Day four of BBC Sport's advent calendar looking back at the sporting decade features Andy Murray and the 2015 Davis Cup.

Into the final for the first time since 1978, Murray led Great Britain to a memorable victory against Belgium.

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The Montreal Canadiens placed goaltender Keith Kinkaid on waivers Tuesday, prior to their 4-2 victory over the New York Islanders.

Kinkaid, 30, entered the season as the primary backup to Carey Price but struggled in five starts. Kinkaid, who helped lead the New Jersey Devils to the postseason in 2017, was just 1-1-3 for Montreal, with a 4.24 goals-against average.

Cayden Primeau, 20, was recalled from Montreal's American Hockey League affiliate to take Kinkaid's seat behind Price, who stopped 21 shots en route to his 11th win of the season Tuesday.

The Canadiens have back-to-back games on Thursday and Friday, against the Colorado Avalanche and New York Rangers, respectively, with Price likely starting one of them. The schedule will allow Montreal a chance to see Primeau, the No. 199 pick of the 2017 NHL draft out of Northeastern and the son of former NHL forward Keith Primeau, against elite competition.

"That's just the thing," Canadiens coach Claude Julien said. "The next four games, we have two back-to-backs. So, there's no doubt that we're going to get an opportunity to see him.

"We think Primeau has a great future. We're going to see what he brings."

The win over the Islanders put an end to a frustrating 0-5-3 skid for the Canadiens, and helped the club to avoid the first nine-game skid since the 1939-40 season.

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Capitals coach Todd Reirden said that Sharks forward Evander Kane's hit to the head of defenseman Radko Gudas on Tuesday night is something the league will have to "deal with."

With just over five minutes left, Kane and Gudas were skating to a loose puck. Kane raised his right glove, clutching the butt end of his stick, and struck Gudas in the head. The on-ice officials reviewed the hit and determined that Kane would receive a five-minute major for elbowing and a game misconduct.

Evander Kane gets a game misconduct for elbowing Radko Gudas in the head pic.twitter.com/OrBuBZR9a8

— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) December 4, 2019

"It's a high hit. It's a reviewable penalty. The league will deal with it from there," Reirden said. "But it's the type of stuff we're working to remove from the game."

The Capitals didn't score on the major but defeated the Sharks 5-2.

San Jose coach Pete DeBoer hoped the penalty on Kane would suffice.

"I did see the Kane hit. Definitely a penalty. I don't think it's more than that. That's my opinion. But that's not my department," he said.

Kane was suspended three games in September for physical abuse of officials, costing him over $112,000. His last suspension for a physical altercation with another player was in April 2018, when he was suspended for one playoff game following a cross-check to Vegas forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare.

The Capitals said they'll have an update on Gudas on Wednesday, before their game at the Los Angeles Kings.

"We'd have to react accordingly. We have plans in place for all these possible predicaments," Reirden said.

LOS ANGELES -- Paul George doesn't hide how he feels about Carmelo Anthony. In fact, the LA Clippers All-Star is quick to point out how he wears a chain that Anthony gave to him when the two played together on the Thunder.

"He was the big brother, he was the mentor, he was the one who got me this chain," George said, clutching a gold chain as he looked back on his one season with Anthony in Oklahoma City. "The list goes on for what Melo did for me there."

George was reunited with Anthony on a basketball court Tuesday night, and the two shared some laughs before George finished with 25 points to lead the Clippers to a 117-97 win over the Portland Trail Blazers.

The Clippers' smothering defense held Anthony, who was named Western Conference player of the week, to his lowest total in his seven games back with just nine points on 2-of-9 shooting and six rebounds.

However, after the game, George came to Anthony's defense for the second time this week. On Sunday, George said he didn't like the narratives that have surrounded Anthony's style of play since he returned. He pleaded with critics to just let Anthony play basketball again.

