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“Push the pace and play defence” is Raptors mantra

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“Push the pace and play defence” is Raptors mantra

TORONTO – The Toronto Raptors will try to live up to their namesake in the NBA team’s 30th season and play fast, aggressive basketball.“Push the pace and play defence” is Raptors mantra

All-star forward Scottie Barnes, the Raptors focal point on both sides of the ball, summed it up neatly days before Toronto hosted the Cleveland Cavaliers in their home opener on Wednesday at Scotiabank Arena.

“Push the pace and play defence,” said Barnes on the court at OVO Athletic Centre, the team’s practice facility. “That’s our main priorities. That’s what we’ve been working on a lot.

“We’ve got a lot of young guys that can be able to play fast and try to get aggressive on defence.”

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It was a sentiment echoed by point guard Immanuel Quickley, who will be one of Toronto’s starters this season along with Barnes.

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“Tough, gritty. I think fans can expect that,” said Quickley. “I think the league can expect that, that we’ll be one of the harder playing teams around the league, for sure.”

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Swingman RJ Barrett of Mississauga, Ont., missed most of the pre-season after he sprained his shoulder in a 125-98 exhibition romp over the Washington Wizards on Oct. 6 in Montreal. He participated in a full, non-contact practice on Tuesday but was later listed as out for the game against Cleveland.

Although it was unclear when Barrett would return to Toronto’s lineup, he was on the same page as Barnes and Quickley.

“Defence, playing hard, outworking people, being scrappy, running, playing together,” said Barnes on the Raptors’ identity in the new season.

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It’s an ethos forged by three facts.

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First, they allowed 118.8 points per game in a disappointing 25-57 campaign last season, sixth worst in the NBA. Second, with an average age of 25 1/3 — buoyed up by 38-year-old forward Garrett Temple — they’re one of the younger teams in the league and should have the stamina for a smothering defence. Third, they are relatively undersized, especially at power forward.

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Seven-foot centre Jakob Poeltl, the tallest player on the team and at 29, the fourth oldest, said that the fast-paced, defence-oriented style is what he expected.

“We’re going to be playing free, which is going to lead to a lot of learning experiences,” said Poeltl. “Maybe a little bit of chaos at times.

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“We’re still trying to figure each other out, but once we do figure it out, I think it’s going to be hard to guard, because we’re playing hard, playing fast, playing unpredictable.”

Part of that hard-nosed philosophy will be crashing the boards.

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The Raptors collected a middling 10.9 offensive rebounds per game last season, good for 11th in the NBA. Second-year head coach Darko Rajakovic is determined to improve on that, and Toronto tied for sixth in the league with 13.2 per game in the pre-season.

Rajakovic said the key is to be strategic about how and when the Raptors goes for an offensive rebound instead of playing tight transition defence.

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“What are we doing there? Are we just reckless and going to the glass no matter what? That’s not our plan,” he said after practice on Oct. 9. “Our plan is to be to do a good job of getting to the rebounding spots on the floor, but at the same time doing a good job in transition defence. We’re trying to marry those two things into one complex plan.”

Relying heavily on point-of-attack defence in transition, especially with backup point guard Davion Mitchell leading Toronto’s second unit, is the other key tenet of Rajakovic’s defensive scheme.

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Like the emphasis on offensive rebounds, it’s a plan designed to emphasize the Raptors’ strengths and hide their weaknesses.

“I just look at the ball and just get back and think about transition defence if we miss a shot,” said the six-foot Mitchell, noting he has work to do on offensive boards. “I’ve got to learn from that and watch film.

“(Rajakovic) talked to me about it a couple times, but sometimes I’ll be thinking like, ‘Man, I’m the smallest dude on the court, no way I’m going to get it,’ so sometimes I just stay back but I need to keep getting better at it.”

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Toronto’s other major issue is that it has the toughest schedule to start the season of any NBA team. Twenty of the Raptors’ first 25 games are against playoff teams from last year. Eleven of those teams made it past the first round.

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“I know we’re playing Cleveland on Wednesday night and I do not know what happens after that,” said Rajakovic on Monday. “I really don’t want to know. Nothing changes in my approach.

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“I really want to focus on our on our team, and how we go day-by-day and improve.”

