Category: Basketball

The NBA All-Star Weekend is not only an opportunity for the league to showcase its biggest and brightest stars, but also its future.

The NBA’s Rising Stars Game will feature the league’s young stars, including rookies Cooper Flagg (Dallas Mavericks), Kon Knueppel (Charlotte Hornets) and VJ Edgecombe (Philadelphia 76ers).

The trio also makes up the top 3 in the NBA's Rookie of the Year race, according to odds on BetMGM.

Tankathon: The NBA's tanking crisis — and why Adam Silver can’t ignore it

Sitting out: Stephen Curry to miss 2026 NBA All-Star Game with right knee injury

Flagg (-1000) is considered the favorite, followed by Knueppel (+600) and Edgecombe (+8000).

Flagg has averaged 20.3 points, 6.6 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game in 48 games played this season.

All three rookies were selected in the first round by the game's honorary coaches. NBA alumnus Carmelo Anthony, Tracy McGrady and Vince Carter are serving as the honorary coaches for the three respective teams. Austin Rivers will also coach a team made up of G League players.

The four teams will compete in a mini tournament at the Intuit Dome. A winner will be decided in the semifinal games when a team is the first to reach or surpass 40 points. The championship game winner will be decided with the first team to reach or surpass 25 points.

Baron Davis and Quentin Richardson were among the former NBA players to have played in the game.

Richardson was a participant in the game when it was referred to as the NBA Rookie-Sophomore Challenge in 2002. Davis competed in the game a year prior.

Looking ahead at this year’s talent, Davis mentioned Flagg, Edgecombe, Derik Queen and Kyshawn George as players he’s excited to watch.

“All these young kids are so good now,” Davis said. “To watch them play and go at each other will be a different type of vibe and be highly competitive. They all want to be No. 1.”

Richardson believes the game and weekend will serve as a rewarding experience for the younger talent, especially those willing to make the most of it.

“I would say to take part in the weekend,” Richardson said. “I know, as some of the younger players, they will have to make appearances and things like that, but that was one of the things I was happy to do. … Sometimes you go to those events and have a great time and meet people you wouldn’t have met.

“Don’t be the guy who’s just turning things down. That’s what the weekend is about: Having fun, but there’s also a lot of business around that weekend.”

Even in the years following his retirement, Davis has served as an example for the younger generation of players when it comes to staying involved within the NBA off-court community and activities.

Davis served as a host for a competition put on by the NBA Foundation and the LA Clippers.

The All-Star pitch competition brought Los Angeles-based companies focused on driving community impact to pitch innovation solutions to a panel of business leaders, investors and other entrepreneurs.

The competitors are competing for $200,000 in total cash prizes.

“What is super exciting is that there are so many young and great minds, especially in this city of Los Angeles, that are building businesses that can be extremely explosive and that can create a lot of jobs,” Davis said. “What the NBA is doing with the foundation and really pouring into the entrepreneurs is not just with the competition, but it's also the time and the platform they are allowing them to stand on.”

Who will play in the NBA Rising Stars Game?

Team Melo: Cooper Flagg, Stephon Castle, Dylan Harper, Jeremiah Fears, Donovan Clingan, Collin Murray-Boyles

Team T-Mac: Kon Knueppel, Kel’el Ware, Alex Sarr, Tre  Johnson, Ajay Mitchell, Jaylon Tyson, Cam Spencer.

Team Vince: VJ Edgecombe, Derik Queen, Kyshawn George, Matas Buzelis, Egor Demin, Cedric Coward, Jaylen Wells.

Team Austin: Sean East II, Ron Harper Jr., Yanic Konan Niederhauser, Alijah Martin, Tristen Newton, Yang Hansen, Mac McClung, David Jones Garcia.

NBA Rising Stars Game Schedule

• Game 1: Team Melo vs. Team Austin
• Game 2: Team Vince vs. Team T-Mac
• Rising Stars Championship: (G1 winner vs. G2 winner)

How to watch NBA Rising Stars Game?

• When: Friday, Feb. 13, 6 p.m. PT (9 p.m. ET)
• TV/Stream: Peacock
• Where: Intuit Dome (Inglewood, California) | Tickets

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NBA Rising Stars Challenge rosters set for NBA All-Star Weekend

LIVERPOOL, England (AP) — Liverpool's season has been far from perfect. Now coach Arne Slot says the remainder of the campaign will have to be near-faultless if the defending Premier League champion is to secure Champions League qualification.

It says everything about Liverpool's ever-worsening title defense that Slot is focusing on a top-four finish with 13 rounds still to play.

But Sunday's dramatic 2-1 loss to Manchester City was the Merseysiders' eighth defeat in the league this season and left them 17 points adrift of first-place Arsenal.

Liverpool is still in the Champions League and the FA Cup, so there is a lot yet to play for. But in the Premier League, at least, Slot, who won the title in his debut season last year, has had to lower his sights.

Speaking ahead of Wednesday's game at Sunderland, Slot said his team had to be “close to perfection” to secure a place in next season's Champions League.

The top four places qualify for European club soccer's elite competition. England is likely to receive a fifth spot because of the performances of English teams in Europe this season.

Liverpool is sixth — five points behind Manchester United in fourth — and four back from fifth-place Chelsea.

“So to close the gap of four or five points towards the number three, four or five that means you have to win a lot,” Slot said Tuesday. “And that’s not what we’ve done this season a lot, so that’s why that has to be better and we have to come close to perfection.

“If we don’t have Champions League football it has definitely not been an acceptable season.”

Liverpool has won one of its last seven Premier League games and Slot said it was the most challenging season he has had as a coach.

“The players are not used to losing a lot or having a lot of draws. I’m not used to that as well,” he said. "It’s always more of a challenge after you lose a game of football to get them going again than after a win (and) telling them we were not as good as they might think they were.

