Sometimes the NBA slows down enough to allow you to take stock. Thursday stood as that day for the league and for the Miami Heat, with the lone game on the schedule involving the only two teams eliminated from the playoffs, the Orlando Magic and Detroit Pistons. That makes the Heat’s place at the top…
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Ultimate deterrence might not be an abstract for the Miami Heat when it comes to getting defensive in the playoffs. But, for now, it largely stands as just that. Among the permutations available to coach Erik Spoelstra are potential closing lineups that feature elite defenders at each position. Among the possibilities are closing with Bam…
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With the latest news from Ukraine, the war seems only to escalate. Civilian casualties are growing apace, as the Russian Army places more Ukrainian cities under siege. The prospect of hunger lurks behind the awful artillery barrages. Peace talks seem to be going nowhere. Meanwhile, the global economy could be teetering on the brink of…
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Q: Ira, Kyle Lowry’s lack of shooting and scoring is becoming troublesome. If he doesn’t pick up his offensive game, it spells doom for the Heat come playoff time. — Joel. A: But he will. Because he has a knack for meeting the moment, doing what is needed, what is required, in the postseason. If…
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Sunday, March 20 marks the official start of spring. It won’t be long before the marketplace shows off the season’s produce bounty, with large verdant displays of asparagus and artichokes. These versatile vegetables are delicious in a wide variety of dishes, and I have included three of my favorites here. But first, some tips for…
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Losing hasn’t been a stranger for the Orlando Magic. At 18-53 entering Friday for the league’s second-worst record, they’ve had plenty of moments where they’ve gone back to the locker room postgame feeling the sting of defeat. But the last two home losses to the Brooklyn Nets Tuesday and Detroit Pistons Thursday, in which they…
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Richard Clayderman is by any measure a phenomenally popular pianist. The 68-year-old French pianist is said to have recorded more than 1,400 songs and 200 albums in a solo career that reaches back to the mid-’70s. Pre-pandemic, he typically played a few hundred concerts a year. Clayderman’s most recent album, “Forever Love,” arrived last month,…
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By Mark Gurman | Bloomberg The debut of Apple Inc.’s latest iPhone brings a change to the way its U.S. customers can purchase the device, a move toward cutting wireless carriers out of the process and giving the tech giant more control. Traditionally, when a user buys an iPhone at an Apple retail store or…
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SACRAMENTO – “The United States is a nation of laws, badly written and randomly enforced,” noted the late musician and satirist Frank Zappa. I often think of that snarky comment as I write about the sausage-making process in city councils, state legislatures and the federal government. Did I mention that California’s state government has 518…
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For two years now, life has been disrupted in ways no one could have imagined when the world began shutting down in March 2020 as a worrisome new virus erupted into a pandemic. Through closures and reopenings, mandates and moratoriums, variants and vaccines, here are some of the key events that have affected the lives…
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