Thunder over Louisville fireworks show canceled due to severe flooding of Ohio River
Thunder of Louisville has been canceled and will not be rescheduled in 2025 due to the severe storms that have dropped near-record flooding across much of Kentucky, Louisville officials announced Saturday.
The annual fireworks and air show, scheduled for April 12, kicks of a series of festivities leading up to the May 3 Kentucky Derby. The remainder of those roughly 70 events are not affected , but Thunder, due to the extensive planning that goes into it, will not be rescheduled in 2025.
Thunder is considered the marquee event of the Kentucky Derby Festival. Except during COVID-19, Thunder over Louisville has never been canceled in its 36-year existence, Gibson said.
'We've made the very difficult decision to cancel Thunder Over Louisville this year. Believe me when I say we're just as disappointed,' Kentucky Derby Festival President and CEO Matt Gibson said during a Saturday afternoon news conference. 'This was not a decision we came to very easily.'
'When you look at the projections for where the Ohio River is going to crest and how long its going to take to get back to its usual stage, this challenging, disappointing decision was not even a close decision,' Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg added.
'Over the last 24 hours, the Ohio River has risen more than five feet, and we expect it to significantly rise higher over the next 2-3 days.'
Though much of Louisville got a reprieve from rain and storms Saturday afternoon, evening and overnight rains are still expected to push Kentucky's largest city into near-record flooding levels. Since the storm has been more gradual rather than constant in Louisville, the city's Fire Chief Brian O'Neill urged people not to let their guards down.
'Since we haven't had this huge storm like we had earlier in the week — this has been more of a steady encroaching water and rain — don't let that lull you into a false sense of security,' O'Neill said. 'We have another system that's going to hit us (and) we're going to have a lot of heavy rains. Please try to stay safe.
Since Thursday, severe weather and torrential rain have battered much of the state, causing life-threatening flooding and thousands to lose power, brought on by a 'conveyor belt' of weather system that spans multiple states. Two people have died.
On Friday, Greenberg encouraged Louisvillians not to use their washing machines or dishwashers this weekend as a means of conserving water, as the city's sewer and stormwater systems are at capacity.
By Saturday afternoon, heavy rains had already swelled the Ohio River to flood levels. The river is on track to reach 'one of the top 10 flooding events' in the city's recorded history by the end of the weekend, Greenberg said.
In a news release from earlier in the day, Gibson added: 'This weather event and flooding is like nothing we've faced before, especially this close to Thunder. While we'd love to bring everyone together (April 12) to watch one of the best air shows and fireworks shows in the country, we know it's not logistically possible and would not be safe to do so.'
It's not logistically possible because the Ohio River, already having reached flood stage with more rain expected, will not recede enough over the next week to allow for organizers to set up necessary infrastructure for the event, or for barges carting fireworks to safely navigate the swollen waterway, Gibson explained.
'The height and the speed of the river will prevent us from doing that,' Gibson said.
City officials have installed a number of flood walls to protect against additional anticipated flooding from continued rainfall Saturday overnight. Factoring the additional rainfall forecast, the city expects more than 99% of the waterfront to be underwater.
