Nothing has being said and done for the Rockets, they fell for two games straight at Toyota Center, but now they have showed that when they are disregarded is when they come up with their best game. And so they have taken the series at 3-2 with an outstanding win over the Jazz in game five at Energy Solutions Arena.

Utah fell by 95-69, really a low scoring for a Jazz team that has being impressive for a while now, but the Rockets has what it takes to struggle against unfavorable numbers, and if they can win one more, then the odds will be put even for game 7.

With Tracy McGrady delivering great basketball along with team mate Luis Scola, who has earned a starter position in the Rockets, McGrady had 29 points and Scola finished with 18 for Houston, while for the Jazz, Carlos Boozer ended with 19 pioints and Utah set a season low for points.

Utah is smelling the air of the second round, and it seems like history is with them, since only 8 teams have managed to come back from a 3-1 series, but Houston enjoys a challenge and they might as well become the number nine on that run.

The Jazz came out to the court with the idea of playing offense, they truly didn’t show any signs of a good deffense, but the results of that decision were disastrous.

I would not bet any of these teams just yet, in fact, I would say that the outcome of this series is still unpredictable.

The Lakers, yes,they are the first team to make it for the second round of the 2008 NBA playoffs by leaving in the road a Nuggets team that could never found the right path in this first round, and so they lost 4 straight games to give Los Angeles a ticket for what is coming next, while they might as well go home and take a break from one of the best seasons that Denver has had in many years, since they came out from the regular season with an outstanding 50 victories.

What is the secret for the Lakers? Well let’s put it this way, this used to be a team of four guys playing along Kobe Bryant, who was considered one of the most despised players due to his selfishness on the court, but this season all along, Kobe has being the key of their success, he started playing along with his team, he switch his way of thinking and so Los Angeles has being better, more compact, and along the arrival of Pau Gasol, a player that is one of the best passers in the NBA, and another leader along with Kobe, that is what has the Lakers at four games of the finals, and Kobe getting closer to the MVP title.

Well it’s interesting, the Celtics, one of the teams that was considered unbeatable is now 2-2 with the Hawks, and the Lakers, a team that most critics were putting a stair below Boston, has swept the Nuggets with an ease nobody saw coming, and so now the Celtics are feeling the pressure of coming with two more victories and the Lakers are just celebrating and waiting for the next round, who would have predicted this... I guess not even a quarter of most experts, but hey, that’s the way it goes in basketball, and specially in the best league in the world.

The Pistons just save themselves from going 3-0 in their series against a younger Sixers team, as they won the last of two games playing in Philadelphia by 93-84 and let things at 2-2 with the next meeting at Detroit on Tuesday.

Tayshaun Prince finished with 23 points while Rasheed Wallace contributed with 20 and 10 rebounds and Chauncey Billups helped with 18 points for the Pistons, while for the Sixers, Richard Hamilton ended with 18.

Antonio McDyess, who had noise surgery on Saturday morning, managed to fly from Detroit to Philadelphia and play for the Pistons, but as expected, his performance wasn’t the same as on his previous playoff presentations since he finished with only 10 points.

"Everybody knows that we are good under pressure, I hate that we put ourselves in this position a lot of times." guard Chauncey Billups said.

Things are getting interesting at this point, with underdog teams struggling for survival, and nothing has being said and done for anybody just yet.

It’s just the way it is, the same thing can mean something good for some and something bad someone else, let’s just put a recent example: the flu bug that affected a big part of the Red Sox roster, including 4 pitchers, Daisuke Matsuzaka among them.

And so the chance came for rookie Justin Masterson who played for the first time in the major leagues. The 23 year old showed what he’s capable of and allowed only two hits from the Angels in six innings playing at Fenway Park in front of almost 40 thousand fans.

But his outstanding debut got shadowed by the loss of his team by 7-5 to Anaheim, but when he left the plate, The Angels had just one run and so the debutant pitcher wasn’t guilty of the final outcome.

He played greatly, there is no doubt on that respect, but Masterson is part of a team that has alot of talented pitchers, and he still need to grab on some experience before he’s considered for bigger things, and so he will be coming back to play for the Sea Dogs as he needs to leave some room for Bryan Corey, the guy who’s going to get purchased by the Triple-A Pawtucket before the week is over so he can make his debut against the Tampa Bay Rays.

