May 4

Hockey | Stanley Cup Playoffs: Bruins Have a Lead, but Not Peace of Mind

Posted in NFL jerseys from china, Pro bowl jerseys 2012, Super bowl jerseys 2012

There was a distinct undercurrent of trepidation with Game 3 to be played here Wednesday, and it is easy to understand. Recent history, it seems, weighs heavily on the Bruins. Last spring, they took a three-game lead over the Philadelphia Flyers but lost the series, a collapse that included blowing a 3-0 lead in Game 7 at home. Only three blank new era snapback hats wholesale teams have ever lost a series after winning the first three games.

Even Flyers Coach Peter Laviolette senses the burden of history bearing down on the Bruins.

Surely Laviolette’s claim seems incredible, since it sounds almost as if he preferred that the Flyers had lost the first two games. David Krejci scored 14 minutes into the extra period, boosting the cheap hats wholesale Bruins’ overtime record this spring to 4-0, and capping a trip to Philadelphia that started with a 7-3 victory Saturday? Tim Thomas to hold off the Flyers on Monday. He stopped 52 of 54 shots, including the last 46 in a row.

“It’s almost unfair that we have Timmy back there cheap hats wholesale for us,” forward Brad Marchand said. “They could have dominated that game, and they did for the most part, but he just made some unbelievable saves.”

“Oh yes, we’ve talked about that quite a bit,” Bruins Coach Claude Julien said Tuesday, clearly tired of having to address questions about his team’s futility with a manpower advantage.

“We had some chances, but we didn’t bury them,” he said of the Bruins’ two power plays and five power-play shots Monday. “Although we didn’t score, I thought our power play was better. And if it keeps getting better, we’ll get results real soon.” Mike Milbury, a former Bruins defenseman and coach and now a cheap snapback caps wholesale television commentator, did not seem so optimistic. In a radio interview he suggested “blowing up” the power play and parking Boston’s 6-foot-9 defenseman, Zdeno Chara, in front of the Flyers’ net to create screens.

“If we play well, we’ll be up another game,” he cheap new era hats Wholesale said, without mentioning the 2010 debacle.

“You can say they’re the same, I guess,” Claude Giroux said, comparing this series with last year’s. “We’re in the same position.”

Laviolette acknowledged that the Flyers might be pressing their luck to think they can rally from a 2-0 deficit a year after coming all the way back against the same team. Still, he said, “we’re going to go into nhl jerseys from china Boston and have some fun — we just put our comfortable slippers on.”

Back in Boston, Recchi said the Bruins were blocking out the chatter about the prospect of failure with success so close.

 

 

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May 4

A Once-Promising Field Gets Weaker

Posted in NFL jerseys from china, Pro bowl jerseys 2012, Super bowl jerseys 2012

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — There will be 20 horses in the gate Saturday for the 137th running of the Kentucky Derby, but it is a stretch to say that they are the cream of this 3-year-old crop. The field lost another contender Tuesday when Toby’s Corner, the winner of the Wood Memorial, came up lame in his left hind leg and was declared out of the race. Fair Hill Training Center home near Elkton, Md., and was scheduled to arrive here by van Tuesday. His trainer, Graham Motion, had noticed that the colt wasWholesale Cheap DC shoes caps off in his left hind leg Monday and sent him for an examination at the nearby New Bolton Center, an equine hospital in Kennett Square, Pa. Dr. Dean Richardson, who operated on and oversaw the convalescence of the 2006 Kentucky Derby winner, Barbaro, but nothing could be found. Julian and Dianne Cotter bred and own Toby’s Corner and were driving to Kentucky from their home in Florida.

“Everybody hopes that they’re not that person that you read about Derby week that has a horse that goes the wrong way,” he added. “It’s tough to be in that spot.”

