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By Zach Schiff  November 16, 2009, at 11:57 pm  Coming Tomorrow on The Rivalry!
* * Alex Ovechkin’s return is imminent, and what better way to do it than against the Rangers! (See: Kovalchuk; Atlanta; 11/12/09)
* * Bryan thinks the Islanders might be “for real” this year. His prediction is 85 points, putting them exactly where I predicted in September: 10th place.
* * Matt Moulson is to 2009 fantasy hockey as Steve Slaton was to 2008 fantasy football: Best Waiver Wire Pickup of the Year.
* * Chris Drury and Brandon Dubinsky still not playing for the Rangers. Don’t worry, even if they were, they wouldn’t score.
* * Wade Redden returns to glory on the power play. (Webster’s Dictionary defines glory as: “non-scoring, non-shooting, can’t keep the puck in the zone, overpaid, and got Tom Renney fired.” Weird.)
* * John Tortorella says Redden is “playing decent.” Glen Sather agrees. Sather then states that “All decent players should received $6.5M for 6 years.”
* * Blair Betts makes $600,000. Does more than Drury. Sather preemptively refuses to offer him a deal next year, saying “I will make mistakes, but I will never admit them.” (See: Betts; Moore; Drury; Redden; Rozsival; Orr; Brashear)
* * The guy behind me at the Ranger games is constantly a dick to everyone. Will he yell at the large people I sold my tickets for tomorrow’s game to? Will he live to tell about it? Why does he put a belt around his sweatpants and still think he’s a tough guy?
Stay Tuned!
By Matt Soldano November 16, 2009, at 11:11 pm After a blowout win on Thursday night against the Phoenix Suns, the Los Angeles Lakers were a team who seemingly were clicking on all cylinders. Since then, they have gone ice cold and have suffered embarrassing losses to the Denver Nuggets and Houston Rockets.
Now, I can understand going into Friday night’s game in the Mile High state that the L.A. would lose to Denver. But I could never fathom the way in which they lost. More about that in a second.
As for Sunday’s loss, the Houston Rockets stuck to their blueprint from the playoffs last year: No Yao, No McGrady, no problem. They’ve done it better than any team in the NBA. Go small and weather the Lakers with solid defense and physical play.
But here is what has stuck out to me most about this team over the past week:
• The Lakers have no answer for young, speedy point guards. None. Aaron Brooks goes for a career high 33 points on while Ty Lawson scores 13 points and adds 6 assists on Friday night.
• Kobe Bryant’s shot attempt vs. amount of points. One of my favorite stats in all of basketball. The past two games Kobe has taken 37 shots and has scored 37 points. A dead on 1.0 ratio. In the first 8 games, Bryant took 198 shots and scored 264 points, a ratio of 1.3 which gives evidence to higher efficiency rating.
• Pau Gasol needs to get back into the starting lineup as soon as possible. It’s not even for the starting five’s sake but rather for the bench. I would like for someone to show me a contending team in NBA history that had a worse bench than the Lakers. Seriously, leave me a comment. With Gasol coming back, Lamar Odom will move back to the bench where he can provide an actual scoring threat on the floor with the second unit.
• Halftime adjustments: Maybe their opponents are drinking MJ’s secret stuff from Space Jam or the Lakers just get really lackadaisical coming out of the break. The past two games the third quarters have looked like this: 29-8, 28-19. While the Rockets was not as horrid as the Nuggets game, it still proved to be the difference because once the Rockets went into the 4th quarter with a 7 point lead, there was no looking back.
As Jason previously mentioned in his Atlanta Hawks post, its way too early to read into any of these things too seriously but at the same time, these are signs that if not fixed could cost the Lakers a serious chance of defending their title. We’ll see this team’s true colors once Gasol comes back fully healthy and we can have a half year evaluation on the Ron Artest signing.
By Alex Goldberg November 16, 2009, at 6:53 pm I’m sure many of you have seen this video already. It already has over 1 million views on youtube, but I felt that it needs to be shared none-the-less. While it is undoubtedly nothing but a lucky shot it is still incredible anyway. Also, for those of you who don’t know, Modern Warfare 2 is now out. Almost every member of the 3rd string safety has it already, and loves it, I sadly do not. But from what they have to say, it is awesome and if, you have a system capable of supporting it, you should go out and buy it right after watching this clip…
By Anthony De Franco November 16, 2009, at 11:14 am Danny Castillo v. Shane Roller
Castillo is a member of Urijah Faber’s Team Alpha Male which means that I’m sure big brother pushed for a job for him in the WEC. He’s 3-1 in the WEC, and hasn’t lost since losing to Donald Cerrone at WEC 34. He’s an excellent wrestler with a balanced all around game. He’s got some pretty decent wins, including his most recent over previously undefeated Ricardo Lamas.
Roller is also 3-1, and his only loss is to current WEC lightweight champ Benson Henderson. He’s also a strong wrestler, which means that I don’t that think that either of them will be scoring a bunch of takedowns. Roller has three submission victories, all of them coming by way of guillotine choke, a favorite of amateur wrestlers.
