All four second-round matchups in the NBA playoffs are knotted at a game apiece, and now it’s up to the underdogs (Golden State, Memphis, Indiana, Chicago) to prove they can defend their home floor as the venues shift for the middle games that start on Friday night. Other than the Bulls, the other three underdogs give the feel of being in control of their series none more so than Golden State.
All four playoff teams from the NHL’s Northeast Division are playing each other in the first round of the playoffs and both series are now on the brink of ending. The Boston Bruins and Ottawa Senators each got Game 4 wins that gave them 3-1 series leads. TheSportsNotebook’s review of each NHL playoff series will begin with these two matchups
Today, TheSportsNotebook will take a snapshot look at Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Milwaukee, assess how each has looked through the first 5 ½ weeks of the season and what might lie ahead.
Every first-round series in the NHL playoffs has completed three games and two of them are four deep, but only might end in elimination over the course of the next two nights. That’s San Jose-Vancouver, where the Canucks stand on the verge of yet another playoff flameout. The self-induced failure of Vancouver will lead our overview of all eight first-round matchups and an assessment of where they stand.
Fourth-quarter comebacks, upsets and near-upsets marked the opening games of the NBA’s second round and nowhere was it more dramatic than last night in Miami. The Chicago Bulls took their wounded talents to South Beach and came up with a 93-86 upset over the Miami Heat, and it’s there that our NBA commentary will start as we look at what the four Game 1s might mean for each overall series.
After a three-game sweep over the previously sizzling Boston Red Sox, the Rangers are now 20-11 and atop the American League West. Today we’ll look at how they’re getting it done and what this means for the 21 weeks of baseball still ahead.
Chicago and Pittsburgh are the heavy co-favorites for the Stanley Cup and each has responded differently in its first two games. The Blackhawks are in command, the Penguins are facing a challenge and both will be in the NBC spotlight on Sunday afternoon when the postseason’s sequence of Game 3s begins at noon EST. We’ll start with these two teams and then move through the other six NHL playoff matchups.
We’ll recap a truly great win for the Bulls, and then look ahead to the Indiana-New York & Chicago-Miami matchups.
The second round of the NBA playoffs starts on Sunday, and the Western Conference is pared down to conference semifinals of Oklahoma City-Memphis & San Antonio-Golden State. The former series starts tomorrow, the latter on Monday and here today we’ll preview both.
The St. Louis Cardinals keep churning out wins with a machine-like efficiency. The franchise with two World Series titles in the past eight years to go with another NLCS appearance last season, is off to the best record in the National League, with an 18-11 mark coming into Saturday’s games. TheSportsNotebook’s MLB coverage will look at what they’re doing well and where the potential pitfalls might come from.
If Tony Stewart is going to make a move in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, the three-time champion might want to consider doing so sooner rather than later. As the drivers come to Talladega Superspeedway for Sunday’s Aaron’s 499 (1 PM ET, Fox), Stewart is in a big hole.
It looked like the NBA might be headed for a weekend of drama, with six first-round series having potential Game 7s and three of them needing only the home team to hold serve in Game 6. But close-outs were the theme of Thursday and Friday night, and only Brooklyn-Chicago will reach a decisive seventh game. We’ll run through the six games of the last two nights, starting with Nets-Bulls.