Curry leads the Warriors to a 119-114 win over the Mavericks in Dallas

by Jerry Feitelberg

The Warriors played another close game with the Dallas Mavericks Sunday evening in Dallas. It was the third game of the season between the two teams, and it was a thriller. The teams had split the two previous meetings, and this was the final meeting of the regular season. The Mavericks are an improved team with the addition of former LA Clipper DeAndre Jordan and the nineteen-year-old sensation Luca Doncic. The Warriors lost to the Mavericks in Dallas earlier in the season when they did not have Steph Curry and Draymond Green available. The Warriors gained a measure of revenge as they defeated the Mavericks 119-114 in a game that was determined in the final seconds of play.

The Warriors got off to a good start in the first quarter and grabbed an early 16-10 lead. Curry and Kevin Durant scored all the Warrior points up to that point in the game. The Warriors had opportunities to score but could not cash in. The Mavs were able to go on a 12-0 run to go ahead 22-16. The Mavs finished the quarter leading 29-25.

The Warriors won the second quarter37-25 to finish the first half with a 62-54 advantage. Steph Curry was on fire as he tallied 24 points and connected on five threes in 8 attempts. Durant added 17. Klay Thompson was held to 4 points. Luca Doncic led the Mavs with 12. Jordan had 6, Wesley Matthews 8, former Stanford star Dwight Powell had 8, and Jalen Brunson finished the half with 8.

Dallas controlled the boards in the first quarter, but things changed when Steve Kerr inserted Jonas Jerebko and Alonzo McKinnie into the game in the second quarter. Both players help the Dubs get rebounds at both ends of the court, and they were a big help in getting the Warriors back into the lead.

The Warriors offense got some help from Klay Thompson. Alonzo McKinnie, Andre Iguodala, and Steph Curry. They held Dallas to 40% from the floor, but Dallas spent a lot more time at the free throw line. They were 10 for 11 from the charity stripe while the Dubs had but two free throws in the period. The Warriors finished the period leading 92-88

As the fans of the NBA know, most games are decided in the fourth quarter. The game between these two teams was no exception. The Warriors were clinging to a scant four-point advantage as they started the fourth and final stanza. Dallas kept creeping closer. However, Curry and Thompson connected on three-point shots to keep the Warriors ahead. Dallas tied the game at 103. They went up by five 110-105 with 4:25 left to play. It was still anyone’s game. Steph hit a three, and the Warriors now trailed 110-108. Former Warrior Harrison Barnes was fouled by Draymond Green while attempting a three-point shot. Green was also charged with a flagrant foul. Barnes made all three free throws and Dallas retained possession. The Warriors caught a break when Andre Iguodala managed to steal the ball. Durant followed with a bucket to make it 113-110. Klay followed with a basket. The score was 113-112 with 2:21 left. Dallas made a free throw to go up 114-112. They would not score again. Curry tied it a 114. He then hit a three to put the Warriors in the lead 117-114 with 42.2 seconds left to play. Dallas had the ball and needed a three to tie the game in regulation. Harrison Barnes, with 5.6 seconds left on the clock, fumbled the ball and lost it out of bounds. The Mavs fouled Steph, and he made both free throws to ice the win for Golden State. Final score 119-114.

Game notes and stas\ts. The Warriors, with the win, improved to 29-14. The Mavericks, who were 16-4 at home before the game, drop to 20-23 overall and 16-5 at home.

Curry had a tremendous performance with 48 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists. Curry made 11 threes in 19 attempts. He had 13 points in the fourth quarter. Durant had 28, 7 board, and 5 assists. He was a force on both ends of the court. Klay Thompson finished with 16. Klay had 9 points in the fourth quarter that helped the Dubs to the win. McKinnie finished with 10.

The Macs were led by Luca Doncic. He knocked down 26 points and had 6 rebounds and 5 assists. He also made 5 threes. Harrison Barnes had 22, Jordan 13 points and 14 boards, and Brunson had 12.

The Warriors shot 46% from the floor and held the Mavs to 41.8% The Warriors made nineteen three and the Mavs connected 16 times. The Mavs had 17 more free throws than the Warriors They had 29 compared to 12 for Golden State. The Maves outrebounded the Dubs 51-49, but the Warriors had 9 steals and 8 blocked shots.

