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The Lakers take a commanding lead over the Warriors with an unlikely hero saving the day
for LA.
And under the radar, Cy Young Contender spins another gem in an AL East showdown.
And Houston, Texas, draft gamble is under the microscope at, where else?
A charity golf event.
From Wondery, I am Matt Straub.
And I'm Sarah Kazell.
It is Tuesday, May 9th.
And this is starting five.
Five sports stories to start your day.
Alright the first item on our agenda today is the NBA playoffs and for good reason.
Game four of the Lakers Warriors series in Los Angeles.
My goodness, the Lakers won it 104-101 to take a 3-1 lead in the Western Conference.
So, Matt, this was a great game.
First things first, this was a phenomenal night in a losing effort for one Steph Curry.
He finished with 31 points, 10 rebounds, and 14 assists with just two turnovers.
And a number of his passes on this night were highlight real caliber.
And with Curry playing that well, it looked for a good bit of this night like the Warriors
were going to win.
They were up seven points heading to the fourth quarter.
But this is when Lonnie Walker entered the equation for LA.
Sarah, a guy who's been out of and on the fringes of this Lakers rotation during the
playoffs, came in and scored 15 points all in the fourth quarter, including a jumper
to put the Lakers up, 199 with just under two minutes left.
Lonnie Walker, guarded by Curry.
Walker, pull up.
Walker, it's a night one.
It's the Lonnie Walker game.
Anthony, LeBron, who?
The go-to guy for the Lakers.
It's Lonnie Walker the fourth.
You heard it there, the Lonnie Walker game.
He almost outscored the Warriors by himself in the fourth quarter.
The Lakers would not trail again after that jumper and Steph Curry did have some chances
late, but Anthony Davis played some very tough D on him on a key possession late as
Curry shot 12 of 30 on his otherwise spectacular night.
So all of a sudden the defending champs are on the ropes.
Down three, one is game five will be at Chase Center on Wednesday.
The Lonnie Walker game, three words I never thought I would string together, but good
for him.
We've got a couple of game fives on the calendar tonight, Tuesday night, the Sixers and the
Celtics are even at two games each.
And so are the Suns and the Nuggets.
Speaking of Denver, Matt, we got the official word on Monday that Nikolea Yokich is being
fined $25,000, but he will not be suspended for making contact with Suns owner Matt Ishbia
in game four on Sunday.
All right.
Now to the other NBA game of the night.
The heat beat the Knicks Monday in Miami one on nine to one on one and they go up three
games to one in that series.
The heat are one win away from reaching the Eastern Conference finals as an eight seed.
We'll get into that more in a second.
Jimmy Butler led Miami with 27 points.
10 assists, two blocks and two steals.
We're used to seeing playoff Jimmy impact the game in all kinds of ways every single
night, but he also got a big boost from Miami's bench, outscoring New York's bench 32 to 10.
And from Bam at a bio, he put up 23 points and 13 boards.
That is his most productive game in both categories through the first two rounds of the postseason.
Here is at a bio late in the fourth, turning a seven point game into a nine point game with
less than two minutes to go.
And a buy on the screen.
Lower uses it back for out of bio.
The jumper is good.
They use shot clock and they get a bucket with a minute 48 to go.
Now you heard in the call there mentioned of taking advantage of the shot clock, which
is something we're seeing pretty consistently from the heat in this series.
They've done a really nice job running down the shot clock and then making their shots
late, holding onto the ball longer and taking away opportunities for the next two respond.
So even when the offense isn't really running at its peak for Miami, the heat still have
found ways to control the game, sporting the third longest time of possession of all playoff
teams at this point.
Now, as we mentioned earlier, with Mondays when the heat are now one win away from moving
on to the conference finals, the last time an eight seed got that far was back in 1999.
With the New York Knicks.
How about that?
And those nicks didn't have to get through the play in tournament like the heat had to
this year.
No, and Sarah, you're taking me back with that 1999 Knicks team.
Alan Houston, LaTrell, Spreewell, Marcus Canby.
And I was reminded who else is on that roster.
How about Jalen Brunson's dad, Rick Brunson nostalgia overload here, but returning to present
day now this heat Knicks series now goes back to New York for game five on Wednesday night.
Next up, we are going to the Stanley Cup playoffs where Monday night it was game three of the
second round showdown between the Edmonton Oilers and the Vegas Golden Knights.
And it was Vegas winning big five one in Edmonton to take a two one series lead.
Yes, sir.
The Golden Knights got a timely and much needed breakout playoff game from Jonathan Marsha.
So who led the team with 28 goals during the regular season, but he had none so far in
the playoffs prior to Monday when he scored twice in the first period with Jack Eichl setting
him up on both as Marsha.
So second goal broke a one one tie.
Michael heads the other way across and gets a return.
I go to the tow drag.
I go out in front.
Score.
I go the playmaker.
March is so does it again.
And Vegas has the lead.
