Toreros

MOSCOW (AP) &mdash; A Russian court on Tuesday rejected an appeal by U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner of her nine-year prison sentence for drug possession, a step that could move her closer to a possible high-stakes prisoner swap between Moscow and Washington.
The eight-time all-star center with the WNBA&rsquo;s Phoenix Mercury and a two-time Olympic gold medalist was convicted Aug. 4 after police said they found vape canisters containing cannabis oil in her luggage at Moscow&rsquo;s Sheremetyevo Airport.
Griner, 32, was not at the Moscow Regional Court hearing but appeared via video link from a penal colony outside the capital where she is held.
At her trial, Griner admitted to having the canisters in her luggage but testified she packed them inadvertently in her haste to make her flight and had no criminal intent. Her defense team presented written statements saying she had been prescribed cannabis to treat chronic pain.
The nine-year sentence was close to the maximum of 10 years, and Griner&rsquo;s lawyers argued after the conviction that the punishment was excessive. They said in similar cases defendants have received an average sentence of about five years, with about a third of them granted parole.
While upholding the sentence, the court said Griner&rsquo;s prison time will be recalculated to reflect what she has already served in pre-trial detention. One day in pre-trial detention will be counted as 1 1/2 days in prison, so she still will have to serve about eight years in prison.
Griner&rsquo;s lawyers Maria Blagovolina and Alexander Boykov said in an email that they were &ldquo;very disappointed&rdquo; with the decision because they still believe &ldquo;the punishment is excessive and contradicts to the existing court practice.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Britthey&rsquo;s biggest fear is that she is not exchanged and will have to serve the whole sentence in Russia,&rdquo; they said. &ldquo;She had hopes for today, as each month, each day away from her family and friends matters to her.&rdquo;
They said they had to discuss with Griner what legal steps they should take next.
Griner&rsquo;s arrest in February came at a time of heightened tensions between Moscow and Washington, just days before Russia sent troops into Ukraine. At the time, Griner was returning to play for a Russian team during the WNBA&rsquo;s offseason.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the decision &ldquo;another failure of justice, compounding the injustice of her detention,&rdquo; adding that &ldquo;securing her release is our priority.&rdquo;
Before her conviction, the U.S. State Department declared Griner to be &ldquo;wrongfully detained&rdquo; &mdash; a charge that Russia has sharply rejected.
U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a statement that U.S. President Joe Biden &ldquo;is willing to go to extraordinary lengths and make tough decisions to bring Americans home.&rdquo;
The WNBA Players Association said the ruling was &ldquo;further verification that BG is not just wrongfully detained -&ndash; she is very clearly a hostage.&rdquo;
Reflecting growing pressure on the Biden administration to do more to bring Griner home, Blinken took the unusual step of revealing publicly in July that Washington had made a &ldquo;substantial proposal&rdquo; to get Griner home, along with Paul Whelan, an American serving a 16-year sentence in Russia for espionage.
Blinken didn&rsquo;t elaborate, but The Associated Press and other news organizations have reported that Washington has offered to exchange Griner and Whelan for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer who is serving a 25-year sentence in the U.S. and once earned the nickname the &ldquo;merchant of death.&rdquo;
The White House said it has not yet received a productive response from Russia to the offer.
Russian diplomats have refused to comment on the U.S. proposal and urged Washington to discuss the matter in confidential talks, avoiding public statements. But some Russian officials have said a deal is more likely once appeals have been exhausted.
In September, Biden met with Cherelle Griner, the player&rsquo;s wife, as well as her agent, Lindsay Colas. Biden also sat down separately with Elizabeth Whelan, Paul Whelan&rsquo;s sister.
The White House said after the meetings that the president stressed to the families his &ldquo;continued commitment to working through all available avenues to bring Brittney and Paul home safely.&rdquo;
The U.S. and Russia carried out a prisoner swap in April. Moscow released U.S. Marines veteran Trevor Reed in exchange for the U.S. releasing a Russian pilot, Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was convicted in a drug trafficking conspiracy.
Moscow also has pushed for the release of other Russians in U.S. custody.
One of them is Alexander Vinnik, who was accused of laundering billions of dollars through an illicit cryptocurrency exchange. Vinnik was arrested in Greece in 2017 and extradited to the U.S. in August.
Vinnik&rsquo;s French lawyer, Frederic Belot, told Russian newspaper Izvestia last month that his client hoped to be part of a possible swap.
The newspaper speculated that another possible candidate was Roman Seleznev, the son of a Russian lawmaker. He was sentenced in 2017 to 27 years in prison on charges from a hacking and credit card fraud scheme.
&mdash;-
AP Basketball Writer Doug Feinberg in New York contributed.

A Russian court rejected an appeal by U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner of her nine-year prison sentence for drug possession.

