The NBA postseason remains an eight-week psychodrama of moments, memes and memories unlike anything else in sport. Our correspondent looks back at her 20 biggest takeaways

If I had to choose one overarching theme of these playoffs, it would be this sentiment. Young stars like Luka Dončić, Ja Morant, Anthony Edwards and others showed that they aren’t even a little bit afraid of the moment, and absolutely have what it takes to lead their teams to future playoff success. And as for the aging superstars standing in their way? Take it from me and my retinol cream: father time comes for us all.

The 2012 Games were over budget while existing stadiums like Crystal Palace have been allowed to become dilapidated relics

This summer marks the 10th anniversary of the London 2012 Olympic Games. It is customary here to suggest that decade has simply flown by, that the years have passed in a blink. In reality this already feels like an event from a different timeline altogether.

It’s not the actual Games, which will remain a wonderful thing, tenderly guarded. It’s more the staging. Looking back there is something jarring about the uniformly joyful and empowered response to the opening ceremony, with its ragbag of nostalgia and self-mythologising. Kenneth Branagh pretending to be Brunel. Musical Youth playing croquet. Roger Moore inside a phone box surfing dial-up internet porn. Fiona Bruce and Dizzee Rascal reciting the shipping forecast on top of a giant cheddar cheese.

Second-round 69 puts Northern Irishman one off leadersJon Rahm well positioned after posting fine 67

From warring factions to a war of attrition. A US Open broke out at the US Open on Friday, with that welcome sense of familiarity supplying at least a brief distraction from all matters to do with a breakaway tour. Every golfer in a wonderfully congested field, even those who made the cut by the skin of their chinos, will have reasonable aspirations of winning the penultimate men’s major of the year.

As Brookline bared teeth, the best in the world clung on for dear life. Rory McIlroy needed three attempts to find the green from thick fescue adjacent to the putting surface at the 3rd. The Northern Irishman’s converted double bogey putt, from 22ft, could prove hugely significant as this major hurtles towards a conclusion. Minimising errors can matter more than swashbuckling golf in this domain.

Farrell has reassessed his role after injury and faces Leicester at Twickenham with a perfect Premiership final record

It is a long old road to the Premiership grand final but it is the last 80 minutes of the season that shape everything. This is the 20th edition since the playoffs were introduced in 2002-03 and it remains striking how many past winners have had to endure bleakly dispiriting days before graduating to the English domestic game’s highest prize.

Between 2005 and 2013 Leicester were in the final every year but lost three of their first four and could not always instantly adjust to the more urgent rhythms of sudden-death rugby. Remember, too, Saracens being beaten in extra time by Northampton in 2014 only to win four of the next five domestic crowns? It is the setbacks en route that define teams as much as the cool sensation of sprayed podium champagne.