Maddux Sports Blog

The Hornets have become the first team to fire a coach this year by booting Byron Scott just a year and a half after he was named NBA Coach of the Year. The team had limped out to a 3-6 start, and two of those win hardly count because they were against the Clippers and Kings. I’d sum up the way the franchise handled this with two words – inevitable and stupid. It was inevitable because Scott had to go because of the start and because of the way the season last year went – a disappointing regular season and humiliating playoffs. Chris Paul was frustrated and the team has no more important task than keeping Paul happy. They are already over the luxury tax threshold so they can’t overhaul the roster in a meaningful way, so Scott was the only real option. The move was stupid, though, because of their choice of a replacement. The new head coach is general manager Jeff Bower. He has been with the team since 1995 and he built the current team so he knows them well, but he has never been a head coach and a couple of assistant stints atMarist and Penn State a hundred years ago are his only real bits of (barely) relevant experience. They have also hired Tim Floyd as Bower’s top assistant. Not only if Floyd coming off a disgraceful exit from USC, but his last coaching experience in the NBA was with the Hornets – and they fired him in 2004 after one season because he didn’t do a good job. I have no problem with getting rid of Scott, but only if they replace with a coach with a good chance of being better than Scott was. I just don’t really see that here.

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Los Angeles Lakers Thrashing of Orlando Magic

The Magic were certainly not very magical in the first game of the NBA Finals. Losing by 25, Orlando simply could not get the job done in Los Angeles. Of course, if they have any shot at the league crown, they must steal one at the Coliseum in LA. They have a chance on Sunday. If they can’t do it on Sunday, then this is a five-game series. There is no way that Orlando will be able to dig themselves out of a 2-0 hole versus the Lakers. The Lakers are not the Celtics or the Cavaliers. The Lakers are one of the most talented, skilled, deep team in the NBA. This entire series comes down to game two. The Lakers will take it.

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It’s the 2008-2009 NBA Finals and this season sees the number three seed in the East, the Orlando Magic (59-23), meet the number one seed in the West, the Los Angeles Lakers (65-17). The Magic beat the Philadelphia 76ers in the initial round, the Boston Celtics in the second and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals. The Lakers took it to the Utah Jazz, Houston Rockets and Denver Nuggets.

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MLB is in high gear as is NASCAR and the PGA. Plus, the NBA and NHL playoffs are entering their final rounds. And sooner than later NFL and NCAA football will be prepping for another season. Here’s a look at what’s going on in the world of sports.

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The late spring into the early summer is a great time for professional sports. Here are a few observations regarding some of what’s happening in the NHL, NBA, NFL, NASCAR, PGA and MLB.

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The 2009 NBA Western Conference Finals will feature the Los Angeles Lakers versus the Denver Nuggets. The Lakers finally beat the Houston Rockets in game seven of the semifinals by a score of 89-70 and won a spot in the Finals. To say the least, although the last game of the series was an easy victory, the series was hard fought. The Nuggets have been waiting around for days to see who they’ll face in their next best of seven series.

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There’s a lot of hype around this game. It’s not just a match up of two teams, it’s also a figurative fistfight between Los Angeles Lakers’ coach Phil Jackson and Houston Rockets’ head man Rick Adelman. Three times teams coached by Adelman have been knocked out of the playoffs by a Jackson-coached club. However, neither guy will be on the court when this game is played and the fact is whatever these guys have done to get their teams to this point is all in the past. In other words, today’s win has more to do with the talent and skill on the court than the coaches on the bench. Here are five keys to each team’s success in today’s game seven.

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Interesting little note for horseplayers coming out of Belmont Park. The field was set today for Saturday’s Peter Pan Stakes, a Grade 2 race over 1 1/8 miles that has become a well-used prep race for future Belmont Stakes runners. It’s a pretty solid seven horse field. There’s a horse entered named Scorewithcater, a New Mexico based runner. Normally,he probably wouldn’t get much attention – New Mexico based horses never do. This horse has one interesting distinction, though – he has beaten the Kentucky Derby winner in each of his last two outings. He outdueled Mine That Bird down the stretch in the Borderland Stakes, and then he finished third, one spot ahead of Mine That Bird, in the Sunland Derby. Given the shock that Mine That Bird pulled, Scorewithcater will almost certainly get more attention from bettors than he likely deserves. The puzzle will be to figure out if whatever happened to Mine That Bird between his time in New Mexico and the Derby is contagious, and whether this horse caught it.

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In round one, the Los Angeles Lakers, the number one seed in the West, easily dispatched the Utah Jazz in five games to move onto the Western Conference Semifinals. Meantime, in the initial round of the NBA playoffs, the fifth seed Houston Rockets beat the fourth seed Portland Trailblazers four games to two. Thus the stage is now set for what should be a tough, hard-fought series between the two clubs. Simply put, the Lakers are favored in this one. Can the Rockets stop them?

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The first round of the NBA Western Conference playoffs features the number one seed Los Angeles Lakers (65-17) against the eighth seed Utah Jazz (48-34). In the three-game season series between the two clubs, the Lakers won two. Of all NBA clubs, Los Angeles posted the second-best record, while the Jazz had the 12^th best mark in the league. Los Angeles won seven of its last 10 and two straight. Utah has gone 3-7 in its final 10 contests.

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