Its All-Star Saturday on the NASCAR Sprint Cup series, with a non-points race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway (7:30 PM ET, Fox). This brief break in the chase for the Cup comes as Kevin Harvick is sneaking up the standings, Matt Kenseth has become the de facto leader and Kyle Busch sees danger coming from Kasey Kahne.
HARVICK HAPPIER THESE DAYS
Kevin “Happy” Harvick has been a regular on the Sprint Cup series since 2001, and a very consistent driver over his career. He’s finished in the Top 10 seven times, including back-to-back third-place finishes in 2010-11. When TheSportsNotebook did its season preview back in February, Harvick was the longshot choice recommended by our NASCAR junkie, my brother Bill, at 25-1, to win the championship.
NBA Commentary: Conference Finals Previews
The conference finals in the NBA playoffs are set, as the Indiana Pacers eliminated the New York Knicks, 106-99 in Game 6 of their second round series. We’ll briefly recap the Pacers-Knicks game, and then dive into previews of the next round—Memphis-San Antonio in the West and Indiana-Miami in the East.
THE KNICKS DON’T MEASURE UP
What other conclusion can you reach when New York does everything they could be reasonably asked to do, and still lose the basketball game? The Knicks had their three-point shooting game going, hitting 13-of-30 from behind the arc. Carmelo Anthony was hot inside the arc, knocking down 39 points on 15-of-29 shooting. New York got a big performance from Iman Shumpert who buried five treys. As a team the Knicks made all 18 of their free throw attempts. And yet they still lost.