The Warriors are 8-1 on the road since December 3rd. They travel to Denver to face the Nuggets Tuesday night. Game time is at 6pm.

 

2018 NHL Draft: San Jose Sharks Version (Part 1)

Photo credit: @SanJoseSharks

By: Ana Kieu

This Friday night marked the first day (and round) of the 2018 NHL Entry Draft at American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas.

For the second time in franchise history, the Buffalo Sabres had the first overall pick in  the draft. As expected, the Sabres got the top prospect, Rasmus Dahlin, a Swedish defenseman who previously played for Frolunda HC in Gothenburg, Sweden. Dahlin is an exceptionally talented player who is often described as a smart, two-way defenseman that would be able to positively impact his team’s future.

And, of course, the Ottawa Senators, New York Rangers, New York Islanders, Chicago Blackhawks, Philadelphia Flyers, and Detroit Red Wings all held many first round picks.

The first 31 players were selected in the first round, and the San Jose Sharks had the 21st overall pick. The Sharks selected Ryan Merkley, a Canadian defenseman who last played for the Guelph Storm of the OHL.

San Jose selects @ryan_merkley!#SharksDraft pic.twitter.com/1xQfKQgwXV

— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) June 23, 2018

Merkley then spoke to the media members in attendance for this year’s draft.

New first round #SharksDraft pick Ryan Merkley speaks to the media. https://t.co/jfzzWYObsq

— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) June 23, 2018

Catch rounds two through seven on Saturday morning at 8:00 am PDT on NHL Network and Sportsnet.

San Jose Sharks Podcast with Len Shapiro: After getting blown out by the Stars–Sharks look to get back on track in Montreal on Tuesday

San Jose Sharks goaltender Martin Jones (31) makes a save on a shot by Dallas Stars center Mattias Janmark (13) during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Dallas, Sunday, Dec. 31, 2017. (AP Photo/Michael Ainsworth)

On the SJ Sharks podcast with Len:

1 The Dallas Stars convincingly defeated the San Jose Sharks on a whopping 6-0 shutout.

2 The first period goals came from the Stars defenseman John Klingberg and forward Tyler Pitlick.

3 The Stars out shot the Sharks 17-5 in the first period.

4 In the second period, the Stars got goals from Stephen Jones and Tyler Seguin. The Stars also scored two goals more in the third period.

5 The Sharks’ next contest will be at the Bell Centre in Montreal against the Canadiens.

Len Shapiro does the SJ Sharks podcasts each Monday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Sacramento Kings Thursday night game wrap up: Kings end four game skid in Dallas, win 104-101

by Michael Martinez

picture credit Ronda Churchill/AP

Wednesday night in Dallas was an important match up for the Sacramento Kings. The team headed into the night on a four gaming losing streak and a 22 game losing streak on the Mavs’ home court. Overall, the Kings put in a tremendous team effort and were able to defeat the Western Conference’s sixth seed, Dallas Mavericks, 104-101.

Rudy Gay was in the starting line up for the Kings who played tough against Dallas in the first quarter. The Kings’ only flaw was five turnovers but they did a great job of rebounding and passing the ball. Rajon Rondo had four of the Kings’ eight assists in the quarter as he headed back to Dallas.

Sacramento struggled with the three ball to start the game, 0-7, but managed to stay in it. Nobody on the Kings scored more than four points and the Mavs got a nice first quarter out of David Lee. After one, the Mavs led Sacramento, 24-19.

The Kings played an even better second quarter. Marco Belinelli came alive with eight points to start the quarter for the Kings, who would go on an 11-4 run. Sacramento moved the ball extremely well throughout the half, but best of all they played great defense. The Kings did not allow the Mavs to get inside and forced Dallas to shoot out on the perimeter, who shot 1-11 from beyond the arc at the half.

At the half, the Kings held a 50-45 and shot well in the half. The team did a better job with the ball, only one turnover in the second quarter. DeMarcus Cousins and Rondo had a team high with eight points apiece with Rondo adding seven assists.

The Kings did much of the same in the third quarter as the second.

