Last night the Boston Celtics were able to avoid being swept out of the NBA playoffs as they beat the Miami Heat 116-99. Now the Celtics still have a long way to go in that series as they trail Miami three games to one.
Now the Los Angeles Lakers weren’t as lucky as they blew a 15-point lead on Monday night and were swept out of the playoffs by the Denver Nuggets. The Nuggets beat the Lakers 113-111 in Game 4 on Monday night.
Lebron James had a chance to tie the game for the Lakers, but his last second shot was blocked by the Nuggets Aaron Gordon to seal the game and the series for Denver.
After the game James mentioned that he’d need to take some time to decide if he’d be returning next season. Sadly, the first thing I thought about when I read this comment was that James is going to pull an Aaron Rodgers and use a possible retirement to keep himself relevant through the remainder of the NBA playoffs and the off season.
James has two years left on his contract with the Lakers and has mentioned time and time again that he’d like to play with his oldest son Bronny before he retires. Bronny has signed to play with USC next season, but there’s always the chance that he’s a one and done college basketball player and be in next year’s NBA draft.
That would put Bronny into the NBA in the final season of his father’s contract, so they could play together for that one year before the older James walks away and straight into the Hall of Fame.
Unfortunately, with James being not committal about his plans for next season the media will more or less follow him around until he makes a decision and that’s going to take away from the NBA finals match up as well as whichever team ends up winning the NBA title.
Now James may no longer be the best player in the NBA, but he’s still in the Top 10 or maybe even Top 5 of the league and to see him kind of look to draw attention to himself with a retirement tease is just really sad.
Let’s hope that James doesn’t drag this out and his statement was just from his team being swept out of the playoffs and the frustration that comes along with that situation. Unfortunately, like I said I have a feeling that this is going to drag out and detract from the other things going on in the NBA.
The Tampa Bay Rays have the best record in Major League Baseball at 35-15, but even good teams have rough games and last night the rays really had a rough game.
Coming into last night’s game Tampa Bat was 22-4 at home, but they took one on the chin last night as they lost 20-1 to the Toronto Blue Jays.
It was such a rough night for the Rays that not one, but two position players took the mound last night. Luke Raley was the first position player to pitch going 1 2/3rd innings. Raley gave up 7 runs on 8 hits two of which were home runs. After Raley Christian Bethancourt took the mound and pitched just 1/3rd of an inning. Bethancourt gave up 3 runs on 3 hits one of which was a home run.
Obviously, it’s just one game and when the teams play today last night’s game won’t mean anything. It’s just another one of those cases that show how odd of a game baseball can be. Even the best teams have off nights and any team can beat any other team at any time.
Tampa bay will send Shane McClanahan to the mound to start today’s game and help them bounce back from last night’s dubbing. Toronto is starting Yusei Kikuchi in today’s game as they try to win back-to-back games against the Rays.
Remember to look for me on Twitter, I’m @Burketime.
So it looks like Miami will find a way to close it out at home during game #5. But I’ve seen teams have a semi letdown when they try to close out an opponent at home. But I certainly don’t see the Celtics coming up with a miracle 4 game sweep.
That was truly an embarrassing home loss for the Rays last night. I know these odd things happen, but when a team leading the majors in wins loses like that, you have to question how they’ll do come playoff time.
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