Category: Sports News

In an all-too-familiar line, the Washington Wizards lost to the New Orleans Pelicans on Sunday, 138-118. Then again, the Wizards’ front office is thinking long term if you know what I mean.

Trae Young got his second game in for Washington and put up solid numbers: 17 points and 8 assists in just 17 minutes. In fact, Young was the only Wizards player with a positive plus/minus ratio tonight. But after Washington led the first quarter 35-32, Washington gradually let the lead slip away until the fourth quarter when New Orleans ran it up. It didn’t hurt that the Pelicans were shooting really well in the fourth quarter while Washington? Not so much. One Wizard, Bilal Coulibaly had an especially not-so-awesome night with shooting efficiency.

For the Pelicans, Trey Murphy led with 24 points. Tre Johnson led the Wizards with 20.

If you were hoping that Juju Reese would pick up right where he left off last Thursday, he played but didn’t start tonight with Alex Sarr returning to the starting lineup. Reese still had 9 rebounds along with 5 points however.

The Wizards’ next game is on Tuesday on the road against the Miami Heat. Tip off is at 7:30 p.m. ET. See you then.

CINCINNATI (AP) — Dániel Sallói scored late in the second half behind a clean sheet from Luka Gavran and Toronto FC defeated FC Cincinnati 1-0 on Sunday night.

Sallói used an assist from Richie Laryea to score the lone goal in the 86th minute and Gavran made two saves to finish off the shutout for Toronto (1-2-0).

Sallói's goal was his first for Toronto after spending his previous nine seasons with Sporting Kansas City. It was his 54th goal in 245 appearances. Laryea's first assist this season gives him 15 in 160 career appearances.

Gavran notched his first shutout this season and his third in 19 career starts with Toronto.

Roman Celentano turned away six shots in goal for Cincinnati (1-2-0).

Toronto entered the match with a 0-4-1 record in Cincinnati and had never scored a goal at TQL Stadium.

Cincinnati coach Pat Noonan suffered his first loss to Toronto after going 7-0-1 through the first eight matchups.

Cincinnati leads the series 9-5-1 with the nine victories its most against any opponent.

Cincinnati swept Toronto last season with Kévin Denkey scoring a goal in both wins.

Up next

Toronto: Hosts New York Red Bulls on Saturday in home opener.

Cincinnati: At New England Revolution on Sunday.

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

Lately, Austin Reaves had been a muted version of himself.

He opened the season playing All-Star-caliber basketball, looking like a breakout star. But after suffering a left calf strain that sidelined him for 19 games, the volume on his incredible start has been dialed down. 

That changed in the Lakers’ 110-97 win over the Knicks on Sunday. 

Reaves had 25 points on 50% shooting, including going 3 of 6 from beyond the arc. He was aggressive. He was hunting for the ball. He was looking for his shot. It led to arguably the best Lakers win this season and their fifth victory in their last six contests. 

The Lakers needed Reaves in peak form against a team with the third-best record in the East, especially with LeBron James sidelined for his second straight game because of a left elbow contusion and left foot arthritis. 

Before Reaves’ extended absence, he was averaging 26.6 points on 50.7% shooting from the field, 6.3 assists and 5.2 rebounds a game. He was one of the NBA’s top 10 scorers. 

But since he returned Feb. 3, he has only scored 20-plus points three times over 15 contests.

One of the biggest issues has clearly been that Reaves is trying to find his place in a crowded offense alongside superstars James and Luka Doncic. Before the All-Star break, the trio had only played 11 games together.  

Since then, they’ve been trying to find a rhythm after James missed the first 14 games of the season because of sciatica, Reaves missed every game in January and Doncic was sidelined four games at the beginning of February because of a hamstring injury. 

As the Big 3 has tried to learn how to effectively share the court, Reaves has looked a little less like Reaves. 

Heading into Sunday’s game, Lakers coach JJ Redick wanted to change that. 

“I think the messaging to him has just been to be himself,” Redick said. “And I think sometimes when you miss time and there’s circumstances going on with the team that you can kind of be a little passive. … We want him to be aggressive. Every time he gets the ball, we want him to be aggressive and have a mentality to touch the paint.”

Reaves played as though he internalized those words Sunday. 

He dazzled with fadeaway 3-pointers. He aggressively drove through the lane. He made sure he was a threat every time he touched the ball. 

“We just kept telling him, ‘Touch the paint, touch the paint, touch the paint,'” Redick said. “He was really strong today. … When people talk about physicality, we always talk about physicality on defense, but you need physicality on offense. And I thought he was very physical offensively and that allowed him to score the basket, allowed him to draw fouls. And they’ve got a lot of size and they’re a big team, and he did a great job.”

