DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Jon Rahm made the best start of the five players still in the running for the Race to Dubai title, shooting 6-under 66 to be three strokes off the first-round lead at the season-ending DP World Tour Championship on Thursday.

Mike Lorenzo-Vera led the tournament after a 9-under 63 on the Earth Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates and was one clear of No. 2-ranked Rory McIlroy, who made eagle on No. 18 in his round of 64 after hitting a 3-wood from 286 yards to within about 5 feet.

Rahm was alone in third place after a bogey-free round during which he made four birdies in five holes early in his back nine.

Tommy Fleetwood, another player in with a chance of ending the season as European No. 1, was a stroke behind on 5 under after starting his round by holing out from 153 yards for eagle on No. 1.

Of the other Race to Dubai contenders, Bernd Wiesberger shot 70 and was tied for 14th place, Matt Fitzpatrick shot 71 and Shane Lowry shot 73.

Wiesberger leads the standings and will lift the trophy if he wins in Dubai or finishes alone in second place.

Fleetwood, second in the standings, knows a win coupled with Wiesberger finishing lower than outright second will see him capture the title for the second time in three years. The same scenario faces third-place Rahm, who won the World Tour Championship in 2017 and placed fourth last year.

Sometimes all you need is a little motivation.

Rory McIlroy's torrid 2019 season has included four victories and vaulted him to No. 2 in the world rankings. But it's come while he's been juggling off-course priorities, like moving into a new house in South Florida with his wife, Erica.

The couple is now putting the finishing touches on the home and recently moved in, but it was only upon returning from another win at the WGC-HSBC Champions earlier this month that McIlroy was reunited with some of his most prized possessions.

"We still hadn't moved everything in, and the trophy cabinet hadn't been built. And then I got back from China, walked into our sort of game room and up on the wall were all the trophies and stuff," McIlroy said after the opening round of the DP World Tour Championship. "All that stuff had been in storage for a year and a half. So first time I'd seen the claret jug, and the U.S. Open trophy and all that sort of stuff."

McIlroy can't add another Race to Dubai title to his growing collection, but he's still in the mix for his third career victory at the European Tour's season finale after an 8-under 64 that left him one shot back in Dubai. Having turned 30 in May and closing out one of the best years of his accomplished career, McIlroy explained that seeing all his past hardware served as "a nice reminder" that he'd still like to add to the collection.

"It's cool," he said, "but it's also a great motivator to think, 'I'm still pretty early in my career and I've done quite a lot, but I still want to do so much more.'"

Marcus Rashford has told ESPN FC his recent flurry of goals is only the start of the Manchester United forward realising his potential.

Rashford has nine goals in his last 10 games for club and country -- the best run of his career -- but the 22-year-old has said there is more to come.

"In reality, my peak is not going to be for another four or five years," he said. "As good as things are now, they can only get better."

Rashford is just four short of his season's best goal tally of 13 in both 2017-18 and 2018-19, while his four goals in seven England fixtures in 2019 is already level with his 2018 total across 16 games.

His goals are a key reason behind an upturn in form that has seen Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side win five of their last six games.

Rashford signed a new long-term contract in July and said he believes it will be United fans who will get to witness his peak years.

"I just use these experiences now in my favour to better me in the future, because I know when I'm 25, 26, 27, they're the years when I'm going to be playing my best football," Rashford said, speaking at event to promote his In The Box Manchester initiative to provide homeless people with essential items over Christmas.

"I'm just looking ahead to those times really and improving as much as I can until then," he said.

United are back in action against Sheffield United at Bramall Lane on Sunday, with Luke Shaw, Nemanja Matic and Axel Tuanzebe all in line to feature, having recovered from injury to train with the squad on Wednesday.

Scott McTominay was absent after withdrawing from the Scotland squad because of an ankle problem, while long-term absentees Eric Bailly, Timothy Fosu-Mensah and Diogo Dalot trained separately.

Lille coach Christophe Galtier has hit out at new Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho for poaching two members of his coaching team and warned that sporting director Luis Campos is going nowhere.

Sources told ESPN FC on Wednesday that, after moving for goalkeeping coach Nuno Santos and Joao Sacramento on Wednesday, Mourinho has targeted Campos to join Spurs in a similar role to the one he has been a proven success in at both Lille and Monaco.

But Galtier, speaking ahead of Lille's Ligue 1 match against Paris Saint-Germain, was eager to set the record straight.

