Chicago Sports

A man and woman were found dead in an apartment fire Tuesday morning, in Irving Park on the Northwest Side.

About 2:30 a.m., officers responded to a fire at an apartment building in the 3600 block of North Kedvale Avenue, Chicago police said.

After the blaze was extinguished, a 70-year-old man and an 88-year-old woman were found inside a first floor apartment, and were pronounced dead at the scene, police said. They have not yet been identified.

Area Five detectives are investigating.

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Veteran forward DeMar DeRozan is perfectly fine with the Bulls’ roster staying as it is with the trade deadline arriving Thursday.

He made that very clear after the Bulls’ loss Sunday to the 76ers.

”Yeah, only you all [the media] talk about that,” DeRozan said when he was asked about the Bulls standing pat. ”We don’t talk about it.”

He and his teammates might want to start.

In another measuring-stick game Monday, the Bulls came up short against the NBA-leading Suns, falling 127-124. The final score was much closer than the game was because of some last-minute scoring when the benches were cleared.

DeRozan’s point was understandable, though. After all, he’s the clear leader of the locker room, and the message from the front office the last few weeks has remained that it values team chemistry over adding talent.

That’s why DeRozan pointed out: ”We’re missing Lonzo Ball, one of the top point guards in this league; Alex Caruso, one of the best defenders in this league; Patrick Williams, one of the young stars in this league. We haven’t had those guys. And we have them; they’ll be back. We don’t need to worry or stress about having nobody else.”

The game against the Suns was a reminder, however, that all three are still at least a month away from returning from their injuries. And even when they do return, nothing is guaranteed.

Coach Billy Donovan wanted to remind his players of that after the loss.

”To sit there and say, ‘OK, when they get back, it’s all going to get solved,’ I don’t believe that,” Donovan said. ”It’s got to be a team thing [on defense].”

Guard Zach LaVine agreed.

”We’ve got to have a certain urgency, no matter who is on the floor,” LaVine said. ”With those guys out, we’re not going to have the strongest defense because that’s what they do. But we’ve got to hold the ship down.”

Between now and when the roster gets healthy, the Bulls — who fell into a tie for third place in the Eastern Conference — still must play high-quality basketball. And not just offensively.

The Bulls’ ball movement was less than stellar on a night that saw LaVine (back) return to the starting lineup and guard Coby White (groin) return to the bench, but the defense again was the bigger culprit.

The first four minutes of the game provided evidence of that, as the Bulls allowed one of the more efficient offenses in the league to have its way with them in jumping out to a 10-point lead. The Suns scored 36 points in the first quarter.

By halftime, the Suns’ lead was 18, and the Bulls had allowed them to shoot 56.5% from the field and outrebound them 25-18.

But the real gut punch was the one-on-one game the Bulls’ offense turned into. They went into the locker room at the break with only seven assists.

Any thought of a third-quarter comeback was squashed quickly, as the Suns built their lead to 27 at one point.

Then there was the fourth-quarter tease, with the Bulls eventually cutting their deficit to three. The Suns, however, were never in danger of losing control on the scoreboard.

As for the trade-deadline talk, LaVine said he would leave those decisions up to the front office.

”Whoever is out on the floor with us, I’m ready to go to battle with them,” LaVine said.

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It wasn’t quite the same level of deflation as the Bears losing their season on the Double Doink, but Rams coach Sean McVay felt similarly dejected as he walked off the field after falling to the Patriots in Super Bowl LIII.

Here he was, the supposed offensive wunderkind and leader of a team that tied for the best record in the NFL that season, and he was at the center of an epic failure. The Rams lost 13-3, matching the fewest points ever scored in a Super Bowl, and spent the whole night punting as McVay said, “Definitely, I got outcoached,” by Bill Belichick.

That memory sticks with him to this day as he prepares for his second shot at a championship when the Rams play the Bengals in Super Bowl LVI on Sunday.

One of the keys to making it back just three years later was that McVay didn’t make any assumptions based on one great season like the Bears did after going 12-4 in 2018 and rolling into Bourbonnais the next summer talking about a dynasty.

