Heat list Jimmy Butler as doubtful for Thursday as speculation about his future intensifies

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Heat list Jimmy Butler as doubtful for Thursday as speculation about his future intensifies

2024-12-26 07:21 Last Updated At：07:30

MIAMI (AP) — The Miami Heat are listing Jimmy Butler as doubtful for their game Thursday at Orlando, saying he needs time to recondition before returning to the lineup.

Butler did not fly with the team to Orlando on Wednesday night, and his intentions for future games seem a bit unclear as well.

Butler has not asked the Heat to be moved, but ESPN, citing sources it did not name, reported Wednesday that the six-time All-Star wants a trade by the league's Feb. 6 deadline and is open to joining teams such as Phoenix, Golden State, Houston and Dallas.

The primary colors of those teams' uniforms include orange, yellow, red and blue. Butler's hair, perhaps not coincidentally, has been tinged in those colors at times in recent weeks.

“I actually like it,” Butler said earlier this month when asked about being linked to trade talks and speculation. “It’s good to be talked about. I don’t think there’s such a thing as bad publicity — to a point.”

Miami, if it doesn’t trade Butler, would run the risk of potentially losing him for nothing as a free agent next summer.

It is the latest twist in a long-running saga involving Butler's future with the Heat, one that began picking up steam back in May when Heat president Pat Riley was noncommittal about giving Butler an extension over the summer.

Butler is eligible for an extension that would guarantee him $113 million for the 2025-26 and 2026-27 seasons. But he is 35 and misses, on average, about one out of every four games in his Heat tenure.

“That’s a big decision on our part to commit those kinds of resources unless you have somebody who’s going to be there and available every single night,” Riley said in May. “That’s the truth.”

Riley also chided Butler after last season for saying that if he hadn't gotten hurt during the play-in tournament, teams like Boston and New York would have lost to Miami.

“I thought, ‘Is that Jimmy trolling or is that Jimmy serious?’ If you’re not on the court playing against Boston or on the court playing against the New York Knicks, you should keep your mouth shut on the criticism of those teams,” Riley said last spring.

Butler twisted an ankle in Miami's loss to Oklahoma City on Friday but missed the remainder of that game and the next two Heat games — at Orlando last Saturday and against Brooklyn on Monday — with illness, not the ankle, cited as the reason.

Butler has helped Miami make the NBA Finals twice in his Heat tenure. He is averaging 18.5 points, 5.8 rebounds and 4.9 assists this season.

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Mahomes throws 3 TDs as Chiefs clinch AFC's top seed by breezing past the skidding Steelers 29-10

2024-12-26 06:58 Last Updated At：07:00

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Andy Reid donned a Santa Claus suit in a giddy Kansas City Chiefs locker room on Christmas Day, then handed his team a present it increasingly looks like it deserves: home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs.

How Reid managed to slide into the costume so quickly after Kansas City's clinical 29-10 victory over the reeling Pittsburgh Steelers to lock up the top seed in the AFC for the fourth time in seven years is a mystery (though he hinted there's an elf involved).

How Reid's team manages to pull away from the pack year after year is not.

A lot of Patrick Mahomes. A dash of Travis Kelce. A splash of speed. A defense that quietly goes about its business, even when its leader is standing on the sideline in sweatpants.

Yes, it has been ugly — by Kansas City's lofty standards — at times while the Chiefs have chased a third straight championship. Yet as the playoffs loom, the group that looked so vulnerable for most of the season suddenly seems to be rounding into form.

And the road to the Super Bowl will once again go through Arrowhead Stadium. Just the way the Chiefs like it.

“Getting the No. 1 seed is important,” Mahomes said after throwing for 320 yards and three touchdowns. “It's like winning a playoff game.”

Even if how the Chiefs locked it up didn't exactly feel like one.

Kansas City (15-1) spent three hours toying with the Steelers (10-6) like a cat batting around shreds of leftover wrapping paper. The Chiefs raced to an early 13-point lead and were never really threatened by Pittsburgh, which has dropped three straight to see its chances of capturing the AFC North take another hit.

“That sucked, to be blunt,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said.

It often does when Pittsburgh is on one side of the line of scrimmage and Mahomes is on the other. Mahomes is now 4-0 against the Steelers with 17 touchdowns against just one interception. He connected on first-half scoring tosses to Xavier Worthy and Justin Watson and added a history-making 12-yard touchdown flip to Kelce to seal it in the fourth quarter.

The grab was the 77th scoring reception of Kelce's career, breaking a franchise record set by Hall of Famer Tony Gonzalez. The 35-year-old Kelce celebrated by dunking the ball over the goal post, a nod to Gonzalez's signature move. The gesture drew a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct, though it hardly mattered. Harrison Butker made the longer extra point and the Chiefs were firmly in control.

“It's just showing Tony some love,” Kelce said with a laugh on the day he joined Gonzalez and Jason Witten as the only tight ends to reach 1,000 receptions. Kelce finished with eight catches for 84 yards while playing for an offense that is starting to get its swagger back.

The defense wasn't bad either, even with five-time Pro Bowl defensive end Chris Jones sidelined by a calf injury. Jones' teammates hardly looked gassed while playing for the third time in 11 days.

“It was tough,” cornerback Trent McDuffie said. “I mean, three games in 11 days is crazy for anybody. But I thought we handled it very well.”

The Steelers did not. Pittsburgh went 0-3 during the span, a brutal stretch against Super Bowl contenders Philadelphia, Baltimore and Kansas City in which the Steelers looked outclassed.

Perhaps more troubling than the losses is the way they played out. Pittsburgh lost each contest by at least 14 points and could find itself starting the postseason on the road after playing fast-and-loose with the two-game division lead it enjoyed just three weeks ago.

“I think that there's highs and lows in every season,” Pittsburgh quarterback Russell Wilson said after throwing for 205 yards with an ill-timed pick in the end zone in the first quarter. “We've got to make sure that we end this last game on the right footing and right belief.”

That hasn't been an issue in years in Kansas City. Not with Mahomes at the controls. He spread his 29 completions to eight different players, including a career-best eight to Worthy and four to Hollywood Brown, whose return from injury has given the Chiefs another playmaker in what is starting to look like another stacked deck.

“We're playing, especially offensively, our best football of the year,” Mahomes said.

Looks like it. The two-time MVP hardly bothered by the ankle injury he suffered against Cleveland, throwing touchdowns to cap Kansas City's first two drives. And while the Steelers drew within 13-7 and 16-10, they never had the ball with a chance to take the lead in the second half.

Instead, the Chiefs — who spent most of the first three months of the season squeaking by most weeks — zoomed away with the No. 1 seed and several weeks to rest before a bid for a three-peat that certainly looks doable.

Chiefs: RB Isiah Pacheco left in the second half with a rib injury.

Steelers: DT Cam Heyward exited briefly in the fourth quarter but managed to return.

Chiefs: finish up the regular season by heading to Denver.

Steelers: host Cincinnati in the regular-season finale.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL