JUNE 4-JUNE 10 *The biggest news in sports this week is on the ice, as the Los Angeles Kings are in position to win their first Stanley Cup. Already up 2-0 in games, they host the New Jersey Devils on Monday and Wednesday. If the Devils can survive, the series goes back East on Saturday […]
LeBron James was smiling Saturday night. Sorry, Cleveland fans.
His Miami Heat had just eliminated the Boston Celtics in game seven of the Eastern Conference Finals, and he was the biggest reason. James was everything he’s supposed to be: an unstoppable force on the offensive end, a menacing defensive presence, and a man whose charisma and effortlessness in pretty much everything he does leaves you shaking your head.
For most of us, like him or hate him, that shaking of the head is out of respect and admiration at least. But for Cleveland fans… Oh, Cleveland fans
The New Jersey Devils stayed alive in the Stanley Cup Finals last night with a 2-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings, a victory that moved them to within 3-2 in the series, and sent a clear message that the words “Game On” now apply to the Cup Final after Los Angeles first came in as the favorite and then won three quick games. That’s the basic storyline. What’s not noted is that the Kings have not been playing well the entire series.
The Boston Celtics did a lot of what they needed to do on Saturday night in Miami for Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals. They shot the ball well, at 47 percent from the floor. They had balanced scoring from all five starters, and a triple-double from Rajon Rondo at 22 points/10 rebounds/14 assists. They had Miami in a jump-shooting contest for extended periods as the more athletic Heat inexplicably launched 26 treys (and they only made nine lest you think this was a team afire). And they had a one-point lead with eight minutes to go. When all that happens, and you still lose, there’s not much to do but acknowledge the best team in the Eastern Conference advanced, and that’s ultimately what happened as Miami pulled away with a 101-88 win.
The Texas Rangers had moved into sluggish mode lately after their outstanding start. Now they’ve officially upgraded that to struggling. The AL West leaders just played three straight series against their division rivals and lost all three, including dumping three of four to heretofore struggling Oakland. The Rangers’ record is now at 34-25—obviously still a solid season by any measurement, but no longer enough to have the rest of the league far in the rearview mirror, and the race is on in the AL West.
The Belmont Stakes had a lot of wind taken out its sails this morning by the announcement that I’ll Have Another will not run, due to an injury in his tendons. There will be no Triple Crown winner and this year’s Belmont now has the feel of the 1994 NBA Finals. That was the first of the two-year sabbatical Michael Jordan took to play baseball. It was exciting and I enjoyed it, but you also knew that it took unique circumstances to open the door for the Houston Rockets and New York Knicks in June ’94. Standing in the role of Hakeem Olajuown and Patrick Ewing, are going to be Dullahan and Union Rags, the new favorites on Saturday. The ’94 Finals were also marked by the interruption of Game 5 to see O.J. Simpson driving his White Bronco down the freeway to escape the police. I have no idea who’s going to stand in for that, but surely some celeb can step up and make it happen.
The drivers of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series make their way to the Pocono Mountains of northeast Pennsylvania on Sunday afternoon for the 14th race of the 36-race schedule, and they do so with the top of the standings getting tighter with each passing week.Matt Kenseth’s third-place finish last week in Dover moved him to within a point of standings leader Greg Biffle, the closest Kenseth has been the top since he kicked the year off by winning the Daytona 500. Biffle struggled to 11th, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. also took advantage to move to within ten points.
It’s no secret that the St. Louis Cardinals are struggling. They’ve got injuries and the pitching that is healthy just isn’t very good, either in the rotation or the bullpen. Since the middle of May they’ve been plummeting in the standings, now in third place in the NL Central, trailing both the Cincinnati Reds and the Pittsburgh Pirates. But they got a couple wins over Houston the last two nights to get back over .500 at 30-28, they’ll start getting players returning from the disabled list in the next couple weeks and possibly more after the All-Star break. And this offense has been absolutely fearsome, even when not entirely whole.
LeBron James gave one of the great playoff performances of his career—or anyone’s career for that matter—last night in Boston Garden, as the Miami Heat beat the Boston Celtics 98-79 and set up a decisive seventh game in the Eastern Conference Finals back in South Beach on Saturday night. James dropped 45 points, grabbed 15 rebounds and ensured the Heat had the game in control from the outset.
If there was anything we could count on when the baseball season opened it’s that the Detroit Tigers were a mortal lock to win the AL Central. There might have been debate over whether they could win a pennant and a World Series—no one said they were better than the Rangers, Angels, Yankees or Phillies. But all of those teams had real-life competition in their divisions. Detroit did not. So the story went. But now we sit here with the games of June 7 about to start in the next few minutes and the Tigers are staring at a 26-31 record and are 5.5 games off the lead. It’s not that the deficit is insurmountable—heck, they could be in first by the All-Star break. But it’s that Detroit has dug themselves this hole without anyone else having to be great. What’s gone wrong?
The Oklahoma City Thunder continued to exploit one persistent flaw of the San Antonio Spurs as they turned a 63-48 halftime deficit into a 107-99 win that wrapped up the Western Conference Finals in six games and completed a stunning turnabout where the Spurs went from coronated champs to losers of four straight.
The New Jersey Devils kept their focus and kept playing the solid team defense that’s characterized their work in these Stanley Cup Finals and it finally paid off with a victory as the pulled away from the Los Angeles Kings in a 3-1 win at the Staples Center Wednesday night. With the Kings still needing just one more win in the next three games it’s almost certainly just a stay of execution, but it was something Jersey could feel could about and it’s pointed to areas Los Angeles needs to improve if they’re close out this championship without giving their fans a heart attack.