Goodbye Coyotes!

What’s up? It’s Thursday, so naturally, we’ve got golf today. In fact, there are two PGA Tour spots today!

We’re still not done with the NHL season, and we’ve got two more games left in the NBA.

We are so close to the postseason.

Let’s dig in.

Headlines + Highlights

Honestly, I’m a little mad at myself for not paying closer attention to the betting lines for the NBA play in games because I would’ve hammered the Bulls ATS if I had seen that Atlanta was getting just 3.5 points. I’ll use my first child being born less than three weeks ago as an excuse; otherwise, if that game had my full attention, I would've put 100k on the Bulls. 😂 

✍️ Maybe I can just write an email to Fanduel and they’ll understand where I’m coming from and still pay me the winnings?

NBA

Sixers make a comeback, Jimmy Butler has potential injury

🏀 The Miami Heat traveled to Philadelphia to take on the Sixers in 7/8 play-in game. Miami certainly brought the Heat with them as they opened up the first half strong and had a 14-point lead during the 2nd and went into halftime with a 12-point lead. Philly fans booed the Sixers, and the Sixers were shooting around 30% for field goals. Well, after a Jimmy Butler injury in the first half and some adjustments for the Sixers in the second half, Philly would outscore Miami by 13 in the final two quarters and get the 105-104 win. Philly secures the 7 seed and will play the Knicks in round 1 of the playoffs.

👉️ Gotta make sure we drop the stats in here too. Tyler Herro was the high scorer for the Heat with 25 points. Joel Embiid had 23 for the Sixers, and Nic Batum also added 20 out of nowhere after averaging 5 points per game this season

🤕 The Heat have to play the loser of the 9/10 game on Friday night, and it might be without Jimmy Butler. He landed in a weird way and may have injured his MCL towards the end of the first quarter last night, and he’ll undergo an MRI. This is exactly how Miami started their run to the Finals last year. A loss in the 7/8 game on the road, got a win in the 9/10 game at home, and then they were off to the races. Will we see the same this year?

Bulls are mediocre, but Hawks can’t overcome injuries

🏀 We’re talking about a 9/10 game here, we’re looking at two teams with losing records. They shouldn’t even be in the conversation for playoffs. But let’s look at this: the Bulls have been one of the worst teams in the NBA all season in the first three quarters and then one of the best in the 4th. The Hawks are just dealing with a bunch of injuries and it’s tough to take it deep into the playoffs with a limited roster.

👀Well, here we are. The Bulls didn’t need to have a clutch fourth quarter as they had an 18-point lead heading into the fourth. Colby White dropped 42 in a career-high game, and the Bulls won 131-116. The Bulls now have to beat the Heat in Miami to advance to the first round of the playoffs against Boston.

NHL

Auston Matthews gets blanked in bid for 70 goals

🏒 The Tampa Bay Lightning took down the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-4 in their regular season finales. Matthews was looking to hit the 70-goal mark, something that has only been done eight times before. Matthews took 12 shots on goal and was stopped on all of them. 69 goals is still pretty NICE.

The Coyotes Are Now Retro

The Arizona Coyotes played their final 60 minutes in desert last night. The Coyotes got a 5-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers and in less than 24 hours a deal could be signed that would send the Coyotes to Salt Lake City.

Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith is set to buy the team for $1.2 billion, but this isn’t the end of hockey in Arizona.

Current owner Alex Meruelo had been trying to get a new arena built for the team in Scottsdale, but it would be at least five years out as approvals weren’t moving quickly. Meruelo didn’t want to keep having the players share an arena with Arizona State, especially as it only holds 5,000 people. Meruelo thought it would be fair to sell the team so they could move to a true sports arena.

Here’s the catch…. if an arena is built in the next 5 years, then Arizona will get an NHL expansion team.

Iowa Basketball Reloading

🏀 The rich get richer… it’s a tale as old as the NCAA. If you’re a good program with good foundations, you’ll likely continue getting good players.

👉️ That’s exactly what’s happening at Iowa, as they’re getting the #3 scorer in the nation next year, Lucy Olsen, who is transferring from Villanova. Olsen is a 5’9” guard who averaged 23.3 points per game last season. The timing couldn’t be more perfect for Iowa, as four guards finished their last season with the program this year.

Big 10 ≠ Boring

🚨 The NCAA has handed down punishment to the Michigan football program. Michigan and five current or former staff members of its football program have reached an agreement with the NCAA on recruiting violations and "coaching activities by noncoaching staff members that occurred within the football program, and the appropriate penalties for those violations."

The punishment includes three years of probation for Michigan, a fine & recruiting restrictions, and one-year show-cause orders for the coaches.

As with most things with the NCAA, this seems completely arbitrary and ambiguous.

💰️Here’s something that’s not ambiguous: Ohio State is trying to buy a win against Michigan. Ohio State is spending close to $34 million on its football team this year. They’ve spent $13 million in NIL to add players to their roster, $11 million on their assistant coaches, and $10 million on their head coach. This should be the best team that money can buy… But will they even escape the Big 10 unscathed? They better hope so!

PGA Tour x 2

We’ve got a designated event on the PGA Tour this weekend which means lots of pro golfers are sitting on the sideline. Well, sort of.

The RBC Heritage which is played at Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head has a $20 million purse and a smaller playing field that has just 69 golfers with no cut.

The rest of the pro golfers who aren’t invited to this limited-field event get to vacation to the Dominican Republic to play in the Corales Championship in Punta Cana. This event has a $4 million purse, and you might recognize some names like Nicolai Hojgaard, Charley Hoffman, and Billy Horschel. But most of the big dogs are playing in the States this weekend.

Anyways, if you’re not exhausted from Masters coverage and want to watch these events, here’s the schedule for today

RBC Heritage

📺️ Stream all day on ESPN+ and then watch on the Golf Channel at 3 pm ET

Corales Championship

📺️ Stream all day on ESPN+ and watch from 8-10 am on the Golf Channel

What Else Is On TV Today

The full playoff schedules for both the NBA and NHL will be set soon, and we’ll share them when they're ready. We’ve got to wait until tomorrow for the final play-in games in the NBA, and tonight has the last of the NHL’s regular-season games.

NHL

🏒 Seattle Kraken @ Minnesota Wild, 7 pm ET on ESPN

🏒 Edmonton Oilers @ Colorado Avalanche, 9:30 pm ET on ESPN

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Enjoy your Thursday.

-The DB