This season, a recent run by NBA favorites against the spread suggests there is a widening gap in effort level between teams fighting for playoff position and those in the tank. Ahead of tonight's action, favorites have covered the spread in 56.7 percent of games since the All-Star Break, including an impressive 34-18-3 ATS (65.38 percent) run over the last eight days. “We’ve been getting crushed this past couple weeks,” Jeff Stoneback, assistant manager at the MGM Mirage, said....

And yet, Ellenson has already learned that the transition to college and the NBA isn’t always smooth, in part because he attended the Big East conference’s inaugural “Freshman Fundamentals” program last month in New York. MORE: Villanova picked to win Big East For two days, Ellenson and the Big East’s other freshmen heard from experts on media training and branding as well as former Big East players Greg Monroe (Georgetown), Randy Foye (Villanova) and Patrick Ewing, Jr....

The forward has signed a three-year deal after joining for an undisclosed fee – confirmed as a club record for Derby – on Tuesday, marking the end of a Rams career that saw him make 115 appearances, scoring 38 goals. Mahrez pairs himself with Messi in five-a-side team Since winning the Championship play-off final on penalties against Reading, Terriers head coach David Wagner has already brought in Laurent Depoitre, Aaron Mooy and Jonas Lossl....

Incredible 3D renders, derived from data captured by JunoCam, the visible-light camera onboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft, have allowed animations of the relative heights of the cloud tops of our solar system’s largest planet. They reveal delicately textured swirls and peaks that researchers say resemble the frosting on top of a cupcake. The results were presented by citizen scientist and professional mathematician and software developer, Gerald Eichstädt, at the Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) 2022 in Granada....

Players Conventional Wisdom B. Clinton down arrow OK, he’s unindicted. But if Bradley thinks he’s damaged goods, can the voters be far behind? B. Bradley *(this character cannot be Bill to Dems: Stuff it. represented in ASCII text) But CW bets he won’t toss his jock into the ring in ‘96. Democrats down arrow Burnt toast until the 21st century–at the earliest. And you could Whig-out altogether. Repubs up arrow Who cares about the presidency?...

Meadows’ remarks came during an interview with CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, after Trump claimed at a Friday rally in Florida that the U.S. is “entering the final turn and approaching the light at the end of the tunnel” with the pandemic. The same day, the U.S. broke its previous record for new daily COVID-19 infections, recording more than 85,000 cases. “We’re not going to control the pandemic....

Nitin Gadkari, who serves as President Narendra Modi’s minister of road transport and highways, told the NDTV channel Wednesday that the virus was made in a laboratory. China critics have cast doubt on Beijing’s handling of the COVID-19 outbreak, accusing the Chinese Communist Party of covering up initial warnings from the city of Wuhan, underreporting its number of infected and dead, and pressuring the World Health Organization (WHO) not to declare a global health emergency....

A flair-player who excelled in the 2-3-5 formation, Khan was a mainstay of the national team for the first ten years after independence and had taken part in the first international game that the country had played after 1947, losing out narrowly against France in the 1948 Olympics. While Rahim Saab had left out most of the stars from that team while choosing his squad for the Helsinki Olympics four years later, Ahmed found a place and led the line during the 1951 Asian Games triumph as well....

However, the DSK Shivajians’ number one has decided to structure and defend his case to a specially appointed panel at the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) without submitting the ‘B’ sample required to run the crucial tests again. The ‘B’ sample tests are usually carried out in the presence of an indepedent observer. Pal, an Arjuna awardee, didn’t turn up at the NADA headquarters in the national capital New Delhi, for the submission of the second sample and it is believed he will instead opt to defend his case solely on a single ‘A’ sample....

Excited because India are embarking on a journey that seems to be a straightforward path to the continent’s showpiece tournament in which India have taken part only thrice since its inception in 1956. There is a heightened focus on the game in India and qualification for the Asian Cup is the first step towards playing in the FIFA World Cup one day. Having been drawn in a group consisting of Kyrgyzstan (ranked 125th), Myanmar (ranked 172nd) and Macau (ranked 184th), the Blue Tigers, themselves ranked 132nd, are expected to finish in the top-two and clinch qualification....

