Category: Sports

The Big Story – Celtics Win Banner 18: Well, despite their infuriating year-long capacity to blow big leads the Celtics delivered NBA title number 18 with a Game 5 106-88 win.

Jaylen Brown was Finals MVP even though Jayson Tatum was better in the last two wins and Jrue Holiday actually should have won it.

But most importantly it let them reclaim what they hold dearest, NBA title leader with 18.

Sports 101: Name the Top 5 Hall of Famers to play the most playoff games without winning an NBA title.

News Item – Red Sox Update: Nice week for the Red Sox in taking two of three from both the Phillies and the Yanks, who have the best two records in baseball. It had the Sox starting the week in third place at 37 up and 35 down with the Blue Jays and Reds on tap.

News Item – Jerry West Dies: Saddest news in sports this week was the unexpected passing of the ever classy Mr. Clutch at 86, a guy who had a greater long-term influence than anyone in NBA history as a player, coach and executive.

He was special to me because he and Oscar Robertson were the gold standard for guard play when I first became a basketball fan. And trust me, with all due respect to Kobe, Kobe Bryant was not better than West.

He and Oscar don’t have the same number of titles because they played in the same era as Bill Russell and he hasn’t played in 50 years so how great he was is a bit lost as the memory dims over time.

But, while his numbers were staggering, he was much more than that. As he also presided over two Lakers eras as GM that won eight titles before moving first to Memphis and as a special advisor in Golden State as it put together a team that won four more rings.

So hail to the logo because you ain’t kidding when he is described as the GREAT Jerry West.

RIP.

News Item – Who’s Hot – Jarren Duran: According to Fastball on FanNation, with 20 doubles, 10 triples and 15 stolen bases through the Red Sox’ first 69 games Duran joined no less than baseball figures Ty Cobb (1911 and 1917) and Shoeless Joe Jackson (1912) as the only other left-handed batter to reach those three marks in fewer than 70 games since 1900.

The Numbers:

9 – led by Billy Hamilton’s three,franchise record stolen bases the Red Sox hung on the Yanks in Sunday’s 9-3 win.

26 – after going yard at Fenway on Sunday, homers Aaron Judge has after 73 games in 2024 to put him on a pace close to 2022 when he hit an AL record 62.

… Of the Week Awards

Thumbs Up – Dan Hurley: For once someone turned down getting the king’s ransom to not walk out on his guys because he was smart enough to know the grass on his side of the fence was green enough.

Injury of the Week – Mookie Betts: Bad news for Mookie fans as broke his left hand when he was hit by a pitch batting against the Royals Sunday. It’s especially painful as he was in the midst of an MVP-caliber season while making a remarkable return to the infield for L.A. this time as a shortstop. No timetable given for his return, though the injury will require surgery.

Alumni News Update – Kyle Schwarber: Those two homers he hit in the Phillies’ 4-1 series opener win vs. the Sox last week gave him 105 homers — 46 (2022), 47 (2023) and 15 so far this year — since John Henry and company refused to pay him the same money after 2021 that they gave to Masataka Yoshida, who hit 15 in Year 1 with the Sox while making Schwarber look like Barry Bonds in comparison when Yoshida was in left field.

Sports 101 Answer: The Hall of Famers to play in the most playoff games without winning an NBA title are Karl Malone (193), John Stockton (182), Reggie Miller (144), Patrick Ewing (139) and Elgin Baylor (134).

Final Thought – Tom Brady Goes Into Patriots Hall: Congratulations to young Tom for the honor along with the news his #12 will be retired. Also great to see that 100 teammates showed up for his inductions. That says something about what a great teammate and leader he was, though for those of us who saw him play that’s hardly a news flash.

All of which is richly deserved.

The best part for me, however, was seeing sincere emotional warmth between Brady and Coach B, who showed up to honor his QB despite the glacial relationship between him and ever petty owner Bob Kraft.

And Brady couldn’t have gotten it more right when he said, “It wasn’t me. It wasn’t you. It was us,” adding, “Here in New England, it’s always about we, and us. Not me, or my.” Oh, for the good old days.

Thanks for the memories, fellas.Email Dave Long at [email protected].

