Ravens heavily favored to beat Cleveland, which would clinch the AFC North for Baltimore

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Ravens heavily favored to beat Cleveland, which would clinch the AFC North for Baltimore

2025-01-03 05:17 Last Updated At：05:33

Cleveland (3-13) at Baltimore (11-5)

Saturday, 4:30 p.m. EST, ABC/ESPN.

BetMGM NFL Odds: Ravens by 19 1/2.

Against the spread: Browns 4-12, Ravens 9-6-1.

Series record: Ravens lead 36-15.

Last meeting: Browns beat Ravens 29-24 on Oct. 27, 2024, at Cleveland.

Last week: Browns lost to Dolphins 20-3; Ravens beat Texans 31-2.

Browns offense: overall (27), rush (28), pass (20), scoring (32).

Browns defense: overall (17), rush (19), pass (13), scoring (24).

Ravens offense: overall (1), rush (2), pass (6), scoring (3).

Ravens defense: overall (14), rush (1), pass (30), scoring (13).

Turnover differential: Browns minus-20, Ravens plus-4.

DE Myles Garrett. While the Browns have been bad, Garrett has rarely been better. The NFL’s reigning top defensive player is tied for the league lead with 14 sacks. Last week, he became the first player with 14 sacks in four straight seasons. Garrett recently said he wants to see the Browns’ blueprint and said he’s not interested in being part of a rebuild.

QB Lamar Jackson. It's his final chance to add to his already-impressive numbers for the MVP race, and a win would give Baltimore the AFC North title for a second straight season. Jackson's passer rating of 121.6 is not far behind the single-season record of 122.5, set by Aaron Rodgers in 2011.

Baltimore's improving secondary against Cleveland's passing game. Jameis Winston threw three touchdown passes in the win over the Ravens earlier this season, but he's since been benched, leaving Bailey Zappe as the choice at quarterback for the Browns this weekend.

Browns: CB Denzel Ward (shoulder), TE David Njoku (knee), RB Jerome Ford (ankle), LB Jordan Hicks (concussion), RB Pierre Strong Jr. (concussion) and LB Jordan Hicks (concussion) will all sit out Saturday's game. …. Browns WR Cedric Tillman (concussion), who had two TDs in Cleveland’s win over Baltimore in October, was placed on injured reserve this week.

Ravens: RB Justice Hill (concussion/illness) has missed practice time this week, and illness has also kept DT Nnamdi Madubuike, G Patrick Mekari and T Ronnie Stanley out of at least some practice.

The Ravens have dominated, winning 11 straight and 20 of 24 from 2006-17. ... The Browns have turned things around lately, winning four of the past six matchups. ... Cleveland hasn't swept the season series since 2007. ... Ravens coach John Harbaugh, who grew up in Ohio rooting for the Browns, is 25-8 against them.

Browns coach Kevin Stefanski was noncommittal most of the week before deciding on Thursday to start Bailey Zappe at quarterback against the Ravens. Dorian Thompson-Robinson struggled while starting Cleveland’s past two games, throwing three interceptions while being flagged four times for intentional grounding. … Zappe, who was signed off Kansas City’s practice squad in October, will be the 40th QB to start for the Browns since 1999. He's the fourth to start this season. ... Garrett has never led the league in sacks. His career high is 16, set in 2021 and 2022. Garrett has 8 1/2 sacks in 13 games against the Ravens. ... Cleveland WR Jerry Jeudy had a career-high 12 catches last week. He has a career-best 84 this season, five shy of tying the team single-season record shared by Hall of Famer Ozzie Newsome (1983, 1984) and Kellen Winslow Jr. (2006). … Cleveland has a league-low four interceptions, the fewest since Detroit in 2008. The Browns also have minus-2 yards on those picks. The league record for fewest in a season is 5, set by the 1959 L.A. Rams. ... It will be the final game for Browns S Rodney McLeod, who is retiring after 13 seasons. ... 11-year LG Joel Bitonio will wait until after the season to decide if he's coming back. A two-time All-Pro, Bitonio said he'll factor in his health, family and the team's future. ... Browns P Corey Bojorquez has a league-leading 16 punts inside the 10-yard line. ... Even if the Ravens lose to Cleveland, they would still win the division if Pittsburgh loses to Cincinnati. ... Derrick Henry has scored a Ravens-record 16 TDs this season. He has 14 rushing TDs, which is tied with Jamal Lewis for the single-season record. ... Baltimore's offense has a league-high 79 plays of at least 20 yards. ... Since Week 11, the Ravens have allowed an NFL-low 16.3 points a game. ... Baltimore's Kyle Van Noy has 11 1/2 sacks this season and 20 1/2 sacks in 29 games with the Ravens going back to last season. ... Jackson has 3,955 yards passing, 39 passing TDs and four INTs. No player in NFL history has thrown for 4,000 yards and 40 TDs with four or fewer INTs. ... Jackson also has 852 yards rushing. No player has reached 4,000 yards passing and 800 yards rushing in a season.

