Stepan's late goal lifts Coyotes over Canucks 2-1

Stepan's late goal lifts Coyotes over Canucks 2-1

https://www.taiwannews.com.tw

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Derek Stepan scored with 58 seconds left in the third period, leading the Arizona Coyotes to a 2-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday night.

Clayton Keller assisted on the winning goal and also scored in the first period for the Coyotes, who are 8-2-1 in their last 11 games.

Backup Darcy Kuemper made 16 saves in place of starter Antti Raanta, who missed the game due to injury.

Jussi Jokinen scored for the Canucks, who have lost four of their past five games and will likely be without star rookie Brock Boeser for the rest of the regular season after he injured his back against the New York Islanders on Monday night. Jacob Markstrom stopped 32 shots.

Tyler Motte, alone at the side of the net, missed a chance to put Vancouver ahead early in the third period as Nick Cousins deflected his shot to keep it 1-1. Motte got another chance from the slot, but Kuemper made the save.

The Coyotes dominated the shot clock and finally solved Markstrom with less than a minute to play. Keller found Stepan in the slot and he buried it past Markstrom to avoid overtime.

Vancouver appeared to have scored first in the opening period on a short-handed chance during an Arizona 5-on-3. With Daniel Sedin and Darren Archibald in the penalty box, Brandon Sutter sprung loose on a breakaway and appeared to go top corner on Kuemper. But video review revealed the puck had hit the crossbar.

Just as Sedin's penalty expired, Markstrom made an incredible glove save on Oliver Ekman-Larsson's shot, but the goalie couldn't control the puck. Keller picked it out from under defenseman Alex Edler to score at 18:20.

On a delayed Arizona penalty and Markstrom pulled for an extra attacker for almost a full minute, Jokinen scored his first for Vancouver with a one-timer off a corner feed from Brendan Leipsic that tied it at 1 after the first period.

Arizona had the majority of chances in an uneventful second period, with the Canucks mustering only four shots on goal to the Coyotes' nine. Vancouver's Jake Virtanen missed on a wide-open net. At the other end, Coyotes veteran Brad Richardson hit the post on a partial breakaway.

NOTES: Coyotes defenseman Alex Goligoski missed the game due to his wife expecting their second child.

Source:- https://www.taiwannews.com.tw

Denver Nuggets blow big leads as Los Angeles Clippers rally to win

Denver Nuggets blow big leads as Los Angeles Clippers rally to win

LOS ANGELES — Down two points with 14.6 seconds remaining, Will Barton ultimately ended up with the basketball and free space to drive the left baseline. But the ball popped high into the air before he could get a shot off.

In the end, it was just another Nuggets turnover, coach Michael Malone said. One of 17 in the second half as Denver again faltered down the stretch in a key 109-104 loss at the Clippers that dropped the Nuggets to ninth in the Western Conference standings.

“That’s back-to-back nights where defenses have turned up the pressure, turned up the heat, and we have not handled it well,” Malone said. “ … (Opponents) are watching us. They’re just gonna ratchet up the pressure and watch us turn the ball over and self-implode.”

The loss in which the Nuggets surrendered multiple double-digit leads came one night after they escaped with a 105-102 win over Dallas in a game Denver led by as many as 23 points in the second half. Clunky offense was partially to blame, as Jamal Murray’s absence due to concussion protocol left Barton as the Nuggets’ starting point guard and added Mason Plumlee (16 points, 14 rebounds) back to that group to pair with Nikola Jokic (18 points, eight rebounds) inside. But after committing just four turnovers before halftime, the Nuggets again regressed to the team that entered Wednesday ranked 28th in the NBA in opponent points off turnovers (19.3).

Denver set the wrong tone while up nine at the beginning of the third quarter, giving the ball away four times in the first three minutes. That helped fuel a 16-2 Clippers run to surge ahead 68-66 on a Tyrone Wallace layup. Then after the Nuggets answered with an 11-1 spurt to regain a double-digit lead, Los Angeles closed the period on an 11-2 run.

“Things were going kind of easy for us,” Barton said. “We let our guard down a little bit, and they kind of blitzed us. And then once they did that, then we’re scrambling to pick the pieces back up …

“When we’re winning the game and we’ve got a comfortable lead, we’ve got to know teams are gonna try to make that last push to get back in the game. We’ve got to be ready.”

That yo-yo third quarter set up a highly contested final period, capped by a wild finish.

