PARIS, FRANCE - JANUARY 21: Jeremy Sochan wears orange clear sunglasses, a beige double breasted blazer jacket with checkered patterns, before the Louis Vuitton Menswear Fall-Winter 2025/2026 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on January 21, 2025 in Paris, France. (Photo by Edward Berthelot/Getty Images) | Getty Images
After spending the greater part of four season with the San Antonio Spurs, Jeremy Sochan fell out of rotation and left the team that drafted him. Shortly thereafter, he joined the New York Knicks and won an NBA Championship.
Over the summer he signed with the Portland Trail Blazers, but was waived just before the season tipped off. Coincidentally, he was released on the same day Blake Wesley and Malaki Branham, his draft mates.
But Sochan has bounced back. He went #1 overall in the G-League draft on Saturday.
While the G-League may be a step down for a lottery pick with less than five seasons, staying in America with an NBA affiliate keeps him closer to the action. No telling where his career could go as the twists and turns of an 82-game NBA season rolls on.
For now, the former Baylor Bear will stay in Texas.
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Oct 23, 2026; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; As the bench celebrates, Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla watches the play during the second half against the New York Knicks at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Winslow Townson-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Joe Mazzulla has used 11 players in each of the Celtics’ first two games, which sounds democratic until you inspect the timecards.
Everybody has checked in, but that doesn’t mean everybody has a full-time job.
Jayson Tatum, Derrick White and Paul George have predictably played the most. Payton Pritchard is fourth in total minutes despite coming off the bench. Sam Hauser has logged more minutes than Jordan Walsh and Mitchell Robinson, two members of the starting lineup. Hugo González has played just 13 minutes.
Two games are not enough to settle Boston’s rotation, but they do give us some clues about how Mazzulla is sorting it.
The same five players started against Detroit and New York: White, George, Tatum, Walsh and Mitchell Robinson. Everything after that has been more fluid. The first week has already exposed a few levels of trust. Pritchard’s bench designation looks increasingly cosmetic. Hauser may be the cleanest solution to Boston’s spacing issues. Among the young wings, meanwhile, the minutes have not been distributed equally.
Here are my biggest takeaways from Joe’s rotations through the first two games.
Boston, MA – October 14: Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla talks to guards Derrick White and Payton Pritchard in the second quarter. The Boston Celtics played the Charlotte Hornets in a preseason game at TD Garden on October 14, 2026. (Photo by Barry Chin/The Boston Globe via Getty Images) | Boston Globe via Getty Images
“To me, a starter is the amount of minutes you play,” he said. “Do you finish games? Are you playing 30-plus minutes? Then you are a starter.”
By his own math, Pritchard is starting.
He has played 57 minutes and 56 seconds through two games. Only Tatum, White and George have played more. Against the Knicks, Pritchard scored a measly four points on 1-for-6 shooting, but still remained on the floor for more than 30 minutes.
I’m not going to try and spin his four points as a secretly great performance. He missed five of his six shots and never found an offensive rhythm. But cold shooting nights can reveal more about a coach’s confidence than another three-point avalanche. Any reasonable person would leave Pritchard on the floor while he’s setting fire to the net. Mazzulla stayed with him even when he wasn’t.
Single-game plus-minus can tell lies with a straight face, but Boston still outscored New York by eight points during Pritchard’s 30 minutes. It wasn’t Pritchard’s night, but it wasn’t a problem large enough to lose a game, which is probably the distinction Mazzulla cares about most.
The Celtics opened the second quarter with Pritchard, White, George, Hauser and Luka Garza. Tatum rested while George carried the star responsibilities. Boston started the fourth with almost the same construction, swapping Robinson in for Garza.
Pritchard was the constant. He is becoming the connective tissue between Boston’s different versions of itself.
Incredible early offense from Boston
Ghost screen by Hauser gets him to the top then we see Stagger screen for Pritchard
His closing role was more situational. Mazzulla initially went with Tatum, George, White, Hauser and Queta during crunch time. Pritchard returned for Hauser with 1:11 remaining, giving Boston another ball handler and free-throw shooter. He made one at the line, then was replaced by Queta for the final defensive possession.
That wasn’t one permanent closing five we saw Friday night. Mazzulla was changing the group possession by possession, which is probably how this roster should work.
Pritchard may not always be standing on the court when the game ends, but he’s made it clear that he’ll be plenty involved in getting Boston there.
Hauser keeps solving lineup problems
Hauser has played 40 minutes and 52 seconds, six seconds more than Robinson. That isn’t a meaningful statistical gap, but it’s a pretty useful reminder of how little the starting label matters to Mazzulla.
He has made five of his first 10 three-point attempts after shooting 39.3% from deep last season, the worst mark of his career and still a percentage most players would happily tell their grandkids about down the road. His shooting stretches the floor in ways Boston needs, particularly when Mazzulla uses Queta or Robinson at center.
Those big men provide vertical spacing, offensive rebounding and rim protection. Neither one is naturally dragging a defender away from the paint. Hauser gives those groups oxygen.
The best example came against Detroit. White, Hauser, Tatum, George and Queta turned a 39-39 game into a 57-43 Celtics lead in roughly five minutes. That lineup produced a 172.7 offensive rating and a 136.4 net rating, which are hilarious numbers that should not be treated as remotely sustainable. The part worth taking seriously was the fit. Four shooters surrounding Queta gave everyone room to operate.