“The expectations are [that] you’ll be right back there,” McVay said Monday. “I remember the amount of people that said after the game, ‘Oh, you guys will be back.’ I’ve grown up in this business long enough to have an appreciation for how difficult it is to even get yourself in the playoffs. It’s not quite that seamless.”

What that Super Bowl appearance did for the Rams, though, was set an ambitious standard. And McVay led the way by owning responsibility for his shortcomings in a way that diverged significantly from the Bears and former coach Matt Nagy blaming a last-second field goal rather than taking a harder look at why they scored just 15 points.

So while the Bears had a parade of kickers audition by trying the Cody Parkey 43-yarder at Halas Hall and kept talking about the Double Doink well into the next season, McVay refused to stay stuck in the moment after Belichick so thoroughly outfoxed him.

“What you do to get over it is you take accountability and then you keep it moving,” he said. “You have to be able to handle those tough moments.

“You want to learn from previous experiences, but not allow it to inhibit your ability to move forward… You take those lessons, apply them, and let’s go cut it loose.”

The Rams struggled the next two seasons as quarterback Jared Goff slipped from Pro Bowl to pedestrian, but even then, struggles are relative. It’s quite a life when your down seasons were going 9-7 in 2019 and 10-6 with a playoff victory in ’20. The Bears haven’t had back-to-back winning seasons in 15 years.

They weren’t drastically far behind the Rams at 8-8 in both of those seasons, but this is where having high standards makes all the difference.

Rather than push ahead with mostly the same pieces and assume the magic of 2018 would eventually reappear, the Rams sized up their situation critically and clearly: It wasn’t good enough.

If the only worthwhile goal in the sport is to chase championships, there was no value in being “good” only to be outmanned against the Packers, Patriots or other heavyweights at the end.

They aimed high by trading Goff and two first-round picks for Matthew Stafford, betting that the former Lion would flourish in an offense that already had impeccable infrastructure with a robust offensive line and a host of ridiculous skill players.

Those 2020 Rams were an example of a team that really had everything but the quarterback. Then they got a quarterback. Stafford had the best season of his career with 41 touchdown passes, 17 interceptions and a 102.9 passer rating.

As an example of what he’s working with in Los Angeles, wide receiver Van Jefferson had 802 yards and six touchdowns this season. He’d probably be the Bears’ best receiver, yet he’d be fourth in line on the Rams if Robert Woods was healthy.

The Rams pushed even more chips to the center of the table and traded for three-time all-pro pass rusher Von Miller in November.

When Woods, who averaged nearly 1,100 yards over the last three seasons, went down with a torn ACL the next week, the Rams swung big by signing three-time Pro Bowl receiver Odell Beckham. The Bears’ splashiest wide receiver pickup over the last three seasons was Damiere Byrd.

All of those moves speak to the superior standard set by McVay and general manager Les Snead. They didn’t give in to complacency or delusion like the Bears. McVay didn’t think it was unfair to be measured against Belichick or anyone else. The Rams insisted on standing among the elite, and they made all the right moves to get there.

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Billy Donovan doesn’t work by a minutes textbook like some coaches do.

A heavy workload on his players does concern him, but the Bulls coach is also in the business of winning games. The best way for him to walk that fine line? Communication.

So while Donovan has watched the minutes pile up on the likes of rookie Ayo Dosunmu and DeMar DeRozan like they have the last few weeks, he’s made sure both players remain honest with him on how they feel and when they need a break.

It’s a much easier conversation to have with DeRozan, simply because he’s on NBA season No. 13, and at 32 years old knows his body and what it can take.

What it’s taken so far this season has been a lot, with DeRozan entering the game with the Suns averaging 35.4 minutes per game, which is the most since the 2015-16 season with Toronto. That’s been amplified the last 10 games DeRozan had played, kicking up to 38.2 minutes per game in that time, only taking the Jan. 24 Oklahoma City game off.

That’s why his 41 minutes of work in the Sunday loss to Philadelphia was so impressive, not only because of the 45 points he put up, but it coming just a few days after he played 45 minutes in an overtime loss to Toronto.

DeRozan’s mindset? He’ll figure out times to rest in the framework of the game.

