Sports Articles

2009-05-29 | Jim Murphy

Kobe Bryant finally got some help from his teammates on Wednesday night, allowing the Los Angeles Lakers to beat the Denver Nuggets 103-94 in game five of the NBA’s Western Conference Finals. The enigmatic Lakers now hold a 3-2 series lead with game six set for the Pepsi Center Arena in Denver on Friday night. The Lakers have never lost a game 5 in a 2-2 series at home in franchise history, posting a 20-0 record in that spot.

2009-05-29 | Jim Murphy

In a Stanley Cup playoffs characterized for all out blood and guts wars in the first and second rounds, both conference finals champions managed to advance without much resistance. Pittsburgh had little trouble sweeping the Carolina Hurricanes in the East, while Detroit eliminated the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday night by a 4-1 series margin. To the Blackhawks’ credit, they didn’t roll over as badly as Carolina—three of the five games in the series were decided by a single goal. In game five, Chicago battled throughout before Darren Helm’s goal at 3:58 of overtime gave the Red Wings the decision.

2009-05-29 | Jim Murphy

The Cleveland Cavaliers managed to blow a 22 point lead, but thanks to a ‘triple double’ from LeBron James still pulled off a 112-102 victory over the Orlando Magic in game five of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals on Thursday night. The Magic still lead the series 3-2, with game six on their Amway Arena home court this Saturday. If Cleveland can win game six they’ll return home for game 7 and an opportunity to become only the 9th NBA team since 1947 to come back from a 3-1 series deficit.

2009-05-29 | Jim Murphy

The undisputed best heavyweight MMA fighter in the world, Fedor Emelianenko, has confirmed that he’ll face former UFC heavyweight champion Josh Barnett at Affliction III scheduled for August 1st at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. Fedor will defend his WAMMA Heavyweight Championship, while Barnett will be faced with the daunting task of handing “The Last Emperor” his first legitimate mixed martial arts defeat.

2009-05-27 | Jim Murphy

While the NBA would certainly love a Lakers/Cavs matchup in the finals, the Denver Nuggets have other ideas. With leading scorer Carmelo Anthony suffering from a sprained ankle and a stomach virus, Denver’s bench stepped up bigtime allowing the Nuggets to defeat the Los Angeles Lakers 120-101 at the Pepsi Center on Sunday. The victory evened the series at 2-2, with game five back in Los Angeles on Wednesday night.

2009-05-27 | Jim Murphy

Joe Warren has never lacked for confidence, occasionally proclaiming himself as ‘the baddest man on the planet’. While we still consider Russian heavyweight to be the Fedor Emelianenko to be the rightful ‘BMOP’, Warren may soon be able to make a compelling case for that lofty sobriquet. In the co-main event at DREAM 9 Warren defeated “Kid” Yamamoto by split decision in an upset that left the live crowd at Yokohama Arena in stunned silence and has to rank among the biggest ever in the sport. Making Warren’s victory even more improbable is the fact that he’d had only one previous professional fight.

2009-05-27 | Jim Murphy

The Pittsburgh Penguins are back in the Stanley Cup Finals for the second consecutive season following a sweep of the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Finals. Pittsburgh wrapped up their series with a 4-1 victory in Raleigh, NC on Tuesday night. Carolina got on the board quickly, but the Penguins responded with four unanswered goals to earn the win. They’ll now await the outcome of the Western Conference Finals where the Detroit Red Wings hold a 3-1 lead over the Chicago Blackhawks.

2009-05-27 | Jim Murphy

For much of the past year, the Cleveland Cavaliers appeared almost preordained to become NBA champions. Now, they’re in a battle to simply survive. The Orlando Magic are now one game away from reaching the NBA Finals—and eliminating LeBron James and the Cavs—by virtue of a 116-114 overtime victory on their Amway Center home court on Tuesday night. Dwight Howard scored ten points in the OT period, and LeBron James missed a potential game winning three point shot at the buzzer to give the Magic the win.

