Fast forward to Monday, March 24, and the B’s are tied with the Pittsburgh Penguins for the seventh-worst record after another embarrassing loss Sunday night. The Los Angeles Kings extended the Bruins’ losing streak to six games with a 7-2 victory over the Original Six franchise.
If Bruins management was hoping for a post-trade deadline downturn that would improve the team’s chances in the 2025 NHL Draft lottery, it has come to fruition so far.
This is the worst Bruins team since the 2015-16 squad that missed the playoffs. Sunday’s defeat marked the 12th time Boston has allowed six or more goals in a game this season, the most for the team since the 2006-07 campaign, per 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Ty Anderson.
Moving up two spots in the lottery order over the last few weeks might not feel like a massive jump, but it would be hugely beneficial to the Bruins to end up with the No. 7 overall pick in the first round of the 2025 NHL Draft compared to the No. 9 pick.
The Bruins desperately need an infusion of elite-level young talent to bolster what is considered one of the three-worst prospect pools in the league. This draft has plenty of good centers in the top 15 picks, and that’s a position Boston very much needs to upgrade.
What are the chances of the Bruins falling further in the standings? Well, they would really have to collapse, and get some help from other teams, to fall a few more spots.
The fifth-worst record — currently occupied by the Philadelphia Flyers, based on points percentage — is probably the furthest the B’s could drop. However, the Bruins have the sixth-easiest remaining schedule in the league from now through the end of the regular season, so there are a bunch more winnable games still left for this team.
If the Bruins do finish with the seventh-worst record — which is where they stand today (tied with the Penguins) — here are the odds they’d have in the draft lottery, per Tankathon.
No. 1 pick: 6.5 percent
No. 2 pick: 6.7 percent
No. 3 pick: 0.2 percent
No. 7 pick: 44.4 percent
No. 8 pick: 36.5 percent
No. 9 pick: 5.6 percent
The Bruins could jump up as high as No. 1 or fall as low as No. 9 in the lottery if they finish with the seventh-worst record.
There isn’t much left for the Bruins to play for over the final 10 games of the regular season. The best outcome for the B’s over this span would be to lose as many games as possible and then get lucky in the draft lottery next month.
Things got messy in Miami — Jimmy Butler never hesitates to burn a bridge on his way out of town. From the moment Heat decision-maker Pat Riley said after last season that he was not going to give Jimmy Butler the max extension he wanted, we all knew what was coming. Butler eventually demanded a trade, was suspended multiple times by the team, and it was all a massive distraction from which the Heat have never recovered (Miami had lost nine straight before Sunday's win against tanking Charlotte).
Tuesday night, Jimmy Butler returns to Miami in a Golden State Warriors uniform — and the welcome may not be very warm. It's a big, emotional game... unless you ask Butler.
"Another game for me," Butler said Saturday night after a win in Golden State, via the Associated Press. "Another game that we're expected to win, for sure, though."
"We was all right. We didn't win like we were supposed to. We made some cool runs. We had some fun...
"I was traded from there, yadda yadda yadda. Yeah, it didn't end the way people wanted it to, yadda yadda yadda. But that's so far behind me now, I don't even think about it."
It's easy not to think about it, given that the Warriors have gone 16-3 with Butler in the lineup and look like a threat in the West.
However, picking up that 17th win may be challenging with Stephen Curry expected to miss the game with a lower back contusion (Curry has flown to Miami and joined the team for the six-game road trip they are starting but is not expected to play at the start of the trip). No Curry means the ball will be in Jimmy Butler's hands more, giving Heat fans more chances to express their feelings. All of which makes this must-watch TV.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Justin Verlander knows that his career is in its twilight, given his age and a series of injuries to his neck and arm. He’s also well aware that if he wants to achieve his longtime dream of winning 300 games, he needs to capitalize now.
The 42-year-old Verlander, who signed a one-year, $15 million contract with the San Francisco Giants in January, has been healthy and missing bats while ramping up his pitch count this spring training.
“This is a big year for me,” the veteran right-hander said in an interview inside the Giants’ clubhouse at Scottsdale Stadium.
