Derrick White's Doing it All for Celtics as Boston Looks to Complete Sweep

In today’s newsletter…

- Leading Off: NBA sweeps
- NBA: Derrick White pitching in everywhere  
- MLB: Blue Jays batters’ good matchup
- News: Acuña Jr. out for season

With both NBA conference finals series at 3-0, we wanted to look at the history of sweeps leading into the NBA Finals. You have to go all the way back to…last year…to find a time when both the East and the West were at 3-0. While the Nuggets finished off the sweep of the Lakers, the Heat had to go all seven games to beat the Celtics. Since the NBA moved to seven game series in conference finals, there has never been two sweeps heading into the NBA Finals.

There have been 24 sweeps in the conference finals since 1947, which account for just over 15% of series. If the Mavericks finish off the Timberwolves in four, Dallas would only be the seventh lower seed in NBA history to sweep a conference finals series. The last time two teams swept their way into the NBA Finals was in 1957, when the Celtics beat the Syracuse Nationals and the St. Louis Hawks beat the Minneapolis Lakers in three game series.

In today’s newsletter, Jason is tracking Game 4 between the Celtics and Pacers to look similar to the rest of the series — Indiana should keep it close and both teams should be able to score. In MLB, Craig is looking for Freddie Freeman and the Dodgers to turn things around, and for quick starts from the Marlins and Reds.