October 24, 2013
Champions League Pass & Move: Dortmund’s Pressure, Zlatan’s Goal, and the Return of Drogba
A look at this week’s Champions League action. Arsenal Under Pressure Spike Friedman: Borussia Dortmund’s aggressive pressing effectively neutralized what had been a prolific Arsenal attack, before a late goal against the run of play gave the Germans a crucial 2-1 win at the Emirates. That Dortmund pressed effectively without dominating possession is unsurprising; in […]
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World Series, Game 1: Lester Dominates
The pitching matchup for Game 1 of the World Series looked like a potential mismatch. The overmatched team would have to compensate by grinding out productive at-bats, playing better defense than the team in the other dugout, and getting at least a decent performance from its own starter. Turns out it was a mismatch, but […]
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About Last Night: Birds Grounded in Beantown
In case you were out giving the ol’ trick-or-treat route a dry run, much to the chagrin of everyone on Greenleaf Street, here’s what you missed in sports on Wednesday: Jon Lester and the Boston Red Sox opened the World Series in dominant fashion, beating a sloppy St. Louis Cardinals team 8-1. “We may have […]
Read moreOctober 23, 2013
6-Day NBA Warning: Let’s Hope Ricky Rubio Doesn’t Grow Up
Looked at a certain way, NBA players are men playing a kid’s game. But shift the angle slightly and they — especially the younger ones — can look like kids playing a man’s game. Any rookie, any sophomore — hell, any player who’s been in the league for fewer than five seasons — has a […]
Read moreI Suck at Football 2.7: The Mirror Game
Your wife is too good at recognizing actors’ faces. Since moving to L.A. she keeps experiencing false-positive IDs. Sometimes she’ll see someone in a store or across a crowded restaurant and become convinced it’s someone she knows, maybe an old coworker, a friend of a friend, and then she realizes it’s a third-season Top Chef […]
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Grantland NFL Podcast: Week 7 and Caleb Hanie
Mays and Barnwell cover the Week 7 action before getting to … Caleb Hanie? You can listen to this podcast on the ESPN Podcenter here, or subscribe to the Grantland Sports podcast network on iTunes here and the Grantland NFL Podcast here.
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Vegas Weekend Recap: The Patriots Send Bettors Chasing All Day
Las Vegas commentators often stress how much the public loves to bet favorites. It’s not so much that the public prefers to lay points, but rather that it loves to back the better team — and if the better team is getting points, that’s just icing on the cake. College football polls act as shortcuts, […]
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Visualizing Patterns in MLB Pitching
As the 0-2 curveball left the fingertips of Jose Veras’s right hand, the Tigers were leading Game 6 of the American League Championship Series 2-1. It was late in the game, and if Shane Victorino struck out, the mood at Fenway Park would have migrated from cautiously optimistic to squanderphobia. Veras and his curveball had […]
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The Triangle All-Stars: Sheed and Pop Are America, and the People’s Dream Team Is Complete
You didn’t think we’d have coaches? We made fake uniforms for this All-Star team. Of course we have coaches. The coaches are probably the best thing about this entire project. We should all salute that illustration when we roll out of bed every morning. We don’t even have to explain the appeal of these two […]
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Frank Haith Gets a Five-Game Suspension, and More College Hoops News You Can Use
We’re now less than a month from the tipoff of the 2013-14 season, and schools all around the country have held their various Midnight Madness celebrations (though a 2013 rule change meant that teams could begin practicing as early as September 27 this year). It’s almost time for college basketball, but before we ring in […]
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Great Moments in Goalie Goal-Scoring History
Phoenix Coyotes goalie Mike Smith joined an exclusive club Saturday when he did this against the Detroit Red Wings: That makes Smith one of just 11 goalies in NHL history to be credited with a goal, and one of just six to do it by actually shooting the puck into the other team’s net. So […]
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Bill and Jalen’s NBA Preview: Golden State Warriors
The boys are back in town! Bill and Jalen break down what the addition of Andre Iguodala means to the Warriors, how their small-ball lineup could be effective, and why the safety of Bill’s children is in danger every time Steph Curry heats up. For more of Bill and Jalen’s NBA Previews, click here.
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Men in Blazers: Special Guest Ian Darke
The Men in Blazers revel with Arsenal and fear for Manchester United. Sir Ian Darke makes a guest appearance to confer an air of nobility. Listen to this podcast here. Subscribe to the Grantland Network on iTunes, and check out our podcasts page. To subscribe to the Men in Blazers podcast feed, click here.
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Blow the Whistle: The NBA’s Precarious Officiating Issues
You’ve noticed, if you’ve been watching the NBA’s overlong preseason, that it is dreaded “point of emphasis” time — the phase of preseason in which officials go crazy calling all sorts of things they haven’t generally called much when the games count, but swear they will this season. It’s a warning shot: “Unlearn this behavior […]
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NFL Deep Cuts: Obscure Players Get Their Shot
As we near the halfway point of the 2013 NFL season, the teams and lineups we expected to see trotted out on the field this season are now shells of their former selves. The Falcons are already down seven starters from the guys they would have expected to be in the starting 22 in July. […]
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Video: Jalen Predicts Kevin Durant Will Join James Harden in Houston
During Bill and Jalen’s preview of the Houston Rockets’ season, Jalen predicts that Kevin Durant will join James Harden and Dwight Howard on the Rockets at the end of his run in Oklahoma City. Not done there, Jalen also predicts that Russell Westbrook and Kevin Love will team up on the Los Angeles Lakers. And […]
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The X-Files: Deron Williams
In the lead-up to the 2013-14 NBA season, Grantland will examine key players — X factors — for contending teams. It was late in the third quarter of a Game 1 blowout in Brooklyn. The Nets were scorching their depleted visitors from Chicago. Carlos Boozer set a screen along the left wing to free up Luol […]
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B.S. Report: Bill and Jalen’s NBA Preview, Part 5
Bill and Jalen finally make it to the top 10 of their NBA Previews with nos. 14-10. (To watch Bill and Jalen’s NBA Preview videos, click here.) Listen to the podcast here. Subscribe to the B.S. Report on iTunes, and check out our podcasts page.
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About Last Night: It’s All About the U
In case you were busy throwing your old iPad in the garbage like the trash that it is, here’s what you missed in sports on Tuesday: The University of Miami avoided major additional sanctions related to the Nevin Shapiro scandal, as the NCAA only revoked a small number of scholarships, deeming the school’s self-imposed two-year […]
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