Mazzulla returned to the same idea against New York.
George was getting ready to set this pin down for Hauser but he rejects it seeing PG had the mismatch
NYK doubles and Hauser sets screen for Pritchard to go to corner and McBride follows – Hauser open 3 pic.twitter.com/y7KEhBVBHE
Hauser opened the fourth quarter alongside Robinson, Pritchard, White and George. Later, with the Knicks threatening, Mazzulla used Hauser next to Queta in a lineup with Tatum, George and White.
The shooting explains why Hauser fits, but his defense might be why Mazzulla can keep turning to him.
Hauser still gets hunted occasionally because opposing stars see a white guy with a sensible haircut and make certain assumptions. Those assumptions have not produced easy baskets as often as expected. According to NBA tracking data from last season, opponents shot 0.7 percentage points below their expected field-goal percentage when Hauser was the closest defender.
He is sturdy enough to survive switches, rarely wanders away from the scheme and has become good at forcing scorers into shots the defense can live with. Nobody is asking him to turn into Scottie Pippen. He just can’t be the loose thread every offense tries to pull.
That combination of competent defense and elite shooting allows Mazzulla to place him almost anywhere without creating an obvious problem at either end.
Queta did make his only three-point attempt against New York, so Hauser should probably keep an eye on his job. Queta is currently shooting 100% from deep, and I refuse to entertain any small-sample-size arguments at this time.
Until Queta starts receiving the same treatment behind the arc, Hauser gives Mazzulla a proven shooter without handing opposing offenses an obvious place to attack.
The young wings are not receiving equal auditions
Walsh, Scheierman, González and Ron Harper Jr. entered the season as Boston’s collection of young wings. The first two games have not treated them as interchangeable.
Walsh has started both games and played 33 minutes and 45 seconds. His offense remains a work in progress, but Mazzulla has given him difficult defensive assignments, including Cade Cunningham in Detroit and Jalen Brunson against the Knicks, and allowed him to play through mistakes. He also rewarded that patience against New York, hitting a three and scoring on a nice cut during Boston’s third-quarter run.
I asked Paul George what he saw from Jordan Walsh against Jalen Brunson tonight and how, when Walsh was matched up with him, that freed George to be a defensive playmaker off the ball.
Scheierman has played 29 minutes and 22 seconds. He scored eight points in the opener, made both of his threes and already looks more willing to make a quick decision when the ball finds him. Mazzulla has used him in both halves of both games, including alongside Tatum during the third quarter Friday.
González has played just 13 minutes and 18 seconds. Only Garza has played fewer. Harper has yet to see the floor at all.
González checked in midway through the first quarter against New York, stayed on the court for three minutes and 35 seconds and never returned. His 13 total minutes are less than half of Scheierman’s and well below Walsh’s.
That isn’t a verdict on a 20-year-old two games into his second NBA season. González had a really encouraging preseason, and his size, defensive instincts and fearlessness should get him onto the court plenty as the season wears on. Boston’s first back-to-back arrives Monday and Tuesday, which may create an opportunity almost immediately.
For now, Mazzulla appears more comfortable with Walsh’s defense and Scheierman’s…Scheiermanning. The gap is worth noticing without declaring it permanent. These first two games show Mazzulla’s initial preferences with a healthy roster. They don’t tell us what the rotation will look like after a difficult back-to-back, an injury or the first time somebody ahead of González stops giving the Celtics what they need.
Garza provided a useful reminder that the bottom of the rotation can still change quickly. He entered against New York, scored eight points in three and a half minutes, made two threes, drew a charge and returned to the bench like a man who had broken into the game, emptied the register and disappeared before anyone could identify him.
Great opening sequence by Luka Garza
Steal on defense as he plays the Spain perfectly then hits the corner three after the Tatum timely pass
Mazzulla will need those little bursts over 82 games, but every player producing one doesn’t suddenly move into the permanent rotation.
Right now, Walsh and Scheierman have the longer runway. González is waiting for his next opening. Harper is waiting for his first.
Tatum and George are sharing the floor, and the workload
The Celtics did not acquire George so he and Tatum could alternate isolations while everyone else watched. Through two games, Mazzulla has started working on a more useful kind of staggering.
Against the Knicks, Tatum rested to begin the second quarter while George played with Pritchard, White, Hauser and Garza. Tatum played the entire third, with George sitting for the final four and a half minutes. George then opened the fourth while Tatum rested.
At the 6:53 mark, Tatum replaced George. Just over two minutes later, George returned and the two stars finished the game together.
The basic rhythm is beginning to emerge. Tatum and George overlap at the beginning and end of halves, then take turns anchoring the middle. Pritchard moves between both groups. White can run the offense with either. Hauser gives each of them another outlet when the defense loads up.
The arrangement should keep Boston from living through too many possessions without a high-level creator. It also gives George stretches where he can operate as the primary option instead of trying to fit his touches around Tatum’s.
There will be nights when the rotation gets smaller. Injuries, foul trouble and matchups will rearrange all of this. If we have learned anything about Mazzulla, it’s that he will happily abandon Tuesday’s rotation by Thursday and seem mildly irate that anyone expected otherwise.
Still, his first two games have given us a working hierarchy.
