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Not that it’s a bad thing but Shohei Otani hit two home runs last night in the Los Angeles Angels game against the New York Yankees. That means that I can’t turn on the MLB Network at all today because they won’t talk about anything else. Now I have an overnight work schedule; so I didn’t know Otani had accomplished this feat until this morning. Of course the one thing that they forgot to mention while talking about Otani was that the Angels got crushed by the Yankees 11-5. I’m under the impression that winning the game is no longer important in baseball.

We’ve been over the Otani phenomenon quite a few times not only here in the blog, but on the Sports Time Radio podcast; so I don’t want to take you down that road again. Here’s the bottom line on this. The Angels are currently three games under .500 at 38-41 which puts them in 4th place in the American League West. They are 9 1/2 games behind the 1st place Houston Astros and 8 games out of a wild card spot. While I’ve mentioned before; Otani is having a good season, but no matter what kind of numbers he outs up unless they’re record breaking we won’t see him in the playoffs and he doesn’t deserve to win the Most Valuable Player award. Unfortunately there are too many stupid people who vote for the MVP award and they’ve already decided that he’ll win it.

Last night the Atlanta Hawks went into Game 4 of their Eastern Conference final series against the Milwaukee Bucks not only down 2 games to 1, but also down there best player.

Shortly before Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals the Hawks announced that Trae Young would miss the game with a bone bruise in his foot. Young was injured in an odd fashion as he bruised that bone when he stepped on the foot of a referee in Game 3.

Even without Young in their line up the Hawks found a way to even their series against the Bucks at 2-2 with a 110-88 win.

Lou Williams stepped into the starting line up for Atlanta in place of Young and scored a game high 21 points in 35 minutes of action. Williams went 7 of 9from the field including 2 of 3 on his 3-point attempts. Williams also made 5 of his 6 free throws and handed a team high 8 assists.

Just think when Williams was traded to the Hawks by the Los Angeles Clippers he was so upset with the deal that he almost retired. Now he’s the Hawks Game 4 hero.

Williams did have some help from his teammates. Bogdan Bogdanovic scored 20 points, Clint Capela and Kevin Huerter each scored 15 points while Cam Reddish and Danilo Gallinari came off the Hawks bench to each score in double figures. Reddish had 12 points while Gallinari added 10 points.

The Bucks only had three players score in double figures led by Jrue Holiday with 19 points. Kris Middleton added 16 points while Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 14 points, but only played 24 minutes as he injured a knee.

It actually looked like Milwaukee would get the win in Game 4 and even when Antetokounmpo went out they where still up by 10 points, but couldn’t hold the lead.

It’s unclear right now if either Antetokounmpo or Young will be ready go to when Game 5 comes around on Thursday night in Milwaukee.

Over in the Western Conference the Phoenix Suns have a chance to close out the Los Angeles Clippers in Game 6 if their series.

I haven’t heard if it’s been officially announced yet, but it appears as though Kawhi Leonard won’t be playing again for Los Angeles. Leonard hasn’t played since Game 7 of the Clippers series against the Dallas Mavericks; so the Suns haven’t even seen him on the floor.

If Phoenix can win this series it will be the first time they have made it to the NBA Finals since 1993. The Suns have never won the NBA title and besides that 1993 trip to the NBA Finals their only other trip there was back in 1976. No matter which finals match up we get we’re going to see teams that haven’t been there or won a title in quite some time. Milwaukee won their only title in 1971 and haven’t ben to the NBA Finals since 1974. Atlanta also has one title win, but it was back in 1958. The Hawks have made the most trips to the NBA finals besides the win in 1958 they where also there in 1957,1960 and 1961. As for the Clippers; well they have yet to make a trip to the NBA Finals.

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