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

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Breaking information to start out the morning: The Ravens will visit 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 photographs — 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 photographs.
• 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’ve 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 superb 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 series 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 injury again in January. Now, they’re working out of dependable gamers, interval:

• For the reason that 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) received 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 received the job performed. In Sport 4, DiVincenzo and Brunson mixed to shoot 9 for 30, and so the Knicks had no probability, as a result of they merely not have the offensive firepower elsewhere. The truth is, they may not have sufficient of something elsewhere. James Herbert explains how a deep Indiana staff overwhelmed the run-down Knicks.

• Herbert: “Through the common season, and particularly because the Pacers superior to the inaugural In-Season Event championship recreation, it turned clear that Indiana was the kind of staff that might beat anyone. The Pacers run onerous, 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 staff you need to face should you’re depleted and exhausted.”

I will not surrender on the Knicks. Led by Brunson and Tom Thibodeau, they’re as robust as they arrive. However they’re dropping 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% probability to win the NBA Draft Lottery — did just that, turning into the fourth least-likely staff to win the No. 1 decide within the historical past of the occasion. Here’s the top five:

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

You may discover the final staff on that checklist was additionally the staff 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 biggest lottery loser, Colin Ward-Henninger writes, however all is not lost. 

• 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 probability the participant you choose at No. 5 might 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 staff that lacks star energy within the frontcourt.”
2. Wizards: G Stephon Fort
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 every week after he and Shane Lowry teamed as much as win the Zurich Classic.
• 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 drawback successful (particularly at Quail Hole) he is nonetheless chasing his fifth main. The truth is, he is been chasing it since 2014, coincidentally on the PGA Championship … coincidentally at Valhalla. Will he have a good time the 10-year anniversary with one other Wanamaker Trophy? As Kyle Porter factors out in his PGA Championship storylines, he is not 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