Good Morning, Stumpers!

After just 1 day of rest, the OKC Thunder will be playing in their first Western Conference Finals since the KD-Westbrook days! This is a massive series for this franchise, and a chance to legitimize their back-to-back 1 seeds! We had a good day yesterday, including some Soto Drama, some Paige Buckets, and then a Tush Push Proposal as well, a lot going on! Let’s start picking up what we’re putting down!

Today’s Rundown

What’s in today’s edition?

• 🏈 Packers Propose Ban of Tush-Push…Again

• 🏀 Western Conference Finals Preview!

• ⚾️ Soto….walking…..not running!

• 💥 Paige Bueckers is still a baller…in case you didn’t know!

On This Day

On This Day…

⚾️ Clemens Gets Win No. One

They called him the Rocket, and boy did he live up to the name. But before he was a massive name in baseball history, he had to get his first.

On this day in 1984, Roger Clemens earned the first win of his career in a 5-4 Boston Red Sox win over the Minnesota Twins. Clemens pitched 7 innings, striking out seven batters. He finished his rookie season with a 4.32 ERA, a 9-4 record, with 126 strikeouts. A sign of what was to come.

Today’s Trivia

🧠 Test your sports knowledge…

Yesterday’s Trivia Answer: A. True! The Knicks are the only team in the Conference Finals to have ever won an NBA Championship! The Pacers, Timberwolves, and Thunder have not.

Before We Dive In…

👀 Yesterday’s Must See’s

• ⚾️ HOMERS HOMERS HOMERS for the DBACKS!

• 💥 LA says we can do that too!

• ⛳️Even at the top, the frustration is real!

🔍️ Stump Spotlight

Cinema In The West

🍿Timberwolves-Thunder To Be Madness

There’s a lot going on here. That is all.

Do not let the 1vs6 seed matchup fool you, the team with more experience in this part of the postseason is the 6-seeded Timberwolves. The Thunder and their young core were knocked out last year in the second round, and the Timberwolves were able to make to the conference finals, but then also get eliminated (both by the same team coincidentally. You must be thinking that team had a really good core and would be staying in-tact for a while, I’m sure they are!)

The Timberwolves and Thunder don’t seem to like each other. In their most recent regular season win over the Thunder, the Timberwolves went to the podium and both Head Coach Chris Finch and then Ant Edwards both said that SGA was reffed differently, and that something needed to be called differently.

Without saying ‘Free-Throw Merchant’, they said that the calls he were getting were pretty soft. We’ll have to see how that is reffed early in the series, but it will be something to keep an eye on.

The role players for both teams stepped up in the closing games in the second round, and they will no doubt be even more important here for one of these young teams to make an NBA Finals! Julius Randle and Jalen Williams will both be playing the role of Robin, and whoever executes it better could single handedly decide the match. The Timberwolves want to get the bad taste of their Conference Finals last year to leave their mind, and to do that they will need to come out firing today.

We’re in for a treat today, so lock in!

The Hot Stove

🏈 Packers Again Propose to Ban Tush Push

It’s an interesting debate that has two strong arguments. The Eagles are simply saying, “Hey, you can’t stop it and now you just want to ban it?” And then all of the other teams say that it isn’t football. There’s a lot going on here.

It was in February that the Packers submitted a proposal to the league to ban the tush push infamously used by the reigning champs, the Philadelphia Eagles. It is no doubt a strong play that includes almost a metric ton going right down the teeth of the defense. The Packers initial proposal cited safety issues as the main reason for the potential ban. They wanted to ban the exact situation of a player being lined up directly behind the one the ball was being snapped to, and their sole role being to push the pile, immediately at the snap.

They updated their proposal yesterday and said that now it is not just about the snapper, but instead about any player pushing or pulling the ball carrier in any direction. They are going backwards if you ask me. When an O-Line piles behind an RB and shoves them an extra 5-yards, that’s about as hype as it gets in the trenches! We’ll see where all these proposals go from here!

🏀 Paige Buckets! BALLLLLER!

If you thought the Number 1 overall pick was going to need some time to grow in the W, that time period seemed to be 1 game.

Last night the Dallas Wings hosted the Seattle Storm in what was the Wings’ second game of the year. They ran into a bit of a wagon in game one with the Minnesota Lynx, but this one was much more competitive, and their rookie looked good! After 10 points and 7 rebounds in her debut, Paige Bueckers backed that up with a stat sheet stuffer. She ended with 19 points, 4 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 steals, and 1 block. All over the place. Her 19 points was a team high and she shot 50% from the field. All good numbers. The hype doesn’t seem to be as big as Caitlin’s from last year, but she no doubt can go on an absolute tear this year and show that she is not your average rook! Let’s go Paige!

⚾️ Trouble in Paradise! SOTO Not Running!

Man, this one is a tough scene here. Just all around for one of the highest paid guys in Sports period.

During the highly watched Subway Series, there was a Juan Soto ball hit into the infield, it was a tough play to make, and maybe there was a 5% chance he could have been safe if he really booked it, but with the speed he was running, it was 0%. There was no hustle, and it became a bit of a mini headline that the “$700 million man wasn’t hustling”. Is that completely fair, I don’t know, but it’s what was being said.

One time is ok. The tough scene is here. Yesterday against the Red Sox, he got caught ball-watching again! This time on a ball that was feet away from being a Home Run. He stared at a little too long and it all resulted in a single (worth noting that he stole second on the very first pitch of the next at-bat). Just an interesting little blip out of the Mets camp, this story ends with Mets Manager Carlos Mendoza saying that he would address the lack of running with Soto after the game.

⬇️ Quick Links

• 🏈Fred Warner becomes highest-paid LB in NFL!

• 🏀Haliburton invites fan to Pacers Game 4!

• ⛳️Emotions run high! Clark apologizes for driver throw!

What To Watch

🏀 NBA Playoffs

• Western Conference Finals: Timberwolves @ Thunder (8:30 PM)

⚾️ Major League Baseball

• TBS: Mets @ Red Sox (6:45 PM)

• What to Watch: Braves @ Nationals (6:4 PM), Rangers @ Yankees (7:05 PM), Padres @ Blue Jays (7:07 PM), Tigers @ Cardinals (7:45 PM). Royals @ Giants (9:45 PM). DBacks @ Dodgers (10:10 PM), full schedule

🏒 NHL Playoffs

• Panthers @ Hurricanes (8:00 PM)

🏀 WNBA

• Aces @ Sun (7:00 PM), Dream @ Fever (7:00 PM on NBAtv)

⚽️ Soccer

• Premier League: Crystal Palace @ Wolverhampton (3:00 PM), Man City vs Bournemouth (3:00 PM on USA Network)

The Moment You’ve Been Waiting For

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