Leading Off: Home Run Derby; All-star Starting Pitchers

The Colorado Avalanche has collected Miles Wood, Scott Wedgewood and Mackenzie Blackwood in the past 18 months, but maybe the lumber-adjacent hoarding shouldn’t be done yet. Kiefer Sherwood doesn’t play for the Avs, and he burned them Monday night. Sherwood had all three goals to help the Vancouver Canucks dispatch the Avs, 3-1, at Rogers Centre.

In a season that has already been overstuffed with theatrics, the Nuggets saved their most dramatic finish yet for the most dedicated viewers, escaping Sacramento after dark with a 130-129 win Monday. Denver blew an early 23-point lead and then overcame a 10-point deficit in the last 4:10 for its fourth double-digit comeback win in the fourth quarter this season.

Like a 1911 Model T, the Broncos’ run game has three gears: first, second and reverse. Surely, Sean Payton is as sick of this shift as the rest of us. “I would say there’s some looks that we have to be better at, relative to when we’re running a certain play into some tough looks, where now you don’t really have the leverage,” Payton, the Broncos’ second-year coach, said Monday when asked about his mercurial — to put it kindly — rushing game right now.

Michael Vick has talked to at least two schools about becoming a college head coach. Sacramento State president Dr. Luke Wood said Monday he has spoken with Vick about the opening at his school, and the Virginian-Pilot reported that Norfolk State has also interviewed the former NFL sensation to be its next coach. Wood said Vick expressed interest in the open job at Sacramento State, which is trying to make the move from the FCS level to the FBS if the school can get an invitation to join either the Pac-12 or Mountain West Conference. “Vick and I did meet about Sac State football and our athletic rise,” Wood said on the social media platform X.

When Julian Strawther led the NBA in total scoring this preseason, the list of past leaders he joined included some surprisingly good company. Yes, preseason basketball tends to be a stage for bench players and recent draft picks, while starters play limited minutes to avoid injury risk. Even so, Kevin Durant, James Harden, Devin Booker, Ja Morant and Blake Griffin are among the stars who have amassed the most total points in a preseason.

One of the top players on the Colorado defense has elected to enter the transfer portal, while one of the top defenders in the portal is on his way to Boulder. On Monday, CU inside linebacker Nikhai Hill-Green announced on social media that he will enter the portal with the intention of playing his final year of eligibility elsewhere. “I am forever grateful for the year that we’ve had together competing for the Big 12 title and with me earning 2nd team All-Big 12 honors on defense,” Hill-Green wrote on social media. Later, former Alabama defensive lineman Jehiem Oatis announced that he is coming to CU as a transfer.