Harden's MVP Award Leads NBA Awards
Heading in to Monday night's NBA Awards, the MVP debate was mainly between the guy who led his team to the NBA Finals basically by himself and the bearded star who nearly dethroned the Golden State Warriors. It was announced on Monday that the bearded star, James Harden of the Houston Rockets, would take home his first career MVP Award, beating out LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Harden wins the award just one season after finishing runner up to his former teammate, Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Rockets' leader was the scoring leader in the NBA at 30.4 points per game to help his team to an NBA-leading 65 victories. That makes him the fourth player to average at least 30 points and earn 65 wins in the same season, joining Steph Curry, Michael Jordan, and Kareem-Abdul Jabbar. James was denied his fifth MVP award, despite averaging 27.5 points, a career-high 9.1 assists, and 8.6 rebounds, while playing in all 82 regular season games for the first time in his career. Meanwhile, Anthony Davis led the New Orleans Pelicans to the playoffs, despite losing DeMarcus Cousins mid-season. Davis put up 30.2 points, 11.9 rebounds, 3.2 blocks, and 2.0 steals after Cousins' injury on January 28th, but finished third in the voting. Elsewhere on Monday, Dwane Casey took home the Coach of the Year for his work with the Toronto Raptors, despite getting fired after the season. Casey was not afraid to make mention of that, while also talking up his new team, the Detroit Pistons. Casey led the Raptors to the top seed in the Eastern Conference with 59 victories, but his team was eliminated by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the second round. Another major debate was the Rookie of the Year Award, which went to the "red-shirt" rookie Ben Simmons of the Philadelphia 76ers, who beat out the other favorite, Donovan Mitchell of the Utah Jazz, as well as Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics. Simmons missed his draft year last season due to an injury, which caused the conversation of if he should be eligible for this season's award. He helped lead the "Trust The Process" Philadelphia 76ers to the playoffs by averaging 15.8 points, 8.2 assists, 8.1 rebounds, and 1.7 steals in 81 games. Victor Oladipo of the Indiana Pacers got Most Improved Player after averaging 23.1 points, which is over seven points higher than last season's average. He also raised his steals number to 2.3,which is over a steal per game more than last year. And Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz took home Defensive Player of the Year, He helped lead the Jazz to be the No. 2 defense in the league, and grabbed 10.7 rebounds and recorded 2.3 blocks per game. Those numbers helped lead that defensive charge, despite him playing in just 56 games due to knee injuries.
Dodgers Keep Rolling, Cubs Keep Struggling
The Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs have both turned things around from their early season results, one for the better, the other, not so much. That showed in both cases on Monday night, as the Dodgers earned their fourth straight win, 2-1, over the Cubs at Dodger Stadium. It was also the Cubs' fifth straight loss, as they struggled to score, despite out-hitting the Dodgers, 7-5. Kenta Maeda kept them off the scoreboard for seven shutout innings and struck out nine in his fifth win of the season. Kike Hernandez stayed hot with a solo shot for the Dodgers, who hit seven solo shots in an extra-inning win over the New York Mets on Sunday afternoon. Chris Taylor also added a pinch-hit solo home run, giving the Dodgers nine of those in the past two games. Kenley Jansen came on for the ninth and gave up a run on a Javier Baez sacrifice fly, but finished things off for his 20th save. Maeda gave up just three singles to the Cubs' hitters, helping the Dodgers kick off a 10-game homestand the right way. They have now hit 48 home runs with a record of 16-5 in the month of June. Duane Underwood made his major league debut for the Cubs and threw a 41-pitch scoreless first inning, but suffered his first loss after giving up a run on two hits over four innings. The rookie walked three and struck out three in a losing effort. These two teams continue their series with another national t.v. showdown on ESPN, as Jon Lester matches up with Ross Stripling on Tuesday night.
Judge, Yankees Double-Up Red-Hot Phillies
The New York Yankees picked the wrong time to suffer a road sweep over the weekend to the sub-.500 Tampa Bay Rays, as their week ahead is not going to be easy. Before hosting the Boston Red Sox this upcoming weekend, the Yankees have an interleague series with the up and coming Philadelphia Phillies, which began on Monday night. Fortunately for them, they got off to a good start, hanging on for a 4-2 win at Citizens Bank Park. Aaron Judge hit his 20th home run of the season to support Jonathan Loaisiga, who took a no-hitter in to the sixth inning in his second win. Loaisiga finished with nine strikeouts and two walks in 5.1 innings and did not allow a hit until Jorge Alfaro led off the sixth inning with a single. The rookie is now 2-0 in three starts since coming up from Double-A, as he threw 86 pitches on Monday night. The win for the Yankees felt like a home victory, as the sellout crowd of 44,136 was mostly Yankees faithful in their first visit to the park since taking six games from the Phillies in the 2009 World Series. Vince Velasquez got the start for the Phillies and surrendered two runs on three hits over six innings, but fell to 5-8 on the season. He did strike out seven and has now given up three runs or fewer in 11 of his 16 starts this season. Maikel Franco went deep with two outs in the ninth inning to keep the Phillies' hopes alive, but Aroldis Chapman shut things down to put the Yankees a half game ahead of the Red Sox in the AL East. This interleague series will continue on Tuesday night.
Heading in to Monday night's NBA Awards, the MVP debate was mainly between the guy who led his team to the NBA Finals basically by himself and the bearded star who nearly dethroned the Golden State Warriors. It was announced on Monday that the bearded star, James Harden of the Houston Rockets, would take home his first career MVP Award, beating out LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Harden wins the award just one season after finishing runner up to his former teammate, Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Rockets' leader was the scoring leader in the NBA at 30.4 points per game to help his team to an NBA-leading 65 victories. That makes him the fourth player to average at least 30 points and earn 65 wins in the same season, joining Steph Curry, Michael Jordan, and Kareem-Abdul Jabbar. James was denied his fifth MVP award, despite averaging 27.5 points, a career-high 9.1 assists, and 8.6 rebounds, while playing in all 82 regular season games for the first time in his career. Meanwhile, Anthony Davis led the New Orleans Pelicans to the playoffs, despite losing DeMarcus Cousins mid-season. Davis put up 30.2 points, 11.9 rebounds, 3.2 blocks, and 2.0 steals after Cousins' injury on January 28th, but finished third in the voting. Elsewhere on Monday, Dwane Casey took home the Coach of the Year for his work with the Toronto Raptors, despite getting fired after the season. Casey was not afraid to make mention of that, while also talking up his new team, the Detroit Pistons. Casey led the Raptors to the top seed in the Eastern Conference with 59 victories, but his team was eliminated by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the second round. Another major debate was the Rookie of the Year Award, which went to the "red-shirt" rookie Ben Simmons of the Philadelphia 76ers, who beat out the other favorite, Donovan Mitchell of the Utah Jazz, as well as Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics. Simmons missed his draft year last season due to an injury, which caused the conversation of if he should be eligible for this season's award. He helped lead the "Trust The Process" Philadelphia 76ers to the playoffs by averaging 15.8 points, 8.2 assists, 8.1 rebounds, and 1.7 steals in 81 games. Victor Oladipo of the Indiana Pacers got Most Improved Player after averaging 23.1 points, which is over seven points higher than last season's average. He also raised his steals number to 2.3,which is over a steal per game more than last year. And Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz took home Defensive Player of the Year, He helped lead the Jazz to be the No. 2 defense in the league, and grabbed 10.7 rebounds and recorded 2.3 blocks per game. Those numbers helped lead that defensive charge, despite him playing in just 56 games due to knee injuries.
Dodgers Keep Rolling, Cubs Keep Struggling
The Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs have both turned things around from their early season results, one for the better, the other, not so much. That showed in both cases on Monday night, as the Dodgers earned their fourth straight win, 2-1, over the Cubs at Dodger Stadium. It was also the Cubs' fifth straight loss, as they struggled to score, despite out-hitting the Dodgers, 7-5. Kenta Maeda kept them off the scoreboard for seven shutout innings and struck out nine in his fifth win of the season. Kike Hernandez stayed hot with a solo shot for the Dodgers, who hit seven solo shots in an extra-inning win over the New York Mets on Sunday afternoon. Chris Taylor also added a pinch-hit solo home run, giving the Dodgers nine of those in the past two games. Kenley Jansen came on for the ninth and gave up a run on a Javier Baez sacrifice fly, but finished things off for his 20th save. Maeda gave up just three singles to the Cubs' hitters, helping the Dodgers kick off a 10-game homestand the right way. They have now hit 48 home runs with a record of 16-5 in the month of June. Duane Underwood made his major league debut for the Cubs and threw a 41-pitch scoreless first inning, but suffered his first loss after giving up a run on two hits over four innings. The rookie walked three and struck out three in a losing effort. These two teams continue their series with another national t.v. showdown on ESPN, as Jon Lester matches up with Ross Stripling on Tuesday night.
Judge, Yankees Double-Up Red-Hot Phillies
The New York Yankees picked the wrong time to suffer a road sweep over the weekend to the sub-.500 Tampa Bay Rays, as their week ahead is not going to be easy. Before hosting the Boston Red Sox this upcoming weekend, the Yankees have an interleague series with the up and coming Philadelphia Phillies, which began on Monday night. Fortunately for them, they got off to a good start, hanging on for a 4-2 win at Citizens Bank Park. Aaron Judge hit his 20th home run of the season to support Jonathan Loaisiga, who took a no-hitter in to the sixth inning in his second win. Loaisiga finished with nine strikeouts and two walks in 5.1 innings and did not allow a hit until Jorge Alfaro led off the sixth inning with a single. The rookie is now 2-0 in three starts since coming up from Double-A, as he threw 86 pitches on Monday night. The win for the Yankees felt like a home victory, as the sellout crowd of 44,136 was mostly Yankees faithful in their first visit to the park since taking six games from the Phillies in the 2009 World Series. Vince Velasquez got the start for the Phillies and surrendered two runs on three hits over six innings, but fell to 5-8 on the season. He did strike out seven and has now given up three runs or fewer in 11 of his 16 starts this season. Maikel Franco went deep with two outs in the ninth inning to keep the Phillies' hopes alive, but Aroldis Chapman shut things down to put the Yankees a half game ahead of the Red Sox in the AL East. This interleague series will continue on Tuesday night.