Tatum, White and George are the foundation. Pritchard is a starter, his words, not mine. Hauser and the two centers give Mazzulla different ways to build around them. Walsh and Scheierman have received meaningful auditions. González, Garza and Harper are waiting for the game that calls for them.
There are still 80 games left. Roles will change, new lineups will emerge and Mazzulla may render half of this article obsolete by Thanksgiving. For now, we get to study two games far more closely than any reasonable person should, because Celtics basketball is finally back.
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND - SEPTEMBER 23: Gunnar Henderson #2 of the Baltimore Orioles prepares to catch a pop up during game one of a baseball doubleheader against the Toronto Blue Jays at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on September 23, 2026 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Hello, friends.
There are 150 days remaining until the next scheduled Orioles game. There are probably something like 110 days before we will actually know whether an Orioles game or any other game will be played on that day.
They won’t be playing a World Series game today. It’s an off day as the series travels from Milwaukee to Tampa, or more accurately St. Petersburg. Game 3 will be played tomorrow. If you were watching Game 2 last night, you certainly got your fill of the excitement from the get-go, with the Rays taking a 4-0 lead in the first inning that they gradually squandered by the sixth inning. Former Oriole Tyler Wells was involved in the Rays falling behind in the seventh.
I had to put the Bird Droppings to bed before the game ended, so maybe there was even more excitement and the Rays came back and tied up the series, or maybe the Brewers held on to take a 2-0 lead. You probably already knew before looking in here. Either way, do you think that this series will end in Florida, or will it end up going back to Wisconsin?
One thing is certain: The World Series will be over within a week, and after that, there will be a race to the end of November before the lockout hits. Will teams be looking to strike early, thinking that it will be better to head into the lockout with more certainty, or will they generally think that it’s better to try to pounce in whatever chaotic period occurs between a new Collective Bargaining Agreement and the start of the 2027 season?
Up until last season, Mike Elias had been a “wait until later” kind of guy. He did some early strikes last offseason, including the trade for Taylor Ward and the signing of Ryan Helsley. Pete Alonso getting signed was also fairly early in the offseason, though since it was in December, that same date this year will be lockout central. The only thing that I feel confident in predicting about Elias is that he’s going to do something weird. This doesn’t always equate to failure.
The Orioles definitely have a shopping list to get through this offseason, but they’ve got some stuff to figure out internally too. One of the bigger projects that they are going to need to accomplish is going to be to get Gunnar Henderson looking like his MVP-caliber self from 2024 again. Pairing that level of player with Pete Alonso would be a huge! I don’t know whether new general manager Jared Banner is going to have any better ideas than anyone who was around last year did. As you’ll see below, Henderson still has his believers with the Orioles – not like they have much choice.
Orioles stuff you might have missed
We are into the time of year where there aren’t many new stories, so if you have been diligently reading Bird Droppings, you may have already seen these.
Can Jared Banner fix the Orioles? Here’s what his mentors said. (The Baltimore Banner) We’ve all been burned with similar-sounding praise for manager Craig Albernaz a year ago, so I get it if you don’t put much stock in this. People who would know are nonetheless quite positive about the new GM hire.
Rising prospect Ethan Anderson wrapped strong season with stellar homecoming (Orioles.com) The catching prospect, who went to high school in Virginia Beach, played the final week of the season with Triple-A Norfolk. His results at Double-A offered a nice sign that maybe not everyone from the top of the Orioles 2024 draft class is cursed.
Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries
Nothing of particular import has happened to the Orioles on October 25. It is unlikely to change until some day that they actually make the World Series again.
There are a pair of former Orioles who were born on this day. They are: 1983/1988 outfielder Tito Landrum, and 1960 three-gamer Bobby Thomson.
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: composer Johann Strauss (1825), composer Georges Bizet (1838), baseball Hall of Famer Pedro Martínez (1971), author Zadie Smith (1975), singer-songwriter Katy Perry (1984), singer-songwriter Ciara (1985), and gold medal figure skater Victor Zhou (2000).
On this day in history…
In 1415, England’s Henry V scored a victory in the Battle of Agincourt during the Hundred Years’ War, utilizing his longbows to defeat a numerically superior French force. Shakespeare wrote a famous speech set before the battle.
In 1812, notable Marylander Stephen Decatur – born on the Eastern Shore – led the USS United States in capturing a British warship, HMS Macedonian. Decatur eventually returned the prize to American waters, the first time an American naval vessel had brought a British warship back to an American harbor.
In 1917, according to the Old Style calendar then used in Russia, today marked the start of the October Revolution, the coup that brought the Bolsheviks to power in the country.
**
And that’s the way it is in Birdland on October 25. Have a safe Sunday.
Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Freddy Peralta works out before Game 2 of the World Series in Milwaukee on Saturday. Peralta is set to pitch in Game 3 on Monday. (Kayla Wolf / Associated Press)
In retrospect, conventional wisdom might not be all that wise. Just check out this postseason.
The Atlanta Braves should have started Chris Sale in Game 2 of the division series against the Dodgers. They didn’t. They won.
The Braves then had an edge with Sale starting Game 3. They didn’t. They lost that game, and they were eliminated in the next game.
The Milwaukee Brewers should have considered trading rookie pitcher Logan Henderson in a package for Tarik Skubal, a win-now proposition for a team that has dominated the regular season but had not appeared in the World Series in 44 years. They didn’t. Skubal and the Dodgers missed the World Series, and Henderson started Game 2 for the Brewers on Saturday, helping them move within two victories from their first championship.
