GOING GOING BACK BACK TO CALI CALI (WITH A 3-2 LEAD)

Last night the Celtics became the first team to win consecutive games in this series, as they outlasted the Lakers 92-86.

The best player of the game was undoubtedly Kobe, who scored 38. But the best team was the Celtics, who had 4 players in double-figures, and three who scored 18+. Meanwhile, Kobe's 38 was complimented by only 48 total from the rest of the Lakers. And despite amassing all those points, Kobe was -6 on the night.

Paul Pierce had his best night of the post-season, dropping 27, but more importantly his play down the stretch was sheer desire and heart. He ripped a rebound from Kobe, he leaped in the air to catch Garnett's Hail Mary inbounds pass (into double coverage), he incessantly did the "little things," that champions do.

Meanwhile, KG scored 18, with 10 rebounds. Rondo came close to another double-double, with 18 points and 8 assists. Ray Allen had 12, despite missing all 4 of his 3-pointers. Nate Robinson only played 10 minutes, but in those 10 he scored 4 and had 4 assists. He's really fit in with the Celtics' team concept.

So the series shifts back to LA, and rather quickly. I'm surprised the NBA didn't want to stretch this out and play Game 6 on Wednesday, then a possible Game 7 on Saturday. Oh well.

But this was close to a must-win for the Celtics, because needing to win back-to-back in LA is a tall task. The Lakers were 34-7 at home, and 9-1 at home in the playoffs. Then again, that 1 loss came against the C's.

Game 6 Tuesday night at 9.

Photo Credit:
The Canadian Press

WORLD CUP ROUNDUP: DAY 4*

I'm sick of hearing those Vuvuzela horns. That's the only part about this World Cup that hasn't been spectacular. Look, I know that there's an impetus to promote South African culture during this tournament, but would they allow thousands of bagpipes to play if the World Cup were in Scotland? So ban these instruments of obnoxiousness! Let them play for the games featuring the South African team, but when Germany is playing Australia, I want to hear crowd noises.

USA 1, England 1

The NY Post conjured up an amazing headline Sunday morning: "USA Wins 1-1; Greatest Tie Since Bunker Hill." And while England's goaltending gaffe ultimately allowed for this tie to occur, it was US goalie Tim Howard and some excellent defending that prevented England from making it a 2-0 game.

South Africa 1, Mexico 1
The South Africans experienced a lot of home-team hospitality when a Mexican goal was incorrectly disallowed for an offsides. There's a reason why the host team has always advanced past the group stage.

Uruguay 0, France 0
France simply refused to adjust their offense to Uruguay's defense. Imagine an offensive coordinator that kept calling for HB Dive or HB Slam, even though there are 10 defenders in the box. That's how France dealt with Uruguay's central clogging defense.

South Korea 2, Greece 0

Ever since the '02 World Cup in Korea, these guys have gotten better and better. More and More Koreans are playing for European club teams every season.

Argentina 1, Nigeria 0

An Argentinian with a German last name like Heinze? People who know their history know why that irks me. Argentina willfully became a haven for ex-Nazis after World War II. That's the part of Evita that was edited out.

Slovenia 1, Algeria 0
Slovenia was the first European team to win at the World Cup. How fucking crazy is that? And it was also Slovenia's first win in any major tournament... ever.

Ghana 1, Serbia 0
A stupid handball penalty allowed Ghana to take this pivotal win.

Germany 4, Australia 0

There were lots of questions about Germany's quality in this competition. Those questions remain, because Australia looked awful. Miroslav Klose scored his 49th goal for Germany, and his 11th career World Cup goal, tying him for 5th all-time (the record is 14, held by fellow German Gerd Müller).

COLLEGE FOOTBALL'S SILLY SEASON

The Big XII is dying. Being ripped limb from limb by the other BCS Conferences, who like cannibals are gobbling up their fellow NCAA power broker. The Big Ten wants Nebraska. The Pac-10's taken Colorado. But they also want Texas and as many as 5 other teams. Oklahoma might even join the SEC.

How'd this happen? Well, the Big Ten and Pac-10 are the epitome of all that's wrong with college football. That's how. They're greedy, more than the other conferences. They're hogs among pigs.

The Big Ten and Pac-10 are the two biggest defenders of the BCS system, which is almost universally seen as inadequate, unfair, and recognized to be bullshit. These two also have their sweetheart deal with the Rose Bowl, the only BCS contest which strictly adheres to conference affiliations.

You can understand their desires to expand to 12 teams. That gets them a lucrative Conference Championship game. And adding Nebraska to the Big Ten gives that conference yet another historic, nationally followed team.

But if the Pac-10 snatches 2 teams from the Big XII, that conference loses its legitimacy. Losing Nebraska is a big enough blow. But take out two more and the house of cards collapses. Don't forget that the Big XII is a mere 16 years old, and was a combination of the Southwest and Big 8 Conferences. Texas and Oklahoma don't want to be the kings of a worthless kingdom.

But the Pac-10 doesn't just want to expand to 12. Nor do they want to take the geographically logical approach and offer a promotion to top Mountain West teams to join their league. The Pac-10 looks to become the Pac-16. That's right, a 16 team monster of a league.

Such a behemoth is grotesquely greedy. This isn't an attempt to improve the quality of the conference. It's not for geographic realignment. It's for TV money. The Pac-10 wants to lure powerhouses like Texas and Oklahoma, get themselves a better broadcasting rights deal, and get even more Bowl money.

The Gator Bowl, the Cotton Bowl, the Holiday Bowl, the Sun Bowl, the Alamo Bowl, and many more smaller bowls are what awaits the Pac-10 if they absorb the Big XII's powerhouses. The 12 team SEC and ACC have 9 bowl tie-ins each. The Pac-10 only has 6, but could easily double that to 12 if they expand to 16 teams. That's a lot of money just waiting to be nabbed.

This isn't new. The ACC raided the Big East quite recently. But they didn't destroy it. The Pac-10, however, seems hell-bent on destroying the Big XII, and pillaging its TV contracts and bowl games.

And what if the Pac-16 divides itself into 4 division, with a two-round playoff of its own to determine a Conference Champ? That's 3 times the "bonus" title games that the SEC, Big Ten and ACC have.

And if it works, the SEC and Big Ten will soon want to expand to 16 as well. They'll plunder from the ACC and Big East.

But as ugly as it sounds, maybe it's a step in an ultimately good direction. The current mishmash system of different sized conferences is an utter mess. There's no strong central governing body. The conferences are too independently powerful. It's like the USA before the Constitution, just a collection of allied but independent units. Each state printing its own money, making its own laws, conflicting with other states.

There are about 64 programs worthy of being in power conferences. Baylor doesn't belong in a BCS league. Boise State does. These 64 can someday be divided among four 16 team conferences. And the winners of these conferences could meet in a playoff.

Maybe. But I doubt a playoff system will come directly from this. As I mentioned, the Pac-16 is looking to absorb bowl games. Streamlining will be an unintentional result of this carnage. But in the end, conferences like the Pac-10 and Big Ten only want money. They don't care if the declared national champion truly deserves a Championship. They just want ESPN to pay them to play the Insight Bowl.

SOX ONCE AGAIN FAIL TO CAPITALIZE

In a 14 game stretch against the dregs of the AL (Kansas City, Oakland, Baltimore, and Cleveland), the Sox went a very unremarkable 8-6. Which isn't bad. But when you're in 3rd place of the best division in baseball, you have to capitalize on these subpar non-divisional opponents. And the Sox failed to do so.

The pitching didn't show up the last two nights. Jon Lester allowed 6 runs in his 6 innings. It snapped a streak of 4 consecutive Quality Starts. Then it was Daniel Bard who blew the Save after the Sox came from behind. Bard has been good this year, sporting a tidy 2.48 ERA. But this was also his 4th Blown Save of the season.

On the bright side, perhaps Pedroia is emerging from his slump. He was 2 for 5 last night with an RBI and a Run. Then again Ortiz has frozen up. He's 1 for his last 23.

This 14 game stretch was an opportunity to nibble at the lead that Tampa Bay and New York have in the East and Wild Card races. Instead, the Sox are only 0.5 games better than where they were when they started this sequence. A 5.5 game deficit reduced to a 5 game gap.

The Sox host the Phillies tonight. Jamie Moyer opposes John Lackey. Yikes.

Photo Credit:
AP Photo

TIE LA!

The Celtics rallied around Glenn Davis and Nate Robinson to pull away from the Lakers in the 4th and tie the NBA Finals at 2-2.

The Celtics' bench outscored the Lakers' 36 to 18. The C's outrebounded the Lakers 41-34, including 16 offensive rebounds. And they outscored them 54-34 in the paint.

