#-1: Twins (Last Week: -1). Once again I am struck by how turgid the Twinks have been playing but still having a not-implausible shot to reach the playoffs. Amazing that a 4-3 screening Week doesn't sink a team, but these days it gosh darn well elevates them and gets them jobs.
I'm tired, so that's all I have to say. Well, that and they travel to Boston for three at Fenway Park over the weekend, then they travel to Comiskey Park for four Games beginning on Memorial Afternoon. Some people enjoy a baseball Game on a holiday. Me, I think I want to just stay home and not even open my door.
#-2: Lynx (Last Week: -2). Olivia Miles can dish like no one's business. But can she develop a jump shot? And how is she on Defense? Because although they gutted out a four-Point Win over The Bastard Detroit Shock in Dallas Thursday, the Wings followed it up with a defeat at home to Chicago. While Miles may have solved the Lynx's Point Guard problem, they now have a frontcourt (or lack thereof) problem.
Host Toronto tonight/Friday night, then at Chicago Saturday afternoon, then home to Atlanta.
#-3: United FC (Last Week: -5). Lost to New England, 2-1, on a stupid, stupid pass to the Revolution that was slotted home for the winning score. That means they're in a funk, going winless in their last three Matches.
Saturday afternoon they host Real Salt Lake (it was originally scheduled in the evening, but then James Rodriguez signed with the Loons and network TV quickly put MNUFC on as many of their windows as possible to maximize eyeballs ... little did the media stakeholders know that Rodriguez was going to leave the squad after just, oh several months at the helm) in the last regular season Game before MLS goes on almost a two-Month sabbatical.
#-Infinity (tie): Timberwolves and Gopher baseball (Last Week, respectively: -3 and -4). I'll say it: The Timberwolves' window is closed. It is highly disappointing to see them go out like this, with three of the four Losses to San Antonio being blowouts, worst of all at home in the fatal Game 6. The way they went out is highly disappointing, and it has to say something about the construction of the roster, namely 1) they miss Donte Divincenzo, even though I don't know if they would've won with him; 2) Rudy Gobert helps the Timberwolves defeat The Denver Nuggets and only The Denver Nuggets in the playoffs; and 3) Julius Randle was as cold this postseason as he was hot last postseason, but he'll be the fall guy because the team took a step back by being eliminated in The Western Conference Semifinals this Year.
But we can all see the reality: The squads the T-Wolves lost to in the last two playoffs, the Spurs and The Bastard Seattle SuperSonics, are the class of the NBA now, and Minnesota is not. Blow it up? Hate to be a nihilist, but I can't say no. Winning a title is the only thing that matters, and unless the Wolves get super better (or San Antonio and Oklahoma City get hit with a rash of injuries in the same season), it'll be those teams for the next, oh, half-decade. Minnesota will be a lot older in five years' time, so the only way they get better is to bite the bullet and trade for youth or the undervalued -- or shit, man, trade for anything that loosens up the constipated Offense. And even that acknowledges that there will be no champions in the immediate horizon. All I can think of is that in retrospect, the 2024 postseason was this club's champs. Home-court advantage over a team three Seeds below and who had one guy (Kyrie Irving) basically playing on one leg -- and the Timberwolves lost??? Damn all of us to hell.
Oh, yeah, the Gopher baseballers. The armageddon scenario happened: The Gophers get swept at Siebert in the final regular season Games of the year to a highly-skilled Nebraska team, and that pushed the U. below Michigan St. for the twelfth and final spot in The B1G Baseball Tournament. Finishing on a five-Game losing streak doesn't make Ty McDevitt a bad Head Coach, but it doesn't make him a good one, either. And since I am very tired, that is all I have to say about that.
No comments:
Post a Comment