Miles Bridges during Practice Media Availability on Thursday
The Phoenix Suns are 1-2, last in the league in defense, and getting beat on the boards in the middle with their centers down. Part of their answer is a forward playing center — and Miles Bridges knows exactly what the job asks of him.
When the Suns go small and Bridges is the five in that group — with Ryan Dunn, Collin Gillespie, Luke and whoever else is out there — his list is plain: get the opposing bigs out of the paint, protect the paint, rebound, and play faster. “We gotta play faster when I’m the five in that group,” he said Thursday.
Bridges did not narrow the Suns’ defensive problems down to one thing. “It’s everything,” he said. Sometimes they are not in the right spots, and that part can be handled with communication. The rest is effort: getting to the ball more and finishing possessions with rebounds. “Physicality on defense needs to get better, so that’s what we’ve been working on.”
On offense, that small group runs on play passing — everybody a passer, everybody a threat in the five-out look. What Bridges wants the Suns to become is the most versatile team in the league, the way he pointed to last year’s Toronto Raptors as the example. “That’s what we want to do,” he said.
Bridges is settling in while he does it. His production has climbed in each of the first three games, up to 17 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists in 32 minutes against Oklahoma City on Monday, and the Suns have needed every bit of it with Oso Ighodaro out and Mark Williams still recovering.
His read on the whole thing was measured: it is the third game of the season, the Suns are still figuring each other out — and once they do, he thinks they are going to be a really good team.
For stats information on the Suns, readers can visit www.cbssports.com.
Suns Head Coach Jordan Ott in this locker room players are aware of whats happening getting blown out 2 of the first three games
The Phoenix Suns are 1-2, back home at Mortgage Matchup Center, and Friday night they get the Denver Nuggets. Three games in, the Suns are last in the league in defense, they are getting beat on the boards in the middle with their centers down, and two of the three games have gotten away from them — run out of the building in Portland and down 22 at Oklahoma City. The one win, over Golden State, is also the one game their defense held up.
That is the situation Jordan Ott walked into Thursday, and he did not soften the number. “When you’re 30th in defense, we need to get better there first and foremost,” the Suns’ coach said. “Our defense last year fueled our offense a lot.”
Asked what specifically is not there yet, Ott split the problem by opponent. Portland and Oklahoma City are elite at driving the basketball, so pick-and-roll drive defense and the rebounding piece hurt the Suns in those two games. Golden State was different — not so much on the ball as straight cuts, a team whose movement Phoenix did not handle the way it wanted. The areas, he said, are on-ball defense, communication that is getting better, and the glass, where the Suns are getting beat in the middle.
He is sticking with the plan anyway, because the Suns saw it work before the regular season started. “We have to stick with some of the things we’ve been talking about,” Ott said, adding that the standard is higher now and the last two days of practice were pretty good.
The shape he wants is five options on the floor at all times, five aggressive players getting to their super skills as fast as they can, with connectors in each group tying those skills together. One of those connectors is his starting center — 20-year-old Khaman Maluach, whose perimeter play connects the groups and who is learning the hardest job on the floor in real time: reading coverages, setting the screens, playing out of the pocket, and getting the ball above the rim so the offense opens up.
Maluach’s own account of his first three games sounded like a young player grading himself hard. It cannot be the home run shot every time, he said — if a man is open, pass him the ball; if not, go to the next action. Some of his turnovers have been bad ones, and some have been offensive fouls tied to his spacing, and he has to be smarter so he stays on the floor .
And when he comes down with an offensive rebound, the ball stays up: the only way they can stop him, he said, is when he brings it down and they take it.
Ott also updated Oso Ighodaro, out since the opener with a right oblique strain: trending in the right direction, yesterday was a higher day than today, he went through the whole practice — and now it is about waking up Friday feeling good, with no soreness. The Suns will know in the morning.
For Maluach, tomorrow is the next rep in an education that is happening in public, and he pointed straight at it: the team has not played to its standard, it is three games into the season, they had two good days of practice — and they will see what happens tomorrow, and get better from game to game.
