Left field

Can the Clippers break the Laker stranglehold on LA?

By Larry Fine

The Lakers have owned Los Angeles in the NBA sense for 50 years since moving to the City of Angels from the Land of 10,000 Lakes where they were born the Minneapolis Lakers.

 Now with a startling suddenness since the end of the NBA lockout, the famed franchise with its 16 NBA titles looks ripe for a challenge for local hoops supremacy from their Staples Center co-tenants – the perennially sad-sack Los Angeles Clippers.

 Add premier point guard Chris Paul to the Clippers, along with veterans such as Caron Butler from the NBA champion Mavericks and Chauncey Billups of the Knicks, and subtract Lamar Odom from the Lakers and one can feel the rumbles of abalance of power shift in Southern California.

 Mix in an injury to the shooting wrist of Kobe Bryant, and waves of worry have hit the Lakers faithful, who had to endure back-to-back defeats to the Clippers in preseason warm-ups.

 Last year the Lakers, who have won five NBA titles with Bryant on the roster, were 57-25 while the Clippers were 32-50 even with all the highlight reel dunks from former number one overall draft pick Blake Griffin.

All I want for Christmas is…NBA – five teams and players to watch

The new NBA season took a while to come around after a five-month lockout spent negotiating an improved labor agreement. What better day to start than Dec. 25. Merry Christmas!

Read the season preview here courtesy of Larry Fine, and our American sports editor Julian Linden weighs in with five players to watch as well as five teams sure to set pulses racing over the shortened 66-game programme.

All in all, we can’t wait for the games to begin. So whether you’re in an office scrunching up receipts and taking aim at the waste paper basket or on a basketball court shooting hoops, bring on the action. NBA, we’ve missed you.

Picture: Los Angeles Lakers power forward Pau Gasol of Spain slam dunks against the Los Angeles Clippers during their NBA preseason basketball game in Los Angeles, California December 19, 2011. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

Heat may need a big man to take pressure off Big Three

Now that all of the hype surrounding the Miami Heat’s season opener against the Boston Celtics is over, the question remains: how good is this team?

Clearly the Big Three, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, underperformed, especially the latter two, who combined for just seven of 27 shooting from the floor.

The highly publicised triumvirate also committed 15 of the Heat’s 17 turnovers in Tuesday’s 88-80 loss to the Celtics, last season’s Eastern Conference champions.

But Miami’s other two starters, center Joel Anthony and guard Carlos Arroyo, scored an underwhelming five points between them.

Those numbers are going to have to improve if the much-hyped Heat are to have any chance of living up to their lofty expectations.

Miami had decent production off the bench with Udonis Haslem scoring 11 of the reserves’ 16 points. But take away the three from center Zydrunas Ilgauskas and all of those points were from the outside.

Although the era of NBA teams needing a big center is clearly gone, the Heat might have trouble winning over the long haul with Anthony (2.6 career scoring average) and Ilgauskas (35 years old) in the paint. Bosh is 6-foot-11 (2.11m) but is not a true center, preferring the power forward position.

Big shoes to fill for small U.S. basketball team

Where have all the big men gone?

The United States enters this weekend’s world basketball championships with a squad chock full of gifted NBA players but they will be lacking a dominating inside presence.

When the Americans last won the title, in 1994, seven-foot-one Shaquille O’Neal was a towering presence that led the U.S. team in scoring, rebounds and blocks.

But this year, the only centre wearing the Stars and Stripes will be Tyson Chandler, an agile seven-footer of the Dallas Mavericks who can run the floor like a guard.

Chandler, however, with career averages of 8.1 points and 8.8 rebounds and ready to play for his fourth NBA franchise, is hardly the type to strike fear into an intrepid guard who wanders into the lane.

A variety of reasons prevented USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo from selecting NBA centres David Lee, Brook Lopez and his twin, Robin, for the team. Colangelo also couldn’t take Amar’e Stoudemire, who declined to play at the request of the New York Knicks, who were unable to insure his new contract, worth nearly $100 million.

But weren’t there other big men around? Now, if Chandler needs a rest, gets injured, or into foul trouble, he’s replaced by the Los Angeles Lakers’ Lamar Odom, a forward out of place defending under the basket.

If no one shows up for a baseball game…

In North America sports culture summer is the time for baseball. The MLB season kicks off in early April and for the most part flies under the radar for the first few months as fans’ attention is focused on the NBA playoffs, the NFL draft and to a lesser extend the NHL playoffs.

By the middle of June an NBA champion is crowned, (sorry LeBron, maybe next year with your new team) the NFL is as far removed from the ever watchful media’s eye as it ever is, (thank you Brian Cushing, OTA’s were still a few weeks away) and the NHL playoff run receives unprecedented media coverage…in Canada.

Until then, baseball only dominates the headlines for three reasons. Fame, finances, and futility.

But when the middle June rolls around this year a disturbing trend will begin making headlines, one that could dominate baseball for the rest of the season.

Since the implementation of the luxury tax in 2003, the average number of teams that failed to fill at least 50% of their stadium for the season was 3.5. The three years before the tax twice 10 teams failed to hit the 50% mark and once nine teams were under.

But this season a whopping eight clubs are already below the 50% threshold. Two other teams, the Kansas City Royals and Arizona Diamondbacks, are barely filling half of their stadiums and with both clubs already 10+ games out of the division lead, attendance numbers may well decrease as the season wears on.

King James may find a new castle

LeBron James is sounding like his days with the Cleveland Cavaliers are numbered.

The heavily-favoured Cavaliers were moved to the brink of elimination by the Boston Celtics on Tuesday night and the NBA’s best player sounded, if not disinterested, distracted.