Uncle Mo was found to have a gastrointestinal infection Wholesale cheap snapback caps in the days after the Wood, and he has been receiving treatment while he has continued to train. Pletcher and Repole insist he is rounding back into form but have said there is only a 50-50 chance he will make the race. He is the colt under the most scrutiny here as reporters and rival horsemen try to figure out if he was truly hobbled by the infection in the Wood or if he merely cannot outrun his miler pedigree.

He pointed to the colt’s emphatic victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.

It was another cold, rainy morning Wholesale cheap new era fitted caps at Churchill Downs, but the Arkansas Derby winner Archarcharch splashed through a half-mile work in 52 seconds for the trainer Jinks Fires, who is making his Derby debut at 70. So is his son-in-law jockey, Jon Court, who will ride Archarcharch and was on the colt Tuesday morning for the work they did in tandem with his stablemate Supreme Ruler.

With Toby’s Corner scratched, the Lexington Wholesale cheap new era fitted hats Stakes winner Derby Kitten moved up to the 20th and final spot in the Derby starting gate. The colt is trained by Mike Maker and is owned by Ken Ramsey, a colorful Kentuckian who is known to push money through the betting windows with both hands.

“I’ll tell you this much: of all the trainers in Wholesale cheap new era snapback hats this year’s Kentucky Derby, Mike Maker has the two most appropriately named horses of them all, Twinspired and Derby Kitten,” Ramsey said. “Are you kidding me? It doesn’t get better than that. All you need is something with ‘rose’ in it, and then you’ve got it all.”

 

 

 

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May 4

Under a Microscope, Jeter Has a Powerless Start

Posted in Super bowl jerseys 2012, Wholesale Cheap Kids Baseball Hats, Wholesale cheap new era snapback 59fifty fitted hats

He tapped meekly back to the pitcher, ending the rally. In that, it wasn’t all that much different from many of the 99 at-bats that preceded it. Jeter, five weeks into what is shaping up to be the most closely scrutinized of his 17 seasons with the Yankees, is hitting .250 — some 60 points off his career average, and 20 points lower than his disturbingly unimpressive average of last season. He had no home runs and only two extra-base hits of any kind, both doubles. The only offensive category in cheap baseball hats new era which he leads the major leagues is infield hits — and, well, it isn’t his speed that accounts for that.

Aware that Jeter’s every at-bat was being dissected and debated, Joe Girardi, the manager of the Yankees, in early April asked for calm and fairness: Give Jeter 100 or 150 at-bats, Girardi said, before even blank new era snapback caps wholesale thinking about drawing any conclusions.

Turnarounds happen, too, making early-season worry seem rash and even foolish. Just last year, David Ortiz, Boston’s slugging designated hitter, was hitting .143 with one home run through April. He hit .cheap mlb jerseys 363 with 10 homers in May and finished with 32.

The explosion in the collection and archiving of baseball statistics permits an even more varied appreciation of Jeter’s lack of impact. He has the highest ground-ball percentage (81.3) of any player in baseball, according to Stats LLC — an achievement that suggests an inability to regularly hit the ball with real authority. Only 4 of the 26 hits he has collected were classified as line drives by Baseball-Reference.com.

After Tuesday’s game, in which he went 1 for 4, Jeter cheap nhl jerseys did not play down his problems in the first weeks of the season, but he said he saw signs of improvement.

Jeter has begun backing away from the adjustments he incorporated over the winter with Long, who had urged him to simplify his mechanics at the plate by eliminating his stride, a change that, in theory, would give Jeter a sliver of extra time to adjust to any pitch. Paul O’Neill, a former teammate of Jeter’s and an analyst for the YES network, said by telephone Tuesday. “You inch back to your comfort level, and that’s probably a good thing.”

Of course, Jeter’s pursuit of hits has a larger context, one that makes his struggles so far all that much more awkward: he is 48 hits shy of 3,000 for his career. When he makes it to 3,000 — most people project he could do it by the end of June — he will be the first player to do so entirely in a Yankees uniform. Tigers’ third-base coach, said he grew Jerseys from china worried because he hated seeing Jeter bat in close games. Derek Jeter’s not driving the ball, and he hasn’t done that against us, but every time he comes up, we fear him,” said Lamont, who is in his 47th season of professional baseball. “I don’t want to see Derek Jeter in a big situation.”

Fast runners like Jose Reyes of the Mets, who had nine infield hits, and Michael Bourn of Houston and Juan Pierre of the White Sox, who had eight, often try to pound balls to the left side of the infield to cheap hats wholesale maximize their speed. Jeter has never been a fly-ball hitter, but he used to rip line drives, particularly to right-center field.

“If it goes on for three or four months, yeah, that would be alarming,” said Girardi, who added: “Maybe he won’t put up 40 doubles, who knows? I can’t tell you. But the bottom line is we want him getting on base, and he’s been getting his hits.”

 

 

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May 3

On Basketball: Grizzlies Make Room for Randolph’s Rough Edges

Posted in NFL jerseys from china, Pro bowl jerseys 2012, Super bowl jerseys 2012

Talent, not surprisingly, wasn’t the reason.

In other words, Smedley said in a telephone interview, “it was political.” N.B.A. career, his stature is soaring as the power forward and scoring hub of the Memphis Grizzlies.

On the statistical side, Randolph has always been blank new era snapback hats wholesale productive. But the portrayals of him as a character guy on a winning team — “the best power forward in the league,” according to Kevin Durant — are stunning.

“He’s the same player he’s been since I took the job in Marion and I asked the town guys I call the drugstore experts, ‘What about this eighth grader, the Randolph kid?’ And they told me, ‘Oh, he’ll cheap snapback caps wholesale never be anything, he’s too clumsy.’ ” Portland Trail Blazers — and contributing to the image of a team nicknamed Jail Blazers. At the time, Smedley told a newspaper reporter that Randolph needed to make better decisions about friends and associates.

He did the interview in 2004 after Randolph withheld information from the police after a nightclub incident that involved his brother and the firing of a gun. Randolph was not charged, but his reputation as a trouble magnet continued to grow. marijuana and ammunition in hidden compartments. The police later raided a facility where Randolph cheap nba jerseys rented space and where other similar sport utility vehicles were discovered.

Through it all, Smedley said he maintained a belief that Randolph was more a victim of a challenging home environment than bad intentions. Growing up in Marion, a working-class town of about 30,000 about 65 miles northeast of Indianapolis, Randolph and three siblings lived with their mother, Mae, who needed government assistance cheap hats wholesale to support them.

He told Randolph to focus on making the high school team first. As a freshman, he alternated between varsity and junior varsity, and as a sophomore, he led the team to the state tournament final.

But everywhere Randolph has been since high cheap new era hats Wholesale school — including a one-and-done stay at Michigan State — his reputation preceded him. When the Knicks acquired Randolph in 2007, he offended no one and struck many as teddy bearish. But the trade was typical of the Isiah Thomas era: talent poorly mixed and matched. Center Eddy Curry was also a low-nhl jerseys from china post scorer and one who contributed little else. Both players’ defensive shortcomings were magnified.

“When you fit together, it makes all the difference,” said Smedley, who follows Randolph closely. Carmelo Anthony at the end of Game 2 in Boston and not Jeffries, the Knicks would have had their first playoff victory in 10 years.

 

 

 

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May 3

With Ejection, Pierce Revisits Impulsive Past

Posted in Cheap NHL jerseys, Super bowl jerseys 2012, Wholesale cheap new era snapback 59fifty fitted hats

Since then, Pierce has become a respected leader, a champion, a finals most valuable player and a likely Hall of Famer. He is generally more cool-headed than the guy who was ejected from a first-round game against Indiana in 2005, and more conscious of potential consequences. His memory may be selective, however. Miami Heat. He said he let down his teammates. He vowed to “do a better job of keeping my composure.”