"Everyone has their own way of doing things," he said, before adding sarcastically: "But it's really classy. Really classy to act like that."

Of Campos, Galtier added: "Luis is 200% invested in the project and I don't see a 1000th of a wish to look elsewhere. We're close and looking forward."

Sources have told ESPN FC that Campos, a close friend of Mourinho, will definitely not be making the move to north London, despite the club's interest in him.

Carlos Lalin has been recruited as fitness coach, having previously worked with Mourinho at Chelsea, Manchester United and Real Madrid.

Ricardo Formosinho and Giovanni Cerra have also joined the backroom staff in London as tactical analyst and technical analyst, respectively.

Both have worked under Mourinho in the past.

LONDON -- Jose Mourinho has said he is a better manager after 11 months away from football and is "humble" as he prepares to manage Tottenham.

Mourinho was appointed Tottenham head coach on Wednesday, hours on from the club announcing Mauricio Pochettino's sacking as manager. The move is his first step into management after he was sacked by Manchester United in 2018.

Asked whether he is a better manager after time away, Mourinho said: "I think so. You are what you are but I had time to think about many things.

"I realised that during my career, I made mistakes and I'm not going to make the same mistakes. I'm going to make new mistakes. I am humble. I am humble enough to analyse my career, and the problems. There was no one else to blame.

"These last 11 months have been used to think and to prepare. You never lose your DNA. You are what you are -- for the good things and the bad things. I know in my career that I've made mistakes.

"Happiness-wise I am convinced my choice was a great one. [On a scale of one to 10]? 10.

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"I'm nobody to advise people but to have a break was very positive for me. Having the first summer where I didn't work was not good for me. I was a bit lost. But it was good for me. I even learned how to be a pundit."

Mourinho's first match is away at West Ham on Saturday and he added: "I had a feeling I was going to get a club midseason. I knew I would be in a situation where I would get only one or two days before my first game. I cannot come here and think it is about myself. It is about the players and going from a base of stability."

On player transfers and whether the club will be active in the transfer market in January, the Tottenham head coach said he does not expect to be busy, nor does he envisage turning Tottenham's season around to such an extent that they re-enter the title race.

"The best gift are the players who are here. I don't need new players. I just need to get to know these ones better," he said.

"We can't win the Premier League this season. Next season, I'm not saying we will win it, but we can win it."

Mourinho also paid tribute to Pochettino and said the outgoing Tottenham boss will find another top job in management.

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"I have to speak about Mauricio," Mourinho said.

"I have to congratulate him for the work he has done. This club will always be his home. This training ground will always be his training ground. The door will always be open for him.

"He will find happiness again. He will find a great club again. He will have a great future."

Meanwhile, Mourinho will not be bringing highly rated Lille sporting director Luis Campos to Tottenham.

Sources have told ESPN FC that Campos, a close friend of Mourinho, will definitely not be making the move to north London, despite the club's interest in him. Spurs have already made a raid on the Lille coaching staff for goalkeeping coach Nuno Santos and Joao Sacramento, who joined as Mourinho's new assistant head coach on Wednesday.

Carlos Lalin has been recruited as fitness coach, having previously worked with Mourinho at Chelsea, Manchester United and Real Madrid. Ricardo Formosinho and Giovanni Cerra have also joined the backroom staff in London as tactical analyst and technical analyst, respectively. Both have worked under Mourinho in the past.

Lille coach Christophe Galtier hit out at Mourinho for poaching his backroom staff and said: "Everyone has their own way of doing things," before adding sarcastically: "But it's really classy. Really classy to act like that."

Of Campos, Galtier added: "Luis is 200% invested in the project and I don't see a 1000th of a wish to look elsewhere. We're close and looking forward."

Seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar and left-arm wristspinner Kuldeep Yadav have returned to India's squads for the three T20Is and three T20Is at home against West Indies. Virat Kohli, who had been rested for the T20I leg of the Bangladesh series, also returned to lead both the limited-overs sides.

T20I squad: Virat Kohli (capt), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wk), Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Deepak Chahar, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar

ODI squad: Virat Kohli (capt), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wk), Shivam Dube, Kedar Jadhav, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Deepak Chahar, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar

More to follow…

The Cricket World Cup would be restored to the UK's list of "crown jewel" sporting events in the event of Labour winning next month's general election, according to a pledge in the party's manifesto.

The 107-page document, unveiled at an event in Birmingham on Thursday, includes a section focussing on the importance of sport in helping to build communities and keeping people healthy, adding that it needs to be made "accessible and run in the interests of those who participate in it and love it".