Verlander is sitting on 262 wins. Can he reach 300? The mark has become as rare in baseball as condor sightings in California. Randy Johnson was the last to do it, ironically for the Giants on June 4, 2009, during the first game of a rainy doubleheader at Washington’s Nationals Park.
At 45, Johnson was the 24th pitcher and sixth left-hander to reach that vaunted plateau. He finished his career with 303, and everyone wondered at the time if there would be any others.
Behind Verlander there’s no one even close: Max Scherzer at 216, Clayton Kershaw at 212 and Gerrit Cole at 153. All appear beyond their prime years of production.
“I definitely think I can do it,” Verlander said. “I need a few [good] years. I need two extremely, extremely good years, three overall. Just give me two healthy years where I make 30-plus starts a year. If I make 30-plus starts for three more years it’s definitely possible.
“Based on how I feel right now, yes.”
Verlander retooled during the winter, which used to be a time to rest his arm. He had a sore muscle behind his right shoulder in 2023, delaying his debut for the New York Mets until May 4. That injury “was totally my own fault,” he said. Last year, after being traded back to the Houston Astros, he suffered an inflamed capsule in the same shoulder and didn’t make his first start until April 19. A neck injury then wiped out most of June and all of July.
This was after Verlander missed practically two seasons—2020 and 2021—with the Astros after Tommy John surgery, sandwiched between a pair of American League Cy Young Award-winning seasons when he notched 21 wins in 2019 and 18 more in 2022.
Last year was a lost season in Houston. He was 5-6 with a 5.48 ERA in only 17 starts and 90 1/3 innings. He knew this offseason something had to change. All the injuries, he said, were related.
“That all caught up with me,” he said. “I got to Christmas and suddenly I realized I just can’t do that anymore. If I don’t throw and it gets late in the spring like last year, I’ll just run out of time.
“So, I kept throwing all offseason. Another reason I did that was because I changed my mechanics. The neck injury last year just pointed out some flaws in my body I hadn’t been aware of. It’s not as if I’m a golfer and can take 1,000 swings a day. There’s only so many pitches you can throw.”
Over the course of his 19-year career, he’s averaged 28 starts and 178 innings a season. He’s aiming to get back to that—and so far, so good. Verlander has gone through the spring looking much like his old self, swinging his arms low in his motion before coming over the top to deliver each pitch from the windup and throwing at 95 mph.
He’s made five spring starts, allowing no more the one earned run in any of those outings, plus striking out 15 in his 16 innings. After pitching five innings of three-hit, shutout ball against the Chicago White Sox on March 17, he left the mound to an ovation and tipped his cap to the crowd. And that was on the road at Glendale’s Camelback Ranch.
No wonder Giants manager Bob Melvin tagged Verlander as his No. 2 starter sandwiched between ace Logan Webb and Robbie Ray, a veteran left-hander who’s also trying to resurrect his career after a series of surgeries.
“He’s been fantastic,” Melvin said about Verlander earlier in the spring. “Look, a healthy Justin Verlander has shown to be very unique in what he’s done as long as he’s done it. He’s fully healthy now and we feel very good about him.”
The Giants themselves are a reclamation project under Verlander’s old friend and new president of baseball operations Buster Posey, who returned from hip surgery in 2019 and missing the COVID-19 shortened 2020 season before one last renaissance in 2021 gave his playing career a satisfactory final note.
Posey said he sees a lot of himself in Verlander.
“It was very evident after talking to him how motivated he is,” Posey said in January after signing him. “You don’t get to the level of greatness he’s accomplished in his career having just the utmost fortitude and desire to be the best.”
Which is just the type of player the Giants need right now. They finished 80-82 last season missing the playoffs for the third year in a row and seventh time in the last eight years dating back to 2016 when Posey was still their catcher and Bruce Bochy their manager. The two teamed together to win the World Series three times every even year from 2010 to 2014.
“We wouldn’t have won any of those World Series without Buster,” Bochy said this spring in an interview. “There’s no question about it.”
Verlander liked the direction of the organization and accepted its recent struggles.
“This team has a lot of upside that is really being overlooked,” he said just after he signed. “From everything I’ve seen and heard, the culture that Buster has built is something that’s really special.”
About what’s left in his own career, Verlander added: “I’ve accomplished enough in my career. I wouldn’t be back if I didn’t think I would be great. I really think I can be back to the pitcher I was a couple of years ago when I won a Cy Young.”
The 300-win accomplishment still beckons, but it’s getting very late in the day.
McLaren pair had 1-2 finish in Chinese GP on Sunday
Norris: ‘We’re two competitors who both want to win’
Lando Norris says his McLaren team will be “nervous” about the prospect of him going head-to-head with his teammate, Oscar Piastri, for the F1 title. Norris and Piastri have one victory each after the opening two rounds of the Formula One season.
The British team, seeking their first world champion since Lewis Hamilton claimed his maiden crown in 2008, have said their drivers are free to race each other. Although Norris has claimed McLaren are prepared for an intra-team duel, he acknowledged there could be bumps along the road.
Tokyo, Japan, Saturday, March 15, 2025 - Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani hits a two run homer in the third inning against the Yomiuri Giants at the Tokyo Dome. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times) (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
National League West superstars tend to be bunched on the Dodgers and San Diego Padres, which might have compelled two other teams to write a huge check to lock in a player of undeniable impact during the offseason.
Roll out the red carpet for Corbin Burnes of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Willy Adames of the San Francisco Giants.
Burnes, 30, is a top-rung starting pitcher, a Cy Young Award winner who regularly exceeds 30 starts and 200 strikeouts per season while keeping his earned-run average under 3.00. He signed for six years and $210 million.
Adames, 29, is a top-rung shortstop, a power hitter and clubhouse leader who compiled 32 home runs, 112 runs batted in and 21 stolen bases last season in Milwaukee. He signed for seven years and $182 million.
Whether Burnes or Adames are surrounded by enough talent to challenge the Dodgers' superstar trio of Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman or the Padres' dynamic duo of Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado remains to be seen.
1 | Los Angeles Dodgers
2024 | 98-64, 1st in West
Last year in playoffs | 2024
The expectations were World Series-or-bust a year ago. That hasn't changed despite the championship and subsequent parade. What else would anyone expect after the Dodgers added Blake Snell and Roki Sasaki to the starting rotation (not to mention Ohtani), Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates to the bullpen and Michael Conforto to the lineup while bringing back Teoscar Hernández?
The Dodgers also locked up manager Dave Roberts with a four-year extension at a record $8.1 million a year. His primary challenge this year will be to begin the playoffs with his pitching staff and aging lineup — nearly every regular players is in his 30s — at optimum health.
2 | Arizona Diamondbacks
2024 | 89-73 3rd in West
Last year in playoffs | 2023
The Diamondbacks led baseball last season in runs, batting average and on-base percentage yet missed the playoffs a year after making the World Series. They again should be formidable and probably will present the biggest challenge for the Dodgers, especially after fortifying their starting rotation with Burnes.
First baseman Christian Walker left as a free agent but was replaced by Josh Naylor, who hit 31 home runs and drove in 106 runs with the Cleveland Guardians last season. Designated hitter Joc Pederson also departed. Otherwise, it's pretty much the same lineup, with productive hitters throughout, beginning with Ketel Marte. The starting rotation behind Burnes is solid. The departure of closer Paul Sewald shouldn't cause much concern — he was average at best — but the role has not been filled. Bullpen veterans Kevin Ginkel and A.J. Puk are the candidates along with youngster Justin Martinez and his triple-digit fastball.
3 | San Diego Padres
2024 | 93-69, 2nd in West
Last year in playoffs | 2024
A protracted legal battle among members of the Seidler family after beloved owner Peter Seidler died in 2023 seemed to handcuff the Padres front office this offseason. Yes, they still have Tatis Jr., and Machado. Sure, center fielder Jackson Merrill finished second in rookie-of-the-year balloting. And starters Michael King, Dylan Cease and Yu Darvish are back from a team that won 93 regular-season games, a wild-card series and pushed the Dodgers to the limit in a five-game NL Division Series.
