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Golden State Warriors Wins and Makes Historic 73-9 Regular Season Record

in NBA

The Golden State Warriors made a Historic run tonight that saw them winning 73 regular season games, breaking the Chicago Bulls Record of 72 wins.

The Warriors came blazing in the 1st Quarter as Stephen Curry started the game strong and refusing for the Warriors to fall behind by hitting two three pointers in the first 4 minutes of the game — the first one giving the Warriors the lead 6-4, and the second 12-9. And with still 4:21 minutes remaining in the first quarter, Curry shot three consecutive three pointers from the top of the key with one of them over 5 feet away from the arc. Curry added another 3 point short with less than a minute to go. By the end of the first quarter the Warriors were leading by 14 points 37-23, on the Warriors’ 9 3 pointers with Barnes and Green adding to Curry’s six.

The 2nd Quarter the Warriors remained in control of the game as Steve Kerr decided to rest Curry until the 5:47 mark with Klay Thompson hitting beyond the arc pushing the lead to 16 points. It was a well balanced offense with Ezeli, Livingston, Barbosa, Barnes, Speights scoring while Thompson adding 4 3 pointers. The Warriors pushed the lead to 22 points with 2:48 remaining on consecutive 3 point shots from Thompson and Curry. The second quarter saw the Warriors with 14 3 pointers ending the first half on the score of 50-70.

3rd Quarter came and Curry conquered as Stephen made another milestone making 400 3 pointers in a season in the first 43 seconds of the third quarter. The quarter saw Curry dishing out 6 assist but the Warriors had a lot of turnovers that allowed the Grizzlies to cut down the lead to 14 via a Farmer floating jump shot with 4:12 remaining. As the Memphis trying to make a comeback, the Warriors answered with Iguodola, Green and Curry with a barrage of points giving the Warriors a 21 point lead ending the 3rd quarter 102-81.

The 4th quarter it was already evident that there is no comeback run and the Memphis traded basket with the Warriors who mostly fielded their second unit with only Thompson in the starting five. The fans gave the Warriors a standing ovation with 4:18 remaining as Speights pushes the lead to 22 on a driving layup with the score of 120-98. The game finishes on the score of with Stephen Curry leading the game with 46 points, 6 assists and 10 3 pointers.

Congratulations to the Golden State Warriors for this historic night.

Manny Pacquiao Impressive on his Retiring Fight vs Timothy Bradley

in Boxing

Manny Pacquiao delivered a couple of knockdowns in the seventh and ninth rounds, solid punches, and consistent defense as he won on three judges scorecard 116-110 to finally close his rivalry with Timothy Bradley and announce his retirement.

Pacquaio’s professional record now stands at 58-6-2, 38 KO while Timothy Bradley is 33-2-1, 13 KO after their third fight. Contrary to Bradley’s controversial win over Pacman in 2012, Pacquiao had a dazzling array of hits, defensive blocks, dodges and the relentless combination we have seen from him in his younger peak days en route to an unanimous decision.

Manny Pacquiao has said he is retiring after this fight, “Yes, I am retired,” Pacquiao said. “I want to go home to my family and serve the people.”, but whether that actually happens remain to be seen. Whatever the decision of Pacman, the important thing is that his last fight may not be the greatest we have seen from him but it is one of the best fights for a retiring great boxer.

The fight didn’t generate a lot of buzz and speculation of Pacman’s brilliance was in question as 11 months ago his performance against Floyd Mayweather has been underwhelming. The fight went well as both fighters showed they are still on top of their game for their age with Pacman being faster and better defensively, as Bradley noted — “He was a step ahead of me,” Bradley observed afterward. “I was supposed to be a step ahead of him.”. Pacquiao went out blazing on the first round a good starting point for recovery from all the negative buzz generated from his last fight.

Two more years down the road before we can finally conclude if Pacquiao is really retiring but whatever happens, this fight has been a good career ender for Manny Pacquiao.

Warriors 71st Win Probably Sealed the 73 win Run

in NBA

The Warriors has lost the game against Minnesota and earlier before that against the Boston Celtics. The run towards breaking the Chicago Bulls record of 72 wins was not looking good. Was the regular season run finally caught up with the Warriors? Were they tired?

