By Art Spander
SportsXchange
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — The 12th hole at Augusta? The two balls in the creek last April? Ancient history now. For Jordan Spieth, for his fans, and not the least for golf.
He may have lost on one of the sport's biggest stages, but Sunday, in the sunshine, alongside the crashing surf, he won on another big stage.
Copyright 2017 SportsXchange
By Art Spander
SportsXchange
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — It's a cliche, but also an unavoidable fact of the game, that in golf one drives for show and, yes, putts for dough. A two-foot miss counts as much — if not more psychologically — as a 300-yard tee shot, one stroke.
So when Jordan Spieth, who even at the young age of 23 is one of golf's brilliant putters, said his game on the greens hadn't met expectations, others could only shake their heads.
Copyright 2017 SportsXchange
By Art Spander
SportsXchange
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif -- Bad weather struck the Monterey Peninsula on Thursday midway through the opening round of the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, turning some putting greens into small lakes and forcing officials to suspend play.
Rich Lamb, Seung-Yul Noh and Joel Dahman were among a few golfers to finish before the rainstorm arrived, each shooting a 4-under-par 68 at Spyglass Hill, one of the three courses used the first three days -- along with Monterey Peninsula, and Pebble Beach.
Copyright 2017 SportsXchange
By Art Spander
SportsXchange
HOUSTON -- It was nearly a perfect ending for Kyle Shanahan. The offense that he developed as coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons couldn't be stopped, and the defense was no less impressive.
Shanahan's final game with the Falcons, Super Bowl LI on Sunday night before he stepped away to become the presumptive head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, was everything the Falcons and their fans -- and the Niners -- could have wanted.
Copyright 2017 SportsXchange
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
HOUSTON — He came from Seattle with a well-earned reputation. Dan Quinn was the defensive coordinator of the Seahawks, curator of the so-called “Legion of Boom.” Seattle won one Super Bowl and almost won another.
The Atlanta Falcons made Quinn their head coach before the 2015 season, and with his strategy and tactics — and draft picks — he made them the 2016 NFC champion.
Copyright © 2017 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
HOUSTON — The question is what will happen if the New England Patriots win Super Bowl LI on Sunday and — a laugh is permitted — quarterback Tom Brady and team owner Robert Kraft receive the trophy from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
Nothing out of the ordinary, if history means much. It would be an old production with new performers.
Copyright © 2017 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
SportsXchange
HOUSTON — Has the prelude to the Super Bowl gone off the rails? Hasn't the prelude to every Super Bowl?
Of course, rarely was there such a mixture of, pardon the reference, politics and Patriots. However, that is to be expected given current events.
Copyright 2017 SportsXchange
By Art Spander
SportsXchange.com
HOUSTON — The Raiders still are in Oakland and may be for a while despite attempts to move to Las Vegas, San Diego or Los Angeles. That is one way to interpret the words of the man in charge, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, at his annual Super Bowl news conference.
Goodell, for the first time tieless but certainly not clueless, at a session held on Wednesday instead the traditional Friday, said there is work to be done before the Raiders plan to shift from the East Bay to Vegas could become a reality.
Copyright 2017 SportsXchange
By Art Spander
SportsXchange.com
HOUSTON — Was Paul Brown like this? Vince Lombardi?
Bill Walsh had his moments, times when he could be stern, rough, but mostly he chose to be less stringent, even friendly. Remember that 1982 Super Bowl when Walsh dressed as bellman to handle the bags of the team.
Copyright 2017 SportsXchange
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
HOUSTON — You’ve seen the signs at luggage carousels in airports that say “Many bags look alike. Make sure the one you have is yours.” Well, this wasn’t an airport, although with the noise and chaos it seemed like one, and the bag I had, a backpack, it turned out wasn’t mine.
It belonged to Falcons offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan. And it held his Super Bowl game plan.
Copyright © 2017 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
HOUSTON — The Niners have their guys now, Kyle Shanahan as coach — that was a given — and John Lynch as GM. The latter was a surprise, to us if not to Shanahan who developed a relationship with Lynch.
Long contracts, reportedly, six years, big salaries. This we know.
