Straightening Up

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May 12, 2026
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In scoring 39 points in the second half of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 112-103 Game 4 victory over the Detroit Pistons, Donovan Mitchell matched an NBA playoff record that he now shares with a Golden State Warrior: nope, it is not Wardell in this case. Sleepy Floyd, a Gastonia native who was once “misled” into a diplomatic trip to the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea with Dennis Rodman, posted the same number against the eventual champion Los Angeles Lakers in the 1987 West Semis.

Sticking on the floor through the final buzzer just in case, Mitchell finished with 43 points after a down first half in which Detroit had him swimming around defenders. When Cleveland went on a 24-0 run splitting the halves, Don poured in 15, shifting into the playoff mode to which we have grown accustomed between Salt Lake and here.

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Dust My Broom

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May 10, 2026
Sports
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Sitting at a place around the corner early Sunday afternoon, I openly pondered whether I had been alive when the New York Knicks last swept a series. In a knowing nod to my predilection for superstition, the other party replied, “You shouldn’t have said that.” 

As it turns out, I was – a conference semis sweep over, of all teams, the Atlanta Hawks in 1999 –  but the feeling that accompanied the Knicks’ 144-114 Game 4 win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday is not at all what it feels like to be a Knicks fan generally. The Knicks don’t sweep series; they go down 2-1, like they did in the first round against those very Hawks, before making every subsequent brush with disaster the most heart-stopping affair possible. The Knicks play (and, recently anyway, win) close games. They don’t play close series.

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Veins Of What

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May 9, 2026
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“I am who I am. He is who he is, but that’s what makes us so dynamic. You can choose.” – Donovan Mitchell, on James Harden

Don is Jim’s teammate, so he might know better. Despite Kendrick Perkins’ assertions, James Harden’s veins are not flowing on Kool-Aid. With two minutes left down the stretch, and the Cleveland Cavaliers hanging on to anything like a possibility of what if, Harden drilled three shots. The Cavs nervously closed out of necessity over the Detroit Pistons, 116-109, to draw 2-1 overall.

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Morsels

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May 9, 2026
Basketball, NBA, Sports
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For the second time in three tries since, the Denver Nuggets won more games in the regular season than in the year they won the NBA championship. Also for the second time in three tries since that very same time, the Denver Nuggets lost in the playoffs to an empowered Minnesota Timberwolves team. 

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Game: A Recap

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May 1, 2026
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Since 1972, the same year in which The Omni opened in Atlanta, the taking (that is, the killing, capturing, selling, trading and/or transport) of protected migratory bird species without prior authorization by the Department of the Interior is prohibited under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, as amended via an agreement with Japan in 1972. First violation fines may reach $100k, maybe a year in prison if it suits you. 

Rather than leaving it to a federal approval that hmm might never arrive, the New York Knicks engaged in some taking (that is, killing, capturing, selling, trading and/or transport) of some old avian foes. While hawks are a protected species, the Atlanta Hawks knew no protection from OG Anunoby, who led the Knicks to an NBA playoff record 47-point halftime lead and, ultimately, a 140-89 series-clinching victory over the charred fowl.

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Prelude, 2026

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April 17, 2026
Basketball, NBA
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On Tuesday night, the NBA put forth the best opening night of the play-in era by a considerable margin. Opening proceedings, the Miami Heat met the Charlotte Hornets, the former with its ostensibly altruistic #HeatCulture, the latter with a singularly special do-everything point guard who should possibly only drive and also never drive again. 

To the former: a last-second layup from LaMelo Ball extinguished the Heat, setting up a date with fellow division rivals the Orlando Magic, themselves at a team crossroads going into the summer. Charlotte enters ablaze. Well, the thing with Bam, whatever happened there–

In the late game, Jrue Holiday reminded you that he’s won NBA championships, plural, in past lives, delivering the Portland Trail Blazers to a land that nobody promised: the 7-seed, to face off against the San Antonio Spurs. Frustratingly, and despite their best efforts, the Phoenix Suns remain in the present. Courtesy of the Wednesday game, Phoenix now has the opportunity to face the Golden State Warriors, fresh off a deconstruction of Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers.

