Quote of the Day
“Thanks for the cheese.” UFC superstar Conor McGregor, announcing his early retirement from mixed martial arts on his Twitter page.
Three things to read today
Kobe Bryant like you’ve somehow never seen before
Ramona Shelburne is probably the best reporter/writer you’ve never heard about and she shows you why in this 8,000 word peel-back of Kobe Bryant. Every subject you want to know about is brought up in a way you haven’t seen before. It’s a hefty read, but bookmark it for later. Start reading on lunch and you’ll be hooked by time you get to the fishing trip story (pun!).
Yes, the Warriors are arrogant
But they’re fun, funny and produce the most exciting basketball we’ve seen in a long time and perhaps ever, so it’s camouflaged. Just the same way that Bartolo Colon and David Ortiz hide their PED using past in their jiggly jelly rolls above their waists. And there’s nothing really wrong with arrogance in sports. It’s actually quite necessary and built into success to some extent. Athletes aren’t great without confidence and sometimes that confidence leaks into arrogance. But yes, the Warriors have some arrogance about them.
For the football nerds out there
I don’t understand half of what’s going on, but film room type pieces always fascinate me. SI broke down some film with Reggie Ragland, former star Alabama linebacker, and while it may teach you a thing or two about defense under Nick Saban, you’ll get a better feel of who Ragland is on the field. It’s stuff like this that can show us laypeople what coaches, analysts, scouts and GMs are talking about when they bring up film study.
About last night . . .
POWERplay
Tampa Bay took a commanding 3-1 series lead over Detroit thanks to three power play goals in their 3-2 win. You can’t hear an NHL coach talk for five seconds about playoff hockey without hearing about the importance of special teams and last night’s game should be put on a poster as a shining example of that. Tampa Bay was 3-5 with the man advantage and Detroit was 0-4. There’s the game and very potentially the series. Detroit is in dire straits with the series heading back to Tampa Bay for an elimination Game 5. That means Pavel Datsyuk may have played his last game at the Joe. It also means the Wings are thisclose to an offseason with a lot of questions, mainly do they have a roster that can compete for the things the Red Wings are used to competing for. The answer to that is pretty obviously no. Whether that gets addressed or not has a much less obvious answer.
Shipping up to Boston
The Atlanta Hawks beat the Boston Celtics last night to take a 2-0 series lead. The final score was a dreadful 89-72, which might be the least interesting final score possible in an NBA game. The two teams each had two quarters in which they scored less than 20 points, with Boston’s SEVEN POINT first quarter being the exclamation point on that crummy sentence. The series shifts back to Boston on Friday. It’s a must win for Boston, because never in NBA history has a team come back to win a series after being down 3-0. Hopefully--for their sakes and for the people trying to watch--both teams can put the ball in the hoop a little bit more.
Offside review strikes again
The Pittsburgh Penguins took a 2-1 series lead over the New York Rangers with a 3-1 win last night. In a game absolutely loaded with star players, it was 39-year-old journeyman Matt Cullen that scored the game winner for Pittsburgh, which is always fun to see. But the offside review rule reared its ugly head once more as the Rangers’ Chris Kreider had a goal disallowed upon review, approximately the 100th time such a thing has happened this NHL postseason. It’s a new reality in the NHL, one that is being heavily scrutinized because of the large role it is playing in a lot of games. Game 4 in this series is Thursday night in New York.
Bears, down
Man, the Memphis Grizzlies just have no shot against San Antonio. When healthy Memphis is probably the fifth best team in the Western Conference and a really tough team to beat, but they’re just scraping together warm bodies to put on the court at this point. And this sucks, because their roster is full of some of the most crazy people the NBA has to offer and I’m going to miss seeing Matt Barnes fight people and Lance Stephenson lose his mind multiple times a game. Their team motto is “Grit N Grind” which doesn’t feel angry or dangerous enough to properly describe them. They play in an arena nicknamed “The Grindhouse”. In Memphis, no less. Sigh. Two more games left in the inevitable series sweep for the Spurs.
Ducks realize playoffs have started
After dropping Games 1 and 2 at home, Anaheim -- the Pacific Division champion -- showed some life in Game 3, winning 3-0 to avoid going down 0-3. Frederik Andersen got the shutout for the Ducks after replacing John Gibson, who was the victim of the popular “we need a spark, let’s just change the goalie” move. Like it did for Detroit in Game 3, it worked. Now Game 4 somehow carries an equal amount of pressure for both teams. The Ducks need a win to avoid going down 1-3. Nashville needs a win to avoid squandering the home ice advantage it had gained.
St. Louis just won two games in Chicago somehow
The Blackhawks were a popular pick to win the Stanley Cup this year, like they always are. Now they’re in severe danger of making a quick exit after St. Louis’ 4-3 win in Game 4. Blues fans are well aware that they aren’t supposed to win this series, and man are they letting people know it. I’m all for a good NHL or NBA conspiracy theory, so you do you, Blues fans. While Chicago finds itself on the brink, trailing 3-1 in the series, us Detroit fans are well aware the Blackhawks can make that disappear. It’s going to take quite a transformation from Corey Crawford, though.
BUT WHERE ARE THE VINES AND STUFF?
So, we are very aware that Vines do not translate into email. They cannot be embedded and emailed and neither can tweets in the email server we use. So, in order to try and alleviate some of the annoyance of constantly going back and forth between tweets, vines and this email, we’re going to set up a space for all of that on our website when we launch it. Then we’ll simply link to it at the bottom of each email, so when you’re done reading you can parooze the good stuff all in one place and not have to navigate your way through the email 100 times. For now, we’ll keep it as it was, but soon it will all be much easier for you to access.
The best of the rest
GOALIE FIGHT!!!
Noah Syndergaard is a pitcher for the Mets. He throws hard. This is what his catcher’s chest looks like after blocking one of his pitches.
When Adrian Beltre tells you to run . . . run.
Harry the Hawk got a little cocky
Did you know Tyler Johnson could fly? I bet even he didn’t know he could fly.
MLB Scoreboard
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