The Phoenix Suns face the Denver Nuggets in Game 1 of the semifinal round of the Western Conference Playoffs on Monday at 7 p. m. MT at Phoenix Suns Arena. The game will be televised by TNT. The Suns, who finished with the second-best record in the West in the regular season, defeated the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers in six games during their first-round series. It was Phoenix first playoff series win since the 2009-10 season, which was also its last postseason appearance and when it advanced to the Western Conference Finals and fell to the Lakers https://www.phoenixfanstoreonline.com/Mikal_Bridges_Flag-121. Denver, which finished with the third-best record in the West at 47-25 Charles Barkley Pet Jersey, beat the sixth-seeded Portland Trail Blazers in six games. The Nuggets were led in that series by MVP candidate Nikola Jokic, who averaged 33. 0 points, 10. 5 rebounds and 4. 5 assists on 52. 8 percent shooting. Despite injury issues with starting point guard Jamal Murray, who tore his left ACL in April, starting guard Will Barton, who suffered a right hamstring strain in late April and will not play in Game 1, and forward PJ Dozier, who has been out with an adductor strain since early May, the Nuggets are the only team that advanced to the conference finals last season that is still in the playoffs. Ahead of Monday series opener, we caught up with Denver Stiffs beat writer Brandon Ewing about the latest on Denver, including his takeaways from its series win over Portland, team outlook without Murray and how starting forward Michael Porter Jr. has stepped up in Murray absence. Here what Ewing had to say about the matchup. 1. What were your main takeaways from the Nuggets first-round win over the Trail Blazers The Nuggets bench unit being a pleasant surprise, led by the play of Monte Morris. Not only was Morris super impactful on both ends of the floor all series long https://www.phoenixfanstoreonline.com/Jae_Crowder_Pillow_Cover-99, but he finally seemed to be 100 percent after suffering a couple of injuries throughout the regular season. Morris made some huge shots in crunch time to help the Nuggets get past the Trail Blazers and has done as good a job as possible trying to fill Jamal Murray shoes. Alongside Nikola Jokic and Michael Porter Jr. , Morris has become the Nuggets hird guy for lack of a better term and should play a big role in this series as well. Obviously, Nikola Jokic is having an MVP-caliber season and is so dominant with the way he sees the floor. From an overall perspective, what are some of the biggest improvements he has made this season Nikola Jokic has been dominant in every aspect of his game over the past few seasons, but this year he truly taken a step forward with his aggressiveness to score. In years past, Jokic would often pass too much and not look for his shot, but this year has been the opposite. Jokic has looked to score a ton more, and ever since Jamal Murray went down, he stepped it up even more. When the Nuggets need a bucket, it feels like Jokic always finds a way to deliver. That aggression led him to an MVP-caliber season and the Nuggets to the second round, so hopefully he continues to look for his shot in this series and beyond because when he does he virtually unstoppable. Troy Wayrynen-USA TODAY Sports3. It was a devastating blow when Jamal Murray tore his left ACL in April, especially since the Nuggets won 17 of 20 games shortly before that. How has his absence affected the team, and what have been the pros and cons of Michael Porter Jr. stepping into a role as Denver No. 2 option It affected the team certainly at the beginning just because Murray is the heartbeat of this Nuggets group. One thing about the Nuggets in years past and specifically this year is they are a resilient group led by head coach Michael Malone https://www.phoenixfanstoreonline.com/Abdel_Nader_Pet_Jersey-54. When the Nuggets have their backs against the wall, they find a way to get the job done and they have done just that since Murray went down. As for Porter Jr. , he stepped into his role as the Nuggets No. 2 guy perfectly and has done a great job not just improving as a scorer, but defensively as well. The only con is there been a lot of pressure on Porter to play well, but he had no issue handling that and continues to produce on both ends of the floor. Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports4. On the other side of that coin, coach Michael Malone has really steadied the ship for Denver, especially since Will Barton and PJ Dozier have also been out of late. In your opinion, is Denver still a championship-caliber team without Murray If so, why is that I had my doubts coming into the playoffs just because I wasn sure the Nuggets had enough depth to get the job done Mikal Bridges Face Mask. They put that worry to bed in their opening-round series against Portland, as they still found a way to beat the Trail Blazers in six games even while Damian Lillard was going nuclear every game. Denver is still a championship contender because of its belief in one another and its never give up attitude. No matter what the situation is, it always feels like the Nuggets find a way to win, which they put on full display last year in the Bubble and since Murray went down this year. Also, when you have a superstar like Jokic on your team, youe never out of a series, which makes them a constant championship contender. 5. What will be the biggest keys for the Nuggets in their series against the Suns Defending the 3-point line has to be the Nuggets main concern coming into this series. They did not do a great job of slowing down Portland offense from beyond the arc, and now theye facing a Suns team that is phenomenal at shooting the three ball. Slowing down shooters like Devin Booker, Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson is going to be a challenge for the Nuggets, but they have to find a way to at least make life difficult for them if they want to have success in this series. 6. Who will win this series, and in how many games Il take the Nuggets in 7 games because I like their experience in the playoffs over Phoenix. That was the only worry I had about the Suns against the Lakers, but they found a way to get the job done and prove a ton of people wrong. I think regardless of who wins, it going to be a fun series and no matter who wins, theyl have a great chance of advancing to the NBA Finals.

