Mickey Togs

After a pair of Game 7s on Sunday, the NBA’s conference final matchups are set. In the West, it’ll be the No. 3 Warriors against the No. 4 Dallas Mavericks. In the East, it’s the No. 1 Miami Heat vs. the No. 2 Boston Celtics. 

Boston-Miami begins on Tuesday. Golden State-Dallas starts on Wednesday.

We’ve said all season that this was going to be a wild postseason, and it certainly has been. The title hasn’t been this up for grabs in quite a while. It genuinely feels like any one of these four teams could end up in the Finals.

Without both of their trophy-winning aces — and three of their top six starters altogether — the undeterred Mets continued to rack up wins at Citi Field.

Max Scherzer joined fellow multi-time Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom on the injured list, but the Mets overcame a blown save by Edwin Diaz on Pete Alonso’s two-run homer in the 10th for an exhilarating 7-6 win over the Cardinals at Citi Field.

Diaz couldn’t preserve a 5-4 lead for starter Chris Bassitt in the ninth. With runners on the corners and two outs, third baseman Eduardo Escobar couldn’t come up with what was ruled an infield single for Paul Goldschmidt to tie the score. The go-ahead run against Colin Holderman in the 10th scored on a double-play grounder by retiring star Albert Pujols in likely his final at-bat in Flushing.

But with Francisco Lindor serving as the automatic runner at second base, Alonso crushed Cardinals closer Giovanny Gallegos’ 1-0 slider into the second deck in left for his third career walk-off homer as the Mets improved to 26-14 through 40 games entering a six-game road trip  beginning Friday in Colorado.

It’s hard to pick who’s on a better run right now, the Yankees or Aaron Judge.

Judge, with chants of “MVP” growing louder by the at-bat, even with the Yankees on the road at Camden Yards, homered twice on Tuesday, as the Yankees continued their torrid start with a 5-4 win over the Orioles.

The Yankees have won eight of their past nine games and improved to 27-9 for the first time since, you guessed it, 1998.

Judge was a menace throughout the game — his first four-hit game of the season — and was prevented from hitting three homers by the new left-field wall that’s deeper and higher than in the past in Baltimore.

“He almost had three, but the ‘Build your own ballpark’ got him there,’’ Boone said of the new-look Camden Yards left field.

It was Judge’s third multi-home run game of the year.

The resiliency, the no-quit fire and the insatiable desire to be a winning club has been at the heart of the Rangers all season long. 

And that is why this Rangers team was able to rally from a 3-1 series deficit, stave off elimination twice and then force overtime in Game 7 before Artemi Panarin punched their ticket to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs 4:46 into the extra period to secure a 4-3 win over the Penguins in front of a sold-out Madison Square Garden. 

This Rangers team is the first in Stanley Cup playoff history to record three consecutive comeback wins in elimination games within the same series 

This Rangers team became just the third in franchise history to overcome a 3-1 series deficit. 

This Rangers team is one step closer to the Stanley Cup. 

Lou Lamoriello showed his commitment to the Islanders’ aging core by standing pat at the March trade deadline.

But all year when asked about head coach Barry Trotz’s contract — which was expiring at the end of the 2022-23 season — Lamoriello demurred. And on Monday morning, in a stunning move, Lamoriello fired the Jack Adams Award winner in a tacit admission that something had to change following a season in which the Islanders failed to come close to meeting their preseason Stanley Cup goal.

“I believe this group of players needs a new voice,” Lamoriello said on a conference call with media. “This is not negative on Barry Trotz. He is a tremendous human being.”

As for the assistant coaches — a group that includes associate coach  Lane Lambert and goaltending coach Mitch Korn, people who have worked with Trotz for a long period — Lamoriello would only say they were under contract for next season, though the new coach will have a say in whether that remains the case. Lamoriello did not commit to a timetable for the hire.

Rich Strike made one of the most remarkable come-from-behind victories in the history of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky.

Rich Strike entered the race as an 80-1 favorite to win and is the second-longest shot ever to win the Derby.

As the horses entered the final stretch, Rich Strike put up a furious push on the inside to pass Epicenter and Zandon, who were favored at 4-1 and 6-1, respectively.

A $2 bet on Rich Strike to win pays out $163.60. A $2 exacta bet pays $4,101.2, while a $1 trifecta bet pays $14,870.70 and a $1 superfecta pays out $321.500.10.

Francisco Lindor picked the perfect moment to hush the talk about his slump.

In a ninth inning in which everything worked Thursday night, it was Lindor’s two-run homer off James Norwood that helped the Mets start believing. 

They scored five additional runs after that homer as they rallied with seven runs in the ninth inning to beat the Phillies 8-7 at Citizens Bank Park.

Lindor was 5-for-42 entering that at-bat, dating to April 25 in St. Louis.

“You guys love talking about numbers. I hate talking about numbers,”  the shortstop said. “I need every hit possible. I need every hot out there and I got it.”

Gatorade introduces new Gatorade Fit, an electrolyte beverage developed for the active consumer who is looking for healthy hydration with no added sugar.

Formulated with no added sugar, no artificial flavors and no added colors, Gatorade Fit delivers 100 percent of the daily value of antioxidant vitamins A and C, as well as electrolytes sourced from watermelon and sea salt. It has the same level of electrolytes as Gatorade Thirst Quencher.

Available in five flavors – Tropical Mango, Watermelon Strawberry, Citrus Berry, Cherry Lime, and Tangerine Orange – Gatorade Fit can be found at retailers nationwide.

After Sunday’s 6-4 win over the Royals, no team in the majors has a better record than the Yankees. 

“I know in years past, we kind of scuffled out of the gates in April and then all we’re trying to do is climb back and fight back,’’ Aaron Judge said. “Getting an early lead like this, we’ll try to maintain and grow it through the year is gonna be big for us — especially with the type of team we have and the division we’re in.” 

They’ve won nine straight games — and 11 of their last 12 — and the Royals became the third consecutive team the Yankees swept. 

All of that is impressive, but the Yankees figure to get a stiffer test in Toronto, when they open a three-game series against the second-place Blue Jays. The Yankees have a 1 ½-game lead on Toronto. 

The Islanders season, which sputtered along coughing up plumes of smoke like a broken-down engine, finally came to an end with a 6-4 loss to the Lightning. Six months ago, they were envisioning the Stanley Cup. Now? 

They finish with a 37-35-10 record, and you wouldn’t blame them for being a little bit relieved that it’s over. 

“It’s a part of this group’s journey or story or whatever you want to call it,” Anders Lee said. “It’s part of our way to get where we want to go. It’s not going to be as linear as maybe we wanted it to be and expected it to be. Now it’s time to regroup.”