It was a great reminder of the player who dazzled at the start of the season. You know, the one who had a 51-point, 11-rebound, nine-assist performance in the Lakers’ third game of the season, followed by a 41-point performance on 59% shooting in their fourth contest. 

“Hillbilly Kobe” was living up to his nickname. Reaves, who is eligible for a five-year, $241 million maximum contract extension with the Lakers this summer, was playing as though he was hungry to earn every penny of that deal. When he didn’t make the All-Star team, it was considered one of the biggest snubs in the West. 

But since then, things have slowed down. 

As for Reaves’ mentality entering Sunday’s game? 

“Have fun,” he said. “Woke up, early game, I was tired when I got here. I just told myself to have fun. I don’t feel like I’ve played bad, I just haven’t made a lot of shots. I feel like I’ve done a lot of other things well. Just continuing to play the game the right way, and I feel like good will come to good.”

But Reaves took things to another level Sunday. In addition to being the second-leading scorer behind Doncic (35 points), Reaves had four rebounds, five assists, three steals and one blocked shot.  He was everywhere. Now, he just needs to figure how to play at that level alongside both of the team’s superstars.

“Playing with him, it makes my life easy,” Doncic said.

Reaves’ amplified aggression helped the Lakers (39-25) secure a win of which they can be proud. The whole team was gritty. They were swarming. Entering Sunday’s game, the Lakers were 4-12 against opponents with a record better than .600, according to ESPN. They never even trailed the Knicks (41-24).

When Reaves plays to his potential, things dramatically shift for the Lakers. That was evident in the team’s 15-4 start. And it was obvious Sunday. 

Rui Hachimura summed things up concisely. 

“When he’s aggressive, good things are going to happen,” he said. 

With 20 games left in the regular season, the Toronto Raptors are in an interesting position. Currently 5th in the Eastern Conference standings, the idea that they will be playing in the postseason is pretty much confirmed. Whether or not they have to endure the NBA Play-In tournament, though, isn’t decided one way or another. They would have to drop lower than sixth in the standings to have to compete in the Play-In, but with a tough schedule still ahead of them, their 5th-place spot isn’t as cushioned as they’d like it to be.

That adds a little bit of pressure onto the team in March and April — a concept the Raptors haven’t had to deal with in a few years. They haven’t played in a playoff series since the 2022 season (Scottie’s rookie year), and one other time since then, in a pretty entertaining but still ultimately bad play-in game that resulted in a loss. Since then, this time of year has felt more like a slow descent into lottery odds than a buildup to the postseason for the team. This year changes things, as it looks like the Toronto Raptors will be competing past the regular season.

At the Raptors’ practice on Saturday, the idea that the pressure was building instead of waning was literally giving Darko Rajakovic goosebumps. “Pressure is a privilege,” he said, quoting the great Billie Jean King (apt for International Women’s Day). Yet, that also means that the Raptors have higher expectations, and their recent play since the All-Star Break has not been very indicative of a team looking to rise above their station. They came into this game on Sunday having lost four of their last five games.

Rajakovic was very vocal about Saturday’s practice being particularly good. When asked what was so good about it, Scottie Barnes told the media that their team was really communicating and holding each other accountable for their recent slump. They didn’t like how they had performed in their last games, and knew they could do better. That’s the beauty of having more than a day off in between games, especially so deep into the season, you have more time to address slumps or mistakes.

Sunday’s home game proved that whatever they did on Saturday worked. The Raptors acheived a wire-to-wire win over the Dallas Mavericks, which was expected, but obviously still needed to be earned. Every win is important this time of the year, as the conversation now shifts into playoff placement and more importantly, avoiding the Play-In. Home court advantage would also be fun, but let’s not get too ahead of ourselves in the first year back into the postseason picture. Making the postseason alone is enough progress for this year.

Toronto took Sunday’s game 122-92 over Dallas, with RJ Barrett scoring a game-high 31 points in the game. Darko though, was more impressed with Barrett’s defence, saying that the more Barrett locks in defensively, the more energy he has on the other end. Barrett agreed with him, saying the more energetic he is on defense, the more focused on the game he feels. Darko also stated the emphasis he put on his team to take care of the basketball, after turnovers have been an issue over the past week.

Barrett confirmed that their good practice from Saturday was a huge reason why they competed the way that they did today. He himself hit a milestone today, scoring his 8,000th career point, which he reflected on after the game. As one of only a select group of Canadians to achieve that milestone, he added “doing it for the Raptors is more special.”