“So, yes, this season has been more challenging for me as well, but you also take nice things out of it, weird (as) that may sound because I also look at how much improvement we are making.”

___

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

The NBA trade deadline charts the course for the rest of the season, and now it’s in the rearview mirror ahead of the 2026 playoffs. In the wake of the trade wreckage, there’s a small inner circle of championship contenders, and a slightly larger group of teams with a puncher’s chance of winning it all. Some teams, even good ones, realized they probably have no shot at the title, so they decided to simply cut their payroll or make smaller moves around the margins that could impact the roster next year. Then there are the teams whose top objective was maximizing their ping-pong balls for the upcoming NBA Draft lottery for a stacked 2026 class with three potential No. 1 overall talents leading the way. Read our latest 2026 NBA mock draft for more on this class.

It was easy to see a massive tank race eventually forming even before this season started. Kansas guard Darryn Peterson, Duke forward Cameron Boozer, and BYU wing A.J. Dybantsa were all no-brainer elite prospects coming out of high school who were destined to leave NBA GMs salivating. When North Carolina forward Caleb Wilson and Houston guard Kingston Flemings also emerged as excellent prospects in their own right, the 2026 draft had a legit top-5 that rivals any in my 13 years on the beat here.

The current NBA rookie class is already so good, and next year’s could be even better. As the trades were going down on deadline day, I noticed there were a ton of teams incentivized to lose every game the rest of the season if they could. It might be even worse than it looks:

We are about to see the gnarliest tank race in NBA history. The bottom 8 teams + the Bulls + the Bucks if they can pacify Giannis would all prefer to lose every game the rest of the season. There is no competitive integrity to be found here. pic.twitter.com/BnNhTNT1NU

— Ricky O'Donnell (@SBN_Ricky) February 5, 2026

Three of the biggest trades at the deadline involved tanking teams as buyers: the Jazz acquired Jaren Jackson Jr. for a package headlined by three future first-round picks, the Wizards made a shocking deal for Anthony Davis, the Pacers went out and got Ivica Zubac for two premium future first round picks. Does that mean that these teams are going to start trying to win games immediately?

Of course not! Utah’s pick is top-8 protected to the Thunder, and they just pulled all of their starters with a 17-point lead in the fourth quarter and lost. The Wizards have already indicated Davis and Trae Young probably won’t play a game for the organization this season. Zubac had been healthy and productive for the Clippers this season, and now the Pacers will have to figure out how to proceed with him after trading a top-4 protected 2026 first-round pick that morphs into an unprotected 2031 first-rounder if it lands in the protected zone.

NBA draft lottery odds by spot and rules

The bottom three teams all have a 14 percent chance at the No. 1 overall pick and a 52.1 percent chance to land in the top-four. Final lottery positioning is still important: teams can only fall a maximum of four spots after the lottery, meaning the team that finishes with the worst record can do no worse than the No. 5 pick, the team with the second-worst record can’t fall further than No. 6, and so on.

Here are the odds for the No. 1 pick and each top-4 slot from every spot in the lottery:

At this point, the entire bottom-10 is incentivized to try to lose out. Let’s run through the stakes for each team looking at the standings as of Tuesday morning:

1. Sacramento Kings (12-43): Tried to win with veterans like Zach LaVine, Domantas Sabonis, Russell Westbrook, and DeMar DeRozan, but never had any chance. The roster never fit, and most of the key pieces struggle to impact winning despite putting up solid numbers. This tank is as ethical as it gets, but this franchise just feels hopeless.
2. Indiana Pacers (13-40): Gap year without Tyrese Haliburton. Pick is traded to the Clippers for Zubac, 1-4 protected. The Pacers basically decided they only want Boozer, Peterson, Dybantsa, or Wilson, and were otherwise willing to give up the pick. Pacers brass is going to be watching the lottery with bated breath. Indy deserves lottery luck more than any other team after watching Haliburton get hurt in Game 7 of the NBA Finals last year.
3. Washington Wizards (14-38): The Wizards will be resting Trae Young and Anthony Davis the rest of the season it seems. Washington’s rebuild could suddenly look really interesting if they can land inside the top-4.
4. New Orleans Pelicans (15-40) -> Atlanta Hawks: The Pelicans traded their unprotected 2026 first-round pick to Atlanta to move up to select Derik Queen. New Orleans was always in danger of being horrible this season, and that’s exactly what happened. The Hawks played their cards perfectly and could luck into a top prospect without tanking.
5. Brooklyn Nets (15-37): The Nets owe a pick swap to the Houston Rockets next year, so they need lottery luck now while they can still get it.
6. Utah Jazz (16-37): The Jazz are blatantly tanking by resting their starters in the fourth quarter. The Jazz would seemingly love to keep Dybantsa in Utah.
7. Dallas Mavericks (19-33): The Mavs have to get lucky in the lottery too without control of their first-round pick until 2031 due to trades the franchise made to build around Luka Doncic. Whoops. Dallas cashed in on a 1.8 percent chance from the No. 11 spot last year to Cooper Flagg, and needs to find him a co-star this year.
8. Memphis Grizzlies (20-31): Traded Jaren Jackson Jr. after trading Desmond Bane over the summer. The Grizzlies are loaded with future picks and are set to rebuild around Zach Edey, Cedric Coward, and the rest of their young core.
9. Milwaukee Bucks (21-30): The Bucks can pick as high as No. 2 this year with lottery luck, because the Hawks have the most favorable of their pick and the Pelicans’ pick. The front office probably wants the team to try to lose out, but will Giannis Antetokounmpo push them to compete if he comes back healthy?
10. Chicago Bulls (24-30): The Bulls have refused to tank for years, but finally played the role of sellers at the trade deadline. If the NBA wants to reward teams who don’t lose on purpose, the Bulls deserve some lottery luck. They haven’t had a top-3 pick since they selected Derrick Rose at No. 1 in 2008 despite having the NBA’s fifth-worst cumulative record since the start of the 2017-2018 season. The Bulls have some solid role players, but they haven’t had a superstar in a long, long time.

