The Memphis Grizzlies have just eliminated the San Antonio Spurs in the first round of the NBA playoffs, with a 99-91 victory in Game 6 of the teams' series. Issues of streakiness/momentum were implicated at both the micro and macro levels. Regarding the former, Memphis used a late 12-2 run (from down 80-79 to up 91-82) to blunt the Spurs' comeback and take control of the game. The Grizzlies had also jumped out to a 14-2 opening lead (play-by-play sheet).

At a macro, season-long level, we have seen an epic collapse by San Antonio, from at one point holding a 57-13 record (.814) to closing the regular season with a 4-8 mark, leaving the Spurs' record at 61-21 (game-by-game log). Now, with the series loss to Memphis, the Spurs have become one of the few No. 1 seeds within their conference to lose to a No. 8 seed.

Baseball studies have tended to find no connection between teams' performance levels toward the end of the regular season and in the playoffs (here and here). One series does not a trend make, but San Antonio's fall-off at the end of the regular season certainly presaged a playoff collapse in this instance.

Kansas State University baseball player Nick Martini recently had his streak of reaching base in 93 straight games come to an end.

Opening day of the NBA playoffs featured some dramatic fourth-quarter team runs. The Chicago Bulls closed their game against Indiana on a 16-1 spurt, in rallying for a 104-99 win. The Philadelphia 76ers outscored Miami 12-0 in the closing minutes to pull within 88-87, but the Heat held on to win, 97-89.

The Minnesota Timberwolves closed out their NBA season on a 15-game losing streak.

It was a streaky final day at the Masters golf tournament. Coming down to the end, several contenders were centered around a score of 10-under-par. The winner was an unknown (to me at least), South Africa's Charl Schwartzel. According to this article, "Schwartzel emerged from the madness by becoming the first Masters champion to close with four straight birdies," leaving him on top at minus-14.

Australians Jason Day (holes 17 and 18) and Adam Scott (14 and 16) each recorded two late birdies to finish tied for second at minus-12. Tiger Woods was hot early, lowering his score from minus-5 to minus-10 within the first eight holes today, but minus-10 was where Woods was at the finish line, tied with Geoff Ogilvy and Luke Donald.

And then there was Rory McIlroy, who entered the final round with a four-stroke lead, but then developed a decidedly cold hand. Quoting again from the aforementioned article:

Still leading by one shot as he headed to the back nine, McIlroy hit a tee shot next to the cabins left of the 10th fairway and twice hit a tree to make triple bogey. He three-putted from 7 feet for bogey on the 11th, four-putted from about 12 feet on the next hole and buried his head into his forearm as the shock began to settle in.

McIlroy shot 80, the highest final round by the 54-hole leader since Ken Venturi in 1956.

The slow start of the highly regarded Boston Red Sox (losses in their first six games before finally winning last night), as well as those of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (0-6) and Houston Astros (0-5), have prompted a lot of discussion over the seemingly great prognostic significance of such a small number of early-season games for teams' postseason prospects. As Sports Illustrated's Cliff Corcoran writes:

To suggest that any team has reason to worry after such a small dry spell to start the season seems absurd, but here are the facts:

In major league history, which dates to 1871, 110 teams have started a season 0-5. Just two of those 110 went on to make the postseason, less than two percent.

Corcoran goes on to provide his own analysis of the phenomenon, as do other commentators here, here, and here.

New Site: Drink Up Columbus

I wanted to let my readers know about a new site that my friends and I launched this week. Drink Up Columbus is a new site that deals with bars, beers, and the social scene in Columbus, Ohio. We have a lot of talented writers and people who really love this city. Find out more about the new site and links to some of the stories so far, after the jump.


A few friends of mine, James Marks and Cheryl Harrison, wanted to start a site about local craft beer, liquor, and bars in Columbus, Ohio. We recruited a group of great local writers that will help set the scene of the city we love. Other topics that we are going cover are: homebrewing, food pairing, college bar scene, and a lot of other things going on in the Columbus area.


Here are a few links to articles that we have already posted on the site.

Campus Craft Beer Crawl: Mad Mex

Hal & Al's - Oasis In The South Side Desert

New Beer's Eve: The End Of Prohibition

The Usual Suspects, Part 1

Untappd: Foursquare With A Buzz

I hope that you check out the site and let me know what you think and follow 'Drink Up Columbus' on Twitter @DrinkUpCbus.

