5-at-10: Hawks historic Game 5 rally, Braves predictable bullpen blunders, US Open for business

Jun. 17—Atlanta, first the good news

So, arguably the two most improbable comebacks in professional sports history involve Atlanta teams.

There was a certain Super Bowl a few years ago that may have included a blown 28-3 lead. Not sure that officially happened, but there are reports that Matty Ryan and Co. turned a can't-lose lead into a can't-believe loss.

Last night, though, the Hawks faced a similar hole and pulled out a miracle. Down by 26 midway through the third, the Hawks gut-punched Philly like few NBA teams have ever done.

Behind a glorious game from Trae Young — who finished with 39 points in large part by getting to the line 19 times — the Hawks mounted a rally that boggles the mind and makes you rub your eyes because the numbers are extreme:

> Philly had been 165-0 over the last years when leading by 25 or more at any point of a game;

> The Sixers had a win-probability rate of 99.7 — the same as the Falcons, ironically — at one point Wednesday;

> The 22-point halftime hole was the third-largest to be erased in NBA playoff history;

> Atlanta, down 24 with 2:10 left in the third, outscored Philly 48-21 in that final 14:10 of game time.

Wow. Just wow.

And it's hard to look beyond the balance of these Hawks, not just 1-thru-5, but 1-thru-10.

Atlanta's bench had a 39-13 scoring advantage Wednesday night, and more directly, when Philly was forced to rest superstar center Joel Embiid, the Hawks crucified the hollow Sixers.

With Embiid on the floor, Philly was plus-11; in the nine minutes he was on the bench, Atlanta was plus-14. In nine minutes.

The comeback gives Atlanta a 3-2 series lead and the chance to dream big.

Because the question of which teams remain truly scares anyone at this point, considering the health unknowns of some of the league's biggest names.

In the East, Milwaukee is completely getable, in my opinion. If the Nets are without multiple pieces of the Big Three — or if Harden is just that shell of himself — then, yeah, Kevin Durant's a handful and then some, but also getable.

In the West, well, let's forget that, because the Hawks even contemplating seeing anyone in the NBA Finals is beyond a lot of our wildest imaginations.

Kind of like coming back from a 26-point, second-half hole.

Atlanta, now for the bad news

We have tried not to believe it. We have tried to pretend the projections are the reality rather than the actual reality.

In fact, we have had a couple of mailbag questions over the last few weeks that succinctly asked the realization that we must address:

These Braves are not very good. Yes, I said it.

The dominoes have crumbled, and the team that looked energetic and fun-loving in the COVID-shortened sprint that was 2020 appears to be a downtrodden, top-heavy collection of what-could-have-been scenarios.

Let's review where we are because the sample size is ample. Yes, my traditional mantra is baseball truly starts in the 'er' months, but the baseball season in terms of contending is very similar to the golf adage about a certain major championship: You can never win the Masters on Thursday, but you dang sure can lose it.

So comes the Braves, who are a season-worst five games under .500. Yes, because the Mets have been injury-riddled — more on that in a moment — and no one is running away with the division, there is still a chance — morning Lloyd Christmas, "So you're saying there's a chance" — for this team to find a stride and contend.

But, at least for me, the clarity of over-estimation, at least on my part, has arrived.

To that end, what is this team's strength?

We all know its weakness. Uh, AJ Minter, can you like, go somewhere else for the summer? And, for all the praise that Alex Anthopoulos has earned to date, he has some 'splainin' to do about not going to get a legit frontline starter and this bullpen mess.

(Side note: We mentioned dominoes earlier, but in truth, the bullpen mess is a house of cards that lost its closer in a salary-saving move and pushed everyone back a spot in the relief roundtable. And it has failed miserably. The Braves have no better than the second-worst bullpen in the game with pretty much all of the same faces save Mark Melancon. Melancon left for San Diego on a one-year, $3 million deal and only leads the majors in saves with 19 and has a 0.64 ERA in 28.1 innings. Yeah, that seems pretty good and like a pretty good investment for $3 million, no? Feels like that $3 million — considering the combined $26 million given to free agent pitching acquisitions Charlie Morton and Drew Smyly — could have been used a little more wisely on Melancon, no?)

But what is the strength? Because we know it's not manager Brian Snitker either.

Hey the guy is likable enough, and it's hard to forget how much success he had last year. But dude better be very careful with his finger-pointing at Ronald Acuña Jr., who he chastised for getting thrown out at third last night. And for comparison's sake, it was less than a month ago that Snitker praised Dansby Swanson's effort for a very similar play in which the Braves home-grown shortstop was thrown at third too. And for clarity's sake, even mentioning anything other than positives about Acuña right now is complaining about the angle at which the Mona Lisa is hanging while the Louvre burns. Acuña carried this team in April, and last night he had three hits, reached base four times, and owned that in retrospect his ninth-inning mistake was a mistake. And we all know I'm 100% team Acuña, but we're going to harp on an aggressive base-running play while the pitching staff turns a Bic flame into an inferno at every turn? That's a quick way to lose a clubhouse and alienate the guy that brings the energy to this offense.

Check the facts: Atlanta has lost four games in which they have scored at least eight runs. Heck, they scored 16 in two games against the Red Sox — and lost them both. The Braves bullpen has 18 losses, the most in the NL, and then there's this stat from Dave O'Brien of The Athletic: "Bullpen has blown 11 of 24 save opportunities this season and has a 9-17 record, tied with Arizona for second-most losses by relievers. Last season, Atlanta relievers were 21-9 and converted 13 of 19 save chances."

Just rotten.