©2017 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
SportsXchange.com
HOUSTON -- The man heavily responsible for this quasi-madness, the late NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle, who was there at the creation, used to preach that the Super Bowl was nothing more than entertainment. Of course, and so is camel racing.
It is not easy to describe the annual Opening Night, nee Media Day, as entertaining. Not in the sporting sense, that is. Unless you get a few laughs out of athletes sitting in booths and advising that Super Bowl LI (thank heavens we are back to the Roman numerals) "is just another football game."
Media Day used to be on Tuesday, in the morning at the place the game will be held, in this instance NRG Stadium. Now, in the Super Bowl's second half-century, it takes place on Monday and at night, prime time, if you will, with fans paying to watch and listen.
Copyright 2017 SportsXchange
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
The question was terribly appropriate for Steve Kerr, a man of the world as much as the basketball court.
On this Saturday evening of contradictions — the Warriors honoring one group of immigrants to America, the Chinese, wearing jerseys with Mandarin letters, while the nation had been ordered to ban other groups of immigrants — Kerr was asked if he had any thoughts on President Trump’s decisions.
©2017 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
Berkeley isn’t Tuscaloosa, or Ann Arbor. Cal is known for academics, not athletics. Then again, so is Stanford, and therein lies the challenge for the new guy with the Golden Bears, Justin Wilcox.
To win a game now and then from the Cardinal, to restore a sense of respectability to the football program, maybe even — to dream — make it to Pasadena on New Year’s Day.
©2017 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
OAKLAND — Sure, it’s January and not June, as if that matters. And to Draymond Green and the other Warriors, it doesn’t. Will this one, this unmitigated stomping of the defending champion, the team that stole the crown, if you will, have an effect on the NBA finals six months down the long and winding road? Well ...
The basic rhetoric is that it won’t. Then again, it might. Look, the Dubs grabbed this one by the throat, did everything — and I mean everything, played defense, played offense, rebound aggressively — about as well as imaginable Monday night and overwhelmed the Cavs, 126-91, at the Oracle.
And after four straight losses to Cleveland, the last on Christmas Day as the Warriors fell apart in the final quarter, the other three in the playoffs, any win counted — wherever or whenever.
“I don’t think it’s about losing the last four,” said Draymond Green. “They want to beat us, and we want to beat them. That’s enough.”
And Monday, Martin Luther King Day, it was plenty. If that wasn’t the best game of the year, all things considered, including the opponent, it was a reasonable facsimile.
It was one that had fans begging for more — hey, the Dubs were up 39 and people were booing the officials’ calls — and had Warriors coach Steve Kerr using words like “phenomenal” to describe the performance. It even had the players allowing that they were satisfied, it not elated.
As for the Cavs coach, Tyronn Lue? He was defensive because of the way the Warriors played defense and Cleveland did not (the Dubs shot 50 percent, the Cavs 35 — “They missed 57 shots,” said a gleeful Kerr).
“What do you want us to do?” Lue asked rhetorically. “I mean they beat us. We lost one game ... I didn’t expect it like this.”
Now that Kevin Durant is a member of the Warriors, maybe he and we should expect it like that. The Big Three, Green, Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, is now the Big Four. And center Zaza Pachulia, who had 13 rebounds (as did Draymond) is not to be dismissed.
“When you try to take Klay and Steph out of the game,” said Lue, ”you’ve got someone who can go get a basket for himself, and at a high level, too.”
He also can keep someone, such as LeBron James, from getting a basket, Durant blocking James at the rim, a move that sent shockwaves through the Cavs and generated an explosion of noise from the crowd.
Green also had his hand in this one, because on a LeBron fast break he put his hand, and arm, on James. Boom. James went down, the fans went crazy, and there was a question whether Green might be whistled for a flagrant foul as had happened in the finals, when he had kicked one of the Cavs.
Play stopped while the refs viewed videos, and Green was given a technical, but that was about it. Other than message, if indeed there was one.
“I fouled to stop the break,” said Green “and he went down. Yeah, I think it’s a rivalry.”
What James, who was 6-of-18 for 20 points, thought was that the Warriors are “a dangerous team.”
He didn’t mean physically dangerous, although for a moment there that appeared to be the situation. ”They’ve got so many different options,” said James.