The Big Story – NBA Finals: The Celtics held serve by taking Games 1 and 2 of the NBA Finals in Boston. While Game 1 was a 107-89 blowout, Game 2 was more impressive because they shot poorly (especially Jayson Tatum) and still won 105-98 by grinding it out, which is the kind of games in years past they would lose.

No surprise Jrue Holiday was the star with 26 points and, as important, holding Kyrie Irving to his second straight no-impact-scoring game at 16 points. But the real key was the team D, which made the amazing Luka Doncic work for all of his 62 combined points as Dallas was held under 100 twice.

Now on to Dallas for Games 3 and 4 on Wednesday and Friday.

Sports 101: With 59, Larry Bird is the Celtics’ all-time triple double leader. Round out the Top 5 by naming the players who had the following numbers of triple D’s: 33, 32, 21 and 17.

News Item – Here Come The Yankees: After splitting four with moribund Chicago over the weekend, the Red Sox start the week in third place at 33-33. But a big test arrives this week as they face the best two teams in baseball. It starts with three against Dave Dombrowski’s Phillies and then it’s the high-flying Yanks making their first visit to Fenway Park this weekend.

News Item – Tanner Houck: It was supposed to be Brayan Bello. But as we hit mid-June the Red Sox ace is Houck after becoming what many thought he might become a few years back. It included shutting out Washington over five innings as the Sox clinched a 2021 playoff berth on the final day of the season.

While it’s not quite reflected in his 6-5 record thanks to a shaky bullpen and lack of offensive punch, his 1.91 ERA and .200 batting average against are among the league leaders, with the latest impressive effort coming in Thursday’s 14- 2 win over the White Sox when he allowed two runs and struck out nine over seven innings.

News Item – Homers United: The Boston Globe ran a piece on predictions made by hometown media members who cover the Celtics and Mavs. To no one’s surprise, all but one guy from Dallas — Sean McFarland — picked the Mavs and it was the same for Boston where only one, naturally Dan Shaughnessy, didn’t have the locals winning. Celtics fans can take heart, as the track record on predictions by Shaughnessy says he’s almost always wrong, so the Celtics are probably a lock.

The Numbers:

12 – consecutive losses to his former team by Kyrie after his 12-point, 6 of 19, and 16-point submissions in Game 1 and 2.

17 – NBA Finals record for biggest lead after the first quarter set by the Celtics when they led in Game 1 37-20.

96 – he may be hitting just .215 as he’s finding his footing, but after the 4-5, 4-RBI day vs. Chicago last week, it’s the number of RBI Sox rookie CF/SS Ceddanne Rafaela is on track to knock in from the ninth spot in the order.

… Of the Week Awards

Thumbs Up – Celtics Warm-Up Shirts: Love those Celtics warm up shirts with WALTON written across the front in tie-dye colors to honor the late great Bill Walton.

Mexico Will Pay For The Wall Award – Dallas Mavs: The Mavs’ announcement that Doncic was questionable for Game 2 (when he had a 31-11-11 triple double) was less believable than the claim made in the 2016 presidential race.

A Little History – Down Goes Rambis: Yup, it was (gulp) 40 years ago last week when Kevin McHale horse collared bespectacled Laker Kurt Rambis in Game 4 of the 1984 NBA Finals to prevent a breakaway lay-up as the C’s were getting run out by L.A. for the second straight game. It radically changed the momentum after that as the Celtics improbably rallied to even the series at 2-2.

That play and Gerald Henderson’s steal and score in OT of Game 1 were the plays that saved the series the C’s eventually won in seven.

Sports 101 Answer: No. 2 on the C’s triple D list is Bob Cousy with 33, followed by John Havlicek (32), Rajon Rondo (21) and Bill Russell (17). If you’re wondering, Tatum and Jaylen Brown have just two and three respectively.

Final Thought – Thumbs Down – John Henry: It’s ironic the Red Sox owner whined to the Financial Times of London that fans are too unrealistic in thinking you can win it all every year, just as the GM he fired to send the Sox crashing to the basement shows up at Fenway with his Phillies. Who immediately became contenders after he arrived thanks to moves like signing Kyle Schwarber (93 homers in two years) after the Sox let him walk.