"Sport enriches our lives, binds communities together and helps us all to stay healthy," the document read. "We will add the ICC Cricket World Cup to the list of crown jewel sporting events that are broadcast free-to-air."

The pledge follows on from a recent appearance by senior ECB figures before the Department of Culture, Media and Sport's Select Committee, at which the issue of free-to-air access was a central line of enquiry.

Unlike the football and rugby World Cups, the Cricket World Cup is the only one of the UK's "big three" sporting showpieces that isn't shown on free-to-air television.

The last free-to-air World Cup was shown on the BBC in 1999, while no international cricket has been broadcast on terrestrial TV in the UK since Channel 4 had the rights to the Ashes in 2005.

A one-off exception was made this summer when the ECB and Sky reached an agreement to allow Channel 4 to share the feed for England's thrilling World Cup final victory over New Zealand, a decision which helped contribute to peak viewing figures of 8 million across all platforms, 4.5 million of them terrestrially.

That figure, however, still paled compared to the 12.8 million who tuned into ITV earlier this month to watch England's men play South Africa in the final of the Rugby World Cup, while England Women's football World Cup campaign in the summer peaked at 11.7 million for their semi-final defeat against USA.

In advance of its DCMS appearance, the ECB released figures which demonstrated the uplifting effect of England's World Cup win, showing that 3.15 million fans attended cricket events in 2019, an 18 percent rise on the previous record.

Next summer, cricket will see a partial return to terrestrial television, with the launch of the ECB's new city-based competition, The Hundred, which will be broadcast on Sky and the BBC as part of the latest £1.1 billion rights deal that extends from 2020-2024.

The next Cricket World Cup will take place in India in February and March 2023.

Jemimah Rodrigues has broken into the top five of the T20I batting rankings, moving up from seventh to fourth after compiling 96 runs during India's five-nil mauling of West Indies. Her most significant contribution came in the final match, in which she struck a half-century.

Following the result, India and West Indies swapped places, with India climbing to fourth after gaining eight points and West Indies dropping to fifth place, after losing ten points. To cap India's dominance in the rankings, left-arm spinner Radha Yadav climbed from fifth to second after picking seven wickets in the series, just second behind offspinner Deepti Sharma, who took eight wickets to hold on to her fourth place. With legspinner Poonam Yadav ranked five, India are well represented.

Fifteen-year old opener Shafali Verma, too, climbed in the rankings, leapfrogging from 87 to 30 after finishing the series as the highest run-getter with a tally of 157, which included two fifties.

Meanwhile, Pakistan batter Javeria Khan broke into the top 20 in T20Is after amassing 111 runs in the 3-0 thrashing of Bangladesh at home. But Bangladesh themselves had something to cheer about as fast bowler Jahanara Alam, who took nine wickets in the series, climbed 22 spots to 15th.

The Philadelphia 76ers mobbed Furkan Korkmaz after his winning buzzer-beater in Portland on Nov. 2, but what they have cherished more than the win is the night that unfolded afterward. Tobias Harris organized a gathering at a local club to celebrate. Every player on the trip came but Al Horford, who says he was more or less a DNP-OLD.

They toasted Korkmaz. At one point, Josh Richardson approached Korkmaz and asked what he was feeling. "This is the best day of my life," Korkmaz replied with an earnestness that surprised Richardson. Mike Scott raises his voice an octave to imitate Korkmaz's giddiness in a separate conversation at the club: "'I never felt like this beforeeeeeeee!'"

Three nights later at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City, Ben Simmons texted his half-brother, Sean Tribe, to see what he was up to. Tribe responded that Richardson and Joel Embiid were watching the Chicago Bulls-Los Angeles Lakers game with some team staff in the hotel lounge, and suggested Simmons join. Simmons came and watched with Embiid as LeBron led a huge comeback. It struck several people -- including Simmons -- that such a gathering would not have happened last season.

"Definitely," Simmons told ESPN. "The chemistry is much better. Guys are giving up their time to bond."

After Game 7 of their epic series against the Toronto Raptors, the parent of one Sixer confided to higher-ups that the team's chemistry felt off, sources say -- that they seemed like a group that would rather ride home in separate cars.

