NBA Top 100 Players; UEFA Champions League starts with goals; Saints move up in NFL Power Rankings

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⚽ Good morning everyone, but especially…

The UEFA Champions League and football fans everywhere

Well, that was fun, wasn’t it? With six games and 28 goals on day one, the UEFA Champions League is off to a great start, and nobody can fly higher than that. Bayern Munich. The Bavarians scored a goal on the net Record nine goals in Champions League, 9-2 loss Of Dinamo Zagrebwith harry kane He scored four goals to become the highest-scoring English player in the competition’s history.

Chuck Booth has it The five best moments of the dayIncluding goal of the tournament…already! Thanks for this This one, Zeno Debast,

Elsewhere, Christian Pulisic Scored again For AC MilanBut it was a 3-1 defeat at best for the Italian giants liverpoolPulisic still a lonely bright spot For Milan, Francesco Porzio writes.

Here’s more information:

Looking at today’s action, which you can stream on Paramount+ as always, the top game is manchester city vs interRematch of the 2023 final.

As always, we have Experts’ picks for every match,

👍 Honorable Mention

👎 Not so honorable mentions

🏀 NBA’s top 100 players: Rising, falling, and why LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant are still in the top 10

It’s here, and it’s beautiful: our Top 100 NBA players ahead of the 2024-25 seasonAs voted on by our NBA writers. Here are the top five:

1. Nikola Jokic (last year: 1) , “The only player on Earth who can guarantee his team a quality shot on every possession, Jokic’s dominance is evident both at the obvious and at the less visible margins.” — Brad Botkin
2. Giannis Antetokounmpo (Last year: 2) , “Things haven’t gone according to plan for Antetokounmpo and the Bucks over the past few years, but he remains one of the most dominant forces in the league on both sides of the ball.” — Jack Maloney
3. Luka Doncic (Last year: 4) , “He plays at the speed of paint drying on a wall, and yet as we saw in the Mavericks’ performance in the NBA Finals, even the best defenders can’t stop him.” Jasmine Wimbish
4. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (last year: 11) , “Last year’s MVP runner-up Gilgeous-Alexander has been steadily climbing his way up the rankings. thunder Rise up the rankings.” –James Herbert
5. Joel Embiid (Last year: 6) , “ Arguably the most dominant individual scorer in the league, Embiid has made huge strides as a hub Nick Nurse‘There’s a more speed-oriented offense.’ — Brad Botkin

Of course, these were old people – Stephen Curry, LeBron James And kevin durant — who lifted weights at the Olympics, and they ranked sixth, eighth and ninth, respectively. Bill Reiter reminds us Enjoy it while it lasts.

One reason for this is that there is a wave of young players vying for the top spots. Victor Wembanyamawas only 20 years old, The biggest jump in this year’s rankings, from 58th to 12th place.Here’s Sam Quinn:

• Quinn: “After the All-Star break, Wembanyama averaged 23.5 points, 12 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 4.5 blocks and 1.5 steals per game. I can’t imagine you’d be surprised to hear that no one has done that in an entire season. … He is the ultimate combination of size and skill, the culmination of everything that has been great about this game for the past decade. The scariest thing about his absurd post-break stats is not how spectacular it is, but how disappointing it will look in comparison. In all likelihood, this will be his worst performance in a long time.”

Fellow young older man Chet Holmgren (68th to 30th) and Alperen Sengun Tied for the second-biggest jump (from 85th to 47th). The big guys are back!

I can’t praise our NBA team enough. It’s a great job and every NBA fan should be grateful for it. So, once again:

Oh yes, and Sam All 30 coaches ranked before the season Also. Not to spoil things, but Lakers Fans, look away.

🏈 NFL Power Rankings: Saints on the rise

As I said last week, week one was for overreacting, and week two is to see if it was worth it.

But we are not going to exaggerate here: Saint Look legitimate. Excellent, even. New Orleans moved up 19 spots from 25th to sixth Pete Prisco’s NFL Power Rankings. This is the biggest jump I’ve seen since I started writing this newsletter. Yes, it’s a very small sample size, but the new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak took it Derek Carr To a new level:

• Carr is under center on 68% of his snaps (last year: 42%) and using play action on 52% of his dropbacks (last year: 15%).
• Carr is throwing 18% of his passes at least 20 yards down the stretch, the highest figure of his career to date.
• Carr is taking 3+ seconds to throw 41% of his passes, the highest pace of his career.
• Carr has been pressured on 19% of dropbacks, the fewest in the NFL.

Carr has long been a shotgun, quick-game quarterback. Now, with a more subtle attack, Chris Olave (excellent everywhere), rashid shaheed (deeply threatening) and Alvin Kamara (The short game) is being maximized, and some of the pressure is taken off a potentially worrisome offensive line. I’m a big fan of that.

Here are the five teams ahead of New Orleans:

1. Major (Prev: 1)
2. Bills (3)
3. Texans (5)
4. Buccaneers (9)
5. Vikings (18)

Dolphins (from 10th to 23rd) were the biggest decliners, and Tua Tagovailoa (brain injury) out by 8th week And Skylar Thompson taking overThings might get worse before they get better.

Finally, here it is One thing we learned about each team in Week 2,

🏈 Projected College Football Playoff Bracket

Brad Crawford Latest College Football Playoff Projection Here it is, and– what is that? Georgia Why is it in the 5th place? The reason is:

• Crawford: “That’s not an exaggeration. Offensively the concern is potentially that this team might not have the firepower around the quarterback Carson Beck Most people believed they would, and the Bulldogs’ offensive line was pushed by a team that had just lost at home by 25 points. South CarolinaGeorgia is elite, great on defense and ranked No. 2 in the polls, but needs to do work.”

and that was that First The news came that the lineman Tate Ratledge (ankle) will missing several weeksI trust the whole world Kirby Smart And the Bulldogs are back on track, but there’s a big test yet to come No. 4 Alabama It is going to happen on 28 September.

No. 6 Tennessee Brad K is also in the projected CFP, and the Volunteers are also facing a big game: this weekend. No. 15 Oklahoma.It could be even bigger Brent Venables and the Sooners, who are 3-0 but haven’t really impressed in wins Houston And Tulane. Shehan Jayarajah and Will Backus There was debate over how much of a “must-win” this was for Oklahoma,

• Backus: “If the Volunteers enter the Palace on the Prairie and win comfortably, it would be a powerful blow to the direction of Oklahoma under Venables, especially since he had the better part of two years to prepare his team for the move to the SEC. Tennessee is capable of controlling this game with a stifling defense and a run game that few teams are able to consistently stop.”

Here’s more information:

📺 What we’re watching on Wednesday

We’re watching the UEFA Champions League on Paramount+ and CBS. This way.
Yankees vs. Mariners9:40 PM on Prime Video