The Kings kept the momentum from the second quarter.With 7:38 remaining,  Ben McLemore  had a fast break jam causing a timeout by Dallas with the Kings up 60-55. Out of the timeout, Sacramento went on another run, 7-2, which finished with a sweet McLemore crossover who nailed a three off the dribble. Dallas was forced to call another timeout. The Mavs did answer back with eight straight points of their own

The third was a very clean half four both teams and Chandler Parson kept finding a way to score for the Mavs. Through three, Sacramento was able to shoot over 50% from the field and hold their lead, 73-69. The quarter was pretty even and both teams had 46 points in the paint. The Kings defense was still very solid, however.

In the fourth, the Kings went on another run, 7-2, to start the quarter off. The run would become an 11-2 run in a little less than four minutes. Belinelli was once again clutch for the Kings as he hit a three to put Sacramento up, 89-76, as Dallas took another time out.

The Mavs were able to make a push and after being down by 14 at one point, were only down by five with a little over a minute left to play. Unfortunately, the Kings could not make a free throw to save their life. At the 35 second mark, Cousins was fouled and missed both free throws. Darren Collison was fouled 12 second later and went one for two at the charity stripe to lead 102-97. Dirk Nowitzki scored very quickly to cut the lead to three.

Belinelli was fouled and missed both free throws. On the second miss, the Kings fought for the rebound and the ball squirted out. Both teams scrambled for the loose ball and Collison came up with it and fouled.

Collison finally put down two free throws for the Kings to go up 104-99 with four ticks remaining. Nowitzki was able to put in a late lay-up for a final score 104-101.

Many Kings player had great games. Cousins finished with 22 points and 13 rebounds. Rondo notched 18 points and tallied 12 assists.

Off the bench, Collison had 14 points and Belinelli added 16. Belinelli appears to be coming out of his season slump and was a huge spark for Sacramento. The Kings shot the ball extremely well shooting at 52.5% although their three pointers were mostly off. Parson finished with 28 points in the game but the Kings defense was able to hold on and they closed out a fourth quarter for the victory.

The Kings are now 25-35 and will head to San Antonio on Saturday. The team faces off against the Spurs, who clinched their 19th consecutive playoff berth in their last game. Tipoff starts at 5 p.m. as the Kings look to redeem a loss to San Antonio from a couple weeks ago.

Nowitzki’s Historic Night Leads Comeback From Dallas Mavericks.

By Shawn Whelchel

It was a tale of two halves for the Kings as Sacramento jumped out to a commanding first half lead, but couldn’t keep their foot on the gas as the offense sputtered late, leaving the door open for the Dallas Mavericks to mount an impressive comeback to steal a 106-98 victory at home.

The Kings offense came out firing on all cylinders to start the game, jumping out to a 24-point lead in the second quarter while picking apart the Dallas defense. But half time cooled the hot shooting Kings, as Dallas began finding a rhythm of their own, outscoring Sacramento 58-41 through the final two frames to secure a come-from-behind victory.

Rudy Gay led the charge for Sacramento, scoring 26 points on the night while nearly notching a triple-double with 8 rebounds and 8 assists to boot. Ramon Sessions followed Gay with 18 points and 3 rebounds.

Dirk Nowitzki led all Dallas scorers with 23 points of his own on a historic night where the German born star passed Hakeem Olajuwon for most points by an international player in NBA history while also moving into 9th place on the all-time scoring list.

Nowitzki came into the game needing just 17 points to secure his place in history, but after a scoreless first quarter it looked as if the feat would be questionable. However, Nowitzki would not be denied his claim as the second quarter saw a turnaround from both he and the rest of the team as their 34-point outburst brought them right back into the game.

The Kings competitive first half was nowhere to be found as they came out of the locker room, posting just 15 points on 26 percent shooting to allow Dallas to take their first lead of the game in the third quarter, which Dallas would not relinquish the rest of the game, bumping the Kings to a 5-3 record in the pacific division.

The Kings continue their tough road trip against the Memphis Grizzlies on Thursday where Sacramento will look to snap their two-game skid before returning home to take on the champion San Antonio Spurs.

Game Notes:

PG Darren Collison was absent from Tuesday night’s contest with left shoulder stiffness. It remains to be seen if the guard will play Thursday night against the Grizzlies.

