SportsHubLA

Y E S T E R D A Y . . .

Kansas 75, Memphis 68 (OT): Wow. This game had absolutely nothing to do with SoCal sports, but was about as riveting a game as I’ve seen in a very long time. You had Memphis, minutes, hell, even seconds away from a national championship when that dormant Achilles heel (poor free throw shooting) awoke. Misses from Chris Douglas-Roberts and Derrick Rose opened the door for Mario Chalmers to knock down a last second three-pointer, a crushing body shot from which Memphis could never recover. Kansas KO’d Memphis in overtime to secure its first national title in 20 years. The tourney this year will be remembered for Western Kentucky’s buzzer beater, Stephen Curry & Davidson, and most of all Mario Chalmers transcendent championship saving three pointer.

Angels 6, Indians 4: I switched over to the Angels’ game following the NCAA championship hoping to calm my heart palpitations. Little did I know that I would be thrown into a wild back and forth between two of the American League’s best teams. The combination of Torii Hunter’s go ahead eighth inning home run, an injured K-Rod blowing a save, and Hunter’s walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the ninth nearly sent me into cardiac arrest. Luckily, the Angels’ 162-game win streak when leading in the ninth and my left ventricle remained intact. I need a drink.

Diamondbacks 9, Dodgers 3: I’m going to go out on a limb here and say giving up four first inning runs and four home runs overall is not very good, especially when facing Dan Haren. You know what else isn’t good? Esteban Loaiza, Dodger hitting with RISP, and Andruw Jones, whose current .115 average is making last year’s .222 performance look, to quote the immortal Larry David, prettty, pretty, pretty, pretty, good.

T O D A Y . . .

Lakers at Blazers (7:00 p.m. PST, KCAL HD): The Rose Garden (6-18 there since it opened) is not the place the Lakers want to be traveling to while they are in a heated battle with San Antonio for the No. 2 seed in the West.

Indians at Angels (7:05 p.m. PST, KCOP): After last night’s October-style game (minus Dane Cook, thank God) we’ll see what these two teams can do for an encore. Ervin Santana, coming off a solid performance in Minnesota, takes on Jake Westbrook.

Dodgers at Diamondbacks (6:40 p.m. PST, PRIME HD): The Dodgers bring their anemic offense to the field tonight at least knowing they don’t have to face either of the terrible twosome Brandon Webb or Dan Haren. Instead they get lefty Doug Davis whose presence will ensure that a frustrated Matt Kemp will be able to crack the starting lineup.

Nuggets at Clippers (7:30 p.m. PST, FoxWest2): Elton Brand and Clippers get a chance to play spoiler tonight against the Nuggets who are battling the Warriors for the No. 8 seed. Brand’s solid play so far is providing inspiration for the still rehabbing Shaun Livingston.

N E W S W O R T H Y . . .

• Hopefully the Angels are gettinf the injuries out of the way early because they sure are piling up. It was revealed by his poor performance last night that K-Rod is pitching on two sprained ankles.
• The Kings will be picking second in the NHL Draft.
• Forget about USC vs. UCLA football. It’s all about USC vs. UNLV.

C O L U M N S . . .

• An average Joe trying to get an autograph at Dodger’s Stadium? No, no, no says Frank McCourt, according to T.J. Simers.
• Kevin Ding shows us the biological underpinnings of what has made Kobe Bryant the superstar he is today.
• SportsHubLA’s Columns of the Day: As expected it’s almost all NCAA Championship talk: Jeff Miller of the Register and Bill Plaschke of the Times lament about Memphis blowing a National Title on something as basic as free throw shooting. If I’m a Memphis fan right now I’m for sure wandering around Beale St. right now with a scraggly beard, screaming, “Milk was a bad choice.”

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