It has been a couple days now since Adam "Pacman" Jones was released by the Dallas Cowboys. More than a little shocked he's not an Oakland Raider or Toronto Argo yet...as throwback unis go, the Cleveland Cavs versions - both - are top shelf...Charles Barkley blew a .149 a couple weeks back when he was pulled over for driving under the influence. Not good, Chuck. He's on a leave of absence from TNT as a result and one of sports best crews just got a lot weaker...interesting that Andrea Bargnani is looking far better since Jose Caleron went out, isn't it? The Raptors are surging minus Caleron and Jermaine O'Neal, and pounded the Memphis Grizzlies, as predicted in yesterdays Prime Time Picks, now 6-3 (+284) on the year. Today, you've got to move fast - we're playing Arsenal (-1.5 +115) in the English Premier League as they host Bolton...what do the Montreal Canadiens, Anaheim Ducks, Chicago Black Hawks and Pittsburgh Penguins have in common? Every starter in the NHL All-Star Game plays for those teams...Jason Spezza is -13 in the last month, and Dany Heatley hasn't scored in seven games. Strange days in the nation's capital...hockey coach Wayne Fleming, who has worked with the Canadian Olympic team in 2002 and 2006, was fired by his KHL team - that's the circling-the-drain Russian super league - between periods!...more on Cristiano Ronaldo wrecking his Ferrari: he had the car for all of two days. Wonder if speed was a factor? Word is teammate and Manchester United's goalie Edwin Van Der Sar was trailing him in his Bentley so there could well have been some racing going on...why look at the 50 hottest Victoria's Secret models? Because 49 just wouldn't be enough...best nickname for an athlete this week goes to San Diego punter Mike "Lou" Scifres...two of the divisional playoff games go in the NFL today with Baltimore at Tennessee and Arizona at Carolina. Have a feeling the Baltimore Ravens get it done though Jeff Fisher and the Titans tend to break out some surprises come playoff time, which they'll need when the Ravens defence is practically impenetrable. Cannot see Arizona even giving Carolina a game in the late affair as the Cards are terrible on the road and the Panthers are rolling...the Columbus Blue Jackets rookie goalie Steve Mason is having one hell of a year, he picked up his sixth shutout of the year last night with 45 saves against the Washington Capitals, who can score a couple goals here and there...have a great Saturday.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
It has been a couple days now since Adam "Pacman" Jones was released by the Dallas Cowboys. More than a little shocked he's not an Oakland Raider or Toronto Argo yet...as throwback unis go, the Cleveland Cavs versions - both - are top shelf...Charles Barkley blew a .149 a couple weeks back when he was pulled over for driving under the influence. Not good, Chuck. He's on a leave of absence from TNT as a result and one of sports best crews just got a lot weaker...interesting that Andrea Bargnani is looking far better since Jose Caleron went out, isn't it? The Raptors are surging minus Caleron and Jermaine O'Neal, and pounded the Memphis Grizzlies, as predicted in yesterdays Prime Time Picks, now 6-3 (+284) on the year. Today, you've got to move fast - we're playing Arsenal (-1.5 +115) in the English Premier League as they host Bolton...what do the Montreal Canadiens, Anaheim Ducks, Chicago Black Hawks and Pittsburgh Penguins have in common? Every starter in the NHL All-Star Game plays for those teams...Jason Spezza is -13 in the last month, and Dany Heatley hasn't scored in seven games. Strange days in the nation's capital...hockey coach Wayne Fleming, who has worked with the Canadian Olympic team in 2002 and 2006, was fired by his KHL team - that's the circling-the-drain Russian super league - between periods!...more on Cristiano Ronaldo wrecking his Ferrari: he had the car for all of two days. Wonder if speed was a factor? Word is teammate and Manchester United's goalie Edwin Van Der Sar was trailing him in his Bentley so there could well have been some racing going on...why look at the 50 hottest Victoria's Secret models? Because 49 just wouldn't be enough...best nickname for an athlete this week goes to San Diego punter Mike "Lou" Scifres...two of the divisional playoff games go in the NFL today with Baltimore at Tennessee and Arizona at Carolina. Have a feeling the Baltimore Ravens get it done though Jeff Fisher and the Titans tend to break out some surprises come playoff time, which they'll need when the Ravens defence is practically impenetrable. Cannot see Arizona even giving Carolina a game in the late affair as the Cards are terrible on the road and the Panthers are rolling...the Columbus Blue Jackets rookie goalie Steve Mason is having one hell of a year, he picked up his sixth shutout of the year last night with 45 saves against the Washington Capitals, who can score a couple goals here and there...have a great Saturday.