The NBA’s tanking problem could solve itself after this year … for a little bit

Why did the Jazz and Wizards both make win-now trades for veterans after being long-time tanking teams? My theory is because the 2027 NBA Draft doesn’t look like it’s worth tanking for. While we knew prospects like Victor Wembanyama, Cooper Flagg, and Cameron Boozer were studs by the time they were sophomores in high school, there’s no one that looks the part of a future NBA superstar yet in the current senior class. I’d say the top prospects in 2027 right now are Tyran Stokes, Caleb Holt, and Anthony Thompson, but none of them are even close to a sure thing. The 2028 NBA Draft also doesn’t have an obvious top prospect at this point.

Obviously, a lot can change between now and the day of the 2027 and 2028 drafts, but at this point I’m expecting weaker classes the next two years. I want to stress I could be very wrong about that, but it’s just how it feels right now based on the top player juniors and seniors plus the international classes. My guess is the Wizards and Jazz wouldn’t have made their deadline deals if another Wembanyama or Flagg was coming next year.

Every draft has good players, even bad ones. I covered the 2013 NBA Draft here when Anthony Bennett went No. 1. That was a bad draft. It also had two Hall of Famers picked after the lottery in Giannis Antetokounmpo and Rudy Gobert, plus a ton of solid players mixed in. My two cents is that every draft has good players, but not every draft is worth tanking for.

The NBA has already introduced anti-tanking measures this year. These are all up for debate:

Shams: NBA looking into ways to prevent teams from tanking.

Proposed ideas include:
– Limiting pick protections to either top 4 or 14 and higher
– Not allowing a team to draft in the top 4 in consecutive years
– Locking lottery positions after March 1

— Underdog NBA (@UnderdogNBA) December 23, 2025

There’s nothing the NBA can do this year to discourage tanking. I predict the next two years won’t have anything like this tank race.

The lottery has given us some true stunners in recent years. The Hawks moved from No. 10 in the lottery to the No. 1 pick in 2024. The Mavericks moved up from No. 11 to win the rights to Cooper Flagg. That’s some hope to cling to for Chicago, Milwaukee, and Memphis right now.

Most teams still have about 30 games left before the end of the year. That means there’s going to be a lot of bad basketball in the name of trying to get the best odds possible to land a top prospect. I don’t think this will be an issue every year, but there’s no saving the NBA’s competitive integrity for the rest of this season.

Vibes matter in the NBA. They always have.

The Cleveland Cavaliers built a historic 64-win team last year largely on vibes. Sure, immense talent across the roster is a barrier for entry. But we’ve seen talented squads struggle to play with the joy and harmony the Cavaliers played with last season.

Even the Cavs themselves had trouble replicating it.

This team fell flat on its face in the first two months of the season. Constant injuries threw multiple curveballs at them, while disappointing efforts and dysfunctional chemistry led to a 17-16 record by late December. Nothing was working, and the team was running out of time to figure it out.

During that brutal stretch to open the season, Kenny Atkinson referenced his championship with the Golden State Warriors — and how adversity can be par for the course.

“Everyone thinks it’s a smooth ride, but it definitely isn’t smooth,” Atkinson said. “That year we won the championship, I think we had a stretch where we went 7-16, we lost 9-out-of-11 at one point, 7-of-8 [in a different stretch] — nothing was screaming championship that season, as a matter of fact, it was like ‘oh my gosh, this is falling apart.”

That quote feels more relevant now, on February 10th, as the Cavaliers have won 16 of their last 21 games and have the best record in basketball since December 29th. They’ve turned things around in the midst of more injuries and franchise-altering trades.

All the while, they feel more legit than ever before as a result of overcoming their slow start.

“We’re continuing to show that [toughness],” said Sam Merrill after Cleveland’s latest win over the Denver Nuggets. “I say this all the time, it hasn’t been perfect this year. Wasn’t perfect last year, but I think this group is continuing to grow.”

The Cavs began their recent road trip with a few devastating blows. Darius Garland had re-injured his toe just a few games before the trip, while Evan Mobley would go down with another calf injury shortly after. So, Cleveland hit the West Coast undermanned and was promptly dismantled by the Phoenix Suns. It felt like this could be another two steps backwards for a team that had just started to gain momentum in January.

Instead, the team rattled off four consecutive wins and picked up some new talent along the way.

Jarrett Allen put up a historic 40 points and 17 rebounds to beat the Blazers. After that, the Cavs dealt Garland for 11-time All-Star James Harden in a gutsy, all-in move that shocked the NBA. Cleveland proceeded to thrash the LA Clippers one night after the trade — before welcoming Harden to their lineup for a thrilling win over the Sacramento Kings later that week.

The Cavs then traveled to Denver for their final game of the trip. Playing in high altitude after a grueling two-weeks away from home took a visible toll on them. They looked exhausted, at times, and trailed for 43 minutes of the game. Yet they never folded, and it was a combination of Donovan Mitchell, James Harden, and Jarrett Allen who pulled this team across the finish line for their fourth straight win.

“We found a way to get it done,” said Harden. “It’s our second game [together]. No practices, a couple of film sessions, not the way it’s supposed to happen.”

