Month: May 2025

— Knicks 108, Celtics 105 OT
Boston led 75-55 midway thru the third quarter.
Celtics were 15-60 on the arc; they missed 45 3-point shots!!!!
Knicks were 17-37 on the arc.
Knicks were +13 in the 21:00 that Mitchell Robinson played.

Celtics took 20 shots in third quarter; 19 of them were 3’s. Yikes.

— Nuggets 121, Thunder 119
OKC led by 11 points with 4:31 left in the game.
Aaron Gordon hit a 3-pointer with 0:02.8 left for the win.
Nikola Jokic had 42 points, 22 rebounds, six assists.
Denver outscored the Thunder 71-59 in the second half.

— Since 1970, there have been 20 NBA playoff series where one team won the previous series in seven games, while the other team swept their series. The team that swept the previous series won the next series 17 of 20 times.

Denver-Oklahoma City is the 21st series like that, since 1970. Nuggets won their last series in seven games, Thunder swept their last series.

— Utah Jazz/coach Will Hardy agreed to a contract extension, thru the 2031 season. Jazz are 85-161 in 37-year old Hardy’s three seasons, going 17-65 this year.

— Famous birthdays, May 6th:
Bob Seger, 80
Tom Bergeron, 70
George Clooney, 64
Jason Witten, 43
Dustin Colquitt, 43

Chris Paul, 40
Goran Dragić, 39
Jose Altuve, 35
Jonas Valančiūnas, 33
Mitch Spence, 27

— In the NHL, Dallas Stars coach Peter DeBoer has a career record of 9-0 in Game 7’s of a playoff series, which is really impressive.

— Edmonton Oilers left wing Jeff Skinner has played in the NHL for 15 years; before this year, he had never played in a playoff game, not one. 1,078 regular season games before he got his first playoff action.

— In the NFL, Baltimore Ravens released long-time kicker Justin Tucker, one of the best kickers ever, after 13 years with the team. Ravens won the Super Bowl in his rookie year, but recently he has come under fire for some off-field antics- he got released this week.

— If you’re on Twitter, go to @thehoopherald

There is a video on there of Steph Curry making 105 straight 3-point shots from the right corner, after a practice. He is the greatest shooter of all-time.

— Cardinals’ P Erick Fedde and Phillies’ 1B Bryce Harper were teammates at Las Vegas HS back in the day; they must’ve had a good team.

— Forget to mention this the other night, but Saturday in Chicago, Astros’ OF Jake Meyers went 4-for-4, with two homers, a double, triple and 7 RBI, the first player to do that since Ralph Kiner in 1950. Meyers batted 9th in that game- before Saturday, he had six RBI all season.

— Movie of the Day: Fast Break (1979)- Guy who loves basketball and runs a deli in New York City quits his job to become a small college basketball coach in Nevada. He recruits five players to come with him, but he has to beat national power Nevada State to get hired full-time by the school.

Gabe Kaplan is great as the coach; two of his players were played by Bernard King, who was a great NBA player, and Michael Warren, who played at UCLA.

Former UCLA coach Jim Harrick was a technical advisor for this movie, and has a non-speaking role in it, as an assistant coach for Nevada State.

— Braves 4, Reds 0
AJ Smith-Shawver didn’t allow a hit until the 8th inning.
Reds scored 42 runs in Brady Singer’s first five starts; they got shut out in his last two.

— Royals 3, White Sox 0
Cole Ragans struck out 11 guys in five shutout IP.
Kansas City has won 11 of its last 13 games.

— Padres 4, New York 3
San Diego scored four runs in 8th inning for the comeback win.
Machado/Bogaerts each had a 2-run hit in the decisive rally.

— Cubs 9, Giants 2
Giants made four errors, allowed six unearned runs.
Dansby Swanson is 12-26 during his 7-game hitting streak.

— If the playoffs started today (they don’t):
NL: Mets, Cubs, Dodgers. Wild Cards: Padres, Giants, Phillies
AL: New York, Tigers, Mariners. Wild Cards: Guardians, A’s, Royals

— Apparently this season, Major League Baseball changed how its umpires are evaluated on their calls of balls and strikes:

“In response to consistent player and club desire to have umpires evaluated more closely to the rulebook strike zone, we agreed with the MLB Umpires Association in their new CBA to reduce the size of the ‘buffer’ around the border of the strike zone, which essentially protects an umpire from being graded ‘incorrect’ on extremely close misses.”

