Carolina's Comeback Changed the Series

Photo: Scott Wachter / Imagn Images

The list of teams to blow a 2-0 lead in the NBA Finals has exactly one entry. In 1969, the Los Angeles Lakers built that cushion against Bill Russell's final Celtics team and watched it evaporate over five games, losing the series in seven.

In every Finals since, no team has found a way back from 0-2. Tonight at 8:30 ET in San Antonio, the Spurs play Game 2 knowing that the entire recorded history of this league is almost uniformly against them if they fall behind.

Victor Wembanyama scored 27 points in Game 1 and lost by 10. That is not a moral victory — it is a warning. The Spurs learned what the Knicks are this postseason: a team that plays well against you and then wins anyway.

San Antonio plays Game 2 tonight knowing their best player was excellent and it changed nothing. The Knicks have won 12 straight. They are heading to New York after tonight regardless of what happens in this building. The Spurs need to make sure they don't go there down two games.

The 1969 Lakers had Wilt Chamberlain and Jerry West and still couldn't pull it off. San Antonio gets their chance tonight.

Photo: AP News

Seth Jarvis scored on a power play 3:56 into overtime, and Carolina won Game 2, 4-3 — coming back from the same two-goal deficit Vegas had overcome to win Game 1.

The Hurricanes trailed 2-0 after two periods. They scored three times in five minutes and five seconds to take a 3-2 lead. Mark Stone tied it for Vegas with 1:21 left in regulation. Jarvis ended it. Carolina's 35-5-2 home record survived its most important test of the season.

What makes this series unusual is the geometry of it. Vegas trailed by two goals in Game 1 and won. Carolina trailed by two goals in Game 2 and won. No recent Stanley Cup Final has opened with both teams engineering identical comebacks in back-to-back games.

The series heads to Las Vegas tied 1-1, and the only lesson from two games is that a lead in this series is worth nothing until the final buzzer. Game 3 is Saturday at T-Mobile Arena.

In over a century of Stanley Cup Finals, no series has opened with both teams engineering identical two-goal comebacks in back-to-back games. This one just did.

Photo: MLB

Kyle Schwarber has hit 23 home runs through the Philadelphia Phillies' first 62 games, and finding appropriate context requires going to names that belong on a very short list.

A player on pace for 60 home runs through 62 games has done it exactly three times before in baseball history: Mark McGwire in 1998 (who finished with 70), Barry Bonds in 2001 (who finished with 73), and McGwire again in 1999 (who finished with 65). Schwarber is behind those paces. He is ahead of every other player who has ever played the game.

The history of power hitters maintaining June paces through September is not encouraging as a general rule, but Schwarber's numbers have not slipped. He had 20 through 49 games when this newsletter first noted the pace — now he has 23 through 62. The rate has held.

He is 32 years old and leads the Phillies, who sit in first place in the NL East. A player has hit 60 or more home runs in a season exactly eight times in baseball history. Schwarber has 100 games left.

McGwire. Bonds. Three seasons between them. Schwarber is on the same pace. There are 100 games left.

Photo: LA Times

A.J. Brown arrived in New England this week after the Philadelphia Eagles traded him for a 2028 first-round pick and a 2027 fifth. It is the kind of move that reshapes a young quarterback's entire outlook before a single snap is played.

Drake Maye, entering his second NFL season at 23, now has the best wide receiver the Patriots have had since Randy Moss — who joined New England in 2007 and caught 23 touchdowns, a record that still stands in the NFL today. Brown has averaged over 1,200 receiving yards per season across his four healthiest years. He is 28 years old and at the peak of what he is.

The Eagles moved him in a year they believe their roster is good enough to win without him. That is a statement of confidence — and a bet that could look catastrophic if they're wrong.

For New England, this answers the most urgent question surrounding a franchise in transition since Tom Brady left. Maye is talented. The supporting cast now gives him a reason to believe that talent can translate. In 2007, the year Moss arrived, New England went 16-0 in the regular season.

In 2007, New England went 16-0 with Randy Moss and lost the Super Bowl. Brown gives Maye the same weapon. The difference is the quarterback.

Forward ScoreWire to the person who stayed up for Carolina's third period last night. They earned something good in their inbox.