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Just five months ago, Liam Hendriks had no idea if he was ever going to play the game he grew up loving after being diagnosed with cancer. Yesterday, on Memorial Day, not only did he make his dream a reality, but he was also able to get out superstar Shohei Ohtani.

Liam Hendricks in BACK!!! pic.twitter.com/Aq0eEcQ02x
— 𐌍𐌙𐌌 𐌋𐌉𐌀𐌌 (@PAlonsofan) May 30, 2023

Hendriks made his triumphant return Monday after being diagnosed and defeating Stage 4 Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma cancer at the beginning of this year.

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. It’s about to be a wild couple of weeks in South Florida.
In today’s SI:AM:
The Heat avoid a collapse
The Stanley Cup Final is set
Landing spots for DeAndre Hopkins
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The 3–0 lead is still unsurmountable
After Derrick White’s dramatic buzzer beater saved the Celtics’ season in Game 6 on Saturday, it sure looked like Boston would have the upper hand against the Heat in last night’s Game 7.

Looks like Chase Elliott and Bubba Wallace got the SOS memo from NASCAR to do something STAT to help ratings for a rain-delayed race on a holiday afternoon.
And buddy, they DELIVERED!
Chase saw red and hooked Denny Hamlin straight into the wall, while Bubba got a little testy with Aric Almirola, who it turns out does in fact have some fight in him. Who knew?
Did I have Bubba Wallace fighting Aric With An A on my 2023 NASCAR bingo card? Nope. We’re obviously big supporters of it, though.
Now, Chase vs. Denny? Oh yeah, that’s an easy one.

Celtics star Jayson Tatum rolled his ankle on the first offensive possession of Game 7 on Monday night and Boston never recovered in a 103–84 blowout loss to Miami that sent the Heat to the NBA Finals.
Despite playing 42 minutes, Tatum never looked right, and he lamented the injury after the game.
“It was just frustrating that I was … a shell of myself,” Tatum began. “It was tough to move. Just frustrating, it happening on the first play.”
Tatum couldn’t move side-to-side, and appeared to move worse and worse as the game went on.

The NFL has a strength of schedule formula that’s simple to understand. Just take the opponents’ records from the previous season, add up the wins and losses and calculate a percentage for all 17 opponents. In fantasy football, there’s a different method. Rather than using team records, we use the number of PPR points allowed by defenses against a single position the previous season and rank the teams/players according to the average.
The numbers, admittedly, can be very close in many cases.
For example, the most favorable quarterback total (17.9) for this season is just 2.

The Celtics suffered a humiliating Game 7 loss to the Heat on Monday night and had their season come to a crushing end in front of a home crowd. 
One of those fans in attendance at TD Garden was Bill Simmons, the media personality who founded The Ringer and is originally from Boston. The TNT cameras found Simmons near the end of the game and he had a very sad look on his face.
Check this out: 

Bill Simmons was in disbelief pic.twitter.com/aL4e4MgNYp
— NBACentral (@TheNBACentral) May 30, 2023

Fans loved seeing that, as it quickly became a meme: 

Same energy. https://t.

In the state of Missouri, a high school athlete who signs with an in-state college, such as the University of Missouri, can begin earning compensation for his or her name, image and likeness before enrolling at the school.
Soon in Texas, Texas A&M donors will earn priority points through the school’s fundraising arm for donations that eventually funnel to athletes. For months now in Arkansas, college athletes have been paid for charity appearances through a non-profit organization that is owned by the school’s fundraising foundation.

The Orioles don’t spend a lot of time wondering about the outcome of games these days. The pitch clock has shortened nine innings to two, two and a half hours. Their relief corps has shortened games by three innings.
If they have a lead, they start assuming the game is over “from the seventh,” says third baseman Gunnar Henderson.
No, catching coordinator Tim Cossins says: “You can feel the energy shift around the sixth.”
Even that is pessimistic, says reliever Bryan Baker, who starts relaxing in “the fifth, honestly.

The Celtics found an unforgettable way to force a Game 7 against the Heat in the Eastern Conference finals. Boston then had one of the most forgettable performances at the worst time, and their season come to an end with an ugly 103–84 loss at home. 
It was a stunningly bad performance for the Celtics, which Charles Barkley hilariously roasted them for during halftime. They didn’t put up a fight and never gave themselves a chance to win, even in front of a home crowd that wanted nothing more than to party their way back into the NBA Finals.

Many consider Nikola Jokic to be the best player in the NBA, while the vast majority of folks would agree he’s the best big man in the league. Those two things were never said about Dwight Howard at any point during his career, but don’t try to tell him that.
Howard recently joined FanDuel TV to discuss Jokic ahead of the Denver Nuggets’ appearance in the NBA Finals. Howard was asked by Chandler Parson who he would take, prime Howard or prime Jokic, and without hesitation he picked himself.
“Prime Dwight Howard all day.