Sports
The NBA Finals Are Set, With Boston Set To Face Dallas For The Larry O’Brien Trophy
Kyrie Irving returns to Boston. Luka Doncic’s first trip to the championship round. Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum are getting another opportunity at the ring. Kristaps Porzingis will also be playing his former squad.
Choose a storyline. There are numerous in the NBA Finals.
The Larry O’Brien Trophy matchup has been set: Boston will face Dallas in a series that begins on the Celtics’ home court on June 6. This means everyone will be sitting around and waiting for about a week as a result of the Celtics and Mavericks sweeping their respective conference finals.
NBA | AP News Image
The NBA Finals Are Set, With Boston Set To Face Dallas For The Larry O’Brien Trophy
Dallas defeated Minnesota 124-103 on Thursday night, capping a 4-1 triumph in the Western Conference finals. Boston’s position was secured Monday night when the Celtics defeated Indiana 108-105 to complete a 4-0 series in the East.
“We’re going to the NBA Finals,” Doncic stated during the on-court celebration in Minneapolis on Thursday night. “Just can’t believe it, man.”
Boston is making their second appearance in the finals in three seasons, following a six-game loss to Golden State in 2022. Dallas has entered the title round for the first time since winning the championship against Miami in 2011.
Much will be made, and rightfully so, of Irving and the Celtics’ meeting with the championship on the line. Boston made a bold move in 2017 by trading for Irving, hoping to see him play in the NBA Finals.
It will happen now, but it differs from how the sides envisioned seven years ago.
Irving was an All-Star in his Boston seasons before leaving as a free agent to join the Brooklyn Nets in 2019, just a few months after claiming — and pledging — that he would stay with the Celtics. In his return to Boston, he has been repeatedly booed and had a water bottle hurled at him, as well as fined for making an obscene gesture and causing outrage by stomping on the Celtics’ leprechaun logo at midcourt following a Brooklyn playoff win.
“Boston’s in the way and in between our goal,” Irving said after the West finals ended Thursday night.
Irving’s message to the Mavericks: Enjoy the moment.
“Nothing’s guaranteed in this league, especially making it to the finals every year,” added Irving, who won a championship with Cleveland alongside LeBron James in 2016. “We couldn’t have done it without a shared responsibility—working together daily, practicing hard, and doing the little things. “We should reward ourselves by playing hard.”
Porzingis spent nearly three years in Dallas after being traded from the New York Knicks in 2019. He’s in his first season in Boston and has been a key part of the Celtics’ success. However, he was injured in Round 1 against Miami and hasn’t played since, though it appears he could be ready for the NBA Finals.
“He’s doing well and working very hard to get back,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said.
NBA | AP News image
The NBA Finals Are Set, With Boston Set To Face Dallas For The Larry O’Brien Trophy
The Celtics defeated the Mavericks twice during the regular season, 119-110 in Dallas on Jan. 22 and 138-110 in Boston on March 1.
The Mavericks had yet to answer for Tatum, who scored 39 points in January and 32 in March. The Celtics had no answer for Doncic, who recorded triple-doubles in both games — 33 points, 18 rebounds, and 13 assists in January and 37 points, 12 rebounds, and 11 assists in March.
Those games won’t mean much anymore.
“This group believes,” said Mavericks coach Jason Kidd, who played for the Dallas club that won the championship in 2011. “They believe in one another. This is a particular group.
The Celtics are looking for their 18th championship overall, breaking a tie with the Los Angeles Lakers for the most in NBA history and their first since 2008.
Golden State’s championship experience paid off two years ago against the Warriors. Boston has insisted that lessons were learned, and the Celtics will have the opportunity to end the season differently this time.
NBA | AP News Image
The NBA Finals Are Set, With Boston Set To Face Dallas For The Larry O’Brien Trophy
“This is a new challenge. “It’s a different situation,” Celtics center Al Horford explained. “I’m just excited to be in this position and to have this opportunity.”
The Celtics will have gone more than a week without a game before the championships begin. Mazzulla stated that all of this downtime will not be wasted.
