March 31, 2016: Put your phone down when you're with your dumb friends

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Some advice you probably don’t need

D’Angelo Russell did a bad thing after Nick Young did a worse thing. Russell secretly recorded Young reciting a list of his mistresses and that recording has made it out to the world. So now the Lakers aren’t passing D’Angelo the ball.

This is weird, and it’s only going to get more weird. Already on Wednesday we learned that Nikki Minaj of all people may have had something to do with this. It’s like a less believable M. Night Shyamalan movie.

But we at the Game Manager aren’t about to get into locker room disputes or “man code.” We’re not going to discuss the virtues of monogamy. We’re not going to pretend to feign disgust at a guy who nicknamed himself Swaggy P cheating on the woman who poisoned our brains with “Fancy.”

No, we’re here to give you five ways to avoid outing your teammate for cheating on his/her significant other.

1. Put your phone down. Jesus, this isn’t that hard.

2. Don’t show the footage to a famous rapper who has a history of holding ridiculous grudges.

3. My god, is your phone out again?

4. You shouldn’t need five of these.

5. OK, fine. DON’T RECORD YOUR TEAMMATE ADMITTING TO CHEATING AND IF YOU DO DELETE IT IMMEDIATELY BECAUSE NOTHING GOOD WILL COME OF IT.

Three things to read today

More ugly allegations of worker abuse in Qatar

The 2022 World Cup bid has been consumed in controversy since the oil-rich country’s name left FIFA’s collective mouth at the 2010 selection ceremony. It has been pages and pages of bribery, unfit conditions for play, and a laundry list of abhorrent worker conditions with an exclamation point dotted by thousands of dead migrant workers. Now, a new Amnesty International report.

Baseball season is so damn close

As the above headline would have you believe, baseball starts soon! That means Sports Illustrated is coming out with their annual ‘Scouts’ Takes’ a collection of rival scouts breaking down every team in baseball. Here’s the American League side of that.

The NFL and the New York Times are about to fight

Last week the NYT wrote a pretty damning report about the NFL’s handling of concussions and CTE, as well as drawing parallels between the league and Big Tobacco. The NFL then demanded the NYT retract their report and today the NYT fired back.

Headlines

• UFC announces McGregor-Diaz 2 for UFC 200
• Golden State Warriors need some Klay Thompson magic to get win No. 68
• Domestic abuse charges against Jose Reyes are being dropped
• Dallas Mavericks stayed in the playoff hunt
• Philadelphia Flyers one step closer to playoff spot

The best of the rest

Kobe Bryant has the knees of a 157 year-old man.

This is a good dog at a baseball game.

This man has a point.

We will all probably go our entire lives without asking a better question.

In the picture below, Steph Curry is about three seconds away from draining a three.

One letter in the Wheel of Fortune puzzle? NO PROBLEM.

Don’t worry, the Tebow jokes are still here

And no, he didn’t get signed.

NBA Scoreboard

Toronto 105	Atlanta 97
Denver 109	Memphis 105
Milwaukee 105	Phoenix 94
LA Clippers 99	Minnesota 79
Dallas 91	NY Knicks 89
San Antonio 100	New Orleans 92
Golden State 103	Utah 96 (OT)
Washington 111	Sacramento 120
LA Lakers 102	Miami 100 (OT)

NHL Scoreboard

Ottawa 2	Winnipeg 1
Philadelphia 2	Washington 1 (SO)
Anaheim 8	Calgary 3

March 30, 2016: Smile, Gronk has an Instagram!

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Redemption on American soil

After what can only be described as an embarrassing loss to Guatemala last Friday, the US Men’s National Team rebounded last night with an easy 4-0 win against the same Guatemalan team. The score could have been more tilted in the American’s favor, but sometimes it’s hard to kick a big, round and bouncy ball. The loss removes the American soccer fan’s hand from the panic button and advancing to the next stage of World Cup qualifying is all but assured at this point.

Red Wings miss huge opportunity

Detroit started the night one point back of Boston and even on points with Philadelphia and had a chance to jump both with the Bruins losing and the Flyers off. The Red Wings squandered away a third period lead and lost in regulation 4-3 to Montreal. While the loss doesn’t kill Detroit’s playoff hopes, it results in a huge missed opportunity to control their own destiny. Five games remain in the regular season for both Detroit and Boston, while Philadelphia has seven.

Pistons play basketball better than other team

There was one team in Detroit that took a positive step towards postseason action. The Piston notched a nice win over the Kevin Durant-less Oklahoma City Thunder. The win must be taken with a grain of salt due to Durant’s absence (he is, after all, a top five player in the NBA) but it’s still a quality win over one of the league’s top teams. The Pistons jumped Indiana for 7th in the East and are still 2.5 games ahead of Chicago for the 8th spot. Detroit’s remaining schedule is tough, but a win against Chicago on Saturday would all but lock up a playoff spot.

Warriors are bored, still winning

The Warriors won their 54th straight home game, knocking off a Washington team that was somehow more lively than it’s been in any game the past two weeks. The win brings the Warriors to 67-7, matching their win total from a year ago. They’re openly talking about not wanting to be bored as the season comes to a close. Must be nice.

Colorado on last leg

The Colorado Avalanche lost and the Minnesota Wild won last night, leaving Colorado five points out of a playoff spot with five games left to play. It’s not impossible, but it appears likely Colorado with cede the final playoff spot in the Western Conference to Minnesota. Oh, and Duncan Keith tried to kill a guy.