MLB says it told everyone, but the article in The Athletic says otherwise:

“What do you think of the new strike zone?” an umpire asked one catcher, to which the catcher answered “What new strike zone?”

Not sure why it was handled this way; you’d think it is easy to let everyone know something like this is happening. At least everyone knows now, with 20% of the season over.

— Friday night in Anaheim Tigers’ RF Riley Greene became the first player EVER to homer twice in the 9th inning of the same game. Detroit scored eight runs in the top of the ninth to beat the Angels, 9-1.

You’d think that would’ve happened at least one other time in history, but it hadn’t happened ever until Friday night.

— Guardians 5, Blue Jays 3
Toronto led 3-0 after seven innings.
Daniel Schneeman hit a grand slam in the ninth inning; he also homered in the 8th inning.
Kevin Gausman threw six shutout IP for Toronto.

— Twins 4, Red Sox 3
Kody Clemens homered for the Twins, with his dad Roger watching in a private suite.

— Marlins 9, A’s 6
Kyle Stowers hit a walk-off grand slam, his second homer of the game.
Win snaps the Marlins’ six-game losing streak.
Only second loss in last seven games for the A’s.

— Mets have won nine games in a row against the Cardinals, their longest-ever win streak against the Redbirds.

— Padres 2, Pirates 1
Fernando Tatis scored winning run on a wild pitch in ninth inning.
San Diego has won four games in a row.
Pirates have lost six of their last seven games.

— Seattle Mariners have a prospect Jurrangelo Cijntje, who pitches with both hands: he’s had a rough start to the season, giving up 13 runs in 17.1 IP, but he does pitch with both hands. He is currently in the Class A Northwest League.

— Famous birthdays, May 4th:
Rene Lachemann, 80
Butch Beard, 78
Richard Jenkins, 78

Ken Oberkfell, 69
Rick Leach, 68
Tim Sherwin, 67

Cleveland Gary, 59
Victor Oladipo, 33
Nathan Peterman, 31

— Nuggets 120, Clippers 101
Denver led 58-47 at half, then outscored Clippers 35-19 in third quarter.
James Harden went 2-for-8 from floor, scored seven points.
Nuggets move on to play Oklahoma City in the next round.

Since 2017, NBA home teams are 10-12 in Game 7’s
Before 2017, home teams were 101-25 in Game 7’s

— Gregg Popovich officially retired as coach of the San Antonio Spurs, after a 29-year run in San Antonio, where he won 1,422 regular season games and five NBA titles. A great career.

While Popovich coached the Spurs, there were 303 head coaching changes made by the other NBA teams.

— Lakers signed GM Rob Pelinka to a new, long-term contract, so he and JJ Redick will be working together for the foreseeable future.

— Kevin Durant left Golden State after the 2019 season; his head coaches since then:
2019-20: Nets- Kenny Atkinson/Jacque Vaughn
2020-21: Nets- Steve Nash
2021-22: Nets- Steve Nash
2022-23: Nets- Steve Nash/Jacque Vaughn
2023: Suns- Monty Williams
2023-24: Suns- Frank Vogel
2024-25: Suns- Mike Budenholzer

— Arizona Wildcats gave basketball coach Tommy Lloyd a contract extension thru 2030; Arizona is 112-33 in four years under Lloyd, 61-19 in conference games, 6-4 in NCAA Tournament games.He is scheduled to make $4.4M/year, plus bonuses.

— College basketball teams who have to replace their entire roster for next season:
Baylor. Indiana. Maryland. West Virginia

— Aidan Mahaney played two years for very good Saint Mary’s basketball teams that went 53-16 while he was in their rotation; he played around 32:00/game. Last year, he got poached by UConn, where he played only 12 minutes a game for the 24-11 Huskies.

This spring, Mahaney saw the light; he bolted to Cal-Santa Barbara, where he figures to be a key piece in the Gauchos’ puzzle. He was first team all-WCC both his years at Saint Mary’s, so he figures to be an all-star in the Big West.

— If the playoffs started today (they don’t):
NL: Mets, Cubs, Dodgers. Wild Cards: Padres, Giants, Phillies
AL: New York, Tigers, Mariners. Wild Cards: Guardians, Astros, A’s/KC

— Knicks 116, Pistons 113
Jalen Brunson scored 40 points, scoring game-winning 3-pointer with 0:04 left.
Knicks only played three subs, who played a total of only 36:00.
New York wins the series, 4-2.