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New York Times
31 minutes ago
- New York Times
Thunder struck with a midrange shooting slump at the wrong time in NBA Finals
INDIANAPOLIS — How do the Oklahoma City Thunder surprisingly find themselves down 2-1 to the Indiana Pacers in the NBA Finals? I can give you two versions of the story, both of which are equally valid. On one hand, there is the sheer fact of a more energetic Indiana side repeatedly outhustling, outscrapping, outrunning and ultimately outlasting Oklahoma City in Game 3. Call it 'energy' or 'playing with force' or whatever euphemism you want to use, but the tape doesn't lie. Rewatching the game on Thursday, the Thunder looked like a team on the last game of a four-games-in-five-nights trip. They played with little pace, were beaten to nearly every loose ball and completely ran out of gas at the end. Advertisement Of particular note was that the Thunder's best player was guilty on many of these fronts. Perhaps it's not surprising that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was worn out by the end after a 42-minute stint where he was repeatedly attacked on defense while the Pacers picked him up full court on offense. What's a bit more shocking is how out of sorts the MVP looked even at the beginning. Eight seconds into the game, he picked up a frustration foul shoving away Andrew Nembhard. Minutes later, he already seemed exhausted. Check out this play, where he lets another player bring the ball up, jogs in a circle for a bit, then completely taps out of the play and grabs his shorts. This wasn't in the fourth quarter; it was in the fourth minute. Indiana's plan was to deny Gilgeous-Alexander from catching the ball anywhere, even 90 feet from the basket. After making baskets, Nembhard routinely raced in to deny an inbound pass before Gilgeous-Alexander could have a free catch. It was a nice adjustment by Indiana. What was amazing, however, was how meekly the Thunder acquiesced to this arrangement. On play after play, Gilgeous-Alexander either made no move at all to get open or pointed to a different player for the inbounder to pass to. One wonders if Gilgeous-Alexander was dealing with something physically, because he seemed to be conserving energy almost from the opening tip. Or maybe he just had a bad night; it happens. Gilgeous-Alexander was awesome in Games 1 and 2, and I expect the Thunder to give a much more valiant effort in Game 4. But underlying everything that happened in the first three games is another explanation, a bigger-picture question that's gnawing at me: Why can't the Thunder make 2s? Advertisement Oklahoma City has only made 47.4 percent of its 2-point shots this series, a ghastly figure that would have ranked last by a mile in the regular season. The league average was 54.5 percent; the worst team in the league (Charlotte) shot 49.9 percent. The poor shooting inside the arc is a key reason the Thunder offense is only posting a 113.6 offensive rating for the series after rolling to a 119.2 mark in the regular season (good for third in the league) and posting a 118.6 mark against a fearsome Minnesota Timberwolves defense in the Western Conference finals. Usually, a struggle like that could be explained by 3-point variance, but not here: Oklahoma City has made 39.8 percent from downtown in the three games. The Thunder are also drawing fouls at a high rate, making their freebies (83.6 percent) and doing solid work on the offensive glass. Even turnovers — Game 3 aside — have been a plus, with a very respectable 11.9 percent rate for the series. But the one area their offense figured to have a massive advantage has instead been a total zero. The Thunder ranked seventh in the league in 2-point shooting at 55.9 percent, while the Pacers were 23rd in 2-point defense at 55.4 percent — the worst mark of any playoff team. Additionally, 2-point shooting is usually more stable than 3-point shooting, and there should be less variance after three games because nearly twice as many shots are 2s. If you're wondering, the postseason's first three rounds didn't provide any indication that this dramatic shift would happen. The Thunder made 54 percent of their 2s against the Denver Nuggets and 55.7 percent against the Wolves. Indiana allowed the New York Knicks to shoot 56.1 percent in the conference finals and, before that, the injury-addled Cleveland Cavaliers made 52.8 percent against them. Based on the regular-season results, we'd expect the Thunder to be shooting 57 percent on 2s in this series, and instead, they're shooting a full 10 points worse. For three games, that's a difference of about 28 points (allowing for the fact that some of the extra misses were offensive rebounded), more than enough to swing the outcomes of Games 1 and 3. Advertisement Digging deeper on the 2-point woes, the main culprits are the Thunder's best players. Of the top fix Oklahoma City players in finals minutes, only Chet Holmgren has made more than half his 