But while the Dodgers and to a lesser extent the Diamondbacks and Giants made splashy offseason moves, the Padres pretty much stood pat. John Seidler, older brother of Peter, was approved by MLB on March 12 as the Padres "control person," creating stability. Whether than means a resumption of general manager A.J. Preller's freewheeling ways or continued belt-tightening remains to be seen.
4 | San Francisco Giants
2024 | 80-82, 4th in West
Last year in playoffs | 2021
Under the new front office leadership of former All-Star catcher Buster Posey, the Giants began the offseason with a major splash when Adames chose them over several other suitors. Not much happened thereafter, however. They did sign Justin Verlander, a cinch Hall of Famer, but he's 42, coming off injuries and a 5.48 ERA in 17 starts last season. They also lost two-time Cy Young winner Snell to the Dodgers.
Spring training didn't prompt hope to spring eternal, either. Top prospect Bryce Eldridge, a power-hitting first baseman, rose through four minor league levels last season but batted .182 with a bushel of strikeouts this spring and will start the season in triple-A. Since posting 107 wins in 2021, the Giants have hovered just below .500 and offer no reason to think they won't again finish behind the Dodgers, Diamondbacks and Padres.
5 | Colorado Rockies
2024 | 61-101, 5th in West
Last year in playoffs | 2018
As bad as the 2024 season was, it marked a two-win improvement on 2023. Yet the Rockies have done little to engender hope, faith or anything else resembling a reason for substantial improvement in 2025. They scored the fewest runs per game and generated the second-lowest slugging percentage in franchise history last year. And their pitching remains woeful.
Ezequiel Tovar, 22, is one of the best young shortstops in baseball. Center fielder Brenton Doyle, 26, has 30-30 potential. Third baseman and Mater Dei High product Ryan McMahon seems stuck at about 20 homers, 70 RBIs and a .245 batting average every year. Kris Bryant is all but AWOL. Franchise icon Charlie Blackmon, 38, retired and joined the Rockies front office, a more difficult role than posting a .293 career batting average over the last 14 years — which he did.
Tempe, Arizona February 20, 2025-Angel's Mike Trout fields a ball in right field during spring training in Tempe, Arizona. (Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times) (Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)
Only two years ago, the American League Central was crowned the worst division in MLB history. Last season, the Central was the only division in either league to boast four teams with winning records.
So maybe there is hope for the AL West, which supplanted the Central as the worst division in baseball. Then again, maybe that hope is merely a rite of spring, to be dashed during the long summer grind.
Sure, the Texas Rangers won the World Series in 2023, but cratered to a 78-84 record in 2024. With key players returning from injuries, they are the trendy favorite to win the West.
Why? Because the perennial division champion Houston Astros shed payroll by dumping Kyle Tucker, Alex Bregman, Justin Verlander and Ryan Pressly.
Because the Seattle Mariners were comatose all winter, failing to complement their outstanding starting rotation with bats.
Because while the (West Sacramento?) Athletics are improved, they are miles — from here to the state capitol — from contender status.
And because the Angels show zero indication they will improve enough from their 99-loss 2024 campaign to make the playoffs for the first time since 2014.
1 | Texas Rangers
2024 | 78-84, Tied 3rd in West
Last year in playoffs | 2023
The Rangers have most of the players who shined during the 2023 run to the World Series title, and they have the same manager, four-time World Series champion Bruce Bochy. With Corey Seager at shortstop, Marcus Semien at second base, Josh Jung at third and offseason steal Jake Burger at first, the infield is set. Former Dodger Joc Pederson will add pop as the designated hitter. Young outfielders Evan Carter and Wyatt Langford should improve. Adolis Garcia slipped a notch from his 2023 postseason heroics but remains a power threat.
A healthy Jacob deGrom at the top of the rotation is a fingers-crossed plus, Nathan Eovaldi is reliable and former Vanderbilt teammates and first-round picks Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter will be thrust into the rotation because of injuries to Jon Gray and Cody Bradford. Texas let Kirby Yates and his 33 saves sign with the Dodgers and 2023 postseason hero José Leclerc sign with the Athletics, leaving Bochy to admit he's entering the season without a defined closer.
2 | Houston Astros
2024 | 88-74, 1st in West
Last year in playoffs | 2024
Familiar names have departed but the Astros still have energizer bunny Jose Altuve — who has moved from second base to left field — and hitting savant Yordan Alvarez to build around. Power-hitting first baseman Christian Walker was signed as a free agent, Jeremy Peña begins his fourth year as a productive shortstop, and Yainer Diaz is one of baseball's best catchers.
Framber Valdez and Hunter Brown head a rotation that might lack depth, and Josh Hader still has electric stuff closing games. Houston has won the West four years in a row and seven of the last eight years, so they can't be counted out even after shedding fixtures Tucker and Bregman.
3 | Seattle Mariners
2024 | 85-77, 3rd in West
Last year in playoffs | 2022
Center fielder Julio Rodríguez has seen his wins above replacement decline two years in a row after his rookie of the year splash in 2022, but at 24, he easily could rebound. The problem is that catcher Cal Raleigh is about the only other proven bat.
Seattle's starting pitching is among the best in baseball even with George Kirby starting the season on the injured list. Bryce Miller, Logan Gilbert and Luis Castillo are durable and formidable. Bryan Woo and Emerson Hancock are promising. Closer Andrés Muñoz has a big arm.
4 | Athletics
2024 | 69-93, 4th in West
Last year in playoffs | 2020
The A's are finally out of Oakland, having secured a deal for a Las Vegas stadium and a temporary home in Sacramento. Oh, and they started spending, signing starter Luis Severino to a three-year, $67-million deal, the largest guaranteed contract in franchise history. They also locked up big bat Brent Rooker to a five-year, $60-million extension and signed Leclerc to a one-year, $10-million deal.
The A's improved from 50 to 69 victories last season, although another leap to .500 would require continued improvement from several young players, chiefly catcher Shea Langeliers, outfielders Lawrence Butler and JJ Bleday, and first baseman Tyler Soderstrom.
5 | Angels
2024 | 63-99, 5th in West
Last year in playoffs | 2014
Mike Trout has moved to right field and everyone in Orange County is rooting for an injury-free season from the future Hall of Famer. It's jarring to realize this will be his 15th season and that he'll turn 34 in August. Still, though, not a single playoff win. And expecting the first one this year is beyond wishful thinking.
On the bright side, oft-injured, highly paid and poorly motivated third baseman Anthony Rendon won't be around as a distraction after reporting that he'll miss the entire season with a hip injury.
(Illustration Stephanie Jones / Los Angeles Times; Photos Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times.)
The Angels last put up a winning record 10 years ago. I was looking for a reason to believe in the Angels, any reason.
There is a magazine called Reason. The editor-at-large, Matt Welch, is an Angels diehard. In 1982, he slept in a Ford Pinto in the Big A parking lot, waiting for his chance to buy tickets for what would have been the first World Series in Angels history. He got the tickets, but the Angels blew a two-game lead in the American League Championship Series.
So, Mr. Reason, do you see a reason to believe in the Angels?
“Generally speaking, of course not,” Welch said. “And also, because I’m an Angels fan, sure.”
Baseball Prospectus and Fangraphs each project another losing season in Anaheim. Attendance has fallen 32% from its peak.
On Thursday — on Opening Day! — the state auditor’s office is scheduled to release a report that could say whether the team has shirked its maintenance responsibilities at Angel Stadium.
On Friday, former Anaheim mayor Harry Sidhu is expected to learn whether he will be sent to prison for four felony charges triggered by the public corruption investigation that derailed the city’s sale of the stadium to Angels owner Arte Moreno. Neither an FBI affidavit nor Sidhu’s plea agreement alleges any wrongdoing by the Angels.
On the field, the Angels appeared to spend another winter in their decade of self-imposed purgatory: no full rebuild and no all-in free-agent signings, with rosters patched with mid-tier veterans and lacking in depth, all with the upside of winning 80-something games and sneaking into the playoffs.
On one hand, it is admirable that Moreno chooses not to subject fans to years of rebuilding, and the possible run of 100-loss seasons that comes with it, even as so many other owners run that playbook and enjoy the profits that come with slashing the payroll. On the other hand, what Moreno has done has not worked, and the Angels still lost 99 games last season.