2009-05-26 | Jim Murphy

The Detroit Red Wings shot out to a 2-0 first period lead and were never seriously threatened as they defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 6-1 at the United Center on Sunday afternoon. The victory gives Detroit a 3-1 lead in the best of seven Western Conference Finals, and they can wrap up a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals with a victory in Game 6 at home on Wednesday night.

2009-05-26 | Jim Murphy

When golf legend Jack Nicklaus was still a young upstart in the sport and only starting to tear up PGA courses, legend Bobby Jones commented following ‘The Golden Bear’s’ 1965 Master’s win that ‘he plays a game with which I am not familiar’. Following his absolute destruction of Rashad Evans in the main event of UFC 98, there are likely a few MMA fighters saying the same thing about the new light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida. Machida completely befuddled Evans en route to a 2nd round TKO victory after which “The Dragon” looked as if he’d barely worked up a sweat.

2009-05-22 | Jim Murphy

Game two of the NBA Western Conference finals was very similar to game one, only with a decidedly different outcome. After a narrow loss in game one, the Denver Nuggets were the better team down the stretch on Thursday night as they earned a 106-103 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers at the Staples Center. The best of seven series is now tied 1-1 as the action shifts to Denver for the next two games.

2009-05-22 | Jim Murphy

The Carolina Hurricanes have been unable to slow down the Pittsburgh Penguins’ high octane offense in the first two games of the NHL’s Eastern Conference finals, and that’s why they’re in a 0-2 hole. On Thursday night, it was Evgeni Malkin who gave them the most grief as he scored three goals for ‘the hat trick’ and the Penguins romped to victory by a final score of 7-4. The series will resume on Saturday at the RBC Center in Raleigh, NC.

2009-05-21 | Jim Murphy

The Los Angeles Lakers withstood a tough challenge from the Denver Nuggets in game one of their NBA Western Conference Final series before emerging with a 105-103 victory at the Staples Center on Tuesday night. Kobe Bryant scored 40 points in the win and was crucial down the stretch as the Lakers mounted a fourth quarter charge for the come-from-behind victory. Kobe’s performance outshined the Nuggets’ Carmelo Anthony who scored 38 points in the losing cause.

2009-05-21 | Jim Murphy

The Detroit Red Wings now own a 2-0 lead over the Chicago Blackhawks in the best of seven NHL Western Conference Finals by virtue of a hard fought 3-2 OT victory at the Joe Louis Arena on Tuesday night. Mikael Samuelsson scored at 5:14 of the first overtime to give the Wings the victory, with the series now shifting to Chicago’s United Center for game three on Friday night.

2009-05-19 | Jim Murphy

The Orlando Magic actually played like an elite level team in Sunday’s game seven victory over the Boston Celtics at the TD BankNorth Garden. The Magic shot out to an early lead and held off several Celtic comeback attempts, controlling the game throughout. The result was a 101-82 win over the undermanned Celtics, giving Orlando a 4-3 series victory. The Magic now advance to face the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Eastern Conference finals.

2009-05-19 | Jim Murphy

The Detroit Red Wings used a three goal third period to blow open a game that had been close for two periods, eventually beating the Chicago Blackhawks 5-2 on Sunday afternoon at the Joe Louis Arena. The Wings now enjoy a 1-0 lead in the NHL Western Conference finals, with game two back in Detroit on Tuesday. The Red Wings have become something of an series opening game ‘lock’ during recent years, with Sunday’s victory representing the eighth straight time they’ve prevailed in game one of a playoff set.

2009-05-19 | Jim Murphy

The Pittsburgh Penguins used some important contributions from role players and the goaltending of Marc-Andre Fleury to hold off the Carolina Hurricanes by a 3-2 score on Monday night. The victory gives Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead in the best of seven NHL Eastern Conference Finals, with game two scheduled for the Penguins’ Mellon Arena home ice on Thursday night. The series then shifts to Raleigh, NC for games three and four beginning on Saturday evening.

