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The Cleveland Cavaliers fell to the Orlando Magic 128-122 in what could be a playoff preview.

James Harden described his time in Cleveland as a whirlwind when asked about it after the game.

“I’m still not settled. I’m still in a hotel. Just trying to hopefully get adapted.”

In many ways, the Cavs as a team find themselves in a similar situation.

“Nights like this are very tough,” Harden said. “It’s a game we should’ve won.”

Harden is right. The Cavs did enough offensively to do so, but at the same time, the attention to detail wasn’t there. That’s going to cost when going up against a Magic team that is playing its best basketball of the season.

This would be a chippy first-round series if this game was any indication of things. Orlando is a physical team, and one that isn’t afraid to stir the pot when needed. Mo Wagner and Desmond Bane were the primary instigators on Wednesday.

The Cavaliers responded well to the challenge. They were physical on the glass and never seemed intimidated. That wasn’t why they lost the game. Their poor defense is to blame for that.

The Cavs miss Jarrett Allen defensively.

Orlando doesn’t have a good or imaginative offense. They do, however, have big, physical players at basically every position that were able to take advantage of Cleveland’s lack of size.

The Cavs don’t have good starting guard defenders, but a frontcourt of Dean Wade, Evan Mobley, and Allen can alleviate some of those issues. When all three are in there — particularly the two centers — the Cavs can just funnel players to their bigs in the paint and recover out to shooters on the perimeter. That formula falls apart if Allen isn’t in there.

The Magic, led by Bane and Paolo Banchero, were able to attack Cleveland’s smaller defenders inside. Mobley tried to provide help defense, but because there were so many open lanes inside, he was often getting there too late, resulting in shooting fouls.

“This team did a really good job…of forcing the ball in the paint, and we just didn’t have any resistance,” Harden said. “They shot an unbelievable percentage by the basket and got to the line too many times.”

That they did.

The Magic finished in the 92nd percentile for both finishing at the rim (84%) and free-throw rate (32.9). It’s difficult to win games when you’re being beaten this decisively defensively.

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While the Cavs’ lack of size hurt them on defense, it helped their offense.

Orlando has been playing great defense since the beginning of February. They’ve posted the fourth-best defensive rating during that stretch (109). This performance won’t help those numbers.

Cleveland did a great job of spreading the floor and attacking in space. This led to them converting 20-24 (83.3%, 91st percentile) of their shots at the rim and posting a 128.4 offensive rating (86th percentile).

There are things to nitpick with the offense, but that wasn’t close to why they lost. This is an elite attack, and they proved that again against a formidable defensive opponent.

Keon Ellis continues to show he deserves playoff minutes. He poured in 20 points on 5-8 shooting and had his second consecutive strong shooting game.

Ellis can change a game with his disruptive defense. He once again had a block and a steal while being Cleveland’s best defender for long stretches. However, those skills can only come through if he’s also a positive contributor offensively, like he has been the last two games.

Dennis Schroder is going through a rough patch. He provided no points while going 0-5 from the field and committing four fouls in less than 18 minutes. This is also the third game in a row he’s struggled to have a positive impact.

Head coach Kenny Atkinson has talked about the role players needing to step up to secure playoff minutes. Schroder is no different.

He will likely get some playing time in the postseason unless things really nosedive from here. They need a point guard they can pair with Donovan Mitchell when Harden sits. That said, there’s no guarantee he gets minutes other than when Harden is on the bench if he’s playing like this in the playoffs.

The Cavs can find creative ways to use Mobley as a roller. We know that Mobley isn’t the best pick-and-roll big because he’s not a physical screener. There are some band-aid solutions around that issue. This play is a good example of one.

Here, the Cavs run a Spain pick-and-roll with Dean Wade screening for Mobley’s defender. Wade’s pick creates, which allows Mobley to roll hard to the rim.

This isn’t a set you can spam like you can a regular pick-and-roll, but it is proof that there are some ways around Mobley’s screening if you’re creative.

