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SALT LAKE CITY — Geography says there’s potential for a rivalry to develop between the Colorado Avalanche and Utah HC. It’s still on the players and teams, not map locations, to build a proper one. The Avs and their new Rocky Mountain neighbors got closer to making potential a reality Friday night.

The Nuggets’ loss on Christmas day was an outlier within the context of this season, in that their offense betrayed them. Their 149-135 loss to the Cavaliers two nights later was more akin to the trend — but in its most extreme form. Denver trailed by as many as 21 and fell to 8-5 at home this season in Friday’s loss to the NBA-best Cavs, who became the second team in league history to make 20 or more 3-pointers in four consecutive games.

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Nuggets coach Michael Malone, whose first head coaching job was in Sacramento, ripped the Kings for firing Mike Brown on Friday and revealed that Brown was informed of the decision via phone call after leaving a team practice. “What really pissed me off about it was that they lost last night, fifth game in a row, I believe — tough loss, fouling a jump-shooter — they have practice this morning, he does his post-(practice) media, and he’s in his car going to the airport to fly to L.

An Oregon house cat died after eating pet food that tested positive for bird flu, Oregon authorities said, prompting a recall of raw frozen pet food that was sold nationwide. Via HuffPost: Northwest Naturals, a pet food company based in Portland, Oregon, said Tuesday it had voluntarily recalled one batch of its two-pound Feline Turkey Recipe raw frozen pet food after it tested positive for the virus.

In a blow to right-wing efforts to ban books and criminalize librarians, a federal judge on Monday struck down key provisions of an Arkansas law as unconstitutional—though the fight is far from over, with the Republican state attorney general planning to appeal. Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed Act 372 in March 2023.