Standing two games away from us, finally, are the NBA playoffs. Breathe in; exhale.

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Save Tomorrow For Tomorrow

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March 5, 2026
America, Basketball, NBA
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Did the Charlotte Hornets just beat the Boston Celtics so mercilessly on their own parquet that Jayson Tatum is rushing back from injury? If he shows his mug on Friday against the Dallas Mavericks – extremely unnecessarily given all of the smoke AND fire surrounding Achilles injuries and rushing back from them, paging Kevin Durant – then we’ll know: the Hornets let Boston know they are here.

Currently riding a six-game winning streak, each of which have been by 15 or more points[1], the Hornets are the NBA’s hottest team. They’ve also won ten straight on the road, a franchise record. In his second season at the helm, head coach Charles Lee has a healthy roster and a cohesive vision. So far, the players are following suit, and it is coming together. No team has been better in 2026 than the Charlotte Hornets.

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Cavs On The Run

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February 25, 2026
Basketball, NBA, Sports
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In what more or less amounted to a mutual understanding of a lack of confidence in their respective players, the Los Angeles Clippers traded James Harden to the Cleveland Cavaliers on February 4th for Darius Garland and draft considerations. Of the swaps that occurred at this year’s fairly active trade deadline, this was both the biggest headline and the one with the potential to have the most impact.

Following Tuesday’s 109-94 drubbing of the New York Knicks, completed while cosplaying as the Spurrier-era Tampa Bay Bucs, the Cavs are 7-1 since trading for Harden and are 16-4 in their last twenty games. Cleveland’s play with Harden on board in every sense has shifted the balance of the East. 

Although questions remain about both of this Cavs team’s and Harden’s own playoff mindsets, there is no such querying into their talent, or what they could be if Kenny Atkinson can maximize them. Quietly at first and suddenly screaming, the Cleveland Cavaliers are announcing themselves as title contenders.

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On All Cylinders

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January 9, 2026
Basketball, NBA, Sports
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In the midst of a recent game against the surging Orlando Magic, Cade Cunningham strolled into the lane, swapped hands a couple of times, saw Goga Bitadze and said to himself, “SELF: I will have this layup.” With an elegant spin gaining entry to the lane, he excused himself and laid an open layup in to put the Pistons up 114-97. Lay the blessed rock: check.

That this might be the best team J.B. Bickerstaff has ever coached[1] is fantastic for everyone. Detroit won that game 135-116. The Pistons are fresh off a shellacking of the unsteady East favorite New York Knicks, a month after a thirteen-game winning streak – it is neither your horse nor your flying circus that they needed overtime to beat the resilient, pre-Trae Young Washington Wizards.

Even with the Knicks’ victory over a surging San Antonio Spurs team in the [REDACTED] NBA Cup Final, Detroit looks like the serious contender in the East that has arrived slightly before schedule, as the Thunder did a few ticks over longitudinally two seasons ago. As we adjust to “ahead of schedule” increasingly meaning “exactly on time,” the Detroit Pistons have arrived. Finally, J.B. Bickerstaff has a team worth seeing through.

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Live in ’25

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December 31, 2025
America, Music, Politics, Pop Culture, Religion, Rock
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“I have a show tonight for the band that’s probably gonna have my album of the year, but instead of prepping more for that, I spent last night watching Mario Balotelli highlights and listening to ‘Supersonic’ on repeat, then made myself tea for the first time this season because it’s finally not 900 degrees outside. Think it’s fair to say I’m catching up to the rest of you lot in excitement now.” – RKID, the oldest, not older – 27/8/2025

Having plied his trade playing up front in the aughts for Manchester City FC and Liverpool, among many other places, Balotelli provided a comfortable parallel: as the guy who created the unlikeliest Premier League-winning goal in history with what is literally his only league assist to date in five seasons, he has shocked the world, too.

One year to the date of the first official reunion announcement, the aforementioned premier brother texted the group of people who would go on to see a reunited Oasis[1] at MetLife Stadium over Labor Day Weekend, sixteen years after the tumultuous last tour and Paris break-up: Oasis Live ’25 was real. What do you believe in? Here’s one way I found out an answer I’d forgotten.

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