 

FC Dallas Embarrasses San Jose at Home With 5-0 Shutout; Ends Earthquakes’ Point Streak at Four Games

Photo Credit: mlssoccer.com

By: Joe Lami

SANTA CLARA, Calif.–

Saturday night was something out of a nightmare for the San Jose Earthquakes as they were absolutely dominated by FC Dallas in a 5-0 shutout. Star rookie, Tesho Akindele, stole the show for Dallas recording his first career hat trick. Fabian Castillo was also a major factor for Dallas as he contributed two goals and an assist.

The nightmare began in the 11^th minute for San Jose, when defender, Shaun Francis pulled up short due to an apparent hamstring injury. He would walk off the field for a few moments to get a breather before deciding to go back into play. He would play for just over a minute, but was too injured to continue, as Earthquakes’ coach, Mark Watson, had to burn his first substitution in the 13^th minute. Brandon Barklage came in for the injured Francis.

The Earthquakes had some chances early in the first half, forcing Dallas goalkeeper, Raul Fernandez, to earn his shutout. In the 29^th minute, Sam Cronin, hit a skipping shot from the right side just outside of the box, forcing Fernandez to make the diving save to his right.  Fernandez had five saves in the win. Just a minute later, Castillo found his first of the evening with a great individual effort, making Jason Hernandez look silly along the way to give Dallas the 1-0 lead.

In the 43^rd minute Dallas would take a 2-0 advantage when Akindele got his first of three when a shot from outside the box took a tricky bounce off of an Earthquakes’ defender before it made its way past Jon Busch.

The Earthquakes best chance came in the 45^th minute when they were awarded a penalty kick. Matias Perez Garcia was taken down in the penalty box to give Chris Wondolowski a chance. Wondolowski fired a bullet that just missed the top left corner to end the half.

FC Dallas tacked on three more goals in the second half to propel them to victory. Castillo’s two goals on Saturday night gives him the team lead with eight on the season. “We couldn’t handle him, he has a ton of pace and incredible individual effort,” commented Watson. “He caused a lot of problems with his pace,” added Busch.

Akindele’s three goals now gives him seven on the season, making him the honor of being the highest scoring rookie in FC Dallas history. Aleksey Korol previously held the honor for his five tallies he scored in 2000.

FC Dallas extends their unbeaten streak to nine with the victory. It also marks the first time that Dallas coach, Oscar Pareja, has beaten San Jose in his ninth attempt.

San Jose had their unbeaten streak snapped at four games with the loss. “There was a good feeling about the team. We finally got something going, and then this loss. It’s really deflating,” commented Watson.

The Earthquakes will try to recover on Wednesday when they host division leading, Seattle.

Quakes “Survive the Storm” for Second Win of 2014

By Matthew Harrington

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — On a night when the San Jose Earthquakes turned back the clock, donning kits similar to their original NASL iterations in their first season in 1974, the best ally for the club to prove the victors turned out to be a forward ticking timer. The Earthquakes scored the first two goals then weathered an FC Dallas barrage to cling to a 2-1 lead and collect three points at Buck Shaw Stadium Saturday night.

“We survived the storm,” remarked defender Jordan Stewart.

Midfielder Cordell Cato connected on his first goal of the season for the Quakes (2-3-4) beating Dallas goalkeeper Raul Fernandez in the 25^th minute. The Quakes were also beneficiaries of an opponent own goal. San Jose played down a man for more than half the game after officials sent Shea Salinas off with a red card in the 45^th minute.

“That was quite a night,” said San Jose coach Mark Watson. “To use the old cliché, it was a tale of two halves. I thought in the first half we played well, got the goal and had a chance to make it two-nil. The second half was just about sticking together defending and seeing the game out.”

After receiving a perfect header from Clarence Goodson, Cato found himself on breakaway staring down only Dallas keeper Fernandez. Cato struck a low shot to the left passed Fernandez for a 1-0 lead in the 25^th minute. San Jose netminder Jon Busch was awarded the second assist on the marker, his first career helper, after firing a pass up-field to Goodson.

