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Nuggets Mailbag: How concerning is Denver’s poor free-throw shooting?

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 08:57:07 GMT

Beat writer Bennett Durando opens up the Nuggets Mailbag periodically during the season. Pose a Nuggets- or NBA- related question here.When does the free throw percentage become a serious concern? Almost everyone is shooting bricks.— Danny, DenverThe way it’s concerning is more so the way it’s impacting physicality and confidence about getting to the line. It’s a team-wide issue, but the topic really begins and ends with Aaron Gordon. Michael Malone has said recently he wants Gordon to seek trips to the line more aggressively. Even though he has attempted the second-most free throws on Denver’s roster so far, Gordon’s trips to the line are down significantly from last year, when he was building a strong All-Star campaign.He has attempted 50 foul shots in his first 18 games of 2023-24, making 26 of them. In 2022-23, he reached 50 attempts during his 13th game and had attempted 80 through 18 games. Gordon is an effective bully-ball scorer when he...

For Avalanche team with Stanley Cup hopes, leadership without Gabriel Landeskog comes in many forms

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 08:57:07 GMT

It was a random moment during training camp, months from when the games truly begin to matter for a franchise that believes it can win the championship for a second time in three years.The Colorado Avalanche was working on the power play, and Nathan MacKinnon was frustrated. MacKinnon, whose reputation as one of the most intense players in the sport is well-earned, yelled in frustration. It wasn’t clear if he was yelling at Artturi Lehkonen, or just expressing his displeasure in general.Ryan Johansen, one of several new additions to the club and someone who’s been a veteran leader for years in the NHL, quietly skated over to Lehkonen and gave him a stick tap on the shin pad. A little later, a calmer MacKinnon and Lehkonen had a quick chat, the latter demonstrating an idea with his stick and both players nodding in agreement.The standard in the Colorado locker room is crystal clear for the 2023-24 season: win the Stanley Cup. This team has the star power, depth and instit...

Why the Lakers are barred from wearing their black uniforms for Pelicans game

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 08:57:07 GMT

The Los Angeles Lakers won’t be allowed to wear their black “city edition” uniforms for Thursday night’s semifinal game against the New Orleans Pelicans in the NBA’s first in-season tournament.According to ESPN, the NBA has barred the black unis because they create a difficult contrast with the league’s specialized court at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, the site of the tournament’s final rounds.The Lakers (13-9) are 4-0 while wearing their black uniforms this season and would prefer to wear them for the semifinal game, league sources said.Instead, the Lakers will take the court in their gold "icon" jerseys.“When one Lakers player was informed the team wouldn't be allowed to wear black on Thursday, he replied, 'That's ass,'" ESPN reports.Milwaukee plays Indiana in the East semifinal.This initial in-season tournament is an opportunity for teams to hoist the league’s newest trophy, medals for each of the players on the champion team, along with bragging rights.There are also big financi...

Three-bedroom home sells in Oakland for $1.9 million

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 08:57:07 GMT

6350 Broadway Terrace – Google Street ViewA 2,195-square-foot house built in 1998 has changed hands. The spacious property located in the 6300 block of Broadway Terrace in Oakland was sold on Oct. 11, 2023. The $1,900,000 purchase price works out to $866 per square foot. The layout of this two-story home includes three bedrooms and three baths. In addition, the home comes with a one-car garage.These nearby houses have also recently been sold:A 1,977-square-foot home on the 6400 block of Broadway Terrace in Oakland sold in January 2023, for $1,175,000, a price per square foot of $594. The home has 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.In September 2022, a 2,155-square-foot home on Florence Avenue in Oakland sold for $1,700,000, a price per square foot of $789. The home has 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.On Buena Vista Avenue, Oakland, in January 2023, a 2,538-square-foot home was sold for $1,725,000, a price per square foot of $680. The home has 2 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. 

Review: Miyazaki’s ‘Boy and the Heron’ is masterful, magical

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 08:57:07 GMT

By Jake Coyle | Associated PressWhen Hayao Miyazaki’s “The Boy and the Heron” premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, the filmmaker Guillermo del Toro said in his introductory remarks: “We are privileged enough to be living in a time where Mozart is composing symphonies.”You might be tempted to call that hyperbole, but — this being Miyazaki, the legendary anime filmmaker of “Spirited Away,” “My Neighbor Totoro” and “Kiki’s Delivery Service” — it’s closer to fact. The occurrence of a new film from Miyazaki deserves to be treated like the coming of a seldom-seen comet or something rarer still, like a winning New York Jets season.Ten years ago, Miyazaki released the profoundly personal “The Wind Rises.” It was then expected to be his swan song. But the 82-year-old filmmaker — known for his propensity for retiring again and again — soon announced that he would make one mo...

