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The big boys and local guys are going, going gone.
Lebron and the Lakers are out in four straight. The two Jays and Celtics are on the same precipice of the NBA playoffs.
And the Carolina Hurricanes are all but dead, as well.
The pro basketball and Stanley Cup post-season is showing us that playing at home is not what it used to be.
James played all 48 minutes and tallied 40 points, 10 rebounds and 9 assists in what would be his last game of the season and, perhaps he hinted afterward, his Hall of Fame career.
His Lakers barely made the playoffs before ousting the Grizzlies and defending NBA champion Warriors in the Western Conference. Then came the most unheralded team in basketball, the Denver Nuggets and the next great player of his generation.
The nation got to see 6-10 Serbian sensation Nikola Jokic, the two-time NBA MVP who helped his team make all the big plays down the stretch of two games in Denver and two in LA to reach its first-ever NBA Finals.
Jokic’s talent as a scorer, passer and facilitator make him a truly unique player the nation is just discovering after starting his career in the outpost of Denver.
The Boston Celtics, whose tradition is up there with the Lakers, are behind the Miami Heat three games to none and are all but out of it after tonight’s fourth game of the Eastern Conference, and their two stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown have both been horrible disappointments.
Meanwhile, the Heat’s team play and clutch leader Jimmy Butler have had the Celtics’ number at every turn, winning the first two games in Boston and the third in a blowout on South Beach in a rematch of last year’s Eastern finals.
With the most undrafted players of any playoff team, the Heat are brilliantly coached and play together superbly on both ends of the floor.
Different sport and different team, but the hockey Canes have all but squandered their hope to hoist the Lord Stanley Cup for the second time by losing the first three games, twice at home, to the upstart Florida Panthers, perhaps the best underdog story in all of sport.
After upsetting the Bruins and Maple Leafs, they beat the Canes the first two games at PNC in overtime and went home to Florida and somehow eked out a 1-0 win despite taking 15 fewer shots on goal and winning 9 fewer face-offs than Carolina.
It is really a simple explanation. The pros feature so many astounding athletes and clutch competitors that wherever they are playing doesn’t matter as much as how well they are playing.
Featured image via Associated Press/Lynne Sladky
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