Loaded Win

If you've read any news or watched  a sports channel over the past few days, the mood is so grim around the Bulls that you'd think Philly is up 1-0. That's because the Bulls rout of the 76ers  came at a huge expense. Rose tore his ACL on a jump stop pass with 1 min remaining. That puts him out for the season and many would write this team off as a contender. This type of injury is also a potential career changer. Some players were  never the same after. Others fully recovered.

The first thing that will come up is blame on Coach Thibodeau. It's always easy to second guess. I'm just glad Gar Foreman and the rest of the Bulls stand behind the decision. The Bulls were leading by 20. Then Philly went on a run at the end of the 4th. To me, it was a no-brainer to keep Rose in. In that situation, he would normally play... so why not in this game?

As far as the Bulls chances... I still think they can do it. It'll just be a lot harder. They have beaten most of these teams without Rose. They should still beat Philly, though it may not be a sweep. Then it would be the Celtics or Hawks... again still possible and even likely. Miami will be the hurdle, but not impossible. The toughest series would be against the Thunder or Spurs, who are deep and healthy right now. That's where Rose is really needed. The X factor is Rip Hamilton. Though his game is different, if he can pick up the scoring slack,they still have a good shot at the title.

We Have... Shuttles

Bra'tac: Perhaps if the warships of your world attack we will be able... 
Carter: (interrupting) Eh, excuse me... did you say "the ships of our world?" 
Bra'tac: Surely you have such vessels? 
Jackson: Well, we have a number of...of... 
Jackson & O'Neill: Shuttles. 
Bra'tac: These... "shuttles"... they are a formidable craft? 
O'Neill: Oh yeah... yeah... bad day...

Stage is Set

It came down to the last day for the 1-8 seeding to fall in place. The Bulls already clinched #1 last game, but last night's win gave them homecourt throughout as they needed to at least tie the Spurs (Bulls own the tiebreaker). The 76ers lost their game, getting blown out by Detroit. It's pretty safe to say they tanked that one because it's been in the news that they preferred to play the Bulls over the Heat. That didn't matter anywaay because the Knicks won their game. They couldn't lose that one evn if they tried as it was against the league worst Bobcats. With the loss, Charlotte earned the longest losing streak in NBA history... 23 games! The Bulls will host the 76ers this Saturday. It's all about health though. Rose still wasn't 100% this final week. Hamilton is looking good though. And Deng still needs to tough out the wrist injury.

#1 Again

The Idle Bulls locked in the 1 seed last night as the Celtics bench (Pierce, Allen & Garnett sat out) came from behind to defeat the Heat bench (James & Wade sat out). We still don't know who the Bulls will play, but all should be decided soon. Will it be the Knicks or 76ers? I would say the 76ers gave them more trouble this season than the Knicks did, but the Bulls don't  care who their opponent is. They respect all teams and will be prepared for anyone. In fact, they'll probably play hard against Indiana tonight even though the game doesn't matter. They have secured the best record in the league already and homecourt throughout the playoffs. But the Indy game is still one  of the last chances for Rose and Hamilton to get comfortable before the postseason. Deep teams will play hard every game since everyone from 1-12 is trying to earn minutes.

Posting Fee

Yu Darvish

Right now, the Yankees and Rangers are sending out their new Japanese additions out to the field. Yankees Hiroki Kuroda is facing off with Yu Darvish of the Rangers. So it's a big media game with 2 of Japan's best. One of the big headlines before the season began was the bid for Yu Darvish and his $50 million+ posting fee. Michael Kay just gave a great explanation for that, so I wanted to repost what he just said. You may wonder why it costs so much just to be eligible to talk to the guy and his team. In Japan, there's an 8 year minimum before a player can become an international free agent. After 8 years, they're free to come to the US to play... no strings attached. The posting fee is there for players who want to leave early. The money compensates the Japanese team for losing their phenom for his career in Japan. A player like Darvish will let his team know about his dreams so they can be prepared business wise. It's a mutual thing and everyone ends up happy. The Japanese team gets a load of money to plan with. The US team gets a superstar and a contingent of Japanese fans and sponsors. The player lives his dream.

Weekend Sports Wrapup

Bulls
The Bulls won their game against the Mavs behind a solid effort of the starters. It featured some great plays by Luol Deng (22) and a vintage Rip Hamilton (19). It was also a good warmup game for Rose who got 11pts & 8 asts in 30 min of play. More importantly, the Miami Heat lost their game in the final seconds to the Wizards. So that made up for the Bulls loss last week. The magic number is just one now for the Bulls to clinch the 1 seed. There are just 2 games left and both are against division rivals, which could come into play should the Bulls tie the Heat in records.

