Built Ford Tough

Could Morris get off to a worse start? Guy is definitely feeling the pressure of the must win game.

A Thunder lineup of: Fisher Cook Ivery Collison Aldrich outplayed the Kings starterss in the 4th quarter to get the win.

Kings entering tank mode. 2 turnovers 2 fouls on 3 point shooters Outscored 11-4 in the first 3 minutes of the 4th

Durant looks like the only OKC player who even wants to be on the floor in this game. Westbrook and Perkins in particular look like they would rather be anywhere other than playing ball right now. I'm not complaining since a Kings win would help the Raptors draft position.

The Clippers offense can be absolutely putrid at times. When guys like Williams, Young, Butler and Foye aren't hitting perimeter jumpers they really are a poor offensive team who become 100% reliant on Paul creating something off a pick.

Watching Thames play "defense" is probably the most entertaining part of Blue Jay games. Even the most routine fly balls have a heart pumping suspense to them. At least he hit a bomb to right today, but still.

My bad. For some reason I thought I read a comparision to the Torres hit from you. As for the hit, it wasn't late. The rule is anything after 0.5 seconds is considered late and Neil made contact within that time period. In regards to targetting the head, I can understand where you are coming from, but what should be noted is that the only reason why the head was contacted is because Boyle's head was down. Neil didn't purposely deliver a high hit or anything like that. If Boyle isn't cutting across the middle with his head down, it is a typical shoulder to chest/shoulder hit. I don't even think he made contact with the head anyways Boyle's head snapped back from the impact of his shoulder to chest. As for the Hagelin thing, I thought he got too much, but the hits aren't really comparable. Hagelin's contact was to the head and head only and he hit Alfredsson with an elbow, not a shoulder. I thought his suspension was too much (1 game would've been fine) but I don't think the two things are even comparable. Fair enough and I get what you and JYD are both saying. I'm only speaking in terms of the one incident and not letting anything else factor in. Neil's hit was not in violation of any league rules. That is all I'm saying.

The Marlies swept the Rochester Americans in their first playoff round. Jerry D'Amigo had 5 goals and 6 points in the three games, and was named first star in all 3 games. Frattin had 1g/2a for 3 points, Colborne had 0g/3a, Kadri had 1g/1a, Gardiner had 0g/2a and Deschamps had 1g/2a. Scrivens had a 2.00 GAA, a .923 SV% and 1 SO.

I wonder if he got a promise from a team or something and that is why he suddenly changed his mind. Either that or he said screw it with the sanctions slapped on Baylor. I see him being a late lottery pick at best in this draft, but if he were to stay in school, fully recover from his knee injury and light it up as the man on Baylor next year, he could easily see himself as a top 7 pick at worst in the 2013 draft. The only NBA prospects that have a clear advantage over him in next years draft are Muhammad, Noel and possibly Zeller. Either way, teams in the mid first round are going to be absolutely loving this draft. I honestly like guys like Miller, Moe Harkless, Dion Waiters, Terrence Ross, Tony Wroten, Arnett Moultire, Marquis Teague, Tony Mitchell and Royce White as much or more than some of the more highly touted lottery picks. It wouldn't surprise me at all if quite a few of these guys become better than a handful of the consensus lottery picks.

Warriors have no shame. In addition to Steph Curry and David Lee being shut down for the season a while ago and starting 4 rookies and 3 D-Leaguers, they are also sitting out Nate Robinson and Dorrel Wright in this game to ensure a loss. Can't blame them since they are walking a fine line between keeping and losing their pick, but they have done the most obvious tanking I have seen in a while. It is smart on their part, so I'm not hating on them or anything like that.

I think it all depends on matchups, which makes San Antonio clinching 1st in the West pretty big for them. I think the Lakers would beat San Antonio in a series because the Spurs struggle with big, bruising frontcourts inside. Gasol and Bynum are a very difficult matchup for them, I think that they would beat OKC, though. They've always played them well and matchup really well with them. The best thing for them would be to have OKC and the Thunder beat the shit out of each other in a physical, 6+ game series and them take advantage of the winner in the WCF. Of course, it is no guarantee that they will make it there. I do think they would beat Phoenix/Utah in the 1st round and then beat the Memphis/LAC winner in the 2nd, but the West is really good as usual. I wouldn't be surprised at all if none of the top 3 seeds were in the WCF this year, even if the Thunder, Spurs and Lakers are, in my opinion, the three best teams in the West. It definitely isn't as easy of a prediction as the East is, that is for sure.

