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Jaylen Brown carries Celtics to scrappy victory over Timberwolves

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:50:54 GMT

Over their recent slide in which the Celtics have lost five of eight games, Joe Mazzulla has been preaching about the margins that decide the outcome of games. By his own admittance, the coach has been pissed off that his team hasn’t learned the importance of rebounding, and not giving up second-chance points, during critical moments.For one night, the Celtics flipped the script. And it was Grant Williams, who desperately needed a good moment, who came up big when they needed him the most.The Celtics led by two in the closing seconds as they fended off a late Timberwolves rally when Marcus Smart put up a wide-open 3-pointer that missed. But Williams was where he needed to be and corralled the rebound. The C’s couldn’t call a timeout as Williams wrestled with defenders with the ball and they had to settle for a jump ball, but Williams won the tip over Rudy Gobert, and a pair of free throws from Jayson Tatum sealed the win.It wasn’t pretty in Minnesota. The Celtics shot poorly from de...

Ravens place right-of-first-refusal tender on restricted free agent quarterback Tyler Huntley

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:50:54 GMT

Lamar Jackson’s future with the Ravens remains unknown, at least for now, but fellow quarterback Tyler Huntley’s became a little clearer just before the NFL free agency window opened at 4 p.m. on Wednesday.Baltimore has placed a right-of-first-refusal tender on Huntley, a restricted free agent, his agent, Joseph Behar, confirmed to The Baltimore Sun.That means that any team has the chance to sign the 25-year-old to an offer sheet. If the Ravens decline to match it, they won’t get any compensation; that’s unlike the situation for Jackson and the Ravens, who could match any offer Jackson receives or obtain two first-round draft picks from that team.If Huntley plays on the low RFA tender, he’ll stand to make $2.67 million this year.Huntley made eight starts in the regular season over the past two years for Baltimore while Jackson was injured. That included last season’s AFC wild-card playoff debacle against the Cincinnati Bengals, when Huntley had th...

Dallas Cowboys release RB Ezekiel Elliot after 7 seasons

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:50:54 GMT

The Dallas Cowboys released running back Ezekiel Elliot, the team announced Wednesday.Elliot’s contract would’ve counted $16.7 million against the team’s salary cap with a $10.9 million non-guaranteed base salary. The 27-year-old will be designated a post-June 1 cut, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, which means the team will save nearly $11 million against the 2023 cap but he will count a little more than $6 million against the 2024 cap.The move comes weeks after owner Jerry Jones said he would be open to keeping Elliot and running back Tony Pollard. The tandem seemed unlikely with the Cowboys recently placing the franchise tag on Pollard and the team featuring him as the lead running back last season.“Zeke’s impact and influence is seared into the Cowboys franchise in a very special and indelible way,” Jones said in a statement. “He has been a consummate professional and leader that set a tone in our locker room, on the practice fie...

St. Mary’s defeats Old Rochester, passes semifinal test

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:50:54 GMT

QUINCY — If there ever was such a thing as a ‘golden era’ for high school sports, you’d have to argue that St. Mary’s (Lynn) is in the midst of one.Pick any of its teams. Football, girls basketball, girls hockey, you name it. Across seemingly all sports, the Spartans have continued to add pieces of hardware to their decorated trophy case in recent years.Let’s not forget boys hoops. Senior forward Omri Merryman finished with 17 points to go with five rebounds Wednesday, as second-seeded St. Mary’s clinched a trip to the Div. 3 championship for a second straight season by rallying for a 58-47 victory over No. 3 Old Rochester at Quincy High School.“We were just confident that once we switched up the defense, we’d be alright,” Merryman said. “We were confident in ourselves, and our capabilities. We weren’t too fazed, but it was definitely nerve-wracking at first.”St. Mary’s player Derick Coulanges, left, and Old Rochester’s Sawyer Fox reach for the ball Wednesday. St. Mary’s...

Needham Rockets top North Andover, soar into state championship game

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:50:54 GMT

WORCESTER — While Henry Bickford’s two hand slam was just another two points in his impressive stat line, it signified the start of a Needham celebration.Bickford poured in 23 points to go with nine rebounds and two blocks to lead No. 5 Needham to an impressive 60-43 win over No. 9 North Andover in a Division 1 state semifinal on Wednesday night at Worcester State.Needham (22-2) will play for its first state championship in program history versus No. 6 Worcester North this weekend.“Henry really stepped up tonight, you can’t ask for anything more from a senior. He had a different look in his eye pregame,” Needham coach Paul Liner said. “Our guys have just been so locked in. They’re coachable, they respect the game, and they know what it takes.”Throughout the night, Needham dominated at both ends of the floor, executing their actions on offense to near perfection while preventing the Scarlet Knights from garnering any sort of dribble penetrati...

