Tag Archive: sixers schedule 2012

It’s Hard Keeping These Gators Down, Woooooooo!

February 8, 2012 Randy Neil

Monte Ellis stats from last night – 48 points, 7 assists. The outcome of the game? They lost. Maybe it’s because they were playing the super-hot Thunder, but I’ll still bet some (probably most) of that lies on their poor defense. I remember the buzz around trading Andre Iguodala for him before the season, and now, I have to admit I’m glad we didn’t.

Dre’ hasn’t been a total bust. He’s played hurt. He’s played consistent. He’s played great defense. That’s really the staple of his entire career. He’s an average offensive player, with some truly talented athletic ability, that serves as a great defensive player. He annoys the hell out of every other teams’ star, and for that, I’m glad we’ve kept him. Iggy will never be the superstar we hoped he’d be, but if he gets Carmelo Anthony T’d up every time we play the Knicks, I’ll be fine. His job against Kobe was incredible.

We’ve already covered the SuperBowl, and it seems like light years in the past, but I just wanted to vent about a few things.

1) I’m completely unsatisfied with the result. New York gets to have everything. I’m already into hockey and basketball now anyway, so football is taking a back seat. Ya lost me at fantasy, Mr. Goodell.

2) Ignorant sports analysts said that M.I.A. gave the finger at the SuperBowl to become famous. Newsflash fellas, she is pretty famous, you guys are just old. Either way, I’m terribly conflicted about this action. She’s on a song with Madonna, doing the most commercial thing an artist could do: rep the SuperBowl. So was this a form of protest? Is that just what super hot Sri Lanken Tamilian goddesses do? Again, I’m vexed.

3) Adam said Madonna’s performance was pretty bad. I thought she seemed limber enough for a fifty year old woman, and my imagination certainly thought so, as well.

4) I remember listening to LMFAO in 2009 and being pleasantly surprised that their album was pretty good. I’ll even go as far as to say their newer album is good, too. But careful gentlemen, you are tip-toeing your way into the all too common “douchebaggery overexposure blacklist.” America can only take so much douche at once.

I finally listened to Killer Mike’s PL3DGE album. I’m surprised to see him so political. It’s worth a listen. Either way, he has a track titled “Ric Flair” on the album (who seems to be the idol of all rappers these days) and quotes from the veteran wrestler are voiced over breaks in the instrumental. Hilarity. Pure hilarity. Ric Flair was a rapper before there was rappers. Quotes like, “You don’t like the the prestige that I have in life. You don’t like the notoriety. You detest the fact that I got more cars than most of you have friends! I got a big house, on the big side of town … I got life pretty much the way I want it!” Haha, well said Mr. Flair. One thing struck me, though.

One of his quotes says, “Ric Flair! There’s only one. And I don’t care if it’s Tokyo, Japan; Greensboro; Richmond; Charlotte, North Carolina; Asheville; Atlanta, Georgia; Charlotte; L.A. … I’m the man that’s makin’ it possible!” Woah, woah, Ric. You go from Tokyo to Greensboro?? My man, Ric Flair, goes from one of the largest cities in the world to several southern redneck towns in North Carolina (no offense Petie.) If that doesn’t speak magnitudes of Ric Flair’s (and the WWF’s) actual world experience at the time… I don’t know what does. Still baller. Whatever you do, though, do NOT Google images of Ric Flair. It ruins all the imagination.

Philadelphia’s own Ric Flair, Pat Burrell, retired this off-season. I’ve admitted several times that I didn’t start truly becoming a passionate fan of Philly baseball until April of 2007, the first time I saw them live. During that period, Burrell was hated. I mean HATED. My first memorable experience was sitting in left field, watching a routine pop fly get dropped, and then joining the onslaught of boos towards The Bat. He probably didn’t lose an ounce of sleep for those. That’s just who he was. What he did embrace, which I could support, was the destruction of the Mets. They haven’t been the same since 2007, and coincidentally Burrell had his best year against them. Burrell hit 42 total homers against the Mets, and that, I can applaud.

Whether you believe the rumors or not, loved him or hated him, Pat Burrell was a big part of the 2008 World Series season, and I kinda miss him. I can’t believe that asshole has 2 rings, though.

We’re almost through the daunting stretch of games, and I have to admit, I’m more than elated by the outcome for the Sixers. A win over the Magic, the Bulls, the Hawks, and the Lakers, with 1 loss to the Heat? I’ll take it. If it was the other way around, though, I’d take that, too. Beating L.A. was satisfying, but they clearly aren’t the same team. Kobe has 95% of the workload and their bench is garbage. The Heat reside as king of the hill right now, and that’s who I want.

But, we’re splitting hairs here. It’s still a great accomplishment, and honestly, it’s great that we’re not peaking this early in the season. Aside from the Lakers game having last minute theatrics, most of those games were the Sixers just doing what they normally do. Playing great defense, wearing them down, and grinding out a win. It’s a great formula for a winning season, and it isn’t putting too much stress on any one player. Save the fancy stuff for the playoffs.

Tonight, the Sixers take on the Spurs. Tip-off is at 7:00. My prediction : Sixers 93, Spurs 87.

