Quick NBA Free Agency Predictions

Lebron James
James is looking for the perfect mix of a big market and a chance to win. Could he stay in Cleveland purely for money and loyalty? Yes he could, but I do not see that happening at all. I see Lebron joining young stars Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah in this win-now situation; as he tries to take on Chi-town and the legend of Jordan.

Predicted Destination: Chicago Bulls

Chris Bosh
There were rumors of the Heat acquiring Bosh in a sign-and-trade before the FA period began. Whether it happens in a sign-and-trade of just Free Agency, I feel confident that Bosh will be playing in Miami next year. Think of Bosh as Beasley, only taller, proven, mature, reliable, and much better offensively.

Predicted Destination: Miami Heat

Dwyane Wade
I have never really considered D-Wade a threat to leave Miami. All he has ever wanted is a supporting cast and if my predictions are correct he is going to get it! Flash isn't going anywhere!
Predicted Destination: Miami Heat

Amare Stoudemire
Other than Chris Bosh, Amare is the best FA power-forward available. Obviously the Nets want LeBron, but what team doesn't? The way I see it James will choose Chicago and the Nets will end up with Stoudemire.

Predicted Destination: NJ Nets

Joe Johnson
ESPN is reporting that Johnson is almost surely to take a max deal from the Hawks, and why not?! He would be foolish to not accept that deal.

Predicted Destination: Atlanta Hawks

Dirk Nowitzki
I see Dirk as likely to leave Dallas as Dwyane Wade leaving Miami. I just do not see it happening, especially given his age. If I had to pick somewhere else for him to go I could see him going to the Suns. But I'm going with Dallas all the way on this one.

Predicted Destination: Dallas Mavericks

Carlos Boozer
Boozer would be top priority for Miami if Bosh went elsewhere. However, sticking with my picks thus far I figure the Knicks have to get someone here right? Boozer plays good defense and he fits the Knicks' pick-and-roll offensive style well. He's not what the Knicks want, but I say he's the best they will be able to get.

Predicted Destination: NY Knicks

What do you think about my predictions? Let me know where you see everybody ending up when it all shakes down!

Team USA vs. China Thoughts

The United States cruised over China in it's first Olympic game early Sunday morning.

The USA somewhat got off to a sluggish start, but I guess you could say China got off to a rather 'hot' start. China was making nearly every outside shot in the first half despite Team USA winning 101-70.

The USA's defense looked very good the whole game, pressuring China's guards and making Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian earn their buckets. But as the game wore on that ball pressure got to China and they started making some costly turnovers and mistakes.

The USA finally pulled away in the early going of the second half. They were about average on shooting from the outside but in the second half they were nearly perfect it seemed. Dwayne Wade didn't miss a shot as he was 7-7 from the field and was 5-5 on free-throws.

Lebron lead the way with 18 points and dominated China with his sheer athleticism. His strength was too much for the Chinese to handle.

The USA looked great in the second half. Their defense picked up the intensity even more and that created some ease on the offensive end and got them some easy transition baskets.

They made their outside shots which will be vital if they want to come away with a gold medal.

I really think they need to utilize their inside presence a little more. With teams that play a zone on them they need to work inside out instead of outside in. I think Dwight Howard and Chris Bosh will be able to manhandle just about any other big man out there with their strength and pure talent.

But overall, this was a good test and good warm up game for when they have to face Spain, Greece, and Lithuania. They still get one more game against Angola to help them work some kinks out and get some jitters out of the way.

Go USA!

Come back for our first College Football Conference preview later in the day.

Olympic Men's Basketball Predictions

With the Olympics officially starting today I thought it would be proper to do a post on something about it.

Predicted Order of Finish
Group A
1. Argentina
2. Lithuania
3. Australia
4. Russia
5. Croatia
6. Iran

Argentina is just too much to handle with 4 NBA stars in Manu Ginobli, Luis Scola, Fabricio Oberto, and Andres Nocionoi. The Argentines have the size and shooting ability to beat anybody. I think they have too much firepower to be beaten in group play. Lithuania and Australia could both give them a run for their money though, but both should be vying for second place.

