South Africa ended India’s 12-match winning streak at the T20 World Cup with a crushing 76-run win in Ahmedabad on Sunday in the opening Group 1 Super Eights match.
Arizona Diamondbacks Spring Training Gameday Thread, #3 vs. Los Angeles Angels
Well, at least it’s not the Rockies! We will be seeing them again later in the preseason, but for now we move outside of the complex, and welcome the Angels as the first team to visit Salt River Fields this spring. Like the D-backs, they had a bit of a rough day yesterday om their home openers. Actually, it was probably worse: they were 9-0 down by the middle of the second, on their way to a 15-2 loss at the hands of their city rivals. The eleven pitchers used by the Angels gave up sixteen hits and eleven walks. So both teams today will be looking to flush that one and move on. Here’s the Arizona line-up this afternoon.
After Kohl Drake, we can expect to see some of these arms: RHP Yilber Diaz, RHP Kade Strowd, RHP Junior Fernández, RHP Landon Sims, RHP Roman Angelo and LHP Avery Short. Diaz and Stroud are one I’ll be paying particular attention to this spring. Like Mitch Bratt yesterday, Drake came over from the Rangers in the Merrill Kelly deal at the trade deadline. Interesting to see Waldschmidt in center. He started in left for the spring opener, and had one obvious misplay. It’s certainly a better Arizona line-up, with a regular infield, bar Aramis Garcia behind the plate.
No television here, but you can listen through Arizona Sports 98.7 FM, or perhaps online if you are not in the state.
Spring Training Game Thread: Colorado Rockies at Texas Rangers
The Texas Rangers welcome the Colorado Rockies to their spring home in Surprise, Arizona for a Cactus League matchup.
The most notable thing about today’s contest is the debut in Texas attire for big lefty offseason acquisition MacKenzie Gore. Opposing Gore and Texas for Colorado will be former Ranger Jimmy Herget, a right-handed reliever who pitched for Texas in 2020-21.
You can listen to the game via 105.3 The Fan or follow along on Gameday. First pitch from Surprise Stadium is scheduled for 2:05 pm CT.
Go Rangers!
Joel Embiid out vs. T-Wolves; Johni Broome suffers meniscus tear
A blizzard is coming to the Delaware Valley. Fitting since the Sixers’ season feels like it could be snowballing.
After the team suffered an embarrassing loss to the lowly New Orleans Pelicans Saturday, they’ll travel to Minnesota (because that travel schedule makes sense) to take on the Timberwolves Sunday night — and they’ll do so without Joel Embiid.
Embiid missed the two games before the All-Star break and the two after. The Sixers dropped all four and will have to go up against a tough Timberwolves team without him. They’re 1-9 in their last 10 games without Embiid. After only missing planned rest games in back-to-back situations throughout January, Embiid’s last four absences have been the result of shin soreness in his right leg.
At 30-26, the Sixers are in very real danger of slipping out of the sixth and final guaranteed playoff spot. The Miami Heat are only percentage points behind them in seventh. If Embiid continues to miss time — while Paul George continues to serve his suspension — things could ugly.
The other bit of bad news is that rookie Johni Broome has suffered a torn meniscus in his right knee. The team said there will be further evaluation to determine treatment. Broome, a second-round pick (35th overall) in the 2025 NBA Draft, has struggled to find a role with the big club. The 23-year-old, who starred at Auburn, has had success in the G League, recording a 50-point game with the Delaware Blue Coats last month.
Dodgers at Padres game chat
One more road game this weekend for the Dodgers, with Jackson Ferris starting on the mound against the San Diego Padres in Peoria. Kyle Tucker makes his Dodgers debut.
Sunday game info
- Teams: Dodgers at Padres
- Ballpark: Peoria Sports Complex
- Time: 12:10 p.m. PT
- TV: SportsNet LA
- Radio: AM 570 (simulcast), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)
Game Thread: Brewers (0-1) at White Sox (2-0)
Having crunched their first two opponents by a combined score of 19-3, the White Sox will try to extend the streak of slaughters against a Brewers split squad today.
