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seven in the morning

Tiger WoodsCharlie Riedel

The line between triumph and tragedy in the playoffs is incredibly thin. In Vancover this morning Canucks fans will doubtless wake up -- if they were ever able to sleep -- happy and hopeful, believing that they are another big step closer in a playoff run that may end with a Stanley Cup celebration. And yet their three games against the Nashville Predators have each been decided by a goal, two of them ending in overtime.

In Washington right now those close to Capitals' owner Ted Leonsis are probably secretly removing anything with a sharp edge from around the mansion and leaving nothing but shoes without laces in the closets. The Capitals -- like the Canucks -- are a team for the moment, yet they have to climb a cliff to even think about a Stanely Cup this spring, even though they've lost their three games by a total of four goals, one in overtime and twice while having the lead.

There's nothing fluky about either set of results, but just a reminder about the razor edge that is playoff life, or death.

1. Panic in Washington

There was a great quote from one of the crowd -- bolstered by hockey fans coming from the MCI Center -- that gathered outside the White House on Monday night after the news of Osama Bin Laden's death. A Caps fan said they'd trade an overtime loss for the death of America's arch-enemy any day. I wonder how that guy feels now, with the Ovechkin's on the verge of a second-round playoff exit at the hands of the Tampa Bay Lightning? Puck Daddy -- and Caps head coach Bruce Boudreau -- on a team on the edge: "We panicked a little bit from behind," said Boudreau. "But that comes when you're down 2-0 in a series."

They're a team that knows how to close, and the Capitals are a team prone to panic and press. This is not a healthy combination for Washington.

In the first two periods of Games 1-3, the Capitals averaged 12.8 shots. In the third, the Lightning have limited them to five shots in each of those games and one goal - Ovechkin's tying tally to force overtime in Game 2.

No such heroics tonight for Ovechkin - who had a goal, an assist and an inspired performance from a guy wearing the 'C' - or any of his teammates. Tampa and Dwayne Roloson(notes) shut the door, and moved one win away from their first conference finals appearance since 2004.

The Capitals showed moments of resiliency, overcoming a 1-0 deficit with a dominant second period that included their first power-play goal of the series by Ovechkin on a 5-on-3. Goalie Michal Neuvirth(notes) kept them in the game with some acrobatic saves.

But it all goes back to something Vinny Lecavalier, who scored his fifth of the playoffs in Game 3, told us after Game 2: "They seem very determined. They just weren't opportunists."

For all the hype, all the expectations, all the long-term contracts, all the face-time on HBO, all the Winter Classic swag, all the popularity, all the proclamations that this time it'll be different, the Washington Capitals couldn't seize on their opportunities to avoid a 3-0 hole.

Instead, they're one loss away from another semifinal ouster. From a real conversation about their beloved coach's fate. From questions about their heart. From another summer wondering how it all went to hell in the span of 24 seconds

2. Blake Griffin; rookie of the ages:

It seems ridiculous to suggest there's some kind of changing of the guard going on in the NBA in the sense that two-time MVP LeBron James is just 26 and is theoretically still in ascendance. But Derrick Rose dethroned James as the league's MVP at age 22, becoming the youngest ever to win the award and Blake Griffin of the Los Angeles Clippers is looking like he'll be contending for the NBA's top individual honour soon enough. He'll be accepting rookie-of-the-year honours before that: Griffin was not simply the best rookie in the NBA this year. He was a rookie, for the years.

"Once he made the All-Star team and averaged numbers as a rookie that no one has done since Larry Bird, I don't know if Rookie of the Year even does it justice," said Clippers general manager Neil Olshey.

"I think he'll be thrilled with it. I know it was a goal of his coming into the year. It was something we were hoping for him because of how hard he worked to get back [from a knee injury that cost him the 2010 season] but I think he's transcended rookie status and become one of the upper-echelon power forwards in the league."

Only a handful of players have had as big of an impact on the NBA in their inaugural seasons: Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, David Robinson, Ralph Sampson, Tim Duncan, Magic Johnson and Bird come to mind.

After completing his second triple-double in [the Clippers']season finale against the Memphis Grizzlies, Griffin finished with averages of 22.5 points, 12.1 rebounds and 3.7 assists.

That compares equally or favorably to Bird (21.3, 10.4, 4.5), Robinson (24.3, 12.0, 2.0), Johnson (18.0, 7.7, 7.3), Sampson (20.9, 11.3, 2.0) and Duncan (21.1, 11.9, 2.7).

You have to look to Chamberlain's astronomical 37.6 points, 27.0 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 1959-60 and Abdul-Jabbar's 28.8, 14.5 and 4.1 in 1969-70 to find rookies who were markedly better than Griffin.