True, you can’t win every year. But Dombo shows big-market teams can contend almost every year if they have the will Henry once had.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

The Big Story – Celtics in the NBA Finals: We’re at the point where pretty much everyone thought the Celtics would be: about to play in the NBA Finals. And as fate would have it the opposing Dallas Mavericks bring along Boston’s biggest sports villain of the day, Kyrie Irving, who has managed not to wreck his team for once.

At stake is the hugely important task of reclaiming their place as the most winning franchise in NBA history, something they’d been from the 1960s until 2020, when the Lakers tied them at 17 titles. Thus, winning number 18 would be the most significant title since Bird and company downed the Magic Johnson-, Kareem Jabbar-led Lakers in 1984.

To do that they’ll have to play better than they have so far, as despite being 12-2 in the playoffs they have yet to play their first start-to-finish solid game together. However, if they can hit on all cylinders, beating them is a tall order. Time will tell if that happens.

In the meantime it should be fun.

Sports 101: Name the only brother combination to ever play in a Super Bowl and the NBA Finals.

News Item – 5 Thoughts On Celtics-Mavs Series:

Tight Games Favor Dallas: First because Joe Mazzulla’s simplistic end-of-the-game strategy generally is isolating Jayson Tatum one on one, where he invariably wastes too much time and winds up taking a terrible shot, a Kobe-wannabe step-back 20-foot fall-away. Plus Luka Doncic is the best end-of-the-game shooter/scorer in the world. If he has the last shot Celts are in trouble.

Attack Kyrie Irving On D: He can’t cover my grandmother and the C’s need to make him pay for that from the first second of Game 1.

C’s Need Something from their Bench: Especially Sam Hauser, who’s been awful in the playoffs. Ditto for Payton Pritchard, who’s had some big moments but needs to be more consistent with his three-ball game.

Derek Lively is Mavs X Factor: Yes, I know he doesn’t start, Daniel Gafford does. But he’s still the best rookie center in the Finals since Alvin Adams in 1976. He hurt the Clippers, Oak City and Minnesota until he got hurt (when he was 16 for 16 in the series). The Celtics need to beware of him.

Time for Tatum and Brown: They’re no longer kids learning on the job. So no excuses. Time to show if they belong with great Celtics like Russell, Havlicek, Bird and Garnett.

Prediction: If they do, Celtics win in six. If not, fans will be screaming to trade one or both.

The Numbers:

13 & 16 –wins and losses for the Red Sox in their first 29 games at Fenway Park in what once was a great home field advantage.

142 – personal winning streak for the late Bill Walton, who died of cancer last week at 71. Dates back to his last two years in high school, his year on the freshman team at UCLA and his first 88 varsity games as a Bruin.

Random Thoughts:

I’m all for recognizing the great achievements of players in the Negro League. But commingling their stats with the major league baseball’s record book as announced by MLB last week is, well, dumb for a very simple reason. None of those players played in the major leagues. So putting Josh Gibson’s .372 lifetime average ahead of Ty Cobb’s .367 as the best ever average is like combining Pete Maravich’s phenomenal college scoring records with those of the NBA. The numbers were accumulated in different ways in different leagues. That doesn’t make sense to me.

Sports 101 Answer: The Walton brothers of San Diego, California, are the only brothers to play in a SB and NBA Finals. Bruce as an OL with Dallas in 1976 and Bill with Portland in 1977 and the Celtics 1986. Both played their college ball at UCLA.

Final Thought – Bill Walton: Certain people hit you a little more when they die. The Redhead was one of those people for me.

He was my favorite college player when I came of age as a young basketball player. Then there was his sheer fundamental artistry — he was always on his toes, never brought his arms or the ball down below his shoulders and was as “team first” as anyone I’ve seen. Third was he was a UCLA guy and I loved the Bruins during their dynasty years. Finally there was the 21 for 22 from the floor 44-point masterpiece to beat Memphis State in the 1973 NCAA Final, which was the best I ever saw anyone play.

Like Sandy Koufax, Gale Sayers and Bobby Orr his brilliance was snuffed out long before it should have been thanks to chronic foot injuries. But even with that it was a great ride. So thanks for the memories, big fella.

