Consistency is Key

As with most things, being consistent has to count for something.  I try to be consistent, even with little things, like my calendar rules, though those might border on OCD.  I have gone so far as to try to schedule things, but it never works the way I think it should.  As you may imagine, this blog will border more on things that interest me than not, such as sports, so I’ll understand if some (most) tune this out, but something has to be said about consistency in sports.  And what I’m really angling at is consistent winning.

I’m not a huge basketball fan; I really can’t sit through an entire game.  But when I do cheer, it’s for the Dallas Mavericks, whom I was lucky enough to see when they came to DC in February.  Unfortunately, the team I probably should have gone to see, and it actually physically hurts me to say this, are the LA Lakers.

On Mondays, EPSN posts its power rankings (right now, we have MLB, NBA and my beloved NHL) – as usual, I hit the NHL one first and yell at the computer for this week dropping my beloved Caps down to 3 from 2, hoisting the Sharks past us and leaving the league-leading Canucks on top.  But in the NBA, there has hardly been any change for a few weeks.  The Lakers have returned to form and the slumping Spurs and spastic Mavericks show no signs of consistent life.

Yet, what do we hear about the NBA all the time?  The Miami Heat.  God, they need to get over themselves.  I will be the first to admit that I think Lebron James is an amazing player, matching him with Dwayne Wade was a great call.  Chris Bosh you can take or leave, he doesn’t do much.  Combined, they call themselves the Heatles (a play on the Beatles for those of you sounding it out).  But the Heatles haven’t been epic; they’ve been average, for them.  They’re a great group together, but I don’t see them winning it all this year.  The Lakers are the team to beat.

Kobe has once again taken a group of no-name players and hoisted them on his shoulders to aim for yet another championship.  They fought through a really bad losing streak and just won a few games in a row, but I don’t know that there is enough credit being given to them.  They are the defending champs, they deserve to be the expected favourite until proven otherwise.

If we can go one day without hearing about the Heatles, I’d be happy.

I’d be remiss to not bring up a wonderful word that the NFL knows too well and the NBA is going to learn: lockout.  Let us hope that the owners and players in the NBA learn from the mistakes the NFL is making now.  Locking the players out is not going to solve anything.  I honestly think that there will be little to no NFL this coming year, and you know what, I’m fine with it.  Give me baseball and hockey and I’ll make it through.

And I dare not make a sports-related post and not mention hockey.  We were treated to some fantastic games this weekend, the Caps coming back to beat the Sabres in OT being the highlight for me, but also the Rangers helping the Caps by beating the Flyers in OT and the Bruins in regulation last night.  Unfortunately, they’re matching up with the Caps right now for the playoffs, and they’ve beaten us in ¾ meetings this year.

Baseball is also proving to be mildly interesting as the games are starting to pile up.  The much-hated Red Sox can’t buy a win, quite literally, and I have to say I’m enjoying their failures.  Especially considering so many baseball analysts said the Red Sox were the team to beat.  But a 0-4 start in April won’t count for much come September.  I doubt they’ll go much longer without a win, but I’m hoping for it to extend for quite some time, perhaps until the after they play the Yanks?

I’ll try to control my sports nonsense as best I can, but no promises.