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Multiple NBA players are returning to the court this season for the first time in a very long while. Let’s cover a few of the biggest stars that will be once again flashing their talents on the floor this upcoming season, starting off with arguably the most notable.
Zion Williamson
Williamson hadn’t touched a basketball court in 534 long days, but he’s been able to get onto the court in the season opener against the Brooklyn Nets. During this NBA game, he was able to post 25 points, nine rebounds, three assists and four steals with a +13 over the course of 30 minutes of action. This young star desperately needed to get back into the fray for the Pelicans. As they seem to be just a few pieces away from making some noise in the Western Conference. A healthy Zion could rival some of the best names in the league. After all, you don’t just average 27 points in your sophomore season and fall off a cliff.
Kawhi Leonard
The Klaw has missed roughly 500 days himself since hurting his knee in an NBA postseason game. He was able to finally make it back onto the court in this season’s opener as well, though it was a little different compared to Zion. He didn’t step out onto the floor until late in the second quarter. Posting 14 points, seven rebounds and two assists in 21 total minutes of action. We got to see the Los Angeles Clippers battle their hearts out a year ago with Paul George leading the charge, but they were severely lacking in the star power department. A healthy Kawhi can help out on both the offensive and defensive end.
Jamal Murray
The Denver Nuggets have been having trouble getting consistent production from a player not named Nikola Jokic for the past few years. Jamal Murray not being out there throughout all of last season certainly didn’t help. Well, he hasn’t been out there for 556 consecutive days. That all changed in this year’s season opener. He got 26 minutes of action against the Utah Jazz and posted 12 points, two rebounds, one assists and two steals. The Nuggets were blown out that night by Utah, but it was a welcome sight for a Nuggets squad that needs more scoring. Denver has some big expectations for them this year. Now that they’re getting healthier, those expectations aren’t going away anytime soon.
John Wall
The final player that we are going to be talking about is John Wall. It’s been a very long time since he’s consistently been out there on the court. He’s played a total of 40 games over the past 1,396 total days. That isn’t a typo, that’s a genuine statistic. Now, he’s on the Los Angeles Clippers to bolster the backcourt for a team that already has PG and Leonard. John played 25 minutes in the season opener and posted 15 points, four rebounds, three assists and one steal. Obviously, he might not be out there for all 82 games. But it’s nice to see him back out there and healthy after so much time.
The NBA season is fully upon us, which is the time for us to bring around our NBA predictions. This time, we are going to dive into the upcoming matchup between the Utah Jazz and the New Orleans Pelicans.
The first team that we’ll cover is the Utah Jazz. Utah is supposed to be one of the worst teams in the league. It’s the reason why they dumped a lot of their talent and stuck with a younger core that is aimed to get a top five draft pick. However, they’ve been great to everybody’s surprise. The Jazz won their first two games of the season and have six guys averaging over 12 points per game on the year. Lauri Markkanen was one of the most prominent, as he averages 20.5 points and 8.5 rebounds per game. Even Jarred Vanderbilt is playing out of his mind right now. Averaging 13 boards a night. If there’s anything that Utah does well, it’s surprise opponents. I feel like this team is catching many squads off guard right now because they aren’t very appealing on paper. But this group is clicking already.
On the other side of things, the Pelicans have won their first two games of the season as well. Their big four on their starting lineup is clearly playing well right now. They currently have four guys that average over 20 points per game this season, with those guys being Brandon Ingram, CJ McCollum, Zion Williamson and Jonas Valanciunas. Ingram is the one leading the charge with 28 points per game while Valanciunas pours in 22.5 points and 15 rebounds himself. McCollum averages 21 and Zion averages 20.5 points. New Orleans is just one of those rosters that make it difficult to defend against. Zion and Jonas are near impossible to defend throughout an entire game with them attacking the basket. To make matters worse, if you choose to block up the paint, Ingram and McCollum will tear you apart on the perimeter.
NBA Picks Today
For the pick of this game, I’m going to be rolling with the Pelicans. They are favored by seven and a half points, and I like those odds. While both of these teams have played excellent so far this year, the Jazz are the ones overperforming while the Pelicans are playing as many have expected. New Orleans has talent that makes what they’re doing sustainable while Utah appears to be just catching people off guard early on. I also don’t think that they are going to be able to match New Orleans size on the inside.
When it comes to the total, I like the over here. It’s set at a total of 230 points right now and with the w ay these two teams are putting up buckets, the over looks great. The Pelicans are likely to tear about Utah on the inside with their scoring, and the Jazz will have to figure out a way to just keep up. This is going to result in a matchup that will be more towards the higher scoring side.
Manchester United manager Erik Ten Hag will discuss with Cristiano Ronaldo before the attacker returns to the first team.
The Portuguese star has been banished from training with his senior teammate after refusing to come on against Tottenham and leaving the stadium early.
The former world’s best player has struggled to play this season as Ten Hag favours the younger attackers in his team.
United had a good game against Spurs and won it 2-0, but the celebrations were overshadowed by clips of Ronaldo walking off the pitch before the game ended.
He now trains with the club’s under21 players, and he is not expected back among the senior squad until at least next week.
Speaking about the incident, Ten Hag confirmed via Matchplug that: ‘We will first talk,’
Adding: ‘We set certain standards — that is for any player.’
Erling Haaland could become the first £1bn player in the world, according to his agent Rafaela Pimenta.
