tale Page 5 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The Utah Jazz are George Costanza-ing their way to the top of the West
“What is going on in Utah?” was the Brian Windhorst query that ruled the summer as the Jazz’s CEO of basketball operations Danny Ainge jettisoned Rudy Gobert to the Minnesota Timberwolves for a boatload of first-round picks through 2029. The answer was Utah gutting their roster and Quin Snyder walki...

Westbrook definitely needs to be traded, but he’s far from the only reason Lakers are losing
Russell Westbrook was out Wednesday night with a hamstring injury as the Lakers were soundly defeated on the road against a Denver Nuggets squad missing Michael Porter Jr. and featuring a sub-100 percent Jamal Murray. Truthfully, the Lakers could have used Westbrook’s energy. Someone needed to stand...

TBS sets new standard for cringiest promo of all time during Game 1 of the ALDS
One of the less glamorous parts of being a professional play-by-play commentator is being handed a cringy script and being told to act enthusiastic about a show you don’t watch or a product you don’t use just so you can appeal to your boss and finally get back to calling the game. It’s such a forced...

Top 5 potential landing spots for Saquon Barkley
New York Giants halfback Saquon Barkley is in the final year of his rookie contract. In that time, he’s won a Rookie of the Year Award, had two 1,000-yard rushing seasons, and...scored just four times in the last two-plus years due to injuries....

Kim Mulkey is incapable of basic human empathy
Kim Mulkey’s modus operandi is to be loud and wrong, so it was pretty telling when on Monday she declined to show the minimum level of support for Brittney Griner. The old axiom, “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all,” applies to college basketball’s Lord Palpatine, whos...

Nathaniel Hackett and Josh McDaniels are helping Brian Flores’ case
If Brian Flores, Duce Staley, Eric Bienemy and Byron Leftwich were all in a group chat, I’d pay good money to read the things they’d probably say about how horrific Denver Broncos head coach Nathaniel Hackett and Las Vegas Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels have been this season....

Portland Trail Blazers hired Chauncey Billups over Dawn Staley and Becky Hammon, who both won championships this year
Becky Hammon and Dawn Staley were literally right there. ...

Jaylen Watson's pick-6 is on Brandon Staley, not Justin Herbert
Last night’s Chargers-Chiefs game was fantastic, a display of two of the best young talents in the game at quarterback. Ultimately, the Chiefs walked away with the 27-24 victory, proving that the road to an AFC West title still runs through Kansas City....

With Justin Herbert at the helm, can the Chargers change the hierarchy of power in the AFC West?
As someone who prefers Marvel comics to DC — you can like both but every nerd has a favorite child — I find DC’s attempt to replicate Marvel Studios’ somewhat coherent movie IP charming. Really, really bad and borderline unwatchable, but charming nonetheless. So when I see The Rock announce that “Th...

The WNBA Finals are A’ja Wilson’s to lose
Candace Parker’s repeat bid being squashed by the Connecticut Sun in Friday evening’s winner-take-all Game 5 against the Connecticut Sun was the sort of hoops history-altering that will reverberate more than Queen Elizabeth. Sue Bird is the all-time point god, but her career also arrived at its firm...

AFC West Preview: Has there ever been a more unpredictable division?
Throughout this series we’ve been doing this week, we always try to start every preview with a logical outcome. What is expected from the division? How are experts and analysts predicting this division to play out come season’s end? Who’s most likely to exceed expectations, and who’s most likely to ...

Bolt up, not Rampage
Los Angeles is home to two football teams — the defending Super Bowl champions, and the team no one cares about. ...

Lakers GM Rob Pelinka started the summer in hot pursuit of Kyrie Irving and ends it with Patrick Beverley
The Lakers are a hot mess....

Jazz go young, Lakers go old
After weeks of stillness on the NBA free agency and trading front, due largely to Kevin Durant’s trade request and eventual decision to remain a Net, the Lakers and Jazz finally broke the silence....

The system doesn’t work with this Virgil van Dijk
This isn’t my beautiful house....

It’s time for the Chargers to shine in Hollywood
The Los Angeles Chargers are officially in win-now mode after a big offseason that’s seemingly flown under the radar. LA made moves to bulk up their defense and spent big bucks to ensure they’ve at least got a shot at competing in the AFC over the next couple of years. But this two-to-three-year win...

Could Brandon Staley’s aggressive fourth down philosophy end up being predictable?
Sometimes football coaches can become so set in how “they do things” that their philosophy can negatively affect the team’s overall production. That could be said about the Los Angeles Chargers’ second-year head coach Brandon Staley. He believes in rolling the dice and going for it on fourth down. A...

This 'Hard Knocks'<em> </em>season premiere was good, but Lions coach Dan Campbell needs to drink that strong-ass coffee on camera soon
At some point during the time that the Detroit Lions are on “Hard Knocks,” we had better get to see Dan Campbell at Starbucks....

Never mind the draw, just enjoy Darwin Núñez’s first EPL goal for Liverpool
It took Darwin Núñez 13 minutes to notch his first goal in the English Premier League, but it came at the 64th minute because he was brought on as an £85m super sub during a swirling match at Craven College that saw Liverpool and newly promoted Fulham finish in a 2-2 draw. This is the first game of ...
