The New Sudoku Players' Forum

by **StrmCkr** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 11:11 pm

Bit surprising with where both of you are from.

i dont have tv or read the news.
its not a surprise for me..
and i still cant figure out what the initals are..

players from a group of options?

eventually i'll stumble on where this is going...

by **udosuk** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 5:52 am

Well done Luke, for cracking it.

StrmCkr, you do have the Internet, which effectively replaces TV & news. (Okay, maybe more the latter than the former.)

Hopefully some of the days one of Luke and I will elaborate the initials...

by **StrmCkr** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 7:17 am

but i dont use it too do that either :P

still muddled...

by **Luke** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 5:08 am

Pending clarification from Udosuk, here's my take on the teaser.

Udosuk wrote:New Brainteaser Addition

That did seem to be awkward phrasing.

Udosuk wrote:What will be the (7) (7) of the (3) (7) (10)?

What will be the playoff seeding of NBA Western Conference?

I think Udosuk's interest was piqued by the matchups in the last games of the regular season. All of the Western Conference teams played one another, and each game held significant implications as to the seeding of the playoff tournament. The teams involved were:

Code: Select all: L = Lakers N = Nuggets S = Spurs B = Blazers R = Rockets M = Mavs H = Hornets J = Jazz

Note that his initial analysis had the San Antonio Spurs as the second seed. Exuberant optimism. He's one up on my Warriors, however. At least his team made the playoffs....

Udosuk wrote:Thankfully the likes of PJ, KB, PG, LO, AB didn't let up, as I'm glad to see the dirtyness of J stays in where it deserves.

These are the initials of some of the (hated) LA Laker starting lineup, including Kobe, Pau Gasol, coach Phil Jackson, etc. "J" refers to the Utah Jazz, the last seed. Udo must think they deserve their lowly status given their rep for dirty play.

My own clues were a tad too cryptic, I'm afraid.

I wrote:I see. Just in time, as I was about to lay curses upon you. It's a no brainer, actually. Watch it, though. You may have more men than women angry at you for the crack about J.....

Read: "I see. Just in time, as I was about to Lakers-es upon you. It's a No Brainer, Actually. Watch it, though. You may have Mormon than women angry at you for the crack about J.....(The Utah Jazz.)"

Thanks for the divertissement. I'll root for your Spurs over the Lakers for the finals. I'll root for anyone over the Lakers

.

by **udosuk** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 6:38 am

Luke451 wrote:Note that his initial analysis had the San Antonio Spurs as the second seed. Exuberant optimism. He's one up on my Warriors, however. At least his team made the playoffs....

What?! Did you just write that to provoke me?

Judging from my disliking of dirty plays, do you really think I'd support the team with the (arguably) dirtiest player in the league, a certain Bruce "Lee" Bowen? (Okay, in the now defunct "NBA/Sports talk" threads here I did tip them to win 2 years ago, but just by pure educated guessing rather than passion. I can't wait to see them go down this year.)

My team is and will always be the Houston Rockets. But things aren't looking quite bright for them either, I'm afraid.

Luke451 wrote:
Udosuk wrote:Thankfully the likes of PJ, KB, PG, LO, AB didn't let up, as I'm glad to see the dirtyness of J stays in where it deserves.

These are the initials of some of the (hated) LA Laker starting lineup, including Kobe, Pau Gasol, coach Phil Jackson, etc. "J" refers to the Utah Jazz, the last seed. Udo must think they deserve their lowly status given their rep for dirty play.

Just for completeness's sake:
PJ=Phil Jackson (coach)
KB=Kobe Bryant
PG=Pau Gasol
LO=Lamar Odom
AB=Andrew Bynum

Can't be bothered to work out their 5th starter as I'm also not a Lakers fan. (Okay, in hindsight it's probably Derek Fisher, another old coon. Also one of Lamar Odom and Andre Bynum will probably come off the bench, allowing another lesser player to start. Guess I'm more Lakers caring than I think.

)

Also:

In the 2nd post of the thread I wrote:
After a brief revision of history, I wrote:JJSLLLSLSMSL

This is the list of the Western Conference champions in the last 12 years, in case you haven't noticed. Only 4 teams won it (and 2 of them have won it for 9 of the years).

:idea:

by **Luke** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 7:27 am

Have you ever driven off for a night on the town and said to yourself, "Crikey, did I get my Texas squads mixed up??" Of course you have.

