The NBA FINALS!!!

The NBA finals keep getting hotter by the day...Now that Miami has a 2-1 home court advantage against the Pistons, and Avery Johnson's Mavericks claw back the home court advantage, courtesy a 95-88 win over the Phoenix Suns and are up 2-1..

, Suns have played the running game, winning so many fast break hustle points.. Raja Bell coming off last year's trade with Utah and coming hot with 14 pts per game and a 3 point shooting of 44%, was injured and didnt play the last match.. Bell's three shooters were a critical reason for Suns' success so far in the playoffs.. That burden was shared by Nash and Thomas last night..Leandrinho Barbosa, coming in for the injured Bell was not very effective with 10 points. But what is suprising for the Suns is that, Boris Diaw has come out hot for them this series, with 79 points in 3 matches, including a 34 point effort in the second match.Diaw has been hot all season in the absense of Amare "Stat" Stoudamire.. Shawn Marion had a lacklustre performance with only 10 points, but was hot off the glass with 18 rebounds, 6 of them in the offensive glass..

But what seperated Dallas from Suns last game was two things.. <<<<<----- This man on my left with the 41 jersey and their defensive intensity.. Nowitzky was hot for the Mavs with 28 points and 17 rebounds, 6 off the 0ffensive glass, and five assists and 2 rejected shots.. About the defense...Lets compare the stats that matter of thegame
Mavericks Suns

48 Rebounds 45
19 Offensive Rebounds 12
29 Defensive Rebounds 33
5 Turnovers 12
8 Steals 0
16 Assists 13

That the Mavs defense has done a good job containing the Suns offense is there to see, effecting 8 steals and forcing 12 turnovers, while giving away only 5 turnovers.. Mavs also out-assisted Suns by 3..Steve Nash with only 7 assists!!! Thats where the game was lost by the Suns.. Its common knowledge that Suns lose low scoring games and win high scoring ones..

Going to the land of the automobiles, Detroit Pistons are down 1-2 against the Miami Heat.. With the home court advantage with the Heat, they should look to go 3-1 up tomorrow morning(I am in India,+12 hours)..

The dependence on Ben Wallace for the rebounds is there to see.. Ben Wallace was made to SHut UP by the great Shaq.. Look at Wallace's stats...2 points, 6 rebounds, 2 of 10 from the line, 0 blocked shots.. He was matched up with O'Neal with 27 points, 12 rebounds 11-15 from the field.. Wade was hot for the Heat as was Billups for the Pistons, both of them with 30 + points.. Rip Hamilton scored 21 points for the Pistons..Rasheed Wallace was not the hot head with only 11 points..

The worrying factor for Detroit is that no one other than Billups, Rip and R.Wallace was in double digits in the points category.. Ben Wallace did not shoot a basket from the field.. Tayshaun Prince had a 14% shooting from the field.. Moreover, Ben Wallace is not raking in the rebounds..

Lets see where the series goes from here..

India is at it again......

There you go..Was wondering when that would happen.. After home drubbings of Sri Lanka and England, Team India which left with bloated confidence levels, came crashing back to earth.. Now they are in a MUST-WIN situation.. hmmm.. Let me say a couple of ironical points in the newsprint before India left for the Carribean...

"If India wins 5-0 then it can challenge South Africa for second spot in World Rankings"

"However if India WINS ONLY 3-2, they will move back to fourth spot"

Arrant nonsense...They are there to win matches..I dont give a damn about the margin..Win OR Lose.. There aint no winning in loss or losing in win..

Last match, the batting was unforgivable..174/3 in 29 overs to 246/9 in 50 OVERS!!! I mean, PLEEEEEAAASSSEEE!!!!!Even bangladesh or a country like Canada for that matter;-), wouldnt have squandered such a fantastic start..Where was the GREAT INDIAN BATTING against the minnows of the West Indies attack.. Look at the bowling...Ian Bradshaw?? Jerome Taylor?? Fidel Edwards?? A country which was proud of sporting three generations of pace quartets... Wes Hall, Mike Holding, Joel Garner, Malcolm Marshall, Andy Roberts, more recently Curtley Ambrose, Courtney Walsh, Ian Bishop.. India had to declare a first innings trailing by about 300 runs because 5 BATSMEN WERE INJURED... If the team cannot put away such frivolous attacks, I dont know what they will do against quality pace attacks in Caribbean tracks...

I am not saying the Indian batting is frail.. But the batting coming short for two consecutive matches is not a good sign man... Need to recoupe, regroup, reassess and retry if they want to stand a chance at the next summer's world cup.. Otherwise i see a dead end to the road a long way ahead..

I was wondering what happened to Pathan..and what happened to Agarkar.. Pathan is straying away from the line for the last two matches, and not sticking to the offstump which he used to do so well.. But Agarkar is not providing width and he is bowling well!!! Now thats a change for the good.. But Pathan has to find his rhythm fast!!! He is a promising find of the last couple of years..

