This last weekend was a big one for sports. On Sunday night, the Los Angeles Lakers won their 17th NBA Championship. Earlier, the French Open produced an expected champion, Rafael Nadal, and a surprise one, Iga Swiatek.
Lakers Beat the Heat to Win NBA Finals
The Los Angeles Lakers won the 2020 NBA championships on Sunday night by defeating the Miami Heat 106-93.
The Lakers came out strong and didn’t let up, leading the Heat at the half by 28 points, 64-36. Though Miami worked hard to make a comeback in the fourth quarter, the effort was too little and too late.
The Los Angeles Lakers won the 2020 NBA championships on Sunday night by defeating the Miami Heat 106-93. The post below shows LeBron James (left) and Anthony Davis (right) of the Lakers celebrating after the game.
😕
This image has not been loaded because of your cookie choices. To view the content, you can accept 'Non-necessary' cookies.
LeBron James led the Lakers with 28 points, 14 rebounds, and 10 assists. He was chosen as the Most Valuable Player of the Finals. James has now won the NBA finals four times, playing for three different teams. Center Anthony Davis also turned in a strong performance, with 19 points and 15 rebounds.
(Source: All-Pro Reels [CC BY-SA], via Wikimedia Commons.)
The win puts an upbeat ending on a difficult year for the Lakers. The team lost its star, Kobe Bryant, in a helicopter crash earlier this year. Then came delays caused by the coronavirus, followed by the challenges of living and playing in isolation in the NBA “bubble” at Walt Disney World in Florida.
The victory gives the Los Angeles Lakers their first NBA Championship in 10 years and their 17th NBA Championship overall.
😕
This image has not been loaded because of your cookie choices. To view the content, you can accept 'Non-necessary' cookies.
The victory gives the Los Angeles Lakers their first NBA Championship in 10 years and their 17th NBA Championship overall. Above, the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy that’s awarded to the winning team.
The Expected and the Unexpected at the French Open
This year’s French Open was scheduled to begin in May, but was postponed until September because of the coronavirus.
Women
The women’s championship was held on Saturday between Sofia Kenin of the United States and Iga Swiatek of Poland. Kenin is America’s top-ranked women’s singles player and she’s ranked 4th in the world. Coming into the French Open, 19-year-old Swiatek was ranked 54th in the world.
A tennis match has several sets. To win a set, a player must win at least six games. Swiatek only lost an average of 4 games per match and didn’t lose a single set in the entire tournament.
She’s the first woman to do that since 2007, and the first teen to win the women’s championship since 1997.
😕
This image has not been loaded because of your cookie choices. To view the content, you can accept 'Non-necessary' cookies.
Iga Swiatek (above) won Saturday’s women’s singles at the French Open, defeating Sofia Kenin. Swiatek is the first person from Poland to win a major tennis tournament.
On Saturday, Swiatek defeated Kenin 6-4, 6-1, becoming the first person from Poland to win a major tennis tournament. Swiatek is now ranked 17th in the world.
Men
The result of the men’s final between Spain’s Rafael Nadal and Serbia’s Novak Djokovic on Sunday wasn’t as surprising. Though Djokovic is ranked number 1 in the world, Nadal is ranked second, and has won the French Open 12 times before.
😕
This image has not been loaded because of your cookie choices. To view the content, you can accept 'Non-necessary' cookies.
Rafael Nadal (above) won Sunday’s men’s singles at the French Open, defeating Novak Djokovic. This was Nadal’s 13th French Open win and his 20th major tournament win.
Many tennis tournaments are held on hard courts, where Djokovic is usually a little better. But the French Open is played on clay courts, which are slightly softer and slow the ball down.
Nadal has an excellent record on clay courts. Like Swiatek, Nadal did not lose a set during the tournament. On Sunday, he took the first two sets fairly easily. Though Djokovic fought hard in the third set, Nadal won 6–0, 6–2, 7–5.
This was Nadal’s 13th French Open win and his 20th major tournament win, tying Roger Federer’s record.
(Front page image sources: James: All-Pro Reels [CC BY-SA], Wikimedia Commons, Swiatek: si.robi [CC BY-SA], Wikimedia Commons, Nadal: fft.fr [CC BY-SA], Wikimedia Commons.)