That brings us to Freddy Peralta, who starts Game 3 for the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday. Peralta was one of the top pitchers in the majors for the Brewers last year, and he has been one of the top pitchers in the majors since the Rays acquired him from the New York Mets three months ago, but in between he performed so poorly for the Mets that he cannot really explain why.
“Sometimes I ask the same question myself,” Peralta said.
So poorly that, when the league’s website ranked the most impactful trades at the deadline, the Peralta deal did not make the top 10, behind trades for six other starting pitchers: Skubal, Casey Mize and Robbie Ray to the San Diego Padres, Kevin Gausman and Clay Holmes to the Chicago Cubs, and Jose Soriano to the Toronto Blue Jays.
Conventional wisdom? No big deal.
For the Mets, Peralta put up a 4.99 ERA and a negative WAR. For the Rays, he put up an 0.79 ERA in his last six starts of the regular season and a 1.07 ERA so far in the postseason, honored as American League Championship Series MVP.
“I feel like he’s kind of come back to being Freddy Peralta with us,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said.
Peralta went 17-6 with a 2.70 earned-run average for Milwaukee last year, leading the National League in victories and posting 5.5 WAR, third behind Cristopher Sanchez of the Philadelphia Phillies and Cy Young winner Paul Skenes of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
If you wonder why the Brewers would trade Peralta, well, you don’t know the Brewers.
Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Freddy Peralta throws against the Cleveland Guardians in Game 6 of the ALCS on Oct. 19. (Phelan M. Ebenhack / Associated Press)
Peralta was approaching free agency, and the Brewers routinely trade All-Star pitchers like that for prospects: Corbin Burnes, Josh Hader, Devin Williams.
This is how the Brewers restock: The Burnes trade brought two pieces of this World Series team, pitcher DL Hall and infielder Joey Ortiz. The Hader trade brought Game 3 starter Robert Gasser and journeyman outfielder Estuery Ruiz, and within a subsequent three-team trade, the Brewers swiped All-Star catcher William Contreras for Ruiz.
The Mets wanted Peralta for what they considered an inevitable playoff run, with the largest Opening Day payroll of any major league team, the Dodgers included. The Mets finished in last place, and Peralta’s ERA exceeded 6.00 in each of the two months preceding the trade deadline.
“I was feeling bad,” Peralta said, “because I couldn’t do anything.”
The adjustments the Mets asked him to make, he said, were “a little different” than the ones that reversed the course of his season with the Rays.
The Rays let him pitch from the stretch, as he had in Milwaukee. They modified his delivery, including having him start it from the third-base side of the pitching rubber. His fastball got faster: 94 mph with the Mets, hitting 97 mph in the playoffs.
“We see that he’s in his element, man,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “That’s Fastball Freddy.”
In Milwaukee, it’s all love for Peralta. The fans even cheered his bullpen session there before Game 1.
He’ll start Game 3 in Tampa Bay and, after that, who knows, but he would be lined up to start a potential Game 7 in Milwaukee.
“I know how special it is to pitch on this mound here in Milwaukee,” Peralta said. “I would like to pitch here during the postseason.”
Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Freddy Peralta celebrates during Game 2 of the ALCS against the Cleveland Guardians on Oct. 13. (David J. Phillip / Associated Press)
He would have liked to pitch in New York during the postseason too.
“They had a lot of big expectations for me, the fans too, in New York,” he said. “They were waiting for something great from me.”
Conventional wisdom can boomerang. The conventional wisdom on Peralta’s free agency in the spring: he should make more in free agency than any pitcher besides Skubal; in the summer: this is a bad year to take into free agency; in the fall: he should make more in free agency than any pitcher besides Skubal.
But, given what happened in New York, what were the realistic expectations in Tampa Bay?
“I was able to go to a new team that probably needed me for …” Peralta said, his voice trailing off.
ATLANTA, GA - OCTOBER 01: Justin Crawford #2 of the Philadelphia Phillies enters the dugout prior to Game Three of the National League Wild Card Series presented by AbbVie between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Atlanta Braves at Truist Park on Thursday, October 1, 2026 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Rob Tringali/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
I find myself becoming a crotchety old man watching baseball these days, so seeing these two teams in the World Series makes me happy. I am especially enamored with watching Chandler Simpson….yet I can’t really stand Justin Crawford, a Simpson lite type of player.
MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN - OCTOBER 23: A general view inside the stadium prior to game one of the 2026 World Series between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Milwaukee Brewers at American Family Field on October 23, 2026 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Game 2 of the World Series started off with a bang, the Rays jumping out to a 4-0 lead and threatening to tie this thing back up with their ace Drew Rasmussen on the mound. The Brewers had other plans though, and did what they’ve done all postseason long — chip away at any deficit, flip it into a lead and shut down the opposition’s chances to get anything else going. Lo and behold, it worked again and Milwaukee is heading out of town with a 2-0 lead hoping that their next flight back home will be with a trophy in tow. The Rays have certainly threatened in this Fall Classic so it won’t be a cakewalk, especially going into Tropicana Field where they’ve had the best home record in baseball, but the Brew Crew have to like their odds.
