By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange
DALY CITY, Calif. — One, Lydia Ko, just 17, is supposed to be the future of women's golf. The other, Stacy Lewis, 29, is very much the present.
Together, which is how they've been grouped through three rounds and will be today in the fourth, they're giving the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic an enthusiastic one-two punch.
Copyright © 2014 The Sports Xchange
By Art Spander
OAKLAND — The game is won inside. That’s the NBA playoff mantra. The Warriors are an outside team, a team that beats you with threes by Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson.
Or as Thursday night at the Oracle, when the three-pointers didn’t fall, beats itself.
You’ve heard the phrase, the cliché: Dance with what brung ya. You don’t chase your style or philosophy in the playoffs. And without Andrew Bogut, the W’s didn’t have much chance inside anyway.
The Los Angeles Clippers had too much for the Warriors. Too much offense from Blake Griffin, who was banking them off the glass or ramming them through the rim, who scored 32 points and played like a man who was the first overall pick in the draft, as he was five years ago.
The Clips had too much defense. The Warriors, greatest outside shooters in the league or so we’re told, went 6 for 31 on three-pointers, and at one juncture were 2 for 24.
A hot Griffin, a cold Stephen Curry, and the Clips win it, 98-96.
Yes, the W’s had the ball in the final few minutes. Yes, it was in Curry’s hands. Yes, the sellout crowd of 19,596, all in the gold-colored T-shirts with the slogan “Loud. Proud. Warriors” was shrieking hysterically, the W’s having cut an 18-point deficit to two.
But in this game, the better team won and deserved to win. And the Clips now lead the best-of-seven first-round series two to one, with Game 4 on Sunday at the same place and perhaps headed for the same result.
“We earned the game,” said Doc Rivers, the Clippers' coach, “because we played better.”
If not all the time, especially in a fourth quarter that could be considered a quasi-embarrassment to the sport. And more of the time than the frustrated Warriors.
“There’s going to be a game soon where both teams play great,” said Rivers. With a maximum of four games remaining, it better come soon.
“In this one, we survived,” said Rivers, as forthright as he is wise — the man having led the Boston Celtics to the championship not that long ago.
The Clippers had the third-best regular season record in the Western Conference, behind San Antonio and Oklahoma City. The Warriors were sixth. That Golden State stole Game One of the series may have given some the erroneous idea the W’s are better than the Clips.
They are not, although they could beat them in seven games. Except not playing as they did Thursday night.
Not shooting 41.6 percent. Not making 17 turnovers. Not letting Griffin make 15 of 25 from the floor.
“He’s just been great,” Rivers said of Griffin. “He’s making jump shots. The bank shot that he’s added to his game, facing the basket, has taken him to a different level, because he’s very difficult to guard now. If you get up on him, he goes around you, and if you back up on him, he uses the glass.”
The Warriors simply use their long-range shooting, and when it isn’t working — Klay Thompson, the exception, was 10 of 22 for 26 points — they’re where they were in the second half on Thursday, far behind.
“If anyone breaks the mold,” said Rivers, disputing the thought that an outside shooting team can’t win in the postseason, “it is (the Warriors). They’re great at it. We’re great at posting. We have to do what we do.”
Meaning get the ball to Griffin.
“He’s having an outstanding series,” said Mark Jackson, the Warriors' coach, “topping off an outstanding season. He’s playing at a high level.”
Curry had done the same until the last couple of games. But the Clippers won’t let him loose, double-teaming, chasing him around the court. At halftime, Curry had taken only three shots and made just one. He did finish with 16 points in 43 minutes, but that was on 5 for 12 from the floor.
“We were not playing well,” said Jackson, refusing to name any single player. “I thought we tried to do too much. We were just on the edge a little bit. Then we settled down.”
Now, however, the Clippers have settled on top of the Warriors. A win by 30 points in Game 2. A win by 2 in Game 4.
“I feel we’re in character,” said Jackson. “When we defend at a high level and execute and take the basketball it shows that we’re tough to beat, and that’s been consistent in this series, also.
“Where we’ve had problems is when we’ve turned the basketball over, we’ve taken bad shots. We’ve allowed them to get it going. We’ve gone away from the game plan discipline. We’re not good enough to do that and win.”