2009-05-19 | Jim Murphy

The Denver Nuggets have advanced to the NBA Western Conference finals, and will host the Los Angeles Lakers in game three of the series next Monday night at the Pepsi Center. The problem is that the top US pro wrestling promotion, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), booked that date for a live broadcast of their ‘Monday Night RAW’ television program. Such conflicts are common in both the NBA and NHL during the lengthy postseason, and the long standing policy in most instances is that the home sports team gets scheduling precedence over the ‘one night stand’ event. Some teams even have this contractually guaranteed with their venue lease, but even those who don’t usually get the benefit of the doubt.

2009-05-18 | Jim Murphy

Here’s a word of advice to future opponents of MMA fighter Bobby Lashley—don’t make fun of his background in professional wrestling. Mike Cook found that out the hard way in the co-main event of the Maximum Fighting Championships’ MFC 21: Hard Knocks event on Friday night. After spending the run up to fight week making fun of Lashley’s tenure in the WWE, Cook lasted a mere: 24 seconds before being choked unconscious via a guillotine choke. The victory ran Lashley’s record in his brief MMA career to 3-0, with his next fight on June 27 against MMA veteran/Japanese pop culture personality Bob Sapp in Biloxi, Mississippi.

2009-05-18 | Jim Murphy

When Houston Rockets superstar Yao Ming suffered a season ending injury in game three of their Western Conference semifinal series with the Los Angeles Lakers, few gave his team much hope of advancing without him. His teammates, however, had other plans—on Thursday night in Houston the Rockets used a balanced scoring attack and tenacious defense to defeat the Lakers 95-80 and even the best of seven series at 3-3. Game 7 will be contested in Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon, with the victor facing the Denver Nuggets for the right to represent the Western Conference in the NBA Finals.

2009-05-18 | Jim Murphy

The Los Angeles Lakers avoided what would have been an all-time monumental NBA playoff series upset by routing the Houston Rockets 89-70 in Sunday’s Western Conference semifinal game 7 at the Staples Center. Despite losing superstar center Yao Ming to a foot fracture in game three, the Rockets gave the Lakers fits and defied skeptics by pushing the series to the limit. Los Angeles will now meet the Denver Nuggets for the right to represent the Western Conference in the NBA Finals.

2009-05-18 | Jim Murphy

No one really wants to see instant replay infest fight sports, though Strikeforce lightweight prospect Billy Evangelista could make a compelling case for it at the moment. An apparent blown call by referee Herb Dean in his Strikeforce Challengers series main event match against Mike Aina on Friday night resulted in his disqualification and the first loss on his resume against nine victories. Making the situation even more unfortunate, Evangelista was completely in control of the contest and appeared to be on his way to a decision victory if not a knockout stoppage.

2009-05-13 | Jim Murphy

The Houston Rockets may have beaten the Los Angeles Lakers at home in game four of the Western Conference semifinals last Sunday, but they’ve definitely paid a price for it. They certainly made the Lakers mad, and may have woken up a team that at times appeared to be sleepwalking through the NBA playoffs. On Tuesday night at the Staples Center, the Lakers destroyed the Rockets in a game that was essentially over by halftime and eventually prevailed by an absurd 40 point margin in the 118-78 victory. The Lakers now lead the best of seven series 3-2 with game six scheduled for Thursday night in Houston.

2009-05-13 | Jim Murphy

The Anaheim Ducks used a pair of second period goals and another outstanding effort by goalie Jonas Hiller to defeat the Detroit Red Wings 2-1 on their Honda Center home ice Tuesday night. The Anaheim victory tied the best of seven Western Conference semifinal series at three games apiece, forcing a decisive game seven on Thursday night at Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena. The winner of this series will advance to meet the Chicago Blackhawks to determine the West’s representative in the Stanley Cup Finals.

