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Congrats to the Phillies on a great season. I've never seen any of my teams win it all, and if I had to pick one of my teams to win, it would have been the Yankees. What an amazing run. It's great to see we turned around the streak that the last 6 teams who won Game 1 went on to win the WS. Now I look back at all the shock after we lost the first two games of the regular season. I remember Mark Feinsand of the Daily News looking for the last team that lost their first two regular season games and went on to win it all, and he said he had to go all the way back to '08 with the Phils. Of course, I wanted to win this series in 6 and not have to worry, but I'm definitely going to miss baseball more than I ever have in an offseason. What a way to open up the New House.

Instead of taking unnecessary shots at people, you can just argue your point and not think right away that you're the smartest person in the topic. Before we knew it, Anderson was working really well with Brook. He's a PF that pretty much pulls his man outside to the arc. His aggressiveness improved a lot over the offseason, and he was amazing in summer league, it's not just having Howard and Carter with him. Lee has a huge role with no Harris in the backcourt, and he hasn't been too impressive. He's been missing open shot after open shot that he should be knocking down, but I'm expecting better things from him when we get at least Harris and Hayes back.

Brook actually got a lot of touches, but he was trouble getting around Nene when posting up, so he had to give it back to CDR and the others. He was also having trouble grabbing rebounds, and we didn't have too many second-chance points on offense.

The first half was pretty impressive. Our offense was keeping up with Denver's. Our defense wasn't too great, and as I expected, Anthony didn't get to do much and the rest of the Nuggets had to knock down their shots, which Martin, Afflalo, and Lawson were doing. But that didn't hold true in the second half. I was scared that Denver would be sharper in the third quarter, and they were. They blew it open in a couple minutes and our defense didn't show much then. Anthony came alive, and we showed no signs of coming back from there. It was convenient having TV's in the front showing the Yankee game and score updates on the big screen during timeouts .

I don't make much of a connection between the names and how well the umps do, but I'd say every game has had an unusual amount of inconsistent strike-ball calls for both teams. Or maybe it just feels that way since it's the World Series.

Unbelievable how he was at 11 points with a rough shooting percentage entering the fourth, and he still became the first player in eight years to put up 40-10-5-5.

I'm going to the game tonight. We'd be off to the worst start in our franchise history if we lose tonight. Anthony might own the show tonight, or we might put the defensive pressure on him and the other Nuggets can be in the spotlight. Or our defense can be effective against a team other than the Bobcats. Lopez staying out of foul trouble can be the difference between a close game and a blowout.

Full Article We have 3 of our 5 starters out with Harris, Hayes, and Yi all injured. Add Battie, Dooling, and Hassell to that list from our bench. We're really short-handed. Najera gets a lot more minutes now. CDR and Lopez are pretty much powering the team now, and hopefully Alston can step it up again.

That... was... terrible. We didn't score for a period of over 10 minutes, scored 7 in the third, blew a 14-point lead, had 25 turnovers, shot 37% from the field, and the one day that our defense is seemingly effective, our offense is weak. And Yi is on his way to an MRI after injuring his knee yesterday.

Yeah, this series isn't over yet. Along with the question of how Burnett will pitch on short rest on the road is the question of whether the Yankees have Lee figured out tonight, facing him for the second time this week. This is a bit irrelevant, but a thought came to be yesterday when Werth was being intentionally walked. A pitcher can just put his hand in his mouth four times and get four balls rather than having to add four pitches to his pitch count .

Shawn Marion or Richard Jefferson? What seed will the Mavs finish? If the Magic and Celtics were to play in a best of 7 right now with the Magic having 4 games at home, who would win the series? When do you plan on buying a PS3? Would you get Killzone 2 or Uncharted 2 first? Who should be on the cover of MLB '10 The Show? Upgrading to Windows 7? Favorite PS3 exclusive? Favorite 360 exclusive? Which one of your sports teams do you support the most?

