Fourteen of the 18 NBA teams who played Monday night scored 100 points or more. Eight of the nine teams that won did so with 100-plus points in their favor. That included Knicks who totaled 145 points against the Nuggets, the Thunder who racked up 130 points over the Kings and the Mavericks who finished with 129 vs. the Hawks. But not the Magic . Not Jamahl Mosley ‘s squad that, in an 11-point win, didn’t crack 100 and held their opponent to fewer than 85. Orlando , without three opening night starters in Paolo Banchero (torn right abdominal muscle), Wendell Carter Jr. (left foot plantar fasciitis) and Jalen Suggs (left hamstring strain), improved to 8-0 when limiting opponents to less than100 points in its 95-84 win against the Hornets on the road. Charlotte (6-11) entered the contest averaging 110.6 points and Monday’s result marked just the third time (in 17 games) that it didn’t score at least 100. Perhaps more impressive, Orlando (12-7) is now responsible for two of those three sub-100 performances by the Hornets (Minnesota is the other team). For reference, the Magic are 4-7 when opposing teams score 100 or more. Relying on its defense is how Orlando has won games since Banchero’s abdominal injury Oct. 30 at Chicago. And, until his return and likely after it, defense is simply how the Magic will have to continue to win. Beede’s Breakdown: How Magic leaned on defense to win at Hornets “We have the personnel,” said guard Cole Anthony who scored 16 points off the bench after Gary Harris exited Monday’s contest in the first quarter and didn’t return with a left hamstring strain. “We shot 39% from the floor as a team. It’s hard to win games like that, but we just did that. “We can compete with anyone in the league,” he added. “That’s just what I believe. We’ve proved that and we’re going to continue to prove that.” Anthony’s effort off the bench was a part of a larger one in which the reserves outscored Charlotte’s 53-15. They also outscored their own starters 53-42. Charlotte’s LaMelo Bell had 44. But for Anthony, in particular, his performance that included a team-high 8 rebounds with 4 assists could bode well for the Magic moving forward. Harris is out for for Wednesday’s game vs. Bulls (7-11). Suggs and Carter are not listed on the injury report, meaning the latter is set to return after missing the past 12 games. Chicago played at Washington on the first night of a back-to-back Tuesday. Monday’s contest was just Anthony’s second scoring in double figures after he fell out of Orlando’s rotation. But even in limited action, Anthony has remained consistent with his work in the gym and his teammates have noticed that. “He’s a professional,” forward Jonathan Isaac said. “This league is not easy. Sometimes it’s just not your night. And sometimes you don’t have the opportunity for it to be your night. “But he’s kept his head down and waited for the right opportunity and it happened to be this game. He’s a big reason why we won this game.” In a stretch where Magic need all hands on deck to help Franz Wagner find ways to win, Anthony potentially getting back on track consistently on offense — where he’s shot a career-low 36.2% from the field — only helps. “I put a lot of work in,” he said. “And when stuff don’t go your way, it’s hard to sometimes cope with that. But I’ve just been trying to do what I can to stay ready. I’d love to do it again.” Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com Up next ... Magic vs. Bulls When: 7, Wednesday, Kia Center TV: FanDuel Sports Network Florida
Putin apologizes for crash but stops short of saying Azerbaijani plane was shot down
Published 9:52 pm Tuesday, November 26, 2024 by Steve Flowers Our 45th President, Donald J. Trump, was elected as our 47th President on November 5. He not only won, he won overwhelmingly. Under the Electoral College system, our President is elected not by popular vote, but by a system where each state casts the same number of votes as they have Representatives and Senators in Congress. We, in Alabama, have seven Congressmen and two Senators. Therefore, we have nine electoral votes. National voters and the media knew in this 2024 Presidential election, there were seven pivotal battleground states that would determine the outcome of the Presidential race. They were Georgia and North Carolina in the south, both with 16 electoral votes – pretty good prizes, Arizona and Nevada in the West, and the ultimate battleground Rust Belt states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania in the Midwest. There were all kinds of formulas and scenarios as to how these states would fall and which ones Trump or his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, would win. Polls revealed all seven states were showing dead even contests leading up to the election. According to all polls, no winner could be projected. Not even the Las Vegas oddsmakers could predict a clear winner. Trump claimed a tremendous triumph on election night. He won all seven of the battleground states, including the Blue Wall