il Page 504 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The Miami Heat kicked the Celtics in the head, teeth, calf, and everyone else in Game 3

I have seen some ass-whuppings administered in my lifetime. I remember in the fifth-grade baseball playoffs beating the top overall seed by about 20 runs. To put a championship cap on Alabama’s 2012 football season the Tide ran through Notre Dame so viciously, that their opponents lost the desire to...

La Liga has a racism problem [Update]

American sports certainly have a lot of problems. Fan culture here can be violently toxic, and sometimes the teams can be complicit in it (hi there, NHL). Social media certainly plays a role, where the real ugliness lies, but it occasionally spills out into the actual stands. There is plenty to work...

The Denver Nuggets are no longer the playoff wallflower

Before this series, if you’d asked most people who would advance to the NBA Finals between the Lakers and their nameless opponents, they would have responded with a rhetorical question. “Do you know who they’re playing?” Not literally. The Denver Nuggets aren’t in witness protection, but just a few ...

What’s next for Arsenal?

When you’ve spent 248 days on top of the Premier League (somewhat aided by the World Cup break, of course), getting not just passed but utterly dusted in the last month or so of the season can feel pretty deflating. That’s where Arsenal find themselves, and certainly conceding the title by getting o...

Congrats, Baltimore, enjoy your oft-injured OF [Update]

The New York Yankees swung a trade with the rival Red Sox for outfielder Greg Allen, and needed to make a corresponding roster move. The Bronx Bombers could have optioned Oswaldo Cabrera, or cut ties with Jake Bauers, or Willie Calhoun. Instead, Aaron Hicks’ disastrous eight-year tenure with the tea...

Jimmy Butler completely sonned Grant Williams, Boston Celtics in Game 2

Forget what you’ve heard. The Miami Heat’s Jimmy Butler is the most dangerous weapon left in the NBA playoffs. Boston Celtics forward Grant Williams found that out the hard way during game two of the Eastern Conference Finals Friday night. Williams chose the trash talk route and, of all people, chos...

These 10 NBA teams have the brightest futures

There are many elements to consider when predicting who will succeed in the future of the NBA. To tank the 10 teams with the brightest futures, we focused on three to five years in the future while thinking about each team’s draft capital, promising young players, cap flexibility, and free agent des...

Damian Lillard finally seems fed up with Portlandia

All good things in life eventually run their course and must come to an end. Professional sports and the athletes who play the games we love are not exempt from this rule. We might be witnessing the beginning of the end in Portland for Damian Lillard and the Blazers. Some would tell you it’s been ov...

The 2023 WNBA season's juiciest stories to follow

Superteams, and new-look squads. Scandal-riven defending champs. A former political prisoner returns. Rule changes, a pressing need for league expansion, and more. The 2023 WNBA season is here, and these are some of the most riveting storylines to follow all season long....

Putting the World Cup Final in New Jersey would be great, if you like cruel and unusual punishment

The states of New York and New Jersey launched a joint successful campaign to be a host city for the 2026 World Cup a while back. And yeah, of course the world’s biggest individual sporting event couldn’t have the most populous region of the country left out when the United States, Mexico, and Canad...

Jamal Murray’s excellence forces Lakers into a must-win Game 3

In an NBA playoff series, Game 2 is usually the forgotten game. A series usually needs a location change before bold predictions are made. After dominating the Los Angeles Lakers for most of Game 1, the Denver Nuggets’ fourth-quarter performance left much to be desired in a victory that they almost ...

Carolina and Florida engage in the playoff tradition of venturing into hockey of the absurd

Let me tell ya something about multiple overtime games when you’re emotionally involved with one of the teams. Somewhere with around five minutes left in the second OT, you make a deal with yourself. You won’t say it out loud of course, but deep within you know that you’ve crossed the threshold wher...

Will Victor Wembanyama meet the Spurs expectations or end up a bust? | Keep it a Buck(et)

Rafael Nadal’s body finally waves the white flag

It feels like tennis fans have been talking about when men’s tennis will enter its new era for forever now, simply because Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic had been carrying the brilliance longer than anyone ever had, longer than anyone could have anticipated. Guys don’t win majors in...

Playoff Jimmy Butler is Miami's most important player, but Kyle Lowry is proving to be the Heat’s X factor

Heat culture is a thing and something we’ve heard about for years. Despite Jimmy Butler’s denial, “Playoff Jimmy” is also a thing we’ve witnessed over the past few years in May and June. Another phenomenon that’s becoming clear is the resurgence of Kyle Lowry. Lowry, 37, had to put forth the effort ...

Black magic is no match for perfection

It’s impossible to be neutral on Manchester City. If you support a club that has to compete with them in England or in Europe, it’s likely they are a symbol of all that’s wrong with the modern game, given their state ownership, and bottomless financial resources. If you don’t belong to one of those ...

After winning the Victor Wembanyama lottery, San Antonio’s work is only just beginning

The conventional thinking is that Victor Wembanyama will be in safe hands with Gregg Popovich in San Antonio. But there’s no guarantee that the Wembanyama era will be anywhere as fruitful as Pop’s last dynasty or that he’ll have the best career out of any prospect in this draft, but I wouldn’t bet a...

Good effort JJ, but invoking America’s gun problem is not the way to defend Ja Morant

JJ Redick is correct that there is a macro issue in this country with politicians using firearms as campaign posters. A majority of Americans would agree with him on that. In one space of that mass of plutocracy, policy, and posturing is Ja Morant posing with one of this country’s most polarizing an...

If Daryl Morey hires Mike D’Antoni, he’s not serious about winning a title in Philly

Philadelphia 76ers head honcho Daryl Morey has some big decisions ahead of him this offseason. After another disappointing second-round exit in the postseason, the Sixers parted ways with former head coach Doc Rivers after three years. In three years, Rivers couldn’t help the Sixers advance any furt...

This cast of the Lake Show is as triggering as it is good

I’m finding it increasingly difficult to cope with America’s ongoing nightmare. No, not COVID, though I did just go to a wedding and got the “Hey, heads up, it was a super spreader” text today. That said, I’d let an infected cough in my mouth right now if it meant a Los Angeles Lakers playoff exit a...