It’ll be a busy day here as we close out the weekend, and Matt has contributed heavily to the cause today: he’ll lead off with an extended look at how Game 2 went down last night before covering his own exploits avenging the Yankees’ dismal results by wrecking havoc in some MLB The Show sims, and then rounding it all out with a look at Bobby Brown’s incredible career as a baseball player and a cardiologist. Estevao takes a look at which contract the Yankees would blip out of existence from their current roster if they could, and John ends the day with the weekly social media spotlight.
Today’s Playoff Matchup:
Off-day
Questions/Prompts:
1. Was stealing Game 2 back after falling behind 4-0 in the Rasmussen start a dagger for Milwaukee, or do you expect the Rays to claw their way back into this series?
2. How will Fastball Freddy fare in his World Series debut against his former team?
James Tedesco inspires in otherwise underwhelming Australia outing
Tonight’s referee is NRL veteran Gerard Sutton.
A quick reminder about the 2026 men’s Rugby League World Cup format.
The 2026 men’s RLWC features ten teams. Eight of these qualified via their performances at the last world cup, back in 2022. That is: Australia, New Zealand, England, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, PNG, and Lebanon. The first seven countries in that list also happen to be the top seven on the IRL rankings; Lebanon are a lowly 23rd.
The remaining qualifiers, France and Cook Islands, won regional playoffs. Cook Islands are ranked eighth in the world, by the way, France recently held that position but have slipped to 11th. In other words, the cream of the crop will be on display.
The tournament will be played under NRL rules, including six players on the interchange bench with up to four to be used.
The ten teams have been distributed into three pools.
Pool A contains Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, and Cook Islands. The top two from this group qualify for the semi-finals.
The teams in Pool B (England, Samoa, Lebanon) play the teams in Pool C (Tonga, PNG, France) with the top two on a combined group table qualifying for the semi-finals.
The winner of Pool A takes on the runner-up from Pool B&C in Sydney.
The winner of Pool B&C takes on the runner-up from Pool A in Newcastle.
The world cup final is in Brisbane on 15 November.
The group phase will take place over three weekends.
The fourth weekend will feature the semi-finals, with the final wrapping up proceedings the following Sunday.
10 locations will host matches. Eight of these are in Australia: Sydney (Allianz Arena), Sydney (Commbank Arena), Brisbane, Newcastle, Gold Coast, Townsville, Wollongong, and Perth; while Port Moresby will host two Papua New Guinea matches, and Christchurch will stage one New Zealand fixture.
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS - OCTOBER 23: Jalen Brunson #11 of the New York Knicks dribbles downcourt against Jordan Walsh #27 of the Boston Celtics during second quarter of the Celtics Home Opener at TD Garden on October 23, 2026 in Boston, Massachusetts. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images) | Getty Images
A basketball game can span over 200 shots with over 600 passes thrown and eighteen miles ran over 48 minutes. There’s a beautiful randomness to it all. But if you dig down and zoom in on every 24-second possession, there may not be anything more important than the point of attack and how it’s defended.
Jalen Brunson won Finals MVP last summer as the champs’ point of the spear, the head of their offensive snake. And in the Celtics’ first matchup against the Knicks, Jayson Tatum’s clutch play and 36 points in the home opener will deservedly grab all the headlines in the 107-103 win at TD Garden.
Jordan Walsh wasn’t even on the parquet when Tatum hit shot-after-shot-after-three-point-shot down the stretch. His work was already done.
Brunson didn’t exactly have a bad game: 19 points (7-of-17 from the field) and four assists. But he had to grind for it and sometimes, being able to just blunt the steel and defang some of the bite is a good day’s work.
“I thought he was special. He set the tone,” Paul George said of Walsh’s defense on the All-NBA Second Team point guard. “Jalen is a handful and for a young guy, he can be a lot. Jordan took the challenge. He did a great job of navigating being physical and not being overly physical. He gave him some good looks defensively to frustrate him and get him out of rhythm.”
Heading into training camp, Walsh wasn’t on many people’s bingo card as a possible starter. Some thought that Payton Pritchard would get the promotion or more of an offensive connector like Baylor Scheirman might join Tatum, George, and Derrick White. Now, through three preseason games and now two regular season games against Brunson and Cade Cunningham, it’s easy to see how the four-year player fits into the opening five’s ecosystem as the designated stopper.
After the game, George also remarked that because of Walsh’s on-ball presence on Brunson, that freed him up to be a free safety behind Walsh; including the preseason, he’s grabbed 14 steals in four games.
Walsh signed a three-year, $15 million extension over the summer. His only mistake so far has been telling head coach Joe Mazzulla that he felt like a vet in training camp. Otherwise, it’s in games and matchups like the one last night against the defending champs and Brunson that Walsh has shined in.
“[Brunson]’s a guy that can keep his dribble, he can create separation with multiple moves. I thought Jordan’s second half was important for us,” Mazzulla said. “He had a layup in transition, he had a catch-and-shoot three, he had some great defensive possessions. Even when he fouled, we need that type of physicality. I thought tonight, we saw a version of him at his best and that’s what he’s gotta be for us and he’s gotta continue to get better.”
After the game, Brunson noted that the 0-2 Knicks failed to impose their physicality on offense. Or maybe, just maybe, that’s just the Walsh effect.
Intrigue has deepened into Marnus Labuschagne’s hold on an Australian Test spot with the under-fire No.3 not in his usual batting rotation in the main nets training session at Newlands on Sunday.
