Raiders’ season slip slidin’ away

With two straight road defeats, Josh McDaniels' team is going in the wrong direction at the wrong time.

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1. Raiders’ season slip slidin’ away

With two straight road defeats, Josh McDaniels' team is going in the wrong direction at the wrong time. The Sporting Tribune’s Steve Carp has the latest from Las Vegas.

This is shaping up to be one heck of a strange week for the Las Vegas Raiders. The Silver and Black, which are in official freefall at 2-6 and having dropped two straight games, have all but disappeared from the chase for the postseason. Tuesday, they released safety Johnathan Abram, another first-round pick who failed to live up to the billing and justify being such a high selection. He’s the fourth first-rounder who didn’t make it in Las Vegas as the ghost of Jon Gruden lives.

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2. Metta World Peace on Kawhi Leonard: “I wanted to be like him.”

Metta World Peace told The Sporting Tribune that he’s a fan of Kawhi Leonard, who is currently sidelined indefinitely. "I’m able to live through Kawhi when I watch him play,” he said. “I’m able to just put a smile on my face." More from our exclusive interview with Metta World Peace:

“He’s somebody that I respectfully envy because I wanted to be like him,” Metta World Peace told The Sporting Tribune. “I won’t ever tell him that to his face because I’m super competitive but he is the type of player that if my career went right, that’s who you see. You see Kawhi. If I don’t get suspended and things go right, that’s who you see. I’m able to live through Kawhi when I watch him play. I’m able to just put a smile on my face because I’m like, ‘OK, even though my career was cut short in terms of production and performance, Kawhi took it to the next level and won championships and won Finals MVPs.’ He plays defense and offense, he’s a big strong guy. I like it. That’s what I wanted to be.”

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3. BINGO: 3 Questions with Ralph Lawler

Hall of fame broadcaster Ralph Lawler shares his thoughts on the Clippers every week exclusively on The Sporting Tribune. Here’s a snippet from this week’s conversation.

Paul George was named Western Conference Player of the Week for a reason. He is one of those players who seem to score so effortlessly. He reminds me of Alex English who led all scorers in the league in the decade of the 1980s. You would look up and be shocked to see he had scored 30 points in a game. Paul George is like that. He can certainly lead the Clippers into the Playoffs. However, to be a true title contender, I think the team needs a healthy Kawhi Leonard and the very best play of John Wall.

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4. Bobby Wagner’s entrepreneurial spirit drives his big investments

Los Angeles Rams linebacker Bobby Wagner is already thinking about life after football with his impressive investment portfolio. The Sporting Tribune caught up with him for an exclusive interview about his investment strategies.

I look for the team. You have to believe in the team because I think a good team can make a bad product go and a bad team can make a good product crumble. The first thing I look for is team, then you look at the product, the product market age, how big is the market that that product is trying to capture and if they’re solving a problem. If they solve a problem, then you know it makes sense.

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5. Dodgers’ Ramos, Sheehan have dominant day in Arizona Fall League

Dodgers prospects Jose Ramos and Emmet Sheehan both performed well on Tuesday and The Sporting Tribune’s Bruce Kuntz has the latest from their dominant day in the Arizona Fall League.

It was a big day on Tuesday for highly rated Dodgers prospects Jose Ramos and Emmet Sheehan. Jose Ramos, the Dodgers’ eighth ranked prospect, started in left field and batted cleanup for the Glendale Desert Dogs. He performed accordingly, going 4-5 with four RBI on the day. He finished just a double shy of the cycle, hitting his first triple and second homer so far in the Fall League.

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6. How we would fix the Ducks

Felix Sicard and Jake Rudolph have been doing a podcast about the Ducks since the 2017-2018 Anaheim Ducks season and they will continue to share their insights at The Sporting Tribune.

Please click here to check out the latest episode of their podcast in both video and audio form, where Felix and Jake look at why Mason McTavish should be a center, how they would fix the forward lines, John Gibson's play in net, and much more.

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7. Odds and Ends presented by Circa Sports

Here are some odds at Circa Sports if you’re thinking about placing a wager today:

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8. Ticket Time presented by TickPick  

Here are the “get in” prices for tickets if you’re thinking about going to a game today:

Los Angeles Lakers at Los Angeles Clippers: $67

Minnesota Wild at Anaheim Ducks: $22

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9. On the Air presented by Pirnia Law

Here are the game times and television channels for professional teams in the region:

7:00 p.m. – LA Lakers at LA Clippers –  Spectrum SportsNet, Bally Sports SoCal

7:00 p.m. – Minnesota Wild at Anaheim Ducks – TNT  

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10. The Arash Markazi Show presented by The Sporting Tribune 

On Tuesday’s show, the crew talked about the Lakers getting blown out by the Utah Jazz and if USC or UCLA can sneak into the College Football Playoff with The Sporting Tribune’s Elisa Hernandez.

Listen to The Arash Markazi Show presented by The Sporting Tribune on The Mightier 1090 ESPN Radio in Southern California, 98.5 The Fan in Las Vegas and the Hawaii Sports Radio Network 95.1 FM and 760 AM in Hawaii. You can also listen to the show on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Play and Stitcher.

Thank you for reading. Please click below to subscribe to The Morning Column presented by The Sporting Tribune. It’s totally free and will be delivered to your inbox every morning.

That’s it for today. Talk to you all tomorrow!