Just sayin’. No baseball team ever had come back from a 3-0 deficit in games to win a playoff series … until the Boston Red Sox memorably did it against the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series in 2004. But six years later, fans in Boston may not be celebrating that precedent-setting […]

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So much for the invincible Orlando Magic. Eight-and-oh in the playoffs … but against whom? Overmatched Charlotte, which is built around … Steven Jackson? Gerald Wallace? A sweep of those guys, but so what? (And one game was decided by four points and two by nine. Yeah, a butt-kicking.) Then the Atlanta Hawks, nice team […]

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So, roll out of bed on the other side of the world, and there is the final score: Boston 120, Cleveland 88? Boston 120, Cleveland 88! One of the bigger surprises in sports since I got here, in October. Absolutely did not see this coming. Even after the Celtics won Game 4 to even the […]

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I’m on record with my sad decision that the Lakers won’t defend their NBA championship this year. They don’t beat Cleveland in the Finals. But these Lakers are shaky enough that their fans ought to be worried … right now. That is the Oklahoma City Thunder coming to town, and they have the league’s leading […]

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A reality of blogging: It’s bloody difficult to do one item a day, every day, for two blogs. And hold a full-time job. Try it sometime, and a year later let me know how it’s going. The second blog is my quixotic World Cup Countdown blog. And part of that deal is a promise to […]

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I’m going to do the math. I’ve been out of the United States for … hold on … for 128 days now. My longest consecutive stretch, eclipsing the 120 (or thereabouts) I spent in and around Hong Kong in 2008-09. No, not a significant stretch for veteran expats, or career diplomats or military people based […]

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My friend and former colleague Steve Dilbeck now blogs about the Dodgers for the Los Angeles Times. I would like to read Steve’s blog. I would also like to read a blog about the Dodgers. The trouble? None of the latimes.com blogs will load. Zero. Sports, politics, news. None can be called up. The people […]

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As I write this, many of the people I know back in the States are watching the Lakers play the Celtics. In Boston. If I were on that side of the Atlantic, I would be watching too. I grew up watching that rivalry, and suffering through it. Jerry West, Chick Hearn and I … well, […]

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I want to know. Really. A lot of you have been watching Derek Fisher. Do the Lakers look like they’re playing 4-on-5 when D-Fish is in the game? Does he look like a bench coach who somebody let suit up, for the heck of it? Is there a point guard in the league he can […]

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If you’re a Lakers fan and you’re not worried about Kobe Bryant … you ought to be. Not because of the way he is performing. Of course not. He’s as good as ever. Three buzzer-beating shots for victories already this season. Which is more than any other team has. A scoring average of 30.6 points […]

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