Nonetheless, the game against the Grizzlies was supposed to be an easy one for the Warriors as the Memphis Grizzlies is hanging on at the lower end of the playoff picture, they haven’t been winning in their last 10 games and two of their star players Mike Conley and Marc Gasol are out because of injuries. Apparently, the Grizzlies have a mission of making the Warriors work very hard and deny them of breaking the 72-win regular season. For a moment there Memphis looks like it will be upsetting the Warriors as they led by ten points with the just 6 minutes left. For the Warriors, this is the game they need to breathe life to their run and give them the confidence to finally break the home winning streak of the San Antonio Spurs.

Draymond Green’s excellent all-around play helped them push forward to win their 71st game on the slimmest of margin 100-99. 71 wins in a single regular season is a lot and most teams can only dream of reaching this milestone.

This was a hard fought game as the Warriors had to climb back from 10 points in the last 6 minutes and were still 5 points down in the last 2 minutes and 48 seconds in the game. The game winning shot was a follow-up tip-in by Draymond Green off a Stephen Curry layup miss while having 4 Grizzlies defending for a defensive rebound. On the next play, Draymond forced Randolph to shoot an airball.

Grizzlies still had the opportunity to deliver a heart-breaking upset as Lance Stephenson had two shot attempts in the last 10 seconds, the final shot came at .8 seconds but couldn’t deliver the points.

Even when Memphis seemed to be in control of the remainder of the 4th quarter, the Warriors required the contribution from four players – three points from Curry, Igoudala, a driving two points by Green, another three on the top right key by Harrison Barnes, and the go ahead two points while having four Grizzlies on the defensive end.

When the Buzzer sounded, the Warriors won their 71st game and 33rd road game, an achievement that puts them in the history books only occupied by the Chicago Bulls 1991-1996.

Warriors Becomes the 2nd 70 win team in NBA History

in NBA

The Golden State Warriors joined the 70-win club making them the only team alongside the Chicago Bulls for this milestone.

The most important thing is that the Warriors were able to bounce back from a crushing defeat against the lowly Minnesota Timberwolves as they suffered on their second home loss in the last three games. The Warriors looked tired the last few games and going up against a streaking San Antonio Spurs who is second in the league and looking more and more confident, could have crushed their hopes to reaching 70 games and possibly breaking the Chicago Bulls record.

Steve Kerr has downplayed the achievement of breaking the record of the Bulls and winning 73 games in the regular season. Most teams making the playoffs are already resting their starters to come fresh in the first round and while Steve insists that the record 73 wins is not their priority, the way they played Minnesota Timberwolves and the Spurs says otherwise.

It would be foolish for the Warriors to let go of this achievement and should go after the 73 wins like it is a Championship Game.

The Warriors will have to remain focus on the last three games against Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday & Wednesday and the Spurs on Sunday. The Warriors need to win the game against the Grizzlies as effortlessly as possible to rest and recharge against the Spurs on Sunday. The Spurs has not lost a home game this season and Popovich said he will be resting his players and be on full attack on Sunday against the Warriors.

Kobe Bryant Will Break Tears on his Last Game even when He says Routine

in NBA

On April 13 at the Staples Center against the Utah Jazz will the last game of Kobe Bryant after 20 years in the league.

Counting the number of games left the fans are getting emotional and would like to know what Kobe thinks; however, he seems to stay cool so as not to get affected:

Bryant said on Wednesday night — “I try not to do it too much, and just make yourself emotional.”

Bryant adds: “Just showing up and playing. Showing up and playing and hoping my body feels pretty damn good and I can get up and down the floor and run freely and play this game at the highest level of competition one more time.”

Bryant insists the last game wouldn’t be any different as he is going to do the same routine he has been doing for the past 20 years

“I won’t allow it to be any different,” said Bryant, 37, who is retiring after 20 NBA seasons. “One more time and go through same routine. Same group of people. One more time.”

Is this the ending that Kobe hoped and envisioned?

“Yeah, win a championship,” he said, “[but] that s— ain’t happening, so there you go. That’s done. The dream’s done. Dream’s done. For me, it’s coming out and playing in front of the fans and competing hard and playing against Utah, and them not taking it easy at all. They beat us by like 40 the last few times we played them. So I expect them to come and try to do the same thing.”

“To me, that is the greatest form of competition. That’s best last game you can have — a very competitive one, a physical one. That’s the way basketball should be. In terms of the end, I don’t know, man. I really don’t think about that that much; I just like the game itself.”

It is most likely that Kobe Bryant would break tears once the crowd stands up and chants his name, I am sure even their opponent will be there celebrating and paying respects for Kobe.