Composure may be in the eye of the beholder. Wholesale cheap snapback caps Pierce surely lost it six years ago, in a Game 6 against the Pacers, when he threw a forearm into Jamaal Tinsley in the final seconds of regulation. Pierce was ejected, but the Celtics won in overtime. Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen. They won the championship in 2008, and Pierce was named M.V.P. of the series.

Pierce earned two technical fouls in 59 seconds, Wholesale cheap new era fitted caps both for reacting aggressively to hard fouls. The second technical, with seven minutes left, brought an automatic ejection.

“I was more disappointed at letting my teammates down,” Pierce said before practice at the University of Miami. He added: “When you put yourself in a situation that you can control and it hurts your team,

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that’s what I was most upset about. And I can’t do that. I’m too important to this team to be putting myself in that situation.”

“I’m definitely worried,” Pierce said of a possible suspension, “because if it’s a situation where it affects my team, then it was very selfish.”

The Celtics contended that Jones should have been Wholesale cheap new era fitted hats assessed a flagrant foul. The league agreed and on Monday reclassified his personal foul to a flagrant foul-1, while also rescinding Jones’s technical foul. The league also downgraded Jermaine O’Neal’s flagrant foul (issued in the third quarter) to a personal foul.

“I probably overreacted,” Pierce said. “I thought I was fouled Wholesale cheap new era snapback hats excessively on both plays, actually.” Doc Rivers characterized the Heat’s posture as “chippy,” a description that seemed almost complimentary. But the Celtics have generally been the ones applying the extra elbow or shoulder in recent years.

Rajon Rondo was hampered by early foul trouble and came apart in the fourth quarter after Pierce was ejected. Garnett, who usually leads the team in snarls and body checks, was a nonfactor, scoring only 6 points.

 

 

 

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May 3

Feliz’s shifting position: ‘I’m a closer … I won’t start anymore’

Posted in Pro bowl jerseys 2012, Super bowl jerseys 2012

At least that’s how Neftali Feliz(notes) appeared to feel during an interview with USA Today’s Jorge L. Ortiz that was published on Sunday.

Feliz told Ortiz he worried about Wholesale Cheap LV snapback hats the rotator cuff soreness that landed him on the 15-day disabled list recently. The injury to his shoulder came, Feliz concluded, because the Texas Rangers — tinkering with the idea of making him a starter — stretched him out during spring training.

“The team has told me that next year I would Wholesale Cheap guuci snapback hats still have the chance to start, but I don’t want to do it anymore,” Feliz said. “This year my arm didn’t feel good after they moved me from the rotation back to closing, so I don’t want to go through that again and risk the same thing happening.”

But after the Rangers game later that day, Feliz backed off — kind of.

As reported on MLB.com:

As to whether he wants another chance to start next season, Feliz said, “Right now, I’m not even worried about that. Right now, I’m just focused on being the closer. Right now, I’m trying to get back healthy. Wholesale cheap new era snapbacke caps I’m not thinking about being a starter or not being a starter.”

He should have just said that in the first place. Evan Grant, who covers the team for the Dallas Morning News, warned that Feliz — who turns 23 on Monday — has been given to changing his mind on the subject.

Feliz came up as a starter, but moved to the bullpen shortly before his 2009 callup. He became the Rangers closer in the second week of the season last year and won the AL Rookie of the Year award. Midway through spring training this season, he said he wanted to remain a closer, but within a week changed his mind.

Rangers GM Jon Daniels said Sunday that the club would like to leave starting open as a consideration after the season, but not before. Feliz, according to the report, however, seems to have made up his mind. At least for now.

And now he’s keeping it open — which is probably Wholesale cheap New Era 59Fifty caps the right way to think. A couple of points:

One, simply being a relief pitcher won’t protect Feliz from injury. I’m not sure of the data on which — starter or reliever — is more likely to get hurt, but just look at who has been on the DL already this season:

Brian Wilson(notes), Andrew Bailey(notes), Brad Lidge(notes), David Aardsma(notes), Frank Francisco(notes) and Jose Contreras(notes). Six closers (not including Feliz) injured before May 1.