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Tebow Ran Out of the Jesus Juice

January 17, 2012 Randy Neil

Awesome weekend of playoff football! The Saints/Niners game was certainly much more of a showdown than I expected. Nobody called Alex Smith pulling together a 2-minute game winning drive, but he did. God damn he did. Not even Alex Smith is sure how he did it.

The Patriots took care of business as predicted, which leads me to the theory of the reverse-jinx double-jinx. Not many people are aware of such an illusive state of karma as the reverse-jinx double-jinx, but it applies very specifically to the Tebow/Pats game. The initial jinx would be Tebow being called a flop and then having him lead the Broncos to a 6-game win streak and taking over the division. The double-jinx comes when Tebow and the Broncos lose their remaining 3 games in an atrocious manner, face one of the most daunting opponents in the first round of the playoffs, and go on to win that game in surprising upset fashion. The belief is that by predicting the Steelers to win, the collective NFL Gods, in turn, jinxed them.

This is where things get a little tricky.

The reverse-jinx came last weekend when the Broncos flew into New England to face the Patriots and all-mighty Tom Brady. Now, they were an underdog again, as expected, but not considered as big of an underdog as say the Giants vs. Packers (to which I scoffed last week.) Vegas and NFL fans were buying into the Tebow hype once again. People who normally wouldn’t even begin to think about Tim Tebow and the lowely Broncos beating the Patriots (even me) started to believe that maybe…. just maybe…. Tim Tebow could pull out another upset and advance in the playoffs. That, in turn, became Tim Tebow’s hype reverse jinxing itself.

The Broncos were in a karma shit-storm too big for one team to handle… the reverse-jinx double-jinx. A monster of epic proportions, what you saw was a drubbing almost too unbearable to watch.

The Texans/Ravens game went about exactly how I had anticipated. The Ravens offense scored 17 points in the first quarter, but was almost non-existent in the rest of the game. The Texans defense was no joke, but unfortunately T.J. Yates was. Shoulda put Delhomme in, holmes. I can’t even fathom why the Texans signed the 10-year vet if they weren’t planning on using him.

Now a lot of people are thinking: “Jake Delhomme was a bum who hasn’t played in years!” which would normally be a correct assessment if we blocked out the 2011 season. Avid theheadrush readers and well-informed fourth-string quarterback lovers, however, know that Jake Delhomme nearly led the Texans to a comeback in Week 17 by orchestrating a 80-yard 90-second drive that resulted in him throwing a touchdown. Ain’t the best sample size to base off of, but if you have the Ravens offense completely stalling, you’re down by a touchdown, and T.J. Yates just threw 2 terrible interceptions… why wouldn’t you throw Delhomme in? Doesn’t make sense to me. Ravens got a little bit lucky on a rookie QB in my eyes.

That leaves us with the Giants/Packers game which had most people blown away except for yours truly (and probably another 100,000 people) but either way, I called it. In fact, I said Giants 38, Packers 28, and the end result ended up being Giants 37, Packers 20. That looks mighty fine to me. The Packers defense was total garbage and Tom Coughlin’s rosey red cheeks knew it. The one thing that stood out in that game most notably, though, was the poor officiating. Good lord. When you have the bias announcers, the Fox “special lawyer go to guy for rulings” guy, and 50% of Green Bay fans saying it was a fumble, it was a fumble. Greg Jennings dropped that ball before he hit the ground. What gives? Then, the roughing the passer calls that either came out of nowhere or never came at all…. it’s like they do whatever they want so long as it adds more drama to the game. Get with it, folks.

Now, I feel a little gross because last week I wrote about the 76ers, and the day I published an article on their great win streak, they lose. And since then, they’ve won. Basically, they’ve won 9 of 10 games, and the day I posted was that one and only loss…. soooooooooo how about we talk about them Sixers??

Looks like the Philadelphia squad is finally getting some national love for their success. Ranked #2 in the East now, the Sixers got mention on PTI, Around the Horn, and ESPN.com. Bout time. The true test is going to be the month of February. The schedule goes something like this : Bulls, Heat, Hawks, Lakers, Spurs, Clippers, Cavaliers, Bobcats, Magic, Mavericks, Timberwolves, Grizzlies, Rockets, Pistons, Thunder.

Doing a quick check, I see that only the Bobcats & the Timberwolves are below .500. And the Timberwolves aren’t even that bad! Even the Cleveland Cavaliers are sitting at 6-6 as I write this. Almost every other team is top 5 in their conference right now. It’s going to be a true test of the Sixers’ credibility.

Also, while I’m perusing the NBA standings, I notice that the Orlando Magic are 9-3. They have a better record than the Miami Heat right now. Maybe Dwight Howard just needs to stop bitching for a way out. It’s not even like the Magic are that bad. Chris Paul wanting to leave the Hornets made sense. They sucked, they didn’t draft well, they weren’t going to be good anytime soon, but Dwight Howard wanting to leave a team that has achieved a winning season the past 4 years including a Finals run is starting to look a bit egocentric. They aren’t doing a lot to build the team up, but the team doesn’t really blow donkey balls now does it? Quit yer’ whining.

I’ll have the NFL playoff picks coming later this week. Stay tuned.

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