As they showed Thursday night.
By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange
OAKLAND — It's not exactly a Hollywood story, so call it a Fontana story. That's a working class city in Southern California about 40 miles east of Hollywood. Yet the location in this instance is not as important as the plot.
"It's all about getting an opportunity," said Bob Melvin, manager of the Oakland Athletics, "and doing something with it. Jesse got that opportunity."
Copyright © 2014 The Sports Xchange
By Art Spander
SAN FRANCISCO — It’s impossible to dislike Bruce Bochy. He never belittles his players, never gives the press the slightest chance to find something wrong with the Giants.
Even when there is something wrong with the Giants.
They’re not hitting. Other than Angel Pagan (.377), Brandon Crawford (.311) and the new guy, Michael Morse (.306).
And since Pagan and Crawford didn’t start on Thursday, their day of rest after two night games and ahead of a trip to San Diego, the Giants couldn’t hit.
At least not well enough to beat the Dodgers, who won 2-1 Thursday before the usual sellout at AT&T Park after the Giants had taken the first two games of the series.
“Win two out every three,” said Madison Bumgarner, “you’re doing OK.” Absolutely. Win three out of three, you’re doing better.
Someone had the temerity to ask Bochy if this Giants team, as Giant teams of the past few years, was strictly dependent on pitching — which, of course it is.
“I don’t think so,” was Bochy’s answer. “I think we saw great pitching in this series (against the Giants).”
Is that why Hunter Pence is hitting .206, Pablo Sandoval .175?
“We’re not swinging the bats right now,” said the manager. “It’s hard to put runs on the board.”
Hasn’t it always been the last five years? A week ago Matt Cain held Colorado to one run. And lost, 1-0. Nightmares of the past, when Tim Lincecum went through the same problems.
Every game becomes agony, the bite-your-cuticles, hold-your-heart complications that Mike Krukow, the pitcher turned TV announcer, labeled “sweet torture.”
Sweet if you win, that is. And how can the Giants win if they keep leaving men on base and Sandoval literally isn’t hitting his weight?
Three times he came to the plate with Pence on base Thursday and never got a ball out of the infield.
In the last five games, the Giants scored a total 11 runs. That they won three of those is attributable to Sergio Romo, Jean Machi and others on the pitching staff.
Bumgarner started Thursday and made it only into the fifth before Bochy decided to change — even though Mad Bum had given up only one run. Then again, there were Dodgers on first and second when he was relieved by Yusmeiro Petit.
“The outside corner was hard to get today,” said Bochy of Bumgarner, who walked three and gave up six hits. Whether that was Bumgarner’s fault or the fault of home place ump Seth Buckminster can be debated.
Unarguable is the fact that Sandoval, the third-place hitter, is having a miserable time, most likely because this is the last year of his contract and he’s trying to make a big-dollar impression on whomever (Giants or any team) would sign him.
Bochy said that Sandoval should be thinking of hitting, that his agents are the ones who ought to be concerned with salaries and the like. It’s human nature, however, for a man to let the situation control his life.
“It’s got to be in his mind,” said a former Giants player.
Bochy said Sandoval, with only 11 hits, two homers and six RBI in 63 at bats is “really pressing. But it’s his job to play and not let anything else be a distraction.”
Dodgers starter Hyun-Jin Ryu was distracting enough for the Giants. He pitched a shutout for seven innings before leaving the game for a pinch hitter in the top of the eighth.
“We had the right guys up,” said Bochy, referring to when the Giants scored a run and had two more runners on, in the ninth against Kenley Jansen.
That would be Ehire Adrianza, who, taking over at second on a double-switch in the fifth, had three hits, one of those driving in Brandon Belt with San Francisco’s only run.
That would be Crawford, who pinch-hit for Joaquin Arias and flied out to end the game.
Bochy was not distraught. “The pitching,” he said about the series, “was really good for us.”
It had to be. Because the hitting was really bad for them.
“There’s not a guy out there I don’t have confidence in,” said Bochy, the general in support of his troops.
Statements such as that always are appreciated and admirable. A single at the proper time would be just as appreciated.
By Art Spander
SAN FRANCISCO — The game was everything baseball could be and should be, full of passion and tension, and carrying with it thoughts of a pioneer whose courage and skill helped shape the sport to what it has become.