JAMES HARDEN IN CRUNCHTIME IS HIM 🔥 pic.twitter.com/qC1c0GAS4f

— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) February 10, 2026

Getting this team back into a groove is one thing. Inserting another ball-dominant guard into the mix without throwing off the chemistry is another challenge altogether. Pulling off both of those feats in consecutive comeback victories is special. This Cavs team is harkening back to the good vibes that made them successful a year ago.

“There are so many things that we’ve found, and we still haven’t practiced yet,” said Mitchell. “We’re just hoopin off vibes.”

Talent can only get you so far. The Cavs saw this for themselves in November and December. But as the front office pushes the right buttons to add more talent to the roster, the Cavaliers have responded by getting themselves organized and on the same page. Winning only makes the process that much easier. Just as quickly as things fell apart, they can come back together again.

“It’s go time,” said Harden, before heading back to Cleveland for his home debut. You won’t want to miss it.

It’s no longer a whisper; the NBA has a brazen and embarrassing tanking problem.

The Utah Jazz closed the third quarter Monday, Feb. 9 against the Miami Heat up by three. They had been dominating Miami in the paint on both ends. Their size was the big reason why.

Forward Jaren Jackson Jr., the prized acquisition Utah made just one week prior, was at 22 points through 25 minutes. Star forward Lauri Markkanen added 17 in 24:38. Veteran center Jusuf Nurkić was a problem all night to the tune of 10 points and 16 rebounds.

Yet, with a victory in sight, Jazz coach Will Hardy took self-sabotage and shameless tanking to a new level, sitting the trio for the entire fourth quarter.

In a twist of karmic justice, Miami was so poor down the stretch that the Jazz somehow overcame a late five-point deficit to win, 115-111.

This was the second consecutive game that Hardy had pulled the stunt.  Even worse: it appears this will be Utah’s standard operating procedure moving forward.

After the game, a reporter asked Hardy how close he was to subbing Jackson or Markkanen back in.

“I wasn’t,” Hardy responded, plainly and without elaboration.

This is an existential problem, one NBA commissioner Adam Silver and the Board of Governors must fix. Yes, the draft is expected to feature at least three elite-level players, but if the NBA doesn’t take prompt action, anti-competitive behavior will spread to other teams also looking to manipulate outcomes.

It’s out in the open now, and this will come to stain the last quarter of the season. The product will suffer. And fans, as they should, will flee. As such, the NBA is compromised.

And with the explosive growth of online sports gambling and prediction markets, these actions only invite further cracks in the integrity and competitive balance of the sport.

The NBA’s player participation policy is designed to foil tanks by mandating that teams play their stars with regularity. But the Jazz have found a workaround to the rule. Their impact players start games, they just don’t finish them. And thus, they make a mockery of the policy.

“We’ve got to find a way to win against teams that are, I guess you can say, trying to lose,” Heat center Bam Adebayo told reporters after the game.

Frankly, though Hardy will never admit this publicly, the directive to tank is almost certainly coming from his bosses.

Utah’s 2026 first-round pick is top-eight protected, which means that if the lottery places its selection anywhere from Nos. 1 through 8, the pick stays with the team. If it drops to No. 9 or below, that pick is conveyed to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

And while it makes total economic sense — the good fortune of drafting a franchise-altering player instantly pumps millions in value — the flagrant tanking debases the sport and insults the fan who invests time and capital.

Utah (17-37) isn’t alone. The Washington Wizards (14-38) traded for a pair of veterans, Anthony Davis and Trae Young, who have 14 combined All-Star appearances. They were curious win-now moves for a team that’s currently second-to-last in the East.

Davis and Young were both hurt when they were acquired, and it’s unclear when they’ll make their return — if they do at all.

A recent NBA TV report indicated that Davis was not expected to return the rest of the season with left hand and groin injuries.

Young has been dealing with a sprained knee. The timeline for both is nebulous, at best.

Wizards general manager Will Dawkins recently responded to the report and said Davis would return to Dallas to finish his rehab and that he would be reevaluated over the NBA All-Star break.

Davis’ original timeline for a return was four-to-six weeks; Dawkins, though, put it closer to 10.

The Wizards, similar to Utah, have also cycled through young lineups, particularly when facing some of the NBA’s weaker teams.

And also like Utah, Washington’s 2026 first-round pick is top-eight protected.

The Indiana Pacers (13-40) traded for Ivica Zubac, who was away from the Clippers, his former team, for the birth of his first child. Zubac had played in the previous nine games before the trade. Yet, Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said Zubac’s debut with Indiana would be delayed because of a sprained ankle that hadn’t been listed on prior injury reports.

Indiana’s 2026 first-round pick? If you guessed that it was protected, you would be correct, for Nos. 1-4 and 10-30.

The young Brooklyn Nets (15-37) waived Cam Thomas after they couldn’t find a trade partner. They, too, appear to be in tank mode.

The Milwaukee Bucks (21-30) might convince Giannis Antetokounmpo to take his time from his calf strain to preserve their draft positioning.

Same for the Dallas Mavericks (19-33) with Kyrie Irving and his torn anterior cruciate ligament.

The Sacramento Kings (12-43) are simply without direction.

The tanking feels like it will get worse. And while the temptation might be to say it’s harmless jockeying, the flip side is that it impacts seeding for the teams actually competing and vying for spots in the playoffs.

In some ways, the timing of the All-Star break is convenient; it provides a respite for Silver and league executives to brainstorm ways to eradicate this from the league.

If they don’t come out strong with precise and targeted measures, then why even play the games? And, if you’re a fan, why even watch?

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The NBA's tanking crisis is Adam Silver’s biggest test yet

The Cleveland Cavaliers fought back from an 11-point deficit in the fourth quarter to beat a good Denver Nuggets team 119-117. The spectacular play from Donovan Mitchell, James Harden, and Jarrett Allen down the stretch is to thank for that.

Harden completely changes this offense.

