There’s not
much the Montreal Canadiens and their fans would like to remember about their
game against the Colorado Avalanche on November 29, 2025. On that day, Martin
St-Louis’ Habs were obliterated 7-2 by Nathan MacKinnon and co. But when the
Canadiens were down 4-0, the second line, formed by Juraj Slafkovsky, Oliver
Kapanen, and Ivan Demidov, conjured up some magic.
That beauty
of a play allowed Slafkovsky to land in 13th place in the top 15
assists of the last season. Demidov skated into the zone, made a drop pass to the big Slovak before skating around the net, while the big Slovak bought himself some time with a spin Orama, then headed to the net and fed Demidov, who had time to get to the other side, in his office.
That
fantastic play also reminds you how well the two can link up on the same line.
It’s no wonder the Canadiens would like to find another big power forward to
play on their top six. That mystery player could either skate with Demidov or
maybe even on Suzuki’s line if the Canadiens would rather re-create the
Slafkovsky-Demidov magic.
That play
was without a doubt the only redeeming part of that massacre against Colorado,
but the Canadiens would have the last laugh with a 7-3 win against the Avs at
the Bell Centre in January. On that day, the line scored the seventh and final
goal of a great passing play between Kapanen and Slafkovsky.
It will be
interesting to see what St-Louis will do with his top six this season. Clearly,
there’s some chemistry between Slafkovsky and Demidov, but one has to wonder
what would happen if the Russian sophomore were given an opportunity to play
alongside Suzuki and Caufield. It could be easier to mix-and-match if Kent
Hughes were able to land another top-six player.
Aug 23, 2026; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Phillies designated hitter Kyle Schwarber (12) celebrates his walk-off two-run home run during the ninth inning against the St. Louis Cardinals at Citizens Bank Park. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Have to admit: I had turned off the Phillies yesterday for quite a while and watched the Little League World Series. I pivoted quickly back to the Phillies once I saw that they had gotten runners on base and had a chance, but even the bright eyed optimist in me didn’t think they had a shot.
BALTIMORE, MD - AUGUST 23: Shane Baz #34 of the Baltimore Orioles reacts during the sixth inning against the Tampa Bay Rays at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on August 23, 2026 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Good morning, Camden Chatters.
Stop me if you’ve heard this before: the Orioles lost because they couldn’t score any runs for Shane Baz.
It’s becoming a running joke, although not a very funny one. When Baz is on the mound, absolutely everything seems to go wrong for the Orioles, and through very little fault of the hurler himself. Defensive lapses rear their ugly heads — like yesterday, when Jackson Holliday turned a potential inning-ending groundout into a single to spark a three-run Rays rally — and, most maddeningly, the O’s offense simply vanishes.
After yesterday’s 3-1 loss, in which the Orioles were held scoreless for the six innings that Baz was on the mound, the O’s have scored a grand total of 15 runs for Baz in his last 12 starts. Read that again! Fifteen runs in 12 starts. Brutal. Four of those came in one game in Minnesota, in which Baz coughed up a 4-1 lead, but in nearly every other case the Orioles’ bats never gave him a chance to win. The O’s have lost 11 of Baz’s last 12 starts even though he has a 4.02 ERA and seven quality starts in that span.
What did Shane ever do to his Orioles teammates to make them scorn him so? Does he chew with his mouth open? Does he talk on speakerphone in public? Does he do that thing where he’s going through a door and there’s somebody right behind him but he doesn’t hold it open and it just slams in their face? There’s got to be some explanation here.
In any case, the Orioles have completed their grueling 10-game stretch against the Rays and Yankees by going 5-5. Ten days ago, if you told me that the O’s would break even over that span, I’d have taken it. And I still will, even if the Birds’ method of getting there — dominating the Rays and getting swept by the Yankees — was a bit unexpected. But there’s no denying that the postseason math is getting harder. The Orioles now find themselves two games behind both the Rangers and Guardians, who are currently tied for the third wild card spot. The O’s are also a half game behind the Blue Jays, tied with the Twins, and just a game ahead of the Mariners and 1.5 up on the Tigers.
The Orioles’ schedule gets a lot easier for the next week and a half…in theory, at least. Tomorrow they begin a three-game series in St. Louis against the .500 Cardinals, who just got swept by the Phillies and are slipping out of the NL postseason race. Then the Orioles’ next six are against the two worst teams in baseball, the Athletics and Rockies. On paper, it’s a great opportunity for the Orioles to string together a bunch of wins and leapfrog a bunch of teams in the wild card race.
But who are we kidding? We’ve seen enough of the 2026 Orioles to know that they rarely seem to win the games they’re “supposed” to win, and that they continually squander every opportunity to build some positive momentum for more than a few days. Would anyone be surprised if the O’s end up with a worse record in this upcoming nine-game stretch than they had during this Rays/Yanks gauntlet? Inconsistency just seems to be the name of the game for this year’s Orioles club.
The Orioles’ streak of drawing at least one walk in 121 straight games was snapped yesterday. The last time they didn’t walk was in their ninth game of the season, when Leody Taveras had a 1.171 OPS and Samuel Basallo .466. So yeah, it’s been a while.
If you were hoping to see a picture of The Mountain in his SpongeBob SquarePants Baysox jersey, you won’t be disappointed. As for his performance, well, let’s just say Félix looked rusty.
Orioles birthdays and history
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! Only one Oriole was born on this day, but he was the greatest of them all: happy 66th birthday to Cal Ripken Jr.! The two-time AL MVP, 19-time All-Star, eight-time Silver Slugger, two-time Gold Glover, 1982 AL Rookie of the Year, 1983 World Series champ, and first-ballot Hall of Fame inductee also had a consecutive games streak that you might have heard about. Cal is now living his best life as a minority owner of the Orioles, frequently attending games at Camden Yards in seats right behind home plate. Enjoy your day, Cal!
Historically, Ripken actually wasn’t a very good hitter on his birthday. He batted .233 (17-for-73) in his career on Aug. 24, with one home run, four doubles, and eight RBIs.
Cal’s only birthday home run came in a crazy game in 1983 that’s best known as the Tippy Martinez Game. The O’s trailed the Blue Jays in the bottom of the ninth before rallying for two runs to send the game to extras, but their bench maneuverings forced them to use infielder Lenn Sakata as their emergency catcher for the first and only time of his career.
The Jays reclaimed the lead in the top of the 10th before Martinez entered the game with a runner at first. Blue Jays baserunners, trying to get big leads off first against the inexperienced Sakata, were left flat-footed by the southpaw reliever. Martinez picked off Barry Bonnell, then walked Dave Collins and picked him off, and then allowed a single to Willie Upshaw and picked him off, too. Martinez was the first pitcher in MLB history to pick off three baserunners in one inning. The O’s immediately tied the game in the bottom of the 10th — on the aforementioned Cal Ripken home run — and won it on a walkoff three-run blast by (who else?) Lenn Sakata.
And on this day in 2012, Chris Davis crushed three home runs to lead the Orioles to a 6-4 win, again over the Blue Jays. Davis powered a pair of solo blasts off Toronto starter Carlos Villanueva and a two-run shot against reliever Steve Delabar, backing a quality start from Zack Britton.
