Lohensports

 I was very grateful for the Thunder putting that game away after the first half last night. I had an MRI appointment early in the morning yesterday so by 10pm I was wiped, thank goodness the Thunder let me sleep. As a result, there's not much to say about that game and I have talked extensively about that series! I need a small section to congratulate a Canadian legend winning semi finals MVP and advancing to the finals but besides that I am going to just have a quick post where I talk about a couple of Jays that popped into my mind randomly this week. The Jays thing might turn into a bit of a series, you know how sometimes you have totally random athletes pop into your memory? This is as good a place as any to write those down and so I will! Congrats Thunder Real quick, the Thunder are simply the best team in basketball. The fact that the Nuggets series went 7 is more a testament to Jokic' dominance than it is to the Thunder's struggles. Right from the start of the series...

 I'm summoning my inner Bill Simmons with this one. After last night's incredible performance from Tyrese Haliburton in a pivotal game 4, you can't help but ask is he actually underrated? I love watching the Pacers play and I have all post season. Tyrese Haliburton is a big reason why. Growing up with Kyle Lowry I came to appreciate a floor general style of point guard. Hali is certainly a different style of player from Kyle, but similar to Lowry he's so good at getting his team going and picking the right moments to take over. It leads to fun basketball and the ability to put up 130 points in a conference finals game. Electric stuff, he deserves a post so here it is.  One of the Greatest Playoff Performances Ever Tyrese Haliburton finished the game last night with 32 points, 12 rebounds, 15 assists, 4 steals and 0 turnovers. This was the first playoff game in NBA history where a player had 30+ points, 10+ rebounds, 15+ assists and 0 turnovers, an essentially perfect st...

 I am sorry to be late to post today! I got caught up in a task at work that took forever. I wanted to pump out a quick one before the day ended though, especially after that thriller of a game last night. All is right in the world again, people all around me are saddened by Minnesota's loss, but not me! No time for more preamble lets get into it:  Shai Gilgeous-Alexander I really can't say enough good things about Shai man. This guy was unstoppable from the opening tip to the final whistle last night and it was a joy to watch. Shai finished this game with a surprising playoff career high 40 points. I call it surprising because Shai had just come off a streak of 5 straight 30 point games in the playoffs and averages 30ppg in the playoffs the last 2 seasons. Shai is ruthlessly consistent, never gets too high or too low. Last night wasn't just about his scoring though, it was about when he got it done. At the start of the game the Thunder got off to a decent lead off the back...

 Big conference finals weekend! I was starting to get nervous that both the East and West series were going to shockingly be shorter than expected. Although I did call OKC in 4 which is now guaranteed to be incorrect, I am happy to see both the Wolves and Knicks win game 3 to keep their hopes alive. I'll talk a bit about the OKC game because I feel I have to after being so hard on the Wolves, but I'll mostly focus on the East because that was actually an interesting game.  Wolves Dominate Game 3 This was a tough one for me! I was hoping OKC put their foot on the throat and really drove home that they're the better team on Saturday. I invited friends over to watch with the hope of drinking and making fun of Anthony Edwards with an audience. Instead I got the Wolves blowing out the Thunder by 40+ points. No notes from this game, the Wolves came out of the gates on fire, the Thunder couldn't hit any open 3s and the lead snowballed until the Thunder just pulled the plug. Ra...

 Quick Friday one! I rarely write these on a Friday but it occurred to me that I didn't even celebrate a Canadian player, and my personal favorite player, winning MVP this week! I've written countless times about SGA on this blog so there's no need to drag this thing out, but we do need to take a moment to recognize a legend in his prime.  On Tuesday night, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's OKC Thunder defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves convincingly to take a 1-0 series lead. In the first half, Shai struggled, I spoke about it on Wednesday, Jaden McDaniels really gave him trouble. Being the elite shot-maker that he is, Shai wasn't phased. The second half came and the Shai we came to know in the regular season arrived, hitting tough jumpers in the mid range, getting to the rim and contorting his body for tough finishes and even stepping back for 3 when the moment called for it. Shai finished the game with 31 points, good for his 8th 30 point game in this post season alone. ...

 I don't think I've ever seen a playoff run like we're seeing in Indiana right now! For the third straight series the Pacers stole one on the road after being down double digits with a minute left, leaving the home crowd utterly heartbroken. This game was far too good for preamble so lets get into it: WTF Nesmith That final 2 minutes in the 4th quarter was hands down the most insane playoff performance from a role player that I've ever seen. 3 minutes left with the Pacers down 14, Aaron Nesmith hits a contested 3 off the dribble to cut the lead to 11. 2 minutes to go, Tyrese Haliburton finds Nesmith wide open on the wing for a catch and shoot 3 to bring the lead to 8. KAT misses a 3 on the ensuing possession then Siakam is fouled sending him to the line where he hits 1/2. Brunson scores in the paint to make it a 9 point game again. With about 45 seconds left, OG goes under a screen leaving Nesmith relatively open again for another 3 which he nails to bring the lead to 6...

 The conference finals might be the best time in basketball. There's a great matchup on every night, last night was no exception seeing the Thunder take down the Timberwolves 114-88. This was great for me and my prediction of a sweep, although the way the Wolves played does have me nervous that the Thunder can take 4 straight against them. Step in the right direction though and we will break it down here! First Half Woes The first half of this one had me sweating as a bandwagon Thunder fan. The Timberwolves defense was giving Shai absolute fits highlighted by Jaden McDaniels. McDaniels stuck on Shai through screens and suffocated him at every turn. There was a possession where McDaniels met Shai as soon as he crossed half court and simply didn't let him dribble around him until Shai dribbled it out of bounds for a turnover. Whenever Shai would call for a screen, McDaniels managed to slither around it to stick with Shai. In the mid range Shai was getting shots up but they were h...

 In case you were wondering, we're just going to skip over the Leafs games this weekend. There's enough doom and gloom articles much better written than I can  for you to find if you're interested in that. We've got maybe the most up in the air conference finals I can remember in the NBA. Any of these 4 teams could be the champion at the end of the season and I wouldn't be shocked. Now that the Leafs are out, I can focus fully on basketball and watch these series in their entireties! I am excited for it to start and have fully thought out my predictions:  Timberwolves vs Thunder I said it was a tossup, and I still think that, but my prediction at the end might ruffle some feathers. The Thunder are coming off a hard fought 7 game series against Jokic and the Nuggets that was capped off with the Thunder winning a blowout on Sunday. The Timberwolves are coming off their second straight 5 game series and have been resting for nearly a week now after disposing of the Cur...

 This is more of a mixed bag post, need to get all of my sports thoughts out before the weekend. Hopefully it's a weekend with multiple game 7s after the Thunder lost last night sending their series to 7. We just need the Leafs to somehow get in the win column again to make it a reality. Enough preamble, lets get into it:  Leafs  When I got to high school everyone was a Raptors fan. Up until that point I had been mostly watching the Leafs with the Raptors as my secondary team. I got more and more into basketball and it helped that the Raptors got good around the same time as my first year of high school. What does being good mean in sports? Generally that means you're going to get your hopes up and your heart broken at some point. The 2013/2014 Raptors in their first playoff run went up against a more experienced Nets team and lost in a hard fought 7 game series. Massive success of a season if you ask anyone, but after you make it once the expectations start to roll in. T...

 The Pacers and Thunder are the teams in the NBA that I decided to bandwagon this year in the playoffs with the Raptors out. They both won pretty exciting games last night which left me pleased! I did a big long post about the draft lottery so I'll keep it short today and just go over some of my thoughts on the Pacers game. Before I get into that, Leafs game 5 tonight! I thought they looked awful in game 4 and people who know hockey agreed with me. Things happen though, they need to bounce back big time tonight or else I am bringing back my Austin Matthews in a James Harden beard meme. You've been warned Leafs. Ok, back to ball: Congrats Pacers This was actually a hard fought game from Donovan Mitchell and he really deserves his flowers. If you only look at the boxscore you'll see he shot 8/25 and think what's the big deal? Mitchell was playing this game on 1 leg, heading into the 4th he was shooting a brutal 3/17 then he came alive and did absolutely everything he coul...

 Right in the middle of maybe the most action packed part of the sports calendar is the NBA draft lottery. All the teams who's seasons were long and pitiful got to come together and dream on landing a potential franchise changer in Cooper Flagg. By the end, the first overall pick was awarded to the Dallas Mavericks who had a <2% chance of moving into that position. Of course the general reaction was that it was rigged, I don't think it was but if I were to rig something I would send a young superstar to my biggest market in exchange for the first overall pick in the draft. Anyway, we're here to discuss none of that. For Raptors fans, we disappointingly moved down to 9. I personally believe 2 things: firstly we deserved this. The Raptors threw away games at the end of the year and not only did they throw away games, they threw away development opportunities when even their rookies were playing too well. They lost on purpose and I think that should be punished. Secondly, w...

 Fast post today, just wanted to get some thoughts out on the weekend in sports. I had a lot of confidence in my Leafs in 5 take, and honestly even after game 3 I was still rolling with it. So many weird bounces in game 3, they played great, surely they'd come out with something to prove in game 4 right? Shows what I know. The basketball has been fun too, although I barely got to watch any of it this weekend. So with me catching only glimpses of the basketball and barely knowing anything about hockey, we're going to have a short one today.  Leafs in 6 Ok! I watched game 3 in a bar with friends which was a good time. They got up 3-1 early which is when I boisterously started talking about how the Leafs might win in 4 and how Bobrovski is washed and the Panthers will never overcome a 2 goal lead. The Panthers proceeded to score 3 goals in a row to take the lead. At this point the bar crowd got a little quieter until the Leafs got an incredibly lucky bounce off a Panther's ska...

 There's no let up in the sports schedule right now it is absolutely insane. Last night the Leafs played a thriller against the Florida Panthers and while that was on the Celtics allowed something like a 22-2 run to blow a big lead for the second straight time at home. At least the Thunder dismantled the Nuggets to get me to bed at a reasonable hour. If you have evening plans at any point in the next month, it's practically a guarantee that you're going to miss something exciting in hockey or basketball. What a time to exist in. I'm keeping this post short today, I've had some long ones this week already so I need some recovery time.  Leafs in 5 I so don't know the Xs and Os of hockey like even a little bit, but just purely off of vibes this Leafs team looks different. The Leafs got down 1-0 early in the game after the Panthers scored within 5 seconds of their first powerplay. The Leafs responded with a Max Pacioretty power play goal just before the period ended...

Big shakeup in Steelers land that is forcing me to step away from basketball for a second and shift my focus to football. Before I get into it though, what a comeback by the Pacers to take game 2 on the road against the Cavs and get up 2-0. 27 seconds to go and the Cavs were inbounding the ball, they inexplicably passed it right to Andrew Nembhard who then found Hali to go to work. Hali drove and got fouled, he hit the first but missed the second. Hali flew in and grabbed his own rebound, took the ball out behind the 3 point arc, faked a drive and stepped back to nail a 3 putting Indy up 1 with a second left. The Cavs had no more timeouts, and the game was over. Heartbreaking way for the Cavs to lose, missing Garland, Mobley and Hunter they were in control the entire game, until the last 2 minutes. I am so glad I posted my Pacers in 6 pick on Sunday morning, I have proof I was on this all along. Anyway, George Pickens was traded today for a 3rd round pick and a 5th round pick to be sw...

 Won't have time today for a longer post like I made yesterday, but still needed to hop on to recap some of the awesome games I saw yesterday! The playoffs are relentless, any time I have plans during the evening in May I am missing at least 1 game that I really want to watch. It's a blessing and a curse, I can't look away! Anyway, big ones on last night with the Leafs taking an important first step to winning in 5 and the Celtics and Thunder each blowing leads in respective stupid ways.  Leafs Take Game 1 What a crazy game! I turned away from this one when the Leafs went up 4-1 going into the third period in favor of watching the end of Knicks Celtics. I was messaged and informed that the lead shrunk to 2 and so I tuned back in to watch a hectic third period. As soon as I tuned back in the Panthers netted another one to make it 4-3 and really ramp up the pressure. The period went back and fourth with each team getting some good looks while my heart pounded until Matthew Kn...