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Embiid had been sidelined by a left knee injury and personal reasons since a November 20 loss to Memphis, the Sixers going 4-3 in his absence. The 30-year-old Cameroonian-born big man, who wore a left knee brace, also added four assists and two blocked shots in 33 minutes in only his fifth game of the season. "He caught fire there," 76ers coach Nick Nurse said of Embiid. "Certainly he gave us a lot of confidence." Philadelphia guard Tyrese Maxey contributed his first career NBA triple-double with 25 points and career highs of 14 assists and 11 rebounds. "It was good," Maxey said. "The offense flowed really well. Pick and roll was really good. I was able to get everybody involved, get Joel going and get myself going too." "He turned on the jets and got to the rim at some pretty opportune times," Nurse said of Maxey. Embiid was a welcome court presence for the 76ers. "He creates so much space for us on the floor, gets the attention," said Maxey. "I didn't see one pick and roll double team for the first time in a long time." Zach LaVine led the Bulls with 30 points. At New York, Milwaukee's Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 34 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to lead the Bucks over the Brooklyn Nets 118-113. Damian Lillard added 15 points and 11 assists while reserve Bobby Portis contributed 23 points and Gary Trent Jr. scored 20 off the Milwaukee bench. Germany's Dennis Schroder led the Nets with 34 points. js/mlmMUPPETS’ Christmas Carol fans are only just realising one Inbetweeners star appeared in the classic movie. Robin Weaver, 43, best known for her role as Simon’s mum, Pamela Cooper, in the Channel 4 comedy , played Clara, Fred’s wife, in the 1992 festive film . For years, the playful retelling of Charles Dickens’ timeless tale has been a staple of the holiday season. Featuring the Muppets cast and Michael Caine ’s performance as Scrooge, the new discovery has given fans a whole new reason to rewatch the movie this Christmas . The revelation gained traction after a Reddit user posted in a forum titled, "Approaching my 35th Christmas, and I've only just realised that Clara (Fred's wife) in Muppet Christmas Carol is Simon's mum in the Inbetweeners ." The post quickly drew reactions from fans thrilled to connect the dots between the two roles. more on the Inbetweeners One user exclaimed, “I live for these facts,” while another added, “Thank you! I watched it this week and was desperately trying to work out what I knew her from!” A third joked, “Bloody hell, Simon’s older than he looks,” adding some Inbetweeners humor into the conversation. But Robin isn’t the only cast member in The Muppets’ Christmas Carol with ties to other iconic works. Steven Mackintosh, who plays Fred (Scrooge’s jovial nephew and Clara’s husband), is known for his role in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Most read in Film Someone pointed this out on the site, writing: "And Fred is that bloke from Lock Stock!" When it was first released in 1992, many thought the Disney film was going to be a huge flop. Pairing a much-loved Charles Dickens novel with a load of puppets and actor Sir Michael didn’t seem like a recipe for success. On top of that, The Muppets had lost two of its most prominent figureheads - Muppets creator Jim Henson, who died suddenly in May 1990, followed by puppeteer Richard Hunt in January 1992. But 32 years later, it’s become a festive classic, watched by kids over and over every year.
LOS ANGELES — Considering how their seasons have ebbed and flowed so far, and the history between the stars leading their teams, it’s only appropriate that the Lakers and Golden State Warriors match up for a Christmas Day showdown on Wednesday at Chase Center. Just a month ago, the Lakers and Warriors were sitting near the top of the Western Conference standings, opening the season with 10-5 and 12-3 records, respectively, entering Nov. 23. How much a month can change things. The Lakers (16-13) have gone 6-8 since then after dropping Monday’s home game to the Detroit Pistons to end their three-game winning streak. And the Warriors (15-13) have been even worse, winning just three of their last 13 games after starting the year at the top of the conference. But Wednesday will be another matchup between Lakers star LeBron James and Warriors star Steph Curry – two all-time greats whose careers have intersected to the point they’re considered by many to have one of the defining rivalries of the league’s modern era. “Anytime you get an opportunity to be on the court and compete versus one of the greats to ever play this game, you never take it for granted,” James said. “I don’t know how many more opportunities we’re gonna get to go against each other, so it’s always fun.” Wednesday will also mark the second time the Lakers and Warriors have played each other on Christmas in the past seven years, with the Lakers beating the Warriors on Dec. 25, 2018, in James’ first season with the Lakers. In addition to the 2018 matchup , James’ and Curry’s teams squared off on Christmas for three consecutive seasons (2015-17) when James was on the Cleveland Cavaliers. Curry didn’t play in the 2017 game. But matchups between James and Curry have historically had more at stake than Christmas Day game bragging rights. Their teams matched up in four consecutive NBA Finals (2015-18), with Curry’s Warriors winning the championship in 2015, ‘17 and ‘18 and James’ Cavaliers coming out on top in ’16 after coming back from a 3-1 series. “For me, as a fan, it was an awesome stretch,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “For me as a player, it wasn’t a great stretch because I wasn’t in those Finals. But it was great to have two of the icons of this generation go head to head and have some for sure classic series and then just also some classic games and classic moments. “Throughout the history of the NBA, player and team rivalries have been good for the league and that sort of captured a moment in our generation.” The Lakers and Warriors also played each other in the 2021 Play-In Tournament and the second round of the 2023 playoffs, with the Lakers winning both matchups “It’s going to be good,” Anthony Davis said. “We always have battles with them, we’ve seen them in the playoffs a couple of years. It’s going to be fun to go up to The Bay and try to get a win on Christmas Day.” Not including the Play-In Tournament game, Wednesday will mark the 53rd matchup between a team led by James and Curry. Curry’s teams have a 29-23 record in those matchups, including a 17-11 record in the playoffs. But the relationship between James, who’s in his 22nd NBA season and will return 40 on Monday, and Curry, who’s in his 16th NBA season and will turn 37 in March, has evolved over the years since consistently playing against one another in the Finals. James and Curry teamed up this past summer, leading Team USA to a gold medal in the Paris Olympics. “It’s a fun battle because of the longevity of how long we’ve been doing this,” Curry said during an appearance on ESPN’s “NBA Today” on Tuesday. “There’s more appreciation and respect than probably back in the day because there was a lot of pettiness and resentment. The rivalry was real but it evolves and you still want to go at each other, but the respect is there.” Related Articles When : Wednesday, 5 p.m. Where : Chase Center, San Francisco TV/radio : ABC/ESPN, 710 AM
The Dallas Cowboys head into their Week 12 matchup against the Washington Commanders, hoping to reverse a challenging season marked by injuries and mounting criticism. As they prepare to face a familiar foe in this NFC East showdown, the conversation off the field has shifted to linebacker Micah Parsons’ thoughts on a hot topic in sports media. By Tony Fisher Earlier this week, Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James announced he is stepping back from his influential social media presence, citing the toll of public scrutiny. Cowboys star Micah Parsons was asked to share his perspective on James’ decision during a media session. ... and whether he might follow suit. “LeBron was on social media for 20 years... I’m in year four!” Parsons quipped . “Now he’s getting off social media? Four championships later? (Laughing) LeBron was on social media when he won an NBA title. What are we saying here? I might be done with the media in 20 years. “You won’t know who I am in 20 years. I might have a beard and (be) bald and (be) on a beach somewhere.” Parsons, an active social media user and podcast host, often receives criticism for his online presence, much like James has throughout his career. While Parsons embraces the platform to connect with fans and express his personal views, James has used social media to grow his brand and voice his opinions on political and personal matters including speaking out against former coach Darvin Ham earlier this season during his podcast. Related: Cowboys' Rush Reveals Bold Mentality vs. Commanders Meanwhile, regarding actual football ... As the Cowboys aim to salvage their season, including a rough stretch of home losses, the spotlight remains on their performance against the Commanders. A win in Washington could provide a much-needed morale boost as Dallas navigates a critical stretch and a tumultuous season. Related: Emotional Dak Admits To Crying Tears Over Lost Season
The world according to Jim: • As we approach the latest edition of USC vs. UCLA – in other words, a 5-5 team against a 4-6 team, their game Saturday at the Rose Bowl shunted to a 7:30 Pacific time slot so people in the Eastern half of the country who don’t have a bet on the game need not bother – the question must be asked: Are there people in those athletic departments who have buyers’ remorse over the move to the Big Ten? And will that remorse only increase as the travel horror stories involving non-football programs’ conference travel pile up? ... • Here’s a reminder of the reason for this displacement, as well as the only thing that seemingly makes it make sense: The L.A. schools are getting full shares of the Big Ten media pie, somewhere in the neighborhood of $60 million a year, as the first programs to jump the Pac-12 ship on the final day of June, 2022. Given the way former Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff subsequently botched the conference’s media rights negotiations, which began the mass exodus, the L.A. schools’ move in retrospect was understandable if regrettable. ... • Hey, it is more expensive to live in L.A., right? ... • Oregon and Washington, among the last to defect, get half shares for the balance of the Big Ten contract, which runs through the spring of 2030 (although Phil Knight’s largesse almost certainly helps offset the difference at Oregon). The teams that scattered to the Big XII and Atlantic Coast Conference similarly received reduced shares from their new conferences. Oregon State and Washington State have been living off the Pac-12’s surplus and a stopgap TV deal and teamed with Octagon this week in search of a new media rights agreement for the rebuilding conference. ... • On the football field, at least, it has been an unqualified triumph for Oregon, undefeated and currently at the top of the College Football Playoff pecking order. Washington is 6-5 overall and 4-4 in the Big Ten. The L.A. schools are reduced to playing for bowl scraps. And the idea that Washington, USC and UCLA are respectively eighth, 12th and 13th in their conference is its own special kind of culture shock. ... • We’ve had more than a year to get used to it, but I still miss the old Pac-12 and its regional rivalries. That’s not going to change for a good, long while. ... • Meanwhile, Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin said the quiet part out loud the other day, as he is prone to do. His team’s on a heater – 8-2 overall, 4-2 in the SEC, No. 9 in the last College Football Playoff rankings and winner of three in a row, including a 28-10 thumping of then-No. 3 Georgia. Yet in an expanded SEC that – like the Big Ten – no longer has divisions and sends its first- and second-place teams to the conference championship game, Kiffin said he wanted no part of that 13th game and a potential third loss that would knock his team out of playoff contention. He indicated other SEC coaches had similar feelings. ... • In other words: The bloated nature of the current Power Four conferences – and, as former colleague Mark Whicker noted in his Substack column, the realization that contenders don’t all play each other because of that bloat – has already made the 12-team playoff unwieldy and borderline obsolete. Nice work, guys. ... • And let the empha$i$ on the bottom line, both among athletic programs and among those players getting NIL money, be one more reminder that the NCAA’s insistent reference to “student athletes,” parroted by its member schools, is as big a fallacy as ever and maybe more so. Reverse the order of that phrase and it’s closer to the truth. ... • The other aspect of what at first glance seems to be a diminished crosstown rivalry – at least until the game starts and the emotions on the field take over – is that one coach, UCLA’s DeShaun Foster, is digging out from the Chip Kelly era, and his team has already displayed progress this season. The other, USC’s Lincoln Riley, is drawing comparisons to predecessor Clay Helton among some alumni – and that’s not good. ... • The Rams will be honoring their 1999 team, which won the franchise’s first Super Bowl for St. Louis, at Sunday evening’s game against Philadelphia at SoFi Stadium. And if you are an L.A. Rams fan, all in on the team once again, do you really care about the ’99 champs, never mind willing to celebrate them? Or is there still a void between the team’s departure for St. Louis in 1995 and its return to Los Angeles in 2016? ( The Reddit conversation from this past May, “What Is Your Opinion of Georgia Frontiere,” indicates where longtime L.A. Rams fans stand on this.) ... • From the “things I wish I’d written” file, Washington Post columnist Sally Jenkins’ wonderful description of the monstrosity that was the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson “fight” a week ago: “Was Jake Paul’s not the most punchable face in the history of punched faces? It was a face with all the character and lived experience of a canned ham. It was the consummate face of an influencer, with all the smirky grifting in search of the lux life that term suggests. There wasn’t a hint of true toughness — much less truth — in it. Just blandness cloaked in a poseur-pharaoh’s beard and topped by some box-color bleached curls, and God did you ever want Mike Tyson to put his very real fist in it.” Priceless. ... • The ball from Freddie Freeman’s World Series Game 1 walkoff grand slam, grabbed by 10-year-old Zachary Ruderman of Venice – who was told he was leaving school early that Friday to go to a orthodontist’s appointment only to have his dad take him to Dodger Stadium instead – is going to be auctioned off by SCP Auctions from Dec. 4-14. It should fetch seven figures, easy, maybe even more than the $4.392 million top bid last month for Shohei Ohtani’s 50th home run (which is currently held up by a dispute over who actually had the right to auction it). ... • If I could afford to make the winning bid on Freeman’s ball – and if I actually could, you wouldn’t be reading this column – I’d lend it to the Dodgers to prominently display among their MVP and Cy Young and Silver Slugger trophies, with the stipulation that it would eventually go to the Hall of Fame. That’s where it belongs. Now if someone could just find the Kirk Gibson ball from 1988. ... jalexander@scng.comNewby has 18 as UNC Wilmington defeats Marshall 78-69
LA Clippers center Mo Bamba was recently back to the court, after he missed most of his team’s games due to an injury. Following his return to the game, he was asked if he was planning to play back-to-back games despite still recovering from injury. The seven-feet-tall center took the opportunity to throw shade at former teammate Joel Embiid , who stated he would not play back-to-back games due to his often-injured knee. “I’m not Joe,” he simply said . Mo Bamba says he plans to play in back-to-backs “I am not Joe (Joel Embiid).” ( @TomerAzarly ) pic.twitter.com/9jBQDxyLO9 — NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) November 18, 2024 Bamba also gave a shoutout to his team, highlighting how easy it was to play with them and be in sync with everyone else. “What felt easy was just meshing with the guys,” Bamba said. “I’ve played with a lot of the guys in the early stages of when I signed, like the Rico (Hines) runs, so they know my game a good amount. But it’s just different at this level. For things to mesh as quickly as they were able to, it was pretty positive. I think on the flip side of that, I think the second unit needs to do a better job of coming in and just dominating the little things.” While he was out of the game, the Clippers counted on Ivica Zubac as their starting center for most of their games. Ivica Zubac so far has averaged more than 30 minutes per game, which is significantly more than his previous season’s game time of around 26 minutes only. Mo Bamba Compares Current Injury with Sixers Injury Still talking about his injury that led him to miss most of the Clipper’s games so far, Mo Bamba recalled how he also went through a similar tithing with his former team. He highlighted how the Sixers management handled a similar situation. This, however, was not a jab at this previous team but rather words of appreciation for how he was handled over there. “The weird part about it is that I had the same exact injury last year with the Sixers, but I kind of played through it,” he stated . “I wanted to play through it here but the training staff — I gotta give thanks when due — they were like, ‘No, this is something that’s pulling on different areas of your body. Your biomechanics are changing because of this area of your body, my knee. Let’s really figure this out so we can strengthen other areas on your body so we can not have to deal with it all season long,’ because I’ve dealt with it for a while while I was in Philly.” Mo Bamba praised the Clippers training staff for helping him get past his knee injury, which is something he played through last year, but LA’s staff did not allow him to play through. “The weird part about it is that I had the same exact injury last year with the Sixers, but I... pic.twitter.com/cdPKsLbWPw — Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) November 18, 2024 Mo Bamba added: “It was annoying, but it’s no specific injury.” This article first appeared on Hardwood Heroics and was syndicated with permission.Biden proposes Medicare and Medicaid cover costly weight-loss drugs for millions of obese AmericansA Georgia sheriff was sued last week for allegedly blocking critical comments on his office’s social media account after videos spread of him calling deputies to a Burger King that botched his order. David Cavender, who lost the Cobb County sheriff’s race to incumbent Craig Owens Sr. this month, sued Owens weeks after kicking off a stream of online ridicule against the sheriff by accusing him of “Whoppergate.” In mid-October, Cavender’s campaign published body-camera footage of a March 2023 incident where Owens, who was not in uniform, called three deputies to a Mableton, Georgia, Burger King and