“When the time comes, you never know,” Bryant said. “[I] might be sitting here with tears flowing out of my eyes. I doubt it, but it could happen. I don’t know. We’ll see.”

During the second to the last game of the Lakers in their building, the crowd gave Kobe a standing ovation:

“This is the next-to-last game ever in this building. It’s pretty crazy,” Bryant chimed, “So I certainly can feel it. As soon as you run out at the start of the game, I could feel it.”

As Bryant adds: “I can feel it, and it feels pretty damn awesome. Going through the years of losing and not leaving [the Lakers] makes it all worthwhile standing here and taking the good with the bad and the fans embracing that and understanding that we ride together. That’s a love that you can’t break.”

Villanova Ends 31-year drought to become NCAA 2016 Champions

in NCAA

Villanova Wildcats ended a 31 year title drought by making the first 3 point buzzer winning shot in an NCAA National Basketball Championship game when Kris Jenkins received a trailing pass from Wildcats senior Ryan Arcidiacono to end the game 77-74.

The victory spoiled Carolina’s bid for a 6th title and could have been number 3 for Coach Roy Williams of the North Carolina Tarheels which would have allowed him to surpass his mention North Carolina Dean Smith.

Arcidiacono showed great unselfish play as he could have opted to drive the ball and take all the glory in.

Villanova Wildcats run by star point guard Arcidiacono had three plays that they are known for:

1. Ryan drives to the basket
2. Ryan kicks off to the wings
3. Pass off a trailing Kris Jenkins

These three play options were run by the Wildcats throughout the season and Ryan had full confidence on a smaller percentage shot from beyond the arc.

Arcidiacono notes — “We knew what play we were going to, We work on it every single day”.

Kris Jenkins has praise for their point guard — “For him to be so unselfish and give up the ball, it just shows what type of teammate he is”

The game was beautifully played with both teams hustling and coming back everytime the other was pulling away. With time remainig of 1 minute and 34 seconds and Villanova leading 70-64, Paige sinks a 3 point shot from the corner closing the gap by 3 – 70-67. With Arcidiacono giving up the ball from a half-court trap, Johnson sinks a bank shot from the inside to the score of 70-60.

Both teams fought hard, trading points and had the score tied at 74 all with an off-balance shot from Paige with 4.7 seconds remaining. With the Wildcats making an inbounds pass from the backcourt it was very likely that the game will go into overtime until Jenkins hit the game winning shot at the buzzer.

Too Cold to Handle as the Red Sox-Indians Opening Game Postponed

in MLB

The Cleveland Indians postponed their season opener as the temperature went down to 30s and kept dropping and will resume today April 5, a day later. The announcement didn’t come any sooner as fans were already outside the stadium freezing and all ready to watch the game.

Cleveland Indians could have made the decision a lot earlier to spare the freezing fans outside the stadium waiting to get in and the season opener.

David Price who signed as a free agent in December for the Boston Red Sox to a whopping $217 million dollars will have to wait another day to show what he is worth.

The first pitch is scheduled for 1:10pm on April 5, Tuesday and hopefully the forecast for partly cloudy skies will not delay or postpone the game anymore.

According to the clubs’ official announcement — “Today’s game was postponed due to the forecast changing from no precipitation to having precipitation most of the afternoon and into early evening. That steady precipitation forecast combined with wind chills dropping into the teens, it was decided by both teams and umpires for fan comfort and player safety to postpone the game. Tomorrow’s forecast will continue to be cold, but no anticipated precipitation.”

It is the second time that the Indians postponed their season opener in the last 9 years when a snowstorm stopped a four-game series against Seattle in 2007.

Tom Brady Extends Contract until 2019 as New England Patriots QB

in NFL

Tom Brady is set to complete 20 years with the New England Patriots as a verbal agreement has been reached for him to sign a 2-year contract extension with the team. He is under contract until 2017, with the extension he will remain a Patriot throughout the 2019 season at the age of 42.

Tom will be receiving less than the $9 & $10 million dollar contract in 2016 and 2017 respectively as the team cap space after that is $13 million dollars and a few players are expected to be re-signed — linebackers Jamie Collins, Dont’a Hightower, defensive end Chandler Jones and cornerback Malcolm Butler.

Tom Brady will eventually join Jason Hansen, Darrell Green and Matthew Slater as the only players in NFL history to spend 20 years in a single team.

It is going to be hard to imagine Brady in another uniform nor the New England Patriots without Brady.

The extension would give them 3 more years to develop 2014 second-round draft pick Jimmy Garoppolo.

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