So that was pretty frustrating. The Brooklyn Nets had a chance to go up 3-1 on Sunday afternoon, but it wasn in the cards for them as the Milwaukee Bucks came away with a double digit win to even the series up at two games a piece. Now the job gets even harder. Read about G4 from the Bucks perspective here. Where to follow the gameTNT on TV. WFAN on radio. YES Network pre and post. Join us on clubhouse afterwards: 7 Western Conference Finals, the league has made a point to allow for players to land. It been drilled into our heads over and over again the player HAS to be given room to land. Kyrie didn get that landing from Giannis Antetokuonmpo and he sprained his ankle as a result. Was that a flagrant foul Probably. Such is life so we move. I followed the game on radio and Tim Capstraw made a really great point throughout. If you allow for the game to be played physically at the start of the game, you have to let it ride all game long to at least establish some sort of rhythm. Everyone got stuck with Scott Foster and Tony Brothers refereeing the game on Sunday Kevin Durant Pet Jersey, and the game was given room for physicality in the first half and more whistles were called in the second. Somebody go put the timer back up. The league got in its feelings and told the Nets to knock it off and get rid of the timer after Game 1, but seriously. Hurry up and shoot, it not like we got all day here! But in all seriousness, the Nets will need to figure out how to make things a bit more difficult for Antetokuonmpo on the inside. He mercifully cut down on the three point attempts in Game 4 and he was able to get downhill more frequently. Of his 26 shot attempts, only eight could be classified as from medium to long range. When Giannis put in positions where he can amplify his strengths and hide his weaknesses, he looks like the two time MVP that can be enough to push the Bucks to higher heights. When he isn, well. . . you get what Giannis gave us in Game 2. For the Nets, theyl need a bounce back game from Blake Griffin tonight. Steve Nash mentioned he kept his minutes low on purpose and with Irving and Harden out, the Nets are gonna need Game 1 and 2 Blake tonight. Griffin can help initiate offense in the half court and the Nets are going to need that. Role players play better at home https://www.brooklynfanstoreonline.com/James_Harden_Pillow_Cover-97, and for Nets fans, the hope is that turns out to be true for Joe Harris. Harris had another stinker on Sunday afternoon and for a short handed team, you need your guys to do what they normally do, and now that the team is shorthanded, do a little bit more. Normally, you go for a short hook when a player is struggling like this, but looks at the injury report can really do that right about now! The Nets are just going to have to hope Harris gets his groove back and the Barclays Center crowd can help boost him up so he has a good game. This might be the last home game of the year for the Nets, so let me just state for the record that this Fox Sports article was wack as shit. Moving on. . . Speaking of role players, Jeff Green is back at the right time. He mentioned he was tired after his game back in a few weeks https://www.brooklynfanstoreonline.com/James_Harden_Flag-99, and it certainly understandable. He did make some positive contributions in his time out there and the more time he gets to shake off the rust, the better hel be. The Nets are gonna need a bit more ball movement if they wanna uncork the offense. At times, it looked like they settled too much for the first shot that came open instead of working for better looks. But ultimately, the Nets chances of victory fall on the shoulders of Kevin Durant. KD had a rough day at the office as he didn get many calls and PJ Tucker spent the day muscling and hassling him all over the court. It looked like KD was getting a bit annoyed with Tucker, and it threw him off a bit. However, Durant is one of the game greatest scorers and players so with a few days to plan, he might be able to make it shake:e talk about basketball all year. We talk about schemes and what needs to be done. All of us go through scenarios because we love to play. But at a certain point, it just about going out there and hooping. We can have as many speeches as we want to give, but pretty much around this time, every team is going out there and just playing the game. Wee got a game plan we wanna execute and it simple as that. We try not to add too much extras on anything. We all know what this game is about and we all know what this time is it playoffs. ut yourself back on the map. Player to watch: Jrue HolidayNo Irving means that Holiday will get a turn guarding Durant when Tucker gets to the bench. His shot still isn here, but he did a much better job of orchestrating the Bucks offense and he only turned it over once on Sunday. The Bucks offense tends to fall into bad ruts at the worst times, and it up to Holiday to keep everything moving well now that his team has the talent advantage https://www.brooklynfanstoreonline.com/Kyrie_Irving_Face_Mask-122. Mike James, welcome to the biggest moment of your NBA career. James stepped it up in Game 1 for Harden and now that Irving is hobbled, he gonna need to do it again. James is someone that can get his own shot and any bit of creation will do wonders for Steve Nash and friends tonight. He does get shot happy at times and hel have to find the perfect balance of being a good scoring option and keeping everyone involved. Tyler Johnson will be in the rotation as well and hel need to help orchestrate the offense when Durant gets a few minutes to rest. It all hands on deck and James x Johnson have been capable hands for the Nets.