Stat of the Day

Tyler Ulis was named a First-Team AP All-American Tuesday, which isn’t surprising. What is surprising, is that at 5 feet, 9 inches tall, he’s the shortest AP All-American since 1953. #TeamShortGuys

Tweet of the Day

Hey, Kobe, how’s your last season in the NBA going?

That well, huh?

SPECIAL EDITION ROB GRONKOWSKI INSTAGRAM VIDEO OF THE DAY

Superstar Tight End/Polar Bear/Party Rocker Rob Gronkowski joined Instagram and promptly posted a minute long video of him doing everything everyone would imagine he’d do in an offseason. This is the single most important development of the NFL offseason.

Tim Tebow was back in the news! Did you see?!

Yeah, but only because he said the idea of running for public office was “intriguing”. He remains a free agent at this time.

NBA Scoreboard

Detroit 88	Oklahoma City 82
Chicago 98	Indiana 96
Orlando 139	Brooklyn 105
Charlotte 100	Philadelphia 85
Houston 106	Cleveland 100
Golden State 102	Washington 94

NHL Scoreboard

Montreal 4	Detroit 3
New Jersey 2	Boston 1
NY Islanders 2	Carolina 1 (SO)
Pittsburgh 5	Buffalo 4 (SO)
Toronto 5	Florida 2
Minnesota 4	Chicago 1
St. Louis 3	Colorado 1
Dallas 5	Nashville 2
San Jose 4	Vancouver 1

March 29, 2016: Get your playoff spots, red hot playoff spots here

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Bottom of NBA playoff races beginning to take shape

The Chicago Bulls desperately needed a win over Atlanta Monday night to keep their playoff hopes alive. They led most of the way, but faltered down the stretch in a loss. They drop to 2.5 games behind Detroit and are now tied for ninth with Washington.

Out West Dallas knocked off Denver, all but ending the Nuggets hopes of squeaking into the eighth spot. It’s now a two team race between the Mavericks and the Houston Rockets. Currently, Houston is a half game up on Dallas, but the two teams are even in the loss column. I’m sure both teams are real excited about getting swept by the Warriors in embarrassing fashion.

NHL: “Samesies”

Both Detroit and Philadelphia won last night. Detroit was able to stave off a late Buffalo rally to win in regulation. The Flyers gave up a 3rd period lead to Winnipeg but were able to win in OT to get a crucial ROW (regulation or Overtime win; a playoff tiebreaker). The matching victories keep the standings static with the Flyers up on a tiebreaker with a game in hand. The two meet on April 6 in Detroit in a game that could decide the final wildcard spot. Another item to watch: Detroit is back to one point behind Boston for third in the Atlantic Division, a spot guaranteed a playoff berth.

In the less important time zones, Colorado got a win they absolutely had to have in order to keep their slimming playoff hopes alive. They trail Minnesota by three points with six games remaining. San Jose clinched a playoff spot with its 5-2 win against the Los Angeles Kings.

Just your daily reminder that the Washington Capitals are really, really good

Washington clinched the President’s Trophy, awarded to the NHL team with the most points at the end of the season, with their win over Columbus last night. If it seems a little early for that, it’s because it is. Last year’s President’s Trophy winners, the New York Rangers, clinched on April 7. The NHL record for points in a season is 124, set by Detroit in 05-06. Washington currently sits at 113 with seven games left. They need to go 5-1-1 to tie the record or 6-1 or 5-0-2 to set a new record. As for the President’s Trophy curse? (read that if you’ve got time later) It has been given out 29 times with eight winners going on to win the Stanley Cup, which, while not a guarantee, is a higher percentage of wins than any other seed has.

Kyrie Irving is not having a good year

Between bed bugs and the most powerful player in the NBA hating him and his teammates, 2016 has not been a great year for Kyrie Irving. And just to make things more amazing for the Cavaliers point guard, now he’s in the middle of a very public breakup with his girlfriend Kehlani, who apparently hooked up with a person named Party Next Door. Yes, you read all of that correctly. I tell you all of this because this was Kehlani (far left) in 2011. Now she’s being fought over by an NBA star and a rapper (?). In fairness, she grew up. The lesson here? We’re all really old and nothing makes sense anymore.

Stat of the Day

The UCONN women’s basketball team made their ninth straight Final Four with a win over Texas last night. In those nine seasons their record is 332-14, good for a .958 win percentage. That’s like an NBA team winning between 78 and 79 games a year for nine straight years.

Tweet of the Day

It’s not a sports tweet, but they don’t all have to be sports tweets.

What’s that? You want a sports tweet? OK, here’s a good one.

Vine Video of the Day

So here’s what’s gonna happen here: You’re gonna read the title of this Vine, watch it, get really confused, watch it again, ask yourself “why?”, watch it again, get mad, and swear off the internet forever.

Tebow?

Not yet :(

NBA Scoreboard

Atlanta 102	Chicago 100
San Antonio 101	Memphis 87
Miami 110	Brooklyn 99
Oklahoma City 119	Toronto 100
NY Knicks 91	New Orleans 99
Phoenix 116	Minnesota 121
Dallas 97	Denver 88
LA Lakers 75	Utah 123
Portland 105	Sacramento 93
Boston 90	LA Clippers 114

NHL Scoreboard

Detroit 3	Buffalo 2
Colorado 4	Nashville 3
Washington 4	Columbus 1
Tampa Bay 3	Toronto 0
Philadelphia 3	Winnipeg 2 (OT)
San Jose 5	Los Angeles 2
Anaheim 2	Edmonton 1
Calgary  5	Arizona 2

MLB Scoreboard

Psych	it’s
Spring	training
nobody	cares
about	baseball
just	yet