Point No. 2: Not only was Feliz strong as a starter in spring training, he was crazy good as a starting pitcher in the minors. Ace starting pitchers are more valuable than closers —

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within the game, and on payday — and Feliz would be costing himself millions of dollars by staying in the pen longterm.

Feliz is a great closer. With his stuff, there’s a chance he could become as good as any closer. At least for a while. But the numbers tell the truth. There’s a much bigger possibility of Feliz’s relief career looking more like that of Eric Gagné than Mariano Rivera(notes). He should keep the door to being a starter open.

 

 

 

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Apr 29

Everyone wants Frank Vogel to return to Indiana

Posted in Pro bowl jerseys 2012, Super bowl jerseys 2012

Interim coaches typically make little impact on their teams, merely acting as placeholders and stewards until the next great handpicked leader of men can ride intoWholesale cheap New Era 59Fifty hats town on a steel horse and lead a marginally improved roster to four more wins per seasons. Then he gets fired and the whole process repeats itself for several more turns. Welcome to the NBA!

Frank Vogel of the Indiana Pacers, however, Wholesale Cheap Monster Energy caps was no typical interim coach. After taking over for Jim O’Brien at the end of January, Vogel guided the Pacers to a 20-18 record and a surprise spot in the playoffs. And while they only won one game against the Bulls in the first round, they put up a good fight and exceeded expectations by forcing the Bulls into several late-game comebacks.

So it stands to reason that Vogel and the Pacers would like to remove the “interim” tag from his title. And that is exactly what’s likely to happen soon. From Cliff Brunt of the Associated Press:

“One thing I learned the last three months is that I can do this,” he said. “I’m confident in my leadership abilities, my management abilities, my coaching abilities. It’s been an honor to coach the last few months, it would be an honor to coach in the future.”

Team president Larry Bird was impressed Wholesale cheap snapback hats with Vogel’s performance. He said the 37-year-old would get the first interview for the head coaching position.

“I think Frank did an excellent job, stepping in without the experience of a head coaching job,” Bird said. “The way he conducted himself, he brought positive energy to this team. We won more games than we lost. We did it with a young team, a team that’s trying to grow.”

The mood around the team quickly changed when Vogel stepped in. Early in his tenure, he claimed that Eastern Conference powers Boston, Miami and Orlando wouldn’t want to play the Pacers when — not if — they make the playoffs. He said the talent to win big already existed on the roster, and he told leery Pacers fans to hop on the bandwagon. That confidence earned the respect of the players.

All parties want this to happen — Vogel, the front office, the players, and the fans — which means a deal will almost certainly get done soon. Vogel deserves it, too. Wholesale cheap ED Hardy Snapback caps He made the Pacers relevant and exciting again when they had been punchlines for several seasons. That’s no small feat.

However, it’s important to note that Vogel is also a free agent. If a deal doesn’t get done soon, it’s possible to imagine another team with a vacancy — like, say, the Rockets or Warriors — making a gigantic offer for Vogel’s services. That might be seen as poor form, considering the Pacers are

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Vogel’s team right now, but no one ever said finding a good coach was a moral pursuit.

Yet that course of events would be unlikely. Expect Vogel on the sidelines next season and several more.

 

 

 

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Apr 28

KOR – KCC Egis claim fifth KBL championship

Posted in Super bowl jerseys 2012, Wholesale Cheap ED Hardy Snapback

Guards Kang Byung-Hyun and Shin Myung-ho hit timely baskets down the stretch to help KCC Egis edge out Dongby Promy 79-77 in Game 6 of the 2011 KBL Finals and win the best-of-seven series 4-2 and clinch their fifth KBL League crown.

