Sunday Skills, Stumpers, and Silliness (#5) š®
Itās Sunday, Smallball-ers, and you know what that meansā¦ time to flex our feet, stretch our minds, and get ready to laugh.
But first, weāve got 3 things you need to know. ā¬
1ļøā£ Pacers Back in the Big One š
Itās been 25 years. But who's counting?
(Actuallyā¦ we are. And maybe Tyrese Haliburton is too. More on that in a second.)
The Indiana Pacers are heading back to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2000! They punched their ticket with a 125ā108 win over the New York Knicks in Game 6, closing out the Eastern Conference Finals in style.
Pascal Siakam led the Pacers with 31 points, while Haliburton added 21 points and 13 assistsā¦ a bounce-back performance from Indianaās top star.
They didnāt just make shots. They made the Knicks pay.
Indiana won the turnover battle, 17ā12. (A turnover is when a team loses the ball before taking a shot.)
But hereās the bigger number: the Pacers turned those extra chances into 34 points. The Knicks? Just 13. Thatās called points off turnoversā¦ and itās a big reason Indiana is still playing, while New York packs up.
And speaking of Haliburtonā¦ get this:
He was born in 2000ā¦ just a few months before the Pacersā last Finalsā¦ on February 29!
So depending on how you do the math, heās either 25 years oldā¦ or 6 and a quarter. Either way, heās playing like a grown-upā¦ guiding the Pacers back to a place they havenāt been since the days of Reggie Miller.
That 2000 Finals? The Pacers lost in six games to a dominant Lakers team led by Kobe Bryant. They had to face a dynasty in the making.
This time, they face a juggernaut in waiting.
The Oklahoma City Thunder await in the Finals. OKC swept the regular-season series 2ā0 and will have home-court advantage when the Finals tip off Thursday.
But the playoffs are a different ballgame. And the Pacers are a different team than they were in those games a few months ago.
2ļøā£ Now for an Actually Different Ballgame ā¾
You replied. We listened. At Smallball, when the readers want baseballā¦ we bring the bats. Yankees. Dodgers. Letās go.
A few weeks ago, we talked about the rivalry between Boston and New York. But if you slide that spotlight a little west? Youāll find a rivalry just as fierce.
The New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers have met 12 times in the World Seriesā¦ more than any other matchup in Major League Baseball history. The Yankees have the advantage, 8 to 4. But that stat only tells half the story.
Once upon a time, both teams were in New Yorkā¦ the Yankees in the Bronx and the Dodgers in Brooklyn. Some kids cheered for Joe DiMaggio. Others rooted for Jackie Robinson. And every fall, the city felt like a giant game of tug-of-war, with baseball bats instead of ropes.
Then came 1958. The Dodgers moved west. The rivalry moved with them. And last October?
It hit a new peak. Los Angeles took down New York in five games to win the 2024 World Series, punctuated by a dramatic Game 5 comeback at Yankee Stadiumā¦filled with Yankee errors.
š„ Watch what went wrong last year:
Now, here we are again. One weekend in June, with stars all over the diamond and pride on the line.
Letās meet four of the biggest stars in baseballā¦ who all happen to be playing in this series.
Shohei Ohtani leads baseball with 22 home runs. But itās not just his power. Heās one of the only players in baseball history who can crush a home run one inning and strike out a batter the next. Some fans say heās the closest thing weāve seen to Babe Ruthā¦ only faster.
Aaron Judge isnāt far behind. At 6-foot-7, heās a power hitter who can launch baseballs into the sky like rockets. But heās not just muscleā¦ he leads the Major Leagues in batting average, too. (His batting average is nearly .400ā¦ that means he gets a hit nearly 4 out of every 10 times he steps up to the plate.) After that tough error we saw in Game 5 of last yearās World Series, Judge owned it, learned from it, and came back even stronger. Thatās what leaders do.
Mookie Betts does a little bit of everythingā¦ and does it really well. Heās fast, he hits for power, and he can play just about any position on the field. Heās already won MVP awards and Gold Gloves (š„ baseballās award for the best defensive players at every position), and heās the kind of player who can help his team in a dozen different ways every night.
Right behind Judge on the list of best batting averages? Freddie Freeman, one of the best overall hitters in baseball. Heās strong, consistent, and really hard to strike out.
These four all rank in the top ten of most expertsā list of the best baseball players in the world.
Then it was time to play.
3ļøā£ Lights. Camera. Game Time. š¬
Friday night? The stars shone bright.
In the first inning, Ohtani and Judge each hit solo home runs. The last time two MVPs from the year before homered in the same inning of a game? Never. This was history.
Then Ohtani homered again in the sixth inning. Freeman kept the fireworks going with a double. The Dodgers erased a Yankees lead and stormed back to win Game 1, 8ā5.
š„ Hereās Ohtani in action:
Saturday? It wasnāt close.
The Dodgers exploded for 10 runs in the first two innings and never looked back, crushing the Yankees 18ā2. The Dodgers racked up 21 total hits, including five home runs. Aaron Judge did his best to keep the Yankees afloat, hitting two solo homers to bring his season total to 21, but it wasnāt nearly enough.
š„ Watch Judge refuse to give up even as the Yankees struggled:
Now, with the series finale set for Sunday, the Dodgers are eyeing a sweep (winning every game in a series without a loss). Experts give them a 63% chance to complete it.
š¤ What would you rather be: the defending champions everyone wants to beatā¦ or the team that came up short and is hungry for payback?
Whichever one you picked, youāll need some serious skills to win. Letās get toā¦
š§ Skills: The Art of the Juke
Flag football is fast, fun, and finally headed to the Olympics. So whether you're dreaming of 2028 or just the backyard bowl this weekend, hereās one skill that works at every level: making people miss.
Scoring a touchdown is fun. Doing it with a juke? Even better.
No stiff arms. No jumping. Just quick feet, clever moves, and a little bit of make-āem-miss magic.
š„ Watch this video to expand your playbook!
Flag football might not be full contact, but itās full creativity.
And with the Olympics coming up in Los Angeles in a few years, who knowsā¦ this could be your first step toward Team USA.
ā Stumpers: Two Teams, One City
Speaking of Los Angeles, itās home to two NFL teams. One of them ā the Chargers ā is coming up later in our story.
Can you figure outā¦
š¤ Need a hint? Spell each teamās name backwards. The right answer almost turns into a very ācleverā wordā¦
š Silliness: Schedule Drops and Minecraft Blocks š§±
Whatās louder than a marching band and zanier than a missed field goal returned for a touchdown?
NFL Schedule Release Day.
Yep, one of the wildest moments in the football calendar isnāt even a gameā¦ itās when we find out when the games are.
Itās become a day when every team turns into a movie studio to try and make a video fans love.
And this year, the Los Angeles Chargers may have won it all... by going full Minecraft.
š„ Want to see it? Trust us...you do. Click here to watch on YouTube!
š¤ If your favorite team in any sport made a movie based on a video game, what game would you pick... and what would happen in it?
Let your imagination go full gamer mode.
š” What We Learned Today
Whether youāre launching homers, dropping defenders, or building block by block, one thingās clear: thereās more than one way to be a star.
And before you goā¦
Smallball just reminded us that some of you wanted tennis updates from the clay courts of Paris! We'll dive into the action later this week. Mark your calendars: women's semis start Thursday, June 5, and men's semis follow on Friday, June 6.
Oh, andā¦ blowout alert! Paris Saint-Germain just claimed their first-ever UEFA Champions League title with a record-breaking 5ā0 victory over Inter Milan. (UEFA stands for the Union of European Football Associationsā¦ it's basically Europeās version of the Super Bowl, but for soccer teams from different countries.)
š„ Want a quick look at the champions?
See you tomorrow, Smallball-ers!
I would have the eagles playing football game on Mario party.-Samuel
I would have the warriors play Mario party-Jake