Random Orioles game of the day
On Aug. 24, 2004, the O’s dropped a 6-2 game in Oakland, the Orioles’ ninth straight loss in a streak that eventually reached 12. Starter Sidney Ponson coughed up home runs to Jermaine Dye and Eric Chavez as the Orioles found themselves in a 4-0 first-inning deficit from which they never recovered. The Birds’ offense had four doubles in the game but only one other hit, and went 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position. The defeat further buried the Orioles, who had been within one game of .500 before the losing streak began.
BRADENTON, FL - MARCH 02: Ty Johnson (82) of the Tampa Bay Rays delivers a pitch during a spring training game against the Pittsburgh Pirates on March 02, 2026 at LECOM Park in Bradenton, Florida. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Rays RHP prospect Ty Johnson was working as a starter for most of the season until he was placed on the Development list in mid-July. When he returned, Johnson was pitching out of the bullpen in anticipation of a big-league call-up later this season. Not only has his stuff ticked up when he transitioned to a relief role, but the command has been sharper too. Now, Johnson looks as ready as ever to contribute in the majors.
***
Johnson throws from a low three-quarter slot with fringy extension. His short, pushy arm action from a relatively low release height adds a layer of deception to his two pitches: a fastball and a breaking ball. The fastball gets above-average carry from his slot, and the breaking ball has a tight, cut-slider shape that tunnels well off the fastball. Since his move to the bullpen, Johnson has seen approximately a 2mph increase on the velocity of his shapes. His fastball now sits around 94mph (and he can reach back for 96-97 when needed) while his breaking ball sits around 86mph. The breaking ball plays more platoon neutral like a cutter than a traditional slider, helping him counter southpaws.
While the pure velocity on his fastball is unlikely to blow hitters away, Johnson creates a uniquely flat vertical approach angle (VAA) on it that helps him miss bats. In the month of August so far, he’s running a 50% whiff rate on the heater compared to just 28% heading into the month. Johnson has also seen a big jump in whiff rate on his breaking ball this month as it’s now over 55%. Of course, these rates likely aren’t sustainable across a full season, but that kind of swing-and-miss is something the Rays bullpen could use. At the major league level, the bullpen currently has the 6th lowest whiff rate during the second half. Some of this is skewed by their use of openers, but it’s still abnormally low for a Rays bullpen this late in the season.
Cleavinger, Baker, and Booser lead the way in whiff rate for Rays relievers so far this season, but even they all sit in the 25-26% range. Johnson and his 35% whiff rate this season would give Cash a relief weapon to help the team get out of a jam when even a ball in play could result in a run, in other words, he could certainly be pitching in high leverage pretty quickly.
Ty Johnson just had his best performance since moving to the pen.
2 IP | 0 H | 0 ER | 0 BB | 4 K | 8 Whiffs | 50 CSW%
His fastball averaged 93.7, and the slider was filthy. I think he’s close to being ready. He might not have a spot until September, but he can be a difference… pic.twitter.com/AOs8bcL1FF
The biggest barrier to him pitching meaningful innings in the majors is finding him space on the 40-man roster and in the current bullpen. Sulser, Jax, and Mesa Jr. all should be back from their respective IL stints relatively soon and should not be transferred to the 60-day IL. Ben Williamson, however, could be moved to the 60-day IL to create a 40-man spot for Johnson given the uncertainty of his hamstring.
The next step is finding a spot for him in the bullpen. This could be easier to do when rosters expand in September and they can simply add another chair in the bullpen. If the Rays wanted to get Johnson up sooner than that, they would likely need to DFA or option a current reliever. With Rodriguez back and Sulser and Jax due to return soon, it could be tricky to find a spot for everyone on the pitching staff and a tough decision might need to be made.
Regardless of how the Rays get Johnson into the Major League bullpen, I do expect it to happen before the postseason begins. His ability to miss bats and pitch to both sides of the plate makes him a valuable weapon to unleash on opposing lineups in September and October.
PORT ST. LUCIE, FL - MARCH 19: D'Andre Smith #6 of the New York Mets bats in the ninth inning during the game between the Tampa Bay Rays and the New York Mets at Clover Park on Thursday, March 19, 2026 in Port St. Lucie, Florida. (Photo by Scott Audette/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
Atypical for the International League, which has averaged 5.16 runs per game this season, we had ourselves a pitching duel between Raymond Burgos and Xzavion Curry, with both starters putting up goose eggs during their time on the mound. Both bullpens were also on point, with Syracuse just narrowly edging out the Woo-Sox thanks to a D’Andre Smith two-run homer in the seventh.
Another win for Binghamton, their third in a row, their eighth in their last ten, and their eighteenth in twenty-one games in the month of August. The lead changed hands a few times early on, but Binghamton took the lead for good in the fourth on a three-run Corey Collins homer. In total, the Rumble Ponies hammered out 10 hits, with Mitch Voit, John Bay, and Collins all having multi-hit games. The blisteringly hot Rumble Ponies find themselves 2.5 games back in the Eastern League Northeast behind the Reading Fightin’ Phils, and wouldn’t you know it? They are playing those very same Reading Fightin’ Phils next week in a series that will have important playoff implications.
Daviel Hurtado logged another solid outing, allowing an unearned run over 5.2 innings, scattering 4 hits, walking two, and striking out 5. With this one in the books, the Cuban left-hander has lowered his ERA to 2.14, second in the South Atlantic League only to Jacob Kisting and his 1.67 ERA in 86.0 innings thrown with the Bowling Green Hot Rods. Yonatan Henriquez’ scorchingly hot week wrapped up with a nice bow, smacking his ninth homer of the season and his fourth this week, to put Brooklyn on the board and give them a lead they would not relinquish. The Cyclones supplementing Henriquez’ one run with eleven more, winning the game in a laughter and taking the series against the Tourists.
Another loss for St. Lucie, and this one was a rough one at that. Things actually started out fine, with Jose Lopez throwing 5 innings of one-run ball, but the game started going south for St. Lucie in the sixth. Lopez loaded up the bases before being removed from the game, and things didn’t get much better when the bullpen became a factor. All together, six runs scored in the sixth, and then an additional four in the eighth, and one more in the ninth for good measure. The narrow 2-1 lead that St. Lucie had coming into that doomed sixth inning was nowhere near enough, and the offense got shut down for the rest of the ballgame once the Flying Tigers took control of things. Thank God they won their Saturday evening contest, because if they hadn’t, St. Lucie would have a nine-game losing streak going right now; as it is, being 2-8 in their last ten isn’t much better, but at least it’s not a nine-game losing streak.
The Detroit Tigers have been struggling of late, having now lost five in a row and seven of their last eight after the Kansas City Royals completed a sweep at Kaufmann Stadium on Sunday afternoon with an 11-7 victory. There really is not much to say at this point as the team’s playoff hopes appear to be evaporating right before our eyes.
Things do not get easier this week, as the Motor City Kitties return home to host the American League East-leading Tampa Bay Rays for a three-game series starting on Monday. The Tigers swept the Rays in St. Petersburg to open up June to break out of their May funk, and maybe — just maybe — Detroit can find its groove again against their Sunshine State foes just like then.