I wasn't worried, though. I knew I could make it back home and edit the errant post with no one the wiser. After all, surely this guy is thick with the barbies on Friday night and has better things to do than scope out the boards.

Oh, wait...it's not Friday down under

. There you were, waiting up with your arms folded ....

So, go Rockets

. In your honor, I'll lay a few sawbucks on 'em and toast you with the winnings.

by **StrmCkr** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 8:59 am

and here i was trying to

figure out if it was some odd ball sport i dont know.
and its the

NBA

damn that sucks..

i was looking up random odd sport events like.

bodger ball
ultimate frisbee
Caber toss

and many others trying to assemble the words through random guessing.

by **udosuk** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 11:06 am

Luke451 wrote:Have you ever driven off for a night on the town and said to yourself, "Crikey, did I get my Texas squads mixed up??" Of course you have.

I wasn't worried, though. I knew I could make it back home and edit the errant post with no one the wiser. After all, surely this guy is thick with the barbies on Friday night and has better things to do than scope out the boards.

Oh, wait...it's not Friday down under . There you were, waiting up with your arms folded ....

So, go Rockets . In your honor, I'll lay a few sawbucks on 'em and toast you with the winnings.

You're probably right. I should have better things to do on a Saturday afternoon (down under) than using my laptop to browse the net.

Good luck with your bet. If possible, I'd bet on Rockets-Jazz and Mavs-Hornets in the semi-finals. :idea:

by **udosuk** » Sat Apr 18, 2009 6:38 pm

Luke, I forgot to ask you what you bet on, is it Rockets winning the championship, or winning the 1st series, or winning the 1st game?

If it's the 3rd one then congrats on your return.

Next time perhaps you can bet on how many runs or home runs in the next game in the new Yankee Stadium, or how many Chien-Ming Wang will give up in his next start (if he ever gets one).

Also, since I guess the Giants is your team, I wonder what happened to Barry Bonds. Will he play (for the Giants or others) again?

by **Luke** » Sat Apr 18, 2009 9:26 pm

The Warriors are my roundball team. The Warriors play in the provincial burg of Oakland. The baseball team in Oakland happens to be The Oakland Athletics :!:

...but you're right, I'm a big Giant fan.

Lucky for you. My retort could have read, "Did you write that just to provoke me?"

(I know that's unfair; I already knew who your team was.....)

What I really should do is find out the odds for the Gigantes losing every road game for the season. So far, they're ofer 2009.

. As for Bonds, if he wasn't picked up by anyone last season, then there's scant chance for him this year. Too much baggage. He still wants to play, but he'll never be back here and everyone believes his career is over.

My local is in Vegas, no action yet. Game one would have been the ticket with that rout! It will be on game 2 (Tues is it?) if I like the spread. Portland can't afford to get blanked at home, so I may have to pick my spot. Stay tuned!

by **udosuk** » Sun Apr 19, 2009 1:48 am

Ah, the old A's-Giants rivalry.

I should have told you I started following MLB since the Earthquake Series.

So lucky that my gut feeling was right: if you're from the Bay area, you support either one of these 2 teams; but somehow I couldn't associate your style with that of the A's, so I instinctively guessed you to be a Giants fan. I should use that intuition on more sports betting!

As for Bonds: I must say I also thought Starbury's career ended last year. Yet he somehow got onto the Celtics roster and likely will be a key factor for their downfall against the Bulls. So there you go. Nothing is impossible. For example, if the Yankees are desperate enough to sign Bonds to back up the injured A-Rod, perhaps he could hit another 70-80 HRs in their new stadium. And those 2 can share all their experience on steroids. :idea:

BTW, today the A's and the Giants both got involved in a shutout. The Giants won behind Randy Johnson (and against the Diamondbacks, of all teams; those who followed the old sports talking threads here would know what that implies), while the A's lost to the Jays. Nothing significant, just proof that there is always something eerily coincidental to talk about in sports. :idea:

by **Luke** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 4:45 pm

Udo, congrats on the Rockets making it to the semis for the first time since, um, ....well, ancient history has never been my forte

. When Artest gets rolling and Yao goes double double, y'all do alright. The first round did seem to play out according to form in the West.

It's likely to be a tough row to hoe. When you get by the Curs, Denver also looms, and they definitely seem to be peaking. I'm an admirer of Chris Paul, and it was shocking how Denver annihilated him and the Hornets. Did you see what happened in game 4 of that series? Ach du lieber himmel...

