NSN Blog

Maybe it's time for me to smell the coffee/roses, or whatever it is that will make me see that Doc Rivers might not be all that bad after all. His players clearly like him, they play hard, most of the time, and run his stuff(whatever his stuff/offense is). We certainly could have worse coaches at the helm-like 80% of the rest of teams right?

Thoughts on last night:
1. The series is still far from over despite the good win. Philly will probably hold serve on their court and force a game 7.
2. Brandon Bass was just a freaking beast wasn't he? Why can't he do that all the time? Back cut, dunk. Wide open shot, swish.
3. Why did KG open his mouth in the press conference after picking on Philadelphia fans? Ugh. Dumb.
4. Doug Collins is a damn good coach and never gets any credit. And he's a no nonsense, tell it like it is guy. Love it.
5. Rondo, to me, seemed disinterested until after one of the game officials made perhaps the most ridiculous foul calls on KG in the history of mankind. In fact, that spurred on the crowd and the entire team. Thank you Mr. Horrendous official. Remember, you are not alone.
6. Final point. The C's are a TEAM. They get scoring from all parties. Tough to guard a team. Perhaps a certain eliminated Mr. Bryant should take notice. And yet somewhere that same Mr. Bryant is ripping Pau Gasol in the press. Jerk.

The Sox are at .500! The Sox are at .500! Despite the best, and often excruciating, efforts of Clay Bucholz they were able to beat the O's last night. On a side note, do you think any of the bullpen pitchers playing right now will not suffer a season ending arm injury? They have been used at an alarmingly, exhausting, pace. Gulp. Don't worry, somewhere Dice-K is warming up and Lackey is sitting next to Josh Beckett on the bench. Have I mentioned I don't like John Lackey? What a complete......you get the picture. Another great Theo signing that he doesn't get any heat for?

I did mention the Lakers, well sort of, are out of this years playoffs. It's always so sad to see them go. NOT. If they had Phil Jackson they would have won every game and been champions again. Darn you Phil, where'd you go. I don't know how any team ever won a championship without Phil Jackson as their coach. I'm feeling very sarcastic today in case you didn't notice.

Won our first two games in men's softball last night, but, my body feels like we lost. Or at least I did. The retirement tour has begun. Hope I get a recliner or something! Haha.

was a great night for sports last night. There was something going
on everywhere.
Should be some series between Oklahoma City and San Antonio.
Stan Van Gundy has been fired. I Still can picture him walking
the sidelines at both UVM and Castleton.
Who's going to play in the outfield for the Red Sox?
Every team gets injuries, but this is ridiculous.It reminds me
of what happened in 2010.
Clay Buchholz stunk the joint out again.

You got to love the NHL. What other sport has the two coaches
screaming at each other?

Weather permitting it's the audio cast of Rutland vs.
Springfield softball today at 4:20 on NSN.

So is it now the Big FIVE ... Garnett, Pierce, Allen, Rondo AND Bass?
Certainly the Celtics don't beat the Sixers last night without the "other guy" in the starting lineup. Brandon Bass scored 18 of his game high 27 in the third quarter as the Celts rallied to a 101-85 win at the Garden. Toss in KG's 20 and Greg Stiemsma's 12 points and three blocks and Boston did what they had to do to earn a 3-2 lead in the series. It wasn't a blowout by any means ... Philly will comeback ready to play in Game Six ... but if Boston keeps getting contributions from the Bass's and Stiemsma's of the world you've got to feel pretty good about their chances.

Meanwhile a dominating performance by the Devils last night in game four of their Stanley Cup Eastern final with the Rangers. While the shot numbers were even at 29 a piece, the game clearly belonged to NJ all the way. With things tied up 2-2 we may well be staring a Game Seven right in the face.

Stopped by Centennial Field yesterday and work continues at a rapid rate on the old ballpark ... five of the new light towers are in place ... the plan is to have all eight of them up by the end of the week with testing of the new lights coming as soon as this weekend. The new Jumbotron scoreboard should start to go up on the back of the soccer pressbox in left field next week ... meanwhile work is well underway on a new visitors locker room. The long abandoned rest room/concession stand directly below the old soccer pressbox is being renovated into the new facility for Lake Monsters opponents. It will be ready when the Monsters open the NY Penn League season on June 18th.

If the Celtics don't win this series against Philly they have nobody
to blame but themselves. Doc Rivers is supposed to be one of the top
coaches in the NBA, but he' getting out coached by Doug Collins.
Speaking of Doug Collins, I wonder how often he thinks about
that 1972 Olympic basketball game against the Russians.

I'll give Jarrod Saltalamacchia credit. The other night when he
took the ball off his ear I'm thinking that if he was a hockey player
he'd get stitched up and stay in the game. He was back the next day
after getting 12 stitches. That is close enough as far as I'm
concerned.

With the victory by "I'll Have Another" in the Preakness, I'm a
lot more interested in the Belmont. When it comes to horse racing, I
am definitely a pink hatter.
I'm no expert, but since 'I'll Have Another" came from behind
down the stretch to win both the Derby and the Preakness, I see him
winning the Belmont by at least a couple of lengths since it's a
longer race.

The Yankees have won the World Series the last six times that
Kentucky has won the national championship in mens basketball. The
Yankees have also won the World Series the last two times there has
been a triple crown winner in horse racing.
The last time there was a triple crown winner in horse racing was
"Affirmed" in 1978. Kentucky won the national championship in 1978 as
well.
Remember you heard it here first.

The hottest team in the playoffs belongs to the San Antonio Spurs ... with their win last night over the Clippers the Spurs are now 8-0 this playoff season ... sweeps of Utah and LAC ... next up OKC or the Lakers ... that will be OKC ... in what should be a heck of a series.

The LA Kings failed to nail down their spot in the Stanley Cup finals yesterday ... getting shut out 2-0 at home by Phoenix ... still up three games to one the Kings look good to make it to the finals for first time since 1993. Tonight the Rangers and Devils play game four in their series at The Rock in Newark ... John Tortorella has been talking trash since the Rangers win in game three ... complaining about the Devils embellishing penalty calls. It should add a little more oomph to that series.

The Red Sox are now 3-2 on their current eight game road trip after taking two out of three in Philadelphia over the weekend. Seems that after Josh Beckett's infamous golf outing and subsequent shellacking in his next start that David Ortiz called a team meeting and let's just say that a lot of air was cleared. Since then Sox have gone 8-2. Beckett was great for the second straight start yesterday and the Sox head into Baltimore for the first game of a three game series tonight looking pretty good ... despite an ongoing spate of injuries.
Of note too, they did just fine the last two games in Philly with Ortiz at first base and Adrian Gonzalez in right field.