Best Games of the Week 4/20 - 4/26 - RoundingThird's Blog

RoundingThird's Blog

Best Games of the Week 4/20 - 4/26

Posted on April 27, 2013 at 10:50 AM.

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This week in sports was full of great highlights from the NBA Playoffs, MLB, and NHL. We could spend our time looking at highlights, or just recap the 5 most exciting games. But before we do, I want to give an honorable mention to an event that I would have included, but couldn't because it was not in this time frame.

NFL Draft: First 2 rounds, April 25 and 26

The first pick of the draft was supposed to go to Texas A&M's Luke Joeckel, but the Chiefs surprised everyone by selecting Central Michigan's Eric Fisher 1st overall, making both the Chiefs and Jaguars, who picked Joeckel 2nd, happy.

There were a few more surprises in the first round, as EJ Manuel was the first quarterback to be drafted, going 16th to the Bills, who passed on new coach Doug Marrone's QB at Syracuse, Ryan Nassib, as well as Geno Smith out of West Virginia. Smith was the highlight of the 2nd round, going 39th overall to the New York Jets.

Now for the 5 best game this week, beginning with number 5:

5. April 25: New York Rangers 4, Carolina Hurricanes 3 (F/OT)

The Rangers came into this game with a chance to clinch a playoff spot and elminate the likes of 2 other teams, including arch rival New Jersey. The Hurricanes wanted to come out and play spoiler, having been eliminated from postseason contention for a while. With the score tied 2-2 in the third, Jiri Tlusty of Carolina comes right out and scores 49 seconds into the 3rd period, giving Carolina a 3-2 lead. Hurricanes goaltender Dan Ellis continued stopping shots sent by the Rangers until Tuomo Ruutu was called for tripping with 4:48 left. With a 1 man advantage, the Rangers finally scored with 9 seconds left on the power play to make it 3-3. Neither team could do anything the rest of the way, so they went into overtime, where Brad Richards knocked in the game winner 2:55 into overtime, giving the Rangers a spot in the playoffs.

4. April 24: New York Mets 7, Los Angeles Dodgers 3 (F/10)

Down 3-2 in the 9th, David Wright singled home the tying run for the Mets to push the game to extra innings. In the 10th, Mets CF Jordany Valdespin, who had only entered the game as a pinch hitter in the 8th, comes up to the plate and hits a grand slam, his first home run of the season. The walk off hit gave the Mets a come from behind win to improve their record to 10-9, while the Dodgers dropped to 9-11.

3. April 26: Western Conference Quarterfinals Game 3 (Series Tied 1-1): Golden State Warriors 110, Denver Nuggets 108

The Warriors returned home after splitting the first two games of the series in Denver. Led by Ty Lawson and Kenneth Faried, the Nuggets got out to a first half lead. In the second half, despite losing F David Lee for the season and star PG Stephen Curry sporting a sprained ankle, the Warriors made a run to tie it up and then take the lead in the 4th. Curry, the league's all time leader in 3 pointers made in a season, scored 29 points total, adding 11 assists. The Nuggets weren't done. They came charging back, cutting the lead to 1 before rookie Harrison Barnes missed one of two at the free throw line making it a 2 point lead. With one last shot, Andre Iguodala fired up a shot from just past half court that rimmed out, securing the Warriors 110-108 win and giving them a 2-1 series lead.

2. April 22: Western Conference Finals Quarterfinals Game 2 (Clippers Lead 1-0): Los Angeles Clippers 93, Memphis Grizzlies 91

No one could pull ahead early until the Clippers controlled the second quarter led by Jamal Crawford, who scored 13 points in the quarter on 6-6 shooting. The Clippers took a six point lead to the half, and held onto it until Marc Gasol tied it at 91 with 13 seconds to play in the game. After Blake Griffin won a tough jump ball, Chris Paul missed a three, but got a second chance after an offensive rebound. He put in a floater with a tenth of a second left to give the Clippers a 93-91 win and a 2-0 series lead.

And now, the best game of the week:

1. April 20: Boston Red Sox 4, Kansas City Royals 3

The first Red Sox game in Boston was emotional throughout. First responders from the events at the Boston Marathon were honored before first pitch, David "Big Papi" Ortiz returned to the team and gave an inspiring pregame speech. Then the game went on. In the middle of the 8th, Neil Diamond made an appearance to sing Boston's beloved "Sweet Caroline" live in front of the crowd. Moments later, down 2-1, Daniel Nava hit a 3 run home run to put the Red Sox on top and send the crowd into a spree of chaos and emotion. The Red Sox then hold on in the ninth to win 4-3.

If you think I missed a game, feel free to let me know. Other wise, join me again next week as I count down next week's best games.