What was most enjoyable was when the referees contained themselves and let both teams play. They still called fouls that were clearly fouls, and they laid down the law with technicals when appropriate. But the 3rd and 4th quarters were some of the best basketball of this series, thanks in no small part to the officials being officials, and the players allowed to be players.

The Celtics starters couldn't buy a make. They were generating quality shots, but bricking like crazy. It spoke volumes that in a close 4th quarter, Rondo, KG, and Pierce were all on the bench well into the period.

Paul Pierce woke up. He scored 19 points, but was also hustling for rebounds and driving for fouls.

A mammoth Game 5 will comes Sunday night in Boston.

Photo Credit:
Getty Images

STANLEY CUP ROUNDUP: DAY 57

CHICAGO 4, PHILADELPHIA 3 (Blackhawks win series 4-2)
It's been since 1961 that Blackhawks fans have waited for the Cup to return to their Original 6 city. There were only 6 teams back then. And now finally, the Cup has come back to Chicago.

Give all the credit in the world to the Flyers, who mounted one of the most impressive playoff runs I've ever seen. If it weren't for some deficiencies at goaltender, they would have been doing laps with the Cup. Look for them to address that need during the offseason.

Game 6 itself, I felt, was marred by overly tight officiating. Chris Pronger got a 2 minute cross-checking penalty for something he's done 10,000 times in this series, and 10,000,000 in the playoffs. Seabrook and Sopel each got soft minor penalties that would have been let go if this weren't an elimination game.

It's more than a little unfortunate that there were 9 total power play in this game.

That being said, I'm thankful that the refs swallowed their whistles and the pivotal goals were all tallied even-strengthed.

Including Patrick Kane's game-winner, which wriggled through Michael Leighton, who utterly failed to hold the post and be solid against an 87 degree shot. But as I said, that's Philly's only noteworthy weakness. Although I will pat myself on the back for declaring it so before this series.

While Eastern PA might be upset, I think the rest of the hockey world is glad. Then again, they'd be glad if Philly had won too (except me, I wouldn't've been glad). This is a big market city winning a title for the first time in decades. You have to appreciate it.

But how close did the Flyers come to being one of the most compellingly miraculous stories in sports history? Needing a shootout win to qualify for the playoffs, coming from 0-3 down against the Bruins. They are very very close to achieving victory in this Stanley Cup thing. So watch out next season.

SOX RIDE THE WAKE

With two starters toting 6.00+ ERAs, you'd expect a slugfest. But instead, it was more of a pitcher's duel. As the Sox edged the Indians 3-2.

The Sox scored all their runs in the 4th. Youkilis had an RBI double, then Ortiz an RBI single and eventually Hall had an RBI double to knock in Ortiz. And that would be all that Wakefield and the bullpen would require.

Okajima and Ramirez each recorded one out. And Bard got the save. But it was Wakefield's 7.1 innings that spearheaded the effort.

The Sox go for the sweep tonight as 1-5 Justin Masterson, an old friend, opposes 8-3 Clay Buchholz.

WHERE'S THE ARROGANCE NOW?

Paul Pierce said that the Celtics weren't going to go back to LA. Now, he'd better pray that they will. Because quite frankly, the Lakers took it to the Celtics last night. It wasn't a woodshed beatdown, but the Lakers took charge of this game in the 1st and never left the driver's seat, like a truck-driver on pep pills.

Ray Allen scored a measly 2 goddamned points. He was 0/13 from the field. Yet for some reason, he was trying to make 3-pointers late in the 4th quarter. I know full well that he had an historic outing in Game 2, and I know that he's not really an 0/13 shooter, but neither is he an 8/11 3-point shooter. Nobody is, at least not for longer than one night at a time.

Let's face facts, folks. The Lakers are a good T-E-A-M, team. And while Paul Pierce might have been confident in "Celtics in 5," I think it's quite clear that it will be much harder and much more difficult work than that. The Celtics are also going to have to function as a team. Instead of benefiting from freakishly good outings by Ray Allen, and then Rajon Rondo, all of the C's cogs will have to grind and gear properly, in order to manufacture wins in this series.

So what's the advice for Ray Allen? Make more shots. How about everyone else? Just play better. It's monstrously simple to say, yet exceedingly difficult to carry out.

Game 3 Thursday night, also at 9pm. Thanks, NBA.

Photo Credit:
The Canadian Press