I have to mention the masterful knock of Ramnaresh Sarwan(Rama Naresha Sharavanan:D) last match..Well played ..But since this is a prejudiced blog, it doesnt find space here...

NExt on basketball nba finals..Thats coming up tomorrow..

Sayonara,

Wow!!!What a day for my teams....

Guys today is the best birthday i can ever get..Even though i narrowly escaped with my life in college 8-D! Teams i owe allegance to are rocking the joint....While my nemesis teams screwed up like hell...Wut a day!!!

Lets start with Arsenal..signing Czech midfielder Tomas Rosicky from Borussia Dortmund... Borussia besot by financial probs, had to let go of Tomas for a sum of 7 million pounds..Thats awesome..

Rosicky will make a fine addition to the GUnners roster after it is clear Pires, well past his prime anyway, is negotiating with Villareal.. Gunners will also look to nurture their young guns Walco and Djourou..

Meanwhile, this signing of Rosicky is a steal for Arsenal!!!! The Czech forms a good partnership with his country man Nedved and these two are the backbones of the Czech midfield.. This move also gives Thierry Henry reason to move up front like he did during Viera's days and concentrate on his striking..


Meanwhile, Red Devil fans have reason to cry about as their star striker Ruud Van Nistelrooy is sure to leave United...Boy o boy..Was a shocker...look at his record.. 150 goals in 200 starts..Man thats an absolutely awesome record.. Rooney has lost his Rooi....WAAAAH! Cry as u like Devils.....

Moving on to the blues.... They are also losing THEIR StAR stRiker DIDIER DROGBA!!!!! He is apparently "fed up of Premiership football" and wants to move to the European mainland... One day, two strikes!!!!!!Man i'm starting to like it...Moving on from football to the land of Basketball...

A friend of mine predicted a LAClippers vs SanAntonio Finals...Too bad coz its a Phoenix vs Dallas finals... Will be awesome to see Nash n Nowz match up against each other... SA lost courtesy a regulation 3 point play by Mavs forward Dirk Nowitzky, with a foul on Manu Ginobili.. who hit his hand shooting apparently..

The play went to overtime and was settled once and for all...That SA couldnt win inspite of fouling out 3 Mavs Dampier, van Horn and Howard, two of them starters, was incredible..SA were in tremendous form this season..winning the conference..However they have never been able to win a championship defending... A thorn in the side for SA.. '99 and lost in 2000.. 2003 and lost in 2004 finals..Now 2005 and lost 2006 semis..

Never liked the Clippers... The man on the left was absolutely awesome.. 29 points 11 assists 11-16 from the field.. His stats SHOUT!! man ... No wonder he is the MVP..Even Shawn "The Matrix" Marion was hot with 36 pts 9 rebs...

Talking about Clippers... Brand came hot with 30 points 9 rebs.. But not enuf for the Clippers...They have done well to get so far..Gud that their run ended..

PHOENIX vs DALLAS it is in the West! Miami vs Detroit in the East.. PREDICTIONS Guys!!!


Anyway Team India doin well in the Caribbean.. thats also good.. Anyway to lose by a run is pathetic and talks of overconfidence...

Seeya around guyzzz....Hope Chelsea and ManU fans have a GOOD night..It was an awesome day for me..I'll hope to blog if ma friends are keen on keepin me alive...

Yours truly.. and sleepily..

Cameroon...Japan...Ivory Coast...WHY NOT INDIA??????

Yet another world cup..Teams like Ivory Coast, Senegal,Japan,TOGO(a population of less than a million) have qualified..The question on every indian's mind shud be WHERE THE HELL IS INDIA??

INDIA has improved "Tremendously"..It has JUMPED from rank 138 to 130..Big deal..A population of 1 billion and we cant come up with 15 odd people who can play football at the top most level??This has to be a shame on our country..Look at australia..A country with 22 million population..Top in cricket..Rugby..Ok in football...Athletics...Olympics...A country with about 50 times its population earns 50 times less medals in the olympics..

I know wut ur gonna say..Too much emphasis on cricket...As a person who adores cricket, i can say there is nothing much more than a commercial value for the game.. But as a country with rich sporting heritage, we have to promote other sports along the length and breadth of India..

This sucks....
Wut say u???

A Blot in football history....

May17th 2006, was supposed to go down in the history of football as the 50th anniversary of the Champions league. Rather it has gone down as the most farcical of all the league matches played in the history of club football. At a time when club football is gaining a precedence over international matches, this was the BIGGEST SHOW of BUFFOONERY football has ever witnessed...

I will show you a picture that will tell the entire story..

This is Ole Hermann Borgan. The linesman who was supposed to be officiating for the Champions league final, Arsenal vs Barcelona. Look at the jersey that he is wearing! BARCELONA??? Now correct me if i am mistaken, but aren't referees supposed to be impartial??? Wut the hell is going on here?

