unc Page 13 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Basketball gods, please give us a Young-Booker NBA Finals
I’m not sure if the Atlanta Hawks won the series or if the Philadelphia 76ers lost it, but either way, the Hawks and Trae Young have surprisingly made it into the Eastern Conference finals. On the other side of the bracket, the Phoenix Suns and Devin Booker are surging. Dreams are forming in my head...

Brandon Crawford deserves more love than he’s been getting
When the 2021 MLB All-Star Game polls opened on June 3, I filled out five ballots. I’ve voted at least once every day since. And every time, I voted for pretty much the same team with a few minor adjustments. ...

Kendrick Perkins and Quavo are apparently still beefing
This is probably what Migos meant by, “You don’t get shit straight if you don’t straighten it.” ...

Federer vs. Osaka, a tale of two reactions
Roger Federer withdrew from the French Open yesterday, which put the tournament in an awkward spot. Federer has only played six matches in a year or so, thanks to the pandemic and double knee surgery and rehab. After a near four-hour match in the third round where he really had to slog through a tep...

Road warrior Kawhi Leonard joins NBA elite with season-saver in Dallas
If you were watching Game 6 of Clippers-Mavericks on Friday night, you heard about a hundred times how there’s never been a series in the NBA where the road team won the first six games — until now, since Los Angeles notched a 104-97 victory behind 45 points from Kawhi Leonard....

Look at the rim, Bam — you’ve done it plenty of times before
We’ve had two opposite responses this month to the phrase, “If you don’t learn from history, you’re doomed to repeat it.”...

Was Jayson Tatum right? Was Tyler Herro merely a 'bubble fraud'?
Less than eight months ago, Tyler Herro was being labeled the “next great shooting guard” in a league filled to the brim with high-end backcourt talent. Herro was set to help lead the Miami Heat on multiple deep playoff runs as part of the team’s new Big 3 — along with Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo. ...

Scott Kazmir returns for first start in five years
After José Godoy became the 20,000th player in major league history on Friday, Rays’ shortstop Taylor Walls debuted on Sunday, becoming No. 20,001....

God bless the Milwaukee Bucks, Miami Heat, Jimmy Butler and playoff basketball
Let’s all process this together, because that shit was a lot....

The boys of… spring? Full-season baseball back in Brooklyn for the first time since 1957
Tuesday was a big night for the Brooklyn Cyclones, as they played their first home game in more than 600 days, celebrated their 2019 New York-Penn League championship, and, after 20 years as a short-season affiliate of the Mets, brought full-season baseball back to Brooklyn. The Cyclones’ 4-3 loss t...

Jeremy Lin, who might’ve retired last night, should give himself more credit
During the Play-In games, Jeremy Lin was probably so bored that he felt it was the most appropriate time to hint at retirement on a post from his official Twitter. ...

Warriors-Lakers shows just how much fans miss Warriors-Cavs
The NBA’s first-ever play-in tournament starts tomorrow — eight teams, six games, four playoff spots up for grabs. But if you turned on SportsCenter at any point in the last two days, you’d think only one game was happening tomorrow — Warriors at Lakers. ...

Albert Pujols is the latest Hall of Famer you’ll forget played for the Dodgers
The possibility of Albert Pujols returning to St. Louis to finish his career where he started it, this time as a bench bat for a Cardinals team that has title aspirations and Paul Goldschmidt at first base, was too good to be true....

Despite injury, the Miami Heat didn’t lose the Victor Oladipo trade
You ever heard of a “Temp to Hire?” That’s what Victor Oladipo is with the Miami Heat....

Why won’t anyone pitch to Yasmani Grandal?
In 2004, the most feared hitter in baseball was Barry Bonds. This mammoth at the plate hit .362 that season and reached base at an incredible .609 clip. That’s a difference of .247, one of the largest ever recorded. In 2021, Yasmani Grandal is hitting .121 with an on-base percentage of .372 — a .251...

So is there anything actually wrong with the Dodgers?
No. Of course not. What’re you, new?...

Tonight, we find out if the Miami Heat are back for real
Other than allowing a 40-point fourth quarter, the Miami Heat displayed one of their most dominant end-to-end performances of the season on Mother’s Day. Tonight, in the second leg of their “Baseball Series” with the Boston Celtics, the Heat face the Boston-based club again at TD Garden, which will ...

Why players and coaches love Cam Newton, but Patriots fans don’t
There is a deep Cam Newton divide in New England....