“Nothing is truly valuable if it goes to waste,” Mazzulla explained. “Between now and June 6th, we have to take every experience that we’ve been through, and we’ve got to make sure we take advantage of it and that we utilize it to put ourselves in the best position to win.”
SOURCE – (AP)
Sports
NHL Rumors: The Predators and Steven Stamkos agree to a $32 million contract following the Lightning Run.
Sports
Simone Biles Headlines A U.S. Women’s Gymnastics Team Eyeing Redemption At The Paris Olympics
Minneapolis — They all had a motive to return. Every one of them.
Simone Biles must move past those agonizing two weeks in Japan three years ago, when the gymnastics sensation chose her mental health and safety over glory, inspiring some but infuriating others.
Suni Lee wanted to prove — maybe most importantly to herself — that the all-around gold medal she won while Biles watched from the stands was not a fluke.
Jordan Chiles hopes to turn the team silver she helped secure at the 2020 Games into gold.
SImone Biles | AP News Image
Simone Biles Headlines A U.S. Women’s Gymnastics Team Eyeing Redemption At The Paris Olympics
Jade Carey will be an official member of the five-woman Olympic squad after qualifying as an individual qualifier, a route not open to the United States this time and one she has no desire to pursue again.
They’re all reclaiming the one-of-a-kind spotlight that only the sport’s largest stage can deliver, including 16-year-old newbie Hezly Rivera.
Their reasons are quite personal. However, their motivation is not clear.
“This is definitely our redemption tour,” Biles said after winning the U.S. trials on Sunday night, securing her third Olympic appearance. “I feel like we all have more to give.”
Perhaps no one more than Biles, who, at 27, is the oldest American woman to make an Olympic gymnastics squad since 1950. She never expected to be doing this nearly a decade after becoming a crossover sensation in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
So here she is—still working, still pushing—not to silence the detractors who continue to bombard her social media mentions, asking if she will “quit” again, but because she is motivated to get the most out of her extraordinary skills.
“Nobody’s forcing me to do it,” said Biles, who won the all-around with a two-day total of 117.225, about six points more than Lee. “Every day, I get up and decide to work hard in the gym and perform for myself. I just wanted to assure myself that I could still do it.”
And do it at a level that no one else in her sport—or, when she’s at her peak, sports in general—can match.
A trip to France has never been in doubt since Biles returned from a two-year absence last summer. All she’s done in the previous 12 months is win her sixth global all-around title and her eighth and ninth national titles — both records — despite performing the most difficult gymnastics of her career.
She will be a prohibitive favorite when she goes onto the Bercy Arena floor, but there is still much work to be done before women’s qualifying on July 28. However, some items need to be cleaned up during the following four weeks.
Biles backpedaled after landing her Yurchenko double pike vault, demonstrating both the difficulty of the vault and the incredible power she creates while performing a move that few male gymnasts attempt and even fewer accomplish as cleanly.
She leaped off the beam after failing to land her side aerial, but she wasn’t as furious as she had been on Friday when she uttered an expletive in front of the entire globe.
Biles finished with a flourish in the floor exercise, her signature event. Though there was a little trip out of bounds, there was also unrivaled world-class tumbling, which just earned a shoutout from pop artist Taylor Swift, whose song “Ready For It” opens Biles’ routine.
She stepped down the podium to a standing ovation before sitting atop the steps to take in the occasion in what could be her final competitive round on American soil for quite some time. Perhaps ever.
Biles avoided questions about what lies ahead. That can wait. It’s been a long, winding trek back to this point. She intends to enjoy it while being part of a team with “a lot of weight on our shoulders.”
She believes she and her teammates are better prepared to manage it.
“It’s really nice that Tokyo gave us that opportunity to open up that stage for that talk,” Biles informed the crowd. “And so I think now athletes are a little bit more in tune and we just trust what our gut is saying.”
And Biles’ instincts told her that if she wanted to return, she had to do so on her terms. That entailed taking deliberate steps to ensure her life was no longer defined by her gymnastics.
