Good morning! Here are the plays everybody will be talking about Wednesday.
The U.S. Men's National Soccer Team is still alive for the World Cup. On the same night the under-23 team lost to Colombia knocking the United States out of the Olympics, the senior team needed to avoid a loss to stay alive in World Cup qualifying. Things were tense early, but in the 12th minute, the U.S. broke through when Clint Dempsey found a loose ball at the top of the box and drove it home. The U.S. seemed to exhale at that point and went on to win 4-0 (via ESPN2).
Air Gordon. He may have lost the Dunk Contest, but Aaron Gordon is still out here pulling off ridiculous dunks in the middle of games that count. The latest came against the Brooklyn Nets when Gordon took off from just inside the free-throw line and flew through the air like it was no big deal. The Magic went on to win 139-109 (via Fox Sports).
This is a lot for one spring training home run. Just hours after being placed on waivers, released, and then re-signed to a minor-league contract, veteran Cubs infielder Munenori Kawasaki came to the plate in a spring game against the A's. The fans began chanting his name and then he promptly hit a home run. This led to an eruption from the fans never seen during the 8th inning of a spring training game. As if that wasn't enough, he then received the silent treatment in the dugout, a common baseball prank played by teammates.
Steph Curry-dunking bonus. Stephen Curry dunked a basketball with authority and people got excited. More importantly, the Warriors won again and are now 67-7. They need just five wins in their final eight games to match the 1995-96 Bulls' record of 72 wins and they need six wins to break the mark (via TNT and WhipClip).