The Las Vegas Golden Knights grab another unbelievable overtime win, Kurt Busch gives a promising update on his injury, and experts predict lousy news for the Las Vegas Raiders’ upcoming season. All this and more last week in Las Vegas sports (May 15 – 21).
Kurt Busch retired from the NASCAR Cup Series last year after suffering a concussion-like injury during a qualifying crash. Since then, the Las Vegas native has been hungry to be cleared by racing officials and get back behind the wheel. Fortunately for fans of the one-time Cup Series champion, he is finally making some progress.
“I’m feeling much better,” Busch told the Associated Press. “The improvements that I’ve made have been tremendous…The toughest part is my body’s fatigue, going through physical therapy. Having a day on, and a day off, things in my body are much more sensitive. I’m pushing (to return to NASCAR). It’s all little things that keep adding up.”
Busch’s update is a promising one and could lead to a comeback in the future.
The Las Vegas Aces hope to defend their WNBA Title this season, but quite a few things are standing in the way. The first is the Dearica Hamby pregnancy scandal investigation, which led Becky Hammon to be suspended for two games without pay. The Aces also lost a draft pick due to the investigation’s findings.
The news comes after Dearica Hamby was unceremoniously traded to the Los Angeles Sparks during the offseason. The former Aces player then came out with allegations that she was discriminated against for being pregnant and that other players were receiving under-the-table deals.
“I handled Dearica with care from day one when she told me,” Hammon said in a statement regarding her suspension. “Like I said, once I made the phone call that the decision has been made to move her, that’s when everything kind of fell apart.”
While the penalty is a loss for the Aces, this will hopefully be the end of it. Now the organization can focus on chasing their second championship and returning to the playoffs.
Everything’s coming up gold for the Knights in the playoffs this season, and that trend continued Sunday evening. The Golden Knights took on the Dallas Stars in the second of their seven-game series, and things looked bleak early. The Stars even scored on Adin Hill early in the first period to gain the lead.
The Golden Knights later followed with a goal from Mark Stone, who should be credited with getting the offense going. From there, the Stars scored another goal, which put Las Vegas back at a deficit. That wasn’t solved until the last few minutes of the fourth quarter when Jonathan Marchessault knocked one in to even the score.
That brings us to overtime, where Chandler Stephenson took advantage of a second-chance goal to give the Golden Knights a 2-0 series lead. To say that T-Mobile Arena came unglued at that moment is an understatement, and many fans stayed to celebrate with their team.
The Las Vegas Aces came into this game with a pretty big chip on their shoulder. Not only is that evident by the two-game road trip to start the season before playing at home, but also due to the suspension of Becky Hammon. These things could have come together and ruined the start of the season. Las Vegas had other plans, though.
The Aces seemingly picked up where they left off with an 18-14 lead by the end of the first quarter. From the beginning, everyone seemed on their A game and did pretty well without their Head Coach. The Aces eventually extended that lead to a 15-point lead by halftime. Some players were approaching double digits too.
The second half didn’t turn out to be any different, and the Storm just had no answer for the high-powered offense. The Aces’ defense also held Seattle to only 28 points in the first half, giving them a huge edge. Things came to a close in the fourth quarter when the Aces just kept hitting threes for fun and to show that nothing could stop them.
Kelsey Plum and Jackie Young both put up 23 points, which tied them for the most in the game. Plum also racked up five rebounds and five assists in the victory. As for Young, she contributed three assists and rebounds. Candance Parker also served as a key contributor in her debut with 12 points, five assists and four rebounds.
The Las Vegas Raiders have made a lot of changes this summer, changes they hope will bring them back to the playoffs in 2023. Between Jimmy Garappollo, Joshua Jacobs, Jakobi Meyers, Hunter Renfrow, and Michael Mayer, the offense is now stacked. The defense also has some interesting changes to it that could pay dividends.
Unfortunately for the Raiders, however, they are still being bogged down by media experts. This time the story seems to center around whether they can have a winning season. Vic Tafur of the Athletic was particularly harsh in his predictions for the team in 2023.
“The Raiders roster is worse than it was last year when it was 6-11 with Josh Jacobs leading the league in rushing. Jacobs is great, but that’s not happening again,” Tafur said. “The Raiders have a late bye (Week 13), which is great if you are getting ready for a postseason run. But there are a couple of brutal stretches in the schedule — including the first four games — that make that seem far-fetched, even if Jimmy Garoppolo stays healthy.”
Next: Harsh truths Las Vegas sports fans might want to accept.
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