2009-05-11 | Jim Murphy

The Orlando Magic used their hot shooting touch and improved defensive intensity to easily beat the Boston Celtics 117-96 in game three of their Eastern Conference semifinals on Friday night. The Magic held a twelve point lead at halftime and were never really challenged in the second half. Orlando now leads the best of seven series two games to one, with game four back on their Amway Arena home court on Sunday night.

2009-05-11 | Jim Murphy

The Washington Capitals’ talented young Russian goaltender Simeon Varlamov finally looked like a rookie for the first time in the postseason on Friday night as the Pittsburgh Penguins blitzed him for three first period goals en route to a 5-3 win. The victory evened the best of seven NHL Eastern Conference semifinal series at 2-2 with a quick game five rematch slated for Saturday afternoon in Washington, DC.

2009-05-11 | Jim Murphy

After an almost effortless sweep of the Montreal Canadiens in round one of the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Eastern Conference champion Boston Bruins have run into a buzzsaw in the form of the Carolina Hurricanes. Despite needing an unprecedented late game comeback to outlast New Jersey in a seven game opening round series, Carolina now has the Bruins on the brink of elimination after defeating Boston 4-1 at the RBC Center in Raleigh, NC on Friday night. Carolina broke open a tight 1-1 game with three goals in the final period to earn the victory and a 3-1 series lead, with game five set for the TD BankNorth Garden in Boston on Sunday night.

2009-05-08 | Jim Murphy

A second round playoff victory shouldn’t be as easy as it was for the Cleveland Cavaliers on Thursday night. The Cavs opened up a 36 point third quarter lead, rested their starters in the fourth quarter and coasted to a 105-85 victory over the Atlanta Hawks at the Quicken Loans Arena. Cleveland is now a perfect 6-0 in the post season both straight up and against the spread, and tied an NBA record by winning their sixth straight playoff games by double digits. They also matched a mark set by the 1986 Los Angeles Lakers by winning their third straight game by twenty points or more.

2009-05-08 | Jim Murphy

For 56 minutes of Thursday’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks, the Vancouver Canucks were clicking on all cylinders defensively. They had done a good job limiting transition scoring opportunities for the speedy Blackhawks’ offense, and goaltender Roberto Luongo looked to be in great form as he looked to complete a shutout victory. In a matter of minutes, the Canucks’ luck changed completely as Chicago’s Martin Havlat tied the game with less than three minutes to play in regulation and Andrew Ladd netted the game winner at 2:52 of overtime to give the Blackhawks an improbable 2-1 victory. The series is now tied at 2-2 with game five slated for Saturday night at Vancouver’s GM Place.

2009-05-08 | Jim Murphy

After being held in check for the first three games of their Western Conference semifinal series against the Anaheim Ducks, the Detroit Red Wings got their offense going in Thursday night’s game four. Johan Franzen and Marian Hossa each scored twice as Detroit earned a 6-3 blowout victory over the Ducks at the Honda Center to even the series at two games apiece. It was the first game in the closely contested series that had been decided by more than one goal, and also the first time that the Red Wings had scored more than three goals against the defensive minded Ducks.

2009-05-06 | Jim Murphy

Behind another stellar goaltending performance by Jonas Hiller, the Anaheim Ducks defeated the Detroit Red Wings 2-1 on Tuesday night at the Honda Center to take a 2-1 lead in the best of seven Western Conference semifinal series. Scott Niedermayer gave the Ducks the advantage with his second period power play goal, and Hiller preserved it by stopping 45 of 46 Red Wings shots on net. Game four will be back at the Honda Center on Thursday night.