St. Petersburg, FL: New York Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake watches as New York Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole warm-ups in the bullpen session as the New York Yankees practice before the ALDS at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida on Oct 2, 2026. (Photo by William Perlman/Newsday RM via Getty Images) | Newsday via Getty Images
MLB Trade Rumors | Charlie Wright: As my colleague Madison covered in detail yesterday, the Yankees finalized a three-year extension for pitching coach Matt Blake, keeping probably the most important member of their coaching staff in the fold. The Yankees pitching staff boasted the best ERA in the league (3.23), and that has as much to do with Blake’s work with star and presumptive AL Cy Young Cam Schlittler as it has to do with his well-known talent for converting pitchers they acquire into impact relievers, Brent Headrick and Paul Blackburn the foremost examples this season. With Blake continuing in his role and last year’s reunion with assistant pitching coach Desi Druschel, the Yankees’ pitching development factory looks to be in good hands for the near future.
The Big Lead | J.P Hoornstra: The Yankees may have succeeded in retaining Blake, but they lost another influential voice in their pitching room. Spencer Medick, pitching coach for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, has agreed to join the Astros as their new major league director of pitching. It’s a huge promotion for a minor league pitching coach and one that is well deserved given how well Yankees prospects at that level pitched in 2026. Medick helped implement the organization-wide pitching philosophy at the level closest to the majors, and it is no surprise that the Yankees minor league affiliates lapped the field when it came to K-BB%, one of the best publicly available predictive stats for future performance.
SNY | Phillip Martinez: The Yankees’ infield is in need of a major revamp this offseason, though it remains to be seen whether that renovation is forthcoming. We’ve spent the last few days wondering about second base and Jazz Chisholm Jr.‘s future, and today we shift our attention to third. The Yankees have been among the worst teams in the league at third base over the last decade, the platoon of Ryan McMahon and Amed Rosario the latest to disappoint at the hot corner. The most likely course in 2027 would be a platoon between McMahon and Caballero given they are both still under contract, though they could consider shifting Anthony Volpe after he took reps there leading into the postseason. Looking outside the organization, the author considers trade proposals for Eugenio Suárez and Isaac Paredes while also examining the free agent cases of Alec Bohm and Bo Bichette should he opt out of his deal with the Mets.
MLB.com | Sweeny Murti: Almost 70 years after attending the last World Series win in Milwaukee, Joe Torre is back in the city that gave him his shot in baseball watching another Fall Classic. Torre was just a teenager when the Milwaukee Braves defeated the Yankees in seven games in 1957, his older brother a backup first baseman on the winning team. Torre played the first six seasons of his career in Milwaukee for the Braves before the franchise moved to Atlanta, and you can bet the Hall of Fame player and manager is rooting for the home team.
The Knicks are catching an injury break.BOSTON — The Knicks are catching an injury break.
Paolo Banchero, the leading scorer for the Magic, will miss Sunday’s game at MSG after being diagnosed with a high ankle sprain.
Banchero, an All-Star power forward, sustained the injury in the fourth quarter of Friday’s loss to the Timberwolves.
In an opening-night loss to the Hawks earlier in the week, Banchero dropped 35 points on an efficient 10-for-12 shooting.
Paolo Banchero goes up for a shot during the Magic’s loss to the Timberwolves on Oct. 23, 2026 in Orlando, Fla. NBAE via Getty Images
The Magic, like the Knicks, are 0-2.
In fact, the Knicks, who fell to the Celtics on Friday, are the first defending champs to lose their first two games since the Dallas Mavericks in 2011.
“We break the season into five-game segments,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said before New York’s comeback fell short in Boston. “There are marks that we like to hit in those five games and it kind of gives us a good feel of where you were, in a fair amount of games, and to see if you can make progress in the next five.
“Obviously you want to go 5-0, you’ll take 4-1, and then maybe you have to take 3-2. But if you’re doing anything less than that, you know that nobody is reaching their potential.”
Ringgate prompted another statement.
A day after the Knicks announced they were handing out 275 championship rings to employees at the cost of $3.7 million, an MSG spokesperson clarified Saturday that it was always the plan and not a response to the backlash of a report in The Athletic about empty ring boxes and callous cybersecurity tests.
“There is a great deal of misinformation regarding the championship rings,” Saturday’s statement read. “The plan has always been to distribute more than 275 rings and jewelry to the people in the organization who were part of last season’s success. As is common with many teams, the players were always supposed to get their rings as part of the opening-night ceremony and then everyone else will receive theirs in about four to six weeks.
“Regarding the phishing email, the process of securing and reminding our employees to protect our IP was not a mistake but the choice to use the ring to do so was a mistake and we apologize to our employees and the fans. Winning the championship was a great moment for all New Yorkers. Those who choose to focus on the negative are missing the joy that comes with the team’s accomplishment.”
CLEVELAND — This isn’t the first time the Nets looked to Julius Randle to be a floor raiser.
With their overt tanking over, Brooklyn traded for the soon-to-be-32-year-old forward this summer in hopes of being more competitive.
But sources told The Post that the Nets nearly brought Randle in years earlier, back in 2019.
Armed with an ocean of cap space that summer and intent on big-game hunting, general manager Sean Marks landed Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.
Julius Randle drives on Evan Mobley during the Nets’ 125-121 loss to the Cavaliers on Oct. 24, 2026 in Cleveland. AP
But had Durant not been sold on becoming Brooklyn’s franchise player, sources told The Post that they would have invested in a still up-and-coming Randle.
