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The Daily Digest for Wednesday, April 23, 2008 |
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April 23, 2008 |
≡ The Daily Digest ≡
 Gasol: A lot more grizzly for opponents since joining L.a. |
= To Our Readers =
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= Tonight’s Menu =
>> Boston, Ma.: The 12-9 Angels will try again against the 15-7 Red Sox at Fenway Park, with Jon Garland (2-2, 4.81 ERA) going against Daisuke Matsuzaka (4-0, 3.14). Yesterday’s 7-6 loss just continued the Los Angeles woes in Boston: 1-9 in their last 10 at Fenway and 4-12 in their 16 against the Sox. With Matsuzaka on the hill, the home team is a big favorite: it takes $170 to try to win $100 on the Red Sox, but $105 on the Angels could return the same $100.
>> Los Angeles, Ca.: The 8-12 Dodgers are home now, but face the team with the best record in baseball – 15-5 Arizona – tonight at Dodger Stadium. Dan Haren, 3-0 so far with a microscopic 1.80 ERA, will throw for the Diamondbacks against Derek Lowe, 1-1 with a 2.59 ERA. In the first go-round in Phoenix, the D-backs swept the Dodgers in a three-game series, outscoring Los Angeles, 23-11 and have won 10 of the last 14 from the Blue Crew. Even so, the Dodgers are slight favorites: it takes $110 to win $100 on the home team, but $105 could return the same $100 on Arizona.
>> Los Angeles, Ca.: At Staples Center, the Lakers will try to go up 2-0 against Denver in their Western Conference quarterfinal series. Los Angeles is 22-5 with Pau Gasol in the line-up and he dominated the first game on Sunday. The Lakers have won four straight and 10 of 11 from the Nuggets and are favored tonight by eight points with an over-under of 230. Translation: Lakers 119, Nuggets 111.
= L.A. Stories =
Laker Lines:
>> Los Angeles, Ca.: While the Lakers get ready for the Nuggets tonight, one wag suggests that the visitors should be called “Enver.” Why? “Because they play no D” says the wag!
What’s Bruin:
>> Los Angeles, Ca.: UCLA middle linebacker Reggie Carter, let loose on The Joe McDonnell Experience on KLAC 570 last night about last season’s offensive problems. Among other comments:
There were problems last year with our coaching staff; the offense did not buy into the coaching. The stuff they did on offense just did not work. [Jay] Norvell was not used to the Pac-10 and also was stubborn. He would not change anything and did not listen to any of the players at all.
The result was that the offense had no confidence.
Carter, a Crenshaw High product, no doubt feels better about the offense this season, but the Bruins are a long way from being a juggernaut. It will be up to the defense to carry the load again and, to no one’s surprise, the defense is well ahead of the offense going into Saturday’s spring game at the Rose Bowl.
>> Cleveland, Oh.: Former UCLA and Indiana Pacers star Reggie Miller got a little tongue-tied on Monday night while analyzing the second game of the Cleveland-Washington series, won by the Cavaliers, 116-86. Talking about Cleveland’s LeBron James, Miller noted that “When LeBron gets up a full steam of head, no one on Washington can stop him.” James is also dangerous, we are told, with a full head of steam!
Talk of Troy:
>> Los Angeles, Ca.: Despite losing some top-notch players to the NFL and having to replace a long-term starter, USC is the favorite for the 2009 BCS title according to early odds on Scoresandodds.com.
The Troys are 3-1 to win it all, followed by Florida and Oklahoma at 6-1, Georgia and Ohio State at 7-1, LSU at 12-1 and Missouri at 15-1. You can get 25-1 odds on the rest of Division I, although specific odds are posted for many other teams. Among the Pac-10 schools, UCLA is 75-1 and California, Arizona and Arizona State are all 100-1.
>> Los Angeles, Ca.: The newest ex-celebrity pushing for a spot on Donald Trump’s “The Celebrity Apprentice” is former Trojan O.J. Simpson. The New York Post reported that a source told them, “Simpson really wants to do it. Trump and NBC are thinking about it, but are being very cautious.” Never one to miss an opening, the Post thinks a Simpson appearance could lead to “killer” ratings. Sorry.
