SU is excited about the women’s World Cup and team USA.  I like watching women’s soccer better than the men’s.  With the men, it feels like you need to perfectly execute 4 or 5 consecutive passes to score a goal and that happens about twice a game.  With the women, it’s a slower moving game and there seem to be more mistakes which leads to more scoring chances.  I am not a huge soccer fan but I pick my spots.

The Yankees just got some bad news.  And no, I don’t mean that Brendan Ryan was activated today.  Andrew Miller is going on the DL with a strained muscle in his forearm.  Clearly he has been hanging around Tanaka too much and look what happened.  They can put Betances in the bullpen but they were already hurting with coverage in the 6th and 7th innings.  SU predicts that once Nova comes back to the starting rotation, Adam Warren will become that guy.  Too bad as he has been doing great as a starter but who knows how long Miller will be out.

LeBron once again put up some gawdy numbers last night as the Cavs hung on in a wild 4th quarter.  The numbers were interesting.  In games 1 and 2, he drove to the basket a lot but looked to pass to his wing men on a number of occasions.  Last night?  Er, not so much (something like 2 passes in 18 drives).  SU says this not sustainable and the Warriors discovered something in the 4th quarter last night (I think it was Stephen Curry’s jumper).  Steve Kerr also dusted off David Lee and he played great.  All the Warriors need to do is score more frequently and make the games more high scoring.  There is no way the Cavs can keep pace as LeBron is now fully committed to doing this all on his own and quite frankly it’s hard for players like JR Smith to get into any rhythm with shots that are few and far between.  SU still believes LeBron needs to cut back on the shots and spread the scoring around a little better.  It’s less wear and tear on him as well.  This has been a very interesting finals after some pretty boring playoff action until now.

SU hates the way LeBron is a one-man isolation machine for the last 5 minutes of every game.  Hate it, hate it, hate it.  But the referees swallowed their whistles down the stretch on LeBron.  SU cannot recall any other NBA superstar who does not get the respect from the officials on the late foul calls.  Last drive in regulation – fouled 3 times.  In OT, raked across the arm right in front of the ref – how can that not be a foul?  On the jump ball, not a foul by Green?

By the way, it’s not true that JR Smith committed a stupid foul during the post-game intervew.  But JR will bounce back in the games 3 and 4.  He can be a knucklehead but he also has a short memory.  Knick fans know.

As a life-long Yankee fan and someone who follows the team closely, I have always felt that I had a good feel for the team, its potential and its issues.  I must admit that this year’s edition has me puzzled.  On paper, they are a .500 team or perhaps slightly better than that if everyone can stay healthy.  But they rarely play at a .500 level.  This team is either red hot or ice cold.  They either field well for long stretches or are as Clyde Frazier would say they are “fumbling and bumbling.”  After losing 3 of 4 to a bad Oakland team, they have now won 6 games in a row and long dormant bats like Beltran’s and Stephen Drew’s are emerging.

SU will stick to its .500 record prediction for the season for the following reasons:

• Mark Teixiera is projected to hit about 49 homeruns and drive in 130 runs as of today.  Now, in the post-PED era, hitting 20 homeruns and knocking in 95 runs gets you on the All-Star team.  There is no way he can sustain this type of performance and for him to stay healthy all year will be achievement in itself.  Therefore, others will need to pick up the slack.  I am not sure who that could be.
• The defense is just not very good.  Chase Headley is on pace for about 40 errors and Didi Gregorius is an adventure at shortstop.
• Brian Cashman has some decisions to make in the next few weeks and SU has a feeling he is going to blow these.  For example, Brendan Ryan is ready to come off the DL.  He cannot hit at all – at all.  Did I say at all?  Cashman is incredibly loyal to Stephen Drew and he actually hit a few homeruns last week although still hovering around .168 for the year.  Perella is starting to hit – had a double and homerun today.  Will he send Perella down, lose the offense and keep having Girardi roll Drew out there?  Or will he trade “high” and move Drew now, put Perella at 2nd base and have Ryan be the utility infielder?  SU would like to see them go younger and this is a chance to do that.  Plus Perella brings some life to a very vanilla team.
• The bullpen is very thin for the 6th and 7th innings.  Betances and Miller have been perfect and you are 5 games over .500.  There is no margin for error at the end of the game.  They need to find pitchers for the 6th and 7th.  Carpenter got desginated for assignment – just had a brutal couple of months – and now it’s a crap shoot.
• SU will not be fooled – I am not getting on the bandwagon.  You can say there is parity in baseball but a handful of teams always rise to the top in the 2nd half of the season.  84 wins will not win you a division or a wild card.

