Is Dallas Okay?

Mike
June 07, 2024

Happy Friday! Especially for all the Boston fans out there. Yuck, I just threw up in my mouth.

We’ve got a few things to cover today.

🏀 NBA Finals

🏒 Stanley Cup Game 1

🏀 A 3,000 Mile Steal

🏇 The Belmont Stakes

Are The Celtics Going To Sweep?

The Boston Celtics defeated the Dallas Mavericks in game 1 of the NBA Finals last night with a score of 107-89. Yup, they had an 18-point win, the game was hardly that close, and Jayson Tatum didn’t even have to show up.

Tatum only scored 16 points and was 6 of 16 from the field. Jaylen Brown led the way for Boston with 22 points, and Kristaps Porzingis picked up right where he left off scoring 20 points in 21 minutes on the court. It was all about the role players for the Celtics with Al Horford, Jrue Holiday, Derrick White, and Sam Hauser all combined for 45.

Luka Doncic scored 30 for the Mavericks, but he took 26 shots and was pretty much the only one making any offense. Role players were non-existent for Dallas, as Kyrie only scored 12, and PJ Washington scored 14.

The Celtics were getting every bucket at the beginning of the game, and the Mavs just couldn’t get back in this. Will game 2 be different, or are the Mavs doomed?

You can find some highlights here.

Stanley Cup Finals

📺️ Saturday night, 8 pm ET on ABC…. we’ve got game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals, and we’re in for a great series whether you’re a hockey fan or not.

👉️ The Edmonton Oilers won the Stanley Cup 5 times between 1984 and 1990 and haven’t won a Cup since. The Florida Panthers have reached their 2nd consecutive finals after hardly having any playoff success throughout the franchise’s history. We’ve got a super physical Florida team who will be facing a talent-filled Oilers squad.

What are some keys to the series?

🥅 Sticking with the theme that we’ve seen throughout the entire playoffs, goaltending will definitely be a difference-maker. The Panthers have playoff Bob, Sergei Bobrovsky who has played lights out throughout the entire playoffs. Bob’s only weakness? Facing the fast break…. and that’s something that Edmonton is great at. The Oilers have Stuart Skinner in goal, and his playoff appearances haven’t been as clean as Bobrovsky's, but Skinner has played great in clutch games. This will come down to who can keep their foot on the gas in the offensive zone the entire game.

💨 Edmonton may have an advantage with their first two lines but one thing that has been true throughout this playoff is Florida’s third line is a talented bunch with Eetu Luostarinen, Anton Lundell, and Vladimir Tarasenko have combined for 7 goals in the postseason. It might not sound like much, but when you’re getting that from your third line, that’s a good sign of success.

👀 The biggest key of the series is Connor McDavid. He is basically the best player in the world, and he hasn’t been stopped this entire playoffs. He’s recorded 31 points this postseason, and if he’s hot, the Oilers will do well. If the Panthers can keep him from having big nights, Florida should be able to take the Cup.

A 3,000 Mile Steal

Dan Hurley just brought back-to-back championships to UConn and also helped deposit some funds into alumni’s bank accounts if they were daring enough to bet on the repeat.

Dan Hurley had his pockets filled just last year when he signed a $32 million deal that would keep him on campus until 2029.

Now the Los Angeles Lakers might be trying to steal him and the reported numbers are a little insane. Some people are saying it could be a $100 million deal. Hurley is heading to SoCal on Friday for a meeting and Husky Nation is hoping that this is just Hurley getting a free paid vacation and nothing more.

As a Knicks fan, I hope he goes to the Lakers. Hurley has said before his dream would be to coach the Knicks and I think this is the perfect setup. LeBron will have him fired after 1 year, the Knicks will sign Hurley for 2025-2026, and the Knicks will win two titles before 2030 hits.

I’M NOT CRAZY.

The Belmont Stakes @ Saratoga Race Course

The Belmont Stakes is running at Saratoga Race Course for the next 2 years as Belmont undergoes a large renovation project.

The third leg of the triple crown will be the 12th race on Saturday. Post time is around 6:41, and you can watch the race on FOX.

It’s a $2 million purse for the 1 ¼ mile race. We’re not going to pretend to be the racing experts but we’ll do our best to point you to who is.

But first, what horses are running?

There are ten horses and many of them have run in the Kentucky Derby or Preakness this year. ESPN had a great guide up on the horses and you can learn more here.

As for picks.. here are a few different sources.

FOX Sports

Sportsline Cheat Sheet

Twinspires Guide

Action Network