“I saw a big body up there, I thought it was Alan (Gordon),” said Busch. “I saw a big body and I just said I’m just going to hit it down the middle to one of the big bodies and something good will happen. And something good did happen.”

San Jose honored former player, coach and general manager Johnny Moore by inducting him into the team’s Hall of Fame Saturday. It was a big night for the former wearer of number 8, but his present day counterpart nearly stole some of his thunder. On a Quakes free kick in the 73^rd minute, Chris Wondolowski appeared to net the second goal of the game. The replay showed that, despite the perfect placement, Wondolowski’s left foot narrowly missed the ball. Instead, it was ruled a Dallas own goal off the boot of David Texeira for a Quakes 2-0 edge.

“To be honest, it was nice to get a bounce our way,” said Wondolowski of the own goal. “On Wednesday night (a 0-0 tie against Colorado at Buck Shaw) we didn’t get those bounces. We’ve been unlucky this season so it was nice to get a bounce.”

FC Dallas pressured San Jose throughout the night with forwards Fabian Castillo and Blas Perez combining on a number of Grade-A chances that Busch and company turned aside, including a chance in the 57^th minute that crossed over the goal line but somehow managed to stay out.

“We do drills like that in training during the week,” said Busch. “You make the first save and get across the goal. I was fortunate enough that I got it quick enough and was able to make a play on the second shot that came off the post and came all the way across.”

Dallas finally broke through in the 76^th minute after Michel beat Busch on a perfectly placed from just outside the penalty box. The Dallas midfielder tucked a perfect ball right into the top left corner for the sole visiting tally, his fifth of the season. Busch bounced back to hold the score and seal the win.

“I wish I could say I’m shocked,” said Wondolowski. “I see it every day. He does a great job. He’s a great goalie.”

Busch credited his teammates for playing strong in front of him.

“We needed this one badly,” said the keeper. “I can’t be prouder of the boys, they just battled through a lot of adversity. You take a red card just before halftime against a very good possession team, so you know you’re going to take wave after wave.”

With the Quakes already fighting an uphill battle, down a man with five other players booked for yellow cards, the deck appeared further stacked in Dallas’ favor when a generous six minutes of stoppage time were added at the end of play. The only major delay in the second half came when Alan Gordon went down in the 56^th minute, but he quickly moved to the sideline along with the Earthquakes trainer before being subbed out in favor of J.J. Koval. Gordon told the media after the game that he doesn’t expect to miss any time and just suffered from dead legs Saturday night.

“I thought it was a long time,” said Watson. “The referee said the Alan Gordon injury was three minutes. There’s nothing you can do about it. You can’t change your mind, but I thought it was a little bit too much.”

Dallas took full advantage of the extra time, putting a salvo of shots on Busch to try to steal a point on the road. Despite a few close calls, the Quakes managed to pull out the victory for their second win this season, both coming at Buck Shaw Stadium.

“I think it shows the character this team has,” said Watson. “We’ve always had that. I thought tonight was a perfect example of that. Under extreme circumstances, all the things going on, we kept fighting and battling.”

The Quakes look to build off Saturday’s adversity laden win when they travel to Seattle to face the Sounders at the inhospitable CenturyLink Field next Saturday.

“Hopefully this gets us going,” said Busch. “We had a similar performance the other night, just couldn’t get the goal we needed. Tonight we got the two goals we needed. Hopefully we can take from this and move forward.”

The Quakes may soon be moving forward without the club’s all-time leading scorer. Chris Wondolowski may soon be joining the United States Men’s National Team for World Cup duty, including a May 27^th tune-up at Candle Stick Park against Azerbaijan.

“We got a win, that was good.” Said Wondolowski. “If I am leaving, I wish I was leaving with us in first place. It is what it is. I know these guys are going to do a great job.”

Curry Surprises Jackson With Buzzer-Beater Over Mavs In OT On Coach’s Birthday

By Matthew Harrington
Warriors coach Mark Jackson received quite the birthday gift from his All-star guard Tuesday night at American Airlines Arena in Dallas. Stephen Curry hit the game-winning shot with .1 seconds remaining in overtime to cap a Golden State 122-120 upheaval of the Dallas Mavericks (44-31). As coach Jackson blew out the 49 candles on his cake, the Dubs created a little bit of breathing room in the Western Conference playoff picture. Dirk Nowitzki and the Mavs entered play Tuesday with 44 wins, just one less than their foes from California. The Warriors (46-28) have two games in hand over Dallas.

