You Can Sleep In July

Happy Friday! Not much happened in the sports world last night, and there isn’t too much going on today. Nonetheless, we’re getting excited for months of playoffs! Don’t worry—you get your life back in July, and then you can glue your face to the TV on Saturday and Sunday in the fall.

We’ve got a few headlines to cover and some NBA games to chat about, and then we’ll take a look at the Stanley Cup bracket and the first-round schedule.

Let’s go.

Headlines

🏀 It’s confirmed by the Miami Heat that Jimmy Butler will miss a few weeks after he suffered an MCL sprain against the 76ers the other night. The Heat have to beat the Bulls in a play-in game tonight to get the 8 seed in the East, and that seems more unlikely as of now. Even if the Heat win, without Butler, there’s practically a zero % chance they’ll get past Boston.

🏀 The UConn starting 5 is outta here… UConn Freshman star guard Stephon Castle, has decided to enter this year’s NBA draft. Big man Donovan Clingan has declared, and Alex Karaban has also declared for the draft but is maintaining his eligibility. Tristen Newton and Cam Spencer do not have any college eligibility left.

🏈 A number of NFL teams are updating their uniforms and making changes to alternate jerseys. The Jets, Lions, Browns, and Texans have released their newest looks, and the Broncos are unveiling their new kits on Monday.

Stanley Cup Playoff

The NHL regular season is over, and now it’s time for the best playoff race. Take a quick look at the bracket below, and then we’ll take a closer look at the round 1 schedule.

Quick Distraction!

Here’s the fun thing. We’ve got five arenas that are going to be packed on a nightly basis and that’s going to create some fun scheduling.

👉️ Madison Square Garden has the Rangers and Knicks in the playoffs

👉️ The TD Garden has the Bruins and Celtics hosting round 1 games.

👉️ American Airlines Center will be hosting games for both the Dallas Mavericks and Dallas Stars

👉️ The Ball Arena will host playoff games for the 2022 Stanley Cup Winners, the Colorado Avalanche, and the 2023 NBA Champs, the Denver Nuggets.

👉️ To top it all off, the Staples Center Crypto.com Arena will have a hilarious schedule as it has to host the LA Kings, LA Lakers, and LA Clippers! That time-lapse of the arena getting set up is going to be wild.

back on track…..

Round 1 Puck Drops (all times EST)

Saturday

🏒 NY Islanders @ Carolina Hurricanes, 5 pm on TBS

🏒 Toronto Maples Leafs @ Boston Bruins, 8 pm on TBS

Sunday

🏒 Tampa Bay Lighting @ Florida Panthers, 12:30 pm on ESPN

🏒 Washington Capitals @ New York Rangers, 3 pm on ESPN

🏒 Colorado Avalanche @ Winnipeg Jets, 7 pm on ESPN2

🏒 Nashville Predators @ Vancouver Canucks, 10 pm on ESPN

Monday

🏒 Vegas Golden Knights @ Dallas Stars, 9:30 pm on ESPN

🏒 LA Kings @ Edmonton Oilers, 10 pm on ESPN2

NBA Play-In Games

East

🏀 You already know that the Bulls are playing the Heat tonight.

📺️ Gametime is 7 pm on ESPN, and the winner will face the Celtics starting Sunday.

💰️ Miami is giving 1.5 points to Chicago, and the points total is 206.5. There’s too much unknown in this game. Alex Caruso might be out for the Bulls and Duncan Robinson might not play for the Heat, along with Terry Rozier. If Caruso definitely isn’t playing, I’ll take the Heat, giving the points, and I’ll take the over.

West

🏀 The 2nd play-in game tonight is for the 8 seed in the West. The Sacramento Kings will face the Pelicans in New Orleans and New Orleans will not have Zion Williamson as he’s been ruled out with a hamstring injury.

📺️ Gametime is 9:30 pm on TNT

💰️ New Orleans is favored by 1.5 points, and the points total is 210.5. I’ll take Sacremento and the over in this one.

That’s all for today. We’ll be back tomorrow to look at the NBA playoffs' first-round layout and talk a little golf. We’ll be off on Sunday!

Enjoy the games tonight, and remember, we want to buy you a drink at happy hour! Get some pals to sign up for the newsletter using the referral link below, and we’ll see you that Randy Moss Money. $TRAIGHT CA$H HOMIE! (lol sorry, we won’t type like that again)

-The DB