Not the way he envisioned

In any major sport, it's very rare to see two teams face each other for a championship in consecutive seasons.

But such was the case in the NHL these past two seasons, as the Detroit Red Wings and the Pittsburgh Penguins battled it out for Lord Stanley's Cup.

This season, Pittsburgh came through in a huge Game 7 when almost no one gave them a fighting chance to win it in Detroit. Last season, it was Detroit who hoisted the Cup after winning the 7-game series 4-2.

However, somehow there is a player who played for each team in the past two seasons and has yet to have his name etched on the Stanley Cup...his name?

Marian Hossa.

Yes, in perhaps a story that's more rare than the stat mentioned at the start of this post, Hossa played in the Finals in each of the last two seasons, but still has yet to win a championship.

How is this possible?

Well, after Hossa and the Penguins lost in the Finals in the 2007-08 season, he rejected a multi-year contract from Pittsburgh worth nearly $50 million and left to join the defending champs with a one-year deal.

In Hossa's mind, he thought he had a better chance to win a championship with Detroit, but when he got to the Finals, he wasn't much of a factor.

But how bad should we feel for him? After all, he did make his decision to join the Red Wings based on wanting a championship.

Anyone who believes in karma will tell you that it came back around to bite him in the end, but when you think about it, it's hard not to feel bad for a guy who has made it to the Finals in consecutive years and each time, had to watch in disappointment as the other team lifted the trophy.

And it's not like Hossa didn't do his part all season, he led the Red Wings in goals and points.

At first when I found out about the Penguins' Game 7 victory, I thought that Hossa had deserved to watch as his former team skated around with the Cup.

But now I sit here thinking about how hard it must be to give 100 percent all season and make it to the final stage and fall just short each time.

This season, he came to Detroit alone and had to get to know his new teammates.

After the result of this seasons' Stanley Cup Finals, he may have that same feeling of loneliness, as he wonders what could have been.

Lakers seem to have the right gameplan

Finally, the NBA Finals have come and it's not the Kobe vs. LeBron show that so many were hoping for. Still, despite Game 1's blowout, it should provide for better competition to come.

The first game of the series showed us exactly what we should have expected...a young, inexperienced Orlando team getting trounced by the seasoned Lakers, who were in this spot just a year ago.

Kobe scored 40 points, grabbed eight boards and dished eight assists and gritted his teeth for the second time this postseason in what has to be his best Finals performance to date.

Midway through the second quarter, the Magic forgot how to hit the jump shots that got them this far and though Jameer Nelson, playing in his first game since Feb. 2, said he felt fine after the game, Magic coach Stan Van Gundy left him in too long.

Nelson provided a spark for about the first five minutes that he played in the second quarter, but beyond that, he seemed to throw off a Magic offense that had gotten used to Rafer Alston at point guard.

Aside from Nelson's presence, the Lakers completely shut down Dwight Howard and benefitted from a dismal night from about all of Orlando's sharpshooters.

Howard, who scored the bulk of his points from the free throw line, made just one of six shot attempts and ended with just 12 points.

Rashard Lewis: 36 minutes, 2-10 (2-4 from 3-point range), 8 pts
Hedo Turkoglu: 33 min., 3-11 (1-3), 13 pts.
Jameer Nelson: 23 min., 3-9 (0-2), 6 pts.
Rafer Alston: 25 min., 2-9 (0-4), 6 pts.
Michael Pietrus: 32 min., 5-13 (3-5), 14 pts.

All in all, the Magic shot a low 30 percent from the field, and 34.8 percent from beyond the arc, making eight of 23 attempts.

The Lakers only attempted 9 3-pointers in cruising to their win in Game 1.

Lamar Odom once again was a threat off the bench and finished with 11 points and 14 rebounds while Andrew Bynum sat with foul trouble.

After watching last night's game, it's evident that the Magic can't win this series unless they can develop more of an inside presence. Howard, who usually dominates the paint, got completely dominated for the first time this postseason.

However, the Lakers are picking the perfect time to showcase their passion and drive for this championship. They've looked unstoppable in their last three games and show no signs of slowing.