This was the night the Major Leagues honored Jackie Robinson, and at AT&T Park, the timing was perfect, even if the game time, 4 hours and 54 minutes, may not have been.
The Dodgers, Jackie’s team, against the Giants, which almost were Jackie’s team.
The Brooklyn Dodgers, of course, when Robinson in June 1947 became the first African-American to play in the major leagues. And the New York Giants, who nine and half years later, in December 1956, traded for Robinson, unaware — as were the Dodgers — that Jackie had retired.
So much on this Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, 12 innings of baseball coming to an end at 12:14 a.m., a beautiful end for the several thousand fans who remained from the sellout crowd of 42,469.
Hector Sanchez singled home Brandon Crawford from third, and the Giants were 3-2 winners.
The rivalry. The revelry. The reminders that major league baseball was off-limits to African-Americans until 1947 when Jackie, as beautifully planned by Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey, was elevated to the big club.
You know the story. You’ve seen the movie “42,” a slightly embellished version of Jackie’s life, as Hollywood biopics tend to be. That was Jackie’s number, 42, and Tuesday night it was worn by every player on both teams, by every player in the majors.
A grand gesture by the Giants, who used both their main radio announcer, Jon Miller, and famed Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully for the pre-game introductions. For the 86-year-old Scully, there was great meaning.
Beginning with the Dodgers in 1950, Scully not only knew Robinson but that winter he somehow got involved in an ice skating race with Jackie.
“We had some sort of symposium up at Grossinger’s in the Catskills,” Scully said earlier in the long evening. “There was a rink. I had grown up in New York, so I knew how to skate. Jackie, I don’t think had ever been on skates.
“He said, ‘I’ll race you.’ I was surprised. ‘But you don’t know how to skate.’ He told me, ‘That’s the way to learn.’”
What America learned was that baseball truly became an American game when the doors were opened to all races.
Another African-American who followed Robinson into the majors was Monte Irvin, who joined the Giants out of the Negro Leagues and played his way into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Irvin, 95, was invited to the pre-game festivities but sent a note, read to the crowd, that at his age air travel was too hard on his body.
Irwin played with Willie Mays, and Mays, heading for his 83rd birthday, was in the Giants' clubhouse before the game, although he didn’t take part in any ceremonies. Too bad.
Another nice touch was the tribute to Boston on this first-year anniversary of the bombing at the marathon finish line. Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline,” the Red Sox’ theme song, was played over the sound system, and the AT&T crowd sang along, as the fans do at Fenway Park.
There was a full moon peering down from beyond McCovey Cove, further embellishing an evening made even more special when Sanchez, who had struck out as pinch hitter in the ninth and then replaced Buster Posey at catcher, ripped a pitch off Brandon League with two outs in the bottom of the 12th.
“I had to do something,” joked Sanchez. “My wife was sitting in our car in the parking lot for three hours.”
League was the seventh Dodgers pitcher. Yusmeiro Petit, who got the victory, was the eighth used by the Giants.
“It’s great that every year we honor Jackie Robinson the way we do,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said in his pre-game interview in the dugout. “No man had his impact on baseball and society.”
Bochy made his comments at 4:30 p.m. nearly eight full hours before he and his team were done for the evening. And the morning.
This one won’t be forgotten for a long while.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
AUGUSTA, Ga. — He was close, and that did mean something for a 50-year-old in a sport where most of his competition is a decade or two younger.
Miguel Angel Jimenez didn't beat Bubba Watson, who won the Masters for the second time in three years. Nor did he finish ahead of Jordan Spieth or Jonas Blixt who, both being in their 20s -- Spieth 20, Blixt, 29 -- are young enough to be Jimenez's sons.
Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
AUGUSTA, Ga. — He's won that second major, and do not forget the adage: Anyone can win one, but it takes a great golfer to win two or more.
What Bubba Watson won't forget is how he reacted to the first.
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Never mind who isn’t here, and, yes, we’ll get to that. Look who is here: the kid who may be America’s next great golfer, the lefty who won two years ago and a 50-year-old pot-bellied Spaniard.
And look where they are, high on the leaderboard, each with a legitimate chance of taking the 78th Masters.
