west Page 41 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Success won’t be so easy for the Utah Jazz this time around
The NBA is back, and the Western Conference is looking even more stacked than last year. The glamour division of the Pacific looks to be the standout of the association, with a strong possibility of sending four teams to the postseason. The second-best division in the west this year will be the Nort...

If anybody in the Pacific is going to disappoint, it’s Golden State
We here at Deadspin sometimes have differing opinions. That might be hard to believe, but it’s true, and as we get closer to the start of the NBA season, many of us have conflicting ideas on how the season will play out. For example, my co-worker Criss Partee believes that with a healthy Klay Thomps...

Assuming LeBron James wants to win a fifth championship (duh), it will take less effort from him instead of more
Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James has played a combined 61,090 combined regular season and playoff minutes, per Basketball-reference.com data. That is just 1,669 total minutes less than Hall of Fame forward Karl Malone and 5,207 minutes less than Hall of Fame center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the tw...

This is what it can be
It is hard to remember in the moment, especially when that is the first moment of a qualifier like last night against Costa Rica and the USMNT is giving up yet another stupid goal before coming back for a 2-1 win and you haven’t even cracked that beer that you’re firing against the wall, that this w...

Wait… why isn’t Kyle Shanahan on the hot seat?
In four-plus years as the head coach in San Francisco, Kyle Shanahan has gone 31-38. He’s finished either third or last-place in his division in three of his four full seasons, and despite his teams consistently finishing in the top half of the league in terms of total offense and defense, they are ...

Can Westbrook thrive as a third option with Lakers?
The Russell Westbrook era is underway in Los Angeles, and after his first couple of games in a Lakers uniform, Mr. Triple-double accounted for 14 turnovers in 39 minutes. He had 9 in one game alone. Sure, it is only the preseason, and the games and turnovers don’t count, as the future Hall of Famer ...

The USMNT can’t live without Tyler Adams
When this World Cup qualifying cycle began, we had hoped that the U.S. would surprise us and break new ground on what they could do. And they’ve done that, we just didn’t know it would be showing us how bad they can play at times. ...

Robot umpires would destroy the beauty of the catcher position
2022 will be longtime St. Louis Cardinals’ backstop Yadier Molina’s final season. When Yadi finally calls it quits, he will leave an incredible legacy behind — one of defensive prowess, solid offense, and fear being struck into the hearts of baserunners everywhere....

Thursday Night Football offers up Rams as ultimate ‘eye test’ for Seahawks
The NFC West is the best division in football. Don’t give me any of that AFC North business. I love the Browns and Ravens. I think the Bengals are on the upswing of their rebuild, but Cincy and the Steelers are still definitely not contenders in the AFC. Any team in the NFC West could win the confer...

The fastest quarterback to win 100 regular-season games is Black — his name is Russell Wilson
Sunday was a huge day for Russell Wilson. His team, the Seattle Seahawks, knocked off the 49ers on the road, 28-21, avoiding the distinction of worst record in the highly contested NFC West. Wilson’s name, meanwhile, was solidified in the record books in a way once thought impossible for a man who l...

Chargers need a statement win over Raiders on Monday Night Football
When the undefeated Las Vegas Raiders battle the Los Angeles Chargers in the Week 4 edition of Monday Night Football, the latter can make a massive statement by nabbing consecutive wins in a tough AFC West. After beating the Chiefs in Kansas City last week, you could argue that the Chargers would be...

Another black eye for hockey
It’s not so surprising that hockey could step on a few rakes before its season even starts. It’s just surprising how not surprising it is. It would have been bad enough for the sport to deal with Robin Lehner’s accusations of NFL-like painkiller distribution among its teams, trainers, and players. Y...

Four-way wild card tie still very much a possibility
So, this is the scenario that Major League Baseball dreamed about when it scheduled all the games on the last day of the regular season for 3 p.m. Eastern....

Order out and settle in: Today is gonna be a really good baseball day (and night)
All of the games in Major League Baseball are scheduled for 3 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, so that if and when playoff races come down to Game 162, nobody has an advantage of taking the field already knowing what their pennant race rivals have done....

When is the best time to pay attention to baseball?
Baseball season is six months long, and reaching its dramatic conclusion this weekend, with the American League wild cards and the winner of the National League West still to be decided....

We said depth would be the main thing
If it feels like World Cup qualifiers are boomeranging right back into your consciousness after not much of a break from the last ones, you’re not alone. This is the normal calendar, you just had a year off from it thanks to the pandemic, but just wait until qualifiers are crammed into January and F...

When will these teams finally win and finally lose?
After three weeks, nearly everyone in the NFL has a win, and nearly everyone has a loss. There are just five winless teams remaining, and five undefeated teams keeping the 1972 Dolphins from their annual champagne toast....

What the hell happened to the once-mighty Seahawks?
The Seattle Seahawks’ season has taken a turn for the worse since their Week 1 victory over the Colts in Indianapolis. They’ve dropped back-to-back games, allowing 30 or more points in each. In Week 2, the Seahawks had firm control of the game at home, but a Tennessee Titans second-half rally led to...

Aaron Rodgers rescues an entire football team, Chiefs learn that giving the other team the ball is a bad idea, and Steelers Raisin Bran offense produces no flavor
The 2021 NFL season is still in its infancy, but we are learning a lot about certain teams and players. Many franchises still have a chance to make some things shake this year....

Chiefs get too cute, find themselves at 1-2
The Kansas City Chiefs are looking less mighty and more vulnerable just three games into the season. On Sunday, the Chiefs suffered only their third division loss (vs Chargers 30-24) against the AFC West since Patrick Mahomes became the starter in 2018. Last week, the Chiefs fell to Lamar Jackson an...