Yankees
It's always a big weekend when the Yankees face the Red Sox. This was their first meeting of the season. While the Red Sox have been terrible up to this point, it was important that the Yankees didn't let them turn the tides in this series like they did last year. Friday's daytime game featured the 100th birthday of Fenway park. Birthdays are about giving and the Yankees packaged 5 HRs for a 6-2 win. Also in that game, the Yankees and Red Sox wore retro outfits... a break in tradition for both clubs. Saturday's game was one of the reasons I never turn off the TV in a blowout. The Yankees fell behind 9-0 by the 6th inning. They ended up winning 15-9 behind a Swisher grand slam and 2 HRs by Teixiera. An instant Yankees Classic. Game 3 was postponed because of rain.

All Even

It seems like the Bull-Heat season series was meant to be a split. If it  wasn't, things wouldn't be as interesting and writers would have no material.  With last night's loss, the season series is 2 a piece andd the Bulls failed to clinch the 1 seed, giving the Heat a chance at it still. This also gives writers some material to get on the Bulls about. The scoring last night was there, but they were down a superstar in Derrick Rose.  The Heat played without Bosh... but that's hardly an even trade. The problem was defense though. The Heat outrebounded the Bulls and had all of the hustle plays. 

If the Knicks drop to the  seed, they get the Knicks. If they stay where they are, they'll get the 76ers. Either one should be OK. The 76ers have played terrible in the 2nd half. The Knicks are a better team than their standing shows because of early injuries and lack of effort in the pre-Lin half. 

Playing 500

Last night was another bounce-back win. Since they lost the previous matchup to a bottom-of-the-cellar team, the Bulls came out and blew away another one in the Bobcats. Both Deng and Rose sat out, but Hamilton was perfect from the field to lead the way with 22. Asik off he bench had a monster 13 rebs. All players who had minutes scored. That's the type of game I like to see. 

By the way they're using their players and stars, the Bulls' strategy is prety clear. The 1 seed is important, but health is more important. Continuing to play 500 ball as they have been will probably get them the 1 seed with a 1/2 of 1 game lead. One has to assume that Miami will always win. Beating Miami tonight would secure the spot. The loss to the Wizards was a half step back and probably shouldn't have happened. But the 2 seed is not bad if it comes up. They would face the Knicks in that case.

The Spurs are taking the same strategy. Popovich wasn't shy about saying that he would rest his stars. And he's right. There's no tomorrow if you win the 1 seed and lose your stars to injury.

Subway Tales: Odd Couple

Every morning when I ride a  certain subway car, towards the back of the train, I sit near and odd couple. The husband and wife will board at the second stop and usuallyget a seat together. Since they're on the 2nd stop, it's possible for them to wait to get a seat. And it's worth the comfort as they take the train all the way to the last stop. But thee funny part is they don't exit the train the same way they enter. At the second to last stop, the husband gets up and rushes to a door, making sure he's the first person on line. When the doors open, he jets out like there's a fire emergency. Then he waits outside for his wife, who spills out with the rest of the crowd. What was the rush if he was going to wait outside for his wife to catch up!?

Summer Preview

As if we needed more weird weather to throw off nature, temperatures shot up to well over 80 degrees on the weekend and into Monday. So in recent years, April weather can range from Winter with snow flurries to mid-Summer heat! Today was a bit more normal around 70's, and it goes back to 60's for the next week or so. With the sudden warm weather, I did notice the usual Summer bugs, mosquitoes and flies roaming about. So the unusual patterns must  through off the cycle of many organisms.

Mob Magic Runs Out

The Bulls sat out Rose and Deng so they could get some more healing time for their injuries, but this time, the Bench Mob couldn't pull off the win against the league worst Wizards. They had the lead and kept it close in the closing minutes, but they were just missing that clutch edge that they normally have with Rose or Deng on the floor. Watson has been capable of it, but obviously can't do it to the same percentage as the MVP. So this game was a reality check for the Mob.

