Only one NBA team beat all three remaining title contenders on their home courts this season

There are now three teams left in the NBA playoffs--the Cavaliers, Thunder and Warriors.

On November 15, the Celtics knocked off the Thunder 100-85 in Oklahoma City (although Kevin Durant didn't play).  February 5, Boston won in Cleveland 104-103 on a near-miraculous buzzer-beater by Avery Bradley.  And on April 1, the Celts ended the Warriors' perfect home season with a 109-106 victory in Oakland.

No other squad in the NBA manged to win on the floors of each of the league's final three title contenders.  The Celtics did lose 120-103 in Cleveland on March 3, but still finished the season 3-1 on the road against the Cavs, Thunder and Warriors.  Not bad C's, not bad.


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Awesome Old TV Show Theme Song of the Week: "My Two Dads"

My Two Dads aired on NBC from 1987 until 1990.  The 11-year-old me had a big crush on Nicole, played by Staci Keanan (who went on to become Dana on Step by Step).

I totally forgot that Dick Butkis was on the show though, and I had no idea that Giovanni Ribisi was in it (check him out at the 35-second mark of the second clip and pictured below).

Here's the into and theme song, You Can Count on Me, from various seasons:

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For Thunder, would beating Warriors and Spurs be more impressive than winning a title?

The Warriors won 73 games this year, the best regular season in NBA history.  San Antonio finished with 67 victories, tied for the seventh-most of all time.  The Thunder are one win away from eliminating them both from the playoffs in back-to-back series.  In my mind, that would be a much more impressive feat than winning a championship.

Thunder on verge of taking out 2 teams w/ a combined 140 reg-season Ws. Obviously that's never happened, no 2 teams ever even won 140 before

— Mark Van Deusen (@LucidSportsFan) May 25, 2016

Championships happen every year, but a third club consecutively knocking off the two squads who combined for the most wins of all time is truly historic.

However, if Stephen Curry is as good as I think he is, this series isn't over yet.


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I'll pass on paying $399 for a Celtics folding chair used at the new Garden

Bring the courtside action into your home! Get an official Celtics Courtside Seat today: https://t.co/hP1cgUDTgR pic.twitter.com/RrL7TOWgrM

— Boston Celtics (@celtics) May 24, 2016

"A piece of history" for a padded 10-year-old folding chair made me chuckle, @Celtics. https://t.co/mKf1ZM0Udf

— Adam Himmelsbach (@AdamHimmelsbach) May 25, 2016

"Made me chuckle" is a nice way to phrase it.  Here's what it says on the Celtics website when you click on the link to buy one of the chairs pictured above, for $399:

"Take advantage of this exclusive offer to own a piece of Celtics history by purchasing an authentic courtside seat from TD Garden, the home of the 17-time world champion Boston Celtics.

Each seat was in use at Boston Celtics games at TD Garden from 2005 until October 27, 2015.*

*Courtside seats were added and rotated in between 2005 and 2013. Specific use dates are not available for each individual seat."

Come on Celtics.  You're better than this.  It'd be one thing if these were seats from the old Boston Garden, but don't try to pass off anything since the Fleet Center days as "a piece of Celtics history" (unless you can guarantee it's from the 2008 Finals, but that'd still be a stretch).  This is just degrading to your actual history.

Oh, and in case you're the one crazy person who wants to fill your entire house with $400 folding chairs from which somebody may or may not have once watched Wally Szczerbiak play basketball, you can't--there's a limit of four per person.


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Is it really possible Bartolo Colon hasn't learned English by now?

Bartolo Colon recently made headlines by hitting his first career home run just shy of his 43rd birthday, (which is today, coincidentally).  Because of that, his decision to never swing the bat last night due to a bad back was all the more news worthy--particularly because Colon claimed he even told the opposing catcher as much:

Bartolo Colon told the Nats catcher he wouldn't swing because of bad back. Not sure Nats bought it -- fearful he was baiting them to hit HR.

— Adam Rubin (@AdamRubinESPN) May 24, 2016

You can watch Colon's postgame interview here (beginning at the 5:30 mark of the video).  What stands out to me though, is that it's in Spanish.  Colon began his career as a major league baseball player in the United States 19 years ago.  How does he not speak perfect English by now?  That's just lazy.


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Xander Bogaerts has the top batting average in the AL, is on pace for 232 hits this season

The Red Sox have homered in a team-record 22 straight games.  Jackie Bradley Jr. own's a 27-game hitting streak (he's also first in the American League with a .413 on-base percentage), and 40-year-old David Ortiz is playing like the MVP.

Amongst all of this, it's easy to lose track of Xander Bogaerts' accomplishments.  Bogaerts has hit in 16 straight contests himself, and is leading the league in batting (pictured).

However, even more impressive is the fact that Bogaerts has a major-league-best 63 hits through 44 games, five more than anyone else in the AL.  At that pace, Boston's shortstop could finish the year with 232.  That'd be the most hits in an MLB season since Ichiro Suzuki's 238 in 2007.  The last guy besides Ichiro (who did it three times) to record that many hits was Darin Erstad (240) in 2000, and the last Red Sox player to do it was Wade Boggs (also 240) in 1985.


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Awesome Old Song of the Week: "Lucky Man" by The Verve

The Verve is best known for either A) not being The Verve Pipe, or B) their hit Bittersweet Symphony off of 1997's Urban Hymns album.  However, I think Lucky Man (from that same disc) is a much better song.

It also gets extra points in my book for being the background music in the For Love of the Game trailer (pictured).  Even though For Love of the Game is Kevin Costner's third-best baseball movie, it's still got some great moments.





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