The Luck of the Irish and a 2023 French Open Preview
The Sunday morning edition of "Three things to know before 3 AM" is here!
I am just going to jump into the top story over the past 24 hours, which featured one of the greatest 2023 NBA playoff games featuring the only game winning, buzzer-beating basket of the playoffs.
1) White’s game-winning buzzer-beater caps crazy Game 6
I saw the live action Disney remake of The Little Mermaid on Friday afternoon, but the Boston Celtics - Miami Heat Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals last night should be made into a motion picture feature film.
I could write a novel on what is arguably the best 2023 NBA playoff game. Full of drama and high stakes, controversial calls, blown leads and big-time buckets from unheralded stars.
If you told me that the Celtics’ stars of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown made a combined zero three-pointers and the team collectively shot a season-low 20% from beyond the arc, I would have thought the Heat won and advanced to the NBA Finals. If you told me that the Heat stars of Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo shot a combined 9 of 37 (24%) from the field, I would have thought the Celtics won convincingly to force an ultimate Game 7.
Well, both were true, and Butler’s late fourth quarter heroics were not enough, as the Celtics escape with a 104-103 win after a Derrick White put-back layup at the buzzer to lift Boston to its third straight win and force the do-or-die Game 7 on Memorial Day Monday evening.
First half was all about Tatum (25 first half points) and the Celtics, as the Heat only led four times in the opening half (11-9 was the Heat’s last lead).
Third quarter was a different story. The Heat opened very aggressively on offense, forcing the Celtics to commit five extremely quick fouls within the first three minutes of the second half (once a team reaches five fouls, any future foul within the quarter results in free throws, no matter what). However, the porous shooting from Butler and Adebayo could not overcome the Celtics’ lead.
Some late fourth quarter Celtics turnovers and a no-show by Tatum in the second half (zero points from field goals in the second half) resulted in a 12-3 Heat run. The South Beach team led for the first time in the second half at 83-82 with just under eight minutes left after a Butler put-back shot.
The Celtics then took back that lead with a 15-6 run of their own to lead 98-88 with under five minutes left, following an unorthodox four-point play by Brown (goaltending by Adebayo plus a technical foul on Adebayo and a foul by Adebayo on Brown’s layup attempt) and the traditional and-one by Marcus Smart.
But the Heat, under Butler, kept attacking. And attacking. And attacking some more. They eventually took the lead again at 103-102, following Butler’s three converted free throws after a foul by Celtics’ center Al Horford with three seconds left.
Those three seconds were all the Celtics needed for one last play that went haywire. Smart, the third option on the inbounds play, shot a desperation three almost instantly upon receiving the pass. The ball barely rimmed out, and a hustling Derrick White grabbed the missed shot in midair with 0.2 of a second left and converted the ensuing put-back shot as time expired. THE luck of the Irish.
Now, the Celtics head back home to Boston for game 7 on Monday night (8:30 p.m. EST tip-off). This is only the fourth time in NBA history a team has come back from a 3-0 series deficit to force a game seven; all three comeback teams prior have lost that seventh game of the series. Also, NBA teams are 150-0 all-time when leading three games to none.
History will be made Monday night. Will the Celtics be the first team in NBA history to win Game 7 after losing the first three games, or will the eighth-seeded Heat be only the second 8th-seeded team ever to reach the NBA Finals?
2) French Open preview
With all of the drama regarding the NBA and NHL playoffs and reaching the Memorial Day weekend point of the MLB season, tennis’s second of the four grand slams has quickly crept-up on us. The French Open has officially begun by the time you are reading this Snippets post.
This French Open feels a bit… empty. On the men’s side, only one of The Big Three is left, as Roger Federer retired last September, and just a couple of weeks ago, Rafael Nadal announced his skipping his favorite major (he won the French Open a record 14 times) due to a hip injury. This would be the first French Open sans Nadal since 2005. However, history awaits the lone holdover, as Novak Djokovic could arguably be the best male tennis player in history with a record 23rd grand slam title.
Top-seeded 20-year old Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz is the men’s favorite, coming off consecutive title wins in the Barcelona Open and Madrid Open - both clay court competitions, his specialty. However, he was upset by unranked Fabian Marozan in the third round of his last tournament in the Italian Open. Alcaraz also did not play in the Australian Open back in January, due to a hamstring injury suffered right before the grand slam.
The proverbial ‘dark horse’ who could make a run to the 2023 French Open title on the men’s side could be fifth-seeded 24-year old Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas. He has a 27-8 overall 2023 record, but no singles titles to his name this year. However, he did lose to Alcaraz in the Barcelona Open finals last month and most-recently fell to third-seeded Daniil Medvedev in the Italian Open semifinals earlier this month. However, with no Djokovic on Tsitsipas’s side of the draw, the Greek could make a deep run.
Also, if you are wondering about Nick Kyrgios’s whereabouts - this actually caught my eye while reading a Yahoo! sports preview piece on the French Open:
“Kyrgios is missing the French Open for the most Nick Kyrgios reason ever: he sustained a knee injury while chasing after a guy who had stolen his mother's Tesla.”
As for the women’s draw - with no Serena Williams (the most-decorated tennis player of all time) - we actually have a new Big Three in place. They are Polish 21-year old world’s number one Iga Świątek, Belarusian 25-year old world’s number two Aryna Sabalenka and Kazakhstani 23-year old world’s number four Elena Rybakina. Each has won the last three grand slams, as Świątek is the defending French Open champion, and Rybakina won the U.S. Open and Sabalenka won the 2023 Australian Open. The favorite is still Świątek, but she retired in her quarterfinal Italian Open match due to a thigh injury and has not been her 2022 dominant self.
Typically, the women’s side is less forgiving than the men’s side, which is why this women’s field is more wide open than ever before. Any of The Big Three could hold up the Roland Garros trophy. But my ultimate dark horse would be American Coco Gauff. The sixth-seeded Gauff faced Świątek in last year’s French Open final, so there’s that. However, she has not made it past the second round in any of this year’s clay court tune-up tournaments in the Madrid Open, the Italian Open and the German Open. Also, Gauff got the short end of the proverbial stick in the women’s French Open draw, as she potentially faces top-seeded Świątek… in the fourth round, with a possible quarterfinal match against Rybakina. Yikes.
3) A fun sponsorship by Julio Rodriguez
Wrapping up this Snippets is this rather interesting tidbit of sports news that popped-up on my Twitter feed yesterday. Seattle Mariners outfielder (and reigning American League Rookie of the Year) Julio Rodriguez just inked a sponsorship deal with Alaskan Airlines.
The perk, for Mariners fans, is the following: If Rodriguez hits a home run in a certain section with fans at T-Mobile Park, a subset of those fans (44 fans, based on his jersey number) will win free round-trip tickets to a destination of their choice.
Last year, 15 of his 28 home runs were at T-Mobile Park in Seattle, Washington. Of the 28 home runs, only five were hit to right field, with two to dead center field.
Rodriguez has eight home runs so far in this young season, with five of those coming at home. Four of those eight home runs were hit to left field, while the other four were hit to right field. However, one of those five ‘home’ home runs were hit into the left field bullpen, nary of any fans.
Essentially, you might as well play the lottery, as you would have just as good odds as Julio Rodriguez hitting a home run into your section of T-Mobile Park.
Well, that is going to do it for another Snippets on this Sunday.
Enjoy the Memorial Day weekend and a smorgasbord of sports content, from the French Open first round to the last day of the Premier League regular season to this afternoon’s annual running of the Indianapolis 500.
Until next time, signing off.