The win completed an impressiveWholesale Cheap guuci snapback hats turnaround. Down 2-1 in the series, KCC Egis fought back and took Games 4 and 5. Dongbu had won Game 3 of the series after the first two games had been split.

American Chris Daniels led KCC Egis with a game-high 25 Wholesale cheap New Era 59Fifty caps points and 10 rebounds and giant center Ha Seung-jin added 22 points and pulled down nine boards, but the contribution of Kang and Shin proved decisive.

Ha was named Finals MVP.

With KCC Egis trailing 77-75, Kang fired in his second of two three-pointers for the game to give KCC Egis a 78-77 lead.

Kang had 10 points for the game.

Lim Jae-hyun then succeeded in his second Wholesale cheap new era snapbacke caps of two free-throws to seal the issue with 11 seconds left on the clock. Lim too had 10 points.

“It was a shot of fortune,” said Kang, who was playing his last game before undertaking military service on 2 May.

“This victory will be the best present for me ahead of the military.”

KCC Egis who trailed 25-16 at the end of the first quarter and 40-30 at halftime, bounced back after the break to take a 58-56 lead to end the third period, setting up a high-voltage final frame.

Shin gave KCC Egis the edge just past the Wholesale Cheap LV snapback hats midway mark in the fourth quarter with his only three-pointer of the game and moments later converted two free-throws to put his team ahead.

“I just threw the ball with confidence, and it went through the rim just fine,” Shin said.

“And you wouldn’t know how dazzling I was with such a successful shot.

“I think I was able to make the shot with calmness as my team-mates were helping each other.”

Victor Thomas’ 23 points and nine rebounds

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paced Dongbu Promy. Kim Joo-Sung had 16 points and 10 rebounds.

KCC Egis, who had finished runners-up last year to Mobis Phoebus, are now the most successful team in KBL history having won five titles (1998, 1999, 2008 and 2009, 2010) in various formats of the KBL.

 

 

 

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Apr 28

Oops! Ryan Raburn gives an assist on Miguel Olivo’s homer

Posted in Pro bowl jerseys 2012, Super bowl jerseys 2012

Ask any Detroit Tigers fan what he or she thinks of Ryan Raburn’s(notes) outfield defense and you see a person scrunch their face, clench their teeth, pull their hair, or flat-out just wave their hands and walk away.

Though statistical evidence says Raburn is a good Wholesale Cheap gucci snapback caps defensive outfielder, the general perception is that he’s terrible. That’s because he’s made some spectacular gaffes, the kind that cannot be easily erased from memory.

As you might expect, Raburn thinks he gets a bad rap and believes he’d improve with more repetitions in the outfield. (In fairness, he’s also made some great plays, such as when he robbed Michael Young(notes) of a home run two weeks ago.) But after the blunder he committed during Tuesday’s 7-3 loss Wholesale cheap ED Hardy Snapback hats to the Seattle Mariners, Raburn may never shake his reputation as a defensive butcher.

In the top of the second inning, Miguel Olivo(notes) hit a deep drive to left field that looked like it might be trouble for the Tigers. Perhaps an extra-base hit. Raburn was playing shallow and had to sprint back toward the fence. Maybe he was running a bit too hard, actually. Because when Raburn reached up for the ball, it Wholesale Cheap Red Bull caps bounced off his glove and went over the fence for a home run.

Watch the play here

Immediately, Raburn’s outfield botch called to mind Jose Canseco’s infamous play from 1993 when he let a ball bounce off his head and over the fence.

But at least Canseco was at the fence. Look at the Wholesale Cheap Red Bull hats picture above. Raburn was a step away from the warning track when Olivo’s ball hit his glove. He hit it back in the air, as if it was a volleyball. However, the ball did hit Raburn’s glove, as opposed to his head, so he should probably get credit for that.

MLB.com highlighted the play as a “Must C” clip. In this case, they said the “C” stood for “carom” and “curious.” But it just as easily could stand for “clumsy,” “cringe” or “calamity.”