Barton scored nine of his 17 points in the period, twice giving Denver a two-point lead on a pull-up 3 and 19-foot jumper on back-to-back possessions with about six minutes remaining and then tying the score at 96 on a tough finish inside about two minutes later. After Montrezl Harrell air-balled a free throw and clanked the next, Denver started intentionally fouling him but could not capitalize on the other end. Then after a Wesley Johnson 3-pointer put the Clippers up seven with less than two minutes to play, Denver initiated a 6-1 spurt to earn a chance to tie or win in the final seconds.

The Nuggets also could not take advantage of Los Angeles’ own sloppy play, committing 20 turnovers for 32 points. Though Blake Griffin totaled 20 points and 12 rebounds, first-half surprise Lou Williams needed 18 field-goal attempts to reach 17 points and turned the ball over four times.

Jokic called Denver’s bevy of turnovers “stupid.” Malone called them “silly” and “frustrating.”

But Barton’s fumble in the closing seconds? That miscue stemmed from aggressively attacking the basket.

Still, Barton lost the ball before he could send it toward the rim.

“I didn’t deliver like I was supposed to,” Barton said. “I just gotta stay strong and learn from it, and I will. Not being able to come through for my team, that’ll haunt me for the night.”

Source:- https://www.denverpost.com

How to Use Statistics in Playing Cards

Millions of people enjoy playing bridge and millions of players understand the basic rules of the game. They practice and play every day. Many reach a certain level of expertise and then plateau. Their game stops improving.

What's responsible for this plateau? For many the answer is statistics. Or to be more accurate, a lack of understanding or knowledge of how to use statistics when you are playing.

What do statistics have to do with playing bridge, I hear you ask? The answer is "a lot". They can be, and often are, the barrier to becoming a better bridge player.

Let's assume, for example, that you are declarer. Once the opponents have made their opening lead dummy's hand is exposed for all to see. You know which cards you hold and which cards dummy holds.

Now assume that you are playing a trump contract. Dummy holds 5 cards in trumps and you hold 4, a total of 9 cards. That means that your opponents hold 4 trump cards between them.

You need to plan your play. Depending on which cards you hold in trumps you may need to try and work out how the trumps are split between the opponents. A 4-0 split may mean the game plays very differently from the way it would play if there was a 2-2 split.

You can't know for certain how the cards split in any given situation, but you can use statistics to give you a better chance. Then you can play for the most likely scenario - the percentage play. This won't always work, but over a number of games it will give you the better chance of winning more games.

As you might imagine, there are a lot of statistics associated with playing bridge. The best players will have memorised and will use all of them. Those of us who are more modest, home or club players will just remember a few - the ones that we think will be most useful to us and that we will be able to understand use.

So, back to our trump split. While we are planning our play it may seem to us that a 4-0 trump split between the opponents will need us to play differently from a 2-2 split, or a 3-1 split. We can't know how they split and we might not be able to plan for all 3 scenarios. So which should we choose as the most likely?

Statistics tell us that the probability of a 4-0 split is 10%. However, the provability of a 2-2 split is 40% and the probability of a 3-1 split is 50%. It probably doesn't make sense to plan for a 4-0 split - although if it becomes obvious early on that the cards split that way, you will want to rethink your plan.

In a scenario where a 4-0 split could have a major effect on the number of tricks you win, you may feel that you want to test the split early on in the game by drawing a round of trumps (or whichever suit is of concern). If one of the opponents shows out in the first round, then you know you are up against a 4-0 split and can replan your play.

If testing the split isn't possible, then you will probably want to make the percentage play and hope your approach pays off.

If there are 5 cards missing from a suit, the percentage chances change. The probability of a 5-0 split is just 4% (and the opponents may have helped you work out if that is likely to be the case by bidding that suit). The probability of a 4-1 split is 28%, but the probability of a 3-2 split is 68%. You will probably want to make your initial plan on the assumption of a 3-2 split.

Planning your play is an essential skill, and knowing some basic statistics will help you plan. But bridge is a dynamic game and you need to be prepared to rethink your plan if the opponents wrong foot you, or the statistics don't work in your favor.

You can find all the bridge statistics and percentages that you need to help you become a better player by joining No Fear Bridge - the perfect site for beginning and improving bridge players, where you can practice and learn online at your own pace. You can join by visiting Blueberry Bridge and signing up for your trial membership of No Fear Bridge. What are you waiting for??



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