as Page 952 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Referee Meltdown In Celtics-Rockets Surprisingly Has Nothing To Do With James Harden's Footwork
The Rockets ran away from the Celtics Thursday night, in a game that was marred in both halves by some especially spotty and sensitive refereeing by the officiating crew. The officials handed out six technical fouls—three against each team—and at least a couple of them appeared to be the result of r...

Let Us Enjoy A Nightmarishly On-Brand Overtime Period Between The Lowly Suns And The Dreary Magic
The Suns and Magic played an overtime game Wednesday night. Of course you didn’t notice, because you—whoever you are, even if you are literally the head coach of one of these two teams—had something to do that was much better than watching two teams with a combined 22–44 record this season, and a wh...

Mamma Mia, That's A Spicy Own Goal!
Italian soccer found itself beset by the twin scourges of violence and racism yesterday, which is maybe fortunate for Ascoli goalkeeper Filippo Perucchini, since his humiliating own goal in a Serie B match against Palermo today would’ve definitely been front-page news in less violent and racist time...

The Hornets Pissed Away A Golden Chance At A Win In Hilarious Fashion
The Hornets and Nets showed us all the “beautiful game” last night with a truly weird end to regulation, before following it up with a rather bizarre game-ending sequence....

Kyler Murray Suddenly Seems Interested In The NFL
Oklahoma QB and all-around athletic marvel Kyler Murray is a throwback, good enough at football to win the Heisman Trophy and lead his team to the CFB playoff, and good enough at baseball to get selected by the Oakland A’s with the ninth overall pick in the most recent MLB Draft. With that high sele...

ESPN Has Created Another Phony News Cycle Out Of Its Own Fart<em></em>
“Anthony Davis trade talk is the biggest story in the NBA,” screeches the headline on this Zach Lowe article on ESPN.com. In a blog making broadly the same argument over on the Ringer, Kevin O’Connor writes that a Davis trade could cause “a seismic shift in the league,” like trades involving Wilt C...

Marcus Thompson of The Athletic zooms right past the central conflicts of the Durant-era Warriors—a looming salary crunch and a style of play that involves less ball and player movement than their coach and non-Durant stars would prefer—to arrive at a vague, Draymond Green-centered and Jimmy Iovine-...

Hassan Whiteside Has A Case Of Free Throw Yips
Hassan Whiteside did some cool things Wednesday night, in Miami’s narrow loss to the Toronto Raptors. He finished with 16 points, 12 rebounds, and three blocks in 31 minutes, and was a game-high plus-22. In the first quarter, with the Heat up nine and feeling frisky, Whiteside brought the ball up th...

Draymond Green Is Kind Of Killing The Warriors
The Warriors got smashed well and good by the Lakers last night, earning their 12th loss of what has so far been an uninspiring (by their standards) season. The Warriors have never had more than seven losses by Christmas during the Steve Kerr era, and it was genuinely strange to see them, at full st...

<i>A Christmas Story</i> Subplots, Ranked
Christmas feels incomplete without at least four-to-six partial viewings of A Christmas Story, Bob Clark’s 1983 movie based on Jean Shepherd’s semi-autobiographical stories. By now, if you have a heart, you’ve seen each segment and running subplot dozens of times. But which are the best? And which a...

No One's Scared Of Ben Simmons
Kyrie Irving caught fire to help the Celtics pull away from the 76ers for a 121-114 overtime win in a statement battle between two of the let’s say three best teams in the East. But it was his counterpoint who celebrated Christmas Day with a career high, even if it was a total accident and still sor...

What Did We Get Stuck In Our Rectums Last Year?<em></em>
It’s here! It’s finally here! Every year it seems like the big day will never come, but it’s here. It’s the day to gather with your family and friends ‘round the hearth, warm beverages and sweet treats at the ready, and have a hearty chortle over the things America stuck inside itself and couldn’t r...

Texas High School Football Title Game Ends With A Pretty Sweet Hail Mary
This Texas high school football highlight is from Saturday, but it ages well. Galena Park North Shore defeated Duncanville, 41-36, in the Class 6A Division I final after Dematrius Davis connected with A.J. Carter on a 45-yard Hail Mary as time expired....

Skins Cut D.J. Swearinger After He's Honest About The Team's Crummy Defensive Coordinator
As the Eagles snuck by the Texans on a last-second field goal, what was spiritually official a month ago became actually official: The Skins can’t make the playoffs. Surely the team will fit a lot of infighting into the season’s final week. It’s already started by the release of a Pro Bowl player on...

Demaryius Thomas Carted Off With Torn Achilles
Texans WR Demaryius Thomas’s season is over. In the fourth quarter of the Texans game against the Eagles, Thomas crumpled to the ground in agony after planting his left foot, and he had to be taken off the field on a cart. Because it was a non-contact injury, he seemed to know how bad it was immedia...

Cowboys DE Tyrone Crawford Hospitalized After Suffering Scary Neck Injury
On the second play from scrimmage in this afternoon’s Bucs-Cowboys game, Dallas defensive end Tyrone Crawford went down with a scary injury. Crawford, a defensive captain, appeared to take a shoulder to the head from his blocker as he rushed the quarterback, and he crumpled to the ground. The stadiu...

Taylor Lewan On Josh Norman: "It’s Not Our Fault You’re Not Relevant Anymore"<em></em>
Taylor Lewan and Josh Norman got into a little spat following the Titans’ 25-16 win over the Redskins on Saturday. The Tennessee lineman reportedly told Norman to “get the fuck out of his stadium,” which was enough to piss off the cornerback and cause him to throw his helmet at Lewan before getting...

Army's Beatdown Of Houston Reached The "Punt From The Black Knights' 30" Stage
The Houston Cougars were thoroughly spanked by the Army Black Knights in the Armed Forces Bowl. While some coaches would want their players to play hard through the final whistle of the game—despite being down well over 40 points—Houston coach Major Applewhite raised the white flag early in the seco...

Towson's Solomon Uyaelunmo Throws Down Two-Handed Slam Into Wrong Basket
About halfway through the first half of Towson’s game against La Salle on Saturday, freshman forward Solomon Uyaelunmo saw an open lane to the basket, dribbled once and (kind of) dunked the ball with both hands. Unfortunately, the reason the basket in question was so open was because it belonged to ...

NBA Officials Ruined Two Great Posters With Two Soft Techs
Jaylen Brown and Lauri Markkanen each had an incredible posterizing dunk in their games on Friday night. Each player looked at their respective victims and gave a slight flex in victory over their athletic accomplishment. Shortly after, each player was assessed a technical foul for their “unsportsma...