Harden played his best offensive game as a Cavalier. This was the first time he’s reached 30 points in a Cavalier uniform. He was able to do so by continually getting by his defender and attacking inside. And doing that opened up room for his patented step-back three, which he was able to get to seemingly at will.

Harden had his most success targeting Orlando’s weakest defender, Paolo Banchero. He worked to create this mismatch and attacked every time he got it.

Harden is a great advantage manipulator. This is seen most in how he can operate in the pick-and-roll with a physical screener, but he’s also one of the best in league history at exploiting a mismatch when he finds one, as he did here.

For as good a scorer Harden was, he wasn’t the one taking shots down the stretch. Mitchell went 2-8 from the field in the fourth quarter on a night he struggled to find his rhythm. Meanwhile, Harden had only two attempts in the final frame.

The offense wasn’t why the Cavs lost the game. And it’s worth pointing out that they scored 32 points in the fourth quarter and continually created clean looks in the closing minutes. Still, you would’ve ideally liked to see a better balance in a game like this. This was the first time it felt like the shot distribution was off with the backcourt.

Nights like this are a reminder that the Cavs are a work-in-progress. Atkinson is trying to figure out the rotation with three new pieces, an injury to the starting center, and will need to find a way to fit Max Strus back into the rotation. That’s a difficult task, and there’s only a month until the playoffs.

The Cavs have a higher ceiling now than they did before the deadline. But there’s no guarantee they can consistently come close to reaching it in the biggest games. Especially when they’re going against teams who’ve had their core in place for multiple seasons, and aren’t just trying to put it together in the final two months of the season.

Harden said that he was still living in a hotel. In many ways, it feels like this team still is as well. They’re also trying to unpack their bags and figure out who and what they actually have in the suitcase. And they’re running out of time to do so.

LILLE, France (AP) — Aston Villa travelled to Lille to kick off the Europa League round of 16 on Thursday boosted by the return from injury of captain John McGinn.

McGinn was absent for seven weeks since a knee injury in a Premier League loss to Everton in January.

“It’s massive to have him back,” teammate Morgan Rogers said. “He puts a smile on people’s faces, he plays with that smile, wears the badge on his sleeve and he brings a lot to our team.”

Villa and Lille also met in the Conference League quarterfinals two years ago, when Unai Emery’s men advanced on penalties.

Another English side, Nottingham Forest, needs to put relegation worries aside when it hosts Danish club Midtjylland.

In an all-Italia derby, Bologna hosts Roma.

The Europa League format launched last season — 36 teams in a single-standings league format then a tennis-style knockout bracket — lets teams from the same country meet at any point in the knockout phase. Previously, national derbies were possible only from the quarterfinals.

Celta Vigo hosts the first leg against Lyon, the league phase winner.

Real Betis travels to Panathinaikos while Stuttgart meets Porto at home. Another Bundesliga club, Freiburg, is away to Genk.

In the Conference League, Crystal Palace faces AEK Larnaca in London.

___

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Jaylen Brown has put together the best all-around season of his career. That’s less opinion than fact at this point.

The Boston Celtics forward is averaging 28.3 points, 7.1 rebounds, and 5.1 assists while carrying the team through most of the season without Jayson Tatum. Boston has held a firm grasp on second place in the Eastern Conference despite major roster turnover and months of uncertainty, keeping just enough distance between themselves and the Knicks and Cavaliers.

And yet, Brown still isn’t widely considered a serious MVP contender. He finished sixth in ESPN’s latest straw poll, receiving zero first (or second) place votes.

Speaking on the Cousins podcast with Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady (am I the only one who assumed this meant DeMarcus Cousins’ podcast?), Brown acknowledged that winning the award would be meaningful, but also suggested the standards for earning it can feel like a moving target.

“I feel like I fit the criteria for it,” Brown said. “Especially with what people were saying about me before the season… I’ve been able to shoulder that and help lead my team to where we are now.”

“But people constantly just move the bar. Now we fast forward, and now I don’t have enough to fit the criteria. So, I probably never will, no matter what.”

It’s a sentiment that probably resonates with many Celtics fans who have watched Brown’s season unfold.

