Giannis goes out, doesn’t matter. The Bucks’ win streak now sits at 14 games after Jrue Holiday’s 33 points powered Milwaukee past Phoenix on Sunday. With Jae Crowder playing and Bobby Portis back, the Bucks just need their MVP candidate to complete the puzzle.
—
43-17
2
Celtics
Boston closed out a 3-1 week with an impressive road win over the 76ers on Saturday. Their only loss came against the Bucks, without Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. Brown has looked great since returning from a facial fracture donning a sleek, black mask, averaging 28 points in two games on 5-for-9 3-point shooting.
—
44-17
3
Nuggets
The Nuggets were rolling before a dud loss to the Grizzlies on Saturday, and they eked out one of the best games of the year on Sunday against the Clippers to get back in the win column. Aaron Gordon made his return to the lineup against L.A. after a five-game absence, a welcome sight for Denver.
2
43-19
4
76ers
The Sixers beat the Rockets, Cavs and Grizzlies this week to run their winning streak to five games before Saturday’s loss to the Celtics — which was milliseconds away from going to overtime on Joel Embiid’s miraculous heave from three-quarters court. He and James Harden combined to average nearly 55 points, 18 rebounds and 15 assists per game this week.
—
39-20
5
Grizzlies
Xavier Tillman proclaimed the Grizzlies have their “swagger back” after a 2-1 week that ended with a throttling of the first-place Nuggets. Six players scored in double-figures in the win, which came after losing a late lead to the 76ers on Thursday.
2
36-23
6
Knicks
Things just keep on rolling for the Knicks, who won four games this week to make it five in a row overall. Julius Randle has been on fire of late, averaging 29.3 points on 51/42/94 shooting splits for the week.
3
35-27
7
Kings
The Kings picked up their best win of what has been a very impressive season, launching multiple late comebacks in the second-highest scoring game in NBA history against the Clippers. They finished off the Thunder on Sunday to make it a 3-1 week, as things are clicking for Sacramento.
1
35-25
8
Cavaliers
The Cavs went into the break hot, but lost to the Nuggets and Hawks on the other side before Sunday’s win over the Raptors. Donovan Mitchell put up 30 points per game for the week on 42 percent 3-point shooting.
5
39-25
9
Clippers
The Russell Westbrook era is off to an 0-2 start, though both games were extremely eventful overtime affairs. They lost the second-highest scoring NBA game of all time against the Kings, then failed to pull out one of the most entertaining finishes of the year in Denver on Sunday. Westbrook has averaged 17 points and nine assists in his two games with the Clippers.
3
33-30
10
Suns
In what could be the last week before the dawn of the Kevin Durant era, the Suns beat the Kings and Thunder with losses to the Clippers and Bucks. Buyout acquisition Terrence Ross is already paying dividends, putting up 10.7 points, four rebounds and two assists in 21 minutes per game so far.
2
33-29
11
Nets
After a brief honeymoon period, the reality of having a roster full of new faces may be catching up to Jacque Vaughn and the Nets, who lost three games this week. One constant is Mikal Bridges, who averaged 22.3 points for the week on 45 percent 3-point shooting, including a career-high 45 points in Brooklyn’s win over Miami in their last game before the break.
3
34-26
12
Lakers
The Lakers have emerged from the All-Star break on a mission, winning their last three games overall, including a 27-point comeback against the Mavericks on Sunday. The new pieces look great, and they’ve won their last two largely without D’Angelo Russell. Something could be brewing here.
12
29-32
13
Warriors
The Warriors went 3-2 this week, not bad at all considering Steph Curry and Andrew Wiggins missed all but one game and Draymond Green didn’t suit up for the last two. Klay Thompson has carried the offense with pre-injury form, averaging 37 points with 18 total 3-pointers in his last two games.
4
31-30
14
Mavericks
The not-so-smooth start for the Luka Doncic-Kyrie Irving era in Dallas continued with a 27-point blown lead in Sunday’s loss to the Lakers. The Mavs are now 1-3 when both stars play, but they have a net rating of plus-4.6 when they’re on the floor together.
3
32-30
15
Jazz
It was a strong week for the Jazz, who beat the Pacers, Thunder and Spurs while losing to the Grizzlies. Lauri Markkanen followed up his first All-Star appearance with a 43-point effort in a thrilling overtime win over OKC.
4
31-31
16
Hornets
OK then, who woke up the Hornets? They won all four games this week as the normally porous defense turned things up by allowing 108.9 points per 100 possessions.
13
19-43
17
Hawks
An eventful week for the Hawks, who parted ways with Nate McMillan and will soon welcome Quin Snyder into the fold. In the meantime, they’ve won both of their games under interim head coach Joe Prunty, with Trae Young dropping 34 points — including the game-winning basket — against the Nets on Sunday.
4
31-30
18
Raptors
Wins over the Magic, Pelicans and Pistons brought Toronto’s overall streak to four games, but they finished off the week with a blowout loss to the Cavs. Jakob Poeltl has been productive since making his return north of the border, and winning has followed.
2
30-32
19
Heat
Four straight losses prompted Jimmy Butler to publicly convey a newfound sense of urgency for the Heat. They allowed 119 points per 100 possessions this week while scoring just 106.
9
32-29
20
Pelicans
Things aren’t looking great for the Pelicans, who have lost three in a row and are still without Zion Williamson. The offense has been absolutely dreadful despite CJ McCollum and Brandon Ingram being relatively healthy, as New Orleans put up just 104 points per 100 possessions for the week.
4
30-31
21
Wizards
The Wizards lost to the Warriors, Knicks and Bulls this week, with wins over the Blazers and Wolves. Kristaps Porzingis, Bradley Beal and Kyle Kuzma led the way offensively, as usual, with each averaging over 20 points per game.
—
28-32
22
Timberwolves
The Wolves started off the week with a win over the Mavs, but then lost three straight to the Wizards, Hornets and very short-handed Warriors. Anthony Edwards averaged 31.7 points in the first three games before putting up just 12 in the loss to Golden State on Sunday.
7
31-32
23
Trail Blazers
Well, that’s one way to end a week. Damian Lillard dropped a career-high 71 points and 13 3-pointers in a win over the Rockets on Sunday, putting an exclamation mark an otherwise mediocre 2-2 week for Portland. It was the first time any player in NBA history has scored at least 70 points in fewer than 40 minutes. Let’s put the team stuff aside for just a second and honor this man. Goodness.
—
29-31
24
Pacers
The Pacers beat the Bulls and Magic this week, with losses to the Jazz and Celtics. Myles Turner missed a game, but had an otherwise impressive week, averaging 27 points and nine rebounds on 55 percent 3-point shooting, including a career-high-tying 40-point outburst against Boston.
2
27-35
25
Magic
Orlando went 2-2 this week with wins over the Bulls and Pistons and losses to the Raptors and Pacers. Franz Wagner and Markelle Fultz led the team with 17.3 points per game apiece.
—
25-36
26
Bulls
The bad news is Chicago lost its first three games this week. The good news is they beat the Nets and Wizards to close things out, and Chicago is now 2-0 with an average winning margin of 32 points in the Patrick Beverley era.
4
28-33
27
Thunder
OKC lost four games this week, the last two coming without Shai Gilgeous-Alexander due to an ankle injury. Feel-good story Isaiah Joe went off for a career-high 28 points in a valiant effort against Phoenix on Friday.
9
28-32
28
Pistons
An 0-3 week for the Pistons included some interesting lineup experimentation with their plethora of bigs. Newcomer James Wiseman averaged 9.7 points and 8.3 rebounds in almost 23 minutes per game.
1
15-46
29
Spurs
It’s a strange existence where every loss is actually seen as a positive for the ultimate future of the franchise, but maybe, like, one win would be nice. Sixteen in a row with no signs of slowing. At least Malaki Branham is getting his reps, averaging 19.3 points this week on 57/42/100 shooting splits.
1
14-47
30
Rockets
There’s losing, and then there’s THIS. The Rockets have given up 25 3-pointers and 113 points to just two players — Damian Lillard and Klay Thompson — in their last two games. It’s hard to overstate how bad things have gotten in Houston.
YouTube’s $14bn (£11.6bn) deal to stream National Football League (NFL) games marks the latest incursion by a Silicon Valley giant into territory traditionally dominated by broadcasters and pay-TV companies, as live sport becomes the latest battleground for audiences and profits promised by the streaming revolution.
The Google-owned YouTube’s seven-year deal, which will see the world’s largest video platform take over the “Sunday Ticket” package of games held by the US satellite service DirecTV since 1994, followed an auction that included heavy interest from its fellow big tech company Apple.
The deal is the latest in a series of commercially eye-popping deals by the NFL, the most expensive live sports rights in the world, after its $113bn, 11-year agreements struck with broadcast partners last year that saw Amazon snap up $1bn worth of games annually.
The appetite shown by YouTube, which cements another stratospheric increase in rights value for the NFL, will cheer Premier League bosses hoping a new big spender will reignite the lucrative bidding wars for UK rights that marked the last decade.
While the Premier League almost doubled the value of the US rights in a £2bn deal last year with NBC, which is mostly airing matches on its streaming service, Peacock, bosses were forced to roll over a deal with existing partners in the UK to avoid losing potentially hundreds of millions of pounds in an auction lacking new competition.
Beyond Sky and BT, the only new player to buy Premier League rights in the UK in recent years has been Amazon, though the Prime Video-owner has not looked to make a knockout bid.
While YouTube TV and the recently launched YouTube Primetime Channels, an aggregator of third-party subscription services such as Showtime and Starz akin to Amazon’s offering, are US focused the prospect of the $1.2tn parent company Google going for international sports deals now looms large.
“The threat of Google’s free capital entering the rights market is clearly good news for rights sellers worldwide including the Premier League,” says Peter Hutton, the former head of sport at Meta, the parent of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
While the global streaming wars have mostly focused on the hundreds of billions being spent on TV series and films in the battle for subscribers, traditional TV companies from Sky and ITV to Comcast, Disney and Paramount in the US have been facing increasing competition for sports rights.
Pay-TV and cable companies continue to face budget cuts due to the inexorable decline in subscriber numbers switched off by the high prices for subscription TV packages.
Earlier this year Comcast wrote $8.6bn off the value of Sky less than four years after triumphing in a £30bn bidding war for Rupert Murdoch’s pan-European pay-TV empire.
Roger Goodell, the NFL commissioner, played on the organisation’s move to embrace the younger viewers leading the so-called “cord-cutting” of traditional TV in favour of streaming, describing the deal as a “new era … looking towards the future and building the next generation of NFL fans”.
Meanwhile, deep-pocketed tech companies such as Facebook and YouTube are diversifying their business models after reporting their first-ever declines in the advertising income on which they have been almost completely reliant.
“This is an aggressive move to continue to take more market share from the cable-TV operators,” says Hutton.
Earlier this year, Apple agreed a deal worth $2.5bn over 10 years to broadcast US Major League Soccer matches, after an earlier deal with Major League Baseball for Friday games.
Meta has held sports rights in a number of international markets and has previously bid for the hugely popular Indian Premier League cricket rights in India.
Amazon continues to invest in an array of rights including tennis, rugby and Champions League football in countries including the UK, Germany and Italy.
Even Netflix, which has publicly steadfastly ruled out bidding for live sport, was revealed in November to have looked at rights including the ATP tennis tour, cycling and Women’s Tennis Association as well as looking to buy the World Surf League.
This year has seen the seemingly inexorable global streaming boom come to an abrupt end, leading to a focus on costs and profitability, which is curtailing huge budgets on content that may prove to be expensive flops, putting the certainty and predictability of fan loyalty to live sport in the spotlight.
At the same time Amazon, Disney and Netflix have also seen the huge success and viewer loyalty that sport-themed content including series such as All or Nothing and Formula One: Drive to Survive can provide.
“YouTube’s deal recognises the unique ability of sport to bring a body of fans with it to any service, regardless of delivery technology,” says Hutton. “We’ve seen Warner Bros Discovery invest directly in the Professional Triathletes Organisation this week.
“I think we’ll see more of broadcasters and streamers building equity positions in the sports industry where they can.”
CINCINNATI — Bengals supporters who have been likely to video games for many years may say it feels hotter during the season and they are appropriate. Data from Local weather Central shows from 1970 to 2019, the average temperature during the year has absent up nearly two degrees.
“Weather improve is true,” WCPO 9 Information chief meteorologist Steve Raleigh stated.
Raleigh has been supplying the Tri-Point out the most exact forecast for practically 20 yrs and he can confidently say the drop is finding hotter.
“We usually are getting as quite a few as seven to 10 days earlier mentioned typical that we have noticed in the slide than ever before,” Raleigh mentioned. “For that reason, it can be impacting the athletes, the cheerleaders, the coaches and all people else on the industry.”
Not only is weather change impacting how hot it is, but so is the framework of our town. Paycor is on an “city warmth island.”
“If your urban heat island influence is six degrees and your air temperature is 90, then you happen to be tacking on 6 levels. Then if you have a humid working day, then you happen to be tacking on that warmth index. So it feels more like 100 degrees and then that becomes incredibly problematic,” Weather Central meteorologist Lauren Casey claimed.
Casey claims in the Tri-Point out, it is straightforward to get to a issue where by heat can get hazardous.
“In your location, 86 degrees is a threshold where we start off to see big will increase in hospitalizations as a result of extreme heat,” Casey reported.
Even athletes who are some of the strongest and speediest people can drop sufferer. In 2001, Minnesota Vikings Offensive Lineman Korey Stringer died of exertional heat stroke throughout schooling camp. He was just 27 a long time old.
“Through the preseason interval, which is the acute period that is the greatest hazard for a soccer athlete for an exertional heat stroke,” explained Dr. Rebecca Stearns, chief working officer of the Korey Stringer Institute. “We really don’t see as much in online games and competitions from an exertional warmth stroke viewpoint, mainly because the do the job-to-rest ratios are enhanced.”
Partly thanks to KSI’s advocacy and exploration, the NFL made a standard protocol for suspected exertional heatstroke. It’s endorsed by KSI.
“If we continue to climb in temperature, envision the up coming era of football gamers having to participate in,” explained Raleigh. “As a consequence, you’re likely to have to play indoors all the time. Normally, these athletes are gonna slide from warmth exhaustion.”
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