Good season ends for Detroit; they were 14-68/17-65 the last two years, but went 44-38 this year and made the playoffs for first time since 2019.

— Speaking of the Knicks, on May 8, 1970, I was 10 years old, was playing wiffle ball in the street in front of our house, at 8:15 or so. My dad stuck his head out the door and said “Get in here, now.” My friends laughed, they thought I was in trouble, but my dad never yelled at me, so I didn’t know what was up.

“Who you rooting for?” he asked me- Game 7 of the NBA Finals was about to start, Knicks vs Lakers. He and my sister were huge Knick fans; I didn’t really care who won, but I was good at being an annoying little brother so I said “Lakers”

My dad pointed to the other side of the living room and said “Sit over there, then”

Knicks killed them; they were up 27 at the half, won easily. Was cool to see my dad happy, but don’t think I said so that night.

— I bring this up because one of the Knciks’ starting guards on that team, Dick Barnett, passed away this week at age 88. 

Barnett was a lefty jump shooting guard who played 14 years in the NBA, scored 15,358 points in an excellent career. He played 42:00 in that Game 7, scored 21 points. He was really good.

RIP, sir.

— By the way, the Knick-Laker playoff games started at 8:30 back then because they had the Ringling Brothers Circus in Madison Square Garden during the day; took them a while to get the court ready to play. Times have changed.

— Clippers 111, Nuggets 105
James Harden scored 28 points, Kawhi Leonard 27.
Clippers used three subs, who were a combined +20
Series is 3-3; game 7 is Saturday night in Denver.

— I have a question, actually several questions about why the Lakers played the same five players the whole second half in their Game 4 loss to Minnesota.

Minnesota led 61-58 at halftime, but the Lakers outscored them 36-23 in the third quarter. Timberwolves led the series 2-1- they outscored a tired Lakers team 32-19 in the fourth quarter and seized control of the series.

In the last 30 years, no NBA team had ever played an entire half of a playoff game without making any substitutions; Lebron James is one of the best players ever for sure, but he is 40 years old, and he didn’t score a point in the 4th quarter.

My main question is this: Lakers’ coach JJ Redick had never coached before this season; was this his decision? Did the front office approve of it? Were they even notified? What did the seven subs on the bench think about being ignored for the whole second half.

— Famous birthdays, May 2nd:
Engelbert Humperdinck, 89
Jo Ann Pflug, 84
Clay Carroll, 84

Christine Baranski, 73
Keith Moreland, 71
Dwayne Johnson, 53

David Beckham, 50
Pat McAfee, 38
Ian Anderson, 27

— May 1, 1991 was a pretty significant sports day:

Rickey Henderson set the all-time stolen bases record during a day game in Oakland.

That night, Nolan Ryan threw his 7th no-hitter, at age 44.

— So far this season, Mets have outscored opponents 50-19 in the first three innings; Francisco Lindor is hitting 14-30 in the first inning.

— Back in 2005, every major league team hit .250 or better for the season; last year, only six teams hit .250 or better.

— A’s 3, Rangers 0
Jeffrey Springs allowed two hits in six scoreless IP.
Rangers haven’t homered in their last seven games.
Right now, the A’s are tied for the last playoff spot in the AL.

— Rockies 4, Giants 3
San Francisco led 3-1 after the sixth inning.
Rockies snapped a 12-game losing skid at Oracle Park.
Colorado won its last two games, after starting the season 4-25.

— Guardians 4, Twins 3 (10)
Jose Ramirez is the first Cleveland player with 250+ homers, 250+ stolen bases.
Pinch-hitter Angel Martinez had the walk-off single for the Guardians.
Minnesota slips to 4-13 on the road.

— Blue Jays 4, Red Sox 2
Vladimir Guerrero Jr hit a 3-run homer in 8th inning.
Red Sox led 2-0 after six innings.
Alex Bregman knocked in the only two Boston runs.

— Royals 8, Rays 2
Bobby Witt homered, extended his hitting streak to 22 games.
Royals went to Tampa Bay and swept the Rays.
Rays are 9-13 in their temporary home, an outdoor minor league field.

— If the playoffs started today (they don’t):
NL: Mets, Cubs, Dodgers. Wild Cards: Padres, Giants, Phil/Ariz
AL: New York, Tigers, Mariners. Wild Cards: Guardians, Astros, A’s/KC