At least the jerseys looked good. Truth is, for much of the first three quarters the Magic didn look so bad themselves. Aaron Gordon was playing like the good Aaron Gordon. The Bucks were missing most of their three-point attempts. Even Mo Bamba was showing flashes. . . Orlando entered the fourth quarter trailing by only four, thanks in part to the Bucks hitting just seven of their first 24 shots from deep. Gordon pulled the Magic within 88-86 with 9:42 remaining in the game on this posterization of Giannis Antetokounmpo (and ensuing snarl!) https://www.storeorlando.com/Tracy_Mcgrady_Pet_Jersey-155. . . That would be the Magic final points for quite some time and their final highlight of the evening. They went stagnant on offense, shooting just 7 of 21 in the quarter, including 1-for-8 from three, and commit silly turnovers. Meanwhile, the Bucks, a team that entered with the league best offensive rating at 118. 6 and the fifth best three-point shooting percentage at just over 40 percent, found their rhythm and capitalized. Giannis responded to AG dunk with a three, Bobby Portis followed with another. Then came another, and another, and another, the last of which was hit by Bryn Forbes with 5:54remaining to cap a 22-2 run that gave the Bucks a 110-88 lead Chuma Okeke Hoodie. he game was the first 3 1/2 minutes of the fourth quarter where we had poor possessions on offense, lack of purpose, and fouling at the other end of the floor, Steve Clifford told reporters after the game. The Bucks hit 6 of 11 attempts from deep in the fourth, improving their overall percentage to 37. 1 percent (13-for-35). It was an improvement for a Magic team that let the Mavs and Rockets each shoot over 50 percent from deep while combining to hit 42 threes in their previous two losses. But it wasn enough to prevent their losing streak from reaching three games, and dropping what was once a 6-2 record to 6-5. Giannis, who played just 27 minutes after missing his previous game with back spasms, totaled 22 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists. Khris Middleton had 20 points and 10 rebounds, and Bobby Portis added 20 points off the bench on 9-for-13 shooting. D. J. Augustin, in his return to Orlando, had 8 points and 4 assists. The Magic shot 42. 9% from the field, going 11-for-31 from deep (35. 5%), a big improvement from three compared to their previous two games. That was led by Gordon, who hit 3 of 4 attempts from deep, and Nikola Vucevic, who went 4-for-10 from three, one shy of his career high for attempts. Oddly enough, Vucevic has shot at least 10 threes in a game just five times in his career, and four of those games were against Milwaukee (twice in the playoffs last season). The Bucks defense is predicated on stuffing the paint and daring teams to shoot them from outside, and Vooch was once again able to take advantage against the Bucks Penny Hardaway Hoodie, scoring 28 points on 11-for-25 shooting, and adding 13 rebounds and five assists. Gordon finished with 21 points on 8-for-14 shooting, with 8 assists and 5 rebounds, and helped contain Giannis. Cole Anthony added 12 points but shot just 4 of 13 from the field and had only one assist in 23 minutes. Bamba, in 11 minutes, had 8 points, 4 rebounds and one empathic block. The Magic are slated to play the Celtics in Boston on Wednesday and Friday, but the Celtics have had their last two games postponed for health and safety protocol. So wel see if Wednesday game goes on as scheduled. Either way, even without Jayson Tatum, who is in quarantine, it won be an easy task for a Magic team who will be starting a six-game road trip.

