For my final blog post this semester, I will be talking about the basketball game between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Denver Nuggets. This game took place on Tuesday night.

Philadelphia center Joel Embiid scored 22 points, including two key free throws with 15.3 seconds left, and forward Tobias Harris added 20 to keep Philadelphia perfect at home with a 97-92 victory over the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday night.

Matisse Thybulle added 13 points for the Sixers, who are 13-0 in Philadelphia. They have won three straight and seven of eight.

https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/sports/sixers/no-collapse-this-time-sixers-beat-nuggets-in-defensive-battle/2257641/

Embiid added 10 rebounds but once again struggled offensively down the stretch. After being benched late in Philadelphia’s 110-104 win over Toronto on Sunday for committing three straight turnovers, he missed a 3-pointer, a jumper and committed a turnover in crunch time before making the two big foul shots.

Fortunately for the 76ers, their defense clamped down on Denver down the stretch.

Embiid said he has cut back on the extra-curricular activity while trying to be more mature since his two-game suspension for fighting Karl-Anthony Towns on Oct. 30, which was followed by a postgame barrage of insults on social media.

A two-time All-Star, Embiid entered averaging 21.9 points and 12.5 rebounds per game after putting up 27.5 points and 13.6 boards last season.

Will Barton had 26 points to lead the Nuggets, who have lost three in a row and five of six. Leading scorer Jamal Murray was injured with 6:49 left in the first quarter when he collided with Ben Simmons and didn’t return.

The Nuggets set a franchise record for largest fourth-quarter comeback when they rebounded from 19 points down to start the final period in a 100-97 win over Philadelphia in Denver on Nov. 8. They tried again, but couldn’t come all the way back this time.

The 76ers led by 10 early in the fourth after Josh Richardson’s deep 3-pointer from the top of the key made it 88-78 with 8:54 remaining. The Nuggets scored the next eight, capped by Barton’s three-point play with seven minutes left, to pull to 88-86.

But then Thybulle hit a pivotal 3 and grabbed a big offensive rebound on Philadelphia’s next possession, which ended with Al Horford’s jumper that put the 76ers in front 93-86 with 4:36 to play.

Denver had chances from that point on but went cold from the field, making just one field goal until Nikola Jokic’s runner made it 95-92 with 18.9 seconds left. The Nuggets had just six points in the last seven minutes, missing seven of nine shots.

https://www.sportsbookreview.com/picks/nba/nuggets-vs-76ers-free-nba-picks-and-predictions/113571/

This Philadelphia win over a very good playoff team is yet another sign for a promising season for the young core.

Up next the Sixers will play the Boston Celtics on Thursday.

Today I will be talking about the basketball game between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Indiana Pacers that happened last Saturday.

After taking an early lead, the Philadelphia 76ers began to slow down, and the first half of the game concluded with the two teams tied at 65 apiece.

For the rest of the game, the score was going back and forth, with several lead changes taking place. Nearing the end of the fourth quarter, both teams were neck and neck fighting for the win.

Joel Embiid after Sixers win vs. Pacers: ‘We can improve so much more’

Philadelphia point guard Ben Simmons had three steals in the final 13.9 seconds to lead Philadelphia to a 119-116 victory over the Indiana Pacers. The Pacers led 114-113 with a chance to go up more when Simmons intercepted T.J. Warren’s pass with 13.9 seconds remaining, then assisted fellow teammate Tobias Harris for a breakway dunk that gave Philadelphia the lead with 9.9 seconds remaining.

After a timeout, Simmons then stole Jeremy Lamb’s inbounds pass with 7.9 seconds remaining. That led to two free throws by Harris that gave the 76ers a 117-114 advantage with 5.1 seconds left. Malcolm Brogdon then made a pair of free throws after being fouled intentionally before Joel Embiid followed with his own two foul shots for a 119-116 Philadelphia lead with 2.8 seconds to play.

Simmons clinched it for the 76ers when he stole Lamb’s three-quarter court inbounds pass.

Embiid had 32 points and 11 rebounds and was 15 for 15 from the free throw line. In three games since going scoreless for the first time in his career at Toronto on Nov. 25, the star center is averaging 30.7 points and 14.7 rebounds while making 40 of 44 foul shots.

Ben Simmons finished the game with 15 points, 6 rebounds, and 13 assists. This goes to show how versatile the six foot ten point guard can be. He has as much potential as anyone in the league, and has a very good chance to be an elite player for years to come.

https://www.libertyballers.com/2019/12/1/20990428/sixers-vs-pacers-postgame-quotes-ben-simmons-joel-embiid-brett-brown-tobias-harris-domantas-sabonis

Tobias Harris finished the game with 22 points, 2 assists, and 4 rebounds.

