There's no doubt that Damian Lillard's shot to end the Portland Trail Blazers' first-round series against the Oklahoma City Thunder was one of the most incredible postseason shots we've ever seen. But was it a good shot?

After the game, Paul George, the man defending Lillard, weighed in.

"That's a bad, bad shot," George said. "I don't care what anybody says. That's a bad shot. But hey, he made it. That story won't be told that it was a bad shot. We live with that."

Well, maybe not.

As a whole, the league made just 25.9 percent of shots from that distance, so it's fair to say that for most dudes, shots from that range aren't very "good."

Lillard isn't most dudes. He sank 39.2 percent of his shots from 30 to 40 feet this season.

That's pretty good.

On average, NBA shooters convert 35.5 percent of their 3s, and George sank 38.6 percent of his 3-point tries this season. In other words: Deep-space Dame appears to be as good of an option as the typical NBA 3-point look, or even an average Paul George 3-point attempt.

If it's true that an average Paul George 3-pointer is a good shot, which it is, then an average Damian Lillard bomb from 30-plus feet is also a good shot (at least according to this 51-shot sample).

NBA 3-point shooters are better than ever, and bolder than ever. When Stephen Curry hit his famous 37-foot game winner in Oklahoma City in 2016, he also challenged the definition of a good shot. Like Lillard, Curry is able to convert 30- to 40-footers around 40 percent of the time, which is pretty good by any standard. These days, you can't claim a good or a bad shot without accounting for who is doing the shooting.

Dudes like Lillard, Curry and Trae Young are special because their range extends far beyond what was normal or acceptable even five years ago. That trio combined to hit 71 of their 186 attempts on 30- to 40-footers this season, converting at a 38 percent clip while making up the entire top three in attempts from that distance.

These guys are leading a new generation of shooters who are expanding the good shot territory at a rapid clip, and though George's assertion that Lillard's attempt was bad may have been true just a few years back, it's not true any longer.

Regardless of whether Lillard's game winner was a "bad, bad shot," one thing is for certain: Dame is a bad, bad man.

NEW YORK -- Power pitching, that's what the New York Mets hope to get from Zack Wheeler.

But power hitting?

Wheeler connected for his first major league home run and struck out 11 in seven sharp innings as the Mets handed the Philadelphia Phillies their fifth loss in six games, 9-0 on Tuesday night.

"Pitching's obviously first, but we work a lot on our hitting and we take pride in it," Wheeler said.

"We want to go up there and do well as a staff and not give them an easy out. Luckily, I wasn't an easy out tonight," he said.

For the Phillies, it was another quiet day. Until two out in the ninth, that is.

That's when Mets reliever Jacob Rhame sailed two fastballs over Rhys Hoskins' head. The benches started to clear after the first time, and Hoskins angrily slung his bat after the next one, which was ball four.

"I understand baseball. They got hit a couple times yesterday," Hoskins said.

But that didn't make it any easier to accept, not after high heat buzzed his helmet. Mets catcher Travis d'Arnaud "just said they were trying to go inside and I laughed," the Philadelphia cleanup man said.

No doubt, it could make for tense times in the series finale Wednesday night.

Before the late shenanigans, it was the Wheeler show.

Wheeler also doubled and drove in three runs and Todd Frazier connected for a grand slam that made it 8-0 in the fifth.

"I was like, God, he makes it look easy and I'm trying to get an extra-base hit or get on base," Frazier said. "It was nice to have him supply the RBI, give himself a little breathing room and I came in at the end."

Wheeler (2-2) became the majors' first 100-100 player this season -- he hit and pitched a ball at least 100 mph, according to Statcast data.

"First pitcher ever to do that," Mets manager Mickey Callaway said. "That put him over the top, it seems like. And that's a real stat, by the way, I'm not making that up. He did everything right."

Wheeler did it in his 100th career start, too. He fanned seven straight in the early innings, and gave himself a cushion at the plate.

A career .129 hitter, Wheeler lined a two-run double in the second off Zach Eflin (2-3). The next time up, Wheeler did even better, launching a drive over the wall in left-center.

Wheeler kept up a surprising long ball show by Mets pitchers. Noah Syndergaard and Jacob deGrom also have gone deep this year, making the Mets the first National League team in more than 110 years to have three pitchers homer in the first 25 games of a season.

Frazier broke open the game with his fifth career slam, tagging Drew Anderson. Frazier made his season debut Monday after being slowed by a strained left oblique.

Bryce Harper and the Phillies have totaled just two runs while losing three in a row, and were shut out for the first time season. They went down quietly Monday when their final 16 batters were retired, and manager Gabe Kapler said before this game he wanted to see whether his team would respond with any energy.

It didn't, at least until two out in the ninth. The closest the Phillies came to scoring was in the fourth when Maikel Franco was thrown out at the plate by left fielder Jeff McNeil on Cesar Hernandez's single.

"Very frustrating," Kapler said, adding, "It wasn't good effort."

Hernandez also let an easy grounder roll through his legs with two out in the second, allowing Wheeler to score from second.

Mets relievers Luis Avilan and Rhame finished off the five-hitter.

Los Angeles Dodgers left-hander Rich Hill is set to make his season debut Sunday against the Pittsburgh Pirates, manager Dave Roberts said Tuesday.

Hill hasn't pitched since straining his left knee during spring training and started the season on the injured list.

Ahead of his debut, Hill was dominant in his final planned workout Monday. He told reporters that he had 16 strikeouts in six innings at the team's Camelback Ranch facility.

"I'm ready to get out there," Hill said. "I'm excited. Obviously, we've been playing great. ... You want to be a part of it and contribute and earn your keep, so to speak."

Hill said he isn't feeling any pain but will continue to wear a knee brace as recommended.

Ross Stripling will move to the bullpen with Hill's return. Stripling is 1-1 with a 3.07 ERA in five starts this season. He is set to start Thursday against the Chicago Cubs.

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- All throughout the day Tuesday, Mike Ford found himself the butt of the same joke told by his New York Yankees teammates.

"The running joke was I might have been the only guy in major league history to have two intentional walks and just one hit," the first baseman said, laughing.

Indeed, the Los Angeles Angels walked Ford intentionally twice in Monday's series opener at Angel Stadium, despite the fact the longtime minor leaguer hadn't yet shown off his power at the major league level.

Typically the big boppers with proven pop get the intentional free passes.

After Tuesday's big fly off Ford's bat, maybe he'll start earning more of them. Keep swinging -- and winning -- the way he and the rest of the replacement Yankees have this past week, and few opposing pitchers will want to face any of them.

It was in the fifth inning of Tuesday's 7-5 Yankees win over the Angels when Ford, one of the slew of fill-ins called up from New York's Triple-A affiliate in recent weeks, lined his first career homer into the seats above the massive wall in right field. The ball came to rest into a pair of fans' hands 419 feet away.

Soon, that very same ball, after being scooped up by the Yankees, will be in New Jersey, and in the possession of Ford's parents, Bob and Barb.

"They've supported me through everything," Ford said. "[Want to] give it to them, share the moment with them."

It took Ford 561 career minor league games to make it to the majors. For infielder Thairo Estrada, it took slightly less time. Estrada, a 23-year-old native of Venezuela, was just under 400 career minor league games when he was first called up to the Yankees' big league squad this season.

On Sunday, he had his first major league plate appearance, laying down a crucial sacrifice bunt ahead of catcher Austin Romine's walk-off heroics.

On Tuesday, Estrada started for the first time in the majors and picked up his first and second major league hits.

"Everyone tells me he rakes," Yankees first baseman and designated hitter Luke Voit said, "so it's pretty awesome to see that. And to see him hit two (liners) back-to-back was pretty cool."

After Estrada was thrown out via a force following his first hit, cameras caught him and Ford in the Yankees' dugout sharing smiles and a quick hug. Three weeks ago, it was hard for either of them to fathom collecting such milestone hits in an MLB stadium.

With 13 players on their injured list, the Bronx Bombers have had to get creative with how they've been able to field a team. As a whopping two-thirds of the Yankees' Opening Day lineup -- the likes of Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Gary Sanchez, Troy Tulowitzki, Greg Bird and Miguel Andujar among them -- sits shelved on the IL, the team has had to rely on unfamiliar names like Ford and Estrada.

Another name even the most casual of baseball observers might not recognize is Domingo German, who might not be ace Luis Severino but still has been extraordinarily effective to this point in the season, recording a 1.75 ERA through his first five appearances.

German, 26, was particularly dominant Tuesday, giving up an unearned run and four hits in a five-strikeout, 6⅔-inning performance.

"It wasn't real easy for him the first couple of innings. It wasn't his sharpest breaking ball -- certainly that he's had -- but he pitched," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. "He keeps showing us that even when he's not necessarily at his best, he's still able to go out and have a performance like he did."

