Page 15 - Florida Sentinel 12-29-15 Edition

Sports
Cavs-Warriors Draws Nearly 11 Million Viewers
Blake Griffin Out At Least 2 Weeks With Partially Torn Quad Tendon
BLAKE GRIFFIN
Los Angeles Clippers forward Blake Griffin will miss at least two weeks with a partially torn left quadriceps tendon.
Griffin suffered the injury in the first quarter of the Clip- pers' Christmas night victory over the Los Angeles Lakers, ac- cording to the team.
Despite the injury, Griffin finished the game, tallying 13 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists in 36 minutes. An MRI taken Saturday revealed the ex- tent of the injury and he will be re-evaluated in two weeks, the Clippers said in a statement.
The team hopes to have Griffin back in two or three weeks.
Griffin is averaging a team- high 23.2 points this season to go with 8.7 rebounds per game and 5.0 assists per game.
Suns Eric Bledsoe
BEAUTY UNLIMITED
MECCA
Coming off your Christmas celebration, we want to bring you back to life with this week’s Beauty Unlim- ited feature, Mecca. This young lady deserves all of the praise she gets, because she’s worked so hard to get to the door of opportunity. Mecca says she expects big- ger and better things in 2016, and promises she will be a force to reckon with. Congratulations to Mecca as this week’s Beauty Unlimited feature.
NEW YORK -- The NBA Fi- nals rematch between Golden State and Cleveland drew nearly 11 million viewers, mak- ing it the most-watched Christmas game in four years.
The Warriors' 89-83 victory was watched by 10.9 million viewers, according to Nielsen. That was a 17 percent increase from the 9.3 million for the Cavaliers-Heat game last year that was LeBron James' re- turn to Miami.
ESPN says Saturday that the game was the most-viewed on Christmas since 2011, which was the season opener after the lockout.
Overall, the five-game slate on ESPN and ABC was up 6
WARRIORS VS.CAVALIERS
percent in viewership from 2014. Of the 13 times the NBA has played five games on Christmas, this was the first that all were decided by 10 points or fewer.
Blazers' Damian Lillard To Miss 3rd Straight
Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard will miss his third straight game Saturday against the Cavaliers because of plantar fasciitis in his left foot.
The All-Star point guard had hoped to return for Saturday's contest, saying earlier this week that he was "shooting for Cleveland."
Lillard said he was walking without pain on Wednesday after dealing with pain in his heel for about three weeks.
DAMIAN LILLARD
Sprains Knee Doesn't Do It Justice' Over
Lillard missed a game for the first time in his career Monday against Atlanta, end-
ing his streak of playing in 275 consecutive contests. He also did not play Wednesday against New Orleans
Kobe Bryant: 'Shocked All-Star Voting Lead
Tiger Woods Is Almost Done
After the first returns of 2016 NBA All-Star voting, Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant is leading the pack by a wide margin.
Bryant has 719,235 votes -- well ahead of Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry (510,202), the next-highest vote-getter, and more than twice as many as Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James (357,937).
After the Lakers' 94-84, Christmas night loss to the Los Angeles Clippers, Bryant said he was more than a little sur- prised he had such a wide lead.
‘Listen, I was making a little coffee run this morning, got some gas and decided to just go on Instagram and peruse," he said, "and [I] saw the damn votes, and I was like, 'What the hell?' Shocked doesn't do it justice."
He added, "It's exciting.
ERIC BLEDSOE
PHOENIX -- Phoenix guard Eric Bledsoe left the Suns' game against Philadelphia on Saturday night after spraining his left knee.
The Suns said Bledsoe, the team's leading scorer, wouldn't return to the game and would have an MRI.
Bledsoe went down with 7:40 left in the second quarter and the Suns trailing 37-25.
He appeared to collide with the 76ers' Robert Covington with the Suns on offense. Bled- soe sat on the floor while the Sixers had a possession at the other end, calling for teammates to foul.
Trainers attended to Bledsoe and helped him off the court and back to the locker room. The guard wasn't able to put any weight on his left leg as he was helped off.
Bledsoe had four points and two rebounds in 8 minutes. He entered the game averaging 20.9 points.
Paying Off A $54M Mortgage
As Part Of His Divorce
KOBE BRYANT
What can I say? Just thank-
ful."
The 2016 NBA All-Star
Game, to be held in Toronto, would be Bryant's last, as he has announced his plans to re- tire after this season, his 20th in the NBA. His 17 All-Star se- lections are second all-time behind former Lakers star Ka- reem Abdul-Jabbar, who had 19. Bryant, 37, is the leading scorer in NBA All-Star history (280 points).
It’s been widely-reported that Tiger Woods’ divorce settlement following his split with Elin Nordegren reached over $100 million, but a settlement of that magnitude isn’t as simple as Tiger writ- ing a giant check.
Some outlets have reported recently that Tiger still owes Elin $54 million and has to pay it by January 15th.
To put it simply: As part of the settlement, Tiger named his ex-wife as the issuer of the mortgage he took out on his home, totalling $54.5 million. Tiger then paid Elin in in- stallments starting in 2010, and if he fails to pay, Elin gets the house.
The “January 15th, 2016” date people are tuning into is the date that the final payment
TIGER WOODS
is due, not the date the total payment is due. Essentially, after his payment on January 15th, Tiger would’ve paid Elin the $54.5 million and therefore fulfilled his agree- ment. He doesn’t owe her $54.5 million to be paid by January 15th. Big difference.
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2015 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 15