Weekend Recap: Titles Won and Almost Won
It was great to be a sports fan this weekend. With the NBA and NHL Finals going on surrounded by many other great events and tons of baseball, one could have stayed home and watched sports all weekend. Let’s see what happened. The amount of people doubting Tiger Woods would ever return to his great form, just got a little smaller on Sunday.
Tiger is back on form and his final round Sunday proved it. Down after 3 rounds, Tiger came roaring back and found himself tied for the lead with two shots to go. It seemed like every shot was just perfectly placed and by this time I don’t think anyone though that anyone besides Tiger was winning this tournament. And with two more clutch birdies on the final two holes, he did win. It was just amazing and fun to watch. Even the host of the tournament Jack Nicklaus was very impressed. Saying that he expects Tiger to break his 18 career majors record, with his 15th coming in two weeks at the U.S. Open. From what I saw on Sunday my moneys on Tiger too.
While Tiger was winning on the golf course another great player had a lot to prove on the tennis court.
Through Roger Federer’s greatness, he had still never won the French Open. And with the much younger Rafael Nadal seemingly unbeatable on this surface, many wondered if he ever would win it. But on Sunday he did it and in the process of winning the career Grand Slam, he also tied Pete Sampras at 14 Grand Slams. Though he didn’t have to go through Nadal (was upset earlier in tournament) on this time, no one can take this victory away from him. Even Sampras said that with this win it “solidifies his place in history as the greatest player that played the game.” I agree with him for right now, but I believe that Nadal will pass him by the time he’s finished. Federer also got a little scare from a fan running on the court and trying to put a hat on him. It was funny but kind of scary that it took so long for the security to chase this guy away.
On the ice there’s been a pretty good series going on that probably no one is watching between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Detroit Red Wings. And I don’t think the NHL or NBC cares by the way they have scheduled the games.
Who plays back to back games in the Finals? Hockey I guess. The series was just tied up by the Penguins before they got blasted by the Wings 5-0 on Saturday. That win gave them a 3-2 series advantage but the next game is in Pittsburgh and the home team has won every game in this series. I expect it to go 7 games with the Penguins winning at home. Game 7 will be a toss up that can go either way.
In the NBA Finals the Magic had a lot to prove to all the people saying the series was over after the blow out in Game 1.
Both teams came out slow in the first half missing many shots and just playing sloppy. But in the second half a very entertaining competitive game broke out. In the closing seconds both teams had a chance get the win. Kobe was blocked from behind on his attempted for the win and the Magic then called time out with less than a second. The Magic drew up an excellent out of bounds play that got rookie Courtney Lee a wide open alley-oop lay up. He missed it though sending the game to overtime where the Lakers pulled out the win. This game was a lot more competitive than the first game and there should be more of the same as the series shifts to Orlando. Game 3 is going to be big for both teams. If the Lakers win we could be looking at a sweep. If the Magic wins then this series will most likely make it back to LA. We’ll see this week.
