It was a busy day in women's college basketball, with Baylor's upset of Duke leading the way.
Ben Stokes signals 2027 Ashes readiness by signing new two-year central contract
Root also among 14 players committed to national team
Bethell and Archer among the other notable inclusions
Ben Stokes has signalled his desire to play in the 2027 Ashes at home after signing a new two-year central contract with England.
Aged 34, and having sustained hamstring and shoulder injuries in the past 12 months, there was a school of thought that this winter’s Ashes – less than three weeks away – could be the Test captain’s swansong.
Continue reading...Without JuJu Watkins, USC basketball holds on to hopes of NCAA title contention
USC remains focused on competing for a national title, but it does so without the pressure of lofty expectations tied to injured star JuJu Watkins.
Are Cameron, Cayden Boozer related to Carlos Boozer? Duke freshmen’s family tree
Are freshmen Cameron and Cayden Boozer related to Duke basketball legend Carlos Boozer? Here's what to know as the Blue Devils start their season:
Hernández: The Dodgers' World Series championship core is aging. But they need to keep it intact
The Dodgers walked into a packed home stadium when their World Series parade was over, waving to an adoring crowd that viewed them as more than back-to-back champions.
They were beloved Angelenos.
Many of the players are on a first-name basis with the city, and if they aren’t, they’re identified by a nickname.
Read more:Dodgers celebrate repeat World Series title with another downtown parade, stadium rally
Players who were once strangers are now extended members of hundreds of thousands of families.
Ordinarily, a team as old as the Dodgers would have to consider a roster makeover. Freddie Freeman and Miguel Rojas will be 37 by the start of the next World Series. Max Muncy will be 36, Kiké Hernández 35, Mookie Betts and Teoscar Hernández 34 and Shohei Ohtani 32.
But under these circumstances, how could the Dodgers think of breaking up their team?
How could they unload any of their superstars, regardless of how much they could decline in the next year? How could they not retain their key free agents, regardless of how old they are?
They can’t, they can’t and they can’t.
The Dodgers have to run this back — again.
“Obviously, we would love everybody to come back,” Freeman said.
Muncy has a $10-million team option for next season. The Dodgers have to pick it up.
Rojas and Kiké Hernández are free agents. The Dodgers have to re-sign them.
Freeman won’t be making the calls on his teammates, of course. The decisions will be made by president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, who was characteristically evasive when asked about the efforts the Dodgers would make to keep their out-of-contract players.
“Obviously, guys who have been here and been a big part of it start with a major upper hand,” Friedman said. “That being said, they’re free agents. They’ve earned the right to go out and talk to the 29 other teams as well.”
Muncy doesn’t have a choice to leave if the Dodgers exercise his option, but Rojas and Kiké Hernández have said they would like to return next season.
Whatever Friedman decides shouldn’t preclude the Dodgers from shopping on the free-agent market, with Kyle Tucker and Steven Kwan being potential additions to their outfield.
But the nucleus of the Dodgers would be even older than it was this year when their collective age presented a variety of problems.
Their 18-inning victory in Game 3 clearly diminished them more than it did the Toronto Blue Jays, who won the next two games. In retrospect, that should have been expected, as the Dodgers struggled to maintain consistency on offense over a grinding six-month regular season.
While Betts transformed into one of the league’s best defensive shortstops, he experienced a sharp offensive decline. Muncy was limited to 100 games because of injuries. Teoscar Hernández wasn’t close to being the same player he was last year.
There were times that even Ohtani started to show the effects of being on the wrong side of 30. Ohtani’s father acknowledged this reality in a congratulatory open letter he wrote to his son, which was published in the Monday edition of Sports Nippon.
“Shohei, you’re 31 years old,” Toru Ohtani wrote in Japanese. “I think that as a baseball player, you’re in your prime, but there will come a time when you have to decide between pitching and hitting. When you can’t pitch anymore, you can be an outfielder. I think that if you practice, you can definitely do it.”
Read more:Dodgers celebrate repeat World Series title with another downtown parade, stadium rally
That being said, the team has to be kept together.
A championship can force teams into sentimental decisions, as was the case last winter when the Dodgers re-signed Teoscar Hernández to a three-year, $66-million contract.
This winter, they will have to settle similar disputes between their hearts and minds. They should listen to their hearts.
The players deserve it. The fans demand it.
Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
The Breakdown | Fixation on forward rotation threatens to turn rugby contests into war of attrition
Every team aspires to their own ‘Bomb Squad’ and the modern-day arms race is focused on unleashing heavyweight power from the bench
There was a time in rugby union when the phrase “Bomb Squad” felt novel. South Africa were ahead of the game in maximising the impact of replacement forwards off the bench and the sight of all that fresh beef rumbling on to the field early in the second half was certainly arresting. As the Springboks have proved repeatedly, it works a treat if you possess the requisite strength in depth.
As with all good ideas, however, other people love to copy them. And so we have a modern-day arms race. Everyone now has, or aspires to, their own Bomb Squad. Around the 45th-50th minute in virtually any game there will be an army of stunt doubles preparing to replace the players who started the game. And if a coach can field fewer than three specialist backline reserves in order to bolster further his forward resources, happy days.
Continue reading...Victor Conte, architect of infamous sport steroids scandal, dies aged 75
Balco boss revealed Marion Jones used growth hormones
Conte served four months in prison over involvement
Victor Conte, the architect of a scheme to provide undetectable performance-enhancing drugs to professional athletes including the baseball stars Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi and the Olympic track champion Marion Jones decades ago, has died. He was 75.
The federal government’s investigation into a company Conte founded, the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (Balco), yielded the convictions of Jones, the elite sprint cyclist Tammy Thomas and the former NFL defensive lineman Dana Stubblefield, along with coaches, distributors, a trainer, a chemist and a lawyer.
Continue reading...Michigan football can play its way into the CFP, but not like this
“At the end of the day, we’re 7-2 and we’re in a position to do everything we want to accomplish and go win,” Sherrone Moore said of Michigan football.
Andrew Wiggins: how a shy NBA player negotiated growing up a star in the social media era
Andrew Wiggins was among the first superstar prospects of the social media era. Born in Thornhill, Ontario just north of Toronto, Wiggins was known internationally by the time he was 13. It wasn’t always easy for the shy, small-town kid to embrace the spotlight.
After just one full season at Vaughan, Wiggins needed better competition than Canada could provide and moved on to Huntington Prep in Huntington, West Virginia — a relatively new prep school set in a small, blue-collar, sports-oriented college town near Kansas.
The head coach, Rob Fulford, had been recruiting Wiggins since he was 13, at one point watching 24 consecutive CIA Bounce games in person. “We developed a relationship with him,” Fulford said. “We recruited him harder than anyone else.”
What stood out to Fulford was the same quality that would later get the young Wiggins in trouble, which was that everything he did looked so effortless. “He could just dominate a game from a talent perspective,” Fulford says. “It just was a clear difference between Andrew and everyone else.”
But there was nothing quiet about the show Wiggins was putting on the basketball court, as Huntington quickly became the most popular high school team in the country, going from having 50 fans at a regular home game prior to his arrival to packed gyms with over 1,000 fans there to see the Canadian high school phenom with their own eyes. “A lot of people just wanted to see him play,” Rathan-Mayes says. “We tried to go and put on a show the best that we could every single night.”
Related: 7ft 4in (at least) of menace: the Victor Wembanyama Era is already here | Lee Escobedo
But being at the centre of the basketball universe didn’t come naturally to the quiet kid from Vaughan. After all, shyness, like athleticism, runs in the Wiggins family: Wiggins’s father, Mitchell Sr, said the reason it didn’t work at his first college, Clemson, was that “I was so quiet, you couldn’t get a whisper out of me.” While a track teammate of his mother, Marita, said, “She was very quiet, still is very quiet and very unassuming.”
Unlike LeBron James, who was happy to engage with the media and put on a show for the crowd since being crowned “The Chosen One” as a teenager, Wiggins was soft-spoken and shy, preferring to pass the attention on to his teammates instead of beating his chest after a big dunk. Many people wanted Wiggins to be the version of an alpha athlete that they were used to seeing on TV, like James and Kobe Bryant. And that dissonance created a tension with the basketball media and certain segments of the fan base, who wanted more from Wiggins.
“I think we all have a certain kind of perception of what we want a great athlete to look like,” his junior national team coach, Roy Rana, says. “We want them to be fiery. We want them to be emotional. We want them to be extroverted. We want them to be demonstrative. That’s not Andrew.”
The criticism picked up during Wiggins’s second and final season at Huntington Prep when, in February of 2013, a Sports Illustrated article questioned his work ethic, suggesting that he only showed up in big games while lofting through less important ones. “Andrew Wiggins’ work ethic and motor have yet to catch up to his athleticism and raw ability,” it read, bringing up examples of previous Canadian prospects whose careers stagnated as a result of poor decision-making or a lack of skill development. And it questioned the role models in his life, including his father, who was pushed out of the NBA for cocaine use decades earlier.
The day after the article came out, Wiggins dropped a career-high 57 points in a statement win. “I think it pissed him off,” Fulford says. “He wanted to prove a point.”
“Just responding in a positive way,” Wiggins says. “Not saying anything, not … going on Twitter and saying anything … whenever you think you got something to say, just go on the court and do my thing.”
Wiggins compiled one of the most memorable campaigns in high school basketball history that season, averaging 23 points, 11 rebounds, three assists, and three blocks per game and winning the Naismith Prep Player of the Year and the Gatorade National Player of the Year awards, earning a trip to the McDonald’s All-American Game. After that, he left to go to the University of Kansas.
But the spotlight didn’t stop there. In fact, when Wiggins arrived at Kansas City International Airport in June of 2013, he emerged from the gate to find 15 fans waiting for his autograph after his itinerary had been posted on an online message board. When classes started, students began Twitter-stalking him, tweeting pictures of the back of his head in class and posting his whereabouts when he was spotted at local stores. Meanwhile, back home in Canada, Wiggins picked up the nicknames “Maple Jordan” and “Air Canada,” and all of his Kansas games were broadcasted on the national TV network TSN.
While all this might seem normal now, 2013 was the beginning of the social media era. And between the fans stalking him, the student sections taunting him at away games, and the rapidly expanding media landscape criticizing his every move, it was hard for Wiggins to feel comfortable. “We talk about it sometimes, but he doesn’t like talking about it. That’s how bad it stresses him out,” his wife, Mychal Johnson, said at the time. “Sometimes he doesn’t know what to do.”
“It was a lot,” Wiggins says now. “It was a lot.”
Wiggins just wanted to be a normal kid. He happened to love basketball and be really good at it, but he wanted an average life away from the spotlight, playing Call of Duty after games and announcing his college decision without any media present. In fact, his Twitter bio used to read “Just a average kid trying to make it.”
But when he was asked about it during his freshman year at Kansas, Wiggins said, “I used to be an average kid, when I put that up. But that … was a while ago.”
Some of the criticism directed towards Wiggins was warranted. Even Fulford acknowledged that he was no gym rat – that things came so naturally to Wiggins that he needed to fall in love with the process of improving if he was going to reach his ceiling. “I don’t think at any point ever that anyone had to go tell Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant to pick it up,” Fulford said.
Wiggins quietly improved under head coach Bill Self at Kansas, averaging 17 points, six rebounds, two assists, one steal, and one block as a freshman for the No 2-ranked Jayhawks, who went 24-9 before losing in the second round of the NCAA tournament. He even set the Kansas freshman single-season scoring record with 597 points.
Still, there were times that Self had to get on Wiggins to play harder or be more aggressive offensively, instituting a special rule at some practices that only Wiggins was allowed to shoot. “Andrew is the type of guy who could score 28, and you’d say, ‘Why didn’t he score more?’” Self said. “Critics want him to do more. I understand that because the game comes so easy to him, it’s so natural.”
Some of that on-court reticence came from the way Wiggins was raised, learning the game from his brothers and dad, who carved out a 20-year pro career as a defensive role player. “His dad taught him how to play basketball the right way,” Reid-Knight says, noting that Mitchell Sr always harped on the importance of being selfless and making the right reads. “Playing within your game and not forcing an action.”
After one season at Kansas, Wiggins declared for the 2014 NBA Draft and was selected first overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers – a foregone conclusion since Wiggins was in 10th grade. What made the selection even more amazing was that his CIA Bounce teammate, Brampton native Anthony Bennett, went first overall to Cleveland the year prior, giving Canada back-to-back first overall picks for the first time ever.
The 2014 NBA Draft also featured Canadians Tyler Ennis, Nik Stauskas, and Dwight Powell, giving Canada a record 12 NBA players. That year Canada overtook France as the second-most represented country in the league behind the United States – a record it has held ever since.
However, the best player in the world, James, returned to his hometown Cleveland in free agency that same summer. And before playing a single game in the NBA, Wiggins and Bennett were both traded to the rebuilding Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for Kevin Love, making Wiggins the cornerstone of a franchise that had not been to the playoffs in 10 years. “I just gave in to it and figured I’d be good wherever I go,” Wiggins said. “The whole thing has worked out. [Minnesota has] put me in a situation where I can grow a lot more than on the team that drafted me.”
Wiggins got off to a slow start in his NBA career before breaking out against the team that snubbed him, dropping 27 points in his first game against James’s Cavaliers. He followed it up with a stretch of six straight 20-point games, eventually becoming the first Canadian to win the NBA Rookie of the Year award after averaging 17 points, five rebounds, and two assists a game in 2014–15.
While he never turned into the NBA superstar that many people had him pegged to become when he was a teenager, Wiggins went on to have an incredible career, spending five and a half seasons in Minnesota before getting traded to the Golden State Warriors in 2020. In the Bay, Wiggins became the third Canadian NBA All-Star and won an NBA championship as the team’s second-leading scorer in the 2022 NBA Finals, when he averaged 18 points and nine rebounds.
But, for better or worse, the huge spotlight and unbalanced criticism that started to shine on Wiggins when he was a teenage phenom never left him, especially in Canada – a basketball-crazed nation that was growing hungry for a superstar.
As Wiggins once said, “I know I can never live up to expectations.”
This is an edited extract from The Golden Generation: How Canada Became a Basketball Powerhouse by Oren Weisfeld. It’s published by ECW Press for $19.95 (USD) wherever you get your books.
Observations from Blues' 3-2 Win Vs. Oilers
ST. LOUIS – Boy, did they need that.
It looked ominous, like a franchise-tying eighth consecutive defeat, but the St. Louis Blues showed some resolve, got a little puck luck, some clutch goaltending from Jordan Binnington, a first NHL goal and a victory for the first time in 16 days.
Pius Suter’s go-ahead goal with 1:23 remaining in regulation capped off a two-goal rally by the Blues, who ended a seven-game losing skid with a 3-2 win against the two-time defending Western Conference champion Edmonton Oilers at Enterprise Center on Monday.
Dalibor Dvorsky scored his first goal in the NHL in his fifth game, Robert Thomas had a goal and an assist in his return after missing four games with an upper-body injury, and Binnington stopped 24 shots for the Blues (4-7-2), who were 0-5-2 their past seven games.
“We needed it, but I think we’re a process-oriented team,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “We believer that if the things that we believe, we have to be good at, whether it’s habits or details or certain parts of our process of the game, winning net front battles. And then the results that come from that is Grade A chances and then game management was really good tonight. And that belief leads to good results. For me, this was the third good hockey game in a row that we’ve played, and if we keep playing like this, we’re going to in a lot of hockey games.”
They were finally able to shed the gorilla on their backs despite Connor McDavid becoming the fourth-fastest player in NHL history to reach 1,100 points with two assists. McDavid only trails Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Mike Bossy in that department.
Let’s look at Monday’s game observations:
* Congratulations to Dvorsky, and his goal was clutch – It was definitely coming, and we predicted it here that Dvorsky’s first one was on the cusp.
Down 2-0 on goals by Jack Roslovic (PPG) and Andrew Mangiapane, the Blues didn’t cower down and go away.
They got a late power-play in the second period when McDavid upended Colton Parayko, and Dvorsky made them pay.