If Michael Jordan was moved to the precipice of an early summer vacation, he’d be vowing to return to Boston on a mission. We’ve seen the Kobe scowl when the Lakers are in trouble.

But James, who was a horrid three-for-14 from the floor during the Celtics’ 120-88 victory, displayed none of the fire we should be seeing from the NBA’s best player.

“I missed a lot of open shots that I normally make,” he said impassively. “You don’t see that out of me a lot so when it happens, it’s a big surprise.”

James told reporters he has had three bad games in seven years with the Cavaliers. He has been inexplicably lethargic in the playoffs and it’s not because of his tender elbow.

“I put a lot of pressure on myself to try to be great, to try to be the best player on the court,” he said Tuesday night. “And when I’m not, I feel bad for myself because I’m not going out there and doing the things that I know I can do.

When politics enters sports

For many people, watching a ball game represents a chance to escape the problems of everyday life.

Money problems melt away, at least for a few seconds, when watching LeBron James take off from the foul line and rip down a rim-rattling, backboard-swaying slam dunk. Watching Albert Pujols slug a three-run homer into the upper deck with two runners on in the bottom of the ninth can make one forget, albeit briefly, painful family issues.

That’s why the Phoenix Suns wearing “Los Suns” on their jersey for Wednesday’s playoff game against San Antonio crosses the line. The uniform change is not meant merely to support the Latino community but to slam a new controversial Arizona immigration law.

The law requires state and local police to determine people’s immigration status if there is “reasonable suspicion” they are in the United States illegally.

“The frustration with the federal government’s failure to deal with the issue of illegal immigration resulted in passage of a flawed state law,” team owner Robert Sarver said in a statement explaining the temporary jersey change.

Supporters say the law is needed to curb crime in Arizona, home to nearly a half-million illegal immigrants and a major corridor for drug and migrant smugglers from Mexico.

Pain is an afterthought during playoffs

Often casual fans define the toughness of a sport by the extent of injury that players are willing to play through.

While basketball is often overlooked, this year’s NBA playoff run is giving us several examples of players placing the goal of a team championship above their own individual bodies.

During Tuesday’s win by the Cleveland Cavaliers, LeBron James re-aggravated what has become a troublesome elbow injury.

“(The injury) has been going on for a few weeks. Hopefully it doesn’t continue to bother me as we move forward,” James told reporters.

James was criticized at the end of the season for sitting out several games in order to rest for the playoffs.

Despite the injury, he has been averaging almost a triple-double during the series against the Bulls (just over 31 points, nine rebounds and eight assists a game).

Ten events that capture the essence of American sport

Passion for sport is no greater or less in North America than in other countries but there is a difference. The focus here is unashamedly on the domestic, with an ambivalent attitude among many fans about what the rest of the sports world is doing or thinks.

On the same day that Woods held his first media conference before this month’s US Masters at Augusta, an event that was streamed live around the globe, the hottest topic of conversation in North America was who would win that night’s college basketball final between Duke and Butler.

 Historians and sociologists will tell you the reasons are cultural, a reflection of North America’s determination to break away from the old world. There is certainly no attempt to disguise it, let alone a need to apologise. North Americans neither need nor seek the approval of the rest of the world to justify their own competitions. The NFL, NBA and NHL are doing just fine, thanks, and who else would dare call the MLB finals a “world Series” when only teams from North America are allowed to compete?

It is in stark contrast to most other countries, including my homeland Australia, where international interest is not only sought but regarded as the measuring stick of success.

I have been an avid follower of all sports since I first learned to walk and talk but now that I live here I could not resist the temptation of drawing up a “bucket list” of what I considered to be the 10 most important sporting events on the continent.

But do the events that capture the most interest overseas really capture the quintessential nature of North American sports? What would your top 10 events be? What’s missing from my list?

Comments are very welcome.

Bracket busting in the year of the mid-Major

The madness of March continued today as we saw the fall of the top overall seeded Kansas Jayhawks to the #9 Northern Iowa. Additionally #2 seed Villanova collapsed against #10 St. Marys and #3 New Mexico lost to #11 Washington. Cinderella has arrived to the Sweet 16 and brought along some friends.

Brackets everywhere have been busted wide open.

Northern Iowa was not intimidated by Kansas and played solid all game long. Kansas fought back at the end, but the Panthers’ 3 point shooting solidified the upset. The Jayhawks are now the first #1 seed eliminated and the shocking loss is now the exclamation point on a growing list of surprises helping to establish this year’s tournament as a classic.

Villanova’s exit marks the sixth loss of the tournament for the vaulted Big East conference. There had been speculation heading into the tournament that the Big East might be overrated, but given the number of Big East teams ranked within the top 25 during the season, it was hard to argue against the depth or talent of the conference. Villanova now joins Georgetown, Notre Dame, Marquette and Louisville on the list of early losses. Syracuse (#1), West Virginia (#2) and Pittsburgh (#3) still remain in the hunt for the national championship.

The other day I questioned the cause for the widespread upsets this year. Is this a reflection of better coaching and recruiting at the mid-tier level? Is the newfound parity evidence of the evolution of the NBA Development League (D-League)? As the D-League matures into an equivalent of the minor leagues for the NBA, the risk to talented high school and collegiate players to enter the draft early has been reduced. However, this still does not explain why we are seeing an outstanding number of upsets and close nailbiters. What do you think?

PHOTO: Northern Iowa players Jake Koch (20) and Adam Koch (34) celebrate after upsetting Kansas in their NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament game in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, March 20, 2010. REUTERS/Bill Waugh