Kawhi Leonard's epic four-bounce shot plunged those Sixers into the unknown. Three starters -- Harris, JJ Redick, and Jimmy Butler -- entered free agency. Philly had given up two popular Process holdovers -- Robert Covington and Dario Saric -- for Butler in the first of two mega-trades that roiled the roster. In the playoffs, he became the centerpiece of their offense.

But on June 30, there was no five-year maximum offer for Butler, multiple sources say. Perhaps the Sixers pivoted after learning of Horford's interest in joining. Perhaps they were concerned about tension between Butler and some within the team, including on the coaching staff. Maybe those two things were interrelated. Like every team chasing Butler, they probably wondered how he would age.

They effectively replaced him with Horford and Richardson on long-term deals. Every key player is under contract for at least the next two seasons. Finally, calm.

After years of absurdist drama -- the Process, the resignation letter, Markelle Fultz, the Bryan Colangelo Twitter scandal, last season's roster upheaval -- the Sixers are counting on a new tranquility to grease the team's development.

Harris and Horford are ringleaders in organizing dinners. Attendance has been robust -- "sometimes 14 or 15 guys," Harris says. He and Horford are Michelin star aesthetes. At the upscale Italian restaurant Barolo Grill in Denver, some younger teammates joked they could not read the menu, Harris says. Embiid is a steak guy. Harris has resolved (for now) to just pick the best steakhouse in each city.

"That stuff is important," Horford says. "The longer you advance, the more you need everyone connected." Maybe some bond formed deep in the night will spur the hard conversation that nudges Simmons into shooting jumpers, or Embiid into focusing even more on his conditioning.

Then again, despite whatever strains hovered last season, the Sixers might have been one bounce from the conference finals -- perhaps from a championship.

Good vibes are fragile. If Philly's offense -- 16th in points per possession -- flounders, caught between tentpole stars who don't yet complement each other, the inevitable frustration could create fissures. The relationships that really matter are those between Simmons, Embiid and coach Brett Brown.

"You really find out about culture," Harris says, "when you drop five games in a row."

On the Sixers' practice court, Brown sometimes outlines two rectangular areas along the baseline on either side of the paint, extending a few feet toward each corner and up to the foul line. Brown calls it the "low zone," a.k.a the dunker spot, and it is where Simmons should often be when he's not handling the ball or spotting up. It is an imperfect solution to the Sixers' defining structural issue: Their point guard can't, or won't, shoot. (His free throw attempts have also dropped by almost half, slightly alarming.) Hanging in the low zone is a way of keeping Simmons productive -- as a lob threat, cutter, offensive rebounder -- when he is otherwise in the way.

Brown and Simmons both harbor ambitions for Simmons well beyond the low zone. Brown says he has designed plays specifically for Simmons to shoot corner 3s; Simmons had taken none until draining his first career triple against the Knicks Wednesday night. "I want him in the corners," Brown says. "I want him shooting 3s -- on his time frame."

But if Simmons arrives in the low zone, he needs to stay there, Brown says. "Two inches outside that, and it's the dead zone," Brown says. "You're killing plays. You're in Joel's way. You will either be in the corner, or the low zone. Anything else is unacceptable."

Simmons sometimes drifts into that dead zone:

That makes it easier for Simmons' man -- Royce O'Neale below -- to clog the paint:

And Philly has a lot going on in the paint. The Sixers lead the league in post touches. That is baked into their jumbo-sized team. Horford can shoot, but he likes bulldozing undersized power forwards. Philly's starting lineup features four post threats, and on some nights -- against the Atlanta Hawks and Trae Young, for instance -- Brown will call post-ups for Richardson, too.

"We are so different, and that really intrigued me," Horford says. "But there are times when we are all trying to get to the basket."

The Sixers knew it would start out clunky. They have to pay more attention than any other team to who stands where. Possessions can look mechanical as each player jogs to his starting point. Brown is calling more plays than he'd prefer. Embiid spends too much time on the perimeter for his taste. "I don't like shooting 3s," he told ESPN before the season, "but if I gotta help Ben -- if I gotta give him space -- I will."

The Sixers hope time brings flow; between suspensions, injuries and rest days, their starting five has played only 70 minutes in six games. That group has obliterated opponents by 18 points per 100 possessions, with elite marks on both sides of the ball.

More broadly, the Sixers are betting on defense to paper over inconsistent scoring. Philly ranks 10th in points allowed per possession, but as they coalesce, they should smother teams. They already allow the fewest 3s in the league.

