The Pulse Newsletter đŁ | This is The Athleticâs daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Pulse directly in your inbox.
Good morning! Donât go down 3-0 today.
While You Were Sleeping: Woof, finals series
For the second straight night, a top seed in a major professional sport won a tight game to go up 3-0 in its championship series. Also, those 0-fer teams â the Dallas Mavericks and Edmonton Oilers â employ each seriesâ biggest star: Luka DonÄiÄ and Connor McDavid.
Sure, most of us expected the Boston Celtics and Florida Panthers to win these series. But does it have to be like this?
- A small solace: Last nightâs Panthers win was quite entertaining. An early 4-1 lead for the Panthers dwindled to 4-3 in the final minutes of the game. Edmonton had multiple golden chances to tie it in the last three minutes. Sergei Bobrovsky and the Panthers defense clamped when it mattered most.
Only one team, the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs, has overcome a 3-0 deficit in the Stanley Cup Final to win. Eighty-two years later, our Game 4 is tomorrow night. This could be the NHLâs first title sweep since 1998 â and the first time both the NBA and NHL end with sweeps since 1995.
Letâs go across the Atlantic:
Pitch Perfect: No pressure, England
There is nothing quite like the Euros tournament, which pits the national teams of soccerâs premier continent against each other every four years. The World Cup, but local. Or imagine the best SEC football games in a season, mashed into just one month of play.
With this and Copa America coming up â plus a compelling womenâs Olympic tournament shortly after that â there hasnât been a better summer to be a soccer fan in recent memory (or to become one).
To help me prep for the Euros, which kicks off today, I went to expert Phil Hay of The Athletic FC fame for a rapid-fire Q&A session:
Which team has the most on the line?Â
Phil: England. By far. Itâs won no major trophy since 1966 still, and all the noises indicate that this will be Gareth Southgateâs last hurrah as manager if they donât win it. Nothing less than that is good enough.
This tournament breeds stars. Whoâs the breakout player?Â
Phil: If you follow football closely then youâll know Florian Wirtz (Bundesligaâs 21-year-old player of the year says it all), but this might be the moment when the midfielderâs talent properly seeps into the consciousness of the wider world.
Â
Whoâs winning?Â
Phil: Itâs England or France. Iâm going with France. And not because Iâm Scottish. I just think theyâll have a slight edge when it comes to getting it done.
Make sure to subscribe to The Athletic FC for this Euros run. Weâll also have tons of content in our Euro 2024 hub. Bookmark it.
News to Know
Rory tied for U.S. Open lead
Rory McIlroy and Patrick Cantlay both shot five-under 65s to claim first place after Day 1 of the U.S. Open yesterday. Historically, though, the first round at Pinehurst No. 2 has been a bit of foolâs gold â as Justin Ray noted last night in his excellent notebook, the course has been extremely unfair after the opening round. Gulp. If you need an underdog to root for, pick Jackson Suber, the last man into this field who somehow finds himself in the top 10.
The downstream effects of Lawrenceâs deal
Yesterday, the Jaguars and Trevor Lawrence agreed to a five-year contract extension worth $275 million, with $142 million guaranteed. His $55 million average annual value ties him with Joe Burrow for the highest among QBs, though Burrow got $4 million more in guaranteed money. Lawrence probably deserves that, but is he a top-five QB in the NFL? I say no. And how does this affect someone like Dak Prescott, currently locked in a friendly cold war with the Cowboys over his looming massive extension? I think Prescott just got richer, whether thatâs in Dallas or elsewhere.
More news
Record Books: Get ready for GOAT arguments
We said yesterday weâd have time to crown the Celtics. We might as well start now. The 2024 Boston Celtics, up 3-0 on the Dallas Mavericks entering tonightâs game, can officially become one of the best teams in NBA history with a win tonight.
Levels here:
- If the Celtics win, theyâll finish this postseason 16-2. Even accounting for opponent injuries, which eased Bostonâs road a bit, we can reasonably say this is one of the best playoff runs of the four-round era â technically behind only the 2016-17 Warriors (16-1) and the 2000-01 Lakers (15-1) since 1984. Lofty company.
- A title will be No. 18 for the Celtics, nudging them past the rival Lakers for the most in NBA history. Those fan bases can argue among themselves, but Boston has a case in this best-team-ever debate â if weâre going by pure numbers.
I will be shocked if Dallas wins tonight, especially since coach Jason Kidd said heâs making no lineup changes. Unless that same crew gets it done, itâll be time to debate where 2024 Boston lands on all-time top-20 lists.
Watch This Game
Euros: Germany vs. Scotland
3 p.m. ET on Fox
The Germans are big favorites here, but you never know what can happen on this kind of international stage. The atmosphere alone should be worth a watch.Â
College baseball: Florida State vs. Tennessee
7 p.m. ET on ESPN
This is the best matchup on Day 1 of the menâs College World Series, where the Volunteers are the No. 1 seed â which has been a curse. No top seed has won the national title since Miami in 1999.Â
NBA: Celtics at Mavericks
8:30 p.m. ET on ABC
If Boston wins, itâs history. If Dallas prevails, itâll face an uphill battle to more history. Give it a peek.Â
Get tickets to games like these here.
Pulse Picks
The Euros final isnât for another month, but itâs well worth your time to read Adam Craftonâs story on the venue that will host the tournament final: the Olympiastadion in Berlin, whose complicated history begins with Adolf Hitler.Â
There is still plenty of intrigue on the club soccer side, too. We have a new metric debuting this morning: The Athletic 500, our rating of every available transfer deal on the market. Weâll be using it often in these pages. Take a look.Â
Nicole Auerbach pulled back the curtain on the collegiate powerhouse that is expected to fuel the U.S. womenâs Olympic swim team.
I loved Tim Kawakamiâs story about his phone calls with Jerry West, which, as he wrote, could be âlike tapping into the NBA secret mainframe.âÂ
Jeff Berry was once a top MLB agent. So why did he walk away? Evan Drellich reports a super interesting story about baseballâs future.Â
Tony Gwynn, Rod Carew and ⊠Luis Arraez? Dennis Lin published a must-read story on baseballâs throwback star.Â
Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: Andrew Schlectâs video of all six Luka DonÄiÄ fouls Wednesday. I still canât believe he fouled out in a game like that.Â
Most-read on the website yesterday: Jim Bowdenâs roundup of trade targets for all 30 MLB teams as the deadline approaches. See who your team could snag â or trade away.
Sign up for our other newsletters:
The Bounce đ | The Windup ⟠| Full Time ✠| The Athletic FC âœ| Prime Tire đ | Until Saturday đ | Scoop City đ
(Photo: Dave Sandford / NHLI via Getty Images)