The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[udosuk]

Hud, great game by the Suns & Nash (23 assists) today. They can still finish the series in 5 games, as can the Spurs. The Heat bowed out to an impressive Bulls team, who will have a cracker of a series against the Pistons next round. The Nets are on a row now. Too bad for the Raptors, they deserve better. Let's see if the Warriors can get up 3-1 on the Mavs?

Wang lost his first game back. The Yankees are deep into a bad slump now, and Joe Torre's job is in danger. Don't think it's his fault though.

Cec, now that the cricket is over, you can talk about other sports too, such as AFL. Not much to say right now as I don't think our Swannies are doing very well. "Spida" Everitt is a bit over-rated I think.

Added later:

Geez. Remember on the 2nd last day of the regular season, the Mavs sat out 3 of their starters (including Dirk) and lost by 30 pts to the Warriors. Had they won that game they'd be playing the Clippers now (assuming the Clippers had enough motivation to win their last game against the Hornets). And now they're 1-3 down against the Warriors in the 1st round. You don't want to be Mark Cuban right now.

[Cec]

"...Cec, now that the cricket is over, you can talk about other sports too, such as AFL. Not much to say right now as I don't think our Swannies are doing very well. "Spida" Everitt is a bit over-rated I think...."

udosuk, my team Richmond (known as "the Tigers") are still to notch up a win having lost their first five games of the season - I understand this last happened by a Richmond team 25 years ago. With such a poor start to the season it's hard to maintain enthusiasm. Richmond's coach, Terry Wallace, is now into his third year and whilst he comes across well to the media about Richmond's future I'm not convinced he is a good coach. I'm sorry Richmond didn't get Rodney Eade as their coach who has greatly improved the Western Bulldogs.

On "Spida Everitt" he'll probably play some good games during the season but I agree with you that he's not the player which the media portrays him to be.

Just a comment on the "farsical" end to the Cricket final. I thought the media criticism against the umpires and others was unfair. As I "saw" the situation, the media and the ground staff incorrectly reacted to Ricky Ponting's over-enthusiasm who prematurely assumed Australia had won the match even though three overs were still required to be bowled for Sri Lanka to complete its reduced 36-over innings.

Presumably Sri Lanka's tail enders, Chaminda Vaas and Lasith Malinga, agreed to the umpires' bad light offer, which was taken with three overs remaining to be bowled and 63runs still needed for victory. Whilst it was highly unlikely that this target could have been achieved, umpires must ignore any scenarios and only ensure a team is given the opportunity to resume its innings should improved light permit this on the same day.

As it did not appear that the Sri Lankan team captain had conceded defeat then, in my opinion, the Australian team erred in prematurely celebrating their win in which case the umpires were correct in following the rules to ensure a correct finish to the game by requiring the deferred final three overs to be bowled on the day. The completion of twenty or more overs by the team batting last merely means a result can be decided under the Duckworth-Lewis system and only the umpires can decide when play is abandoned for the day but which is not automatically granted solely because of a light appeal.

I can well imagine a far worse situation if the umpires had not required a team to bat out the remaining three overs only to be later shellshocked by that team rightly protesting that it was denied the opportunity to bat out their entitled 36 overs.

My computer is not working properly and doesn't respond as quickly as it used to - hmm! this rings a bell - I'm having it looked at tomorrow by my son's PC guru mate and I suspect he'll suggest I upgrade my equipment.

I continue to browse through the Forum with interest and post occasionally but am more embroiled in a number of other matters which restricts my Forum time.

Cec

[udosuk]

Cec,

Thanks for your insight about the AFL & cricket. Hopefully your Tigers and our Swans will both improve down the season!

Just a couple points about the cricket final: the story I read mentioned that Ponting and the Aussies celebrated only when the big screen displayed "Congratulations to Australia". I assumed they took it as a message indicating that the Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene had conceded the match. If it was somebody's fault it surely belonged to the officials/ground staff and I don't think any of the players (on both sides) should be blamed.

The other point is the players later said that it's dangerous to play in the dark. As a result Australia decided to use only slow bowlers during the last 3 overs (in agreement with the Sri Lankan batsmen), and Glenn McGrath was denied the chance to bowl some more overs and perhaps get a couple more wickets. Not that it was too important to him or the whole team, but it all indicated that the last 3 overs were just meaningless actions anyway. The officials were lucky that nobody had actually got hurt during those overs, otherwise they'd have been in even bigger trouble. Anyway the ground was equipped with lights but for some reason they could not turn it on for the match but did so for the ceremony.

It looks like computers were malfunctioning everywhere yesterday. Hopefully it'd get much better today.