2011 MLB Betting Predictions - April 9th

I usually wait for the first week of the MLB season to play out before I start my MLB betting line posts. I did rather well over the last few years when I have done these and I hope I can help lead some people in the right direction. My picks are against the spread and I also do over/under lines. Will the Red Sox make it two in-a-row against the Yankees? Can the Indians keep up their offense? Here are the MLB betting lines & predictions for April 9th, 2011.

Philadelphia Phillies +1 1/2 (Roy Oswalt) vs. Atlanta Braves -1 1/2 (Brandon Beachy) - Over/Under 7 1/2
Phillies - Over

After the way that the Braves rocked Cliff Lee yesterday, the Braves will be bet heavy today. The Phillies are a veteran team and will have revenge on their mind.
You have to have a short memory in the MLB and they will get to Beachy early in this contest. The O/U is set at 7 1/2 and if this game goes the way I think, it will go over. The smart bet would be a parlay on the Phillies moneyline & the over.


New York Yankees +1 1/2 (Ivan Nova) vs. Boston Red Sox -1 1/2 (Clay Buchholz) - O/U 10
Red Sox - Under

The Red Sox started off bad this year, but they came out yesterday and took care of Phil Hughes early. Ivan Nova has better stuff than Hughes has right now, but you don't want the Red Sox to gain any confidence. Buchholz should handle the Yankees hitters and stretch the winning steak to two.


Kansas City Royals +1 1/2 (Bruce Chen) vs. Detroit Tigers -1 1/2 (Phil Coke) - O/U 9 1/2
Tigers - Over

Can you look at these starting pitchers and honestly think that they won't score a combined 10 runs? I'm scared at what Miguel Cabrera will do to Bruce Chen. The Tigers will win outright, cover, and this game will go over.

Tampa Bay Rays +1 1/2 (Wade Davis) vs. Chicago White Sox -1 1/2 (Philip Humber) - O/U 9
White Sox - Over

Wade Davis was rocky in his first start and the White Sox offense have looked very good. The Rays notched their first win last night, thanks to a Matt Thornton blow-save. The White Sox will bounce back and take care of business.

Chicago Cubs +1 1/2 (Matt Garza) vs. Milwaukee Brewers -1 1/2 (Chris Narveson) - O/U 8 1/2
Cubs - Under

Matt Garza's Cubs debut had flashes of greatness. He stuck out double-digit Pirates, but still had a few dumb mistakes. Chris Narveson also had a good debut, but the Cubs bats have looked in mid-season form, if only their bullpen was in the same shape.

Washington Nationals +1 1/2 (Tom Gorzelanny) vs. New York Mets -1 1/2 (Chris Capuano) - O/U 8 1/2
Mets - Under

If this game was being played in any other park with these two pitchers, the line would be 10, but Citi Field is huge. Gorzelanny vs. Capuano might get ugly, but as long as they keep the ball down, it'll go under. I might want to stay away from this bet, these teams are so inconsistent.

Oakland Athletics -1 1/2 (Gio Gonzalez) vs. Minnesota Twins +1 1/2 (Nick Blackburn) - O/U 8
A's - Under

Gio Gonzalez was the buzzworthy pitcher in fantasy baseball this year and he will have a solid year. The Twins are just trying to get healthy, so Oakland has a slight edge in this game.

Cincinnati Reds -1 1/2 (Bronson Arroyo) vs. Arizona Diamondback +1 1/2 (Daniel Hudson) - O/U 8 1/2
Diamondbacks - Over

I learned a rule in Vegas last year...never bet on Bronson Arroyo! It doesn't help that he is still dealing with mono, that's a huge red flag. I really like Daniel Hudson in this contest.

Los Angeles Dodgers -1 1/2 (Hiroki Kuroda) vs. San Diego Padres +1 1/2 (Dustin Moseley) - O/U 7
Dodgers - Under

Kuroda has had solid numbers of the last calendar year, but he doesn't get much respect. It will help him that the game is at Petco Park, the Padres will have a hard time going yard against him.

Toronto Blue Jays -1 1/2 (Brett Cecil) vs. Los Angeles Angles +1 1/2 (Scott Kazmir) - O/U 9
Blue Jays - Over

Name the last time that Scott Kazmir looked like a pitcher that should be on a contender? I'll wait...