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
AUGUSTA, Ga. — On the bubble. A bad place to be. But that’s where Phil Mickelson was. “Looking at the cut line,” he said.
And then off the bubble and under it and looking at a weekend without golf.
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
AUGUSTA, Ga. — They made history, but only one made birdies. The first father and son pair to play in the same Masters went their own ways on the scoreboard, which, according to others, is what they’d already done in their lives.
Craig Stadler, the dad, and Kevin, his first-born, were separated by 40 minutes Thursday on the pairing sheet of the 78th Masters and were separated by 12 strokes when the first round was over.
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Suddenly the kid from nowhere, from the Australian backcountry, from the tough childhood, is everywhere.
Suddenly, Jason Day is in the The New York Times and Sports Illustrated.
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.
By Art Spander
ARLINGTON, Texas — It’s a lost art, or so we’re told. Nobody cares about free throw shooting. Flying dunks get you on instant replays. All free throws do is get you a national championship.
There’s a lesson to be learned and a skill to be practiced. University of Connecticut, UConn in the vernacular, was perfect from the foul line Monday night, 10 for 10.
That the Huskies were relentless on defense was something also to be recognized.
As UConn will be recognized for an NCAA title with a 60-54 win over Kentucky in a final game that had two former presidents of the United States, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, side by side and next to Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
It was at Jerry’s place, AT&T Stadium, the huge spaceship of building on the plains — the networks call the area North Texas, like Southern California or Eastern Europe — where this final game of the 2014 college basketball season drew a record crowd, 79,238.
It was at Jerry’s place where that solid defense and that perfection from the line kept Kentucky behind from start to finish. Not once in 40 minutes did the Wildcats creep into the lead.
“The way we started really cost us the game,” said John Calipari, the Kentucky coach.
The Cats hit only 5 of their first 17 field goal attempts. The Cats trailed, 30-14, with a second less than six minutes remaining in the first half.
That they cut the margin to four, 35-31, by halftime verified the Calipari contention that his players never gave up. Huzzah. They just never got ahead, either.
“Why?” asked Calipari, rhetorically. “Duh. Five freshmen in their first final. Give Connecticut credit. They were the aggressor. I told my team we had to be aggressive, sprint the ball up the court, to attack them and not let them attack you. We jogged. But again, these kids fought and tried.”
So did UConn, which had senior leadership from guard Shabazz Napier, a brilliant defender, hawking the ball, battling through screens, and an excellent shooter.
He was 8 for 16, 4 of 9 beyond the 3-point arc. He had three steals. He had three assists. He was selected outstanding player of the game.
“Napier impacted the game,” said Calipari. "He impacted every game he’s played. Terrific player. He has a swagger about him, and he deserved to have the swagger.”
UConn had some failings, missing 10 of its first 11 shots in the second half. But when Kentucky came close, 48-47 late in the second half, there was Napier, swish, with a killer 3-pointer.
“He made a play,” Calipari said. “He made that dagger."
UConn, at No. 7, is the lowest seed ever to win the championship. The Huskies had trouble overcoming St. Joseph’s, 89-81, in the first round of the tournament and during the season they lost three times to Louisville, one time by the score of 81-48. So they finished with an overall record of 32-8.
Still, they are No. 1 at the end, which counts, doesn’t it?
“I said in the beginning 18 months ago,” second-year UConn coach Kevin Ollie told CBS-TV, “when we started the process was going to be first. We was last. Now we’re first.”
Ollie, who grew up in the tough part of Los Angeles and went to Crenshaw High, doesn’t always speak the King’s English, but his thoughts are well understood. And after spending years in the NBA, a journeyman going from one team to another, he understands winning basketball.
His teams swarm on defense — the Huskies shut down No. 1 Florida in Saturday’s semifinal — and they are fundamentally sound. Ten for 10 from the line. Only 10 turnovers.
“Coach Jim Calhoun, the greatest coach ever, paved the way,” said Ollie, who was recruited by Calhoun and then before the 2012-13 season replaced him.
This was the fourth national championship for UConn, each of its last three coming in Texas — one in San Antonio, one in Houston and now one in the suburbs of Dallas.
“We ran out of time,” said Calipari.
