Filowitz's Friday Five

1) Only three NFL games left in the season. As good as the playoffs have been, and as good as this weekend promises to be, it’s always kind of sad to think that in just three weeks, there will be no football on Sundays. What other excuse do I have to go to a bar and drink on Sundays? If I’m not watching football and I’ve been drinking all Sunday afternoon, that just makes me a drunk.

2) The Chargers have absolutely nothing to lose this Sunday. They’re not supposed to beat the Patriots, so if they don’t, they won’t be criticized or face undue scrutiny. So they should feel free to play all-out, take risks, and just give it everything. That could make things a little interesting. It probably won’t be interesting, though. The Pats are too good. They’re not losing to a Chargers team that has most of their good players hurt. The Colts would have been a much better game to watch. So the only way this game is watchable is if the Chargers decide to say “f it” and play insane and inspired, and catch the Pats finally feeling the pressure of the undefeated season.

3) The Giants have absolutely nothing to lose this Sunday. They already have gone farther than anyone expected them to this year. Nobody really expects them to go into Green Bay and win (besides delusional Giants fans, like two who write for this blog, for example, who have twisted themselves into pretzels convincing themselves and anyone who will listen that Eli Manning is a great quarterback because he played decent in two playoff games. Keep up the good fight against the “haters”, guys. You all sound completely rational. Really.). So they, too, should feel free to play loose and take risks. Though it will be hard to play loose and free when the temperature will be in single digits. No single part of your body can be loose and free when it’s that f’ing cold.

4) Hey, did anyone notice that the Knicks won three games in a row? Against good teams? And they’ve been playing really well in the last six or seven games? Like, by moving the ball and getting assists and not taking as many ridiculously bad shots? And by giving at least a professional effort at playing defense? This is so confusing, making the season even more surreal than it has been so far. And it’s not likely to last, since Isiah is still in charge, after all. If you’ve heard the dumb trade rumors that have been floating around (Crawford for Larry Hughes, or Randolph for Vilanueva, Simmons, and Gadzuric, amongst other garbage) then you know there’s still plenty of time to f things up even worse than they already are. But, hey, a winning streak is a winning streak, and the Knicks haven’t had one since summer league.

5) Have I mentioned lately how awesome it is to have NBA League Pass? In a given week, I can flip around to see LeBron drop 51 on Memphis (and Rudy Gay go over 30, he’s having a good year on a crap team), the Wizards beat the Celtics for the second time (Caron Butler is becoming one of my favorite players), Sam Cassell turn back the clock for a night to put up 32pt, 6 reb, 7 ast against Phoenix, and hear a game or two called by Clyde. I get to see the resurgence of the NBA on a nightly basis. And rest assured, the league is in about as good a shape in terms of talent spread across many teams as its been in a decade. I think I need to start a new column on this blog to highlight all of this for you fine people (to go along with the Disciples of Clyde NBA podcast, which I hope you’ve been listening to.) So I will.