November 2010
2 posts
First Quarter Trends
Everyone’s got top-5’s and -10’s. Lists of who’s hot and, unfortunately, not. Some call it ‘trending’, which probably means ‘who is creating a lot of internet traffic at the moment?’
So who’s trending in the NBA? Almost a quarter of the way through the regular season, you can see trends taking shape. Inconsistencies and anomalies you might have seen from Team X start to look a bit more...
Dissecting An Eventuality
The prospect of losing to England has always been enough to spur the All Blacks into a winning performance, or near enough. Unbeaten in their last 8 encounters, the two losses they suffered prior to that streak were by a combined 5 points, and in the time since then, the closest the Red Rose came was in 2005 when New Zealand completed their first grand slam in 21 years. Yet while the grand slam...
October 2010
1 post
Selecting Another EOYT
This weekend the All Blacks name their squad of 30 players to tour Asia, the UK and Ireland. In the lead up to the announcement, the inevitable questions arise about who should be taken, who should be left out and why there are no longer any bolters. But while the End Of Year Tour (or EOYT, as it has become known), which this year incorporates Bledisloe IV in Hong Kong with a Grand Slam tour, has...
August 2010
7 posts
Escape, Like it's 1997
If you didn’t wake up in the small hours to watch the Springboks play New Zealand overnight, you will likely rue the decision. This match traced two parts of rugby more commonly associated with the early days of professionalism: day time kick off in the Republic and a come-from-behind All Blacks victory.
I could spout on about grit and determination and the will of New Zealand to come through...
EPL Season Preview
It doesn’t seem long since the last football season ended. That’s because only 34 days ago Spain and Holland kicked the crap out of each other to conclude what was, on reflection, an uninspiring and disappointing World Cup. No great teams, no great players – actually plenty of great players; none of whom lived up to their reputations – no great games, few great goals. One of the great talking...
Bellissimo!
If there’s one thing I like to do on YouTube, it’s salivate over old sporting action. Nothing quite like watching MJ go to work in 1988 when he averaged 35 a game. Or perhaps reliving the greatest comeback of all time – that hot night in Istanbul – when Liverpool came back against overwhelming odds. I especially like watching All Blacks games squeezed into ten minutes; particularly northern...
Best Fans In The World?
After a weekend spent analysing all things sport and many things otherwise, there have been a few days to digest what has been argued. Among several other things, the conclusion was reached that England has the world’s best sports fans. This is apparently not up for debate, however it’s a point worth marinating on. Especially since tomorrow night against Hungary at Wembley the fans are expected to...
Gambling on Tiger Woods
Were it not for Phil Mickelson’s spectacular stumble over the weekend at the WGC-Bridgestone in Ohio, Tiger Woods would no longer be the number one golfer in the world, a distinction he has held since 2005. Woods handed in his worst card as a professional golfer, tallying 18 over par, a full 30 shots and 77 places behind winner Hunter Mahan. Yet he still has a tenuous grip on the title; a...
CRICKET!!
With Pakistan in a perpetual state of disarray, it’s easy to overlook the fact that they can be a brilliant side every now and again. It seems like they have conspired to give away cricket matches on a regular basis over the years, willingly or unwillingly, and do their utmost to waste such a hotbed of talent in their possession by taking their rotation policy well outside the limits of normalcy.
...
Off Season Update
Yesterday the NBA released its schedule for the first week of the new season, beginning October 26, as well as a couple of other marquee dates like Christmas, New Year’s Day and Martin Luther King Day. But these aren’t the first murmurs that the new season is approaching; far from it. If you haven’t been paying attention because it’s summer and there are better things to be concerned with than the...
July 2010
6 posts
Farewell Murali
Day two of the second test between Sri Lanka and India ended yesterday with Sri Lanka in a pretty comfortable position, notwithstanding the typical flurry of Sehwag runs at the end of the day. However they will discover today, for the first time in a long time what life is like toiling away on a flat track made for big scores (lowest completed score so far: 54) without the world’s best bowler....
Reverting To Type
With the lumbering Springboks now out of the way and surely now out of the Tri-Nations picture, our attention is turned to the two sides in the competition who like to play rugby. Not ‘running rugby’, but rugby. Let’s not get carried away on the premise that these sides are flinging the ball around willy-nilly; this is not the pre-millennium Super 12. Having said that, you could be forgiven for...
World Cup XI
The World Cup came and went and the outcome, it must be agreed, was good for the game itself. 2010 was always going to struggle against a tide of criticism. There were the Vuvuzelas and the Mexican waves, the shabby performance of some world class teams (take a bow England, Italy and France), the lack of goals, the absence of any truly great games, teams or players. Plenty to be disheartened by...
Getting Carried Away
The mantra is being thrown around with monotonous regularity this week: ‘one game doesn’t make a season’. Those that get paid to say it and those that get paid to write it are clearly warning themselves and their fans of an onslaught from the Springboks in Wellington this Saturday. By all accounts, the Boks were not good in Auckland. They wasted possession by kicking high against a back three that...
Let the duel resume
The All Blacks begin the Tri-Nations this weekend against defending champion South Africa at Auckland. And from the looks of their gallop through the June internationals against Ireland and Wales, they’re in a pretty good place right now. Three comprehensive victories – albeit against teams shorn of key personnel – owed much to the strength in depth of the squad, strangely at a time when...
2010 Free Agent Bonanza
So long is the NBA season that not even 2 weeks after the 2010 Finals concluded, the 2011 NBA Draft has already been and gone. So it wouldn’t be out of place to say that the 2011 season has begun. Pre-season, that is. And this year’s pre-season has a LOT more significance attached to it, because as of July 1st, the floodgates opened and the best free-agent class of all time (BFACAT?) are free to...