As a whole, this newly designed team in Philadelphia has shown a lot of promise, and is one of the most well rounded teams in the NBA. I am excited to see how this year plays out, especially following a tough loss in the playoffs last year.

Philadelphia won its third straight game, and improved to 9-0 while playing at home. Indiana finished 55% (42 of 76) from the field while Philadelphia shot 49% (38 of 77).

Thursday night, the Sixers will play the Washington Wizards, currently sitting at a record of 15-6.

 

Today, I will be writing about the World Series Game 6 between the Washington Nationals and the Houston Astros. Going into this game, the Astros held a 3-2 series lead over the Nationals. That means that had they won game six, they would have been the World Series champs, as the series is best of seven games. After reading that, you can probably infer that the Nationals won this game. The final score was 7-2. This means that the two teams will be playing in game seven tonight, a winner take all matchup to see who takes home the title of MLB champs.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/sports/another-road-win-washington-nationals-houston-astros-headed-final-game-n1073741

In all honesty, I would have chosen to write about Game seven in a heartbeat had it actually happened before this blog was due, but game six in no way lacked excitement and plenty to write about and discuss.

The second Astros run came in the first inning as the result of a home run by the Astros star third baseman Alex Bregman. What makes this especially interesting is not the hit itself, but rather what happened after. Bregman, rather than simply dropping his bat and running around the bases, decided to carry his bat all the way to first base, where he tried to hand it off to his first base coach (unsuccessfully). For those that have not played or do not follow baseball, this may not seem significant. However, this is extremely disrespectful to the other team, and shows cockiness and a disregard for the other team in general.

Then in the fifth inning, the young star cleanup for the Nationals, Juan Soto, hit a monster of a home run nearly off the scoreboard. He then proceeded to do as Bregman did, and carry his bat all the way to first base, just to prove the Nationals were more than up to the challenge.

Then in the seventh came a controversy. The leadoff (first) hitter for the Nationals, Trea Turner, hit a ball up the third base line and seemingly made it to first base as the ball went by the Astros first baseman. However, the home plate umpire then ruled Turner out for apparently interference with the first baseman. Turner was sent back to the dugout and the runner on base was sent back to where he started. Nationals players and coaches were furious, but nothing would change. Had the Nationals lost this game, Washington players and fans alike would undoubtedly be beyond mad at such a seemingly unjust call in such an important situation (ex. Saints vs. Rams in last year’s NFL playoffs).

https://www.federalbaseball.com/2019/10/29/20937573/washington-nationals-stay-in-the-fight-force-world-series-game-seven-7-2-win-houston-astros-game-six

Game seven will be played tonight, ultimately deciding who will go into the offseason as champions, and who will be forced to “try again next year.”

This week I will be discussing the basketball game between the Los Angelos Clippers and the Los Angelos Lakers. This game occurred on opening night, the first night of basketball in the new NBA season.

Here’s some background to this game to help you better understand the context and thus the importance of this game. Both of these teams have significantly improved their teams in the offseason. While the Clippers made the playoffs last year, they were not serious title contenders. The Lakers were even worse, as they could not even make the playoffs.

Then this summer, the Lakers traded for star power forward Anthony Davis, who was one of the most sought out players in recent history, to play alongside Lebron James. I’m sure many of you have heard Lebron’s name before, as he is without a doubt one of the best basketball players to ever play the game, and even though he is getting older (for the NBA that is), he is still one of the top players in the league today.

The Clippers, in a very unexpected and very surprising move, acquired two of the top players in the league in Paul George and Kawhi Leonard. These two are two of the best two way players in the game, meaning they are elite players on both offense and defense, making them extremely valuable assets to have for any team. Kawhi Leonard is coming off a season where he inarguably carried his former team, the Toronto Raptors, to win the NBA finals, earning his the title of Finals MVP.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwj2jrL5pbTlAhVlhOAKHYlwBVoQjhx6BAgBEAI&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D9MWjalhVh08&psig=AOvVaw3-XfXpKADZ9Yk5SR4TtybY&ust=1571985892734734

All of these moves resulted in these rivals from the same city to be considered by many to be the two best teams in the NBA. The large majority of fans are predicting either the Clippers or Lakers to win the NBA finals this year, meaning this game might be a preview to what we could be watching later in the year.

The game ended with the final score of Clippers 112 Lakers 102. While the Lakers jumped out to an early lead, Kawhi Leonard picked up near the end of the game, and led his team to the first victory of the season. While many other players contributed, this seemed to be entirely a matchup between Kawhi Leonard and the duo of Lebron James and Anthony Davis.

The Clippers came out on top this time following Kawhi’s 30 points, but this will definitely be a matchup to watch as the season progresses.

https://wtop.com/national/2019/10/leonard-leads-clippers-over-lebron-and-lakers-112-102/

This week I will be discussing game four in the series between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Washington Nationals.

