‘Just Asking Department’

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CLIPPERS have to win on Monday night against Phoenix or their playoff hopes are over.  This has been a street fight but the Clippers offense has gone away in the last couple of games.  What a Jekyll-Hyde postseason.  The Clippers went down (9-2) in each playoff series, to Utah, Denver and then Phoenix.  Just not championship timber right now, at least without Kawahi Leonard are they?

PAUL GEORGE…puts up big stats but has let this team down in this playoff series with really poor free throw shooting in crunch time in this series, just like he let them down a year ago too when they butchered that 2020 playoff series they led (3-1) to Denver.  Big money player except in the most important time of the season again?

PATRICK BEVERLY….I have never seen a player in the NBA who never committed a foul in his entire career.  He plays street tough in your face defense, but whines all the time about calls.  Watch his antics on the court. I guess you hate him if he is on the other team, love him if he was one of yours?

IVICA ZUBAC…Someone, so limited in athletic skills, who has come up big time even in losing efforts for the Clippers, and at a very affordable price.  The epitome of grit?

FEDERAL DISASTER…All the marquee teams are out of the playoffs if the Clippers are eliminated.  Injuries wipe out the Lakers, takedown the Clippers, sidetrack the 76ers and ruin the Brooklyn Nets seasons and postseason.  Not sure the NBA wants to see a Milwaukee-Phoenix final-no one will watch-would you?

RESPECT-THANKS…Interesting watching Yu Darvish of the Padres and Shohei Ohtani of the Angels get examined by umpires in the first week of crackdown on illegal substances.  Darvish came off the mound, gave the umps his hat-glove, showed him his sleeves and belt and said Thank You.  Ohtani did the same, and then smiled and bowed as a sign of respect.  Quite different than Max Scherzer of Washington or Sergio Romo of the A’s…Scherzer pulling his shirt out and protesting.  Romo dropping his pants on the field in protest.  Pretty embarrassing eh?

HOW STUPID…It took 7-days but the umps found a cheat in Mariners reliever Hector Santiago.  They found an illegal substance in one of the fingers of his glove.  Ejection and suspension coming and the Mariners have to play with 24-players now for the next 10-days.  Smart guy huh?

RED CROSS REPORT…It’s not getting better for the Padres…Dinelson Lamet back on the DL with forearm tendenitis.  Drew Pomeranz  remains out with the shoulder impingement as his injury have continued to mount over the last two years since his return to San Diego.  They get him back in July, but how long does he physically hold up?

KIDS REPORT…The Padres pulled young pitcher Macknezie Gore out of El Paso, staggering with blister problems, control issues, walks, home run issue and a 5.85-ERA.  He’s not ready, he’s stalled in the minors, it just takes time.  What we cannot get away from are the injuries to Adrian Morejon and Anderson Espinoza , the latter trying to comeback from his second elbow surgery, but struggling in AA-ball, while Morejon is gone till mid 2022 with his elbow surgery.  The Padres have virtually nothing left in the minors in pitching who could be called up to help in a pennant race.

TREVOR BAUER…Dodgers pitcher put on quite an interview in the midst of the Sunday night ESPN broadcast with the Cubs, about illegal substances on balls, spin rates, and the complexity and problems MLB has in dealing with pitchers right now.  A tremendously insightful interview.  You might not like him on social media, but what he said was super-smart and to the science of pitching.  You watch it, if not, go search it out?  It was good television.

CHARGERS…Someone needs to explain to me, with 600,000 deaths across the nation, businesses shutdown, unemployment that rockets, food lines everywhere, how so many Chargers players are still unvaccinated.  As of last Monday, of the 90-players under contract to the Bolts, that had only 31%-vaccinated so that means close to 60 players had yet to receive the shots.  How is that possible?

MONTREAL…The NHL Stanley Cup finals begin on Monday night, the Canadiens against Tampa Bay.  This is a Montreal team that was down 3-games to 1 to the high powered, top seeded Toronto Maple Leafs, and won that series.  They steamrolled Montreal and grinded their way past Las Vegas.  Amazing work ethic, tremendous team speed, tall timber big defense, hot goaltending and they did all this after losing coach Dom Ducharme to Covid a week ago.  The Canadiens are everything that the Maple Leafs and the Edmonton Oilers are not, especially in team camaraderie and systems that work.  NHL fans should take a look at who the Habs are, what they have become?

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