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Knicks can’t take advantage of Jimmy Butler’s injury in Game 1 loss

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:49 GMT

There was the game lying on the court. Maybe the series. Jimmy Butler, the one player without a fathomable replacement, writhing in pain. Grabbing his foot.At that moment, Erik Spoelstra was caught on camera uttering what the Miami Heat supporters, however many few stuck around after LeBron James left, were all thinking.“F—,” the coach mouthed.There were about five minutes remaining Sunday when Butler sprained his ankle, and surely the Heat were in trouble with a slim lead.Except the opposite happened. The Knicks became the shell-shocked side. At home and facing an inferior roster, they folded like a blueberry crepe in a 108-101 Game 1 defeat.“Just wasn’t making shots,” Mitchell Robinson said.Butler didn’t sub out after turning his ankle while driving to the hoop on defender Josh Hart. He emerged from the timeout clearly under physical distress, hobbling around the court.But the Knicks never took advantage. Instead, they were outscored, 11-3...

Obi Toppin not surprised he was benched down the stretch of Game 1 defeat

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:49 GMT

New York’s offense was frozen down the stretch of Game 1, unable to overcome the avalanche of missed shots.But the one player who was hitting his 3-pointers, Obi Toppin, never left the bench.“Not at all,” Toppin said when asked if he was surprised about not playing in the final 10 minutes. “No.”Toppin produced an encouraging performance in his first playoff start Sunday, finishing with 18 points and eight boards as the replacement for the injured Julius Randle. Still, coach Tom Thibodeau subbed out Toppin with 9:38 remaining and left himself open to second-guessing as the Knicks failed to close in a 108-101 defeat.Instead, the Knicks used Josh Hart (0-for-4 on 3-pointers Sunday) and RJ Barrett (1-for-5) in the forward positions. The Knicks managed just three points during a five-minute stretch in the third quarter, all while Jimmy Butler — who Hart was assigned to guard — was barely moving because of an ankle sprain.Toppin shot 4-of-11 on tr...

Div. 3 relays: McElhinney keys win for Billerica girls

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:49 GMT

EASTON — Anna McElhinney was cold and wet from the pelting rain and raw conditions at Sunday’s Div. 3 State Relay Championships. But by meet’s end, the Billerica distance ace’s smile was big and bright.McElhinney put together a big day on the track with mile splits of 5:12 and 5:19 in the dreary conditions to anchor the Indians to wins in both the distance medley (12:58.10) and 4xMile (21:53.52). Billerica never took its foot off the gas on the way to capturing the team title with a whopping 82 points. Masconomet was a distant second but still put up an impressive 56.13 points.“We definitely knew we had a good chance,” said McElhinney, who finished second in the 2-mile at All-States during the winter. We have a wide variety of talent on the team. We didn’t lose anyone from indoors and we gained some athletes.”Billerica head coach Scott Arsenault knows just how much talent he has on the roster.“All the way around we had point scorers in...

Division 2 track relays: C-C girls overcome weather, field

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:49 GMT

SUDBURY — It was a cold and rainy Sunday at Lincoln-Sudbury’s Leary Field but that didn’t matter to the Concord-Carlisle girls’ track team.Persevering through some trying conditions, the Patriots used consistency up and down their roster to outlast Central Catholic to claim the girls’ team title. Wellesley was third and Woburn was fourth.“We were just focused on each individual relay and it wasn’t until the 4 x 200 that we saw that things were really coming together and knew we were in a good spot,” Concord-Carlisle coach Hanna Bruno said.The Raiders had led the competition for most of the day on Sunday but couldn’t match the Patriots consistency on both the track and in the field.The Patriots won the javelin relay and followed that up with a win in the high jump relay, led by Stephanie DiRocco. Central was third in the high jump relay and added a second in the triple jump relay, led by a 35-3 3/4 leap from Anya Neira.The Raiders also started well on the track but the Patriots sprin...

Study: Parents’ touch, quiet help babies born to opioid users 

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:49 GMT

Babies born to opioid users had shorter hospital stays and needed less medication when their care emphasized parent involvement, skin-to-skin contact and a quiet environment, researchers reported Sunday.Newborns were ready to go home about a week earlier compared to those getting standard care. Fewer received opioid medications to reduce withdrawal symptoms such as tremors and hard-to-soothe crying, about 20% compared to 52% of the standard-care babies.Babies born to opioid users, including mothers in treatment with medications such as methadone, can develop withdrawal symptoms after exposure in the womb.Typically, hospitals use a scoring system to decide which babies need medicine to ease withdrawal, which means treatment in newborn intensive care units.“The mom is sitting there anxiously waiting for the score,” said the study’s lead author Dr. Leslie Young of the University of Vermont’s children’s hospital. “This would be really stressful for fa...