The St. Louis Cardinals finished the regular season with a record of 91-71, while the Washington Nationals finished the season with a record of 93-69.

This series was the National League Championship Series, or NLCS, meaning that the winner of this series is the National League champions, and advances on to play the winner of the American League Championship Series in the World Series.

Game Four of the NLCS was won by the Washington Nationals, winning them the best of seven series four games to zero. They won this game by a score of seven to four. This was especially surprising, as the Nationals had to win through a one-game playoff between the two wild card teams, two best of five Division Series playoffs (DS) featuring the wild-card winner and the winner of each division, and finally the best-of-seven ​League Championship Series (LCS) to make it to where they are today.

Dating to the final week of the regular season, Washington has won 16 of its past 18 games.

This month alone, the Nationals beat the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL wild-card game after trailing 3-1 heading to the eighth, and eliminated the league best Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 5 of the NL Division Series after trailing 3-1 heading to the eighth again.

The wild card Nationals got RBI from middle of the order stars Anthony Rendon and Juan Soto in a seven-run first inning Tuesday night, and Patrick Corbin’s 12-strikeout performance plus a trio of relievers helped hold on to beat the St. Louis Cardinals 7-4 in Game 4 to complete a sweep in the NLCS.

This marks the city’s first World Series appearance since 1933, much to the excitement of all of the Washington fans. The last time the World Series came to the nation’s capital, more than eight decades ago, the Washington Senators lost to the New York Giants in five games. Have to go even further back, to 1924, for the city’s lone baseball championship, when the Senators defeated the Giants.

Now the Nationals get plenty of time to rest and set up their so far terrific rotation before beginning the last series of the season against the Houston Astros or New York Yankees in a week. Houston leads the best of seven American League Championship Series 2-1 after winning Game 3 at New York 4-1 Tuesday.

 

This will be a fun one to write about. This week I will be discussing the football game between Penn State and the University of Maryland.

As I’m sure many of you already know, this past weekend Penn State defeated Maryland 59-0, leaving not a doubt of who was by far the better team, organization, and school in general (I understand there’s a little bias in that statement).

Maryland chose this game to be their “blackout,” where all of the fans in the stadium are supposed to wear black in order to support their team and hopefully help give them the edge over whoever they’re playing. Obviously, this didn’t work. Ma

Right after the game started, Penn State got off to an early lead and never looked back. The Nittany Lions put up fourteen of their fifty nine points in the first quarter. In fact, Penn State scored on its first four possessions, and by halftime found themselves leading 38-0. Despite their best efforts, Maryland remained shut out, meaning they did not score a single point, for the entire game. Maryland’s offense couldn’t move, and its defense could do nothing to stop its Big 10 rival, Penn State.

Sean Clifford, the quarterback for the Nittany Lions, threw for 398 yards and three touchdowns as he easily led Penn State to a resounding victory in the away game at College Park, Maryland. Sean Clifford also ran for a score to help boost Penn State’s margin of victory even more.

After halftime, most of fans remaining from a rare sellout crowd of 53,228 at Maryland were the several thousand cheering for the Nittany Lions.

Because the Terrapins (2-2) won their first two games at home by a combined 122 points and Penn State was coming off a tight 17-10 victory over Pittsburgh, the Nittany Lions were favored by only a touchdown.

But past performances held true. Penn State now leads the series 40-2-1, winning the previous three by scores of 38-14, 66-3, 38-3 before adding this romp to the list.

Some of the highlights include a 58-yard touchdown pass to KJ Hamler, and a 15 yard touchdown pass to Nick Bowers to make it 28-0. Clifford also hit Journey Brown for a 37 yard touchdown to make it a 35-point cushion.

This weekend, the Penn State Nittany Lions will take on the Purdue Boilermakers with the hopes of continuing their undefeated season (knock on wood).

This week, I will be discussing the game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Kansas City Chiefs.

Both teams came into this week undefeated at 2-0. This meant they were considered two of the top teams in the NFL, and are some of the favorites to make it to and possibly make win the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl is the championship game for the NFL and is preceded by the playoffs, which start with twelve teams. Six teams are from the NFC and six teams are from the AFC.

The Kansas City Chiefs are led by last years NFL MVP Patrick Mahomes at quarterback. Mahomes is coming off one of arguably the best seasons for a quarterback ever.

He threw for over 5,000 yards and 50 touchdowns, which is tied for the second most touchdowns in a single season. This is especially impressive  because last season was essentially Mahomes’ rookie season, and he was already putting up such incredible numbers.

The Baltimore Ravens are led by rookie QB Lamar Jackson. Jackson had thrown for almost six hundred yards and seven touchdowns before week three, which was among the best in the NFL.

All of these stats lead to a particularly enticing and potentially exciting matchup.