Mike Vasil, who did an excellent job in relief last year and is under consideration for a rotation slot for 2026, will start the parade of pitchers for the Sox, with righty Logan Henderson first on the mound for the Brewers.
Henderson, who had a blazing beginning as rookie in 2025 only to have his season shut down by a flexor strain that limited him to five starts, will face a Sox lineup which, in keeping with usual spring one-on/one-off patterns, is largely the same as that in the opener against the Cubs Friday, but with Lenyn Sosa at second and Braden Montgomery in right. Kyle Teel and Korey Lee switch DH/C roles.
Which means that Sox fans get their first chance today to watch Munetaka Murakami on TV.
Vasil et al. will be facing the Brewers lineup that includes old buddy Andrew Vaughn but with most Milwaukee probable regular season starters on the other half of the split.
First pitch is scheduled for 2:05 p.m. Central under (surprise!) sunny skies and temps around 80°. Usual broadcast suspects, which, for those who have forgotten since last year, means CHSN and ESPN 1000.
Spring Training Game Thread III
The Kansas City Royals are back in action after getting crushed yesterday by the Padres 10-3. The Royals won their first Spring Training game against the Rangers 7-3 and will look to get back in the groove of things today taking on the Brewers.
Bailey Falter takes the ball to start today. Falter, a trade acquisition last summer, needs a good spring season to make the team, as the Royals have plenty of starting pitching depth. Here is the lineup behind Falter to start the contest today.
Notable things today: Jac Caglianone batting second, Carter Jensen hitting cleanup and catching, Michael Massey out in left field. Finally, Maikel Garcia is leading off again, the second time in the first three games.
The game can be listened to on 96.5 The Fan today. It’ll be nice to hear the voices of all the guys again, as we are just under 5 weeks away from games that count and matter in Kansas City. First pitch is set for 2:10 p.m. CT.
The Pindown I The East Runs Through Detroit
The East goes through Detroit. That’s all that needs to be said as Wes and Blake record this show right after the Pistons steamrolled the New York Knicks for the third time this season. And this time, the Knicks were healthy, the Pistons were not. Blake and Wes take a quick moment to applaud the NBA All-Star game’s new format before diving in to that shorthanded beatdown. Was this Cade’s best game of his career? Oh, and should he be truly in the conversation to win MVP this year? What about another stellar defensive performance from Ausar Thompson? How valuable will he be as a defensive weapon in the playoffs? The guys break this all down, then they look ahead. Who is the Pistons’ biggest playoff threat? Will Ron Holland maintain his rotation spot this year in the playoffs? And just how unique is this Piston identity that JB Bickerstaff alludes to?
We’ve got you covered for all this and more in this week’s episode!
Follow Wes Davenport on Twitter @TheRealWesD3
Follow Blake Silverman on Twitter @BlakeSilverman
Follow Detroit Bad Boys on Twitter @DetroitBadBoys
Want to hear your voice on the Pindown? Call (313) 355-2717 and leave your question as a voicemail! The guys will play your message and answer your question on that week’s episode! All we ask is that you keep your questions to under 45 seconds.
Rockets are the victims of a 30-year curse
It’s hard to watch.
Dear God, it’s hard to watch. This season has been an abject disaster.
Not from a rational point of view. It’s been a disappointment by any measure. The Houston Rockets wanted to be better this year. They were supposed to be title contenders. Deep, structural roster flaws have been exposed. The trade machine’s server is being overloaded in Southeast Texas (and, to be honest, from one refurbished MacBook Air in Eastern Canada).
But it’s not truly a disaster. The Rockets are likely to have homecourt advantage in the first round of a season where their starting point guard hasn’t played a game. They have a surplus of young players and future first-round picks. It’s only been disastrous from the perspective of how much fans expected to enjoy the year, relative to how much they have. Here’s the good news:
It’s not their fault.
The 2025-26 season has been cursed. The working theory is that the team made a deal with the Devil ahead of the 1993-94 season. The Prince of Darkness agreed to persuade Michael Jordan to play baseball. In exchange, the Rockets would be wildly disappointing once per decade from the moment Jordan returned.