[Hud]

Udosuk, my daughter must have been reading my posts or my mind. She wangled 2 tickets to the Lakers game on Wednesday and asked if she could pick me up and take me to the game. Guess what I said? She said I didn't need to buy any beer, but a couple beers are cheap compared to playoff tickets. I'll try not to get thrown out, but I have been known to holler "bullspit" at bad calls lol. We have to close the series out, otherwise I think it'll go 7 games. The Suns played great in spots (I've read) on Sunday, but why didn't they win by more that 13? Maybe they coasted at the end?

[Cec]

Thanks udosuk for your thoughts on the cricket final fiasco where you present a more likely explanation than mine as to why the Aussies celebrated after seeing the big screen displaying "Congratulations to Australia". My previous criticism of Ricky Ponting and his team's on-field celebrations were therefore "wide" and I also agree with you that the fiasco was more likely the fault of the officials/ground staff rather than the players.

On the AFL I don't agree with Richmond Captain Kane Johnson's criticism of the umpires who, in last Saturday's game, awarded twice as many free kicks to their opponents, West Coast (The "Eagles"). From what I saw on TV, many Richmond players infringed against the rules when tackling their opponents and most of the free kicks awarded to the Eagles' players were justified.

In today's Herald-Sun, both the Umpires' advocate, Jeff Gieschen and former AFL umpire, Derek Humphery-Smith, also expressed this view with the latter suggesting that both Johnson and Richmond's Coach, Terry Wallace, should focus their attention more on the undisciplined performance by some of their players, presumably referring to their unfair tackling of opponents. However, that said, I can see players from Richmond and other teams being confused concerning the interpretation by umpires under the "pushing opponents in the back" rule which is being enforced more than in previous years when the forwards were receiving harsh (unfair) treatment from their defensive opponents without receiving obvious free kicks. This year, the forwards are receiving more favorable consideration from the umpires and the defensive players need to be more careful when attempting to stop their opponent marking the ball or when preventing their opponent taking possession of the ball.

Cec

[udosuk]

Hud, enjoy your game, don't get too worked up.

Cec, when I watch the Sydney Swan games, I always get the impression all the umpires are working against our team and 75% of the calls are in favour of the opponents (especially in the road games), but it seems our players have gotten used to that and are always prepared to fight against the adversary. No matter playing the West Coast Eagles, the Adelaide Crows or any Victorian team, the Swans always have a very unfavourable free kick ratio to their opponents. Haven't heard them whine too much about it though...

[Cec]

Yes udosuk.. point taken. I don't know the statistics (though I'm sure the're available somewhere) but when the "interstate" teams are playing at home, particularly West Coast, Freemantle and the Adelaide teams, all of whom have a huge support base of parochial supporters, it does appear to me that these teams receive a more favourable free kick ratio than their opponents.

Cec

[udosuk]

Wow, Dirk came through big time for the Mavs tonight. Down by 9 with 3 minutes left, he made two quick 3s and then made 6 of 7 FTs down the stretch. But has this effort come too late for the series? I'm sure the Warriors won't shoot 0/8 in the final 3 minutes (they were outscored 0-15 during that time) at home. Stephen Jackson, who did a great job guarding Dirk all series, will probably be suspended for game 6 after getting ejected again.

I think the Raptors are done anyway after barely holding off the Nets at home, almost blowing a 20 pts lead, and only won when the Nets' shooter (Bostjan Nachbar) missed a winning 3 at the buzzer.

I was so disappointed Chelsea lost to Liverpool in a penalty shootout in the UEFA Champions League. Luckily I didn't bet on them though. I hope AC Milan can beat Man United tonight, but they probably won't. I won't bet on either of them anyway. Probably a draw is the most likely result.

[Hud]

The Mavs/Warriors series is starting to remind me of the Suns/Lakers last season. I feel the Mavs will win it like the Suns did. The Warriors had a golden opportunity to end it, but got too intent on running the clock down and taking poor shots down the stretch. Fallaway 3 point shots ain't gonna cut it. The Suns had better take care of business tonight or I'm gonna have a hard time sleeping. My wife doesn't want me to buy my daughter too much beer, but I shouldn't drink alone? I hope the fans don't stand through the whole game like they did in Dallas last night.

[udosuk]

Hud, I'm sure you enjoyed the game, with the Suns prevailing 119-110. Lamar Odom had a great game and Kobe made it closed in the 4th quarter but other Lakers didn't step up enough. Next come the Spurs and I reckon it'll be a marvellous series. Both sides look hot in 3-pt shooting. Not sure Finley will make 8/9 3s against the Suns though.