The linesman, who was brought in for the suspended Borgan, was no better. First up, in the 18th minute, the Samuel Eto'o was "only just offside"..Well, in football, there are two things, either its offside or its not. There is no such thing as "Just offside"...

The next incident was a superb tackle by Thierry Henry, in which a barca midfielder(I think its Giovanni van Bronckhorst), kicked Henry on the foot and promptly fell down..Now who gets the Yellow card?? THIERRY HENRY....REASON?? THE BEST SLIDING TACKLE of the Champions League...

The next incident is another off-side by the same Samuel Eto'o.. Who cares if it is offside? when it is a Barca goal coming up..

All in all, friends, I am heartbroken at the result.. It is one thing to be beaten fair and square, but yet another to have lost because of blatant....ah..."MIsjudgements" by the referee.. And what else, the ref admits it...please go to Espnstar.com:-Champions league referee admits: I should have played advantage for more details on the confessions of a pathetic mind..

Now Barca can hold the Champions League crown with all the farcical glory that it can give it.. I am not blaming them...They did play a good game of football.. But it was Arsenal who held on with a rather substandard stand in keeper for 56 minutes without conceding a goal.. Arsenal's defence is still impregnable..But without their keeper, Lehmann, they are a half down..I do agree that was a foul on Lehmann's part..But even more flagrant fouls havent even got yellow cards.. Arsenal deserved to get much more than what it got in the end..

Signing off,
Jay

As the UEFA CL final draws closer.......

Guys its that time of the year when fists are clenched,eyes are wet, nerves are stretched, hearts are broken.. Because this is the time for the final of the

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE!!!!

How hotter can this ever be??? Two teams...Two UNBEATEN TEAMS...with matching records of 8 wins and 4 losses.... Two teams with world beaters in them... Two playmakers.. Two outstanding coaches..Two teams, so similar...yet so different.. Wut more can a football fan ask for??

Arsenal will be happy becos returning to the team after a break, are the likes of Sol Campbell, Ashley Cole, Phillippe Senderos.. Thus the fortress of Arsenal defence is now made impregnable.. A full strength team has been announced by Arsenal, which is good news for all GUNNERS!!!GO GUNNERS!!!!!!

Barcelona might be one of the best in the world what with experienced playmaker Ronaldinho, young Argentine star Lionel Messi.. Even though past record is in their favour, Arsenal is the one team which is on a roll here.. Henry's hat-trick last week against Wigan under pressure.. Fabulous Fabregas the future of Arsenal... Lehmann...Drew flak from a lot of quarters last year (Including urs truly :D) ..now back with a bang.. I tell u man, for every question Barca has, Arsenal has an answer..

Guys, This year is Arsenal's year!!! Tonight is Arsenals Night!! Tonight the Gunners will announce to the world "THEY ARE THE KINGS OF FOOTBALL"!!!!!

As for Barca fans??? The writing is on the wall....Read it...Succumb to the eventual truth.. The light at the end of the tunnel is from the ARSENAL train which is gonna ROLL OVER YOU!!!

So long... This is gonna be a long night...

Its alonso!!!!!!!

Alonso holds on 4 the win..Good news for McLaren as Alonso is set t0 join the British-German collaboration next year... Those renaults are gonna go a long way with those reliable V8's, but the question on everybody's mind is "Is this the end of MIKE SCHUMI"? The seven time world champion is nothing but a shadow of his old self.. Why?

Before answering that we have to understand why Schumacher has won all this time.

Reason1: Schumi ruled at a time when Formula-1 was 95% car and 5% man. That Ferrari was an extremely good car that Mika Salo, a Sauber driver, when called in as a replacement to Schumacher was able to finish in podium a lot more times.. He doesnt have a single podium finish in his Sauber.. THis stands testimony to the above fact..

Reason2: Ferrari policy has been very unfair against the other driver.. Even Eddie Irvine has commented that he left Ferrari for Jaguar citing differences in Schumacher.. He is not good as a team man.. Eddie would have got a chance to win the 1998 season had Schumacher moved aside and allowed his teammate the win.. In the end it made no difference as Mika Hakkinen finished fifth and won the championship by default.. But this just goes to show the selfishness of Schumacher, who commented "If Irvine has to win the championship, he had to earn it....".

Reason3: Dependence of FIA revenues on the Ferrari to such an extent that even though he was caught with an illegal fittin in the car, he was let off by the FIA..While history shows 'lesser drivers' being penalised..

Now the best thing Schumacher can do if he wants to save face is quit at the end of the season..

What say u, guys?

Hi......

THis is my blog for sports only.... Will be here to discuss all sports like cricket, football, basketball, f1racing, moto gp so on..So keep chill and comment on anything u need...