Boston entered the year surrounded by questions. The Celtics moved on from several key pieces of their 2024 championship roster, and Tatum has missed a large portion of the season recovering from his Achilles injury. Analysts and fans alike expected the team to slide down the standings.

Instead, the former Finals MVP raised his game to another level. Brown became the Celtics’ primary offensive engine, took on a larger playmaking role, and helped guide a younger roster through one of the most unpredictable seasons the franchise has faced in years.

The MVP race, however, remains stacked. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokić, Luka Dončić, and Victor Wembanyama have all produced seasons that are difficult to argue against.

Brown probably isn’t the MVP this year, and even he seems to recognize that reality.

But his frustration speaks to something broader about how the award is discussed. The MVP conversation rarely follows a consistent standard. Some seasons reward overwhelming individual numbers (see Russell Westbrook in 2017). Others lean toward the best player on the best team (see Giannis in the 2019 and 2020 seasons). Sometimes voters prioritize narrative, like a player dragging an injury-ravaged roster into contention.

Brown’s season checks several of those boxes. He carried Boston all year without Jayson Tatum and kept the Celtics near the top of the Eastern Conference when many predicted them to possible fall out of playoff contention. In other seasons, that kind of story would have pushed a player firmly into the MVP conversation.

This season, however, the race has been defined by historically dominant campaigns from several other stars. The bar didn’t necessarily move. It just rose.

For Brown, though, the award still isn’t the ultimate goal.

He told Carter and McGrady that winning another championship would mean far more than an MVP trophy. And with Tatum now back in the lineup and the Celtics beginning to look whole again, that objective remains very much in play.

Whether Brown ever wins the award or not, Celtics fans will remember how he carried the team through its most uncertain stretch of this unexpectedly delightful season — and delivered like a superstar when Boston needed one most.

Let’s all take a deep breath. Breathe in, breathe out, and AAAAAAAAAAAA.

In case you missed the Rockets’ game against the Denver Nuggets, I think the fact that I am starting the article off with breathing exercises shows how it went. Now before anyone tries to make excuses for the loss since it was the second night of a back-to-back and Denver is in high altitude, just save your excuses as a team that entered the season with contention aspirations should not be getting embarrassed like this for the second time in less than seven days.

The game was close heading into halftime, with both teams making mistakes, as both Denver and Houston were turning the ball over. The difference, however, was the shooting. Amen Thompson started the game by missing his first four shots, and going into the second quarter, nobody on the Rockets had scored more than nine points. However, in the second, it appeared that Amen had something going as he then made all four of his next shots. Thompson finished the game with 16 points, four assists, five rebounds, and a steal while shooting 8/14 from the field and 0/1 from the free-throw line. Jabari Smith Jr. only scored two more points after scoring nine in the first quarter, but shot relatively well, going 5/10 overall and 1/2 from three. Both Sengun and KD had mediocre to bad games, and honestly, the only reason I am saying their games weren’t outright bad was that their efficiency shooting not at the free throw line was decent (I will get to the free throw shooting), with both going 5/8 from the floor. However, both Durant and Sengun turned the ball over at least twice.

Perhaps the worst aspect of this game was the poor free-throw shooting. Now, correct me if I am wrong, but free throws are called what they are because the points are supposed to be FREE. With that in mind, how on earth do you go 5/14 for 35.7%? I legitimately believe I could have made more free throws than that, and I quit basketball in the sixth grade when I couldn’t make a layup.

If the free-throw shooting was the worst aspect, then the three-point shooting would definitely be the second worst. Up until the second part of the fourth quarter, the Rockets were in contention to break the record for the fewest threes made as they had made just two threes in over 36 minutes of basketball. I honestly believe the kids I teach after school could have made more threes, and most of them are under the age of ten. Honestly the best part about this game is that it is over.

Houston will look to turn things around on Friday versus the Pelicans at home, and for everyone’s sake, but especially my therapist, they will hopefully look much better back on their home court after a bit of rest.

Let me take you back a quarter century or so, when Wally Szczerbiak was the baddest man in the NCAA Tournament. 

