Strickland Sports

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Rockets vs. Lakers

Lebron James is doing it again! The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Houston Rockets in an overtime thriller behind and impressive performance from both Lebron James and Marcus Smart. Both James and Smart had 20+ point games to propel the Lakers to a 3 games to 0 lead in the playoff series. The Rockets now have their backs against the wall trying to win this series. It will be even more tough if the future Hall of Famer Kevin Durant is still hurt Sunday night. The Lakers are now looking to sweep the Rockets 4 games to 0 on Sunday night at 9:30 in Houston.

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Pistons Vs. Magic

In the NBA playoffs we are beginning to see the start of what could be one of the biggest upsets in playoff history. The Orlando Magic are currently up on the Detroit Pistons 2 games to 1. This is surprising not juts for the fact that the Magic are the 8 seed and the Pistons are the 1 seed but also how each team's season has gone makes this surprising. The Magic preseason were looked at as a team that could make a push for a top seed in the East and contend for the Finals, and then Paolo Banchero regressed this season and they went from title hopes to making the Play-in tournament. On the other hand the Pistons have been steady and have controlled the 1 seed in the East all season behind an All-NBA season from Cade Cunningham. These two teams will face off for game 4 on Monday in Orlando.

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Magic vs. 76ers play in game

No Joel Embiid for the Philadelphia 76ers? Does not matter because they have another superstar named Tyrese Maxey! The 76ers took care of the Orlando Magic on Wednesday night to see who would take on the second seeded Boston Celtics in the NBA playoffs. Tyrese Maxey had an impressive performance with 31 points to propel the Sixers to victory. Andre Drummond also contributed a double-double towards the victory along with a game sealing dagger three pointer at the end of the game. The Philadelphia 76ers will now face the Boston Celtics in a 7 game series starting at 1:00pm on Sunday, while the Orlando Magic will now face the Charlotte Hornets in a win or go home game to decide who will get the chance to face the Detroit Pistons in the first round.

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Hornets vs. Heat NBA Play-in

This past Tuesday was the beginning of the NBA postseason and the game that began the postseason was an absolute thriller. The Charlotte Hornets played the Miami Heat in an overtime thriller that came to a conclusion with an epic full court layup with 3 seconds left in overtime by Lamelo Ball. Even though Ball shot 2/16 from beyond the arc and rookie sensation Kon Knueppel had a poor performance the Hornets were still able to pull through and get one step closer to locking in a spot in the playoffs vs. the Detroit Pistons. The Hornets will now face the Orlando Magic next to decide who gets the final playoff spot in the East.

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End of NBA Regular Season

This sunday will mark the end of the 2025-2026 NBA regular season. This season has had a lot of great storylines from Bam Adebayo dropping 83 points versus the Washington Wizards to Victor Wembanyama's emergence as a top player in the league to the Oklahoma City Thunder still being as dominant as they were last year. Now we turn to the playoffs which are set up to be great this year. There are multiple teams with a great chance of taking home the championship this year such as the Thunder, Spurs, Celtics, and Denver Nuggets. The playoffs this year are set up to give us a great conclusion to the NBA season.

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Masters

The Masters is the most prestigious event in golf and one of the most exciting sports events during the calendar year. So far this year it has lived up to its expectation. Rory Mcilroy, Justin Rose, and Cameron Young are currently fighting for the lead. Justin Rose has been steady moving his way up the leaderboard, yet Cam Young on the other hand started off his weekend 4 over and has now battled his way back. Rory got off to a hot start and now has started too cool off just a little bit but is still fighting for the lead. We are set up for a great finish this year.

