Rejoice: After the NBA’s self-imposed weeklong layoff, the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks are finally ready to tip off the NBA Finals.A (hopefully) seven-game showdown pitting Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown against Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving is red meat for the sports betting public.Every journey starts with a single step, so let’s focus on Game 1 today. Here are three bets worth considering for Thursday night’s series opener.Boston Celtics to cover -6.5 (-110 at BetMGM, FanDuel)This one doesn’t require much overthinking. We’ve been treated to an abundance of close playoff games in recent weeks — well, at least out of the West — but the Celtics are favored at -225 to win this series for a reason. They’re the better team top to bottom, they were hardly tested throughout…

Don’t count MVPs before they hatch. Nikola Jokić’s third consecutive MVP has seemed like an inevitability during the first three-quarters of the season. Jokić’s triple-double averages, improved offensive efficiency, advanced statistics, and Denver’s No. 1 seed in the Western Conference all appeared to tip the scales toward Jokić walking away with the award. Trench warfare in the 2023 MVP discourse has reached critical mass in recent weeks. Bleacher Report analyst Andy Bailey almost abandoned Twitter due to the backlash from Philly fans. Kendrick Perkins grasping for straws with his consistent bashing of Jokić sparked a war on First Take with JJ Redick that took the MVP conversation to ghost pepper levels on the Scoville scale. Who’s the MVP favorite now? However, on Frid…

It was another miserable year full of miserable things. Here is some stuff from 2018 that we hope stays in 2018. The Content Maw 2018 is the year we officially ran out of ways to meaningfully produce what the media thinkfluencers like to call “content.” More specifically, this is the year in which the technologies that allow for and even demand the creation of content advanced to a point that the content creators, and thus consumers, have been left choking in the dust. This is a problem that manifests itself in ways both big and small. On the small side, you find writers and publications confronted with an endless array of video and audio and publishing and social media platforms through which to interact with their audiences. Instead of turning away from that void, these writers an…

Some people are fans of the Buffalo Bills. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the Buffalo Bills. This 2016 Deadspin NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read all the previews so far here. And buy Drew’s new book here. Your team: Buffalo Bills. Your 2015 record: 8-8, defending Stanley Cup Champions. Although your average Bills season is best measured not by wins and losses, but by parking lot fatalities. I don’t even pay attention to the Bills on the field anymore. All the action is in the stands and the concourse, amigo. While Tyrod Taylor is uncorking a whopping 12 passes per game and the kicker is nailing himself in the fucking face, these fans are getting busy in the bathtub lab, manufacturing their own homegrown brand of Siberian excitement. We got …

Some people are fans of the Detroit Lions. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the Detroit Lions. This 2013 Deadspin NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read all the 2013 NFL previews so far right here. Your team: Detroit Lions Your 2012 record: 4-12. And that's no ordinary 4-12 season for the Lions. This was a team that went 10-6 in 2011 before getting torched by the Saints in the playoffs. There was the illusion that this team had actually BUILT something, that they would be able to remain consistently successful, perhaps even, you know, improve. But not only did they go 4-12, they went 4-12 without anything catastrophic happening. Matt Stafford played the whole season. Megatron played the whole season. The core of young talent they assembled remaine…

Warriors star Steph Curry is expected to undergo testing to determine the extent of a right ankle injury that knocked him out of Thursday's 125-122 loss to the Chicago Bulls. The Golden State guard left the game with 3:51 left in the fourth quarter. On an attempted drive to the lane, Curry planted his right foot and rolled the ankle. When he went to the bench, he paused only briefly before heading to the locker room. Coach Steve Kerr said Curry was with the training staff postgame and had his entire foot in an ice bucket. Golden State hosts the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday, when Curry's status is expected to be updated. "It sucks, but everybody deals with injuries," forward Draymond Green said. "You've just got to do the best you can in dealing with it.&…

data-mm-id=”_74bizmqd5″>JJ Redick and Tommy Alter hosted Hasan Minhaj (from Netflix's Patriot Act) and Malcolm Gladwell on their Ringer podcast this week. Redick was talking about how Nickeil Alexander-Walker has looked to him as a mentor with the Pelicans in a similar manner to which Redick looked up to Rashard Lewis as a young player with the Magic. Gladwell asked if that was an intuitive, obvious thing for most basketball players. Redick said that it is not. After that, Gladwell asked why that would be hard. Redick had this to say in response: "There's just too much stuff going on. There's too many people in your ear," Redick said. "There's probably not enough time in the day for some guys. They've got Fortnite to go to. They've gotta wor…

data-mm-id=”_69vvipd41″>Tom Brady appeared on the Howard Stern Show Wednesday. Brady stuck to his gameplan and mostly gave Stern nothing compared to what he usually gets out of guests. One of the few times Stern got Brady to sweat a little was when he brought up Donald Trump. It wasn't anything political that tripped him up – Brady said that teammates knew him so there was never any real tension around his friendship with the president – but when Stern asked him about Ivanka Trump, it drew some nervous laughter from Brady.You can hear Tom Brady squirm when Howard Stern asks him about Donald Trump wanting to hook him up with Ivanka pic.twitter.com/0WurJBEV5j— gifdsports (@gifdsports) April 8, 2020Being Brady, he quickly recovered and acted like he didn't really know what St…

data-mm-id=”_2eof96zl6″>It's officially official as it gets: Deshaun Watson has asked the Houston Texans to trade him this offseason. The rumblings of such a transaction first began just after the new year and have only grown in strength and numbers since. Today, we finally got the report we had been waiting for from Adam Schefter. Deshaun Watson hasn’t spoken to new Texans general manager Nick Caserio nor executive Jack Easterby. Watson is moving on and waiting to see where his NFL future takes him. https://t.co/heLvCjpEXu— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 28, 2021Three weeks ago, we gave four potential destinations when a Watson trade was nothing but a juicy rumor. A lot has transpired since then; the Texans hired Nick Caesiro as general manager, who then interviewed nu…

data-mm-id=”_zc1xlm57e”>Bill Simmons' latest podcast features Ringer contributor and Boston sports media legend Jackie MacMullan. In a shocking twist that no one could have possibly seen coming the conversation turned to the Boston Celtics. With Gordon Hayward selfishly opting out of his Celtics' contract and signing for a ton of money in Charlotte, Simmons seemed to come to the realization that maybe Danny Ainge is actually starting to hurt the Celtics' reputation with players around the league. Continued (2/2) pic.twitter.com/vEKuNnVCTb— Harrison Faigen (@hmfaigen) November 25, 2020I don't think Simmons has much of a lightbulb moment here. I just think it's a very solid theory. No matter how good a move the Kyrie Irving deal was for Boston, it was kind of m…