![NBA – Rare potential NBA/NHL double sweep, plus Trevor Lawrence’s giant contract| Keynote USA NBA – Rare potential NBA/NHL double sweep, plus Trevor Lawrence’s giant contract| Keynote USA](https://i1.wp.com/cdn.theathletic.com/app/uploads/2024/06/13233512/GettyImages-2157516827.jpg?w=1200&resize=1200,0&ssl=1)
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Good day! Don’t go down 3-0 today.
While you were Sleeping: Wow, series finale
For the second night in a row, a top seed in a major professional sport won a close game to take a 3-0 lead in its championship series. Additionally, those 0-fer teams (the Dallas Mavericks and Edmonton Oilers) employ the biggest stars of each series: Luka Dončić and Connor McDavid.
Sure, most of us expected the Boston Celtics and Florida Panthers to win these series. But does it have to be like this?
- One small consolation: The Panthers’ win last night was pretty entertaining. An early 4-1 lead for the Panthers was cut to 4-3 in the final minutes of the game. Edmonton had multiple golden opportunities to tie the score in the final three minutes. Sergei Bobrovsky and the Panthers defense tightened up when it mattered most.
Only one team, the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs, has overcome a 3-0 deficit in the Stanley Cup Final to win. Eighty-two years later, our fourth game is tomorrow night. This could be the first NHL title sweep since 1998, and the first time both the NBA and NHL have finished with sweeps since 1995.
Let’s cross the Atlantic:
Pitch perfect: No pressure, England
There is nothing like the European Championship, which pits the national teams of the main football continent against each other every four years. The World Cup, but local. Or imagine the best SEC football games in one season, packed into just one month of play.
With this and the Copa América just around the corner, plus an exciting women’s Olympic tournament shortly after, there hasn’t been a better summer to be a soccer fan in recent times (or to become one).
To help me prepare for the Euros, which starts today, I turned to expert Phil Hay of The Athletic FC fame for a quick Q&A:
Which team has the most at stake?
Phil: England. With much. He has yet to win a major trophy since 1966, and all the noise indicates that this will be Gareth Southgate’s last hurray as manager if they don’t win it. Nothing less than that is good enough.
This tournament generates stars. Who is the revelation player?
Phil: If you follow football closely then you’ll know Florian Wirtz (the 21-year-old Bundesliga player of the year says it all), but this could be the moment when the midfielder’s talent properly filters into the world’s consciousness in general.
Who’s winning?
Phil: It’s England or France. I’m going with France. And not because he’s Scottish. I just think they will have a slight advantage in doing so.
Make sure you subscribe to Atlético FC for this euro race. We’ll also have tons of content in our Euro 2024 hub. Bookmark it.
News to know
Rory tied for the US Open lead
Rory McIlroy and Patrick Cantlay shot five-under 65s yesterday to claim first place after Day 1 of the US Open. Historically, however, the first round at Pinehurst No. 2 has been a bit of fool’s gold; As Justin Ray pointed out last night in his excellent notebook, the field has been extremely unfair after the first round. Drink. If you need an underdog to root for, take Jackson Suber, the last man in this field to somehow make the top 10.
The After Effects of the Lawrence Agreement
Yesterday, the Jaguars and Trevor Lawrence agreed to a five-year contract extension worth $275 million, with $142 million guaranteed. His average annual value of $55 million ties him with Joe Burrow for the highest among QBs, although Burrow got $4 million more in guaranteed money. Lawrence probably deserves it, but is he a top five QB in the NFL? I say no. And how does this affect someone like Dak Prescott, currently locked in a friendly cold war with the Cowboys over his impending massive extension? I think Prescott just got richer, whether in Dallas or anywhere else.
More news
Record books: Prepare for GOAT arguments
Yesterday we said we would have time to crown the Celtics. We might as well start now. The 2024 Boston Celtics, holding a 3-0 lead over the Dallas Mavericks entering tonight’s game, can officially become one of the greatest teams in NBA history with a win tonight.
Levels here:
- If the Celtics win, they will finish this postseason 16-2. Even taking into account injuries to opponents, which made Boston’s path a little easier, we can reasonably say that this is one of the best playoff runs of the four-round era, technically only behind the 2016-17 Warriors ( 16-1) and the 2000-01 Warriors. Lakers (15-1) since 1984. Noble company.
- A title will be number 18 for the Celtics, pushing them past the rival Lakers for the most in NBA history. Those fan bases may argue among themselves, but Boston has a case in this debate about the greatest team of all time, if we go by pure numbers.
I would be surprised if Dallas won tonight, especially since coach Jason Kidd said he won’t make any roster changes. Unless that same team does it, it will be time to debate where Boston 2024 lands on the top 20 all-time lists.
watch this game
Euros: Germany vs. Scotland
3 pm ET on Fox
The Germans are the big favorites here, but you never know what can happen on this type of international stage. The atmosphere alone should be worth it.
College baseball: Florida State vs Tennessee
7 p.m. Eastern on KeynoteUSA
This is the best matchup on Day 1 of the men’s College World Series, where the Volunteers are in first place, which has been a curse. No top seed has won the national title since Miami in 1999.
NBA: Celtics vs. Mavericks
8:30 p.m. ET on KeynoteUSA
If Boston wins, it’s history. If Dallas prevails, it will face an uphill battle for more history. Check it out.
Get tickets to games like these here.
Pulse selections
He late euros There’s still a month to go, but it’s worth reading Adam Crafton’s story about the venue that will host the tournament final: the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, whose complicated history begins with Adolf Hitler.
There is still a lot of intrigue in the football club side too. We have a new metric debuting this morning: The Atlético 500, our rating of all transfer offers available on the market. We will use it often on these pages. Have a look.
Nicole Auerbach opened the curtain on the university power that is expected to drive the US Women’s Olympic Swimming Team.
I loved Tim Kawakami’s story about his phone calls with jerry westwhich, as he wrote, could be “like accessing the NBA’s secret mainframe computer.”
Jeff Berry He was once a top MLB agent. So why did he walk away? Evan Drellich tells a super interesting story about the future of baseball.
Tony Gwynn, Rod Carew and … Luis Arraez? Dennis Lin published a must-read story about the baseball star.
More clicks on yesterday’s newsletter: Andrew Schlect’s video of Luka Dončić’s six fouls on Wednesday. I still can’t believe he fouled out in a game like that.
The most read yesterday on the web: Jim Bowden’s summary of trade goals for all 30 MLB teams as the deadline approaches. See who your team could snag or trade.
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