We took them for granted.As we watched the 2007 Phillies hunt down the New York Mets and, against all odds, win the NL East title from seven games back with 17 to play, we were introduced to a score of players who would become household names.Chase Utley. Jimmy Rollins. Ryan Howard. Shane Victorino, Jayson Werth. Carlos Ruiz.When you think of the position player core of those 2007-2011 teams, those names are the ones that most quickly spring to mind (yes I know Werth was not a part of the 11 team, just go with me here). As that era ended and those players either left via free agency, were traded away to help with the rebuild, or simply retired, we foolishly assumed another rebuild would net the Phillies prospects and draft picks that would allow them to restock their team with players who could https://www.philadelphiagearstore.com/Simon_Muzziotti_Pillow_Cover-457, you know, play both offense and defense.But as we look at the 2021 Phillies, a team with a $205 million payroll that is 7th-highest in baseball, we see a team that has struggled to field a collection of players who excel both offensively and defensively. And as we watch the 2021 Phillies put together the worst defensive season in memory and struggle at the plate due to a myriad of injuries and underperformance by some, we should now realize just how hard it is to collect the number of two-way players the Phils did during their glory run more than a decade ago.Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins were both elite defensive players and among the very best offensive players at their positions. There a reason Utley had multiple seven and eight-win seasons. At his peak, Rollins was a five and six-win player who won an MVP award in 07. Utley should have won a couple. Both players were Silver Slugger Award winners, while Rollins won four Gold Gloves. Utley, again, should have won at least a couple. Jayson Werth and Shane Victorino were both well above average defenders in right field and center field, respectively Seranthony Dominguez Hoodie. Werth was athletic enough to play center on occasion, too, and both were outstanding offensive players, key cogs to a championship lineup, both of whom went to All Star games. And let not forget Chooch, who was a defense-first, offense-last player until his last few seasons when his offensive numbers suddenly went through the roof.As for Howard, he was a liability defensively but, was so effective offensively from 2005-10 that it more than made up for any deficiencies with the glove.Those Phillies teams had several players who were not either/or guys. They were elite and/or effective offensive and defensive players. This Phillies team has J.T. Realmuto and maybe Bryce Harper when he on a hot streak. That it.And therein lies the conundrum for Dave Dombrowski. It is extremely difficult to go out on the open market and bring in solid-to-good two-way players, at least not without paying a huge price. The indictment lies in the front office inability to draft and develop a core that can do both.Realmuto is a two-way stud and Harper, when healthy, puts up good enough offensive numbers to balance his slightly above average defense. But outside of those two, the Phils are devoid of anything resembling a quality two-way player. Alec Bohm, his offensive struggles this season aside, was never viewed as a good defensive prospect. It was always known that his offense would carry him. Likewise for Rhys Hoskins. Scott Kingery was a decent and versatile defensive player, but his offense has been an anchor around his neck pulling him toward the ocean bottom. Players who have come and gone J.P. Crawford https://www.philadelphiagearstore.com/Jt_Realmuto_Flag-299, Nick Williams, Aaron Altherr, Jorge Alfaro, etc., were either good gloves/no offense or simply not very good at either.Two-way players do not grow on trees, but the Phillies will be hard-pressed to be a postseason contender if their existing roster doesn play better defense or hit better. Right now, it an either/or scenario (or in the case of some a either scenario), and Dombrowski clearly has some work ahead of him.

Welcome to UnforMETable, an Amazin Avenue Audio show that looks back on less heralded https://www.newprostoreonline.com/Flags-143, more obscure Mets players from the past. Signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers shortly before their move to Los Angeles, Charley Smith was a prospect with some power who was never able to get an opportunity to establish himself in the majors across three organizations early in his young career Tomas Nido Flag. That opportunity finally came with an even younger franchise just moving into their new home in Queens in 1964. Smith would endure a massive struggle after joining his new teaminally ending his 0-26 start with an infield single to thirdefore finally settling in an ultimately leading the team in home runs in 1964 with 20 https://www.newprostoreonline.com/Samuel_Mcwilliams_T_shirt-48. As always, you can listen or subscribe to this and all of our wonderful Amazin Avenue Audio podcasts through If youe got an idea for a player to be featured on UnforMETable, let us know in the comments. Make sure to follow Rob on Twitter (WolffRR), and you can now follow the show, too (unformetable). Tune in next week for another tale from the Mets past.