The gravity he provides is incredible. Every step he takes towards the basket with the ball causes each of the off-ball defenders to react. And when he sucks you into a spot to provide a good contest on the shot, the ball is whipped out to the open man.

Head coach Kenny Atkinson said after the win against the Sacramento Kings that he wasn’t going to try to force Harden into his system.

“I don’t think systems win championships. Players do.”

The Cavs are playing Harden’s system right now. They’ve gone from an attack that relies heavily on getting out in transition to one that picks teams apart in the half-court. And the results have been great.

Over the last two games, the Cavs have registered a 120 half-court offensive rating (95th percentile) and a 109.9 (82nd percentile).

One of the goals in attacking in transition is to take advantage of cross-matchups and to catch the defense off balance. You don’t need to play that chaotically when you have a walking mismatch creator in Harden.

It’s obvious how Harden’s presence would help Mitchell’s scoring.There’s more driving lanes for Mitchell to attack and get downhill. Maybe not as obviously, Harden opens up more room for Mitchell as a passer.

Mitchell, as a facilitator, has been a mixed bag. He has the veloicity and ball placement to make cross-court passes and great drive-and-kick dishes to the corner. However, he hasn’t always had the touch or vision to get bigs involved as much as you’d like.

This combination has made Mitchell an effective playmaker in a fully five-out offense, but has left you wanting more as a passer in most of the contexts the Cavs have put him in.

Harden’s gravity changes that, as seen in the three examples below.

This first play is the result of miscommunication. The Nuggets wanted to keep Nikola Jokic out of the action. Harden threw it to Mitchell, two stayed with Harden, which left Allen wide open.

Players who create as much attention as Harden can cause defenders to do stupid things.

Next, here’s an example of Mitchell finding the open man in a scrambling defense that led to a layup for Jaylon Tyson. The defense will be caught in more rotations if there’s a perimeter player as skilled as Harden that they’re worried about.

Lastly, Mitchell is at his best when he’s reading and reacting quickly. This set pin-down with Allen allows him to do that easily.

Generally speaking, the passing ability hasn’t been the issue for Mitchell. Recognizing the openings has. The increased attention Harden provides should make those reads much easier.

Harden gives you a different dynamic defensively as well. Even though he isn’t a good point-of-attack defender on guards, he can hold his own in the post. This is incredibly useful when you’re going against someone like Jokic.

The help defense Harden was able to provide on Jokic in the post saved the game. He has the size and strength to be bothersome there in a way that other Cavalier guards aren’t. This showed through most when his help defense forced a Jokic turnover on Denver’s third-to-last possession.

Plays like that are just as important as the off-balance three he hit a few seconds after. That shot doesn’t tie the game if it wasn’t for his defense moments earlier.

Allen continues to show how skilled he is offensively. He’s benefited greatly from Harden’s playmaking, but he was also playing well before the trade.

Overall, Allen is showing a level of aggression that makes someone with his skills incredibly difficult to guard. That led to 22 points on 10-16 shooting against Denver.

Allen is a tough matchup for Jokic.

Offensively, Allen’s screening tests Jokic. The Nuggets like to keep Jokic around the rim on screens. That means, if you’re a good screener like Allen, you’re going to create room for your dynamic guards to get uncontested looks.

Defensively, Allen is one of the few centers who can make things relatively difficult for Jokic. Allen did a good job of keeping Jokic in front of him, which allowed the other four defenders to stay more with their assignments.

Allen wasn’t directly responsible for Jokic’s seven turnovers, but it isn’t a coincidence that he was forcing passes into windows that weren’t really there more than he typically does. It also speaks to Jokic’s greatness that the Cavs did a good job containing him on a night he picked up a triple-double.

The Mitchell and Harden pairing couldn’t have gotten off to a better start.

It’s been just two games and they haven’t had any practice time together, but the duo has already done a great job of working off each other’s strengths.

Mitchell plays with the pedal to the floor at all times. Every drive and cut to the basket is made with force. His athleticism and power allow him to get where he wants to on the court, and he has the touch and skill to be one of the best three-level scorers in the league.

If Mitchell is the offense’s fastball, Harden is their 12-6 curve.

Harden’s deliberate, methodical way of picking apart his opponent and creating openings for himself and teammates is the perfect change of pace to Mitchell’s speed.

When they’re working in unison — like they have in their first two fourth quarters together — the offense can be a thing of beauty.

The most tantalizing aspect is that you’d think this is the worst it’s going to look. Is there another gear they can get to? What does this look like with Evan Mobley in the mix?

We’ll have to wait for those answers. In the meantime, we can say that the floor for this pairing is incredibly high. Presumably, the ceiling is as well.

In less than 300 days, baseball’s collective bargaining agreement expires. As major league owners meet this week to plot strategy, the powers that be will consider the probable push for a salary cap. The argument in favor: If teams are limited in how much they can pay players — that is, if the Dodgers cannot spend whatever they want — fans in small markets can believe their team can win.

Tell that to the great fans of Sacramento.

The Kings have the worst record in the NBA. In a league with a salary cap, and in which the majority of teams make the playoffs, the Kings have made the playoffs once in 20 years.

Whatever this is, it is not parity.

Read more:Terrance Gore, former Dodgers player and three-time World Series champ, dies at 34

I wanted to ask the Kings how much a salary cap really helps a small-market team, given their struggles. The Kings politely declined interviews on anything related to a salary cap, since they own the minor league ballpark in Sacramento that temporarily houses the Athletics. The Kings’ owner, Vivek Ranadivé, would like MLB to consider Sacramento for an expansion team.

So, before a game last week, I asked Kings fans about the juxtaposition: Why can’t the Kings win in a league with a salary cap intended to help them win?

“I don’t think it’s a salary cap issue,” Cheyenne Merced of Sacramento said. “I think it’s an owner issue.”

