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.

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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: Can Thunder defeat the Spurs without Ibaka?

Without the contributions of Serge Ibaka, the Oklahoma City Thunder's defense gave up 122 points against the San Antonio Spurs in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals. The final presents one major question to us -- can the Thunder compete without the aid of Ibaka?

Since the Spurs are so well-coached under Gregg Popovich, who's been a complete master at running his old crew by playing a lot of younger guys throughout the course of the season and exposing matchups, did just that by ramming the offense in the paint.

The Spurs outscored the Thunder 66-32 inside the paint. Tim Duncan and Kawhi Leonard had a combined 43 points and the three main guards -- Tony Parker, Danny Green, and Manu Ginobli -- had incredibly efficient nights combining for 20-of-31 from the field. Parker dished out 12 of the team's 28 assists.

Without Ibaka, the Thunder's reliance on Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook running the show alone won't be enough. Derek Fisher went 4-of-6 from downtown to keep the Thunder within striking distance, and OKC even took the lead after Westbrook went off at the start of the second half.

But that was the problem. That burst of energy wasn't sustained, and the only two points that weren't scored by Durant or Westbrook in that whole quarter were two Fisher free throws with 53 seconds left in the period.

Without Ibaka's beastly presence inside, and the Spurs nearly coasting with their starters for an entire NBA season, it's going to be impossible for the Thunder to win the series unless they can find a third starter that can actually produce at least half of what Durant and Westbrook do. Basically, You can't have box scores with the dynamic duo taking 40 shots and scoring 53 points while the other three starters shoot the ball 10 times and score five points (and two of them having goose eggs in the points column).

And one of their bigs needs to somehow slow down the Spurs' offensive train. They have the offense, but we've seen how bad this defense is without Ibaka this season. OKC did go 4-0 against SA this season, but that doesn't matter with the current matchups and the Spurs not playing in regular season mode. Now the Thunder are left with having to figure out this puzzle.

Other Headlines

NBA: League charges Sterling with damaging the product

The NBA even pointed to the CNN interview almost two weeks ago as more evidence on why LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling needs to be ousted. His whole tangent on Magic Johnson clearly showed that he's got a real beef with him, and there's angst between both of them. Personally, I believe Sterling more just has a vendetta on Johnson than black people, but he stupidly called out a race because he didn't want to just omit Johnson from coming to games. Hindsight is 20/20.

NBA: Draft Lottery tonight before Game 2 of ECF

The Milwaukee Bucks are the favorite to hoist the number one pick in the draft, but everyone will be keeping their eye on the lottery to see if NBA franchise favorites, the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers, will end up sneaking up there. The Bucks have a 25 percent chance while the Celtics and Lakers have a 10.3 percent chance and 6.3 percent chance, respectively. Depending on who picks it up and what their needs are, the popular trio of Andrew Wiggins, Joel Embiid, and Jabari Parker are expected to come off the board very quickly.

NFL: Discussing playoff expansion to 14 teams

It's going to happen, the question is how and when? ESPN put up 10 questions surrounding the topic, and it's a very good read. There's enough positives here that the NFL would be dumb not to extend the postseason. You're still holding less than 50 percent of the teams that will be eligible for the postseason so it doesn't water down the regular season, there's a ton if income of hosting more games for players, teams, and the NFL itself, and they would be removing one of the four weeks of the preseason. Sure, there will be more teams at .500 or even lower that will make the playoffs under this new format. But we all survived when the Seattle Seahawks marched in winning the NFC West at 7-9, right? Right.

Today's Slate
(Central times listed)

NBA PLAYOFFS - CONF FINALS
Draft Lottery - 7:00 ESPN
Heat at Pacers (IND 1-0) - 7:30 ESPN

MLB
Dodgers at Mets - 6:10 MLBTV
D'backs at Cardinals - 7:15 FSMW
-Giants at Rockies - 7:40 MLBTV
Twins at Padres - 9:10 FSNO