In my last post I questioned how bad the Lakers wanted to win the NBA Championship after some lackluster performances against Houston and Denver. I stand corrected now.

One other highlight from last night's game was in the form of the MVP puppets advertisement in which the Lil Dez puppet asks LeBron "Do you think Kobe can get us tickets to the finals?" and then tries to console him for not making the finals.

Way to make up for blowing that prediction, Nike.

How bad do they want it?

After watching Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals Sunday night, something occured to me: this series is starting to look more like the Lakers/Houston series.

Remember the way Los Angeles played in Game 4 of that series? They didn't show up! They got owned by a 6-foot point guard and were pretty much out of contention halfway through the first quarter.

Well, in Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals, the Lakers were owned by a pair of Denver guards who scored 24 points each, one coming off the bench.

All in all, this game showed us what the Denver Nuggets can do if they just put their minds to it. The Lakers should be concerned, because Carmelo Anthony wasn't even that much of a factor.

Anthony, who was dealing with flu-like symptoms, struggled from the floor all night (3-16 FG shooting) and ended with 15 points. Imagine how much worse L.A. would have looked if he had hit even half of those shots.

J.R. Smith was undoubtedly the player of the game, scoring 24 points off the bench, making huge assists in the second quarter and hitting 4-7 three-pointers in the second half. He definitely provided a spark that Denver needed to catch fire.

Chris Andersen (Birdman) definitely had his share of great moments as well, making his presence known with a few big dunks and one huge block on a Lamar Odom layup.

Chauncey Billups had his way too, by constantly attacking the basket and making it to the foul line, where he hit every free throw he attempted.

When all was said and done, seven Denver players scored in double figures, including all five starters, and bench players Smith and Linas Kleiza, who has terrorized L.A. with his precise three-point shooting.

The only Lakers who bothered to show up for Game 4 were the two who are expected to give good performances day in and day out.

Kobe Bryant had 34 points, but decided to attempt 10 three-point shots, in which he made only two. Bryant did help with seven rebounds and five assists.

Pau Gasol was probably the most effective player for Los Angeles, with 21 points on 8-11 shooting, with 10 rebounds and four assists.

One problem for the Lakers was foul trouble. At game's end, Odom, Andrew Bynum and Trevor Ariza had five personal fouls each. Luke Walton fouled out in just 13 minutes of play and didn't score a single point. He single-handedly cost the Lakers in the second half with stupid penalties that gave the Nuggets a chance to extend their lead once again.

The second was their passiveness. The Lakers were dominated on the boards 58-40. Kenyon Martin (who was called for a technical in which he should have known better) grabbed 15 rebounds, Andersen added 14 off the bench and Nene collected 13, including seven offensive rebounds which gave Denver huge second half opportunities (These three alone out-rebounded the Lakers).

The Lakers were bullied by the Nuggets in Game 4 and it showed in a 120-101 loss. The Lakers won't make the Finals when their defense gives up that many points along with 20 offensive rebounds.

Bottom line is that the Lakers need to figure out which team they really are. We've seen them go back and forth between great and lousy throughout the last two rounds of these playoffs.

Everyone makes this year about Kobe vs. LeBron James in the finals, but if the Lakers continue to be this inconsistent on defense (and if the Orlando Magic continue to shut down LeBron's support in Cleveland), this year could be Anthony/Billups vs. Howard/Lewis.

At this point in time, it doesn't seem so far-fetched.

He meant it.

John Lackey sure made his presence known in his first start of the 2009 season and unfortunately, Ian Kinsler felt it.

After throwing two pitches against the Texas Rangers on Saturday, the Angels ace was ejected from the game.

The first pitch was a fastball that catcher Mike Napoli caught BEHIND Kinsler. Lackey followed that pitch by drilling Kinsler with a fastball to the ribcage, which prompted the home-plate umpire to toss him out of the game.

So the question is, why would Lackey want to start the season this way?

You may disagree, but by the way it looked on Saturday, Lackey was intentionally trying to hit Kinsler, but why?

