Category Archives: sports

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Emil Guillermo: The Golden State Warrior blews; Dubs need to TCB or they will lose NBA Finals

Analyst Michael Wilbon said it after the game. The Warriors just “goof” around too much, and play in a “loosey-goosey” way. I’ve noticed that for some time. They have this cool, nonchalance, a devil-may-care way about them that transforms high-percentage plays into risky ones and inevitably leads to turnover, after turnover. Dunks? Alley-oops? Fails. Some successes. But on Sunday, fails. And when you shoot terribly to boot, forget about winning game 2 against  LeBron James.

Everyone can see LeBron James is the best player on the court,  period.  He cheats with his physicality and bullies his way to the hoop. But he made Game 2 a bit more about team, and the Cavs found their way to beat the Warriors. Put tall defenders at the three point line.  Get Dellavadova to mark Curry like a soccer player.  Get Mozgov involved inside to beat Bogut at the basket and on the line. And then let LeBron invoke his will and distribute.

The downfall to that strategy will be fatigue. The Cavs aren’t that deep. The every other day schedule could limit them.

Warriors should be able to counter easily to steal back home court advantage.

But as we’ve seen the first two games, they are prone to slow starts and a lack of intensity. If they play to their season best, they’d be 2-0 now. The pressure really is on Barnes, Speights, and Livingston to pick up when Curry isn’t showing up. The bench strength is the X factor.

But overall, the Dubs need to start caring about the ball like men on a mission.

They’re just too loose for their own good. They get sloppy. And loose leads to loss.

If they don’t tighten things up, LeBron will make them pay.

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Emil Guillermo: What if they had a Triple Crown Winner and no one cared?

That about sums up my feeling about American Pharoah’s (sic) win at the Belmont. It wasn’t Affirmed/ Alydar. It wasn’t Secretariat. It was a colt going wire-to-wire against an undistinguished field. Is that really worth celebrating.

That it took nearly 40 years to have another Triple Crown winner isn’t really about the greatness of A.P. It’s more that the game, the breed has degenerated into a drug-mired enterprise that has changed the nature of horse racing in America.

I wrote this last year amid the California Chrome hype around the Belmont, and it all still applies.

http://aaldef.org/blog/not-my-fathers-horse-races.html

If the Triple Crown really mattered it would be on the tip of everyone’s tongue

Astonishing how little if any buzz the victory had.

Here’s what really happened at Belmont yesterday. One horse died, one was vanned off, and American Pharoah won the big race. That’s some crownless triple.

 

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Emil Guillermo: Golden State Warriors should end long Bay Area basketball drought

Oh, those Warriors. In 1975, I was leaving Cambridge, MA on my way to Houston, TX for my first professional radio gig–$3 bucks/hr., six hours a week. I’d play records, do the newscasts (it was a music station, so it dumped most of their news commitment on the overnight).

Et voila– Emil For Real was born.

But before I left Cambridge, I was enjoying the Warriors demolish the Washington Bullets to win the NBA Championship.

I was so excited. As a small boy, I remember dragging my dad to the old Civic Auditorium (yes, the same place where SF school kids used to graduate) to see the old San Francisco Warriors play. There was Wilt. Then Nate Thurmond.

And Rick Barry, of underhand fame.

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And now here they were in the 70s.

Earlier that year, I met  Barry and Bill King, the Warrior announcer,  in the Boston Garden. And I just couldn’t believe they could be good enough until June.

When they were, I did what I almost never do.

I wanted to shout from the rooftops about the Warriors!

So I called a sports talk show in Boston to gleam and gloat about “my” Warriors.

It’s been 40 long years since the team has been back in the finals.

And now longsuffering Warrior fans have their shot again.

This is the team to do it.

Same kind of team as the one 40 years ago. One big star. No real big center. Good bench. A real team.

Back then, teams would rotate at best seven core players. Five starters and maybe two off the bench.

At the time, Warrior coach Al Attles was heralded with being the best to get production from the entire team off the bench.

No one ever played that style before.

Now here’s Steve Kerr refining the matchup style, where small can be big by playing with speed and a swarming sense of defense. He also has the league MVP, Steph Curry, who has not quite erased the memory of the great Rick Barry from the minds of older Warrior fans (though to younger Warrior fans, Rick is barely a memory, with newer Barry’s John and Brent maintaining the brand).

After the Grizz and the Rockets, I think the Warriors are battle-tested and ready to show what champions they truly are.

LeBron James is a great player. But we know how basketball is about team and not individual greatness.

The Warriors as a team will defeat Cleveland in 6 to cap off a brilliant year.

 

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Emil Guillermo’s Linceblog: (updated) Tim had it a little bit, the Giants not at all; Bad mojo extends through Sunday. But Pirates start week with pleasant memory.

Tim Lincecum looked like he had his stuff.  Especially after the first inning when he induced two ground ball outs and struck out Atlanta’s Freddie Freeman.

As Lincecum walked back to the dugout, maybe he should have kept walking.

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He had 5 strikeouts after 4 innings, and had at most 1 walk. But the Braves were hitting them were they ain’t, scratching out one run each in innings 2-5. Suddenly, the Braves were up 4-0 and Lincecum’s home scoreless streak–which  had been at 22 innings before the game, the longest active scoreless  streak in the Majors– was a distant memory.

Lincecum was done after 4 1/3 innings, with this line: 8 hits, 4 runs, all earned, 4 BB, 5 Ks, and an ERA of 3. He threw just 83 pitches, 63 for strikes.

Close enough maybe for the Giants, the best team in baseball in May, to mount a comeback?

But the difference was Braves pitcher Williams Perez, who in his third major league gets his first win.

The 24-year-old right-hander had thrown five scoreless innings against  the Dodgers in LA last Monday.  On this night he topped it with 7 scoreless against the Giants at AT&T.

Perez scattered four hits, walked 4, struck out 3.

He had the Giants number more than Lincecum had the Braves where he wanted them.

After the game, Lincecum admitted he was pressured by the Braves leadoff hitters. “They had me working out of the stretch a lot, taking an extra base as well. Stealing a couple of bases definitely put some pressure on me and I had to make better pitches in those scenarios. They put some pretty good swings on some pretty good pitches.”

That they did. And the Giants didn’t.

Surprisingly, the Giants did have 8 hits and left 11 on bases.  But they never seemed to be really in this game offensively.

The Braves were, and finished with 8 runs, 14 hits.

With the season about  a 1/3 done, this is a game best forgotten by all.

But it was a bobble-head night.

UPDATE:

Whatever ailed Lincecum and the Giants on Saturday continued on through Sunday. Bumgarner looked good, until he gave up that homer to ex-teammate Uribe. The Giants seemed to come back on a Joe Panik home run. But homers by Panik, Belt and Crawford just weren’t enough. A blown save by Casilla, an error by Crawford, and the little things add up to a second loss to Atlanta.

Next, the Pittsburgh  Pirates.

Last time the two teams met was last year in October. It was the wild Wild Card game, one game, sudden death, winner takes on the Nats.  Bumgarner was dominant. Crawford hit a grand slam.  That’s the memory you live on.  You forget this past weekend.

lincecumAtlanta