The NBA Finals may be over but I wrote a meta crossword for the Post called "Ordered Pairs" where you have to find the secret NBA team when you're done. Give it a try here: www.washingtonpost.com/games/crossw...

The 2026 NBA Finals played out in one way like the bizarro version of the 1999 NBA Finals. 1999: Spurs won Game 1 Spurs won Game 2 Knicks won Game 3 Spurs won Game 4 Spurs won Game 5 2026: Knicks won Game 1 Knicks won Game 2 Spurs won Game 3 Knicks won Game 4 Knicks won Game 5

The Knicks are 2-0 with a 29-point second-half comeback and an NBA championship ever since Trump fell asleep and cursed them in Game 3.

Lol.

The New York Knicks. Wow.

When you're asked who played the mom in "Mr. Mom" during a trivia game and you're stuck between Teri Garr and Teri Polo and you pick Teri Polo:

The #USMNT absolutely dominated that match, as they usually do in the World Cup. This is definitely a thing they've done many times in the World Cup before. It's boring seeing them dominate all the time, really.

More like Goalarin Balogun. #USMNT

That sound you just heard was every soccer-watching crossword constructor adding FOLARIN and BALOGUN and FOLARIN BALOGUN to their word list.

Paraguay doing more ballwatching than a Chuck Tingle novel

The number of goals that the USMNT scored in the first half and what those goals cost:

Knicks fans' reaction in the first half of Game 4 / Spurs fans' reaction in the second half of Game 4

Cast of Laocoön and his Sons (Roman version of a lost Greek original), 100BC-50AD

The Knicks are 1-0 with a 29-point second-half comeback ever since Trump fell asleep and cursed them in Game 3.

HOLY -- and I can't emphasize this enough -- SHIT. #Knicks

Literally every NBA fan from the 3rd quarter to the 4th quarter of this game. #Spurs #Knicks

The Knicks still have a really good chance to win the title but we're now three Spurs wins away from James Dolan and Trump breaking up and getting into a fistfight in the skybox.

Luther Burden

No spoilers but solve the Sunday June 7 NYT crossword and then solve my Sunday June 7 WaPo crossword. NO WE DIDN'T PLAN THIS TOGETHER, lol.

Non-Knicks fans wondering when they're ever going to lose again in the playoffs:

This is not meant as a criticism -- quite the opposite -- but it's really fun knowing that part of my day-to-day life now involves chatting with other puzzle folk about whether or not newspaper crossword editors would accept TAKE TO POUND TOWN as an answer.

I would be remiss not to point out that "Tricking Milli Vanilli into performing a concert for a dictator" is LITERALLY a storyline from the 1990s 'Super Mario Bros 3' cartoon 🙃

This is so fucked. And a prime example of why I have disdain for people who fuck around with this stuff at all. Even as a hobby. None of those schmucks have put themselves out there in any meaningful way, but those who do, and carve a path for themselves are getting railroaded by this kind of shit

Okay but the most powerful people who are too for it (billionaire CEOs of tech companies and the politicians in their pockets) have a disproportionate influence on everyone else's lives while the people who are too against it don't have any of that power and are worried AI will replace their jobs.

The Knicks ever since the end of Game 3 against the Hawks: youtu.be/Y7DolW8DX-I?...

Me, realizing that the Cubs' two ten-game winning streaks were like 75 years ago: "The #Cubs can't possibly lose again, can they?" The Cubs:

My final, final byline for The Times: an affectionate send off for Manny Nosowsky, one of the greatest constructors of them all. Thanks for your kindness, Manny, and sincere condolences, Debby and family. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/24/u...

The Cubs have lost 11 of 13 games since I posted this. This is why you don't ever let me tempt fate. Fate saw me tempting it and decided to hit me over the head with a comically large sledgehammer.

Recap of Cavs-Knicks Game 1, 2026 Conference Finals. #NBAPlayoffs

Fellow scientists I've determined through years and years of painstaking research that Victor Wembanyama is, in fact, good at basketball.

If any of these Spurs-Thunder games end with either team winning by more than three points then we, as an NBA-liking society, will have been cheated.

"Man, James Harden once again playing badly in a game 7, 2 for 8 with just 9 points by the 4th quarter, just sad." *listens to earpiece* "I would like to apologize to James Harden and the Cavs for my comments, please carry on."

I got this weird screenshot the other night during Game 5 of Julius Randle seemingly wearing a mystical mushroom hat, or maybe a Metroid is about to eat his brain, I can't decide, but anyway I sincerely offer it as consolation to Timberwolves fans.

It's always a thrill when I randomly come across clips of Alex Moffat on the internet (he was a buddy of mine in high school). This time he's playing an AI-worshiping businessman and I'd like to think from this clip that comedians intuitively understand why AI could never replicate their work.

People who say stuff like this are often the first to accuse others of being privileged, but what's more privileged than thinking that all your problems would vanish if there were a Democrat in the White House? It's like saying the biggest problem in your life is that you aren't at brunch right now.

I realize I'm tempting fate by saying it but DAMN the 2026 Cubs are making me happy. Two separate 10-game winning streaks! (The 10-game winning streaks sandwiched a three-game losing streak but this makes me think of sandwiches so I'm also happy about that.)

Solving some variety cryptics with some fine fine folks here, come join if you like cryptics (and who doesn't?): www.twitch.tv/bewilderingly

Uh, what happened, Discord?

People at crossword tournaments will often tell you it's a good idea to take a moment to read the title of the puzzle but at my first ACPT in 2012 one of the titles was "Boustrophedon" and I can't tell you how damaging that was to my desire to read the title at a crossword tournament.

Me, struggling to think of a theme for my next crossword until the exact moment that I see this tweet: "JOYCE CAROL HATES."

This kind of destruction by halftime should be considered illegal in at least 35 states.

NBA Playoffs update, Pistons-Magic Game 4 edition.

When the neighbors have like 50 kids over at their house and they're all making a ton of noise right outside your kid's bedroom while you're trying to put him to sleep:

Rockets fans, when the Rockets have a 6-point lead and the ball with about 30 seconds left in the 4th quarter: "Hey we're gonna beat the Lakers! We're gonna win Game 3!" The Rockets:

Ooh, look. You can see Jupiter with the naked eye just below the moon tonight, and if I've done my two-minute astronomy learning correctly I think those other two bright objects are Castor and Pollux in the constellation Gemini. (Sorry if I'm wrong, astronomers, but it's pretty either way.)

I'm gonna seriously need you all to just chill out.

"Draw a cool S. Then draw a more different cool S."

It's my solemn duty to report that I WANT THAT MICHIGAN FIST is a (21). I take no pleasure in reporting this. #crosswords

No, the answer to yesterday's WaPo metapuzzle wasn't that other thing, it's the thing that I intended to be the actual thing, even though the other thing is kinda neat.

Oh nothing, just an asymmetric 128-word themed metapuzzle in the Washington Post Sunday crossword this weekend. Because I felt like it, that's why.