Winger enters Europa League final as his club’s top scorer this season after showing application alongside ability
“It’s easy when things aren’t going well to come up with excuses,” Brennan Johnson says and, with things not going well for him at Tottenham, there was plenty of stuff that he could have hidden behind.
The weight of the £47.5m fee which took him from Nottingham Forest in September 2023; Spurs have paid more for only three players in their history. The sky-high expectations of being at one of London’s glamour clubs. Apart from a loan to League One Lincoln in 2020-21, Johnson had known life only in Nottingham and at Forest, whose academy he joined at the age of eight. And then there was the social media abuse; kryptonite for confidence.
Since re-joining the Philadelphia Flyers as the 25th head coach in franchise history, Rick Tocchet has been all the rage in the media and in national circles. And for good reason.
One of the main draws for Tocchet, in the eyes of Flyers GM Danny Briere, is his attractiveness to players around the league. Veterans, youngsters, and All-Stars from all kinds of different teams are apparently clamoring to play for Tocchet.
And, while many Flyers fans were skeptical of Briere's early Tocchet impressions and considered them to be tropes or buzzwords to generate hype, there's truth to it.
For instance, we know that Vancouver Canucks captain Quinn Hughes loves Tocchet. Now, we're coming to find that the love for Tocchet extends well beyond active players, too.
On Thursday's NHL Network panel, former NHL enforcer Stu Grimson and ex-All-Star goalie Cory Schneider sung Tocchet's praises and gave the Flyers props for landing the big fish of this offseason's hiring cycle.
"Yes, the Flyers are trying to improve their roster on the ice and become a perennial playoff team and eventually a contender, but, if you think about it, as much as anything, it's a cultural rebuild," Grimson said. "To me, Rick Tocchet actually picks up the mantle, picks up the baton and carries it forward.
"You're picking up the development of these young guys and nurturing that, and to me, no better fit for a guy like Rick Tocchet. No knock on [John Tortorella], but when a guy like Rick Tocchet walks to the center of the room, a guy who's had a brilliant career... do you know a lot of guys who had 30 goals and 300 penalty minutes in a single campaign?
"That's a pretty rare player, so when a guy like that walks to the center of the room, you've got the attention, you've got the respect of this group right out of the gate. This is an important place for the bookmark to be inserted and Tocchet takes over going forward. I'm really excited to see what this team looks like a couple years from now under the Tocchet regime."
Some strong words from Grimson and a ringing endorsement, especially given how Tortorella's reign in Philadelphia ended with sputtering, fumbling quotes about the state of the team and an alleged verbal clash with Cam York, among other things.
When your coach has your respect and attention beyond a shadow of a doubt, that's not something that happens.
From Day 1, Tocchet will be an improvement in this aspect.
Schneider, too, believes Tocchet and the Flyers are a perfect match, even beyond the product on the ice. And that's just how the Flyers are as an organization, too. It comes with the territory, literally.
"I think when he opted out of Vancouver, it was a bit of fait accompli that he'd end up in Philly. The match just seemed too perfect," Schneider added, piggybacking off Grimson. "Tocchet and Philly just seemed to make sense. It's not just a team and organization. It's a city, it's a culture, it's an identity. And I think he fits that identity.
"I think he's a great follow-up to Torts. I think he's like a Torts-lite, in the sense that he's a great communicator. I think that's his best attribute. Communication is so paramount in the league today with young players. You have to be able to talk to them, explain to them, let them know where they stand.
"I think a guy like Michkov is going to really thrive underneath him, because [Tocchet] may not demand quite as much defensively as Torts did; he might free you up a little bit offensively, but still instill those habits, the accountability, what he expects out of you. Continuing that culture while maybe freeing some guys up more to do more things, be more creative, use their skill more."
Matvei Michkov, for example, had the ultimate challenge of playing for a disciplinarian like Tortorella in his first NHL season, and even sat out two games entirely as a healthy scratch to the chagrin of hockey fans everywhere.
But the budding Flyers star still managed to post 63 points and lead all NHL rookies in goals with 26. Just imagine where Michkov could go offensively with less emphasis on holding his position in the defensive zone.
Plus, wingers like Tyson Foerster, Owen Tippett, and Bobby Brink all had good, not great, seasons offensively and could all stand to take a step or two forward in that department. Tippett, especially, is rapidly losing developmental runway and is coming off his least productive full season in Philadelphia.
