Some Sports Comments

Back from the beach, yesterday I caught up with what was going on in sports.  In the National Basketball Association conference semifinals, Portland edged out Denver on the road to win their seven-game series 4-3 and Toronto, with the advantage of playing at home, likewise won their drawn-out series over Philadelphia.  The Raptors broke a 90-90 tie with a long, unbalanced shot by their star Kawhi Leonard as the clock ran out...it was too short and bounced high off the front rim, then bounced back three more times before settling through the basket and bringing down the house.  I was rooting for both the Trail Blazers and Toronto, so it was pretty cool how their games turned out.  I also wanted the ultimately-prevailing Golden State Warriors to win their series against Houston...leaving the Boston Celtics' early exit against Milwaukee as my only disappointment in this round.  In the National Hockey League, their four conference semifinal series ended a few days ago with all "my" teams...Boston, Carolina, San Jose, and St. Louis...winning their respective series.  And now the Bruins and Sharks...both of whom I'd like seeing facing off in the Stanley Cup finals, are leading their ongoing series...

In soccer, Manchester City eked out the English Premier League title over Liverpool, which nevertheless lost only one match out of 38 played...highest second-place finish in history.  Wolverton and Leicester, two teams I was following this year, respectively finished seventh and ninth out of the twenty teams in the league...not bad, especially considering that Wolverton was just promoted from the next lower league just this year.  In Mexico "my" Tigres have passed the first round of their Liguilla playoffs...looks like Leon is the team to beat this time around, though.  And I've lost interest in the other soccer leagues...even Major League Soccer which features a (perennially bad) Orlando club...

In baseball Tampa Bay started out the season fast but seems to be settling down and Miami looks to possibly be even worse than last year, in spite of new CEO Derek Jeter's plans for the franchise.  Defending World Series champions Boston began the season poorly but have surged of late...I expect them to be contenders once again at season's end.  I don't know whether it's because the season is so early or that my tastes in sports have changed, but the baseball games seem pretty boring so far this year...

And that's about how I see it in sports...