I’m introducing a new thing this week. It’s called Need to Know Sports and its a daily email that answers the question, “What do I need to know about sports today?” Whether you’re someone who needs to know everything about sports to feel alive or someone who views sports as being strictly on a need to know basis, this is a good way to start your day.
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Subject: Need to know sports: April 28, 2015
Dear Sports Fan,
What do I need to know about sports today?
Today’s Top Stories
ROUGH PLAY IN BOSTON, DAY 2, THE FALLOUT: Yesterday everyone was talking about the rough play in Game Four of the Cleveland Cavaliers sweep of the Boston Celtics in the NBA Playoffs. Today they’ll be talking about the collateral damage in terms of injured and suspended players. On the Cavaliers, the biggest loss is Kevin Love, their third best player, who has a dislocated shoulder and has already been ruled out for the next round of the playoffs. That’s at least two weeks, so you know it’s a major injury. For a detailed analysis of the injury, check out Jeff Stotts on his basketball injury blog, In Street Clothes. The Cavaliers other loss is to suspension. J.R. Smith, who basically punched a Celtics player, was given a two game suspension and will miss the first two games of the next round. The Celtics, were eliminated from the playoffs in the game on Sunday, so their loss of Kelly Olynyk to a one game suspension is a non-issue. The good news is that Jae Crowder, the guy who got punched by J.R. Smith, only has a sprained knee and nothing worse.
ORIOLES GAME POSTPONED IN BALTIMORE: When real life and sports intersect, it’s sometimes good to see sports give way. That’s what happened yesterday in Baltimore when the baseball game between the Baltimore Orioles and Chicago White Sox last night was postponed due to the protests in the city. The Baltimore Sun noted in their article on the topic that this was the first non-weather related postponement in Baltimore since the week following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. It’s worth reading up on the situation in Baltimore from more hard-news sites than this one, but for a sports perspective, read a statement from the Orioles Executive Vice President (and son of the owner) John Angelos. It’s pieced together from Twitter, so it’s not the best writing, but the sentiments are good and seem to come from the heart.
Yesterday’s Games, Today’s Conversations
National Hockey League – The Washington Capitals won 2-1 over the New York Islanders in a climactic Game Seven. This is a giant step forward and a big relief for the Capitals, who have a reputation for falling apart in the playoffs and especially in Game Sevens. For the Islanders, the loss is particularly jarring, because it means they’ve played their last game in their long-time Long Island home stadium, the Nassau Coliseum. Next year, they move to Brooklyn. The Tampa Bay Lightning won 5-2 over the Detroit Red Wings to force a Game Seven in that series as well. That game will be on Wednesday night and is must-watch television. There won’t be any NHL playoff games tonight, so take a deep breath and prepare for Wednesday.
National Basketball Association – There were two teams facing playoff elimination yesterday and both of them won and will live to see (and play) another game at least. The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Chicago Bulls 94-84 and the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Memphis Grizzlies 99-92. The Bucks are now down three games to two in the series while the Trail Blazers are down three games to one. Still, I’d give the Trail Blazers a better chance (still not good though) to come back and win the series, because the Grizzlies have suffered some serious injury losses. The Brooklyn Nets beat the Atlanta Hawks 120-115 in overtime. This evens their series at two games apiece. It’s a surprising result given that the Hawks had by far the best record in the Eastern Conference this season and the Nets just barely made the playoffs. If you want to sound smart and a little smarmy, you can point out that the Hawks don’t have a star player and suggest that no matter how good a team works together, without a star, they are prone to playoff losses.
Today’s Sports Forecast
NBA Basketball
Dallas Mavericks at Houston Rockets, 8 p.m. ET on TNT: This might be the last game of an era in Dallas. With their team down 3-1 in the series, a loss tonight would end the season and could end the career of Dirk Nowitzky, a great player and fan favorite who has played for the Mavericks since 1998.
San Antonio Spurs at Los Angeles Clippers, 10:30 p.m. ET on TNT: This is the best of the eight first round series in the NBA. It’s tied 2-2 and both teams feel, with good reason, that if they can win this series, they have a legitimate shot at winning the championship.
MLB Baseball
Pittsburgh Pirates at Chicago Cubs, 8 p.m. ET on regional cable: There’s something about both these lovable losers that makes me want to feature them in my forecasts. I’m not sure what it is, something about tradition and pathos mixed together.
San Francisco Giants at Los Angeles Dodgers, 10 p.m. ET on regional cable: This baseball game is the rare early season one that might be good enough to tempt even a neutral or casual fan. The two pitchers in this game are among the very best in the world: Madison Bumgarner for the Giants and Clayton Kershaw for the Dodgers. In the past, Kershaw has been better during the regular season but Bumgarner holds the trump cards of having been better in the playoffs and having the better name.
BPL Soccer
Liverpool at Hull City, 2:45 p.m. on NBC Sports Network: You’d think a game between the fifth best and fifth worst team in a league wouldn’t be interesting, but because the top four teams in the Premier League get coveted spots in next year’s Champions League and the bottom three get relegated to a lower league, this game is vitally important for both teams.
Verisimilitude (or How to Sound Like a Sports Native)
David Aldridge’s weekly NBA column contains some amazing gems from an interview with nerdy NBA player, Brook Lopez, including his thoughts (and fears) about time travel. Read Johnathan Gilbert’s New York Times introduction to the strange sport of Footgolf and the Argentinian athletes who dominate it. NBA coach Rick Carlisle literally taped his mouth shut during a press conference two nights ago as a silent (and prop based) comedic protest against what he thought was unfair refereeing towards his team. Watch the video on Deadspin here. Talking about video, ESPN2 aired live coverage of a video game tournament and people freaked out a bit. Gamer site Kotaku wrote about it. To feel good about the world, watch this SB Nation video of widespread collusion in a Kansas University alumni football game to let 89-year-old former Kansas running back Bryan Sperry score a long touchdown. It’s amazing and I hope I can run like that when I’m 89!
Thanks for reading,
Ezra Fischer
Photo of Bert and Earnie by See-ming Lee.