RIP.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

The Big Story – Celts Hold Serve: All we can tell you at our Memorial Day-induced (very) early deadline is the Celtics did what they were supposed to do in the first two games of their series with the Pacers: maintain home court advantage to go up two games. The first was a completely lucky Game 1 OT escape after blowing double-digit leads twice, and the second a methodical 16-point beat led by the series star so far Jaylen Brown.

It could be over by the time you’ll actually see this or tied 2-2. But there’s not much I can do about that with my Friday deadline.

Sports 101: Jayson Tatum just became the seventh Celtic to be named first All-NBA for a third time. Name the other three-time first teamers.

News Item – Real Baseball Season Begins: Once Memorial Day has come and gone, the real baseball season begins. Though the prospects of the Red Sox making a run to win it all are getting dimmer by the day there are still some stories of interest to follow, like whether the stellar work of the starting pitching can continue and how young players like Ceddanne Rafaela and Wilyer Abreu progress, whether Kenley Jansen or Tyler O’Neill will still be Red Sox come Aug. 1 and whether any of their promising minor-leaguers make it to Boston by year’s end.

The Numbers:

35 – all it took in seconds into Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals for the NBA refs to blow an obvious class in calling a goal tend on Al Horford while taking away the fast break attempt in the process.

40 – career playoff high for Jaylen Brown in the Celtics’ 126-110 Game 2 win over Indiana.

… Of the Week Award:

How Old Do I Feel Moment of the Week: Thanks to ABC analyst JJ Reddick, pretty old after he admitted during Game 2 he didn’t know who Cheers main character Sam Malone was. Then he made it worse by guessing he was just a “bartender” on that famous Boston TV show.

Baseball’s A Strange Game Stats of the Week: It’s seeing Red Sox starters Tanner Houck and Kutter Crawford putting up stellar earned run averages of 1.97 and 2.17 over 20 starts in the season’s first two months and their collective record being under .500 at 6-7. Granted their 68 and 58 innings pitched do not put them on an Iron Man McGinnity pace, but it does beg the question what does a guy need to do to get a win?

In Case You’re Wondering Award – Joe “Iron Man” McGinnity: The New York Giants hurler was 35-4 in 1904 with 38 complete games, five saves and a 1.67 ERA in 51 starts for the 107-win Giants while pitching an astonishing 406 innings.

Thumbs Up – Raffy Devers: For his team record-setting streak of homering in six straight games when he knocked in nine runs.

Random Thoughts:

Anyone besides me notice that the team in Philly that was put together by the guy John Henry fired two GM’s ago — Dave Dombrowski — had the best record in baseball by far at 37-14 after going deep in the playoffs the last two years?

There was John Havlicek’s 90 mph line drive banker to take the lead in the second OT vs. Phoenix in triple-OT thriller Game 5 in 1975, but the only buzzer-beating shot I can come up with that was a better/bigger major clutch shot in Celtics history with a higher degree of difficulty than the corner 3 Brown stuck with Pascal Siakam draped all over him is Sam Jones’ runner over Wilt Chamberlain to win Game 4 (89-88) and send the C’s back to Boston tied 2-2 with L.A. instead of down 1-3.

Sports 101 Answer: Joining Tatum as members of First Team All NBA three times or more are Bob Cousy with a most-ever 10 followed by Larry Bird (9), Havlicek, Bill Sharman and Easy Ed Macauley with four each and Bill Russell just three times.

Final Thought –A Little History – The Memorial Day Massacre: The ultimate lesson that no matter what the score is in a playoff blowout it’s just one game, nothing more. Wipe the slate clean and move on to the next game.

The one in question here happened on Memorial Day 39 years ago in 1985 when the Celtics annihilated the Lakers 148-114 in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.

Which got a lot of so-called experts saying the series was over. Especially if the migraine that rendered Kareem Abdul Jabbar useless persisted.

But guess what? L.A. wasn’t dead and neither was Kareem, who went for 30-17-7 in leading L.A. to a 109-102 Game 2 win in Boston and 24-14-7 in L.A.’s Game 3 blowout. Boston regrouped to win Game 4 behind 28, 27 and 26 points from Kevin McHale, DJ and Larry Bird. But the Lakers took the next two with the rejuvenated Jabbar being named MVP after passing his debilitating migraine on to the fellas in green.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

The Big Story – Celtics Start Round 3: So much for our first real New York–Boston playoff series since 1984. Instead the gallant Knicks fell to the Indiana Pacers after they took the last two games to earn their ticket to Boston for the Eastern Conference Finals.