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The whole Raptors team is looking better since Caleron and Blo'neal went down. O'Neal's negative influence on the team was no surprise to yours truly, but Caleron has proven himself as a marginal player and not the All-Star that his fans have painted him as.
And Bargnani has shown he can play, just leave him on the floor and he'll get stuff done. For that reason and given the Raptors decision-making the past two years, I'd imagine he'll be back on the bench when Blo'neal limps back onto the court.
As a note of curiousity...in games in which Hose B plays < 20 minutes or not at all, the Raptors are 5-2 (.714 win%) and 11-19 (.367 win%) when he plays > 20 minutes. And when he plays < 20 minutes or not at all, they have an offensive rating (points per 100 possessions) of 109.4 and a defensive rating (points allowed per 100 possessions) of 102.9; yet for the entire season our offensive rating is 106.8 (-2.6 p/100p from when we're Hoseless) and our defensive rating is 109.0 (worse by 6.1 pa/100p from when Hose isn't playing). However, our game pace doesn't change (so Hose isn't the only one responsible for our slow pace of play).
I'd have to break down exactly where the changes are happening to have anything more meaningful to say, but I'd tentatively put out the following conclusions:
1) Toronto is considerably better on defense when Hose B is in civvies, which indicates that any warm NBA body makes us a significantly better team defensively over him - including guys who are far from superstar defenders, like Solomon and Ukic;
2) Toronto is slightly but not statistically significantly better offensively when Hose doesn't suit up.
What can we conclude? The fact that the defense would be better without Jose isn't a real surprise to anybody, except perhaps in the sheer magnitude of the difference. What this does do is refute the attempts of his most fervant fans to flat-out equivocate on that topic ("yeah, well, TJ/Solomon/Ukic aren't that good/much better defensively, either"): the reality is that we can start to conclude that Jose Caleron is so bad defensively as to be a large part of our downfall on that end of the floor. That is a statistically significant difference, and the sample size isn't huge but it's big enough to work with for now. But the surprise is on the offensive side of the floor. What can we conclude about that, given that Jose's own numbers seem to be rather impressive?* Perhaps this team has just convinced themselves they're dependent upon him for their own success, and without him they can finally just play and succeed without him. I'd notice that our assisted FG% (the percentage of field goals that were assisted) drops without him in the lineup. That might indicate that guys are more effective at creating their own shots than Jose's direct creation has allowed them to demonstrate in the past. Pointing to Bargnani as evidence of this is probably the best argument of this. However, it should be noted that the statistical difference in offensive efficiency is not significant, so this isn't gospel truth I'm preaching.
* I'd further back up that point from 82games.com, except it doesn't seem to be current with its stats, it's lagging by several games. It does indicate that the team's offense improves considerably when Jose is playing vs. not playing, but again, that data is not current. And it might also give evidence to my own suspicion that this team forms itself into Jose's mould when he's dressed and playing but only when he's out of the lineup entirely is it freed from his shackles.
In the interests of fairness, some of the aforementioned effects might be more the cause of Blo'neal sitting down and the team getting used to Triano and Bargnani getting consistent minutes, but I don't think it's any coincidence that the defense picks up by a huge factor just as Jose stops playing.
That second comment might be the best thing I've read since reading Mark Teixera was a Yankee, which reminds me thatI've yet to tell a certain reader "told ya!" when he said the Yanks would whiff on all three big free agents and I laughed and said "2 of 3 minimum".
Agreed on The Cavs jerseys, their sweet. Question, has any professional team in the last few years wore more different colours and jerseys then the Cavs?
Ugly day today for EPL. Had West Ham and Boro on the money line. Both were up and ended up drawing after 75th min.
Ravens - money line winnah!
NP: The Folkes Brothers -- Oh Carolina
-9 -113
Yea I took the Ravens money line. Also got Bucks money line vs Wolves.
Took the under 49.5 on the Carolina game...ain't looking too good.
Just took the Panthers......-3.5
down 14-7.
EFF
This game is ugly 27-7
Carolina was my small bet.
I'm liking Philly and Pittsburgh tomorrow. Is Big Ben OK?
Man U?
I'd take United. They know if they win their games in hand they'll take top of the table.
Have no fuckin idea how Bucks just blew that 12 point lead and lost.
I got the Giants -4 tomorrow. Pittsburg should be fine but after this Panthers game anything could happen
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