Going around the horn
Sox deserve better, but Pacquiao doesn’t
This being the start of the July doldrums, when the only team playing meaningful games is the Red Sox, it seemed a good time to clear out the attic of the mind and kick around some random thoughts about issues big and small.
The Celtics landing Gordon Hayward may be a case of subtraction by addition. Green teamers from Portland to Providence rejoiced, but while Hayward gives the C’s a second scorer to complement Isaiah Thomas, at what cost?
A second scorer to take double teams off Thomas was a need, but so too is rebounding and interior defense. Hayward doesn’t solve that, and a certain toughness will be lost if Jae Crowder and Marcus Smart end up the price of Hayward’s arrival.
The Cavaliers led the Celtics by 16 or more points for 46 percent of the Eastern Conference finals because the C’s too often got only one shot per possession. No one could, or would, rebound. That nearly eliminated them against the Wizards, too, when the C’s made Marcin Gortat look like the Polish Shaq at times, and Chicago’s Robin Lopez too often was getting offensive rebounds like a junior Moses Malone. Not good.
Worse, it’s in a year they’re likely to lose their best on-ball defender in Avery Bradley. When they’ve already lost size and what little rebounding they had with the departure of Kelly Olynyk and Amir Johnson, from a team that finished 26th in the league in rebounding.
With the salary cap lower than expected and the C’s staring at a luxury tax they don’t want to pay, Danny Ainge still has considerable work to do. Perhaps Terry Rozier is the future replacement for Bradley, and Jaylen Brown and No. 3 overall pick Jayson Tatum will provide more of what is missing defensively and in the toughness category. That’s a lot of maybes. Historically, when you have to say “if this happens” more than once, you’ve got too many ifs to win.
We may not have seen the last of Manny Pacquiao but we should have.
Pacquiao was upset last weekend by a former schoolteacher with minimal boxing skills named Jeff Horn, a gritty kid whose most effective blows came from his noggin. Twice he cut Pacquiao’s scalp with head butts and far too often grasped him in a headlock when they got close, tactics that caused Pac-Man no end of difficulties.
Still, many felt Pacquiao did more than enough to win. He did on my card, but by a slim 115-113 margin. Two judges had the same numbers in the opposite direction; one can argue either side of that. One cannot make a case for the 117111 judge Waleska Roldan had Horn’s way, however.
As much as Pacquiao’s fading skills argued against his continuing his career, that scorecard argued louder for Roldan to get a day job and an eye test.
The most alarming sign of slippage was not Pacquiao’s apparent confusion in the early rounds while sorting out Horn’s unorthodox and awkward style. The alarming part came after he figured him out and began to land. Pacquiao had Horn in deep trouble in Round 9, but could not finish him off. That could be excused considering Pacquiao is 38. The damning point was when the 10th round began, Pacquiao was too spent to attack.
The Pacquaio who won 11 world titles in eight weight classes would have come out like a buzzsaw and cut Horn down. Instead Pacquiao did nothing, losing the momentum, the round and the fight.
“I told Manny to give me one more of them and the fight was over,” trainer Freddie Roach said later, “but he just couldn’t do it.”
Most great fighters — and Pacquiao was one for most of his 22-year career — go out the way he seems destined to if he doesn’t stop. With his back turned to an inferior opponent, that only a referee can defend him from anymore. That’s no way to end a great career, but in boxing, it’s an old song.
Call it the blues. The black and blues.
Pity the Red Sox. They have the second-best record in the American League, lead the AL East and seem to be finally having a power surge. Even starting pitcher David Price may finally deserve some roses to go with his whine. Yet nobody’s interested.
Sox’ viewership is down. Attendance is basically flat. The talking heads delight in criticizing the manager at every turn and repeatedly ask some form of “what’s wrong with the Red Sox” when the standings say “not much.”
Are they more boring without David Ortiz? Of course, but who wouldn’t have predicted that after the most effervescent personality on the Boston sports landscape retired?
Would we rather see somebody swing at the first pitch once in a while rather than turning every at-bat into a rerun of Marathon Man? Sure.
But, folks, Boston says it’s about winning and these guys have one of the best records in the game at the season’s halfway point. How about less complaining about what they aren’t and realize what they are: Closer to a championship than the Celtics.
If you wonder why the Bruins seem stuck in second gear, consider this: The past four seasons, only four players in the NHL have amassed more points than Tyler Seguin. Remember him? Seguin was shipped to Dallas after the Bruins disappointingly lost in the 2013 Stanley Cup final to the Blackhawks. It was the second time in three years the B’s reached the finals, and their fans were buoyant. Then the Bruins dumped the 21-year-old former second-overall pick for Loui Eriksson, Reilly Smith, Joe Morrow and Matt Fraser, which is another way of saying for nothing. Four years later that’s what’s left from that trade, which may explain why that’s about what they’ve achieved since Seguin departed.
If you want to feel worse, look further down that list. You’ll find Joe Thornton (13th) and Phil Kessel (15th), both well ahead of Brad Marchand (24th), the first Bruin in that time period. If management consistently can’t find ways to use scorers like Seguin, Thornton and Kessel, what are they managing? Lunch orders?
Lastly, someone sent me video of Conor McGregor sparring in preparation for his Aug. 26 “fight” with Floyd Mayweather Jr. That led to two conclusions.
First, McGregor could spar until Doomsday. He won’t hit Mayweather three times, but will be hit 300 times.
Second, putting a UFC guy who can’t box (and may not be able to take a punch) against the best boxer in the world is like asking the Warriors to play a hockey game against the Penguins.