Tim Peterson
There is good basketball in the San Gabriel Valley. Sometimes you just have to look. I saw a good one Friday night at St. Francis High School. Covina, who finished in a three way tie for first in the Valle Vista went into Golden Knights territory and beat them on their own turf.
Nino Harrell hit four threes for the Colts and Mike Peters ran the point and also ran past the St. Francis defenders as Covina got the nine point victory.
The atmosphere is always amped up a bit during playoff time. St. Francis had a big home crowd behind them including a large contingent of the student body who was stuffed into the Southeast corner of the gym. They were loud and boisterous throughout and for awhile it appeared they would be enough to get St. Francis over the hump.
But it was the Colts who made all the big plays down the stretch and earned a significant win with the odds against them.
St. Francis even had a press table available and set me up at courtside right next to the PA announcer.
Next up for Covina is a home game Tuesday night against St. John Bosco. There’s nothing on TV…get out and check it out.
They also play good basketball in Pasadena. The Bulldogs, who won the Pacific by default after the violations at Muir, haven’t been tested at all in their two playoff games. They have outscored their first two opponents 132-66. They will be tested Tuesday night however when they host Hacienda League champ Bonita. The Bearcats have dispatched Cerritos and Brea Olinda to earn a shot at Pasadena.
I’d like to say the Lakers play good basketball but after watching that performance they dispensed at Phoenix Sunday night that would be a stretch. Beyond Kobe Bryant, they don’t have a consistent scorer and despite Coach Mike Brown’s focus on defense they were torched for 63 points in the first half.
It seems whenever Brown is interviewed after a loss, he always talks about the effort not being there. With the season almost half over at one point can we expect the Lakers to put forth an effort?
If the Lakers don’t make a trade before the deadline it could be a short post season for the purple and gold. That’s provided they make it. As of Sunday night, they were sitting at number five in the West.
The Clippers haven’t taken over LA but let’s be serious. Who would rather watch? Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan or Bryant, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum? And while the Clippers seem serious about winning- they’ve acquired Kenyon Martin and pursued J.R. Smith, the Lakers have done nothing. Well, they did do something. They gave away Lamar Odom.
They’re playing good basketball in New York thanks to Jeremy Lin. While some people might be sick of talking about Lin it’s hard not to talk about somebody that has made the Knicks instant contenders in a matter of nine games. Lin has scored over 200 points in those nine games and the Knicks have won eight of them.
Lin scored more points in his first five games than any other player since the NBA merger with the ABA with 136 averaging 27.2. He started quicker than players such as LeBron James, Shaquille O’Neal and Bryant.
Linsanity has become so big that it has made New York fans forget that the Giants won the Super Bowl two weeks ago. Putting that theory to test last week a sports writer called one of the hottest restaurants in upscale New York and claimed to be Eli Manning’s agent. He said that Manning needed a table for that night. The manager told him that they would have to go through a reservation process and he would see what he could do and get back to him. An hour later he called back and used the same story for Lin. This time he was told a table would be made available immediately, no questions asked.
Right now Brown would have trouble getting a table at King Taco.
That’s my principle.
Tim can be reached at tim@midvalleysports.com
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