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In a four-part series, the Generation Y podcast unravels the story of Khaleef Browder, a
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The MVP and the runner-up dominate two crucial NBA playoff games.
The Hurricanes demolish the Devils and get one step closer to the conference finals.
And J.J.
Watt goes on an English pub crawl after becoming the latest American celebrity to buy into a
British soccer team.
From Wondery, I'm Sarah Kazelle.
And I'm John Gonzalez.
It's Wednesday, May 10th, and this is Starting Five.
Five sports stories to start your day.
We begin today's show with the NBA playoffs where the Sixers beat the Celtics in Boston
on Tuesday, 115-103 in Game Five to take a 3-2 lead in their second round series.
And John, I don't think a lot of people saw this coming considering the history between
these two teams.
Yeah, I certainly did not, Sarah.
The Celtics went into the game as a heavy betting favorite, but instead the Sixers won
their first Game Five on the road in the playoffs since 2000.
Sarah, that's 23 years ago.
Oh boy.
Yeah.
To pull it off, they got an MVP performance from the MVP.
J.L.M.B.
ditched his knee brace and dominated the game with 33 points, seven rebounds and three
assists and per usual massive impact from him at the defensive end with four blocks, including
this chase down rejection of Jalen Brown with a little under six minutes to go in the
fourth to keep the Sixers up by 15.
Great defense by Boston.
Get up and drive.
Oh, the lead.
Lock the way on the lead.
Turns the basketball over, but gets on this horse for the chase down block.
I mean, this is absolutely outstanding by the MVP.
Not an exaggeration to call that the biggest performance in the biggest moment of M.B.D.'s
career so far.
He delivered when the Sixers needed him most as did Tyrese Maxie, who had one of the best
playoff games of his career with 30.7 rebounds and three assists.
Here's Maxie on following in Bead's example at a critical time.
When you're a best player is adamant about winning and adamant and he's on his teammates
and he's calling the teammates out and he's leading by example, you have to raise your
level of intensity.
And I think this team, we know that and we have done that pretty well.
They have done that pretty well.
Sarah, if Game 1 of this series, which the Sixers won in Boston without M.B.D. was the
biggest surprise of all, Tuesday's result was not far behind.
And then after Game 5, Marcus Smart was asked what went wrong for the Celtics, three W's
there, and he answered with one word that pretty much explained it all, everything he
said.
I'd be shocked that the C's don't course correct here, but obviously a stunning result
for both teams.
Yeah.
How's your heart doing today, John?
I had the defibrillator.
They're ready.
Didn't need it this time.
Well, congratulations to you on that.
This series most certainly is not over though.
Game 6 in Philly on Thursday, the Celtics facing elimination.
All right.
Staying in the NBA playoffs, we saw a tense game five between the Suns and Nuggets Tuesday
night, which the Nuggets won at home, 118, 102 to go up 3, 2 in that series.
Yeah, John, I just want to note the final score absolutely does not properly reflect
the intensity that we saw from start to finish in this game.
Nicole Yochich was on fire once again for the Nuggets.
He finished the night with 29 points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists.
Here is Yochich's 10th assist of the night, which came with about seven minutes left in
the fourth quarter.
Yochich up top.
Garden.
Triple double for the basketball maestro from Serbia.
That right there was Yochich's 10th playoff triple double, which is the most biased center
in NBA history, John.
Wow.
But the game was already well over when he hit that milestone as Aaron Gordon stunk put
Denver up 23.
Now, the Nuggets got out to a smoking hot start in this game going up as much as 15 in the
first quarter thanks to four threes from Michael Porter, Jr.
But the Suns managed to charge back and make it just a three point game at the half.
The third quarter is where the Nuggets did them in outscoring Phoenix 39 to 25 in that
frame.
And they did not look back from there cruising to a very comfortable home win.
One other note though, we saw a little skirmish near the end of the third when a few Nuggets
players tried to join in on the Suns huddle on the court.
I like it.
Kevin Durant shoved Yochich away and Yochich did his best Matt Ischbia impression, you know,
throwing his hands up as he took several steps backwards.
But late drama aside, this was a game all about Yochich and a team effort from Denver.
All but one nugget starter scored in the double digits and Bruce Brown was electric off the
bench with 25.
Man, Denver has been so good at home this season.
The Nuggets are now one game away from advancing to the Western Conference finals for the first
time since the NBA bubble in 2020, but they'll have to do it on the road.
They play game six of the series back in Phoenix on Thursday.
Let's move from the NBA to the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The Hurricanes have the Devils on the ropes, John after Carolina's stunning six one win
in game four in New Jersey on Tuesday.
Yeah, massive victory for the Hurricanes who take a commanding three one lead in their
second round series, Sarah.
This one was tied at one after the first period and it looked like we had a pretty even fight
on our hands until Carolina exploded for five goals in the second period.
Five Sarah.
Yeah, that is the most the Devils have given up in a single period all season long.
