A Press Democrat Blog

Overtime

Ted Sillanpaa looks at the San Francisco Giants, other Bay Area sports and gives a dad's-eye view of Empire prep and youth sports trends

Warriors-Nuggets: Crowd noise impacted home team & beating the traps

Sunday, at 6:09 by

From the arena in Oakland, Sunday at 5:55 p.m. By Ted Sillanpaa Warriors’ coach Mark Jackson said that the raucous Oakland crowd for Game 3 actually caused Golden State problems early on Friday. “We had difficulty yelling out the action on the pick and roll,” Jackson said. “Our bigs were calling out the screen like they’re supposed to, but with the crowd noise our guards couldn’t hear it and we got caught a couple times.” The Warriors addressed the problem.… Read More »

So, NBA put the fix in for the Lakers with 3 games left in the season?

Sunday, at 4:01 by

By TED SILLANPAA Twitter @tedsillanpa ted.sillanpaa@pressdemocrat.com Readers seem to insist that the Lakers comeback win over the Warriors on Friday was fueled by shoddy officiating sparked by the NBA really wanting to give the Lakers a boost into the playoffs. The Lakers shot far more free throws because the Warriors were called for 33 fouls and the Lakers just 17. While there’s no denying that a Lakers-Thunder playoff series would get better ratings than a Jazz-Thunder series, it’s hard to… Read More »

Warriors just lost to better team Sunday … no search for reason needed

Monday, at 7:24 by

By TED SILLANPAA Twitter @tedsillanpa ted.sillanpaa@pressdemocrat.com The Golden State Warriors didn’t stumble and cough up Sunday’s game to the Utah Jazz in Oracle Arena. The best team on that evening, and maybe over the last 10 days or so, won the game. Media folks have become more like fans in the last many years and stopped, in most cases, acknowledging that there are two teams in competition. If the home team wins: “The home team was brilliant Sunday night.” If… Read More »

You take Jordan … I’ll take LeBron

Thursday, at 10:18 by

By TED SILLANPAA People who follow the NBA want to wait to see how many championships LeBron James wins before they even consider acknowledging him to be in the same class at the great Michael Jordan. I’ve heard some respected media members and former players who still want LeBron to win more titles before they’ll consider him in the same class as Kobe Bryant. I see no need to wait for LeBron to try to win five or six championships… Read More »

Nobody wants NBA officials taking spotlight

Wednesday, at 5:42 by

By TED SILLANPAA NBA officials are under the mistaken impression that their presence adds to the entertainment value of a contest. They couldn’t be more wrong, but … take Joey Crawford for example.The show he put on in a Lakers’ game the other night was an unfathomable piece of showboating. (Click and watch.) The showboating, mostly the gyrating they do while they make time-consuming foul calls, slow the pace of a game beyond belief. I’m old enough to have watched… Read More »

Warriors need a star … and it won’t be Harrison Barnes

Saturday, at 12:25 by

By TED SILLANPAA The Golden State Warriors have a team filled with complimentary players. Forward Carl Landry and guard Jarrett Jack come off the bench to do things every championship team needs done in every game all season long. Andrew Bogut, when healthy, will defend the rim and do things offensively that a playoff team asks a big man to do. Stephen Curry is a lights-out shooter, one of the best in the NBA. Power forward David Lee does all… Read More »