More accurately, they ran into UConn.
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
ARLINGTON, Texas — No one knew what DeAndre Daniels wanted. Maybe not even DeAndre Daniels. He was a 6'8" kid with a fine shooting touch and very little sense of direction.
Daniels was the highest-ranked unsigned recruit in the Class of 2011 when he chose Connecticut. After almost opting for Kentucky. After thinking about Kansas. After decommiting from Texas, once his “dream team.”
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.
By Art Spander
ARLINGTON, Texas — Big D they call this area, the Metroplex, the suburbs of Dallas. Big D, as in defense, which is what Connecticut, UConn, put up against Florida.
Which had won 30 straight games. Which had been ranked the best college team in the land.
Such a lark for the Gators. A 16-4 lead, a presumed place in Monday’s final. And then Big D from UConn, D as in difference, because on this Saturday night deep in the heart of Texas, that was the difference in the first game of the two NCAA semifinals.
They were at Jerry Jones’ “Joynt,” the massive, billion-dollar domed stadium on the plains, created by the Cowboys' owner, who along with 80,000 others — the majority of whom booed Jerry when he was shown on the huge TV screen — watched how defense could take control.
It was defense that took UConn (31-8) from that early deficit to a 63-43 victory and into the championship against Kentucky, which defeated Wisconsin, 74-73.
The Gators (36-3) couldn’t get the ball inside. Couldn’t get the ball into the basket.
UConn’s guards, Ryan Boatright and Shabazz Napier, pressured and hustled, swatted and flailed. And also scored, backing DeAndre Daniels’ 20 points, Boatright with 13, Napier with 12.
But that didn’t mean as much as the way they kept Florida from scoring.
They harassed Scottie Wilbekin, the guard who runs the Gators, limiting him to four points and one assist. They forced him into three turnovers. As a team, Florida had only three assists total. And 11 turnovers.
“The difference in the game,” said Florida coach Billy Donovan, “was Scottie Wilbekin couldn’t live in the in the lane like he had all year long for us.”
He had to take up temporary residence in a less advantageous part of the court, where the mistakes were greater than the contributions.
“That’s not what we usually do,” said Wilbekin. “That’s crazy. All credit goes to them and their guards, and the way they were denying and putting pressure on us.
“We weren’t taking care of the ball. When we would get by them, we wouldn’t keep the ball tight, and they would reach from behind. We were being too loose.”
Wilbekin had averaged 15 points, three assists and only one turnover in the seven postseason games Florida played before Saturday night.
“On offense,” he said after his last game as a senior, “we couldn’t get anything going. They were being really aggressive. A couple of us were having bad shooting nights.”
UConn’s guards were the reason.
“He couldn’t get off screens,” conceded Donovan.
Exactly the way Kevin Ollie, UConn’s second-year coach, had planned it.
“We just wanted to be relentless,” he said. “Wanted to make them uncomfortable. We wanted to challenge every dribble, every pass. They wanted to attack empty elbows, if you understand what I’m saying, where they’re coming off pick-and-rolls. So we wanted to keep them on the baseline.”
At the beginning of December, when both schools were searching for the future, Florida and UConn met at Connecticut’s Gampbel Pavilion, and Napier hit one at the buzzer for a 65-64 win by the Huskies.
That was Florida’s last defeat. Until Saturday night.
“Certainly we would have loved to have played on Monday night,” said Donovan, who coached Florida to NCAA titles in 2006 and 2007, “and I told them before the game that the team that plays the best is going to play on Monday night.
“I thought UConn played better than we did.”
Did he expect that? No. Did we expect that? No way. We always figure that the favorite will end up the winner. Yet college basketball is a delightfully unpredictable sport, one with athletes leaping in celebration and pom-pom girls weeping in dismay.
The Florida cheerleaders paraded gloomily from AT&T Stadium, which is what the building has been named, only hours after arriving with a spring in their step. Their team would take another title. Except it wouldn’t.
“As the clock’s unwinding,” said Donovan of the final seconds, when defeat was unavoidable, “you’re kind of sitting there and kind of realize this is getting ready to come to an end.”
As it did, along with a 30-game unbeaten streak, a chance for the championship.
UConn stopped both. Big D in the Big D.
