October 25th, 2024 @ Toronto Raptors

The Machine's journey continued up in Canada and he really showed out! He showed he is far from a scrub and he's likely here to stay. Scoring AND facilitating at a high level. His passing skills are a wrinkle of his game perhaps many scouts hadn't fully anticipated!

The Machine achieved many solid milestones that night in October.

• A+ Grade
• First Player of the Game!
• First Double-Double!
• 16 Points - 5 Rebounds - 12 Assists!
• First NBA Victory

It's only game two! There's still a ton of room for improvement.

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🌎My Thoughts on the Sports World Today 🌎

In the real world, Tyrese Haliburton has been the subject of many discussions in the sports world. After his jaw-dropping game winning shot in Thursday's historic Game One of the NBA Finals, people are discussing if Haliburton is a superstar or not.

To me, this is an absolute no brainer. Tyrese Haliburton is a total full-blown superstar. His playstyle is like an ultra traditional point guard, but standing at 6'5" he's got intangibles that are hard to really contain for an entire game.

People say Pascal Siakam is the team's real MVP but I don't know. Siakam is a really good scorer and is valuable due to his veteran presence but I don't feel like he is irreplaceable. Haliburton is absolutely the key to the Indiana Pacers in my eyes.

It's funny to me, the same people that are hesitant to call Haliburton a superstar, are the same people still calling Kevin Durant an elite player... People want to hold onto the past and love to romanticize scoring. Ugh, so annoying to me.

I want to save some thoughts for tomorrow. Can't wait for Game Two!!

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In the meantime I'm also seriously looking forward to UFC 316 which goes down TONIGHT! Merab Dvalishvili vs Sean O'Malley 2 for the Men's Bantamweight Championship! I got Merab winning, he's just a tank and a bad matchup for Sean. Should be good though! It seems to be a Bantamweight Championship night as the Female Bantamweights also duke it out for their championship. That matchup will be between Julianna Peña and Kayla Harrison. I got Harrison in that one.

Other fights I'm excited for tonight include:

• Kelvin Gastelum vs Joe Pyfer
• Mario Bautista vs Patchy Mix
• Vicente Luque vs Kevin Holland

It will be a nice mix of veterans and new faces! It goes down in Newark, New Jersey. Not too far from my neck of the woods!

Baseball, MMA, NBA Finals. Not a terrible weekend!