The Boston Bruins are on home ice, and looking to take a commanding 3-1 series lead in the Stanley Cup Finals tonight against the Chicago Blackhawks. The historical track record of Finals suggests that while Game 3 per se doesn’t mean a whole lot, coming from 3-1 down hasn’t happened since 1942, at least not […]
Unlike the first two games, which were fraught with missed opportunities, intrigue and storylines layered upon one another, this was pretty straightforward. While it would be a stretch to say the Bruins dominated, they maintained reasonable control of the game, got both goals in the second period and then coasted in relatively free of drama.
The legacy of LeBron James begins a two-part test tonight in Game 6 of the NBA Finals. If the Miami Heat lose tonight, and the San Antonio Spurs wrap up the NBA title in six games the blame in this series will be placed on LeBron’s shoulders. Unlike a lot of cases, where that blame is woefully misplaced and rooted in absurd expectations, there’s no denying that LeBron’s on-again, off-again play is the biggest reason his team has lost three of the first five games to the Spurs.
The 2013 NBA Finals continue on their trajectory to be the best bad series ever played. Once again, the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs tantalized us with the promise of an exciting finish, only to see one team completely take over the game in the latter stages of the third quarter. This time it was San Antonio, who won Game 5 on their home floor in a not-as-close-as-it-sounds 114-104 win.
If the first two games of the Stanley Cup Finals have been any indication, get ready for a long Monday night. The Chicago Blackhawks and Boston Bruins hook up for Game 3 of the Finals, and the first two have seen a combined four overtime sessions. The series is tied at a game apiece, and tonight’s battle in Boston will begin at 8 PM ET on NBC Sports Network.
NBC is getting its money’s worth from these Stanley Cup Finals. After a three-overtime opener on Wednesday won by the Chicago Blackhawks, the network got another round of extra advertising time last night, as it took the Boston Bruins nearly fifteen minutes into overtime to get a 2-1 win that evens the series.
The struggles of the Washington Nationals has been one of baseball’s big surprises in the first half of the 2013 MLB season. The Nats are a .500 club, with a 33-33 record and 5 ½ games behind the Atlanta Braves in the NL East. Washington is 6 ½ out of a wild-card slot.
The Oakland A’s are atop the AL West, and coming into Saturday’s games, are tied with the Boston Red Sox for the best record in the American League overall. The A’s might not be the Cinderella story they were a year ago, when they outlasted the Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Angels to win the division, but Oakland is still a team with a lot of no-names. So our MLB coverage takes a closer look at how Billy Beane’s team is still doing it in 2013.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is headed for Michigan International Raceway on Sunday for the Quicken Loans 400 (1 PM ET, TNT). There are 12 races between now and the beginning of the postseason, so TheSportsNotebook is going to step back and take a bigger-picture look at how the season is shaping up.
What a weekend of championship action across the sports spectrum is ahead. From hoops to hockey to golf to baseball. From the rains of Merion to the fields of Omaha, to the Riverwalk of San Antonio to the shores of Lake Michigan, the stakes are high. Okay, enough melodrama, let’s get to the weekend in daily sports TV action, going one time slot at a time…
The Miami Heat faced yet another huge test in these NBA Finals, trying to avoid going down 3-1 in games to the San Antonio Spurs. The Heat delivered in a big way, playing sound basketball throughout, hitting the boards and finally pulling away in the fourth quarter to get a 109-93 win in Game 4 and even this series at two games apiece.
Friday has a pretty quiet schedule for TV daily sports. Unless, that is, you’re a golf-lover, and you can spend all day watching the second day of the U.S. Open on ESPN. Or, if you’re stuck at work, just make sure you don’t know the results and then tune into the same network at 8 PM ET for a “Best of the U.S. Open” feature.