Great French Open and SU was sad to see Djokovic lose in the finals to Wawrinka.  But Wawrinka had 60 winners to 30 for Djokovic and he just played out of his mind.  Right now in men’s tennis, the quality at the top is just so high it’s hard to picture anyone reeling off a string of Grand Slam victories.  It’s hard to believe we will ever see an era like this one again.

SU has been looking forward to the NBA Finals even though I must admit that I pretty much forgot about them during the week and a half interlude.  When teams have that much time off in between games, you can generally expect some poor outside shooting in game 1.  There was some of that last night but for the most part, better than usual.

Steve Kerr won 5 rings playing with Michael Jordan and he had the chance to see how teams tried to deal with a superstar type player in the post-season.  There are usually a couple of approaches.  One is to always send help and leave open the other players and see if they can beat you.  You don’t want the star player to go off and win that way.  The other is to play the superstar man-to-man and not allow the other players to score.  You will give up the 40 points to the superstar but make him earn it with a lot of shots.

Last night, we saw that Kerr has opted for plan B.  LeBron scored 42 points on 38 shots.  Jeff Van Gundy kept commenting that he had never seen so much isolation offense in a game.  SU kept checking to see if Mike Woodson was calling the plays from the Cavaliers’ bench.  It almost worked for Cleveland as LeBron had a shot to win it and Shumpert came oh so close with a miracle attempt at the buzzer.  But SU says on a night when they had a pretty productive Kyrie Irving, this was the wrong strategy.  You need to get others involved and they have to touch the ball to be able to score.  Shumpert only took 6 shots and while JR Smith was firing and missing late and in the overtime, he made three 3’s in the first half but then never saw the ball again until late.  It’s hard to be expected to start hitting shots late when you are not part of the offense.

If Irving is done for the series now which is possible, then LeBron really needs to get others involved.  Only Kobe Bryant would appreciate the approach used last night.  SU says pass the ball.  It was like Carmelo Anthony had sneaked into the line up.  Michael Jordan always found a way to get his teammates involved and while he had Pippen, the rest of his roster really did not measure up to what Cleveland puts out there now offensively.  LeBron needs to not be taking 38 shots.

The playoffs are all about adjustments and we will see what game 2 brings.

There is a flash flood watch in the metro New York area due to all of the recent rain.  And SU has just issued a No Hitter Alert for tonight’s Yankee game with Seattle.  Felix Hernandez will be on the hill for the Mariners and SU is feeling that perfect storm of Yankee offensive ineptitude with a “tip your hat” performance as the hitters throw in the towel early on.  Why the pessimism you ask?

• Brett Gardner is either red hot or ice cold.  Lately, he be very cold.
• Stephen Drew has been benched the last 2 games but SU believes Girardi is feeling guilty and will put him back in the line up tonight.  His hit projections for June are on the 6th, 14th and 25th.
• It will be cool and damp in Seattle.  Girardi may be thinking of giving A-Rod a day off which makes it even worse.
• While as SU subscriber S. Goldman points out that the Yankees are 4th in runs scored, it feels like a lot of that offense came back in late April and early May.

SU has been wrong before but it’s important to be bold.  History could be made tonight.

SU always finds it useful to review its predictions with the intergalactic subscriber base – especially when we are pretty much on target.  Perhaps you may recall this post from April 17th:

SU is ready for the NBA playoffs.  While I had been previously high on the Spurs’ chances to repeat, losing that final game dropped them from the #2 seed to #6 and a first round series with the Clippers.  SU has a funny feeling about the Clippers this year – might be their last year to play together with this current roster.  SU says they will beat the Spurs in this round but Golden State has been the gold standard all season with only 2 home losses.  They are finals bound out West.  In the East, SU would love to see a real team make the finals like the Hawks but I think we have not seen Cleveland play its best ball of the year as of yet.  Plus, SU is rooting for JR, Shump and Mosgov on the Cavs and their high octane style of play.  But a Cavs-Hawks Eastern Conference finals would be a lot of fun.  Warriors over the Cavs in the finals.