Combine an outing like German's with contributions from the newest Yankees, and sprinkle in a breakout game from a pair of the most veteran hitters in the lineup, and there's a recipe for a win. Tuesday's victory was the Yankees' seventh in eight games.

Longtime Yankee Brett Gardner shined batting third, going 4-for-5 and coming a home run shy of a cycle. Voit, much less tenured though the most recognizable power bat in Tuesday's lineup, also had a big evening, collecting his first multihit game of the season.

Going 2-for-4, Voit posted his third career multihomer game in pinstripes, and his first this season. He also reached base in his 34th consecutive game (dating to last season). It's the longest active such streak in baseball.

"It's pretty cool," Voit said of the streak.

Much of his offensive success this season has come in the first inning. His 22 total bases in that inning this year leads all of baseball. His four first-inning homers are tied with Christian Yelich for the most in MLB. His seven first-inning RBIs also are tied with Yelich and Alex Gordon for the most in the league.

Voit's 1.768 first-inning OPS trails only Shin-Soo Choo's 1.825.

"I guess maybe more in the first inning [opposing pitchers] are trying to get more ahead, establish their stuff and maybe they're a little more liable to make mistakes," Voit said. "But I'm just trying to stay in my back side, not pull off, not to get too big and stay with that up the middle approach, right field."

Boone says he feels proud of the contributions from less-heralded players such as Voit, among others throughout his banged-up, depleted roster.

"When you're a little beat up and facing adversity and things are a little difficult, you need everyone to kind of pull their weight," Boone said. "You need everyone to contribute and chip in on a given night, and that's been one of the common themes over the last week, really, is a lot of different people doing their job and having an impact on helping us win a game."

CLEVELAND -- Indians pitcher Carlos Carrasco is not expected to miss any time with a left leg injury that the team initially feared was serious.

Carrasco was hurt Tuesday night while covering first base in the fourth inning against Miami. He stumbled and fell as he attempted to catch an off-target throw from first baseman Carlos Santana. Carrasco did a somersault and got up with a slight limp.

He finished the inning but was replaced when the leg tightened up while the Indians batted. Carrasco had an MRI after the game, and it didn't show any damage.

The Indians are optimistic he'll make his next scheduled start.

Cleveland couldn't afford to lose Carrasco, a 17-game winner last season, for any period. The team is already without starter Mike Clevinger, who is expected to miss two more months with a strained upper back muscle.

Long before radar and camera systems that log every imaginable measurement became necessities at minor league affiliates across baseball, they were like Christmas morning toys to those who understood where the game was going. And in the Atlanta Braves organization, the most curious minds in the front office wanted to know whether their eyes were telling them the truth. That the 17-year-old who stood 6 feet tall and weighed 180 pounds really did hit the ball like grown men five inches taller and 75 pounds heavier.

A Trackman unit, used to evaluate players, was sent to Danville, Virginia, where the kid was spending the last three weeks of the 2015 season in rookie ball. About a year earlier, Ronald Acuña Jr. signed with the Braves for $100,000. He was supposed to be a Kansas City Royal, but the Braves swooped in on international signing day, July 2, with a heftier bonus offer. Atlanta soon recognized its fortune. The entire industry, which devoted tens of millions of dollars annually to teenagers from Latin America, had whiffed on Acuña. He was the Braves' little secret.

And after Danville, Atlanta knew he wouldn't remain a secret too much longer. The hands didn't just look fast. The sound when he made contact wasn't just loud. There were actual numbers to contextualize who Acuña was. The Braves combed data from batting practice. The ball was leaving his bat at 110 mph-plus. In games, triple-digit exit velocities were common. Acuña was essentially a senior in high school whose data resembled that of a big leaguer.

So for those who had that early look behind the curtain, the proof of his abilities is in everything that has come since. The next year, when other teams got hip to Acuña. And the year after, when he leapt from Class A to Triple-A, getting better every step of the way, and the baseball world understood how special he could be. Then last year, when he arrived in the major leagues still unable to legally buy a drink and exceeded expectations that couldn't have been much higher.

And now, a year after his debut, when he has guaranteed himself 1,000 times that original signing bonus and established himself as everything the Braves thought he could be and more, and all that's left for him to capture are the game's crown jewels -- the MVP trophy, the World Series ring and the title that can be held by just one person at a time.