Said another fan, Devin Pasua of Sacramento: “The Kings don’t know how to spend.”

In Sacramento, the downtown arena and surrounding entertainment district are enjoyable and energetic without overwhelming fans with an assault of sound and light, and the purple beam that ascends skyward when the Kings win is a nice hometown touch.

That beats the alternative: The Kings nearly left town, first for Anaheim and then for Seattle, before Ranadivé bought the team in 2013.

“I’m glad for what he’s done to keep the team in Sacramento,” Kings fan Colin Hutchison of Woodland said. “The arena is beautiful. I love going to games for the chance to see the beam. Great food options. It’s a fun time.

“I think sports fans just want a fun time and want to see competitive sports. The Kings do one thing right. They don’t do the other right.”

In the 20-year run with that one playoff appearance, the Kings have had 10 head coaches, plus three interim head coaches. None of those head coaches lasted more than three seasons.

Eric Musselman, the first Sacramento coach in that run, lasted one season. He is now the head coach at USC.

“In the NBA, there is a salary cap and, for the most part, the same teams are winning every year,” he said.

Does that mean Oklahoma City, the champion last season and the team with the best record this season, is the small-market team that validates the NBA salary cap?

“Oklahoma City is not winning because they have a salary cap,” Musselman said. “Salary cap or no salary cap, Oklahoma City is going to win as long as Sam Presti is there.”

Presti, the Oklahoma City general manager, is basically the Andrew Friedman of NBA executives. Dodgers owner Mark Walter lured Friedman to Los Angeles and, now that Walter owns the Lakers, might well pursue Presti to run them.

Oklahoma City is not the only small-market success story in the NBA. With Gregg Popovich as head coach and R.C. Buford in the front office, the San Antonio Spurs won five NBA championships and made 22 consecutive playoff appearances.

Read more:Yasiel Puig found guilty in gambling case, faces up to 20 years in prison

“It’s not the cap,” Musselman said. “It’s having Tim Duncan and David Robinson, and having an owner and a coach and a GM that are aligned.

“You’ve got to find the right coach and have consistency with the coach and roll with him.”

In 13 seasons under Ranadivé, the Kings have had six head coaches and five general managers.

“They have no one to blame but themselves for their futility,” said Grant Napear, the television voice of the Kings for 32 years and now a sports talk host in Sacramento.

Napear cited the same statistic the commissioner’s office now likes to cite: the last small-market team to win the World Series was the Kansas City Royals, 11 years ago. For baseball, he believes, a salary cap would be a good thing, given the gaping revenue disparities among teams.

“Can you really have a sport where two-thirds of your teams have no chance of winning?” he said. “Is that the model of a good professional sports league?”

So, in the NBA model, why do the Kings seemingly have no chance of winning?

“The salary cap gives a team such as Oklahoma City and Indiana the opportunity to do the same thing as a franchise like the Lakers and Knicks,” Napear said, “if you have smart management, if you draft well, and if you make good trades.

“The Kings are playing by the same rules, for all intents and purposes, as the big-market teams. They have been mismanaged. They have made many, many horrible draft picks and horrible trades. That’s the reason why they are where they are: constantly firing coaches, constantly replacing their general managers.

“They have an owner who has been here over a lengthy period of time who really doesn’t do anything right.”

As an owner, it isn’t hard to do the right thing: hire the best people you can, support them however they need, and then stay out of their way.

Read more:Plaschke: Just say no! Dodgers players should decline White House visit

MLB owners can consider ways to narrow revenue disparities without a salary cap. However, if MLB gets a salary cap — and there is no indication the players’ union is interested in discussing one, let alone agreeing to one — then the commissioner’s office would say it had leveled the playing field.

No team would be guaranteed a winner, but no team could point its finger at the Dodgers. If the player payroll is just about the same for every team, then success would depend in large part on the smarts of ownership and management.

Yet such smarts are not evident among all the teams in the NBA, and certainly not among all the teams in MLB. Would Branch Rickey come back to life to run the Pittsburgh Pirates, with autonomy and resources from ownership?

If you are a fan of a small-market baseball team, and you hear your owner say your team would win if only MLB had a salary cap, our friends in Sacramento would offer you three letters in response: LOL.

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

There’s a shakeup among the No. 1 seeds in USA TODAY Sports’ updated bracketology, with Houston rising to the top line to replace Connecticut after the Huskies saw their 18-game win streak end.

Connecticut's 81-72 loss to St. John's at Madison Square Garden was the Huskies’ first since losing to Arizona on Nov. 19. That dropped UConn to eighth in the NET rankings and to 5-2 against Quad 1 competition.

Houston has now taken four in a row, most recently topping Brigham Young 77-66 in Provo, after losing to Texas Tech on Jan. 24. That moved the Cougars within one game of Arizona in the Big 12 standings.

More: Alabama's Charles Bediako deemed ineligible by judge

The new No. 1 line is Houston, which joins Arizona, Michigan and Duke.

The Blue Devils retain a No. 1 seed despite a last-second loss at North Carolina. While Duke’s second Quad 1 loss, it still leads Division I with 10 Quad 1 victories.

The rivalry win moves UNC to a No. 4 seed. The Tar Heels are now 19-4 overall and 7-3 in the ACC, 2.5 games behind co-leaders Duke and Clemson, and up to 5-4 in Quad 1 games.

March Madness Last four in

San Diego State, UCLA, Ohio State, Miami (Fla.).

March Madness First four out

New Mexico, Missouri, California, Virginia Tech.

NCAA tournament bids conference breakdown

Multi-bid leagues: Big Ten (11), SEC (10), ACC (8) Big 12 (7), Big East (3), West Coast (3), Mountain West (2).