For stats information on the Suns, readers can visit www.cbssports.com.
AZ Cardinals Defensive Nick Rallis explain in a press conference on Thursday on what hes looking for
Nick Rallis knows exactly what beat his defense in Denver, and he counted it out Thursday: three plays.
The Broncos hit the Arizona Cardinals for three explosive plays in Sunday’s 30-16 loss, including Bo Nix’s long touchdown run and a 52-yard screen that turned into a score. Rallis gave Denver its due — “give the Broncos credit, they made those plays, and we have to be the ones to make those to win the game” — and then put the lesson where he wants it living all week.
“You can look at it and say, guys, we eliminate these three big plays, it’s a different ball game. But you don’t know where those three plays are coming from,” Rallis said. “The biggest thing is, we have to do your job at a really high level every single down.”
He has a name for it, one he uses with his players: competitive stamina. Do your job at a high level every snap, pile those snaps on top of each other, and make the offense earn every yard instead of handing them plays.
On the screen that burned his pressure, Rallis was blunt: “We’re bringing pressure. It’s a great call by Sean, and he hit it at the right time.” Easy to second-guess on Monday, he said — sometimes you are simply in the wrong call. On Nix’s scramble, he walked through the layers of the breakdown: the rush lost its middle push in the pocket, and there are spots in the coverage where eyes have to stay back to limit the damage when a quarterback crosses the line.
Now the defense turns to Dallas, and a rematch with a history. The biggest thing Arizona did in last year’s meeting, Rallis said, was take the ball away — “which is a formula every week” — along with a fourth-down stop in the red zone. This week carries a chess match inside it: the Cardinals showed the Cowboys certain looks a year ago, Dallas will have answers, and Arizona has to change things up in return. But it is also a new season, with different players on both ends. “It’s a new game,” he said.
As for how his corners handle Dallas’s receivers — whether to put a corner on a high-stress down, take one receiver away or try to take away both — Rallis said there is no fixed answer. “I don’t think there’s a right answer there. It’s something you have to feel out throughout the game, and then change it up.”
The through-line of his whole session was ownership without excuses: Denver made its plays, Dallas will take its shots Sunday, and the Cardinals’ defense answers both the same way — by not giving anything away.
Michael Wilson day to day has seen his production slip recently
Michael Wilson did not dress it up Thursday. Asked about the Arizona Cardinals’ red-zone problems, the wide receiver put the finishing trouble where he says it belongs — on the players, and first on himself.
Overthinking can happen in any sport, Wilson said, but for this offense it comes down to executing and finishing chances. The play calls have been there. The catches, too often, have not.
“I’ve had a bunch of opportunities and haven’t been able to come down with balls,” he said. “It starts with me. We just have to execute and win one-on-one, because that’s what the red zone is. You can only scheme up so much — it comes down to winning your one-on-one and winning matchups.”
That standard follows him everywhere. Wilson works on contested catches every day, and while he came down with three of them against Denver — including one where he had to go over the top of the defender — he did not treat it as a breakout. It was an expectation being met. The sting of a miss, he said, outweighs the feeling of a make, because finishing tough plays is what he is paid to do and what he hangs his hat on as a receiver.
“I wouldn’t say the last couple games — even this year — I’ve been playing at my best,” Wilson said. “There’s been a lot of plays I haven’t been able to finish that I need to finish. But my process is right, I’m proud of the way I’m playing on tape, and I know the plays will come.”
Wilson is also playing through sore ribs. He said he feels good and is just being smart with them.
And if his manner reminds people of somebody — quiet after touchdowns, the way Larry Fitzgerald carried himself — Wilson says that is not an imitation. He will fire up a crowd when the moment calls for it, but he is not a dancer and never will be.
“I’m just being myself,” he said. “That’s not who I am, not how I was raised — my character, my personality. I’m just doing what feels natural to me.”
What Wilson is really saying is simpler than any comparison: the Cardinals’ red-zone fix is not a new play sheet, it is their receivers winning the plays already called, starting with the one who just volunteered to go first.
