Sports

Sunday was a tough one for the Los Angeles Clippers, but outside of that 122-99 loss to Cleveland, they’ve been rolling.

Prior to Sunday, they had ripped off five straight wins and now sit at 28-25, which is somehow good enough for the fourth seed in the Western Conference.

They’ll look to get back into the win column against the under .500 Chicago Bulls today. It looks like everyone is going to play, but when it comes to Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, until that ball is tipped, you never really can say for sure.

Let’s get into the odds for the Clippers and Bulls in Chicago.

Clippers vs. Bulls odds, spread and total

Clippers vs. Bulls prediction and pick

The Bulls are 23-26 and last time out they beat the Magic, 128-109 with 32 points from DeMar DeRozen and Zach LaVine. Between those two, the Bulls might lead the league in capital letters in the middle of names.

They don’t really lead the league in much else though. The 10th seed in the east is 22nd in offensive rating, 12th in defensive rating, 12th in effective field goal percentage. They’re a very middle of the pack team and if the Clippers are at full strength, they should win this one.

The only issue is, I never trust the Clippers to be at full strength. Reggie Jackson is questionable tonight and Kawhi and Paul George are both listed as probable.

Over the Clippers last six games, they’re 5-1, but they’ve done it with the best offensive rating in the NBA, but the 22nd best defensive rating. This team for the season is 23rd and 11th in those categories, so this flip has thrown off Vegas on their totals. The over is 4-0 in their last four and that’ll be our play tonight.

LaVine and DeRozan will be tough for the Clippers to slow down on the wing because Kawhi and George are not the defenders that they once were.

Follow all Josh Yourish’s bets HERE

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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change

Kevin Durant says we need Zion Williamson and Ja Morant in the Slam Dunk Contest. The world agrees but that doesn’t mean it will happen.

The Slam Dunk Contest has waxed and waned over the years, in importance, quality, cultural impact, etc. But the one constant complaint has been that stars rarely participate and so we’re left watching the best dunkers among role players and fringe contributors. The last four players to win the dunk contest are Obi Toppin, Anfernee Simons, Derrick Jones Jr. and Hamidou Diallo.

LeBron James has never competed in a dunk contest. Ditto for Dwyane Wade, Russell Westbrook and Derrick Rose. Zion Williamson and Ja Morant regularly produce as many highlight-worthy dunks as almost anyone in NBA history. We’ve never seen either in the dunk contest and modern precedent means that’s unlikely to change.

And that bothers Kevin Durant.

On a recent episode of the ETCs with Kevin Durant podcast he said, “We need Zion, we need Ja. I think the stars need to come back. It felt like there was stars in there every year when I was a kid.”

Zion Williamson and Ja Morant won’t be in the Slam Dunk Contest this year

Durant (and the rest of us) will likely have to wait at least another year to get our wish. Three participants have already been announced — rookie Shaedon Sharpe of the Trail Blazers, KJ Martin of the Houston Rockets and Max McClung of the G League’s Delaware Blue Coats.

The field usually includes at least four participants but there’s no reason to think Morant or Williamson would fill the final spot. There’s no real incentive to participation other than a personal desire to build your reputation in that particular way. For players like Morant and Williamson, with their eyes already on a title, there are just bigger fish to fry.

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The Lakers and the fans were rightly angry after a crucial missed call contributed to a loss against the Celtics. But there was nothing darker at work here.

You’ve probably seen the video. LeBron drives and gets hit on the arm by Jayson Tatum. No call is made. LeBron goes berserk, leaping in the air, looking for intervention before falling to the floor in frustration. Patrick Beverley, passive-aggressive rather than aggressive-aggressive, grabs a photographer’s camera and tries to show the referees what they missed.

In the end, nothing changed and the Lakers took a 125-121 loss at the hands of the Boston Celtics.

The Lakers and the fans were furious and they had every right to be. The league’s Last 2 Minute Report confirmed it was an incorrect no-call. It was bad enough that the NBA referees apologized through the official Twitter account of their union.

But it was just a terribly timed coincidence.

There is no anti-Lakers conspiracy among NBA refs

Ben Rohrbach of Yahoo Sports combed through all the Last 2 Minute Reports for Lakers’ games this year and found that, generally, they’ve benefited from incorrect calls far more than they’ve suffered from them this season.

An industrious NBA Redditor took things one step further and compared those counts to a few other teams, finding the Lakers got incorrect calls in their favor a lot more often than most other teams, Not all of those calls are of equal significance but if you’re inclined to believe in a vast refereeing conspiracy, there’s more evidence of the Lakers benefiting from said conspiracy, rather than being punished by it.

Another wild fact making the rounds after Sunday night was that the Celtics were 39-2 in games refereed by the head official for the game against the Lakers. It turns out that was completely made up, and not based on anything.

Long story short — the Lakers lost a game because of a bad call. But it was an unfortunate coincidence, not an elaborate conspiracy.

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Joseph Ossai’s harshest critic from the AFC Championship loss was none other than his own teammate. Germaine Pratt has since apologized for his outburst.

Joseph Ossai’s harshest critic from Sunday night’s AFC Championship loss to the Kansas City Chiefs was none other than his own Cincinnati Bengals teammate, Germaine Pratt. After a few days of reflection, Pratt has apologized for his violent outburst.

Bengals linebacker Germaine Pratt went viral earlier this week for his hostile reaction to his teammate’s blunder at the end of the AFC Championship game.

It’s never a good look when your teammate curses you out on camera, and Pratt recognized his mistake and issued a statement admitting he was in the wrong:

“I was in the moment. I was wrong. I would say I was wrong. As a man, you can look yourself in the mirror and say, ‘I was wrong.’ I wasn’t a great teammate in that moment. That doesn’t define me as a man.”

A behind-the-scenes video showed Pratt walking to the locker room after his team was defeated by the Kansas City Chiefs, 23-20. Visibly upset and frustrated, Pratt yelled, “Why would you touch the f—ing quarterback?,” referencing Joseph Ossai’s careless penalty at the end of the fourth quarter in which he shoved Patrick Mahomes when Mahomes was already out of bounds.

Ossai was flagged for unnecessary roughness, leading to an automatic 15-yard gain for the Chiefs that put Kansas City in prime field goal position. With three seconds remaining, Harrison Butker then kicked the game-winning 45-yarder to send the Bengals packing.

Bengals’ Germaine Pratt regrets blowing up at Joseph Ossai after AFC Championship loss

While the rest of the NFL world came together in support of Ossai, who was seen crying on the sidelines, Pratt was one of the only ones who reacted in such a hostile and negative way.

Bengals head coach Zac Taylor defended Ossai, claiming the game didn’t come down to that one play, and defensive tackle B.J. Hill acted extra-protective of Ossai in the locker room when the media came for questions.

Pratt is set to become a free agent this offseason, yet his recent antics probably won’t factor into whether he will be extended by the Bengals as it does indeed seem like a one-time incident.

The 2019 third-round pick had put together a solid 2022 season for Cincinnati in which he recorded 99 tackles, 10 passes defended, and one sack in 15 games. In the AFC Championship, he recorded a team-high seven tackles and looked like one of the team’s most reliable defenders out there.

Pratt was likely just feeling the heat of the moment after a tough playoff defeat, and he has otherwise behaved as an upstanding teammate for the past four years in Cincy.

One emotional outburst shouldn’t ruin his career, just as Ossai’s costly penalty doesn’t make him any less than.

The Philadelphia Eagles have a knack for going against the grain with hires. Their recent executive hire may be along those same lines.

In a recent column from Mike Sielski of the Philadelphia Inquirer looking at the team’s hiring tendencies with head coaches, Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeff Lurie spoke about the team’s repeated decision to ignore what is expected and considered “normal” when it comes to hiring head coaches.

There’s one simple key: Lurie and the Eagles decide to do the right thing and have confidence in their decisions.

“I know it’s not the conformist thing to do,” Lurie said. “As I said, nobody wanted Andy. Nobody wanted Doug. Nobody knew about Nick, I guess. I don’t know. Didn’t make sense to me. Didn’t make sense to Howie. We feel: Just do the right thing, and you’re going to have a chance to be great. And if you don’t do the right thing, you have no chance. That’s kind of what it is. Just have confidence in what you think is the right way and what gives you the best chance of high success.”

A recent executive hire follows that same archetype.

The Eagles hired someone with unexpected background as a new executive

According to a report from Bloomberg.com, Adam Berry has been hired to the Eagles (subscription required) as an executive. Berry is joining the personnel department.

Fans might be surprised to take a look at his prior experience, which is far from the sports industry. Berry is leaving a role as Managing Director and Head of U.S. Bank Loan Trading at Goldman Sachs.

Not every day you find your next great executive in the banking world, so what makes Berry a fit?

Well, for one, it runs in the family. Andrew Berry, Adam’s brother, is the Cleveland Browns General Manager. Adam also played wide receiver at Princeton University.

The Eagles have to be pleased with the team current GM Howie Roseman has built, but at 35, Berry could be a general manager candidate for the future, whether with the Eagles or elsewhere.

Clearly, the Eagles must be confident in his skills, despite the lack of football experience at the executive level. We’ll see if the unconventional hiring continues to pay off. Maybe more Browns and Eagles deals to come, too, with the new family connection the two teams have.