"I'm not going to be happy with [the criticism], with how they tried to shoot him down when he first started," George said when asked if Anthony got credit for his play with the weekly award. "I am not going to be happy now that he's playing well and they want to be on his side. He is going to have a long season. Let him play, let him hoop.

"Say what you want when he's finished, but let him hoop. It's great that he's getting that recognition now. ... It's tough regardless when he came back, he had been out over a year, so there's going to be some ups and downs. But let Melo hoop."

During his return, Anthony has felt the love from his peers. Kawhi Leonard voiced his support Sunday when he said he thought Anthony was treated unfairly by teams around the league while he was out of the game.

"It means a lot," Anthony said. "But, also, the real ones know what's going on. It's not them. I never had issues with any of my colleagues saying anything about me. It's the narratives that surround the game of basketball, the opinions that everybody has. All of these cameras have their opinion.

"So it's those things that come into play, which can easily allow somebody to get down on themselves and want to give up and want to not be motivated. I was against all of that. I stayed with it. I stayed motivated. I pushed myself."

Anthony drew a warm round of applause from the Staples crowd when he was introduced in the Portland starting lineup. Anthony admitted he would have loved to have played here in Los Angeles alongside his good friend and Lakers star LeBron James.

"There were a lot of teams that I thought I was going to be on," Anthony said. "As far as LeBron goes, it's something we've talked about since we were in high school. It wasn't in his power. Some people might say it was in his power. But it's something that I was calling him and talking to him about, asking him, 'Can you do this for me?' [But] I would've never put him in that position because a lot of times it's deeper than that and I started understanding the business of basketball."

George, who hit 6-of-7 3-pointers to help the Clippers win for the ninth time in 10 games, spent a good portion of his postgame interview explaining how Anthony is more of a team player than his critics believe.

"Melo was the enforcer really [during] my time with him in Oklahoma," said George, who played with Anthony in Oklahoma City during the 2017-18 season. "When times were rocky, he was the one that kind of led with us, and kept everything positive and smooth sailing. I thought him and Russ [Westbrook] did an unbelievable job of that."

George got to know Anthony when the two were on the 2016 Team USA Olympic roster that won gold in Brazil. But he remembers becoming a fan when Anthony was a star on the Denver Nuggets and battled Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers.

"I grew up with the Lakers playing the Denver Nuggets, in that era, and Kobe being my favorite player and Melo giving it everything, giving Kobe everything he had," said George, who grew up in Palmdale, a suburb of Los Angeles. "That matchup, really was what made me the biggest fan of Melo. And then having the first opportunities to play against him, I understood why he's so hard to guard.

"His relentlessness, how hard he plays, and it was never a night off going against Melo. You were sore, you were bruised, you were hurting after playing against Melo. I think that is what kind of everybody remembers, the vintage Denver and then the New York Knick Melo. That is what everybody remembers and what everybody has a heart for when you think of Melo."

ESPN's Baxter Holmes contributed to this report.

DENVER -- After flu-like symptoms tore through the Los Angeles Lakers' roster on Tuesday, Anthony Davis, under the weather himself, tore up the Denver Nuggets' game plan, stymieing Nikola Jokic & Co. in L.A.'s 105-96 victory.

Davis, who required intravenous fluids at halftime, finished with 25 points and 10 rebounds to Jokic's 13 and 5, putting the Lakers back in the victory column after Sunday's loss to the Dallas Mavericks snapped their 10-game winning streak.

"Just tried to fight," said Davis, who missed L.A.'s workout Monday and stayed in bed most of Tuesday leading up to tipoff. "Do whatever I can to help the team win. I felt like I could give it a go, and I was able to contribute as much as I can and get the win."

LeBron James' tip dunk with 1 minute, 15 seconds left to put the Lakers up 102-96 might have been the game-sealing play on offense, but it was Davis' repeated stops on the defensive end that put L.A. in that position in the first place.