Best Player in Baseball.

Some facts about the game. The ball weighs approximately five ounces. The mound is 60 feet, 6 inches from home plate. There is always a matchup between a pitcher and a batter. Mike Trout is the Best Player in Baseball.

The first three are written into baseball's rules. At this point, the fourth might as well be. Since he arrived in the major leagues for good at 20 years old, Trout has worn that designation like a Miss America sash. It is on him everywhere he goes, and he must live up to its standard daily. And for eight years running, Trout has. At some point, though, something will catch up. It could be age. It could be opponents. It could even be someone. And if it is someone, Acuña stands as good a chance as anyone.

His all-around game mirrors Trout's as much as any young player's. By the time Trout abdicates, some of his contemporaries -- Francisco Lindor, Mookie Betts, Nolan Arenado, Christian Yelich, Javier Baez -- might have aged out of contention. Of the other candidates who bring skills and youth -- Alex Bregman, Cody Bellinger, Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto -- none combines the precociousness of both quite like Acuña. Look at last year. He became the seventh player to hit 25 home runs in a season before his 21st birthday -- and the fastest to reach that mark, in 92 games. The other six on the list: Mel Ott, Frank Robinson, Al Kaline, Orlando Cepeda, Eddie Mathews and Tony Conigliaro. The first five are Hall of Famers.

Acuña became the youngest player to homer in five straight games. And he tied Ott for the most home runs in a month for a player 20 or younger with 11 in August. He was the youngest player in baseball history to receive a nine-figure contract, when he agreed three weeks ago to an eight-year deal that includes a pair of club options and, remarkably, was seen throughout the industry as an extreme bargain despite guaranteeing Acuña $100 million.

Everything is seen through the prism of Acuña's youth because what he's doing is so extraordinary for someone this young. Baseball is a sport that never has shied away from promoting its youngest players, so for Acuña to position himself amid that group -- and to do it as consistently as he has -- speaks to the scouting community's belief that he is Trout's heir.

His start to 2019 has done nothing to dissuade them. In the second half last season, Acuña hit .322/.403/.625 with 19 home runs. Thus far this year, he is hitting .307/.429/.600 with six home runs. Yes: That's a 1.028 OPS in the second half of 2018 and a 1.029 OPS so far in 2019. Acuña's walk rate is up 40 percent this year. He's hitting more home runs per plate appearance. He's one of the 15 fastest players in the game. He could play center field, and play it well, if not for Ender Inciarte, who for the last three years has played it extremely well for Atlanta.

He is everything everyone wants in a baseball player. And he turned 21 four months ago.

Here's the cynical part -- and there needs to be a cynical part because Ronald Acuña Jr. is human, and because baseball is baseball, and because failure is so inherent in both, and because it is even more acute when the standard is Best Player In Baseball.

Acuña is from a baseball family, and nearly everyone in it, from his father Ronald Sr. to his cousins Kelvim and Alcides Escobar, was done around age 30. Maybe it was genes, or maybe it was something entirely different for each that has nothing whatsoever to do with Acuña, who he is and how he intends to combat whatever befell his relations.

It is true, too, that Acuña is young and rich, and the marriage of those two qualities can be complicated and problematic, and that the highway to superstardom that he hopped aboard last season is rife with traps. Believing natural talent is enough and ignoring the value of hard work and not recognizing the necessity of evolution are chief among the traps. Mike Trout is not the Best Player In Baseball because he's the most talented. He's the Best Player In Baseball because he is the most talented and he snuffs out whatever minuscule weaknesses he might have before anyone else can find them.

Acuña is lucky enough to already have something that Trout never has had: a representative young core surrounding him. One of Acuña's best friends, second baseman Ozzie Albies, will be in Atlanta for the next nine seasons after signing a deal that is even more team-friendly than Acuña's. Freddie Freeman is the franchise linchpin at first base. Dansby Swanson is finally looking like the shortstop of the future. The Braves' young pitching talent borders on unfair. Cristian Pache and Drew Waters, both 20, aren't quite Acuña, but they are each at Double-A and look like the respective center and right fielders of the future, potential All-Stars themselves.

At the heart of it all is Acuña. He is that special, that different, spoken of in reverential terms from wizened baseball men who aren't prone to hyperbole. And it's only a year in. At the one-year mark of his career, Trout was just getting into a groove, showing that his struggles as a 19-year-old were anomalous and that his talent really was transcendent. Acuña never tripped. He was good from the jump and great soon thereafter.

