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The Dolphins’ potential turnaround and historically hot NBA and NHL starts

by November 12, 2024

The Pulse newsletter 📣 | This is The Athletic’s daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Pulse straight to your inbox.

Good morning! Victor Wembanyama is unrealAge.

While you were sleeping: The Dolphins, a playoff team?

We’ve reached the nail-biting point of the NFL season where few teams are certain of making the playoffs, and even fewer are certain of being eliminated from postseason contention. In the middle, a massive flurry of teams find out who will be knocked out of the playoff scrum first.

Miami (3-6) is one of those teams that is holding on to that massand after an impressive 23-15 win over the Rams (4-5) last night – another team in spades – things are finally looking a little better for the Dolphins in 2024.

Two quick thoughts:

  • It’s a mistake, but Miami is a completely different team with Tua Tagovailoa in the lineup. This year’s Sans-Tua Dolphins looked like a bad college team with a record of 1-3. The record hasn’t gotten much better, but they’re doing enough to win (or almost win last week in Buffalo). Watch out for Miami in this remaining schedule.
  • The Rams could be in trouble. The offense failed to score a single touchdown in this game and has now posted eight scoreless first quarters this year. The current path is untenable for LA

Miami WR Tyreek Hill only had three catches for 16 yards and a touchdownHowever, he told ESPN before the game that he had been playing with torn ligaments in his left wrist, which he said was made worse by his very public arrest earlier this season.

It continues:

Sizzling Beginnings: See you, Cavs and Jets

It’s often easy to look across the athletic department and compare basketball and hockey. These two sports play simultaneously and produce the same number of games. A comparison is natural, right? So let’s just lean into it.

I want to focus on two teams, one from each sport, that have made a great start to this season together. Let’s start on the ice:

  • In Winnipeg, the Jets (14-1-0) simply have the best 15-game opening sequence in NHL history. They somehow built on last year’s magical regular season. They have the best power play in the league and a top-notch goalie in Connor Hellebuyck. The way Winnipeg got here is no coincidence.
  • And yet… the path now becomes much more difficult. As Murat Ates pointed out, the Jets have largely started this season playing at home against non-playoff teams. This trend is reversed over the next ten games – eight of which are against playoff teams and nine of those contests are away from home. The Jets say they are ready.

All for a team that still has moving worries. Moving on to the hardwood:

  • The Cavaliers! Cleveland is 12-0 to start 2024, including a win over the Bulls last night, making for one of the eight best starts in NBA history. As Zach Harper noted, this is a historically effective offense. A top-10 defense also helps.
  • It’s still early, but I say Cleveland is for real. Former Warriors assistant Kenny Atkinson was great in his first year as coach, and getting Donovan Mitchell to a long-term commitment was one of the bigger coups of the NBA offseason that no one was talking about.

Cleveland must play Philadelphia, Charlotte and Chicago before facing the defending champion Celtics next week, possibly 15-0. Don’t sleep on the Cavs.

Let’s continue:

Interesting facts

Yohannes chooses USWNT
Lily Yohannes, the 17-year-old soccer player Child prodigyShe announced yesterday on social media that she would play for the US women’s national team in the future. Her selection is a huge victory for coach Emma Hayes & Co. as Yohannes has already impressed in international play And was eligible to play for the Netherlands, where she moved with her family in 2017. You can find the full scouting report on them here.

More news

  • Georgia coach Kirby Smart said the Bulldog player who was celebrating Ole Miss Fans after Saturday’s defeat were “an idiot”. You can find his full remarks here.
  • Legendary football trainer John Robinson And Gerry Faust died yesterday at the age of 89. Rest in peace.
  • Jack Del Rio has resigned as a senior advisor Wisconsin Employees after being arrested for driving a vehicle while intoxicated.
  • police imprisoned Hike Franco in the Dominican Republic after a fight on Sunday. Franco, who has not played baseball since August 2023, is still awaiting trial on sexual abuse charges.
  • Ruud van Nistlerooyformer Manchester United The striker and most recently interim coach left the club after the arrival of Ruben Amorim.

Pressure: Maybe this is what Mark Pope was made for

The skepticism surrounding Mark Pope was justified. Yes, he’s a guy from Kentucky. But that’s still the case Kentuckywhere basketball is a dogma, where coaches are expected to win titles regardless of their pedigree.

And who will lead the Wildcats back to glory? Pope, a man who has never won a conference title as a college head coach, who has never made it out of the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Really?

Yes, really, as Brendan Quinn wrote a cracking story Today. A few anecdotes I would like to highlight:

  • The former Wildcat player, 52, spent parts of six seasons in the NBA after a brilliant college career, but didn’t immediately jump into coaching like many of his compatriots. Pope attended medical school Rick Pitino calls Pope ‘smarter than 99 percent of college basketball coaches’ – but one day gave up everything to start at the bottom of the coaching profession.
  • Imagine having four children and hoping for a lucrative, stable career Earn $24,000 as an operations officer on the Georgia staff. I’m not that confident.
  • That was 15 years ago. Now he’s on a roll, and as Brendan wrote, Big Blue Nation is behind him for now. Almost 24,000 fans flocked to the Rupp Arena for his debut.

However, the verdict comes quickly. No. 19 Kentucky (2-0) faces No. 6 Duke and Cooper Flagg tonight at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN.

Read Brendan’s story today for much more about Pope’s journey. It’s worth your time.

Watch and listen

📺 NBA: Knicks at 76ers
7:30 p.m. ET on TNT
Joel Embiid makes his season debut against a bitter rival that eliminated Philadelphia from the playoffs last season — and this is an NBA Cup game, no less. Take a seat.

📺 NBA: Mavericks at Warriors
10 p.m. ET on TNT
Keep sitting, because Klay Thompson is already sitting Return to the bay in a different uniform. I expect Klay to either make 0-fers or make 11 3-pointers in this game. No in between. Plus, these are two of the best teams in the Western Conference.

Get tickets for games like these Here.

🎧 “Scoop City” went deep into the Bears’ mess with Kevin Fishbain. I would listen to every word of this saga. Catch it here.

Pulse picks

Dane Brugler updated his 2025 NFL Draft Big Board this morning, with many changes including a new No. 1. You can find the list here.

The NBA Cup starts tonight, which means all the dishes will look different…although they won’t be as loud as last year. Our crew has taken all 30 places here.

Mike Sandos Choose six This week’s column is once again excellent, arguing that perhaps we shouldn’t be so shocked about this Bears Awkwardness.

It wasn’t supposed to end like this Lionel Messi And InterMiami: a shocking early exit from the MLS playoffs. Where does this team go from here?

Most clicked on in the newsletter yesterday: We have a two-day winner: Our recap of BYU-Utah’s wild finish.

Most read on the site yesterday: The Monday Tennis Briefing explains why Barbora Krejcikova called TV announcer.

📫 Do you love the pulse? Checkout The athlete‘s other newsletters.

(Top photo: Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)

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