Left-hander Framber Valdez, who has had two straight rough outings after posting a pair of quality starts to open up August, will get the start in the series opener after being pushed back a day. Over the 32-year-old’s last 11 1/3 innings, he has put up a 6.35 ERA and 5.47 FIP, allowing 11 hits (one home run) and nine walks while striking out eight, hitting a batter and throwing a wild pitch.
For the Rays, right-hander Drew Rasmussen will take the hill on Monday night looking to improve on one of his worst outings of the season in his last appearance. Against the Toronto Blue Jays, the 31-year-old gave up five runs on seven hits (one home run) and two walks while striking out five over five frames to take the loss in a 7-6 final.
This will be the first time either pitcher has faced the other team this season. Here is a look at how they match up for the series opener in the D.
Detroit Tigers (61-69) vs. Tampa Bay Rays (77-53)
Time (ET): 6:40 p.m. Place: Comerica Park, Detroit, Michigan SB Nation Site:DRaysBay Media: Detroit SportsNet, MLB.TV, Tigers Radio Network
Game 131: LHP Framber Valdez (8-8, 4.35 ERA) vs. RHP Drew Rasmussen (13-5, 3.01 ERA)
Happy birthday to Kurt Miller, and a mighty host of others.
Today in baseball history, in 1945 – Cleveland ace Bob Feller returns from the Navy and attracts a home crowd of 46,477, who watch him strike out 12 and yield only four hits in a 4-2 win over Detroit’sHal Newhouser. He will get nine starts during the remainder of the year, and his five wins will include a one-hitter and two four-hitters. With the war now over, fans are clamoring for entertainment and it is clear Feller is still baseball’s number one ticket seller, and other stories as well.
1945 – Cleveland ace Bob Feller returns from the Navy and attracts a home crowd of 46,477, who watch him strike out 12 and yield only four hits in a 4-2 win over Detroit’sHal Newhouser. He will get nine starts during the remainder of the year, and his five wins will include a one-hitter and two four-hitters. With the war now over, fans are clamoring for entertainment and it is clear Feller is still baseball’s number one ticket seller
1965 – In the first inning against Pittsburgh, the Giants’Willie Mays scoops up a double from Donn Clendenon at the base of the 406-foot sign, whirls and fires with the ball reaching catcher Tom Haller on one bounce. Haller then tags out the astonished Willie Stargell. What is described as the greatest throw ever made in ancient Forbes Field is a costly one as Mays hurt himself and leaves the game in the sixth with a pulled groin muscle.
1967 – While pushing a car, Philadelphia’sRichie Allen suffers a severe injury when he pushes his hand through the headlight. It will sideline him for the remainder of the season. The Phils will go 14-21 without him.
1996 – Atlanta defeats Chicago, 6-5, led by 1B Fred McGriff, who strokes five hits, including a double and two homers, and drives in four runs.
1999 – MarinerKen Griffey, Jr. becomes only the seventh player to hit 40 homers in four consecutive seasons.
2012 – Matt Harrison has a no-hitter until Trevor Plouffe singles with two outs in the seventh, but it’s Adrian Beltre who ends up with a feat, hitting for the cycle for the second time of his career in the Rangers’ 8-0 demolition of the Twins.
1904 – In Chicago, Christy Mathewson blanks the Cubs on three hits and the Giants defeat Buttons Briggs, 3-0. The second game is called after 10 innings with the score 2-2. Chicago fans show their feelings towards the Giants by tossing bottles onto the field. RF George Browne is hit on the leg and is almost hit in the head while chasing a fly ball. John McGraw tells ump Bob Emslie that he will not allow his team to continue play until all the broken glass is cleared, and by the time that occurs it is too dark to continue play.
1905 – In Philadelphia, the Cubs defeat the Phillies in 20 innings, 2-1, with Ed Reulbach going the distance for Chicago.
1914 – At Chicago, the Cubs trounce the Braves, 9 5, putting Boston back in second place.
1930 – New York’sFred Lindstrom has his 24-game hitting streak stopped as the Giants lose to the Cubs, 3-2. The game is tied 2-all in the bottom of the ninth, when the Cubs load the bases with two out. With the count 0 and 2, Danny Taylor the runner on third, races safely home as surprised Giant reliever Joe Heving watches and then completes his deliberate windup with a wide pitch.
79 – Believed until 2018 to be the date of the massive eruption of Mt. Vesuvius which buried the cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, Oplontis and Stabiae, killing untold thousands, latest evidence suggests the eruption occurred after 17 October.
1853 – First potato chips are prepared by chef George Crum at Moon’s Lake House near Saratoga Springs, New York.
1891 – Thomas Edison patents the motion picture camera.
1912 -Ticker-tape parade held in NYC for Jim Thorpe and victorious US Olympians.
1919 – Frank King’s daily comic strip “Gasoline Alley” is distributed nationwide by the Chicago Tribune Syndicate, appearing in The New York Daily News among other newspapers.
1979 – Rock band “The Cars” plays a concert at Wollman Rink in NYC’s Central Park.
2004 – Future 8-time Olympic gold medalist Usain Bolt of Jamaica finishes 5th in his 200 m heat in 21.05 seconds, failing to qualify for the second round at the Athens Olympics.
2011– Steve Jobs resigns as CEO of Apple Inc. and is succeeded by Tim Cook due to his illness
Second inning, Blake Snell gives up a one-out single to Spencer Horowitz, who advances to second on a passed ball, but Snell strands him with a strikeout of Billy Cook.
Lovely, but what happens if Mark Walter sells the Dodgers?
Third inning, Bryan Reynolds draws a two-out walk, but Snell strands him with a flyout to left by Brandon Lowe.
Walter, Lakers, feds, billions, sell?
On a blistering Sunday afternoon at Dodger Stadium, the Dodgers defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-0 to complete a three-game sweep, but the rumblings beneath Chavez Ravine indicated there was much more at stake.
This is a solid franchise fighting for its footing. This is a powerful dynasty that could be undone by paper.
So, seriously, are the Dodgers getting sold?
Nobody knows, but a reasonable guess would be yes.
The Dodgers, of course, say no way, no how, no chance. Stan Kasten, the Dodgers’ president, even met with the media Friday specifically to say it’s not happening.
“The Dodgers are not being sold,” Kasten said. “They’re not going to be sold. They’re not for sale. There’s no process that has been started to sell [the franchise]. Period.”
Period? Kasten is a busy man, and there’s seemingly no way he holds even an impromptu meeting with reporters about a possible sale if that “period” wasn’t a “question mark.”
It is indeed a huge question mark, one that suddenly appeared less than two weeks ago when Walter stunningly sold the Lakers just 14 months after buying them.
A federal investigation into insurance companies Walter controls may have led to the Lakers sale, and there’s since been plenty of confusing talk about related-party transactions and holding companies and invested assets.
Translated for Dodgers fans?
The owner of your team also owns another business facing a big legal problem that requires billions to fix. And the only way he can raise those billions is to sell his assets. And the $12.5 billion he will receive from the Lakers flip is only a drop in the bucket.
There are reports that Walter is selling his shares in the Chelsea Football Club of the English Premier League, but that won’t cut it.
He could sell some of his smaller properties such as the WNBA’s Sparks, the Cadillac Formula 1 racing team, and the entire Professional Women’s Hockey League, but that might not cut it, either.
