The Commonwealth Games down under have come to an end and Jamaica did extremely well, winning International medals that we have never won before.
Over the weekend, we took over some of the Field events!
Jamaica’s thrower, Danniel Thomas struck Gold in the Women’sShot Put!
Fedrick Dacres and Traves Smikle brought home the Gold and Silver respectively for the Men’s Discus.
Back on the track, Paralympian,Tevaughn Thomas won Bronze in the Men’s T47 100m!
Natoya Goule finally medalled internationally with a Personal Best in the Women’s 800m Final with a sweet Bronze medal finish.
Danielle Williams and Yanique Thompson got Jamaica a Silver and Bronze respectively in the Women’s 110m Hurdles.
Jamaica also took home medals in the 4×400m Relays for both the Men and Women!
Bronze for the Men
Gold for the Women!
NBA PLAYOFFS – BASKETBALL
The NBA Playoffs started last Saturday and the Celtics are already 1 up on the Bucks and the Thunder 1 up on the Jazz.
Warriors blew out the Spurs and the 76ers routed the Heat.
The Raptors finally won an opening Game 1 in the Playoffs, beating the Wizards.
The no. 1 team in the West, the Rockets, had a fight to beat the Timberwolves, 104-101. This may be one of the best match ups for the West in the 1st round.
Surprises?
The Cavs lost to the Pacers 80-98. But if you think about it, LeBron James usually allows a Game 1 loss.
Pelicans beat the Trail Blazers, 97-95. They had a significant lead for most of the game and when the Trail Blazers came fighting back it just wasn’t enough.
PREMIER LEAGUE – SOCCER
After Manchester United lost to West Brom over the weekend, Manchester City officially became Champions of the Premier League!
It’s Man City’s 1st title under Pep Guardiola. Congrats to them.
More exciting weeks ahead in Sports. Stay tuned!
By: Gabrielle Burgess
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The Cleveland Cavaliers have done it! They are the 2016 NBA Champions with a 93-89 win over the Golden State Warriors. The Cavs have made history winning the 1st NBA Championship for Cleveland and a season full of history ends in misery for Golden State.
I won’t talk about the lead up to Game 7 and the momentum change in favour of the Cavs that were down 3-1 with the suspension of Draymond Green for Game 5 where there was a 41-a piece game by Kyrie Irving and LeBron James, but I will talk about Game 7, where it was ALL on the line.
The two teams went into the Game 7 NBA Final for the first time ever with the same aggregate score through the 7 game series. I haven’t watched such a great Finals game with everything on the line like that in a long time. The game had everyone on the edge of their seats and with that said, the better team that night won and earned it with great respect.
So what was the decisive play for the win with the game tied at 89-89 with a minute left to go in the game? NO, not the block by LeBron over Iguodala. No team scored for about 2 minutes. Balls were going in and out of that net and the ball may have been unlikely to go in for Iguodala anyway, whether he was blocked or not. It was Kyrie Irving’s huge clutch-winning 3-point shot over Steph Curry that did it and stayed there for the win AND the likely decision by Tyronn Lue in the time-out leading up to it to make Kyrie take the shot and not LeBron who went cold as usual in the 4th. Steve Kerr then failed by having Curry make repeated shot attempts with no buckets and no answers to the 3-pointer that Kyrie drilled. Curry had been cold for practically 3 quarters, 2-time back to back MVP or not, what made Kerr think that he was all of a sudden going to be the hero and close the deficit? They may have been better off with the visually competitive and lead scorer Draymond. Go break another clipboard Steve.
Kerr struggled to rotate his small line up without Bogut and did well, but should have given Barbosa more minutes. He has been stepping up and scoring consistently and someone from the bench needed to give that help and the Splash Brothers needed to help Draymond. At least Barnes was not a complete failure last night, but Livingston missed some of his ‘All Day, Everyday’ perimeter shots. He stayed in his lane though and did what he was supposed to do and could do for the night, including making his free throws. Festus Ezeli though, was in the starting lineup for the first time last night to aid in the ‘Go Big’ match up versus the Cavs but failed to drive crucial shots to the rim. He needed to be way more aggressive and has certainly been a disappointment as the 30th pick selected by Golden State in the draft over Draymond Green who we all know was the 35th pick.