The options Monday resulted in Klay scoring 26, Durant 21 and Curry 20. Along with his 13 boards, Green had 11 assists, as did Curry. This is the way coaches draw things up.
“I thought Steph was great,” said Kerr, “a phenomenal first half (when he had 14 points and 10 assists). His energy was great and he set the tone. He put a lot of pressure on the defense. Defensively, to put that kind of pressure on and to rebound as well as we did, we were finishing possessions.
“We wanted to win. We weren’t happy with our Cleveland game on Christmas Day. Any time you’re facing a team you know is one of the best in the league, you’re going to be up for it. We definitely were up for it.”
That‘s important any month of the year.
By Art Spander
OAKLAND — It’s the Cavaliers next. Thank heavens. Cleveland here at Oracle Arena. A game like the one on Christmas Day that means something and at the same time means very little.
On Monday, Martin Luther King’s birthday celebration, the two best teams in basketball, the Dubs and Cavs, the last two champions, might give us what we get so infrequently when the Warriors are on the court, a game of importance.
That’s not to say Thursday night’s 127-107 home-court win over the Detroit Pistons should be diminished. Hey, the idea is you go out to win every time, isn’t it? And with the league’s best record, 34-6, the Warriors have more than met that standard.
But until the playoffs, which don’t start for another three months — can anybody wait? — for a quality team such as the Dubs, and the Cavs, most nights are repetitive. A slow start, a rally, and with rare exception (you will admit that when you’ve dropped only six games out of 40 that losing is an exception) a victory by a considerable margin.
You check the box score — Kevin Durant had 25 points, Steph Curry 24 and Klay Thompson, healthy again, 23 — and that’s it. Oh yeah, the Warriors also had 39 assists, the 27th time they’ve had at least 30; no other team has done it more than eight. Otherwise, you think ahead. Even if you’re Warriors coach Steve Kerr.
“It’s a great rivalry game,” said Kerr of Cavs-Dubs. “Everybody who follows the NBA looks forward to it. It’s much anticipated, good for us, good for the league and good for basketball.”
For that observation, we’ll say good for Steve Kerr. He worked in TV for a long while. He knows sport is just another form of show business, that every game is not like every other and, as we’ve so delightfully found out with the Warriors, every team is not like every other.
The Warriors and Cavaliers are box office. Once fans came to Warriors games to see the opponents, Magic Johnson or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the Lakers, Michael Jordan and the Bulls, the Celtics of Bill Russell and then Larry Bird. But now the draw is the Warriors. An intrasquad scrimmage would fill the seats. A game against the squad that stole the title is can’t-miss stuff.
A guy who did miss Thursday night was Draymond Green, 0-for-4 on his field goal attempts, as if to prove again there is more to the sport than scoring. Green played his usual outstanding defense and recorded 13 assists and nine rebounds.
“He’s got a little Dennis Rodman,” said Kerr, who played with Rodman on the Bulls. “He makes a huge impact, especially with guys on our team. Maybe not as crazy as Dennis, but the competitive desire is similar. He wanted to get under people’s skin. Draymond wants to dominate a game — one of those guys who just wants to win.
“He’s a unique player. He’s about 6-5 and guarding 7-footers. His passing ability is so important for us, but it’s his defensive versatility that makes us go.”
Green said he’s not as interested in winning against the Cavaliers as in the Warriors playing well. “We want to get better,” said Draymond. “If we get better we’ll win. But nobody’s going to hit the panic button whoever wins or loses Monday.”
For Kerr, it’s a quest for victory and improvement.
“I’d like to see both,” said the coach. “We always try to focus on the process and keep getting better. That’s what it’s all about, continuing on with the work in progress. We made a good step (Thursday night), and hopefully against Cleveland we’ll play well.”
They’ll play well. So will Cleveland. That’s what we want and what we need.
By Art Spander
San Francisco Exaimner
It’s the toughest day in any sport, the one after a season ends with a defeat. There’s satisfaction, of course, of what was accomplished — and for the Raiders that was considerable — and anticipation, of possibilities in the future. There also is regret.
So it was at Raiders Central in Alameda on Sunday. Outside, the rain fell — as if nature had to add to the gloom. Inside, the locker area, the media room, at different times a head coach and some of his players offered words both from the heart and head.