"Just felt lousy the last two days," Lakers coach Frank Vogel said of Davis. "He comes in and has a ... Defensive Player of the Year type of performance. He's guarding their two best players, Jokic, single coverage, everybody's staying home and Jamal Murray taking him to the basket and he's making defensive play after defensive play.

"And he was outstanding. For him to play through illness and have that kind of performance was something special."

For James, who had 25 points and nine assists, it was just another instance of Davis leading the team by example after he also gutted it out through injuries to his shoulder, elbow and ribs.

"He's been doing it all year," James said. "Playing through injuries, playing through illness like he did tonight. [He's the] Defensive Player of the Year, and he showed tonight once again playing one-on-one versus 'Joker' in the post. When there were switches, going on with Jamal Murray, playing one-on-one versus a small. Got stop after stop after stop. Just a monster game for him."

James estimated that at least six players on the Lakers were sick, including himself, Davis, Kyle Kuzma and Rajon Rondo.

Davis went scoreless in the first quarter, but L.A. still went out to a 28-24 lead. He described his slow start as methodical, not lethargic.

"[The sickness] didn't factor in," Davis said. "I was trying just to make the right play. Not trying to force anything. I think the shots that I had were good shots. But I was kind of overthinking it a little bit. Not because of illness, but the way they were playing me. And then just trying to be aggressive in the second through fourth quarters. Just trying to get my team going, get them some looks and get myself some looks. So the illness didn't really play a big part that I thought it would, especially playing in Denver in the altitude."

The win put the Lakers back atop the NBA standings at 18-3, tied with the Milwaukee Bucks for the league's best record.

Rondo said that performances like Tuesday's should also place Davis atop everyone's minds when discussing the game's best.

"I think it's just a mindset: You can fight through it," Rondo said. "Especially with his attitude, it might be a little bit tough, but he's here for a reason. He's a super-elite player, if not the best player in the game right now as we speak. So I'm not surprised that he played well tonight."

The Lakers continue their stretch of 12 out of 15 games on the road with the second night of a back-to-back set Wednesday in Salt Lake City against the Utah Jazz. Vogel says he believes his players will play through their illnesses again.

"He's one of our leaders," Lakers guard Danny Green said of Davis. "He leads not just by his words or verbally but by his actions. ... Obviously he's dealt with some things in the past, injurywise and some things with sickness, and he's always had some tweaks and bumps and bruises.

"He's had reason to sit out, but he's not sitting out of any games. Now he wants to fight through everything. And he's letting not just us know that he has our back, but he's letting the league know that he's not sitting out for any reason."

SAN ANTONIO -- The Houston Rockets are optimistic the NBA office will take action after referees mistakenly did not count a James Harden dunk in Tuesday night's 135-133 double-overtime loss to the San Antonio Spurs, sources told ESPN.

The Rockets are hopeful the league office will either award the victory to Houston due to the Rockets outscoring the Spurs in regulation or order that the final 7 minutes, 50 seconds be replayed at a later date, sources said.

Harden's breakaway dunk with 7:50 remaining would have given the Rockets a 104-89 lead. The ball whipped through the net and back over the rim before bouncing off, and the officiating crew mistakenly ruled that Harden missed the dunk and denied Houston coach Mike D'Antoni's attempt to challenge the call.

"When the play happened, Harden goes in for a dunk, and then the ball appears to us to pop back through the net," crew chief James Capers told a pool reporter. "When that happens, that is basket interference. To have a successful field goal, it must clear the net. We have since come in here and looked at the play. He dunked it so hard that the net carried it back over the rim a second time, so in fact it did clear the net and should have been a successful field goal.

"As to could the play have been reviewed, it is a reviewable matter, but you have a window of 30 seconds to challenge the play during that timeout that he had and while they were protesting the call, trying to get clarification of it, that window passed. So therefore, it elapsed, and they were not able to do it."

D'Antoni, who spoke to the media before the pool report was released, had a different account of the referees' explanation immediately after the play.

