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- One of the craziest NFL games ever: The Seattle Seahawks came back from being down 16-0 at half-time to force overtime and eventually win 28-22 over the Green Bay Packers. It was one of the most unlikely comebacks ever and relied on a series of increasingly unlikely things happening. Seattle fans are thrilled. Green Bay fans are horrified and probably just starting to weep now. We’ll have more full coverage in our NFL One Liners column later this morning.
- A not so crazy NFL game: The New England Patriots beat the Indianapolis Colts 45-7 in the other playoff game yesterday. More coverage of this lopsided game in our NFL One Liners column as well.
- Pelicans edge Raptors in battle of the new-age names: There may not be two names in the NBA that are more clear about having been named in the last twenty years than these two teams. The Pelicans, playing without their best player, Anthony Davis, still found enough juice to beat the Raptors, 95-93. The Pelicans are a good team but because they are in the Western Conference, where virtually every team is at least very good, they will have a tough time even making the playoffs.
Line: Shame the Pelicans aren’t in the East. I’d rather watch them than half the Eastern Conference playoff teams.
- Repeat of last year: The New York Rangers shocked the Pittsburgh Penguins by coming back from a 3-1 deficit in last year’s playoffs to win their playoff series four games to three. Yesterday was another lesson in how the Rangers have the Penguins number. By half-way through the game, the Rangers were leading 4-1 and Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury had been pulled in lieu of his backup, Thomas Greiss. The final score was 5-2.
Line: Usually the Penguins have trouble with Rangers goalie, Henrik Lundquist, but yesterday they had trouble with basically everything.
- A tie is as good as a win: Atletico Madrid went into the second leg of their two-game cup tie against Real Madrid knowing that all they needed was a tie to advance. They got it, 2-2, thanks to two goals from returning hero, Fernando Torres. Both goals came within 90 seconds of the start of a half, one in the first, one in the second.
Line: Down goes Real Madrid!
- Bruins win: The Bruins came through with their birthday present for girlfriend, a 3-0 win over the New York Rangers. It’s a good thing too, because I had forgotten to get her anything myself. Nah, just kidding. Tukka Rask sparkled in the shut-out with 30 saves but the story of the night was two dirty plays, one by each team, which led to yelling, scuffling, and fighting.
Line: Not a pretty game, but an exciting one.
- Rankings hold true: There were two women’s college basketball games between top 25 ranked teams. In both, the higher ranked team easily defeated the lower ranked one, which is either luck and a small sample size or very good ranking! Eighth ranked Maryland beat 24th ranked Rutgers, 71-59 and seventh ranked Notre Dame beat 12th ranked North Carolina, 89-79.
Line: No upsets in women’s college basketball last night.
- London gets a stinker: The NBA and its London based fans were unlucky yesterday to witness a lackluster, 95-79 win by the Milwaukee Bucks against the New York Knicks. The Knicks did get their best player, Carmelo Anthony, back after two weeks out with an injury, but they still easily dropped their 26th game out of the last 27 they’ve played.
Line: The Knicks are terrible! Not a great exhibition of basketball to show abroad.
- The Hotspurs come from behind: It’s rare that you see one team go up 2-0 in a soccer game and end up losing but that’s just what happened to Burnley in their English FA Cup Soccer game at Tottenham. The final score was Tottenham 4, Burnley 2. Tottenham advances to the next round of the tournament to play Leicester.
Line: Usually when a soccer game is 2-0, the best the team with zero can hope for is a tie. Not so, in this game.
- Flyers shut-out in Washington D.C.: The hockey game last night between the Philadelphia Flyers and Washington Capitals was a close and surprisingly exciting one for a game that ended 1-0 in favor of the Capitals. The Caps have been on a real run lately, this win fits them snugly behind the Penguins for third place in the Metropolitan division.
Line: The Capitals have improved a lot since the start of the season. Looks like their new coach, Barry Trotz, is doing something right.
