Posts Tagged ‘playoffs’

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Sixers Win 5 in a Row

February 10th, 2010 by Johnny G | 10 Comments | Filed in Basketball, General, Sixers

Go Ahead, I dare ya to try and take it!

That’s right you heard it here first. The 76ers have won five games in a row. Don’t look now but the once cellar-dwelling Sixers are now 20-31, leaving them just 4.5 games out of the 8th and final playoff spot in the East. Before this recent hot streak the Sixers were well on their way to a lottery selection in the upcoming draft at 15-31, with only the New Jersey Nets behind them in the standings.

If you look further into the winning streak the Sixers have beaten the lowly Nets with a record of 4-47, then traveled to New Orleans and beat the Hornets without superstar point guard Chris Paul. Next was their most impressive victory of the streak when they came back from an 11 point second half deficit to beat the surging Houston Rockets. Finally, just last night they trounced the horrendous Minnesota Timberwolves by 22.

The talent level of the teams they have beaten in this recent run is not the best, but for a team of the Sixers caliber, a five game win streak is impressive nonetheless. This recent win streak also causes an issue for many Sixers fan that did not exist just a week ago. Do you continue rooting for the Sixers to lose in pursuit of a lottery pick and the draft rights to Kentucky star point guard John Wall? Or do you root for the Sixers to win and capture that final playoff spot, even though they will certainly be eliminated in the first round after facing Cleveland or Orlando?

The obvious answer is to root for the lottery selection but it is not always that easy. Naturally you want to root for your team to win and for the opportunity to see them succeed, or at least for the Sixers sake, participate in the playoffs.

The constant throughout this win streak is the absence of former star and Philadelphia icon, Allen Iverson. Iverson missed all but the first game of the win streak and the overall energy on the team has been on the rise during his absence. One would think due to the success of the team without him that when Iverson returns to the team it will be in a bench role. How that will go over in the locker room remains to be seen.” The Answer” has averaged 14.4 points since his return to the city of brotherly love but the team has largely struggled since he was acquired.

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Johnny G’s Conference Championship Picks

January 24th, 2010 by Johnny G | 7 Comments | Filed in Football, General

It's in the Money

Minnesota Vikings (+4) over New Orleans Saints 6:40pm

What a game this will be. The ageless Brett Favre comes into the Superdome and tries to take down Drew Brees and the Saints. Will the home-field advantage be too much for the Vikings to overcome or will Adrian Peterson and Brett Favre be too much for the Saints to deal with?

Minnesota enters this game with the NFL’s second best offense in the NFL. Interestingly enough, New Orleans enters this game with the NFL’s best offense. Both Quarterbacks are right around 70% with their completion percentage, both threw for just over 4,000 yards, both have extremely impressive touchdown to interception ratios, and they both come off 31 point playoff wins just last week.

With all the talk about all of the offensive firepower through the air for both teams, I firmly believe this game will come down to the running game. Adrian Peterson, who has struggled in recent weeks, is still as talented as any running back in the league, and going up against a rush defense that allows almost 130 yards per game, this could be his coming out party. On the other side the Vikings only allow 87 yards per game on the ground to opponents and just over 200 yards through the air. The Vikings defense is strong enough to shut down the run early, and then sit back and blitz Brees to prevent him from getting any momentum going.

Overall the Vikings have more weapons on both sides of the football as well. With Percy Harvin expected to play despite his migraine situation and Pro-Bowler Sidney Rice, it is an explosive and dangerous combination to stop. Jared Allen should put quite a bit of pressure on Drew Brees throughout the game and hamper the rhythm of this offense. Take the Vikings plus the points here on the road as Favre finally gets back to a Super Bowl at the ripe age of 40.

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Johnny G’s Divisional Playoff Picks

January 16th, 2010 by Johnny G | 2 Comments | Filed in Football, General

Johnny G Divisional Picks

Arizona Cardinals (+7.5) over New Orleans Saints/ 4:30 pm Saturday

After the showing the Arizona Cardinals put on against the NFL’s 2nd ranked defense, I have to go with them plus the points here. Kurt Warner had more Touchdown passes (5) than incompletions (4) in last week’s contest. Although Anquan Boldin is unlikely to play, I don’t think it will make much of a difference after watching the rhythm of their offense last week. You could plug Greg Lewis and Todd Pinkston into that offense and they would still move the ball at this point.

The Saints come into this game absolutely reeling, losing their final 3 games to end the season after making a run at the perfect season. Even along the way while they remained undefeated, they looked very vulnerable against the Redskins and many other bottom of the barrel teams. Will the bye week help this struggling team? Although they have the advantage of getting healthy, I think this negatively affects this team. The question you have to ask yourself at this point is “Do you see the Saints blowing out the Cardinals?” I know I certainly don’t. I will gladly take the 7.5 and roll with the red birds.

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ATROCIOUS!

January 10th, 2010 by Christian | 32 Comments | Filed in Eagles, Football, General

Diagnosis: High Anxiety, Low Pressure Tolerance

In last week’s loss, they were horrendous. I’m not sure if atrocious is worse than horrendous, but yes, they were far worse Saturday night. Atrocious, unbearable, and other negative adjectives come to mind.

