Only a handful of Detroit players acted like they gave two cents. One of them who did not was Rasheed Wallace. His 6.5 ppg and 11-30 fg do not tell the whole story though, he often did not even debate foul calls, something he has always been known for doing. Tayshaun Prince, visibly slowed by a bad back, was even less inspiring, averaging a stunning 3.8 ppg and 3.5 reb/gm. Tayshaun did not shoot a single free throw the entire series. I’m still wondering why he played 32.2 min/gm. I’d reckon Aaron Afflalo and Walter Herrmann could have at least doubled Prince’s averages in the same amount of minutes.  Not that it would have made a lick of difference, but really, as a Piston fan, it was tough to see Prince play his last 4 games as a Piston so limited (if Dumars is smart, both Sheed and Prince will be in different cities next season).

This graphic tells most of what went wrong for Detroit this series and, well, the whole season actually.

At least Iverson took care of the ball (Image:Ball Don't Lie)

Cavs could be in for a scare in round 2, they are clearly not in playoff mode. They would have been given tougher games by Washington and Indiana. Detroit was not engaged and seemed insulted to even be in the 8^th spot. Somehow the organization didn’t get the “tank for a better draft pick” memo.  As Charles Barkley said on TNT, Detroit had “one foot in Cancun” even before the series began.

And Antonio McDyess chose to come back to Detroit for that?

Can you imagine Denver having the Birdman and McDyess coming off the bench? Dwight could sure use a real power forward to play with. And Boston needs him right about now, Brian Scalabrine just played 10 minutes in a tight Game 5!

What a shame Antonio, what a shame.

Though, I must say, my mood is slowly but surely changing for the better. Allen Iverson never winning a NBA championship is reason enough for a nice, loud CHEERS!

Good luck on that AI, you really showed your true colors over the past 5 months.

Post from: EveryJoe

Cavs-Pistons Recap

1. Will the Pistons play at least one game where they act like they care?

2. Is Tyrus Thomas becoming a player right before our eyes or is he becoming a player right before our eyes?

3. Is New Orleans-Denver that much of a mismatch?

4. Is it just me or did Andre Iguodala make one helluva difficult shot in game 1 with Hedo all up in his grill?

Iggy gettin jiggy wit it (Image:Newscom)

5. Wait, did Orlando just leave 53 year old Donyell Marshall all alone again?

6. Does it bother you to see Kevin Garnett continually say potty mouth type things on the sideline after each big Celtic play…?

7. Or make goofy faces?

8.  Or that the cameraman seems to always focus in on him, like, expecting him to say something more family friendly the next time?

9. Did Tony Parker just decide to take over the Mavs series because I was too busy watching him make layups to tell?

10. Is it just me or does Jeff Van Gundy become more tolerable and dare I say more lovable as time goes on?

Post from: EveryJoe

NBA Playoff Observations Thus Far

From the press release:

• PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system trophies
• Realistic graphics and sounds that make you feel like you’re on the actual game show set
• Nearly 9,000 puzzles to challenge your mind!
• Customizable characters
• Single-player, multiplayer and network/multiplayer modes
• Eleven different playable cities across America (Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Denver, Dallas, New Orleans, Charleston, Philadelphia and Fort Lauderdale)
• Studio sets and sound effects straight from the TV show!

Image|Sony Online Entertainment

Now, I’m not a big Wheel of Fortune fan, but there must be some out there for Sony to sock the $ into making this game and then releasing it. Then again, if you think about it, Sony doesn’t have to worry about packaging costs since they’re releasing it on the PSN.

Whatever.

Just because it’s not my cup of tea doesn’t mean that you won’t love it.

Post from: EveryJoe

Spin, Solve and Win with Wheel of Fortune

It may seem a little surprising for the Dems to choose Coors, given Pete Coors’ run for Senate in 2006 as a GOP candidate (he lost, by the way) but the convention is being held in Denver this year where Molson Coors is headquartered.

Coors and its subsidiary will donate E85 ethanol to power a fleet of General Motors flex-fuel vehicles to be used at the convention as part of the Dems’ vow to make this convention as green as possible. While most ethanol comes from corn, Coors’ ethanol is produced from waste beer. Waste beer is the beer that’s lost during packaging or considered substandard. Coors is the first major brewer to convert waste beer to ethanol. The company’s Golden company produces roughly 3 million gallons of ethanol a year.

Coors also is a “Presidential-level sponsor” of the DNC. This means that they will provide beer for the Host Committee convention and pre-convention meetings and other events. To qualify as a “Presidential-level sponsor”, a company must contribute $1 million or more of cash and/or services.

(Image: Newscom)

Post from: EveryJoe

Too Expensive to Put Gas in Your Car? Try Recycled Beer.

As a follow up to my post on beers of the World Series, our little beer group (more on that later) decided to tackle some Colorado brews this month. And so it was, with a selection of 13 different beers from 4 different breweries across the state.

As a group we were very impressed with the beers of Avery, particularly the big bottle products (such as the The Reverend Quadrupel and the Czar Imperial Stout). That said, the beers were uniformly good. The Old Jubilation, a winter ale, didn’t strike us as particularly wintery, and I found the Out of Bounds a bit thin for a stout, if still tasty.

I’ve said enough about Left Hand of late, but the consensus was that the Milk Stout is an excellent beer. The Polestar Pilsner wasn’t as clean and hoppy as I’d like, but the Dark Cover Brown Ale represented that style well. All of the Left Hand products have a certain smoothness to them which I enjoy in the ales, but not so much in the Pilsner.

Flying Dog also did well, although I’m not sure any of their beers stood out as much. It was interesting to note that they brew in Maryland as well as Colorado (go Orioles?!?), and some tasters who had tried the beers out West felt there was a difference. Maybe there is something to that Rocky Mountain water after all? The consensus seemed to be that the Snake Dog was the best of our batch, and the label artwork is certainly in a different class than most.

Great Divide was the least impressive of the lot, although in fairness the only beer we could drum up was the Samurai. I don’t know that an unfiltered rice beer was going to do well in this group of beers no matter what.

image from flyingdogales.com

Post from: EveryJoe

That Rocky Mountain water