Patrick Stewart probably one of the best distinct voices got Star Trek back in people home
Patrick Stewart, the Shakespearean actor who became one of the most beloved figures in science fiction as Captain Jean-Luc Picard of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and Professor Charles Xavier of the “X-Men” films, died Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 86.
His family announced the death Thursday in a statement posted to his Instagram account, saying he died in the loving care of his wife, Sunny, following a brief and poignant journey with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia. Neither diagnosis had been made public before.
“We will forever cherish the peaceful ease and reflection on his face, an enduring reminder of his invincible grace,” the statement read.
A stage actor first
Stewart’s fame came late, and it came to a man who had spent decades preparing for a different kind of career. Born in Yorkshire, England, in 1940, he began acting at 18 and built his reputation on the stage, joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in the 1960s and becoming one of its accomplished classical actors. For years, that was the life — Shakespeare, the theater, and respect inside his profession without much notice outside it.
It was his friend and fellow Shakespearean Ian McKellen who advised him to turn down “Star Trek” and stay in the theater. Stewart took the role anyway.
“Make it so”
He was 47 when “Star Trek: The Next Generation” premiered in 1987, and the erudite, commanding Picard — a captain who led with intellect and conscience, and whose orders came out as “Make it so” and “Engage” — made him a global star. The series ran seven seasons and 176 episodes, and Stewart carried Picard into the “Next Generation” films and back again, a generation later, in “Star Trek: Picard,” which began in 2020 when he was 79.
He said the role eventually fused with the man. “As the seven seasons of TNG went by, the distinction between Jean-Luc Picard and Patrick Stewart became thinner and thinner, until it was impossible for me to know where he left off and I began,” he told the Guardian in 2022. “So much of what I believed and felt went into that show.”
In the final interview before his death, he named it plainly: “Without question, Jean-Luc is the most significant role of my career.”
Professor X, and work into his 80s
A second audience found him in 2000 as Professor Charles Xavier, the telepathic founder of the X-Men — the moral center of another franchise, played opposite Hugh Jackman’s
Wolverine across seven films together. He kept working into his 80s and will be seen once more as Xavier in the upcoming “Avengers: Doomsday.”
He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2010 for his contributions to drama.
In that same final interview, he refused the idea of an ending to the work itself. “I can’t imagine ever officially ‘retiring,’” he said. “I’ll always and forever be an actor.”
The tributes
William Shatner, who led the original “Star Trek,” said in a statement th
at Stewart was “a friend, a colleague, and a magnificent actor” who “brought intelligence, grace, and a deep sense of humanity to everything he did.”
“We lost one of the greats of stage and screen today,” Jackman wrote on Instagram. “And, in my book, a tremendous friend and man. I learned so much from him. I will miss you, Patrick Stewart, all of my days.”
Jonathan Frakes, his first officer on the Enterprise, said in a statement, as USA Today reports: “There is no one on this planet that I have acted with or directed more often than my late great friend Patrick Stewart. He will be with me forever.”
What Stewart leaves behind is a rare double legacy. To the theater, he was a classical actor of the first rank. To everyone else, he was the captain — the man who made decency, patience and intelligence look like strength, in two franchises that will carry his face and voice for as long as people watch them. He is survived by his wife, Sunny.
SCOTTSDALE — A dated office property on the McCormick Ranch lake is about to become a waterfront destination. Diversified Partners, a Scottsdale-based development firm, has officially broken ground on The Lakefront at Scottsdale, at 7501 E. McCormick Parkway.
The project takes a 1978 office building — long known as the Forever Corporate Plaza — and converts roughly 100,000 square feet into restaurants with outdoor dining on the water, curated retail, Class A office space and public gathering areas. That square footage is the size of the whole play: this is not a new building going up on empty land, it is a familiar property in the middle of a neighborhood being remade into the place the neighborhood goes.
The first names attached tell readers where it is aimed. SUSHISAMBA, a restaurant brand with locations in Las Vegas, Miami, London and Dubai, is the food-and-beverage anchor, joined by V Modern Italian, La La Land Kind Cafe and Frost Gelato. Forever Living Products, the longtime tenant, stays in the upgraded office space.
