joe Page 49 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Whose personality is more irritating: Current Jimmy Butler or prime Dwight Howard?
Everyone has had that coworker who kind of sucks but is really good at his job so the manager looks the other way when Glen takes 20 minute out of the weekly staff meeting to brag about his weekend jet skiing. Yeah, he’s annoying, but holy shit can he sell the hell out of reasonably priced Kias. Dwi...

For a little bit we were complimenting or condemning Derrick White, then it was just time to celebrate Rihanna’s baby
For a second there, Derrick White’s child was going to be the most interesting and discussed birth in the world. The Boston Celtics tweeted out shortly before 10 a.m. that Derrick White would be missing Game 2 due to personal reasons. That’s quite a blow to their roster the morning of Game 2 of the ...

Philly embarrasses Joel Embiid by making up an award so he can win something
Winning the MVP award isn’t about taking home a chunk of metal sponsored by Kia. It’s about being able to hold the distinction of “Best Player in the World” over the competition’s heads. Nobody cares about winning something, they care about the distinction that comes with winning that thing. They ca...

Put Aaron Judge in center field, you cowards!
This is going to sound like a conspiracy theory, but hear me out. If you only put your best players in your lineup, you tend to do well. I know, right! Insane! Call me crazy, but so too did they call Galileo crazy when he said the Earth wasn’t the center of the universe, and look where we are now. B...

Is there something wrong with Dallas that we don’t know about?
I think it’s fair to say that Dallas isn’t going to get the press that Boston has been getting since about a month into its second-half turnaround. Jayson Tatum has been unbelievable, which is new for him because he’s lacked the consistency that’s demanded of great players. What Luka Dončić is doing...

Gary Bettman must make the Oilers wear their ‘80s jerseys for the second round
Much like the Canadiens-Leafs series last year, this is why the NHL rejiggered its playoff system nearly a decade ago. To get things like the Edmonton Oilers vs. the Calgary Flames in the playoffs. OK, Gary Bettman’s NHL was only really concerned with getting Penguins-Capitals as often as possible a...

Who do Eastern Conference teams need to worry about in a post-LeBron playoff world?
Last week, the NBA presented and christened its Eastern Conference Finals Trophy after Larry Bird. It was a well-deserved honor for an old Hick from French Lick, who helped pave the NBA’s Gilded Age. However, King James should be the most revered monarch over the East. LeBron was the Eastern Confere...

Joel Embiid is running out of excuses for not getting it done in Philly
Joel Embiid’s MVP-caliber season could come crashing down tonight if he can’t lead his Philadelphia 76ers to a win over the Miami Heat. If Philly gets sent packing in the semifinals again, this will be the fourth time in five years that’s happened. Two things are clear about Embiid’s situation in Ph...

Jrue Holiday punked out Marcus Smart
Perhaps there was no other way for the Bucks-Celtics game to end on a day after so much discussion about individual awards, thanks to Joel Embiid. Embiid’s right that too much rides on the opinions of others, which made it all the more galling that the MLBPA was accepting of adopting a similar syste...

This inconsistent and deteriorating version of James Harden is a present and future problem for Sixers
After Tuesday night’s 120-85 loss to the Miami Heat, James Harden and Joel Embiid are Thelma and Louise-ing towards a cliff’s edge. In Embiid’s defense, the MVP runner-up has played with a broken bone in his face since Game 3. The franchise cornerstone will have better days ahead. Harden’s 31-point,...

Like his playing days, Tom Brady will likely cheat viewers and be a flop on TV
Tom Brady is destined to fail on TV....

Al Horford’s season-saving Game 4 was a reminder that he has been a rock
If the Boston Celtics go on to win an NBA championship, Al Horford’s Game 4 performance will live in Boston sports lore until the east coast breaks off into the Atlantic Ocean, or however climate change really sinks its teeth into this planet....

Why the Baltimore Ravens should be the team to look out for in 2022
The Baltimore Ravens were ravaged with injuries in 2021. So much so that PFF’s WAR-Adjusted Injuries Lost (WAIL) statistic indicates that the Ravens lost about 2.86 wins last season. That would’ve put the team in the playoffs with either a 10-7 or 11-6 record. They possibly would’ve been ahead of th...

Duncan Robinson has put the MIA in Miami against Philly
The Philadelphia 76ers tied their semifinals series 2-2 with the Miami Heat on Sunday night, defeating them 116-108. The momentum in this series has completely swung in Philly’s favor, and it’s no mystery why. Joel Embiid’s return, coupled with Miami missing 51 threes in the last two games, has made...

Long live Nikola Jokić, the NBA’s Most VORPable Player
The impending news that Nikola Jokić will be awarded his second-consecutive MVP award has sent the NBA community into a border war formation between respect for analytics and the eye test. Jokic’s back-to-back wins is a resounding victory for the NBA’s mathlete contingency. This isn’t a diatribe aga...

It isn’t Barry Trotz, it’s Lou Lamoriello
There’s no question that Barry Trotz has a shelf life with any team he coaches. His high-intensity defensive style is never going to be something players are going to want to do year-after-year, especially now when more and more teams are crashing in goals left and right. He was in Nashville forever...

It comes down to minute levels of control
The Premier League title chase took a massive turn this weekend. Liverpool dropped points at home to Tottenham, drawing 1-1 on Saturday afternoon. Buoyed by watching that, and in the wake of trying to recover from their Champions League collapse, Manchester City rubbed Newcastle’s ass in the moonshi...

The Dallas Stars, the piss in the cereal
The NHL playoffs haven’t had the most amount of drama so far. There’s only been two overtime games in the eight series combined, and not too many more that have been all that close or in doubt in the closing minutes of the third period. Some scores have been blown up by multiple empty-net goals, but...

Kyle Busch could miss race for daughter’s birth, and good for him
It’s a very cool thing for Trevor Bayne that there’s a chance he’ll get back behind the wheel in NASCAR’s Cup Series. Bayne, the Rich Strike-esque winner of the 2011 Daytona 500 on his 20th birthday, is the standby driver if Kyle Busch’s surrogate goes into labor and Busch misses either Darlington t...