[Hud]

Udosuk, that was quite an experience. We had seats 5 rows behind Steve Nash's wife, nanny, and 2 daughters, and 10 rows behind Lute Olsen. We were 5 rows in front of Herb Sendek and were about 20 seats to the right of Jerry Colangelo. My daughter has a knack for keeping track of notable people in the stands and her firm does business with some of them. I have to admit that I was getting p/o'd at the Suns a lot, but down the stretch, they listened to me. When they set up for three pointers, I hollered "no" and told them to take it to the hoop. The Laker who I was most impressed with was a guy named Tiquad (sorry about the spelling) who really crashed the offensive boards and just about drove me crazy. Kobe is a fantastic player as you know. He made so many shots look easy and that's the mark of a great player imo. Nash didn't play particularly well, but got the job done. I worry about Finley in the coming series since he's shooting better than I can ever recall. I have to confess that I hollered "bull spit" twice, but at times the officiating got me riled up. Beers were cheaper ($7.25) but were smaller than the ones at the D-back game. Naturally, we had 3 each but my daughter had one knocked over by someone going by. She's a chip off the old block by not liking "light beer". It's a bit late, and I'll try to fill in some blands tomorrow.

Added on Friday:
I'm stunned that the Mavs are finished for the season. I actually was feeling a little sorry for them last night, but remembering Cuban's Arrogance got me over it. Nellie out coached Avery imo, and his players really played hard. I hate to see Dirk being blamed for most of the debacle.

[udosuk]

Hud, thanks for sharing your experience. The Lakers rebounder who impressed you must be Ronny Turiaf from France.

Now that the Mavs are out the Suns and the Spurs must be the favourites and many will regard their series as the de facto NBA Finals series this year. And the Warriors will be the favorite against whoever they face in the 2nd round.

You're absolutely right that Don Nelson outcoached Avery Johnson in the series. The cricial game was actually game 1 where Avery made the biggest mistake by trying to go small and omitted Dampier from the lineup. Turned out the home crowd in Oakland was too much for the Mavs to handle.

I think Dirk got all the flames because he's gonna be voted as the MVP. It wasn't totally his fault that they lost the series, but as a team leader he was supposed to step up more (like he did in game 5) in the 3 road games when all other teammates were struggling, which he failed to do so. It's also notable before the series he vowed to post up more against the Warriors' smaller frontcourt players (like he did against the Suns last year) but didn't performed.

And the Raptors bowed out in the most unfortunate fashion. I feel for the jolly good Canadian fans. I think they deserve at least a game 7.

Added later:

Okay I guess they deserve it. The defence sucked (especially on Carlos Boozer) and they were thoroughly outrebounded. Down 97-99 with 1 minute to go, they let the Jazz grabbed 2 offensive rebounds in a row on consecutive 3-ptrs. There goes any reason for me to care anymore. Perhaps T-Mac & Yao will retire never advancing to the 2nd round.

[Cec]

I'm still in shock watching my beloved "Tigers" (Richmond Football club) being thrashed by 157 points by the "Cats" (Geelong Football Club). The final score was...
Geelong 35goals 12behinds = 222 points
Richmond 9goals 11behinds = 65 points

Geelongs' 3/4 time score of 29goals 9behinds (183points) was the highest 3/4 time score in the history of both VFL (Victorian Football League) and the current AFL (Australian Football League).

Richmond is now on the bottom of the AFL ladder after losing all their six games played to date. It's hard to be enthusiastic about their standing for the remainder of the 22-game season.

Much was expected by Tiger supporters following the appointment three years ago of their new Coach, Terry Wallace, and this huge loss occuring after their veteran full back, Darren Gaspar, was forced to retire last week, will no doubt be this week's talking point by the football media.

Cec

[udosuk]

I'm sorry about your team, Cec. I can fully relate to your feeling right now after watching the NBA team I support, Houston Rockets getting eliminated by the Utah Jazz, and the Sydney Swans losing to the Kangaroos last night. Moreover, my favourite MLB player, Chien-Ming Wang of Taiwan, retired the first 22 batters he faced today and needed only 5 more outs for a perfect game, only to be whacked for a homer which ended his bid for the perfect game, a no-hitter or even a shutout.

After reading a bit about the report of the Cats-Tigers match, they said the Cats only needed 3 more goals to break the all-time high scoring record of 239 pts achieved 15 years ago, also by Geelong. But the Tigers defense was determined enough to concede just 6 goals in the final quarter. Hopefully the Tigers will rebound from this defeat and their pride will gear them to win some matches later in the season (I hope not against our Swans though )...

[Cec]

That's correct udosuk about Geelong only needing another three goals in the last quarter to break the all-time highest score. Seeing Geelong was already 29 goals at 3/4 time I think everybody, including me, expected they would achieve this highest score but "only" kicked six goals in the final quarter. Naturally I'm glad the "Cats" didn't create a new record score as I wouldn't liked Richmond to have been the other team (victim) responsible for such a feat.

Cec