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
The clock ticks. No one wants to hear the sound. Few pay attention, particularly athletes. They believe they’ll always be young. Until suddenly they’re not.
A golfer’s career is long, longer than careers in other sports, but it is not forever. The opportunities get fewer as the months and the tournaments go by.
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.
By Art Spander
OAKLAND — Opening day is for baseball. Opening night is for the theater. But if the A’s, the defending AL West Division champions, had tried to play an afternoon game Monday they would have been rained out. After dark they merely were shut out.
Only one of 162. That’s the way major leaguers reflect on every defeat. In the major leagues if you lose one out of three you’ll have great season, a 90-win season or better.
But it hurts to lose that first one. Especially at home. Especially in front of a rare sellout crowd, 36,067.
Especially when the relief pitcher you traded for in the off-season enters in a tied ninth inning and pitches so poorly that Oakland not only loses to the Cleveland Indians, 2-0, but he is booed when pulled after three of the four batters he faced reached base.
The A’s had a reliable closer in Grant Balfour, but they — meaning GM Billy Beane and others in the front office — saw a reason to acquire Jim Johnson from the Orioles and dump Balfour. Johnson had more than a 100 saves over the previous two years for Baltimore.
He made his first appearance in Oakland’s first game. He was not at all impressive.
“I did everything you’re not supposed to do as a pitcher,” confided Johnson, who to his credit didn’t try to hide in a clubhouse packed with reporters and TV cameras.
What he was supposed to do remains conjecture. What he did was walk the first man he faced, Asdrubal Cabrera, give up a single to the next man he faced, David Murphy, and hit with a pitch the third man he faced, Yan Gomes. Bases loaded and no one out. Help!
Nyjer Morgan’s fly to center got an out but it also got Cabrera home on a sacrifice fly. Nick Swisher singled to center, scoring Murphy, and as the disenchanted gathering at the O.co Coliseum provided an accompaniment of boos, out went Johnson, replaced by Fernando Abad.
“I would have booed me too,” agreed Johnson after a debut not long to be remembered. “It’s not the way you want to start with a new team. It’s too bad after the way Sonny Gray battled. But there will be better days.”
Gray, named to start an opener for the first time in his brief career, thought there wouldn’t even be a game because of the afternoon downpour. The uncertainty had him even more nervous than a 24-year-old with only 61 days of major league experience could ever be.
“It was kind of tough mentally,” said Gray. He walked two of the first three Indians batters and needed to throw 29 pitches in the opening inning. Still, no one scored — then or in the subsequent five innings Gray pitched.
Of course, no one scored for the A’s in nine innings, including the eighth when they had the bases loaded and one out. Josh Donaldson had hit one more than 400 feet off the center field boards, but the A’s on base ahead of him, Daric Barton and Coco Crisp, had to hold up on the ball to make sure it wouldn’t be caught.
After Donaldson’s blast, reduced to a single, Jed Lowrie struck out and Brandon Moss grounded to first.
Oakland manager Bob Melvin, a stable sort, shrugged off the entire experience. The A’s had been unable to play their final exhibition Saturday at Oakland against the Giants because of a rainstorm. Maybe just the opportunity to get through game, even a losing game, was a relief of sorts.
The A’s are built on pitching, and through eight innings Gray, Luke Gregerson and Sean Doolittle provided shutout pitching. No complaints there.
The ninth undid them, but if you can’t get a run on offense then something bad is bound to occur.
“He walks the first guy,” said Melvin, a onetime catcher, analyzing Johnson’s ineffectiveness. “But he’s always the type of guy who’s one pitch away form getting a double play. It just wasn’t his day.”
At noon you’d have sworn it would be no one’s day except the groundskeepers. The rain was coming down hard, and not far away in Berkeley lightning hit a tree and split it down the middle. At 4 p.m., three hours before the scheduled first pitch, workers were pushing water by the gallon off the tarp covering the infield.
The poor A’s, was your only thought. Tickets already sold. Anticipation high. A couple of exhibition wins over the Giants at AT&T Park in their rear-view mirror. How cruel the sporting gods are.
Then, as if on cue, the sun came out. The A’s and their fans finally had a good break. Until the ninth inning.
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
The pain is physical, a back that aches when Tiger Woods swings a golf club, which he must do if he is to play the game.
The pain is mental. The Masters is just over a week away, a tradition like no other, as we’re so often reminded by Jim Nantz, a tradition to which Woods has contributed greatly. And Tiger, winner of four green jackets, is wondering whether he’ll compete.
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.
By Art Spander
OAKLAND — Not good enough to relax. The head coach said that about the Warriors. Said it Tuesday night when the Warriors proved they are very good, indeed.
Maybe as good as they’ve been in the last 20 years, tough, confident and, as Mark Jackson told us, refusing to relax, even when in another time they very well might have relaxed.
The mark of a great team is that it understands what is necessary to win. Understands there are going to be starters out of the lineup. Understands there are going to be opponents with awful records, and the record of the Orlando Magic is nothing but awful.
Understands to ignore everything but the task at hand.
There was usual obligatory sellout at Oracle Arena, 19,596, the Warriors’ 71st straight at home, and in that crowd surely there were more than a few people who remember when in another era — maybe not too distant — Golden State would have lost.
Not this team, which after losing here Friday night to Cleveland went up to Portland, fell behind by 18 points and won. That single game showed us that this group has the mental toughness to go along with the physical skill.
Tuesday night was a reiteration.
Andre Iguodala couldn’t play because of tendinitis in his knee. Andrew Bogut couldn’t play because of an inflamed left ankle. Two down out of five. And the Magic, on a five-game losing streak, and 19-48 overall, ready to spring a trap.
Except Mark Jackson teams do not get trapped. Or beaten by 19-48 teams. On the contrary. They score 18 consecutive points early in the third quarter. They get 23 points from Stephen Curry and 20 points each from Klay Thompson and David Lee. They get the usual boost off the bench, this time from Marreese Speights (13 points, 8 rebounds). They blow out the Magic, 103-89.
“It was a quality win for us,” said Jackson. “I’m really pleased the way we got after it. We handled our business and competed.”
An excellent way to describe it. The Warriors are relatively young, other than David Lee and Iguodala, and young teams, young players, sometimes lose their focus.
So many games over so many weeks and so many flights to so many cities combine to take a toll. Suddenly, everything can go the wrong way. For the Warriors, everything is going the proper way, the way they’ve been instructed, the way that champions perform.
“I thought we were very unselfish and did a great job of sharing the basketball,” said Jackson. When he played, he was a point guard, in charge of sharing the basketball. Now he is delighted to share the accolades.
“We got some good play from our bench also,” he added. “We continue to chalk up wins, and we are closing it out right.”
Closing it out by rallying against the Trail Blazers on the road. Closing it out by overwhelming the Magic at home. Playing effective defense — Orlando scored 19 points in the third quarter, 20 in the second quarter.
Closing it out by shooting 45.1 percent — which, strangely, is a bit under what Orlando shot (45.5) but the W’s got more shots and thus made more.
“I think our guys know we’re not good enough to relax,” said Jackson. What he knows is the sport of basketball. There was some question as to how he would do, how he would relate, when after several years in the broadcast booth Jackson was the surprise choice to be the Warriors’ coach. But in retrospect, it was a brilliant move by owner Joe Lacob and whoever gave him advice, from consultant Jerry West to GM Bob Myers.
Jackson’s years as an analyst for ESPN and ABC gave him a different look at the modern game that he now gets from the bench — or because he’s often standing, from the sideline. He can be critical with his players. He can be instructive. He never is destructive.
“All teams at this stage of the season are dangerous,” said Jackson. “People are playing for contracts, for jobs. Everybody’s out to prove something, even the teams far back.”
What the Warriors are proving is that they have the right stuff. We already knew they had the right people. Again without hesitation, Jackson called Curry and Thompson the best pair of shooting guards in history, and it doesn’t matter if specifically they are or are not. They’re fantastic, and that’s enough.
“It starts with Curry and Thompson,” said Jacque Vaughn, the Magic’s head coach. “It makes it tough to defend their (big men). They do a good job of playing with each other, passing the basketball.”
And, certainly, shooting it.
“You’ve got to win games at home down the stretch,” said Curry. “This is one of those situations obviously, so it's a big win for us to try to regain some momentum after two tough losses (at Oracle) and keep it moving. We got stops, and we were able to push in transition and keep that ball moving.”