His richest, most lucrative, and perhaps most expensive property is the Dodgers. A source told The Times’ Bill Shaikin they could be worth between $10 billion and $13 billion, which would be a record price for a baseball team.
Though no charges have been filed against Walter or anyone associated with his businesses, one could imagine Walter pulling the trigger on the Dodgers sale simply to keep the feds at bay.
“I wanted you to hear it definitively: We are not selling the Dodgers,” Kasten repeated. “We are continuing with our plans going forward, like we always have had them. This comes from Mark. He’s gung-ho about continuing to try to win, again, including next year, subject to whatever next year’s climate looks like.”
This full-speed-ahead attitude by Dodgers management is what makes it so hard to imagine the team being owned by someone other than Walter.
Without Walter, there is no dynasty. Without Walter, there is no richest team in baseball. Without Walter, there is no happiest fan base in baseball.
Dodgers owner Mark Walter helps Shohei Ohtani put on a jersey during a news conference on Dec. 14, 2023, after the two-way star signed a 10-year, $700-million deal with the team. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
Since Walter and his Guggenheim Baseball Management Group purchased the team in 2012, they have spared no expense in winning 12 of the last 13 National League West championships and three World Series titles.
Nobody in baseball spends like Walter, or will ever spend like Walter. From allowing the team to travel on two planes to adding baseball’s highest-paid player and relief pitcher last winter — Kyle Tucker and Edwin Díaz have been busts, but there’s time for redemption — nobody is willing to pay more for success than Walter.
Fans benefit from a Walter partnership on a daily basis. Witness Snell’s six shutout innings against the Pirates on Sunday. The Dodgers swept the three-game weekend series against the supposed contenders behind three starting pitchers who will lead off the playoffs yet who would not all be here if Walter didn’t own the joint.
Who else could pay to acquire superstars Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Snell while building up a farm system that could produce prospects who were used to acquire Tarik Skubal?
The three starters combined to allow the Pirates just five runs in 19 innings with 26 strikeouts and five walks, and how good is that going to look in October?
While Andrew Friedman supplies the talent and Kasten works the business, none of it is possible without the seemingly endless flood of money approved by Walter.
If Walter sells the team, they could possibly lose their two MVPS — Friedman and Ohtani. Unless the new owners give Friedman a piece of the team, he could set off to build another dynasty elsewhere. And Ohtani has a clause famously included in his contract that allows him to leave if Friedman or Walter leaves. If Walters goes, Ohtani could demand a new contract with terms that a new cash-strapped owner cannot afford.
As of last week, there is so much at stake, so many reasons to worry, and even all the winning by baseball’s best-run team won’t offer much relief.
Now baseball’s best owner is suddenly its most embattled owner, and Dodgers fans should be afraid.
MONTREAL, CANADA - APRIL 05: Head coach Sheldon Keefe of the New Jersey Devils handles bench duties during the third period against the Montréal Canadiens at the Bell Centre on April 5, 2026 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The New Jersey Devils defeated the Montréal Canadiens 3-0. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Here are your links for today:
Devils Links
“The New Jersey Devils have their core in place, but you always need role players to complement your stars. More often than not, those complementary pieces end up being a team’s most underrated players. The Devils have a few of those entering 2026-27.” [Devils on the Rush]
“This is a make-or-break season for Sheldon Keefe as head coach of the New Jersey Devils. Year three behind the bench arrives with no remaining excuses and a coaching staff that finally looks like his. The first two seasons came with a built-in buffer that no longer applies.” [New Jersey Hockey Now]
Hockey Links
“How confident are you in your team’s front office? That’s the question we ask every summer, a necessary heat check on each team’s management group and how their decisions are perceived by not only their own fan base, but the public at large.” [The Athletic ($)]
The Blue Jackets will be without Elvis Merzlikins:
Goaltender Elvis Merzlikins underwent successful shoulder surgery on Monday. No timetable has been set for his return at this time.
A look at the best old guy seasons in NHL history: [Sportsnet]
“Kucherov is now eligible to ink a contract extension with only one year remaining on his current deal at $9.5 million for the upcoming campaign. He’s almost certainly headed for a massive raise, but the question is, how big will it be? The NHL’s financial landscape is vastly different from what it was just a couple of months ago.” [Sportsnet]
Feel free to discuss these and any other hockey-related stories in the comments below.
All of a sudden, the Philadelphia Phillies can't lose. And a prize that didn't seem realistic — the National League East lead - is very much in play.
They have not lost since stumbling out of that cornfield in Iowa, nine consecutive wins that have them soaring up USA TODAY Sports' power rankings, moving up to No. 7 this week.
Their latest caper came when they staged a six-run rally — four runs scoring with two outs — to stun the St. Louis Cardinals on Kyle Schwarber's monstrous walk-off home run Sunday, Aug. 23. The win kept them within three games of Atlanta in the East, this in a season where they once were 10 1/2 games off the pace.
The logjam is showing no signs of easing. With that, welcome to another week of ostensibly crucial Major League Baseball showdowns.
At some point, these results will matter but right now, it’s hard to call anything do-or-die when there are 20 teams within four games of a playoff spot.
We’re trying, though. And the coming week will bring a handful of intriguing matchups and potential playoff previews. Here’s a look at five of them:
Key matchup: Wednesday – Rangers LH MacKenzie Gore vs. White Sox RH Sean Burke
Outlook: The White Sox have stubbornly clung to their semi-comfortable advantage in the AL Central. The Rangers and the .500 mark have a toxic relationship. Will the patterns hold up in this three-game curiosity on the South Side? Texas (65-66) is now tied for the AL West lead with Houston and with Cleveland for the final wild-card spot. The Rangers have been under .500 every month (if March and April are regarded as one month) except June and are 18-21 against teams with winning records.
Key matchup: Dodgers RH Yoshinobu Yamamoto vs. Braves LH Chris Sale, Thursday
Outlook: A key series for Atlanta if it still has designs on a first-round bye. The Dodgers hold a four-game lead on the Braves for the No. 2 seed, though Atlanta won two of three at Dodger Stadium back in May. The Yamamoto-Sale matchup is absolutely delicious, two Cy Young-worthy talents who both made heroic relief efforts to spur their teams to World Series titles in 2025 and 2018, respectively.
Key matchup: Sunday – Padres LH Robbie Ray vs. Rays RH Drew Rasmussen
Outlook: Well, wouldn’t this be a fun pre-lockout World Series: The nation’s 30th-largest TV market whose lone franchise just sold for $3.9 billion vs. the plucky club that always cries poor and might yet have swindled the public into a new stadium by the time this series arrives. Kind of a classic Random Interleague Battle that greatly resonates with ball aficionados. No team has been better in this second half than the Padres, whose 23-12 record since the break is unmatched. It’s also hard to fathom even the Rays’ stingy pitching staff slowing an offensive roll now that Fernando Tatis Jr. has rediscovered his power stroke and Jackson Merrill is playing like the All-Star he was a couple year ago. The Rays followed up a nine-game winning streak by losing three straight series to divisional foes.
