An advice column for people who live with people who live for sports
What happened on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2014?
British Premier League stays true to form: “True to form” is English for “the teams with more money and a longer history of winning, won.” That’s what happened yesterday in British Premier League soccer. Chelsea beat Tottenham Hotspur 3-0 to extend their lead from the second place team in the league. Manchester City beat Sunderland 4-1, mostly just for fun. The only game that could have been construed as surprising and exciting was Arsenal beating Southampton 1-0. Arsenal is definitely the side (team) with the longer history of winning but Southampton was actually ahead of them in the standings when the day started. Line: Lots of fireworks but no surprises in the BPL… which I guess is what you want when you play with fireworks but not so much when you’re a sports fan watching sports.
76ers win a game, avoid history: The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Minnesota Timberwolves last night to improve their record from 0-17 to 1-17. That might not seem important to you, but if they had lost that game, they would have tied the (then New Jersey, now Brooklyn) Nets’ record for futility to start a season. Philadelphia is widely thought to be tanking or losing on purpose to improve their draft status for the next year. I think it was just a combination of luck and motivation (and a weakened opponent) that led them to win their 18th game, but if I were really cynical, I could say it was because they literally were not trying to win during the first 17. Line: 76ers win! 76ers win! 76ers… oh.
Duke goes to Wisconsin to win: Duke’s men’s basketball team shot 60% in the first half of last night’s big game against the Wisconsin Badgers. That’s almost unconscionably good. It’s very difficult to imagine any team being able to keep up when their opponent is shooting 60% but Wisconsin very nearly did. At halftime, Wisconsin was only down by three points. That’s the positive that they’ll have to take from this game, that they could play with Duke even when Duke was on (figurative) fire. Line: I’d love to see those teams meet during March Madness!
