Bound to rebound

Last night's Nuggets/Lakers game was a good one, until the end. After a back-and-forth battle led by great and nearly identical games from Melo (39-6-4) and Kobe Bean Bryant (40-6-4), it came down to one of those dreaded three-point games. After Mark Jackson promised me that his cousin Phil Jackson wouldn't have the Lakers foul with the three-point lead, Derek Fisher fouled J.R. Smith as he crossed half court. With less than five seconds on the clock, Smith made the first free throw, which lead to one of the most exciting game-clinching plays in professional sports: a defensive rebound off of an intentionally missed free throw. So, that's what the NBA has come down to now. It's very exciting stuff.

In what may turn out to be a more important LA win last night, the Clippers won the NBA draft lottery. I'm thinking this is good news for the NBA; it'd be nice for the other LA team to be relevant, even if just for a few months. I've seen a quote on Sportscenter that suggests the Clippers have officially admitted to picking Blake Griffin already, but I can't seem to find any corroborating stories online. It's a pretty obvious choice.

UNC players, particularly Ty Lawson, are going the wrong direction in the mock drafts I've seen. It would suck if he and Wayne Ellington left a year early to be late-first-round or even second-round picks. But then, I'd rather they be good NBA players than be high draft picks.

The Cards ended their slide last night with a Joel Pineiro shutout against the Cubs. Here's the fantasy problem with Cardinals' pitchers and the reason I dropped Kyle Lohse this morning: they just aren't consistent. I picked up Lohse shortly after he pitched a shutout. Since then, he's gone 1-3 with two no decisions and hasn't pitched more than six innings. Even Carpenter, who returns tonight, is inconsistent because of his injuries. Everybody oohed and aahed when Bryan picked him in our fantasy draft, but he's only been worth 48 points all year. Speaking of fantasy points, on Monday I had a total of six players worth an amazing 0 points. Awesome.

Even though the Brewers are in first place, I still feel better about a win against the Cubs than I would have felt about a win against Milwaukee. Speaking of Milwaukee, Rickie Weeks is done for the season after injuring his wrist while striking out. That's embarrassing. Talk about adding injury to insult. (I couldn't help myself.)

I've noticed since I've started beefing up my blog, it's been even more sports heavy, though that wasn't the plan. I always start with sports news and then by the time I get to video game, TV, or other news I'm ready to quit writing. Maybe next blog will end with sports news to see how much of it I actually get to.

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 released a trailer a couple days ago showing off Deadpool as a playable character. That makes sense considering he's a hot Marvel commodity right now. But what doesn't make sense is why his playability in this game would constitute news. He was an unlockable character in the first Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. I've already played as Deadpool, so what's the big deal.

So it turns out that Sit Down, Shut Up isn't officially dead yet (just too "racy"), and according to Mitch Hurwitz, it gets better and "really funny." That's an odd admission from the show's creator: that the episodes "get really funny." He's tacitly admitting that they aren't now, so maybe he hasn't completely lost touch. I mean, he is executive producing a show starring Michael Strahan. I just really hope he's right about this and that Sit Down, Shut Up does get better in the remaining episodes for this season.

There were some things I wanted to talk about in regards to Fallout 3 and Mass Effect 2 and 3, but I'm getting antsy.

QotD:

What Marvel character would you most like to play as in MUA2?

My take: I wouldn't mind playing as Emma Frost. I tried to think of a character that I haven't played as but is still interesting to me. This is the best I could do.