“I use timeouts as best as I can as my rest,” DeRozan said. “But I don’t really think about it when your adrenaline is rushing. You’re trying to win, you really don’t think about it in the moment.”

That’s Donovan’s job, and one he takes very seriously.

“I talk to DeMar a lot just to get a gauge of where he’s at physically,” Donovan said. “Obviously at the end of the game the accumulation of all those minutes being in the high 30s is something I’m concerned about. But with what’s happened to our team and where we’re at, he’s a really competitive guy and I think when you’re dealing with a guy that knows his body better than anybody and someone you’re going to communicate with and have conversations with.

“I think if it was up to DeMar he would play 48 minutes, but he also knows that’s probably not the best for him or for our team.”

Dosunmu has a similar mindset, as the rookie from Morgan Park High School just wants to play and compete, and minutes are for others to worry about.

The combo guard had averaged 37.5 minutes per game his last 10 contests, and showed no signs of running into a rookie wall anytime soon.

“I think his natural competitive nature and want-to in order to get better has fueled that stuff, but he’s handled himself well considering with Lonzo [Ball] going down and Alex [Caruso] going down he’s had to handle a lot,” Donovan said. “I haven’t felt any sense from him that he’s overwhelmed, or mentally or physically tired.”

Green light

Javonte Green entered Monday with five-straight games of hitting double-digit scoring, and downplayed it as him just trying to help carry the load with the team short-handed.

“I feel like it’s just the opportunity I have,” Green said. “Just got to step up. We’re down so many players, just stepping in and trying to be prepared to knock down shots when I’m open.”

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Please send scores and corrections to [email protected].

Monday, February 7, 2022

CENTRAL SUBURBAN SOUTH

Evanston at New Trier, 6:30

CHICAGO PREP

Christ the King at Ida Crown, 7:00

EAST SUBURBAN CATHOLIC

Benet at St. Viator, 7:00

LAKE SHORE

Roycemore at Cruz, 6:30

METRO SUBURBAN BLUE

Aurora Christian at IC Catholic, 7:30

NORTH SUBURBAN

Lake Forest at Mundelein, 7:00

NORTHEASTERN

Harvest Christian 69, Mooseheart 42

RIVER VALLEY

Clifton Central at Grace Christian, 7:00

SOUTH SUBURBAN CROSSOVER

TF South at Reavis, 6:00

SOUTHLAND

Rich at Kankakee, 7:00

TRI-COUNTY

Woodland at Dwight, 7:15

NONCONFERENCE

Providence 62, Eisenhower 39

Ag. Science at Payton, 7:00

Alden-Hebron at Westlake Christian, 7:30

Bloom at Marian Catholic, 6:30

Crossroads at Schaumburg Christian, 5:15

Elgin Academy at South Beloit, 7:00

Parker at Northtown, 6:00

Lincoln-Way West at Shepard, 6:30

Niles North at Schurz, 5:00

Sandburg at Holy Trinity, 6:30

St. Laurence at Wheeling, 7:30

UP-West at UP-Englewood, 6:30

PUBLIC LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP

Second Round

Curie 61, Lane 41

PUBLIC LEAGUE CONSOLATION

Second Round

Collins at Wells, 6:00

Senn at Harlan, 6:00

King/Uplift at Von Steuben, 6:00

Foreman at Jones, 6:00

Raby at Northside, 6:00

Crane at Legal Prep, 6:00

Fenger at Lake View, 6:00

UP-Bronzeville at Solorio, 6:00

PUBLIC LEAGUE BLUE

Second Round

Goode at Ogden, 6:00

Kelly at Little Village, 6:00

Julian 50, Bowen 37

Englewood STEM 74, Hancock 25

Amundsen 47, North-Grand 34

Phoenix 59, Chicago Academy 47

Gage Park at Woodlawn, 6:00

Steinmetz 84, Hirsch 74

PUBLIC LEAGUE BLUE 8

Quarterfinals

Roosevelt d. Instituto

Chicago Military at EPIC, 6:00

Horizon-SW 68, Kelvyn Park 38

Marine at Rickover, 6:00

RIVER VALLEY TOURNAMENT

Tri-Point at St. Anne, 7:00

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Before the All-Star break, Blackhawks interim coach Derek King frequently mentioned how he wanted a few of his many depth defensemen to differentiate themselves from the pack.

