The 3 plays in sports everybody will be talking about today

pulse

May 18, 2017 2:49 PM

Wednesday's top plays are the Kevin Kiermaier catch, LeBron James elevating on Isaiah Thomas, and Mike Hoffman's bank shot.

Good morning! Here are the plays everybody will be talking about Thursday:

The Kevin Kiermaier catch. One week after letting two ground balls go through his legs, leading to two "Little League home runs" in a single series, Kiermaier got a little of his Gold Glove mojo back Wednesday. Kiermaier sealed the Rays' 7-4 win over the Indians with a game-ending catch, robbing Jason Kipnis of a home run.

LeBron James elevated on Isaiah Thomas. Late in the Cavs' Game 1 win over the Celtics, LeBron executed a pretty spin move and drove to the basket. Along the way, Thomas decided he was going to try to stop LeBron. In IT's defense, LeBron did miss the shot (though he would make both free throws), and it was James who came away from the encounter limping. But the image everybody is talking about is both players jumping and Thomas' head getting up only to LeBron's midsection.

The Mike Hoffman bank shot. The Senators scored four times in the first period and eventually took a 5-0 lead before beating the Penguins, 5-1, and taking a 2-1 lead in the Eastern Conference Finals. Hoffman started the avalanche just 48 seconds in, with a reminder that good things can happen if you just shoot the puck toward the net. Hoffman had an impossible angle — the puck was still behind the goal line — but nicely banked the puck into the net off the pad of Marc-André Fleury.

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