"I have no idea," D'Antoni said. "I heard that they said the ball hit James and went back through, so it was a goaltend on James. I challenged that, and I didn't get a response. Then another guy said it wasn't a goaltend; it went out of bounds on us. And I said, 'Well, I challenge that.' Can't do that. You know, I don't know, to answer your question. I've got nothing. I can't tell you."

According to ESPN Stats & Information research, the most recent example of teams replaying part of a game happened on March 8, 2008, between the Miami Heat and Atlanta Hawks. Four months earlier, the Hawks defeated the Heat 117-111 at home in overtime, but the official scorer incorrectly ruled that Miami's Shaquille O'Neal fouled out with 51.9 seconds left in the game. The league decided to have Miami and Atlanta replay the final 51.9 seconds before the teams' next scheduled game, and the Hawks ultimately won 114-111.

Tuesday night, the Spurs outscored the Rockets by a 26-13 margin in the remainder of regulation after the Harden dunk controversy. D'Antoni blamed a loss of focus for the collapse of the Rockets, who led by as many as 22 points in the third quarter.

"I think we lost [focus] before [Harden's dunk], but obviously that just added to the circumstances," D'Antoni said. "We just quit playing defense, we quit getting back, we turned it over silly and didn't get back. They got hot, made shots and we just didn't do anything to combat it."

Harden finished with 50 points despite shooting just 11-of-38 from the field, including 4-of-20 from 3-point range. He also set an NBA record for the most free throws attempted in a regular-season game without a miss (24).

He said he felt the Rockets "just stopped playing, and they gained confidence."

Harden had opportunities to win the game in the final seconds of regulation and both overtime periods.

Harden was called for an offensive foul on a drive with 0.4 seconds remaining in regulation. Officials overturned the foul after the Rockets challenged but instead called Houston center Clint Capela for an offensive foul. San Antonio's Bryn Forbes missed a jumper at the buzzer.

Harden got a good look off the dribble on the final play of the first overtime, but his runner off the glass missed.

In the second overtime, after DeMar DeRozan's free throws gave the Spurs a one-point lead, Harden was called for another charge with 0.8 seconds left.

"S--- happens," guard Russell Westbrook said, summing up the night for the Rockets. "Plain and simple."

The Australia squad named for the Test series against New Zealand was probably one of the simpler discussions the selectors have had in recent times following back-to-back innings victories over Pakistan. However, there could be some tricky decisions on the horizon, most significantly around who would be the second spinner should one be needed in Sydney and then, certainly, on the tour of Bangladesh next year.

Selection chairman Trevor Hohns left room for an additional player to be added to the 13-man squad against New Zealand if conditions dictate, a definite nod towards a different balance of the side, and confirmed - without naming them - that a handful of spinners around the country will be told to keep themselves ready to support Nathan Lyon.

"We will be putting a couple of spinners on notice to make sure they're doing extra work in case they're required," Hohns said. "I won't nominate them now, because they haven't been informed. But we're going into a Big Bash period, so we'll want anyone nominated to be doing extra work throughout the Big Bash series."

Earlier this year, Shane Warne said Australia's spin options behind Lyon were a "real issue" if he were injured or needed support.

So who are the names heading the back-up list? (Statistics for this Sheffield Shield season, up to December 4)

Jon Holland (8 wickets at 59.25)

When Australia last fielded two frontline spinners, against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi, it was Holland who had the second-spinner's role. He went wicketless in a heavy defeat, but remained in the selectors' thinking as part of the Australia A squad that toured England ahead of the Ashes. In the end Australia went without a second spinner for that series. This season has so far been hard work for Holland in the Sheffield Shield but, with international experience under his belt, he will likely remain in contention.

Steve O'Keefe (10 wickets at 18.70)

It takes a while, but if you scan down the Sheffield Shield wicket-takers for the season, you will eventually hit O'Keefe who is the leading spinner for New South Wales so far with 10 wickets at an average under 20. However, at 34, and with a few strikes against his name, it feels as though his time has passed even though he probably remains the second-best spinner in the country. If the selectors wanted someone who would not be overawed by the occasion, O'Keefe ticks plenty of boxes.

