Over the past five weeks, the Utah Jazz have dramatically resuscitated their season. A 14-point loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Dec. 11 knocked the Jazz nine games under .500, a low-water mark for a team that appeared destined for deeper doldrums given their injury woes at the time. But with better health has come superior performance, and the Jazz have gone 15-5 ever since. Utah, which will start a six-game road trip against the Houston Rockets on Saturday, has not lost consecutive games during that span, with Thursday's 134-129 loss to Oklahoma City snapping a six-game winning streak. "I don't question the fight of our team," Jazz coach Will Hardy said. "I think the first part of the season as a whole kind of shows you the character of that group, n…

Mary Earps doesn’t want to be misunderstood but Manchester United’s goalkeeper no longer cares if she is.

The 27-year-old has a reputation for being a joker off the pitch. It can influence the way people view her as a footballer but there is a lesser-known seriousness and intelligence to Earps that underpins her bubbly persona.

England Women’s all-white XI shines light on a deep-rooted problem | Suzanne WrackRead more

“I’d like to think that people can tell that I have football running through me,” says Earps, who has signed a new two-year contract with option of a further year. “I eat, sleep, breathe the game. I dream the game.

“Pretty much everything I do revolves around my f…

Marcus Edwards will never forget his first meeting with Mauricio Pochettino. “Ah, it’s the best young player in the academy,” the then Tottenham manager said, and he watched how the attacking midfielder tried to conceal the surge of pride. “The one with the right foot …”

Er, hang on a second. “You mean the left?” Edwards replied.

“Oh, sorry. Wrong player,” Pochettino said, walking away.

The Argentinian left it for a while before he turned back. “Only joking.” Edwards would also break into a smile.

It was classic Pochettino, a genial ice-breaker undercut by mischief – one designed to establish a connection – and that early period of his S…

One of the Premier League’s best known football agents was confronted by about 12 debt collectors at his office – and separately relieved of his expensive watch at a ­restaurant – as part of an effort to put pressure on him into repaying money, Southwark crown court has heard.

Kia Joorabchian – whose clients have included Carlos Tevez, Javier Mascherano and Philippe Coutinho – was “accosted” by associates of another agent, Saif Alrubie, as part of efforts to “intimidate him into handing over bundles of cash”, the jury was told.

The supposed incident was relayed to the court as Alrubie stood trial for a separate alleged threat, which has resulted in him being charged with sending an “electronic c…

Every division in baseball outside of the NL Central has a gap of five games or less separating first and second place, bringing more meaning to the full slate of Friday games.All of my best bets feature teams mostly outside of the playoff race, except for the New York Mets, who are four games back of a Wild Card spot. San Francisco Giants vs. Miami MarlinsThe Giants are hosting the Marlins, and Blake Snell is on the mound for San Francisco. He’s 2-3 on the season with a 3.76 ERA. With six runs allowed over his last five starts and 45 strikeouts, including three double-digit strikeout games, Snell has obvious appeal. He’ll oppose Adam Oller, who has started just two games. His last time out, he allowed one earned run and six strikeouts. In his first start of the season, he had five …

Olympic men’s curling begins Wednesday morning (Tuesday evening in North America) with Team USA playing the host South Korea and defending gold medal-winner Canada vs. Italy at 7:05 p.m. ET. The top four teams after the 10-team round-robin will advance to a playoff. NBC Sports will be streaming every game online live. It’s going to be a magical two weeks. With that in mind, here’s a preview of each team from Deadspin curling correspondent Matt Sussman and British Columbia-based curler and comedian John Cullen. GIF via [object Object] Canada The team: Kevin Koe (skip), Marc Kennedy, Brent Laing, Ben Hebert, Scott Pfeifer How they got here: Won the Canadian trials in December on a last-shot draw. What they’ve done so far: Canadian and world champs in 2016, and Canadian runner-u…

Welcome to Deadspin’s irregular pro wrestling column, in which Tom Breihan and Ernest Wilkins will comb through the past month or so of superkicks, lariats, and 450 splashes in search of the greatest things that this most American of artforms has given us. Tom Breihan: Is John Cena having the best year of his career? For plenty of wrestling fans, Cena was something like a necessary evil for so long: WWE’s unstoppable virtuous good guy who never loses and who manages to make persistence seem like the corniest thing ever. He’s had plenty of great moments in the past decade-plus, of course. His 2011 Money in the Bank match with CM Punk is the closest thing we’ve got to a canonical classic this decade, and I’m still pissed at myself for not seeing it in person when I could’ve. An…

According to a report in the Chicago Tribune, Selig intends to call it quits after the 2012 season. If an official portrait is ever commissioned, I would suggest using the above photo. It seems…oddly fitting. [ Chicago Tribune] …

The body of former World Wrestling Entertainment star Shad Gaspard was found on Venice Beach early Wednesday morning, police said. He had been caught in a rip current last weekend while saving the life of his 10-year-old son, Aryeh. He was 39. The lifeguard on duty tried to deliver a “buoy-like device” to help bring the swimmers to shore. However, the waves were too strong and the boy couldn’t secure it. Knowing the lifeguard had an impossible decision to save Gaspard or his son, Gaspard made the choice for him. ”Take my son,” Gaspard said, according to Kenichi Haskett, who ESPN reports had debriefed the lifeguard. Aryeh was saved, as were several other swimmers. According to authorities, Gaspard was about 50 yards away from the shore when a lifeguard last saw him. As th…