For those who spent their time this weekend outside the home, celebrating mother’s day or enjoying the Spring weather, The Daily Wire has you covered. I stayed inside — because watching sports is life — but also so I could provide you with a detailed breakdown of what happened in the world of sports over the weekend.
Here are the highlights from a wild weekend.
Boxing
At AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys, a massive crowd showed up to watch Canelo Alvarez TKO Billy Joe Saunders on Saturday night. The crowd of 73,126 broke the previous record of 63,350 for an indoor boxing event.
Alvarez, who now holds three of the four belts in the 168-pound division, took over the fight in the eighth round. An uppercut to the right eye of Saunders was the pivotal blow and his team didn’t let him out for the ninth round as his eye was swollen shut. X-rays later showed Saunders had multiple fractures in his orbital bone, an injury that will require surgery and could reportedly threaten the future of his career.
“I knew this would be the final outcome,” Alvarez said after the fight according to ESPN. “I knew it. I think I broke his cheek and knew he wasn’t coming out of the corner. I told Eddy (Reynoso) he wasn’t coming out because I broke his cheek. I knew it was it.”
Alvarez moves to 55-1-2 with 38 KOs in his boxing career.
NBA
The NBA regular season is winding down, and playoff seeding is the talk of the league.
For the first time, the NBA will hold a play-in tournament for the final two spots in the playoffs. The 7-8 seeds will play each other, with the winner securing the seventh seed in the postseason. The 9-10 seeds will play each other with the winner playing the loser of the 7-8 game, and the winner heading to the playoffs as the eighth and final playoff team.
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For obvious reasons, no team wants to be in the play-in games.
The defending champion Los Angeles Lakers, who no one believed would be in the precarious position they’re in right now, currently sit in the seventh spot and are one game back of the Portland Trail Blazers for the sixth seed.
On Friday night, a severely undermanned Lakers roster fell to the Blazers 106-101, giving Portland the tie-breaker for playoff seeding. On Sunday night, the Lakers righted the ship, beating the second-place Phoenix Suns 123-110. The victory keeps the Lakers’ hopes alive of avoiding the play-in games.
The Boston Celtics were not so lucky, going 0-2 over the weekend, losing to the Chicago Bulls 121-99 and the Miami Heat 130-124. The pair of losses puts the Celtics a full two games behind the Heat for the sixth seed, and the play-in tournament now appears likely in their future.
MLB
The Los Angeles Dodgers lost their fifth straight series over the weekend as the Los Angeles Angels took two of three in the “Freeway Series.” The Dodgers are 5-15 in their last 20 games and are searching for answers. The season ending injury to Dustin May certainly stings, but the club has a wealth of talent and should be playing better than this.
New York Mets ace Jacob deGrom was pulled from his Sunday outing against the Arizona Diamondbacks in the sixth inning due to tightness in his right side. deGrom, as always, has been a bright spot for a Mets team that sits at 16-13 and is middle of the pack in offensive numbers.
NHL
The battle for the playoffs is raging in the NHL, and this weekend was filled with playoff-level hockey.
The Nashville Predators secured a playoff spot on Saturday night with their 3-1 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes, a win that ended the Dallas Stars playoff hopes. The St. Louis Blues also clinched a playoff berth Friday night after securing a point in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Vegas Golden Knights and the Colorado Avalanche’s 3-2 victory over the Los Angeles Kings.
The Toronto Maple Leafs locked up the top seed in the North Division, their first division title in 21 years.
And, for the first time since the 2013-2014 season, the Pittsburgh Penguins are the East Division Champs.
https://twitter.com/penguins/status/1391205491641044994
Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to [email protected].
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.