Week in Review 5/3/24
Derrick White, per Brian Babineau, NBAE
It’s been a busy week in Boston, with relevant news out of all four major sports. Let’s take a look at everything that went down so you can call into the Sports Hub and not sound like a babbling fool – aside from the fact that if you’re calling into the Sports Hub, you may be too far gone.
This past weekend wrapped up the NFL Draft and the Patriots did a pretty good job filling their needs. Drake Maye will (eventually) be your new starting quarterback, and Eliot Wolf did his best job of finding him some new toys to play with in the way of adding Ja’Lynn Polk and Javon Baker, who is already doing his best TO impression on the airwaves. Bill Belichick would be rolling in his grave if he were dead. We did a pretty in-depth review of every Pats pick here, so I recommend checking that out if you haven’t and I’ll cut the Patriots summary short.
With two new rookies in the mix, could Kendrick Bourne or K.J. Osborn be the odd man out?
With another blowout win over the Heat on Wednesday, the Celtics secured their spot in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. It’s a bit surprising this took five games, although fluke games happen and I don’t think the loss is a major concern. The Celtics await the winner of Cleveland and Orlando, either of which should not be too troubling of a matchup for the Cs. There are some concerns for the current iteration of the team – reports yesterday suggest Kristaps Porzingis may miss the entirety of the second round, forcing a 37-year-old Al Horford to consume most of those minutes in his absence. While I may have referred to our beloved big as ‘Average Al’ in a past life, I have come to terms with his value as a leader and well-rounded presence on the floor, so I’m not nearly as concerned about talent as I am general age and conditioning. I also hope to see an improved Jayson Tatum, who was by no means bad in the Heat series, but rarely looked to be the best player on the floor. He was inefficient from the field (41.6% FG, 29.0% 3PT) and will be relied on more heavily to create (and make) shots against more formidable opponents going forward. Obviously the talent is there, but Tatum will have to find the touch he’s had through many dominant outings this season to improve the Celtics’ chances. The obvious bright spot of the series was Derrick White, who went Sicko Mode on multiple occasions, providing his magnum opus in a 38-point performance in game four. After shooting a lights out 47.7% from three in the series, White will hope to carry his hot hand into the next round.
Jim Montgomery, per MediaNews Group, Getty Images
I won’t claim to be a hockey writer, but I’d be remiss not to mention the Bruins’ first round playoff series against the Maple Leafs. We all love playoff hockey, despite how cliché the phrase has become. After a resounding 5-1 win in game one, the Bruins, who finished seven points ahead of Toronto in the regular season, looked poised to cruise to the next round of the playoffs, and quickly advanced to a 3-1 series lead despite looking shaky at times. A crushing overtime defeat in game five on Tuesday had pundits and fans alike reminiscing about this time last year, when the Bruins made history after choking a 3-1 lead to the far inferior Florida Panthers. History has continued to repeat itself as the Bruins fell 2-1 in game six, forcing a game seven to be played Saturday night. The Bs came out extremely flat-footed and were lucky to not concede until the last minute of the second period. While this Maple Leafs team was a much better regular season team than the Panthers, there will undoubtedly be calls for Jim Montgomery’s job if the Bruins can’t pull out a win on Saturday night.
Tanner Houck, per Michael Reaves, Getty Images
The Red Sox continue to beat expectations, stringing together another strong week up to this point, going 4-1 inclusive of their 17-0 lambasting of the Cubs last Saturday. The bats have been up and down, but the pitching continues to be strong (MLB best 2.58 ERA, second place is the Mariners with a 2.96), and the Sox find themselves third in the AL East, only 2.5 games back to the first place Orioles. Both the O’s and the Yankees will continue to be tough competition in a division that’s tough as nails, but the presence of a second wild card spot provides hope, and should the squad stay healthy and get more consistency out of the lineup, it’s not idiotic to have playoff hopes, early though it is. Dominic Smith and Garrett Cooper were both added to the big-league roster to bolster the first base spot, and each provides a veteran presence with a good enough bat to fill-in when called upon. Don’t forget Cooper was an All Star in 2022, courtesy of a dreadful Marlins team. His ’22 statistics give hope to even the most ‘mid’ among us that our below-average efforts may be recognized beyond their contribution. Pablo Reyes was DFA’d to make room for King Mid in a somewhat surprising move given the lack of depth in the middle infield, but the move was followed up by acquiring Sacred Heart product Zack Short, who has experience at both shortstop and second base. If I were to summarize Short in two words, they’d probably be ‘pretty’ and ‘bad,’ however I have no room to talk from behind a keyboard and a history of pine-riding in New Hampshire high school athletics. Tanner Houck and Kutter Crawford continue to be absolute studs in the rotation, with each being legitimate Cy Young candidates in the early stages of the season. It would have been practically impossible to see this coming, but all I can say is: Andrew Bailey, keep doing exactly whatever it is you’re doing.
That’s a wrap for me. Thanks for reading if you so chose to. It’s a pretty good time to be a Boston sports fan, and the weather is heating up in conjunction with the playoffs. May not be long until rings of ‘queue the boats’ echo through the Harbor, and I’m here for it. It’s a parade inside my city.