2s, and he's barely eeking past at 13-of-25 (52 percent). Jalen Williams has only made 42.5 percent of his 2s, and Gilgeous-Alexander just 50 percent, which is a problem since those two account for more than half the team's attempts. Personnel choices have likely been a factor, too. Isaiah Hartenstein and Aaron Wiggins were the team's two most accurate 2-point shooters in the regular season, combining for 13.2 attempts per game; they have only taken 16 the entire finals as the role of each has shriveled. Limiting fast-break points has been a factor: Oklahoma City averaged a whopping 17.2 fast-break points per game in the previous two rounds against Denver and Minnesota, but the Thunder have averaged a piddling 8.4 thus far in the finals. Subtracting some of those easy run-outs definitely impacts 2-point percentage; the Thunder shot 64.6 percent inside 5 feet in the regular season and 63.7 percent in the last two playoff rounds (even after I eliminated the four-game stampede over Memphis) but just 55.3 percent in these finals. The shooting stats also reveal a more mundane issue: The Thunder's two best players have missed a ton of makable middies. On 2s beyond 10 feet, Oklahoma City shot 46.4 percent in the regular season, 49.1 percent in the last two playoff rounds … and 36.1 percent in the finals. Williams lamented after Game 1 that many of his misses were on shots in his wheelhouse, 'shots that I rep,' as he put it. He missed all four of his long 2s while Gilgeous-Alexander went 2 of 8, hugely consequential misses in a one-point loss. Even in an otherwise strong performance in Game 3, Williams was 2 of 7 on 2s beyond 10 feet while Gilgeous-Alexander was 3 of 8. Most of them were clean looks, too. Even in the Thunder's breakout Game 2 win, the duo combined to shoot 7 of 13 on these shots; solid, but hardly a hailstorm. For the series, that makes them 14 of 40 on the midrange shots that have been a huge bulwark of the Thunder's half-court offense all season. For Williams, the pull-ups going left have abandoned him suddenly. This one from Game 3 is a practice shot for him, and it's not even close: Late in the third quarter, he had another example of a frustrating miss when he was isolated against the lumbering Thomas Bryant and easily got to a pull-up, only to have it hit three parts of the rim and bounce out. Similarly, Gilgeous-Alexander had some tough shots against good contests from the Pacers but also has to feel like he left some money on the table. He shoots about 99 percent when he turns baseline from the left block, but this shot over a lukewarm contest from Ben Sheppard didn't find the mark: He bonked another shot from the same spot in the second half, albeit under a bit more duress from Nembhard. So, what do we make of this? It's too reductive to say that the Thunder are just going to automatically make more long 2s next game; that's not how this works. And of course, this isn't the only element of shooting variance at work here; at some point, Lu Dort might cool off from 3, for instance, and I don't think the Thunder can count on their 'free-throw defense' to save them quite as many points in the upcoming games. Needless to say, if I were the Thunder, I'd be much more concerned about the effort and exhaustion piece of the puzzle, and particularly about how to manage Gilgeous-Alexander through games so he has some juice left to take over at the end. Advertisement Nonetheless, the Thunder probably need to solve both problems to win three of the next four and claim the franchise's first title in Oklahoma. Most expected that a Pacers' victory template would include their full-court pace and pressure gassing the mighty Thunder, but Oklahoma City's wayward 2-point shooting is an unforeseen complication. Sure, the law of averages might eventually tilt back the Thunder's way on these shots, but we don't have 82 games to wait. Their margin of error is gone. The effort needs to ramp up, and the middies have to start falling. (Top photo of Jalen Williams and Bennedict Mathurin: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)
Indianapolis Star
an hour ago
- Indianapolis Star
Pacers can't get comfortable with 2-1 NBA Finals lead: 'We're still a long way away'
INDIANAPOLIS – A reporter started to ask Rick Carlisle a question about the Pacers being 3-0 in these playoffs in Game 4s when they've taken 2-1 leads in the first three games. The Pacers coach cut it off before he was completely done with the premise, but in a sense it served as the best answer he could give. "Yeah, listen, before you even ask the question, we're not getting into answering questions about the future or anything like that," Carlisle said. "I mean, you look at what Oklahoma (City) did the beginning of (Game 3), 16-7, boom, just like that. We have a lead at the end of the third quarter. Boom, all of a sudden, we're down five going into the fourth. There's no looking forward. We study some of the things that have happened leading up to this. Beyond that, I'm