Can he be more? The kid hitting those 110 mph shots in rookie ball is now a man hitting them even harder. He's already one of the best. And it might just be a matter of time before you can strike "one of" from that assessment.

Ahead of this year’s London Marathon, we reflect on Kipchoge’s 2016 course record and Keitany’s 2017 women-only world record by featuring Professor Sean Hartnett’s fascinating race maps

Sean Hartnett is the ‘Professor of the Marathon’ – an expert on the 26.2-mile event and major marathon courses across the world.

Since 1984 Professor Hartnett has taught geography at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire and served as a marathon correspondent for Track & Field News. He has attended and reported on over 250 marathon competitions, produced over 30 ‘How the Race Was Won’ maps and created elevation profile maps of the Boston, New York and London Olympic marathon routes.

During competitions, Professor Hartnett and his colleague Professor Helmut Winter also record split data from a lead vehicle and display the pace information for the leaders of the men’s and women’s races.

Ahead of Sunday’s Virgin Money London Marathon, we reflect on two of the event’s stand-out performances – Eliud Kipchoge’s course record from 2016 and Mary Keitany’s women-only world record from 2017 – by featuring Professor Hartnett’s fascinating course maps, which include detailed splits, pace graphs, elevation profiles and more.

Click on the image of each map to view.

Nike unveils intriguing upgrade to road racing shoe on eve of London Marathon with Vaporfly Next%

It is almost two years since Eliud Kipchoge came within 25 seconds of breaking the two-hour barrier for the marathon. The ‘Breaking2’ time trial on the Monza motor racing track in Italy was further proof that Kipchoge is the world’s best marathoner and it introduced the world to the Nike Zoom Vaporfly 4%.

Since then thousands of ordinary runners have paid more than £200 (the latest model is £239.99) for these shoes in the hope they will propel them to a PB. As editor of Britain’s only track and field athletics magazine, over the years it is easy to become immune to the hype surrounding new shoe launches. Yet the springy midsole in the Vaporfly actually does seem to ‘work’ and on Sunday we will see Kipchoge and Mo Farah (pictured above) racing for the first time in the latest incarnation of the shoe – the Vaporfly Next% – and to crank up the anticipation Nike has this week released a short video showing the Briton training in the footwear in Ethiopia.

The new bright green or ‘phantom glow’ coloured model (pictured below) features 15% more ZoomX foam in the midsole, a lighter upper made out of ‘Vaporweave’ plus, of course, the carbon fibre plate that somewhat controversially gives the shoe its spring. With comfort in mind, laces are offset to the side to reduce pressure on the top of the foot and there is more padding to protect the Achilles. Feedback from elite athletes also led to traction being improved on the outsole, which could be vital on Sunday if the roads of London become wet with rain.

Back in the winter one of Britain’s leading distance runners told me the consensus among elite athletes is that it makes a difference of about a minute to your marathon time and that even non-Nike sponsored athletes are occasionally wearing them. However, if Nike’s claim of a 4% improvement in ‘efficiency’ translates to a 4% better time, then a mere minute is a conservative estimate.

Runners are forever fascinated by shoes and during my time at AW I’ve seen the growth of trail-specific shoes, a trend toward shoes with a ‘barefoot feel’ and, most of all, a preponderance of motion control footwear. Even interviewing Jakob Ingebrigtsen at the European Indoor Championships in Glasgow in March, my eye was drawn to what seemed incredibly tight Nike spikes, with his feet almost bulging out of the toe box.

As a middle-aged plodder with dodgy knees, I’m not the best person to test the Vaporfly shoes. But earlier this year I ran more than a minute quicker in a pair of Vaporfly 4% shoes on the Eden Project parkrun than I did when wearing non-Nike shoes at the flat, grassy Wanstead Flats parkrun in London. Speed aside, they are super-comfortable too.

My one-off experience aside, the New York Times studied data from half a million races last year and, apart from discovering that Strava users spelt Vaporfly in 147 different ways, the newspaper surmised that runners did benefit from a 4% improvement, although the percentage varied from one runner to the next.

Not surprisingly, the IAAF is looking into whether they break any rules. Questions have also been raised lately over Laura Muir’s track spikes, which feature similar technology.

Of course, plenty of races are still being won by athletes wearing different brands. But, if money is no object, then an increasing number seem to be following, quite literally, in Kipchoge’s footsteps.