Now that goal provided the winning margin for the Golden Knights as they pulled off the
rare feat of neutralizing the incredible Oilers power play for at least one night.
Remember Edmonton came into this game and insane 14 for 25 on the power play in the
playoffs, but they were 0 for 2 on Monday.
Also worth mentioning Vegas lost goalie Laurent Brussois to an injury in the first period and
Aiden Hill came up huge, saving all 25 shots he faced in relief as the Golden Knights gained
the upper hand in this series for now game four will be Wednesday night in Edmonton.
In other NHL news, the league held the draft lottery on Monday and it was the Chicago
Blackhawks landing the top spot, which means they are in position to land the presumed
future superstar Connor Baderd.
That is, you know, if they decide to use the number one pick on him.
Right.
Of course.
Still a question, I think.
All right.
Now let's get to some baseball where the best team in the majors continues their dominant
start.
The Tampa Bay Rays are doing their thing there.
29 and seven, almost six weeks into the season.
29 and seven just to be clear.
And one of their aces gets to take some credit for that hot star.
Yeah, that would be Shane McClanahan.
Matt, he was an all star for the Rays last year, but if you don't follow baseball super
closely, you still may not know that much about him.
He's only in his third season in the bigs and after Monday, he is now a league best seven
and oh, over eight starts this year with a one point seven six.
He are a in that start on Monday, a three nothing win over the Orioles in Baltimore.
McClanahan through six scoreless innings, allowing four hits, four walks and striking
out seven.
Now he got into a couple of jams, including in the fourth, he had runners on first and
second with no outs, but he escaped as the good pitchers do and McClanahan shared post
game how he remains calm and cool in those moments.
I feel like I've taken a lot of steps in these last couple of years as you know, trying
to be a leader on the team and you know, trying to be that guy in the mound that, you
know, we'll figure it out no matter what.
And it's one of those things where it's just kind of sinkers, women.
I don't want to, I don't want to sing.
Matt, I think it's fair to say McClanahan is far from sinking at the moment.
A lot of the sports books actually have him positioned only behind Garrett Cole and show
Hayo Tani in a L. Sayong odds and ESPN's sayong predictor model actually has McClanahan winning
it this year.
He is leading the way for the Rays who sport the best team ERA in the league, a 3.01 paired
with by far the best run differential at the moment.
Now I don't know how many baseball fans really expected the Rays to sustain the blistering
hot start that they got out to this year, but there's really no reason to believe that
they're going to slow down anytime soon, Matt.
Yeah, Sarah Tampa is now the last team left in the league with single digit losses.
They are enjoying the best start to a season since 1984.
Amazing stuff.
And Shane McClanahan, as you said, a huge reason why.
All right, we are wrapping things up today in the NFL.
We've got right around four months to go until the start of the regular season.
And that's why the Houston Texans had some time for their annual charity golf event on
Monday and why the team's head coach had a chance to talk in a very chilled leisurely
setting about their recent bold moves in the draft.
Yeah, Sarah, the fact that we're talking about an update from the Texans golf event
is a good reminder that it is a long four months to the start of the regular season.
But let's get into this as for the Texans.
They as we know drafted Ohio State quarterback CJ Stroud at number two, then they boldly
traded up to get Alabama past rusher Will Anderson at number three and new head coach
D'Amico Ryan spoke specifically about CJ Stroud and not surprisingly glowingly about
CJ Stroud on Monday.
Throughout the entire process, we just continue to grow more and more in love with the guy.
You know, it's just who he is as an outstanding young man, smart guy, competitive guy.
He's decided to start to work with him.
The constant bird chirping there, a nice reminder that we are on a golf course, only
slightly distracting to hear that in the background.
But D'Amico Ryan's also had some positive things to say about the Texans upgraded roster
overall.
We did a good job with the draft.
Utilized the draft capital resource that we had to add some good young talent to our
team.
Now it's just the next phase of getting them adapted to what we do and allowing those guys
to just come in and compete.
And that's what it's all about.
Reality check the Texans last three years before Ryan's arrived had a combined record
of 11, 38 and 1.
But the pressure is on to improve right now.
And that is because GM Nick Serio made that bold trade up to number three to get Will
Anderson, which cost them the number 12 and number 33 picks this year, as well as a first
and third round pick next year.
That is a lot and it's unclear.
Sarah, if reality is going to meet the Texans expectations in 2023, this team has a Vegas
over under of five and a half or six and a half wins, depending on where you look, which
is not great, but I will say whether this whole thing backfires horribly or actually
somehow goes well, at least we can say this for the Texans.
I am actually curious to see how this all goes.
And that's a start.
That really is a start.
That's a step in the right direction.
You got to start somewhere.
Yes.
Especially if you're the Houston Texans and you also have to end somewhere, which is why
we're packing up and leaving.
Oh, we're on.
Right now.
Yeah.
I'm Eric Kazelle and I am Matt Strau.
Thanks for listening.
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