Holt committed to the Hoosiers last week, but coach Tom Crean couldn’t make the announcement until Tuesday. The 6-foot-7, 225-pound freshman was a finalist for New York’s Mr. Basketball Award. He averaged 19.8 points, 14.6 rebounds and 5.0 blocks last season at Webster Schroeder High School last season, and Holt has a 7-foot-3 wingspan. Holt is sixth freshman in this year’s recruiting class. Crean already has signed James Blackmon, Jr....

John Keown was booked into Vanderburgh County Jail at 1.45 a.m. on Sunday morning with his bond set at $500, according to the sheriff office’s prison inmate lookout. Keown is reportedly facing charges for criminal trespassing after refusing to leave a hospital in the town of Evansville in the middle of the night. He said he was not feeling well so went to the emergency room at a local hospital, according to local news station 14News....

Just hours after yet another run as fastest qualifier in the Xfinity Series, Busch won pole position for Sunday’s Brickyard 400. MORE: 10 drivers to watch | Gordon fire suit fail | NASCAR takes a back seat Surprised? Don’t be. Busch is the defending champion of both Indy races and had the fastest car in Friday’s second practice session. He won Saturday’s Xfinity race from pole position and will try to duplicate that feat on Sunday....

Bauer, who has always taken a scientific approach to his career, said the implication was based on experiments he had performed to see what substances like pine tar could do to a pitcher’s spin rate. Speaking with Sporting News, Bauer discussed his research and why foreign substances and spin rates are such a big deal. MORE: Power Rankings — Where do Bauer and the Indians land following first month?...

The team picked up Francona’s options for the 2019 and 2020 seasons, maxing out an extension he signed two years ago. Cleveland also announced it has picked up designated hitter Carlos Santana’s $12 million option for 2017, keeping him off the free-agent market as expected. MORE: Longest World Series droughts The Indians hadn’t posted a winning record in the five seasons before Francona came aboard prior to the 2013 campaign but haven’t been below ....

First confirmed by The Wall Street Journal, major distributors AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson, along with drug maker Teva Pharmaceuticals reached the agreement late Sunday night. In doing so, they joined the ranks of Johnson & Johnson, Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals and Purdue Pharma, which all reached similar deals earlier this year to avoid the landmark federal trial scheduled to begin Monday morning. Under the agreement, the three distributors will pay a combined $215 million, while Teva will pay $20 million in cash over three years and donate $25 million in anti-addiction medication....

The ministry, which goes by the abbreviation KOMINFO, has denied that the verified account on the adult video service belongs to them. A screenshot of the account’s profile went viral on Twitter earlier in December. The account’s profile page read “Official Pornhub Account of Ministry of Communication and Information of the Republic of Indonesia - Served to oversee and guarantee the public in enjoying the video and to bust the nut....

Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, 17-turn 2.38-mile road coarse with 80 feet of elevation change, again will host the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama. MORE: Watch the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama live with fuboTV (7-day trial) Penske Racing’s Josef Newgarden will be considered the favorite for the 2019 Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama, and with good reason. Not only has Newgarden won the last two IndyCar races in Alabama, but he has won three of the last four, and those three wins are the most for any driver at the track....

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that there are 3,960 fatal unintentional drownings in the United States every year, averaging approximately 11 deaths to due drowning every day. The CDC also reports that for children between 1 and 4 years of age, drowning is the second leading cause of death, trailing only birth defects. On Tuesday night, around 10:30 p.m., Harris County Sheriff’s deputies were called to an apartment complex, according to local station KTRK-TV....

The Spain international, who made his Barca debut in 2002, is keen to extend his lengthy stay at the club, with a new deal mooted in recent weeks. Barcelona 6/10 to win La Liga And, following his side’s 1-0 Champions League win at Sporting CP, Iniesta told reporters that he was expecting positive movement on that front. “I think the good news is coming soon,” the midfielder said. On a hard-fought win, which keeps Barca top of Group D, Iniesta added: “It’s the Champions League - the matches away from home are always difficult and this has been one more example....