June 2010
7 posts
JABULANI UPDATE
As we approach the end of pool play at the 2010 World Cup, everyone is holding their tongues on how to rate this year’s version. What we do know is there have been fewer goals than 2006 (a record low) and fewer games to raise the pulse.
Unfortunately this has meant the talking points have mostly been the Vuvuzelas and the Jabulani. While the metronomic and pulsing drone of the horns can be...
Belated Review
While I missed the vast majority of the NBA Finals due to internet failure, it would be unfair of me not to pass comment just because the Celtics lost.
My ‘Celtics in 6’ theory was well and truly quashed after that game 6 trouncing in LA. As I’ve mentioned before, the team with the best player and the best coach in any series invariably prevails. It also helped that the Lakers defence was the...
The Halfway Point
So I’m not even sure where to begin with the NBA Finals thus far. For one thing, it’s my first taste of real employment for a while so my opportunities to watch any ball have been flattened. Nevertheless, as Johnny Tap so eloquently put it once upon a time, it’s harder to pick than a broken nose.
As a reference point this is about as close to halfway as you’ll get for this series; game...
NBA Finals Preview
The worst thing about writing a preview for something after it’s already begun is having your credibility called into question. There must be a suspicion that I am basing my thoughts on what has transpired in Game One, which took place overnight. I’d like to assure you, I haven’t seen any of it; haven’t even checked the score. Which makes doing this all the more frustrating, because I have to...
Just smoke and mirrors
For the Orlando Magic, the season was going perfectly, right up to the point where they abused the Hawks for their second series sweep in a row. They must be kicking themselves now for not finishing the regular season in first place. This would have ensured them a second round meeting with the Celtics. They would have been flying after a sweep over the Bobcats and ready for a tough team,...
Suns Done?
Having reached the championship round of the NBA season, I’m clearly salivating at the prospect of a Boston-LA match-up. And I’m not alone. While another comprehensive preview will follow shortly, it’s important to preface that with a few musings on a few other things related to how the two teams got to where they sit now. Lest my preview end up being a 10,000 word thesis.
The Lakers managed...
Anything Else?
One of the world’s great sporting streaks has just come to an end, and in pretty conclusive fashion. When Robin Soderling knocked defending champion Roger Federer out of the French Open at the quarter-final stage, it ended Federer’s streak of 23 consecutive Grand Slam semi-finals. Soderling is the same guy who knocked out Rafael Nadal in the quarter-final of the 2009 French Open, inflicting on...
May 2010
10 posts
Momentum
After carefully writing a couple of articles about the state of the playoffs and what we are to expect looking ahead, the Celtics lost game four at home to the Magic. Thus I had to start again. Fortunately, we now have some playoff basketball, even if it is a couple of rounds too late.
The most interesting series available just got ever so slightly more watchable. After being so badly outplayed...
Playoff Picks Revisited
Any time there’s a series on with so much riding on it, there’s a lot of opinion to go with it. Picking winners in the NBA playoffs is no exception, but credibility can be in short supply. There’s only so far it can stretch, perhaps. And while they say pride comes before the fall, I won’t take too much notice as I proudly display my scoring over the first two round of playoff ...
Finally
So the English closed out the T20 World Cup final nicely on the weekend. It was almost a perfect performance in the final of a tournament: early wickets, great fielding, tight bowling, and a long batting line up that got there despite a late wobble. Full credit to the Brits; they were definitely the most consistent and professional team in the Caribbean, and they would have been keen to make...
Final Four
After one of the more bizarre weeks of the NBA Playoffs in recent memory, it’s nice to settle down with our Final Four and do a little analysis as to what might befall these semi-finalists. Not many pundits – certainly not me – would have picked three series sweeps in the second round, and even fewer people, I surmise, would have thought the Boston Celtics would have despatched the league’s...
If it's broke, it can be fixed
After a hiatus of a couple of years, a friend and I were discussing all things sport over some fine, warm English beer – how hard the 20/20 is to get excited about, where LeBron James will be next year, the chances of New Zealand exploding if we lose the 2011 World Cup – run of the mill chat. Yet it did get intellectual and/or thought-provoking. See, both of us, at one point in our lives...
1992, Anyone?
The ICC World Twenty 20 rolls on this week. It’s something of a juggernaut, this form of the game. There are national leagues, the lucrative Indian Premier League, a Champion’s League, international matches and a T20 World Cup every two years (as opposed to the conventional four in pretty much every other sport in the world). Strangely, cricket’s governing body, the ICC, got their dates...
Rivalry
A lot of people are unaware of the history between the Phoenix Suns and the San Antonio Spurs in the playoffs this decade. I thought I might touch on that a bit, since they are playing yet another series right now. The Spurs were the formidable team of the 00’s earning the recognition of being a dynasty. On the back of Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker-Longoria, they have won 4 of the past...
Playoff Picks
If it’s May, it’s the NBA playoffs. And this year’s edition, while already well underway, has thrown up a couple of suprises and paired a couple of old nemeses together as well. Rather than get too far in depth on the state of the second round (there will be a full Final Four preview before the Conference Finals get underway), I’m going to publish my picks in the hope that they are half as...
Tribute
When I was back in New Zealand recently, there seemed to be an inordinately high number of people on the street that look like Danyon Loader. Everywhere I went there would be a look-alike sipping on a coffee or standing at a zebra crossing. After some discussion it became clear that these Danyon doppelganger sightings were not just restricted to NZ; Australia, too, seems to be a hotbed of...
Welcome
As you enter the foyer of this blog, there are a few things you need to be aware of. Firstly, the year is 2010. This is a good thing. In a couple of months there is a football World Cup; about a year away is a rugby World Cup; this year, sports fans have witnessed the most compelling Premier League season in years, an evenly contested ascent to the mountaintop of the NBA, and then there’s...