As the Hawks return from break — practicing Tuesday before playing Wednesday at the Oilers — this season’s stretch run should prove to be an important window for each of those defensemen to try to do so.

So far, the seven guys in the logjam — Caleb Jones, Wyatt Kalynuk, Ian Mitchell, Jakub Galvas, Nicolas Beaudin, Alec Regula and Isaak Phillips — have combined for just 43 NHL appearances this season, with Jones responsible for more than half (22 games) of that total.

But that will likely change soon. Calvin de Haan is a strong candidate to be dealt ahead of the March 21 trade deadline, opening up a top-six role. Erik Gustafsson might be, too, if there’s any interest. And as the Hawks accept their non-playoff fate, they’ll presumably work harder to cycle their young players into the lineup.

Management will be motivated to see what they have in Mitchell and Beaudin, as former highly touted prospects. Galvas’ impressive three-game audition in January will almost certainly earn him another shot. The Hawks can probably afford to be more patient with Regula and Phillips.

Jones and Kalynuk, however, face the most urgency as the two with expiring contracts.

For Jones, who has produced mixed results as the Hawks’ usual seventh defenseman this season, the hope is a mental “reset” he performed Jan. 22 — before the Hawks’ road game at Minnesota — will lead to a stronger second half.

“I just told myself, ‘Look, you just really need to go out there, play free and just do your thing,'” Jones said. “I feel confident that if I’m giving 100% effort [and] I’m working hard every day, my game is going to take care of itself. That’s what has been going on lately.”

Jones’ three games immediately after the reset were his best in a while: the Hawks outscored their opponents 4-0 and outshot them 25-12 during his even-strength ice time. Then he started slipping again the last two games before break.

“[He needs] to separate himself from that bottom, and that comes with consistency,” King said. “He does really some real good things, and then all of a sudden, there’s some of those hiccups that we’ve seen earlier on.”

For Kalynuk, meanwhile, this season has taught him patience out of necessity. Because of his “rough start” and the crowded cast around him, he played just his fifth (scoreless) NHL game of the season last Wednesday after appearing in 21 (with nine points) last season.

This season has also taught the Wisconsin product how to improve his defensive positioning and reads, two areas he has worked on intensely in the AHL.

“In the ‘D’-zone, when the puck goes from behind the net to the slot, you’re always keeping your head on a swivel,” he said. “It just happens a little quicker [in the pros], and if you’re in the wrong spot or you’re late making a decision, it can cost you a lot more than it would in college.”

The Hawks have received “good reports” on Kalynuk’s progress in Rockford.

“He’s trusting his instincts instead of overthinking it,” King said. “Like, ‘Oh, should I make that play? Oh, there’s a better one here.’ By that time, it gets closed on him. And that goes for all our ‘D;’ they’ve all improved in that category.”

But Kalynuk meets the same challenge as everyone else. He needs to not only improve, but improve faster than the others — enough to jump ahead in the hierarchy. Hopefully, this spring will bring more clarity on that front.

Note: The Hawks interviewed Cubs assistant general manager Jeff Greenberg for their GM position Monday, fulfilling a promise to consider outside-of-hockey candidates. Greenberg is the fifth candidate interviewed so far.

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Quarterback Joe Burrow had thrown 199 passes without an interception — the longest active mark in the league and almost halfway to Aaron Rodgers’ record of 402 — when he dropped back on third-and-3 four minutes into the fourth quarter of the Bengals’ Week 2 game at Soldier Field.

He didn’t see Roquan Smith lurking underneath. The Bears inside linebacker jumped Burrow’s pass to Tyler Boyd, intercepted the pass and sprinted down the left sideline for a 53-yard pick six.

The Bears intercepted Burrow’s next pass, too — it was the first of second-year cornerback Jaylon Johnson’s career. The Bears, amazingly, picked Burrow’s next throw after that– inside linebacker Alec Ogletree blitzed and hit his arm as he threw, allowing the ball to flutter into the meaty arms of defensive tackle Angelo Blackson.

