TORN ACL ELIMINATES BULLS FROM PLAYOFFS

Derrick Rose tore his ACL with just over 1 minute left in Game 1 of their series with the Philadelphia Sixers.  At the time Rose went down, the Bulls had the ball and were up by a dozen.  There was probably a 97% chance that they were going to win that game.  Rose has been injured all year, so I ask myself, “Why wouldn’t coach Thibodeau pull him out?” I know, I’m Monday morning quarterbacking right now, but still  The Bulls just went from favorites to win the Championship to a 1st or 2nd round out.  Let’s not blame the Bulls coaching staff entirely.  I believe the league has to share about 50% of this as well. Had it not been for the lockout, the cramming of all these games in a shortened season, this would’ve never happened.  No preseason, no camp, multiple back to back to back games.  I mean, this is ridiculous.  Same thing happened to Dwight Howard, Al Horford (although he is injury prone), and now Iman Shumpert of the Knicks. Looks like Chicago’s gonna have to wait another year.  Take it from this blogger who has torn his ACL in each knee (the most recent 2 yeas ago), it ain’t fun, and rehab’s no walk in the park either.  But I’m guessing with the money they have invested in Rose, along with the state of the art facilities and medical staff, Rose should be ready to go by November. As for the playoffs, looks like the Heat are gonna coast to the finals.

Clippers Bring the Thunder

What a game! Just finished watching the Clippers abuse the Thunder in the 4th quarter, holding Durant and Westbrook to a combined single digits in teh second half and I gotta admit it, I’m sold. Don’t get me wrong, they have to make a couple of adjustments like boxing out and not allowing so many offensive rebounds. DeAndre Jordan also needs to get his head in the game.  The Clippers need his big body clogging up the pain in the final minutes.

Not much I can say about the Clipper guards though.  Chris Paul can pretty much get any shot off he wants.  As long as Mo Williams and Randy Foye keep shooting like he did tonight they’re cruise to the Western Conference Finals, at the very least.  And I gotta admit, the Nick Young trade is HUGE! Back to back 3s in the 3rd quarter plus a few other buckets kept the Clips in the game when they couldn’t buy a bucket.  I’m pumped about the playoffs, only 2 weeks left.  I know, I forgot to mention Blake Griffin. He’s awesome.  Get’s no respect from the refs. He needs to stop complaining though.  Clippers in the playoffs for the first time since 2006.  Time to make some noise.

DETROIT REDWINGS TAKE BACK THEIR MANHOOD

First of all, I’m not claiming that I’m a hockey fan.  I don’t hate the sport, I actually dabbled in it a few years ago.  I must admit though, I don’t really follow. Not until I saw the highlights of Game 1 of the Nashville Predators and Detroit Redwings game that other night.  It wasn’t so much the score, as it was the bushleague behavior of Predator’s Shea Weber ramming Henrik Zetterberg’s head into the glass.  Then, to add insult to injury, the NHL fines Weber a whopping $2,500, as restricted by the collective bargaining agreement. Thankfully, hockey has its own way of laying down the law, as we saw with hockey bad-ass Todd Bertuzi. If you remember, Bertuzzi was that guy who sucker puncehd Steve Moore years ago and ended his career.  He was kicked out of hockey for a long time.  Kudos for Bertuzzi for getting his teammate’s back then and Kudos for Bertuzzi for doing it again tonight. Interesting series though, they outta lay out Weber a couple more times.

UBALDO JIMENEZ IS BUSHLEAGUE

There’s no other way to put it.  Talk about being a sour puss.  After the Colorado Rockies declined to offer Jimenez a long-term deal after going 6-9 with a era over 4, they traded him to the Indians for minor league propsects.  Apparently, Jimenez hasn’t let that go, especially since the Rockies offered Troy Tulitwitzki and his .300+ batting average, 30 hr and 100+ rbis a contract extension.  Then to have Jimenez intentionally plunk Tulowitzki in the elbow of all places in a meaningless minor league outing.  I don’t know what’s worse, doing that or denying the real reason for doing so, claiming that Tulo was calling him names.  C’mon Ubaldo, you’re better than that. You’re a 28 year old pitcher with your best days behind you.  Thank the lord that you’re still in the bigs.