Michael Jordan hoped that Stephen Curry wouldn’t take offense when M.J. said the Golden State Warriors guard wasn’t a Hall of Famer yet. But, of course, that was never going to happen. Curry insinuated that Jordan was one of the haters during a recent interview with SoleCollector.com.
During the video segment, SoleCollector.com’s Matthew Welty asked if Curry had ever autographed his shoes and sent them to the haters.
“Not yet, I might have to set up a little service,” Curry told Welty. “I might have to send them to M.J.”
Curry laughed it off, but perhaps there’s some gravity to his statement. And it was surely a reference to Jordan’s recent comments. Here’s a look at the moment.
Bears QB Mitchell Trubisky had his best performance of the season against a lowly Lions defense. Can he build on that performance?
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The Chicago Bears notched their first win in over a month with a 20-13 victory over the Detroit Lions on Sunday.
It wasn’t a perfect win by any means, but it came when the Bears needed it most, as they advanced to 4-5 on the season and helped them cling to slim playoff hopes.
But also encouraging was oft-maligned quarterback Mitchell Trubisky’s performance, where he seemed to awaken from a season-long slumber to deliver his best game of the season against a lowly Lions defense.
Trubisky’s stats weren’t otherworldly, but that didn’t matter as he came up clutch as Chicago’s offense battled back from a rough first half. If anything, he’d like to have those five sacks back.
But Trubisky completed 16-of-23 passes for 173 yards and three touchdowns for a passer rating of 131.0.
“When you go through tough things, I think you’ve just got to remember why you play this game,” Trubisky said following Sunday’s game. “You just love to play this game, and you love the guys you play with. That’ll get you through anything, and just continue to stick together, feed off your teammates, and believe that you’re going to have a breakthrough, and whether you describe today as a breakthrough or not, we got the win.”
But the fact of the matter is that Trubisky played well against a Lions defense that ranked 31st in the NFL. It’s only the second game that Trubisky has played well, the other coming against another bad defense in the Washington Redskins, where he tossed three second-quarter touchdowns.
The real test will be these final seven games, where Trubisky will face some tough defenses, including the Los Angeles Rams, Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers.
Can Trubisky build off his strong performance against the Lions? Or will he come back down to earth quickly heading into the final stretch of the season?
We’ll see Sunday when the Bears face the Rams on Sunday Night Football.
After Iowa State about upended No. 8 Oklahoma, the Sooners opened up as its smallest betting favorite of the year against Baylor.
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Iowa State about handed No. 8 Oklahoma (8-1, 5-1 Big 12) a surprising, unexpected comeback win as the Sooners pulled out a 42-41 win over the Cyclones on Saturday
Now, Oklahoma heads to Waco, Texas, to take on No. 10 Baylor (9-0, 6-0) in a primtime matchup that has brought the presence of College GameDay to the Bears’ campus.
The Sooners have been huge favorites for most of the season, but oddsmakers think this will be their closest game of the season as Oklahoma opened up as an 8.5-point favorite over Baylor according to BetMGM.
Oklahoma was last this low of a favorite in the Red River Rivalry as 11-point favorites over Texas. The Sooners are 4-5 against the spread this year, including a 1-3 record away from Norman, Oklahoma.
“Want to get in on the action? Place your bet now at BetMGM.”
Oklahoma will kickoff against Baylor at 6:30 p.m. CT on ABC.
*Gannett may earn revenue from audience referrals to betting services. Newsrooms are independent of this relationship and there is no influence on news coverage.
Marquel Lee returns to practice for Raiders, starting clock on return from injured reserve
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Each team is allowed to have two players placed on injured reserve during the season to return. Last week the Raiders got rookie cornerback Isaiah Johnson back on schedule. And as of Monday, it was linebacker Marquel Lee whose return clock started as well.
That clock starts a three-week window of when the team must decide either to activate him or end his season entirely.
“NFL rules don’t allow him to play until the Kansas City game, so he’ll get a chance to be on the practice field and get re-acclimated to what he needs to do to get right,” Jon Gruden said of Lee Monday.
Lee had suffered an ankle injury in week three against the Vikings. They will face the Chiefs week 14 on December 1, which means, if Lee is activated at that time, he could play the final four games as well as any playoff games, should the Raiders reach the playoffs.
With the suspension of Vontaze Burfict in week 4, the Raiders could use Lee’s services. They also recently added free-agent linebacker, Will Compton.
With the Eagles set to battle the New England Patriots at home on Sunday, here are four takeaways from the massive deal.
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1. Brooks has been ELITE
The Eagles star is currently ranked number one among guards with a 93.4 overall grade this season and he’s only allowed just one sack in his last 59 games played.
Joe Burrow seemed to impress the LSU Tigers as soon as he stepped on the practice field during a transfer visit. Technically he was still a backup quarterback for Ohio State. But when Burrow saw the Tigers running wind sprints, the quarterback couldn’t help himself. He asked whether he could get a pair of shoes and shorts to join the team.
That was surely step one, as he began to win over the LSU program. And it’s stories like that one — paired with his tremendous performances this season — that have led to Burrow’s insane rise into stardom. College football analyst Rick Neuheisel told the story of Burrow’s visit to LSU, and explained why he thinks Burrow draws natural comparisons to Tom Brady.
"That guy is Tom Brady. He is going to be a remarkable NFL player." -Rick Neuheisel on LSU QB Joe Burrow.
The hype around Joe Burrow has no bounds, particularly after he won a shootout on Saturday night against Alabama, Nick Saban and Tua Tagovailoa. He and Burrow seem to be locks to go first- and second-overall in the 2020 NFL Draft.
Anthony Davis told ESPN the injury he suffered to his right shoulder while attempting a dunk is something he continues to feel.
The Lakers’ seven-game win streak ended Sunday at the hands of the reigning NBA Champion Raptors Sunday night. Anthony Davis, who joined Los Angeles in June, lead the purple and gold with 27 points, eight rebounds and four blocks.
The numbers are right around what the former New Orleans Pelican averages this season, despite having suffered a shoulder injury while attempting a dunk in a game a couple of weeks ago. Davis told ESPN postgame Sunday that the injury is something he continues to feel, even in performing well.
“There’s really never a play I don’t feel it,” Davis said of his injured right shoulder. “I’m going to go out there and play. I try not to let it affect my game. I just play through it and then worry about taking care of it after the game.”
The 26-year-old wears a compression shirt under his t-shirt in the game and the Lakers staff applies a heat pack to his shoulder on the bench to keep him able to play right now. Davis tweaked the shoulder again Sunday in blocking on of his four denied shots, but there does not seem to be an indication that he’ll be taken off the court.
The Philadelphia 76ers will have a few more injury issues to handle on Tuesday against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
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As the Philadelphia 76ers look to make it two straight wins against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday, they will have to do so while missing some key players.
The Inquirer.com’s Keith Pompey is reporting that Al Horford will miss the contest due to a scheduled rest day, Ben Simmons is still questionable with his right shoulder AC joint injury, and Shake Milton is doubtful due to the lingering bone bruise in his left knee.
The news will cause coach Brett Brown to continue to play with his rotations. With Simmons out, Brown has turned to Raul Neto and Trey Burke to handle the point guard duties and that pushed out rookie Matisse Thybulle. With Horford out on Tuesday, one has to wonder if that opens the door dor Thybulle to re-enter the rotation.
With Tuesday being the team’s 10th game, it will mean they will possibly have to change their starting lineup for the 5th time in the early season. That causes the team to continue to have chemistry issues which then causes them to commit a high number of turnovers. The team really needs a clean bill of health for them to continue to grow as a team.
The Sixers and the Cavaliers tip-off at 7:00 p.m. EST on Tuesday. [lawrence-related id=19083,19074,19038]
Boston Celtics forward Gordon Hayward’s dynamic skillset will be difficult to replace.
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Per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Boston Celtics forward Gordon Hayward’s agent Mark Bartelstein has announced that his star client will have surgery to repair a fracture in his left hand and will have his recovery timetable updated after the procedure.
Hayward fractured his hand — specifically, the fourth metacarpal of his left hand, per Yahoo Sports’ Keith Smith — against the San Antonio Spurs on Nov. 9. However, surgery was only an option and the 10-year veteran would visit a hand specialist on Monday to determine the best course of action.
Hayward will undergo surgery in New York this afternoon, a timeline on his return will come after the procedure, Bartelstein of @PrioritySports tells ESPN. https://t.co/sAEud7CXTL
In the seven healthy games he played this season, Hayward averaged 20.3 points, 7.9 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game while shooting 56.4% from the field and 44.4% from three. The Celtics are well aware that they’ll miss Hayward’s versatility, shooting and decision-making but hope to mitigate his loss through team effort and the ‘next man up’ mentality.
Whether that next man is Romeo Langford, Javonte Green or simply the synthesizing kD multiple players’ skillsets, Boston will look to continue their stellar start.
One that’s left them with the league’s best record early in the season.
After an offseason shooting emphasis, Austin Rivers’ three-point percentage has risen from 32.1% to 43.8% in his second year with the Rockets.
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Now in his second year with the Houston Rockets, guard Austin Rivers entered the 2019-20 NBA season hoping that an offseason emphasis on long-range shooting would pay off.
As of Monday, it seems to have gone exactly as planned.
Through the new season’s first nine games, the 6-foot-3 guard is shooting a career-best 43.8% on three-pointers on an average of 3.6 attempts per game. That percentage is up significantly from his 32.1% in 47 games with the Rockets last regular season.
In Houston’s last two games entering Monday, which were blowout victories over the Golden State Warriors and Chicago Bulls, Rivers connected on 6-of-7 shots (85.7%) from behind the arc.
Overall, Rivers is averaging 6.8 points and 2.3 rebounds per game. His nightly minutes are down from 28.6 last year to 20.2 this season, but that’s not because the 27-year-old isn’t playing well. Unlike a season ago, when Rivers was signed in late December following a multi-week injury to Chris Paul, newly acquired guard Russell Westbrook has been much more durable, as expected.
One of the trickle-down effects of Westbrook’s superior durability is less minutes for reserve guards, relative to the Paul years. But Rivers is making the most of his opportunities, and so are the Rockets — who have now won three straight games to improve to 6-3 on the season.
Last year, Rivers’ three-point efficiency rose from 32.1% in the regular season to 45.7% in 11 postseason games, and he said in September that continued shooting improvement was one of his primary points of emphasis to best fit alongside Westbrook and James Harden.
That’s all I’ve been working on this summer. You’ve got to understand, I’m playing with two of the most elite guards in the league. A lot of attention is going to be on them.
So for me personally, playing with them this year… everybody knows I can score one on one and stuff like that. But my goal is to really be a knockdown shooter to help them with space, and then on defense to give them a break, because I want to guard the best player on every team.
So far, so good. But even if that blistering 43.8% clip through nine games isn’t totally sustainable, it should be noted that Rivers shot 37.1% and 37.8% on three-pointers with the Los Angeles Clippers in the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons, with both coming on relatively high volume at 4.0 and 5.9 attempts per game.
In other words, it’s actually the 2018-19 campaign at 32% that appears to be the outlier for Rivers, since he has been at 37% or better in every other year over his last four NBA seasons. Over a full season, that type of accuracy could be huge for the Rockets, given the historic rate at which Houston attempts three-pointers under Mike D’Antoni.
It hasn’t all been perfect for Rivers, whose defensive rating is currently at 118.6 after being at 108.1 with Houston last season. Thus, even though his offensive rating has jumped from 112.9 to 116.3, his overall net rating has actually declined from 2.5 to -2.3. Off-ball awareness has at times been a problem.
But at 27 years old, there’s no reason to think that Rivers’ skillset as a quality isolation defender versus quick guards — shown in the playoffs against Stephen Curry, who shot just 40.3% overall and 27.9% on three-pointers versus Houston — has declined. With time, his defensive showings should revert back to career norms.
The falloff in Rivers’ defensive metrics from a year ago might also reflect that Houston’s bench unit is now led by Westbrook, who historically is a worse defender than Paul. With time, their chemistry as a unit and knowledge of each other’s tendencies should improve.
I want to be be one of the best perimeter defenders in the league this year, and that’s a challenge I made to myself. I told James and Russ whenever I’m on the floor, they’re not going to be guarding the best player, because they already have too much of a load.
Despite having significantly stronger offers from other teams, Rivers opted to re-sign with the Rockets in July for the league minimum. Given that bargain rate, simply carrying over his 2018-19 performance levels and defensive value would be more than adequate for the Rockets and GM Daryl Morey.
But to this point, Rivers has actually expanded his game relative to a year ago, with his offseason shooting emphasis paying off in a big way. The defense still needs to come around, but assuming it does, Rivers might end up being one of the NBA’s best values this season.
