Good morning. Let’s basketball.
Kevin Love has never lost a playoff game
Good morning. We have that and more in Monday’s NBA newsletter.
INSTANT CLASSIC: This Thunder-Spurs is, as predicted, fantastic. After the Game 1 beatdown we’ve had three close games. On Sunday, the Thunder evened the series with a fourth quarter devoid of mishaps. The final score was 111-97. Kevin Durant took over down the stretch and finished with a career-playoff-high 41. Russell Westbrook struggled from the field but racked up 15 assists. Game 5 is Tuesday.
SWEPT AWAY: Cleveland beat Atlanta 100-99 to sweep the Hawks. Praise be to Kevin Love. The Cavaliers are 8-0 in this postseason and are off until at least Sunday, but possibly next Tuesday.
ICYMI: Paul Flannery’s Sunday Shootaround covered Ty Lue’s unleashing of the Cavaliers’ full potential.
ON THE AIR TONIGHT ...
Raptors at Heat, Game 4, 8 p.m. ET, TNT (TOR leads 2-1)
Warriors at Blazers, Game 4, 10:30 p.m., TNT (GSW leads 2-1)
JV GONE: Jonas Valanciunas is out for the rest of the second round. Hassan Whiteside, meanwhile, is day-to-day. But then aren’t we all?
THE KD FACTOR: Andrew Keh on the emotional and economic impacts of Kevin Durant’s coming free agency on Oklahoma City.
UH WHAT? Kyrie Iving glitching out in the corner. Android? Android.
INTERCEPTION! Kawhi Leonard is basically a shutdown corner on inbounds plays. Android? Android.
PRIORITIES: Kevin Love was glad Game 4 didn’t go to overtime because he wanted to be back in Cleveland to watch Game of Thrones. Speaking of Love, Dave McMenamin had a good piece on a sparking conversation he had with Lue.
THIS IS HAPPENING, APPARENTLY: Woj reports that Dave Joerger will be meeting with Kings boss Vivek Ranadive on Monday after being flown in with his family to meet with Vlade Divac on Sunday. A deal could be announced Monday, if the meeting goes well. I guess Henry Bibby isn’t getting the job?
SICKENING: The Seattle City Council is majority female. Which is great! The Seattle City Council rejected a land use deal it considered bad for the city. All five women on the City Council voted to reject the deal. You’ll be unsurprised to find out what happened next to their social media feeds and email inboxes. The (male) mayor and rich dude pushing for the arena also tried to White Knight the women on the Council, which wasn’t fully appreciated because it wasn’t fully smart. But the biggest villains are those peppering mentions and emails with sexist, destructive insults. An embarrassment to us all.
Of course, this is nothing different from what basically every woman on the Sports Internet deals with every single day. That doesn’t make anything right. It makes it even more sad. How do we put a stop to this rampant abuse?
WONDERFUL WANDA: Lifetime debuted a movie about Kevin Durant’s mother Wanda on Sunday. She watched her son go nuclear on the Spurs on Mother’s Day. Glory. Here’s a good interview with her about raising the Slim Reaper.
Happy Monday. See you next time.
See More:
