Good Morning, Stumpers!

Just gonna lay it straight for you and say that our Glue Guy of the day today is part of the Cleaning Supply Family, and he’s an absolute TANK! That’s all from that department. Yesterday was a MASSIVE day! Scottie Scheffler won his THIRD Major and first PGA Championship, the Thunder advanced in a Game 7, and we had a Game 7 on the ICE too! Big day! Happy Monday! Let’s start the day positive today!

Today’s Rundown

What’s in today’s edition?

• 🐶 Conference Finals Are Set! Somebody New is Getting a Ring!

• ⛳️ Scottie Scheffler WINS PGA Championship!

• 🏀 Game 7 On The Ice! Panthers Crush Leafs

• 🎼 We’ve Got Blue Swede For You Today!

On This Day

On This Day…

⚾️ Kluber Hurls a No-Hitter

Anytime I get a chance to shoutout Corey Kluber, I’m going to. Even at the end of his professional career, he still had some juice left in the tank.

On this day in 2021, New York Yankees pitcher Corey Kluber no-hits the Texas Rangers, 2-0 at Globe Life Field in Texas. Kluber had a few seasons of pure pitching excellence, but this no-hitter may be the greatest moment in his long career. He was a three-time all-star and won two AL Cy Young Awards in his career.

Today’s Trivia

🧠 Test your sports knowledge…

Yesterday’s Trivia Answer: B. SGA! His 35 points led all scorers in yesterday’s Game 7 win over Denver

Before We Dive In…

👀 Yesterday’s Must See’s

• 🏆️ Scottie dropped the top of the trophy!

• 🤣 KAT bringing Yankee and Met fans together

• 🐈️ Panthers pouring it on in Toronto

• ⚾️ Angels just swept the Dodgers! Wow!

🔍️ Stump Spotlight

NBA Conference Finals

🐶 Four Underdogs?

Before you read this story, go ahead and check out our trivia question today to just get a small hint of how crazy this conference finals is. Sure, the Thunder may have had the best record in all of basketball this year, but could we consider them an underdog?

If you’re thinking, how the heck could the team with the best record in all of basketball this year be considered an underdog? It’s actually way more simple than you may think. Their age. They’re the youngest team the league with an average age of just over 24, and they are also one of the youngest teams to ever secure a one seed in the NBA Playoffs. If you watched that Nuggets series, I don’t think it would be far fetched to say that the Nuggets were probably the “favorite” per se. Obviously, the Thunder proved that wrong, but I think there still is a little stigma or underdog mentality surrounding this OKC team. Perhaps it’s a “doubt us, I dare you” mindset, whatever it is, it’s working.

OKC joined the other three underdogs to make the Conference Finals, to complete the foursome. The New York Knicks and Indiana Pacers both eliminated the top two seeds in the Eastern Conference, and it was pretty handedly too. Granted, I’ll give the Cavs and Celtics their injury problems, but even when both teams were healthy, it didn’t look all that pretty. The Eastern Conference finals will now have two teams that are hungry, have already defeated the odds, and play with an incredibly intense mindset. It will surely be a heavyweight fight with a lot of scratching and crawling.

The other team in the West, the Minnesota Timberwolves, defeated the national betting favorite Los Angeles Lakers in the first round, and then ran through a Steph Curry-less Warriors squad in the second round. The Timberwolves were written off earlier this year after some injuries led to an ugly run of basketball. Then, they got hot. All of a sudden, down the stretch, the Wolves became the hottest team in the NBA. They haven’t looked back yet, either. This extended break was huge for an ailing Anthony Edwards, who’s been dealing with a wobbly ankle. The West will be best watched with some warm popcorn.

I, like many sports fans, love a good underdog. That’s the prominent storyline heading into this weeks action, which underdog can step into the spotlight and take their spot at the top of the NBA. It’s time for some basketball, baby!

The Hot Stove

🏀 OKC Rolls at Home, Advances

I’ll keep this one short, as one of the Stump admins doesn’t deserve to read too much about this as a Nugs fan.

Now, this, this was a series! No matter who you cheered for here, we were given some incredible basketball. 7 games of pure entertainment, with some of the best in the game lighting up the scoreboard. When it came to Game 7, it was all OKC. The second quarter was an absolute onslaught, as OKC put up 39 points in the quarter to take a 14-point lead into the half. It didn’t get much better in the second half, actually, it got worse. I think what it really came down to was depth. The Nuggets ran out of gas, and the Thunder had more to give. Jamal Murray being sick and Aaron Gordon playing with an ailing hamstring didn’t help, but the obvious difference in this game was the bench. Their was a minimal drop off when OKC put in their subs, but their was a noticeable one when Denver did. The Jokic train ran out of gas.

⛳️ Scottie Signs Off on Another Major

Was it just another day in the office for Scottie?

Honestly, this guy makes it look so easy it almost feels expected. But when I step back and look at it, this win was anything other than another day on the course. Scottie had a slow start to the season, by his standards, and didn’t break through for a win until a couple of weeks ago. Even this weekend, you could see there were times where he didn’t feel comfortable with his swing. Yesterday, Scottie struggled on the front nine and had to make adjustments on the fly. He did. That’s what’s so impressive to me about his game, is he can just tinker in the middle of rounds and find something that works. His back nine was incredible, he played like the Scottie we know and love, and he got into the winners circle because of it. Due to some other players struggling, it was obvious that Scottie was playing a little more free on the back nine, his scorecard showed it. We saw some really raw emotion from Scottie as he celebrated on the 18th green, slamming his hat to the ground and screaming at the top of his lungs, “let’s f***** go, baby”! That level of emotion is rare from the worlds top player, but it goes to show that yesterday was not just another round, and it was not just another win.

🏒 Panthers Get By Leafs in Game 7!

The Panthers are odd to the Eastern Conference Finals for the third straight year!

This one was not as dramatic as advertised! ! A highly anticipated Game 7 between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Florida Panthers ended with a 6-1 blowout in favor of the road team Panthers. They now move on to face off against the Carolina Hurricanes in a matchup of titans. The defending champs will look to make their third straight Stanley Cup Final after falling in 2023 and getting their revenge in 2024.

The second period was the money period for the Panthers, scoring three of their goals in the span of 6 minutes and 24 seconds of game time. The Maple Leafs showed life early in the third netting a goal, but the Panthers responded almost instantly (47 seconds after)! A sad ending for Toronto after a chance to advance to their first conference finals since 2002!

⬇️ Quick Links

• 💉 Phillies reliever suspended 80 games for PEDs

• 😥 Twins win-streak ends at 13 games

• 🏎️ Rookie wins the Indy 500, first time since 1983

What To Watch

🏀 NBA Playoffs

• Off day! Conference finals get started tomorrow…

⚾️ Major League Baseball

• FS1: Reds @ Pirates (6:40 PM)

• What to Watch: Mets @ Red Sox (6:45 PM), Astros @ Rays (7:05 PM). Guardians @ Twins (7:40 PM), Tigers @ Cardinals (7:45 PM), Royals @ Giants (9:45 PM), DBacks @ Dodgers (10:10 PM), full schedule

🏒 NHL Playoffs

• Off day! Conference finals get started tomorrow…

🏀 WNBA

• Storm @ Wings (8:00 PM on NBAtv)

⚽️ Soccer

• Premier League: Brighton vs Liverpool (3:00 PM on USA)

The Moment You’ve Been Waiting For

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