She married Chicago Bears safety Jonathan Owens in the spring of 2023, and the couple is building a house in the northern Houston suburbs that they want to move into soon after Biles returns from Paris.
Biles travels to France as maybe the face of the United States Olympic movement, but she is well aware that more than a few of the millions who will tune in next month will be watching to see if the demons that wrecked her in Tokyo resurface.
Simone Biles | AP News Image
Simone Biles Headlines A U.S. Women’s Gymnastics Team Eyeing Redemption At The Paris Olympics
While she still experiences periods of fear, such as at last year’s world championships, she has taken precautions to protect herself. She sees a therapist weekly, even during competition season, something she did not do in preparation for the 2020 Games.
The Americans will send their oldest women’s team to the Games, thanks to Biles’ unrivaled longevity—she hasn’t lost a meet she’s started and finished since 2013—and the NCAA’s relaxation of name, image, and likeness rules, which allowed Carey (24), Chiles (23) and Lee (21) to continue competing while cashing in on their newfound fame.
They have relied on that experience over a sometimes tumultuous race, which saw leading competitors Shilese Jones, Skye Blakely, and Kayla DiCello withdraw with leg problems. Their problems kept them out of the running for weeks before they could realize a lifelong dream.
Watching good friends leave the arena in tears reminded me of how narrow the gap between success and failure can be. Biles has remained on the right side of that divide for longer than she imagined. She’ll attempt to enjoy it despite the pressure.
She might have gone ahead of herself in 2021. She is determined to prevent this from happening again.
“I feel like success is just what I make it,” she told me. I’ve been successful by competing in Olympic trials and reaching the Paris Olympic team. So we’ll see what happens from there.
SOURCE – (AP)
Sports
How to Watch Tour De France 2024 in the United States
The Tour de France 2024 has produced two consecutive champions, with Tadej Pogacar wearing the yellow jersey in 2020 and 2021 and Jonas Vingegaard winning the general classification title the previous two years.
Will one of the two break the impasse in 2024, or will a new challenger emerge in cycling’s most important event? We’ll find out in three weeks when the Tour travels from Florence, Italy, to an extraordinary finish line in Nice. For the first time, the Tour will conclude outside of the French capital, while the Paris Olympics begin days later.
While it will be unusual to have the final stage held anywhere else than the iconic circle of the Champs-Elysees, the action leading up to that point should not disappoint. Primoz Roglic and Remco Evenepoel are expected to fight Vingegaard and Pogacar in the GC race, while British sprinter Mark Cavendish will attempt to break the tie with Belgian great Eddy Merckx by winning a record 35th stage.
Matteo Jorgenson of Vingegaard’s powerful Visma squad, Neilson Powless and Sean Quinn of the EF Education-EasyPost team in the United States will start the race.
Sepp Kuss, the strongest American rider and 2023 Vuelta a Espana general classification champion, had to withdraw due to COVID. Kuss was instrumental in Vingegaard’s Tour victories over the previous two years and helped Roglic win the 2023 Giro d’Italia.
Here’s how to watch the 21 stages of the 2024 Tour de France 2024 in the United States.
To watch the Tour de France 2024 in the USA, use the following TV channel: NBC.
Live stream: Peacock and Fubo.
Traditional TV coverage of the Tour de France 2024 will be restricted this year, with just two stages shown live on NBC (another will be carried on delay). The full tour will be available on Peacock, the network’s streaming service.
The NBC broadcasts may be seen via Fubo, which provides a free trial for new customers to sample before purchasing. See the complete broadcast schedule for each stage below.
Tour de France 2024 Schedule
The Tour de France 2024 will include 21 stages. Due to preparations for the 2024 Olympics, two rest days have been inserted into the race itinerary, which starts on June 29 and ends on July 21 in Nice rather than Paris. For fans in the United States who tune in live, there will be many early starts, with most days ending shortly before noon.