big three of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. It was like a giant red wave that swept those three pivotal states, as well as every red state, which was the vast majority of the rest of the country. Email newsletter signup Trump’s triumph was so prolific that he had coattails which enabled the Republicans to garner a majority in the U.S. Senate. They were expected to pick up seats in West Virginia and Montana, but Trump’s triumphant journey gave them two more seats in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Going into November 5th, Democrats had a majority in the Senate of 51 to 49. In January when Trump is inaugurated and the Senate organizes, there will be a Republican majority of 53 to 47. This is a mandate for Trump, which will allow him to enact his legislative agenda –but more importantly, appointments, and advise and consent of federal judges and the U.S. Supreme Court. Speaking of courts, the federal courts gave the Democrats one of Alabama’s Congressional Seats. Currently, we have six Republicans and one Democrat. Last year, federal judges handed the Democrats a seat and re-drew Alabama’s congressional lines from the bench. They made the new 2nd Congressional District in south Alabama a seat that should vote 60% for a Democrat. The race for this seat was the only good, contested race on the Alabama ballot this year. It featured Democrat Shomari Figures and an impressive new Republican first time candidate, Caroleene Dobson. She made it a close race. Figures, the Democrat, won with 55% of the vote. You may not have heard the last of this race or the last of Caroleene Dobson on the Alabama political scene. Our five incumbent Republican Congressmen, Robert Aderholt, Mike Rogers, Gary Palmer, Dale Strong, and Barry Moore were overwhelmingly reelected with no or token opposition, as was Democrat Terri Sewell. Figures will join Sewell when they organize. We will have two Democrats and five Republicans on the Potomac. Alabama did its part in electing Donald Trump. He carried 65% of the vote in the Heart of Dixie. His best yet. He got 63% four years ago. This was Trump’s third triumph in Alabama. The Republican candidate for President has carried our state in the last 12 Presidential races going back 48 years. Trump’s triumph is good for Alabama. With us being a Republican state and having both our U.S. Senators as Republicans and five of our seven Congressmen in the GOP with Trump, we should be in the “catbird” seat. Both of our Senators, Tommy Tuberville and Katie Britt, are in very good graces with Trump. Tuberville is especially close to Trump. In fact, Tuberville is probably Trump’s closest friend and ally in the Senate. They golf regularly together at Mar-a-Lago. It was expected that if Harris had won and Republicans remained in the minority in the Senate, that Tuberville was eyeing running for Governor in 2026, rather than reelection to his Senate seat, which is up in the same year. However, with Trump in the White House and Republicans in the majority, Tuberville would probably like to remain in the Senate. Steve Flowers served 16 years in the state legislature. He may be reached at steve@steveflowers.us. (Column) Big mules ain’t all bad (Column) Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Will he make America healthy again? (Dave says) Your income is the key (Column) Alabama vs. Auburn, a house dividedMan held duping Hyderabad resident in Rs 8.14 cr trading scam
Trump offers a public show of support for Pete Hegseth, his embattled nominee to lead the Pentagon
New coach Chris Holtmann has been tasked with rebuilding DePaul to the point where it can return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2004. Northern Illinois coach Rashon Burno knows what it takes to steer DePaul to the NCAAs because he was the starting point guard on the 2000 team that made the tournament -- the Blue Demons' only other NCAA appearance since 1992. Perhaps they can compare notes Saturday afternoon when Burno leads the Huskies (2-3) back to his alma mater as DePaul (5-0) hosts its sixth straight home game in Chicago. Last season, Burno's NIU squad helped accelerate DePaul's need for a new coach -- as the Huskies waltzed into Wintrust Arena and owned Tony Stubblefield's Blue Demons by an 89-79 score on Nov. 25. The Huskies built a 24-point second-half lead before coasting to the finish line. Can history repeat for NIU? There's just one problem with using last year's game as a potential barometer for Saturday's rematch: Almost no players on this year's teams were part of last year's squads. At DePaul, only assistant coach Paris Parham remains as Holtmann had the green light to bring in an all-new roster. UIC graduate transfer Isaiah Rivera (16.0 ppg, .485 3-point rate) and Coastal Carolina transfer Jacob Meyer (15.4 ppg, .406 on 3s) lead a balanced attack that focuses on getting half its shots from beyond the arc. At NIU, Burno retained only two players who competed against DePaul last year -- Ethan Butler and Oluwasegun Durosinmi -- and