After the play, Raburn looked in his

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glove, perhaps hoping that he actually made the catch and avoided yet another teeth-clenching, hair-pulling mishap. Or maybe he was cursing his bad luck. That seems to be the only luck Raburn has in the outfield.

Maybe Jim Leyland really knew what he was doing when he decided to play Raburn more at second base. At least he can’t smack the ball over the fence from there.

 

 

 

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Apr 27

Was Brian Cardinal’s pick on Patty Mills a cheap shot?

Posted in Super bowl jerseys 2012, Wholesale Cheap Kids Baseball Hats

What we have here is Brian Cardinal(notes), a reserve forward with the Dallas Mavericks who looks like your dad, setting a strong, rattling pick on Patty Mills(notes), a reserve guard with the Portland Trail Blazers who looks like a pretty smart dude with those glasses, in the final minute of the Mavs’ 93-82 Wholesale cheap new era fitted caps win over the Blazers in Game 5 of their first-round Western Conference playoff series on Monday night. That much is crystal clear; that much is not in dispute.

What is up for debate, however, is whether or not said play was dirty. The Blazers sure seem to think it was, according to The Oregonian’s Jason Quick:

Blazers guard Wesley Matthews(notes) sought out Cardinal after the game and had a few choice words for him at halfcourt, during which Mavericks reserve DeShawn Stevenson(notes) interjected. Matthews and Stevenson exchanged pointed expletives from about 10 feet apart before Stevenson was bear-hugged by a teammate and pushed toward the Dallas locker room.

“I know it’s the playoffs and everything, but Wholesale cheap snapback caps come on,” Matthews said. “With four seconds left in the game? But that’s cool. I’m not going to forget it, that’s for sure.”

Mills said the Blazers players felt it was a “cheap” play by the Mavericks.

“At that point in the game, I don’t know … I don’t know if you do that when you are up that much,” Mills said.

Unsurprisingly, Cardinal saw the play differently. He told Sekou Smith at NBA.com’s Hang Time blog that he was “surprised [the Blazers] are so mad about it,” considering how hard they were playing as the clock ran out:

Cardinal said he wouldn’t have done anything other than watch the final seconds click off the clock if Mills hadn’t picked Barea up full court and been so aggressive with the game already decided.

“If they are mad,” Cardinal said, “they should be mad at or whoever else was in the game, for not calling out that screen.”

As of 8:45 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, about 2,350 readers of the fantastic blog Blazersedge had cast their votes as to the relative cleanliness of the play. Cheap shot? 50 percent. Wholesale cheap new era snapback hats All’s fair? 49 percent.

On a Blazer-friendly blog, that’s pretty remarkable. And while I’m not going to get all gleeful on the opposing side, it also seems about right to me.

While the waning moments of a double-digit win are usually run at quarter-speed, with players on both sides content just to hit the showers, as ProBasketballTalk’s Kurt Helin noted, “Portland defenders kept pushing trying to force a turnover without fouling.” Playing pesky and aggressive, then getting mad when the Wholesale cheap new era fitted hats opponent’s pesky and aggressive play lands you on the seat of your pants, seems a bit off. And Cardinal’s 100 percent right about one thing: If Mills is going to be ticked at anyone, it ought to be the teammates that failed to notify him that he was about to slam headlong into a 6-foot-8 dude.

That said, while there’s absolutely nothing illegal about the screen, I can certainly understand Blazers fans, protective of their own, thinking the Mavs could have closed things out without the bell-ringing. It’s an unnecessary physical play that sends a message, and I can’t blame about half of the people for not particularly

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appreciating that message. It’s not a foul, but I can see the argument that it’s, in a sense, “cheap.”

Hopefully we all get lucky and this turns an end-of-the-bench big into a venom-receiving villain in the Pacific Northwest come Game 6 on Wednesday. More people should feel passionately, one way or the other, about Brian Cardinal.

 

 

 

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