Here's the fifth goal in the second frame from Keynes left winger Jordan Martin.
It's Martin.
It's Martin.
It's a running away with this one.
It's six to one.
Well, a shorty in game number three and this is an absolute laser beam.
Short side Martin.
Duke also had to assist on Tuesday.
The Devils are probably having nightmares about that man right now.
He has nine points in the series against New Jersey nine.
As for New Jersey, what a massively disappointing effort from the Devils who don't forget, they
scored eight goals in game three before coming out and looking completely flat on Tuesday.
So now the Hurricanes are on the verge of reaching the conference finals for the first
time since head coach, Rod Brindomor's first season in charge.
They can wrap up the series and close out the Devils on Thursday at home in game five.
I wonder if they're still dealing with that whiplash from the five goals.
Yeah.
In that second period, man, that is wild.
Not good.
No, not at all.
In other Stanley Cup playoff action from Tuesday night, the stars beat the Kraken six
three on the road in Seattle to even up that series at two games apiece.
All right, let's go to Major League Baseball where show Hayo Tani was on the mound for
the Angels against the Astros.
This is going to shock you, Sarah, but in that start, Otani reached a milestone that
we haven't seen in quite a long, long time.
Wait, Otani making history?
Amazing.
Never happened.
Right.
Now it wasn't a lockdown night for Otani standards on Tuesday.
He gave up three runs on six hits in seven innings in a three one loss for the Angels.
And two of those runs came from MLB vet, Martin Maldonado, who went yard for a two run shot
in the fifth.
Maldonado gets into one deep to left field, warned all the way back.
That's gone.
Martin Maldonado connects on a two run home run to left field into the Astros bullpen.
A machete dropping the hammer.
So that was home run number 98 from Maldonado in his 13 year MLB career.
So I hope someone somewhere had money down on that happening.
But on Otani's way to throwing seven strikeouts on the night, he passed Babe Ruth's career
strikeout total of 501.
After Tuesday's action, Otani has thrown 507 career strikeouts, giving him the most pitching
strikeouts among players who also have hit at least 100 home runs.
Sure.
Otani just, yeah, keeps finding ways to do things that we haven't seen in decades, maybe centuries.
And that is why he is once again in the race for the Cy Young and MVP awards.
He is slashing 294, 362 and 515 while leading the AL in strikeouts with 66 and sporting
a 2.74 ERA.
So far this season, John, so far this Angels team is backing him up with some wins.
I don't believe it.
I know, right?
Trying on something new for size.
The Angels are 20 and 17 and in contention for the AL West at the moment, though we do
have to note the Angels were still looking pretty solid at this time last season.
And then they fell into a 14 game losing streak, which was the longest losing streak in Angels
history.
Minor detail.
Yeah, we'll see if they can keep that up and get Otani to the postseason, which would
be another historical thing for Otani, his first appearance in his MLB career.
How would you feel about that?
Otani and Mike Trout in the playoffs?
It would be super fun, but I'll buy it when I see it, Sarah.
Fair enough.
Fair enough.
One other baseball note, be sure to check out Wednesday's episode of our other podcast,
The Lead, which takes a look at whether the fast starting but recently slumping Pittsburgh
pirates are good or maybe terrible.
All right, we wrap up today's episode with English soccer and the latest American celeb
who bought a piece of the club.
And John, it seems like this guy is just having the best time celebrating his purchase across
the pond.
Yeah, everybody knows about Rob McElany and Ryan Reynolds and that feel good story of
Rexham, but now comes newly retired NFL defensive lineman JJ Watt, who recently bought a minority
stake in Burnley.
Now Burnley just finished up a wildly successful season where they won the championship handily
and earned promotion to the Premier League.
So good times for Burnley.
Now Watt is getting in on that action on Tuesday.
He told the BBC that he did a pub crawl in Burnley, which is a small town of about 94,000
people north of Manchester and west of Leeds for all my English geography heads out there.
Here's Watt on getting to know the fans in that time-honored tradition of throwing back
beers with them.
It's research and being researched lots of parts again is along the way, but it was a
lot of fun and it was really good to get to know them on a personal level and hopefully
they get to know us as well.
That's my favorite kind of research.
Everybody enjoying themselves in Burnley right now, Watt and the ownership group, the players,
the coach, Vincent company, the supporters, everybody.
So congrats to the lads.
Is anyone living a better life than JJ Watt right now?
I mean truly, enjoying himself.
Drink and beer as research.
I applaud you, JJ Watt.
And speaking of company, which you mentioned, his old team, Man City, drew 1-1 with Real Madrid
in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final matchup on Tuesday.
The decisive return leg is set for next Wednesday in Manchester.
All right, that's it for us.
We've got to do some beer research, don't we?
Sounds wonderful, I'm in.
All right.
From Wondery, I'm Sarah Kazell.
And hosting a pint of the Sixers, I'm John Gonzalez.
Thanks for listening, everybody.
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