Do you mean Andrew Wiggins?

http://www.complex.com/sports/2012/04/rudy-gay-tells-a-player-on-the-charlotte-bobcats-that-hes-not-allowed-to-talk-trash

Anybody else plan on watching this game tonight? Pretty much the first playoff game of the year. If Utah wins they clinch the final playoff spot and basically the same can be said for Phoenix. Phoenix would have to beat San Antonio's backups or Utah lose to Portland to officially clinch, but I think it is safe to say that whoever wins this game will get the final playoff spot.

I don't claim to know anything about this guy, but being 7'3" at the college level basically always means the guy will have an impact, even if he is a very mediocore player. Just look at how good a guy like Solomon Alabi was for the Seminoles defense. In news that only I will and the other Canadians probably care about, Dylan Ennis, a point guard from Brampton, Ontario, is transfering from Rice to Villanova. Nice to see another Canadian in a power conference.

Neil's hit on Boyle was clean and he did basically everything that Torres didn't do. It wasn't late. The head wasn't targeted or the principal point of contact. He didn't leave his feet. Torres did all of those things, and those are exactly what Shanny singled out as to why the hit was illegal. Sucks that Boyle got hurt, but no rules were broken on this hit. On another note, Mike Smith put on one of the best goaltending performances I've seen in a while last night. He was absolutely phenomenal. Chicago completely dominated that game but Smith was just too good. If he continues to play like he has in the first round, it is going to be so much fun seeing him and Rinne play against each other in the 2nd round.

This was posted by a poster named Solid D over at Spurs Talk: Pretty good stuff.

Kleiza doing an admiral job of tank commanding of late. Now all he needs to do is "accidently" injure James Johnson and they'll be good to go. Of course JJ picks a game like this, an absolute must lose, to have his best game of the year. Ilyasova just drained a huge 3 to put the Bucks up 8, so I think we can safely chalk this one up as a Raptors loss.

I didn't watch more than 10 minutes of the game, but that goalie interference penalty on Foligno to give the Rangers a 4-3 and then 5-3 was absolutely brutal. It seemed to really give the Rangers a boost as well, although I don't claim to know for sure since, like I said, I only saw about 5 minutes before that and 5 minutes after.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvQM5VYJokw&feature=player_embedded

The problem with that is they basically already did. If they would've just stood pat last season they could be looking at a lineup of: C: Lopez PF: Favors SF: Barnes or MKG SG: Brooks PG: Harris They would also potentially have the Warriors lottery pick this season depending on where they finish. If it were to have been outside the top 7 you could add Kendall Marshall who would be a very good fit for this team. Instead there is a great possibility that they will enter next season with a lineup of: C: Lopez PF: Humphries SF: James SG: Brooks PG: Farmar They would basically be right back where they were after trading Carter and these last two years would've been virtually a complete write off. I'm not blaming them for making the Williams trade as it is a worthwhile risk and if they do somehow manage to keep him, it will be a risk that paid off, but if he leaves they are in a brutal position.

Fleury.... lol

Anthony Bennett has eliminated Washington from his list, which narrows it down to Kentucky and Florida as the favourites and Oregon and UNLV as the darkhorses. He doesn't have any visits scheduled yet and there is no word on when he will make his decision. He will knock another school off hsi list next week as well, and my guess would be Oregon. Cameron Riddley has officially signed with Texas as well. He was only verbally committed with them up until this point. Tony Parker is supposedly set to announce his decision Wednesday morning, but who really knows since it has changed about 3 times already in the past week. Devonta Pollard hasn't said when he will announce. Speculation is possibly in 2 weeks, but nobody really knows. His list is just 4. Texas, Mizzou, Alabama and Georgetown.

Made up for how much digging the Flyers were allowed to get away with on Fleury. Seriously though, as much fun as the first four freak show games were to watch, this was by far the best game of the series and what I'm sure everybody was expecting to see for the first 4 games. Very entertaining game.

Yeah, he should, assuming nothing happens between now and then. I'm not sure how much he will play as his minutes were sporadic in last summer's European Championship, but they did increase as the tournament went on and it was also just his first time playing for the senior mens team. With another year of development and more experience to draw on, he might even be the starter, but who knows.