Ashton Agar (3 wickets at 136)

The bowling numbers certainly don't scream "pick me" for Agar, who made his Test debut back in 2013 when he struck 98 from No. 11 against England, but there is an all-round package that could make him attractive to the selectors. If Australia fielded a second spinner it would mean a different balance to the side and one option could be to play Agar at No. 7 - leaving out a specialist batsman - and still field three quick bowlers. He has averaged 52.40 with the bat in the Sheffield Shield this season and is also an outstanding fielder.

Mitchell Swepson (10 wickets at 21.20)

There is momentum growing behind Queensland legspinner Swepson after his match-winning return of 7 for 92 against Victoria in Melbourne. At 26, he has had time to learn his game - and has spent time getting advice from Warne - and the onus will now be on Queensland to try and ensure they can find a place for him in the XI regardless of home conditions at the Gabba. Since the start of last season, he is the joint-leading wicket-taker among spinners, along with Holland, in the Shield with 34 wickets at 33.17.

Marnus Labuschagne (4 wickets at 51.00* including Pakistan Tests)

He's already cemented in the XI and while he can't yet be classed as more than a good part-timer there is potential for Labuschagne to play a big role with his legspin. He could have had a couple of wickets against Pakistan and, although he delivers some loose stuff, has pretty good control of all his variations. If it continues to develop there is certainly the scope for him to be a legitimate second option with Lyon, especially on home soil.

Australia's first Boxing Day Test with New Zealand in 32 years will be the backdrop to critical talks between Cricket Australia and the ICC aimed at resolving an impasse over global events for the next international cycle.

Financial woes among the majority of Full Member countries have caused them to be increasingly reliant upon cash distributions from ICC events, pushing the global body's new chief executive Manu Sawhney to lobby for the return of an extra event in the next cycle so that there is a men's tournament - either a Twenty20 World Cup, 50-over World Cup or shorter, Champions Trophy style 50-over competition - every year.

New Zealand's presence on Boxing Day will be poignant to the moment, for their finances stand as a signal example. Shifting ICC distributions have caused one of cricket's smaller boards to return financial losses of NZD 1.3 million (USD 846,000 approx) for 2018-19 (as against a projected profit of NZD 1 million) after deficits of $3.5 million in 2018 and $9.3 million in 2017. The most recent loss was all the more troubling for the fact that the 2018-19 season featured an inbound India tour.

However CA, the BCCI and the ECB, cricket's three richest boards, have indicated their hesitance about placing the extra event in the next cycle, already crushed as it is by domestic Twenty20 tournaments and the advent of Test and ODI leagues. These reservations have been expressed by the BCCI's leadership, the ECB's chairman Colin Graves, and CA's chairman Earl Eddings and chief executive Kevin Roberts.

"We've got Manu Sawhney, the ICC CEO, coming out in a couple of weeks to work through it," Eddings told ESPNcricinfo. "We've got a responsibility as one of the leading countries to make the ICC strong and the countries who are part of the ICC. But we've also got to balance that with our own requirements around bilateral cricket. One of the challenges we have is Australia relies more on bilateral cricket than the ICC, where for a lot of countries it is the other way round. So just trying to find the balance.

"You've got more T20 competitions spreading around the world, you've got the burgeoning IPL and you've got our bilateral cricket. More importantly, what does that mean to the players and from a player welfare perspective. So you've got all these challenges to try to work through. I think there's a solution there, I don't know what it is yet, but we'll keep talking to the ICC and other countries to find a way to one, maximise the opportunities for the ICC and its members but also look after the needs of bilateral cricket and most importantly protect the sanctity of Test cricket.