The Raptors will be missing several key pieces on Wednesday. In addition to Barrett possibly not playing, centre Kelly Olynyk (back) of Kamloops, B.C., small forward Bruce Brown (arthroscopic knee surgery), and rookie combo guard Ja’Kobe Walter (sprained shoulder) will be out too.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 22, 2024.

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&copy 2024 The Canadian Press



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Julio Vaqueiro, Codie Sánchez and others will constitute Latinos on the L. a. Instances Ebook Competition

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Julio Vaqueiro, Codie Sánchez and others will constitute Latinos on the L. a. Instances Ebook Competition

To learn the unique Bulletin of the in English, Seek advice from right here.

Ultimate 12 months, the groups of the Angels in Spanish joined their energy to agenda the primary Latinity Degree within the Instances Competition of Books: the biggest literary tournament in america. All the way through two days, the level presented conversations in English, Spanish and Espanglish occupied with Latin problems, narratives and authors.

On April 26 and 27 we will be able to go back to the USC campus to have a good time the thirtieth anniversary of the competition, and Latinity Degree turns into that of the Degree in affiliation with Instances in Spanish.

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This 12 months’s program has one thing for all tastes: each days will start with readings for the kids of the Los Angeles and Lil ‘Books Public Library. Are you keen on sports activities? The Deputy Director of Sports activities of Instances, Iliana Limón Romero, will sit down with the previous leaders of the Dodgers Jaime and Jorge Jarrín to speak about Fernando Valenzuela, who died in October. The daddy-son duo will speak about the lasting affect that the Mexican pitcher had within the Latin neighborhood of Los Angeles and past; Possibly nobody is extra certified to speak about the “Fernandomania” than Jaime Jarrín, who was once an interpreter of Valenzuela all the way through his historical rookie season in 1981.

We will be able to even have conversations about problems similar to Latin vote, non-public price range, neatly -being, intergenerational therapeutic and a lot more. This system will come with a panel with the pains Manuel Betancourt, Edgar Gómez and Vanessa Angélica Villareal, in addition to interviews with the winner of the Nationwide Ebook Award and MacArthur Jason de León Ebook Award; The New York Instances Codie Sánchez Very best Vendor; the chef and creator of Karla Books Karla Tatiana Vásquez; and the author of crosswords Juliana Pacho, amongst others.

Of the Stage Panel Lineup and Schedule.

And if you’re concerned about my very own Spanish abilities, remember to spend Sunday at 3:45 pm for my communicate (in Spanish!) With the scoop host Telemundo Julio Vaqueir Sheinbaum.

In case you are in Los Angeles that weekend, I beg you to greet! The doorway to the Instances Competition of Books is unfastened, and the staff of De los may have a desk the place you’ll meet our workforce and take some items associated with the competition.

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Of the Stage Lineup and Schedule.


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Grammys get rid of secretive nominating committees

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Grammys get rid of secretive nominating committees

When the Recording Academy Announce Friday That It Used to be Doing Away With The Secretive – and Extremely Debatable – Committees That Form Nominations for The Annual Grammy Awards, Many In The Track Trade Interpreted The Transfer As A Centered Reaction to The Well-liked Outcry Outcry Over The Weeeknd ‘ Shutout From This 12 months’s Rite.

No longer So, In step with the Academy’s Intervening time Leader Govt.

“It is a Lengthy Street to get to a transformative alternate like This,” Harvey Mason Jr. Advised the Occasions in an interview, Including that the Academy Convention A Job Power Lastmer Summer time to Read about The Committees, Smartly Sooner than Nominations for March’s 63rd Grammys Had been Reveared. “It isn’t subjecthing that occurs briefly or when it comes to a response to at least one match.”

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Certainly, The Academy Had Drawn Complaint for Years over its nominating procedure, which depended on Small Teams of Nameless Insiders to Oversee, and Subtimes Amend, The Grammys Poll From Preliminary Alternatives via The Academy ‘Hundreds of Citizens. The Nominations Evaluate Committees, as they had been formally know, had been offered in 1989 ostensibly to reure that nominations had been correctly classified and that they accurely mirror the state of song in a given 12 months.

However over the years the committees’ paintings Started to be observed as proof of a problematic gadget during which insiders rewarded their buddies and punished their enemy. Extra Lately, A Selection of Top-Profile Black Artists-Amongst Them Drake, Frank Ocean and Sean Mechanically Overloked For Extra Prestigious Awards Like Album, File and Tune of the 12 months.

