8 Page 45 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The Knights' Game 1 Win Was Batshit Crazy Vegas Style<em></em><em></em>
In the world capital of entertainment, Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals in Vegas went far beyond the value of any other ticket you could buy in town. With a 6-4 win over the Capitals, the Vegas Golden Knights weathered the lows, provided some ecstatic highs, and pulled out a dramatic victory on home...

Kyrie Irving Missed Game 7 Due To Corrective Nasal Surgery
A mild hubbub was made by Mark Jackson out of the absence of Kyrie Irving from Boston’s bench in Game 7. Jackson was het up, complaining that Kyrie is “more important than an assistant coach” and that it would be a real problem if Kyrie was “just at home chilling or somewhere not important,” instead...

Jayson Tatum Is Already A Monster
Jayson Tatum’s best highlight from Game 7 was a savage, driving, one-handed dunk directly over LeBron James, in the fourth quarter, when the Celtics needed a spark. This was certainly one way of doing it!...

Even Gassed LeBron Is Too Much LeBron
There was a point, relatively early in the second quarter of Game 7, where Terry Rozier peeled off Kyle Korver in the short corner to double-team LeBron James in the high post. It looked like an improvisation by Rozier—I can’t imagine Brad Stevens would ever script an action that leaves one of the N...

It Is Time For The Cavaliers To Unleash, Uhh, Jeff Green
Tyronn Lue announced during Cleveland’s Sunday shootaround that Jeff Green will start in place of the injured Kevin Love. This was sort of a foregone conclusion—the only other options on the roster are Rodney Hood and Cedi Osman; Hood hasn’t touched the floor since Game 2, aside from a couple minute...

The Rockets Had A Hell Of A Chance, And Then The Warriors Woke Up
It feels weird to say this about a team that lost a road playoff game by 29 points, but, man, the Rockets blew it. Or, anyway, that’s the glass-is-half-empty take: Even without Chris Paul, even on the road, even going against an unbelievably loaded Warriors team desperate to stave off elimination, t...

Reports: Dislocated Shoulder Could Knock Mohamed Salah Out Of The World Cup
Saturday’s Champions League final was a feverish, spectacular affair featuring memorable feats of athleticism, an even more memorable all-time boner, and a perfectly timed idiot on the pitch. The match was pretty significantly marred, though, by a first half injury to world-destroying goal-bot Moham...

If That Was LeBron's Last Home Game With The Cavs, He Sure Made It Count
If you thought the Cavs were completely screwed when, down by four points and looking disjointed against an unflustered Celtics defense, they lost Kevin Love to a scary-looking head injury, man you were not alone. Love’s mostly been crap in this series—he’s producing 48 percent true shooting on 26.5...

Chris Paul Is Out For Game 6, And Everything Is Grim Again
The verdict is in on Chris Paul, who was hurting a whole lot at the end of the Rockets’ Game 5 win: He’s out for Saturday....

The Most Painful Thing For Chris Paul Is Having To Watch
Chris Paul is, let’s say, a competitive person, probably to an unpleasant degree. He is also among the all-time greats at his position and finally, in his 13th season, making a deep run into the postseason. And he is also someone who, in the final minute of a conference finals Game 5, with a mere fo...

If The Warriors Are Going To Die, They Should At Least Die Pretty
The pre-series nightmare, for anyone who is a Warriors fan or particularly despises the Rockets’ brand of basketball, went something like this: The Warriors, a free-flowing, elegant offensive team that so often makes the experience of watching them feel transcendent, would be outpaced by the cold ca...

The Rockets Have An Answer For The Warriors<em></em>
In a game that saw James Harden go 0-for-11 from three point range, the Houston Rockets didn’t have to reckon with disaster. Instead, they beat the Warriors with defense, winning Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals 98-94 by neutralizing some of the toughest-to-guard players in the NBA....

The NBA Playoffs Have Been So Boring, And Last Night Was A New Low
These here NBA Playoffs have been terminally boring. They have been so dull and charmless and forgettable that the one night of actual exciting basketball fans have enjoyed somehow still featured two teams taking 3-0 leads in second-round series. Even Rockets-Warriors, this season’s most anticipated...

Nothing Matters But Now
It’s a funny thing. Year after year you’re told “this is your year,” and it never is, and then, finally, when no one thinks you matter anymore ... it might be your year....

It Hurts To Watch The Cavs Like This
LeBron James looked exhausted. Jordan Clarkson was tasked with running the offense on far too many possessions. The Celtics’ rotation of hyped-up young dudes absolutely hounded the Cavs to death on defense. Watching the best player in the world trying to keep his team from going down 3-2 in the East...

The Capitals Rained Fire On The Lightning<em></em>
It was a dream start for the Washington Capitals tonight—or for any team on the road in a Game 7. Just a minute into the deciding match-up of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Lightning, the Caps’ all-time best player dramatically announced his importance. On a cross-ice pass from Tom Wilson...

Braydon Coburn Made The Mistake Of Trying To Fight Tom Wilson<em></em>
A small scrap in the first period of the Capitals-Lightning Game 7 sent Tampa’s Braydon Coburn and Washington’s Tom Wilson to the box for two minutes each. When that time was up, Wilson wanted to escalate the violence, and Coburn foolishly decided to try and stand his ground in an old-fashioned hoc...

A People's History Of Bill Simmons Making Up Corny Things For Boston Fans To Chant
There are any number of reasons why it’s easy to goof on Bill Simmons, and all of them are honestly pretty solid. Many of these have to do with the way he acts—grandiose and aggrieved and prickly-petty and, now that he’s ascended to demi-mogul status, prone to dilatory rich-guy extemporizing on The ...

The Warriors Have Been Infected By Houston's Brain Worms And It's Ruining The West Finals
Okay, yes, goddammit yes, I was wrong, the Houston Rockets, who tied the Western Conference Finals at two games apiece last night in Oakland, have a chance to win the series. A frighteningly strong one, if like me you break out in hives at the prospect of a Larry O’Brien trophy consecrating into can...

The Rockets Refused To Die And Tied The Series<em></em>
Despite some early hiccups and, um, premature pronouncements of doom, the Rockets held a 53-46 lead going into halftime in Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals against the Warriors. For the most optimistic of Rockets fans, that advantage might’ve been enough to nervously hope for an even series. ...