they combined for three points in 26 minutes in that game. The Huskies' main players used the transfer portal to join such programs as Kansas, Wisconsin, Penn State, Colorado State, James Madison, Georgia State and Niagara. With every starting job open, Butler has jumped into the lineup and produced 11.6 points, 4.8 rebounds, 1.8 blocks and 1.4 steals per game. Transfers Quentin Jones (Cal Poly) and James Dent (Western Illinois) pace the Huskies with 14.4 and 14.0 points per game. NIU is on a two-game losing streak, most recently a 75-48 home defeat at the hands of Elon on Wednesday. Holtmann hopes to have Arkansas transfer Layden Blocker for Saturday's game. Blocker missed Tuesday's 78-69 win over Eastern Illinois with a quad injury. With the combo guard unavailable, point guard Conor Enright handed out a career-high 11 assists in a season-high 38 minutes. "We need (Blocker)," Holtmann said. "I don't want to play Conor 38 minutes." --Field Level MediaLewandowski scores his 100th Champions League goal. He is the 3rd player to reach the milestoneFalcons add Rashaan Evans to practice squad
SANTA CLARA — As the 49ers’ season comes to a close amid an avalanche of missed games, Dominick Puni remembers the one that got away. The one snap, that is. It happened with 9:28 to play in the first quarter of an eventual 30-13 win over the New England Patriots in Week 4. Puni took a blow to the stomach on a 1-yard run by Jordan Mason. “I had one snap where I got the wind knocked out of me and they told me to stay down so I missed one snap this year,” Puni said Saturday as the 49ers (6-9) concluded preparations to host the Detroit Lions (13-2) Puni, a rookie third-round draft pick out of Kansas, will be in his usual spot as the starting right guard Monday night as the 49ers close out their home schedule. Jake Brendel will be the center. The rest of the offensive line will be determined at some point before kickoff. Spencer Burford, the third 49ers’ left tackle, was declared out with a calf injury, along with left guard Aaron Banks (knee), linebacker Dre Greenlaw (calf) and defensive end Robert Beal Jr. (ankle). Right tackle Colton McKivitz is listed as questionable but didn’t practice all week with a knee injury. Also questionable were safety Ji’Ayir Brown (ankle), linebacker Tatum Bethune (knee) and cornerback Charvarius Ward (personal matter). Banks is expected to be the 14th player to go on injured reserve, although Bethune is eligible to be activated from I.R. If McKivitz doesn’t play, the 49ers starting line could consist, from left to right, of newcomer Charlie Heck at left tackle, Nick Zakelj at left guard, Brendel at center, Puni at right guard and Austen Pleasants, a recent practice squad promotion who signed on Dec. 17, at right tackle. Coach Kyle Shanahan characterized the challenge of playing mix-and-match this way: “You try to keep it simple for them, try to categorize stuff in groups, and the guys next to them just, they try to communicate as much as possible and you try to help him out,” Shanahan said. Puni, who has established himself as a foundation piece going forward, finds himself possibly being in the unusual position of dispensing advice and wisdom at age 24. “With these tackles, whoever is going to play next to you, you’ve got to tell them some things,” Puni said. “If you just get here you’re not going to know all the tricks of the offense. Other than that, I’m just going try and control my one-eleventh and do my job. It is exciting though.” Puni’s 938 snaps are the most on the team — two more than McKivitz and three more than Brendel. Remarkable when you consider Puni had to nearly avert his eyes during some recent film study of his own practices and game tape when he first arrived as the 86th overall pick of the draft. “I went back to rookie minicamp, the fall camp, the first three training camp practices, just to see how bad I was when I first got here compared to now,” Puni said. “It’s like a night and day difference. When you get here, you don’t know the offense, you don’t know the technique. Yet by the third training camp practice, Puni (6-foot-5, 315 pounds) was the starter. He’s never relinquished the position and health permitting isn’t likely to be out of the lineup for years. “I got a lot of reps with the (first team) and that’s the only reason I was able to do so well early in the year,” Puni said. Puni credits linemates such as McKivitz, Brendel, Banks, Burford and Trent Williams as well as line coach Chris Foerster for helping to bring him along, but it’s clear he’s been a quick learner who wears durability as a badge of honor. While the outside world fixates on who should and shouldn’t play regardless of injury on teams out of the playoffs, Puni’s outlook is appealingly old school. “You don’t ever want to miss a snap,” Puni said. “If you can be out there, you’ve got to play. The last thing I want to do is bring a backup guy in who has been sitting on the sidelines and now he’s got to go in and I don’t think that’s fair. If I can play, I’m going to