7 Things We Missed This Weekend

Wow. That was quite the weekend of sports action. With the NBA and NHL Playoffs underway, the MLB season in full gear, and the EPL race coming down to the wire - there is a lot of stuff going on! Oh, and the NFL Draft begins this Thursday! Our Mock Draft will be coming later this week, but first let's recap what went on in the world of sports with 7 Things We Missed This Weekend.

1) NBA Playoffs

-The NBA Playoffs aren't known for their upsets, and that was true for each of the series openers this weekend. In 8 series, only 1 road team, Portland, won Game 1. Oklahoma City had a good chance to win in LA, but Kevin Durant and the Thunder shot poorly. The Cavs were in cruise control against the Bulls and the Mavs won a hard fought game against the Spurs. Perhaps the highlight of the opening weekend though was this fracas in Boston's win over Miami which leaves Kevin Garnett suspended for Game 2. At least this time Paul Pierce didn't need a wheelchair...

2) Stanley Cup Playoffs

-The biggest stories thus far from the early stages of R1 in the Stanley Cup Playoffs are the amount of road wins that we've seen. 10 of 19 games have been won by road teams thus far. Each series is either tied at 1 or stands at 2-1. Under most pressure are the top seeds in each conference - Washington, New Jersey, San Jose, and Chicago are all currently without homeice advantage. We'll take a more in-depth look at the Stanley Cup Playoffs later this week, but for now check out this goal that won't be showing up on Dan Boyle's personal highlight reel to leave the Sharks down 2-1...

3) Ubaldo No No

-It's always cool when somebody throws a no-hitter, and Ubaldo Jimenez threw the first in the long, prestigious history of the Colorado Rockies Saturday night in Atlanta. Jimenez had 6 walks and 7 strikeouts in the game, and was helped by a diving catch in the outfield by Dexter Fowler. Here's the highlights...

4) 20 Inning Game

-On the same night no less, the Mets beat the Cardinals 2-1 in 20 innings! It was scoreless for the first 18! So much for that Steroid Era. Jose Reyes' sac fly in the 20th ended up winning the game for the Mets, who are in the NL East cellar at 4-8. Don't put too much into the MLB Standings before June though, or at least while the Pirates are above .500. Oh, and the highlights? Well, it was scoreless for 18 innings and the game winning run was scored on a sac fly - I think I'd rather watch... darts! With Phil Taylor and James Wade tying 7-7 in the Premier League on Thursday, how about we relive this unreal leg of darts from 2008!

5) Manchester Derby

-In the EPL, Manchester United got back into the title race with a last minute 1-0 win at their city rivals Manchester City. Paul Scholes scored in the last minute of stoppage time to get the win. Later in the day, Tiger Woods' biggest fan John Terry got the boot as Chelsea lost to Tottenham. Those results leave Chelsea 1 pt ahead of United at the top and Tottenham 2 pts ahead of Man City for the last Champions League qualifying place. If Chelsea win at Liverpool on May 2nd they'll likely sweep their last 3 and win the title. Meanwhile, 4th spot will come down to the last game of the season - Tottenham @ Man City. Great stuff to end the season, here's Scholes' winner...

6) Champions League Semis

-The cloud of volcanic ash and grounded flights in the UK has put Fulham and Liverpool's Europa League semis in doubt, but on the continent the Champions League semis appear to be ready to go. Lyon plays at Bayern Munich and Barcelona plays at Inter Milan this week. In their respective leagues, Barca is 1 pt ahead of Real Madrid after winning at the Bernebeau last week, Inter trails Roma by 1 pt in Italy (having won 4 straight Serie A titles), Bayern lead in Germany by 2 pts after winning at Schalke recently, and Lyon is surprisingly 3rd in Ligue 1 trailing Marseille by 9 pts. While English clubs have dominated the CL in the past couple years - this year is a treat because the 4 sides left are the 4 preeminent clubs in the best continental leagues. My picks are Barca and Bayern. I know you're asking for footage of the giant ash cloud instead of more highlights!

7) One Last Thing

-As always, our last thing covers something a little weird or miscellaneous. First, check out this video of Brian Davis costing himself a playoff win at Hilton Head by calling a penalty on himself. Yes, golf is a gentlemen's game. Jim Furyk ended up with the win. Second, I don't know who any of these guys are, but watch as the typical boxing/wrestling scene plays out... 1) Guy interviewed after winning fight 2) 2nd guy jumps into ring wanting a fight 3) The brawl is on - it's a standard formula. I was waiting for Vince McMahon to enter the ring or Rock Newman directing traffic with his giant cell phone. But, as Gus Johnson points out, having this happen on network TV doesn't put MMA into a good light and makes it seem rather cartoonish. Oh well, at least it's fun to watch!