When Miami (Ohio) in 1999 became one of the original underdogs of what has annually become the greatest weekend in sports.

When there was controversy then, too, about MAC regular-season champion Miami receiving an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament after losing in the MAC tournament championship.

The same potential argument unfolding with this year’s Miami team — with one caveat. 

This team is 31-0.   

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The RedHawks of yesteryear hopped on Szczerbiak’s back and beat No. 7 seed Washington and No. 2 seed Utah in the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament, before eventually losing a week later in the Sweet 16.

But here’s the key, and the connection to 2026: that Miami team beat No.7-ranked (and eventual No. 4 seed) Tennessee in the regular season. Also won at Notre Dame.

This Miami team has beaten no one of significance, leaving the tournament selection committee with a difficult question to answer should Miami lose in the MAC tournament. 

Is Miami one of the 68 best teams in college basketball?

While you stare at Miami’s spotless record, and the rare air it produces, let me offer a few more numbers to digest. 

• Miami’s nonconference schedule rank by the KenPom rating service is 361. And I don’t want to burst any bubbles here, but there are 365 Division I teams. 
• Miami played 15 Quad 4 games, the lowest level of the quad games formula. The RedHawks didn’t play a single Quad 1 game.
• Miami played — I swear I’m not making this up — three teams called Trinity Christian, Indiana East and Milligan. No to be confused with, you know, mulligan.

All three are NAIA schools, and because no one wanted to play Miami and its upperclass-laden team — that’s the excuse, for what it’s worth — the RedHawks decided to troll the Appalachian Athletic Conference for leftovers.

Let’s be honest, the Top 25 high school teams would roll the Appalachian Athletic Conference. 

Miami, which plays UMass on Thursday morning in the MAC quarterfinals, has won seven one-possession conference games. The MAC, according to the NET rating, is the 17th-ranked Division I conference.

Once you get past the first seven conferences, you’ve reached the one-bid leagues. The MAC currently is looking up at the Big Sky, Big West and Coastal Athletic, to name a few. 

So this comes down to perfection vs. the path to perfection. 

How many of the 365 Division I teams could pull off the same 31 straight wins if they played Miami’s schedule? More than you think. Don’t get pulled into the argument that an unbeaten season has to mean something. 

It doesn’t. 

Especially if it was built by feasting on the worst of the worst of college basketball. Miami’s overall schedule rank according to KenPom is 231.

Two hundred thirty one. 

This isn’t necessarily an argument for Auburn or Indiana or Stanford or Cincinnati or any other Power conference team getting hosed. It’s more about the New Mexico, San Diego State and Santa Claras of the world teetering on the edge of the bubble.

They’re potentially out if they don't win their conference tournaments, and Miami is in because it was lallygagging through a ridiculously soft schedule designed for success. But because the RedHawks have managed to keep the core of a solid team on campus, a team full of game experience, we should genuflect and never question a team with an unbeaten record. 

Why, you ask? Well, do you know how hard it is to go unbeaten?

Not that difficult when you’re playing the 231st-ranked schedule. 

Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.     

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Just because Miami Ohio is unbeaten doesn't mean it's NCAA lock

Manufactured outrage will have to serve as the theme for what had been the most hotly anticipated game of the season.

For those who may have missed it: last month the Atlanta Hawks announced plans for a 16 March promotional event called Magic City Night. The name wasn’t just a nod to that evening’s opponent, the Orlando Magic; it was meant to honor the civic institution in the shadow of the Hawks’ arena – Magic City, America’s most famous strip club.

The program for Magic City Night was straightforward: a live podcast featuring Magic City founder Michael Barney and Hawks owner Jami Gertz (who co-produced a recent Starz docuseries on the club), a halftime performance from homegrown Grammy-winning rapper TI, Magic City-themed hoodies at the merch stands and unfettered access to the club’s signature dish: lemon pepper wings. What it would notably not contain was any actual exotic dancers or adult entertainment.

Related: Bam Adebayo just scored 83 points in a game. Was it down to brilliance or stat padding?

