This Week in Sports :: June 16-20, 2008

After a 22-year drought, the Celtics brought an NBA Championship back to Boston and Tiger wins the U.S. Open in dramatic fashion! See what else happened this week!

Celtics Win NBA finals!

It took 22 years, but the Boston Celtics finally returned to their championship form on Tuesday night by routing the Los Angeles Lakers 131-92 in Game 6 of the NBA Finals. The victory gave the Celtics' their 17th championship - an NBA record. It was also a record setting night for the Lakers, but for all the wrong reasons. The 39 point blow out was the largest margin in NBA history during a championship clinching game. They also turned the ball over a record 20 times. Paul Pierce was named Finals MVP after averaging 21.8 points per game in the Finals. The Big Three of Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen definitely came through for Celtics who finished 24-58 just a season ago - the second worst record in the NBA for the 2006-'07 season.

Tiger Wins U.S. Open

Despite a nagging knee injury and a sub par first three days, Tiger Woods found a way to win his third U.S. Open on Monday. The day before, Tiger was trailing Rocco Mediate by one stroke on the 71st hole. With a chance to birdie and tie the game on the last hole, Woods sunk a 12 foot putt. Probably the biggest clutch putt of his career, Tiger was able to force an 18-hole sudden death playoff with Rocco the next day. Tiger was able to beat him on the first sudden death hole after making par and Rocco failing to match it. Two days after the dramatic victory, Tiger went under the knife as he had surgery to fix his torn ACL on his left knee. Tiger will be out of action for the rest of 2008.

Rays Souring

The Tampa Bay Rays are starting to make a little noise in the baseball world as of late. This past week, the Rays completed a sweep against the Chicago Cubs who had the best record in all of the MLB. Thursday night's 8-3 victory over the Cubs gave the Rays their 43rd win of the season. The Rays are now second in the AL behind the Boston Red Sox. They are also 14 games over .500 which is the best mark at this time in franchise history. Since April 22, Tampa Bay is 35-18 which is the best mark in baseball during that span.

Notes Around the Sports World

The Seattle Mariners fired manager John McLaren on Thursday. The Mariners currently have the worst record in baseball at 25-47. Bench coach Jim Riggleman will take over oir McLaren.

The Chicago Bears rewarded DT Tommie Harris by giving the 25-year-old a four-year, $40 million contract extention. Harris becomes the highest paid DT in NFL history

Despite facing soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, Germany slid past Portugal with a score of 3-2 to advance to the 2008 European Championship semis.

A couple of the spots for the U.S. Olympic basketball team have been announced. Jason Kidd, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony have secured spots on the team that will compete in Beijing in August. The rest of the team will be announced within the week.

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