Biden, Marcos to meet as tensions grow with China

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:49 GMT

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is set to host President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of the Philippines for White House talks Monday as concerns grow about the Chinese navy’s harassment of Philippine vessels in the South China Sea.Marcos’ visit to Washington comes after the U.S. and Philippines last week completed their largest war drills ever and as the two countries’ air forces on Monday will hold their first joint fighter jet training in the Philippines since 1990. The Philippines this year agreed to give the U.S. access to four more bases on the islands as the U.S. looks to deter China’s increasingly aggressive actions toward Taiwan and in the disputed South China Sea.Meanwhile, China has angered the Philippines by repeatedly harassing its navy and coast guard patrols and chasing away fishermen in waters close to Philippine shores but which Beijing claims as its own.Before departing for Washington on Sunday, Macros said he was “determined to forge an ever...

Kyle Lowry stuns Knicks in Game 1: ‘As a basketball player, you want to play at The Mecca’

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:49 GMT

Kevin Love had four important words for his teammate Kyle Lowry, whose play down the stretch of the fourth quarter with an injured Jimmy Butler propelled the Miami Heat to a stunning Game 1 victory over the Knicks on Sunday.“You’re a smart motherf—–,” Love said to Lowry. “That last four minutes, he knew what he needed to do.”With Butler planted in the corner relegated to a floor-spacing role from the 5:05 mark through the final buzzer, the Heat turned to Lowry, the former NBA champion alongside Kawhi Leonard leading the 2019 Toronto Raptors to a Finals victory over the Golden State Warriors.The star guard delivered, a reminder just how loaded the Heat can be if the 37-year-old six-time All-Star turns back the clock like he did in Game 1.“He’s a winner. An absolute winner,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said after the game. “And when you need him most, that’s when he’s gonna show up.”Lowry stuffed the sta...

Dave Hyde: Heat rise to the moment to take Game 1 with Butler on one ankle

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:49 GMT

Jimmy Butler fell on the court, reached for his ankle, and suddenly the end of the Game 1 looked like the real start of the series.Suddenly, as Butler rolled onto his stomach, his body language expressing a broken body, all the questions changed Sunday, starting with whether these final five minutes of Game 1 would change.Even as Butler stayed in the game, making two foul shots to put the Heat up 97-92, The Big One stepped into the corner on offense, hobbled through on defense as best he could and watched The Little Four bring home Game 1.“I didn’t do too much,’ he said on ABC after the 108-101 win, “but air-ball the 3 [-point shot]”.Maybe, then, this was the Heat team they talk about, the one that’s still the full sum of their parts. Maybe this showed they don’t need Butler to do everything in every win. Maybe Caleb Martin swooping in for a block after Butler’s foul shots, maybe Bam Adebayo contributing a half-hook, maybe Kyle Lowry f...

Bruins notebook: Jeremy Swayman gets the net for Game 7

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:49 GMT

Bruins coach Jim Montgomery would not say who would start in net for Sunday’s Game 7 after the morning skate Warrior Ice Arena, nor would he say what lineup changes he was going to employ.But before the morning proceedings were over, it was clear that Jeremy Swayman was getting the nod for his first start this post-season.Swayman was the first goalie off the ice, indicating that he’d get his first start of this post-season in the do-or-die game, then led the team out for warm-ups. Meanwhile both Nick Foligno and Connor Clifton were scratched in favor of Trent Frederic and Matt Grzelcyk.While Montgomery would not discuss his lineup changes specifically, he said they were all difficult in such an important game.“If you make a change at any position, it’s really hard, because we have a group that’s given everything to the team all year,” said Montgomery after the very brief morning skate. “And everyone wants to play in a Game 7. When you’re a kid growing u...

US Army: Helicopters crashed in mountains, fair weather

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:49 GMT

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) — Two U.S. Army helicopters that crashed last week in Alaska, killing three soldiers, collided over a rugged, mountainous area, and there were no weather issues or visibility problems at the time, an Army spokesperson said Sunday. The two AH-64 Apache helicopters were returning to Fort Wainwright from an aerial gunnery range southeast of Fairbanks when they collided. Killed were Chief Warrant Officer 3 Christopher Robert Eramo, 39, of Oneonta, New York; Chief Warrant Officer 2 Kyle D. McKenna, 28, of Colorado Springs, Colorado; and Warrant Officer 1 Stewart Duane Wayment, 32, of North Logan, Utah.A fourth soldier survived and remained hospitalized Sunday, said John Pennell, a spokesperson for the U.S. Army Alaska.Investigators planned to fly on Monday morning to the accident scene about 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of the small town of Healy, Pennell said.The Army grounded aviation units on Friday to conduct further training following recent deadly accidents....