Ravens free agency tracker 2023: RB Justice Hill re-signs, QB Tyler Huntley receives tender

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:50:54 GMT

Welcome to the Ravens’ free-agency tracker, which will be updated throughout the offseason.With the NFL’s new league year beginning Wednesday at 4 p.m., teams can officially announce signings and trades. Here’s a rundown of who the Ravens have agreed to sign, who they’ve lost and who’s still on the open market:Free agent additionsRunning back Justice Hill: The 25-year-old running back, whom the Ravens drafted out of Oklahoma State in the fourth round in 2019, is re-signing with Baltimore on a two-year, $4.5 million deal that could be worth as much as $5 million, his agent Andrew Kessler confirmed to The Baltimore Sun.Hill, who missed all of 2021 with a torn Achilles tendon, had his most productive year last season, with 262 yards on 49 carries to go with 12 catches for 58 yards in a career-best 15 games. He was also a significant part of Baltimore’s special teams, which included kick return duties.Cornerback Trayvon Mullen: The 25-year-old cornerb...

TikTok dismisses calls for Chinese owners to sell stakes

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:50:54 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — TikTok was dismissive Wednesday of reports that the Biden administration was calling for its Chinese owners to sell their stakes in the popular video-sharing app, saying such a move wouldn’t help protect national security.The company was responding to a report in The Wall Street Journal that said the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., part of the Treasury Department, was threatening a U.S. ban on the app unless its owners, Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd., divested. “If protecting national security is the objective, divestment doesn’t solve the problem: a change in ownership would not impose any new restrictions on data flows or access,” TikTok spokesperson Maureen Shanahan said. “The best way to address concerns about national security is with the transparent, U.S.-based protection of U.S. user data and systems, with robust third-party monitoring, vetting, and verification, which we are already implementing.”The Journal report cited anonymo...

Thousands of LA school district workers to hold 3-day strike

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:50:54 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Tens of thousands of workers in the Los Angeles Unified School District will strike for three days next week over stalled contract talks and teachers will join them, likely shutting down the nation’s second-largest school system, it was announced Wednesday.The strike was set to begin Tuesday. It was announced at a rally by the Service Employees International Union, which represents about 30,000 teachers’ aides, bus drivers, custodians, cafeteria workers and other support staff.United Teachers Los Angeles, the union representing 35,000 teachers, counselors and other staff, has advised its members to support SEIU workers by refusing to cross picket lines.Teachers waged a six-day strike in 2019 over pay and contract issues but schools remained open.This time, schools would likely close and there wouldn’t be any access to virtual learning, Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho said in an email to parents on Monday.“We would simply have no way of ensurin...

Adult, 3 kids die in fire in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:50:54 GMT

SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. (AP) — A house fire in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula has killed an adult and three young children, authorities said Wednesday.The bodies of a 31-year-old adult and three children believed to range in age from 1 to 4 years old were recovered from the fire Tuesday morning in Sault Ste. Marie, the city’s police and fire chiefs said in a news release posted on Facebook.The police and fire departments were called to the scene shortly after 7:30 a.m. Tuesday.The names and exact ages of the victims were being withheld pending confirmation of identity and notification of next of kin, the police and fire departments said. The genders of the victims were not released.The cause and origin of the fire were under investigation, they said.Sault Ste. Marie, population 13,400, is at the northeastern tip of the Upper Peninsula, about 350 miles (563 kilometers) north of Detroit.___This story has been corrected to delete police chief’s comments about the gender of the ...

California regulators could decide oil profits penalty

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:50:54 GMT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday he wants state regulators to decide whether to impose the nation’s first penalty on oil companies for price gouging, pivoting after months of negotiations with legislative leaders failed to reach an agreement on a bill aimed at reining in the state’s notoriously high gas prices.Gas prices in California are always more expensive than the rest of the country because the state has higher taxes and fees than other states and requires a special blend of gasoline that is better for the environment but more expensive to make. But last summer, the average price for a gallon of gas in California was more than $2.60 higher than the national average — a difference state regulators said could not be explained simply by taxes and fees. Meanwhile, oil companies recorded supersized profits.Newsom, a Democrat, responded by asking state lawmakers to pass a law that would impose hefty fines on oil companies if their pro...