In the end, Randle got traded from New Orleans to the Knicks, where he actually hit his prime. He spent five years in the Garden and making all three of his All-Star berths, turning them from a lottery team into a playoff contender.
Randle had 23 points, six rebounds and five assists in Saturday’s nail-biting loss at Cleveland. He joined James Harden as the only Nets with 20-5-5 in consecutive games to start the season.
“We just got to stay positive and connected as a group. Adversities are going to happen, there’s going to be bumps and bruises. But the last thing we can do as a team is separate,” Randle said. “So we just got stay connected, positive as a group. Find the positives in the game of how we can build on that. And just continue to go from there.”
Egor Dëmin and Mikel Brown Jr. finally got on the floor together, logging four minutes in the fourth quarter. They were a plus-5 and sparked a 14-2 run.
Brown is on a minutes limit that has kept him from starting.
Asked if he had seen enough to at least deploy the together within the constraints of that minutes limit, coach Jordi Fernández was noncommittal.
“If you’re coaching thinking you want to play certain guys together, it’s when usually you’re doing it for the wrong reasons,” Fernández said. “A lot of times you have to coach the game feeling the game. Obviously you have a preparation — you look at their matchups, their sub patterns, yours, your lineups — and you have an ideal way of how you want the game to go. But then when the game goes, there’s fouls, there’s guys that play better or worse. Then you have to start coaching the game, and see who can guard this guy or all these things. Then the game flows.”
“Mikel had a good moment of making a couple of shots. He was vocal. He felt like he was giving his energy. I had the starting group on the bench, then that’s when I felt like it was a good moment to play together. Did I plan it? No. But a lot of times it’s how basketball is, right? We have all this preparation, the coaches do a great job putting all these pages and film and so forth. But then at the end of the day, you have to react to a lot of things that are not controllable in the game.”
The answer is relatively immaterial, since only one thing matters: The Brewers are up 2-0 in this World Series after a 5-4 Game 2 victory, their second one-run conquest and a most unlikely one given that the club trailed 4-0 after a half-inning.
Or maybe it was totally predictable.
The Brewers are now 9-1 in this postseason and, stunningly, have won seven of eight games in which they have trailed. Relentless. Demoralizing.
Two wins from a World Series championship.
Let’s break down the winners and losers of Game 2 from American Family Field as the Series shifts to the Gulf Coast:
Winner: Brewers bullpen
This is getting ridiculous.
The Rays ran a blitz on Brewers starter Logan Henderson, posting a 4-0 lead after a half-inning, catcher Liam Hicks achieving a career highlight with a two-run World Series home run.
Predictably, Henderson was out after three innings. Perhaps even more easily anticipated: Milwaukee’s bullpen did not give up a single run in six innings, striking out six and walking one.
The Brewers bullpen is now 8-1 with a 1.24 ERA in 50 ⅔ innings this season. Lefty Aaron Ashby recorded the last five outs for the save, running his postseason line to 15 ⅔ innings, zero runs.
"I’ll take this quote from Freddie Freeman: They all throw 100," says Rays outfielder Jonny DeLuca. "That usually is pretty tough and they all got pretty good stuff. They’re just good pitchers."
Ashby is one out shy of equaling Andrew Miller’s record 16-inning scoreless streak to begin the 2016 postseason.
“What he's doing right now is pretty special,” says first baseman Jake Bauers. “There's just such a calm presence on the mound with him right now that I don't remember seeing very often.
“And you know, we wouldn't be here without him.”
There tend to be diminishing returns with relievers in long postseasons; Miller hit the wall badly in the final three games of that 2016 World Series, and conventional wisdom says opponents fare better when they see a reliever multiple times.
Well, Ashby faced the San Diego Padres three times. Same with the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers. And now the Tampa Bay Rays got two looks at him in World Series Games 1 and 2.
Ashby has yet to give up a run. The window to sully him is almost closed.
Sal Frelick: Winner
Say this for Brewers manager Pat Murphy: He can certainly call his shot.
Murphy was asked pregame about Frelick and couldn’t stop gushing, dropping comparisons to Joe Montana and Larry Bird.
“He’s got the it factor,” says Murphy, leaving the observer to use their own imagination.
In the sixth inning, Frelick made it crystal clear. His epic nine-pitch at-bat ended in a 408-foot bullet over the wall in right center field, tying the game 4-4 in the sixth inning. It was his first homer this postseason and perhaps will be remembered as the most impactful longball whenever this Brewers run concludes.
“Sort of this blackout feeling,” says Frelick of his trip around the bases.
And almost lights out for Tampa Bay.
Kevin Cash: Loser
Tough gig, this postseason managing. And losing a pair of World Series games by one run can leave a winter worth of soul-searching.
Not that Cash blatantly pushed the wrong buttons. He just keeps ending up in tight situations and trying to leverage his way out of them.
In Game 2, it was ace Drew Rasmussen suddenly becoming an avatar of inefficiency, the Brewers hen-pecking him by fouling off 22 pitches and forcing him from the game in the fourth inning.
Top lefty reliever Cam Booser had to be summoned then to douse a bases-loaded situaoitn and pitched a scoreless fifth. But Ian Seymour’s fusillade of fastballs backfired when Frelick took him deep.