They’ve met seven times in the playoffs before, with the C’s winning the last four meetings, including the last time in 2019. But this is the first time it’s been outside of Round 1.

Game 1 happened on Tuesday, with Game 2 coming tonight (Thursday) in Boston.

Sports 101: Who was the first person ever to hit a homer off the first pitch thrown on opening day?

News Item – Sox Falling: The Sox surprised almost everyone with a solid April. But, helped by a boatload of injuries, reality has set in as they’ve gone 6-11 in their first 17 games in May, which had them starting the week in fourth place, 9.5 games behind Baltimore.

News Item – The Party’s Over For The Bruins: For the second straight year the Bruins’ season was ended by the Florida Panthers. This time in six games, after the B’s coughed up one-goal third leads in Games 4 and 6. Now come the second-guessing and the finger-pointing, along with all eyes on Jim Montgomery to see if he’ll be the latest coaching scapegoat.

The Numbers:

.354 – unexpected batting average for Sox catcher Connor Wong, who no one thought would be the last player standing among the three guys they got back for Mookie Betts.

21 – record-setting under par score carded on Sunday by Xander Schauffele to win the PGA Championship and his first major title.

… Of the Week Awards

Who’s Hot – Raphael Devers: The team may not be, but he is. When the Sox downed the Cardinals 11-4 on Sunday in St. Louis he went deep for the fifth time in five games.

Jailbird of the Week – Scott Scheffler: It’s not everyday that a guy goes from a jail cell to the top of the leaderboard of a major. But that’s what the defending Masters champ did after allegedly assaulting a police officer at a traffic incident on his way into Round 2 of the PGA. After getting his mugshot and fingerprints, he was back on the Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky, to shoot 65 and grab a piece of the lead during his round.

Random Thoughts:

Imagine how good Luka Doncic would be if he ever got within area codes of actually being in primo shape.

It ain’t like the old days when you look at the Patriots schedule and the toughest decision faced was if you’d give them 12 or 13 wins. Unless the 12 or 13 you’re figuring on is losses for the upcoming season as could be the case as the just released 2024 schedule suggests.

A Little History – 1984 Knicks–Celtics: Believe it or not the last good seven-game series between New York and Boston was 40 years ago. Even with having the great Bernard King at his absolute peak, no one gave NY much hope in the Conference semi-final because he didn’t have much help. Except after going down 0-2 New York won all three games at MSG, including the 106-104 barn burner Game 6, to give most in these parts a scare. But Larry Bird was in the first of his three straight MVP seasons, and he delivered one of the signature games of his Boston career: a 39-point, 12-rebound, 10-assist triple double that sparked the C’s as they cruised to a 121-104 Game 7 win to move on to face Milwaukee — who they ran out in five games.

Sports 101 Answer: It happened in 1986 when Sox lead-off hitter Dwight Evans hit the season’s first into the left field stands at Tiger Stadium off Hall of Famer Jack Morris.

Final Thought – Celtics vs. Pacers: Don’t expect an easy series, because Indiana’s not afraid of them. They split their last four games, including eliminating Boston from the (who cares) in-season tournament.

They have difficulty with Tyrese Haliburton and he looked ready in his solid 26-point Game 7 effort vs New York.

Indy, not Boston, led the NBA in scoring, and has the same bombs-away from deep center in Myles Turner the C’s have in Kristaps Porzingis. So they can go toe to toe on offense.

Aaron Nesmith may be a bull in a china shop who fouls on every play, but he’s the kind of physical defender that gives Jayson Tatum trouble where if he’s not aggressive against that from the jump he can disappear into one of his infuriating and hurtful to the team passive starts.

They have a better bench coach in Rick Carlisle, who won January’s 133-131 victory by saving his challenges until the final minute to overturn two calls that decided the game, rather than Joe Mazzulla regularly using his to challenge on meaningless calls early in games.