So now, all LeBron James fans breathed a huge sigh of relief and probably cried with him for the Championship win. Firstly, Suga would like to congratulate LeBron on winning his well deserved MVP and for winning his 3rd ring, which probably carried as much weight as his first. It would have been a disaster for him to lose a 3rd straight final. He has cruised to the finals on the East side for 6 straight years. I said cruised, debatable or not, but in my opinion even though there are talented players on the East side, I can’t say any of them are a star player trade away from being a Championship team. The East side teams are losers and were hardly even worth watching until the semifinals of their Conference. ‘Dem need fi build’. Simple.
The pressure has been on LeBron since he graduated from High School and he has also suffered from the hype people and the media have put on him. He somehow got and accepted the name King James years before even his first ring (Kings wear rings) and said he didn’t have any worries because he is the best player in the world, then he lost his next final. So of course he is always up for criticism and had no choice but to save his name and totally take over this series. He scored a triple-double last night with 27 points, 11 assists and 11 rebounds and he was voted unanimous MVP. He is the 1st player in NBA history to lead all players in all 5 categories, that is, Points, Rebounds, Assists, Blocks and Steals for an ENTIRE Playoff series. He also joined the historic company of Michael Jordan, Bill Russell amd Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, being 1 of 4 players with 3 titles and 4 MVPs.
That’s great LeBron. Those were really great accomplishments, but I would just love for him to shut everyone up completely including myself and show up more in crucial 4th quarters. MJ didn’t go cold in final 4th quarters and have Pippin win the Championships for him. So the potential is there to be the greatest but it’s just always like he needs the NFL version of a Hail Mary such as a Ray Allen or Kyrie Irving to make that clutch 3-pointer winning shot for him. LeBron showed he wanted it more with that block, but it didn’t win the game. It always comes down to points and Kyrie scored them. Not 2 to even the score if Iguodala scored, but 3. Warriors also had the advantage in terms of possessions for the last few seconds of the game but kept missing.
According to Bleacher Report, LeBron scored the most points but Kyrie scored the critical 26 points of the game.
Let us not also forget that that Kyrie guarded Curry for the majority of the game and locked him down! Curry was forced to make passes, take hard shots and created turnovers.
Draymond Green carried the team last night. He scored 32 points with 15 rebounds and 9 assists but where were the Splash Brothers? Curry was not only locked down by Kyrie but when he got free he scored 17 points and was 6/19 from the field and 4/14 from the 3-point range, while Klay scored 14 points, was only 2/10 from 3-point range and 6/17 from the field. So it is clear they had opportunities but just weren’t scoring. It was the Warriors home court, they led the majority of the game, though by small margins and it was their game to lose.
A win for the Warriors would have made them debatably the greatest team, but the win for Cavs with the MVP performance of James didn’t make LeBron the greatest ever but definitely killed the controversy of him being one of the greatest ever. He elevated his teammates such as JR Smith and Tristan Thompson. I can’t say the same for Kevin Love who was a complete disaster. He was a huge disappointment for the Cavs but also placed in the wrong position on the court many times. Kyrie didn’t need to be elevated. He was already elevated after getting the opportunity to return and help his team reach the Finals after being put out last year’s finals after Game 1 with a knee injury.
Steph struggled to play both ends of the floor and whenever he had to play the role of a scoring point guard.
After the LeBron-Draymond incident and the fact that Klay said players talk trash all the time and it’s a Man’s League, that’s also what he needs to tell his teammate, Curry. Man up. His body language needs to improve as well. LeBron and the Cavs made him look like a rookie this series. Curry will have to go back to the drawing board to be considered as great and I think he has the determination to return after witnessing a tough 2nd round 4-2 loss to the San Antonia Spurs in 2013, a 4-3 1st round loss to the Clippers in 2014 and then his return in 2015 to become an NBA Champion.
LeBron may just be there again for his 7th straight final though. It’s very possible given the state of the East side at the moment. I think he still needs to win another ring and actually score the Championship winning shots, as his NBA Finals record is still a lopsided 3-4. 2 rings would be ideal in order to back up his stats and hype. Many great players with great stats have ended their careers without a ring because of other great teams and or players in their way but none of them called themself King.
With all that has been said and done, it was a well earned Championship for Cleveland and it was a team effort. Congrats Cavs!
