All 5 starters out for exhausted Nuggets against Spurs following double-0T heartbreaker

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All 5 starters out for exhausted Nuggets against Spurs following double-0T heartbreaker

2025-04-03 08:25 Last Updated At：08:51

DENVER (AP) — Denver coach Michael Malone declared all five of his starters out for the exhausted Nuggets' game against the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night.

Denver's 140-139 double-overtime home loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday night played a role in Malone resting his stars.

Nikola Jokic scored a career-best 61 points against Minnesota and Malone said he informed his star after that heartbreaking loss that he'd be sitting out against the Spurs less than 24 hours later.

Jokic, who has been dealing with elbow and ankle injuries, and Christian Braun, who's been dealing with a sore foot, both logged 53 minutes against the Wolves.

Also out against San Antonio were Aaron Gordon (calf), Jamal Murray (hamstring) and Michael Porter Jr., who's tending to a family situation and also missed Tuesday night's game.

“Well, I mean our identity isn't just tied to five starters,” Malone said before tip-off. “Our identity and our culture permeates the entire locker room. So, the group that we go with tonight, whoever that is, has the responsibility to go out and play Denver Nuggets basketball.

“You've heard me say this often: I don't care who's available for us. I mean, our expectation and our preparation is to go out there and win this game,” Malone added. “It's not going to be easy, obviously. But we have more than enough in that locker room to go out there and beaet the Spurs.”

In the past, Jokic has fought to play on nights Malone wanted him to rest, but Malone said this time he wasn't open for a discussion over the issue.

“I looked at the stat sheet and I saw he played a lot of minutes, so it was a back-to-back and I just went up to him after the game, I said, ‘Hey, you’re out tomorrow.' This wasn't going to be a discussion. Because Nikola will play through anything and sometimes you have to be the coach,” Malone said. “And he understood.”

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Swollen rivers flood towns in US South after dayslong deluge of rain

2025-04-07 21:40 Last Updated At：21:51

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Days of unrelenting heavy rain and storms that killed at least 18 people worsened flooding as some rivers rose to near-record levels and inundated towns across an already saturated U.S. South and parts of the Midwest.

Cities ordered evacuations and rescue crews in inflatable boats checked on residents in Kentucky and Tennessee, while utilities shut off power and gas in a region stretching from Texas to Ohio.

“I think everybody was shocked at how quick (the river) actually did come up,” said salon owner Jessica Tuggle, who was watching Monday as murky brown water approached her business in Frankfort, Kentucky, the state capital along the swollen Kentucky River.

She said that as each new wave of rain arrived over the weekend, anxious residents hoped for a reprieve so they could just figure out how bad things would get and how to prepare. She and friends packed up everything she could haul out of her salon, including styling chairs, hair products and electronics, and they took it all to a nearby tap house up the hill.

“Everybody was just ‘stop raining, stop raining’ so we could get an idea of what the worst situation would be,” she said.

Officials diverted traffic and turned off utilities to businesses in the city as the river was expected to approach a record crest on Monday.

For many, there was a sense of dread that the worst was still to come.

“As long as I’ve been alive — and I’m 52 — this is the worst I’ve ever seen it,” said Wendy Quire, the general manager at the Brown Barrel restaurant downtown.

“The rain just won’t stop,” Quire said Sunday. “It’s been nonstop for days and days.”

The 18 reported deaths since the storms began on Wednesday included 10 in Tennessee. A 9-year-old boy in Kentucky was caught up in floodwaters while walking to catch his school bus. A 5-year-old boy in Arkansas died after a tree fell on his family’s home, police said. A 16-year-old volunteer Missouri firefighter died in a crash while seeking to rescue people caught in the storm.

The National Weather Service warned Sunday that dozens of locations in multiple states were expected to reach a “major flood stage,” with extensive flooding of structures, roads, bridges and other critical infrastructure possible.

In north-central Kentucky, emergency officials ordered a mandatory evacuation for Falmouth and Butler, towns near the bend of the rising Licking River. Thirty years ago, the river reached a record 50 feet (15 meters), resulting in five deaths and 1,000 homes destroyed.

The storms come after the Trump administration cut jobs at NWS forecast offices, leaving half of them with vacancy rates of about 20%, or double the level of a decade ago.

Forecasters attributed the violent weather to warm temperatures, an unstable atmosphere, strong winds and abundant moisture streaming from the Gulf.

The NWS said 5.06 inches (nearly 13 centimeters) of rain fell Saturday in Jonesboro, Arkansas — making it the wettest day ever recorded in April in the city. Memphis, Tennessee, received 14 inches (35 centimeters) of rain from Wednesday to Sunday, the NWS said.

Rives, a northwestern Tennessee town of about 200 people, was almost entirely underwater after the Obion River overflowed.

Domanic Scott went to check on his father in Rives after not hearing from him in a house where water reached the doorstep.

“It’s the first house we’ve ever paid off. The insurance companies around here won’t give flood insurance to anyone who lives in Rives because we’re too close to the river and the levees. So if we lose it, we’re kind of screwed without a house,” Scott said.

In Dyersburg, Tennessee, dozens of people arrived over the weekend at a storm shelter near a public school clutching blankets, pillows and other necessities. Just days earlier the city was hit by a tornado that caused millions of dollars in damage.

For some, grabbing the essentials also meant taking a closer look at the liquor cabinet.

In Frankfort, with water rising up to his window sills, resident Bill Jones fled his home in a boat, which he loaded with several boxes of bottles of bourbon.

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Anthony Izaguirre in New York; Kimberlee Kruesi, in Nashville; Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas; Adrian Sainz in Memphis; Tennessee; Sarah Raza in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Obed Lamy in Rives, Tennessee; and Sophia Tareen in Chicago.