“As long as you have some young players that haven’t fully developed but have shown some flashes of talent, they can vault ahead in a hurry,” said Welch, the guy from Reason.
He was not alone in that opinion. I asked General Manager Perry Minasian why fans should believe in the Angels.
“Great question,” Minasian said. “For me, with winning teams, it starts with a core. Now, we have a young core of players that we believe in, that we think are championship-caliber players.”
Right-hander Caden Dana, who is part of the Angels' core of young players, practices at spring training last month. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
The core is led by the two players with their faces on giant posters outside the front gate of Angel Stadium: shortstop Zach Neto and catcher Logan O’Hoppe.
Among other young position players: first baseman Nolan Schanuel, second baseman Christian Moore, outfielders Jo Adell and Nelson Rada.
On the pitching side: Reid Detmers, Jack Kochanowicz, José Soriano, Ben Joyce, Caden Dana, George Klassen and Sam Aldegheri.
On one side or the other: the No. 2 pick in the June draft.
If the Angels can hit on, say, half of those players — all 26 or younger — they can proceed with Plan A: In 2026, when oft-injured third baseman Anthony Rendon’s $245-million contract expires, Minasian can reasonably suggest to Moreno the team is one or two players away from contention. Perhaps those two players might resemble the stars Moreno signed in his first winter as the Angels’ owner: Vladimir Guerrero and Bartolo Colón.
If the Angels cannot hit on the majority of those prospects — and it would not be typical for a team to hit on so many — then back to purgatory they go.
The Angels' Mike Trout practices at spring training at Tempe Diablo Stadium in Tempe, Ariz., last month. (Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)
In the meantime, we are 19 paragraphs into this column and finally getting to Mike Trout, the greatest player in franchise history. Trout can still play at a high level — he led the major leagues in home runs when he suffered a season-ending knee injury last year — but he has not played even 120 games in a season since 2019.
“As long as his presence is there, his performance will be there,” Angels manager Ron Washington said.
Trout did not shy away from the premise that his playing 140 games could make the difference between an unexpected run at contention and another long and dreary summer.
“Oh yeah,” he said. “Obviously, if I’m out there, it’s definitely going to help the team for sure.”
No Angel besides Trout and Ohtani has hit 30 home runs this decade. Trout has done it seven times in his 14-year career. Newcomer Jorge Soler has done it twice in his 11-year career; he hit 36 for the Miami Marlins in 2023.
Jered Weaver averaged 14 wins and 184 innings in 11 years with the Angels, the last in 2016. Since then, no pitcher has thrown 184 innings even once, and only Ohtani won as many as 14 games. He did it once. The Angels’ starters last season posted a 4.97 earned-run average, the highest in the AL.
What should Angels fans expect from their team this season?
“I don’t make any predictions,” Minasian said. “I think they’re going to see a team that plays extremely hard. I think they’re going to see a lot of talented players. We’ll see what happens.”
On the day the Dodgers attracted more than 10,000 paying fans to a workout in Japan, the Angels drew a couple hundred for free pregame workouts ahead of a Cactus League game. It is not a fair comparison, of course. The Dodgers had Ohtani in his home country, the game’s biggest star amid the team’s constellation of superstars.
The Angels have Trout. Jaxson Keltner, 12, came from Ohio and held up a large poster board, upon which he had written: “I TRAVELED 1,914 MILES TO MEET MIKE TROUT.”
Trout is the Angels’ brand name. In baseball, a brand name is not enough. It would be improbable for the Angels to go from last to first in 2025. It would be enough to give their fans a reason to believe.
Culture isn’t the be-all, end-all for an NBA team’s success on the court. As Jimmy Butler can attest to.
The superstar forward was traded from the Miami Heat to the Golden State Warriors in a blockbuster deal on Feb. 5, and in an exclusive interview with The Athletic’s Anthony Slater published Monday, he revealed why, after five-plus seasons in Miami, he does not view the organization’s infamous “Heat Culture” as important to the team’s success as many believe it is.
“There was some foundation to it in the sense of the work and all that stuff, which is great,” Butler told The Athletic. “I’m not saying it in a bad way, but I think it’s a little bit, like, overused talking about the ‘Heat Culture.’ It is a great organization. But I think a large part of that culture is you get guys that buy into a (winning mindset).