Russian court rejects Brittney Griner appeal of her 9-year sentence

Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jrue Holiday each scored 29 points and the Milwaukee Bucks edged the short-handed Boston Celtics 127-121 on Thursday night to take over second place in the Eastern Conference standings.
The Bucks (50-30) scored the game&rsquo;s final nine points to move a half-game ahead of the Celtics (50-31) and a full game ahead of the Philadelphia 76ers (49-31), who lost 119-114 at Toronto on Thursday.
Milwaukee withstood a triple-double from Jaylen Brown, who had 22 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds for the Celtics. Brown&rsquo;s 11 assists matched his career high.
Marcus Smart shot 7 of 12 from 3-point range and was the Celtics&rsquo; leading scorer with a season-high 29 points. Daniel Theis had 22 points and Derrick White added 19 for the Celtics.
Khris Middleton had 22 points, nine assists and eight rebounds for the Bucks. Antetokounmpo had 11 rebounds and five assists. Holiday had eight rebounds and eight assists.
One night after a 117-94 victory at Chicago, the Celtics held Jayson Tatum and Al Horford out of Thursday&rsquo;s game. They also continued to play without Robert Williams III, who hasn&rsquo;t played since March 27 due to a meniscus tear in his left knee.
The Celtics still almost won on the road.
Smart put Boston ahead 119-118 on a 3-pointer with 4:25 left and added a driving layup nearly two minutes later to make it 121-118.
Milwaukee&rsquo;s Bobby Portis tied it by sinking a 3-pointer with 2:11 remaining.
The Bucks took the lead for good when Antetokounmpo made the second of two free throws with 1:31 left. After White missed a 3-pointer, Holiday converted a putback of his own miss to make it 124-121 with a minute remaining.
After Theis couldn&rsquo;t score from right under the basket, Antetokounmpo made one of two free throws to extend Milwaukee&rsquo;s lead to 125-121 with 39 seconds left.
HILL'S NECK PROBLEM
Bucks guard George Hill offered more clarity Thursday on the neck injury that caused him to miss 17 games before he returned to action March 14.
Hill said he had a partial tear between the sixth and seventh thoracic vertebra in his spine. Hill didn&rsquo;t undergo surgery and plans to revisit the issue after the season.
&ldquo;Surgery can be season-ending, so you don&rsquo;t want to do that,&rdquo; Hill said after the Bucks&rsquo; Thursday morning shootaround. &ldquo;You want to figure out how I can manage to get back out with the guys. It feels a lot better now. I&rsquo;m just trying to give it everything I have.&rdquo;
TIP-INS
Celtics: Rookie Sam Hauser, a Wisconsin native who began his college career at Marquette, had a career-high 11 points and went 3 of 4 on 3-point attempts. Marquette and the Bucks both play their home games at Fiserv Forum. ... Celtics assistant coach Ben Sullivan, an assistant on Milwaukee's staff last season, received his 2020-21 championship ring in a pregame ceremony.
Bucks: The Bucks requested waivers on DeAndre&rsquo; Bembry, who played eight games for them before suffering a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/milwaukee-bucks-utah-jazz-nba-sports-brook-lopez-7703bb40fb72236c5e9655a26a7a6389">season-ending knee injury</a> in a loss at Golden State on March 12. &hellip; Grayson Allen didn&rsquo;t play due to left hip soreness. &ldquo;He got hit a little bit the other night in Chicago,&rdquo; Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said before the game, referring to a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/milwaukee-bucks-chicago-bulls-boston-celtics-nba-sports-89c777fcb55642d97f5523ac2d5f6024"> 127-106 victory</a> over the Bulls on Tuesday. &ldquo;Hopefully it&rsquo;s short-term.&rdquo; ... The Bucks outscored the Celtics 58-34 in the paint.
UP NEXT
Celtics: At Memphis on Sunday. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/memphis-grizzlies-boston-celtics-brooklyn-nets-nba-sports-3d2600b0730722e97fedf317fcb1237b">The Celtics beat the Grizzlies 120-107</a> in Boston on March 3.
Bucks: At Detroit on Friday. The Bucks are 2-1 against the Pistons this season but <a href="https://apnews.com/article/nba-sports-khris-middleton-jrue-holiday-milwaukee-c2a817547bf4b377674b1909beacc87a">lost the last matchup 115-106</a> at Milwaukee on Jan. 3.

Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jrue Holiday each scored 29 points and the Bucks edged the shorthanded Celtics to take second in the East.