A drastic improvement from Tippett is just the tip of the iceberg of what the Flyers are tasking Tocchet with for the next five seasons.
Fortunately, Tocchet has believers in his ability well outside the confines of the Flyers Training Center and Wells Fargo Center, which should at least inspire a bit more of confidence in his skeptics and critics in the short term.
Both LAFC and the Galaxy were disappointed they couldn't win, but they did come away with renewed optimism about the direction of their respective seasons.
If you were hoping for hints on how the Boston Celtics might navigate a murky path forward, then Brad Stevens’ end-of-the-season debriefing provided little in the way of guidance.
Stevens opened his podium session by politely asking to table questions about roster construction, noting the team wanted to let things breathe a bit following a disappointing second-round exit. Cost-cutting changes are inevitable as the rent comes due for Banner 18. But Stevens wasn’t about to roll out the blueprint for what comes next.
So what did we actually learn about the team’s future? Here are five takeaways, including some nuggets from our exclusive chat with Stevens after his group session:
“This is about full recovery,” Stevens said. “And helping him get back to feeling like himself ASAP. And ASAP can be as long as it takes.
“There is no timeline. There will be different steps along the way that we’ll then say, ‘OK, you can move on to the next step. You can move on to the next step.’ But, ultimately, I think that’s the most important thing. Let’s let this thing heal. Let’s rehab appropriately and it takes what it takes.”
Stevens offered appreciation for how quickly the team was able to get Tatum into surgery, and how being in New York allowed him to be operated on by Dr. Martin J. O’Malley — the same surgeon who did Kevin Durant’s Achilles repair — at the Hospital for Special Surgery,
Could Durant’s timeline offer a hint on Tatum’s recovery? Durant ruptured his Achilles in June of 2019. He sat out the entire 2019-20 season, including the pandemic Bubble restart. Durant returned to the court in December of 2020. Not rushing the process might have helped Durant come back looking much like his pre-injury self.
If Tatum were to sit out the entire 2025-26 season, his return at the start of the 2026-27 season would essentially be 17 months away from game action.
“We know he’s going to be stir crazy. He just loves basketball,” said Stevens. “He’d be stir crazy even though our season’s over and somebody else is playing. He hasn’t missed a summer of playing for [Team] USA since I can remember. The guy just loves to play. And so, yeah, that’s going to be hard for him and it’s going to be a challenge.
“I’m thankful we’re on the other side of the surgery and we are only up from here.”
2. Focus on apron, tax remains the top storyline
The big summer question as the Celtics chart a path forward is whether Boston will make moves with a goal of simply getting below the second apron, or whether the team might yearn to get out of the luxury tax entirely given the potential for a possible bridge season as Tatum recovers.
The Celtics are already $20 million north of the second apron line for next season, and that’s before deciding the future of free agents Al Horford and Luke Kornet. Asked in general how a GM might balance the penalties of the apron versus the tax, Stevens said his immediate focus will be on the apron, given the handcuffs it places on long-term roster building.
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“I start with the basketball penalties part, which is the second apron, and then you weigh those against your chances of being a championship contender,” said Stevens, who got ahead of the curve by both acquiring and extending both Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday in the summer of 2023.
Now, staring at not only a gaudy tax bill but limited in ways to tweak this roster, Celtics brass have acknowledged the inability to keep all their talent moving forward.
But even if this core is overhauled, the Celtics like the potential with what should remain.
“I think one of the best things that we have going for us is we have a lot of good players on good contracts,” said Stevens. “And guys that everybody knows, if we put all those guys out on the floor, you have a chance to win the next game, even without Jayson.
“It becomes a lot harder to be sustainably good without a guy of Jayson’s caliber, but I do think that we just have a lot of winners in our group. And so we’re lucky in that regard.”
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3. C’s stung by missed opportunity
Stevens admitted there’s been a few restless nights in the aftermath of Boston’s second-round exit against the New York Knicks. The Celtics spent the season as favorites to repeat, and it hasn’t been easy to digest the early exit given the way the team fumbled away big leads in both Games 1 and 2 against New York.
“Every year that you don’t end up on top it hurts, and especially when you have a great shot,” said Stevens. “Certainly it stings — we are all stung by it. But we’re all thankful for the journey that these guys did take us on. There’s work to do and that’s the way that you look at it when you’re in my shoes.”
