CLIFTON PARK, NY – It was quite the weekend in sports.
Carmelo Anthony was actually traded. The Buffalo Bills upset the Denver Broncos. Dwyane Wade was bought out by the Chicago Bulls. The New York Yankees punched their ticket to the playoffs.
I could go on and on.
Oh, and in non-sporting news, Dave Matthews Band put on one heck of a concert in Charlottesville, Va., Sunday night. It was a one-night music festival in honor of Charlottesville and in support of music and unity.
Stevie Wonder, Coldplay, Justin Timberlake, The Roots, Ariana Grande and many more joined DMB on stage. While I only was able to watch the livestream, it was certainly a special night. I know it has nothing to do about sports, but I felt like it was worth mentioning.
But on to the hawt taeks. And they are some good ones!
Here’s the latest batch of Ebs’ Hot Takes. Enjoy!
The Oklahoma City Thunder will win the Western Conference. Golden State, you better watch out.
This is a big stab in the dark here, and I might be (probably am) caught up in the moment, but the Thunder have one heck of a starting five. I hate to break it to you, but Oklahoma City’s Big Three of Carmelo Anthony, Russ Westbrook and Paul George is better than the Warriors’.
The question that remains is whether or not the Thunder can match Golden State’s quality of bench play. We’ll have to wait and see.
For you “Melo isn’t a winner” folks, he’s on the best team he’s ever played on. He’ll be just fine.
Oh, and if D-Wade joins the squad… Look out.
Week 3 was the best week of regular season NFL football in quite some time. In 1 p.m. games alone, the Philadelphia Eagles beat the New York Giants on a 61-yard field goal by some guy named Jake Elliot, the Bills upset the Broncos, the Chicago Bears beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in overtime, the Atlanta Falcons edged the Detroit Lions in an overturned touchdown as time expired, Tom Brady led the New England Patriots back to beat the Houston Texans and the New York Jets actually won. 
Again, that was only the 1 p.m. games.
Then the Green Bay Packers came back and beat the Cincinnati Bengals in overtime later on in the afternoon. Wow.
I can’t even get a read on most of the teams in the NFL anymore. So many are vulnerable.
We won’t see a weekend like this for quite some time.
Obviously this was also a memorable weekend in the sense of the protests occurring during the National Anthem. I just want to say one thing on the matter. Unity over everything.
Aaron Judge still deserves AL MVP consideration. Hey, I get it. Aaron Judge’s production dropped off in the second half. But we were all expecting that to happen.
Now that the Yankees have clinched their spot in the playoffs and look to secure home-field advantage in the AL Wild Card Game, Judge is playing at the top of his game right now.
After batting .185 in August, he’s rebounded to a .296 batting average in September. Oh, and the power is back. Judge has 11 dingers this month. That’s the most he’s hit in any one month this season.
While Jose Altuve will likely win the honor, Judge surely deserves to be back in the conversation.
Come back tomorrow for Ben Whitney and please follow us on Twitter at @ByDJEberle, @MeetTheMatts & @Matt_McCarthy00, Instagram @MeetTheMatts and like our Facebook page, Meet The Matts.