His one-timer from the right circle when Justin Faulk put it on a platter for him has been on display the first couple games, but this one found the bar and down short side on Calvin Pickard at 16:08:
Congratulations Dalibor Dvorsky on your first career NHL goal. Many more to come. #stlbluespic.twitter.com/QqXd3cOk4J
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) November 4, 2025
“Obviously it was awesome,” Dvorsky said. “Nothing else to say. Great pass from Faulk there. Just tried to shoot it and I'm happy it went in.
“To be honest, I wouldn't care if I kicked the puck in or shoot it. The first goal is the first goal. I'm happy it went in this way, but whatever, first goal, doesn't matter how I scored.”
The first of many. #stlbluespic.twitter.com/sa32yt343v
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) November 4, 2025
What it did was bring a bit of a lifeless crowd into the game needing – and looking – for something to happen. They got it, and the Blues channeled their energy and momentum in the right direction because Thomas would tie the game 2-2 at 18:38.
“That’s a massive goal for us,” Thomas said. “You see the way we just kept on rolling after that goal. Some you need a big power play. That was a wicked shot. Definitely should get a lot of credit for really changing the tide of the game.”
The Blues weren’t necessarily playing bad, but they were victims of an unfortunate Oskar Sundqvist holding penalty late in the first period that the Oilers turned into a power-play goal by Roslovic eight seconds later at 18:38, and then after a Parayko shot was blocked at the blue line, a fortuitous carom into the neutral zone led to a 4-on-2 odd-man rush where Mangiapane made it 2-0 at 2:27 of the second period.
The Blues, once again, were missing some high Grade A scoring opportunities, and they had three in succession prior to Mangiapane’s goal from Suter, Brayden Schenn and Philip Broberg but couldn’t convert.
“On the bench, I felt we were pretty confident,” Montgomery said. ‘Yeah, we’re down 2-0 and yeah, they’ve made some high-end plays, but we had three odd-man rushes before they scored the goal to make it 2-0. So that gave us a lot of positive talk on the bench and then the power play came through.
“Great job by the kid cranking it home. What a shot. You get your first goal, that’s one you want to talk about. I went bar down on a one-timer. Pretty cool.”
Dvorsky and Jimmy Snuggerud were bookend flanks on power-play unit No. 1. Get used to seeing it now and into the future, because these two have tremendous shots and they’re not afraid to use them.
“Coaches, all the guys (preach shoot) as well,” Dvorsky said. “When I have the opportunity to shoot, I should do it. It was probably a good thing I shot that puck.
“We played a great team game, so I felt like our overall team game kind of got the fans going. I just try to do my best every time I’m out on the ice. I get so much help from my teammates here. I love being here and playing here.”
* Puck luck – The Blues received some good puck luck on Thomas’ tying goal when he finished off a play from a sharp angle that hit the near post, off Pickard’s stick and his body and back into the net to tie the game 2-2:
WE ARE TIED, EVERYBODY pic.twitter.com/KnG7njlSGO
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) November 4, 2025
Good, solid shifts following the Dvorsky goal led up to the goal and momentum scoring twice late in the second.
“A little lucky, off the post, off the goalie and in,” Thomas said. “We’ll take it. … Sometimes you get those bounces and that was a big one.
“Even their second goal, we come out that period, we’re playing well, we have a ton of chances, they block a shot and end up with a 4-on-2 and they’re able to score and we just keep going right back at them. For me to jump in the lineup and have the guys playing like that, have that mentality, it wasn’t too hard for me.”
* Suter right place, right time again – The Blues didn’t have a ton going in the third period but defended pretty well.
They had just three shots on goal until Suter made it 3-2, but Suter and Schenn each had another glorious scoring chance early to give the Blues a lead.
So it’s only fitting that Suter, who Montgomery had stated previously is always in the right spots on the ice, worked himself back into the play after Schenn found Parayko for a one-time shot from the blue line that Suter corralled and deposited past Pickard with Oilers defenseman Evan Bouchard lurking nearby:
YEAHHHH SUTES!!!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/o8qi3ww3k2
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) November 4, 2025
“I’m seeing him teeing it up,” Suter said of Parayko. “He’s got a hard shot. I saw a guy I think trying to block it, so kind of was in the way of both sides. I just stayed there and hopefully the bounce and the rebound goes there.
