Cue Cards is a series designed to assist with the common small talk about high-profile recent sporting events that is so omnipresent in the workplace, the bar, and other social settings.
Yesterday — Tuesday, September 9
- U.S. Basketball Advances — It seems more and more like neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night will stay our national basketball team from its appointed FIBA Basketball World Cup championship matchup with Spain. Slovenia fought the good fight but by the third quarter, the U.S. team had run them ragged. The final score was United States 119, Slovenia 79. In the other quarterfinal, Lithuania toppled Turkey 73 to 61. Serbia plays Brazil today at noon ET and France plays Spain at 4 p.m. ET. You can catch those games on ESPN3.
Line: Rooting for the U.S. team is an exercise in rooting for the other team to keep it exciting for the first three quarters and then, if necessary, rooting for the U.S. in the fourth quarter. - Game two of the WNBA Finals — Okay, truthfully, almost no sports fans that you bump into during the day today will be talking about this. But they should be, so here’s a few facts you can use to get the conversation started. The finals are a best three out of five series between the Chicago Sky and the Phoenix Mercury. Game two was last night and the Mercury won big, beating the Sky 97 to 68. This was the single largest margin of victory in WNBA finals history. The Mercury are also on a 20 game winning streak which started before the playoffs even begun. Phoenix stars Diana Taurasi at point guard and Brittney Griner who plays center. During last night’s game, “Chicago scratched Brittney Griner across the eyelid, chipped one of her teeth and bloodied her lip.” She barely missed any playing time and finished the game with 19 points, six rebounds, and four blocks. After the game, her teammate Candice Dupree reported that, Griner’s teammates, “huddled around her, and were saying, ‘Come on, BG, you’re all right.’ Sometimes you gotta give people tough love. I think, emotionally, it would have gotten to her last year. If nothing is broken and you’re not bleeding to death, then you’re OK.” Game three is on Friday night, 8 p.m. ET on ESPN2.
Line: Hey, did you watch game two of the WNBA finals last night? Heck of a game… [insert factoid from above] Want to get together to watch game three on Friday?