There are persistent rumors out there in NBA circles that some coach who appears to be in a reasonably stable position is going to be canned and that Tom Thibodeau will get that spot.  One article had the Knicks being that team and looking to send Derek Fisher packing (article sent to SU by long-time subscriber T. Potter).  SU does not see that happening.  Phil Jackson is very stubborn and will want to see his triangle offense through with his hand-picked guy.  But Thibodeau is a name brand and it’s a story worth following for the next week or so.

SU is a big-time Novak Djokovic fan.  Not only is he a great player, he is also a great ambassador for the sport.  Check out this video from the French Open as he warmed up before his match yesterday.  Somehow you don’t picture Nadal or Federer doing this.

http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Tennis/2015/05/21/Roland-Garros-Saturday-Djokovic-Ball-Kids.aspx

So, was the NY Rangers’ season considered to be a success?  Many of the sports talk radio callers yesterday would say otherwise but SU believes making it to game 7 of the Conference Finals has to be viewed as a positive.  Especially when you play so many 1-goal games the margins are very small.  They still seem built to continue winning and fans should be optimistic going into next season.

The Yankees pulled out a win against one of baseball’s worst teams in the A’s last night.  SU notes that Brett Gardner is now slumping without Ellbury in the line up.  The reality with Ellsbury throughout his career is that he almost never plays a full season.  He is an injury-prone guy and you have to figure he will miss 4-6 weeks every season (at $21 million a year).  SU maintains its position that just because you are in 1st place in a horrible division, it doesn’t make it more exciting for the fans.  Being a .500 team with boring players is not a product that you can market with their ticket pricing structure.  SU continues to wait on Cashman to either go young or make a move for a middle infielder who can hit even a little bit.

The Mets continue to hang in there in 2nd place but they also need an offensive upgrade.  SU says the investment will pay off in higher ratings and higher attendance.  Time to make the move as players will start to become available from a number of teams.

Let’s face it: the NBA playoffs save for the Clippers-Spurs series have been awful this year.  So many untimely injuries have hurt really good regular season teams at the worst time and created mis-matches in the playoffs.  It’s why you really need to admire LeBron and what he has accomplished with the Cavs with the loss of Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving being marginalized to a large extent.

SU has been struck by the play of Dellavedova and the havoc he has caused with injuries.  He is the kind of player when if he’s on your team, he’s scrappy and a fighter.  But for the opponent, he is annoying and worse, a hazzard to your health.  Many of you have played pick-up hoops and you know there are guys out there who are always banging into you, low bridging and wreaking havoc.  You learn to keep an eye out for them and avoid contact where possible.  Dellavedova is a hustler but when he dives on the floor, he knows he will be slamming into other players’ legs and the reality is that he knows he may be causing injury.  Sure, you want guys to be the first on the floor but SU believes he crosses the line and it’s no accident that Corver and Horford either were injured or almost injured.  LeBron will defend him but trust me: if he was on the other team and undercut LeBron, there would not be big hugs all around.

Basketball players are a fraternity to a point but over the years there have been plenty of these types of players who play hard but cross the line: Rick Mahorn; Bill Lambier; Psycho T on the Raptors (Tyler Hansbrough).  In baseball, it’s even a stronger fraternity with big hugs all around on the bases and you see little of this except for the occasional hard slide at 2nd base or a brushback pitch.  And in the NFL, it’s the other extreme as defensive backs are looking to maim and injure as much as possible.