The Hawks, near the bottom in NBA attendance again this year, reportedly sold 2,000 tickets in the first 24 hours of the announcement. Magic City Monday promised to be a good time, a real happening, a scene approaching the standard fare at NBA games in New York and Los Angeles. “Somebody said Atlanta teams don’t care about winning or losing as long as it feels like you were at the club,” one fan quipped on social media, capturing the mix of pride and ironic detachment that defines the local fanbase. But then, inevitably, the outsiders started rolling in to spoil the party.

A week after the reveal, San Antonio Spurs center Luke Kornet published a 300-word letter urging the Hawks to scrap the promotion, citing concern over the league’s complicity in “the potential objectification and mistreatment of women in our society”. He was swiftly swiftly backed by five-time All-Star Al Horford, who spent the first nine of his 19 pro seasons with the Hawks. Kornet’s treatise touched off a raging debate in a sports media ecosystem that has little experience wrestling with the ethics of sex work or confronting the league’s long-overlooked culture of sexualized spectacle – and that was all the backlash Adam Silver needed to hear.

On Monday, Silver said he was canceling Magic City Night in response to “significant concerns from fans, partners and employees.” In a follow-up statement, the Hawks said they reluctantly respected the decision, canceling everything except the wings and TI’s halftime set. (Fret not: the wings are still on.) In the end, Silver’s decision showed a willful misunderstanding of the Black culture that his league mined for lucre and clout. And for local fans who had marked the date since the team announced Magic City Monday, it’s more than a massive upset. It’s yet another reminder of Martin Luther King’s “Two Americas”, with Atlanta still residing in the one that seems inconceivable from the outside.

Of course, there are very real issues around how women are sexualized in US society. And, in another town, a strip club is the blight on the landscape where supposed men of virtue go to indulge deeply suppressed appetites for vice. In Atlanta, however, it’s the town square, a place for work powwows, first dates, an on-ramp to Black entrepreneurship. Magic City is the bellwether name-checked from Jermaine Dupri to the Migos, a full-service cultural pit stop.

A former telecom professional, Barney set out to create a classier, more professional environment that would appeal to customers – male and female – and the dancers to boot. Relatively quickly, Magic City grew from a one-dancer venue launched in a defunct print shop to the hotspot where Atlanta’s business and entertainment heavyweights rubbed shoulders with hustlers and drug dealers – everyone meeting as equals. Stacey Abrams pulled up (on video, but nevertheless) during her 2022 gubernatorial campaign, reflecting the club’s role as a community nexus where even politics intersects.

TI, Lil Jon and Future are just a few of the local artists who got their start at Magic City – which is why the Hawks can so easily book acts to provide entertainment that would headline world tours at other NBA arenas. Early visits from Atlanta sports legends like Deion Sanders and Dominique Wilkins helped cement Magic City’s reputation as a must-visit destination for professional athletes. Famously, in 2020, Los Angeles Clippers guard Lou Williams lobbied for a brief exemption from the NBA’s Covid bubble in Orlando to attend a funeral in Atlanta – but stopped at Magic City on the way, resulting in a 10-day quarantine that cost him two games. Williams said it was his love for the club’s lemon pepper wings that led him to violate NBA rules. Ever since, he’s been known by a single handle: Lemon Pepper Lou.

Magic City elevated adult entertainment, turning it into something the masses could consume without shame or even blinking. Pole dancing never becomes staples of suburban momcore without Magic City’s Black dancers turning strip teases into feats of athleticism and acrobatic wonder with bodies that defied traditional beauty standards. That there were actually people who feared the prospect of the nation’s children seeing strippers rappel from the State Farm rafters, or otherwise “perform” during Magic City Night – which, again, was never on the cards – is laughable. Clearly, these haters have never watched an NBA game.