2009-05-06 | Jim Murphy

Entering the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs there was some concern that Vancouver Canucks’ goaltender Roberto Luongo wouldn’t be able to maintain his excellent form. The problem was that his teammates were doing a poor job keeping the pressure off their netminder, forcing him to face a lot more shots than he should. After struggling in the first two games of Vancouver’s second round series, Luongo was back in the groove on Tuesday night as he allowed only a single goal while the much maligned Canucks’ defense limited Chicago to 24 shots on goal. This allowed the Blackhawks to win game three 3-1 and take a 2-1 lead in the best of seven Western Conference semifinal series.

2009-05-06 | Jim Murphy

On Tuesday afternoon, the NBA announced that LeBron James was the league’s MVP for this season. Later that evening, he went out and played like the MVP as the Cleveland Cavaliers routed the Atlanta Hawks 99-72 in the opening game of the NBA Eastern Conference semifinals. It was the Hawks’ 14th loss in their past 15 road games—a fact that doesn’t bode well for game two, which is back at Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena on Thursday night.

2009-05-05 | Jim Murphy

Washington Capitals’ 21 year old Russian rookie goaltender Simeon Varlamov is very close to moving beyond ‘phenom’ status. Backstopped by his solid goaltending, the Caps defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3 at the Verizon Center on Monday night to take a 2-0 lead in the best of seven Eastern Conference semifinal series. The series will now shift to Pittsburgh’s Mellon Arena for games three and four starting Wednesday night.

2009-05-05 | Jim Murphy

The Orlando Magic dug themselves a hole in their opening round series against Philadelphia due to an inability to protect big leads. They almost did it again on Monday night as they opened their second round series at the TD BankNorth Garden against the Boston Celtics. Up by 28 early in the third quarter, the Magic watched the Celtics close to within three before J.J. Redick’s free throws put the game away in the final seconds earning Orlando a 95-90 decision and a 1-0 series lead.

2009-05-05 | Jim Murphy

No one really made a big deal about the Houston Rockets’ opening round game 1 win on the Portland Trailblazers’ home court. The Blazers, after all, are the NBA’s youngest team and were facing a veteran Houston squad in their first real playoff experience. What they did on Monday night, however, is definitely a ‘big deal’: the Rockets shocked the presumptive Western Conference champion Los Angeles Lakers on their home court in game one of their second round series. The Rockets took control of a tight game in the fourth quarter and went on to defeat the Lakers 100-98 and take a 1-0 lead in the best of seven series.

2009-05-04 | Jim Murphy

With Dwight Howard suspended by the NBA for game six, the Philadelphia 76ers apparently figured they could just ‘phone in’ a win and advance to game seven on Saturday. The rest of the Orlando Magic had other ideas. With the NBA’s best defensive player watching the game from his hotel room, his teammates stepped up and the Magic routed the Sixers in Philly 114-89 to win the best of seven opening round series four games to two. Orlando will face the winner of the Chicago-Boston series in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

2009-05-04 | Jim Murphy

The Vancouver Canucks swept the St. Louis Blues in the opening round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, and the primary reason for the 4-0 victory was the outstanding goaltending of Roberto Luongo. In the first game of their Conference semifinal series against the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday night at Vancouver’s GM Place it was more of the same—for two periods, at least. After opening a 3-0 lead heading into the final twenty minutes of play, the Blackhawks tied the game with a furious third period comeback. The Canucks needed some late game heroics from Sami Salo, but in the end were able to prevail 5-3 and take a 1-0 lead in the best of seven set.

2009-05-04 | Jim Murphy

The Houston Rockets defeated the Portland Trailblazers 92-76 on their home court Thursday night to win their opening round NBA playoff series in six games. More importantly, the series win ended a run of postseason futility dating back to 1997—the last time that Houston made it out of the first round of the playoffs. To put this streak into perspective, Yao Ming advances in the playoffs for the first time in his NBA career since he was drafted by the Rockets in 2002.