When you look at it from a different angle, many writers are in favor of just sitting Rose until the Playoffs begin. They don't want to see a cheap-shot that injures him at this point. The Bulls have already clinched a berth and it would be a shame to finish strong and then lose in the first round because Rose was done for the year. I'm in favor of moderation. Rose needs rest, but still needs to play to stay warm. Maybe play him every other game or limit his minutes like Hamilton. Rip is now up to 30 min and scored 22 last night, which is very good news.

Rose is Back!

The Bulls almost let one get away last night. They probably played down to the level of the Pistons, but in a way, it was a good thing. It allowed Derrick Rose to hit the game tying 3-pointer at the end of the 4th. He needed something like that because it's been slow since his return from the groin injury. It wasn't a bad night overall for him either as he put up a team high 24 and 9 asts. He also had a team high 2 blks and 2 stls. Noah had 20 pts and 17 rebs, including a clutch put-back in OT. Hamilton had 13 pts in 20 min of gameplay, so they're easing him back in. Boozer had a solid 15 pts / 9 rebs. For the Pistons, Stucky was the hero with 32 pts, but his missed FT allowed Rose to tie.

Bench Mob def Heat

Rose made himself play the game against the Heat. He knew it was a big one, but it was obvious that he forced it. There was a slight limp and his timing was off. He scored a career low 2 points, but teamwork and depth won this one for the Bulls. LeBron had a great first half and Wade had a spectacular 4th quarter, but the Bulls did the same thing they did last time... they shutdown everyone else. Offense came from a consistent Boozer, who was previously a no-show in the 2 earlier games against the Heat; Kyle Korver's hot 3-point streak, carrying over from the Knicks game; CJ Watson's clutch 4th quarter and forcing OT; Deng, Gibson and Asik with excellent team play.

With the win, the Bulls secured the Central Division and are gauranteed a Playoff berth even if they forfeit the rest of the games. It's an unofficial award to the 1st seed as well since they only play Miami one more time. The best the Heat could do is tie the season series. Homecourt still goes to the Bulls for their divisional record. The major concern here is for Rose and Hamilton to get their timing back. There are only 7 more games left before this great regular season gets scratched from memory.

Office Defaults

I try to avoid using MS Office just because it tries to do too much as far as guessing what the user wants. If you wonder why file sizes are so big compared to other rich text formats, it's because Office saves a crap load of meta data. Some of those include Windows user information, the history of changes and information about anyone who's touched the file since creation. It also saves a lot of unexpected things like all of the last editor's settings for the specific file. So if you're zoomed into your Word Doc 500% and save it that way, your colleague will see that. Be prepared for blind jokes! That means you should save your files in a nice presentation position too. I've gotten Excel spreadsheets that are too large for my laptop resolution and sometimes it takes a bit of work to get things back to normal. The common one is getting an Excel file that's scrolled way off from the column headings.

My favorite alternate is Google Docs. It doesn't do any of the crazy saving of position. All documents are easily accessed because they're Online. It's also compatible with MS Office. OpenOffice.org or Star Office are good desktop alternative. Both are free and offer most of MS Office's functionality. They're lighter programs and also don't have the meta data obsession of Microsoft.

3-1

The Bulls delivered once again in a must-win situation. After a bad loss in NY, they faced the same team 2 days later. It  was the Bulls who got off tto the fast start this time, although the 1st quarter was close with several lead changes. The Bulls lead by 10 at halftime, which usually worries me. They didn't let up though. The Knicks went on several runs lead by Carmelo Anthony, but the Bulls endured all of it. Rip Hamiilton secured the 3rd quarter, scoring 18 of his 20. That was the vintage Detroit Piston's champ! Kyle Korver, who was outshot by Steve Novak in the previous game seemed to get down on himself, but really made up for it by icing last night's in the 4th. The Bulls had their shooting droughts at times, but stayed in the game with offensive rebounds and tap backs. They had 18 more total rebounds than the Knicks and scored on most of those.

With the win, the Bulls take the season series 3-1 and also make up for losing last year's season series 1-2. The Heat lost to the Celtics in another Playoffs preview, giving the Bulls a nice 3 game lead at 1st seed. They play Miami twice more. So if they at least split those meetings and do what they've been doing with the other  games, they should be OK.

Be Ready

If you're at the first stop of a major train station, there's a good chance you'll get a seat. However, you shouldn't settle in until the train has it's doors closed and takes off. I've seen this happen a lot... a passsenger gets a seat and settles in, taking his glasses off, putting his bag down and pulling out something to read. Then all of a sudden there's  some issue with the train and the one across the platform gets the go-ahead to leave first. The guy that waited patiently for his seat loses it if he wants to hop on the next train out. So while a train is idle, don't settle in yet. Get ready to dash out on any negative announcement!

