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NFL:
Playoffs---
THE American Football Conference North’s 10-6 Baltimore Ravens defeated
the AFC North’s 11-5 Pittsburgh Steelers over the weekend and will face the 12-4
N.E. Patriots this Saturday, while the AFC South’s 11-5 Indianapolis Colts
prevailed against the AFC North’s 10-5-1 Cincinnati Bengals and will go up
against the AFC West’s 12-4 Denver Broncos come Sunday.
Within the National Football Conferene, the
NFC South’s 7-8-1 Carolina Panthers defeated the NFC West’s 11-5 Arizona
Cardinals on Saturday and will meet the NFC West’s 12-4 Seattle Seahawks next
Saturday, while the NFC East’s 12-4 Dallas Cowboys took down the NFC North’s
11-5 Detroit Lions and will challenge the NFC North’s 12-4 Green Bay Packers,
Sunday.
The above-cited outcomes highlight that two
division leading franchises, the Lions and the Bengals, were swept from the
NFL-2014 playoffs. And, gone from the playoffs is the team that led its division
+ conference and the entire NFL for the longest period during the regular
season, the NFC West’s Cardinals. Meanwhile, the below .500 NFC South’s
Panthers, the NFL franchise with the poorest regular season record among the
league’s eight divisions, is primed for a go at February’s SB if they could knee
the Seahawks on Sunday.
Surprising some analysts were the Steelers
loss to the Ravens and the Cardinals falling to the Panthers, underscoring that
the NFL’s playoffs of any year can reflect the irony, the sudden fluke, the one
or two gestures that can turn a game around, thus the better team guttered and
gone.
Football reality advises that Weekend Two of
the NFL’s current playoffs could see the the Seahawks dropped by the Panthers,
the Packers by the Cowboys, the Patriots kneed by the Ravens, the Broncos by the
Colts---but only a misguided fan would bet large on all of this happening, for
while irony and the unexpected fluke always hover like clouds during any sports
competition, they are never the full sky---it’s competence and determination
that usually makes the difference, which is why we’re saying that the final
challenges toward SB selection will comprise the NFC’s Seahawks against the
Packers, and the AFC’s Broncos versus the
Patriots.
NBA---THE six NBA division leading franchises have won 151 NBA-2014/15 games
as of today, while the six division bottom-dwellers have accrued a total of 60,
forcing a gap of 91 won games. Atop the division leaders are the Western
Conference’s 26-5 Golden State Warriors and the WC Northwest’s 26-8 Portland
Trail Blazers, accounting roughly for a third of the 151 won games.
Worst at the bottom of NBA-2014/15 today are
the WC Northwest’s Minnesota Timberwolves, the Eastern Conference Atlantic
Division’s Philadelphia 76ers, and the EC Atlantic’s N.Y. Knicks, each with only
five wins from around the 30+ games that each has played.
The division leading franchise with the
deepest lead over a second position team, that’s the WC Northwest’s Trail
Blazers, nine wins above the 17-17 Oklahoma City Thunder. The best edge within
the EC belongs to the EC Atlantic’s 24-10 Toronto Raptors, eight wins above the
16-18 Brooklyn Nets. The least
comfortable edge held by a division first place team belongs to the WC
Southwest’s Memphis Grizzlies, 25-9 above the 26-10 Dallas Mavericks, the
latter’s extra loss preventing supremacy.
And among division third position teams, the
WC Northwest’s 15-20 Denver Nuggets and the EC Atlantic’s 11-21 Boston Celtics
have accrued the most “games behind” first place teams, 11 and 12 GB
respectively.
Quite noticeable is how poorly big market
teams have been doing since the start of NBA 2014/15 regulation: N.O. Pelicans,
17-17; L.A. Lakers, 11-23; N.Y. Knicks, 5-32; Detroit Pistons, 10-23. This same
fate seems to have dropped in on last season’s top teams: the WC Southwest’s
21-14 San Antonio Spurs are currently a fourth slot franchise, the WC
Southeast’s 15-20 Miami Heat a third place franchise.
So, reflecting incredible NBA inequality
among the league’s 30 franchises is the big gap in number of wins between teams
at the top and those at the bottom, yet the middle and back positions in
standings among the NBA’s big market teams and the past season’s top NBA
franchises can be said to offset that, which can be interpreted as an NBA that
overall is an equal playing field as seasons change from one to the
next.
World
Tennis---THE
world’s year-2015 top player tennis competitions began January 5, and the first
major tournament, that is, the initial annual competition of Grand Slam
labeling, will occur January 19, “the
Australian Open,” at
Melbourne, Australia. Next major event of the same caliber, that’s “the French Open,” at Roland
Garros, Paris, France, on May 25, to be followed by “Wimbledon,” London,
United Kingdom, June 29, afterward “the U.S.
Open,” to be
held at New York City, USA, August 21. And before, between and after these big
four competitions are 64 tournaments scheduled by the ATP and 58 by the WTA,
many of these the same, 12 of them tourneys occurring at different locations
inside the U.S. . . Re.
“Davis Cup”
competition, first round will be March 2; Quarter-finals, July 13; Semi-finals,
September 14; Final, November 23.
END/ml
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