There are a bunch of championship events being played this week, including the NBA Finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Indiana Pacers, the Stanley Cup Finals between the Edmonton Oilers and the Florida Panthers (a rematch from last year), and the French Open tennis finals.
The Oklahoma City Thunder are significant favorites to win their first NBA championship. The Thunder have a well-rounded team and plays the best defense in the league. They also have this year's MVP, Shei Gilgeous Alexander, who is Canadian. He has improved his play a lot in the last two or three years. If the Pacers want to have any chance to win, they have to somehow figure out how to play their brand of basketball, which is a very fast, high-scoring type of game. I expect the Thunder to win the series in five or six games.
In the first game of the Stanley Cup Finals, Edmonton won in overtime by the score of 4-3. This should have been a huge opportunity for the Panthers to get ahead in the series. They had a 3-1 lead and lost. I think Edmonton is going to be a very motivated team because of the fact they lost in seven games to the Panthers last year after being the big favorite to win the title. Edmonton is also under a lot of pressure to win the cup for the whole country of Canada, since a Canadian team hasn’t won the title since 1993.
Americans were making progress in the French Open for the first time since 1996. There were two American men in the quarterfinals. Unfortunately they both lost, but hopefully Tommy Paul and Frances Tiafoe can continue the momentum into the next grand slam tournament at Wimbledon, which starts in about a month. The usual contenders are still alive for the championship, including defending champion, Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic and Jannik Sinner. On the women’s side, Coco Gauff is going to play in her second French Open final against Aryna Sabalenka who beat the three-time defending champion Iga Swantek. Coco beat a talented 22-year-old French qualifier Lois Boisson to secure her spot in the finals.
In local sports, congratulations to both the Cape Henlopen girls’ lacrosse team and the baseball team for winning their state championships and also congratulations to the boys’ lacrosse team for a great season and a great fight against Salesianum in the championship game. The girls’ lacrosse team beat Tower Hill by the score of 20-9 to continue their amazing streak of winning 15 of the last 16 state championships. The baseball team won their second state championship in the last four years by winning their game over the Conrad School by the score of 6-4. They had a 6-0 lead, but made it too close for comfort near the end. The boys’ lacrosse team had an 8-4 lead at halftime, but Salesianum showed why they were the champions and came back to win 12-9. The softball and soccer teams both made the postseason and the track team missed a state title by only two points. Great season for all spring sports. Looking forward to next year!
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A 2002 Cape grad and 2007 UD grad, Lewes resident Sumner Spence is one of the Cape area's biggest sports fans. Although he’s used a wheelchair his entire life, he has lived vicariously through his sports-playing father, brother, and friends, who gave him his love of sports. He hopes to provide new and interesting perspectives on the sports stories and issues of the day. Email Sumner at sumspence@gmail.com.