The current World Series Champions are truly enjoying a good moment, and as of now we can see some shades of what can be a second straight for the Red Sox.

Did you mentioned Yao Ming? Well I bet he’s on most chats from Rockets fans, specially now that Houston have lost 2 straight playoff games against the Jazz and playing at home.

Tonight is game 3 in Utah, and the Jazz are the clear favorites to win 2 more and finish the series quick, and maybe the Rockets are hoping for that to happen so they can go and do something else but to play basketball.

I just don’t conceive that this is the same team that won 22 straight in the regular season playing without Ming. Things were looking good for Houston, but Tracy McGrady can’t save the night every time, and even though he’s playing as good as always, the seven time All Star needs more help from his team mates.

The two first meetings have finished with almost equal scores as the first match ended 93-82 and the second one on Monday ended 90-84 and things doesn’t look good for Houston who is facing a team that came to the post season with a Northwest Division title and that seems to be ready for a first championship.

And Carlos Boozer and company are definitely showing that they are not just going through a strike of luck, on the contrary, they are playing their best basketball and if they can keep on the same line, the second round of the playoffs seems almost a reality for them.

It was 1985, exactly on May 4 when the Nuggets defeated the Lakers on the second game of the postseason, and it seems like that date will stay true for Denver who plays against Los Angeles at the Staples Center after being defeated by the Lakers with a score of 128-114.

This is the fourth time that Nuggets and Lakers face each others on the playoffs, with a flawless 3-0 record for Los Angeles, and as of now, Los Angeles have 8 straight victories playing at home, and with Kobe Bryant playing at his best, Los Angeles are expected to come up with a second victory.

But nothing is said and done and Allen Iverson along with Carmelo Anthony are scoring an average of 30 points per game, if they managed to stay at the same level and if the Nuggets can change their direction concerning their previous playoff appearences where they gotten eliminated in the first round 4 the last 5 NBA seasons, then the chance is there for a team that is dreaming of a first NBA championship.

Kobe scored only 2 points in the first quarter and had 14 in the last period for a total of 32, while team mate Pau Gasol finished with 36 against a Nuggets team that is is feeling the pressure of winning a road game that can bring some calm when they fly home for games 3 and 4 of the series.

No matter how impressive the Rockets were in the regular season, now the Jazz is blurring all of that with their superiority against Houston in the first round of the 2008 NBA playoff series as they stunned them by 2-0 playing at Toyota center, and now they are heading to Utah with a clear advantage that leaves them 2 games short of going to the second round, and so Carlos Boozer screamed when he was going of the court “We're not coming back.”

Not bad for a team that struggled their way from being an underdog team into the Northwest division champions they are now.

Now, on the Rockets, I think if they had Yao Ming healthy for this post season games, the story for Houston could be a very different one, but honestly Dikembe Mutombo is really old and cannot go along with the rythm the Rockets had when Yao was their All Star.

Final score on the game was 90-84 with Deron Williams being the man leading the scoring board for Utah with 22, while Boozer had 13 points and finished with 13 rebounds, and on the Rockets side, and despite of having the Jazz deffense on his back most of the game, -- specially on the fourth quarter when he score just a single point --Tracy McGrady managed to come up with 23 points and Bobby Jackson ended with 18 points.

Now, the Jazz knows that Houston beat theam at EnergySolutions arena during the regular season, and so they know that the pressure is on them to make this series a very short one.

The Celtics are starting the NBA playoff series with the right foot, as they took down the Hawks by 104-81 yesterday night playing at the Garden, which is just a glimpse of what is coming for Boston’s rivals on the post season.

I guess this didn’t came as a surprise at all since Boston is one of the favorites to make it to the finals, overall favorites in the East and favorites to go against any West team.

The Celtics have come up with one glorious season, setting records that includes the best record in the league with 66-16, 35-6 playing at home and a 41-11 conference record.

I think the Hawks are a good team, but they found their grave digged just starting the post season as going against Boston is almost like a secured winterstorm coming ahead.

And so the Celtics are not slowing down, they will probably gonna get this year’s championship as they are showing more spirit and a willing to obtain the title that sets them apart from any other team, including the Lakers who are the second favorites for the finals, but I think a 7 game series between these is well expected and the team from Boston is ready to prove that not always a Western Conference team is the one to look up to.

The Red Sox took on the Yanks 7 to 5 yesterday at the Bronx, and the Yankees took on Boston 15-9 on Wednesday, in order to split a series of two games, but last week it was the Red Sox who won a series of 3 games against New York in Fenway Park.

Fans of both teams really had their dosage of rivalry covered just fine, and nobody can really tell who has an edge over who, as both teams have great rosters to come up with a good season, but the Sox has a slight edge: a pitcher call Josh Beckett, the guy that is labeled by team mates and other professional critics as probably the best pitcher currently playing.

“I might have some personal bias, but he’s the best pitcher in the game right now,” Red Sox veteran Curt Schilling said of Beckett.

The Yankees and the Red Sox will not see each other until July 3^rd, and Manny Ramirez, the guy that was mostly responsible for the Sox victory, is eagering to be in front of Mike Mussina one more time to prove the Yanks that the Boston victories are nothing close to pure luck.

Well the Yankees won to the Red Sox yesterday at the Bronx, in what it was one of the most interesting games in the season to date.

Even though thir starter Chien-Ming Wang had one bad night, the team from New York knew how to defeat his biggest rival. Wang was looking tired, probably because he didn’t had much time to rest, as it is a team’s policy to get their starting pitcher to fly one day ahead of the rest of team in order to have a full night of sleep to be in shape for the a coming game.

But this was not the case with Wang, who being from Taiwan, has not adapted to the USA, and his reserved personality makes it more difficult for him to go on his own, he preffers to fly with the rest of the team, something that might bring bad consequences for the Yankees, considering that this was the last game at home before going into a 18 road game span.

Yesterday it was all about runs, in a game that lasted 4 hours and 8 minutes, and that finished with the victory for the Yankees 15-9, and this is the first time that New York manage to score 15 runs against the Red Sox playing at home since the 1954 season.

And despite having a bad night, Chien-Ming Wang had his 50th career win in 84 games as a starter, the last one to come up with similar numbers was Dwight Gooden who ended with 50 wins in 82 consecutive starts back in the 1986 season.

The Lakers have gone through this season with a word in their minds: uncertainty. First were the Kobe trade rumors, then it came Andrew Bynum to save their lives for a few games before getting benched the rest of the season for injuries, then Kobe Bryant started to show the long awaited signs of leadership that every single Lakers fan has being asking for since he got in the team, and then it came Pau Gasol, the guy that along Bryant saved the Lakers from sinking.

And despite all that, they got crowned as the NBA Western Conference champions after taking down the Kings by 124-101 yesterday at Staples Center. Even Kobe got an ovation after sitting down the whole 4^th quarter, since Los Angeles was leading 101-72 at the end of the third.

Kobe Bryant is the favored one this year in the run for the MVP, something that might come at the perfect time, since this will be his first NBA Most Valuable Player award in a 11-year career span, this in despite of being regarded by respected critics as one of the best players in NBA history for many years.

Pau Gasol finished with 22, while Kobe got 20 and team mate Lamar Odom helped with 15 points and 12 rebounds, while for the Kings, who was playing without their top 3 scorers, Kevin Martin, Ron Artest and Brad Miller, and so team mates Quincy Douby came up with a career high 32 points, Beno Udrih helped with 22 and Francisco Garcia finished with 15, but it was just not enough to overcome the outstanding offensive by the Lakers.

To see Baron Davis out for a full half time is not something common for Warriors fans, but with no chances of making it to the playoffs – even though they have one more game remaing, they are a full game behind the Nuggets –, coach Don Nelson knew his all star point guard was in need of a rest, and so he did not play the remaining last two quarters in the game that Golden State lost to the Suns yesterday at 122-116.

Davis finished with only 7 points, while team mate Stephen Jackson did much different by coming with a team-high 23 points and Steve Nash finished with 13 points and 14 assists for the Warriors, while for the Suns, we are seeing what we all expected, a Shaquille O’Neal playing his best basketball when he’s needed, specially with the playoffs around the corner, and yesterday he finished with 19 points while the star of the show for Phoenix, the young Amare Stoudemire, gave a great show to Suns fans by scoring 28 points.

Now tension is flowing in the air, and aparently Baron Davis does not feel ok with the Warriors, maybe because Don Nelson has push him and Stephen Jackson to their own phisical limits in order to keep on winning game after game, and at the end, that was not even enough for a Golden State team that proved how they are nothing near underdogs, but numbers talk, and with their lost from yesterday they are finishing 48-33 with one game remaining, while the Nuggets, who are just about to clinch the 8^th spot for the playoffs on the West, are 49-32.

I’ve seeing great basketball this regular season, probably because teams are more competitive than ever, with teams like the Rockets or even the Jazz showing that they have what it takes, and when you see that teams that have struggled their way through the end of the season not making it to the playoffs, it seems a little unfair, but all in all, this is hoops and just a rush of inspiration can turn the tables for any team in the most competitive league in the world (I’m saying the world because there is an expansion plan going on that would bring european teams to the NBA so regular season games get disputed in let’s say Spain or England...)

Yesterday at Fenway Park, the Yankees were planning to change the curse of their series to the Red Sox, but the team from Boston was far superior, and so the Yankees fell 8-5. With this victory the Red Sox are winning that series of 3 games by 2-1.

The win came easy for Boston who scored 7 runs in just 2 innings, then the Yankees fought their way back into the game putting things 7-5 at the bottom of the 8, but Boston, who stagnated for a while during the Yankees run to tight the game, but the Rex Sox still had one more run before sealing their victory to their archrivals.

Now the Yankees are suffering the lost of their – as of yesterday – only healthy catcher on Jose Molina, who hurt his armstring and is leaving New York with a rush to find his replacement as soon as possible.

Something curious happened yesterday morning at the foundation of what is going to be the new Yankee Stadium, an anonimous call let Yankees officials know about the presence of a Boston Red Sox T-shirt burried deep in cement, apparently one of the construction workers planted it to bring bad luck to the team of the Bronx.

The Yankees feelings about the t-shirt were change quickly, first they wanted to leave it there since “it's never a good thing to be buried in cement when you're in New York,"Yankees president Randy Levine said about it, but then they decided that if they left the shirt planted was like rewarding to the evil works of an evil mind.

With the loss from yesterday playing at home, the Warriors are possibly saying good bye to their chances of making it to the post season, their only salvation can come if the Nuggets, --- the team that beat them 114 to 105 at Oakland---, loose two of their remaining 3 games and if Golden State manage to win all their 3.

Without any questions, this has being one of the best seasons for the Warriors, who have accumulated a total of 47 victories, the most for the franchise since the 93-94 season, but despite of that fact, everything seems to be over for a team leaded by Baron Davis, Monta Ellis and Stephen Jackson, the trio on which coach Don Nelson set all his hopes, but now he’s seeing the consequences of pushing their abilities to the extreme.

"That's a tough one to swallow, but we've got to finish strong. That's all we can do." Said Baron Davis.

Last night it was a different match between the Nuggets and the Warriors, the two highest scoring teams of the league, and the two with the least deffensive capacity, well, last night they reverted that squeme as the Warriors were leading by 37-22 in the first quarter but Denver got back on track in the second, and so Golden State was desperately throwing 3-pointers that never hitted the basket, and so they moved to a more protective strategy that really didn’t worked out as the Nuggets took the lead for good at the second half, and the Warriors nightware started to take shape.

Now the table is served for the Nuggets, they will most likely get a ticket to the NBA playoffs, and Allen Iverson, who got 33 yesterday and Carmelo Anthony, who finished with 25 for Denver, will have to show what they’re made of.

I was talking yesterday in one of my other blogs about the potential that the Wizards has to bring a good show to the post season, and now that they have their all-stars playing altogether, you can tell why they are being understimated.

Yesterday in a packed Verizon Center, they took down the best deffensive team in the League, the Boston Celtics, that might face the Wizards in the playoffs and know that they can be trouble: "They've played great against us, there has been no doubt about it, "Obviously, if we face them in the playoffs, they should have great confidence." said Celtics coach Doc Rivers.

With this victory, the Wizards are winning their season series against Boston at 3-1 with an average of 13 points of difference per win. For Washington, Antawn Jamison finished with 27 points and 11 rebounds, while team mates Caron Butler and Gilbert Arenas each helped with 13 for the final score of 109-95.

This win for Washington meant the end of the Celtics seven-game winning streak and gave them their second worst loss of the season.

"We feel like we're one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference. Obviously, we're not getting respect. But when you're not getting it, you got to take it. Watch out for us. We're a force to be reckoned with. We've solidified ourselves as one of the better teams in this league." Wizards Butler said.

The Jazz didn’t made too much noise during most of the season but they are closing phenomenally as they have four victories in a row and just clinched their second consecutive Northwest Division title after their victory of 77-66 over the Western Conference leaders, the Hornets.

Yesterday they ended with the 11-game home winning strike by New Orleans, and it also finished with their overall 5 game winning streak. I would say that the Hornets we saw yesterday were much different to the team that we’ve seeing during the regular season, even Chris Paul had a bad night coming with only 4 points, much different than his 21 point average per game. (Consistency, that is why I say Kobe is a step above Paul in the run for the MVP).

But apart from the score, both teams did poorly as they came up with season lows in scoring, on one side because they could manage to contain their rivals top scorers with a good display of deffense.

Mehmet Okur has being the guy leading the Jazz lately and he proved that against the Hornets by scoring 22 points and helping with 17 rebounds, and team mate Deron Williams also did a good job for Utah as he outplayed Chris Paul and finished with 17 assists.

The last victories from the Jazz have not come by casualty, as they have shown that they can defeat the big guys in their conference; they did it against the Spurs, to whom they humiliated with a score of 90 to 64 and yesterday as the fourth quarter started, Utah was leading by 20 points, a number that at the end was going to be a life saver for the Jazz since the Hornets scored only nine points in the quarter.

It really didn’t came as a surprise when Eric Gordon announced that he would skipped his remaining 3 seasons of college in order to be considered for the big teams in the NBA as he would put his name on the list for the coming NBA draft.

Gordon is considered among the top 10 picks for this year, and he said that it is really not about the fame or the money but about his eagerness to compete at the highest level.

Eric Gordon played only one season for Indiana University, and just when he was starting, professional observers knew that he would not stay for long with the Hoosiers.

In his freshman year with IU, he leaded the Big Ten scoring an average of 20 points per game and it also set a record for most points for a freshman in a single season with a total of 669.

In a few polls conducted by the Indiana Daily Student Website, most people that voted were not agree about his decision of going to the NBA just now, but new UI coach Tom Crean, thinks different: “The proof is there, I think he’s going to be outstanding.” He said.

Gordon, who is only 19 years old, is expected to be chosen between the 3^rd and the 8^th picks.

What happened with the high hopes of the Tar Heels to make it to the finals? Nobody can tell for sure, but what is true is that Roy Williams was withnesssing how the team that he coached for 15 years finally made it to the NCAA Championship game.

Fans of the JayHawks were booing Williams when Kansas managed to beat his team 84-66 yesterday at San Antonio in one of the two games for the NCAA final four.

It seemed like Kansas had it easy when they rallied North Carolina 40-12, but then the Tar Heels started to woke up from a nightmare that wasn’t over, as they put things 54-50 with 11 minutes on the clock, then the Jayhawks came up with an outstanding display of basketball to finally give Kansas the victory and the oppotunity to advance to the finals against Memphis tonight.

Really a dissapointing presentation by the Tar Heels, who were the number one seeded team, but in basketball, and specially in college hoops, everything seems to be possible, proof of that was yesterday’s game.

On the other game for the NCAA semifinals, The Tigers conquered one more win in their trail of 38 victories against only one defeat in order to setup a new NCAA record for more wins in a single season as they defeated the UCLA Bruins 78-63. Derrick Rose showed why he’s one of the choices for the two top draft picks for the NBA as he came with 25 points, 9 rebounds and 4 assists while his Memphis team mate Chris Douglas-Roberts also had a good night with 28 points against the Bruins, who was the last team on the Tigers list of 3-in-a-row that has been beaten by 17 points or more by Memphis.