Around the Galaxy:
>> >Los Angeles, Ca.: “The honeymoon with the Galaxy and [David] Beckham has not been all that long. They’re struggling with keeping the notoriety and the buzz going. In Los Angeles, you need to have a winner and you need to win with some flair. They’re not off to a great start.”
So says well-known sports marketing expert David Carter of the USC Sports Business Institute in a story in the Wall Street Journal. Beckham is being paid $5.5 million or so per season to play for the Galaxy, who have recovered much of that fee by playing exhibitions which net them from $500,000 to $1 million per game. But on the field, the Galaxy are lousy. The Journal notes that Los Angeles is only 18-16 since he signed and in the nine regular-season games in which Beckham has played, the team has lost six of nine. This season the team is a middling 1-2-1.
Beckham has racked up some good endorsements here, including Giorgio Armani, Sharpie and G03, a supplement company. From the standpoint of a sports fan in Southern California, however, the question is when are the Galaxy going to win?
Hype machine:
The once-powerful Puma brand faded from view in the U.S. for a while, but has now carved out a niche for itself as a smaller player in the athletic and casual footwear segment behind industry leaders Nike and adidas. The company is pushing hard to become more of a player in the entertainment field and is opening a Los Angeles office to bring Puma into the worlds of entertainment and music marketing, as noted in The Hollywood Reporter.
What happened to selling tennis shoes?
= Panorama =
NBA Hoopla:
>> Dallas, Tx.: A 24-point loss in the playoffs raises questions, but with the already-on-edge Dallas Mavericks going home with an 0-2 deficit to New Orleans after last night’s 127-103 loss, there are lots more questioners and not many answers.
Jean-Jacque Taylor, writing in the Dallas Morning News, was the most blunt, asking whether Mavericks owner Mark Cuban “must wonder whether the players still respond” to coach Avery Johnson, adding “The series isn’t over, it just seems that way.”
What’s true is that Dallas has won 12 in a row over the Hornets – including both games this season – at home. It is also true that the Mavs, so recently in the NBA Finals against Miami, are 2-10 in their last 12 playoff games with six losses by 10 or more points. If Dallas loses game three on Friday, then you know the roof is collapsing.
Dirk Nowitzki said after last night’s game that the Mavericks “have to let it loose.” Noted Taylor, “Unless they’re sick of Avery. If that’s the case, they just need to continue playing the same way.”
NFL Extra Points:
>> Tampa, Fl.: It’s never too early for a Super Bowl line and Scoresandodds.com has the AFC champion – whoever it is – as a 6 1/2-point choice over the NFC champion, with an over-under of 51. So the AFC will defeat the NFC, 29-22, in Tampa next year. You read it here first!
>> New York, N.Y.: The NFL Draft is almost upon and so is the silly season for bettors. Propositions available in Las Vegas and online include these gems:
Which conference will have the most picks in the first round? You can get 5-2 odds on the ACC, Big 10, Pac-10 or SEC, but 20-1 on the Big 12!
On what pick will Darren McFadden be chosen? The odds are 7-1 on the first or second pick, 7-2 on being picked third, 5-2 on being picked third or fourth, 5-1 on sixth, 20-1 on seventh, 30-1 on eighth, 50-1 on ninth and 25-1 on 10th or higher.
Keeping Track:
>> London, England: The headline reads, “Maurice Greene has a lot of explaining to do,” but it’s the byline which catches your interest right away: Michael Johnson.
Yes, that Michael Johnson, the man with the gold shoes who demolished strong fields on the way to two gold medals in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. He writes quite often for The Telepgraph and he gets right to the point.
Maurice and I had our words back and forth during our careers and I didn’t have the respect for him as a person that I had for him as an athlete.
But I measure athletic greatness based heavily on consistency and longevity, which Maurice achieved in one of the most difficult events to achieve consistency and longevity in. And I always had respect for him for that.
Johnson acknowledges that track would suffer another devastating blow if yet another sprint champion was to be found guilty of doping, even years after the fact. Johnson also has a firm opinion on the Olympic Games and China: “The time to protest in full force was before the Olympics were awarded to China . . . A problem like this is solved by punishing China for its human rights record by preventing them from having the luxury of hosting the Games through pressuring the IOC before they made their decision.
“What is happening now, with these protests, is not castigating China at all. It’s punishing the Games.”
~ Rich Perelman
>> Have an opinion? You can send it using the “Comment” button below!
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