The NBA Finals came to an end last night. As the Golden State Warriors locked up their first championship in forty years, I was instead watching a last-place baseball team in action. A family outing to Miller Park for a Brewers-Royals game was on the agenda. So as luck would have it, the clinching game […]
There were three moment that stand out in the Chicago Blackhawks’ 2-0 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning that secured Chicago’s third Stanley Cup in sixth years. *In the second period of a scoreless game, Tampa Bay star Steven Stamkos had a breakaway against Corey Crawford. Stamkos seemed to do most everything right, juking with […]
Game 5 of the NBA Finals was the best one of the series, providing us with both a close game most of the way and one where both teams and both stars played well. With five minutes to go this was still a one-point game, until Golden State finally found a burst and was able […]
Modern technology let me down in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Last night, a day and a half long battle with back spasms had me drained, so I just set the DVR to record the Chicago-Tampa Bay game and figured I’d watch this morning before my usual Sunday routine of church and doing […]
After spending the first three games wildly jacking up threes and mostly missing, the Golden State Warriors came back last night in Game 4 with a more comprehensive team approach that looked a little more like actual basketball, and the results spoke for themselves—a 103-82 win that tie up the NBA Finals 2-2 and regained […]
Stanley Cups are won and lost every year when one goalie takes at least a game or two in the Finals and invites his team to hop on his back. It might be a stretch to say Blackhawk goalie Corey Crawford single-handedly produced his team’s series-tying 2-1 win in Game 4 over the Tampa Bay […]
There’s one overriding thought that’s going through my mind as I watch these NBA Finals. It lingered in the first couple games and came out full-bore during Golden State’s third-quarter meltdown in last night, what ultimately cost them in a 96-91 loss to Cleveland in Game 3. That thought is this—what’s all the fuss about […]
Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals was the best one yet. All three games between Chicago and Tampa Bay have been one-goal games, with the corresponding game-end drama. But this was the first game that combined the up-and-down tempo that had been predicted, a high quality of play and still had plenty of drama. […]
The stat line tells you LeBron James had a dazzling 39 points/16 rebounds/11 assists. And for much of the night he really was good—not great, because those points came on 11-of-35 shooting, but terrific in distributing the ball. But I can’t ever recall watching a great player turn into as much of a train wreck […]
The play was much more aggressive in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals then it had been in Wednesday’s series opener, and that was reflected in the goal totals, as Tampa Bay nipped Chicago 4-3 to the series at a game apiece. But the more you dig into the numbers, the more it’s apparent […]
Saturday will be the 13th time since 1978 that a horse has come to the Belmont Stakes with a shot at the Triple Crown. The 12 previous times have seen those horses finish in second place four times, including Smarty Jones’ near-miss in 2004. They have finished in-the-money eight times. But in none of those […]
Those of us who picked Cleveland to win the NBA Finals have to answer this question—if the Cavs couldn’t get a road win on a night when LeBron dropped 44 and Cleveland’s inside personnel decisively won the battle against Golden State and when the Warriors were clearly tight for a quarter-plus, then when exactly does […]