The Lawsuits Grew Louder in 2020 After Deborah Dugan, The Academy’s Former Chief, Made Explosive Allegations of Discrimination and Vote-Rigging in A Lawsuit tied to her ouster from the group. The the Weeknd, One among Pop’s Greatest Stars, was once snubbed the Good fortune of His Album “After Hours” and His Break Unmarried “Blinding Lighting fixtures.”

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In a Tweet after nominations had been introduced in November, The Singer Stated The Grammys had been “Corrupt” and That the Academy Owed “Me, My Enthusiasts and the Trade Transparency.” Later

ASKED How He’D Reply to Complaint That The Sluggish-Transferring Academy Acts Simplest When ITS Hand is compelled, Mason Replicied, “I Would Say Exchange Occurs When Our Contributors Make a decision It is Time For Exchange. Our Contributors Publish The Proposals, and The Folks Folks Vote On Them. What the Club Desires, Asks for and Votes for. “

REACTION IN THE MUSIC BUSINESS WAS LARGELY POSITIVE, WITH MANY SAYING THE ACADEMY’S ELIMINATION OF THE COMMITTEES was once lengthy past due. But Others Specific Seed Skepticism That Conflicts of Hobby Inside of The Group Would All of sudden Dissappaled From The Balloting Procedure.

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“I Suppose Harvey’s Center is in the precise position, and i feel it is a step in the precise route,” Stated Lenny Beer, editor in leader of the industry magazine hits, who wrote an impasioned publish in novelber awareness that This 12 months’s Nominations. “I am hoping those adjustments equipped to be actual and true. And I’LL BELIEVE IT WHEN I see it.” A Consultant for The Weeknd Did not Reply to Request For Remark.

Of the skepticism, Mason Stated, “Sub Folks Probabry Will By no means Be happy,” and insisted that the nominating procedure Will Be StraightForward From Now On: “Our 12,000 Contributors Will Vote, and The Most sensible 8 Vote-Getters Will Be Our Nominees” In The 4 Main Classes of Album, File and Tune of the 12 months As Smartly As Perfect New Artist. Within the Grammys’ Dozens of Style Classes, The Most sensible 5 Vote-Getters Will Be The Nominees, He Stated.

“There is no Road or Alternative to Alter the Quantity,” I’ve added.

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Harvey Mason Jr.

Recording Academy Intervening time Leader Govt Harvey Mason Jr.

(Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Occasions)

The Committees’ Removal Used to be One among A number of Rule Adjustments The Academy Announce Friday, Alongside With A Aid from 15 to ten within the choice of style awards awards mebers are allowed to vote on and a rearranger of the so-scalled Craft categories-which honor manufacturing, packaging and the like Two Fields. (Evaluate Committees Will Proceed to Form Nominations in The ones Classes.)

The Academy Additionally Stated Two Awards, For Perfect World Track Efficiency and Perfect City Track Album, Would Be Passed Out for The First Time At The sixty fourth Grammys, Scheduled For Jan. 31, 2022. Recordings selected for attention will have to be unencumber Between Sept. 1:2020, and Sept. 30, 2021.

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Mason stated he was once happy via heat evaluations of this 12 months Ehrlich on the Helm.

“It was once was once’t a very simple display to supply, and it wasn’t an inexpensively display to supply,” Mason Stated, Regarding Covid-19 protocols that affected Just about Each and every Side of the Telecast. However He Authorized Of The “Intimate High quality” of the Display and Stated He was once keen to peer What Winston and His Workforce Woold Do Underneath Extra Commonplace Cases.

Viewership for This 12 months’s CBS Telecast Set A File Low, With 9.2 Million Audience, A Drop of Greater than 50.6% From The Earlier 12 months, A Development in Retaining With Just about All Main Awards Display In The Present Cycle.

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Subsequent 12 months’s Grammys rite is not likely to occur on Mason’s Watch. The Govt, Who Steptped into His Position on an meantime foundation after Dugan’s Departure, Stated the Seek for the Team’s Subsequent Chief has yielded “A number of Nice Finalists” and That He expects The Academy To Meet It Mentioned Function of Having A New Ceo In position via the Finish of Would possibly or Starting of June.

“Unusually,” He Stated, “I Suppose We are on Time table.”