FOOTBALL Euro2016
Euro2016 started last Friday. Already, Russia has faced investigation after Russian fans rushed (no pun intended) England supporters at the end of the game, which was drawn 1-1. Russia had equalized in overtime.
Both Russia and England have been warned against possible elimination if violence continues.
COPA America
Brazil beat Haiti 7-1 last Wednesday.
On Thursday, Venezuela beat Uruguay 1-0! Suarez was extremely upset he couldn’t play and threw a tantrum on the sidelines. The same night, Mexico beat Jamaica 2-0. Poor defending cost Jamaica the first goal, a simple header by Chicharito at 18′. It was an exciting match, but Jamaica just failed to convert the many opportunities and chances on goal, especially Donaldson who was also denied a penalty. Peralto who substituted Chicharito sealed the deal for Mexico, scoring at 81′.
Mexico advanced with Venezuela to the Quarterfinal for Group C. USA and Colombia advanced from Group A. The outcome of Group B with Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and Haiti is to be determined, as well as the Group with Argentina, Chile, Panama and Bolivia.
BOXING Mohammad Ali died a week ago at age 74. His public memorial service was on Friday in Louisville, KY. Ali inspired the famous movie, Rocky. The Legend’s memory will live on.
TENNIS
5-time Major winner, Maria Sharapova has been suspended for 2 years by the ITF for breaking anti-doping rules. She will appeal.
ATHLETICS
Speaking of doping, Jamaica’s sprinter, Nesta Carter’s ‘B’ sample confirmed the presence of the substance, methylhexanamine, a banned stimulant after tests were carried out by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) from the 2008 Beijing Olympics. This could cost the 4×100m team from the 2008 Beijing Olympics their Gold medal. He will soon have his case heard by the IOC panel.
Sanya Richards-Ross of the USA looking to run her last Olympics seemed to have twisted her foot in a 100m race used for speed training in Atlanta. She fell to the ground screaming mid-race and had to be carried off the field. She hasn’t been running good times in the 400m and she came 7th in her last competitive race but this may harm her hopes of heading to RIO even more.
Jamaica National Racers Grand Prix
The JN Racers Meet that took place on Saturday at the National Stadium was packed with talented athletes, most of whom should be heading to RIO. It was a great day for sprinters with a +1.0 wind.
The highlights were as follows:
Shaunae Miller used her strength from the 400m to power through the stretch to win the Women’s 200m just short of sub 22s in 22.05s. USA’s Jenna Prandini had an excellent start and beat Miller on the curb but faded in the stretch finishing in 22 39s.
Trinidad’s Machel Cedonio won the Men’s 400m in 44.37s ahead of Grenada’s Bralon Taplin and Jamaica’s Javon Francis a.k.a. ‘Donkey Man’.
South Africa’s World Men’s 400m Champion, Wayde van Niekerk won the 300m just short of sub 31s in 31.03 ahead of USA’s LaShawn Merritt. He felt the energy of the crowd and enjoyed running here.
Antigua and Barbuda’s Miguel Francis who trains with Bolt and Blake destroyed is PB time in the Men’s 200m finishing in 19.88s, the 2nd fastest time in the world this year. Jamaica’s Julian Forte was 2nd in 20.18s and Warren Weir just returning from an injury was 3rd in 20.32s. Rasheed Dwyer is yet to break 20.5s this season.
Nadia Eke of Ghana won the Women’s Triple jump in 13.51m.
For the Women’s 100m hurdles, USA’s Sharika Nelvis won in 12.61s, her SB ahead of Jamaica’s World Champion, Danielle Williams who finished in 12.77s.
For the Men’s 110m hurdles, David Oliver of the USA won in 13.09s. Jamaica’s Deuce Carter came 2nd. He hit a hurdle mid-race so it could have been closer. Jarrett Eaton of the USA was 3rd.
Then to the races everyone was waiting for, the Women’s and Men’s 100m.
Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce who has been having trouble from injury got her usual fast start and shook off Barbara Pierre of the USA who stayed with her throughout the entire race and even inched ahead of her at one point finishing with her SB of 11.09 and Pierre finished in 11.11s. Kelly-Ann Baptiste of Trinidad & Tobago was 3rd in 11.15s and Carmelita Jeter did not place.
Sidenote. Never count out VCB for the Senior trials. She ran 10.83s in Florida today!