3. A contract extension for Alex Anthopoulos?

Geez, it feels like the Toronto Blue Jays' boy wonder general manager just showed up, but he's been on the job nearly two years and has had more hits than misses. Toronto Sun baseball columnist Bob Elliott has seen them come and go and thinks Anthopoulos is a keeper and worth locking up: His Blue Jays had won 98 times against 92 losses heading into Tuesday night's game in St. Petersburg.

His predecessor, J.P. Riccardi, was hired Nov. 14, 2001 and 347 days later, as the 2002 regular season closed, was given a five-year extension by CEO Paul Godfrey.

Now, CEO Paul Beeston should move into the same extension world and give one to Anthopoulos.

Ricciardi's mandate was to slash salary which he did.

Anthopoulos was asked to restore order and turn the Jays in the right direction - towards the glory years when Beeston's on-field product was so good all he had to do was make sure the Rogers Centre doors were open at 5 p.m. and the Jays would draw four million.

Which Anthopoulos has.

It hasn't been all good. The demotion of Travis Snider sure looked reactionary and ditto for kicking lefty reliever David Purcey off the team bus after the Jays blew a 7-0 lead last month in Seattle. Purcey threw 16 pitches, 12 of them balls.

Patience wasn't shown in either case. The Snider demotion, after 99 plate appearances, looked like the Jays - probably a .500 team this season - were half a game out and needed a bat, in a hurry, to get over the hump.

Still, Anthopoulos' total portfolio deserves to be rewarded.

4. Jose Bautista, student-athlete:

Yes, I have a man-crush on Jose Bautista; there's just something about the way he carries himself in a first class manner while consistenly blowing away expectations. Call me crazy. Anyway, a nice story here by Sportsnet's Shi Davidi that goes a little deeper into how the Jays' slugger has managed to raise his game even as he's become the focus of other team's game planning. Read it and you realize how much preparation goes into those four or five at bats each night.: The story told over and over during his monster 54-homer breakout last year was how hitting coach Dwayne Murphy and former manager Cito Gaston taught Bautista to get his swing started earlier, keying the slugger's newfound success. Mechanically, that adjustment did indeed mark the turning point in his career.

But it's only half the tale.

Untold is the pivotal and complementary role Bautista's revised pre-game preparation plan is playing in his transformation from run-of-the-mill journeyman to elite offensive force, and why his success has a strong chance of continuing.

A good student growing up back home in the Dominican Republic right through his days at Chipola Junior College, Bautista takes a scholar's approach to his analysis of opposing pitchers. Incorporating input from Gaston, Murphy and former teammate Vernon Wells last year, he now dissects video with a thoroughness that would make even the most meticulous CIA analysts blush.

"I look at tendencies," Bautista says. "I look at how they attack power hitters, how they pitch with runners on base, how their delivery is from the stretch and from the windup, the tempo - timing is big for me so I try to make sure that I got the rhythm down of every pitcher because everybody has got a different speed that they work at.

"I see what they want to go for when they want a first-pitch strike, what pitch they go to when there's a favourable count for the hitter and they need a strike, what they do with men in scoring position, what they use for a strikeout pitch.

"I try to have a nice idea of what the pitcher might try to do to get me out. I kind of put myself in their shoes and look at things from the other side."

That attention to detail is the reason why rather than regress following his breakout year, Bautista is actually improving. Not only is he beating the opposition physically, he's learned to outthink his rivals, too.

Bautista took a .357 average - nearly 100 points higher than his previous career-best of .260 established last year - along with an OBP of .530 and slugging percentage of .762 into Tuesday's series opener with the host Tampa Bay Rays. Add in his nine homers, 16 RBIs, 25 runs and 30 walks, and it looks he has a beer-league softball stats line.

"The preparation he goes through and the intelligence he has as a person and a player," is what sticks out most for new manager John Farrell. "His awareness in the game, particularly in how opposing pitchers are trying to attack him, has been more than I thought."

5. Don't forget about the Oklahoma City Thunder

Okay, that's more of a reminder to myself than anything else, but with so much focus on the Heat, Celtics, Bulls, Lakers, Mavericks and to a certain extent the upstart Memphis Grizzlies, it's easy to overlook the Thunder, who are a young team yet already deep in the playoffs for the second straight year. And while they have MVP candidate Kevin Durant and emerging star Russell Westbrook, when their depth starts getting props, you know they're a team to be reckoned with: They ask you to be patient in Oklahoma City. Implore you, really. They don't get too high here, not after back-to-back 50-win seasons and a trip to the second round. Just like they didn't get too low when the team was enduring a nightmarish 20-win campaign with Seattle in 2007-08 or battling through a 3-29 start to the '08-'09 season.

