NBA Playoffs

The Spotlight On A Great Night In Sports 

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I’m going to change things up a little bit today. Rather than previewing the biggest stories in sports today. I’m going to take a look back at a crazy Friday night in the world of sports. I’m going to breakdown an hour by hour breakdown of everything that went down on a day that reminds you why it’s so much fun to be a sports fan. 

5:00PM- Jaguar Down- On the way home from work I flipped on WFAN only to hear the unfortunate news the Jacksonville Jaguars number one pick & 3rd overall pick in this year’s NFL Draft, Dante Fowler Jr. tore his ACL & will miss the entire 2015-2016 season. This breaks your heart for the talented defensive end and for a Jaguars organization who just can’t seem to catch a break. 

6:00PM- Noah’s Arc- It was always a matter of if not when the Mets would be calling up Uber prospect Noah Syndergaard. When Mets Pitcher Zach Wheeler when down for the season with Tommy John surgery during spring training, Syndergaards promotion became that much more imminent. Wheelers injury allowed the Mets to put veteran Dillon Gee into the rotation with the idea that if any of the Mets starting went down for any reason they would have an opportunity to bring up either Syndergaard or fellow top prospect Steven Matz. Syndergaard gets the nod and the start Tuesday in Chicago. While Mets fan rejoice I wonder if this makes Dillon Gee the next Wally Pipp. 

8:30 PM- Harper Makes History- I mentioned Harper’s three homer game the other day on here and the very next time out Bryce Harper followed up that performance with a 2 homer effort. The five homeruns in 2 games ties an MLB record for Bryce & makes him the youngest player to accomplish the feat at just 22 years old. Not bad for Major League Baseball’s “most over rated” player. Remember folks, Harper is just 22 years old. 

9:30pm- “Well The Rangers are done”- this is at least the text I got from a buddy of mine with the New York Rangers went down 1-0 in the 3rd period of Game 5 with under 5 minutes left, facing elimination. Then with only 90 seconds left Chris Kreider tied the game, sending my entire block into a frenzy. This led to overtime & before I knew it… the series was shifting back to DC for game 6 tomorrow night. 

10:30PM- Every Rose Has Its Thorn- Immediately following the fireworks going on at MSG, I got to watch a few more fireworks go down at the United Center. With just 10 seconds left JR Smith drained a clutch 3 pointer (something I have never said as a Knicks fan) to tie the game for the Cavs & set me up nicely for yet another overtime thriller, right? Not so fast, because 10 seconds later Derrick Rose stepped up to drain and equally clutch 3 pointer to give the Chicago Bulls the win & an impressive 2-1 series lead. Talk about drama! 

1:00AM- It’s All In The Family- Going into a momentum shifting game 3 between the LA Clippers & Houston Rockets, the question was whether all star guard Chris Paul was going to be able to suit up. Well Paul did suit up but during game 3 it was another guard who stole the show & propelled the Clippers to a dominant 124-99 victory. That guard was Austin Rivers who came off the bench to drop 25 in only 23 minutes to pick up the slack for Paul, who only played 23 minutes in his own right. If the Rivers name sounds familiar it’s probably because Austin Rivers is the son of former NBA all star, Doc Rivers, the same Doc Rivers who is currently the head coach for the Clippers. 

We’ll talk about a fun day in sports with big stories across the board from football to baseball to both the NBA & NHL Playoffs. Just another reason why I’m proud to be a sports fan. 

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Spotlight On Today’s Sports: 05/05/2015

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Happy Cinco De Mayo everybody! I hope all those who are celebrating have a good but safe time. I’ll be celebrating by attending at 10:20 showing of Avengers 2: Age of Ultron tonight. But if you aren’t celebrating there’s a good amount of events and stories to monitor in the world of sports, let’s take a look at the big three for today.

1) E:60- WWE: Behind The Curtain– when I was a kid I always hoped that following a WWE I would turn on ESPN & get the results. I remember the first time I actually say it was in 1995 when Sportscenter talked about Lawrence Taylor’s Wrestlemania 11 main event. I thought it was cool to see WWE get a rub from LT & get a little coverage on Sportscenter. Well tonight on ESPN, a 60 minute documentary will air featuring a behind the scenes at the world of WWE & NXT. The special is unprecedented not only because their is a WWE special being promoted on ESPN but also because the special promises a rare behind the scenes look at the often guarded world of professional wrestling. If the special is as good as past E60 specials, then we’re in for a treat.

2) Welcome Back- It was announced today that Madison Square Garden will look to hire IsiahThomas as the new Co Owner of the New York Liberty  as well as the president of basketball operations. Wow, talk about someone having nine lives! Not only did Isiah Thomas have five unsuccessful seasons as Knicks team president & a record of 56-108 in his two years as Knicks head coach but he also cost MSG 11.8 million dollars in an ugly sexual harassment lawsuit. It should be pointed out that Thomas needs to be approved by the WNBA board of Governors before being recognized as a co owner. 

3) The Greatest Fight Of The Century…Again- It was revealed today that Floyd Mayweather sent a text to Stephen A Smith of ESPN confirming that he will in fact grant Manny Pacquiao a rematch when he recovers from shoulder surgery. While I felt their first fight was underwhelming, it’s rumored to have done record number of pay per view buys and I’m sure the rematch will be much of the same. I’m actually surprised that Floyd is so willing to do a rematch, maybe as his final fight, being that Manny had him on the ropes on several occasions in their first fight, bad shoulder and all. 

That’s going to do it for today, again happy cinco de mayo to all. 

The Spotlight On Today’s Sports 5/4/2015

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Back in the saddle again with a slew of sports on tap for what proves to be a busy week of sports as the NBA Playoffs as well as the NHL Playoffs,  move into their second rounds of action.  Let’s move into some of the bigger stories and games that are going on in the world of sports. 

1) You Down With MVP?- Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry was named the 2014-2015 regular season MVP today, the first MVP for the Warriors since Wilt Chamberlain back in 1960 and the first point guard to win the award since Derrick Rose in the 2010-2011 season.  Curry averaged 23.8 points per games, 2 steals per game, 7.7 assists per game and 4.3 rebounds per game. While the numbers are obviously very good for Curry, they aren’t career bests for Curry other then his steals per game & his overall numbers were better last season. With that said, however, Curry was the best choice for MVP this season, no matter what Houston Rockets fans tell you, as he led the Warriors to an NBA best 67-15 record only losing 2 games at home the whole season. As Curry stated today during a press conference, while MVPs are nice, the goal for the Warriors is the NBA championship, so far they haven’t been tested in the postseason. 

2) Counsell Gets The Nod– Major League Baseball’s worst record to start the season belongs to the Milwaukee Brewers at 7-18. Thus, it didn’t come as any big surprise when the Brewers fired manager Ron Roenicke after 4 seasons and a 342-331 record and one NL central title. The only think surprising about the firing is that it came off the heels of the Brewers first series win of the season. His replacement shouldn’t come as much of a surprise as longtime utlitity man Craig Counsell was offered the job this morning. Counsell retired with theBrewers  organization in 2011 and since has been working as a general manager to the team’s general manager. The Brewers gave Counsell, who will take over managerial duties tonight, a node of confidence by rewarding him with a 3 year contract through the 2017 season. 

3) The Defining Series- For years the dominance of Lebron James & the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference has been called into question. Would the Hear have been able to make it to three straight NBA Finals of Derrick Rose were healthy? Well well finally get somewhat of answer tonight as it will be Lebron James ba Derrick Rose except this time it will be Lebron leading a Cleveland Cavs team to do battle with the Bulls in the Windy City. With all do respect to what the Atlanta Hawks have accomplished, I think the winner of the East is coming out this series. The first game between these two teams kicks off tonight at 7PM EST! 

That’s gonna do it for me today but I’ll be back later today with my first review up on the site, which is a heartwarming story. Until then, be well & may the fourth be with you!

 

Spotlight On Today’s Sports 5/2/2015

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So I know I’ve off the grid this week. I’ll be back business as usual starting on Monday when I return from my trip to Orlando, Florida where I was a best man for the first time in my life but there’s a lot of sports to get to today so I didn’t want to leave you stranded. Let’s jump right into it! 

1) The Fight Of The Century- The dream fight of dream fights finally takes place tonight. Some say boxing is dead but whether it was in California, New York or Florida this month all I’ve heard is who do you got Floyd Mayweather or Manny Pacquiao. I don’t know if my family and I have gotten a boxing fight since Sugar Ray Leonard returned but we will seeking out MayPac tonight on our last night in Florida. As for who I have? I gotta go Money Mayweather because of his affliation with WWE. I’m a wrestling fan sucker, I know but he was a highlight of Wrestlemania 24!

2) Game 7- There really hasn’t been any series in round 1 of the NBA Playoffs that’s been worth anyone’s time except for the San Antonio Spurs and the Los Angeles Clippers. The NBA Playoffs only series to reach a seventh and deciding game finally comes to a head tonight. I’ve seen this script so many times & I just don’t see the Spurs losing game 7, even on the road. 

3) NFL Draft- If there’s one draft that I really go out of my to watch it’s the NFL draft. It’s the unofficial kickoff to the NFL season and its a lot of fun now that’s it’s been spread out over a long weekend. My New York Jets continued their impressive offseason by trading up this morning to draft Baylor Quarterback Bryce Petty. 

4) Rivalry Weekend- On the baseball side of things many of the greatest rivalries in the sport take the focus today as the New York Mets take on the Washington Nationals, the Detroit Tigers face off with the Kansas City Royals for the American Leagues best record and of course, it’s Yankees- Red Sox. No matter how the teams are doing there’s still nothing like Yankees- Ref Sox. I’m not a Alex Rodriguez fan but the fact that he hit his 660th career homerun tying Willie Mays for fourth all time over the big green monster in Fenway Park? That’s pretty cool to say the least! 

So yes today may be one of the biggest days in sports history as with all I mentioned I didn’t even get into round 2 of the NHL playoffs or the Kentucky Derby. Whatever your sport of choice I hope you have a great time viewing it! 

The Spotlight Sports Pick Of The Day- 4/25/15

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Spotlight Sports Pick Of The Day- Atlanta Hawks (-2.5) 

Remember what I said abt game 3s when the oddsmakers have no choice but to make the spread smaller in favor of the better team? This one is tough but too tempting to pass up on. The Hawks are out to prove they were no fluke and have been able to take care of business at home. I’ve been waiting for the Nets to show their heart but so far they just haven’t. I’ll take the Hawks especially at less than a three pointer. 

Record- 3-1