Now to the Men! Bolt, Blake, Asafa, Nickel Ashmeade, Kemar Bailey-Cole and Frater ALL from Jamaica, Ramon Gittons from Barbados and South Africa’s Akane Simbine. Why not have a Jamaica race at the Olympics?
All I know is, Usain Bolt is looking good, really good. He ran 9.88s after he stumbled at the start of race after a good reaction time to the gun, was behind the entire field and then pulled away easily.
Nickel Ashmeade finished 2nd and Blake with his SB 3rd, both with 9.94s, Asafa 4th with 9.98 and Bailey-Cole 5th.
Watch “Usain Bolt wins 100m Men Racers Grand Prix 2016 in 9.88s” on YouTube here:
BASKETBALL – NBA Finals
After the Warriors took Game 1 of the series and Game 2 was a Blowout with a 110-76 win over the Cavs in California with LeBron James sitting out the entire 4th quarter, the Cavs especially LeBron James were attacked by the media, various memes and videos. Here is a reminder of just a few:
They had no choice but to totally dominate Game 3 on home court to save face on Wednesday night winning by 30 points, 120-90. James had 32 points and Thompson came up big defensively and also had 13 rebounds. The Cavs would then look to level the series in Game 4 at home before heading back to California for Game 5 but things did not go their way. Curry came alive with 38 points and we still haven’t seen the Splash Brothers in these NBA Finals.
Cavs coach, Tyronn Lue was fined 25k for criticizing the Referees after Game 4, saying ‘LeBron never gets calls’. LeBron fans would say he doesn’t make excuses for losing but once again, he was in agreement with this accusation made by Lue but didn’t go in on it because he said he would save his 25k. What he did do though, was provoke Draymond Green by stepping over him after Green fell to the floor on a play, knowing what was at stake for Draymond if he got 2 more technicals or any Flagrants called against him. Words were thrown and both made their case.
Watch “GameTime: LeBron’s Altercation With Draymond Green | June 11, 2016 | 2016 NBA Finals” on YouTube here:
Today, the League announced that LeBron James was assessed a technical and Draymond Green has been suspended for Game 5 of the Finals after getting a Flagrant Foul 1 from the incident with LeBron on Friday. Suga thinks this was unnecessary and the NBA are grabbing at straws to extend the series.
Warriors’ Klay Thompson expresses that he guesses LeBron James’ ‘feelings just got hurt’ by Draymond Green and players talk trash and call each other names in the league all the time but ‘It’s a Man’s League’.
What a crazy few days in the NBA! This is not a season to gamble on. If you are, bet the total opposite of how you would usually bet. The outcome of games have been wild.
Firstly, LeBron James won an Oscar. The Raptors came with all claws out on Saturday night to take Game 3 with a 99-84 win. The game belonged to DeRozan with 32 points and Bismack Biyombo with 26 rebounds and some crazy blocks!
Watch “LeBron James Flop vs Raptors |Game 3|East Finals| 2016 NBA Playoffs” on YouTube here:
On the West side, OKC destroyed the Warriors on Sunday night in their home town to take the lead in the series 2-1 with a 133-105 win. Durant and Westbrook were unstoppable with 63 points combined and the Splash brothers’ pool has run dry. They had no answers. Then the drama! Draymond Green needs to humble himself real quick. His stats for most annoying or disliked player in the league by NBA fans are going up as we speak. He kicked Steven Adams in the balls and the controversy is that he did not get suspended, he just got a flagrant 1, which was upgraded to a flagrant 2. If he gets another flagrant he will be suspended. He just might at the rate he has been going. He needs to take a page out of Westbrook’s book this Playoff season because the Wild has certainly come out of Westbrook. He has been keeping real cool and that is dangerous for opponents. That just leaves his athleticism to do the talking.
Watch “Draymond Green Kicks Steven Adams in the Groin | Warriors vs Thunder | Game 3 | 2016 NBA Playoffs” on YouTube here:
The Raptors showed up again in Toronto last night and this time it was all Lowry with 35 points. Biyombo had 14 rebounds and 3 blocks. He continues to strive to be like one of his mentors, Dikembe Mutombo who was famous for the craziest blocks in NBA History. Biyombo even uses his gimmick. They may say he can’t because he is not Mutombo but he surely is acting like him.