I’m not crazy, you’re crazy.
Rockets suffer from a generational curse
Let’s go back to 1995-96.
I wasn’t even ten yet, so I can’t offer a firsthand account. I can tell you that Houston switched from the iconic ketchup-and-mustard jerseys that they’d thrived in for so long to the navy pinstripe duds that I loved as a child and retroactively identify as a downgrade.
Although only Bret “The Hitman” Hart tickles my nostalgia bone as strongly as that little cartoon Rocket.
Anyway, the rest is history. The Rockets were still good in 1995-96. It’s hard to point to any one player’s decline and explain their shortcomings. They were, seemingly, just marginally worse than before. They could not get past the (soon-to-be revived) Seattle Supersonics in the second round, and the dynasty that never was died.
The Rockets would inexplicably acquire Charles Barkley, get worse, get old, rebuild, draft Steve Francis, get even worse, (deep breath), draft Yao Ming, trade for Tracy McGrady, and start to get better.
The 2004-05 season was one for the books. Sure, the Rockets lost in the first round. Nobody cared. They were built around a 24-year-old Ming and a 25-year-old McGrady (which, in NBA terms, was younger at a time when Tim Duncan played in college for four years). The future was bright.
And then…
The Devil came collecting. It had been ten years since 1995-96. Ming and McGrady would both miss time with injuries, establishing a motif for their time together in Houston. The Rockets won 34 games.
They’d win 50+ games for the next three seasons. The Devil was indifferent. The curse was lifted. Injuries would eventually limit their star duo’s upside, leaving the Rockets to rebuild again. They toiled in mediocrity for a few years until James Harden entered the picture. He instantly established himself as a franchise-caliber talent. In 2014-15, he and Dwight Howard would lead the Rockets to the Western Conference Finals.
And then…
It was difficult to account for. The Rockets retained most of their key players. Ty Lawson was the can’t-miss acquisition that missed, but even if it was a case of subtraction-by-addition, he was quickly out of the rotation. As it was in ’96, the Rockets were kind of just… worse.
Defenses had figured them out. Stop Harden, and you stop everyone. Howard wasn’t getting post touches, rightfully or not. Houston didn’t have a way to generate offense if Harden wasn’t cooking.
That’s why they got Chris Paul. It’s why they made another Conference Finals trip in 2017-18, only this time, it actually felt like they might win. We all know what happened and how it got us to where we are now.
The last two seasons were fun. The post-Harden tank was over. A .500 season in 2023-24 was acceptable to everyone. A first-round exit after a 52-win season last year was defensible. The team was young.
This year? Nobody is satisfied. Blame Ime Udoka’s offensive ingenuity. Blame Reed Sheppard’s size. Blame Amen Thompson’s broken jumper, or Alperen Sengun’s broken touch. Blame whoever you like:
I’ll blame the Devil.
Sixers look to rebound in Minnesota on second night of back-to-back
Sunday night’s contest is a matchup of two clubs trending in opposite directions in their respective conferences. Philadelphia has lost four straight games spanning across the All-Star break, most recently losing by double digits to the bottom-dwelling Pelicans last night. The Sixers sit in sixth place in the East, but three games back of Toronto, and the top half of the standings feels like a distant memory. Meanwhile, Minnesota is only in sixth place, but the Wolves have won three straight and are just one game back of the third-place Nuggets in the hotly-contested Western Conference standings.
On paper, the Sixers have things stacked against them tonight, not only due to the teams’ recent run of play, but being on the second night of the back-to-back. The one big thing that could help Philadelphia is the potential return of Joel Embiid. He was ruled out early due to right shin soreness (and knee injury management) for the game in New Orleans, but it’s possible the team was playing it safe knowing Joel would have to sit out one of the games of the back-to-back anyway. Embiid did travel with the team and seemed in good spirits on Saturday (at least until he had to watch his teammates play in the third quarter like the rest of us), so the door is at least ajar. Joel was the only injury absence for the Sixers yesterday, with Paul George obviously still out due to suspension.
