Good Morning, Stumpers!

We hope that this weekend was restful and what you dream of during the week, but it’s time to get rolling again. While you’re fired up to read today’s edition, which includes the context of the SheBelieves Cup, yesterday’s NBA slate, and San Diego FC’s big-time inaugural MLS win, we hope you take a second to tell your friends about this newsletter. We promise, it’s gonna be a good ride.

CLICK ME I’M FREE AND I LOVE THE STUMP ⬇️ 

Today’s Rundown

Everything you’ll get from today’s edition, and more:

• ⚽️ SheBelieves Cup: What it is and Why it Matters

• 🏀 A BUSY day in the NBA, we got the rundown

• ⚽️ San Diego FC wins their inaugural match, ruins Galaxy celebration

• 🏒 The game AFTER the Miracle on Ice

On This Day

On This Day…

🏒 After the “Miracle On Ice”

Sometimes you don’t even remember that the USA’s win over the Soviet Union in 1980 in the Olympics was not the Gold Medal game! It actually happened two days later!

On this day in 1980, Team USA won the Gold Medal in the Olympics for Ice Hockey against Finland by a score of 4-2! The win over the Soviet Union was etched in history, but even after that the squad made sure to finish the job!

🧠 Test your sports knowledge…

Yesterday’s Trivia Answer: (B) Roman Anthony! The Red Sox young stud outfielder has a chance to make the opening-day roster this year, but if not, we’ll likely see him make his debut at some point this season.

Before We Dive In…

👀 Here’s Yesterday’s MUST-See’s

• 🏀 DONOVAN MITCHELL RACK ATTACK

• 🤯 HALIBURTON BETWEEN THE LEGS LOB

• ⚾️ First Breggy Bomb in a Red Sox uniform

• 🤣 Indiana “honors” Bob Knight chair toss

The Hot Stove

International Soccer

⚽️ What is the SheBelieves Cup?

What to know: Founded nine years ago, the SheBelieves Cup is a round-robin tournament held over two match days between some of the best women’s international soccer clubs in the country. Yesterday, the United States won their 8th tournament with their 2-1 victory over Australia. SheBelieves is a movement focusing on empowering young women.

This was the 10th running of the tournament, this year featured the United States (World #1), Japan (World #7), Australia (World #15), and Colombia (World #21). The tournament has featured France, Germany, Brazil, Iceland, Canada, Spain, Czech Republic, New Zealand, and England throughout the years, as it’s a celebration of women’s sports across the world.

The movement was inspired by the US national teams’ run-up to the 2015 World Cup and is meant to encourage young women to achieve their dreams. SheBelieves is dedicated to women’s empowerment within and outside of sports. The SheBelieves Summit takes place surrounding the tournament itself, and is used as an opportunity for young women to empower their confidence, career, and community, as well as themselves. The event features speakers, panels, and fireside chats from women in STEM to professional athletes, and everyone in between.

While the soccer is an obviously cool part of all of this, it’s awesome to see the US national team using their platform to promote such an amazing event for young women across the world. Changing the nations to compete in this tournament shows the world that women from all over are uniquely strong and powerful. United States Soccer serves as an ambassador for SheBelieves, which they launched a new program to unite and elevate nonprofits, women’s sports organizations, and influencers to promote positivity impacting girls and women.

Everyone watches women’s sports, and the young generation pays attention more than we know. What a top-class tournament that means more than just soccer.

NBA

🏈 Primetime Hoops! A Lot of it!

What to know: Yesterday we had not one, not two, not three, BUT FOUR games on Primetime TV! Here’s what went down…

Knicks @ Celtics: We just touched upon this a few days ago when we talked about the Cavs! The Knicks are clearly a good team with a good roster, but when it comes to East. It’s Boston. It’s Cleveland. And that’s it. The Knicks turned a blowout into a 4-point game in the third quarter, but when it was crunch time, and shots had to be made. It was the Celtics doing what they do. Until the Knicks can prove that they belong with one of the top dogs, there are only 2 top dawgs in the East! The Celtics got the win, 118-105!