"We're working through it with the ICC at the moment, that's why Manu's coming down, let's sit down and work out what the options are, put some of the minutiae around it, so people can make a more informed decision. The ICC in concept approved it, subject to making sure it doesn't impact on bilateral cricket, where you play, how you play it, how you bid for it."

Eddings, who has operated on a relational and trust-building platform since becoming CA chairman in 2018, is conscious of the problems affecting other boards and has proposed, among other things, that the ICC and member countries adopt a four-year financial cycle to smooth out year-on-year financial distributions to reduce cashflow issues.

"During the last cycle of ICC events, there was last year (2018) when they didn't have an event, and that had massive implications for distributions back to all of the countries," he said. "Where that isn't a problem for Australia, it is for others. So we're trying to make sure you've got that cycle with an event every year so there's consistency of revenue. But the challenge we have is the number of days - compared to the previous cycle when they did have an event every year, the events themselves didn't run that long, but now the events have got bigger.

"So you've got a lot more ICC content to fit into a smaller calendar, with all the T20 leagues around the world. So that's the challenge now, trying to squeeze too much content into too little time.

"We've certainly made that recommendation [for a four-year cycle] to the ICC. We've got the same problem [as other Full Members] only on a smaller scale, some years we make a lot of money, other years we lose a lot of money, depending on who's travelling and your media rights. You don't want to be up and down with your cash flows, particularly back to [CA's member] states who rely on your funding. So we smooth it out, we look at how much money we've made over the four-year cycle as opposed to an up and down cycle of year by year."

The talks with Sawhney are aimed at working towards a solution before there is any danger of the game again being split along financial lines, as occurred during the infamous "big three" takeover of the ICC by the boards of India, England and Australia in 2014-15.

"Not yet, it's still early days," Eddings said when asked about any additional details around the proposed extra tournament. "Still got to work out its context, player welfare is really important - you can't just keep putting in more games to play, I think it's unfair - and still need to work out where it fits in the calendar. So as a concept it's up there, but a lot of work has got to be done on what type of event it is, how it plays out. That's all still a work in progress.

"Most of the Test playing countries play in the same season, which makes it more challenging. You've got a lot more time in the northern summer, so a whole range of factors need to be considered. A lot of water's going to go under the bridge before we get that far.

"We're a long way off - this [extra event] is post 2023, so we've got a number of years to work through it, but you can't do one thing without the other. To be able to work on your future tours programme, you need to know where that fits in with an ICC schedule, so you can't just look at an ICC schedule in isolation, just as you can't look at a bilateral or future tours programme in isolation."

Defending champions Melbourne Renegades have signed Pakistan left-arm seamer Usman Shinwari and allrounder Faheem Ashraf for a chunk of the upcoming Big Bash League season.

Shinwari will be available for the first seven games, with England quick Harry Gurney replacing him for the remainder of the season, while new recruit Faheem will be replaced by Afghanistan allrounder Mohammad Nabi after eight games.

The upcoming season will be Shinwari's second stint in the BBL. He played seven games for Renegades last season too, finishing with eight wickets at an economy rate of 6.14. Faheem was the second-highest wicket-taker in the 2019 Pakistan Super League with 21 strikes in 12 innings for Islamabad United after finishing on top of the list in 2018. He has 93 wickets and 558 runs in the 83 T20s he has played since his debut in the format in 2015.

Nabi, meanwhile, will be returning for a third season with the team, having scored 316 runs and picked up 16 wickets in 21 games in the last two seasons. Gurney, who impressed with his variations during their successful 2018-19 season, picked up ten wickets in nine matches then.

"I'm pleased with how we're shaping up," new head coach Michael Klinger said. "Mohammad Nabi and Harry Gurney showed their class last season so we're glad to have them on board for the second half of the home and away season and hopefully finals.

"After winning a title, the competition for spots in the XI is going to be fierce and we feel we've got plenty of options to cover the challenges that we'll be confronted with throughout the season."

Renegades will begin their title defence against Sydney Thunder on December 19 at the Simonds Stadium in Geelong.