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: March Madness bracketology projection: NCAA tournament bracket update

The Detroit Pistons visited the Charlotte Hornets on Monday night and to say things got a bit heated is an understatement.

In the third quarter, Jalen Duren drove to the basket and was fouled by Charlotte’s Moussa Diabate. They got into it and it just spiraled from there as a major brawl broke out. Isaiah Stewart left the bench to get into it, so he’s facing some real trouble.

There were two things that really jumped out to us: the reactions of Kon Knueppel and referee Dannica Mosher.

When the fight started, Knueppel, who often looks a bit sleepy, though his play belies that, was in the corner. He didn’t seem to realize what happened right away and didn’t rush in immediately either. When he did, predictably, he played peacemaker, trying to get his teammate Diabate out of it.

Mosher also hung back, and that’s a different issue.

On the one hand, for the most part, she did what most sensible women would do: she let the guys work it out themselves, and these are particularly large, strong guys, so good call.

But she is an NBA official, and part of her job is to manage things like this. You can’t really blame her, it was entirely rational, but she failed to do her job.

This is not good. Officials need to manage the game and when violence occurs, they have to get it under control. She was clearly not willing to get involved and in fact stepped away.

Mosher is obviously a good referee or she wouldn’t be working NBA games. However, this could have spun out of control and she was nowhere to be found.

Obviously it’s not all on the officials. There are only three of them. They rely on the coaches and their staffs to help them in situations like this.

Still, running away from a fight is a terrible reaction for an official. If the players deserve to be suspended, and they clearly do, Mosher does too for dereliction of duty. Her reaction was entirely unacceptable for an NBA referee.

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CHENNAI, India (AP) — The United Arab Emirates won the toss and chose to bat first against New Zealand in a tough Group D game at cricket's T20 World Cup on Tuesday.

New Zealand had already crossed the first hurdle by beating Afghanistan at the same venue in a group that also features 2024 finalist South Africa and Canada.

“It’s a tough group but we are ready for that challenge,” UAE skipper Muhammad Waseem said at the toss.

On the eve of its opening game, UAE sent batter Muhammad Zohaib back home for what it called disciplinary reasons on Monday and the Emirates Cricket Board said it will provide more details "in due course.”

New Zealand made no changes and captain Mitchell Santner said he hoped the red-soiled wicket will have some bounce to suit his three fast bowlers.

De Leede stars in Dutch first win

Earlier at New Delhi, Bas de Leede’s all-round show earned the Netherlands a seven-wicket win over Namibia in Group A.

De Leede grabbed 2-20 as the Dutch used eight bowlers and Namibia scored 156-8. De Leede then smashed four sixes and five boundaries and guided his team to 159-3 in 18 overs with an unbeaten 72 off 48 balls.

Pakistan vs. US

In the night game on Tuesday, Pakistan will take on the United States in Group A.

Pakistan escaped with a narrow three-wicket win over the Netherlands on Day 1.

The U.S. has happy memories against Pakistan from the last tournament with a sensational win in the Super Over tiebreaker in Texas in 2024.

Pakistan has reversed its decision to boycott the T20 World Cup game against India and was directed to “take the field” in Colombo on Sunday.

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Lineups:

UAE: Aryansh Sharma, Muhammad Waseem (captain), Alishan Sharafu, Mayank Kumar, Sohaib Khan, Harshit Kaushik, Muhammad Arfan, Dhruv Parashar, Haider Ali, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Rohid.

New Zealand: Finn Allen, Tim Seifert, Rachin Ravindra, Glenn Phillips, Daryl Mitchell, Mark Chapman, James Neesham, Mitchell Santner (captain), Matt Henry, Lockie Ferguson, Jacob Duffy.

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

Good morning, it’s Tuesday, February 10th. The Cleveland Cavaliers are 32-21 and beat the Denver Nuggets last night. They are finally done with their West Coast road trip, where they went 4-1, and only have one game before the All-Star break.

It will be a very different Cavs team returning to Cleveland. The last time they played at home, Darius Garland, De’Andre Hunter, and Lonzo Ball were all on the roster. Now? Dennis Schroder, Keon Ellis and James Harden fill their place.

Things change quickly. As of right now, I can’t complain.

Today’s Game of the Day

• San Antonio Spurs at Los Angeles Lakers – 10:30, NBA TV

Luka vs Wemby. What more do you need to know?

The Spurs are second in the Western Conference and emerging as real contenders. Meanwhile, the Lakers are still clinging to the hope that Doncic and LeBron James can be enough, even with a lackluster supporting cast. This hasn’t materialized as strongly as LA fans probably hoped. But it still makes them must-see TV on a nightly basis.

The Rest of the NBA Slate

• Indiana Pacers at New York Knicks – 7:30 PM
• LA Clippers at Houston Rockets – 8 PM
• Dallas Mavericks at Phoenix Suns – 9 PM

This is a short but sweet line of basketball games. It’s definitely worth keeping an eye on each game.

Cavs links of the day

• Cavs Roundtable: Reactions to James Harden’s Cavalier debut – Fear the Sword
• James Harden and Donovan Mitchell carry Cavs to the finish line over Denver – Bleacher Report

NBA links

• Four players tossed after a brawl between Pistons and Hornets – ESPN
• NBA Power Rankings: New York Knicks rise to top 5 – USA Today
• Clippers still waiting on results of Kawhi Leonard Investigation – Yahoo Sports
• OKC Thunder reportedly under investigation for sitting 10 players against Spurs – Yahoo Sports
• The NBA’s Tanking Trouble – Marc Stein Substack

Omaha Mavericks (3-23, 1-10 Summit) at Denver Pioneers (9-15, 3-8 Summit)

Denver; Wednesday, 8 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: Omaha hits the road against Denver looking to break its 13-game road skid.

