A night for upsets in the NBA Playoffs
The Hawks steal one from the Knicks, Gobert's rage powers the Timberwolves over the Nuggets, Wemby (obviously) wins DPOY, what's wrong with SDFC and more in today's Front Row Seat newsletter.
I’m doing a podcast today! I promise. I told everyone I would and so I will.
With that in mind, I’m skipping the writing part of this newsletter and going straight to the links. If you want my thoughts, you can catch them in audio/video form in a couple of hours.
Now, onto the links….
NBA Playoffs
CJ McCollum, Hawks erupt in fourth quarter to stun Knicks and even series 1-1 - Yahoo Sports
The Knicks’ collapse was similar, but worse, than what happened in the final minutes of Game 1 on Saturday, too. The Knicks held a 19-point lead just past the midway point of the fourth quarter in that contest before giving up an 11-0 run to allow the Hawks back within single digits in the final minute. Had that run happened just a few minutes sooner, Atlanta may have been able to pull the comeback off that day, too.
Madison Square Garden Has A Reluctant New Villain - Defector
McCollum had 26 points when the “Fuck you CJ!” chant started, and had just gotten into a little kerfuffle with Jose Alvarado, who seeks out kerfuffles with great fervor. McCollum smirked and nodded his head along to the chant for a little bit, but he also looked sheepish at having found himself in that position. Villainy may come naturally to a little gremlin like Trae Young, but not to a steady and understated operator like McCollum. He even faded from the game over the next few minutes, missing his next five shots while the Knicks got out to a 14-point lead.
Victor Wembanyama becomes NBA’s first unanimous Defensive Player of the Year winner - The Athletic
The 7-foot-4 San Antonio Spurs big man won the NBA’s 2026 Defensive Player of the Year award, earning all 100 first-place votes from a panel of select media members. The 22-year-old beat out Oklahoma City Thunder big man Chet Holmgren and Detroit Pistons wing Ausar Thompson to become the youngest player to win the award since it was introduced for the 1982-83 season.
Holmgren finished second with 76 second-place votes and 11 third-place votes, followed by Thompson, Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert and Toronto Raptors forward Scottie Barnes.
Rudy Gobert contains Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic as Wolves tie series - ESPN
On the same day he finished fourth in Defensive Player of the Year voting, Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert held three-time MVP Nikola Jokic to 1-of-8 shooting in his individual Game 2 matchup.
That defensive work, which included three one-on-one stops in the closing minutes, helped the Timberwolves to a 119-114 win over the Denver Nuggets to tie their first-round series at 1-1. It was the worst shooting performance in Jokic’s playoff career against a single defender (minimum six shot attempts).
“I was lucky,” Gobert said. “A top-three defender cannot do that. So I was lucky.”
NBA playoffs 2026 takeaways: Brandon Ingram remains M.I.A. for Raptors as potent Cavs trio emerges - Yahoo Sports
The 6-foot-8 forward, in his first active season with Toronto, had a lackluster 17-point Game 1 and criticized the coaching staff for his lack of shots (nine). He followed that up by scoring a grand total of zero points in the first half of Game 2 — scoring seven overall on 3-of-15 shooting — putting even more pressure on his teammates to offset his lack of production.
Ingram, who has a history of being a reluctant 3-point shooter, is currently re-triggering old habits and offering limited spacing to the Raptors, who aren’t exactly deep in the shooting department as is.
San Diego Padres
Padres hitters looking forward to some altitude therapy this week - San Diego Union-Tribune
Tatis is looking for his first home run of this season. And he is headed back to Mexico City after a stop for three games in another place where the breathing can be difficult but the home runs come more easily.
Tatis has spent the past few weeks making an effort not to dwell on his total power outage. But this week, he is happily thinking about what is in store.
“Hopefully, we can get some at-bats,” he said with a smile. “That way, I can get a home run.”
The Padres begin a three-game series here Tuesday against the Rockies before heading to Mexico City for a pair of weekend games against the Diamondbacks.
That is a lot of thin air.
Padres top prospect is showing encouraging progress with one frustrating problem still hanging around - Friars On Base
Salas is still only 19, still catching, still handling one of the hardest development paths in baseball, and still doing enough defensively to protect the shine on his prospect status. His defensive work behind the plate is a reason his standing remains so high, and that matters here because it keeps this from turning into an overly dramatic offensive referendum after a rough couple of weeks.
But the frustrating part is easy to spot too. The recent multi-hit games are encouraging because they suggest he is settling in a bit. They don’t erase the larger profile of what has been happening. A .289 slugging percentage with just one extra-base hit is still a pretty thin offensive start, and when that is paired with strikeout swing-and-miss issues, the whole thing starts to feel more incomplete than uplifting.
San Diego Padres Daily Farm Report: April 19 - MadFriars
Stop me if you have heard this before — Jase Bowen homered. The toolsy 25-year-old outfielder clubbed his team-leading fifth home run of the season to lead off the resumption of Saturday’s game with the blast leaving his bat at 108.2 mph. In game two, he went 1-for-3 with a double. Bowen has done two things a lot this season– hit the ball hard and swing and miss. The former 11th-round selection owns a 45.5% hard hit rate, 11.3% barrel rate, and 112.6 max exit velocity, all of which rank in the 84th or percentile or better of Triple-A hitters. At the same time, he’s punched out 27.8% of the time with a 29.5% whiff rate and 34.6% chase rate, all in the bottom third of Triple-A batters. He’s now batting .278/.350/.653 through 80 plate appearances.
Odds & Ends
San Diego Just Can’t Get Out Of Its Own Way - Chromatic FC
While some fans are calling for the club and Lozano to make amends, it is important to realize this situation has nothing to do with the people involved; it is about the Right to Dream system. SDFC is committed to a specific standard of conduct intended to serve as a model for younger players. Everyone from Sporting Director Tyler Heaps to Head Coach Mikey Varas must fit this playbook. If leadership were to change, they would be replaced by others who implement the same philosophy: develop young players in a certain way and play style and sell them for profit.
NCTD maps grade separations across North County - North County Pipeline
The Board of Directors discussed nine proposed grade separation projects and their strategic framework on Thursday in a massive effort to ease congestion, enhance other mobility options, and increase safety at those rail crossings. NCTD staff detailed its ranking system for the expected multi-billion-dollar effort to guide the pursuit of state and federal funding.
A Deep Dive Into the Elon Musk vs. Sam Altman Trial, Our Next Techstravaganza - The Ringer
The two tech giants are scheduled to square off next week in a court battle over the past, present, and future of OpenAI. Here’s what to expect—and how this whole mess started in the first place.