And we should remember that the NBA already revels in sex nearly as much as it does basketball. Over the past five decades, cheerleading has graduated from Laker Girls to play stoppages filled with twerking and other moves cribbed from the strip club. The All-Star Game has long been a major driver of the local sex economy, not least the corners where exploitation and trafficking risks loom, even as the spectacle rakes in millions. Those persistent rumors about players “flying out” Instagram models for casual hookups? Fans giggle and shrug, then move on to the highlights. Jokes about Zion Williamson’s alleged dalliances with adult-film stars and OnlyFans creators are a staple of NBA fans’ social media. If Kornet and his puritanical lot were truly serious about the league’s “risks” of perverting young minds, they could start with this list.

Never mind the league cozying up to the gambling industry even as the feds arrest high-profile players and coaches over allegations of manipulating games, or glossing over the Clippers’ reported attempts to subvert the salary cap. The NBA can’t even get its players to show up to work every night. Stars like Steph Curry and Kevin Durant have gone from leading the league’s progressive activism to quietly cashing in on military-linked companies while staying silent on conflicts in the Middle East. Karl Malone, who impregnated a 13-year-old while he was in college, remains a venerated figure. But bring a G-rated version of the strip club to a Hawks game? No, the league can’t have that. Imagine how that would look.

For decades, the NBA prided itself on the consistency of its principles; the league would no more tolerate a referee who fixed games than a player who forgot to tuck in his shirt. But those days are gone. Now the record shows it: on the one hand, the NBA is happy to sell fans sex and Black culture. On the other, when the Hawks dared to celebrate the mutually transformative relationship between strip club culture and Atlanta, Silver put his foot down – and promptly tripped over it, proving once again that the league’s priorities are utterly and spectacularly upside down. In its own way, his gaffe is a fitting tribute to a pole dance that never would’ve happened, yet came to represent what the league clearly dreads most: fun.

The men's 2026 NCAA Tournamentbracket for March Madness will be unveiled this Sunday.

The top four seeds seem to be locked up, but the bubble is as unstable as ever. It seems like no one wants to grab a spot in both hands. It should make for a nervy few days.

March Madness bubble winners, losers: Auburn not out of the woods yet

Get ready for the madness with our printable bracket to follow the fun on Selection Sunday.

Print your bracket below. You can also join USA TODAY’s Bracket Challenge and Survivor Pool.

2026 March Madness printable bracket

• Click for your 2026 NCAA Tournament printable bracket

SURVIVOR POOL: Free to enter. $2,500 to win. Can you survive the madness?

SALT LAKE CITY — There was no sugarcoating an ugly first-half performance from the Knicks in the locker room, and the harsh words during the break helped spur a comeback in Wednesday’s 134-117 victory over the Jazz.

“It was our halftime speech, in terms of how we came at each other, where we tried to hold each other accountable,” Clarkson said. “And then just came out here and wanted to win.”

What was the message?

“Get our s–t together,” said Clarkson, adding that the discussion was started by the coaches before the players took over.

The Knicks responded by picking up the defense and, more important, being careful with the ball on offense. Coach Mike Brown broke down the tale of two halves.

“We committed eight turnovers for 14 points [in the first half] and a lot of them were unforced,” the coach said. “A lot of those turnovers led to easy baskets in transition for Utah. They had 27 fast-break points in that first half, the way we calculate it.

“We cleaned both those areas at halftime. We had just four turnovers in the second half, giving up four points off those turnovers, and then we gave up just five fast-break points in the second half. And that was the difference in the game. We gave ourselves an opportunity to shoot the basketball. And when we did, it obviously went in.”

• CHECK OUT THE LATEST NBA STANDINGS AND KNICKS STATS

The Knicks outscored the Jazz 78-52 in the second half. And that happened after a fire was lit under the players at halftime.

“It helped us win,” Brunson said.

Barring a shocking NBA Finals matchup, there will be no Stephen Curry at MSG this season.

The Golden State guard, who has missed the past 15 games with a bone bruise in his right knee, will be re-evaluated in 10 days, the team announced Wednesday.

That means the game at MSG on March 15 is off the table.

Curry, 37, has 10 straight wins at MSG, including last year during his 28-point performance.

He scored 54 points at the Garden in 2013.

Josh Hart was ruled out of Wednesday’s game with knee soreness.