©2017 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
You’re a Raiders fan, and you wonder what else can happen. The team finally gets out of its decade-deep hole, one that’s silver as much as black, and the owner wants to sneak it over the border.
It has a quarterback worthy of the chant, “MVP, MVP,” and not only does he get hurt, a broken leg no less, but so does his backup.
©2017 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
OAKLAND — The man was marveling about Kevin Durant’s brilliance. “He’s such a super efficient player,” was the observation. “He scores from all over the place. Watching a talent like that is just so special.”
As is the talent of the man talking, Stephen Curry.
They say only another athlete truly understands the skills and demands of a sport, the qualities that separate him or her from the rest. And so when Curry, who awes so many of us, himself is in awe — well, then we have a better idea of the level that Durant has reached.
And why the Warriors were so eager to sign him as a free agent, to join Curry and Draymond Green and Klay Thompson.
Yes, the Dubs won a ninth straight home game Wednesday night, defeating the “how did they stay so close for so long” Portland Trail Blazers (answer: C.J. McCollum), 125-117, at Oracle Arena.
The Blazers didn’t have Damian Lillard, the Oakland kid, out with a sore left ankle. And yet for a while there, late in the second quarter, Portland was in front by eight, mostly because McCollum, who scored 26 of his total 35 before halftime, couldn’t be stopped.
But as expected (yes, these Warrior games have a familiar theme), the Dubs found a way — “In the second half, our defense picked up,” said a satisfied coach Steve Kerr — and extended their league-best record to 31-5.
Curry, with 35 of his own, and Durant's 30 were a couple of the reasons. And Draymond, with 11 assists and nine points, despite missing minutes because of foul trouble, was another reason.
Kerr echoed Curry about Durant. Or maybe Curry echoed Kerr. Either way, both offered respect and high praise for a man who simply plays basketball as it is meant to be played, never forcing a shot or a pass but working within the system and with his teammates.
“I thought Kevin was great,” Kerr said. “We had to change our rotation with Draymond’s foul trouble, so we played (Durant) the whole third quarter, which we normally don’t do. It was a typical Kevin night, some of everything. “
As in five rebounds, three blocked shots and two steals, along with the 30 points on 9-of-16 shooting.
“We are getting used to it,” added Kerr. “He’s such an efficient offensive player. Thirty points on 16 shots. He seems to do this every night.”
Efficient. Curry said the same thing, with an adjective. “Kevin is super efficient.”
At 6-foot-9, Durant is not the huge presence of a 7-foot Andrew Bogut, someone who was, in basketball lingo, a rim protector, someone who jammed up the middle. So the Warriors found a different method.
“It’s not as traditional as it has been the last couple of years with Festus (Ezeli, now with the Blazers) and Bogut,” said Kerr. “It’s more guard-oriented. But KD comes in here and blocks a lot of shots, and so does Draymond. We have a lot of long, rangy guys to challenge shots.”
They didn’t do much challenging of McCollum in the first half. He was 10 of 19. But after intermission, he was just 3-of-12. “Just got more physical,” said Kerr. “The first half I felt he was getting anywhere he wanted. In the second half, we ran him off routes. Just a little quicker and more alert.”
Curry, the NBA’s Most Valuable Player the past two seasons (Durant was the MVP three seasons ago) has been knocked of late either for not taking shots or missing them. On Wednesday night, he connected on a quick three-pointer but had only (only?) nine points playing the full 12 minutes of the opening quarter. Eventually he would go 12-of-25, if only 5-of-13 on three-point attempts.
“It was a little more aggressive game,” said Curry. “The way they defended, I got a lot of shots off the pick-and-roll. Still, obviously I missed some easy ones. So I need to continue to be aggressive.
“There was a purposeful kind of focus for us. We’re at home. We have to take care of home court.”
They’ve done it, with the help of Kevin Durant taking care of everything.
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
A little bit of a chip on his shoulder.
That was Jack Del Rio’s succinct description of the man who, unexpectedly — and because of the situation, unfortunately — is now the Raiders’ starting quarterback: Matt McGloin.
©2016 The San Francisco Examiner