Zen of Tofu

Lewis Hamilton has persisted, and followed his rainy win in Britain with a fantastic win from pole in Germany this weekend. Go Hamilton! Now Lewis leads in the driver’s standings with 58 points over Felipe Massa’s 54 points. Kimi Raikkonen had a tough start, trying to find proper brake balance for his car which seemed to change depending on how much fuel was on board, but he finished sixth and is a respectable third in the driver’s standings.

The next race is in Hungary in two weeks, and I’d like to see Lewis capture another checkered flag to compliment the Union Jack on his McLaren-Mercedes.

written by tofu \\ tags: F1

In an amazing route of the Lakers, the Boston Celtics obliterated the opposition with a 39 point victory margin, the largest ever for a championship clinching win. After the monstrous second quarter by the Celts, the Lakers could see the hopes of a championship comeback drift away into the sounds of cheering Celtics fans.

From screams of “M-V-P” for Paul Pierce, to the seven three-point field goals by Ray Allen and the innumerable amount of steals, this game was picture perfect. Even after the game was over, the crowd was screaming “Defence!” because of Doc Rivers’ belief that defence wins championships. The performance by the Celtics left announcers speechless and puzzled as to where to start analyzing how the Lakers could come back in the game. Last night the Celtics showed why they are the best, and hopefully they can keep up the great work and defend their championship next year.

As for the Lakers, Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson were denied a ring to add to their collection. I don’t think they are going to feel ashamed of their efforts in this series. They were just simply outplayed.

written by tofu \\ tags: NBA, News, Sports

Final exams are over, Summer weather is in full swing, and sports are just about the only thing to watch on television. The tube has been quite bland lately in terms of sitcoms, reality shows, and even news! The only exciting things to watch have been the NBA playoffs, NHL playoffs, and the occasional F1 races and sessions.

Go Boston Celtics! Even though my country’s team is in the NBA playoffs, I still want to see the Celtics take the championship. The ideal NBA finals would be Lakers vs. Celtics, and that means I want to see the Spurs knocked out very soon. I just can’t stand their team ever since David Robinson retired. Duncan is cool, but the rest of the team are just guys thinking they’re clever.

I’m not a huge fan of hockey by any means, but it makes for good television with the fast pace, violence, and high-scoring games as per the rule changes. Overtime is always exciting too. Out of all the teams, I want to see Colorado win it one more time with all those veterans (Sakic, Forsberg, Foote, Smith).

The F1 season is still young and Ferrari is starting to show their dominance with Kimi Raikkonen showing why he was champion last year. He’s driving quite brilliantly and his teammate, Massa, isn’t too far behind. McLaren on the other hand is clearly lagging behind technologically, because their cars seem to be not as quick despite the abilities of their drivers. BMW Sauber on the other hand are making a strong showing, and challenging Ferrari in the standings, but not always on the time sheets. Tomorrow is race day in Spain with Raikkonen at pole position and McLaren drivers down a few spots of the starting grid. Let’s just hope Hamilton can pull some magic out of his helmet!

P.S. You guys should check out YouTube and search for the “Friday Night Project”. It’s absolutely hilarious! Watch out for Alan’s topical barometer!

written by tofu \\ tags: F1, NBA, NHL, TV

The NBA had their all-star break this past weekend and it was quite eventful and fun to watch. Taking place in New Orleans, the festivities included the Celebrity game, Rookie Challenge, Shooting Stars, Skills Competition, Three-Point Shoot-Out, Dunk Contest, and the All-Star game.

The most notable events were the Three-Point Shoot-Out, the Dunk Contest, and the All-Star game. Toronto’s Jason Kapono easily defended his title against some of the league’s best 3 point shooters including Dirk Nowitzki and Peja Stojakovic. In the much anticipated Dunk Contest, Dwight Howard was quite literally “Superman” and I can’t help but feel that Jamario Moon would have provided a better challenge for the smiling giant Howard, than the serious Gerald Green. In the All-Star game, other than the poorly designed uniforms and the abundance of turnovers, the action was competitive and great at the end. It was exciting to see Ray Allen steal the game away from the West when Chris Paul was leading them to a come-back after being down by ~10 points for most of the game. Somehow LeBron James racked up some serious stats under the radar and was named the game’s MVP. Personally I thought Ray Allen should have received the honours after coming off the bench, knocking down 26 points, and winning the game single-handedly, but stats are stats.

Well that concludes the All-Star weekend summary, and I look forward to seeing how the US team fares in the Olympics in Beijing.

written by tofu \\ tags: NBA, Sports

Well it looks like Canada’s capital came up short in the NHL playoffs, while California enjoys the spotlight. The NHL playoffs were decent this year, but the NBA playoffs is where my real interest resides. Tonight it’s game two of the NBA finals with the San Antonio Spurs, clearly routing the Cleveland team, both offensively and defensively. They can’t even hit their free throws! Unless Cleveland can totally dominate at home, I don’t see King James having the slightest chance of winning the series and the championship. San Antonio has been in the finals so many times, and as long as they maintain their composure, a sweep is not so far fetched.

In other sports news, the Formula One payed a visit to Montreal where Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso were looking to break their tie for the lead. Hamilton was the fastest and most consistent of the day so he managed to walk away with the win. The big news of the race was the crash of Robert Kubica who went head on into a barrier before a hairpin at 180mph! The most amazing part is that he may have come away from the crash unscathed. I’ve never seen an F1 car explode, but that car exploded in fragments of carbon fiber. The medical staff hasn’t released full information on Kubica’s status but they say he should be released on Monday. When I saw the crash happen it looked so surreal and jaw-dropping that I was sure Kubica would have been clinging to his life after impact. Thank goodness for F1 engineers and safety regulations!

So it looks like I lost the bet for the NHL series and I’m most likely going to be disappointed when San Antonio wins, so it’s definitely not a good year for my predictions. On top of it all, if Lewis Hamilton keeps driving so confidently, my new main man Alonso will be left in the dust!

written by tofu