In San Francisco, there is already concern about potential impacts from rain and winds during the storms expected this week. San Francisco’s Department of Emergency Management said it has been coordinating with the National Weather Service and other agencies since earlier this week to prepare for the storms.

As of Sunday night, rain started to come down hard onto San Francisco streets, where some roadways already saw minor pools of standing water.

The Department of Emergency Management is urging residents to prepare immediately by securing loose items, charging devices, and getting ready for possible power outages. Residents should also expect possible delays in transit and are advised to allot extra travel time.

Even if you’re not traveling on the roads, you may still face travel delays. At the San Francisco International Airport, the duty manager told NBC Bay Area that the airport experienced weather-related ground delays for much of the day on Sunday, and by Sunday night, the average ground delay was four hours and 14 minutes. The duty manager also said that because of the winds coming from the south, aircraft are currently directed to take off and land in a different direction than normal.

San Francisco city crews have been working through the weekend to keep leaves out of storm drains and to respond to downed trees.

In the Amazon Crocker neighborhood, one large portion of a tree came down on Drake Street following what neighbors said was several hours of light to moderate rain. Neighbors said the broken section of the tree blocked off the entire street.

San Francisco Fire crews responded shortly after and were able to clear the roadway. No people were hurt or property was damaged in this incident.

“This is one of the things that San Francisco people should be worried about: trees coming down, the drains getting full, you know — clean the drains, and just keep an eye out for each other,” said Xavier Haro, who lives right across from the tree that fell.

If you see a downed tree in San Francisco, call 311 to report it if it is not an emergency issue. If it is an emergency, call 911.

If you want hyperlocal alerts in San Francisco, you can also text your zip code to 888 777.

A spokesperson for the San Francisco Department of Public Works said that sandbags will be available to residents Monday through Saturday (including on the President’s Day holiday). You can find more details here.

For the first times since 2010, the Denver Nuggets had two representatives participating in the NBA All-Star Game – or Games – in three-time MVP Nikola Jokic and star guard Jamal Murray, who was making his first ASG appearance. They dynamic duo – who’ve formed one of the NBA’s best tandems over the past decade – both started for the World Team in the debut of the three-team, round-robin format.

Between 2011 and 2019, Denver did not have a single player make the All-Star team. Until this season, Jokic had been the organization’s lone representative for the past seven seasons.

The New Format Pumped up the Competitive Juices

The notoriously non-competitive NBA All-Star game was anything but this time, with the participants playing hard on both ends of the court. Team Stars ended up besting Team Stripes for the championship after each USA squad had edged the favored World Team by a single bucket in the first two 12-minute contests.

Both Murray and Jokic went scoreless in the first game against the USA’s Stars team. Joker only played five minutes and missed his only shot. Murray, meanwhile, played a lot of minutes in place of injured starter and fellow Canadian Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Murray was a frustrating 0-6 from the floor in the first game, but bounced back with a pair of three pointers and eight points in the second game, another last second loss, this one to Team Stripes.

Jokic didn’t play in the second game, opting to rest his knee after missing 16 games in December and January. It’s fair to wonder if the results of the round robin mini-tournament would have been different if he, plus the Los Angeles Lakers Luka Dončić – who also started and played just five minutes while nursing a sore hamstring and Milwaukee’s former MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, out with a calf strain – had been full go.

Can a Healthy Nuggets Squad Remain in a Top Three Playoff Position?

Regardless, the question for Denver Nuggets fans is now simple: How will the All-Star experience translate into the resumption of the NBA regular season? Denver opens the final stanza of the season in Los Angeles against the red-hot Clippers next Thursday. Joker will be Joker, regardless. Perhaps Murray can build off his positive performance in the second game when he puts a Nuggets jersey back on?

Both All-Stars will get some much deserved rest before the resumption of the schedule, which has 25 games left for Denver. The Nuggets will need both stars to be healthy if Denver is going to hold onto a top three seed in the competitive Western Conference.

The All-Star weekend showed Nuggets fans a couple of other things as well. First, the San Antonio Spurs, who lead Denver by 3 1/2 games for second place in the Western Conference standings, are going to be a problem. Spurs center Victor Wembanyama had 33 points in the two 12-minute All-Star contests and was the most dominant force on the court at both ends. His young San Antonio teammate De’Aron Fox hit the game winning three-pointer for the Stripes team against the Stars in Game two.

The other thing is that the Nuggets rivalry with the Minnesota Timberwolves isn’t dead. After the end of the mini-tournament, T-Wolves Most Valuable Player Anthony Edwards of Team Stripes called out Jokic and Dončić for their lack of participation in the games. No doubt Joker will remember that comment when the two teams meet again on March 1^st in Denver.

Mark Knudson Mark is a former MLB pitcher for the Houston Astros, Milwaukee Brewers and Colorado Rockies. He’s the only person ever to play high school, college and professional baseball in Colorado. Mark earned a BA in Technical Journalism from Colorado State University and has worked in radio, television and print sports media since 1994. He’s the co-author of “Pitching to the Corners” with former teammate Don August and the author of “Just Imagine,” a historical fiction novel about The Beatles.
Mark is currently a feature writer and columnist for Mile High Sports in Denver and recently joined the team at Heavy.com. Mark is also a high school baseball coach in the Denver area. More about Mark Knudson

Oregon State’s three-game road winning streak ended with a significant missed opportunity.

Matija Samar scored 14 points and Jorge Diaz Graham had 12 in a 60-50 Beavers loss at Seattle Sunday night at Redhawk Center.

“What was really disappointing is we reverted back to things that have cost us in the past‚” Oregon State coach Wayne Tinkle said on postgame radio. “No toughness on the boards. We got our butts kicked and we couldn’t finish. Guard play — we kept putting our hands in the air looking for fouls and we’re turning it over.”

OSU’s starters combined to score 13 points on 6 of 26 shooting from the field, including 0 for 10 from three. Josiah Lake II scored three points on 1 of 8 shooting and made 1 of 3 free throws.

“You can’t have so many guys no-show on either end,” Tinkle said. “I love the fact that we finally found a group that thought it was important and actually played hard and shared it. Shame on us for the rest that weren’t ready to play that way.”

The loss moves Oregon State (14-14, 7-8 WCC) into a tie for fifth in the conference with three games left in the regular season. Though OSU is just one game behind fourth-place Pacific, the Tigers have the tiebreaker.

The Beavers shot just 29.2% from the field in the first half and trailed 36-18 at halftime.

That was more than enough cushion for Seattle (16-11, 5-9), which got 16 points from John Christofilis and 15 points and nine rebounds from Will Heimbrodt.