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The adjust ego of Natalia Lafourcade takes prominence in ‘songwriter’

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The adjust ego of Natalia Lafourcade takes prominence in ‘songwriter’

When Natalia Lafourcade sat all the way down to create “songbook”, he by no means anticipated to find an adjust ego that might take her via a creative lights trail.

He had all the time introduced his center in his hand all the way through his acclaimed profession, however with “Songbook”, Lafourcade in the end felt that he may just prevent containing himself, immersing himself within the “spirit of the sport” and appearing all his complexity for his twelfth studio album, thrown on Thursday.

“Songbook (the nature) got here to query me, to mention who in point of fact is you? Who do you assume you might be? This is, in case you are the only you assume you might be, when in truth you might be many stuff. Then it opened as an enormous chance,” mentioned Lafourcade.

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Lafourcade, has been awarded 4 Grammy and 18 Latin Grammy, felt it used to be time to go into the duality and sundry energies: “earthly power, risky power, power as extra of muse, extra romantic … They started to change into that international of tune and I in point of fact didn’t wish to interrupt.

Mexican singer Natalia Lafourcade

Mexican singer Natalia Lafourcade happens on the acoustic shell of Bello Monte in Caracas, Venezuela, on August 22, 2023.

(Matias Delacroix/AP)

The 14 -track album transports the listeners to the golden age of Mexican cinema, which covers from 1930 to 1950, when the Mexican movie business consolidated its function as a dominant pressure in Latin The usa and gained global acclamation, developing stars akin to Pedro Infante and María Félix and introducing surreal movie kinds.

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“This album is filled with symbolism, impressed by way of the surrealism of Mexico and the values ​​of our custom and iconography. I sought after to honor the songs and the trail of the songbooks and songbooks of existence,” mentioned Lafourcade by way of e-mail.

From the start, with the complicated association of “Opening Songbook” strings, the album sends the listeners on their very own movie journeys whilst the pink curtain rises to expose the black and white display.

“It led me to think about characters like Tin Tan. It led me to take into accounts characters like those we noticed within the motion pictures, the place those surreal worlds of serious tropicality have been noticed, the track of Agustín Lara,” mentioned Lafourcade. However he says that that is his personal interpretation of those characters, impressed by way of the language and tales of on a regular basis existence in Mexico.

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Archive - Mexican singer Natalia Lafourcade

Archive – Mexican singer Natalia Lafourcade happens on the acoustic shell of Bello Monte in Caracas, Venezuela, on August 22, 2023.

(Matias Delacroix / Related Press)

Lafourcade has paid tribute to Lara up to now: he recorded his personal interpretation of essentially the most notable works of the Mexican composer in his 2012 album “Divine Lady: Tribute to Agustín Lara”. “Songbook” critiques one of the vital previous works of Lafourcade as a singer -songwriter with acoustic issues akin to “how I want to love you”, with the participation of David Aguilar.

The album used to be co -produced by way of Adam Jodorowsky, who additionally produced the award -winning “of all of the plants” of Lafourcade. Lafourcade recorded the album in one shot on analogue with collaborators akin to Aguilar, Brothers Gutiérrez, Israel Fernández, Diego del Morao, Gordon Hamilton and Soundwalk Collective.

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This used to be Lafourcade’s alternative to discover the duality of his creative self and his adjust ego. He created visible property for the album along with his distinctive recording procedure, which induced her to precise himself via different ingenious method, akin to portray and motion.

“I seemed and center to be very delicate, to grasp the tale in the back of the tune and issues additionally took place like I began portray. That unlocks me so much, on the ingenious stage and the imaginary,” he mentioned.

A relentless within the track of Lafourcade is its roots in Veracruz, the similar Mexican state the place Lara used to be. Veracruz, identified for his colourful creative and cultural scene, permeates all the album and is of course evoked via songs akin to “Cocos at the seaside” and “L. a. Witch”, a reinvented model of the folks vintage of the area.

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Natalia Lafourcade at Los Angeles On Saturday, May 4, 2024.

Natalia Lafourcade at Los Angeles On Saturday, Would possibly 4, 2024.

(Raul Roa/Los Angeles Occasions)

“I love Mexico’s “All that used to be mirrored within the lyrics, in track.”

Lafourcade fanatics will have the ability to revel in the artist’s adjust ego at the “Songbook” excursion, which starts Thursday in Xalapa, Mexico, and extends till October. The artist will shuttle the US, Canada and Latin The usa, along side stops in Spain.

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