Curry’s game-winner in the extra session, his third career buzzer-beating basket, was a culmination of a 43-minute, 23-point effort. Fellow guard Klay Thompson topped Golden State on 27 points, going 11-for-24 from the field including 4-of9 from downtown. Jermaine O’Neal, starting at center with Andrew Bogut not making the trip nursing a sore groin and David Lee in street clothes for the third-straight game, picked up 20 points and 8 rebounds. Marreese Speights’ 9 rebounds paced the Warriors.

Ex-Warrior Monta Ellis did his best to sink his former franchise, shooting 11-for-23 with 27 points. Mavs perennial All-Star Nowitzki contributed a game-high 33 points over 39 minutes of play and converted the double-double on a game-high 11 boards.

The Warriors connected on a blistering 57.1 shooting percentage, making 52 shots on 91 attempts including nearly half (15) of their 31 shots from beyond the arc. Mark Cuban’s club held the advantage in turnovers, forfeiting possession 8 times to the visitors’ 12. The Mavericks somehow managed to keep Golden State from going to the free throw line for the entirety of the second half.

The Warriors overpowered their hosts in the first, racing out to a 30-21 lead after twelve minutes of play. Dallas bombarded Golden State with 41 second-quarter points, the most the Warriors have yielded in a single frame this season, while limiting the visitors to 23 points for a 62-53 halftime edge.

It took the Warriors nearly ten minutes of play in the third to catch up to Dallas when Speights rolled in a layup to make it 78-all before Vince Carter hit one of two free throws to restore the slim Mavs one-point edge. The Warriors would score seven of the last nine points for an 85-81 lead after three frames.

Dallas capped a 10-5 run to open the fourth with a Carter basket to pull ahead 91-90 nearly four minutes in to the final stanza of regulation. The Warriors briefly wrestled the lead back from their foes but found themselves trailing 106-102 with 1:43 until the final horn. Andre Iguodala and Thompson sandwiched three-pointers around an Ellis jumper to knot things up a 108 a piece with a minute left but that would be the last basket of regulation as the teams would require an five-minute overtime to decide the victor.

Dallas opened the final five minutes on a Dirk jumper before Jermaine O’Neal hit only one of two free throws to pull the Warriors within one at 110-109. O’Neal represented the first Warrior to head to the charity stripe since Thompson completed the and-1 play with 2:55 left in the second quarter. From there the two teams would go shot-for-shot over the next five baskets before a Thompson trey preceded a Curry 16-foot jumper to put the Dubs up 118-117 over halfway through OT.

The Mavs’ Jose Calderon responded with a three of his own before O’Neal took a Draymon Green feed to the rim to knot things up at 120-all. The Warriors were looking for a quick basket to force a last-possession chance, a goal achieved when Green connected with O’Neal with 28 seconds left.

On the penultimate Dallas possession of the game, Ellis tried to take the winning shot but he was rejected on the layup by O’Neal. On the next Warrior possession Curry connected on the off-balance jumper with a tenth of a second remaining. The Mavs couldn’t connect on the in-bound deflection play, and after a brief review, the Warriors win was official.

Golden State looks to give Jackson a second belated gift Wednesday evening. They continue on to a showdown in San Antonio with the Spurs at the AT&T Center where they haven’t won since Valentine’s Day of 1997, just six days before then 31-year-old point guard Jackson was dealt from the Denver Nuggets back to the Indiana Pacers. After the second leg of the Texas road trip the Warriors return to the West Coast for a showdown with in-state rivals, the Sacramento Kings, Friday night at Oracle Arena.

Raiders Report: Raiders good enough to hang but can’t finish

by David Zizmor

ALAMEDA–The Raiders had a good start and were actually leading at the half 21-14 but the Cowboys kicked into gear and the Raiders weren’t able to stop them on the other side of the ball and the Raiders offense couldn’t get anything going in the second half. It was a tale of two halves in this one the Raiders looked pretty solid in the first half in fact one of the drives in the second quarter.

