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Knicks vs. Cavs: A position-by-position breakdown of NBA first-round playoff series

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 17:01:35 GMT

It’s not the best way to look at a matchup in basketball these days. There’s so much switching and mismatch hunting in the NBA that head-to-heads are rarely sustained. But the Tale of the Tape, as documented below, provides a window into the talent level.And as we know, a playoff series can easily be won or lost on talent.So here are judgments on seven individual matchups concerning No. 4 Cavs vs. No. 5 Knicks, which tips off Saturday night in Cleveland. Plus, you’ll get a bonus prediction at the end.POINT GUARDJalen Brunson (24 ppg, 6.2 apg, 49% shooting, 41.6% on 3s) vs. Darius Garland (21.6 ppg, 7.8 apg, 46.2% shooting, 41% on 3s).Great offense from the position on both sides, although Brunson adds intangibles such as leadership, clutch reliability and an eagerness to take a charge. He is New York’s glue. Clearly, he was also Dallas’s glue. Garland was an All-Star last year and is capable of dropping 50-plus points, which he did near the beginning of...

Celtics’ Jaylen Brown discusses recovery from finger injury, excitement to face hometown Hawks

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 17:01:35 GMT

Jaylen Brown said he got the stitches out of his injured right finger on Thursday and will be ready to go on Saturday when the Celtics host the Hawks in Game 1 of the playoffs.“Feeling a lot better,” Brown said after Friday’s practice. “I’ll tell you that. Just working to get some reps in, be ready for (Saturday).”Brown missed the final two games of the regular season after suffering a right finger laceration last Thursday at home. He said he cut the finger when he was picking up a piece of glass in his house from a vase he knocked over and broke while watering plants in his home. It required five stitches.Brown returned to practice on Thursday and said Friday it’s been healing well.Brown said he’ll wear something to protect the finger.“I got like a bunch of different things I guess,” Brown said. “Try different methods that I’ve been trying over the last two days, but the one I tried today I think works the best, so I think I’m going to go with that. There’s like some protective stu...

Panthers should be no pushover for Bruins

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 17:01:35 GMT

The Bruins are the clear favorites to beat the Florida Panthers in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The B’s earned that right/burden by virtue of their record-breaking 65-win season.But if the Panthers claim not to be intimidated by the Big, Bad Bruins 2.0 in the opening series that starts at the Garden for Games 1 and 2 on Monday and Wednesday (the rest of the schedule was expected to be released late Friday night), it’s not false bravado. The two teams essentially split the four-game season series (the B’s can say they took the series by going 2-1-1), with both teams winning their home games.In fact, it was the Cats’ overtime win over the B’s on Jan. 28 in Sunrise that may have saved their season. The Panthers were massive underachievers to that point. The defending Presidents’ Trophy winners were an unimpressive 23-22-6, they had lost their previous three games and seemed ready to slip into oblivion. And it looked like David Pastrna...

Charges against Massachusetts Guardsman posted as he’s held in Top Secret leak case

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 17:01:35 GMT

Jack Teixeira, the 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guardsman accused of leaking Top Secret government documents, is being held without bail until at least next week.The Dighton man made a short appearance in U.S. District Court in Boston this morning where the case against him has just been posted.An affidavit prepared by an FBI special agent to back up the criminal case states “Many of the documents depicted in these images bear classification markings, including ‘TOP SECRET’ markings…“Certain of the images appear to depict Government Information that was used to inform senior military and civilian government officials during briefings at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. …“(I)n or around January 2023, the Subject Username began posting photographs of documents on Server 1 that contained what appeared to be classification markings on official U.S. Government documents….”Teixeira was identified as the leader of a Discord server — which is what the gaming-dominated social m...

Florida floods: Airport reopens as residents clean up mess

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 17:01:35 GMT

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Fort Lauderdale’s airport reopened Friday morning, two days after an unprecedented deluge left planes and travelers stranded, as residents in the city’s hardest hit neighborhoods began the slow process of cleaning up the mess left behind.Officials at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport completed final inspections after sunrise Friday and resumed operations at 9 a.m. In a tweet Friday morning, airport officials advised travelers to check with their airlines on updated flight schedules before going to the airport. The airport shut down Wednesday evening as a storm dumped more than 2 feet (60 centimeters) of rain.“Nature has been unkind to us,” Broward County Mayor Lamar Fisher said during a news conference Thursday afternoon at the airport.While it started raining on Monday in South Florida, much of the water fell Wednesday, and the Fort Lauderdale area saw record rainfall amounts in a matter of hours, ranging from 15 inches (38 cen...

Capitol rioter who crushed officer with shield gets prison

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 17:01:35 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A man who used a stolen riot shield to crush a police officer in a doorframe during the U.S. Capitol insurrection was sentenced on Friday to more than seven years in prison for his role in one of the most violent episodes of the Jan. 6 attack.Federal prosecutors had recommended a prison sentence of 15 years and eight months for Patrick McCaughey III, which would have been the longest sentence for a Capitol riot case by more than five years. U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden sentenced McCaughey to seven years and six months in prison followed by two years of supervised release. The judge described McCaughey, 25, as a “poster child of all that was dangerous and appalling about” the Jan. 6, 2021, riot.“Your actions are some of the most egregious crimes that were committed on that dark day,” the judge told McCaughey.McCaughey, of Ridgefield, Connecticut, expressed shame for joining the mob of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters who “violated” the Capitol. ...

Police trying to identify person found dead in Toronto stairwell

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 17:01:35 GMT

Toronto police are trying to identify a victim that was found dead in a midtown stairwell.Officers were called to the Yonge Street and Eglinton Avenue area around 6 p.m. on April 2.It’s reported that an individual was found dead in a stairwell with no identification. Police did not say whether they were treating the person’s death as suspicious.The victim is described as having curly hair, longer on top, and shorter on the sides.They were wearing jean shorts, grey jogging pants, grey, white and blue sneakers, a blue and black jacket, and had a red and white bag.Police said an investigation revealed that this person was at an ATM near 2346 Yonge Street on March 31, 2023, at 8:50 p.m.An artist’s rendition was provided by Toronto police, and security footage was also released in an attempt to identify the victim.

Colorado governor to sign abortion, transgender care bills

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 17:01:35 GMT

DENVER (AP) — Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis is scheduled to sign a set of health care bills Friday afternoon to enshrine access to abortion and gender-affirming procedures and medications, as the Democrat-led state tries to make itself a safe haven for its neighbors, whose Republican leaders are restricting care.The goal of the legislation is to ensure people in surrounding states and beyond can go to Colorado to have an abortion, begin puberty blockers or receive gender-affirming surgery. Bordering states of Wyoming and Oklahoma have passed abortion bans and Utah has prohibited transgender care for minors.With the new laws, Colorado joins Illinois as a progressive bastion for reproductive rights surrounded mostly by conservatives states. Illinois abortion clinics now serve people living in a 1800-mile (2900-kilometer) stretch of 11 Southern states that have largely banned abortion. California and New York are considering similar bills after the U.S. Supreme Court knocked dow...

In first, Iran’s president addresses Palestinians in Gaza

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 17:01:35 GMT

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Iran’s president on Friday delivered an unprecedented speech to an annual pro-Palestinian rally in the Gaza Strip — a rare display of Iran’s importance to the Hamas militant group that rules the territory. Speaking virtually to hundreds of supporters of Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad militant group gathered at a soccer stadium in Gaza City, Iran’s conservative President Ebrahim Raisi urged Palestinians to press on with their struggle against Israel. His speech — the first of its kind to Palestinians — appeared to culminate years of quiet diplomacy aimed at mending a rift between Hamas and its long-time patron, Iran, over the devastating civil war in Syria. Raisi addressed the crowds of Palestinians on the occasion of “Jerusalem Day,” or al-Quds Day after the city’s Arabic name, which falls on the final Friday of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. In his speech, Raisi struck a hard line against the Palestinian Authority’s recent bilateral...

Russia’s Pacific Fleet placed on high alert for snap drills

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 17:01:35 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — The entire Russian Pacific Fleet was put on high alert Friday for snap drills that will involve practice missile launches, in a massive show of force amid tensions with the West over the fighting in Ukraine.Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the goal of the war games was to test the capability of Russia’s armed forces to mount a response to aggression.Along with the missile launches, the drills will also involve nuclear-capable strategic bombers and other warplanes besides the naval aviation of the Pacific Fleet, Shoigu said.The Defense Ministry declared that areas in the southern part of the Sea of Okhotsk, the Peter the Great Bay of the Sea of Japan and the Avacha Bay on the southeastern coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula would be closed for sea and air traffic for the duration of practice torpedo and missile launches and artillery exercises.The ministry said that Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin briefed foreign military attaches about the drills, emphasi...