What can be expected for tonight’s finals game? Well, two teams that are coming for their first championship, the two with celebrated players and coming to this match in their best moment, who’s the favored one? Hmmm according to the sportsbook’s current odds, the Jayhawks are -2, so we can expect anything from anybody.

Well, the Final Four will be this coming weekend and this blogger has a favorite: The Tar Heels, who might possibly beat Kansas and the winner of UCLA vs Memphis to come up with their second nation title in four seasons.

Why do I think this is so possible? Well the reason has a name: Tyler Hansbrough, the player that is already being named player of the year by some media people, and I would go ahead and support those claims.

Tyler has being throwing for 22 points and 10 rebounds per game in average and even rivals like Louisville’s David Padgett know of his potential and talent: "He deserves every accolade and all the success that he gets, I've never played against somebody who plays that hard, and the kid is just absolutely determined to be a great basketball player." he said.

Tyler is a great player, but North Carolina is surely not a one-man team, the 22 year old has being getting alot of help from guys like Ty Lawson, who’s one of the best point guards in the country, and Danny Green doesn’t dissapoint with 11 per game and a steady display of energy that is always a headache for rival teams.

On the season, the Tar Heels are 36-2 and are unbeaten in 22 road games, and most important, they have 15 consecutive wins so far.

Isiah Thomas didn’t had much of a choice but to be ok with the decision of the hiring of Donnie Walsh as the new president for basketball operations and president of the Knicks.

Both Walsh and Thomas – who worked together in Indiana in the past – have not sit down and talk about the future of Thomas in the team, he’s still uncertain about his prevalence as head coach, but he knows the Knicks are hiring Walsh because they guy can take decisions and knows the business, on the other hand, Thomas has a 53-104 record since he took over for Larry Brown when the former got fired in 2004.

Thomas, who was hired by Walsh to take the head coaching position for the Pacers a while ago would need to be pretty convincent for him to stay with his current job, but even if he got a lower charge when Walsh completely takes over, he says he’s fine with any decisions that would come as a benefit for the team.

The Knicks are probably among the worst teams in the NBA, proof of this is yesterday’s game against the Grizzllies, which New York lost 130 to 114, allowing a total of 74 points just in the first half... did they knew there is something called deffense? That didn’t seemed pretty clear last night at Memphis.

All in all, I don’t think Isiah Thomas will remain as Knicks head coach, and New York fans would be the more pleased if he actually gets dismissed... well, with a record like the one he has, I wouldn’t have doubts about being happy too if he get’s a job... parking cars outside the Madison Square Garden.

The Mets had a great start with a victory over the Marlins, but yesterday revenge was served as Florida top New York 5-4 in 10 innings.

Now the main concern for the Mets is to get back Pedro Martinez, the 3 time Cy young winner, who got injured during the fourth inning and didn’t made it back, actually this is all bad news for New York, who might lost Martinez for a while if his MRI test results are negative, which is quite possible.

Martinez was expected to team up greatly with Johan Santana, now his temporary replacement can be in Nelson Figueroa or Jorge Sosa, who entered the game for Martinez last night at Dolphin Stadium.

"Pedro is a big part of our rotation, but we can't feel sorry for ourselves. We have guys that are able to step up and get it done." said Mets third baseman David Wright.

The picture for the Mets to be a World Series favorite dropped drastically from one day to the other which is a signal of how vulnerable this team is.

Incredible but it’s true, the Cubs haven’t won an MLB World Series Title since the 1908 season, yes exactly, 100 years ago...

And things doesn’t look bright at all for Chicago who, after two days delays for their season start, lost at home against the Brewers on a very tight match. Even though it was the debut of their super star off-season acquisition: Japanese outfielder Kosuke Fukudome, and it was also the day of the unveiling of a Ernie Banks statue outside Wrigley Field.

The game was tight at 3 at the bottom of the third and it was until the 10^th inning that Tony Gwynn ran to first base in order to give the Brewers their fifth straight victory on opening day beating Chicago 4-3.

"It's definitely huge to beat your arch rival in your division, especially on Opening Day." Said Brewers David Riske.

Fukudome, who was acquired for $48 million and a 4 year contract, didn’t disappoint on his debut, he finished 3 for 3 but it wasn’t enough to top the Brewers.

"It was a pretty good day for me, but we lost the game." The Japanese said.