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Alapag, top team NLEX hope to sustain form with Deonte Burton

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PBA Deonte Burton Jimmy Alapag NLEX Road Warriors

NLEX import Deonte Burton with coach Jimmy Alapag during practice.–Photo from NLEX’s Facebook

MANILA, Philippines—NLEX coach Jimmy Alapag expects new import Deonte Burton to give the Road Warriors a huge boost when the PBA Governors’ Cup resumes next month.

Burton was tapped to replace DeQuan Jones, who suffered a severe right leg fracture last month just days before the break.

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“Super excited to have DB with the NLEX family,” said Alapag in a Facebook post by NLEX on Friday. “More than just his talent and his experience, I think, very similar to DeQuan during his time here, I think our guys are gonna enjoy being on the court with him”

READ: PBA: Deonte Burton set to replace DeQuan Jones at NLEX

“As great of a basketball player as DB is, I think he’s just as good of a person. “I think he’ll give us a great chance in the second half of the conference.”

As far as understanding Alapag’s system, the 32-year-old forward won’t be starting from scratch. The two have some history together from several years ago. Burton had stints with the Sacramento Kings and G League’s Stockton Kings, where Alapag served as an assistant coach.

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“Obviously, having someone like DB who has NBA experience and the fact that we spent time together both in the G League and the NBA, I have a lot of confidence in how he’ll help our team,” Alapag said.

Burton, who also played two seasons for the Oklahoma City Thunder from 2018 to 2020, practiced with the Road Warriors on Friday.

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“I’m really happy to be here to play for NLEX. A lot of players have told me that I should come play in the PBA. They kept telling me that I’d love it,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to play here. I’ve never had the opportunity, but now I have it.”

The 6-foot-4 Burton will have big shoes to fill after Jones led NLEX to the top spot in Group A, averaging 24.9 points on 56 percent shooting, 6.8 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.9 steals through eight games. The Road Warriors share the same record as the San Miguel Beermen at 7-2 after dropping a narrow loss to the Converge FiberXers in their only full game without Jones.

Burton, who’s played in South Korea, Puerto Rico and China, makes his NLEX debut on October 7 against lowly guest team Macau at Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

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Team Vitality stay alive again in BLAST Open Fall playoffs

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56 seconds ago

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5 September 2026

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YMCA member Austin Manengu works the keyboard as he plays a game of Fortnite during the unveiling of the new gaming lab at the Maplewood Family YMCA in Rochester Thursday, June 20, 2024. YMCA of Greater Rochester in partnership with Metro Sports & Entertainment Group will open two gaming labs for youth and teens this year.YMCA member Austin Manengu works the keyboard as he plays a game of Fortnite during the unveiling of the new gaming lab at the Maplewood Family YMCA in Rochester Thursday, June 20, 2024. YMCA of Greater Rochester in partnership with Metro Sports & Entertainment Group will open two gaming labs for youth and teens this year.

Team Vitality certainly aren’t going down without a fight in Portugal.

Facing elimination for the fourth straight match, Vitality again survived at the BLAST Open Fall 2026 in Porto. But what they did Friday was a whole new level of survival.

Facing FURIA in the playoff quarterfinals, Vitality dropped the first map but won the next two to take the match. In the other quarterfinal, Team Falcons had more drama-free experience, sweeping G2 Esports 2-0.

In the semifinals on Saturday, Group A winner Team Spirit will oppose Team Falcons, and Group B winner MOUZ will take their turn at trying to send Vitality home.

The $1.1 million Counter-Strike 2 event began with 16 teams divided into two groups for the double-elimination opening stage. The group winners advanced to the playoff semifinals, the group runners-up moved on to the quarterfinals as high seeds and the two third-place teams headed to the playoff quarterfinals as low seeds. The remaining teams were eliminated.

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The single-elimination playoffs in Porto include best-of-three matches in the quarterfinals and semifinals. The grand final on Sunday will be best-of-five.

The championship team will receive $250,000 ($150,000 for the players, $100,000 for the club) plus three BLAST Frequent Flyer Tokens.

After losing 13-6 on Nuke, Vitality won 13-11 on Cache and 13-4 on Dust II to advance. Estonia’s Robin “ropz” Kool led the winners with 44 kills while Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut of France added 39 kills in the tightly contested match. Latvia’s Mareks “YEKINDAR” Galinskis had 41 kills to pace FURIA, but he also sustained a match-high 47 deaths.

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In the other quarterfinal, Falcons quickly took care of G2 with a 13-6 win on Inferno and 13-9 victory on Dust II. The top three kills totals all belonged to Falcons players — Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Nikola “NiKo” Kovac with 37 kills and Russians Maksim “kyousuke” Lukin and Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov with 36 and 32, respectively.

BLAST Open Fall prize pool, with money winnings (player prize, team share) and BLAST Frequent Flyer Tokens

1. $250,000 ($150,000, $100,000), 3 BFFT

2. $160,000 ($60,000, $100,000), 1 BFFT

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3-4. $115,000 ($40,000, $75,000), 1 BFFT

5-6. $75,000 ($20,000, $55,000), 1 BFFT — G2 Esports, FURIA

7-8. $50,000 ($10,000, $40,000) — Aurora Gaming, FUT Esports

9-12. $32,500 ($7,500, $25,000) — M80, Natus Vincere, IC Esports, Legacy

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13-16. $20,000 ($5,000, $15,000) — DENDELE CS, paiN Gaming, Lynn Vision Gaming, 9z Team

–Field Level Media

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Nikkita Lyons Sends A One-Word Message To Royce Keys After Revealing The Name Of His WWE Faction

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14 minutes ago

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5 September 2026

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Nikkita Lyons sent a one-word message to Royce Keys, and he and OTM revealed their faction’s name. The group is called “946,” and they issued a stern warning via social media.

Keys and OTM debuted on the August 24, 2026 edition of Monday Night RAW. They attacked The Usos, Solo Sikoa, and LA Knight on their first night together on the main roster. The trio crashed the main event tag team match featuring Jimmy and Jey against Sikoa and Knight.

On Instagram, Lyons reacted with a one-word message to Keys and OTM’s newly released promo. Keys, who narrated the promo, stated that nobody was safe amid their issues with The Bloodline, Solo Sikoa, and Knight.

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“facts,” wrote Lyons.

Check out a screengrab of Lyons’ Instagram comment:

Sam Roberts Suggested That Royce Keys and OTM Are A Mix Of The Shield And Nexus

Sam Roberts had an interesting take on the trio of Royce Keys and OTM. The analyst stated that the trio reminded him of The Shield and Nexus, considering the amount of chaos they caused on Monday Night RAW.

Speaking on RAW Recap, Roberts had the following to say:

“Out of nowhere, Royce Keys and Out the Mud invade Monday Night Raw to end the show. It was almost like the Shield meets the Nexus in terms of just like utter chaos and the fact that they weren’t necessarily on anybody’s side… Nobody saw it coming… Nowadays, everybody wanna talk like they got something to say, but nothing comes out when they move their lips, just a bunch of gibberish, and what is that? ‘Cause they forgot about Royce Keys. Is what everybody has been saying.”

Keys and OTM once again made a statement on the latest edition of Monday Night RAW when they attacked The Usos in the parking lot before laying waste to Solo Sikoa backstage and leaving him in a bloody mess.

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The faction’s issues with The Bloodline are far from over. Roman Reigns has ordered Jacob Fatu to deal with Keys and his group, while he deals with the LA Knight problem.