An advice column for people who live with people who live for sports
What happened on Thursday, April 2, 2015?
Harder to win without LeBron James: The Miami Heat have been either the NBA Champion or the runner-up in each of the last four years. That was when they had LeBron James on their team. This season, LeBron James has been playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers, and they look like they’re going to make the finals. The Heat, meanwhile are struggling to just make the playoffs. Last night’s loss against James’ new team, the Cavaliers, drops the Heat to a tie with Boston for the last playoff spot. Line: Hard to believe that James might not win the Most Valuable Player award given the stark contrast between the Heat last season with him and this season without him. And the same for the Cavaliers.
With no reason to win, the Warriors still do: The Golden State Warriors have already clinched the top seed in the NBA Western Conference playoffs, so there’s no real reason for them to care about the rest of their regular season games. Still, they found a way to win last night’s game against the Phoenix Suns by a single point, 107-106. That must have totally infuriated the Suns whose playoff hopes are still alive, but only just barely. Line: Damn, the Warriors are good.
Crisis in Detroit: Detroit is known as “Hockeytown” and their team has made the playoffs in each of the past 23 years. They’ll probably keep that streak alive this year, but it’s going to be agonizingly close. Over the past fifteen games, they’ve only won four. That’s not good, especially not when one of those losses comes against a team with the same record in the same division, like it did in last night’s 3-2 loss to the Boston Bruins. The Bruins are now tied with the Red Wings in the standings. Line: Detroit missing out on the playoffs is unimaginable but it could happen if they don’t start playing better soon.
