SU caught the end of last night’s Clippers – Suns playoff game last night. In the last 2 minutes, there were 4 stoppages of play for replays of plays where the ball went out of bounds. Each stoppage takes about 5 minutes although the last one with 0.9 seconds left may have taken closer to 10 minutes. I get the need to make sure the calls are correct and now that they have the technology, take advantage of it. But as a fan, it breaks up the flow of the game and makes the final moments feel like a slog (similar to watching any Yankee game this year).

Now, the one that is especially annoying is when a defender knocks the ball away from the dribbler and it goes out of bounds. For 46 minutes of every game, that calls keeps the ball with the offensive team. But when you break it down into super slow mo, well, it seems like the ball always ends up off the finger tip of the dribbler and is awarded to the other team. In effect, you are changing the way that play is called for the last 2 minutes of every game. For SU, that seems stupid. Michigan fans experienced this last year I believe when Zavier Simpson had the ball knocked away and the call went against him in the final seconds. SU says that play should not be reviewable then in the last 2 minutes. One man’s opinion.

Jeff Van Gundy was all over it last night and pointed out that the Clippers had the wrong line-up on the court in the last 0.7 seconds as you can’t substitute on a replay appeal. The refs barely caught this and you wonder if the NBA HQ in NY buzzed them to check on that. It was a great, hard fought 4th quarter – reminds us of how the playoffs bring out the best defense.

Of course, this was in stark contrast to nearly 4 hours of the Yankee game. I am telling you that the fact that the Yankees are only 4-5 games out of 1st place is a mirage. This team is not built to win. I cannot recall any team where so many players are mired in huge slumps at the same time (it’s Gleyber Torres’ turn now). Ask any Yankee fan and they will tell you that when a player gets a 2-out hit, you nearly fall out of your chair. It is SO unexpected. Last night, they were 0 for 12 with RISP with Stanton and Frazier the biggest offenders. Frazier gets 2 hits in one game and is guaranteed to start for the next 25 games. The bar is so low to be in the lineup.

Note to Cashman: blow the roster up. You can be a buyer at the trade deadline but this is not a tinkering situation. You need an overhaul on offense. Stanton does get hot and produce for a period of games but he cannot even run hard to 1st base much less play the outfield. This is now a big issue as Sanchez, one of the few hot hitters (I know, hard to even write that) must play every day. Judge needs a day off as DH once in a while and now Voit is back and he is an injury waiting to happen. Stanton is the obvious player to move but it will never happen due to his no trade clause and $30 million salary. What’s sad is that just a few years ago, fans were excited by the young players. Now, the teams just feels old and past its peak.

It’s probably time for SU to just watch Yankee highlights after the game and go back to Netflix.