Key matchup: Saturday – Mariners LH Kade Anderson vs. Blue Jays RH Dylan Cease
Outlook: The Mariners return to the scene of the downfall: They blew a 3-2 ALCS lead at Rogers Centre and a 3-1 seventh-inning advantage in Game 7 and haven’t been the same since. Yet amazingly, even after losing two games by a combined 41-2 last week, they’re still in both the West and wild-card races. Should the rotations align, Anderson-Cease will be a tasty matchup, the best minor league pitcher this season making his second career start against a Cy Young hopeful. Toronto has won 15 of its past 25 and sits 1 1/2 games out of a wild-card spot.
Key matchup: Sunday – Red Sox LH Ranger Suarez vs. Yankees LH Carlos Rodón
Outlook: You gotta figure the Yankees are a little bummed they didn’t put the Red Sox out of their misery when they had the chance. Instead, a four-game sweep by last-place Boston spurred this wild run of 39 wins in 52 games that has the Yankees just three games up on their chief rivals for the No. 2 wild card. Now, both teams are coming together rather nicely at the same time, though injuries to lefties Ryan Weathers and Max Fried compromises the Yankees’ pitching as outfielder Cody Bellinger returns from injury. Worth noting: Boston leads the season series 5-4, which might come into play for seeding or even divisional champion purposes. Another best-of-three wild-card matchup at Yankee Stadium? That's how the bracket breaks down right now.
The dog days of summer are about to give way to a heated stretch run in Major League Baseball.
The Atlanta Braves saw their lead in the NL East whittled down to three games by the red-hot Philadelphia Phillies, potentially setting the stage for a competitive division race we didn't think we'd have down the stretch.
On the wave of their current nine-game winning streak, the Phils dramatically improved their playoff position over the past week, gaining serious ground on the Braves and moving into the NL's second wild-card spot with five weeks remaining in the regular season.
Elsewhere, the division leaders remain the same as last week, but the jockeying for the final wild cards remains hot and heavy, especially in the AL.
Here's where things stand in the American and National League playoff races as the new week gets underway:
Current MLB playoff picture
All records and stats are as of the start of play on Monday, Aug. 24.
The third division winner in each league will have home field advantage in their division series and will host the wild-card team with the worst record. Three teams in each league qualify for wild-card playoff berths.
Note: If two or more teams tie for a division title or a wild-card spot. Ties are broken by head-to-head record first, followed by intradivision record. Beyond that, things can get complicated.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - AUGUST 23: Jazz Chisholm Jr. #13 gives George Lombard Jr. #96 of the New York Yankees his glove during the fourth inning against the Toronto Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium on August 23, 2026 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The Yankees finally bid farewell to the Toronto Blue Jays for 2026 (barring something crazy going on in October), winning on Sunday to take the current series as well as the season series overall 7-6. The team is entering a bit of a hot streak after treading water through the start of the summer, winning six of their last seven games with an offense that looks a lot less comatose. They’ll get the day off today before running into another pair of rivals in the Astros and Red Sox over the course of this week, and their performance there could either set themselves up to secure the first Wild Card slot or put it in peril. At the very least, they’re peaking at the right time for a stretch like this.
While the team may be resting up, we’ve got you covered with things to read during your day. Kevin’s got a double-feature, first going over the Rivalry Roundup where the Rays and Red Sox both kept pace with the Yankees’ win on Sunday before wishing a happy birthday to one of the most beloved former members of the modern Yanks in Brett Gardner. Peter delivers the latest installment of his series examining how the Yankees’ pitching staff has revolutionized the splitter by looking at Carlos Rodón’s resurgent usage of the pitch. Finally, I’ll be back to open up the mailbag for more of your questions later in the day.
Today’s Matchup:
Off-day
Questions/Prompts:
1. How much of a threat do you view Houston as they arrive tomorrow, tied for first-place in their division but with a losing record?
2. Is Spencer Jones playing his way into a spot in the lineup by the end of the year even if Aaron Judge returns?
The 2027-28 third jersey design as released by the Islanders
It wasn’t Mat Barzal’s top choice, but he’ll have to wear it anyway because we said so.
The Islanders’ attempt to fill the quiet summer month of August with something succeeded with the announcement that the navy blue design with the old lighthouse shoulder patch logo is their third jersey for the season after next. (That’s 2027-28. Even though the number on the mockup is 26, do not be confused.)
Islanders News
The Islanders official announcement. The designer will be honored when the jersey debuts, but you have to figure there’s more than one who arrived at that one, no? [Islanders]
Alan Hahn approves, so we can all breathe easy. [Newsday] “The Islanders finally have their lighthouse project,” tee hee. [Post]
Meanwhile, in more ice-ish news, Matthew Schaefer on his prep for his sophomore season. [Isles]
And Tony DeAngelo on coming back for more, regrouping with the late-summer skaters. [Isles]
Matt Martin tried to beat up his babysitter. [THN]
Elsewhere
Expansion in Texas is no longer a matter of if, but merely when (as soon as 2029-30) and where (Austin or Houston). Bill Daly also threw a bit of shade at the other pro sports franchises in/bound for Las Vegas, which is both funny and merited. [TSN]
Daly also talked about an outdoor game likely being held in Europe. [NHL]
Nikita Kucherov’s next extension will be complicated, with him coming off a massive Hart-winning season. Drink every time you read “no income taxes.” [Sportsnet]
In a big blow with poor timing, Elvis Merzlikins has shoulder surgery, timeline for return unknown. [TSN]
Leon Draisaitl says Mike Babcock will hold him and Connor McDavid…might not even access to their phones to do it! [NHL]
It wasn’t Kevin Keegan flying off in a helicopter, but Zdeno Chara ceremoniously took off his skates and walked off the ice in his socks to complete his tribute game and fundraiser back home in Trencin. [NHL]
The 32 in 32 series has caught up with the Sharks, who used a lot of cap on guys like Jacob Trouba and Darnell Nurse. [NHL]
BOSTON - 1986: The Boston Celtics 1986 NBA Championship banner gets raised to the rafters joining their previous Celtics' championship banners hanging from the rafters at the Boston Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 1986 NBAE (Photo by Dick Raphael/NBAE via Getty Images) | NBAE via Getty Images
“When I came here, I knew the basketball would be good. I did not know how good it would be.”
Bill Walton
The conductor raises his baton, the orchestra readies their instruments, and in an instant, with a downward sweep of the arm, a collection of individuals, each with their own talents and skills, merges into a single thing, a whole greater than the sum of its parts, and for a while the audience is witness to our ability to transcend ourselves and become a part of something more than what we are capable of on our own.
Basketball is music, and the music once ascribed by Johannes Kepler to the heavenly spheres belonged to Boston this year; it was music that you did not so much hear with your ears as feel within your soul.
Again and again, for 48 minutes at a go during the 1985/86 season, the Boston Celtics took the court and put on a display of such transcendence that it left an indelible mark on everyone who saw them at their best.
The story of this season begins with the acquisition of Bill Walton.
Walton was languishing out in L.A., “I had just spent six brutally long, painful, lonely, disastrous years on the Clippers,” he would later recall. Walton was relatively healthy, but the Clippers were going nowhere on a rocket sled. He wanted out. “I just desperately wanted to have it be fun again.”
His first call? Jerry West. West turned Walton down flat. “I’ve seen your feet,” said West, according to Walton, “I don’t want any part of them.”
So Walton turned to his second choice, Boston. When Walton got ahold of Red, he was in a meeting with Larry Bird. He told Bird that Walton wanted to join the team and Larry said, “Go get him.”