This should be a pretty interesting (or sloppy) striking match because you have two wrestlers who are standing up. Expect one powerful hook to end this one.
Prediction: Castillo via TKO
Rob McCullough v. Karen Darabedyan
Remember when “Razor Rob” was the king of the WEC lightweights? Seems like it was so long ago. He’s 4-2 in the WEC, but has lost two of his last four. He’s a muay thai specialist who loves to stand and bang, as two of his three submission victories have come from strikes, a cut, and dislocating Kit Cope’s ribs. No tapouts here, folks.
Darabedyan is Armenian, and a training parter of Karo Parisyan and Manny Gamburyan. That means that he comes from the same judo background. The difference that he was an excellent boxer before ever getting involved in MMA. With the good ground game, he has a huge advantage over McCullough. If you add that to his ground game, this almost sounds like Razor Rob is being served up as a sacrifice to a debuting fighter.
Prediction: Darabedyan via submission
Manny Gamburyan v. Leonard Garcia (#5 Featherweight)
Gamburyan is a TUF alumni who was deemed far too small for the UFC’s lightweight division. Banished to WEC, where he makes far less money, Manny had a mediocre debut against John Franchi. His biggest advantage in his his frame. He has a real low center of gravity, even for a featherweight. He’s kinda shaped like a bowling ball to steal a a phrase used to describe Jags running back Maurice Jones-Drew. His judo is top notch, and he likely wants to take this fight to the ground.
Garcia is famous for his Sports Illustrated cover when he was getting beat by Roger Huerta. Also deemed too small for 155, he was sent to the UFC and he is 3-1. His one loss was his stoppage at the hands of Mike Thomas Brown in a fight for his title. Garcia loves to stand and bang, and wants to stay on the feet and throw hands with Gamburyan.
Prediction: Garcia via Unanimous Decision
Mike Thomas Brown (#1 Featherweight) v. Jose Aldo (#3 Featherweight)
Brown has now defended the WEC featherweight belt twice since winning it by knocking out Urijah Faber. He defeated Leonard Garcia, and defeat a handless Faber in the rematch. Brown is a HUGE 145, and has the power that goes with that size. He’s part of American Top Team which means two things. First, he gets some of the best training in the world. The other is something Joe Rogan says all the time: ATT has perfected weight cutting using things like IV fluids and pedialyte to the point where it would not shock me if Brown walked into the cage at 160 or heavier. He’s an all around solid fighter, but the really remarkable thing about him in his size.
Aldo is a hot prospect with an 8-0 and coming off one of the most impressive knockouts I’ve ever seen. He threw a flying knee eight seconds into his fight with Cub Swanson and put him out for food. His long lanky frame is perfect for muay thai. The Brazilian is just a supernova of explosiveness. He has good striking, and can finish fights quickly. He also is a black belt in BJJ under the same people that gave B.J. Penn his belt. He’s a pretty impressive fighter.
Expect it to stay on the feet.
Prediction: Aldo via TKO
By Anthony De Franco November 16, 2009, at 9:55 am This has been a rumor for a while, but someone finally went ahead and put pen to paper with a few details. The source is Brazilian source TATAME.com, which is not exactly the New York Times, but they seem convinced. So, we put the word report in front of it let you figure it out.
Biggest MMA event of the planet, UFC has plans even bigger to 2010. Sources close to WEC informed TATAME.com that the UFC will add new weights categories on the next year, bringing athletes with contract with WEC, that was bought by Zuffa – same organization that commands the UFC – in 2006.
This year, UFC scheduled 20 events – WEC made only eight –, but the bigger amount of athletes would force the organization to make a bigger number of annual shows. According to sources close to the event, Zuffa called all the fighters with contract with WEC in Las Vegas earlier this month, telling about the merger and revealing that they plan three events for month in the future.
Jason has discussed this plenty of times before. With all the injury woes that the UFC is suffering, how nice would it be to put Urijah Faber and his wonderful golden locks on Pay-per-view and not have to worry about it? Well, it looks like that may be a possibility.
One of my biggest concerns about this is the employment status of WEC general manager Reed Harris. Harris has done a really wonderful creating something out of nothing with his brand, and even since Zuffa took over, he was resided over some of the best fight cards in the world. What would his prize for that be? Severence pay? That doesn’t seem right.
However, it is the right move. While the cable deal they have in place with Versus is great, it isn’t the same type of money that pay-per-view can pull in.
It’s not a question of if a featherweight fight will headline a UFC PPV, it’s a question of when. My guess is that it’s by the time we see Brown-Faber III.
By Anthony De Franco November 16, 2009, at 8:00 am Since we brought you Captain America’s walkout shirt yesterday, it’s only fair that we bring you Vera’s today. There are many of us out there that think that Vera actually won the fight, and if nothing else, Vera should be better off in his career than he was before.
How often do you see the same company sponsor two fighters that are fighting each other? Vera’s solid performance against Couture has made him more popular than ever before, and I’m willing to bet that we will see a bunch of people rocking this one before too much longer.
Get yours at MMA Warehouse for 47.99.
For more MMA Walkout Shirts, check out The 3rd String Store.
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