Stage | Date | Length | Location (type) | Start (ET) | TV/Streaming |
1 | June 29 | 206 km (128 miles) | Florence to Rimini (hilly) | 6:30 a.m. | Peacock |
2 | June 30 | 199.2 km (123.8 miles) | Cesenatico to Bologna (hilly) | 6:05 a.m. | Peacock |
3 | July 1 | 230.8 km (143.4 miles) | Piacenza to Turin (flat) | 6:50 a.m. | Peacock |
4 | July 2 | 139.6 km (86.7 miles) | Pinerolo to Valloire (mountain) | 7 a.m. | Peacock |
5 | July 3 | 177.4 km (110.2 miles) | Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Saint-Vulbas (flat) | 6:55 a.m. | Peacock |
6 | July 4 | 163.5 km (101.6 miles) | Macon to Dijon (flat) | 7 a.m. | Peacock |
7 | July 5 | 25.3 km (15.7 miles) | Nuits-Saint-Georges to Gevrey-Chambertin (individual time-trial) | 7:10 a.m. | Peacock |
8 | July 6 | 183.4 km (114 miles) | Semur-en-Auxois to Colombey-les-Deux-Églises (flat) | 6 a.m. | Peacock, NBC, Fubo |
9 | July 7 | 199 km (123.7 miles) | Troyes to Troyes (hilly) | 7:05 a.m. | Peacock |
Rest Day | July 8 | — | — | — | — |
10 | July 9 | 187.3 km (116.3 miles) | Orléans to Saint-Amand-Montrond (flat) | 6:55 a.m. | Peacock |
11 | July 10 | 221 km (137.3 miles) | Evaux-les-Bains to Le Lioran (mountain) | 6:55 a.m. | Peacock |
12 | July 11 | 203.6 km (126.5 miles) | Aurillac to Villeneuve-sur-Lot (flat) | 6:55 a.m. | Peacock |
13 | July 12 | 165.3 km (102.7 miles) | Agen to Pau (flat) | 7:30 a.m. | Peacock |
14 | July 13 | 151.9 km (94.3 miles) | Pau to Saint-Lary-Soulan/Pla d’Adet (mountain) | 6:30 a.m. | Peacock, NBC, Fubo |
15 | July 14 | 198 km (123 miles) | Loudenvielle to Plateau de Beille (mountain) | 6:55 a.m. | Peacock |
Rest Day | July 15 | — | — | — | — |
16 | July 16 | 188.6 km (117.1 miles) | Gruissan to Nimes (flat) | 6:50 a.m. | Peacock |
17 | July 17 | 177.8 km (110.5 miles) | Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux to SuperDevoluy (mountain) | 6:05 a.m. | Peacock |
18 | July 18 | 179.5 km (111.5 miles) | Gap to Barcelonnette (hilly) | 6:55 a.m. | Peacock |
19 | July 19 | 144.6 km (89.8 miles) | Embrun to Isola 2000 (mountain) | 7:05 a.m. | Peacock |
20 | July 20 | 132.8 km (82.5 miles) | Nice to Col de la Couillole (mountain) | 7:35 a.m. | Peacock, NBC, Fubo |
21 | July 21 | 33.7 km (20.9 miles) | Monaco to Nice (individual time-trial) | 10:10 a.m. | Peacock |
Related VOR News:
Supreme Court Judgment on Homelessness Might Lead to More Prosecution
-
Sports4 weeks ago
NHL To Broadcast Stanley Cup Final Games In American Sign Language, A 1st For A Major Sports League
-
News3 weeks ago
FIA Warns of Rising WhatsApp Hacks Targeting Women
-
Politics4 weeks ago
Mexico Elects Claudia Sheinbaum As President, The First Woman To Hold The Job
-
Sports4 weeks ago
The Matchup Is Set: Panthers, Oilers Will Meet In The Stanley Cup Final
-
World4 weeks ago
NASA Sends First Manned Starliner Spacecraft to International Space Station
-
Election News4 weeks ago
India Election Results: Narendra Modi Loses His Majority