Lackey has shown in the past that he hates when batters crowd the plate. This is evidenced by an altercation between him and former Oakland A's catcher Jason Kendall a few years ago (pictured above right), when the two got into it after it appeared as if Kendall was trying to lean into a pitch so it could hit him.

It could have also been the fact that Kinsler torched the Halos the previous night for two home runs, three runs and three RBIs.

Maybe it was because the last time Lackey faced the Rangers, he gave up 10 earned runs on 12 hits in less than three innings.

Whatever the reason, it was uncalled for and should not have happened, especially from a team that is known for keeping their composure.

Lackey claims that he was rusty, having not pitched in six weeks and that he was surprised that the umpire tossed him after two pitches. Uh, John? When you throw behind a batter and then hit him, nothing good is going to come of that. What did you expect? A free pass because you're rusty?

Lackey is the Angel's ace, and though he hasn't pitched in six weeks, he's still good enough to be able to control the ball from going behind a batter. If he wasn't intentionally trying to hit Kinsler, the thought would be that he could make the adjustment so the ball doesn't sail away from him again, but he didn't.

In my mind, if being rusty is an issue and I throw a ball behind someone, I would try to throw a pitch outside so that I'm showing the umpire it's not intentional.

Lackey's dumbfounded reaction after getting tossed was priceless, like a kid who got caught doing something wrong and now is trying to make up lame excuses for why he did it.

But for the Angels, they weren't laughing, as they had to once again go to their bullpen, which was used a lot in Friday's game. Ultimately, they lost the game 5-3 and dropped to 3.5 games back of the first-place Rangers. They also face the possibility of getting swept by Texas.

The bottom line in this game, however, is that it looked like Lackey intentionally threw at Kinsler and while we may never know why, he deserved to get ejected, regardless of what he or his coach said.

The fact that he decided to use his first two pitches of the season to hit someone may also tell you where his mind is at. The Angels orginization should at least have a talk to him about the incident to make sure he doesn't hurt them like this again.

Inspired play

Did you see the way the Houston Rockets handled the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday?

It was probably the worst Lakers loss of the season and looked like a sign that the Lakers probably won't win an NBA Championship this year.

For the entire game, it looked like the Rockets had a 5-4 man advantage, because no matter the situation, the Rockets always had a man open for a three-pointer or jump shot. They picked the wrong day to give Houston room.

Houston's Aaron Brooks ran the offense flawlessly and exploded for 34 points, a career playoff high in his young two-year career.

Without Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming, who suffered a stress fracture in his foot in Game 3, the Rockets looked even better than before. Without Yao, the Rockets were able to run all over the place and create opportunities for everyone.

Without Yao, the Rockets were still able to outrebound the Lakers 43-37.

Ron Artest shot 4-19 from the field for a very low eight points.

The Rockets didn't have a healthy center on the roster, starting 6-foot, 6-inch Chuck Hayes in the middle. Hayes may have only scored two points, but his defense was a huge factor in Game 4.

It took Los Angeles 3:30 to score their first basket and by the midway point of the first quarter, they were already down 17-4. The Rockets never let up.

The only Lakers who even bothered to show up were Pau Gasol (30 pts, 9 rebs.) and Shannon Brown off the bench (14 pts). After the first quarter, L.A. was down 13. They were able to close the gap to 10 in the fourth quarter, but it was too little too late.

All signs should have pointed to an easy Laker victory, provided they played a normal game, but they didn't.

The Rockets hit the Lakers hard in the early going, and Los Angeles looked dazed and confused throughout the remainder of the game, giving up one easy hoop after another.

Laker fans have to be concerned about this showing from the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference, especially after Denver's come-from-behind win in Dallas on Saturday to go up 3-0 in their series and Cleveland up 3-0 on the Atlanta Hawks.

The Lakers will not win a title if they play more games like this. The NBA is full of teams who are perfectly willing and able to take advantage of mental weaknesses like this.

Los Angeles will have a lot of mental issues to fix if they want to prove me wrong.

Crazy days in L.A.

What a crazy couple of days it has been for the sports community in Los Angeles.

We witnessed probably the most physical playoff game so far in this NBA postseason on Wednesday and then we awoke Thursday to news that Manny Ramirez has been suspended for 50 games for violating the MLB's drug policy.

We'll start with the Lakers/Rockets Game 2. The Lakers needed the win badly since they had already lost home court advantage with the loss in Game 1.

This game turned ugly in the end of the third quarter and when all was said and done, there were five technical fouls, one flagrant foul and two ejections.

The first ejection was Derek Fisher, who intentionally nailed Houston's Luis Scola by hitting him with a shoulder to the chest while Scola was setting up a screen for teammate Kyle Lowry.

Fisher said after the game that he was just trying to get through the screen. First of all, Lowry would have to be moving around the screen for that excuse to be valid, but he wasn't. Fisher saw Scola coming and intentionally backed away from Lowry in order to send a message. He deserves to be suspended for Game 3.

Ron Artest and Kobe Bryant also got into it in the fourth quarter when Artest claimed he was elbowed in the throat while the two were battling for a rebound. When the refs wouldn't give Artest the call he wanted, he then got in Kobe's face about it and promptly got ejected.

Somehow, Artest was charged with the foul in the exchange, but he didn't deserve to be ejected. It's not hard to see why he was though, with all that happened to end the third quarter.

Despite all the madness, the Lakers went on to win 111-98 and even up the series at a game apiece.

Then on Thursday, we found out that Manny Ramirez tested positive for a banned substance, hCG, which is used to promote fertility in women, but also used to regain natural strength after a steroid cycle.

As comical as this situation is for anyone who is not a Manny fan, this brings up a serious discussion: did Manny use steroids?

It's a fair question to ask with the knowledge of what hCG is used for, but the fact also stands that until now, he had never failed a drug test.

Unfortunately for Manny, that is the question that will probably be asked about him for the rest of his career, especially with the downfall of A-Rod and so many others to come.

It's just sad to think that Ramirez is being paid so handsomely here and the fans wanted him back so much and now he's gone for 50 games or almost one-third of the season.

Luckily for the Dodgers, they play in a pretty weak division and they'll probably hang on to their NL West lead, but it's going to be closer now than it would have been.

The worst part is that we, again, will be asking ourselves who's next?...because now we can't help but think that someone else will get caught.

LeBron James: The Chosen One for MVP

As of Monday afternoon, LeBron James was named the Most Valuable Player of the NBA's 2009 regular season.

James received 109 of 121 first-place votes, while Dwyane Wade received nine and Kobe Bryant received just two. Orlando's Dwight Howard and New Orleans' Chris Paul were also in consideration.

In my opinion, the NBA got this one right, LeBron deserves to be MVP and I'm all right with upsetting a lot of Southern Californians by saying that.

LeBron finished second in points-per-game this season with 28.4 and he added over seven assists and seven rebounds per game to go with it.

Compared to Kobe, LeBron was better in each of those categories, but he does so much more for his team.

This season, he led his team to it's best overall record (66-16, which led the league) in team history, including an astounding 39-2 record at home - one of those games he didn't even start.

LeBron performed well on both sides of the ball, as evidenced by him finishing second in the voting for Defensive Player of the Year, which went to Howard.

Bottom line, LeBron has made the Cavaliers franchise better from the day he arrived and now he finally has something to show for it. A well deserved MVP award.

But to LeBron, that's not what he's worked for since before last year's Olympics in Beijing. After losing in the Eastern Conference Semi-finals last season, LeBron started by trying to improve his jumpshot. He soon moved to lifting weights and working on his defense, all of which were rewarding for him this season.

The Chosen One was quick to point out in a press conference that it was his teammates who helped him earn the award. No LeBron, it's more like you helped your teammates become better basketball players.

For him, it's about helping the city of Cleveland earn its first NBA Championship in franchise history and seeing as how he's only improving as the season goes on, it's hard to bet against them.

As for us in SoCal, after seeing the Lakers lose their series opener at home against the Houston Rockets, I'm starting to get a little feeling that they may lose to an Eastern foe again this season.

However, this time their opponents won't be wearing green, nor will they be from Boston.

And this time, L.A. won't have the regular season's MVP on their side.