For those following at home, I made good on my promise to support the Rockets with a small wager. As Udosuk already knows, I chose game two, one of the two Houston lost! However, they covered the spread and I won that bet, so who sez you can't win for losin'?

In NoCal we have a familiar refrain, and I'll let you borrow it: "Beat L.A.! Beat L.A.! Beat L.A.!"

by **udosuk** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 5:40 pm

Luke451 wrote:In NoCal we have a familiar refrain, and I'll let you borrow it: "Beat L.A.! Beat L.A.! Beat L.A.!"

Yeah, I'll be glad to borrow it.

I guess this next series could be called the "Swine Flu Series", or to be technically correct, the "A(H1N1) Series" (apology to anyone actually affected).

As for the other one, I have a feeling the Mavs, with all their experience, can actually pull off against the streaky Nuggets. Jason Kidd just has too many tricks in his bag and too many good teammates, compared to CP3. And of course for my team's sake it's the only way the Rockets could get home court advantage in a series (barring the unlikely scenario that one of Hawks/Heat/Bulls winning the East).

On the other hand, are you following the exciting Celtics-Bulls series? 7 OTs in 4 games, amazing stuff. If I'm in USA I might bet on game 7 for the Bulls (if they get a line of say, +5.5 pts). And if there is such a bet, I'll punt on 4 OTs or more.

by **Luke** » Fri May 01, 2009 1:33 am

udosuk wrote:On the other hand, are you following the exciting Celtics-Bulls series? 7 OTs in 4 games, amazing stuff. If I'm in USA I might bet on game 7 for the Bulls (if they get a line of say, +5.5 pts).

Not a bad idea. The Celts will be a huge public play and and the spread could reach 7 by tip-off, IMHO. Fans will remember Ray Allen's 51 and forget Boston lost. There will be hysteria in BeanTown, and a lot of game 7 pressure on Chicago as they stare up into the rafters at all those championship banners, esp their kids. Too bad for Boston that Garnett never made it back. Still, if it's +6 1/2 or 7, then given the nature of this series, the wise guys wl be on the Bulls. Classic.

Sidebar:

Is a sports team, collectively, a single or plural entity? I think it depends where in the world you are :idea:

.

Stateside, we say, "the Rockets are.......," or "Houston is......." Sounds right proper to my ear, but the Houston team is composed of more than one player.

Now, after listening to Canadian puck talk via the magic of satellite radio, they say, "the Oilers are.....," and "Edmonton are....."! That just doesn't sound right at all.

What about you blokes? Do you say, "the Rabbitohs are...." and "South Sydney are....??"
What about "Liverpool are going to give Chelsea all they can handle" across the other pond ?

As you can tell, this is an important issue that needs to be settled: who speaks English gooder.

by **udosuk** » Fri May 01, 2009 4:41 am

Luke451 wrote:Fans will remember Ray Allen's 51 and forget Boston lost.

Interestingly, that's the main reason I think the Bulls will pull off an upset there - Ray already had his best effort, so he's bound to have an off game now. He's one of my favourite players, but being a streaky 3-pt shooter myself I'd say it'll be very unusual for him to carry this shooting form 2 games in a row (that's not to say he couldn't do it, but just very unlikely). :idea:

And who knows, Paul Pierce might take up the slack and score 60+ to carry the Celts home, but for some sentimental reasons I hope the Bulls win it. But anyway, I think neither of them will have enough energy left to tackle the Magic in the next round.

As for your grammar question, I've also pondered that before. For me 90% of the time I'll address a team by it's nickname and use the plural form, as it's the easiest. (If you address them by cities, then there will always be confusions like whether you're talking about the city or the team, or if there are 2 teams in one city it can get mixed up.)

But if you want to call the team by its city, I agree the singular form sounds much better, but I do often use the plural form, if I'm referring to the performance of the players rather than, say the fate of the whole team as a unit. For example:

If the Rockets all play to their full potential, Houston is going to win it all.

(Here "the Rockets" refers to the players, while "Houston" refers to the team as a whole unit.)

OR

If Arsenal improve their play in the next leg, Manchester United is not gonna be a Champions League finalist this year.

(Here "Arsenal" refers to the players, while "Manchester United" refers to the team as a whole unit.)

:idea:

Oh, and to stay "on-topic" for this thread, here is another minor brainteaser:

This is the brainteaser I wrote:My team is Georgia, and my other team is in Georgia.

Who am I?