Douthat: Is South Korea disappearing as nation’s birthrate plummets?

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 08:57:07 GMT

 For some time now, South Korea has been a striking case study in the depopulation problem that hangs over the developed world. Almost all rich countries have seen their birthrates settle below replacement level, but usually that means somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.5 children per woman. For instance, in 2021, the United States stood at 1.7, France at 1.8, Italy at 1.3 and Canada at 1.4.But South Korea is distinctive in that it slipped into below-replacement territory in the 1980s but lately has been falling even more — dropping below one child per woman in 2018, to 0.8 after the pandemic, and now, in provisional data for both the second and third quarters of 2023, to just 0.7 children per woman.It’s worth unpacking what that means. A country that sustained a birthrate at that level would have, for every 200 people in one generation, 70 people in the next one, a depopulation exceeding what the Black Death delivered to Europe in the 14th century. Run the experiment thr...

Olompali State Historic Park to reopen 9 months after mudslide damage

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 08:57:07 GMT

Olompali State Historic Park near Novato is expected to reopen this week following mudslide damage repair that blocked access for nearly nine months.The slide happened during heavy rain in March. It buckled a 100-foot section of Redwood Boulevard near the Buck Center for Research on Aging and threatened two major utility lines serving Marin. While the park itself was not in need of repair, the damage cut off the only access road, forcing it to remain closed.The $13 million project is still weeks from wrapping up, but Caltrans plans on restoring public access for one-way traffic control around 3 p.m. Friday. The single-lane access will be in effect until Caltrans completes construction along a retaining wall, which is expected to continue through at least January, said Matt O’Donnell, an agency spokesperson.Park officials plan to open the park Friday afternoon, and reinstate its normal operating hours, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., on Saturday.“It’s an important place, not only for what it means...

Review: ‘Leave the World Behind’ is a satirical, dark thriller

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 08:57:07 GMT

By Mark Kennedy | Associated PressImagine that it’s close to midnight and there’s a knock at the door of your luxurious weekend rental home. A man is standing there, calmly apologizing. He says it’s his home and that he and his daughter need your help. He’s also dressed immaculately in a tux.What would you do?Did the tux make a difference? Would the man’s race?That early scene is when Netflix’s “Leave the World Behind” really kicks into gear and never slackens as this terrific, apocalyptic, psychological thriller races to its conclusion, exploring race, affluence and responsibility along the way.The luxurious home becomes a castle of sorts as the outside world crumbles. The man who says he’s the owner tries to explain why he’s turned up. “Under the circumstances, we thought you’d understand,” he says. But understanding is in short supply here.Adapted from Rumaan Alam’s acclaimed novel, the movie is s...

Plea seal reached in vast Capitola vacation rental scam

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 08:57:07 GMT

SANTA CRUZ — In a sweeping real estate scam affecting more than 130 people, a former Capitola property and vacation rental manager agreed to a plea deal and was sentenced for four felony embezzlement charges Thursday.Dolores “Dede” Harrington, 49, had co-owned the Capitola Avenue business Beach House Rentals LLC since 2004, brokering high-end vacation, home, condo, cottage and townhome rentals. During a period spanning early 2020 through August 2022, however, Harrington began failing to pay property owners their rental income, withholding rental deposits, canceling vacation rental contracts with little or no notice and other similar activities, numerous complainants told the Sentinel. Even before her October 2022 criminal arrest by Capitola police, civil breach-of-contract actions had begun piling up against Harrington.Of 16 original felony charges filed by the Santa Cruz County District Attorney’s Office in the case, 12 were dismissed as part of the plea deal. Santa Cruz County Sup...

Former California police chief gets 11-year sentence for role in Jan. 6 Capitol riot

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 08:57:07 GMT

Alan Hostetter, a former La Habra police chief-turned yoga instructor and conservative Orange County activist who called for the execution of his political enemies after the 2020 elections, was sentenced Thursday to 11 years and three months in federal prison for joining a mob of rioters during the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.The former law enforcement officer planned for weeks in the leadup to Jan. 6, transported weapons across the country and while armed with a hatchet joined the group of rioters that overran the U.S. Capitol.While Hostetter himself was not accused of taking part in direct violence on Jan. 6, prosecutors in the leadup to his sentencing compared his actions to “terrorism,” saying he was “eager to stoke the fires of revolution” and called for the killing of those he deemed “tyrants and traitors.”Hostetter — who represented himself at trial and sentencing — has continually downplayed the events of Jan. 6, arguing they were the result of a “federal setup” ...