NBA Playoffs News - Bryant's Lakers in trouble, Lebron's Cav

[shengxing]

The dream championship match-up of the NBA's premier players and top teams faces a harsh reality in only the first round of the playoffs.

This year’s playoffs have been built up as an eventual collision course of the past two season’s Most Valuable Players in the Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant and Cleveland Cavaliers’ Lebron Jamesyouth MLB jersey. But Los Angeles and Bryant have hit an unexpected skid early in the postseason.

If the Lakers can’t get their act in order, Bryant and James’ first meeting in an NBA final will have to be put on hold.

Despite being the No. 1 seed in the Western ConferenceNBA jersey, the Lakers are now facing an uphill battle in an opening round playoff series against the eighth-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder. After the Lakers were embaressed 110-89 by the upstart Thunder in Game 4, the series, now tied at two apiece, gets reduced to a best-of-three competition.

The next day, James sent his Cleveland Cavaliers well on their way to getting past the first round against the Chicago Bulls with a dominant triplecheap MLB jersey-double performance. The Eastern Conference’s top-seeded Cavaliers lead their series with the No. 8 Bulls 3-1 after Sunday’s 121-98 win.

While Cleveland seems to be holding up its end of the bargain, at least in the early going, Los Angeles is experiencing its troubles against one of the youngest teams in the NBA. It’s not so much that the series is now evened up after four games; what’s more concerning is the way in which the defending NBA champions so poorly played Game 4wholesale MLB jersey. Even if the Lakers get by the Thunder, many question whether they can get all the way through a tough top-to-bottom Western Conference draw.

In the Game 4 loss, the Thunder built a double-digit margin in the first quarter and at one point, opened up a 29-point cushion on the Lakers. The Thunder capitalized on what was perceived to be its only advantage coming into the series — its youth, by running the Lakers up and down the court led by the league’s regular season scoring champion Kevin Durant and rookie Russell Westbrook.

But even scarier for the Lakers was Oklahoma City’s ability to dominate in just about every facet of the gameMLB jersey, including cleaning up on the glass against a much bigger Lakers team and holding in check Bryant, the 14th-year veteran, who seems to be continuing to battle through injuries and ailments that have plagued nearly his entire season. Lakers’ big men Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom did little to pick up any of the slack left by Bryant, continuing the type of unsteady play that led to a sub-par second half of the season for Los Angeles.

The Lakers made a concerted effort to feed the ball inside early to get to the likes of Gasol and Odom more involved and use what was thought to be their distinct advantage. Not in this game. The Lakers quickly fell behind and Bryant’s efforts to force the ball into the paint cost him shots. He went the entire quarter without one.

This was the type of performance from which some teams would not bounce back, but this is still the Lakers, who are led by a four-time champion in Bryant, in addition to one of the winningest coaches in NBA history in Phil Jackson. During many of those championship-winning years, Los Angeles has been pushed to the brink and responded just fine.

Might the Thunder win just one more game and see how this year’s Lakers, a little more banged up and older than in past seasons, respond in 2010? The youthful Thunder will need to play with the same type of confidence and exuberance the rest of the series, especially in the tough atmosphere of Tuesday’s Game 5 in Los Angeles, for us ever to find out.

Meanwhile, the Cavaliers are looking to close out their opening round that same night at home after James, the sixth-year professional, thoroughly took the air out of Chicago in Game 4 with 37 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists.

The two teams were favored to meet last season but Orlando’s strong run through the Eastern Conference and upset of the Cavaliers in the conference finals derailed that hope. Now, with the chance of an early upset of the Lakers at hand, what was thought to be the eventual championship series in 2010 may have to wait yet another season.

[shengxing]

[img=300,206]http://www.nfljersey-supply.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/a-rod-hit1-300x206.jpg[/img]
When Alex Rodriguez went from 499 homers to 500, it took him nine games and 28 at-bats to do it. Now that he’s at 599, let’s take a look at how long to expect it to take this time.
If it took him another nine games, that would set him up for No. 600 on July 31st in Tampa against the Rays. This time could be different, though.NHL jerseys
Since 2007, when he hit no. 500, A-Rod has transformed from a “me first” egotistical player to one who is more relaxed, looks like he genuinely has fun, and cares more about winning than personal stats. In other words, it won’t necessarily take him nine games this time.
So let’s look at this realistically. This season, he has 16 homers in 338 at-bats, or a home run just about every 21 at-bats.
With an average of 3.84 at-bats per game, that puts him at about five and a half games before he smacks 600. So if he kept up his season average of homers per at-bat he would do it either Tuesday or Wednesday in Cleveland.nfl jerseys
The thing is, these statistics might as well get thrown out the window, because the Yankees are currently facing the same team A-Rod hit No. 500 against, the Kansas City Royals.
Not only are the Royals in almost the same situation they were in back in 2007, pitching wise, they actually have the same pitcher, Kyle Davies, who gave up No. 500 pitching tomorrow.
So maybe A-Rod homers on Saturday. However, that might be homer No. 601, because before he faces off against Davies, A-Rod faces off against another Royals pitcher whom he’s had success against: Brian Bannister.
He’s only faced Bannister over seven at-bats, but he’s 4-for-7 against him with three home runs. You’ve got to like those odds.louboutin shoes
I’ve already pointed out that Alex is likely to hit No. 600 any time between tonight and July 31st, but where exactly is he going to hit the home run?
SeatGeek.com has actually done some research. They’ve determined that Alex hits most of his homers to left field, which is typical for a right handed power hitter.
The most likely section that he’ll hit it to is section 136 in Yankee Stadium. He’s got a 9.0 percent chance at hitting one. Next is section 135 with a 7.8 percent chance. It then goes 134 (6.9%), 235 (4.7%), and 236 (3.7%).
So if you are looking to catch A-Rod’s 600th homer, head over to Stubhub and start buying up tickets in those sections.jordan shoes
However, if you are really serious about landing the prized ball, you should look into “The Money Seat.” SeatGeek has actually determined that section 135, row 18, seat 6 is the one seat in the entire stadium where A-Rod is most likely to hit the ball.
SeatGeek puts A-Rod’s chances of homering at Yankee Stadium at 54.3 percent right now. I’ve been in touch with them and they’ve told me that should he fail to homer at home this weekend, they will come up with the numbers of where his historic homer will land in either Cleveland or Tampa.
So if he doesn’t get the job done soon, check back before you book your flight to follow the Yankees on the road.