Long-time SU subscriber A. Grossman emailed SU (mistakenly not just posting his comment on the blog) in all CAPS which I have maintained here to reflect the intensity of his comments:

“BEFORE I REMIND YOU TO WATCH A NON STOP INTENSE GAME WHERE EVERY PLAYER GIVES 110%… UNLIKE ANY OTHER SPORT I AM GAINING MORE AND MORE FAVOR IN PLACING LEBRON EVER SO CLOSE TO MICHAEL JORDAN AS THE GREATEST PLAYER OUTSIDE OF WILT CHAMBERLAIN TO EVER PLAY THE GAME. OK… SO HE DOESN’T HAVE 6 RINGS… BUT HE HAS GONE TO THE FINALS 5 STRAIGHT TIMES WITH THIS CURRENT ONE BEING THE MOST IMPRESSIVE BASED ON WHAT SUPPORTING CAST HE HAS TO WORK WITH. I DON’T THINK JORDAN COULD DO WHAT HE HAS DONE WITH THE CAVALIERS SITUATION AS WELL.”

I PUT CHAMBERLAIN AHEAD OF EVERYONE ELSE BECUASE HIS STATS WERE AS OFF THE CHARTS AS GRETSKY’S WERE… EVEN MORE SO… AND DONE WITHOUT REAL GUIDANCE FROM HIS COACHES. HE WAS THE MOST UNSTOPPABLE SPORTS FIGURE EVER…. BESIDES BABE RUTH.

SU would agree.  He can be a bit too impressed with himself at times but he is one of the all time greats even at this point in his career.

Are the Rangers’ faithful feeling confident?  Anyone want to weigh in?

For those of you that took in a few minutes of yesterday’s Yankee game, that may have been the bottom.  There is certainly the theory that in a long season, you go go through peaks and valleys but SU is pretty certain that this is who they are with the current roster.  Carlos Beltran has a nice hitting streak going with basically 1 hit a game.  Texeira has been red hot for him this early in the season but he is not going to hit 40 homeruns and drive in 120 runs this year so he will cool.  The issue is that McCann and Headley are only mediocre hitters and will not pick up the slack.  If George was alive, surely someone like Stephen Drew would have been sent packing by now.  SU says players need to earn their playing time.  Girardi needs to make guys uncomfortable.  Open the Wilkes Barre Scranton express.

Good comment from relatively new SU subscriber A. Zagin yesterday on Kyrie Irving:

“I think the cavs play is slightly less surprising than most fans think. All year people praised kyrie Irving offensively, and he is extremely talented, but is his absence or injury plagued playoffs that much of a loss. Lebron was fortunate to have him alleviate some of the regular season rigors, but the playoffs are entirely different. With kyrie either spotting for up or on the bench, the most noticeable result is that all of the isolation sets that lebron used to allow kyrie to run, mostly when lebron needed a rest, are now being taken over by lebron himself. This just gives lebron more time with the ball in his hand, and while he’s not the shooter Irving is, he’s stronger, finishes better, and sees the floor better. Combine all of this with the fact that kyrie’ minutes are being filled with Matthew dellavadova, who people forget was arguably the best college player in the country his senior year. Dellavadova, while not as offensively gifted as Irving, is a much bigger and better defender who can knock down open jump shots created by lebron.”

One thing about Kyrie is that he is a terrible defender.  SU assumes his game will evolve over time on the defensive end.  I am not a fan of Dellavadova as he rarely shoots well when given more minutes.  But he is a tough kid and as Andrew points out, was a force offensively in college.  I still think the Cavs are much better with Kyrie contributing some minutes as LeBron can wear out having to play both ends against the Warriors.

Crazy number of injuries in the NBA playoffs this year.  They are really having an impact on the various series.

SU has been a long-time LeBron fan but this year you really have to appreciate just how good he is.  Kevin Love goes down for the series with the Bulls and is gone for the year and now Kyrie Irving is hobbled in the Conference Finals.  You don’t hear any whining from James.  He just raises his game and is 2 wins away from the Finals.  Did you know that in his career, LeBron has surpassed 30 points in 44% of his 174 playoff games?  That is an amazing stat.  And he is not just out there chucking it up.  Interesting quotes from his teammates after last night’s win:

“He helps us elevate our game,” Tristan Thompson said. “Playing with a great player like him just makes you want to get better, makes you want to put the time in watching film and I think that’s what great players do. They take the group around them and help elevate their game.”

