FUN FACT FRIDAY
The only sport that has been “played” on the moon is golf. Alan Shepard, an astronaut from the Apollo 14 mission, who was sent to the moon with two more crew members in 1971, has tried and succeeded in batting a golf ball on the moon. We don’t definitively know how far the ball traveled.
NBA: The Sixers Defeat Knicks In a Game Where NOBODY Reaches 80 Points.
On Sunday, March 10, the Philadelphia 76ers traveled to Madison Square Garden (MSG) in New York City, NY, to take on the New York Knicks. Entering Sunday night’s matchup at MSG, the Sixers were 35-28 while the Knicks were 37-26, so it was an important game for the playoff picture in the Eastern Conference. Perhaps that’s why both teams came out and played stellar defense, or maybe it’s just that both teams played really bad offense. At the end of the first quarter, the score was tied… at 15. The offense never picked up, as the Sixers defeated the Knicks 79-73. The 76ers held the Knicks to the lowest points total in the NBA this season. Philadelphia led 37-31 at halftime, the lowest-scoring first half in an NBA game since the Portland Trail Blazers led the Detroit Pistons 34-31 on March 30, 2019, in a game the Pistons won 99-90.
Click on the video below to watch highlights from this low-scoring affair
NFL: Free Agents Jump Between Division Rivals.
Free agency kicked off in the NFL this week, and many of the moves that happened involved players jumping between division rivals, which will only add to the animosity and hatred and I’m here for it!
Running back Saquan Barkley was drafted No. 2 overall in the 2018 draft by the New York Giants. Barkley grew up outside of Philadelphia, PA, in Lehigh Valley, and he played for Penn State. Saquan was a HUGE factor in the Giants reaching the NFC Divisional Round in 2022, where they lost to the… Philadelphia Eagles. Barkley will get the opportunity to play the Giants twice a season now, as he signed a three-year,$37.75 million contract with the NFC East division rival Eagles. This certainly adds more spice to the Giants vs. Eagles rivalry
With the 28th pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, the Baltimore Ravens selected linebacker Patrick Queen out of LSU. Queen was an integral part of the Ravens’ defense, as Baltimore captured the No. 1 seed in the AFC and made it to the AFC Championship this past season. Queen is coming off his first Pro Bowl season after putting up a career-high 133 tackles, along with 3.5 sacks and one interception. However, now Queen will get the opportunity to face the Ravens twice a season, as he trades the black and purple of Baltimore for the black and yellow of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Queen signed a three-year,$41 million contract with the Ravens’ biggest AFC North rival, the Pittsburgh Steelers. I already loved the Ravens vs. Steelers rivalry, and this only adds more fuel to the fire.
After spending seven seasons with the Green Bay Packers, running back Aaron Jones is headed to their NFC North division rivals, the Minnesota Vikings. This isn’t the first time a Packer turned into a Viking, as Brett Favre, Greg Jennings, Za'Darius Smith, and others have also made the jump from Green Bay to Minnesota. Jones signed a one-year, $7 million deal with the Vikings.
Last season, the Jacksonville Jaguars made a trade to acquire wide receiver Calvin Ridley. Ridley caught 76 passes for 1,016 yards and eight touchdowns for the Jags in 2023. As it turns out, 2023 will be the only season Ridley will play for the Jaguars, as he’s headed to the AFC South rival Tennessee Titans on a four-year, $92 million contract, including $50 million guaranteed.
NFL: Quarterbacks Russell Wilson and Kirk Cousins Both Find New Homes.
After spending the first 10 seasons of his career with the Seattle Seahawks, QB Russell Wilson was dealt to the Denver Broncos (the team he and the Seahawks defeated in Super Bowl 48) in 2022. Wilson spent two seasons in Denver in ‘22 and ‘23, and it just never worked, so the Broncos decided to cut ties with Wilson. Following his release from Denver, there was a lot of speculation about where Wilson could go next. In 2024, Wilson will be playing for the… Pittsburgh Steelers, as he is headed to the “Steel City” on a one-year deal that will pay him the league minimum of $1.21 million for the 2024 season.
From 2018 to 2023, QB Kirk Cousins was up north with the Minnesota Vikings. Cousins led the Vikings to the playoffs in 2019 and 2022, and Minnesota won the NFC North in ‘22. However, Cousins could never get the Vikings over the hump, as they bowed out in the Divisional Round in ‘19 and the Wildcard Round in ‘22. At the end of the ‘23 season, it seemed like it was time for Cousins to move on, and that’s exactly what he did, as he signed a four-year,$180 million contract with the Atlanta Falcons
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NHL: Avalanche Overcome 3-0 Deficit to Defeat the Canucks in OT in a Battle of Western Conference Heavyweights!
On Wednesday, March 13, two of the Western Conference heavyweights in the NHL went at it at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, BC, as the Colorado Avalanche (41-20-5, 89 Points) took on the Vancouver Canucks (42-17-7, 87 Points) in what could very likely be a preview of the Western Conference Finals. Early in the second period, Vancouver jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but Colorado didn’t get frazzled, as they got on the board with 1.8 seconds remaining to cut the deficit to 3-1. Then, in the third period, the Avs put two pucks in the back of the net, including the game-tying goal with just a little more than over 11 minutes to go. The goal was close to not counting, as it was hard to tell from the telecast whether the puck had fully crossed the line. After a lengthy video review, the officials determined the goal was indeed good, tying the score at three apiece, sending the game to a five-minute sudden-death overtime. The Avs had a 4-on-3 advantage in the extra session thanks to a late penalty on the Canucks-Delay Of Game (Puck over glass). In OT, the Avalanche wasted little time, as the puck deflected off of the visor of the Avs right winger Valeri Nichushkin into the back of the net just 30 seconds into the extra session, completing the comeback for Colorado, as well as the season sweep of Vancouver 3-0.
If Wednesday night’s game is anything to go by, I want to see these two heavyweights collide in the Western Conference Finals. I think that series would be absolutely fantastic!
Click on the video below to watch highlights from this possible Western Conference Finals
WWE: SummerSlam is Coming to the Dawg Pound!
For the first time since 1996, WWE is bringing SummerSlam to Cleveland. SummerSlam is one of WWE’s signature events, so it will go down in the Dawg Pound, also known as Cleveland Browns Stadium, on Aug. 3.
SummerSlam 2024 is coming to Cleveland Click on that link to read more courtesy of news5cleveland.com
Josh’s Random Thoughts: Cavaliers Face the Heat Twice in Five Days and That Really Scares Me!
Following their three-game road trip in New Orleans, Houston, and Indiana, the Cleveland Cavaliers will return to Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in downtown Cleveland to face Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, and the Miami Heat on Wednesday, March 20. Then, the two teams will turn around and play each other at the Kaseya Center in Miami four days later on Sunday, March 24. The regular season series between the Heat and Cavaliers is currently tied 1-1, so these two games in five days will determine who wins the series, but more importantly, the Heat are 35-30 and are currently eighth in the Eastern Conference standings, meaning they’d be part of the Play-In Tournament, while the Cavaliers are 42-24 and sit in second place in the East. If the dominos fall in the right way, the Heat would face the Cavs in the first round of the playoffs and that’s really scary for me as a Cavs fan because the Heat were a Play-In Tournament team last season, and they reached the NBA Finals. Furthermore, this is the time of the year when Butler evolves into “Playoff Jimmy” and when he goes into “Playoff Jimmy” mode, you better look out because he can lead the Heat to a deep playoff run that can include upsets of higher seeded teams.
My Experience at Celtics vs. Cavaliers on March 5, 2024
On Tuesday, March 5, I went down to Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse (RMFH) to see Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, and the Boston Celtics take on Darius Garland, Evan Mobley, and the Cleveland Cavaliers. With nine minutes to go in the fourth quarter, the Celtics were up by 22 and it looked like they were going to cruise to an easy victory. But this wasn’t the case as Dean Wade went crazy by scoring 20 points in the quarter and led the Cavs to a comeback 105-104 victory that snapped Boston’s 11-game winning streak.
Click on the video below to check out my experience at RMFH as the Cavaliers shocked the Celtics.