A Sports Filled Weekend It Was

The Cleveland Cavaliers closed out the Toronto Raptors on Sunday in their NBA playoff series, sweeping them in four games. The 109-102 road win gave the Cavs their eighth straight playoff victory against no defeats.

The other series on the verge of ending is Golden State’s, where the Warriors extended their series to 3-0 over the Utah Jazz on Saturday night with a 102-91 victory. Sunday’s Washington Wizards’ victory by 121-102 over the Boston Celtics evened that series at 2-2. And the Houston Rockets and San Antonio Spurs are tied 2-2 after the Rockets won 125-104 on Sunday.

NHL: The Nashville Predators won their way to their first Western Conference championship game, stopping the St. Louis Blues 3-1 on Sunday to win their series in six games. The Edmonton Oilers extended the Anaheim Ducks to a seventh game on Wednesday with a 7-1 victory. The Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals play Game 6 on Monday night, with the Pens up 3-2 and Sidney Crosby back from his concussion; the Ottawa Senators, up 3-2 on the New York Rangers, go for the clincher on Tuesday night.

KENTUCKY DERBY: Faithful readers of this blog were given the winner on Friday – Always Dreaming. Going off as the favorite, Always Dreaming ran away from Irish War Cry and wasn’t really challenged down the muddy stretch at Churchill Downs, winning by 2 ¾ lengths. Lookin at Lee was second and Battle of Midway was third. The second leg of the Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes, is May 20.

BASEBALL: High scores were the story of the weekend. The Boston Red Sox scored 10 runs in the ninth inning on Sunday in a 17-6 victory over the Minnesota Twins. The Red Sox had beaten the Cleveland Indians 11-1 on Saturday. The Cincinnati Reds beat the San Francisco Giants 14-2 on Saturday and then shut them out 4-0 on Sunday to sweep the three-game series. The Los Angeles Dodgers put up double figures on the Arizona Diamondbacks on Saturday, 10-2. And on Sunday the Miami Marlins blanked the New York Mets 7-0, with Giancarlo Stanton hitting two home runs that may be orbiting the earth right now. And last but not least the New York Yankees blew a ninth-inning lead and had to play nine more innings to beat the Chicago Cubs 5-4 on Sunday night. The Yankees swept three games from the Cubs.

COLLEGE LACROSSE: The University of Maryland’s men’s and women’s teams are Big Ten champions for the second straight year. The lads topped Ohio State 10-9 on Saturday and the women beat Northwestern 14-6. Both Terp teams are ranked No. 1 and seeded No. 1 in their respective NCAA tournaments.

NASCAR: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. topped Kyle Busch in overtime at Talladega for his first career NASCAR Cup Series win. The win was also the first for Roush Fenway Racing since 2014.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman