Hey, hey! The Lakers won game 5 last night to go up 3-2 on the Minnesota Timberwolves. They won 120-90. Really a lopsided score. The big difference was that Derek Fisher and Jannero Pargo decided to play a little defense on Troy Hudson. Troy didn’t get the open looks like he did in the first four games. Another big difference was that Robert Horry’s shots were falling at a better rate; while still not good (5-12) it is better than he has done before in this series. Kobe actually looked like he was thinking about shot selection and ended up 12-21 from the field. Overall the Lakers shot .542 from the field - much better than the 40% or so that they were shooting so far in the series. They did this while limiting the ‘Wolves to .429 from the field. The teams travel to the Staples Center for game 6; could be the end of the series.

Friday night, KC and I left for Des Moines. The reason for this was Saturday we attended the Drake Relays. The Drake Relays has long been a tradition here in Iowa of attracting many Olympic hopefuls to perform. In the past such greats as Carl Lewis, Edwin Moses and many others have run at Drake. What is special about this event is that not only are there Olympic hopefuls competing in the open class, but there are also the University class, the College class and the Iowa high school class. So, the Iowa high school athletes can see first-hand the current heroes of track and field.

Pretty cool, all in all. I can’t say I liked sitting on the bleachers for most of the afternoon, but that was the only drawback to an otherwise perfect day. The weather was great - mostly sunny and very little wind (just enough to keep the bugs away). We had great seats, in the second row on the south end of the stadium. While we weren’t right on the finish line, we were between the first and second turns on the track. Being in the second row, we were so close we could see the sweat beads on the runners faces as they went by. The track was fast Saturday; many new meet records and many near-world records for the day. In fact, there were new records for this season set in many areas.

One cool event for my home town of Muscatine, Iowa, was the Women’s Shot Put. The daughter of one of my basketball friends, Aubrey Martin, won the University/College Shot put with a throw of 51′ 2.75″ (15.61 meters). Last year Aubrey won the Iowa high school division at Drake (as well as her second state championship). KC and I didn’t make the Friday events, but KC’s brother did and he said they gave her a nice introduction and noted that she had won in two different years in two different divisions. Congratulations, Aubrey!

One of the coolest events of the day was after Joey Woody won the Men’s Invitational 400 meter hurdles (in 48.52). (Picture and other Drake Relays stories here.) He ran the victory lap carrying his infant son. VERY cool indeed. Too often we think of athletes as only performers - seeing him carrying his son around the track on the victory lap (and reaching out and receiving “5″ as he ran by) was extremely cool. A world-class athlete, probably one who will place at the Olympics, showed a lot of class and a lot of love for his son.

The Lakers won today over the Minnesota Timberwolves, 102-97. Once again, Kobe has a Jordan-esque game going 7-25 from the field to score 32 points. Kobe, Kobe, Kobe. When will you quit taking so many difficult shots. If you take away the 7 or 8 shots you took with a taller player right in your face, you would only be shooting poorly. As it is you are showing poor judgement in your shot selection. Shaq also didn’t shoot well, going 13-26. Doesn’t sound bad until you realize that ALL of his shots are within 8 feet. Of course, Robert Horry (3-8) and Derek Fisher (2-8) have little to be happy about with their shooting percentages. For the most part they are open shots.

What saved the Lakers today was offensive rebounding. They had 18 offensive rebounds (to the ‘Wolves 8). Of course if they were shooting a better percentage (.398 from the field for the game) they wouldn’t need to or be able to get the offensive rebounds. Also, Troy Hudson having 6 turnovers helped a lot (Lakers won that battle 10-16). They just aren’t playing well and need to get it going.

I only have one question of the Lakers: when is somebody going to guard Troy Hudson? He still gets off shots pretty much when he wants to. He was 5-11 from three point range. You expect big numbers from Kevin Garnett (28 points, 18 rebounds, 5 assists) but Troy Hudson has not scored more than 20 in consecutive games in his career; that is until now. Lets see if we can’t defend the pick and roll better, huh guys?

