Sporting Madness

My thoughts on the Alex Burrows / Stephane Auger controversy (where Burrows accused Auger of saying he was out to get him) are up over at Canuck Puck . You can read the current state of affairs there, but this situation is going to be very interesting to follow over the next few days. As Joe Yerdon points out in his post on the matter, the NHL needs to conduct a full investigation; we've already seen how sweeping accusations against refs under the rug has hurt the NBA and European soccer. As I wrote about Tim Donaghy , even the perception of impropriety can stagger a league , regardless of what actually happened. The league needs to take this seriously and show us just what happened, or their own fans will lose faith. We'll see what they do in the days to come.

Photo: Eddie House celebrates after the Celtics' win Thursday. [Photo from TrueHoop ] That was one of the craziest games I've ever seen last night. It looked to be all over at the end of the first quarter after the Lakers jumped out to a crazy 35-14 lead without Kobe Bryant even making a field goal, and things only got worse for the Celtics. This is possibly the only game I've ever seen where the announcers start predicting the win midway through the first. The Lakers justified their praise for a while, though, as it was 45-21 partway through the second, and 58-40 at the half. Strangely enough, what probably turned the tide for the Celtics was an injury to one of their players. After Rajon Rondo proved utterly ineffective, Kendrick Perkins hurt his shoulder, which caused Doc Rivers to go to the smaller pairing of James Posey and Eddie House to replace them. House and Posey are both effective outside shooters, something that can rarely be said for either Perkins or Rondo. Th...

(Photo from SLAM Online ) The end of tonight's Spurs-Lakers clash featured a use of the Stern Button (credit for which goes to the brilliant Matt McHale of Basketbawful ) if I've ever seen one. The Spurs were down by two with a couple seconds left, grabbed the ball under their own basket and quickly called timeout, giving them possession in Lakers' territory. Robert Horry inbounds the ball to Brent Barry, who is in excellent position for a three, but can't get it off cleanly while receiving a flying elbow to the head from one Derek Fisher of the Lakers. He still chucks it up at the buzzer, expecting the foul, but then turns in disbelief to see the officials with their whistles already returned to their jewel-encrusted cases in preparation for the trip to L.A. for Game Five, perhaps subtly prompted by a couple shocks from the Stern Button. Now, instead of a 2-2 series where anything could happen, the Lakers have an almost insurmountable 3-1 lead, and Emperor Palpatine, ...