Jedd Pagaduan Articles - Page 74

The Dallas Mavericks had to come out of Game 4 and mean business, as any lapse in concentration would mean the end of their championship hopes. Accordingly, they wasted no time to put their stamp on the game. Thanks to a strong start in the first quarter spurred on by a version of Luka Doncic […]

The Boston Celtics looked very much on track to seal the deal in the 2024 NBA Finals after taking a 3-0 series lead against the Dallas Mavericks. While the Mavericks have mounted a few runs here and there to threaten to keep the series close, the Celtics have had an answer for every question Dallas […]

Kristaps Porzingis made his triumphant return for the Boston Celtics in Game 1 of the 2024 NBA Finals after he missed 10 consecutive playoff games — which spanned from Game 6 of the first round until the end of the Eastern Conference Finals — due to a calf strain. However, Porzingis sustained a “rare” injury […]

Jalen Brunson has turned into a legitimate superstar for the New York Knicks — an MVP candidate even — that it’s easy to forget his humble beginnings with the Dallas Mavericks. Many people remember how he was the breakout star of the 2022 NBA playoffs. But before that, he was a bench player for the […]

The St. Louis Cardinals franchise is not accustomed to losing. Fresh off a 91-loss season in 2023, the Cardinals look to return to business as usual in 2024. However, they haven’t exactly been good through the first three or so months of the current season. They have a 33-34 record at the time of writing, […]

The Las Vegas Aces have not started their bid for a third consecutive championship on the best of footings. Without team leader, both on and off the court, Chelsea Gray, the Aces have sputtered to a 5-5 start, including a 1-4 stretch entering their Thursday night matchup against the Phoenix Mercury. But even amidst the […]

There have been some parallels between the Edmonton Oilers and the Dallas Mavericks in their respective runs to the championship round of their respective leagues. The Oilers, led by generational talent Connor McDavid, finally broke through, getting past the Western Conference gauntlet en route to their first Stanley Cup Final berth in 18 years. Meanwhile, […]

The Boston Celtics, despite losing in the 2022 NBA Finals, have all the makings of a contending team, especially when they have two of the best wings in the NBA in a league driven by those exact archetype of players. Wings who do it all on both ends of the floor are worth their weight […]

Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks may have entered the 2024 NBA Finals as the underdog, but no one who calls themselves a basketball analyst would have counted them out against the Boston Celtics. However, from the get-go, it was apparent that the Celtics posed a ton of matchup issues that the Mavericks hadn’t yet […]

The Dallas Mavericks have been impressive throughout their run to the 2024 NBA Finals; they handily took care of the Kawhi Leonard-less Los Angeles Clippers, outmuscled the youthful Oklahoma City Thunder, and rendered the top-ranked defense of the Minnesota Timberwolves helpless. However, Luka Doncic and company have run into a major problem in the Boston […]

The Boston Celtics are well on their way to hanging the 18th banner on the TD Garden rafters after they survived a late Dallas Mavericks onslaught to take a 106-99 victory. They are now leading the 2024 NBA Finals, 3-0, and the Celtics fans are smelling blood in the water as they have the Mavericks […]

The 2024 NBA Finals is still the league’s biggest spectacle, as it, more often than not, pits against each other two of the best teams in the association. However, having the best teams doesn’t necessarily mean having the best players. The opportunity for the NBA to showcase its best players comes during February, when the […]

The Dallas Mavericks entered Game 3 of the 2024 NBA Finals knowing what was at stake. They were looking to avoid going down 3-0, which would basically be a death sentence for their title hopes. Being at home, they had the advantage of being in friendly confines, giving them a golden opportunity to make it […]

On Wednesday, June 12, 2024, the NBA lost a huge icon of the sport in Jerry West, the Los Angeles Lakers legend who put a stamp on the game both as a player and as an executive. West, who served as the inspiration of the association’s timeless logo, had passed away at the age of […]

The Las Vegas Aces may be one of the best teams in the WNBA in 2024, but over the past few games, they have looked anything but. A’ja Wilson has been putting up MVP numbers on a nightly basis, but the Aces haven’t quite hit their stride yet this season amid their bid for a […]

The Philadelphia Phillies own the best record in MLB at the moment for a reason. On Tuesday night, even on a night where they had to scrap and claw against a gritty Boston Red Sox team, the Phillies showed why they’re a class above the rest of the pack this season. They pulled out a […]

On Tuesday night, the Boston Red Sox began as difficult of a series as it can get in 2024 as they welcomed the Philadelphia Phillies, the team with the best record in the entire MLB, into Fenway Park. With the Red Sox struggling to climb over .500, defeating the Phillies will be a difficult task, […]

It’s a downright understatement to say that Ben Simmons has endured a rough couple of years. In fact, the entirety of Simmons’ Brooklyn Nets has been a disaster. It’s important to note, however, that Simmons is only 27 years old. So there might still be a chance that he regains his form and bounces back […]

Since the 2017-18 season, the Boston Celtics, more often than not, have been one of the best teams in the association. They may have come close to winning a championship in 2022, but this year feels different, as the Celtics have been very dominant en route to taking a 2-0 series lead over the Dallas […]