2009-05-04 | Jim Murphy

Apparently content in the knowledge that they had the margin of error provided by a decisive game 7 on their home court, the Atlanta Hawks put forth a horrible performance against the Miami Heat on Friday night. Dwayne Wade ripped the Hawks for 41 points as the Heat easily won game six 98-72 to tie the series at 3-3. Game 7 will take place Sunday afternoon at Atlanta’s Phillips Arena with the winner moving on to face the Cleveland Cavaliers in the second round.

2009-05-04 | Jim Murphy

Nicklas Lidstrom scored his second goal of the game with less than a minute remaining in regulation to propel the Detroit Red Wings to a 3-2 victory over the Anaheim Ducks in the first game of the NHL Western Conference semifinals on Friday night. The Red Wings have now won the first game in seven consecutive playoff series, the longest such run since the Minnesota/Dallas Stars won seven straight from 1990 through 1994.

2009-05-04 | Jim Murphy

Marc Savard scored twice, and goaltender Tim Thomas stopped 26 of 27 shots as the Boston Bruins defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 4-1 in the opening game of their Eastern Conference semifinal series at the TD BankNorth Garden on Friday night. It was Thomas’ eleventh consecutive victory in net dating back to the end of the regular season.

2009-05-04 | Jim Murphy

Manny Pacquaio entered Saturday night’s fight against Ricky Hatton as a -235 wagering favorite, and most boxing pundits expected ‘Pac Man’ to eventually prevail. Few expected that he’d do so as easily, quickly and in such dominant fashion as he did. Before a sold out crowd at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena, Pacquaio knocked Hatton down twice in the first round en route to a stunning second round TKO victory over the tough British fan favorite.

2009-05-04 | Jim Murphy

Eventually, the Vancouver Canucks will learn that it’s never safe to assume that the Chicago Blackhawks are finished. The Blackhawks are the NHL’s equivalent of the hockey masked villain from the “Friday the 13th” horror movie series—just when you think he’s dead, he rises from the lake brandishing his scimitar ready to inflict more damage. On Saturday, the Blackhawks did the same thing to the Canucks in game #2 of their Western Conference Semifinal series—only without the scimitar. Down 2-0 at the end of the first period, Chicago roared back to life with five unanswered goals en route to a 6-3 victory over the Canucks. The win ties the best of seven series at 1-1, with the next two games set for Chicago starting on Tuesday night.

2009-05-04 | Jim Murphy

The NHL got what they wanted with a second round series pitting arguably the two biggest stars in the game against each other, and they have to be even happier after Saturday’s hard fought game one. Alex Ovechkin’s Washington Capitals hung on to defeat Sidney Crosby’s Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2 thanks to an early third period goal by Tomas Fleischmann. Game two is back on the Caps home ice at the Verizon Center on Monday night before shifting to Pittsburgh for games three and four starting on Wednesday.

2009-05-04 | Jim Murphy

The Carolina Hurricanes shut out the Boston Bruins 3-0 at the TD BankNorth Garden on Sunday to earn a split of the first two games in their NHL Eastern Conference semifinal. Cam Ward stopped 36 shots for the shutout, giving his team new life in the series as they return home for games three and four at Raleigh, NC’s RBC Center beginning on Wednesday night.

2009-05-04 | Jim Murphy

Todd Marchant’s goal at 1:15 of the third overtime period broke a 3-3 tie and gave the Anaheim Ducks a 4-3 victory over the Detroit Red Wings at the Joe Louis Arena on Sunday. The Ducks’ victory evened the best of seven Western Conference semifinal series at one game apiece, with the next two games slated for Anaheim’s Honda Center home ice.

2009-05-04 | Jim Murphy

In what may go down as the least dramatic seven game series in professional sports history, the Atlanta Hawks finally advanced to the second round with a 91-78 home blowout of the Miami Heat. All seven games of the series were decided by a double digit margin, only the second time in NBA history this has occurred. Ultimately, the Hawks advanced four blowouts to three and earned the dubious task to facing a rested Cleveland Cavaliers team in the second round.