Mayor Lisa Borowsky spoke at the groundbreaking, and her connection to the site is personal — she grew up within two miles of it, and her family has lived within walking distance for nearly 25 years. “Having grown up within two miles of this iconic McCormick Ranch location, I know firsthand how much this site means to the neighborhood and the City of Scottsdale,” she said at the ceremony.
What it means, plainly: McCormick Ranch gets a dining and gathering district on its own lake, and a property people have driven past for decades becomes a reason to stop. Major construction is expected to get going in early 2027, with the first phase projected to finish in fall 2027.
If you’re a local company with a news release, a building opportunity, or something going on in Scottsdale we should know about, send it to asifmalk988@gmail.co
SCOTTSDALE — One of Scottsdale’s landmark resorts has a new owner. The San Manuel Investment Authority, the investment arm of the Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation, a Southern California tribe, has acquired the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess, with the sale price at $241,363,003, according to Vizzda, a real estate data firm.
The deal, announced Oct. 1, ends a 20-year run for the seller, Chicago-based Strategic Hotels & Resorts, which bought the resort in 2006. The tribe’s purchase is part of a non-gaming hotel strategy — San Manuel owns the Yaamava’ casino resort in California and the Palms in Las Vegas, but the Princess joins a portfolio of luxury hotels the tribe holds away from gaming, including the Mission Inn in Riverside and the Waldorf Astoria Monarch Beach.
What changes for Scottsdale, plainly, is the name on the deed and not much else — at least not right away. Fairmont continues to operate the resort, the Princess keeps its name, and no major changes are planned, so the events people plan their years around, from Christmas at the Princess to the resort’s role as host hotel for the WM Phoenix Open next door at TPC Scottsdale, go on as before.
The property itself explains the price — 750 rooms is one of the largest resorts in the Valley, and the 65 acres sit in the Sonoran Desert next to TPC Scottsdale. The resort includes the Privado Villas, the Well & Being Spa, six pools and restaurants from chefs Richard Sandoval and Michael Mina. It has held AAA Five Diamond status since 1991 — more than three decades at the top rating — and received the Timeless Diamond designation in 2025.
“We are delighted to welcome the staff and guests of Fairmont Scottsdale Princess into the portfolio of luxury non-gaming properties owned by our Tribe,” Lynn Valbuena, chairwoman of the San Manuel Investment Board and chairwoman of Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation, said in the tribe’s announcement. She said the tribe looks forward to “becoming an active contributing member of the business and Tribal community in Scottsdale.”
If you’re a local company with a news release, a building opportunity, or something going on in Scottsdale we should know about, send it to asifmalk988@gmail.com.
SCOTTSDALE — Halloween weekend is the biggest weekend of the fall in Scottsdale, and this one comes with a weather warning attached. A Flood Watch runs Friday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., and a second one runs Saturday from 11 p.m. through Monday at 5 a.m., with thunderstorms Friday, rain Saturday night and rain all day Sunday. Nothing on this list has been called off — but if you are headed to an outdoor event, check before you go, and plan the drive home Saturday night with the late watch in mind.
Thursday, Oct. 29
Scottsdale ArtWalk — the weekly Thursday night walk through the galleries of Old Town, the standing start to the weekend.
Scottsdale Scorpions at Surprise Saguaros — Arizona Fall League, Surprise Stadium, 6:30 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 30
Boo Arizona, WestWorld of Scottsdale — the two-night Halloween music event opens Friday with the Chainsmokers, Deorro and Zedd on the bill; it runs Friday and Saturday nights.
Old Town Halloween crawls — the bar crawls work their way through Old Town Friday and Saturday, with Porters Haunted Saloon at Porters Western Saloon on North Brown Avenue starting at 4 p.m., and the Old Town Fright Crawl plus flamenco shows at Tapas Papa Frita both nights.
MacDonald’s Ranch Pumpkin Patch — 26540 N. Scottsdale Rd., open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.,
Scottsdale Scorpions vs. Mesa Solar Sox — Scottsdale Stadium, 3:30 p.m., the Scorpions’ home Halloween game.$15, running through Saturday, Oct. 31.