Cleveland Indians +1 1/2 (Justin Masterson) vs. Seattle Mariners +1 1/2 (Doug Fisher) - O/U 7 1/2
Indians - Over

Masterson looked great his first time out this year and they rocked the Mariners yesterday. Seattle looks bad and Cleveland wants to pound their former skipper (Eric Wedge).

St. Louis Cardinals +1 1/2 (Jaime Garcia) vs. San Francisco Giants -1 1/2 (Matt Cain) - O/U 6 1/2
Cardinals - Under

This game should be very low-scoring, since both Garcia & Cain looked very good in their debuts. The Cardinals will miss Matt Holliday, but the Giants bullpen, mostly Brian Wilson, hasn't been dominating.

After struggling a bit on Thursday and early Friday in the Masters golf tournament, Tiger Woods turned things around midway through the second round. As noted in this article, Woods "returned to his brilliant best holing seven birdies in his last 11 holes in a sparkling 66 to lie ominously poised in a tie for third, three shots of[f] the lead."

With the annual Masters golf tournament getting underway today, ESPN.com has a 25-year retrospective on then-46 year-old Jack Nicklaus's scorching final round -- "Birdies at 9, 10, 11, 13, 16 and 17. An eagle at 15" -- to win the 1986 event.

Not much to say about last night's NCAA men's basketball title game, except that Butler's cold shooting was the story. As the linked article says, "[Connecticut] won the title with a defensive showing for the ages, holding Butler to 12-for-64 shooting. That's 18.8 percent, the worst ever in a title game."

Some NBA items:

The Denver Nuggets came into Los Angeles Sunday and cooled off the Lakers a little bit, winning 95-90. According to this game article, "It was only the second defeat in 19 games for the Lakers since the All-Star break. The other came against Miami on March 10."

Also on Sunday, San Antonio's George Hill scored 16 points in just the last six minutes of the first quarter, ending up with 29 in all, in the Spurs' 114-97 win over Phoenix.

The Chicago Bulls, who last played Saturday, winning 113-106 over Toronto, have now won 15 of their last 17 games (game-by-game log).

Defeating Rafael Nadal in a dramatic final-set tie-breaker, Novak Djokovic won the Sony Ericsson Open tennis tournament and, in the process, extended his winning streak to 26 matches.

Live blogging the men's NCAA basketball Final Four (with postgame annotation in red from the official play-by-play sheets and box scores, linked below).

Game 1 (play-by-play, box score):

Virginia Commonwealth unleashes an 11-0 run after falling behind 5-0.

Butler ties game 15-15 with 8-0 run.

Butler closes the first half on a 19-8 run to lead 34-28.

VCU scores first 7 points of second half to lead 35-34.

I haven't seen any statistics lately, but the three-point shooting in this game seems uniformly awful. [VCU shot 8-for-22 for the game (.364), but 4 of the made threes were in the first 7:00 of the game; Butler hit 8-for-23 for the game (.348), so you can imagine how low the team's shooting percentage was before the upcoming barrage of 4 made threes!]

No sooner do I make my last comment than Butler hits 4 three-pointers, helping the Bulldogs to a 52-45 edge. [Zach Hahn 14:01, Hahn 13:31, Shelvin Mack 11:16, Mack 9:57]

Announcer Jim Nantz points out that Shelvin Mack has scored Butler's last 10 points. A VCU three [Joey Rodriguez 8:33] keeps the Rams within 54-50.

Matt Howard, 11-of-12 for the game at the line, puts home a bunch of free throws to keep Butler comfortably ahead, 69-59 with 30.5 seconds left.

It's Butler, 70-62.

Game 2 (play-by-play, box score):

Kentucky on an 8-0 run to close within 31-29 of UConn, early second half.

A tight game most of the second half, with UConn generally leading. The Huskies win 56-55, although it was 56-52 with two seconds remaining and Kentucky made a three-pointer at the buzzer for window dressing.

It's been a strange season for UConn (game-by-game log). The Huskies started out 17-2 (5-2 in the Big East), then won only 4-of-11 conference games to close the regular season. UConn then captured the Big East tournament with five wins in five days, and now has won five straight NCAA tournament games to make Monday night's final against Butler.

The L.A. Lakers have won 16 out of 17 games since the All-Star break.