Friday 05/22 A.M. Quickie:Nuggets, Peavy, Yankees, Marve, Maryland

So between my Nuggets in 6 and Magic in 6 picks, this week may represent the best it'll get for me. Then again, both picks may turn out to be right.

Leading today's SN column, the Nuggets have now out-played the Lakers in BOTH their games, with a split in LA to show for it -- which is pretty incredible, given LA's dominance over Denver in the playoffs in LA. Now the series goes to Denver, and -- guess what -- advantage Nuggets.

(And the Nuggets didn't even play all that well! That's what makes last night even more incredible -- they basically gritted their way to a win in LA. The Nuggets...gritty? Billups for MVP.)

Meanwhile...

*When Jake Peavy turned down a trade to the White Sox, the only thing I could think of was Barack Obama -- the uber-Sox fan -- making a call to the IRS asking them to give Peavy's 2008 tax returns a "no-trade, this" audit.

*The Yankees are the hottest team in baseball? Ugh. The Red Sox are proving that the Jays don't have what it takes to sustain over the long haul -- Toronto will be out of first by the end of May, and they won't see it again.

*I'll take the Robert Marve news (cram it, Kiffin) over Brett Favre non-news. Marve will do great at Purdue -- the offense is as wide-open as it gets for a QB.

*Lance Stephenson going to...Maryland? Let's just assume that the Under Armour shoe deal happens the minute he finishes his freshman season and declares for the NBA Draft. He won't go to Arizona -- it's too remote. Maryland is smack dab on the East Coast Biased, ACC-loving national radar, and they have a gaping hole at "superstar" that Lance will fulfill.

Longtime readers know that I am a Maryland hoops fan -- that was my childhood hoops team. For some reason -- probably my natural contrarianism -- I wasn't into Georgetown back in the mid-1980s...my nostalgic appreciation for the Hoyas only developed in my 20s...but growing up on the Maryland side of suburban DC, I was a huge Maryland hoops fan. Len Bias was my original sports-fan consciousness, although I found Keith Gatlin to be more accessible -- Bias was simply too larger-than-life athletic. For the record, college hoops is the only sport where I maintain the complete troika of allegiances: Childhood (Maryland), College (Northwestern), Whatever-We're-Going-To-Call-It (Florida).

Complete column here. More later, including an update on one of my weird fascinations, the UFL. Enjoy the long weekend, everyone.

-- D.S.