Rough Weekend

I obviously had a bad weekend with both the Yankees and Bulls dropping games to their rivals. The Yankees, off to a usual slow start got swept by the Tampa Bay Rays. The bats looked good in general, but pitching was rusty. It's not anything to worry about though. The Yankees always start this way... even in some of their best seasons.

The Bulls lost to the Knicks in an unusual 4th quarter slowdown. The Knicks actually lead by as many as 21, but the Bulls had a spectacular 3rd quarter to gain a 10-point lead. Up until that point, it was a typical Bulls game. They just scored 10 in the early 4th and stayed there until the Knicks tied it up. Both team were trying to lose the game, it seemed as Deng missed FT. Then Novak missed a 3 pointer. Then Rose missed 2 FTs. Finally Melo hit a 3 to tie. OT was more of the same. The usual Bulls clutch players didn't do their job. At least they play the Knicks again on Tuesday.

End of the Streak

With last night's big win against the Celtics, he Bulls stopped their season high losing streak at 2 games. They started out slow, but defense and Noah's hustle plays kept them in it. Trailing by 11 at halftime is probably just what this team needed. The Bulls play great from behind and they had their typical 2nd half comeback behind Deng's 4th quarter clutch shooting. The Celtics had the right plays in mind as first Allen and then Rondo got open. Rondo's pass to Allen was way off and resulted in a turnover. Then he bricked a 3 on the way back. Pierce's bad night can be credited to Deng and Hamilton's defense. Oh yeah.... Hamilton returned and did what he does best, scrappy defense. It's amazing how well he fits into the team even though he was out with injuries more than he was healthy.

Minor Holiday Plan

Today is Good Friday. While it's not an official holiday with bank and market closings, it is very noticeable. Buses and trains are empty consistently every year. A bus I normally see pass every morning wasn't getting the normal volume of passengers. As a result, it was skipping stops and running hot. So it slowed to almost walking speed for even spacing! This makes me wonder why the MTA doesn't have a reduced service plan for  days like this if they're trying to save money. I don't think express service should be removed, but justt reduce the trains and buses. Sereiously, there are less passengers than on a weekend.

The Plate

In a large office, there are going to be colleagues with weird habits. We spend most of our day with these people, so it's like living with them during work hours. This tends to show in common areas like the restrooms and cafeteria. On our floor, there's this one person that leaves his/her dirty plate in the sink every day. I never ran into the person who owned it, but it's consistently there and it's been going on long enough for anyone to realize that we never hired a dish washer for the company. At least they should realize that by now. It's also kind of gross to leave your personal plate there for so long because many people use the sink. Who knows how many more germs are touching that plate as people wash their dishes, food and hands!

Back-to-Back

The Bulls lost back-to-back games for the first time since early February of last year. That's good for 2nd longest in NBA history. It had to end somewhere. I actually thought it would happen much sooner because there were several times where they faced a tough team in the 2nd game of a back-to-back with injuries. The Bulls always won. On Sunday, the loss to OKC can be considered acceptable as it was the best team in the West. But last night's loss to Houston shouldn't have happened. They had a comfortable lead goingg into the half and extended to 15 in the 3rd... usually their best quarter. The 3rd is when the Bulls put teams away. But they let the Rockets comeback to take a 10 lead. Still, I though there would be a 4th quarter comeback because that's just the kind of year it's been. Deng got them within 4, but that would be the closest. There were too many missed shots and turnovers. The Bulls deserved to lose this one.

Finals Loss

In a likely NBA Finals preview, the Bulls lost badly to the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Thunder are the Western version of the Bulls. They have their core with roleplayers all the way down to the last man. They play good team basketball and work hard. That's why their record is almost the same as each team stands on top of its conference. The difference is the Thunder are healthy. It was Durant and Westbrook leading the way n the win while Rose and Hamilton continued to sit out. If these 2 teams faced in a 7-game series today, the Thunder would definitely win. This is a team with no weaknesses, so it's a rare case where the bench mob can't win it for them. The Bulls ended up losing 92-78. They were flat to start, made it a game before the half, then couldn't stop the Thunder in the 3rd. 

After a game like that, I would place the Bench Mob as a 3rd or 4th seed in the standings!