The NBA and NHL playoffs are down to their Final Four

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🚨 Headlines

🥎 Softball stunner: Two losses to Liberty over the weekend saw Texas A&M become the first No. 1 national seed to be eliminated in regionals since seeding began in 2005.

🏀 Giannis weighs future: Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks will meet this week to discuss the future of the team. The two-time MVP is reportedly open to a trade as Milwaukee stares down a potential rebuild.

⚾️ 80-game PED ban: Phillies closer José Alvarado has been suspended 80 games and will not be allowed to pitch in the playoffs after testing positive for exogenous testosterone.

🏈 Purdy gets paid: 49ers QB Brock Purdy will earn $53 million annually after agreeing to a five-year, $265 million extension. That’s slightly more than the $934,000 he averaged over his first three seasons.

🥍 What a weekend: Maryland, Syracuse, Cornell and Penn State are headed to the Men’s Lacrosse Final Four after an electric quarterfinal round that featured four amazing games and drew record crowds.

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🏀 NBA Final Four: The parity era continues

The NBA’s Final Four is set after the Thunder destroyed the Nuggets on Sunday in a laugher of a finale to a hard-fought series.

The contenders: The Knicks are back in the conference finals for the first time since 2000. They’re the only remaining team that has won a championship, and their most recent title came 52 years ago.

Titles:

• Knicks: 2 (1970, 1973)

• Thunder: 0*

• Timberwolves: 0

• Pacers: 0

Revolving door: For the first time in NBA history, there will be seven different champions in seven years. That became official this weekend when Boston and Denver bowed out.

• 2019: Raptors

• 2020: Lakers

• 2021: Bucks

• 2022: Warriors

• 2023: Nuggets

• 2024: Celtics

• 2025: ???

For context: This level of parity would have been unfathomable throughout much of the NBA’s top-heavy history. In the 70 years prior to 2019, the same seven franchises won 77% of the championships, notes Sportradar’s Todd Whitehead, who is a must-follow if you enjoy data-driven hoops analysis.

Looking ahead: The Knicks-Pacers rivalry runs deep and Reggie Miller will be on the call for TNT … Shai Gilgeous-Alexander vs. Anthony Edwards is a dream matchup.

*Shared history: The Seattle SuperSonics won the 1979 championship, which is technically part of the Thunder’s record books because it’s the same franchise. But let’s be real: no self-respecting OKC fan claims that trophy.

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🏒 NHL Final Four: Who will hoist the Cup?

For the first time since 2004, three Canadian teams made the second round of the NHL playoffs. And nine days ago, spirits were high across “The Great White North.”

• Toronto was up 2-0 on Florida

• Edmonton was up 2-0 on Vegas

• Winnipeg was tied 1-1 with Dallas

Could this be the year that Canada finally breaks the curse and wins its first Stanley Cup since 1993? Long-suffering fans dared to dream of a Final Four with three, even two, teams from north of the border…

Nine days later: The Oilers are the only Canadian team still standing.

• The Jets were ousted in six games by the Stars, becoming the latest Presidents’ Trophy winner (best record) to fall short of expectations.

• The Maple Leafs suffered an embarrassing 6-1 loss to the Panthers on Sunday in Toronto, as they came up in short in Game 7 for the seventh straight time.*

Looking ahead: The Oilers are the favorites to win the title and break the curse (+240 at BetMGM), followed by the Panthers (+250), Stars (+275) and Hurricanes (+300). If Florida and Edmonton advance, we’ll get our first Stanley Cup Final rematch since Pittsburgh and Detroit in 2008-09.

*Choke artists: The Maple Leafs and Avalanche are the only franchises in NBA/MLB/NHL history to lose seven consecutive Game 7s. Both teams extended their streaks this month.

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⛳️ Scottie wins third major, joins elite company

Scottie Scheffler pulled away late on Sunday at the PGA Championship to win his third career major — and his first outside the friendly confines of Augusta National.

Elite company: Scheffler, 28, joins Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as the only golfers since World War II to win 15 PGA Tour titles and three majors before age 29. Decent group!

The scene on 18: “F*** yeah!” Scheffler bellowed after tapping in to win. “That’s what I’m talking about!” roared the world’s top-ranked player as he spiked his white Nike hat onto the pristine green and tore the roofs off the surrounding luxury boxes at Quail Hollow.

From Yahoo Sports’ Jay Busbee:

This is something new from Scheffler, who spent most of his first two years as a Tour champion going about his business with all the verve and flair of ChatGPT. There were moments … but for the most part, Scheffler showed up, won, gave a little fist pump or two, took the trophy and went on home.