For Minnesota, they have a clean injury report, but are also dealing with a suspension, as Rudy Gobert has been suspended one game due to flagrant foul accumulation. It’ll be good for the Sixers to miss the Wolves’ leading rebounder and shot blocker, who is still one of the best defenders in the league, although Minnesota having Naz Reid soak up more minutes is certainly a good pivot option to have.
Tonight’s game will be a meeting of two of the top five scorers in the league. Amidst a rough outside shooting patch in February, Tyrese Maxey is down to fifth in the league at 28.9 points per game. Not to play body language doctor, but he looks to be feeling the effects of the heavy load the team is asking him to carry. On the opposing sideline, Anthony Edwards is third in the league at 29.5 points per game. He just dropped 40 points in Friday night’s win over Dallas, right after securing All-Star Game MVP honors. We’ll likely get to see a lot of VJ Edgecombe marking Edwards, which should make for a fascinating watch.
Minnesota took the opposite tack of the Sixers at the trade deadline, trading Rob Dillingham and four second-round picks for Ayo Dosunmu to bolster their backcourt depth. Are the Wolves now in a position to really challenge the juggernaut Thunder, not to mention emerge out of the rest of the crowded West? I don’t know, but I respect them for doing something to go for it.
We’ll await word on whether Embiid suits up, and tune in tonight to see if the Sixers can put together a 48-minute effort and challenge the Wolves on the road.
Game Details
When: Sunday, February 22, 7:00 p.m. ET
Where: Target Center, Minneapolis, MN
Watch: NBC Sports Philadelphia
Radio: 97.5 The Fanatic
Follow: @LibertyBallers
Nets at Hawks: start time, TV, streaming, radio, game thread
The Atlanta Hawks (27-31) badly need to take care of business against non-competitive teams like the Brooklyn Nets (15-50) today.
Starting lineup:
- G Dyson Daniels
- G Nickeil Alexander-Walker
- G CJ McCollum
- F Jalen Johnson
- C Onyeka Okongwu
Please join in the comments below as you follow along.
Where, When, and How to Watch and Listen
Location: State Farm Arena, Atlanta, GA
Start Time: 3:30 PM EDT
TV: FanDuel Sports Network Southeast (FDSNSE)
Radio: Sports Radio 92.9 the Game (WZGC-FM)
Streaming: FanDuel Sports Network app, Fubo (out of market), NBA League Pass (out of market), Youtube TV (NBA League Pass out of market)
Timmons scores career-high 34, Scott has 21 and No. 25 Alabama tops Florida 76-71
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Jessica Timmons scored a career-high 34 points, Ta’Mia Scott added 21, and No. 25 Alabama rallied in the fourth quarter to defeat Florida 76-71 on Sunday to snap a three-game losing streak.
Alabama (21-7, 7-7) led by six points at halftime and the lead was 54-46 after Timmons hit a 3-pointer late in the third quarter. Liv McGill then scored seven points in Florida's 12-0 run that gave the Gators a 58-54 lead heading to the fourth quarter.
Florida's lead reached 60-54 before Scott scored five points and Timmons had seven, eventually drawing Alabama even at 66 with seven minutes remaining.
Florida's last lead was 68-66 with five minutes left before Timmons had a 3-pointer and a three-point play to finish an 8-0 run for a 74-68 lead with 1:24 remaining. She added two free throws in the final minute, giving her Alabama's last eight points.
Alabama opened the game with three 3-pointers and led 9-2 after about two minutes of play. Scott hit her third 3 of the quarter in the final minute and the Crimson Tide led 17-14.
Timmons scored eight points early in the second quarter and the Crimson Tide pushed their lead to 31-19 by the six-minute mark. But Alabama made only one field goal the rest of the half, going 1 for 5. Alabama led 38-32 at halftime.
McGill had 19 points and eight assists for the Gators (16-13, 4-10). Jade Weathersby scored 13, Laila Reynolds 12 and Nyadieng Yiech 10.