“We all have a skill set and you want to be able to get to your skill set and do what you do best and he allows that,” Jones said. “If you’re a defender and you’re an on-ball defender, you know you can pressure up because he’s a great weakside defender and that gives you the confidence. If you’re a shooter, he gets you the ball in spots. If you’re a big man, he finds you in transition. So, all the different facets on the game he’s able to impact.”

For SU, it’s such a contrast with what you have in NY with Carmelo.  You never, ever hear comments like this.  It just highlights the distance between LeBron and that next tier superstar in the NBA.  Money-wise, it’s the same.  Impact-wise?  Miles and miles apart.

Jeff Van Gundy is a leading candidate for the Pelicans’ head coaching job.  Good for him.  Good guy, good coach.  Mike D’Antoni is apparently in the running for the Denver Nuggets position.  SU would love to see him get that job and then bring in Jeremy Lin to run his offense.  That would justify my purchase of next season’s NBA Season Pass to watch those games.

Yankees getting clobbered again today – 10-0 half-way through.  The only positive that could come out of this is that Cashman might finally start bringing up some youngsters to replace his under-performing veterans.  Stephen Drew may still be a viable major league player but not in New York.  He is one of those players who cannot perform here.  Bring up Refsnyder from the minors.  If he makes a lot of errors, believe me – no-one will notice as the whole team makes a lot of errors.  Didi Gregorius just cannot hit at all.  Is this the best Cashman can do?  Use the rest of the season to play the young guys.  The fans demand it.

Finally, the French Open starts tomorrow and the men’s draw has Djokovic playing Nadal in the quarterfinals.  I know they come up with a draw by picking names out of a hat but that is crazy.  SU is pulling for Djokovic to get that first French championship and his career Grand Slam.  To win it, he will likely have to beat Nadal, Murray and Federer in succession.  If you win a major in Men’s tennis, you have earned it.

SU is on the way back from some badly need R&R time, but of course has its finger on the pulse of the latest developments in the sports world.  A few thoughts this morning:

• Memorial Day is a key benchmark for baseball teams.  You can generally tell what you have for the season by now.  For the Yankees, who always have higher expectations, SU will stick to its original prediction of at best a .500 team.  Early season success has given way to a spotty offense that is geared to Ellsbury and Gardner getting on base.  Ellsbury has never played a full season and going on the DL will no doubt impact their ability to score consistently.  For the diehard fans like SU, there is little to get excited about with this year’s team.  Admit it – other than seeing A-Rod come up, who are you watching on the edge of your seat?  Chase Headley?  The injuries to the pitching will only heighten the need to get younger and sooner.  SU says bring up the young guys and at least give fans something to watch.
• For the Mets, they never have the same expectations and have surprised thus far with an impressive record despite some important injuries.  The addition of Syndergaard to the rotation is great and now you have three young studs going every 5 days.  Once Wright returns, the offense should stabilize a bit.  They should be in the mix through July and then we shall see if they have staying power.
• What have we learned about tanking an NBA season?  First, do not go out and win a couple of late season games for pride.  Bad move by the Knicks there.  You have to be all in on tanking.  Second, this year’s draft requires you to be in the #1 or #2 spot.  At #4, the Knicks will have to gamble on the kid from the Congo playing in China (or more accurately being injured in China) or else take a lesser impact player.  What’s amusing is that many sports writers are saying that you have to draft someone who will blend nicely with Carmelo.  So, if you go with the point guard, he will have to learn to stand in certain parts of the court once the ball stops moving.  Sure, they will play the triangle offense into late November but after that, Melo will have seen enough and taken over the new and improved “isolation triangle” offense.  This will be Phil Jackson’s defining off-season with the draft picks and some cap room.  Prepare to be under-whelmed.
• SU enjoys watching LeBron and surely he is the best player in the league.  But why do you go away from an offensive scheme that works for the first 44 minutes of the game to having James go one-on-one for the last 4 minutes?  From what SU has seen, he risks losing leads in these games.  It’s fine to isolate him but he still needs to pass it to the wings if guys are open.  He has not been that effective doing this late in games.  SU expects more from him.