playoffs Page 45 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

This Time Around, The Mystics Look Inevitable
Last September, the Washington Mystics skulked out of the WNBA Finals, having been swept in three games by the unstoppable Seattle Storm. A year later, the tables have turned. Elena Delle Donne has recovered from last year’s inconvenient knee injury; crafty Belgian forward Emma Meesseman is back aft...

"I'm About To Cuss On TV, I Need To Stop," Rays' Tyler Glasnow Says, Moments Before Cussing On TV
The Tampa Bay Rays clinched an American League wild-card spot—their first postseason berth since 2013—on Friday night with a 6-2 victory over the Blue Jays. They’ll face the A’s in the wild-card game Wednesday. To the enjoyment of 10–12 fans, the Rays have had one of their best regular seasons in a ...

An MLB Playoffs Rooting Guide For Those Who Are Not Fools
Only an idiot looks at the Houston Astros and does not see the best team in baseball, and since we are neck-deep in idiocy these days, those who do not largely confine their predictive allegiances to either the Los Angeles Dodgers or New York Yankees. This makes for both a crowded and tiresome World...

Liz Cambage Talked Trash To The Washington Mystics And They Gave It Right Back To Her
After dropping 28 points in a dominant Game 3 semifinals win, Las Vegas Aces center Liz Cambage flexed on her opponents, saying in her postgame interview, “If they can’t handle it, get in the weight room or get out of the post.” The Washington Mystics heeded her advice. ...

Candace Parker Was Peeved After Derek Fisher Benched Her In An Elimination Game
Down 2-0 to the Connecticut Sun in the WNBA Semifinals, the Los Angeles Sparks played out the last quarter and a half of their season Sunday night without Candace Parker, to the surprise of everyone involved, including Candace Parker....

Alyssa Thomas Couldn't Lift Her Arms Above Her Head, But She Carried A Team To Victory
The Connecticut Sun left the first game of their best-of-five semifinals series against the Los Angeles Sparks Tuesday night not only with a 84-75 win, but also with a narratively sweet one. For a season, the No. 2 Sun have felt like the WNBA’s most underrated team, beloved by their women’s basketba...

Dearica Hamby Wins Playoff Game With Absurd Steal-And-Heave
The Las Vegas Aces and Chicago Sky went back and forth throughout today’s highly entertaining single-elimination playoff game, and as the final seconds were ticking away, it looked like the Sky were on their way to escaping with a 92-90 win. That is not what happened....

Jordin Canada Might Just Be The Heir To Sue Bird's Throne
The defending champion Seattle Storm took the expected fall that came with a pair of devastating preseason injuries, going a mere 18-16 in 2019 after dominating the league with a 26-8 record last year. But even without reigning MVP Breanna Stewart or living legend Sue Bird, the Storm managed to snea...

Zlatan Ibrahimović On MLS Playoffs: "I Think The System Is Shit"
Zlatan Ibrahimović’s summer of righteous discontent continues. Less than a month after taking a dump on MLS’s best player, likening his own presence in the league to a “Ferrari among Fiats,” and even calling an opposing coach a “little bitch,” the L.A. Galaxy striker has today taken aim at the leagu...

Here Are All The People Who Complained To The FCC About The St. Louis Blues Saying "Fuck"
When the St. Louis Blues won their first-ever Stanley Cup back in June, they said “fuck”—and all its variations—a lot. Audible to anyone watching on TV at home was “fuckin-a,” “fuck yeah,” “fuckin’ right,” “holy fuck,” and “let’s fuckin’ go” as the team took turns raising the Cup, until NBC finally ...

St. Louis Blues Fans Yelled, Did Cartwheels, And Lost A Wedding Ring After Their First Stanley Cup Victory
After the St. Louis Blues won their first Stanley Cup on Wednesday night, fans celebrated on streets and in bars until the wee hours of the morning. The local news caught up with some of the yelling, cartwheeling, and sweaty revelers. One poor soul said he lost his wedding ring while high-fiving peo...

It's Time For A National Conversation About Drake's Horny Watch
One thing that can be said about Drake that cannot be said about a disconcertingly large number of other famous people is that it is clear why he is famous. He has done actual things—performed some hugely popular songs about how disappointed he is in various exes; endorsed one of the better-liked le...

Here Are Some Cool Guys Who Are Now NBA Champions
Kawhi Leonard won his second career Finals MVP Thursday night, becoming the first player in NBA history to win one in each conference. The magnitude of what he personally accomplished likely will take some time to settle in: After missing a full season due to injury and forcing his way out of San An...
![Alameda County Sheriff's Office Wants To Charge Raptors Exec Masai Ujiri With Battery [Update]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/itphupop5snhu4vufp83.jpg)
Alameda County Sheriff's Office Wants To Charge Raptors Exec Masai Ujiri With Battery [Update]
Raptors president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri was walking onto the floor Thursday night to celebrate his team’s championship when he appeared to get in some sort of altercation with a cop. The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office claimed that Ujiri shoved one of its deputies and nudged him in th...

Pascal Siakam And Fred VanVleet Were Pure Joy
The very end of Game 6 was like holding in a sneeze. At the end of the NBA Finals you might expect a satisfying, full release of tension, but that moment never really came. Instead the refs puttered and dithered over what to do with that ersatz timeout and then a foul on Kawhi Leonard and then how m...

There's A Difference Between Luck That's Received And Luck That's Found
Other franchises will want to make a replicable plan out of the Toronto Raptors’ journey to one of the truly amazing championships in NBA history. That’s how it goes. There has to be some parable in what everybody just watched, even if it’s the dullest kind, the kind about the friggin’ salary cap. ...

Fuck Your Asterisk
I heard someone on sports talk radio the other day say that if the Raptors pulled out a win in these NBA Finals, fans would forget about what exactly happened to Golden State during the series—he made this supposition after Kevin Durant’s calf rolled up but before Klay Thompson’s knee buckled like a...

Kyle Lowry Kept The Raptors Alive
It was an up-and-down postseason in what’s been an up-and-down career for Raptors point guard Kyle Lowry, but on Thursday night, when all of his teammates struggled to score out of the gate in Game 6, it was Lowry who helped give them the jumpstart they needed to eventually cross the finish line. As...

Kawhi Leonard, Whenever You Get A Minute, This Extremely Drunk Raptors Fan Has A Plant For You
Kawhi Leonard had one of the great NBA postseasons, dismantling the Process, outplaying the MVP, and being the single best player in a Finals that brought down a dynasty. He was near-unanimous Finals MVP, and is now the first player in the history of the league to earn that honor in both conferences...

Oakland's Past Is Brighter Than The Warriors' Future
OAKLAND — The nostalgia in the building was thick enough to cut with DeMarcus Cousins, so much so that many of the last 19,596 humans shoved into what has always been known by the locals as “The Coliseum” almost forgot that there was a championship to defend, a season to prolong and a summer to defe...