“I’m just kind of trying to be around where I was before. Both sides of the puck. Some guys are faster, so you’ve just got to be in a good position.”
And he was again, and Montgomery explains why.
“He knows where he scores goals from the hash marks down to the goal line and he finds his way there,” Montgomery said. ‘He has impeccable timing. When you’re his size, you can’t plant yourself in front of the net like a Jake Neighbours or like a [Alexey] Toropchenko can. You have to get there when the puck’s arriving. That’s what happened on the game-winning goal. It was a real good shift by that line, who I thought was a really good against the [Leon] Draisaitl line tonight. They got that game-winning goal, which was huge for us.”
* Thomas return important – It’s no secret that the Blues missed their No. 1 center, for obvious reasons. But not only does Thomas add scoring for the Blues, he also draws the top assignments – like he did against McDavid on Monday – and takes many of the important draws.
“Obviously massive,” Suter said. “He’s such a good player. Top speed, confidence, holds on to pucks. He just gets us going.”
There’s just certain parts of the game Thomas touches that other skaters on this squad can’t, and it was obvious from the opening puck drop.
“Well, the puck possession would be one,” Montgomery said. ‘The offense that he generated tonight, that line was really good. But the important thing was I was matching him up against McDavid and for the most part, they hit a knob on a 4-on-2 and that’s the only goal they gave up. Went the other way 4-on-2 and they made a bang-bang play. Theirs went in, ours hit a knob, and that’s why I like the resolve (and) resilience that we had after that. When you’re talking about Thomas, when you lose your No. 1 center and you get him back, you see the difference. Talk about people being deployed; he played 19 minutes, our second-line center played about 17, Dvorsky played about 15 and our fourth-line played about 12. That’s good balance.”
Thomas and linemates Snuggerud and Pavel Buchnevich held McDavid without a shot on goal for just the 28th time in his 726 regular-season game career.
“’Pary’ does a great job,” Thomas said of Parayko. “It’s hard. He’s got a ton of speed. It’s impossible to really contain him. We’ve got one of the best shutdown D’s in the league and he always steps up and is big in these games.”
* Broberg accepts challenge – Montgomery said this of containing McDavid despite the two assists.
“I thought that we were very aware when he was on the ice,” Montgomery said. “We didn’t really shut him down; he had two assists. He’s kind of like Michael Jordan, you keep him under 30 and you’re happy, right? But that’s what generational players do. I thought that we were able to negate his speed at our blue line by our up-ice awareness of marking him up.”
But when McDavid was able to gain the zone – as he often does with his speed element – it seemed as if Broberg was there waiting for the challenge, either killing a play, standing up to the talented Oilers center or just neutralizing him and not giving him the time and space.
“I thought that this morning Broberg was looking for that challenge because we showed a lot of clips obviously of him and Draisaitl,” Montgomery said. ‘We have an acronym MDM, most dangerous man, and I added a ‘W’ for [McDavid] because he’s the most dangerous man in the world in our sport, and when I looked up and I said it, ‘Broby’ was like really intense, like looking forward to the challenge intense, which is what you want from your players.”
Broberg finished with an assist, a plus-1 rating in 21:38 with three shots on goal, two takeaways (both on McDavid) and two blocked shots playing alongside Parayko.
“It’s an element (a shutdown role) that we’ve talked to him about starting this year,” Montgomery said of Broberg. “He’s on the first PK. That goes hand-in-hand with that kind of shutdown role. Now that he’s with Parayko, I don’t know if it stays that way, but that’s a good pairing right now and I like the pairing of [Cam] Fowler and [Justin] Faulk the way they’ve been moving the puck, but we’ll see how the pairs continue to evolve here. But I guarantee you Broberg and Parayko will be playing together in Washington (Wednesday).”
* Binnington’s key, timely saves – It’s no secret that looking at the numbers, they haven’t been good for Binnington and Joel Hofer.
But on Monday, Binnington followed up Hofer’s strong start Saturday in Columbus and did what was needed of him to give the Blues a chance: make those saves in key moments.