The Norwegian has developed into the world’s most lethal striker this season as he leads Manchester City in goalscoring.
The striker joined the English club for just £51.2million, which is considered a steal now when his impact his measured since he moved to the Etihad.
The striker is one of the best players in the world now, and he has shown he will keep getting better and that means there is room for more endorsement deals and even salary increases.
Pimenta says via Matchplug: ‘I think Erling will be the first player to achieve a transfer that will be around £1bn.
‘If you put together his football value, his image value, his sponsor value, it is for sure £1bn.
It’s normal to compare Erling with Mbappe so you have a little bit of an idea of the market.’
Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois has again criticised the voters for the Ballon d’Or trophy after he came 7th in its latest ranking.
The Belgian was awarded the best goalkeeper of the year and had the highest placement among all the goalies in the world in the award by France Football.
He was the Man of the Match in the Champions League final in Paris in May as Madrid secured yet another trophy.
However, he feels he deserves a better placement or to even win the awards and insists goalkeepers are not voted for like strikers.
He said via Matchplug: ‘Without a good goalkeeper you don’t win a trophy. And in football awards, sometimes we forget that.
‘People vote faster for a striker who scores goals than by a goalkeeper. Too bad. But we will continue to show that goalkeepers are really important.
Former Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard has come out fighting for his job and insists the team is better now than when he first became its manager.
He is close to finishing his first year on the Villa bench and his team is struggling for consistency in this campaign.
The Villans undeniably play good football, but they have failed to convert chances in their matches and they keep falling to defensive mistakes and conceded cheap goals.
Gerrard’s job is now on the line and he could be sacked if Villa loses their next two matches, but the former Rangers boss say the team is better than when he first arrived.
He said via Matchplug: ‘I won’t feel sorry for myself. We’ll accept the outcome of the game because it is what it is… obviously the outcome is a defeat but we’ll certainly take the positives.
‘Yes I do (think we’re better than when I started, in November 2021). I have total trust and confidence and belief in myself and this group of players. It’s well documented we’re missing big players at the moment.
‘A lot of improvements we tried to make in the last window are not available to help us at the moment. I believe we might have been in a healthier position with that support, but they’re on the way back. I think that’s a positive.’
West Ham midfielder Lucas Paqueta is set to miss the World Cup for Brazil after suffering what appears to be a serious injury, weeks away from the international competition.
The Brazilian only joined the Hammers in the summer after showing great form on the books of Olympique Lyon and he has just started getting used to how they play.
However, he is now injured and missed their 1-0 defeat at the hands of Liverpool last night to confirm he is still not fit enough.
West Ham manager, David Moyes has admitted he does not know when the midfielder will be fit again and this has raise alarm over his chances of playing at the World Cup.
‘He has an injury, it’s quite serious at the moment.
I am not sure how long it will keep him out,’ said Moyes via Matchplug.
‘He has been a huge player for us recently, he was coming into form and giving us a different type of dynamic in the team. We are really disappointed to lose him.’
We keep on trucking forward when it comes to these predictions for the week. This time, we are going to be covering the matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers. Both of these teams are entering this matchup following tough losses, but there’s opportunity for one of them to get a nice bounce back win.
How Last Week Went
The Chiefs are coming into this game after losing to the Buffalo Bills in a Divisional Round rematch. The Chiefs had the ball with one minute left to try and win the game at the end of regulation, but Patrick Mahomes threw a costly interception to seal the game. It was actually the second interception for Mahomes here, twice as many picks this week as he’s had all season long. He was sort of forced to air it out constantly as the run game never really got going. Well, they didn’t try it enough for it to do so. Clyde Edwards-Helaire had nine rushes for 33 yards, Isiah Pacheco had two for nine and Jerick McKinnon had two for one. On the defensive end, the Chiefs were playing without a handful of their starters in the secondary. They held up well, but help could be needed sooner rather than later.
Now we flip over to the 49ers. They just got manhandled by the Atlanta Falcons, never being really competitive. Jimmy Garoppolo played decently, throwing for 296 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. However, the run game didn’t get anything going, forcing so much pressure on Jimmy G and a depleted 49ers defense. Jeff Wilson had seven rushes for 25 yards, Deebo Samuel had two for 11 and Tevin Coleman had four for three. Just like the Chiefs, the run game was nowhere to be found. As for the defense, half of their starters were out of action. One report stated that the team was missing a whopping SEVEN defensive starters for that game. Mind you, there’s only 11 starters on a defense. So, they didn’t have about 70 percent of their defensive talent available. They will certainly need it if they want to stop the Chiefs and Mahomes.
NFL Picks Today
In my opinion, this game doesn’t seem very hard when it comes to making predictions. The Chiefs very rarely lose two games in a row with Mahomes and Andy Reid both there for them. Plus, the 49ers are missing too many defensive starters due to injuries for them to be able to keep up. If Kansas City gets an early lead, then Garoppolo and company will have to lean on the passing game. Something they’ve not done well with so far this season. Roll with the Chiefs with confidence.
Then we talk about the total which is set for this game. It’s set at 48.5 points and that looks like a total that could reach the over. The Chiefs could pretty quickly light up the 49ers defense if they don’t get some guys back from injury. That offensive explosion could force the 49ers to air it out themselves. It could turn the game into a shootout if both offenses get hot.
