Watching the sixth game of the NBA Finals now. Indiana hosting Oklahoma City, down 3-2. A very good series, regardless of what the TV audience numbers may suggest. Two small-market teams, you know. Indiana claims to be the Basketball State, and it has a considerable claim on it, but these Pacers have never won the NBA title. Neither has the OKC franchise as the Thunder; there was a title for the old Seattle Supersonics (in the 70's) before they split for a warmer city.
The teams that survived the star-filled opening rounds to reach the championships do not have the big-deal superstars. What they have in common is ferocious defense,,and coming into the playoffs healthy and playing their best. The teams with the stars but lesser records that tried to turn it on for the playoffs came up short, the exception being the Denver Nuggets, led by MVP runner-up Nikola Jokic, that pushed the Oklahoma City Thunder to the edge before succumbing in seven.
The MVP winner, Shea Gilgeous-Alexander (SGA, for short), has led OKC to the best regular-season record for the second year in a row. SGA is a marvelous player and deserves all the praise that is now coming to him. This time, nothing less than the title will suffice, for him and his fiercely loyal teammates, and they have two chances to win it.
The Thunder were a 6.5 point favorite, which I think is way too much of a point spread. Both teams have all the motivation for an exceptional effort, but the Pacers will have a frenzied crowd behind them, and their key player, Tyrese Haliburton, will play despite being injured--there was much speculation about that which could have influenced that spread.
Note: Went away for dinner, when I came back it was halftime and Pacers had opened up a 20-point lead. Should be a great Game 7 now; Thunder favored despite this blowout loss.
MLB 2025
This is the time when teams make their strategic mid-season decisions, whether to make trades to strengthen for a stretch run, hoping also for the playoffs, or to sell off expiring contracts for more depth, or to adopt the infamous stand pat strategy.
It's a week or so before the midpoint of the season, enough time that the teams very likely to make the playoffs have self-identified. They don't have that small-market problem: two from NYC, LA, SF, Philadelphia, Houston. In terms of players, two sluggers from the largest TV markets have once again stood out with incredible half-seasons: Shohei Ohtani for LA and Aaron Judge for the NY Yankees.
There will be a team from the Central divisions from each league: Detroit has established itself now in the AL as a legitimate playoff team, and the Chicago Cubs have invested profitably and sit well ahead of a host of contenders. That leaves one Wild Card spot up for grabs in a broad scramble in each league, with the San Diego Padres the current leader in the NL and the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL, Those teams may be good enough to build a substantial lead down the stretch, but otherwise there could be five or more teams going for that last spot (assuming none of the leaders falter enormously).
Those also-ran contenders are the ones with the tough decisions. Most of those scrambling teams are not going to make it to the playoffs, which is the minimum standard, the entry ticket for success. So, will they trade off veterans and just play for next year? Very few of them, for their own reasons, but mostly to keep fan interest alive.
My Cincinnati Reds are a good example. They are just barely a contender, with three teams ahead of them for the last NL Wild Card spot, but SD is only one game ahead of them. If they got hot, they could take it, going away. More likely, though, their youthful inexperience and sore-armed pitchers will end up being a little short of the playoffs (again, assuming the Cubs don't fold). The Reds have one of the most exciting young players in the majors, in Elly de la Cruz, and the question hanging over the team is whether they will do enough in the next couple years to keep him around. So, they won't do much to weaken or strengthn, they will add another pitcher or two, grab a couple guys off waivers. They should be in contention, though, until mid-September or so. And there's always next year!
FIFA Club World Cup
A great event is going on in the US that hardly anyone is noticing. There is a 32-team soccer tournament with top pro teams from all regions, played at various US venues. It's a sort-of warmup for the World Cup, which will be held in the US, Canada, and Mexico next year. It is almost criminal how little attention this quality competition is drawing. From what I've seen, it's the backers of the foreign teams who are showing up for the games, while the North American teams of MLS draw little.
I have seen a couple of games--one excellent one in which Al-Hilal, a Saudi team of high-end recruits, tied the famous Real Madrid, so many times European champion. Most of the games, though, are being televised on something called DAZN. Right.
Real is also the team with the most wins in the Club World Cup, five. It has always been contested in a much different mode. In the past few years, only a few teams--one per region--went to the finals in a big-money locale (Japan, Dubai). The series was held during the European season and was a bit of a distraction for the team sent from there; now it's during this fallow period between seasons, and I believe it will be held less often. Sounds good!
Inter Ruptus
When I arrived in Italy on my recent trip, the talk was of a possble "treble" (Britishism) for Inter Milan--winning the Coppa d'Italia, the "scudetto" of its top full-season competition, Serie A, and even the Champions Cup, the finale of the European Champions League of top-performing teams. Over the course of my trip, I saw them eliminated in the semifinals of the Coppa, then to lose the lead and end up one point behind Napoli in the Serie A standings. Still, despite the evidence to the contrary, they came up with big wins in the Champions Cup knockout rounds (including Real Madrid, I believe). They had the chance to more than make up for the recent shortcomings by winning the biggest club cup of all*. Instead, they were comprehensively drubbed, 5-0, by PSG.
Both these teams have rich and long pedigrees, but Paris Saint-Germain could still be considered an upstart, as they won without the trio of superstars (Messi, Neymar, and Mbappe) they had in recent years. Look out for France! As for Inter (formally Internazionale), they don't generate the same kind of fanaticism as the teams in Naples, Rome, or even their crosstown rival, A.C. Milan. Professional, disciplined, and this year anyway, disappointing. (Note: My Italian team is Fiorentina, classy mid-table losers who keep a close eye on rising Slavic players for their bread and butter, so I don't judge from a position of superiority.)
* Definitely more significant to fans, and thus to teams and players, than the FIFA Club World Cup that I discussed above, even though that could be considered a higher-level tournament.
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