- Big brother wins but little brother looks tough: The North Carolina vs. North Carolina State rivalry definitely matches a stereotypical sibling rivalry wherein the big brother (North Carolina) does just enough to win no matter how much the little brother tries. Last year North Carolina needed overtime to win, this year they held on by the skin of their teeth despite not scoring a basket in the last four minutes of the game. The final score was North Carolina 81, NC State 79.
Line: North Carolina State came so close but couldn’t break through the mystique.
- Nobody beats the Wiz…ards: The Washington Wizards cemented their growing reputation as a team to be reckoned with by beating the Chicago Bulls 105-99. The Bulls fans have something to be happy about though, often injured guard Derrick Rose had his best game of the year, scoring 32 points, 17 in the first quarter alone!
Line: Dumb name, but good basketball team.
- Goalie on goalie crime: The match between Everton and West Ham in the English FA Cup was tied after 90 minutes and tied after 120 minutes, so it went to penalty kicks. It was still tied after the normal allotment of five shots each, so it went on to sudden death penalty kicks! And on and on until basically everyone on each team had shot and the teams were reduced to having their goalies shoot at each other. Finally, one team scored while the other did not, and West Ham won.
Line: LOL at goalies shooting penalty kicks at each other.
- Giant scores in hockey: In yesterday’s sports forecast, we featured the Minnesota Wild at Pittsburgh Penguins as the game to watch in the NHL. It didn’t fail to entertain as Pittsburgh managed the rare feat of winning 7-2 without either of their best players, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, scoring a single goal. That game wasn’t even the highest scoring of the night or the most lopsided. The Winnipeg Jets beat the Florida Panthers 8-2 thanks to four goals from Mathieu Perreault!
Line: What a wacky night in the NHL!
- The drama (and losing) continues for the Cleveland Cavaliers: After missing the last ten games, LeBron James returned to the Cleveland Cavaliers lineup and scored 33 points but it wasn’t enough to beat the Phoenix Suns. The talk today will be about Kevin Love, the all-star power forward, who was traded to the Cavaliers before this season and who most people thought was going to be the perfect partner-in-crime for James. Love did not play at all in the fourth quarter of this game. Why? What does that mean for the future of Love in Cleveland? What about the coach, David Blatt?
Line: Love is definitely leaving at the end of the year, maybe they should trade him NOW?! Who would even want him?
- Ohio State is the national champion: Yesterday in Dear Sports Fan’s preview of the national championship game, I wrote “My guess is that it takes a little while for the offenses to settle down. That might be enough to give Ohio State a chance to keep up with Oregon and squeak by them for victory in a relatively low scoring game.” If you had, for some incomprehensible reason, used my wild guess as betting advice, you would have won handily. Ohio State beat Oregon 42-20 and the combined score was comfortably below the over-under of 74. I’m a genius! Or at least, I make lots of predictions and only ever point out the ones that come true. The question for sports conversation today will be whether the first ever playoff system really helped us figure out the best team in the country. Ohio State was the third ranked team coming into the four team playoff, so proponents of the system will say that, because the eventual champion wouldn’t have even had a chance to play for the national championship without a playoff, the system succeeded. It’s equally easy to say that this year’s results only show that single-elimination playoffs are susceptible to chance and that it’s completely possible for a slightly weaker team to get lucky twice and win the national championship.
Line: This system is waaaaaay [better/worse]!
- Flyers feel-good win: One of the nicest stories of the NHL season so far has been the NHL debut of 33 year-old Flyers goalie Rob Zepp. He was first drafted by an NHL team in 1999, 16 years ago, but played his first game in the NHL this year after years of playing in minor and European leagues. He won his second game last night in a 7-3 rout of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Line: Can you imagine sticking with a dream for 16 years and finally having it pay off? That’s great!
- Pistons are amazing: The Pistons have been taking us through quite a set of changes this year. First they were terrible. Then they cut a player from their team and their season took off. They went on a winning streak. For the first few games of it, it was easy to say, “yes, this streak is freaky, but they’ll fall back down to earth soon.” Now, they’ve moved into, “maybe it’s time to take them seriously” territory after winning their ninth game in their last ten last night in a close contest against the Toronto Raptors, 114-111. The Raptors have the best record in the Eastern Conference, so beating them is a strong statement.