The Sixers are almost built to render the whims of shooting irrelevant. Defense travels. They are tied for fifth in offensive rebounding rate and rank first in defensive rebounding. When Embiid plays, they earn heaps of free throws. How much does shooting really matter if you rebound 30% of your own misses, generate tons of free points, and provide the opponent very few second chances?

That equation tips further in Philly's direction when those long arms snare turnovers. Steals fuel Simmons' transition game. The Sixers get shots up before their spacing ossifies.

There is an unavoidable dissonance between how a team built around Simmons would play compared to a team built around Embiid. The Sixers' internal data indicates Embiid trails the play on 90% of possessions, Brown says. He cautions Simmons about sprinting Embiid out of the offense. "The game can sometimes run past Joel," Brown told ESPN last season.

Running off steals and misses gives Simmons selective control -- ownership. Simmons usually defends smaller guards, and he is devastating mowing them over in semi-transition before the opponent rejiggers matchups:

Philly ranks 13th in opposing turnover rate -- not quite good enough considering they are leaking turnovers; only three teams have coughed it up more often. The turnover battle is going to be a more important barometer for Philly than for any other team.

Signing Horford also addressed their biggest liability from last season: surviving Embiid's minutes on the bench. Brown maps his rotation around player pairings. So far, he has tethered Embiid to Richardson, and Simmons to Horford. Harris floats between groups.

In Horford, Simmons has a versatile pick-and-roll partner when Embiid rests. The rotation ensures that in their solo minutes, Simmons and Embiid have four capable shooters around them. Philly is already plus-33 in 179 minutes when Simmons and Horford play sans Embiid, per NBA.com. They were minus-140 in 1,200-plus Simmons-only minutes in the 2018-19 regular season, and an ungodly minus-76 in 138 playoff minutes.

Philly's four-out spacing in those Embiid/Simmons-only minutes falls away when Matisse Thybulle plays; Thybulle is 8-for-25 on 3s, and his misses can be ugly.

Brown faces tricky decisions splitting the last rotation spot between Thybulle, Korkmaz and one of the Raul Neto/Trey Burke duo. Korkmaz is in the lead. He's shooting 37% from deep, working a more confident off-the-bounce game, and moving his feet on defense.

Everything changes if Thybulle's 3-pointer arrives in time for the playoffs. (He is already wrecking stuff on defense.) Expect season-long internal debate about whether the Sixers should add shooting. On bad nights, it can appear a dire need; only eight teams have attempted fewer 3s as a portion of all attempts. Marco Belinelli and Ersan Ilyasova famously sparked Philly two seasons ago. Redick and Landry Shamet are gone.

But almost everyone around Simmons and Embiid is a capable and willing 3-point shooter.

(An aside regarding Thybulle's growth curve: The Sixers overhauled their player development operation in the offseason. They now have 11 coaches and staff devoted strictly to player development -- an entirely separate coaching wing that does not participate in game planning. That is probably unique in the NBA.

They have so many coaches, Brown took the unusual step of excising some -- the player development group, some strength and conditioning personnel -- from his film sessions. That decision tears at Brown. "I don't feel right about it," Brown says. "I want the young coaches to hear my voice. But you reach a point where there are just too many people." Team sources insist the decision is unrelated to leaks last January about Butler questioning Brown at a film session.)

The fringe stuff is interesting, but Philly will rise or fall with Simmons and Embiid together. They don't know what that offense looks like during crunch time. The Sixers see opportunity in that uncertainty. Their Butler-centric offense was a fallback. After so much turnover, they didn't have time to discover a cohesive identity.

Most teams would put their best ball handler in pick-and-roll. The Sixers haven't with Simmons. You can't screen a defender who isn't there.

A lot will flow from Embiid post-ups. That is tough sledding against playoff defenses that won't double in ways that yield easy one-pass-away 3s. The math on these shots is unfriendly, even for Embiid:

When Embiid is tired, he can't truck opposing centers as easily.

"It's harder in the playoffs," Embiid told ESPN in September. "Space gets tighter. Defenses dig more."

Some coaches would spot four players up around the arc while Embiid goes to work. Instead, Brown has them cutting and screening everywhere:

That can clutter Embiid's space, and confuse his outlet reads; Embiid has been turnover prone his entire career. But that motion is also a concession to Simmons. If Simmons isn't spotting up -- if he's in the low zone -- Embiid's space is already constricted. Motion turns Simmons into a threat. Off-ball screens spring open shooters:

"I want it all -- movement and space," Brown says. "But how do you have it all? It's hard. We're getting there. Post offense will be the most weighted part of our offense. We'd better be good at it."

