About a week and a half ago, Anthony Edwards landed awkwardly during a game, his left knee buckling as his foot hit the ground. Edwards had to be helped off the court, and the official diagnosis was a bone bruise and hyperextension of the knee.
Last night, Edwards returned to action sooner than expected, for the start of Round 2 of the NBA playoffs, and led the Minnesota Timberwolves to an upset over the San Antonio Spurs. Our Rohan Nadkarni breaks down the game below.
Also, the New York Mets are off to a bad start and a New York tabloid thinks they might be cursed. Could they have a point? Our Tim Rohan investigates.
For more NBA and MLB coverage, as always, check out the NBC News website.
Hours before Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals, word came that Edwards would give it a go for the Timberwolves. He’d come off the bench and be playing on a minutes restriction, but he wanted to play against the Spurs.
“I know for a fact, just me being out there, it calms everybody down,” Edwards said.
In 25 minutes of action, Edwards scored 18 points, including 11 in the fourth quarter, to help the No. 6-seeded Minnesota upset No. 2 San Antonio on the road, winning 104-102.
After defeating the Denver Nuggets and three-time MVP Nikola Jokic in Round 1, the Timberwolves now have to deal with Victor Wembanyama, the Defensive Player of the Year. Wembanyama recorded a triple-double last night — 11 points, 15 rebounds and 12 blocks — but he went 0-for-8 from 3-point range. At times, he seemed to struggle offensively against his French countryman, Minnesota center Rudy Gobert.
Trailing 101-94 with 1:44 to go, the Spurs nearly mounted a miraculous comeback in the final 100 seconds, but Julian Champagnie’s potential game-winning 3 bounced off the rim as time expired.
“We have to be better,” a stoic Wembanyama said.
Earlier in the night, on the Eastern Conference side of the bracket, the No. 3-seed New York Knicks dismantled the No. 7 Philadelphia 76ers, winning 137-98 to take Game 1.
Jalen Brunson scored 35 points in only 31 minutes for the Knicks, who took advantage of a lethargic 76ers team coming off a seven-game first-round battle with Boston.
The actor Timothée Chalamet was also courtside cheering the Knicks on, instead of attending the Met Gala, to which he was presumably invited.
Baseball has always been a sport that believes in the occult — in juju and curses and superstitions. That type of thinking can be traced to the game’s origins, more than a century ago. To this day, players and fans still believe that outside forces can conspire for or against them, that actions taken off the field can somehow affect the result of the game.
None more so than the New York Mets.
In early April, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani visited Citi Field and, in the recesses of the stadium, shared a moment with the team’s mascots, Mr. and Mrs. Met. A self-described casual Mets fan, Mamdani smiled widely as he gave them big hugs. As the trio posed for photos, Mr. Met placed his oversized hat on the mayor’s head.
More than a week later, the Mets hadn’t won a game since, a streak that would run to 12 games. The New York Post ran that photo on its cover — Mamdani posing with the mascots — and blamed the mayor’s hugging Mr. Met for the team’s losing skid.
“Curse of the Mambino,” the headline read.
It turns out, more than 100 years ago, players would rub the mascot’s head for good luck before an at-bat. For the rest of this deep dive into baseball’s relationship with superstitions, and why the Mets seem to be particularly susceptible to this kind of thinking, read here.
Both No. 1 seeds remain alive in the NBA playoffs, and they start their Round 2 series tonight on Peacock.
In the East, the Detroit Pistons barely survived a seven-game series against the No. 8-seeded Orlando Magic. Fortunately for Detroit, the Cleveland Cavaliers also needed seven games to beat the Toronto Raptors. Both Detroit and Cleveland might be running on fumes at the start of this series.
Then in the nightcap, both Oklahoma City and Los Angeles are dealing with injuries to star players. The Thunder’s Jalen Williams and the Lakers’ Luka Doncic have both been out with hamstring injuries, and both will miss Game 1 tonight.
Doncic’s injury appears to be more serious, but it’s unclear when either player will return. In the meantime, which team can hold steady until the reinforcement arrives?
All times are Eastern:
That’s it for now! We’ll be back tomorrow.
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