Whatever energy Saturday’s practice held — whether it be the closeness of the postseason, the crisp spring air coming into Toronto this weekend, or just a desire to be better — they need to hold onto that. The Raptors will head out onto the road to play Houston and New Orleans this week before comign back home Friday night.

The Detroit Pistons have cemented themselves at the top of the Eastern Conference by delivering suffocating defense, getting to every lose ball, locking down the paint, and wanting it more than their opponent night in and night out. On Sunday in Miami, the Heat out-Pistons the Pistons. Detroit was outhustled and outmuscled, falling behind by 20 points early and never recovering, eventually falling 121-110.

On Saturday, you could blame the terrible effort as a team scrambling without its star Cade Cunningham. On Sunday, Cade was back, and he delivered. Cunningham scored 26 points, hit six of his nine three-point attempts, and added 10 assists. They still struggled to stay within 30 points most of the game. Jalen Duren (24 points) was 10-of-12 from the field, but the Pistons couldn’t come close to Miami because he wasn’t delivering on defense or on the boards.

Detroit lost this game because Miami did everything Detroit hangs its hat on better than it did. The Pistons are one of the premier teams in the paint, on both offense and defense, but Miami outscored them 58-56. The Pistons thrive when their locked-in defense creates turnovers that lead to transition opportunities. The Heat outscored Detroit on the fast break 22-6. They lost the board war 58-48. It seemed like Miami was forcing every deflection, getting to every loose ball, and was the one dictating everything on the floor. Detroit could do nothing but react, and they were two steps slow in every reaction.

The Heat were led by Tyler Herro with 25 points, including four three-pointers, and Bam Adebayo, who hit four from deep as well. The two also got themselves to the free-throw line, and went a collective 11-of-12. Detroit’s two stars, Duren and Cunningham, were just 6-of-7.

The biggest issue is the team’s tissue paper defense in the past few games, which is true enough, but the most worrying thing to me is that the team is letting its completely limp offensive production leak into its effort on defense. They are so devoid of trust in their ability to put the ball in the basket that they are not playing loose and aggressive on the defensive end.

Losing Ausar Thompson to an ankle injury certainly doesn’t help. Nor does replacing his production with a completely invisible Marcus Sasser (two points and bad defense in 20 minutes of action). Javonte Green isn’t providing a spark on either end of the floor like he was in the season’s first 50 games, and when multiple spots on the floor are sputtering, it means the limitation of a player like Ron Holland really begins to show.

The Pistons, quite simply, have no answers right now. They need to figure out how to rediscover their identity as a defense-first team, and let that lead to some offensive creation. No more shooters and ball handlers in the lineup who aren’t providing any of either alongside Cunningham. I’d put Isaiah Stewart, one of the only players who seemed like he gave a damn tonight, into the starting lineup and shift Tobias Harris to small forward.

Stewart provides just as much spacing as Sasser, but also actually provides rebounding and defense. It also opens up an opportunity for minutes for Paul Reed, who you’re never sad is getting minutes.

Until the team remembers that it is one of the best defensive teams in the league, it is going to keep losing. And it’s not a stellar offensive night that is going to ignite this defense. It’s the opposite. They need to impose their will on an opponent, and the rest will become much easier.

Their next chance is a bit of redemption against the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday. It is starting to feel like a must-win game.

The Dallas Mavericks (21-43) continued the northeastern portion of their current road swing on Sunday against the Toronto Raptors (36-27). Coming in having lost 16 of their last 18 games, the Mavs dropped yet another with a 122-92 loss.

The game started with the Raptors missing a 3-point attempt, only for Brandon Ingram to grab an offensive rebound for a put-back dunk. With how frequently Dallas allows 3-point attempts and with recent struggles on the boards, the sequence was not ideal. Dallas forced an early Raptors’ timeout less than four minutes into the game after Daniel Gafford put on a dunk clinic with six quick points on 3-for-3 from the floor. Dallas once again gave up 30-plus first-quarter points, trailing 36-29 after 12 minutes.

The Mavericks were out of sorts at the beginning of the second, committing multiple turnovers while playing a lineup that did not have many reps together. A timeout at the 7:44 mark brought starters Cooper Flagg and Max Christie back, but it did little to help as the Mavs went scoreless until P.J. Washington hit a free throw with 5:13 remaining in the half to end a 14-2 Raptor’s run. Down by 15 points, Dallas stopped a four-minute field goal drought with a Gafford layup, but couldn’t make any real headway from there, closing the half down 57-44.