Red then set about the odious task of negotiating with Donald Sterling.
Walton’s request was well-timed. Cedric Maxwell was on his way out. Red had wanted Max to come back to Boston to have his injured knee checked and Cedric’s agent told him that it was a no-go because Max was busy building a house. “Who’s paying for the house?” was Red’s curt response.
At the other end of the deal, Donald Sterling wanted concessions, not from Red, but from Walton. In a scenario that reflected the relative weakness of the player’s union at the time, Sterling got Bill Walton to forego all the deferred compensation he was owed in order for the deal to go through.
“I owe you a fortune in deferred compensation,” Sterling said, according to Walton, “if you want to make this deal go down and you go to Boston you’ve got to leave every dime of that money here with me today.”
“I took that pen, and I signed that paper with as much confidence and bravado as I could possibly muster. I signed it, got up, turned, and never looked back.”
The Team
“This was a starting five for the ages”
Bill Walton
Larry Bird would win the MVP for the third consecutive year in 1985/86, and it’s tough to argue with the logic behind that. He led the league in win shares, despite playing on a team with four other Hall-of-Famers, and for all the highlight reels of his offense, he proved his value at the other end of the court as well by leading the league in defensive win shares. His ten triple doubles led the league, and he led the league in free throw percentage. He led the Celtics in points, rebounds, and assists.
“Here’s a guy who wasn’t the fastest, wasn’t the highest jumper, wasn’t the tallest, wasn’t the strongest, but he was the best,” was Bill Walton’s assessment.
This was the year that Larry walked into the locker room before the league’s inaugural three-point contest and said, “Alright, which one of you guys is finishing second?”
It was the year that, in a revenge game against the Trail Blazers, who served up the Celtics’ only home loss, Larry took about half his shots left-handed on his way to scoring 47 points. “You have to play games left-handed, or do different things, to keep your interest in the game,” Bird recalls with a chuckle. “This stuff really happened,” adds teammate Rick Carlisle, who played with Bird from 1984 to 1987.
The decision to trade Cedric Maxwell for Bill Walton brought Kevin McHale into the starting lineup full-time, as Larry Bird moved to the small forward position. McHale responded by averaging 21.3 points per game on 57.4% shooting from the field. He had developed a low-post game the likes of which the league has seldom seen.
Dan Shaughnessy might have been the person who first described McHale’s low-post office as the “torture chamber,” but regardless of who first applied the term, it was an apt description of McHale’s toolkit of moves that invariably put his defender, no matter how good, out of position. Players guarding McHale would helplessly watch as McHale put the ball in the hoop or send him to the line where he was a steadily improving free throw shooter (the following year he would become the first player in NBA history to shoot 60% from the field and 80% from the line).
McHale’s less serious demeanor was a balance to Bird’s intensity. “I just show up and play,” was Kevin’s stock response to questions about his performance, although this couldn’t have been farther from the truth. McHale put in the work, but he never wanted people to know just how hard he worked, “I did all this work, but I never wanted to tell anybody what the hell I did,” he recalled.
Robert Parish was a steady presence on the court, intimidating on defense, and good for 16.1 points per game on offense. The Centenary product had been drafted three times, despite playing for a program whose existence was essentially denied by the NCAA during his career there. He was selected twice in the ABA draft and finally by the Golden State Warriors, who had traded him because they were enamored with Joe Barry Carroll and saw no further need for his services.
Red wanted Parish because he could run. “I’ve never seen another center run the floor as beautifully,” claims Jackie MacMullan, who covered the Celtics for the Globe.
He was in his tenth season in the pros in 1985/86; for most players at that time, this was about when careers start to wind down, but Parish would put eleven more seasons under his belt, retiring after 21 years in the pros.
The Chief didn’t assemble a gaudy stat line, being in the middle of a 17-year run of double digit scoring averages, but he was a key factor in the Celtics’ league leading opponent field goal percentage. Parish was extremely effective at altering the shots that opponents took. He didn’t lead the team in blocks, McHale did, but his intimidating and largely unmovable 7’-1” presence in the paint prevented a lot of easy buckets.
“If he’s the third best player on the team, you can argue that he would have been the best player in the history of about ten other teams,” says Bob Ryan. “He probably gave up more than anybody,” adds Bird, regarding Parish’s deference to McHale and Bird in terms of buckets and rebounds.
Dennis Johnson made the All-Defensive team for the eighth consecutive year in 1985/86.
A player who was quick rather than fast, DJ’s performance improved when there was more at stake. His playoff scoring was consistently higher than his scoring in the regular season, and he was never afraid of the big moments. DJ had a competitive fire that matched Bird’s, and Larry would claim, years later, that DJ was his favorite teammate.
Johnson was a long way removed from the ‘cancer’ accusation leveled by Phoenix coach John MacLeod. “Joining the Celtics was perfect situation for me,” said Dennis in a 2002 interview, “It was a dream come true to play with Larry, Robert, and Kevin.”
Johnson is perhaps a bit underrated as a contributor to Boston’s success in the 1980s. The Celtics were not a run-and-gun team—even though they led the league in defensive rebounding, they did not push the pace the way other teams in the league did. This meant that DJ’s skills as a ball-handler and a passer were showcased less often than they might have been on a team that spent more time pushing the ball in transition.
DJ’s connection with Larry Bird was the stuff of legend, “They were in sync,” is how Kurt Rambis of the Lakers described it. “I can’t tell you the number of times when he and Larry would make eye contact—Larry’s guy would have his head turned—and DJ would throw the ball right by his defender’s ear,” recalls Rick Carlisle.
“Dennis was just an awesome player,” said K.C. Jones after DJ passed in 2007, “He played hard and he took the big shots.”
The only player in the Celtics’ starting five who hasn’t been enshrined in Springfield was Danny Ainge.
Red wanted Ainge bad enough to go to court to get him.
Danny had been burning the candle at both ends, playing baseball for the Toronto Blue Jays and basketball for Brigham Young from 1977 to 1981. He had worked his way through the Blue Jays farm system, and, partially as a testament to how bad the Blue Jays were in those days, he had spent some of his summer vacations playing for the parent team where he was a serviceable fielder and an underwhelming batter.
His basketball prospects were considerably better. He was the John Wooden player of the year in 1981, a year where he delivered one of the most memorable shots in NCAA tournament history, when he went coast to coast in the waning seconds of the game to deliver a one point win for BYU over Notre Dame that sent the Cougars to the Elite Eight.
After the end of his college season, and after he had signed a contract with the Blue Jays that expressly forbade playing professional basketball, Ainge decided that he wanted to play basketball instead. Red obliged him by picking him with the 31st overall selection in the 1981 draft.
Then the lawsuits began.
The Blue Jays were unwilling to release him from the contract without extracting one million dollars from the Celtics, as well as an agreement by Ainge to return the bonus money he’d already been paid. After the Celtics lost in court, Red ponied up the cash.
By 1985/86, Ainge was firmly ensconced in a ‘villain’ role with the Celtics.
If fans around the league were, basically, in awe of Bird, intimidated by Parish, incapable of hating the rather lovable McHale, and unable to decipher DJ, that left them one target for taking out their anger at the Celtics’ sustained excellence: Daniel R. Ainge.