The Pioneers have gone 8-5 at home. Denver has a 5-9 record in games decided by 10 or more points.

The Mavericks are 1-10 against Summit opponents. Omaha is eighth in the Summit with 21.0 defensive rebounds per game led by Avril Smith averaging 7.7.

Denver averages 60.3 points per game, 18.0 fewer points than the 78.3 Omaha allows. Omaha averages 6.8 made 3-pointers per game this season, 0.1 more makes per game than Denver allows.

The Pioneers and Mavericks match up Wednesday for the first time in Summit play this season.

TOP PERFORMERS: Coryn Watts is shooting 40.8% and averaging 19.3 points for the Pioneers. Laia Monclova is averaging 1.2 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games.

Regan Juenemann is shooting 40.2% from beyond the arc with 1.8 made 3-pointers per game for the Mavericks, while averaging 10.6 points. Alison Stephens is averaging 10.7 points over the last 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Pioneers: 2-8, averaging 58.3 points, 26.6 rebounds, 11.8 assists, 7.5 steals and 2.5 blocks per game while shooting 39.3% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 72.9 points per game.

Mavericks: 1-9, averaging 49.7 points, 28.6 rebounds, 10.2 assists, 5.8 steals and 3.7 blocks per game while shooting 30.6% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 76.8 points.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.

Four players were ejected after a mass brawl as the Detroit Pistons beat the Charlotte Hornets 110-104 in a bad-tempered NBA fixture.

Detroit's Jalen Duren was fouled by Charlotte's Moussa Diabate during the third quarter, with the pair then confronting one another and appearing to butt heads.

Diabate had to be held back as he tried to hit Duren, before several other players got involved in the incident.

Detroit forward Isaiah Stewart confronted Charlotte's Miles Bridges and put him in a headlock before appearing to strike him multiple times.

The brawl lasted about 30 seconds, ending with a brief police presence on the floor.

Diabate, Duren, Stewart and Bridges were ejected - and Hornets coach Charles Lee was kicked out in the fourth quarter after he had to be restrained while angrily shouting at the officials having disagreed with a decision.

"Emotions were flaring. At the end of the day, we would love to keep it basketball, but things happen. Everybody was just playing hard," Duren said after the match.

"This isn't the first time that people have tried to be like extra aggressive with us and talk to us, whatever the case may be.

"At the end of the day, emotions got high with everybody being competitive. Things happen."

Bridges later apologised to fans, writing on Instagram: "Sorry Hornets nation! Sorry Hornets Organization! Always going to protect my team-mates forever."

Lead official John Goble said in a post-game report the players were ejected because they "engaged in fighting activity during the dead ball".

"After review, we assessed fighting fouls, and by rule, they were ejected from the game," he added.

Lee, asked about the clash between Diabate and Duren that triggered the wider brawl, said: "Two guys got in a heated conversation and then it kind of spiralled from there."

Of his own ejection in the fourth quarter, Lee added: "I've got to have a little bit better emotional control in that moment."

Elsewhere, Golden State Warriors' Steph Curry will miss Sunday's All-Star game with an injury to his right knee.

However, the Warriors are hopeful Curry will return after the All-Star break for the game against the Boston Celtics on 19 February.

After losing to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday, the Lakers (32-20) are back at it on their home floor on Tuesday when they take on the San Antonio Spurs (36-16). This is the final match between the teams this season.

Start time and TV schedule

Who: Los Angeles Lakers vs. San Antonio Spurs

When: 7:30 p.m. PT, Feb. 10

Where: Crypto.com Arena

Watch: NBA TV, Spectrum Sportsnet

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Tuesday’s game against the Spurs might just be the toughest game for the Lakers this season. It’s on the second night of a back-to-back against the current second-best team in the Western Conference that’s not only healthy but has already beaten the purple and gold twice this season.

This has schedule loss written all over it.

But that’s not to say that it’s certain that the Lakers won’t try to win this game. They’re going to compete and it’ll be a matter of gutting this one out against Victor Wembanyama — who is averaging 23.9 points, 11.1 rebounds and 2.7 blocks this season — De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle and crew. The same squad that blew out the Lakers twice in their last three games. They will also be coming off two days of rest before Tuesday’s game.

In the lone game the Lakers won against the Spurs this season, they limited Wembanyama’s production. They did that by getting him into foul trouble before he eventually fouled out. That was the same game when the Lakers threw the kitchen sink on Wemby, thus allowing Deandre Ayton to outplay him.

This was obviously no longer the case in their most recent battle, when Wemby got his revenge on Ayton and the team. But besides him, it’s actually the Spurs’ role players that have also given the Lakers a lot of trouble this season.

Los Angeles has yet to find an answer for San Antonio’s speedy, athletic and dynamic guards in Fox, Keldon Johnson, Julian Champagnie and Castle, all who have stood out in their last few battles. If this continues, then the Lakers’ chances of winning will be slim to none.

Without Luka Dončić, the Lakers will have to rely on LeBron James and Austin Reaves — who are also uncertain for this one — and will need extraordinary performances from their role players. Note that the Spurs are a top-three defensive team. They have an elite rim protector in Wemby who will surely attempt to limit the Lakers’ scoring inside the paint. This game will be a test for the Lakers of their creativity on offense and whether their improved defense of late is good enough against a top-10 offensive team.

Let’s see if the Lakers can quickly bounce back against the Spurs on Tuesday.

Notes and Updates

• Since the Lakers are playing on a back-to-back, the injury report for this one won’t be released until a few hours before tip-off. However, expect Adou Thiero (right MCL sprain) to be out.
• For the Spurs, only Lindy Waters III is unavailable.

You can follow Nicole on Twitter at @nicoleganglani.