conference Page 24 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Jayhawks looking elite in double OT win over Texas Tech
It’s the time of year when teams start to lock down NCAA Tournament spots. Regardless of any collapse, combined with the easier games remaining on schedules, college basketball’s elite know when the calendar flips to February that their postseason lives aren’t on the line every night....

SEC out to conquer more than football as Auburn hoops is No. 1 for first time in school history
The Southeastern Conference doesn’t have a plan only to dominate in football. The league’s leadership believes a monopoly, like its 12 of the last 16 national gridiron championships, including the last three with a trio of different schools, can be achieved across the board....

Auburn beats Kentucky, could get first AP No. 1 ranking in school history
With a decisive victory against the Kentucky Wildcats, the perennial kings of the SEC, the Auburn Tigers have likely made school history (not to jinx them or anything). At 18-1, this year’s squad is positioned to reach the No. 1 seed for the first time since the AP began ranking teams in the late ...

Three years later and nothing has changed, the Lakers are still a mess
Looking back at the Russell Westbrook trade, it makes sense what they were trying to do. The Los Angeles Lakers’ 2020-21 season was cut at the kneecaps by injury. It was the second time that had happened in three seasons. They needed a third star so that if they lost LeBron James or Anthony Davis or...

Three possible trade scenarios for John Collins
What the hell is happening in Atlanta? They went on a Cinderella-esque run in last season’s playoffs, reaching the Eastern Conference Finals. This year? They currently sit 12th in the East, out of the Play-In Tournament, and 22nd in the entire NBA. During the summer of 2020-21, the Hawks happily wen...

A rough stretch for the Bulls doesn’t look like it’s going to get better soon
The clock has struck midnight and the Chicago Bulls 2021-22 Cinderella season has turned into a pumpkin at the halfway point. It started with their big Wednesday night matchup last week against the Brooklyn Nets who, at the time, had all three of their stars on the court. After a competitive first h...

This is what happens when you get the aristocracy’s attention
A good portion of fans, most I would say, fail to recognize just how long the NBA season is. Goes for the NHL and MLB ones, too. It’s always hard to explain to a lot of them that there are nights in the middle, or maybe on the second of a back-to-back or the last of a four games in six nights, when ...

The Wizards of odd
It feels like such a long time ago that the Washington Wizards were in first place in the Eastern Conference, winning 13 of their first 20 games. Since Nov. 29, however, Washington has gone 8-13, dropping it all the way down to ninth place in the East at 21-20. Talk about a fall from grace....

The Celtics need to wake up and move on from either Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown
The Boston Celtics have one of the richest legacies in North American sports, but as of late, they have not been able to get over that hump to capture another NBA championship. In recent years, their two young stars, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown have led them to multiple Eastern Conference Finals a...

Give DeMar DeRozan his flowers for putting the Bulls in first place
What a three-game stretch for the fifth-leading scorer in the NBA, DeMar DeRozan. Mr. Anti-analytics has been letting his mid-range shot fly all season, propelling him to a scoring average of 26.9 points per game. With 28 points and six assists on Monday DeRozan was the Chicago Bulls’ leader in poin...

Kirk Herbstreit is going to blow a gasket over Caleb Williams' decision to enter the transfer portal
Between the transfer portal, NIL, and the evolution of athletes realizing that they’re the most important aspect of sports – which is a business – it’s starting to become quite clear where people stand on this issue. There’s no question where Kirk Herbstreit’s loyalty lies – and isn’t with the playe...

Out of shape? James Harden says absolutely not after returning home for Christmas to pound on the Lakers and Clippers
Christmas at home might be the turning point in James Harden’s 2021-22 season. The Brooklyn Nets played at Crypto.com arena against the Los Angeles Lakers on Christmas Day, against the Los Angeles Clippers on Dec. 27, and in between those two games, Harden’s high school in Lakewood, Calif., retired ...

IDIOT OF THE YEAR #9: Ted Cruz, captain of the anti-vax Dream Team
Welcome to Deadspin’s IDIOT OF THE YEAR festivities! Nos. 50 through 11 are available for your enjoyment here. And our top 10 thus far:...
![[UPDATE] This is fine: Kyrie Irving already in COVID protocols](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/0124ba961e791e1e056e5b9b9ac99d38.jpg)
[UPDATE] This is fine: Kyrie Irving already in COVID protocols
Less than two hours after this piece was published, the Nets announced that Kyrie Irving has entered the NBA’s health and safety protocols, because of course he did....

Anthony Edwards is breaking records and giving T-Wolves fans something to get excited about
There could already be a new challenger coming for Steph Curry’s long-distance shooting crown, and his name is Anthony Edwards....

Nikola Jokić's performance brings up the age-old question: ‘How good must your team be in order to win MVP?’
The Denver Nuggets are currently 12-13, tied with the Dallas Mavericks for seventh in the Western Conference. Despite having Aaron Gordon for the entirety of this season, the Nuggets just can’t seem to get going. After starting the season 9-4, the Nuggets dropped six straight games and fell below .5...

The Miami Hurricanes and Chicago Bulls have put the pedal to the metal, but don’t expect them to be what they were in the past
The young, promising Chicago Bulls are in second place in the Eastern Conference, and the Miami Hurricanes have high hopes after hiring a new football coach — it’s like it’s 1989 all over again. Fans of both teams have great reason to be excited....

Pac-12 commissioner accurately refers to CFB scheduling games years in advance as ‘insane’
The new Pac-12 commissioner is ready to shake up college football scheduling, and thank God he is. George Kliavkoff entered the world of college sports just this summer, so maybe it’s his outsider perspective that’s allowing him to think outside the box, but he has put forward the suggestion that pe...

No amount of complaining or passionate rants into a TV camera will change Anthony Davis into who you want him to be
We all need to accept Anthony Davis for who he is as a basketball player. He’s not a back to the basket jump hook type of scorer, a 3-point shooter, or the ball-handling guard that he would’ve been at Cleveland State — and only at Cleveland State — had he not grown seven inches between his junior an...

The Philadelphia Union got screwed, but there was probably little MLS could do
We don’t think any of the current seasons taking place now as “COVID seasons” like we did of the previous ones played in empty stadiums/arenas or in weird, neutral venues altogether. But it still very much is, which the Philadelphia Union learned the all-too hard way yesterday....