There was a sequence where Binnington made consecutive stops, one with the blocker on Vasily Podkolzin at 7:33 of the second, then Noah Philp from the right circle three seconds later before finishing a sequence of saves off at 8:10 on Mangiapane from the slot. If any one of those get in, it’s 3-0 and likely game over.
“Those two saves after it went 2-0 were huge,” Montgomery said. ‘It really elevated our bench. A lot of people on the bench, a lot of players, I remember someone saying, ‘Binner’s fighting for us.’ That’s what he does. He gives you the confidence that you’re never out of a game because of the competitive spirit he has in the crease.”
“He had some big saves,” Thomas said. “There was one on Mangiapane right in the slot. Those are saves that make a huge impact on the game and that’s what we’re used to from ‘Binner.’”
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Antetokounmpo beats buzzer as Bucks edge out Pacers
Giannis Antetokounmpo beat the buzzer to give the Milwaukee Bucks a dramatic 117-115 victory over Indiana Pacers in the NBA.
With the scores level heading into the final few seconds of the Central Division game, the 30-year-old pivoted to avoid a double block before he floated in a jumper.
It was the fifth occasion the Greek-Nigerian has produced a game-winning shot in the last five seconds of a game, and the second buzzer-beater of his career.
"You can live if you miss. You cannot live if you don't shoot it," said Antetokounmpo, who scored a game-high 33 points.
"People don't remember the time you miss, they remember all the times you make, so I'm happy about that."
Meanwhile, Jusuf Nurkic scored with 0.6 seconds of play left to give Utah Jazz a late win over of their own as they clinched a 105-103 victory over the Boston Celtics in the Northwest Division.
Lack Of Execution Sinks Blackhawks As Kraken Top Them 3-1
The Chicago Blackhawks won their first-ever game against the Seattle Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena, but they are now 0-5-1 since.
This comes after a defeat on Monday night. This was Chicago's third straight loss, which is also an 0-2-1 start to the longest road trip of the season. Following a strong start to the new year, this trip is sinking them a little bit.
The first period was scoreless, but the Kraken got out to a 2-0 lead in the middle frame, which would last all the way through the second intermission.
In the third period, the Blackhawks finally got on the board to make it a game. Connor Bedard's effort and speed were on full display, as he made a strong chip play along the wall to find Andre Burakovsky, who was all alone in front for the shot, and he didn't miss.
Burakovsky's marker made it three straight games with a goal. It also extended Bedard's point streak to five games, and he has nine points in those five games.
From there, the Blackhawks continued to have their chances, but a Frank Nazar mishap in the neutral zone led to a two-on-one for Seattle. On this play, Jordan Eberle didn't miss his chance to put the Hawks away for the night. The 3-1 score stood as the final, despite two attempts at a goalie goal for Joey Daccord, who made 29 saves on 30 shots.
Arvid Soderblom did his job in this game. As the backup, he doesn't get the chance to get in any kind of rhythm, he just has to be ready when his name is called. He made 21 saves on 24 shots, but you can't win when you only score one goal.
B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) on XDaccord tried to go for a goalie goal TWICE at the end 😭😭Lack Of Execution
The Blackhawks had the shot advantage in this game, outshooting Seattle 30-24. Things evened up slightly in the third period, as the Blackhawks were leading that category 24-15 after two periods.
A lack of execution sunk the Blackhawks. Not only did they outshoot them, but they also outpossessed them. Seattle found a way to continue blocking shots and getting sticks in the lanes, but the Blackhawks were not able to adjust at any point.
The Blackhawks also had a major issue with missing the net. Although Daccord saw 30 shots, not many of them were of the grade-A variety, and it should have been a lot more based on the possession advantage that the Blackhawks had.
Going forward, they'd be better served making sure that they are smarter with their shot selection, especially if they have the puck as often as they did. Perimeter chances are not usually going to work out well in the NHL. Goalies are too good.
Oliver Moore
Oliver Moore made his NHL season debut after nine games to start the year in the AHL. In the first period, Moore was Chicago's best skater. Even throughout the rest of the game, his speed was noticeable as he attempted to create chances.
Moore's role will expand once he gets increased NHL time. He wasn't on the penalty kill, despite being an outstanding penalty-kill player. The Rockford IceHogs run a different PK system, and Jeff Blashill wants to get him in a practice to learn his system before he throws him to the wolves.
The speed that Moore possesses is going to be mentioned on a loop for a long time. It's his number one asset for everything he does on the ice. It won't take long before he starts impacting the scoresheet with regularity. The chances in his first NHL game of the season were an indicator of what's to come.
Watch The Blackhawks Goal
Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) on XAndre Burakovsky has goals in three straight games🔥Next Up For Chicago
The Chicago Blackhawks are halfway done with the longest road trip of the season. Next up is a trip to Connor Bedard's home town where they will face the Vancouver Canucks for the second time this season. That will take place in British Columbia on Wednesday night.
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Knicks, Mike Brown still learning, but showing bits of evidence that new process is working
Jalen Brunson almost never uses excuses.
Let’s say the Knicks lose on the second night of a home-road back-to-back. Some players in this scenario may talk about the challenge of a quick turnaround or a late flight. Not Brunson.
Maybe the Knicks are down one or two rotation players and lose to a quality opponent. It would be completely understandable if a player told the media that injuries to key players impacted the game. Not Brunson.
He’d probably say the Knicks should have played better and could have won the game.
So it was noteworthy last week in Milwaukee when Brunson said the Knicks need some time to get used to one another.
"We're still learning; everything is brand new for us. We’re not gonna use that excuse for a long time. But these first couple weeks, it’s still fresh for us," the Knick captain said last week. "But no matter what, we know what we gotta go out there and do and we gotta do that to the best of our abilities."
If Brunson says the Knicks need some time to get accustomed to a new head coach and new system, you probably should give him the benefit of the doubt.
It’s fair – and logical – to hold the 2025-26 Knicks to high standards. They are coming off of their first conference finals appearance in 25 seasons. They have a unique window this season to make a run to the NBA Finals. Two stars on rival teams (Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton) are out for a significant portion of the season.
So this team should be heavily scrutinized. That’s what happens when you have championship expectations. That’s what happens when you make a coaching change after one of the most successful seasons in the past 30 years.
But in the opening weeks of this season, things are going to look disjointed. Players are getting used to each other and their head coach. The head coach is getting used to his players.
But you can see bits of evidence that the process is working.
Mike Brown himself said he didn’t help the Knicks’ reserves earlier in the season because his substitutions were "all over the map."
In the past two games, Brown feels like he’s found consistency with substitutions and lineups.
Maybe it’s no coincidence that Josh Hart and Jordan Clarkson have had the best games of their seasons in the past two nights.
Brown has talked openly about his own coaching performance. He’s held his players accountable and held himself accountable.
"We just have to keep learning on the fly, starting with me. I’ve got to keep trying to get better quicker," Brown said late last week.
It seems like the players appreciate Brown’s sentiment. Hart was asked after Monday’s game about Brown getting more settled with his substitutions/rotations in the past two games.
"Mike's new. We’re all getting accustomed and acclimated to everybody so you definitely feel that a little bit," he said. "And the great thing about Mike, he’s an amazing person, first and foremost. He always has an open door. If you don't understand something that’s going on, you can always go talk to him. So obviously this is a process. Everybody wants it built now but it won’t be. And we’re all learning, including him."
Brown hasn’t been shy about holding players – including the top players on the roster – accountable when he feels they don’t play well. He’s been vocal about that in the locker room during and after games, challenging players to improve their performance, per people familiar with the matter.
But he's also been upfront about the challenges he and the Knicks face early this season.
“We all have to be better. Start with me. And we will be better,” Brown was saying before Sunday’s game.
The Knicks have looked much better since Brown made that statement. The offense has been strong the last two games. Maybe that continues on Wednesday against Minnesota. Maybe it doesn’t. Either way, this Knicks team – and its new head coach – will take some time to get fully in synch.
"This is a process. We’ve had a lot of guys that have been out, hadn’t practiced and it starts with me," Brown said late Monday. "I said this last game, I gotta help put these guys in a better position. Whether it’s on the floor or whatever, rotation-wise, but I didn’t quite have as good a feel (earlier in the season) because guys had been out. Trying to play this guy, that guy. It starts with me; I have gotten better and they've just gotten more comfortable."