Baltimore's Mark Andrews leads NFL TEs with 10 receiving TDs and remains a top red zone option for Jackson.

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Heat begin a new chapter: Life without Jimmy Butler, who is suspended and seeking a trade

2025-01-05 11:25 Last Updated At：11:30

MIAMI (AP) — For the 119th time since Jimmy Butler joined Miami, the Heat played a game without him.

This was different from the others.

And it went very — very — badly for Miami.

Butler is gone, banished by the Heat for seven games over what they called conduct detrimental to the team — and he's probably not going to play for Miami again. His suspension started Saturday night when the Heat played the Utah Jazz, and the team says it will agree to his wishes and try to facilitate a trade.

Game 1 of the Butler suspension was a disaster: The Jazz, who entered with a 7-25 record, took a 43-point lead and wound up winning 136-100. They outrebounded Miami 57-32, and it didn't seem that close.

“It’s disappointing when you see the organization and a player going head-to-head like that,” Heat captain Bam Adebayo said Saturday after the team's shootaround practice. “But the rest of us got to figure out how to win games.”

They did not have it figured out Saturday. Not even close.

They hadn't lost a game by more than 19 all season. They lost this game by 36, the sixth-biggest home loss in franchise history.

Butler has not commented publicly on the suspension. The National Basketball Players Association spoke out on Butler's behalf hours after the Heat announced the suspension on Friday, saying it believes the team's actions are “excessive and inappropriate.” The suspension could cost Butler about $2.4 million of his $48.8 million salary this season.

“It's none of our business,” Adebayo said. “It’s for Jimmy and for the management to handle.”

How it gets handled from here, and on what timeframe, is anyone's guess.

There was a new starting lineup with Butler gone: Miami opened the game with Terry Rozier, Tyler Herro, Haywood Highsmith, Nikola Jovic and Adebayo. Butler's locker is still the way he left it, shower shoes leaning against the drawer under the seat, a few items hanging on hooks and a few things taped to the wall. It will be cleaned out at some point, but he's still part of the team.

For now, anyway.

“We’re just going to focus on tonight," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said before the game. "I want to quiet all the distractions. Enough has been said. We have clarity. We’re just going to focus on this group in the locker room. That’s what I want them to focus on and quiet the noise as much as possible. I’m not a clickbait type of coach, so you’re not going to get anything else really from me. We have a task to do.”

Utah will see Miami twice during Butler's suspension; the Heat play in Salt Lake City on Thursday. Jazz coach Will Hardy knows being without Butler won't change Spoelstra's approach.

“They have a consistency in their program from a competitive standpoint that you know that it doesn’t matter who plays," Hardy said. “You come here, you play Miami in your building, it’s going to be 48 minutes of highly competitive, physical basketball. Spo has shown that the entire time he’s been in Miami.”

Trading Butler will be a challenge in these NBA times, with the rules of the collective bargaining agreement limiting the ways teams can acquire players. It's possible, but it's far from certain. And the Heat simply letting Butler leave as a free agent this summer also remains a possibility — a move that would open up some other avenues for Miami to acquire new players before next season.

“It sucks to see that he won’t be around,” Rozier said.

Butler averaged 21.7 points, 6.2 rebounds and 5.7 assists in 380 games with the Heat, including playoffs. Entering Saturday, since Butler joined the Heat, they won 59.7% of their games when he played (227-153); they won 49.2% of their games when he didn’t (58-60).

He became eligible last summer for a two-year, $113 million extension. The deal was never offered by the Heat, in part because Butler has missed about one-quarter of the team's games during his Miami tenure.

It was only natural that such a big sum of money not being offered was going to lead to problems. And the tension boiled over this week. Butler didn't play in the fourth quarters of Miami games on Wednesday and Thursday; he spent some offensive possessions simply standing in the corner, almost as if he had no role.

“I feel like he came to work, he tried to perform, and it just didn’t go his way,” Adebayo said. “I feel like he didn’t want to be in the corner. But like I said, we developed a system where we play around everybody, and we just had to figure out how to incorporate him. But after what happened yesterday, we’re focused on who’s with us now.”

After the second of those games earlier in the week, Butler said “probably not” when asked if he thought he could find on-court joy again in Miami.

Saying those two words may have been his last official act as a member of the Heat. A week or so ago, Miami had no interest in trading Butler. Hearing him say that he doesn't want to be on the team anymore evidently changed things.

“It's hard to not see him around,” Jovic said.

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