The Friday Four Rundown (4/23/21)

Sports fans, we made it to Friday once again. Save your emails and meetings for Monday and enjoy some action this weekend as we approach summer. Although it hasn’t felt like it in the Midwest. The NHL and NBA postseasons are both less than a month away. In the NFL, owners and GM’s are looking ahead to the future as the draft is next Thursday. Let’s not forget about the MLB as they are rounding out their first month of the season. Here’s the Friday rundown.

NBA

Anthony Davis returned last night to the LA Lakers lineup after missing 30 games for the reigning champs. The All-Star big man showed some rust which was expected. AD only managed to score four points on 2-10 shooting, and his impact on defense was not felt as the Dallas Mavericks shot 6-9 when he was the primary defender. This was done on a minutes restriction as David was done for the night at halftime. The Lakers are of course still waiting the return on King James as he works his way back from a high ankle sprain. The Lakers find themselves all the way down to 5th in the West. Of course when they’re fully healthy their seeding could be deceiving. I certainly would not want to play them at full strength.

The greatest shooter of all time, (Not a debate) Steph Curry, is on the best hot streak of his career and it could not have come at a better time for the dubs. No words can describe just how historic this streak is so we can let the stats do the talking. We all know that numbers never lie. Curry is averaging a whopping 38.7 points per game in the month of April, the highest of his career in any calendar month. His buckets seem like they’re coming in from the Golden Gate Bridge and I’m sure the hoop looks like the Pacific Ocean right now for Steph. It’s not just the buckets but the efficiency at which he is getting them. He is the first player in league history to average 40 points on 50% shooting, 40% from behind the arc, and 90% from the charity stripe. This stretch has brought Stephen into the MVP discussion out of nowhere. Safe to say the Curry shimmy is back.

MLB

After an extremely slow start on offense for the norths siders, the Chicago Cubs seem to have found their offense here over a small sample size with 35 runs in their last three games. Overall, the 2016 champs have won four games in a row and five of the last six. On Wednesday, the fan favorite, Javy Baez got off the schneid after a brutal start for the 28 year old. He hit a grand slam against the Mets just a day after going 0-4 with four strikeouts. The Cubs ended up routing the Mets 16-4. Today, the offense faired just as well crushing their northern neighbors in the Milwaukee Brewers. The Cubs tallied six runs in the first inning and were feeding off the long ball. Javy connected for another long ball and Rizzo, Contreras, and Jake Marisnick joined the party. Much to their delight the Cubs got a great bounce back start from veteran Kyle Hendricks as the Cubs would end up crushing Milwaukee 15-2.

The Bronx Bombers were able to rally from an early 3-0 deficit Thursday against the Cleveland Indians and won the game 6-3. This was a much needed win as the Yankees are still trying to crawl out of the cellar in the American League after a start to the season where seemingly nothing has gone right. The offense that has little to no weaknesses has been abysmal. They rank 13th in the AL in batting average, 9th in on base percentage, 12th in slugging, amd 13th in home runs. You get the picture. With a lineup consisting of Judge, Lemahieu, Stanton, Sanchez, and Gleyber, just to name a few, this is unacceptable. Being around it my whole life I know how impatient New York fans are. This is no different as the Bronx faithful was chanting “fire Boone” at Yankee Stadium the other night. Tough times in Manahattan right now.

NHL

The Las Vegas Golden Knights are the first team to clinch a playoff spot this year after defeating the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday. The Knights lead the league in points with 68 and look poised for another deep playoff run. What they’ve done in four years as a franchise is violently underrated. Expansion teams are supposed to lets just say....suck, at least for the first several years. The Knights have now made the playoffs in every year of their existence including a Conference Championship in 2018. Major props to the GM and ownership early on as the success continues.

NFL

Huge news out of Kansas city this afternoon as they acquired all-pro OT Orlando Brown from Baltimore. The Chiefs traded their first round pick(31st overall), as well as a third and fourth round pick. In addition to Brown the 2020 champs got the Ravens 2nd round pick and a future 6th round pick. This was clearly the Chiefs biggest need. As you saw in the Super Bowl this year their offensive line was next to non-existent. Patrick Mahomes simply had no time to throw. Mahomes is a magician outside the pocket but imagine what he can do with some pro bowl protection on his blindside. Can you say MVP? Super Bowl MVP? I will slow my roll there but in all seriousness massive props to Chiefs GM Brett Veach. Ryan Pace should take a few notes out of Veach’s book about addressing a need and addressing it quickly. Maybe next time Bears.