maya (Maya Sweedler, editor): Quick show of hands, who else is still picking themselves up off the floor from Sunday? neil (Neil Paine, acting sports editor): maya: One day after the largest comeback in NFL history, Sunday’s games brought some of the wildest finishes, thrilling sequences and (sorry to New England) funniest game-losing plays […]
Football has no shortage of adages. It’s a game of inches. It’s about imposing your will and dominating your opponent. It’s about grit, and winning through toughness. But what if football is also largely about being lucky? Near the end of the second quarter in the Week 11 game between the Indianapolis Colts and the […]
The runners-up in the NBA Finals over the past few years have started the following season in a deep malaise. After falling in the 2018 Finals, the Cleveland Cavaliers lost 16 of their first 20 games to start the 2018-19 season. Likewise, after dropping the 2019 Finals, the Golden State Warriors opened the next season […]
The 11-3 Seattle Seahawks are either one of the luckiest teams in NFL history or one of the most clutch. When asked about the team’s record in close games, head coach Pete Carroll chalked up Seattle’s apparent good fortune to the latter, citing team leadership and poise under pressure. What he’s implicitly telling us and […]
We’re in a golden age for NBA offense. Teams are scoring 110.1 points per 100 possessions during the 2018-19 season, according to Basketball-Reference.com — a full 1.3 points per 100 possessions more than the previous high of 108.8, which was set two years ago. This is largely — and rightly — credited to the boom […]