It was a role that he relished.
“He was irritating. He was a little gnat. He was bothersome. And boy could he shoot,” recalled Jackie MacMullan. “He gave you everything he had, every minute,” added Bird.
Bill Walton once paid Ainge a compliment by saying, to the rest of the team, “He’s the only one doing his job, because he’s the only one being booed in every arena in the NBA.”
Walton spearheaded the “Green Team”, the internal name for the Celtics’ bench, which donned green jerseys when they played against Boston’s starters in practice. Red had acquired Jerry Sichting in the off-season along with Walton, and Jerry was a feisty point guard who converted his shots at a 57% clip. Sichting and Walton joined established bench contributors Scott Wedman, Rick Carlisle, Greg Kite, and others who anchored the team when the starters were off the court.
“The practices were more intense than some of the actual games that we played,” Dennis Johnson recalled, “we had some real battles—the first and second units going at each other like it was war.”
“Every practice was a fierce competition, and it made us a better team. The second unit made sure that we were always ready to compete, that we were always prepared whenever we stepped out on the floor.”
“They had shooting depth, they had defensive depth, they had rebounding depth. That green team—they were the difference between ’85 and ’86,” claims MacMullan.
(Original Caption) Boston Celtics' team picture taken 4/13, Front row (left to right): Danny Ainge, Scott Wedman, Alan Cohen, Vive Chairman of the Board, Jan Volk, General Manager Red Auerbach, President, K.C. Jones Head Coach, Don Gaston, Chairman of the Board, Larry Bird, Dennis Johnson, Back row: (Left to right) Wayne Le Beaux, Equipment manager, Thomas Silva M.D., Team doctor; Jim Rodgers, assistant coach; Sam Vincent; Rick Carlisle, Gregg Kire; Robert Parish; Bill Walton; Kevin McHale; David Thirdkill; Jerry Sichting; Chris Ford; Assistant coach; Ray Melchiore, trainer.
The Regular Season
“I’ll never see anything like that again.”
Bob Ryan
The regular season began inauspiciously for the Celtics. They lost the opener to the New Jersey Nets in overtime. The Nets, inexplicably, managed to snatch a pair of victories from the Celtics during the regular season. Only the Nets, Sixers and Rockets managed to beat Boston twice between October of 1985 and June of 1986.
The season featured thirteen and fourteen game winning streaks. The Celtics lost two in a row twice, but never more than that.
At the end of the season, they had won 67 games, including a 40-1 home record that has been tied but never bested.
This was not the most wins in Celtics history—that record, 68-14, belonged to the ill-starred 1972/73 team that had its championship prospects dashed by an injury to John Havlicek in the Eastern Conference Finals.
But the Celtics absolutely dominated their opponents in 1985/86. Their net rating, +9.2 points per 100 possessions, was the best in the league, as was their average margin of victory at 9.06 points per contest. Once again, defense was their calling card, as they held their opponents to a league worst 46.1% field goal percentage. The Celtics capitalized on those misses too, as they were the league’s best defensive rebounding team. Despite playing the toughest defense in the NBA, they were the second-best team in the league when it came to fouls called.
At the other end of the court, they were the second-best team in the league in terms of assists and field goal percentage.
And in terms of assists, while they were the second best statistically, they were, quite possibly, the best ever from an aesthetic perspective. “It’s ballet,” said Dan Shaughnessy. “It was death by a thousand cuts,” adds Peter May, “They took teams apart by passing, and they took great pride in that.”
As good as the Celtics were during the regular season, Danny Ainge would later admit that the team viewed those 82 games as just a prelude, “our minds were, really, always on the Lakers and the NBA championship.”
After a rather embarrassing loss to the Knicks on Christmas Day, in an effort to regain their focus on the grind of the regular season, the team swore off alcohol until they won a championship, although as McHale would later observe, “we found a way to sneak around that rule every once in a while.”
The Celtics punched their playoff ticket on February 28th, setting a league record that would stand for thirty years.
The Eastern Playoffs
Boston went 11-1 on their way to the Finals. Their sole loss was to Atlanta, which got the best of Boston on their tenth try.
Their first-round opponent was, basically, Michael Jordan.
(Original Caption) Chicago Bulls' Michael Jordan goes up for basket as Celtics' guard Larry Bird attempts to block him during the first quarter action of game 2 of the opening round of the playoffs at Boston Garden.
The Celtics swept the Bulls, but Michael Jordan set an NBA record that still stands by averaging 43.7 points per game.
The Celtics easily handled the Bulls in games one and three, by nearly identical margins of 123-104 and 122-104 respectively, as Jordan had no real help to speak of, but game two was a double overtime affair.
Jordan poured in 63 points, which is also still an NBA record. “I didn’t think anyone could do against us what Jordan has done in the first two games,” Bird said after the double overtime thriller, adding, “I think it’s just God, disguised as Michael Jordan.”
Yet it was a green-teamer that delivered the tie-breaker for Boston, nullifying all of Jordan’s heroics. Jerry Sichting took a pass from McHale at the foul line and swished a fifteen-footer that gave Boston the lead they needed, 137-135 in the second overtime. A bucket by Parish off a rare Jordan miss sealed the deal 139-135.
In game three, the Celtics double-teamed Jordan relentlessly, and held him to just 19 points, with fourteen of those coming in the first quarter—but the world would hear from Jordan again.
Boston’s second round opponent was Atlanta, which featured a lineup of really pretty good players that somehow never quite gelled into a contending team. After winning the first two games at home by a combined 23 points, things tightened up a bit at the Omni. Game three went to Boston by a slimmer 4 point margin, and the Celtics lost game four by a rather embarrassing 12 point margin. Bird and McHale were a combined 12-38.
McHale, for his part, blamed his poor shooting on a hockey game that bored him to sleep—and not even a Bruins game at that. He was watching the Rangers play the Canadiens, “The Rangers are in it, and all of a sudden it’s 5-1. I fall asleep—ten hours asleep. I come to the game. I’m groggy. I play like diddly.”
The Celtics, bent on extinguishing any hope that might have been blossoming in Atlanta, terminated the Hawks 132-99 in the following game.
This brought on a matchup with the Milwaukee Bucks, the number two team in the conference. The Bucks and Celtics had nearly identical offensive and defensive ratings per 100 possessions, although the Bucks had been less fortunate in the wins column, with 57 wins, as compared to Boston’s 67.
During the regular season, the Celtics won all five games against the Bucks, and though, from certain angles, the teams were evenly matched, the series wasn’t.
Boston won three games going away, with Milwaukee putting in a valiant effort in game three, losing by just four.
For the series, Bird led everyone on both teams in points per game, rebounds, and assists. He missed exactly one free throw across all four games and shot 50% from three, taking a rather high for the time 4.5 attempts per game.
Western Playoffs
A funny thing happened on the way to the third consecutive matchup between the Lakers and Celtics.
A Nigerian immigrant, who had spent his childhood playing soccer, not basketball, came between Los Angeles and Boston.
The Lakers must have been flying high. They had beaten Boston in six the year before, they had won 62 games, and they were the top seed in the West. They cruised past the Spurs in the first round 3-0, and the Mavs had been little more than a bump in the road in the second round, overcome 4-2. Facing them in the conference finals were the Houston Rockets, who had notched a 51-31 record despite losing guard John Lucas after 65 games to a violation of the league’s substance abuse policy. Lucas, who struggled with cocaine addiction throughout his NBA career, would get sober once he was out of the league, and now runs a recovery program for athletes.