Here it is, on time this week. The Friday Five:

1. What was the last TV show you watched?
What I just blogged about: the Lakers vs. the Timberwolves. If you are talking regular weekly show, it was probably … geez, I can’t remember. I rarely watch weekly shows; strictly movies and ball games. The last movie I watched was Freeway.

2. What was the last thing you complained about and what was the problem?
I complained about my knees hurting so much. The problem is I continue to pretend I am 25 and try to play basketball. I suffer for a couple of days afterward, even with ice (early) and the hot tub (later).

3. Who was the last person you complimented and what did you say?
My wife. I told her how beautiful she looks to me. I tell her that at least once a day, but I don’t think she believes me. I also told her how charming and witty I think she is, but again, I don’t think she believes me.

4. What was the last thing you threw away?
Garbage night was last night and I threw away an old AT case without a power supply; unless you count the banana-nut muffin wrapper that I threw away tonight after eating the muffin for dessert.

5. What was the last website (besides this one) that you visited?
Ain’t Too Proud to Blog.

Once again, the Minnesota Timberwolves win over my Lakers, 110-114 in overtime, taking a series lead 2-1. This time at the Staples Center! Hey, guys! You gotta play some defense; Minnesota shot 47% from the field IN YOUR HOUSE! You also have to shoot better from the field; the Lakers shot an abyssmal 40%. Shaq had some nice numbers (28 points, 17 boards, 5 blocks) but shot only 10-28; granted with 16 free throws, 8 of those shots were probably not makeable the way he gets hammered.. Where he shoots from he should be shooting a better percentage than that. Kobe once again put up Jordan-esque numbers (30 points, 10-28 shooting, 1-5 from 3-range, and 7 turnovers) he needs to play WITH his teammates more instead of shooting so much. From what I saw, it boils down to energy. The Lakers were pretty lethargic the first three quarters; they need to show the fourth quarter energy and urgency earlier in order to be ahead. Perhaps if they played harder during the early stages of the game they wouldn’t have to fight so hard to get even in the fourth quarter. Next game is Sunday at 3pm. Let’s hope the Lakers get it going to tie the series up then.

No offense here, Robyn, but are you sure this is the same Oklahoma you come from? I mean really; how can they (the state of Oklahoma) enforce such a law on a body like the internet? DUH! I have blogged this before where nations make the same proposals - it still won’t work. The internet is an international entity and as long as there is ONE place that will allow such things to happen, they will happen. They may as well pass laws to stop companies from sending unsolicited snail mail!

I did it! I downloaded the ISOs for Mandrake Linux 9.1 last week. This week I used Partition Magic to reset my NTFS partition from the entire 40 Gig on my hard drive to 30 Gig. Then I installed Mandrake and set up the PC to dual-boot. I still have a few things to figure out about Linux. Yes, I realize that I am at a disadvantage because of my knowledge of Windows, but I’m willing to learn. The installation was a breeze; the only thing I had to change was the mouse - it had detected a simple 2-button mouse while I have a 3-button optical scroll mouse. I also had to choose the setup type I wanted and just chose a typical internet PC.

I chose KDE for my GUI, version 3.1. I now can choose between OpenOffice.org (which I run on Windows 2000) or KOffice. I can also choose between Konqueror or Mozilla (version 1.3, which I also run on Windows 2000). The thing that intrigues me the most is Ximian Evolution. It looks and acts a lot like Microsoft Outlook, but is much faster and the menus are laid out a bit better than Outlook’s. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that it is more secure than Outlook (Outlook has more security holes than a screen door.) I still need to figure out how to mount the NTFS partition; I understand that has to be mounted as read-only, but all I want to do is access my MP3’s to play music while I browse (and blog!) and have access to my OpenOffice documents.

I have seen Windows XP and I do not like the behind-the-scenes talking it does with MS. Check out here to read about what I am talking about. If you read the EULA (End User License Agreement) you will find that any of the XP products allow Microsoft to view the files on your computer and remove any that it thinks are either pirated or stolen. It also allows them to upgrade the version of different softwares on my computer without my knowledge. At work we still use IE 5.5 because a few of our software packages that allow us access to time sensitive data will NOT work on IE 6.

Now I am NOT in favor of pirating or stealing software; what I AM in favor of is personal property rights. What I put on MY computer is NOT the business of Microsoft; they have no right to remove or change software from MY computer, ESPECIALLY without my consent. I believe if Microsoft continues on this path, my next upgrade will not be to ANY version of Windows but to some Linux flavor.

Well, the Lakers didn’t do so well tonight, losing badly 91-119. Troy Hudson of the Minnesota Timberwolves was definitely ON FIRE. He ended up with 37 points; lets hope that he doesn’t keep that hot hand. Everyone expects Kevin Garnett to do well; after all, he is, in my mind, the leading candidate for MVP of the regular season. I really don’t think the ‘Wolves will do as well at LA. The announcers kept talking about defensive intensity. What I saw was very poor shot selection by Kobe. He put up very Jordan-esque numbers: 27 points on 9-28 shooting. Yes, I realize there was a lot of double-teams and hard defense on him, but some of his shots were simply ill-advised. I will reiterate what I said earlier. As long as the Lakers don’t forget about Shaq, they will be fine. Shaq also ended up with 27 points and had 14 rebounds to go with it. The problem was that there was a big stretch in the second and third quarters where the only touches he got were the defensive rebound. It won’t get them out of the first round if they don’t get the ball to him more often.

The series now moves to the Staples Center at LA. I didn’t expect them to win both games at Minnesota, but I DID expect a better showing than they had tonight. The one good thing is that they gained “home court” by beating Minnesota one of the two games.

Simply Sara’s Question of the Week:

Russian Roulette *

Before you are ten pistols–only one of which is loaded. You must pick up one of the pistols, point it at your forehead, and pull the trigger. If you can walk away you do so a millionaire. Would you accept the risk? Why or why not?

No way. For two reasons: 1 - I like life way too much to risk going out on a stupid game like this and 2 - Like my dad has said for years, I’m just a big candyass.

Well, it’s the start of the NBA Playoffs and my team, the Lakers, won their opening game over the Minnesota Timberwolves, 117-98 this afternoon. Kobe had an amazing first half (scoring points) and then tried to do the same in the second half. What he forgot was in the first half he was getting most of his points through Shaq in the post. In the second half he tried going one-on-one and it just doesn’t work for him. He needs to keep going through Shaq. As long as he remembers not to play the ball-hog (ala Michael Jordan) the Lakers will continue to win. As soon as he gets it in his head that Shaq doesn’t need the touches, the Lakers will go down.

Well, ZDog, my son, had his wisdom teeth pulled Friday morning. That’s right, all four. He was in the pain room Friday afternoon, but today all seemed OK. Yeah, he was still hurting but it was manageable. Now, all he has left is one more visit on Monday for cavities. I don’t envy that young man. I remember when I had my wisdom teeth pulled - not a happy time at all. Of course I have roots that went down to my stomach and they had to dig out 2 of them. It is still fresh in my mind because I have one more step to finish my freakin’ root canal. I have a temporary crown in place now and will get the permanent crown in a week or so. UGH. I hate dentists.

Once again late, but here again: the Friday Five.

1. Who is your favorite celebrity?
Has to be Kareem Abdul Jabbar. I think he is the best center to ever play the game. He retired in 1989 and STILL talk about the sky hook. No center since has the offensive arsenal he had; and since they allow dunking at all levels no center probably ever will. Not only that, but he was a highly educated man and did a lot for charity as well.

2. Who is your least favorite?
Gotta be Tim Robbins. See my post from Sunday, April 13 as to why. He talks a good game but doesn’t really follow through on his talk; he doesn’t live as he preaches. Hey, Tim, if you talk the talk then walk the walk.

3. Have you ever met or seen any celebrities in real life?
The only celebrities I have seen or even been close to are professional basketball players before they were somebody.

4. Would you want to be famous? Why or why not?
No way! I don’t want the reporters all over me every day. I mean really, look at some of the celebrities now; they can’t even take a shit without the press finding out the color of the toilet paper. Geez!

5. If you had to trade places with a celebrity for a day, who would you choose and why?
Jack Nicholson - I’d like to just find out what the ladies find so attractive in him STILL at age 67.