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NBA MVP Race

This current NBA season has given us one of the best MVP races we have seen in recent memory. Shai Gilgeous Alexander is the current favorite averaging 31 points 4 rebounds and 6 assists and is doing this on amazing efficiency all while leading the Thunder to the 1 seed in the West. Victor Wembanyama has had a recent surge into the conversation as he is in the midst of a historic defensive season while also averaging 25 points and 11 rebounds. Wembanyama is also leading the Spurs to the 2 seed in the West and maybe a push for the 1 seed, all while only being in his 3rd NBA season. Nikola Jokic is also in the race becoming only the 2nd player ever to average a triple double in a season and may become the first player ever to lead the league in rebounding and assists. He has been doing this while pretty much carrying the Nuggets to the 3rd seed in the West. All this shapes up for an epic race to the finish line for the MVP award.

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Spurs Vs. Nuggets

Yesterday before the Madness of the Final Four there was a phenomenal basketball game in the NBA. The San Antonio Spurs took on the Denver Nuggets in a huge late regular season game. The Spurs were two games back from the 1 seed in the West and the Nuggets were looking to take over the 3 seed in the West. These two teams featured two of the leading MVP candidates with the Spurs having Victor Wembanyama and the Nuggets having Nikola Jokic. The game lived up to the hype, the Spurs took the lead early hitting 3 after 3 early to stay in control for most of the game. The Nuggets came back late and forced Overtime where they ultimately defeated the Spurs. What a great game it was to start a great day of basketball.

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Spartans vs. Huskies

On friday night the Michigan State Spartans took on the UConn Huskies in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament. At first it seemed as if this game was going to be over at halftime because the Huskies gained an enormous lead of 19 in the first half. Then the Spartans ended up slowly climbing back and cut the lead to 8 at halftime. They then continued shortening the lead until it got to be a back and forth affair with both teams exchanging blows. The Huskies ultimately won the game by 4 points. What once seemed to be a game that you could turn off at halftime turned out to be an extremely entertaining game.

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Celtics in Charlotte!

As I am making this blog post it currently is Sunday March 29, and today the Boston Celtics play the Charlotte Hornets in Charlotte. Luckily I will be attending this game with 3 of my friends. I am extremely excited for this because its a great chance to spend time with my friends and attend my first NBA game. This game means a lot for the playoffs as well. The Hornets have been surging recently and our making a strong push to get out of the play-in and into the playoffs. On the other hand the Celtics are 3-4 games back from being in control of the 1 seed in the Eastern Conference. Let us all be Celtics fans tonight!

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Paul Maineri out as Gamecock Baseball Head Coach.

After a devastating 22-6 loss to #4 ranked Arkansas on Friday March 20th Paul Maineri and South Carolina baseball have decided to part ways and move forward without him as the head coach. As someone who grew up watching and loving Gamecock baseball these past 2 years as a fan have been miserable. When we first made this hire I was so excited and thought this was a home run hire, and I believed that this would help put us back up at the top. Boy was I wrong, these past 2 years have been terrible, and we should be one of the best baseball programs in the country year in and year out. Even though Maineri had a lot of terrible losses throughout his 80 game tenure; in my opinion the fact that we lost to Queens University was by far the worst. To put how bad that loss was just know that we lost to them about 2 weeks ago and in that time frame the university got absorbed by Elon University. I do have hope for the future of this program now because this school is a destination spot in college baseball and we will have the opportunity to make a great hire. I trust our athletic director Jeremiah Donati to make a great hire, and I hope that we will be back in Omaha sometime soon.

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Welcome to Strickland Sports!

Hello everyone, my name is John Strickland and I love sports. In this blog I plan to talk all about the big headlines going on in the sports world and giving my opinion on whatever is going on. Some background on me is that I am first and foremost a South Carolina Gamecock sports fan and I despise Clemson sports. For my favorite professional sports team I am a Pittsburgh Steelers, Boston Celtics, and Atlanta Braves fan. I know you are probably thinking that is such a weird set of teams to root for and yes I do see why you would say that, but no matter what Gamecock sports come before any professional team I root for. I hope you enjoy my opinions on whats going on in the sports world and join me on my journey.