Sports

Did the games live up to the hype?

Justin Linn, sports editor|October 26, 2020

Alabama running back Najee Harris stiff-arms Georgia Defensive back as Alabama continues their dominance in the win.

The NBA finals recently ended, and the Los Angeles Lakers won the series 4-2 over the Miami Heat. Coming into this series, the Heat were the clear underdogs and needed a way to beat arguably the greatest player in finals history, LeBron James. Despite the NBA coming to a close, college football is back and in full swing and we got an early season contest that could go down as one of the best of the season.

Game one was the game that people thought it would be. Lakers star Anthony Davis played exceptionally well as he dropped 34 points, nine rebounds and five assists, helping his team win 116-98.

Game two was more of a showdown: Despite the Lakers winning 124-114, the Heat kept it close behind Jimmy Butler’s 25 points, but it wasn’t enough for LeBron’s 33 points, nine rebounds, and nine assists. Butler told reporters after game two, “I could care less about a triple-double,” Butler said. “We play this game to win.” and the Heat did exactly that, winning game three 115-104 behind Butler’s 40-point gem, trimming the Lakers series lead to 2-1.

Despite the momentum from the Heat, the Lakers outlasted their opponent in game four 102-96. When Butler addresses the media, he says all the things athletes are supposed to say. Just take this sampling from his media availability prior to game four of the NBA Finals: “I’m just all about winning.” and the Heat won 111-108 in game five, pushing back to make it a 3-2 series.

Soon to be hall of famer, former Celtic Paul Pierce is a known LeBron hater. In May, Pierce made the case that James is not a top-five player in NBA history. In August, Pierce said that if the Lakers don’t win a title in 2020, James would be forever disqualified from being regarded as the NBA’s GOAT. Just a couple weeks ago, Pierce tried to claim that players from his era weren’t afraid of LeBron, and thankfully Pierce said that because James put on a show in game six with 28 points 14 rebounds and 13 assists to win his fourth NBA championship. This series had everyone on their feet. I say this series lived up to the hype.

Despite the MLB, NHL and NBA all coming to a close as they finish their seasons, there is no need to worry because college football is officially back. And what better way to have it than to have the number two team in the nation, Alabama Crimson Tide, versus the number three team in the country, Georgia Bulldogs. The first half was quite the seesaw as both teams exchanged many scores. Georgia went into halftime leading 24-20. Alabama head coach Nick Saban has created a long-lasting legacy at the college, and wasn’t going to let Georgia head coach Kirby Smart break his streak.

After two games in the 2020 season, Saban is 22-0 against former assistants, beating them by a combined score of 945-380. That’s an average score of about 43-17 in those games. Alabama went on to shut out the Bulldogs in the second half and score 21 unanswered points in the same half. In the end, Alabama won 41-24. This game had a lot of press coming into it but did not live up to the hype.