19_0 Page 4 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Don’t fumble the bag
Just like a loose ball, when the bag is in reach, you dive headfirst for it. Every summer, a handful of teams, big and small markets, choose to resign, extend, or offer big money to one of their rising players. Sometimes it works out. Other times, you’re stuck with Kevin Love. Although kudos to Love...

Without Paul George, a Kawhi Leonard return means nothing this year
After advancing to the Western Conference Finals for the first time last season, this year has been an up and down struggle for the Clippers with key players in and out of the lineup. Kawhi Leonard hasn’t played a game yet this season after tearing his ACL in the second round of the playoffs against...

At this point, Anthony Davis is what he is
The 2021-22 season has been less than stellar thus far for Anthony Davis and the Los Angeles Lakers, and much of that falls on the shoulders of the former No. 1 pick. This was supposed to be the year Davis took over as the Lakers’ best player, but that blueprint hasn’t worked out the way it was draw...

Avalanche, Panthers and Flames done until Christmas
The NHL has multiple rosters’ worth of players in COVID protocols, with the number growing seemingly by the hour. The obvious thing to do, the thing that we would have expected in the era of “an abundance of caution” (remember that?) would be for the league to shut things down for a couple of weeks,...

Report: Rick Carlisle’s treatment of others bothered Luka, led to coach leaving Dallas
The details from the report corroborating the rumor that Rick Carlisle can be an asshole are juicy, for sure. Apparently, he belittled FODs (Friends of Luka Dončić) Dennis Smith Jr. and Salah Mejri, accusing Smith of being jealous of Dončić before trading him; saw former assistant coach Jamahl Mosel...

It happened again, back surgery for Michael Porter Jr.
Denver Nuggets’ forward Michael Porter Jr. is going under the knife... again. His agent told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski that Porter will have to undergo surgery on his lower back and will miss an “indefinite” period of time — the same time frame the Nuggets gave when they announced he was out of the ...

Joe Biden thinking about declaring diplomatic immunity, err, boycott of Winter Olympics
When politics and sports collide, people tend to lose their shit. “This is supposed to be my happy place!” “How dare you use your platform to speak out against racism!” “Loud noises!”...

Adam Silver doing his best Vince McMahon impression in NBA’s new deal with UAE
I’m not sure what’s more obvious: A media outlet taking the NBA to task for a multiyear partnership with the United Arab Emirates, or the inevitable controversy that will come of it. It doesn’t take long to unearth copious amounts of dirt about the UAE’s record and ongoing pursuit of human rights vi...

Western Conference beware, Nikola Jokić and the Denver Nuggets have a new weapon in their arsenal
The Denver Nuggets have struggled a bit to start the 2021-22 season. Following three consecutive campaigns with a win percentage of .630 or better, they are .500 following a 108-106 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday night. Still, there is encouragement for Nuggets fans, both from this game ...

Mark Cuban needs to cut the cord on the Kristaps Porziņģis experiment
It’s time for the Dallas Mavericks to move on from the often-injured Kristaps Porziņģis. He’s already missed more than half the team’s games this season, and they’re only a couple weeks in. The unicorn is gone, lost forever, now they’re stuck with Kris-taps. Kristaps keeps tapping out of games and c...

If you haven’t watched Ja Morant this season, stop what you’re doing and pull up a YouTube clip or 10
Is it too early in the NBA season for Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant to be sending out overcoming adversity tweets after a missed free throw? Probably. Is it too early in the season to consider the Grizzlies a contender in the Western Conference? Absolutely. It’s even too early in the season to t...

Can the Bundesliga ever be competitive again?
I start a lot of these with the phrase, “I knew better.” Whether it’s tuning into Monday Night Raw, or believing in the Carolina Hurricanes, or something else, you say that phrase enough and it becomes clear that, no, I don’t actually know better. I’m just a gullible giblet. ...

The Bills went for the win on Monday night, and don’t you dare judge them because it didn’t work out
The old saying, “playing not to lose, instead of playing to win,” was used in some of the most hypocritical ways in the past. It was used in football to shame teams that jump in the prevent defense too early, or run the ball three consecutive plays when leading at the end of a game to try and run ou...

Get ready, because the Mavericks are going to let you down big time this season
“They” said Dallas won the Trae Young/Luka Dončić 2018 Draft day trade. Yet, “they,” and everybody else, are still waiting on Dončić to win a playoff series, as Young was a twisted ankle away from playing in the NBA Finals....

2021 NBA Central Division Preview: Woe is the Cleveland Cavaliers
This is a hard division to diagnose. But I believe of all the possible letdowns in the Central, the Cavaliers are most likely to disappoint....

Can the Mavs count on Kristaps Porziņģis?
This is going to be a huge year for the Dallas Mavericks, for a couple of big reasons. According to many experts, this is the year Luka Dončić completely breaks through and wins his first of many MVP awards. But more importantly, it’s finally time for the Mavs to find out if they can count on Krista...

If Giannis did what I think he just did, the rest of the NBA is in trouble, with or without Kyrie
When we last left two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo he was ordering a cheat meal fit for a champion: 50 (not 51, not 49) chicken minis from Chick-Fil-A, with a large Sprite/lemonade. This was a month after narrowly defeating the Brooklyn Nets while we all complained about his jump shot holding ...

Dominique Wilkins is owed an apology and the only asterisk I’ll accept in sports
Dominique Wilkins is owed apologies from a lot of you people. ...

On a scale of 1-10, how goofy is Lakers' new nickname: 360
Now that NBA media day is officially in the books, it’s time for training camps, which means the 2021-22 season is just around the corner. The Los Angeles Lakers had day two all to themselves and even treated us to plenty of photos and a few funny moments as well. Captain of the ship, LeBron James w...

A nod to Toni Kukoč and all of the 2021 Basketball Hall of Fame inductees getting their dues today
We’ve feted Paul Pierce, Ben Wallace, Bill Russell, Rick Adelman, Jay Wright, Lauren Jackson, Yolanda Griffith, Chris Bosh, and Chris Webber this week for their induction into the hoops Hall of Fame....