So why the 72nd-hole spike? Maybe it was the rollercoaster of starting with a three-stroke lead, losing every bit of that lead at the turn, and then rebounding with three birdies over the back nine to seize control.

Maybe it was the release of winning a major outside of Augusta, Georgia, and stomping out one of the few remaining “Yeah, but…” narratives around his career. Hell, maybe it was revenge for the chaos that the Louisville police caused him a year ago at this time.

“Just a lot of happiness,” Scheffler said when asked about the hat-spike. “Thankful as well. It was a long week. I felt like this was as hard as I battled for a tournament in my career.” (He did laugh when he said “I definitely have a few jokes that I want to say that I’m probably going to keep to myself” about Louisville.)

Guilty as charged: Nike released a new ad on Sunday that hilariously references last year’s arrest. “The verdict is in,” reads the caption. “World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler is the PGA Champion.” Well played.

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📸 Through the lens

Indianapolis — Caitlin Clark posted a triple-double in the Fever’s season-opening win over the Sky, which featured a heated moment between her and Angel Reese, who was the target of “alleged hateful fan comments.”

Baltimore — Race favorite Journalism surged to victory at the 150th Preakness Stakes, coming from multiple lengths behind in the last half-mile to win by a nose.

London — Crystal Palace beat Manchester City, 1-0, in the FA Cup final to win the club’s first major trophy and pull off one of the most stunning results in the history of the world’s oldest soccer tournament.

Rome — Jasmine Paolini beat Coco Gauff in straight sets to become the first Italian to win the Italian Open in 40 years. Jannik Sinner nearly made it a clean sweep for Italy but fell to Carlos Alcaraz in the men’s final.

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⚾️ Ranking MLB’s “Rivalry Weekend” matchups

MLB’s inaugural “Rivalry Weekend” featured nine intrastate battles, five regional clashes and one matchup between teams with a shared history. Naturally, we had to rank them: Which rivalries have the most juice?

1. Mets vs. Yankees

2. Cardinals vs. Royals

3. Cubs vs. White Sox

4. Athletics vs. Giants*

5. Rangers vs. Astros

6. Nationals vs. Orioles

7. Mariners vs. Padres

8. Guardians vs. Reds

9. Dodgers vs. Angels

10. Twins vs. Brewers

11. Phillies vs. Pirates

12. Tigers vs. Blue Jays

13. Diamondbacks vs. Rockies

14. Rays vs. Marlins

15. Braves vs. Red Sox**

*Fall Classic foes: The Athletics and Giants have met four times in the World Series, more than all the other rivalries combined. The Giants won once (1905), while the A’s won three times (1911, 1913, 1989).

**Fake rivals: No rivalry above is more forced than Braves-Red Sox, who are only matched up because the Braves played in Boston from 1871-1952 as the Red Stockings, Red Caps, Beaneaters, Doves, Rustlers, Bees and Braves.

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⚾️ MLB trivia

The Orioles fired manager Brandon Hyde on Saturday after an awful 15-28 start. The O’s responded by losing two more games to fall to 15-30.

Question: Who are the only three MLB teams with worse records than the Orioles (15–30)?

Hint: Two NL, one AL.

Answer at the bottom.

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🍿 Baker’s Dozen: Weekend highlights

Si Woo Kim recorded the longest hole-in-one in major championship history on Friday, acing the 252-yard 6th hole at Quail Hollow.

Hole-in-ones are mostly luck, in my opinion. If I had to put a number on it: 60% luck, 40% skill, on average. But occasionally, an ace like this comes along and tips the scales.

252 yards to the pin?! Just getting it there requires a level of golfing ability that very few humans possess. Kim also needed the correct ball flight to avoid rolling off the severely sloped green.

Yes, a stroke of good fortune helped Kim’s ball find the hole, but the mastery involved here makes this more “feat” than “fluke” and ultimately changes the calculus. I’m going 65% skill, 35% luck for this one.

Baker’s Dozen:The Top 13 Plays of the Weekend

1. ⛳️ 252-yard ace

2. ⚽️ The beautiful game

3. ⚽️ 70-yard wonder strike

4. 🏒 Miracle at the buzzer!

5. 🏒 Oettinger sourcery

6. 🥍 Behind the back!!!

7. ⚾️ Cedric at the wall

8. ⚾️ Chourio over the wall

9. 🏈 One-handed TD grab

10. ⚾️ Through the legs!!!

11. ⚾️ Hoerner steals a hit

12. ⚾️ This Duck’s got a cannon

13. 🏀 Denied by McBride

Watch all 13.

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Trivia answer: Rockies (8-38), White Sox (14-33), Pirates (15-32)

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