Burrow had thrown three interceptions on three-straight passes — to members of all three levels of the Bears’ defense, no less. He didn’t throw three picks in a single game the rest of his magical season, which will culminate in Sunday’s Super Bowl against the host Rams.

He said after the game that he tried to force too many throws, given how good his own defense was playing against the Bears. It would be trite to say Burrow learned a lesson that day, though. As hard as it might be to believe, given how out-of-his-mind Burrow has played since December, Burrow struggled earlier in the season, riding the rollercoaster of a second-year quarterback.

That he was able to tame the rollercoaster in Year 2 and become one of the best quarterbacks in football has to give the Bears optimism about their own quarterback, Justin Fields, as he enters his second season.

In his first nine games, Burrow beat the Jaguars by three and lost to the Jets by three. The former had the worst record in 2020, the latter the second-worst. He beat the rival Ravens by 24 — and lost to the Browns by 25. And, of course, he lost to the Bears, 20-17, on Sept. 19 at Soldier Field.

“Early in the year we weren’t super-consistent,” Burrow said Monday. “We had big wins and bad losses. As a young team sometimes you’re gonna go through that. We came out the other side and we’ve been playing our best football when it matters most.”

Coach Zac Taylor said the Bengals played “some really good defenses early in the season,” but that Burrow’s development had more to do with his recovery from knee surgery in December 2020 to repair the torn ACL and MCL in his left knee. In the name of safety, the Bengals held him out of preseason games, but for one pass attempt.

“He’s human,” Taylor said. “He was coming off major surgery there. First time he’s ever experienced it. So there’s a lot of unknowns there. I think he did a good job battling that through training camp. …

“As he got more comfortable closer to the [midseason] bye, we started to see, ‘OK, he looks like he’s back to 100 percent.'”

Burrow’s comfort level went beyond his knee, though. He grew more at ease with each start. In the last four games of the regular season, he had passer ratings of 125.6, 103.8, 143.2 and 148. Over three playoff games, it’s been 96.2.

Both Burrow and Fields started 10 games as rookies, each winning two games. Burrow’s rookie season in 2020 was ended prematurely by a knee injury; Fields’ rookie year was hampered by injuries to his ribs and ankle, a coronavirus diagnosis and Matt Nagy’s refusal to let him compete for the starting job.

Burrow left his home state’s powerhouse, Ohio State, to go to LSU, where he won a national title. Fields transferred from his home state’s powerhouse, Georgia, to play at Ohio State a year after Burrow left and lost the national title game.

The comparisons stop there. Burrow was the No. 1 overall pick in 2020 who threw for 2,688 yards, 13 touchdowns, five interceptions and a 89.8 passer rating as a rookie. Fields, the No. 11 pick, threw for 1,870 yards, seven touchdowns, 10 interceptions and a 73.2 passer rating.

Burrow was the can’t-miss NFL prospect who didn’t. There are many more questions about Fields, and they’re only exacerbated by the Bears botching his playing time as a rookie.

Each start this year added to Burrow’s mental database, which had only 10 NFL games on it before this season.

“The reps are accumulating, so I’m feeling more and more comfortable out there against different defenses,” he said.

The Bears can only hope to say the same about Fields someday.

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The NBA’s trade deadline is this week and with the Chicago Bulls sitting near the top of the NBA’s Eastern Conference, they could be making a move to land a player for a playoff run. While Chicago has an abundance of guards at their disposal, they are thin in the front court after losing Patrick Williams earlier this season.

Nikola Vucevic and Tony Bradley have been playing most of the minutes at center but new reports circulating state that the Bulls have their eyes on another center in San Antonio’s Jakob Poeltl.

The 26-year-old Poeltl is a hot name in trade rumors right now and the latest from NBA insider Marc Stein reveals that the Bulls have made an offer but it was denied by the Spurs. The deal included a future first-round pick and likely another player:

The Spurs, league sources say, have rebuffed one Chicago offer for in-demand center Jakob Poeltl centered around a future first-round pick. As we’ve been reporting for weeks, Poeltl is among the most coveted centers in the league at a time numerous teams are pursuing them.