not talking about anything having to do with series standings or any of that kind of stuff. It would be foolish." Carlisle's response gives a pretty good sense of the Pacers' mindset going into Game 4 of the NBA Finals on Friday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in what will be the second Finals game in Indianapolis in 25 years after Wednesday's was the first. They are trying to maintain the edge they had going into Game 4 in each of the three series en route to their Eastern Conference championship by trying not to remind themselves they won those games. On one hand they're in the same situation they were going into each of those games in that they're up 2-1 with a chance to take a commanding 3-1 lead. On the other hand, in Game 4 in each of the previous three series, they were coming off a humbling Game 3 loss. Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle. In this series, wins and losses have alternated for the two teams so far with the Pacers having won Game 1 and Game 3 with the Thunder taking Game 2 in between. Also, the Thunder are the best team they've played so far by almost every measure having entered the playoffs with the No. 1 overall seed with a record of 68-14, which ranks as fifth-highest regular season win total all-time. When the Pacers lost to the Thunder in the regular season on March 29, Carlisle called the Thunder "the best team on the planet right now" and even though the Pacers still have a lead in this series, he's maintaining the same level of reverence for them. "That's the challenge before us right now, is to maintain," Carlisle said. "It's got to be a killer edge to beat these guys. We're going to be an underdog in every game in this series. It was 10 and a half in the first two games, five and a half last night, then tomorrow. It's a daunting challenge. Anything less than a total grit mindset, we just don't have a chance." The Pacers have never been this close to an NBA title before. In their only other Finals appearance they fell behind 2-0 and then 3-1 to the Lakers and though they won Game 5 to get within two wins of the title, they had to go back to Los Angeles for Games 6 and 7 because the format was 2-3-2 at the time rather than 2-2-1-1-1. So part of the challenge is keeping that reality where it serves them best. Acknowledging they can't guarantee for themselves they'll ever be in this position again, but also keeping in mind how much work there is to do and not getting ahead of themselves. "I think it starts from coach Carlisle, just keeping our attention on the main thing, taking it a day at a time, focusing on what's in front of us," All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton said. "I think that just trickles down. I think our jobs — me, Pascal (Siakam), Myles (Turner), James (Johnson Jr.), as leaders is to continue to share the same message that coach has. There's nothing to get excited about right now. We're still a long way away. ...There's no need to get super giddy or excited. There's still a lot of work to be done." And they know they're in for a punch from the Thunder, who have been every bit as good at adjusting after losses as the Pacers have. The Thunder have not only not lost consecutive games at any point in these playoffs, they lost consecutive games just twice in the regular season — once in November and once in April after they had clinched homecourt advantage throughout the Western Conference playoffs. They tend to be good at making adjustments and correcting mistakes and they see a lot they believe they can fix. They committed 19 turnovers in their Game 3 loss, for instance, and that's not typical for them at all. "Part of their pressure is affecting some of the way we're making reads," OKC reserve wing Aaron Wiggins said. "But that's more so in our control. We have to play at our pace, play the way we want to play and play our brand of basketball which is sharing the basketball and finding guys and creating opportunities. ... (We saw) a lot of controllable things. Turnovers. Our defensive lapses when we weren't making the right rotations and coverages after that. Offensively, just execution wise, making it easy for each other to find open shots and get looks." The Pacers scored 50 points in the paint after scoring just 34 in each of the first two games. Indiana clearly made adjustments to create more driving opportunities, but the Thunder still saw things they could adjust to. "A lot of it was us and things we could control," Wiggins said. "I think we just allowed them to be too comfortable. Their comfortability allowed them to play at their pace and find their rhythm and play the way they want to play." And generally, teams of the Thunder's caliber become more dangerous in the playoffs when they figure out what they can fix, which is why Carlisle wants to make sure the Pacers keep their edge. "We need everybody," Carlisle said. "We need everybody to put everything they have into it. That's how we've gotten to the Finals."
