Friday Night Bad for Beantown

Are you a sports fan in Boston? If you are, then Friday evening had to be one nigh you'd love to forget.

James was the king Friday night.
38 points, 7 assists and 8 boards.

1. Cavs 124, Celtics 95
There have been 292 postseason NBA games played in Boston. This was one for the record books...and not a good one either. The Celtics 29 point defeat was the worst in Celtics history. That doesn't tell the whole story. This one was over before it started.

Cleveland's LeBron James, amid all the talk of a bum elbow, seemed all the better especially after taking a hard foul (called a flagrant which I don't totally understand since Perkins did make a play for the ball) from Kendrick Perkins and torching the C's in the first quarter. James outscored the Celtics in the first quarter all by his lonesome, 21-17. The score after the first was Cavs 36, C's 17.

Gagne returned to the Flyers lineup on
Friday to give Philly the 5-4 win.

2. Flyers 5, Bruins 4 (OT)
The Flyers avoided the series sweep with a thrilling overtime victory, but it didn't come easy in any way.

After a Claude Giroux goal at 8:35 of the second period, the Flyers owned a 3-1 lead and appeared to have the game under control...until about two minutes later. Boston's Michael Ryder made it 3-2 at 10:56 and the game was on. After a power play goal by Milan Lucic tied the game at 3 about 4 minutes into the third, Philly was once took the lead at 14:20 on Ville Leino's first goal of the playoffs.

With less than a minute remaining, former Flyer Mark Recchi knotted the score at 4 sending the contest into overtime. All the momentum tilted the Bruins way and a sweep was at hand. Then, Simon Gagne, playing in his first game of the series since suffering a toe injury against the New Jersey Devils in the previous series, and scored at 14:40 to hand the B's to a 5-4 defeat.

Hughes owned the Red Sox on
Friday night.

3. Yankees 10, Red Sox 3
Red Sox starter Josh Beckett looked good...for his first 5 innings. Beckett surrendered only a three-run homer to Nick Swisher in the 4th and then the wheels came off during the 6th. After Beckett's 5.1 innings of work, he left the Fenway Park mound handing the Yanks 9 runs on 9 hits, 3 walks and 2 hit batters after 106 pitches.

All the Red Sox offense could muster off Yankees starter Phil Hughes was 2 runs in the 7 innings Hughes worked. Hughes is now displaying a 4-0 with a 1.69 ERA. Hughes has 31 K's over 32 innings of work including the 7 K's he takes away from last night's outing. Hughes is showing why the Yankees have held high expectations for the 23 year old since he was a first round pick in 2007.

The lone bright spot for the Red Sox...David Ortiz had 2 RBI. He's now batting .178.

Not the greatest day in Boston sports, that's for sure, but the Bruins can close out their series on Monday. If Boston can seal the deal, the would get the winner of the Pittsburgh Penguins-Montreal Canadiens series winner. That series is tied at 2 a piece with Game 5 tonight.