The catch phrase for the Final Four of the NBA playoffs could well be "not so fast." As in Let's just get to the finals already, since we all know it's going to be a rematch of last year between Cleveland and Golden State." To which a contingent of fans and players in Toronto and Oklahoma City would reply (say it with me now) "Not. So. Fast."
After being blown out the first two games of the eastern conference finals that stretched Cleveland's unbeaten streak in the 2016 playoffs to ten straight wins, one could be forgiven for thinking the Toronto Raptors were little more than a far northern speed bump for LeBron James and friends to cruise over en route to the championship round. If you were listening to the sports report a couple of says ago you'll know that I am guilty of such rush to judgment. Well, as of this morning, the Cavs have now lost two in a row after Toronto beat Cleveland 105-99 last night to knot the series at two games apiece with a critical, pivotal game five looming back in Cleveland, where beleaguered Clevelanders have to be thinking "Please, no, not again."
To be clear, I still think the Cavs are going to win this. It's been a classic homer series so far, with both teams winning in their friendly confines and if it goes the full seven, the deciding game will be back in Cleveland, but Kyle Lowry is coming alive at just the right time for the Raptors, pouring in thirty-five points in last night's win and DeMar DeRozan wasn't far behind with thirty-two. Now Toronto has to prove they can be road warriors instead of just home sweet homers. They are just 2-6 in road games so far this post-season, and Cleveland hasn't lost more than two games in a row in the playoffs since they dropped three straight to Boston in the 2010 semi-finals. But given Cleveland's history of horrific sports collapses, fans along the Cuyahoga are going to be a bit on edge heading into game five.
Meanwhile, in Oklahoma City, Thunder fans will be as loud as their team's namesake tonight in game four against Steph Curry and the defending champion Golden State Warriors. Even with the dynamic duo of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook the conventional wisdom going into this series was that it would only be a matter of how many games it would take for the Warriors to get back to the finals, not if they would. But again, not so fast. The Thunder host game four tonight already up two games to one.
In the NHL playoffs western conference finals you have two teams carrying plenty of baggage filled with playoff disappointment between them, and right now it looks like the St. Louis Blues will be the ones having to heft some more. It's by no means over yet, but last night the San Jose Sharks went into St. Louis tied at two games apiece with the Blues and came out needing just one more win to make the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in franchise history after a commanding 6-3 win. The loss had to be especially depressing for the Blues, who led 2-1 late in the second period before the Sharks' Joe Pavelski picked up two key goals in succession to shift the momentum San Jose's way. Pavelski got the tying goal before the second period ended and then put the Sharks up for good in the opening minute of the third with his second goal of the game. If the Blues are to survive they'll have to win game six in San Jose, and it would help if they got their top scorer Vladimir Tarasenko going. He is scoreless so far in the series and had just one shot on goal last night.
The Boston Red Sox and NY Yankees were both idle last night. The Sox welcome the Colorado Rockies to Fenway Park tonight. The Yankees host the Toronto Blue Jays at the Stadium.
The NY Mets were in action last night, and they got a power burst from the middle of their line-up to soundly beat the Washington Nationals 7-1 in the nation's capitol. David Wright, Yoenis Cespedes, and Neil Walker all went yard in the Mets' win, and they'll need those player to keep slugging over the next four to six weeks with the news that power hitter Lucas Duda will be on the disabled list for New York with a stress fracture in his lower back. Cespedes certainly seems up to the task. His home run last night was his fifteenth of the season, currently tops in the National League.
To the French Open tennis tournament and the number two seed Andy Murray shockingly dropped the first two sets of his match against veteran Radek Stepanek yesterday, then fought back to win the third set and had a four games to two lead in the fourth, but all that tennis went into the evening hours and the game was suspended for lack of light. We'll see if Murray can complete the two sets to none comeback today. Meanwhile the defending mens' singles champ Stan Wawrinka avoided a first round upset yesterday, but it wasn't easy. He needed five sets to get past 59th ranked Lukas Rosol.
And tennis playoffs locally include the womens' division three NCAA tournament currently going on in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and yesterday the Middlebury Panthers advanced in the quarterfinal round, beating Amherst 5-2.