Scottsdale trunk-or-treat events — begin Friday and run through Sunday at spots around town.
Arizona Boardwalk Monster Dash 5K — the Boardwalk’s Halloween weekend opens with the 5K on Friday.
Arizona State volleyball vs. UCF — Desert Financial Arena, Tempe, 7 p.m. Indoors, and dry, whatever Friday’s storms do.
Scottsdale Scorpions at Mesa Solar Sox — Sloan Park, Mesa, 6:30 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 31
Arizona State at No. 8 BYU — 12:30 p.m. on FOX, from Provo. The sports bars in Old Town will have it on.
Arizona Boardwalk Halloween Bash
WNBA Finals Game 7: Atlanta Dream at Golden State Valkyries — 5 p.m. Phoenix time on USA Network and Peacock. A winner-take-all game for the championship, in prime time on a Saturday night.
SuperHero Band, Casino Arizona Halloween — 8 p.m. to midnight, free, indoors. The drive home runs into the Flood Watch that starts at 11 p.m., so take it easy on the roads.
Sunday, Nov. 1
Arizona Cardinals at Dallas Cowboys — 11 a.m. Phoenix time on FOX.
Arizona State volleyball vs. Houston — Desert Financial Arena, 1 p.m.
Elvis Before Noon, Chopper John’s — 5 to 8 p.m. Sunday’s rain is the surest thing on the forecast, so this is the one to double-check before heading out.
The shape of the weekend is simple: Friday is for the crawls and the patch before the storms, Saturday is the big day stacked from the ASU game at noon through Game 7 at 5 and the band at 8, and Sunday is a football-and-volleyball day with rain over all of it. Pick your spots, watch the sky, and the weekend still works.
ATLANTA — The Atlanta Dream would not let their season end on a Thursday afternoon, and they made sure of it early. Atlanta beat the Golden State Valkyries 80-69 in Game 6 of the WNBA Finals at State Farm Arena on Thursday, tying the series 3-3 and forcing the first Game 7 in WNBA Finals history.
Game 7 is Saturday, Oct. 31, at 5 p.m. Phoenix time (8 p.m. Eastern) at Chase Center in San Francisco, and it is on USA Network and Peacock. And it lands in prime time on a Saturday night — a winner-take-all Game 7 for the championship in the kind of prime-time slot the WNBA has not been able to get this season.
That first quarter told the whole story of how this one was won. Atlanta scored 32 points in the opening 10 minutes, to Golden State’s 15, and hit six three-pointers in the quarter alone. That is not just a hot start — it is the difference between a team playing free because it has nothing to lose and a team that looked a step slow, in a game tipped off at 12:30 p.m. Eastern because the Atlanta Hawks play at State Farm Arena on Thursday night. Atlanta had shot just 6-of-26 from three in its Game 5 loss. In Game 6, the shots finally fell, and once the lead stretched to 25 points in the second quarter, Golden State spent the rest of the afternoon chasing.
Allisha Gray led Atlanta with 23 points, hitting five of her seven three-pointers, and she had said exactly what was at stake before the second half even started. Speaking on the USA broadcast at halftime, with Atlanta up 46-26, Gray said, “We know if we don’t keep up, we go home. It’s Game 6 win or go home and that’s not what I wanna do. I’m not ready for my season to be over with yet.” She added that Atlanta had to keep its intensity up, saying, “Keep the intensity going in the second half. We know they’re a great second half team, but we’re also a great second half team as well, so as long as we keep our intensity and keep pushing the pace, we’ll be alright.”
Gray’s halftime words matched the way Atlanta played from the opening tip. Naz Hillmon had said before the game, “We have to punch first. It’s win or go home,” and Atlanta did just that, running out to a 32-15 lead after one quarter and a 46-26 lead at halftime. The quarter scores explain how the lead held: Atlanta won the first quarter 32-15 and the second 14-11, then Golden State won the third 21-17 and the fourth 22-17, but never got closer than eight points in the closing minutes. In other words, Golden State won the second half, 43-34, and still lost by 11, because the game had already been decided in the first half.
