This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.
Goooood morning, Winners! Welcome back to the Morning Win. Thank you for rocking with us today. We appreciate you for giving us a bit of your time today.
One thing about me is that I’ll always admit when I’m wrong.
I love coming here and telling everyone when I’m right. I don’t do it often, but it is one of my favorite things to do. I just did it with the Suns on Monday.
READ MORE: The Bradley Beal trade was a terrible idea and now the Suns are paying for it.
If I’m going to do that, then it’s only right that I do the same when I’m wrong about something. Especially when I’m so terribly wrong about something like I was about Tyrese Maxey.
Let me be clear: It’s not that I didn’t think Maxey would never be a good player. I knew he was good. I’ve known since that game the 76ers had, like, two players available and the rookie Maxey still found a way to keep Philly in the game against the Nuggets. Whether he was good wasn’t the question.
Was he great? That’s always been the question. And I’ve always believed the answer was no.
Until last night, anyway.
It’s not even that Maxey dropped 46 points to save the 76ers season when nobody had it in them. The dude is an All-Star. That’s what All-Stars do. I’m not surprised by that.
What did shock me, though, was Maxey scoring 7 points on two shots in the final 25 seconds of the game to tie the game and send it into overtime. That was insane. That was legendary. That was the moment I knew.
As if drawing a 4-point play in the clutch wasn’t shocking enough, the dude followed it up by draining a logo 3-pointer with the season on the line to send the game into overtime.
I want you to bask in this for a second. You’ve probably already seen it, but watch it again. Listen to it. Take it in.
TYRESE MAXEY. THREE-POINTER TO TIE THE GAME IN THE FINAL SECONDS WITH THE SEASON ON THE LINE
TOM MCGINNIS ON THE CALL pic.twitter.com/ZHAAPbMuzw
— Nick Piccone (@_piccone) May 1, 2024
The audacity to pull that off in Madison Square Garden when you’re down by three points with your playoff lives on the line. It simply does not compute. It literally broke Jon Stewart.
Tyrese Maxey is here, man. This dude has arrived. He’s a star with a bigger playoff moment than some of the best players in the world that we know, and he’s only 23 years old.
The spotlight is yours, Tyrese. I see that now. I’m sorry I ever doubted it.
Not again, Mike Trout
The first chapter of the Mike Trout career post-mortem (whenever that comes along) should be that he was the best baseball player of his generation. I don’t care that the playoff success isn’t there. That’s never been on Trout. He’s always been incredible.
If the first chapter is about his greatness, the second will probably be about his injuries. Trout just hasn’t been able to stay healthy, man.
The Angels’ star player will miss significant time again this season after tearing his meniscus. He’ll have surgery on it and be out indefinitely.
This is so unfortunate. Injuries keep taking away from Trout’s greatness. He’s only played in 237 of 486 possible games since 2021, according to CBS Sports. That’s not a great ratio.
Hopefully, Trout will be back and healthy soon enough.
Playing with food
The Pacers missed a big opportunity on Tuesday night and may end up paying dearly for it.
Indiana lost 112-95 to an extremely shorthanded Milwaukee Bucks team. Both Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokoumpo missed the game with their various injuries.
This was not supposed to happen. It’s actually never happened before. Milwaukee is the first team in NBA history to win a playoff game without both of its two top scorers.
Wild, but true:
With Giannis and Damian Lillard out, the Bucks become the first team EVER to win a playoff game without their top-2 scorers from the regular season. H/t @StatsWilliams
— Malika Andrews (@malika_andrews) May 1, 2024
Now, by extending the series, Milwaukee has given their best players a chance to come back potentially. Doc Rivers said they’re both “very close” to making a return, according to ESPN.
Tough luck, Indy. We’ll see how things develop from here.
Quick hits: Lakers head coaching candidates … BEEF … and more
— Here are five head coaching candidates that could replace Darvin Ham on the Lakers bench from Blake Schuster
— Kendrick Lamar cooked Drake. This beef is getting fun.
— Here’s Robert Zeglinski on how the Kristaps Porzingis injury might change the Celtics’ playoff trajectory.
— Caitlin Clark is one of People’s 2024 Beauties of the Year. Here’s Meg Hall with more.
— Here are some NFL Power Rankings after the draft from Robert and Christian D’Andrea. The Lions are looking so impressive.
— And here’s an early 2025 NFL Draft big board from Christian.
That’s all, folks! Thanks so much for reading. Appreciate you taking the time! Let’s do it all again tomorrow. See you soon. Peace.
-Sykes ✌️