WSD Sports Page: Cavaliers win the NBA Draft Lottery, so it's not rigged

Cleveland wins the NBA Draft Lottery again, an awful attempt at trolling Charles Barkley, and somebody during a Minor League Baseball game bit off a portion of a LA Dodgers' prospect's ear. All in today's sports page.

Photo via Flickr

Going into the NBA Draft Lottery last night, plenty of people poached on their soapbox and declared on Twitter, "Well that NBA wants the Lakers or Celtics to thrive again, so if they win the lottery this thing is rigged!!!!111!!1!"

Turns out something even worse happened. The Cleveland Cavaliers won it for the second straight year, so it's not rigged.

Anthony Bennett has been a trainwreck coming into the league. That's even factoring in the injuries he's dealt with. Sure, he could improve, but let's say he ends up being the bust he's projected to be. The Cavaliers essentially received a do-over if Bennett tanks.

Cleveland. In the bottom half of the league in terms of the NBA's smallest 15 cities. So for those that like to claim rigged activities are going on, you're saying that the NBA wants Cleveland to thrive. Sure.

No. Like that lucky person you know in your life (we all got a friend/acquaintance), the Cavaliers just seem to hit in the lottery while Boston gets sixth and the purple LA team got seventh.

So it's not rigged. But it still should make you upset. ESPN will horndogging the story of "Can the Cavaliers lure LeBron back in!?" on top of the Johnny Manziel mess.

Oh, Cleveland. The sports city that can't win anything will be hated by America after ESPN gets done with you this calendar year. It just never goes well, does it?

And the Cavaliers can take their next bust while the Philadelphia 76ers swoop in and take a traditionally better second overall pick.


Other Headlines

NBA: Heat even ECF with Pacers

Despite everybody saying that Miami needed this win, I trended the other way. Indiana really needed it, but they couldn't close the deal. The Heat overcame a surge by Lance Stephenson (25 points) and Roy Hibbert's all-around productive night (12 points, 13 boards). Miami's dynamic duo, especially Dwyane Wade down the stretch, got a big road win.

MLB: Romo blows second save in Giants' loss to Rockies

It's a big early-season series against the top two teams in the NL West. Colorado pulled the rug from under San Fran in the opener, coming back from a one-run deficit in the bottom of the 9th with a walk-off home run. Closer Sergio Romo brought none of the heat and was hanging up sliders for the Rockies to tee off on.

Madison Bumgarner left the game with a no-decision and wasn't his dominant self, but still got out of multiple jams -- Colorado went 2-of-12 with runners in scoring position. Pablo Sandoval's nine-game hitting streak was snapped as he went 0-for-4.

NBA: Morning zoo show tries to troll Charles Barkley, fails miserably

What a disaster this is. A local zoo crew from San Antonio's rock station tries to confront Barkley at his hotel and brought up the whole fat women in SA thing two weeks ago. Barkley simply shut them up and put them in their place breaking out the media totem pole, which is so Barkley. This whole bit could have been funny when done properly, but it just looked painfully awkward for the host and his sidekick was just muttering Barkley lines horribly.


But hey, the host was happy with it and high-fived his crew while they walked out the hotel. Now they can find something to talk about amongst giving girls free boob jobs, talking about how much they drank last night, and more on boobs in the actual 30 minutes of content they provide every morning.

MiLB: Dodgers prospect Alex Guerrero has ear bitten by teammate

Guerrero and Miguel Olivo got into it after Olivo was all pissed off that a base was stolen. They got into it during a pitching change and again while heading into the dugout, and that's wear the Mike Tyson incident occurred. Olivo, a 35-year-old man, bites the ear of a prospect. And you won't hear from him again.


Today's Slate
(Central times listed)

STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS - ROUND 3
-Kings at Blackhawks (CHI 1-0) - 7:00 NBCS

NBA PLAYOFFS - CONF FINALS
Thunder at Spurs (SA 1-0) - 8:00 TNT

MLB
Dodgers at Mets - 6:10 ESPN
D'backs at Cardinals - 7:15 FSMW
-Giants at Rockies - 7:40 MLBTV
Twins at Padres - 8:10 FSNO

CBB - BIG 12 TOURNEY
Kansas vs West Virginia - 9:00a FSSW+/FCS
TCU vs Baylor - 12:30 FSSW+/FCS
Oklahoma St vs Oklahoma - 4:00 FSSW+/FCS
-Texas Tech at Texas - 7:30 FSSW+/FCS

WSD Sports Page: Pacers beat Heat at free throw line in ECF opener

After cruising through the NBA playoffs winning eight of their first nine games, the Miami Heat take a backseat in Indiana as the Pacers throttle them from the perimeter and at free throw line to take Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

LeBron James and Dwyane Wade combine for 52 of the team's 96 points, and outside of Chris Anderson and Ray Allen hitting the double-digit mark and be efficient from the field, no one else showed up on the Heat. Nobody was able to hit from the perimeter, the team hitting a cold 6-of-23 including Chris Bosh's 0-for-5 and just 4-for-12 from the field overall.

While the Heat were making free throws, they just weren't getting there enough. The Pacers took 22 more attempts. That's an incredibly rare deficit for Miami considering their superstars generally get the bulk of the calls.

If Indiana ends up winning Game 2 of this series, you can bet that there's going to be a definite swing in momentum when it comes to fouls being called in Miami. There is no conspiracy in NBA game fixing -- at least, not that we know of -- but we all know that these foul calls will balance out.

There's simply no way the Pacers are going to waltz into Miami and attempt nearly 40 free throws in a game, and they have to go into the game knowing that.

What they can control is shooting, and three of their starters -- Lance Stephenson, Paul George, and David West -- combined for 23-of-36 on field goals, a whopping 63.8 percent. That and rebounds (+9 from Game 1) are something they can control, which is where they match up the best against Miami and why we all considered Indiana to be the Heat killers from opening tip of the season.

Ever since "Boat Trip," the Pacers seem to have righted the ship. Now we'll just see how far it goes and how they respond to adversity in the following games.

NHL: Blackhawks take Game 1 against the Kings

Chicago's defense tightened up in the third period, allowing just four shots on goal by Los Angeles as they cruise to the series-opening victory. Despite having six more shot attempts, only getting 15.3% of them in the final stretch down a goal isn't acceptable. Tyler Toffoli had his fourth goal in the postseason.

MLB: Giants avoid three-game skid against Marlins

San Francisco's Ryan Vogelsong shut down the all-of-a-sudden hot Miami offense, giving up only five hits and one walk. A 3-run jolt to start the game in the first inning along with Pablo Sandoval's solo shot in the fifth inning (extending his nine-game hitting streak) was all they needed to win, but things got a bit dicey in the eighth inning when the Marlins had runners in the corners.

However, the fish aren't the 2-out scorers like the Giants are, who scored eight of their 15 total runs on two outs and leads MLB with 86 2-out RBIs.

LAX: Johns Hopkins falls to Duke

The Blue Devils began the game with a 6-0 run and finished scoring seven of the last eight goals, holding their lead to head to the NCAA semifinals. They only scored three goals in the first 21 minutes of play in the first half, but the Blue Jays never felt like a threat on offense. Duke dominated ball control with a 37-19 advantage in ground balls and held JHU to just two shots in the final period. JHU going 3-3 in EMOs in the first half were the only thing that kept them in the game.

Today's Slate
(Central times listed)

STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS - ROUND 3
Rangers at Canadiens (NYR 1-0) - 7:00 NBCS

NBA PLAYOFFS - CONF FINALS
Thunder at Spurs (Game 1) - 8:00 TNT