He was replaced in the lineup by Landry Shamet, although the starters struggled as a unit in Utah.

With Clarkson catching fire and carrying the Knicks to a comeback win, Mikal Bridges was benched in the fourth quarter Wednesday for a second straight game.

Bridges had just five points in 27 minutes.

SHANGHAI (AP) — Max Verstappen's blunt assessment: “It's a jungle” in Formula 1.

The four-time F1 world champion isn't a fan of the new 2026 technical regulations, despite working his way up from No. 20 on the grid to place sixth at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix last weekend.

Verstappen predicted his Red Bull probably couldn’t go any higher than fifth place this weekend in the Chinese Grand Prix — even if he starts much closer to the front in Sunday's race in Shanghai — because of the big gap between Mercedes and Ferrari and all the other teams.

“Honestly, it’s such a jungle out there at the moment," Verstappen said Thursday at the driver news conferences in Shanghai. “I mean, I would hope that it gets a bit closer ... but it’s clear that at the moment we cannot fight with those cars.”

It's not the first time Verstappen has taken a swipe at the sport's new regulations, which he thinks are anti-fun, anti-racing and could potentially be dangerous.

F1’s new cars are complex, with unprecedented changes across the chassis and power unit, which now feature an almost 50:50 output split between the turbo 1.6-liter V6 engine and electrical energy harvested from the brakes — one that requires a new, often counterintuitive driving style.

One of Verstappen's concerns is starting the race with empty batteries in the hybrid cars. Franco Colapinto only very narrowly avoided Liam Lawson at the start of the Australian Grand Prix, with the Racing Bulls car was slow off the line with minimal battery power — many drivers started with depleted batteries among the teething issues with the new rules.

“There are a few simple solutions, but they need to be allowed by the FIA, with the battery related stuff, because, yeah, starting with the 0% battery — not a lot of fun and also quite dangerous,” Verstappen said. "You can see, I mean, we almost had a massive shunt in Melbourne in the start.

“This is something that I think can be easily fixed.”

As for speculation he may quit if reforms aren't made quickly, Verstappen said: “I don’t want to leave, but I also hope, of course, that it gets better.

“I’ve had discussions with F1 and FIA and, I think, we are working toward something, hopefully, and, hopefully that will improve everything," he said, without elaborating on what the changes might be. “I hope already for next year we can already make a decent improvement.”

A 24-hour switch

In the meantime, in the search of more “fun,” he has confirmed this week he'll be driving his first 24-hour sportscar race at the historic Nürburgring Nordschleife circuit in May. F1 hasn’t used it since 1976, when then-reigning champion Niki Lauda suffered severe burns in a crash.

“It’s one of the best races in the world, it’s one of the best tracks. I mean, honestly, in a GT car for me that’s like the perfect speed round there," Verstappen said. "I think if you go anything faster it can be a bit dangerous in places."

“I mean, I’ve been watching it, of course, for a long time. I know a lot of my friends, of course, that have been racing in it already. They say it’s one of the best things ever, and I like racing other cars as well.”

The 28-year Verstappen says he still has career ambitions.

“I don’t need to be only a Formula 1 driver, I can also do other things," he said. "I’ve done this for a while and I’ve achieved everything that I wanted to achieve, so that’s why I want to explore other things, and I don’t want to do them when I’m 40 years old. So now I think this is the perfect age to do it.”

___

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

The win streak lives on for the San Antonio Spurs, as they find themselves halfway to another double-digit tally. They’ve only lost one game between the months of February and March, as they’ve worked their way into a hot pursuit of the NBA-leading Oklahoma City Thunder, and the #1 seed in the Western Conference.

However, in order to achieve that goal (and further extend the streak), they’ll likely have to win their way through one of the toughest stretches of the season.

Starting with the Nuggets, the Spurs will then face the rapidly rising Charlotte Hornets, a Clippers team that was one quarter away from running them off of the court, and (after a breather against the Kings) match-ups against the Phoenix Suns (tanking Pacers) and Miami Heat.

