Can we?

The Hawks come to town to play the Bulls tonight, and I can't say I'm looking forward to it. Not because we're going to lose (per se...) but because it's going to be a really REALLY boring game to watch.

The Bulls really like to play two kinds of teams - teams that are one-dimensionally offensive, or teams that are just plain bad. These kinds of teams bring out the best in the Bulls, and make them watchable. The Hawks are neither of these, as they have what could be considered the most staunch defense in the NBA (and are all about "fundamentals"). Their average opponent score is somewhere around 85 (they held New Orleans to an embarrassing 79 points!).

Worse, their offense isn't quite "there" as Mike Bibby can only do so much, and their big new force in Josh Smith will probably miss the game with a high ankle sprain. Joe Johnson will do his best to fill in, but you really can't expect them to break 85 tonight.

As for us, we all know Hinrich is out for a few months which means Rose will be seeing a LOT of playing time from here on forward. Here's hoping that we get it down tonight, and win in some sort of exciting fashion (I hope).

Also, here's a pic of a Hawks cheerleader because it's Tuesday...or something like that. Any excuse, right?

Seattle is Doomed

I'm sure most of you are thinking: "Seattle? What the hell does Seattle have to do with Chicago sports?" We'll get to that in a minute, but believe me, the connection is there.

Let's start with the basics. Seattle has had an AMAZINGLY bad stretch of luck as of late. They lost the Supersonics to Oklahoma City, the Mariners have tanked horribly after being expected to compete, and the Seahawks keep getting crippled. After the most recent announcement that Bobby Engram would be missing some serious time, I decided to do an investigation.

I mean, what sort of calamity would have had to occur in order for things to get so badly screwed up in Seattle?

After some digging, I looked into the furthest (and still recent) "sucks to be Seattle incident," which was when Deion Branch tore his ACL in the playoffs against the Packers...who had just finished losing to the Bears at the tail end of 07. This may seem like it isn't connected, but keep reading.

I discovered that things started going sour for the Mariners (who had looked promising) immediately after a Cubs/Mariners ST game back in March. Both teams are discussing the chances of meeting in the World Series, and everybody was all high-hopes and optimism. You'll notice at the end of the article is when the first wave of bad news comes, what with Beltre and Vidro missing time for "minor occurrences." Yeah, sure.

So, things progress as usual, and it looks like there might be a light at the end of the tunnel. Wrong. Seattle gets involved again, and swaps out John McLaren as Mariners manager in favor of, you guessed it, ex-Cubs manager Jim Riggleman. Less than two weeks later, it is announced that the Seattle Supersonics are moving to Oklahoma City. Noticing a trend here?

Finally, that brings us back to Bobby Engram, who was poised to have all sorts of chances to make an impact this year. The Seahawks are playing the Bears on Saturday. Guess what? Engram's out 6-8 weeks and took Hasselbeck with him. That's what you get for having an ex-Bear WR.

If I were Seattle, I would start being real careful with the Seattle Storm (WNBA), who also look like they might be on the verge of moving (...and they play the Chicago Sky on Sept. 4th!).

Watch out, Seattle.