Dallas started the second half with the ball, scoring on their first two possessions, with both buckets coming by way of offensive rebounds. Slowly but surely, Dallas was making small inroads by outscoring Toronto for the first five minutes, but those efforts fell apart quickly. The Raptors responded with a 10-0 run in just under a span of two minutes to put the Mavs behind by 21. Dallas spent the remainder of the quarter trying to catch up, only to end up further behind as they trailed 88-66 heading into the fourth quarter.

Flagg opened the fourth quarter with a made 3-pointer then converted an and-one, but his personal six-point burst was not enough to prevent a necessary timeout when Dallas fell behind by 26. Flagg then registered his first-ever technical foul, which was starting to feel like a long time coming. Of late, Flagg has not been getting calls that seem obvious to the naked eye. With just over five minutes remaining in the game, Jason Kidd called it a day and gave Ryan Nembhard, AJ Johnson and Dwight Powell some burn, alongside Brandon Williams and Caleb Martin. Even garbage time did nothing to make the final score any more palatable.

Let’s take a look at three key factors from Sunday night’s game.

Turnovers tell the tale

The Mavericks average 14.7 turnovers per game, but had 11 in the first half alone Sunday night. Meanwhile, the Raptors had only four across the first 24 minutes, contributing heavily to the 13-point halftime deficit Dallas faced. Dallas added six more turnovers to Toronto’s two in the third quarter. When it was all said and done, the Mavs tallied 20 turnovers against the Raptors’ 8. Giving the opponent that many extra possessions while creating so few the other way is a big part of a 30-point beatdown.

Shooting woes for Dallas

The Raptors’ defense stymied Dallas, however the Mavericks did not do themselves any favors with some wide-open misses. They shockingly fell short of 40% shooting overall, converting just 35-for-88 on the night. Some of this was also due to strange lineup combinations and only a single player logging more than 30 minutes (P.J. Washington; 31 minutes), but this was a disasterclass in shooting. Max Christie was an improbable 1-for-11 and 0-for-7 from deep to lead the woefulness.

Gafford’s return to form

Gafford had a season-high 21 points to go along with 11 rebounds (six offensive), 3 assists and shot a perfect 10-for-10 from the floor. This was Gafford at his best, and there is really no obvious explanation why he feasted like this, other than perhaps being healthy. This game was largely uncompetitive, but it’s almost frightening to think how bad it would have been without Gafford’s contributions. With fewer than 20 games remaining in the season, it will be important for Gafford to re-establish this level of play. The stats may not always look this nice, but it was obvious he was in the right position and making smart decisions throughout the night as he simply played aggressively.

I invite you to follow me @_80MPH on X, and check back often at Mavs Moneyball for all the latest on the Dallas Mavericks.

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (AP) — Aaliyah Collins had 21 points, Anna Hager scored 18 and High Point held on for a 71-67 victory over Radford on Sunday night to win the Big South Conference Championship and earn an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament for a second straight season.

Collins and Hager took over for top-seeded High Point (27-5) on a night when Macy Spencer, the league's leading scorer at 18.8 per game, was held to six points.

The Panthers beat No. 2 seed Radford (22-12) to earn their third trip to the main event, also appearing in 2021.

Hager hit a 3-pointer and Brecken Snotherly followed with a three-point play as High Point jumped out to an 8-0 lead. Radford battle all the way back to tie it 16-all on Angelina Nice's tip-in before Collins made two free throws with one second left to put the Panthers up two heading to the second quarter.

Kirah Dandridge hit two 3-pointers and the Highlanders outscored High Point by five to take a 32-29 lead into halftime.

Cate Carlson sank a 3-pointer to give Radford a 39-33 lead, but Hager answered with a 3 to spark 13-2 run capped by Spencer's 3-pointer and High Point moved in front 46-41 with four minutes left in the third quarter. The run grew to 20-4 and the Panthers led 56-45 heading to the final period.

Joi Williams buried 3-pointers on both sides of a Dandridge basket in an 8-0 spurt to cut the deficit to three less than 90 seconds into the final 10 minutes.

Williams drove for a layup to tie it 63-all with 4:50 remaining, but Collins and Hager had back-to-back baskets and the Panthers stayed in front from there.

Williams had 30 points to pace Radford and Ellie Taylor scored 10.

The Highlanders last appeared in the NCAA Tournament in 2019 after making three appearances in the 1990s.

The High Point men’s team also advanced to the NCAA Tournament

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