Q: Ira, will the Heat get a banner for finishing first in the East? — Billy. A: No, and it is just another way the NBA has marginalized its regular season. The team that advances to the NBA Finals is considered the conference champion, as is the case with the Heat’s 2020 Eastern Conference banner…
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With the NFL draft only three weeks away, Brad Biggs takes a spin through the weekly Chicago Bears mailbag. I was struck by Matt Eberflus’ statement that he wanted to play the nickel defense 85% of the time. It seems to me if you are going to do that, you need to be reasonably confident…
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The weekend’s grisly revelations — of bodies of civilians strewn across the streets of Bucha (a Kyiv suburb), some with their hands tied behind their back, left to rot after Russian troops retreated from the town — have rightly shocked the conscience of people around the world. These grim discoveries have generated increasing attention to…
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Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta believes his team is positioned to take advantage of a deep draft class, with nine picks in the first four rounds and flexibility to move up or down. Here are five things we learned from the team’s predraft news conference Tuesday: Day 3 could be the Ravens’ time of jubilee…
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Should the state budget be finalized today or tonight or tomorrow or whenever — and regardless of how many extra billions it spends, including corporate welfare for NFL billionaires, and whether or not the final document includes necessary reforms to bail and other criminal justice statutes — Gov. Hochul and the Democratic supermajorities in the…
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PHOENIX — It shouldn’t have come to this. The hardest possible opponent. One star shelved with injury. Another grimacing with every other step. Praying for other results in other arenas to go their way. But the Lakers’ mistakes, miscues and misfortunes accumulated a debt, and on Tuesday night at the Footprint Center, the tab came due.…
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LOS ANGELES — Through the first two weeks of spring practice, new USC head coach Lincoln Riley was pleased with the progress made installing his offense. He said he felt like the program was ahead of schedule in that regard, crediting players for putting in extra work outside of practices and meetings. “Twenty hours a…
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MISSION VIEJO >> Andreas Nilsen hit a walk-off, three-run home run to give the Mission Viejo baseball team a 7-6 win over No. 11-ranked Tesoro in a South Coast League game Tuesday at Mission Viejo High. Mission Viejo trailed 6-4 in the seventh when Travis Anderson and Ben Castelli each got singles to put runners…
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If the Nets win out, they will finish seventh. It’s the silver lining, the light at the end of a dark tunnel for a Nets team that’s sustained blow after blow in a season littered with championship aspirations. For all their struggles, all their injuries, all their troubles and misfortunes, the Nets are still in…
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Even 40 points from DeMar DeRozan wasn’t enough for the Chicago Bulls to beat the Milwaukee Bucks in their final meeting of the regular season. But despite the 127-106 loss at the United Center, the news wasn’t all bad for the Bulls on Tuesday night. They clinched their first playoff berth since 2017 when the…
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