Embiid spent the summer honing his off-the-bounce game to be less dependent on post play in crunch time, he says.

Harris is also going to get plenty of chances. With Embiid, Horford and Simmons on the floor, opponents have to defend Harris with smaller players. During the offseason, he enlisted any smaller player he could find -- "college players, overseas dudes, random guys" -- to guard him one-on-one in simulated late-game settings. Harris ordered those players to foul him so he could work on playing through contact.

The results have been uneven. Harris smushed Collin Sexton in Cleveland on Sunday but has had trouble dislodging other guards. He's a hit-or-miss playmaker when help comes.

In a small sample, Philly's crunch-time offense ranks in the middle of the pack. On good nights, they brute force their way to points. On bad nights -- like their overtime loss Friday in Oklahoma City -- the offense is slow and unsure of itself. After that game, Brown and his starting five discussed the idea of Brown marching on the floor to call impromptu timeouts when late-game possessions stagnate, Brown says.

Philly is experimenting with other looks. The Sixers have gotten mileage out of Richardson-Embiid pick-and-rolls with Simmons high on the wing:

Simmons is an explosive cutter with smart timing. He can punish defenses who ignore him out there. Embiid is rolling to the rim more often this season, sucking help away from shooters.

Philly has also used Simmons as a screener for Richardson, with everyone else -- Embiid included -- spaced around the arc:

That same action can work with Embiid in the low zone: Simmons becomes Draymond Green, rampaging into 4-on-3s and hitting Embiid for alley-oops.

Richardson will be the hiding place for the opponent's smallest, weakest defender. Involving him in screening actions with Simmons -- or anyone in Philly's starting five -- forces opponents into a painful choice: switch into mismatches, or trigger rotations that unlock open 3s. Philly has barely scratched the surface of using Richardson this way. It is the kind of slowdown, predatory basketball that rules the playoffs.

It is also how playoff teams hunted Redick. The Sixers knew they were sacrificing a unique shooter by letting Redick walk. They are betting on what they gained being more powerful in the postseason: a defense without any exploitable weak link.

Teams that can play small and fast, with tons of shooting -- Boston and Milwaukee come to mind -- will test that defense. Even if the Sixers prove up to the task, defense alone won't carry them all the way.

Simmons and Embiid may never make for a snug fit on offense. Fit isn't everything. Talent matters. Supernova talent can zoom through corridors too narrow for regular players. It smashes well-intentioned schemes.

But the talent gap shrinks in May and June. With Butler gone, the Sixers need to craft a failsafe offense. The clearest path there involved Simmons expanding his game. That hasn't happened yet.

There will be games for Philly, maybe weeks, when it feels as if growth is not coming. That is when frustration and resentment can break teams apart. If culture, camaraderie, and stability matter, it will be in those moments.

Horford is a rock. He senses his basketball mortality. New teammates are surprised how much he is speaking behind closed doors. As Horford went to ring the ceremonial victory bell in Philly's locker room after the Nov. 10 win over Charlotte, teammates surrounding him, he paused, holding the rope attached to the clapper. Charlotte's reserves had trimmed the lead to five in garbage time.

"Next man up has to be ready," Horford told the group. "Doesn't matter if it's the first quarter or the fourth quarter. Be ready." Ding.

"When he speaks," Scott says, "everyone listens."

Holdover players say the team seems angrier after losses. When Harris boarded the team bus after Philly's Nov. 6 loss in Utah -- their second straight -- he was stunned by the brooding. "You would have thought someone's parents died," he says. "But you know what? That's a good thing. We came so close last year. We're focused now. This is a championship team with championship goals."

Time is running out for San Diego Padres chairman Ron Fowler and the folks who work for him, and we know this because Fowler says so. We can speculate about 2020 being a win-now season for the Mets and Phillies, but Fowler himself has already declared next season and the year that follows as must-win for his franchise.

"We've said that in '20 and '21, we have to compete," Fowler told NBC San Diego and other news outlets. "We mean that. The fact that we sucked at the end of last year, the fact that we played only .347 baseball after the All-Star Game is absolutely unacceptable. ... We were an embarrassment the last three, four weeks of the regular season."

If the Padres don't compete, Fowler said in September, "Heads will roll, beginning with mine."

The greatest complication with this -- and there are many -- is that the Padres have given no indication they are actually close to making the leap Fowler insists they must take over the next 23 months.