As the turkey comas pass, the Celtics are back in business tonight at home against the Milwaukee Bucks. The boys look to keep pace with the Bruins and continue their winning streak on what is usually one of the biggest home games of the year.
Kemba who?? UConn extended their win streak to 16 games which dates back to their championship run last season with 23 points from each of their sophomore guards.
“Shabazz Napier and Jeremy Lamb held off pesky UNC Asheville — and showed again that Connecticut might have the best backcourt tandem in the country.” –ESPN
The Texas Longhorn football team also came back with a late field goal to win their rivalry game against A&M on turkey day 27-25. Even though Colt McCoy’s brother did next to nothing to help (just over 100 yards in the air), they still prevailed. Their lone TD in the air came from a 41 yard bomb from their wide receiver.
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and is currently enjoying a nice food coma!
The C’s come home tonight atop the Atlantic Division to play the Toronto Raptors at the Garden. In the middle of a busy week of games, the Celtics are coming off of two straight wins after losing two in Florida. With a lot of hype coming from the B’s game in Buffalo, the 8-2 Celtics hope to keep the momentum going into the Thanksgiving weekend.
Pretty hard to believe it is already week 12 and the Thanksgiving games are upon us, but here are my predictions and analysis of the three excellent games tomorrow.
Thursday November 24, 2011
Packers @ Lions 12:30 PM
This game is the first one of Thanksgiving day, and probably going to be the most exciting. A battle of two stellar offenses and two mediocre defenses. I’m not completely on the Packers bandwagon yet. Yes, they are 10-0 but that does not make them a lock to win every week, and I’m certainly not handing them the Lombardi trophy just yet. Last weeks game showed that their defense has its holes. The Packers are the Packers, they are not the 2007 Patriots. They both have very similar offenses as the patriots averaged 36.8 points per game, and the Packers are at 35.5. The main difference is this; the Patriots of 07′ outscored their opponents by 19.7 points per game, this years Packers are outscoring their opponents at a rate of 14.3. The main difference: Defense. Also the same reason of why the Lions have a prayer in hell this week. With Stafford tossing the ball up to Megatron, anything is possible. The Lions bounced back after a miserable first half last week and were able to get the victory against a weak Carolina team, but their defense didn’t look superior to the Packers D.
Analysis: The Packers offense is better than that of the Lions. Both defenses are similar. I’m going with the packers in a shootout, and a fake Ford Field Leap by Jordy Nelson.
Prediction: Packers 34 Lions 27
Dolphins @ Cowboys 4:15 PM
The Fin’s have outscored their opponents 86-20 the previous three weeks, although they have faced Buffalo, Washington, and Kansas City, which in all honesty doesn’t say much. After an 0-7 start to the season it looks like Tony Sparano might be trying to save his job, the season on the other hand was lost back in the early weeks of the season. I still have a bold prediction that Miami will finish tied, or above the fake Buffalo Bills by the end of the season. They showed who was the better team when they stomped all over them 35-8 last week. Reggie Bush is looking to revive his career after a rather disappointed professional career so far. Matt Moore is looking to be more comfortable with his receivers, and definitely looks in a groove with TE Anthony Fasano.
The Cowboys I still believe have the potential to be one of the elite teams in the NFC. They are the best in their division and after the Bears’ Jay Cutler went down last week, they may be the number two team in the whole conference. Their offense is explosive, and they have Demarcus Ware on the defensive side, teaming up with defensive mastermind Rob Ryan. They have shown they can stop a prolific offense when they almost beat New England at Gillette earlier this season.
Analysis: The Cowboys are still too powerful for a Miami team that has won three in a row, but against opponents that are on a season downfall. Dallas won’t lose to a team like Miami at home on Thanksgiving. Dallas improves to 7-4.
Prediction: Dallas 31 Miami 16
49ers @ Ravens 8:20PM
This game is everything the first game of the day is not. A battle of defenses. In the first meeting between head-coaching siblings ever in NFL history this one should certainly be an exciting game to watch.