The Lakers had taken four of five from the Rockets during the regular season, and they must have figured that the conference finals would play out in much the same fashion.
It didn’t.
The Rockets prevailed 4-1. After the Lakers won the first game by 12 points, they proceeded to lose four straight, as the Rockets’ twin towers of Ralph Sampson and Hakeem Olajuwon made Kareem look old and L.A.’s power forward-by-committee strategy deeply flawed.
Olajuwon was in just his second season with the Rockets, but he was averaging 26.9 points per game along with 11.8 rebounds in the playoffs. Against the Lakers he averaged 31 points and 11.2 rebounds per game.
Ralph Sampson, the other half of Houston’s twin towers averaged 20 points per game and 10.8 rebounds per game during the playoffs.
This set up a rematch, of sorts, with the Celtics. In reality, Allen Leavell and Robert Reid were the only players on the Rockets that had been with the team when they’d faced off against the Celtics in 1981.
Actually, the real story wasn’t that the Celtics and Rockets were facing off against each other for the second time in five years.
The real story was the Rockets’ coach: Bill Fitch.
The man who led the Celtics to their fourteenth title was going to be sitting on the opposite bench as they tried for their sixteenth.
This was just the second time that a Finals coach was squared off against a team that he had also coached to the Finals (Alex Hannum coached the San Francisco Warriors to a Finals loss against the Celtics and then coached the Sixers to a Finals victory over the Warriors in 1964 and 1967 respectively).
The Finals
(Original Caption) Houston Rockets' Akeem Olajuwon (center) is sandwiched by Boston Celtics' Bill Walton (rear) and Larry Bird (right) during game one of the NBA playofffs at Boston Garden, 5/26. Celtics won the game, 112-100.
Deprived of a third consecutive Bird/Magic showdown, the Finals were something of a let-down for fans in general; and the games themselves weren’t as compelling as the Celtics’ championship duel with Los Angeles in 1984.
Games one and two went to the green and white in the friendly confines of Boston Garden by scores of 112-100 and 117-95, and it looked like this series was going to play out the same way as the previous three rounds. However, the Rockets proved their mettle in the following contest.
In game three, the Celtics held an eight point lead with 3:18 to go, only to be outscored by Houston 12-2 over the distance. Bird had an uncharacteristically bad night on the big stage, missing 15 of his final 21 shots. The close loss gave the Rockets a great deal of optimism.
“We just had to get over the hump of playing these guys,” Ralph Sampson said after their game three victory. “Didn’t I tell you things would be different in the Summit?” crowed Jim Peterson, adding, “we’re feeling the weight lifted off our chest right now.”
It was down to the Celtics to squash all those hopes in game four.
The Rockets had a two point lead when Bird nailed a three-pointer to give the Celtics the lead. Bill Walton tipped in a miss to give the Celtics a bit of a cushion, and then, for the final minute of the game, neither team scored. The Celtics, whose defense, even in this inspired year, was still better than their offense, locked down the Rockets in a game that Houston absolutely positively had to win.
With 46 seconds to go, McHale anticipated a Mitchell Wiggins pass into Olajuwon, jumped it and deflected it to DJ. Off a Bird miss, the Rockets came out of a timeout and ran a play that rapidly broke down in the face of Boston’s defensive pressure. Ralph Sampson ended up with the ball 28 feet from the basket and a long way from where he felt comfortable. Once again, McHale made the difference. Unable to pass the ball up court due to excellent Celtic coverage, Sampson opted to try resetting the offense by passing the ball to Wiggins, who was behind him. McHale anticipated the pass again, and stuck an arm into the lane, and deflected the ball to Danny Ainge.
“Games like this are why I came to Boston,” said Walton after the dust settled and he was back in the locker room, “This is the thrill of a lifetime.”
Game five was keyed by a brawl that broke out in the second quarter.
In a gross mismatch, Jerry Sichting had gotten switched onto Sampson under the basket. For reasons best known to himself, Sampson decided to take on the barely-six-foot-tall-in-his-shoes point guard, “I thought a foul should have been called,” he said after the game. Sampson, who had about 15 inches of height on Sichting, responded to the alleged foul by elbowing Jerry and then punching him twice.
DJ came in to back up Sichting, as did Walton. DJ paid for his interference when Hakeem Olajuwon lost his temper and punched Johnson in the face, leaving him bleeding onto his jersey.
Referees ejected Sampson and awarded a free throw to Sichting, but the move had galvanized the Rockets. The team felt that pint-size Sichting should have been ejected, apparently for the offense of getting in the way of Sampson’s fist, and that DJ should’ve gotten tossed as well.
They proceeded to dismantle Boston, as the Celtics failed to take advantage of the absence of Sampson. Jim Peterson, subbing for the ejected Sampson, did yeoman’s work, and then shot his mouth off after the game ended, “I guess they wasted a lot of chapagne,” he said, motioning toward the Celtics’ locker room.
The Celtics, of course, didn’t waste that champagne. They simply packed it up and took it back to Boston.
It was uncorked three days later when the Celtics put the Rockets to bed 114-97 in a contest that Houston lost before the opening tip. “They weren’t beating us here, today,” McHale said after the game.
Bird won his second Finals MVP and closed the series with a triple double in game six: 29/11/12 in points, rebounds and assists. He shot 11-12 from the line and notched three steals to further pad his stat line. “I saw him take on five guys at once,” said Houston’s Jim Peterson, “He’s the best.” “He has reached the pinnacle of basketball,” added K.C. Jones. “Nothing Larry Bird does surprises me,” Walton remarked, “and everything he does impresses me.”
McHale matched Bird in points at 29, and nabbed an even ten rebounds. None of the Rockets managed to crack 20 points, and Ralph Sampson, who was showered with boos and hung in effigy by the Garden faithful, managed a meagre eight points on 4-12 shooting.
For the first time in three Finals victories, Larry Bird did not lead all players in points and rebounds. It was Kevin McHale who got the better of Hakeem in a battle of smooth moving front court wizards. McHale edged out Hakeem in points, at 25.8 per game vs. 24.7. Hakeem led all players in rebounds. He would have to wait almost ten years before he made it back to the Finals, where the Dream, whose post moves rivaled McHale’s, would win back to back titles.
Where the Celtics really shined was the lockdown defense played on Ralph Sampson. Sampson went from 20 points per game in the previous round to just 14.8 in the Finals.
While the Celtics failed to put together a perfect season—whatever such a Platonic ideal may look like—they put together what was arguably the greatest season ever, for the greatest franchise in the NBA.
There have been other great teams in NBA history—but there has never been a greater one.
The final words on this season belong to Bill Walton, who was a fan of the game even when he was playing it…
“Thank you, Red Auerbach. Thank you, Larry Bird. Thank you, Boston Celtics.”
Larry Bird gets a champagne shower after the Celtics defeated the Houston Rockets in the 1986 NBA finals. STAFF PHOTO BY JIM MAHONEY (Photo by Jim Mahoney/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images) | MediaNews Group via Getty Images