One of the Raiders scoring drives they basically held the ball for 12 minutes out of 15 minutes the entire second quarter. They didn’t even let Dallas get the ball but Dallas marched down the field really quickly at the end of the half to score a touchdown with ten seconds left from that point on Dallas seemed to get their second wind and the Cowboys dominated the rest of the way.

The Raiders has some great plays on special teams to start this one out with the return as the Raiders recovered a fumble on the opening kick off and returned it for a touchdown and that set the tone early on it kind of stunned the Cowboys more than anything and for the next quarter and a half the Raiders were really playing really well. When the Cowboys scored at the end of the first half it just kind of rolled into the second half. The Raiders defense wasn’t able to stop them and the Raiders know that the Cowboys have a pretty solid offense.

Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo threw for 220 yards, the Cowboys rushed for 140 yards and it was one of those situations where the Raiders defense wasn’t able to stop anybody and while Raider quarterback Matt McGloin looked pretty solid in the first half completing some really solid passes and making some plays here and there he just couldn’t do anything in the second half and McGloin just didn’t seem to be able to do anything in the second half.

So you look at McGloin’s stats and he was 18-30 for 255 yards with one interception and no touchdowns and it’s really tough to gage how he played in this one he really looked good in the first half and made some tough throws and in the second half he just wasn’t hitting any of those and it wasn’t just the receivers who were dropping passes though that did happen on occasion and he wasn’t as accurate in that second half and part of that were the adjustments on the part of Dallas.

Dallas is still a better team and the Raiders defense is okay this year but teams are starting to catch up and injuries are up and down with this team on offense and defense and their starting to take their toll and it was great that the Raiders were able to hand in this one especially on a short week on Thanksgiving day on the road but that’s a tough game to play. You kind of feel for the Raiders because that’s just a tough situation to be in and it’s unfortunate that they had to be the team that had to be the sacrificial lamb on Thanksgiving.

The simple fact is that you got to win those games and Dallas isn’t such a good team that the Raiders weren’t able to beat them and the Raiders certainly can hang with them the bottom line is they come away with a loss that just puts them further behind heading into next week’s game against the New York Jets and we’ll see how the Raiders can do in that one.

David Zizmor covers the NFL for Sportstalk Radio

Raiders report: Cowboys offense good but not balanced

by David Zizmor

ALAMEDA–It’s going to be additionally challenging for Oakland on Thursday it’s Thanksgiving day it’s a whole host of issues here with this game if you look at the history of NFL football on Thanksgiving the home team has won on Thanksgiving and those games are held traditionally in Dallas and Detroit. Detroit has a nine game losing streak on Thanksgiving. The Cowboys for the time being have been pretty good at home. The Raiders have a tall order for them, what they do have going for them is the fact that Dallas is the mediocre team.

If you look at the standings Dallas is in the running in the NFC East their a shade behind the Philadelphia Eagles in that race and the Cowboys are certainly in the playoff run but if you pay attention to the NFC East you know that even though Dallas and Philadelphia are tied at 6-5 and Dallas is not a very good team their good their just an up and down squad. Dallas has a good offense but a really bad defense and to be honest their offense while it’s good and has some excellent players, Tony Romo is an excellent quarterback for Dallas and Dez Bryant has been a great wide receiver.

The simple fact remains that this is not a balanced offense the running game is mediocre and they are a very inconsistent team. Part of that is because Romo tends to will them under pressure late in the games we’ve seen that in his playoff performances and we’ve seen that in various games just this season where he’s had trouble in the fourth quarter. The other thing is they don’t have too many big time performers beyond Romo and Bryant. Their looking for supporting players and their just not that good.

The only reason their 6-5 is because their in one of the weakest divisions in all of football and they’ve been able to feast on other teams in their division that are not very good in their own right. The Raiders go into this one as underdogs but Dallas is not very good so the Raiders at least have a chance. This isn’t going to be a super lopsided affair where Dallas just blows them out. The Raiders can make some noise in this one. This Thanksgiving your going to be watching football one way or another so definitely watch this one this will be an interesting one.

The Raiders can do a little damage and hopefully come out and make you enjoy turkey day and not depress you.

David Zizmor covers the NFL for Sportstalk Radio