It was over by halftime.

Despite the politically correct NFL commentators, this was clearly McNabb’s loss.

At one point midway through the second quarter, he was one for five for two yards. He was nervous, jittery, glazed over, inaccurate, feet going pitter pat, scared out of his wits.  Dude’s got a nervous disorder.

He freezes up when he sees a receiver wide open, causing the ball to sail over their heads, behind them, or be buried in the dirt.

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Johnny G’s Wild Card Weekend Playoff Picks

January 8th, 2010 by Johnny G | 8 Comments | Filed in Football, General

Wildcard Money Picks

As the regular season comes to a close, my overall record stands at 16-9. This year in the NFL playoffs there are several story-lines to follow and it should be as entertaining as any year in recent memory. Without further ado, here are my picks for Wild Card Weekend.

Cincinnati Bengals (-2.5) over New York Jets

These two teams match up pretty well across the board except for one small problem for the Jets. Both teams have very good defenses. Both teams have very good running games. Both teams don’t really have any explosive, dangerous Wide Receivers besides Ochocinco for the Bengals, who will be covered by Darele Revis. Then we move on to Quarterbacks, and you have Carson Palmer and Mark Sanchez. The NFL has transformed over the last several years into a passing league. In years past this Jets team would have a chance in “any game they played” as Rex Ryan says but in today’s day and age you need to be able to throw the football consistently and effectively to win.

The Bengals’ game plan will be very simple and very straightforward. Take away the run and make Mark Sanchez beat you. If the Jets cannot run the ball effectively, can Mark Sanchez win a game for you? I wouldn’t put my money on it happening. On the other hand you have Carson Palmer, a time-tested veteran who wrapped up his division title two weeks before the season ended. Cedric Benson for the Bengals also is coming off a career season in which he was almost unstoppable, except for the 3+ games he missed due to injury.

Overall this Jets team is a nice little story. Rookie QB rallies his team to the playoffs when it was win or go home. If you look deeper though, the Jets should not even be in the big dance. There are many more deserving teams out there who could potentially make much more of an impact in the playoffs. The Jets went into Indianapolis and found themselves down by 4 mid-way through the third quarter and like an angel sent from above, Jim Caldwell decided to call off his quest for the perfect season and pull Peyton Manning and the rest of his starters. The Jets went on to win that game and their playoff hopes remained alive. They then needed to take down the same Cincinnati Bengals that they are facing this week in order to clinch a playoff birth. Keep in mind this game meant absolutely nothing to the Bengals and them losing this game would only guarantee that they would be facing by far the worst team in the playoffs, the Jets.

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Eagles Crash

January 5th, 2010 by Rossi711 | 6 Comments | Filed in Eagles, Football, General

Take Flight Eagles Fans

Well another Eagles season is about to go down in flames. An 11-5 record looks a lot better than the 6-10 I was expecting but then when you look deep it is pathetic!

Yes they won 11 games but against teams that were 59-85 overall.

The only team they beat with a WINNING record was Atlanta (9-7). Atlanta was without their starting QB and RB. The two teams they played with double digit wins were Dallas (11-5) and New Orleans (13-3).

They lost those three games and one to a Raiders team that was 5-11! The Raiders loss cost them the bye. Now to Sunday’s debacle. This was all on the fat redhead! This team was not ready to play, had no interest in playing and got their ass whipped.

The comment from the locker-room of “We figured we would play them next week!” makes no sense! A win and they Eagles are off next week, have a home game in round two and a possible home game for the NFC Championship game!

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Location, location, location

October 31st, 2009 by Christian | 16 Comments | Filed in Baseball, General, Phillies

There’s an old adage that you only need to know three things about real estate: location, location, location.

For Game 3 of the World Series tonight, there are three critical locations you need to know about also:

LOCATION #1. Cole Hamels fastball. If Hamels can locate his fastball, he’s dominating. Last year he did and was virtually unhittable in the postseason. This year, he’s struggled with it.

According to shortstop Jimmy Rollins, “He hasn’t been able to place his fastball where he wants it. You see the catcher setting up outside, and he’s pulling the ball in. When he’s doing that, it makes his changeup a lot less effective. When he’s spotting his fastball and he can throw the changeup in the same spot 10, 12 mph slower, it becomes tough to hit. But when he’s struggling with one pitch, you can almost start cancelling out the other, and I think that’s the biggest difference.”

LOCATION #2.
Take it to The Bank. The Phillies have enjoyed home cooking, posting an 11-1 postseason record at Citizen’s Bank Park since the beginning of last year’s playoffs. The Bank is the best home field advantage in baseball.

LOCATION #3.
The seats behind home plate. New Yankee Stadium looks like a corporate shell of Old Yankee Stadium. The old place was built for the Bronx Bombers. The new digs seem to be made for the Manhattan IBMers. On television, half the seats appeared to be empty. Not exactly sure why. I’ve read different reasons for it, from overpriced tickets, to Cliff Lee’s dominant performance. But one thing you can be sure of – you won’t see empty seats in Philly.

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