James Harden, without a doubt, is way past his prime. Set to turn 35 years of age in a little over two months, Harden is looking to command one last big pay day that would most likely come from the Los Angeles Clippers. The memory of his prime is fading fast, but some of his […]

The Los Angeles Lakers, despite being a first-round exit in this year’s playoffs, became the talk of the town this past week when reports of their hot pursuit of UConn head coach Dan Hurley came out via Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. The Lakers even went as far as to offer a six-year, $70 million deal […]

To this day, Kevin Durant’s departure from the Oklahoma City Thunder in free agency eight years ago to form a superteam with the Golden State Warriors remains a sore spot for some fans. The Warriors’ addition of Durant, for as long as health permitted, virtually guaranteed a championship, and in 2017 and 2018, it seemed […]

The Chicago Cubs may be two games below .500 at the moment, but amid the morass of mediocrity that is the NL Wild Card race, they are firmly within striking distance of a playoff spot. They sit just a half game back of the San Francisco Giants for the third and final Wild Card spot, […]

The Boston Celtics have assembled one of the deepest, most talented rosters in the history of the NBA that they haven’t needed Jayson Tatum to be at his best, shooting-wise, to take a 2-0 lead over the Dallas Mavericks in the 2024 NBA Finals. They have steamrolled the opposition thus far in the playoffs, losing […]

The 2024 NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and the Dallas Mavericks continues, with the Celtics needing to win only two games to hang banner number 18 on the TD Garden rafters. But the 28 other franchises are gearing up for next season, with the intention of making it as deep as those two aforementioned […]

When the Denver Nuggets were eliminated from the 2024 NBA playoffs, there was much excitement among fans and analysts alike that there will be a new superstar crowned as champion. Now, with the Boston Celtics having advanced to the Finals along with the Dallas Mavericks, the possibility of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown or Luka […]

Caitlin Clark is the talk of the town in the WNBA; everything she does, says, or is merely involved in sets the entire sports world ablaze. Thus, when reports came out that Clark won’t be making the Team USA roster for the 2024 Paris Olympics, many came out in defense of the Indiana Fever guard, […]

The lottery gods shined upon the Atlanta Hawks and gifted them with the first overall pick of the 2024 NBA Draft even though they only had a three percent chance. This stroke of fortune could not have come at a better time for the Hawks franchise as they try to define the direction they’ll be […]

The Los Angeles Dodgers entered the weekend with a chance to gauge how they stack up against one of the best teams in baseball this year, the New York Yankees. Following their spending spree during the offseason, they were looked at, justifiably so, as the most terrorizing ballclub in baseball, and in the first two […]

Entering the 2024 NBA Finals, there was a bit of a debate regarding whether or not Jayson Tatum is at the level of Luka Doncic. Suffice to say, the first two games of the series haven’t exactly gone as smoothly as the Boston Celtics star would have hoped, at least with the way he has […]

The 2024 WNBA Draft class is hailed by many as one of the best in the history of the association, with transcendent talent Caitlin Clark, who’s already been breaking records through her first 12 games as a member of the Indiana Fever, leading the way. Clark, however, is not alone in terms of the marketable […]

The 2024 season hasn’t exactly gone according to plan for the Toronto Blue Jays. Despite having one of the deepest rosters in baseball, at least on paper, the Blue Jays have been very disappointing. Despite coming into Friday night having won two in a row, and against the Baltimore Orioles, no less, they are still […]

Caitlin Clark’s transition to the WNBA hasn’t exactly been the easiest. While she continues to draw eyes to the women’s game at an unprecedented level, Clark has endured her fair share of rough patches through the first few games of her professional career. She has seemingly been the target of a heightened level of physicality […]

The 2024 NBA Draft class may be receiving some negative reviews, with some analysts hailing it as one of the worst crops of youngsters to enter the league in recent history, but there are still a few prospects who have the potential to be long-term keepers, if not outright stars. One of the most interesting […]

At the moment, there appears to be no end in sight for the Chicago White Sox’s descent into unprecedented putridity. They continue to plunge into new depths, and on Thursday night, the White Sox find themselves ever closer to rock bottom following a 14-2 defeat at the hands of the Boston Red Sox. Fittingly, in […]

The Boston Celtics have been mostly overlooked throughout the 2024 NBA playoffs, and it’s not because they’ve performed poorly; on the contrary, the Celtics have been so dominant that they have flown under the radar on their way to the NBA Finals. In fact, they went 12-2 in the first three rounds of the playoffs […]

Game 1 of the 2024 NBA Finals between the Dallas Mavericks and Boston Celtics played out exactly the way many analysts thought it would. The Celtics simply have too much firepower and floor-spacing, and on Thursday night, their shooting was the differentiator in a 107-89 victory to start off the series. They made 16 threes […]

The Dallas Mavericks have seemingly been the underdog in every round they’ve been in for the entirety of their 2024 NBA playoffs run. This remains the case as they head into the NBA Finals to square off against the Boston Celtics. The Celtics will give the Mavericks their biggest challenge yet, and in Game 1, […]

The Boston Celtics took Game 1 of the 2024 NBA Finals in convincing fashion, defeating the Dallas Mavericks, 107-89, to come to within three wins away from banner number 18. However, the Celtics’ victory, as convincing as it was, did not come without its fair share of rocky moments. In particular, Luka Doncic and the […]