The key of the game for the Ravens is to not turn the ball over, which hasn’t exactly been easy for 49ers opponents so far this season. The 49ers defense has 15 interceptions this year, which isn’t exactly good news for Joe Flacco. Flacco has been average this year with only throwing 8 interceptions, but he might be able to consider himself lucky if he covers a spread of 1 1/2 ints. tomorrow.
The 49ers need to stick with the run game and allow Alex Smith to continue to put them in situations to win games, or better yet, not to lose them. He’s clearly done his job this year as the niners are 9-1 and haven’t had any speculation of any type of QB controversy this season, considering going into the season no one knew who would be under center for the niners.
Analysis: Jim wins this one. I just think the 49ers defense with Patrick Willis sticks it out and gets the victory. Don’t expect a blowout of any sort, and I wouldn’t exactly bet the over on this one. I’m just as excited for the post-game handshake as I am for the real game.
Prediction: 49ers 17 Ravens 16
Duke looks to take home the Maui Invitational trophy this year following UConn’s win in 2010 that eventually led to a national title. They will take on 14th ranked Kansas Wednesday night at 10. Duke seems pretty unstoppable, making more than 50 percent of their 3 pointers in the last few games… and they usually take at least 20. The only player I will root for is Austin Rivers because of the obvious connection to Doc. Other than that I hope that both teams lose. More importantly, go Bruins, and Happy Thanksgiving!!
Heading into tonight’s matchup against the Sabres, the only thing that the Bruins are concerned about is stretching their win streak to 10 games and claiming first place in the Northeast Division. The Sabres may have something else in mind. Retaliation. At least that’s what the media is building it up to be, and it could end up helping the B’s. The hit that Lucic put on Miller only eleven days ago is still fresh in everyone’s mind. A controversial hit like that always leads to this sort of hype before the next time the teams meet, but the Bruins are focused on the greater goal at hand. “It’s not like you can just go out there and be stupid,” Ference said Monday. “We were in a similar situation obviously with the Cooke thing. If they want to get goofy then that’s fine. Our team is well equipped for different kinds of games.” The Bruins are ready to play hockey, whether that means reacting to Buffalo vengeance or not. If the Sabres go head hunting tonight, you can bet the house that the B’s will be ready.
For anyone that didn’t notice because there was some other game on, the Bruins beat the Canadiens Monday night 1-0. Defenseman Andrew Ference scored the lone goal on Carey Price, although he only saw 18 shots come his way. Tim Thomas on the other hand saw 33 and stopped them all. Pretty odd game seeing as there were only 10 minutes worth of penalties compared to the usual amount of about 40 plus a few fights. There was only one stand out fight and that was when Canadiens fans jumped a Bruins fan and beat the hell out of him. We should give these guys a free pass to the Garden next game so we can return the favor.
Check out the video here: Bruins/Canadiens Fight
From the beginning we knew Gronk was an animal. As Barstool put it, “It’s Gronk’s world, we’re just living in it”. There’s no doubt he had a great time during the lockout and partied like the best of ’em, but it was a question as to how his off-field presence would transfer over come game time. Last night, Gronk answered that question and left no doubt in anyone’s mind as to how much of an absolute beast he really is. With his 20th career TD reception in 26 NFL games, Gronkowski became the fastest TE to reach that mark in NFL history, right ahead of Ditka (31 games). In doing so, the Pats turned a slow start into a good old fashion beat down last night in Foxboro. Oh, not to mention Gronk also shrugged off a broken neck to pop the ball like a balloon in the end zone. No biggie.
The C’s hit the road again tonight to go up against John Wall and the Washington Wizards. Despite an early breakout season by Wall, the Big Three Four look to put the Wizard’s win streak on halt. If the boys get a W tonight they’ll head home for the Thanksgiving weekend sitting comfy atop the Atlantic Division.
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