SPANISH HARLEM, NY – We have the 4 major sports in full bloom and I still can’t find something to write about (I joke!). The NBA opened on Tuesday with two really good games and one unfortunate event. The Yankees came back home and won three games to make this a series so you can imagine how ecstatic I am.
Lets start with the NBA. On Tuesday night you had both teams that played in the NBA finals (Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors) facing the two teams who many think can dethrone them in their respective conferences (Golden State and Houston Rockets). The Cavs faced the Celtics, who added Kyrie Irving and Gordon Heyward to make a case for the Eastern Conference supremacy. Cleveland has owned it since LeBron James came back from his Miami sabbatical. The Celts showed heart on a night when they lost one of their shiny new toys in Heyward. If you saw the game it had to make you sick to your stomach when you noticed how displaced his ankle was after colliding with James on an alley-oop(s) pass. One quarter in and you lose possibly the best player on the team… unless you think Irving is better. Still, the Celts came within three points of beating the Cavs at home. Not too shabby but that loss had to hurt more because of the Heyward injury. In light of this, Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown will get more opportunities to develop and show what they can do with consistent minutes.
The late game concluded with the Warriors losing at home to the Houston Astros… Rockets. I must say it’s hard to see anyone beating the Warriors when it matters but this was a good first step for Houston. They added Chris Paul to an already really good team. I knew the Rockets were going to be good but thought they were a bit overrated… boy was I wrong. The Western Conference is loaded with great players and great teams, so it won’t be as easy for the Dubs this season and the Rockets are considered the 2nd best team in the conference. You know this match-up will be televised whenever they meet again. Great way to start the season, I can’t wait to see how this all unfolds.
Last but least, how about those Yankees! They needed a win against a Dallas Keuchel or Justin Verlander to win this series and they finally got to Keuchel at home. The ALCS is far from over but the Yankees threw their weight around and scored more than enough runs with Masahiro Tanaka pitching one of his best games of the year. The Japanese import proved that he was up for challenge by racking up strikeout after strikeout. Big hits from Greg Bird and Aaron Judge propelled this team to a victory against a pitcher that has swing and miss stuff despite throwing in the low 90’s. To win in the playoffs you have to make pitchers work and take advantage of mistakes, the Yankees did that last night. This team is one game away from the World Series, hopefully they are smart enough to accept the challenge but dumb enough to not get swept by the moment.
On to Houston!
That’s It! Come back to tomorrow for Different Matt. Also, feel free to comment below and please follow us on Twitter @BuddyDiaz19, @MeetTheMatts & @Matt_McCarthy00, Instagram @MeetTheMatts and like our Facebook pages, Meet The Matts & Buddy Diaz.