The Ravens took an early lead on a rushing touchdown, making the lead 6-0. This lead, however, did not last very long. The Chiefs then proceeded to score four times in the second quarter for the second consecutive week, this time getting three touchdowns and Harrison Butker’s 42-yard field goal to take a 23-6 lead. This is very impressive, and is another demonstration of the Chiefs’ extremely exciting and high powered offense.

Probably the highlight of the entire game was when a Chiefs receiver outran the entire Baltimore defense and scored an eighty three yard touchdown. This was especially demoralizing, as the Ravens were in the middle of attempting to make a comeback.

In the fourth quarter, the Ravens began to gain a little momentum, but the game had already been decided before the end of the first half. The final score was the Kansas City Chiefs thirty three, Baltimore Ravens twenty eight. Patrick Mahomes led the Chiefs with three hundred and seventy four passing yards and three touchdowns to advance to 3-0 on the season.

Next week the Chiefs will play the Detroit Lions and the Ravens will play the Cleveland Browns.

The game I will be describing this week is the Penn State vs Pitt football game.

The Nittany Lions pulled out a close win this time, but it was very close at some times. Many of the Penn State fans and a large majority of Pitt fans believed this game would be a blowout, similar to the Penn State vs Pitt game from last year. That game ended with a score of 51-6. That game was decided from the beginning. The same can not be said for this past weekend. The final score was 17-10 in favor of the Nittany Lions.

The Pitt Panthers had the ball on the Nittany Lions one yard line on first down with five minutes left to go in the game. This means that the Panthers had four attempts to score a touchdown from a yard away, but could not complete this task. This is both a showcase of very good goal line defense, and possibly just Pitt choking when it mattered most (but who’s really surprised).

Even though Penn State moved on with a 3-0 undefeated record, many could argue that they were outplayed for most of the football game. Pitt’s quarterback, Kenny Pickett, threw for three hundred and seventy two yards, compared to Penn State’s quarterback, Sean Clifford, who only threw for two hundred and twenty two yards.

Pitt also led the Lions in time of possession, 34:16 to 25:44. This means that Pitt had the ball on offense for 34 minutes and sixteen seconds, and Penn State only had the ball on offense for twenty five minutes and forty four seconds. The team that leads in time of possession is often the team that controls the pace of the game and often wins. Obviously this is not the case, and there are plenty of exceptions, but it is still worth being noted.

Regardless of the stats, Penn State got the important win for the program and all the fans watching. This game meant a lot more than any other game, simply due to the long standing rivalry between the two teams. Penn State advanced to 3-0 while Pitt dropped to 1-2. Penn State goes into their bye week (a week where a team doesn’t have a game in order to take a break) looking to rest up and be ready when they play the University of Maryland.

For my first passion blog, I am going to write about my favorite football team, the Eagles.

In the first week of the NFL season, the Eagles played division rival the Washington Redskins.

Last season, the Redskins finished with a record of 7-9, compared the the Eagles 9-7 record. The Eagles barely took a Wildcard spot, making the playoffs, while the Redskins did not make the playoffs.

In the playoffs, the Eagles beat the Chicago Bears in the Wildcard round with the famous “Double Doink,” where Bears kicker Cody Parkey missed what would’ve been a game winning field goal by hitting two of the field goal posts, and missing by just a couple feet.

The next week, the Eagles played the New Orleans Saints, and unfortunately lost on an interception at the end of what could’ve been a game winning drive.

To start off this season, the Eagles made an excellent come from behind win to go 1-0 on the season. The Redskins jumped out to a 17-0 lead, including an acrobatic touchdown from veteran tight end Vernon Davis.

After the first half, the Eagles were losing 20-7. The Eagles were playing very poorly, much to the surprise of many. They had gone into the game with the expectation of beating Washington very quickly and easily. Going into the game, the birds were 10 point favorites.

The second half, however, was a different story. The Eagles immediately shifted the momentum their way. To start the second half, Philadelphia scored touchdowns on three straight drives, while forcing Washington to punt on three consecutive drives as well. On the next drive, the Eagles kicked a field goal, pushing their lead to 32-20.

Washington scored a touchdown on their next drive, but this would not make a difference, as there was not enough time for them to get the ball back, and they couldn’t convert on the onside kick. Philly ran out the remainder of the clock and the game ended with the score of 32-27.

One particularly bright spot was the return of veteran wide receiver DeSean Jackson. Jackson played for Philly from 2008-2013, and this year is making his comeback, hoping to bring another championship to Lincoln Financial Field.

Against the Redskins, Jackson caught eight balls for 154 yards and 2 touchdowns. Those two touchdowns were of 51 and 53 yards, respectively. Jackson was the leading receiver for both teams in the game, and played a major part in turning the game back in the Eagles’ favor.

Next week the Eagles hope to advance to 2-0 against the Atlanta Falcons.