Chiefs vs. Ravens booked to open 2024 NFL season; Nuggets, Pacers battle again; Hawks win NBA Draft Lottery

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Breaking information to begin the morning: The Ravens will go to the Chiefs to open the season. Lamar Jackson vs. Patrick Mahomes? I am much more excited for the season than I used to be beforehand.

🏀 Good morning to everybody, however particularly …

THE DENVER NUGGETS

For 2 video games, the Nuggets had no reply for the Timberwolves‘ swarming protection, expert offense and general athleticism.

Two video games later, it is the Timberwolves who don’t have any reply for Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray. Denver’s elite offense is buzzing, as soon as once more, and the Nuggets’ 115-107 win has successfully turned this right into a best-of-three sequence.

• Jokic shouldered the load offensively, scoring 35 factors and taking 26 pictures — each private highs this postseason. Murray, who added 19 factors, is lastly again after a troublesome begin to the sequence.
• Aaron Gordon was magnificent with 27 factors on 11-for-12 capturing, scoring on dunks aplenty, two 3-pointers and even robust midrange pictures.
• Denver’s much-improved protection stymied everybody not named Anthony Edwards (44 factors). Minnesota’s 4 different starters shot a mixed 17 for 43 (40%).
• It additionally helped that Denver had one of many craziest sequences we have ever seen, that includes eight factors in 20 seconds and highlighted by Murray’s 55-foot heave to shut the primary half.

The reigning champs, after wanting bamboozled and overmatched, have turned the tables. What a sequence that is turning into.

👍 Honorable mentions

😬 And never such a very good morning for …

THE NEW YORK KNICKS

The Knicks have by no means had it straightforward. Now, they’re going through their hardest problem: themselves. The Pacers demolished a hapless, hampered New York squad 121-89 to tie the sequence at 2-2. Indiana led by 28 at halftime — its largest postseason halftime lead ever — and by as a lot as 43(!) within the fourth quarter, after each groups had pulled their starters.

Talking of starters, New York at all times relied closely on them, even earlier than Julius Randle‘s season-ending shoulder harm again in January. Now, they’re working out of dependable gamers, interval:

• Because the playoffs began, Bojan Bogdanovic (foot) and Mitchell Robinson (ankle) have each seen their seasons finish.
• In Sport 2 in opposition to Indiana, each Jalen Brunson (foot) and OG Anunoby (hamstring) obtained harm. Brunson returned; Anunoby hasn’t.
• Together with the playoffs, the Knicks are 26-5 with Anunoby and 13-16 with out him since his midseason acquisition.

In Sport 3, Brunson plus Donte DiVincenzo‘s red-hot capturing almost obtained the job finished. In Sport 4, DiVincenzo and Brunson mixed to shoot 9 for 30, and so the Knicks had no likelihood, as a result of they merely now not have the offensive firepower elsewhere. In actual fact, they won’t have sufficient of something elsewhere. James Herbert explains how a deep Indiana crew overwhelmed the run-down Knicks.

• Herbert: “Through the common season, and particularly because the Pacers superior to the inaugural In-Season Event championship sport, it grew to become clear that Indiana was the kind of crew that might beat anyone. The Pacers run exhausting, run off makes and run their halfcourt offense with a selected urgency. … Sunday’s 121-89 shellacking of the Knicks, dubbed the ‘Mom’s Day bloodbath’ by announcer Mike Breen, confirmed that they are additionally the final crew you wish to face if you happen to’re depleted and exhausted.”

I will not hand over on the Knicks. Led by Brunson and Tom Thibodeau, they’re as robust as they arrive. However they’re shedding the battle of attrition, with no respite in sight.

👎 Not so honorable mentions

😲 Hawks win NBA Draft Lottery, Pistons slide once more

How’s this for overcoming the chances? The Hawks — who had only a 3% likelihood to win the NBA Draft Lottery — did simply that, turning into the fourth least-likely crew to win the No. 1 decide within the historical past of the occasion. This is the highest 5:

1. Hawks
2. Wizards
3. Rockets (through Nets)
4. Spurs
5. Pistons

You may discover the final crew on that listing was additionally the crew that completed final within the NBA this season. The Pistons had the league’s worst document for the second straight 12 months. And for the third straight 12 months, although, they fell to fifth within the draft. Detroit was the greatest lottery loser, Colin Ward-Henninger writes, however all just isn’t misplaced. 

• Ward-Henninger: “With final 12 months’s No. 5 decide the Pistons chosen Ausar Thompson, who … has already proven great potential as a wing defender and transition scorer. Additionally, if there’s any draft to have missed the No. 1 decide, that is it. There isn’t a consensus franchise-changing prospect on this class, so there is a first rate likelihood the participant you choose at No. 5 may very well be even higher than the highest 4.”

Talking of that unsure prime of the category, Kyle Boone has a brand-new mock draft:

1. Hawks: C Alex Sarr — “Atlanta has an opportunity so as to add a difference-maker on the middle spot who can function an anchor on protection and assist erase deficiencies for a Hawks crew that lacks star energy within the frontcourt.”
2. Wizards: G Stephon Fortress
3. Rockets: PG Rob Dillingham 
4. Spurs: PG Nikola Subject
5. Pistons: SF Zaccharie Risacher

🏌 Rory McIlroy wins Wells Fargo Championship forward of PGA Championship

On Sunday, Rory McIlroy turned a top-10 showdown right into a laugher. Now he hopes it carries over. McIlroy surged to a five-stroke victory over Xander Schauffele to win his fourth Wells Fargo Championship and now turns his focus to the PGA Championship at Valhalla.

• Scheffele eagled No. 7 to go up two strokes. McIlroy then went birdie-birdie-eagle to take the lead proper again. He added two extra birdies and one other eagle and shot 32 on the again 9, even with a double-bogey on 18.
• McIlroy’s win got here per week after he and Shane Lowry teamed as much as win the Zurich Basic.
• McIlroy’s 26 profession PGA Tour victories ties Henry Picard for twenty second all-time. McIlroy additionally made a cool $3.6 million with the win. Not dangerous!

Whereas McIlroy has no downside successful (particularly at Quail Hole) he is nonetheless chasing his fifth main. In actual fact, he is been chasing it since 2014, coincidentally on the PGA Championship … coincidentally at Valhalla. Will he have fun the 10-year anniversary with one other Wanamaker Trophy? As Kyle Porter factors out in his PGA Championship storylines, he isn’t the one one coming in on a heater.

• Porter: “Brooks Koepka is as soon as once more middle stage. Scottie Scheffler goes for one thing historic. Rory McIlroy joins each males as a trio of golfers coming into the PGA every having gained their final two begins. After which there’s this younger man — maybe you’ve got heard of him by now, Ludvig Åberg. Seems he is fairly good at main championship golf, too.”

⚾ MLB Energy Rankings, weekend recap