This is a process, they tell you. Over and over and over again.

But that process has never looked as close to completion as it did Tuesday night, when the Thunder evened their second-round series with Memphis with a convincing 111-102 win. It had the usual highlights. Kevin Durant popped in 26 points, Russell Westbrook rebounded from a tough Game 1 with 24 points and six assists and the trio of Kendrick Perkins, Serge Ibaka and Nick Collison held Zach Randolph to just 15 points -- on 2-13 shooting.

The big names were good. The smaller names were even better. There was Collison bumping and grinding with Randolph in the third quarter while Ibaka was dinged up with a knee injury. There was James Harden pouring in 21 points on nine -- repeat, nine -- shots and standing nose to chest with 6-foot-9, 225-pound Darrell Arthur -- after Arthur shot one too many elbows in his direction. There was Eric Maynor, who turned Westbrook into a well-paid cheerleader in the fourth quarter, finishing up a 15-point night (on 6-7 shooting).

"That's what they have done all year," said Thunder coach Scott Brooks. "They do a good job of catching up or extending leads. They were outstanding tonight."

6. Sean Foley will have more time to spend with Tiger now:

Canada's most famous swing coach has been dusted by one of his key clients as Sean O'Hair has decided that rinsing Foley -- who also coaches Tiger Woods, among others -- will help turn around a tough season. O'Hair had previously parted ways with Brennan Little, the Canadian caddy who worked for Mike Weir for 13 years, so no Canadian Open exemptions for him! O'Hair, who has missed his past five cuts and has not finished among the top 20 all year, has decided to split with Sean Foley after a relationship that began nearly three years ago in the Canadian Open.

During their time together, O'Hair won the Quail Hollow Championship and played in the Presidents Cup. But whatever had been going right started going very wrong this year, and it was time for a change.

O'Hair fired caddie Paul Tesori at the end of last year, and recently split up with caddie Brennan Little. Foley was next to go.

"He hasn't been happy with how this year has gone, and he feels he needs to make a change in direction with his instruction," Foley said Tuesday. "We had a good run up until the 2011 season. Sean is a good friend of mine. I love the kid. But this is business. I don't look at it from an emotional standpoint but a rationale standpoint.

"He has to do what's good for his career," Foley said. "He'll have my complete support, and I'll always cheer for him."

Foley more famously began working with Tiger Woods in August, and his stable includes Hunter Mahan, Justin Rose and Stephen Ames. For O'Hair, it was not an issue of time with the coach as much as it was wanting to change.

"What worked so well for so long ... you keep doing the same thing and it doesn't work as well," Foley said. "It's like in the NBA. You win a championship one year, two years later the coach gets fired for having a losing record. That's the business."

7. Chris Bosh sues mother of his child

The fact that there is even a show called Basketball Wives -- a vehicle where some wives but also girlfriends, former girlfriends and ex-wives air details of what it's like to be 'with' a professional athlete -- suggests that being a professional athlete is complicated. Chris Bosh's former girlfriend and mother of his daughter is supposed to be on the upcoming third season of the show and Bosh is attempting to prevent that via the courts. Bosh is suing Allison Mathis, the mother of his daughter Trinity Meyers Mathis, who is set to star in the third season of the VH1 reality show Basketball Wives, for infringing his trademark and publicity rights, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The show's producer, Shed Media, is also a co-defendant.

The lawsuit filed on Monday in California District Court indicates that the VH1 series doesn't portray actual wives of basketball players. Instead, most of the women portrayed are divorced, currently dating or have previously dated NBA players. Mathis and Bosh were never married.

Bosh is claiming the defendants are commercially exploiting his "likeness and trademark."

"The use of Plaintiff's name by Defendants is primarily commercial and not communicative," the lawsuit reads. "Further, the show, Basketball Wives, is not transformative, but rather the use, depiction, or imitation of celebrity NBA basketball players, including Plaintiff, is the very sum and substance of the show."

Bosh says his consent is required when using his mark (his name), and the show will likely fool the audience into thinking he endorsed the series.

The Miami star is also claiming that the program has wrongfully "converted his life rights," providing personal information about himself that may be harmful to his public persona and the commercial value of those "life rights."

Bosh is also suing the defendants for intruding upon his private home life.

Basketball Wives was created by Shaunie O'Neal, the ex-wife of Celtics big man Shaquille O'Neal, who Bosh is facing in the second round of the NBA playoffs. Season three of the VH1 series is currently being filmed and is slated to premiere May 30.

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