Page 12 - Florida Sentinel 5-14-19

Sports
Wow! Kawhi Leonard Gets
Jason Pierre-
Friendly Bounce On
Paul Will Not
Thrilling Winning Shot
Undergo Surgery
The Toronto Raptors ad- vanced to the Eastern Confer- ence Finals with a 92-90 win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday, thanks to some heroics by Kawhi Leonard, including the friendliest bounce imaginable on the last shot.
Leonard went baseline and took a shot from just in- side the 3-point line in the corner just before the buzzer.
The ball took four bounces before falling in and felt like it was on the rim for an hour before dropping through. The suspense was intense, and for a moment, Philly probably thought they were going to
Tampa Bay Buccaneers pass rusher Jason Pierre- Paul will take the non-surgi- cal route in trying to recover from his fractured vertebra.
According to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com, no surgery is planned for Pierre-Paul at this point, and the team is holding out hope that he will be able to play at some point during the 2019 season.
The original fear was that Pierre-Paul would sit out the entire 2019 season after sustaining serious injuries in a one-car crash. It’s too soon to say whether he’ll avoid that
NBA Mock Draft 2019: 1st-Round Projections For Top Prospects' Landing Spots
Zion Williamson will continue to smile if he gets selected with the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft
JASON PIERRE-PAUL fate, but the fact that Pierre-
Paul and the Buccaneers are taking a non-surgical route suggests they think he can heal naturally and play some part in the 2019 season.
KAWHI LEONARD
Doug Baldwin
Announces
Apparent
Rodney Hood had to be helped off the court after suf- fering a left leg injury in Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals on Sunday between his Portland Trail Blazers and the Denver Nuggets.
Hood was trying to play defense as the Nuggets brought the ball up the court in the third quarter. He was screened by Torrey Craig and grabbed at his left leg be-
overtime. Instead, the shot fell. That gave Leonard 41 points in the game.
The Raptors now return to
the conference finals for the second time in franchise his- tory and will face the Milwau- kee Bucks.
Former Seahawk
Rodney Hood Suffers Left Leg Injury In Game 7
RODNEY HOOD
fore going down to the floor.
Retirement
In what
Doug Bald- win termed a “letter to my younger self,” the now-for- mer Seahawks receiver took
DOUG to Twitter on
BALDWIN
Sunday night
Devastated Joel
to unveil a 20- tweet thread that served as both a retrospective on his football career and an apparent
official retirement notice. Baldwin ended the thread with a scene from one of his fa- vorite shows, “Game of Thrones”, with the caption, “My watch has ended.” The lat- est episode of GOT had just
aired.
Baldwin’s Seattle career
ended last Thursday after eight seasons when his contract was terminated, along with that of safety Kam Chancellor.
Baldwin, who has had off- season surgeries on his shoul- der, knee as well a sports hernia procedure, had been said to be considering retiring for several months due to his lingering health issues that fol- lowed a season in which he missed three games — the first he had missed since the 2012 season. After a late-season vic- tory over Kansas City, Bald- win said battling the injuries had made the 2018 season “hell.”
Embiid Was Crying After
The NBA's draft lottery Tuesday will fix the positions of the 14 teams that did not make the playoffs this sea- son.
That event is always a big night on the NBA calendar, and perhaps it will be even more memorable than usual because of the prizes at the top.
Duke's Zion Williamson, Murray State's Ja Morant and Blue Devil RJ Barrett appear to be the three players who will go at the top of the draft on June 20.
Williamson appears to be a generational player who combines eye-catching power with leaping ability,
athleticism and a huge amount of basketball talent. The freshman dominated games throughout the 2018- 19 season, and there was an unstoppable characteristic to his game.
The lottery system gives the teams with the three worst regular-season records an equal chance to come away with the top pick.
The New York Knicks, Cleveland Cavaliers and Phoenix Suns each have a 14.0 percent chance of com- ing away with the No. 1 pick and a 52.1 percent chance of coming away with a pick in the top four. Those teams had the worst records in the NBA this season.
The agony of defeat was evident on Joel Embiid’s face the moment the Philadel- phia 76ers lost their playoff se- ries against the Toronto Raptors on Sunday.
Kawhi Leonard hit a spectacular winning shot at the buzzer to beat Philly 92-90 and advance to the conference finals. His shot barely went over Embiid and bounced on the rim four times before going through.
Immediately after the shot dropped through, Embiid began crying on the court, ab- solutely devastated by the loss. TNT even showed him crying as he walked through the tun- nel to the team’s locker room.
Embiid only shot 6-for-18 in the game and was not at his best, making the defeat even
JOEL EMBIID
harder, especially since he knows what kind of criticism he’ll be receiving. But this sort of emotion is what you want to see out of a player. Someone who cares this much about his team and about losing will be motivated to play hard and come back next season doing even better so he doesn’t feel the pain again. He and the Six- ers will be back.
76ers Lost In Game 7
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