Thus far it has been an all home team series as both the defending Stanley Cup champion, Chicago Blackhawks and Minnesota Wild have each won twice at home.
With the series tied at two games apiece, the pivotal 5th game will be in Chicago tomorrow night.
There are 16 teams in NHL that qualified for the playoffs. Only two have not lost at home and this is still the quarterfinal round.
The NHL Blackhawks and Wild, each of whom are (5-0) at home, are the only hockey teams that are unbeaten at home.
Each of last year’s NBA finalists, the defending champion Miami Heat and the San Antonio Spurs have (2-0) leads in their quarterfinal series.
The top ranked Spurs have won easily in both games against the Portland Trail Blazers.
I still think San Antonio would have won, but the Houston Rockets, upset by Portland in the preliminary round, would have been a tougher opponent for the Spurs.
Miami has also won without much of a struggle in each of their first two quarterfinal series games against the Brooklyn Nets.
Miami is the only team not to have a loss in the playoffs.
There is a factual mistake in Bill Madden’s new book “1954: The Year Willie Mays and the First Generation of Black Superstars Changed Major League Baseball Forever.”
Look no further than the first paragraph of this excerpt from chapter nine.
“New York in the 1950s was the capital of the baseball universe, a time and place in which every year, from 1947 until 1957 (when the Giants and Dodgers left town for the West Coast), at least one and often two of the city’s three teams played host for the World Series.”
Madden wrote that every World Series from (1947-1957) included at least one New York baseball team. That is not true.
In 1948 the World Series matched the Cleveland Indians against the Boston Braves. The Indians won in six games and it is their last World Series win to date. That makes Madden’s factual mistake a bit more severe.
Click here for NY Daily News story about the book
Despite the Minnesota Wild victory vs the Chicago Blackhawks last night, it still figures to be an NHL Western Conference rematch between the Blackhawks and the Los Angeles Kings.
Chicago has a (2-1) series lead vs the Wild. The Kings won the first two games at Anaheim vs the Ducks.
L.A. has won six straight games since falling behind 3 games to none vs the San Jose Sharks in the opening round.
The defending champion Blackhawks had won six straight games before last night’s loss in Minnesota.
Yesterday was the exact 45 year anniversary of the Boston Celtics’ game seven victory over the Los Angeles Lakers, which gave them an incredible 11th NBA championship in 13 seasons (1957-1969).
The great Celtics’ center Bill Russell was on board for all 11 championships and remains one of the great figures in sports.
Both Russell and star shooter Sam Jones, who played on 10 championship teams, retired after that season.
The Celtics have managed to win 6 additional championships but no team has or likely ever will match the 11 championships in 13 seasons run of the Boston Celtics.
A misguided radio reporter during the Brooklyn Nets win over the Toronto Raptors on Sunday’s crucial game 7 of the first round of NBA playoffs called it the first 7th game victory in Nets team history. But, wait a minute, doesn’t anyone recall the Nets in the ABA?
Twice the Nets won deciding 7th games in the ABA. In 1972 they won at Virginia vs Julius “Dr. J.” Erving and the Squires.
In 1976, this time with the great Dr. J as a Net, they won game 7 over the San Antonio Spurs.
The ABA was an important part of basketball history. Please don’t forget the league and its players.
The NHL Western Conference playoffs are shaping up much like last year. It is now likely it will be a Western Conference finals rematch with the defending champion Chicago Blackhawks facing the Los Angeles Kings.
The “NBC darling” Blackhawks have won six straight playoff games since giving away late leads and losing each of the first two opening round games vs the St. Louis Blues. They lead their current series two games to none vs the Minnesota Wild.
Chicago is now (16-2) at home in the playoffs over the last two seasons.
The Kings won the opening game of their quarter final series at Anaheim vs the Ducks due to the heroics of Marian Gaborik. He scored with seven seconds left in regulation time to force overtime. Then in overtime, he scored again.
This is the first ever playoff series between the two Southern California NHL teams, Anaheim and Los Angeles.
Marian Gaborik
Yesterday two teams, once part of the ABA, won deciding seventh games. The Brooklyn Nets won by one point at Toronto vs the Raptors. Later in the day, the top ranked San Antonio Spurs devoured the Dallas Mavericks in San Antonio.
The Nets now face the two time defending champion Miami Heat in the quarterfinals. My prediction is Miami to win a tough six game series.
The Spurs now face the Portland Trail Blazers, who rode Damian Lillard’s game winning shot to beat the Houston Rockets. The Spurs should win the first two games at home and dismiss Portland in 5 games.
All three NBA first round deciding 7th games were won by the home team yesterday.
The Eastern Conference top seed Indiana Pacers won vs the Atlanta Hawks. The Western Conference two seed Oklahoma City Thunder won vs the Memphis Grizzlies. And the Los Angeles Clippers eliminated the Golden State Warriors.
Two NBA quarterfinal series matchups have been determined.
The Indiana Pacers will face the Washington Wizards starting tomorrow night. I predict the Pacers to win in six games.
Also starting tomorrow night the Thunder will meet the Clippers. In a tough series, I predict the Thunder to prevail in 7 games.
Two more of the quarterfinal matchups will fall into place today.
The Portland Trail Blazers won at home by one point to win their series vs the Houston Rockets in six games. Two other match-ups from the first round series will are headed to a seventh game.
The Brooklyn Nets and the Dallas Mavericks won game six at home last night to force seventh games tomorrow.
The first game will be the Brooklyn Nets going to Toronto to face the Raptors. It begins at 1 p.m. Eastern Time.
The second game will be the top ranked San Antonio Spurs taking on the Dallas Mavericks in San Antonio. That game will begin at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time.
Andy B Sports 