The Nets can still get a win without Harris. Alston stepped up in the Rockets 22-game winning streak two years ago when Yao was out and the backcourt had a bigger role. He stepped up in Nelson's absence last year. He can make a difference in Harris' absence, and that means a lot with Harris and Dooling having health issues. He showed that last night with 20 points, going 8-11 from the field and 3-3 from the arc.

The Wizards got off to a good start early, and afterwards they just kept finding ways to knock down shots regardless of how well we stuck with them. Brook Lopez was a nice surprise in the season opener, and CDR was a nice surprise tonight. It's really helpful to have T-Will and him since Williams can back up Alston with Harris out, while Roberts is at SF. Our offense has been pretty impressive so far, but Frank better have a lot more prepared if he's only defense. We allowed 52 points in the paint last night.

It's shame he's not playing today, but I think he might turn into a Raptor-killer now. He's done a lot of damage to Toronto in the past with the Nets, and now I think he'll also be able to shoot more effectively from the field as well rather than just coming alive late in games.

Full Article Lopez was our second option following the Carter trade. But once Harris' health became an issue in preseason, I've said that Lopez should be our first option for some time, at least until Harris stays healthy for an extended period of time.

Matsui may play for a bit in these next three series at right field. Girardi said he can use Matsui and sub in Hairston or Swisher when needed.

All 29 people applauded . A few boos, but there were cheers for the most part. No reason to boo him. He drove us to the playoffs in 04-05 with 27.5 PPG, he powered us to the third seed the next year with a 49-33 record, and he brought us to the playoffs the following year as well. The last couple of years, he played through a bad ankle. He never requested a trade either. I'm happy for Carter, he couldn't ask for much more than to play near home.

I actually don't think there's a huge difference either way in terms of what a player contributes. When you don't have anything to play for in Jersey and you don't have a threat somewhere else on the floor, you won't be able to perform much yourself. But yeah, you could see it in preseason, Anderson should mean a lot to this organization. The game was a lot of fun. The intros are a bit more interesting with Gary Sussman not doing them. Lee performed well. Harris certainly doesn't look like the Harris we saw last year, but he did pick it up in the later minutes of the game. Lopez managed to not get the sixth foul, and it was a shame that his minutes were cut short again. That shouldn't happen too often, though, since he won't be matching up with someone like Dwight who can muscle their way through. It's a shame Carter left early. As I said above, when you have something to play for, you're a different player. Not to mention the Nets didn't have a significant frontcourt threat like Orlando does to make the backcourt's life easier. I stole three programs, four pocket schedules, got a magnetic schedule, and we got half off concessions . Not at all a bad game.

I have a feeling the Nets could just make a trade this deadline for one of the potential free agents. Teams are going to try and get a deal if they're at risk of not re-signing a star. That's what the Blue Jays tried to do with Halladay, so I wouldn't be surprised if there are a few big deals this deadline.

Well the whole NBA may not be trying to control outcomes, but that doesn't dismiss a few referees getting involved. You never know what games referees may have wished to tweak, and you also have to see who were the officials for what games. Maybe the Spurs never played in a game with officials x, y, and z. And assuming the NBA truly isn't trying to change game outcomes, they're probably investigating those tendencies, though I don't see them finding any officials as easily as Donaghy. Donaghy accused other officials of being biased, but then again, he may have been trying to save himself.

Hayes was looking strong in the preseason too. T-Will will get more minutes now, though, and we saw what happened when Boone got injured and Lopez got more minutes last year .

http://www.nj.com/nets/index.ssf/2009/10/nj_nets_hayes_out_2-3_weeks.html

Frank's emphasis on defense was successful for the first three quarters, not so much after that. Lee was quite the opposite of what he showed in preseason. 22 turnovers, not getting the defensive rebounds, we start focusing on defense and suddenly we're collapsing in crucial areas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlqZboxouOY

Flynn should be good to go. I'm looking for two things tonight: 1) better signs on defense, including more communication and 2) Lopez being involved in the action significantly more. Hopefully, Harris is really healthy and doesn't hurt himself again.