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Thunder at Pacers Game 4 picks, odds, how to watch: Tense NBA Finals action on Friday the 13th
It's Friday the 13th, and the Indiana Pacers look unfazed. What is bad luck to a team that keeps defying the odds? The top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder were enduringly dominant all season, but the Western Conference champions suddenly need to cross their fingers and knock on wood to avoid a 3-1 Finals deficit. Granted, OKC was in control for all of Game 2 and … well, most of Game 1. A pivotal clash now awaits, with the Thunder as two-possession road favorites despite Indy's momentum. Advertisement This game will also be available on ESPN+. Series odds: Thunder -250, Pacers +200 With two more wins, Indiana would become the most unlikely NBA champion in league history. Wilder still, it wouldn't even be close — the Pacers opened the 2024-25 campaign with +6600 preseason title odds on BetMGM, and that bumped up to +8000 at the start of the playoffs. The current longest-shot title holders — Golden State, back in 2014-15 — opened at +2800 and narrowed down to +175 come postseason. As they've done all spring, the Pacers came alive down the stretch of Game 3. They began Wednesday's fourth quarter trailing by five points, then wound up winning by nine. OKC didn't make a single 3 in the final period, and the usually-disciplined Thunder offense coughed up a playoff-high 19 turnovers across 48 minutes. Bennedict Mathurin was the latest hero on a growing list of unlikely playoff Pacers, finishing with a team-high 27 points in 22 minutes off the bench. Game 1 hero Obi Toppin was excellent once again, tallying a plus-18 behind inspired defense and sturdy rebounding. And T.J. McConnell, unparalleled pest, came away with five steals. What a rounded performance by the second unit. To take a coveted 3-1 series lead, Indiana should continue to zip around the ball and extend the Thunder's defensive radius. Above all else, Rick Carlisle will keep trusting his 10-man rotation to keep OKC on edge with new looks. Through three Finals games, seven Pacers are averaging double-figure scoring, which is both totally loopy and the platonic ideal of this unrelenting group. Oklahoma City needs more efficient offense from Jalen Williams to take Game 4 and knot up this series. Even after a strong showing on Wednesday (26 points on 18 shots), Williams is 10th on the team in Finals defensive rating and ninth in effective field goal percentage. Mark Daigneault may also reach for more Isaiah Hartenstein action: He was a plus-17 in the Game 2 win, but a minus-4 in fewer minutes last time out. The Thunder will also be in better shape if their MVP frontman can generate easier looks. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had his worst game of the Finals thus far, with six turnovers and a series-low 24 points (despite a series-high 42 minutes). A slightly slower pace would favor OKC, too. 1997 — Bulls 90, Jazz 86. With the game on the line and another championship in reach, Michael Jordan went to work at the elbow and … passed the ball to Steve Kerr?! From Mike Wise in The New York Times archive: 'Talent, resolve and leadership can take you so far. Jordan understands the vital importance of trusting teammates who play in his kingdom. Advertisement ''You can't just believe in the superstars,' he said. 'You have to believe in everyone.' 'Jordan believed in Kerr tonight, just as he did in John Paxson in the 1993 finals. With 10 seconds remaining and Game 6 tied, Jordan knifed between a double team and saw Kerr standing a few steps behind the free-throw line, and he flicked him the ball. The reserve guard knocked down a 17-foot jump shot with five seconds remaining and no time on the shot clock, a perfect swish that lifted the Bulls to an electric 90-86 victory over the Utah Jazz before a delirious throng at the United Center.' Betting/odds, ticketing and streaming links in this article are provided by partners of The Athletic. Restrictions may apply. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication. (Photo of Tyrese Haliburton and Cason Wallace: Dylan Buell / Getty Images)