play.” Running back Isaac Guerendo (foot, hamstring) was a full participant in practice and wasn’t given a status after missing the Miami game, meaning the 49ers should get another look at their fourth-round draft pick as a lead back. “It was good to have him back,” Shanahan said. “We had a full speed practice (Friday) and he looked good. So no holdbacks. He’s good to go.” Also good to go is fullback Kyle Juszczyk, who missed the two previous days with an illness. Ward, who lost his 23-month old daughter in October, is awaiting the birth of his son and currently away from the team. It’s not difficult to look at 49ers tight end George Kittle and hard-nosed Detroit coach Dan Campbell as kindred spirits. Kittle likes what he’s seen of Campbell from afar. “When you have a head coach who played, and the way he played was gritty and kind of nasty but beloved by all his teammates, it’s easy to play for a guy like that,” Kittle said. “He seems like a really easy guy to play for, makes them grind and earn every second, but you want people like that who hold you to a standard. It’s awesome to see the Lions have gotten to that. but it’s our job to take them down a little bit.” Former 49ers running back Ricky Watters (1991-94) and wide receiver Anquan Boldin (2013-15) did not make the cut to the round of 15 to be considered for induction for the Class of 2025 in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Shanahan spent a lot of time around the 49ers when his father was offensive coordinator and Watters turned into a game-changer in both the pass game and run game. “I was only in middle school, so I can’t act like I really knew strategically what was going on,” Shanahan said. “But he was a really cool player. I loved talking to him and hanging out with him up in Rocklin at training camp.” Mike Holmgren, a San Francisco native who was a 49ers assistant from 1986 to 1991 as quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator, is a coach finalist.Georgia quarterback Carson Beck announces plan to enter NFL draft after season-ending elbow injuryTrump names David Sacks as White House AI and crypto czar
Short Interest in Secure Energy Services Inc. (OTCMKTS:SECYF) Decreases By 22.2%Emma Roberts' 4-year-old son is her ‘double' in adorable birthday post
Trump offers a public show of support for Pete Hegseth, his embattled nominee to lead the Pentagon
How to survive political debates at Thanksgiving dinner, according to a family therapist
Geezers Sport’s secondary school football league kicks off in 2025CLEVELAND (AP) — Shane Bieber's first venture into free agency turned into a return trip. The 2020 AL Cy Young Award winner agreed Friday to rejoin the Cleveland Guardians after making just two starts last season before undergoing Tommy John surgery, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press. Bieber had been expected to leave the AL Central champions. But he's coming back after agreeing to a one-year, $14 million contract that includes a $16 million player option for 2026, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal had not been announced. Bieber’s deal will pay him $10 million in salary and includes a $4 million buyout. The 29-year-old only pitched twice in 2024 before having the surgery on his elbow that bothered him during the previous campaign. Bieber felt discomfort in his start on opening day against the Oakland Athletics and again when he faced the Seattle Mariners his next outing. Bieber didn't allow a run in either start, and the club had been encouraged by his velocity and dominance (20 strikeouts). But the elbow became too painful and Bieber elected to have the ligament-replacement surgery. If his recovery follows a normal timeline, Bieber should be back in Cleveland's rotation within the first three months of next season. The Guardians feared his loss would hurt them last season, but the club got off to a fast start under first-year manager Stephen Vogt and ran away with the division title. Cleveland eliminated Detroit in the AL Division Series before losing the ALCS to the New York Yankees in five games. Bieber spent chunks of last season with the team and he received a huge ovation at Progressive Field when he was introduced before the postseason series. The two-time All-Star has spent all seven of his big league seasons with Cleveland, which had contemplated trading him before his elbow issues in 2023 limited him to 21 starts. During the shortened COVID-19 season in 2020, Bieber went 8-1 with a 1.63 ERA over 12 starts and 77 1/3 innings with 122 strikeouts. He led the majors in wins, ERA and strikeouts and finished fourth in AL MVP voting. He was selected by Cleveland in the fourth round of the 2016 amateur draft out of UC Santa Barbara and made his major league debut two years later on his 23rd birthday. Bieber has a career record of 62-32 with a 3.22 ERA over 136 outings spanning 134 starts and 843 innings. He has twice reached 200 innings, throwing a career-high 214 1/3 in 2019. AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb