Luka Doncic has had just about enough of the LA Clippers to this point of his young NBA career.
The Dallas Mavericks All-Star got heated with the Clippers during Friday’s preseason game. Clippers swingman Terance Mann blocked Doncic in the first half and then drew an offensive foul against him in the same sequence. When Mann responded by celebrating a bit, Doncic cursed in the direction of Mann and the Clippers bench.
“Shut the f— up,” Doncic could be seen mouthing twice at them. Take a look.
The 22-year-old Doncic already has an extensive history with the Clippers. The Mavs have lost in the first round to the Clippers in each of the last two seasons. Doncic has also beefed with certain Clippers players during those playoff battles.
Dallas did end up winning Friday’s preseason game by a 122-114 final. But Doncic has to be sick and tired by now of getting punked by the Clippers.
Kyrie Irving does not appear to be coming off his stance on the COVID-19 vaccine any.
The Brooklyn Nets star posted a telling tweet on Saturday that read, “I am protected by God and so are my people. We stand together.”
The seven-time All-Star Irving remains unvaccinated, which would make him ineligible to participate in the Nets’ 41 total home games this season. The team did recently get good news on Irving’s availability for practices. But the uncertainty surrounding Irving remains at a fever pitch with the season set to begin in ten days.
Irving has shown support for certain skeptical beliefs about the vaccine. This latest tweet from him seems to align with those beliefs as well.
The genre of angry head coach halftime interviews is a diverse one. Sometimes coaches take out their frustrations on the interviewer, which is awkward and uncomfortable. Sometimes they try to hide it.
And then there is Florida coach Dan Mullen, who instead gave the most brutally honest assessment he possibly could about his team’s first half play against Vanderbilt. The Gators went into the locker room with a 21-0 lead, but that wasn’t enough for Mullen, whose responses consisted of three words in total.
Mullen’s spiel has been a little frustrating for Florida fans in recent years. This is probably the sort of thing they’d like to see more often when the team isn’t playing to its capabilities.
The anger seems to have worked for Mullen, as the Gators scored 21 third quarter points to double their lead.
The Oklahoma Sooners appear to have made a quarterback change against the Texas Longhorns after another poor showing from Spencer Rattler.
Rattler was benched during Saturday’s Red River Showdown, with the final straw coming in the form of a fumble midway through the second quarter. It was Rattler’s second turnover of the day, with the Sooners already trailing 28-17. That became 35-17 as the Longhorns scored off the fumble.
Rattler was replaced by Caleb Williams for the ensuing Oklahoma drive, which ended with a field goal. Williams remained the quarterback when the second half began as well.
Prior to his benching, Rattler was 8-of-15 for 111 yards and no touchdowns. The lone interception arguably wasn’t his fault, and appeared to be the result of some miscommunication with his wide receiver.
To say Rattler’s season has been a disappointment would be an understatement. Talked about as a preseason Heisman candidate and potential top draft pick, he has thrown five interceptions on the season, has only one 300-yard passing game, and half of his passing touchdowns came in one game against FCS opposition in Western Carolina. It’s been bad enough that some Sooners fans have been clamoring for Rattler to be benched long before Saturday.
Rattler was replaced by Williams, a true freshman who was a five-star recruit. Williams had already scored on a 66-yard touchdown run prior to Rattler’s benching, which may have helped accelerate the process.
Ole Miss quarterback Matt Corral probably wasn’t expecting to take a flying kick to the head as he went for a two-point conversion Saturday, but that’s exactly what he got.
The Rebels had trailed 14-6 before scoring a touchdown during Saturday’s game against Arkansas. They opted to go for two to even things up, and let Corral keep it to try to pull even. It worked, but Corral had to do it through a flying leg kick from Arkansas DB LaDarrius Bishop, who fell for Corral’s pump fake.
https://twitter.com/FTBVids_YT/status/1446885244787826688
It’s kind of amazing Corral held onto the ball. It would have been really easy for him to let that go free, and indeed, it looked as if he came very close to doing just that.
We’ve seen something similar in the NFL, albeit under even more difficult circumstances. Still, kudos to Corral, who continues to establish himself as a high-end SEC quarterback.
Oct 10, 2020; Dallas, Texas, USA; Fans walk outside Cotton Bowl Stadium before the Red River Showdown college football game between the Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the Texas Longhorns (UT) at Cotton Bowl Stadium in Dallas, Saturday, Oct. 10, 2020. Mandatory Credit: Bryan Terry-USA TODAY NETWORK
Saturday’s Red River Shootout featured a surprise guest on the field: a wild fox.
The fox appeared during the first quarter of Saturday’s Oklahoma-Texas game at the Cotton Bowl. It was spotted running down the sideline away from the action on the other end of the field.
Where did the fox come from? How did it get into the Cotton Bowl? Your guess is as good as ours. It was enough to prompt a lot of jokes about the fox outgaining the Sooners in yardage, as Oklahoma was trailing 14-0 at the time.
Sadly, the fox apparently moved too fast for ABC’s cameras to capture it in action. That also deprived us of a great animal-on-field commentary moment to rival this one.
Russell Westbrook’s much-anticipated Los Angeles Lakers debut was not a memorable one, and coach Frank Vogel thinks he knows why.
Westbrook played 17 minutes of Friday’s preseason game against the Golden State Warriors, scoring two points on 1-of-7 shooting. Westbrook also had six turnovers to only four assists.
Vogel suggested that Westbrook had tried too hard to play distributor and set up his teammates, which contributed to the turnovers.
It’s amusing in a way, as one of the concerns about Westbrook’s acquisition was that he would want the ball in his hands to the detriment of his teammates. Maybe Westbrook heard that chatter and wanted to try to disprove it early.
Given the amount of work the Lakers have been putting in behind the scenes, there’s no reason to think Westbrook and his teammates won’t be in sync when the season starts. He might just need to play his more natural game and see where it takes them.
Photo: All-Pro Reels/Flickr via cc by-sa 2.0
The NFL International Series is now one step closer to expanding.
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reports that the league could add a game in Germany beginning as early as the 2022 regular-season. That would be along with games in both London and Mexico City.
On Tuesday, October 12, NFL brass will announce the three finalist cities.
The International Series began back in 2007 with a game between the New York Giants and Miami Dolphins at Wembley Stadium. It has gone on to play 28 total regular-season games in London and three games in Mexico City, featuring 31 of the league’s 32 teams.
The only team that has yet to play an international game is the Green Bay Packers.
After a year off due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the International Series will continue in Week 5 with a game between the Atlanta Falcons and New York Jets at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London.
In Week 6, the same stadium will host a game between the Jacksonville Jaguars and aforementioned Dolphins.
In a somewhat surprising move earlier this week, the Dallas Cowboys released linebacker Jaylon Smith — a 2016 second-round pick out of Notre Dame and one-time Pro Bowler.
The reason why Dallas cut Smith quickly became evident, however.
Despite owing him $7.2 million, the Cowboys made the decision based on Smith’s 2022 salary. He was owed $9.2 million, which would have become fully guaranteed had he remained on the roster as of March 20, 2022. But even beyond that, Smith had an injury guarantee.
Said guarantee stated that if Smith couldn’t pass the team’s physical leading up to March 20, 2022, they would still have to pay him the $9.2 million. So rather than risking it this season, Dallas opted to eat the dead cap space and move on.
It was a business decision and one Smith understood in the end.
Smith signed a one-year contract with the Green Bay Packers shortly after his Cowboys release. And if he plays at the “elite” level he expects of himself, it’s likely that the Packers sign Smith to a long-term deal following the conclusion of the season.
On Thursday night, Seattle Seahawks punter Michael Dickson made a heads-up play when his third quarter punt attempt was initially blocked.
Dickson quickly scrambled to the ball, snatched it up with one hand and unloaded a second attempt — this one going 68 yards before being downed at the Los Angeles 11.
The double punt was permitted under NFL rules because the officials said the ball did not travel beyond the line of scrimmage. That rule applies to both clean and blocked kicks.
The problem? Although league officials were aware of the rule, it would appear that many coaches and special teams coordinators were not, reports Pro Football Talk.
Here is what PFT wrote on Friday:
As one source with knowledge of the dynamics explains it to PFT, the league’s officiating department has fielded plenty of calls from special-teams coordinator who clearly weren’t aware of the rule, who now are, and who are brainstorming the other possible applications of it.
How highly-paid coaches and coordinators didn’t know this rule should sound some alarm bells. It’s their job to understand the on-field and off-field rules and the fact that so many did not is concerning.
However, now that they are aware, keep an eye out for some potential trick plays involving the double punt on special teams.
