play as a member of the Pistons, but it is about time he got some recognition for being the amazing player that he was.

Wouldn't say interesting as only the main event and co-main event are worth a damn. Even the co-main event isn't anything spectacular as both fighters are past their respective primes (if would've been amazing to see when they were both at the top of their games, though). None the less, Fedor fighting always makes for an interesting card. It is going to be interesting to see how he bounces back from his first legitimate loss. Part of the reason why he was so dominant for so long was that he has this unbeatable aura around him and no matter what you did to him, he would find a way to win the fight. It was a flash submission and all, but that aura may be gone now. PS: How ridiculously stupid was the brackets that StrikeForce set up for this tournament? Arguably the 4 best fighters are all on the same side and the winner of this fight will figh the winner of Werdum/Overeem. That should be a FInals matchup. On the bright side, at least we are guaranteed to see a very intriguing matchup in the Semi-Finals. Either Fedor gets his rematch against Werdum or arguably the 2 best Heavyweights in the world will be fighting each other in Fedor/Reem.