Group B
1, United States
2. Spain
3. Greece
4. Germany
5. China
6. Angola

The USA will come out of Group B undefeated. This is their year, they finally have the chemistry, better overall talent, and shooting to get it done. Spain could give them fits with their zone defense and size but I think USA will come out on top with their athleticism and skill. Greece could also pull off some upsets after stunning the USA in 2004.

Quarterfinals:
Spain over Australia
Argentina over Germany
Lithuania over Greece
United States over Russia

Semifinals:
Spain over Argentina
United States over Lithuania

Finals:
Gold: United States over Spain
Bronze: Argentina over Lithuania


In the end I really do think the United States will get it done. This is their year to bring gold back to the states. The tandem of Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, Carmelo Anthony, and Dwight Howard will not be stopped. U.S. Basketball is starting to look like its old self again. Mike Krzyzewski has put together a team that knows how to play true fundamental basketball. They finally have the talent, firepower, team play, defense, and shooting to get it done. The talent is there and now they finally have all the keys. The USA team will bring gold back to America for the first time since 2000.

Week Review in Sports

NBA
The playoffs got underway Saturday as Lebron James and Co. defeated the Arenas' less Wizards 97-82. Oh Wizards, what could have been...

Larry Hughes had an impressive night with 27 points and 7 boards. While Antwain Jamison paced Washington with 28 points and 14 boards of his own. With no clear-cut favorite in the East, don't be surprised if you see the Cavs in the finals.

Nets 96 Raptors 91
Richard Jefferson scored 28 points, Kidd nearly had a triple-double and the Nets stopped a late rally to beat the Raptors 96-91 on Saturday in Game 1 of the series. The former Raptor Vince Carter was not welcomed on a return trip to Toronto. Carter scored 16 points but shot just 5-of-19 from the field. But Jefferson stepped up to make 11 of 21 shots.

Bulls 96 Heat 91
Chicago stuck it to Miami late in the game to steal the win. Luol Deng scored 33 points, Ben Gordon and Andres Nocioni each hit two free throws in the final 19 seconds, and the Chicago Bulls held off the Heat Saturday in Game 1 of their opening-round rematch. The Heat trailed 92-91 after Dwyane Wade found Udonis Haslem for a layup with 38 seconds left, but Gordon hit two foul shots with 18 seconds remaining. After a timeout, Wade missed a 3-pointer and Nocioni hit two more free throws with 9.8 seconds left for the final score.

Rockets 84 Jazz 75
Tracy McGrady finished with 23 points. Before his outburst, the Rockets relied on Yao Ming, who finished with 28 points and 13 rebounds. Utah led by nine at halftime and was ahead 49-41 before Houston went on an 8-2 run, fueled by seven points by McGrady to get within two. A jump shot by Deron Williams made it 53-49 before a 3 by Shane Battier put Houston within striking distance. Houston then when on to control the rest of the game and never looked back.

MLB
Indians get one hit, still top Contreras, White Sox.
C.C. Sabathia pitched 8 powerful innings as his Indians took down the White Sox 2-1. Oh and by the way they got one hit. Sabathia had 5 IP and gave up 5 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, and 10 K.

Meanwhile, Jose Contreras was even more impressive and still lost. He threw 5 IP gave up 1 H, 5 BB, and had 3 K. The Indians' only hit was Grady Sizemore's double in the first off Contreras. Cleveland took advantage of three errors and some walks to take two of three in the series.

Mark Buerhle no-hits Rangers
The Chicago White Sox left-hander faced the minimum 27 batters in a 6-0 victory over the Texas Rangers. Working quickly and efficiently in a dominant performance, Buehrle allowed only one base runner. He walked Sammy Sosa with one out in the fifth inning, then promptly picked him off first base. I was very surprised with this as Buerhle has not been his near self in about 2 seasons. Before this last appearance he's been too jittery with his pitching and K to BB ratio.