Rhyne Howard, who had been in a shooting slump to start the Finals, scored 21 points with four three-pointers, giving Atlanta the second perimeter threat it had been missing. Angel Reese added 15 points, 14 rebounds and six assists — doing the dirty work on the glass even on a 5-of-18 shooting day — and Jordin Canada scored 10 points to round out Atlanta’s players in double figures. For Golden State, Gabby Williams scored 26 points, including 22 in the second half and 10 straight in the fourth quarter as the Valkyries tried to rally, and Tiffany Hayes scored 15 points. Williams’ late run is why the final margin looks closer than the game felt for most of the afternoon.
Golden State coach Natalie Nakase tried to steady her team when the hole was already deep, telling them during a first-half timeout, “We got a lot of time. Try not to look at the score … Lock in on defense … We gotta get stops.” The Valkyries did defend better after halftime, holding Atlanta to 34 second-half points, but they shot just 22-of-70 from the field for the game, and that kind of shooting night leaves no room to climb out of a 20-point halftime deficit.
After the game, Reese put the win in plain terms, saying, “Championship mentality. We just wanted to get this one.” She added, “We needed the opportunity. That’s all we needed, and we maximized it today.” That fits what she had said before tipoff, too: “We have no doubt. I have no doubt that this team will come back and fight back and win this Game 6 and then move on from it.” Atlanta did exactly that, and now the opportunity Reese talked about is a real one.
What this result means is simple, and it is why Saturday matters so much. Nobody is the champion yet. The series is tied 3-3, Golden State’s chance to clinch on Thursday is gone, and the title now comes down to one game — Game 7 on Saturday at Chase Center in San Francisco, where the Valkyries will be at home. The winner of that game wins the WNBA championship, and the loser goes home with nothing after a Finals that has already gone further than any Finals before it.
picture from meritage.com one of their homes in the us which serves Scottsdale and the Valley as well
SCOTTSDALE — Meritage Homes, the Scottsdale-based homebuilder and the fifth-largest in the United States, made less money in the third quarter because it sold and closed on fewer homes, at slightly lower prices, and kept less profit on each one.
The company reported Wednesday that its net earnings for the quarter ended Sept. 30 were $67.8 million, down 32% from a year earlier. Earnings per share were $1.04, compared with $1.39 in the same quarter last year.
Here is what those numbers mean in plain terms. Meritage closed on 3,187 homes in the quarter, down 14% from a year ago — closing is the final sale, the moment the money actually comes in. Total closing revenue was $1.17 billion, down 17%. The average price of a closed home was $365,000, down 4%, so the company was selling fewer homes and getting a little less for each one.
New orders tell the same story about what is coming next. Home orders fell 15% to 3,083, worth $1.18 billion, and the backlog — homes sold but not yet closed — stood at 1,611 homes at the end of the quarter. The company’s profit margin on home closings narrowed to 17.4%, from 19.1% a year ago, which means costs and buyer incentives are eating more of every sale.
The company’s response, spelled out in its release, is to protect its cash while the market is soft. Meritage pulled back its land investments by almost 40% from a year ago, to $329 million — buying less land now means fewer new communities later if conditions do not improve. At the same time it returned $86 million to shareholders in the quarter through share repurchases and dividends, and nearly $380 million over the first nine months of the year.
“In today’s volatile market, prudently managing capital is a key priority, as we continue to focus on maintaining sufficient liquidity,” chief executive Phillippe Lord said in the company’s third-quarter release. Lord said the company ended the quarter with $677 million in cash, no borrowings under its revolving credit facility, and book value per share up 4% from a year ago, and that he expects market conditions “to continue to be unpredictable over the next several quarters.”
So the picture for readers is this: one of Scottsdale’s biggest companies is not in trouble — it has cash on hand and no short-term borrowing — but it is deliberately slowing down, buying less land and handing money back to shareholders, until homebuyers come back in bigger numbers.