And lifting Tyler Wells for Kevin Kelly yielded a somewhat predictable result in the seventh inning: Kelly averaged less than a strikeout per inning this season. And Brewers shortstop Cooper Pratt, well, he put the ball in play, dropping a 90-mph sinker into right field to drive in Brice Turang with the go-ahead run.
“Cooper Pratt did a heck of a job staying on the ball, not trying to do too much, and shoot it the other way,” says Cash.
Stolen bases: Winner
The Brewers tallied five, the Rays two. Not to say the Go-Go Era is back in baseball; it was mostly pitcher malfeasance/indifference to keeping runners close.
Nonetheless, the Brewers’ five steals matched the 2024 Yankees in Game 4; the last time a club stole five bases in a World Series game minus today’s freewheeling pickoff rules was 1992, when Atlanta did it thanks to two swipes from none other than Deion Sanders.
The mystery of the check swing: Loser
Yeah, that automated check-swing replay thing is probably a foregone conclusion now, given how this game ended with Yandy Díaz’s arms spread wide in protest after crew chief James Hoye rang him up.
Cash thought Díaz swung, and Yandy generally agreed, though he did drop a couple “It is what it is,” a phrase that drops like a brick in any language.
Still, the call wasn’t nearly as questionable as, say, Wilmer Flores’ NLDS-ending strikeout against Max Scherzer and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Yet in our societal thirst for optimization, we will probably leave those calls up to robots soon enough, too.
Tampa Bay ticket brokers: Loser
Nothing quite like a team coming home in a 2-0 deficit to goose enthusiasm when the club has struggled to sell all tickets, anyway. Seats were still available on the Rays web site - running $675 apiece for the second level.
Suffice to say, the Rays likely won't come near the $2,300 get-in record Milwaukee set for Game 1. But there could be a nice boost in Games 4 and 5 - what with Milwaukeeans wanting to see their team clinch.
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA - OCTOBER 22: Jaylen Brown #7 of the Philadelphia 76ers reacts during the fourth quarter against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Xfinity Mobile Arena on October 22, 2026 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Former Boston Celtics teammates Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are both in agreement: there’s no beef, bad blood, or resentment to address.
On Friday night, most of Tatum’s nearly 13-minute-long postgame press conference was dedicated to responding to Brown’s “cap” emoji under an Instagram video clip from Tatum’s ‘Summer of Jayson’ docuseries — where he claimed he was caught off guard by Brown’s trade to the Philadelphia 76ers in July. He denied any existence of beef with Brown, noting several times it was beneath them.
Brown revealed he had heard all of Tatum’s comments after Philadelphia’s 127-116 win over the Milwaukee Bucks.
“I didn’t see the full thing, but I saw that he said there’s no beef, and he’s right,” Brown told reporters on Saturday night, per NBC Sports Philadelphia. “There’s no beef. Jayson comes from a wonderful family. We’ve accomplished some great things. He’s a hell of a basketball player. He’s got a great PR team. There’s no beef, but it might be a little lamb chops and some gravy. He should stay ready at all times.”
Unlike Tatum’s approach at the podium, Brown seemed much more subliminal, which isn’t new.
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA – OCTOBER 22: Jaylen Brown #7 of the Philadelphia 76ers looks on during the first quarter against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Xfinity Mobile Arena on October 22, 2026 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty Images) | Getty Images
For years, Brown would use similar messaging to vent whether it’d be directed at the NBA, officials, or ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith. But this time it’s not a referee with a whistle or a loudmouth media figure. Tatum was Brown’s right-hand man for nearly a decade, going through 121 playoff games, five trips to the Eastern Conference Finals and two to the NBA Finals. They won a championship in 2024, raising Boston’s long-awaited 18th banner and were poised to ride their careers into the sunset together as one of the Celtics’ all-time duos.
That all changed over the summer.
Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens tried to use Brown to bring Giannis Antetokounmpo from Milwaukee to Boston, and when that failed, it became time for a backup plan. So instead, Stevens shipped Brown to the rival Sixers in exchange for 36-year-old Paul George plus four future draft selections, officially bringing the Tatum-Brown era to an end.
“Like I said, it’s no beef,” Brown reiterated. “The PR and all that type stuff, it is what it is, but I think we’re both focused on what’s in front of us.”
Rather than getting to follow up on his career-best season — a year in which he finished sixth in MVP voting — Brown was forced to take his talents to the City of Brotherly Love to join forces with LeBron James, Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey.
Coughing up a 3-1 series lead in Game 7 at TD Garden was Brown’s final game in a Celtics uniform.
Tatum sat on the bench with left knee discomfort, and the thousands of Celtics fans in attendance fled TD Garden both disappointed and under the assumption the team would run in back with both Tatum and Brown in 2026-27. And based on Tatum’s reaction in his offseason YouTube docuseries, the 28-year-old foresaw that too.
During the preseason, Brown and Tatum didn’t greet each other during warmups. They went about their pregame routines on opposite sides of the court and didn’t acknowledge one another before going back into the players’ tunnels.
If Brown does accept Tatum’s open invitation for a conversation, he’ll have plenty of opportunities, including four upcoming Celtics-Sixers matchups scheduled this season. The first is set for Nov. 10 in Philadelphia.
“At the end of the day, we gotta do what you gotta do for his team,” Brown said. “I gotta do what I do for my team.”