Line: Maybe it’s time to take the Pistons seriously.
- So much football: There were four National Football League playoff games this past weekend. That’s one more than the number of total games left in the season now that the weekend is over. We’ll have full (but brief) coverage off all the games later this morning in our NFL One Liners column. Check back in an hour or so to learn your lines for football conversation today.
- Southampton staves off the inevitable: This season in British Premiere League soccer has in part been defined by how topsy-turvy the standings were for the first part of the year. Some traditional powers, Manchester United first among them were relatively terrible and stuck near the bottom of the standings while some unexpected teams floated to the top, like Southampton. As the year has gone on, most of those oddities have righted themselves. Starting the weekend, Manchester United had climbed all the way up the standings had a chance to cement their one point lead over Southampton with a win in their game against each other on Sunday. No dice! Southampton beat Manchester United 1-0 to pull themselves up above the behemoths in the standings once again.
Line: Not sure how long they can keep this up, but I’m rooting for Southampton.
- Crisis in Cleveland: This was not how it was supposed to go for the Cavaliers this season. Over the summer, they assembled what looked like a super team by bringing in LeBron James, Kevin Love, and several other additions. Now, with LeBron sidelined with knee and back injuries, the Cavaliers are losing and losing badly. They lost 103-84 to the Sacramento Kings last night which dropped their record for the season to .500 — an even number of wins and losses.
Line: I bet the Cavaliers coach gets fired soon.
- A day of upsets in Men’s college basketball: Only four teams ranked in the top 25 played yesterday in college basketball and three of them lost! NC State upset 2nd ranked Duke which lost for the first time all season, 87-75. My alma mater, Rutgers, beat 4th ranked Wisconsin 67-62. RUTGERS!! And, Oregon State squeaked by 7th ranked Arizona 58-56.
Line: Lots of big upsets in college basketball yesterday, huh?
- Everything that has happened will happen again, but it might be different: The first game between the New York Rangers and Los Angeles Kings since they met in last year’s Stanley Cup Final started out like a repeat of last year’s Californian dominance but ended very differently. After jumping out to a 3-0 lead, the Kings let in four straight goals and eventually lost 4-3. This makes the Rangers 12-1 in their last 13 games.
Line: The Rangers got the best of the Kings in this rematch, but that’s little consolation for their fans.
- The West is the Best: I’m stealing perhaps the worst rhyme in all of rock and roll from Jim Morrison of the Doors, because in the NBA this year, it’s true. The Western conference is much better than the East, and Portland proved that last night by beating up on the Miami Heat 99-83. The Heat don’t even have injury to blame, they had their full compliment of players, they just couldn’t get anything going.
Line: Don’t look now, but Portland has the second best record in the NBA. No one talks about them as being a championship contender, but why couldn’t they be?
- Dominance from Arizona: Talking about great teams that fly under the radar, the Arizona men’s college basketball team may be one as well. They’re ranked seventh in the country and last night beat Oregon 80-62, but they’re not nearly as frequently mentioned as a championship contender as Kentucky, Duke, Louisville, or even Wisconsin.
Line: Watch out for Arizona when March Madness comes around.
- Madrid defeats Madrid: When two teams from Madrid play each other in soccer, that’s bound to happen. In this case, Atletico Madrid, the less romantic and star-studded team beat Real Madrid 2-0. This was the first leg in a home and home series in the Spanish Copa del Rey tournament.
Line: The battle of Madrid is a good way to identify the character of your friends. If they root for Atletico, they’re basically good people. If they root for Real Madrid, don’t leave them alone with your chocolate chip cookies…
- Boston edges Pittsburgh in OT: The hockey game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Boston Bruins lived up to expectations. It was a very well played, super exciting game that went into overtime tied at 2-2. In overtime, Boston’s Patrice Bergeron deflected a shot nicely into the top corner of the Penguins net. After several minutes of review to see if he had deflected it with an illegally high stick (height, not sobriety) the determination was made that, because there wasn’t enough evidence to definitively say it wasn’t a goal, that the referees initial call of a goal would stand.
Line: Impressive game between two teams that have had a rough time so far this year.
- Hot Pistons in Detroit: No one knows what is going on in Detroit, where the once woeful Pistons have absolutely caught on fire in the last two weeks. Last night’s 108-95 victory over the Dallas Mavericks, one of the best teams in the league, was their seventh straight win.
Line: What the hell is going on with the Pistons?
- Late goal seals a draw for Everton: A late goal from Romelu Lukako, the Belgian striker who terrorized the United States National Team in the World Cup this past summer, helped Everton tie their game against West Ham and stay alive in the English FA Cup. Everton supporters hope that this is the pebble that stops the flow of losses their team has been suffering lately.
Line: Sometimes a draw is really more of a win for one team and a loss for the other. It’s all about expectations and momentum.
- Spurs finally looking mortal: After more than fifteen years of sustained excellence, the San Antonio Spurs are finally losing some basketball games. They’ve lost six of their last ten games and December was their first month with more losses than wins since the mid 1990s! Last night, they lost 105-104 to the Detroit Pistons. The Pistons were considered one of the worst teams in the league until a couple weeks ago when they made the rare move of simply cutting a big-name player, Josh Smith. NBA contracts are fully guaranteed, so teams rarely cut players, but I guess the Pistons felt they’d rather pay him not to be on their team than to be on their team. Looks like they were right, because since then they’ve won six games in a row, including last night’s game against the Spurs.
Line: What is going on in the NBA? The Spurs are bad? The Pistons are good? I don’t believe it. No, really, I don’t believe it yet and I won’t unless it keeps happening for another month or so.
- Vlasic comes through again: The Minnesota Wild had two high-profile games this week on back-to-back days. They won both of them thanks to game winning goals from defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic. Vlasic scored with less than ten seconds left to win the Sharks game against the Jets on Monday and in overtime against the Wild last night to win that game 4-3. Vlasic is not even known as a goal scorer, but he’s certainly having a good week!
Line: I guess when things go right for you, sometimes they go really right!
- Kentucky shows weakness?: The University of Kentucky has the best college basketball team in the country this year and it doesn’t seem to be very close. They haven’t lost a game yet this year and have barely even been challenged. Last night their opponent, Ole Miss, played the game of their lives and forced overtime before eventually losing. Was it a sign of real weakness or just apathy from Kentucky? Or is apathy a form of real weakness?
Line: I still think Kentucky will go undefeated this year and win the championship but I’m a little less sure today than I was yesterday.
- Canada Juniors win gold: The Canadian Juniors National team captured the gold medal (did they lay a trap?) on home ice last night with a 5-4 victory over Russia. It was the first time since 2009 that Canada had won this competition, which is a long drought in a country that takes it so seriously. Apparently the World Junior Championships is treated as seriously in Canada as the College Football National Championships or March Madness is treated in the United States.
Line: Sometimes it’s more exciting to watch slightly unpolished young players than it is to watch the very best.
- An unstable night for the Thunder: The Oklahoma City Thunder lost 91-117 to the Golden State Warriors just hours after rumors of a trade involving them spread throughout the Twitterverse. There are more people and draft picks involved, but basically the Thunder get former Cavalier Dion Waiters, the Cavaliers get former Knicks J. R. Smith and Iman Shumpert, and the Knicks… well, the Knicks are expected to waive all the players they picked up in the trade, so the only thing you can say is that the Knicks get to save a bunch of money.
Line: Did you know that all three teams involved in the trade lost last night? It’s hard to concentrate when there’s so many rumors buzzing around.
- Close game and more ahead: Neither side of the Notre Dame vs. North Carolina game get to relax after the 71-70 Notre Dame victory. Notre Dame’s next game is against number three ranked Virginia and North Carolina’s next game is against number five ranked Louisville. Expect more of the same high quality, nerve-wracking play in those games.
Line: No rest for the very good at basketball!