By Art Spander
OAKLAND — And our name for today is, no, not Jonathan Martin, although he has to be part of the equation. Or even Barry Bonds — who belongs in the Hall of Fame — because he talked baseball with Willie Mays and Willie McCovey, who are in the Hall.
No, our subject is Jordan Crawford, one of those people in sport who keep getting dumped overboard but, in a beautiful example of how our games teach us so much about life, keeps showing his value.
Crawford has been in the NBA four years, and now, after being sent to the Warriors by the Boston Celtics some two months ago, is with his fifth team.
And if you want to add the New Jersey (now Brooklyn) Nets, which took in the first round of the 2010 draft but within minutes moved him to Atlanta, the total is six teams.
What Crawford did on a Tuesday night at Oracle Arena was come off the bench to score more than Steph Curry. More than Klay Thompson. More than Dirk Nowitzki.
More than anyone on either team.
Crawford had 19, and the W’s, after a hesitant beginning, played defense as it’s programmed, offense as the opportunity presented, and overwhelmed the Dallas Mavericks, 108-85.
That they immediately flew to Los Angeles, where tonight they face the Clippers, the team that most likely will be the W’s first-round playoff opponent and could thump them, in no way diminishes the victory, Golden State’s fifth in a row.
“You have to care of the ones you are supposed to take care of,” said Mark Jackson, the Warriors' coach, a very satisfied gentleman not only because of the success but also because of the manner in which it was achieved — with the Mavs shooting just 36.6 percent.
Having grown up in New York and played for Lou Carnesecca at St. John’s, Jackson learned early on that defense is the key to every game. It’s much easier to knock a ball out of a man’s hand, whether he’s shooting or dribbling, than to knock down a 20-foot jumper.
That is, unless Curry and Klay Thompson are in your lineup. And they were in the Warriors’ lineup.
On Tuesday night, so was Crawford, a 6-foot-4 guard, who had 14 points by the time Curry, with only 4:19 to go in the first half, got his first points.
“He was great,” Jackson said of Crawford. “I don’t think enough credit has been given to him because we went out and got Steve Blake.”
That was on February 19, a month after Crawford came to the Warriors. Blake was dispatched by the hated Lakers because they have sunk to a level no one this side of Chick Hearn’s memory ever could have believed.
Crawford arrives. Hurray. Then Blake arrives. Oops.
“I’ve seen guys fold up the tent,” Jackson said, talking about Crawford’s response to the acquisition of Blake. “And I’ve seen players hold their head down and not be ready. (Crawford) has been professional.”
Such a poignant word, no matter what, no matter whom. A professional, by definition — and he or she can be an amateur — doesn’t brood or sulk or quit but tries to do their best.
“He has the gift to score,” said Jackson. In 22 minutes, Crawford was 8 for 12 from the floor, including 3 of 6 on three-pointers. “When called upon," the coach added, "he’s been ready and deserves a lot of credit.”
So too, reminded Jackson, does Bob Myers, the Warriors' general manager. The W’s now have two legitimate NBA lineups, never missing a beat — or many shots — when the subs take over.
“I think our bench scored 59 points,” said Jackson. “We defended at a high level.”
Especially in the third quarter, when the Warriors outscored the Mavs, 24-13. If a pro team can’t get 20 in a period, it’s in trouble. And Dallas was.
“Having the Dallas Mavericks in our building with us being rested,” said Jackson, “it was important for us to take care of business.”
For Crawford, well accepted by his teammates, the business is one of enjoyment. Big salaries are not always a substitute for lack of playing time.
“It’s a good feeling,” said Crawford. “It’s fun. I think the coach has more confidence in (the reserves), and we see that. It’s easier for us to play, and you can get a little more time. To be on a streak like this heading into the playoffs and to move up in the standings bring out the competitive spirit in everybody.”
By Art Spander
Special to the Times
The old guy, Father Time, will triumph in the end. He always does. But for the moment Roger Federer is holding serve against him, which in a sport primarily of the young is no small achievement.
Federer has come to terms with reality. "If I can't play for No. 1," he said three days ago, "I'll play for winning titles."
Read the full story here.
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