No, I did not win the lottery. Sure sign of spring is not daylight savings time nor doing taxes. Nope, it's me going to Lowe's to buy fertilizer. All of this happened today, so far.

Anyhow, I haven't been around because Nomar Stalker and I headed up to Detroit for some work-related training. Training is training, so no surprises there. You're drained more mentally than physically after a day in the classroom.

The highlights were many. We stopped at a Tim Horton's, of course, on the way to Southfield. I got me a Hot Butter Caramel Smoothie with a strawberry muffin. I loves my Timmy's.

And Mr. B's in Rochester was the way I remembered it. They have HDTVs, of course, but the beer was cold and the sammies are always good there. Threw my weight around and got them to put on the last 15 minutes of the Champions League game, too. And it's close to the Palace of Auburn Hills, one of the few places that still has onsite parking. Why does that matter?

Because we were at the best regular season Cavs game I've ever seen, the Wednesday night win over the Pistons at the Palace! Our boss sprung for really good tickets, about 10 rows from the floor, in the corner opposite the Cavs bench. Much like Value City Arena in Columbus, these seats are made for the 1920's body, a bit tight. Great atmosphere. The thing you notice is lots more urban people and kids than the Q. But there are definite similarities when it comes to game presentation, and if you hear that Dan Gilbert wants to copy things from Detroit, it's not necessarily a bad idea. Certainly you have to see a game live there before you pass judgment.

First of all, the pre-game festivities start 30 minutes ahead of gametime. We had a local dance school perform, which seems like a cheap and easy way to fill time these days. Then they have what I guess is a house band. Yes, a house band playing all your funk favorites from yesteryear. I heard some Sly and some Stevie Wonder. Very good unit, I would not mind seeing a rock band at the Q. They also have a drumline. No kidding, a drumline. The cheerleaders are Automotion. Trust me, everything is in motion on these women. They also show the Pistons on the big screen, emerging from the locker room. It sounds hokey, but it gets people fired up, anticipating the start of the game. Then they come out to the floor and the place goes nuts. They also have fire during the Pistons introductions. At the Q, the fire comes out of the scoreboard and you will definitely lose hair from most of your body parts that have it, it's that hot. At the Palace, the fire comes out of two pipes on each backboard. Lord, have mercy! Gotta have that fire. And "DEE-TROIT BAS-KET-BALL" has been replaced by the equally annoying "Pistons basketball, right back down the floor!". Overall, an assault on your senses that is a David Stern wet dream.

As for the game, well, everyone knows what happened by now. I thought at 81-72 the Cavs were toast, but somehow they managed to get that game into overtime and win. A few observations, probably to file away in case we meet Detroit later. Don't get me wrong, this was a huge win, but it masked some problems. Number one is our coach is awful. Why Shannon Brown was in this game went unanswered. And Mike Brown did not call one timeout in this game to halt any Piston momentum. Not once. It appears the Cavs are winning in spite of the guy. And it does not help when you have a journeyman like Damon Jones, standing next to the coach, during the game, mind you, to offer suggestions. I've never seen that. This was constant, as well, not just once in a while. This would be like Jack Haley sauntering over to Philip during the Jordan era and calling out plays. Unbelievable.

Next, our guards can't cover their guards. End of story. Rip Hamilton against Sasha Pavlovic will not work. Chauncey Billups was having his way with Larry Hughes and with Eric Snow off the bench, it didn't get any better. The Cavs got this win, simply because the Pistons went to the threeball late in the game. If they had stuck with some inside play, especially guards slashing to the basket, they would have won. Thank you, Flip Saunders.

But LeBron was the man. His dunk around two Pistons with five seconds left was an amazing feat. Showed how much speed and power he really has. Just an awesome performance. However, his teammates continue to miss open shots. In this game, it was Donyell Marshall who stunk. Don't want to minimize the win, because it was their best result of the year, but the Cavs cannot rely on LeBron scoring 50 a game come playoff time. Although, he just may do it.

Meal of Links

OK, most loyalists are already suffering from "The Office" withdrawal. But this seems to be a decent idea to fire up some old reruns, called "newpeats". These air next Thursday. And Toby hosts a marathon on March 29th.

You can also check out a bunch of episodes of "Andy Barker, P.I." before they air on NBC. I like Andy Richter. His last show was mishandled badly by Fox, so we'll see where this one goes. I thought the pilot was funny.

The Sun is always there. But I'm not sure we want them to be, because we get stories like this.

Exercise Yard

This article regarding the MLB/Extra Innings/DirecTV deal explains why Bud must go. As I said earlier, I know of no other sport that willingly denies a fan's ability to see more games.

Oh, goody. I get to take a look the Ray Austin-Wladimir Klitschko bout on HBO.

4:45: We are looking live at the SAP Arena in Mannheim, Germany. It's Lamps, Merchant and Lennox Lewis on the commentary. Harold Lederman not there, HBO must not have wanted to pay his way. Uh-oh, a sign this won't last long, as Harold comes on after Round 3. This is just like the old "Wide World of Sports" days, a heavyweight title on in the afternoon. I love it.

5:00: Ring entrances. The challenger, Ray "The Rain Man" Austin, is from Cleveland. Apparently, he goes to Browns games, as "Thunder" from AC/DC is played. The champ, Klitschko, "Dr. Steelhammer", has some dude pounding out something on an anvil. A video of his last three KO victims is played, attesting to the fact he is "Dr. Steelhammer". This is done as he enters the ring to the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Can't Stop".

5:02: Michael Buffer tells us we get two anthems today. Yes, we are in Germany. The crowd is booing "The Star-Spangled Banner". Thanks, allies! The German anthem goes off without a hitch. At least, I think so, as the crowd cheers.

5:05: Intros. "For the thousands in attendance..." is in German. "Let's get ready to rumble!" not in German. Austin is about a half an inch shorter than Klitschko, they weigh about the same. Oooh, Dr. Steelhammer and The Rain Man have a staredown. Seconds out and we have...

5:08: Round 1. The crowd is shouting "Kleech-ko". Moving and pawing by both men. Klitschko has the better jab, Austin kind of a light one but he stayed on his feet. Not much action. Klitschko gets the round, 10-9, on my Harold Lederman Memorial scorecard.

5:12: Round 2. Klitschko has yet to throw a right hand. All of a sudden, it's FOUR LEFT HOOKS BY KLITSCHKO! Good night! Austin starts to fall on the first one. He is down and gets up at 10 and the ref stops it. Nice bit of work for a million dollars by Austin. The crowd is whistling, they are not happy in Mannheim. HBO goes to the big book of filler material.
















5:15: Dr. Steelhammer goes to each corner and applauds the crowd and waves to each side. The whistling subsides.

5:17: Buffer announces Klitschko as the winner and confetti rains down. It seems to me the folks at SAP Arena thought he had an excellent chance of winning.

5:21: Finally, Larry Merchant with the post-fight interview. Klitschko said he fought the fight, because it was a mandatory defense. Austin was slower than his sparring partners and it was a rather easy fight. He wants to unify the titles and is glad his brother is mounting a comeback in the heavyweight division. Merchant closes with some thoughts about Klitschko not being the perfect heavyweight, but "he's pretty damn good."

5:25: Lamps runs down the other champs and says the likelihood of unification is still a ways off. And it's "Auf Wiedersehen" from Germany.

Visitor

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