If the Bulls want to make a serious run in the Eastern Conference, they are going to need to find some depth in the front court and Sunday’s performance by Joel Embiid proved that further.

This deadline is going to be a very interesting one so make sure to check out our Chicago Bulls forum for the latest on the team and the upcoming trade deadline this week.

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Bears season ticket prices are going up 6%, but the team said it’s with good reason: the chance to watch an extra regular-season home game for the first time.

An email sent to season-ticket holders on Monday said that the price increase represents the difference between last year’s package and this year’s. In 2021, season-ticket holders had to buy seats for eight regular season games and two preseason games. In 2022, they’ll buy tickets for nine regular season and only one preseason game.

The team said the increase is due to variable pricing, a practice it has used since 2016, which makes more attractive games more expensive. In addition to the Bears’ three NFC North home games, they’ll host the Bills, 49ers, Dolphins, Eagles, Commanders and Texans.

The NFL’s expansion to 17 games a year ago requires teams to host eight regular season games one year and nine the next. The teams that host nine games only play one preseason game at home.

The renewal deadline is March 18.

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Kyle Davidson, Eric Tulsky, Scott Mellanby and Peter Chiarelli have emerged as candidates in the Blackhawks’ ongoing search for a general manager.

But no matter whom the Hawks choose, it’s clear that man will be given an immense amount of power atop the team’s hockey-operations department.

CEO Danny Wirtz — explaining last week why he chose not to split the department leadership — spelled that out explicitly. From a workplace-ethics and -culture standpoint, the Hawks’ frequent use of the word ”accountability” was undermined by chairman Rocky Wirtz’s recent meltdown. In terms of building a hockey team, however, it still should hold weight.

”It’s clear we need a better-defined plan and a better path forward,” Danny Wirtz said. ”A lot of the plan for this will be determined by the general manager.

”We had a lot of conversations around structure: ‘Do you want to [hire] a president?’ And when it came down to it, it’s clearly about accountability and ensuring it’s very clear where that accountability sits, where the decision-making sits.”

The Hawks’ GM will report directly to Danny Wirtz, who has virtually no expertise in hockey operations and seems to understand that.

He won’t report to any overseeing president — such as how the Hawks’ heads of revenue, marketing and communications do to business president Jaime Faulkner — because there won’t be one.

He’ll be able to pick his own people to fill many of the currently vacant (or nonexistent) higher-ranking roles in hockey operations.

And he’ll inherit a team that’s basically blowing in the wind, without any sort of preplanned strategy or momentum toward any trajectory. The job won’t be easy, but it will be open-ended.

”If you’re going to hire someone in this position, you have to give them the freedom to do what they need to do,” Danny Wirtz said. ”That’s really the mandate. There’s no preconceived expectations or things that are off the table [or] constraints that we’re going to give this leader.”

Even interim coach Derek King, who has given his all to right the ship this season, seems to grasp that big-picture reality.

”We’re limited to what we can do right now, so we have to deal with what we have,” King said late last month. ”But you see what these top teams have, and then that shows you what we’re missing. Whether it’s another guy who can put the puck in the net or a playmaker and some bottom guys who can bring some energy and checking, there’s some work to do. Whoever comes in here is going to have a [big] job. There’s going to be some work.”

There also will be a blank canvas, an almost-blank check and an immense supply of brushes — to continue the analogy — afforded to the GM. His fingerprints will be all over the Hawks immediately, for better or worse, and he’ll be given the control to paint the team and department however he likes.

That’s not to say there won’t be standards to meet eventually; Danny Wirtz might not be a hockey guru, but he can tell wins from losses. In the meantime, however, the GM will be given plenty of patience, resources and power.

Now it’s just a question of whom that GM will be. The Hawks on Friday interviewed Davidson, their interim GM and the front-runner for the job, and Tulsky, a Harvard graduate and former nanotechnology entrepreneur-turned-hockey analytics pioneer-turned-Hurricanes assistant GM.

They talked Saturday with Mellanby, a 1,400-game NHL veteran and former longtime Canadiens assistant GM, and Sunday with Chiarelli, a former Bruins and Oilers GM known for his unwise trades at the second stop. And there might be other candidates, too.

A decision is expected in the next month or so.

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