Open for BID-ness

The US Open is in full swing as we speak. I got a small sum on Viktor Hovland beforehand, but in truth, did not feel good — or this week should it be Phil good — about any of the names coming in. (Yes, I put a little on Mickelson too, just because I want him to win so badly.)

Side question: Viktor with a 'K' friend or foe? I say friend. Especially for a pitcher.

At a place this tough and this long, there are really only a select few I can see winning this thing — Hovland is on that list; Mickelson is not.

I think the familiar names we all know are going to dominate play come Sunday.

But a couple of things to remember for this weekend of thrills and make-you-ill gaffes that come with major championship pressure combined with USGA meanness.

> Hooray for primetime golf. The first team time had not gone off when I sent this at 9:30, which means the golf on the West Coast will last well into the evening. And know this: My Friday night viewing is booked gang;

> Thanks to JTC for passing it along, but the aerial photos of some changes at Augusta National are going to be an interesting talking point this week;

> I would expect NBC to beg Mickelson for some TV booth time if he misses the cut this weekend. His expertise is always aces, especially at this event and especially at this course;

> At some point Tony Finau needs to deliver on his immense talent and skill set at a major event.

I'll stick with Hovland, but if there is a golf God smiling on us, would it be too much to ask to have Bryson and Brooks be in the next to last group on Sunday.

Asking for a few million golf fans. (And if you're taking requests, could we have Mickelson and Hovland in the final pairing as well? Thanks big guy.)

This and that

— We got a little into Chuck Barkley's comments earlier this week, and I saw this story expanding on Sir Charles' position on the cancel culture efforts, with these quotes. "That's all we ever talk about behind the scenes now, like, be careful of going in this direction. I'm like, yo man, we can't even have fun anymore. We've had fun all these years and now all of a sudden in the last year and half everybody is trying to get everybody fired and it really sucks."

— You play to win the game. It's arguably Herm Edwards' all-time signature quote. Well, after his Arizona State program is in NCAA crosshairs, maybe we'll add, "You cheat to win the recruits so they can play to win the game" as an extra wrinkle to his great one-liners.

— Please don't let it be serious. Please don't let it be serious. There are few things all-time great in sports right now. Sure men's tennis can make that claim. Yes, Brady adding unmatchable line items to his already unmatchable résumé can make that claim too. In baseball though, Jacob deGrom is all-time amazing. Dude pitched three perfect innings — fanning eight of the nine he faced last night — before leaving with a sore shoulder. Please let it be something that causes him to miss a start or two max. His dominance is unreal: In 11 starts he's pitched 67 innings and has an ERA of 0.54 with eight walks and 111 Ks. Please don't let it be serious. Please don't let it be serious. From ESPN stats and info, last night deGrom lowered his career ERA to 2.496 and is now just the third pitcher over the last 50 years with a career ERA under 2.50 at any point 150-plus starts into his career.

— So Victoria's Secret is abandoning the scantily clad supermodels who have become synonymous with the lingerie giant, instead going with gender-rights activists and entrepreneurs as the faces of its brand. They're still making bras and panties right? And a somewhat serious question here, but who will speak for the supermodels who lost their jobs for already well-known and rich folks? And Victoria Secret thinks gorgeous women in their underwear are "no longer culturally relevant" now? You could make an argument that selling sex the way Victoria's Secret did for decades was not culturally appropriate, but that doesn't matter as much as being culturally relevant I guess.

— The NCAA is looking for feedback on how it can make the Women's College World Series better. This just in, I'm not a fan of the NCAA. But this one is tricky, because as the coaches and players of non-revenue sports make the complaints louder about the inequities from say, the NCAA men's tournament to the NCAA women's tournament and now the softball and baseball world series. ESPN signed a deal with the NCAA for $500 million to broadcast a large number of the NCAA championship events, like baseball and softball and a slew of others, on its networks. That deal runs from 2011 to the 2023-24 school year. And yes, the number of eyeballs on women's basketball and softball are growing. We all want the atmosphere for these events to be as good and enjoyable as possible. And the facilities change should fall on the host cities for events like the World Series, which generate big dollars for Omaha and Oklahoma City. Again, I feel like I need a shower saying a defensive word whatsoever about the NCAA, but if each sport is going to demand more, the sliding scale of equity will never be equal in these matters. For example, softball and women's basketball get more scholarship dollars by rule because of Title IX. The whole equity conversation is a tricky one.

— So Juneteenth is now an official federal holiday. OK. I'm all for as many holidays as I can get. This decision also makes me wonder what's next? Should D-Day be a holiday? What about Pearl Harbor? Or Trail of Tears Day? Thoughts?

Today's questions

Wow, got kind of heavy today. Sorry about that.

And one more thing on Acuña, who is right there among my favorite things in sports. He admitted his mistake, and Snitker can handle his BID-ness however he sees fit. But the 'old-school' dudes who stand in the pulpit of playing the game the right way far too often come off seeming like they are saying "play the game the White" way, especially when it comes to the enthusiasm Latin-born players have.

True or false on a Thursday, the Hawks will make the NBA Finals.

True or false, you remember where you were 27 years ago today. Now, what if I ask if you remembered where you were when OJ's Bronco chase unfolded, which was 27 years ago today?

As for today, let's review.

In addition to the OJ chase, which is highlighted in a very good 30-for-30 that covered the craziness of the sports world on that day as the Rangers played in the Stanley Cup Finals, the World Cup opened, Arnie played his final US Open round, the Knicks were in the NBA Finals. Nuts.

On this day in 1856, the Republican Party opened its first national convention.

"Incredibles 2" was released on this day in 2018. Good sequel there.

Venus Williams is 41 today. Barry Manilow is 78.

Let's do Manilow's Rushmore. Whatcha got, and remember the mailbag friends.