Barry Bonds inches closer to Aaron
Bonds hit his 4th, 5th, and 6th HR's of the season against the Cardinals and Diamondbacks. He moved within 15 HR's of the record. Bonds has been as healthy as he's been in about 3 seasons now, which leads me to believe he will hit at least 35 HR's this season.

D-League
Just thought I'd mention the NBDL because of my hometown team Dakota Wizards, who defeated the Sioux Falls Sky Force 115-113 Saturday night. I attended the game myself and I thought they were going to fall after the way they played throughout the game. The Sky Force had a 7-12 point lead for most of the game and whenever the Wizards would get within 5-6 points, Sioux Falls would go down and score again. The Wizards finally tied it up with about 2:48 left in the 4th quarter and held on as Renaldo Major scored 29 points in the win.

The Wizards now advance to the NBDL Championship to take on the Colorado 14ers, which will be held Sunday, April 29. I'll be there and will do a recap of the game right here on The Sports Flow as the game concludes.

Easter Weekend Roundup

I would first like to start off by saying Happy belated-Easter to everyone and I hope all you students out there had a good break. With no more college basketball to talk daily it's time to get ready to hit the NFL Draft and Major League Baseball (Sigh, I love summer). However, I'm feeling less than creative right now and a lot went down in the sports world over the last few days....I'll break it down for you

- I would like to welcome The Big Lead back to the blogosphere. I'm sure most of you readers already know what this is all about but incase you don't: Here it is. Even though Mr. Colin Cowherd apologized on-air (barely) I want to make sure everybody knows that he still sucks, and that was still a dick move.

- Arod officially won the hearts of Yankee fans everywhere for the next week and a half. He has started the year on a tear: .381 BA, 4HR, 11RBIs, .458 OBP. Thus making my fantasy baseball team, the BALCO busters, a one man show. The walk-off Slam against the O's was great (hint of sarcasm) but it is only the first week of the season. I think 2 curtain calls in opening week is enough and people are being a little too over-exuberant with this. Let's see how long this side of the love-hate relationship lasts.

- Zach Johnson out-Tigered Tiger to win the green jacket this weekend. The Masters is the only golf even that I really pay close attention too. I've been to the PGA Championship once before and it was a lot of fun to watch in-person, but on TV The Masters is all I really watch. I never really at any point that Tiger wouldn't win until he bogeyed number 17 on Easter Sunday. I'm always the kinda golf fan to take Tiger vs. the field almost always, but this just really wasn't Tiger's weekend. Without a round under par he was less than spectacular. For a change we saw a guy wearing blue (not red) pumping his fists on a Sunday of a major event.

-D-Wade came back to game action dropping 12 off the bench last night...I think that this restores the Heat's chances of going deepish into the playoffs even if he isn't 100%, but I don't see them getting by the Pistons.

- The Mariners and Indians series was postponed as Cleveland was pummeled with snow, also collectively taking a toll on my fantasy team (I need Ichiro to get the ABs). This makes things like say, oh I don't know, the retractable roof seem like quite the novel idea. And obviously MLB thought it was too as the Angels vs. Indians series has been moved from Cleveland to beloved Miller Park. Tickets will be 10 bucks and parking will be 8...so any displaced Angels or Indians fans may want to look in to that.

- Don Imus made a huge lapse in judgement when he called the Rutgers University Women's Basketball team something to the effect of "a bunch of nappy-headed ho's." Now I'm not black, nor a woman, but even I can see how terrible and unwarranted that was for him to say that. This may even make him a bigger retard than Mr. Cowherd.

- I'm told the NHL playoffs are starting...I don't plan to really write about it until the finals so if you are looking for some analysis or breakdown or whatever....look elsewhere.



*Chime in on any thoughts or comments in regards to these tidbits or any others you would like to add.*