Up next
Alabama: The regular season wraps up with a visit to No. 5 Vanderbilt on Thursday and a home game against No. 4 Texas on Sunday.
Florida: The Gators visit No. 17 Ole Miss on Thursday and host No. 24 Georgia on Sunday.
___
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Mavericks vs Pacers Prediction, Picks & Odds for Tonight’s NBA Game
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The Dallas Mavericks have waved the white flag with 10 straight losses, but they’ll be hard-pressed to out-tank the Indiana Pacers as the teams square off at Gainbridge Fieldhouse today.
At 15-42, Indiana has the inside track on a high lottery pick, and my Mavericks vs. Pacers predictions expect both squads to struggle to create good looks without their sidelined playmakers.
Read on for my free NBA picks ahead of this February 22 basement battle.
Mavericks vs Pacers prediction
Mavericks vs Pacers best bet: Under 234 (-110)
The injury reports for the Dallas Mavericks and Indiana Pacers are a reminder that there’s every incentive to keep their top playmakers on the sidelines. Both squads have peppered the Under this season, and it feels like one of the best picks on the board today.
The Under is 15-9 in Dallas’ 24 road outings, and Cooper Flagg’s absence hurts the visitors’ offensive flow. Meanwhile, Indiana will be short on shot creators if Pascal Siakam and Andrew Nembhard sit out.
The Mavs eked out a 107-105 win over the Pacers in October, and I’m not counting on fireworks in this rematch.
Mavericks vs Pacers same-game parlay
With the Pacers’ first-choice starting lineup all on the injury report, I like the value of the Mavs moneyline here, despite the visitors’ recent skid. Dallas still has some gritty veterans available, while Indiana limps into this clash on the heels of back-to-back losses to the Washington Wizards. Enough said.
Even if this descends into a rock fight at times, Naji Marshall is a candidate for a nice stat line, and I’ll grab the Over on his rebounds tally. He finished with eight boards earlier this month against the Boston Celtics, and his minutes could hit the mid 30s today.
Mavericks vs Pacers SGP
- Under 234
- Mavericks moneyline
- Marshall Over 6.5 rebounds
Our "from downtown" SGP: Huffing and puffing
Look for Marshall to have his fingerprints all over this contest, and Dallas’ injury woes should prompt an uptick in his February averages of 4.7 RPG and 3.3 APG.
In the same way, Indiana will hand Jay Huff all the minutes he can handle. Huff drilled five 3-pointers against the Wizards on Friday, and his size will be key for the depleted Pacers on the glass.
Mavericks vs Pacers SGP
- Marshall Over 6.5 rebounds
- Marshall Over 3.5 assists
- Huff Over 5.5 rebounds
- Huff Over 1.5 threes
Mavericks vs Pacers odds
- Spread: Mavericks -2 | Pacers +2
- Moneyline: Mavericks -130 | Pacers +110
- Over/Under: Over 234 | Under 234
Mavericks vs Pacers betting trend to know
The Under is 33-24 for the Pacers this season. Find more NBA betting trends for Mavericks vs. Pacers.
How to watch Mavericks vs Pacers
| Location | Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, IN |
| Date | Sunday, February 22, 2026 |
| Tip-off | 5:00 p.m. ET |
| TV | MavsTV, FDSN Indiana |
Mavericks vs Pacers latest injuries
Not intended for use in MA.
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Tottenham v Arsenal: Premier League – as it happened
Two goals from Eberechi Eze and two from Victor Gyökeres sent Arsenal five points clear at the top, while Spurs are in serious danger of relegation
It was quite the finish at the City Ground:
“Vitor Pereira’s just been sacked...” chortles Dave Estherby.
Continue reading...ST Game 3: Los Angeles Dodgers at San Diego Padres
Los Angeles Dodgers at San Diego Padres, February 22, 2026, 12:10 p.m. PST
Watch: Padres.TV and MLB Network
Location: Peoria Sports Complex – Peoria, AZ
Listen: 97.3 The Fan
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GB community, this is your thread for today’s game. Enjoy!