The Suns and Heat have both given the Spurs fits in the recent past, and apparently Bam Adebayo has been possessed by the ghost of Wilt Chamberlain, so who even knows what to predict there?

Let’s get back to Denver, though, who just got finished laying waste to the #4 seed that is the badly-listing Houston Rockets, to the tune of 129-93.

How did they manage that, you might ask? Oh, by having 8 different Nuggets score 15+ points, that’s all.

With all the injuries they’ve endured to key players this season, it’s been easy to forget that the Nuggets are also an incredibly deep squad.

That the Nuggets were without Nikola Jokic and Aaron Gordon for weeks, and are still just a game out of the 3# seed is a testament to that depth, and how (not unlike the Spurs) they have been tested to the point of improvement and cohesion.

No longer does Jokic have to soak up all possible minutes at center after the addition of the still-reliable Jonas Valanciunas. No longer does the bench collapse in the absence of the Joker’s offensive impetus, ranking 7th in True Shooting Percentage and 5th in Field-Goal Percentage.

Denver’s front office has surrounded their big man with long-distance demons, to the tune of ranking 1st in the NBA in three-point percentage, at just shy of 40%.

The point being that when healthy the way they were Wednesday night, this Nuggets team might actually be the biggest roadblock for the Spurs come the postseason.

Pick an offensive stat. Just about any offensive stat, and I can guarantee the Nuggets are in the top 5 or top 10 of that category.

They’re great passers (9th in assists, 1st in assist%), great shooters (2nd in FG%, 5th in FT%), great at limiting mistakes (1st in assist-to-turnover ratio and 3rd best in limiting turnovers), and consequently, are great scorers (2nd in scoring).

Outside of injury, they do have two weaknesses, though.

One is rebounding, where they rank near the bottom third of the league (19th), and especially offensive rebounding (26th). Part of that is due to how many shots they sink, but in the event of a miss, the Spurs must keep the Nuggets from getting a second shot.

The other flaw is the defensive end. And by that, I mean, basically all of it.

The Nuggets are dead last in steals, 2nd to last in blocks, and rank 22nd in Defensive Rating. They’re about as bad as a team can be on defense and still be really good, and they do not create offensive opportunities on that end. And oddly, they’ve actually somehow been worse on that end (29th) over the last 5 games.

That could be very unfortunate timing for the Nuggets, just as the Spurs are on an offensive tear, ranking 1st in Offensive Rating, 1st in True Shooting, 1st in Effective Field Goal Percentage, 1st in three-point shooting (42%), and 3rd in scoring over that same five-game stretch.

There is, of course, a bit of a wrinkle, as it seems there must be.

Victor Wembanyama has found his way onto the injury report in questionable status, after a couple of games in which he flirted with 40 minutes and took more than a couple of shots to the face and body.

Speaking as someone who has thoroughly enjoyed and also assigned Wemby-Jokic match-ups a household priority since Wembanyama entered the league, that would be a bummer from the viewer/fan/basketball lover’s perspective. (Though, yes, I can certainly see the ‘long-term benefit’ *teenaged eye roll*)

However, I’m starting to find myself brimming with an almost idiotic degree of optimism, a dangerous thing for anyone who has to write about any team. You don’t have to write about humiliating losses. I almost certainly will.

But gosh-darn it, these kids have really been filling up my cup of joy! I think they can win this thing, with or without their fearless leader. They’re that good. They’re that tough. They’re that freaking cocky.

Here’s hoping Wemby’s healthy enough to play, and here’s hoping the Nuggets underestimate the kiddos if he’s not.

Go! Spurs! Go! (and please don’t make me regret this)

Denver Nuggets (40-26) vs San Antonio Spurs (48-17)

March 12th, 2026 | 8:00 PM CT

Watch: FanDuel Southwest| Listen: WOAI (1200 AM)

Spurs Injuries: Lindy Waters III – Questionable (Illness), Harrison Barnes – Questionable (Sleep Paralysis), Victor Wembanyama – Questionable (Gathering Spirit Bomb)

Nuggets Injuries: Peyton Watson – Out (Hamstring)