Giannis, Holiday help Bucks rally past Celtics 127-121

Each day, BasketballNews.com scours #NBATwitter to bring you the best tweets from the previous day. Some are insightful, some are just hilarious (so we had to include them).
Without further ado, here are the tweets of the day for January 28, 2021.
The Car Is Running, Babe, LET&rsquo;S GO
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Sick of it
&mdash; Kamiah Adams-Beal (@KamiahAdams) <a href="https://twitter.com/KamiahAdams/status/1354644954623176706?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 28, 2021</a></blockquote>

<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

Is Kamiah Adams, fiancee to Bradley Beal, sick of the pandemic like the rest of us? Is she sick of having to work out and eat healthy? Or is she sick of watching her man put it all on the line every night, only for his team to have the worst record in the NBA? Who&rsquo;s to say?
Record Scratch
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Beal with his help <a href="https://t.co/I8eh24x1md">https://t.co/I8eh24x1md</a>
&mdash; 𝙅𝙪𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙣 𝙍𝙤𝙬𝙖𝙣 🇨🇦 (@Cavsanada) <a href="https://twitter.com/Cavsanada/status/1354646481890762755?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 28, 2021</a></blockquote>

<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

"Yep, that&rsquo;s me. You&rsquo;re probably wondering how I got into this situation."
Every photo of Bradley Beal from now on is going to be analyzed to death, but this one really speaks to the current state of the Washington Wizards.
People Don&rsquo;t Forget!
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
<a href="https://t.co/RJmMpkEuZv">https://t.co/RJmMpkEuZv</a> <a href="https://t.co/GLM0veDErP">pic.twitter.com/GLM0veDErP</a>
&mdash; Tobias Harris (@tobias31) <a href="https://twitter.com/tobias31/status/1354646590577848321?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 28, 2021</a></blockquote>

<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

It&rsquo;s such a fun feeling when you see NBA stars doing regular folk things, like sharing memes or lurking on Reddit.
A Self-Aware King
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
lowry reassuring everyone he&rsquo;s got more points in him and had even more before he got to toronto: &ldquo;i got a couple points in houston, i got like ten in memphis&rdquo;
&mdash; Katie Heindl (@wtevs) <a href="https://twitter.com/wtevs/status/1354641657505980416?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 28, 2021</a></blockquote>

<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

Kyle Lowry has heard all of your slander, and is here to remind you that after passing 10,000 points as a Toronto Raptor last night, he actually has at least 10 more from many moons ago.
Leave That Man Alone
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Steve Kerr on the Kelly Oubre Jr./Pelicans rumors: "A team called us, didn't even offer anything, just asked about Kelly." Said he talked with Oubre about it.
&mdash; Brady Klopfer (@BradyKlopferNBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/BradyKlopferNBA/status/1354669389400875012?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 28, 2021</a></blockquote>

<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

After being reassured by his head coach that his shaky start was not going to result in a trade, Kelly Oubre Jr. reminded the Warriors exactly why they acquired him in the first place, shooting 7-for-9 from the field for 20 points and pulling down nine rebounds.
 Ain&rsquo;t No Woman Alive That Can Take My Mama&rsquo;s Place
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
James Wiseman's mom waving at her son during his postgame interview is the most wholesome thing you'll see tonight <a href="https://t.co/rTAGz2Qj3l">pic.twitter.com/rTAGz2Qj3l</a>
&mdash; KNBR (@KNBR) <a href="https://twitter.com/KNBR/status/1354671897678467073?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 28, 2021</a></blockquote>

<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

This is so sweet. Circumstances be damned, a mom will always find a way to be her child&rsquo;s biggest supporter. It reminds me of the book Love You Forever by Robert Munsch, and now it&rsquo;s time to cry.
I Would Like to See It
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Petition to just let Anthony Edwards and James Wiseman play one-on-one for the remainder of the game.
&mdash; Canis Hoopus (@canishoopus) <a href="https://twitter.com/canishoopus/status/1354636700484395008?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 28, 2021</a></blockquote>

<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

Instead of trying to force an All Star game, why not just do...exactly this?
Marco! Polo!
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Draymond yells "YES SIR!!" when Anthony Edwards misses this shot Anthony Edwards yells "YES SIR!!" when he makes the putback. Draymond Green yells "YESSIR!" again Anthony Edwards yells "YESSIR!" again <a href="https://t.co/plnpv20jFF">pic.twitter.com/plnpv20jFF</a>
&mdash; Thomas Sullivan (@Yfz84) <a href="https://twitter.com/Yfz84/status/1354661988060835840?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 28, 2021</a></blockquote>

<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

This is basically the audio version of the DeMarcus Cousins and Joel Embiid game of butt-slapping tag.
See a tweet that should be featured in tomorrow's Tweet of the Day piece? Send it to <a href="https://twitter.com/kelsea_lately" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@kelsea_lately</a>.

Every day, our Kelsea O'Brien scours #NBATwitter to find the best posts. Here are the tweets of the day for Jan. 28, 2021.

NBA Tweets of the Day: January 28, 2021

Elfrid Payton has agreed to one-year, $5M deal with Knicks, agents Aaron Mintz and Ty Sullivan of @CAA_Basketball tell ESPN.
Source: <a href="https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1330274911068315649?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN</a>
ANALYSIS:&nbsp;Payton spent 2019-20 with the Knicks and started 36 of his 45 contests with New York. The 26-year-old averaged 10 points and 7.2 assists per game, but his impact was dulled due to limited upside as a shooter. With the Knicks struggling to find backcourt depth, Payton is a reliable, albeit low-upside, short-term option.

Payton will reportedly come back to New York with a $5 million contract.

Finn