Prediction: Celtics in a scary seven games over Indy.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

The Big Story – Alumni News: After his one-calamity-after-another ways since 2018, you knew from the day the Sox traded Chris Sale to Atlanta he was going to regain his dominant form. Which he did while shutting the Sox out for six innings last week while striking out 10 in a win that moved him to 5-1 with a 2.95 ERA for the Braves through seven starts.

It should be noted that, given his injury history and track record of eventually wearing down, he’s a long way from making it through the first half, let alone the year, injury-free. It is working so far. But, as Casey Stengel used to say, you never know.

Fingers crossed.

Sports 101: Ty Cobb won the AL Batting title year between 1907 and 1919 except in 1916. Who won it that year?

News Item – Trouble Bruin For B’s: The opening series 5-1 drubbing of Florida now seems long ago. It was all downhill from there after the Bruins got drubbed themselves twice in three straight losses. First by identical 6-1 scores in Games 2 and 3. Then by blowing a 2-0 first period lead in Game 4 to go down 1-3 to the Panthers. The only glimmer of hope to take from this dire spot is that’s where Florida was before rallying to win three straight and take the series 4-3 last year. So the B’s know it can be done.

News Item – White Hot Nova Connection Burns Indy: The best story in the NBA playoffs has to be the way three teammates from Villanova’s 2018 NCAA championship team are driving the Knicks deeper into the playoffs. It’s a first of its kind story, as if the Knicks go/went on to win it all Jalen Brunson, Dominic Divicenzo and Josh Hart would be the first three guys from the same college championship to pull that off together in the NBA.

News Item – C’s Lose Game 2 Badly Again: Celtics fan boy see-no-evil ESPN announcers are repeating the line that fans are “impatient” with the Jayson Tatum-led team for not winning enough after seeing them rack up their latest Game 2 relaxation loss at home after cruising in Game 1 over Cleveland. This claim is insulting to them and delusional by the players and coaches pushing that ridiculous story. It’s just an excuse by a team that can’t stay focused when it counts. With their talent, if Tatum and company had one tenth of the fight in them that Hart, Brunson and the Knicks have shown in these playoffs, the C’s would have won the last two NBA Finals.

The Numbers:

16 – shots on goal total by the Bruins offense to 32 against in the aforementioned Game 4 loss to Florida.

40 – months in prison that rocket scientist Celtics alum Glen “Big Baby” Davis was sentenced to last week for his role in scamming the NBA health care program out of pandemic-related funds.

76 – video clips sent to the NBA office by the Pacers supposedly showing referee mistakes from just the first two games of the Pacers-Knicks.

… Of the Week

Crybaby of the Week – Pacers Coach RickCarlisle. Come on, Rick, not even I think NBA refs can miss 76 calls in just two stinking games.

Stat of the Week – Plus/Minus: For those who think points scored mean everything. When Minnesota thumped Denver 106-80 in Game 2 vs. the T-Wolves, their plus/minus leader was Jaden McDaniels at +26 despite scoring just 5 points. On the other side Denver’s high scorer was Aaron Gordon with 20, who also was their +/- leader at -33.

Random Thoughts

Hate to put pressure on the kid, but am I the only one who thinks that from certain angles Drake Maye looks like Tom Brady?

The T-Wolves’ Anthony Edwards is showing he’s on the doorstep of joining the NBA’s elite players. He has a lot of Michael/Kobe grit in him.

Sports 101 Answer: Ex-Red Sox star Tris Speaker hit .386 for Cleveland to stop Cobb’s streak. But Cobb wasn’t far off as he finished second at .370.

Final Thought – Minutes Debate: As someone who thinks players are babied down to 32 minutes a game nowadays by sissified coaches like Joe Muzzulla, I’ll be interested to see if the Knicks’ Tom Thibodeau’s pedal-to-the-middle style will hold up as the playoffs go on. Both Hart and Brunson have averaged over 43 minutes per so far, where Hart played all 48 in three straight games, while it was 42 for OG Anunoby, 44 for Brunson and Divincenzo and all 48 minutes for Hart in Game 1 was Indiana.

I’m a maniac, but even I think that has to catch up to them at some point. And maybe it did in Game 4 as the Villanova trio shot a combined 9 for 36 overall and 1-16 from downtown in a 32-point loss.

However, we’ll need a little more evidence before we know if Game 4 was just one of those bad game blowouts or if New York is getting tired.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].