This block was one of the highlights of the game.
Watch “Bismack Biyombo Blocks LeBron James | Cavaliers vs Raptors | NBA PLAYOFFS | 5.23.16” on YouTube here:
Raptors led the majority of the game that included 16 point leads and more and finished the game with a 105-99 win. The Cavs have now dug themself in a hole like the Warriors. How will they respond when they head back to Cleveland if the Raptors keep this up. The Raptors are playing with pure heart.
There have certainly been some crazy endings to the last couple of games in the NBA Playoffs for both the East and the West recently.
Kyle Lowry of the Raptors made a crazy buzzer beater from the half court line the other night to force OT with the Heat but Dwyane Wade was on fire and they couldn’t hold him back. Heat won 102-96 to take the lead in the series 1-0.
Watch “Kyle Lowry Buzzer Beater to force overtime in Raptors vs. Heat Playoff Game!” on YouTube here:
Suga had Miami to win this series but with the recurrence of blood clotting in Chris Bosh’s left calf over the All-Star break keeping him out of the games, it will not be an easy task to overcome the Raptors. Their fate to meet LeBron and the Cavs is now at stake.
The Cavs – Hawks series will be dead. Cavs won easily 104-93.
But the last 13.5s of the Spurs-OKC game with OKC leading 98-97 in San Antonio was madness! So many things happened and no fouls were called for either team. The most obvious foul was the offensive foul on Ginobili on the inbound, players were scrambling all over the place and falling on the court and most hilariously, a Spurs fan (no it wasn’t Suga) grabbed the arm of OKC’s Steve Adams! Even though no fouls were called, at the end of the day, Ginobili should not have passed the ball to go for a 3. Shame on him. This win for OKC levelled the series 1-1. This will be the most exciting semi final series.
Watch “Dramatic Finish in San Antonio | Thunder vs Spurs | Game 2 | May 2, 2016 | 2016 NBA Playoffs” on YouTube here:
Watch “Spurs fan grabbed Steven Adams’ arm on the final possession Spurs vs Thunders” on YouTube here:
Last night, Trail Blazers led Warriors for the majority of the game with a 11-point lead into the 4th quarter. Lillard was on fire and Klay Thompson was not. Then Blazers forgot they had to play a 4th quarter and it all went downhill from there. They started to trail again.
Klay Thompson then started to make shots when it counted, ending the game with 27 points and the Defending Champs quickly erased the 11-point deficit in the 4th to take a 2-0 lead in the series. Trail Blazers have no chance.
So what’s the status of the NBA 2016 Playoffs now?
The 24-0 winning streak and record season start for the Warriors finally came to an end last Saturday night with a 95-108 road loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. Curry scored 28 points. Who put their money on that game?
Suga saw this loss coming as the other Splash brother for the Warriors’, Klay Thompson has been out with an ankle injury for the last 2 games. The Warriors battled to win the previous game on Friday night versus the Celtics in 2 overtimes, 124-119.
So now with a 24-1 record, the Warriors should still feel upbeat about the rest of the season. But watch out for other teams in the West such as the Spurs who remain under the radar with a revamped team and a 20-5 record.
The East? Well although the Cavs are playing cautious and conservative, Kyrie Irving is said to return soon, possibly on the 20th or even the latest January.
Let us see how it all plays out! I love this Game!
The Warriors are now 20-0 for their start this 2015-2016 season! The other night in their 116-99 win at the Hornets, Stephen Curry scored 28 out of his 40 points in the 3rd quarter.
Warriors look to continue their winning streak versus the Raptors today at 5pm. Happy Hour anyone?
Hello Sports fans! It is here! The NBA 2015-2016 kicked off last night.
Who played and what happened?
The Hawks lost to the Pistons, 94-106. The Bulls overcame LeBron James’ 15 points and 10 rebounds to beat the Cavs by a narrow margin of 97-95. President Obama was also in attendance.
The Defending Champs, Golden State Warriors received their rings and their opening game was versus the Pelicans. It was raining 3s from reigning MVP Stephen Curry who made 40 points. When he had 20 points, so did the Pelicans. Amazing. The Pelicans’ Anthony Davis struggled and managed to make 18 points. Final score was Warriors 111- 95 Pelicans.
The Spurs vs OKC and other teams will be up tonight!