Time: 7:10 Central. Vegas Line: -140 HOU / MIN +130Weather: 87° at first pitch, possibly last bits of some rainOpponent extraneous he SB site: The Crawfish BoxesTV: BS North. Radio: Intermittent crackling due to distant lightning and/or nuke detonationsThe most important thing you need to know about tonight game is that the scheduled starter as of yesterday, one Matt Shoemaker, has been replaced for Inning 1 duties by previous spot-starter Bailey Ober. His first big-league appearance against Chicago was Bad (2 HR, 4 ER, 4 innings), his next against the Royals was Alright (0 HR, 1 ER, 4 innings). He was drafted out of college at age 21, and moved up the system pretty quickly due to an extremely impressive K/BB ratio (over 10 and under 2 per 9 innings). He is also, I sad to say, a much better option than Matt Shoemaker https://www.minnesotagearshop.com/Frank_Viola_Face_Mask-202. Shoemaker was a cheap pickup for the Twins (think Bailey, Homer) that may-or-may-not have worked, and in this case Did. Not. Work. He certainly better at baseball than I am at anything; he just not as good at baseball as most other pitchers in MLB are right now. His mound opponent (this sounds somewhat PG-13) is 26-year-old righty Jos Urquidy, one of three Mexican-born pitchers to start a World Series game, the others being Jaime Garcia and the legendary Fernando Valenzuela. (I remember watching Valenzuela WS game as a kid on TV, and falling in love with a song tidbit played as bumper music before the commercial; ernando by ABBA. I thought it was really cool that a pitcher had such a neat song written about him https://www.minnesotagearshop.com/Bert_Blyleven_Hoodie-69. FYI: it wasn written about him. )Urquidy WS game came after Houston had been caught cheating in earlier years, so we can hate him for that stuff. He been quite solid in 2021 until last Saturday, when he was whomped around pretty hard by the Blue Jays. Throws the usual four pitches and is usually pretty decent in control of each. I won be including a photo of James Twins stuff this week, as my phone being stupid about taking photos. Imagine some stuff from the Dome days. Remember the Dome Where it wasn 90 zillion degrees and humid That was fun. I once met longtime announcer Bob Casey at TwinsFest, back when it was just basically a baseball-card-trading seminar. I said i. I couldn think of anything else to say. He was just sitting there, in front of the home plate backstop fans, willing to talk to anyone. You wanna bet he had a zillion great old baseball stories he happily have shared I was too dumb and shy to ask. Back then, I thought it was prying to ask older people to share their memories. Now, I know better and I doing one of them right now. Anyone with photos/stories to share about their baseball memorabilia can throw them to twinsbreweryahoo. com. I stopped even checking twinsbrewergmail. com. Everything about Google Mail is trash. Most things about Yahoo Mail are trash. Most of my old memorabilia is trash. It all has some connection in time and memory to me Harmon Killebrew Pillow Cover, though.

As most many of you already know, Daniel Vogelbach came up lame last night. The result was a significant hamstring injury and a trip the 10-day injured list. Significant hamstring strain for Daniel Vogelbach, per Craig Counsell. "He was in quite a bit of pain," Counsell said. They'll have to call up someone from Nashville, he said. The someone to take Vogelbach place will be Keston Hiura. 1B Daniel Vogelbach placed on the 10-day injured list with a strained left hamstring. INF Keston Hiura recalled from Triple-A Nashville https://www.milwaukeefanstoreonline.com/Mark_Mathias_T_shirt-38. To this point in the season, Vogelbach hit 7 home runs in 198 plate appearances. All in all this season he has been a league average hitter or slightly below (98 wRC+) in a spot in the lineup that has been much worse when he is not manning the position. If you take into account his numbers since June 3, he has been much better than league average (123 wRC+) and has even been a force in the lineup. The unsurprising move of calling up Hiura to take his place comes as he has put up some really strong numbers in AAA Daniel Robertson T-Shirt. He is slashing in Nashville in 89 plate appearances https://www.milwaukeefanstoreonline.com/Miguel_Sanchez_Hoodie-115. Unfortunately his demotions to AAA come from the fact he has not capably hit major league pitching in two years. Hopefully he has righted the ship and is on his way to being the hitter he showed in 2019 and the hitter he has the potential to become.