asked them to collect the names of the store’s manager and owner so he could lodge a complaint with the restaurant. Cavender accused Owens of misusing public resources. He and others blasted the sheriff in the comments of the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office’s Facebook posts. On Oct. 29, a week before the election, Owens restricted comments on several posts on the page, according to Cavender’s complaint. The lawsuit, filed Nov. 13 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia by Cavender and two other plaintiffs critical of Owens, accuses the sheriff of violating their constitutional rights to free expression and speech. The accusation echoes similar lawsuits against higher-profile public officials, including then-President Donald Trump and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), for blocking critics on social media. Attorneys for Owens did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday evening on the lawsuit or the Burger King incident. The Cobb County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment. The sheriff’s office said in a Nov. 1 Facebook post that it had restricted comments on its page to “keep our posts focused on community safety updates and educational info.” Owens called three officers to the Burger King after the restaurant botched his wife’s Whopper order, according to the body-camera footage first published by Cavender’s campaign and later obtained by local news outlets. Owens was not in uniform and appeared to be driving a personal truck. “Do me a favor,” Owens asks a deputy on the video. “All I need is the owner name ... or the manager. We ordered something, the food was wrong.” Owens told his deputy that the restaurant’s staff disputed that they served the wrong order and declined to refund him, according to the video. He said he wanted the name of the restaurant’s owner to file an official complaint. Video shows the deputies approach the Burger King to find the doors locked. An assistant manager told the deputies that staff had locked the doors because they felt threatened by Owens after previous experiences with angry customers, according to Atlanta-area TV station 11Alive, which viewed unpublished portions of the video showing the interaction. “You didn’t tell him who I was, did you?” Owens asks his deputy after the officers return and tell him that the staff felt threatened, according to the footage. The deputy says he didn’t. Cavender’s campaign published the body-camera footage on social media on Oct. 11 and said Owens had abused his position and wasted county resources by calling deputies to the scene. Owens apologized and said he had made the same kind of request over a business dispute that any citizen could make, and that he did not identify himself as the sheriff to the Burger King staff, Atlanta-based TV station WSB-TV reported. Comments on the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page ridiculing Owens - including images of the sheriff in a Burger King hat - soon followed. In Facebook comments, Cavender also leveled criticism at Owens over other controversies, including the death of an inmate at the Cobb County Jail, according to his lawsuit. On Oct. 29, the sheriff’s office began restricting comments on several recent Facebook posts that had been swamped with criticism, according to the lawsuit. It limited comments on new posts going forward and deleted many of the critical comments left on the old posts, the lawsuit alleges. Cavender’s lawsuit also accuses Owens of pushing the policy to hide negative comments on posts lauding the department’s work. It further alleges that Owens published laudatory posts about the sheriff’s office in October to bolster his reelection chances. Owens, a Democrat, defeated Cavender, a Republican, in November. Cobb County, a suburban county near Atlanta, has reliably leaned blue in recent election cycles. The lawsuit alleges that Owens violated Cavender’s First Amendment rights by blocking him from commenting and removing his previous comments. Similar cases brought in 2019 against Trump and Ocasio-Cortez, both of whom blocked critics on social media, led the officials to backtrack and remove the blocks. But the question of whether any public officials are allowed to censor critical voices online remains a subject of legal controversy; two other First Amendment cases involving local officials in California and Michigan went all the way to the Supreme Court. The high court wrote in March that public officials retain the constitutional right to maintain private social media accounts and block critical voices on them, but can still be sued for blocking users if they purport to exercise their authority to “speak on the state’s behalf” or carry out official business on those accounts - a standard some legal experts said was unclear, The Post reported. Owens told WSB-TV he could have handled the Burger King dispute differently. “In hindsight, I probably should have just drove off and took the bad service and left and came back another day,” he said.Muppets’ Christmas Carol fans are only just realising Inbetweeners star is in the classic movie
'I’m Not Joe': Mo Bamba Takes Shot At Joel Embiid On Playing Back-To-Back Games
Juan Soto gets free luxury suite and up to 4 premium tickets for home games in $765M Mets deal