The Detroit Tigers find themselves in first place in the American League Central heading into this one, but just barely after losing the final game of their series against the Houston Astros. Now they travel to Texas to take on the division leading Rangers.
With the Braves struggling the Nationals have closed some of the gap in the National League East. They are now down down just a game in the division despite the fact they have struggled over the last five against Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs.
There is no greater sports rivalry than the only between New York and Boston but in hockey, playoff matchups between the two cities have been few and far between. In fact, the last time the Rangers and the Bruins met in the playoffs was way back in 1973 – the Rangers won that series.
The Ottawa Senators know that they will need to be much better in every aspect of the game to defeat the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday night. They have to be more disciplined, they have to convert on absolutely every chance they get and most of all they have to return to the defense-first brand of hockey that got them into the playoffs in the first place.
Mike Woodson has tried just about everything. Changes in the starting lineup. Going small. Going big. Going more physical. Doubling Roy Hibbert, of all people.
Eastern Conference
Indiana Pacers (3-1) at New York Knicks (1-3)
Thursday, May 16
Madison Square Garden, New York
8 p.m. EST
Spread – Knicks -4.5 at Bovada
O/U – 179
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Nothing has worked, and you wonder if even Woodson realizes at this point that the chances of winning three straight over the Pacers and getting to the Eastern Conference finals are about the same as buying a real $100 Rolex from a street vendor outside Madison Square Garden.
The Knicks have the look and feel of a team that is out of options. Every player who took some pressure of Carmelo Anthony by making shots against soft defenses in the regular season is turtling.
J.R. Smith can’t even make a layup at this point, let alone fire in threes with hands in his face. Amare Stoudemire clearly doesn’t yet have his legs under him after returning from injury.
The Knicks would love to get some offense out of PG Ray Felton, but he’s been missing in action for two games and over the entire series the Knicks have been outscored by 32 points during the time he has been on the court. Felton was even a minus-2 in New York’s only victory, in Game 2.
That leaves Carmelo Anthony, who may or may not be 100 percent (with him you never know) to stem the tide Thursday night in Game 5 at Madison Square Garden.
Anthony loves to score and needs the ball to be effective, and unless a few of his teammates step up tonight, he’ll need a 35- or 40-point game to get things done. Can you blame him for being a ball hog the way the rest of the team has turtled? [ad-6571516]
All of which leaves the Pacers in better than pretty good shape as they head for New York with their pockets full of house money.
They shot barely 40 percent from the field in Game 4, missing 24 three-pointers and playing an all-around crummy game at home, and still came out on top.
Now they have three chances to put this away, including one more at home if needed and against a Knicks team that looks like a gunslinger who has used up all the bullets in his chamber but keeps pulling the trigger.
This one could be decided in the first 8 minutes.
The Knicks are a front-running team that draws energy from itself. A good start opens things up for an offense which has underperformed in 12 of the 16 quarters played so far, and a slow start might result in some panic at the thought of seeing it all crumble at home.
NY appears to have played its best basketball in the Boston series and now is out of answers.
Indiana to cover the 4.5, with aggressive bettors biting at the money line for a better payoff.
The Spurs crushed the Warriors in Game 5 in San Antonio and now back at Golden State they can close out this series if they win.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup series heads to Charlotte Motor Speedway for the next two weeks in preparation for the running of the Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day Weekend, but this Saturday night it will stage its annual All-Star Race.
138th Preakness Stakes Preview and Picks
The 2013 Triple Crown horse racing season for three-year old thoroughbreds moves onto the second of three legs with the running of this Saturday’s Preakness Stakes.
The PGA Pros move back to the great state of Texas this week – some to recover after what was another scintillating PGA Championship last week. TPC at Four Season has not proven to be a picnic in the past however – it is extremely hard to hit the fairways and Greens In Regulation stats have favored the course over the players in recent years.
NASCAR’s Sprint Cup series just completed its 11th point race of the season with the running of the Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway last Saturday night making it a great time to take a closer look at the current odds to win this season’s Sprint Cup title.
Two Original Six teams meet in the playoffs for the umpteenth time when the “underdog” Detroit Red Wings travel to Chicago to take on the best team in the NHL during the regular season.
The Brewers (16-21) lost yesterday’s game with the Pirates (22-17) and they are reeling losing 8 of their last 10 games. The Pirates are only 5-5 in their last 10 games, but they only sit 3.5 games back of the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL Central.
Even with all of their injuries the Yankees (25-14) keep on winning. They beat the Mariners (18-21) yesterday facing former Cy Young winner Felix Hernandez, are 7-3 in their last 10 games, and sit all-alone in first place in the AL East 2 games up on the Baltimore Orioles.
Sacramento at Charlotte in early March. Any game involving the Clippers of the early-2000s. And now tonight’s Eastern Conference semifinal series Game 5 – Chicago at Miami.
Since David Stern took over the NBA, the Association has never been shy about implementing its star system.
The San Jose Sharks and the Los Angeles Kings kick off their Western Conference Semi-Final series on Tuesday night in LA where the Kings won both of their regular season meetings with their Northern State rivals.
