Author: JEC (Page 40 of 46)

Kind of a double-edged sword thing Tuesday night in Philly, with the 76ers falling to the Celtics 105-98. The idle Cavaliers gain a half game on the ‘Sixers, which puts Cleveland a full game ahead of Philadelphia in the seventh slot, but they also lose a half game to the Celtics, who now find themselves deadlocked at 42-35 with the Pacers and Wizards, two games up on the Cavs. The good news here is that the 76ers have a tough stretch to close the season, hosting Miami on the 14th and then traveling to Indiana and New Jersey on the 15th and 17th before closing against Milwaukee and Atlanta.

The Nets, meanwhile, may have a tougher road ahead. Two games behind the Cavaliers, New Jersey wraps up with games against the Pacers (4/13), 76ers (4/17), Wizards (4/19) and Celtics (4/20) along with a gimme against Toronto on the 15th.

Unfortunately for the Cavaliers, they’ve got their own scheduling headaches to worry about, with Washington (4/15), Detroit (4/17) and Boston (4/19) sandwiched between the Knicks and Raptors. You sure would like to see LeBron pull this team up a slot or two to avoid a first-round match-up with the Pistons or the Heat (if they fall to #8), but at this point I don’t think we can be too picky.

The St. Petersburg Times is reporting that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers may be interested in trading up in the draft from #5 to get one of the top-two quarterbacks, Cal’s Aaron Rodgers and Utah’s Alex Smith. This is potentially big news for Browns fans, considering the Bucs currently hold 12 picks in the upcoming draft, including two in the third round. Not surprisingly, QB guru Jon Gruden is intrigued with the idea of acquiring a potential franchise quarterback, which may be music to the ears of Phil Savage with the Browns reportedly interested in trading down from #3 to acquire more picks.

Just a thought, but since the Bucs obviously are ready to trash the Chris Simms experiment (they signed Brian Griese long-term this offseason, which speaks volumes for their opinion of Simms), why not try to get a package from Tampa that included several picks along with Simms? This kid still has the potential to be a very good NFL quarterback and this way, you’d still have a top-five pick (receiver?), you’d stockpile more picks later in the draft plus, bonus, you may also land your quarterback of the future. Sure, Simms doesn’t grade as high as Rodgers and Smith, but you could potentially get him as a throw-in, and that’s a risk I’d love to see this team take. Selecting a quarterback with the third-overall choice? That kind of risk scares the crap out of me.

Another big game from LeBron, another big win for the Cavaliers, this time 114-106 over the Magic. The fact that this win came in Orlando is even bigger news considering the Cavs had lost 14 of their last 16 on the road. As always, LeBron delivered with 33 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists and 5 steals while playing the entire 48 minutes, and Drew Gooden chipped in with 27 and 7.

With five games left, including three on the road, the Cavaliers find themselves in the seventh slot a half game up on Philly and two ahead of the Nets. But they’re also just two games behind Indiana and Washington and a game and a half behind the Celtics. This one’s going to be interesting, so stay tuned.

Just a few days after saying he wouldn’t let closer Shingo Takatsu pitch against the Tribe in this series after getting shellacked last week, Ozzie Guillen called on Takatsu with two out in the ninth and the winning run at the plate (Aaron Boone). What was interesting was that Guillen kept Takatsu in the ‘pen when Victor Martinez was at the plate, electing to let lefty Damaso Marte pitch to Victor instead. Hmm.

The plan worked, obviously, but it could’ve just as easily backfired. Guillen’s hesitancy to use his supposed closer in the ninth with a one-run lead — during the seventh game of the season — shows that the Tribe is already inside Guillen’s head. Plus, now that Guillen’s shown a lack of confidence in Takatsu, you know the Indians are in the pitcher’s head too.

Makes for some very interesting games throughout the season. How many more times do we play the Sox?

You keep telling yourself that this team will start to consisently hit, and deep down you know they will, but it’s still such a shame that they wasted another encouraging effort from Kevin Millwood in this afternoon’s 2-1 loss. Millwood allowed six hits and one walk in seven today while striking out three, but three of those hits came with two out in the seventh, resulting in the decisive run for the Sox. Still, I saw Millwood hit 96 a couple times and, for quite a while, he dominated Chicago hitters much like he did last week at US Cellular.

It was a tough loss but with C.C. Sabathia due back late this week, Millwood’s performance is another sign of hope for this staff. And did you notice that David Riske breezed through the seventh and eighth on 25 pitches, chalking up three Ks? He was really good two years ago and if he is again, the Tribe will have no problem getting to Bob Wickman, with Arthur Rhodes coming from the left side and Riske from the right.

Of course, getting to Wickman represents the scariest part of that equation. It won’t matter how well Riske and Rhodes pitch if Wick’s torching the ninth.