Mavs @ Warriors: Since the trade of Luka Doncic, the Mavs have been pretty hit or miss, sitting with a 5-4 record since the move. In that time, Kyrie Irving has taken on the role of lead scorer, as his February scoring average is just under 29 points. Irving, like many of the Mavs, struggled yesterday in Golden State. On the night that Andre Iguodala’s jersey, Steph Curry put on a show to honor is long-time teammate. In an average shooting night from beyond the arc, Curry poured home 30 points to go along with 7 rebounds. While his newest favorite teammate, Jimmy Butler, added 18 points of his own. Golden State wins it 126-102.

Grizzlies @ Cavs: The recent bias that the Western Conference is stacked compared to the Eastern Conference was put to the test again last night as the 2 seed in the West Grizzlies visited the 1 seed in the East Cavs. It was a back-and-forth ball game all day long, with the Cavs leading throughout but the Grizzlies always in striking distance. The Cavs were without their All-Star PG Darius Garland, so Donovan Mitchell made sure to get off to a hot start. His 22 first-half points and 33 total led all scorers. Ty Jerome stole the second-half show, going on an absolute heater in the late third quarter into the fourth, finishing the game with 26 points. Cleveland wins this one for the East, 129-126.

MLS

⚽️ San Diego Winners in Their First Match

What to know: If you only watched the pregame of this one you would’ve thought you were at a party and not an MLS game. It was a celebration of multiple things, one being the inaugural match for San Diego FC. The match took place at the home of the LA Galaxy, who celebrated last years MLS championship by hanging their league-record sixth title.

On the flip side of this, San Diego watched their opponent raise their banner before their first ever game as the MLS’s newest expansion franchise. What a way to inspire the squad in their first ever game by seeing the ultimate goal right off the bat. While the Galaxy are the defending champions, last nights team looked much different.

LA was without five starters from last years squad, either because of injury, trade or transfer. Both teams were not really sure what they were going to get out of their guys, San Diego has a roster that was taped together through the expansion draft and a offseason full of signings to fill out the roster.

San Diego put their first goal of their franchise’s new history in the 52nd minute when Hirving Lozano put a deflection into the back of the bin. Carlos Dos Santos, San Diego’s goalkeeper, saved three shots on goal and recorded his first ever clean sheet. Anders Dreyer put home the final blow in the 93rd minute to secure the win for San Diego. It was the first loss for LA on their home turf since October 21st of 2023. 2-0, San Diego.

1-0.

Quick Hitters

• 🤕 Embiid, 76ers exploring options for his knee

• 🤔 QB Shedeur Sanders won’t workout at NFL Combine

• 🔥 Indiana shocks Purdue at Assembly Hall

• 🏀 Mystics trade All-Star guard to Sky for No. 3 overall pick

What We’re Watching

🏀 We’ve got an 8-game slate with an NBA TV game!

• NBA TV: Timberwolves @ Thunder (8:00 PM ET)

• More to Watch: Nuggets @ Pacers (7:00 PM ET), Heat @ Hawks (7:30 PM ET), Hornets @ Kings (10:00 PM ET)

🏒 Mini Slate in the NHL!

• Sharks @ Jets (7:30 PM ET on NHL Network), Golden Knights @ Kings (10:30 PM ET)

⚾️ SPRING BASEBALL! Yup. It’s here.

• Yankees vs Red Sox (1:05 PM ET), Pirates vs Phillies (1:05 PM ET), Braves vs Orioles (1:05 PM ET), Dodgers vs Reds (3:05 PM ET), Cubs vs Padres (3:10 PM ET), full schedule

🏀 College Basketball ranked action:

• Men’s: (12) Michigan @ Nebraska (8:00 PM ET), (5) Houston @ (9) Texas Tech (9:00 PM ET), (23) Kansas @ Colorado (11:00 PM ET)

• Women’s: (2) Texas @ Georgia (7:00 PM ET), (19) Baylor @ (12) Kansas St. (7:00 PM ET)

⚽️ International Futbol!

• La Liga: Sevilla vs Mallorca (3:00 PM ET)

The Moment You’ve Been Waiting For

Can’t thank you enough for sticking to the end of this thing we call The Daily Stump. If you know anybody who might want this bit of daily juice in their life, send them this link, it would go a long way. Appreciate the hell out of you all!

Trees may get chopped. Stumps hold strong 🌴