“You get some guys that buy in, you get some really good players and you get the opportunity to talk about ‘Heat Culture’ a little bit more. I’m not saying it to talk down or anything, but I think whenever you have really good players you can name it whatever you want to name it.”
The concept of “Heat Culture,” similar to “the Patriot way,” coined by the NFL’s New England Patriots, stresses a hard-working, relentless, professional and unselfish style of play.
Butler led the Heat to two NBA Finals appearances (2020, 2023) in four years during his Miami tenure and many believe that throughout those respective postseasons, Butler was the perfect embodiment of what “Heat Culture” meant to the Miami fan base.
However, while Butler believes the organization’s mantra is an effective guiding principle, talent ultimately wins out at the end of the day.
Curry, who joined the Warriors in Miami on Sunday, practiced with the team at Barry University and will participate in a separate private workout later Monday.
Curry is listed as questionable for Tuesday’s game against the Heat.
After Monday’s practice, Warriors PR told reporters that Curry is “making good progress” and that his status will be determined by how he feels Tuesday morning.
NBC Sports Bay Area’s Dalton Johnson asked Kerr how Curry looked in practice.
“Good. Good,” Kerr said. “We didn’t scrimmage or anything but he was moving great. Surprised he knocked down a lot of shots too.”
Steph Curry is “making good progress.” Warriors didn’t scrimmage. All positive from how he was moving https://t.co/yDhRxT9jNQ
Tuesday’s game against the Heat will be emotional, as forward Jimmy Butler plays his first game against his former team.
Kerr believes it is important for Curry to be there for Butler, or any of his teammates, for that matter.
“I think Steph feels an obligation always to be there for his teammates, regardless of the circumstances,” Kerr told reporters. “He’s an amazing teammate and he wants to get back as soon as possible, mainly so we can win games and climb the ladder in the playoff race. But no doubt he wants to be there for Jimmy too, and that’s one of the things I love about Steph. He’s always there for his guys.”
With 11 regular-season games remaining and so much on the line in each contest, Curry’s presence in Tuesday’s lineup would be a welcome sight for the Warriors.
Jonathan Kovacevic left the Montreal Canadiens last offseason when Kent Hughes sent him to the New Jersey Devils in a swap that saw the Habs land a fourth-round pick in 2026. Since then, the right-shot defenseman has earned a regular spot in the Devils’ top four, forming a pair with Brian Dumoulin and signing a 5-year contract with a $4M cap hit.
The Devils were having a good season, but things got a bit more complicated lately, with superstar Jack Hughes suffering a season-ending injury, just like defenseman Dougie Hamilton. New Jersey is 4-6-0 in its last 10 games and now only has 80 points, ranking third in the Metropolitan division.
After another loss on Saturday night, this time against the Ottawa Senators, Kovacevic spoke to the media and said:
We’re in a fight, and hopefully, that will get us to that playoffs mentality. We’re 10 or 11 games out, and we carry that into the playoffs, so…yeah, obviously, the results are tough, but we’re in a fight here, and we won’t back down.
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His declaration was relayed to the Devils’ coach, Sheldon Kiefe, and the journalist didn’t have time to finish relaying it before he cut him off, saying:
Kovacevic just needs to play better. That would help.
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This is not exactly the kind of comment a player likes to hear from his coach, but we’ve seen much worse in Montreal, this is nowhere near Michel Therrien throwing P.K. Subban under the bus after a turnover led to a defeat against the Colorado Avalanche:
We played hard, and I thought we played a very solid game; it’s too bad an individual mistake cost the game late in the game. […] As a coach, I thought he could have made a better decision at the blueline and move the puck behind, and he put himself in that position. […] We play as a team, and unfortunately at the end of the game, when we don’t play as a team with get in trouble and that’s what happens.
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In three and a half years behind the Canadiens’ bench, we’ve yet to see Martin St-Louis do that to any of his players, and I don’t think we will see it. When he’s disappointed, he generally says he needs to look at the tape and address what needs to be addressed with the right person in due course.
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