NBA is dealing with a COVID-19 outbreak

The NBA is dealing with a sea of COVID-19 cases and outbreaks this week, something that prompted the league to issue new, stricter protocols to help curb the spread and keep the season running.

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  • NBA roundup: Suns beat Jazz in OT in duel of NBA's best

    Devin Booker and Chris Paul led the Phoenix Suns to a 117-113 overtime win over the visiting Utah Jazz on Wednesday night in a game between the NBA's two best teams that lived up to its billing. Booker scored 35 points and Chris Paul contributed 29 points and nine assists as the Suns, who have the NBA's second-best record, held on for their seventh victory in a row.

  • Johnson no longer defending champion after missing Masters cut

    Dustin Johnson's quest to join an exclusive group of back-to-back Masters champions ended lamely when he bogeyed the final two holes and missed the halfway cut on Friday. He had some notable company in exiting early, with Rory McIlroy and Brooks Koepka sent packing from Augusta National, but it was Johnson's poor performance that most disappointed the local fans. He grew up nearby across the state border in South Carolina, barely an hour's drive along the Interstate 20 freeway, and arrived here with high hopes of emulating Jack Nicklaus (1965-66), Nick Faldo (1989-90) and Tiger Woods (2001-02).

  • The 2020-21 NBA season's unanswered questions, featuring the free-falling Lakers and injury-plagued Nets

    We have officially reached the stretch run of the 2020-21 campaign with plenty left unsettled.

  • Should there be pressure on Ryan Garcia to face Devin Haney?

    Is it still too soon for a Ryan Garcia vs Devin Haney fight or do both still need to prove themselves before a blockbuster showdown?

  • Heat say Oladipo not traveling for West Coast trip

    MIAMI (AP) Victor Oladipo will not be with the Miami Heat when they depart Saturday for a four-game West Coast trip, and more evaluation will be required before the team knows the full extent of his right-knee issue. Oladipo hurt the knee during the fourth quarter of Miami's win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday night. The right knee is the same one that Oladipo injured in 2019, when he ruptured a quad tendon as a member of the Indiana Pacers.

  • Report: NBA expects to have full arenas for 2021-22 season

    The NBA expects to have arenas packed full of fans when the 2021-22 season begins, with the chances of it happening increased by a deal with a COVID-19 screening company, ESPN reported. With vaccine distribution in full swing, the NBA will look toward the airport screening company Clear to provide COVID-19 screening technology at home venues around the league. Each team will be allowed to determine how the screening technology will best serve its fan base.

  • Nick Saban: 49ers 'didn't ask me a thing' about Mac Jones at Pro Day

    Nick Saban was ready to answer questions about quarterback Mac Jones, but the 49ers didn't ask him any.

  • Rookie Snapshot: Wide Receivers

    Liz Loza and draft analyst Eric Edholm take a deep dive into the top wide receivers — and future fantasy stars — set to join the league.

  • Warriors to welcome back fans from April 23 at 35% capacity

    The capacity at the Chase Center's 18,000-seat arena will be capped at 35% as per California State Department of Public Health guidelines. Fans wishing to attend games must either provide proof of a full vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test that was taken within 48 hours of a game and they must wear face coverings at all times. "Additionally, fans who can provide proof of vaccination do not need to produce a negative COVID-19 test, unless they are seated within 30 feet of the court," the Warriors added.

  • Golf: Johnson set to defend as sense of normalcy returns to Masters

    The Masters returns to its traditional date this week as the year's first major at Augusta National and Dustin Johnson is the man to beat on a layout that, while familiar, will play and look much different than the one he triumphed on five months ago. Colorful, blooming azaleas set against emerald fairways and greens will be back on full display in stark contrast to the autumn foliage that created a rather unique setting last year when COVID-19 forced the Masters to be played in November. A win for Johnson, whose 20-under total last year broke the Masters record shared by Tiger Woods and Jordan Spieth, would put him in elite company.

  • Fantasy Basketball: James Harden suffers injury, and more for Week 16

    Here's everything you need to know as we head into Week 16 of the fantasy basketball season.

  • Offbeat training methods have Jaron Ennis on cusp of welterweight contention

    Such training gets him into superb condition, Ennis said, and he feels he can go as hard in the final minute of the 12th round as he does in the first minute of the opening round.

  • Why Penei Sewell is falling in the latest NFL mock drafts

    Analyst have Sewell dropping out of the top 10

  • Washington releases five players, including TE Thaddeus Moss

    The five players had all struggled to keep their place on the squad, and will not be suiting up in burgundy and gold in 2021.

  • Why was CBS golf analyst Gary McCord banned from covering the Masters golf tournament?

    McCord was barred from covering the yearly event at Augusta National over comments he made on a broadcast way back in 1994.

  • Bellator 256 results: Cat Zingano shows slick ground game in armbar submission win

    Cat Zingano is now 2-for-2 in Bellator and has her hopes up for a featherweight title shot after a nice showing.

  • Third-round tee times and pairings for the 85th Masters Tournament

    Here's a look at third-round tee times for the 85th Masters Tournament at Augusta National.

  • 'Stone-cold killer' Jordan Spieth moves ominously into Masters contention

    If this is Jordan Spieth without yet being able to swing a club properly then the rest of the field had better watch out. The boy wonder is back. An already intriguing Masters leaderboard was lent a whole new dimension by the return of the 2015 champion to the sharp end of proceedings. Spieth’s second round 68, which has left the Texan at five-under for the tournament in a share of fourth place, two off the lead of England’s Justin Rose, was one thing. The 27-year-old was solid tee to green, hitting 11 of 14 fairways and 14 of 18 greens in regulation. It was when he warned afterwards that he was feeling more and more comfortable, and still had plenty of room for improvement, that his rivals’ hearts must have sunk. The last thing they need is the Spieth of old stalking these fairways and greens again. Put simply, Spieth is a stone-cold killer around these green and pleasant lands. At least, he used to be. There was a time when you could stake your mortgage on the Texan contending in Masters week. Remember his first three trips to Augusta? Second (2014), first (2015) and second again (2016). He was a 20-year-old phenomenon; a natural with a freakishly hot putter. That 2016 tournament proved to be something of a setback, however. Two balls dumped into Rae’s Creek at the 12th on the final day handed the initiative to Danny Willett and Spieth’s career has never really been the same since. Although he won the Open at Birkdale in 2017 (as career setbacks go, it’s all relative), the aura of invincibility had gone, and his bullet-proof confidence with it. By January of this year, the former world No 1 was on the verge of dropping out of the world’s top 100. Spieth has slowly turned his fortunes around over the last few months, building form and confidence week by week, culminating in last week’s victory on home soil at the Valero Texas Open, his first in almost four years. He still doesn’t look completely like the Spieth of old. But he is getting there. A solitary birdie going out was followed by four coming back, mixed with one bogey on his bogey hole, the par-three 12th, when he found the greenside bunker. He bounced back immediately with birdie at the par-five 13th, laying up wisely after finding the pine needles off the tee, and finished the round looking more and more like he meant business. But for a triple-bogey seven on the par-four ninth on Thursday, Spieth might be leading the field now.

  • Detroit Red Wings' first move before NHL trade deadline: Patrick Nemeth to Avs' 4th-round pick

    The Detroit Red Wings acquired a fourth-round pick from the Colorado Avalanche for defenseman Patrik Nemeth

  • Aaron Judge out again, Gio Urshela scratched due to side effects of COVID-19 vaccine

    Aaron Judge will be out of the Yankees' lineup for the second straight game on Friday as he continues to deal with some 'side soreness.'