Stevens was asked what he’d take from the past two seasons with this championship core, and even then he admitted it’s hard to get past the recent exit.
“The loss stings way worse than the championship feels good,” said Stevens. “And that’s just the sick and twisted way I live.”
4. Vote of confidence for Mazzulla
Stevens repeatedly offered praise for third-year coach Joe Mazzulla and said the team is fortunate to have him as their coach. What guidance will Stevens given Mazzulla in the offseason?
“He did a good job,” said Stevens. “We love Joe and we’re glad he’s here. My thing with Joe will be the same as it is every year: We’ll see how [the roster] all shakes out, and then you’ll see what you can do to put everybody in the best position to go compete like hell.
“And that’s what we’re always going to try to do. We’ve got so many good players and so many good people that I trust that we’ll be in good shape.”
5. Eyes on NBA Draft, NIL impact
Asked to assess this year’s draft class, Stevens noted that the depth of this year’s available players could be impacted more by NIL money than any other in his tenure.
Stevens noted how the back half of the 2025 NBA Draft could be weakened if players elect to take lucrative NIL money that might be greater than what they can earn as an NBA rookie.
With his team slated to pick at No. 28 and No. 32, Stevens could have some interesting choices depending on which players elect to stay in the draft. If the talent pool is thinned, might the team try to shimmy up, or move out of the draft entirely in order to push those picks into more talent-filled drafts down the road?
Like the roster as a whole, we’ll have to wait for draft night for real answers.
Northampton and Bath have a chance to restore English rugby to its pedestal, but French foes will have other ideas
It has not happened very often. Just once in the past 20 years, to be precise. Winning a single trophy is hard enough but English clubs hoisting aloft both the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup in the same season would be a proper rarity. Other than the Covid-afflicted year of 2020 when Exeter Chiefs and Bristol Bears prevailed in mostly empty stadiums, the last time there was a Premiership double was in May 2004.
Back then Wasps and Harlequins were the happy couple, beating Toulouse and Montferrand respectively. This week also features two Anglo-French finals with Northampton facing Bordeaux-Bègles in the main event and Bath tackling Lyon in Friday night’s amuse bouche. A measure of the challenge facing the English duo is that French clubs have hoovered up seven of the past eight available trophies, with South Africa collecting the other.
This is an extract taken from our weekly rugby union email, the Breakdown. To sign up, just visit this page and follow the instructions.
New York Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said he’ll talk to Juan Soto about hustling out of the batter’s box after the slugger watched his would-be home run bounce off the Green Monster for a single Monday night against the Boston Red Sox.
Leading off the sixth inning on a chilly night at Fenway Park with a 15 mph wind blowing in from left field, Soto hit a 102 mph line drive to left and stood watching as it sailed toward the Green Monster. The ball hit about two-thirds of the way up the 37-foot wall, and Soto was only able to manage a single.
Soto went from pumping a long single to stealing yet another bag
“He thought he had it,” Mendoza told reporters after his team’s 3-1 loss. “But with the wind and all that, and in this ballpark — anywhere, but in particular in this one, with that wall right there — you’ve got to get out of the box. So, yeah, we’ll discuss that.”
Soto stole second on the first pitch to the next batter, but the $765 million star ended up stranded on third. He denied lollygagging on the basepaths.
“I think I’ve been hustling pretty hard,” he said. “If you see it today, you can tell.”
It’s not uncommon for balls hit off the Green Monster to result in singles: In the first inning, Pete Alonso was thrown out trying for second base on a ball off the left-field wall. But Soto had also failed to run hard out of the box on a groundout Sunday night at Yankee Stadium.
New York Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said he’ll talk to Juan Soto about hustling out of the batter’s box after the slugger watched his would-be home run bounce off the Green Monster for a single Monday night against the Boston Red Sox.
Leading off the sixth inning on a chilly night at Fenway Park with a 15 mph wind blowing in from left field, Soto hit a 102 mph line drive to left and stood watching as it sailed toward the Green Monster. The ball hit about two-thirds of the way up the 37-foot wall, and Soto was only able to manage a single.
Soto went from pumping a long single to stealing yet another bag
“He thought he had it,” Mendoza told reporters after his team’s 3-1 loss. “But with the wind and all that, and in this ballpark — anywhere, but in particular in this one, with that wall right there — you’ve got to get out of the box. So, yeah, we’ll discuss that.”
Soto stole second on the first pitch to the next batter, but the $765 million star ended up stranded on third. He denied lollygagging on the basepaths.
“I think I’ve been hustling pretty hard,” he said. “If you see it today, you can tell.”
It’s not uncommon for balls hit off the Green Monster to result in singles: In the first inning, Pete Alonso was thrown out trying for second base on a ball off the left-field wall. But Soto had also failed to run hard out of the box on a groundout Sunday night at Yankee Stadium.
SAN FRANCISCO — It’s been a few years since Robbie Ray felt this good. Late Monday night, he said his seven innings against the Kansas City Royals were the sharpest of the year and described it as being “kinda on auto pilot.” Ray had confidence throwing any pitch in any count, which reminded him of his form in 2021, when he was the American League’s Cy Young Award winner.
A 2025 candidate was on the other side Monday, although right now, if you’re left-handed, you don’t need to pitch like a Cy Young to cut through this Giants lineup.
Bay Area native Kris Bubic threw seven shutout innings to lead the Royals to a 3-1 win, lowering his ERA to 1.47. He became the latest southpaw to make quick work of a team that’s 28-20 overall but just 4-11 when facing a left-handed starter.
The Giants didn’t have a hit off Bubic until the sixth, when Wilmer Flores hit a slow roller that was initially ruled an error but changed to a hit because second baseman Michael Massey slipped before the ball got to him. Bubic allowed just two hits, which has been the norm.
After Monday’s loss, the Giants are batting just .206 against left-handed starters with a .280 on-base percentage and .348 slugging percentage. They have 10 homers in those 15 games, and on Monday, they hit just one ball over 100 mph against Bubic. That was a Casey Schmitt double, which allowed the official scorer to sleep a bit better given that it came an inning after the 50-50 play at second.
“He pitches in, he pitches out, he pitches up, he pitches down,” manager Bob Melvin said of Bubic. “He had a couple different breaking balls working … we’ve seen some good pitchers this year [and] that was right up there.”
Melvin has made some small tweaks against lefties, moving Flores and Tyler Fitzgerald up in the lineup. Schmitt is expected to get a lot of time at first until Jerar Encarnacion returns. But the real solutions will have to come from the team’s marquee players. Willy Adames has a .371 OPS against lefties, and while Matt Chapman has a high OBP, he has just three extra-base hits. Both popped up multiple times Monday on a night when the Giants had seven of them overall.
With a lineup heavy on right-handed hitters, the Giants figured they would fare well against lefties. That hasn’t been the case, but Melvin wasn’t too stressed Monday.
“I think regardless, it was going to be tough against [Bubic] today,” he said.
Verlander Update
A day after both Melvin and right-hander Justin Verlander declined to elaborate on what was bothering the veteran in four innings, the manager said it was a pec issue. He didn’t provide much more than that.
“We’ll give it a day or two to calm down and hopefully we’re good to go,” Melvin said. “I think these next couple of days will tell. He does get an extra day [of rest] so that’s good as well. I think he’s going to take it easy the next couple of days and then we’ll see how he’s feeling on Wednesday.”
The Giants are off Thursday, so Verlander can get some extra treatment if he is to start Saturday in Washington, D.C. If he’s not ready, there are options. Kyle Harrison is in the bullpen and Jordan Hicks is still stretched out to start if needed.
Hicks made his first relief appearance Monday and allowed a run in the top of the ninth. He hit 100 mph three times but threw just seven of 18 pitches for strikes.
Headed Elsewhere?
To clear a roster spot for Schmitt, the Giants DFA’d David Villar for the second time in two months. If he clears waivers — which seems likely given that he did the first time — he can elect to become a free agent, and the expectation is that he will do so and look for a better opportunity elsewhere.
If this is it for Villar as a Giant, he’ll finish with a .200 average, .683 OPS and 15 homers in 118 games. After the 2022 MLB season, there was a runway for Villar to take over at third, but J.D. Davis ended up breaking out and Matt Chapman was signed after the season.
The Giants have just 38 players on their 40-man roster, which is a bit odd and surely horrifies the previous regime. They’ll get Encarnacion back from the 60-day IL in the next week or so, but there’s still an open spot if they need to add someone at some point soon. Like, perhaps, PCL Pitcher of the Week Carson Whisenhunt.
Even as Giannis Antetokounmpo drops what some might consider subliminal hints on social media, logic dictates that the few remaining wishful thinkers dim their fantasies about him coming to the Warriors to join mutual admiration society member Stephen Curry.
Such a partnership was and is a longshot. Hope lingers because the ambition of Golden State’s front office is too infinite to dismiss the possibility.
But coach Steve Kerr and general manager Mike Dunleavy both expressed the sentiment that the Warriors have no plans to indulge in star-chasing this summer because they already achieved that on Feb. 6 when they snagged Jimmy Butler III.
“Jimmy Butler is one of the best players in the NBA,” Kerr said. “You put him next to Steph, next to Draymond [Green)], you saw the results.”
In the 32 games beginning with Butler’s Feb. 8 debut until the 2025 NBA playoffs, the Warriors were 24-8. They were No. 1 in the NBA in defensive rating (109.0) and No. 9 in offensive rating at 118.2. Before acquiring Butler, Golden State was 10th in defensive rating (112.2) and 18th in offensive rating (111.8).
The Warriors were 29-21 in what the NBA defines as “clutch games,” those within five points inside the last five minutes. They were 16-16 in such games before Butler arrived, and 13-5 afterward.
Those dramatic improvements launched a late-season surge that convinced the franchise that its investment – giving a two-year contract extension worth $111 million – paid off now and will do so for the future.
“We made a big jump adding Jimmy Butler,” Dunleavy said. “This time last year I was probably concerned about our ability to have like a No. 2 guy. We went out this year, and we got that.”
“Now I feel better going into next season having a guy like Jimmy on our roster. We’ll build around that with him, Steph, Draymond, some of the other players we have.”
Antetokounmpo is on the table and, after another first-round playoff flameout, might be willing to part ways with the Milwaukee Bucks. Bringing him to Golden State, however, would require moving either Butler or Green – for salary purposes – in the process and parting with considerable future draft assets.
The thirst for appreciable improvement is much lower for the Warriors than it was in early February when they were straddling the .500 line. Ever vigilant, they approached the trade deadline expressing interest in Kevin Durant, but the feeling wasn’t mutual. Antetokounmpo was fully committed to keeping the Bucks a force in the Eastern Conference. He might have had an interest in going elsewhere, but the Bucks surely did not.
Please understand, it’s not that the Warriors wouldn’t love to have Antetokounmpo. They would. But the path to reach him, while not completely blocked, has enough barriers and requires enough retooling that Dunleavy and Kerr seem more comfortable with their current plan.
Butler’s name long had been on the big board in Dunleavy’s mind. With Jimmy’s divorce from the Miami Heat going from imminent to necessary for the safety of all parties, the price dropped, and the Warriors swooped in.
Butler was and is the Warriors’ big-game prey. Their finances – even as they contemplate Jonathan Kuminga’s future – make it difficult to make another such pursuit this summer. That is, unless they begin by parting with Green and the $25.9 million due to him next season, as well as his $27.7 million player option in 2026-27.
It’s unlikely despite the curious advice of former Warrior Gilbert Arenas, who on his “Gil’s Arena” podcast last month criticized Butler for not being more aggressive on offense and this week said Golden State should make Green and Butler, both 35, available in exchange for younger stars to join Curry.
“If I’m Golden State,” Arenas said, “I’m looking at, all right, Steph plays young. [I’d have] Steph, Kuminga and then let me throw in some more young boys. And then let Steph have his farewell tour. Then when he leaves, I’d have 23- to 24-year-olds and we’re going to be good.”
In short, blow it up. Never mind that Curry wants no part of a blow up. Never mind that nothing the Warriors are saying publicly indicates they’d even pencil out such a deal. Never mind that privately, it’s a “consider the source” giggler.
Dunleavy and Kerr are circling next season, and a massive offseason makeover would force a restart. They’re considering tweaks that fortify the talent around the three vets, believing that and a training camp with Butler would be enough to make them a contender next season.
“All the data supports that,” Kerr said of Butler’s impact. “The offensive rating, the defensive rating, the impact on other players, what Brandon [Podziemski] and Moses [Moody] did. What [Quinten Post] did after we got Jimmy. The game just made sense again when we got Jimmy.
“He comes back next year, and we get Steph healthy, we feel like we can pick up where we left off. We definitely have to make some improvement both internally just with the way we’re doing things as a staff, and also roster-wise can we find a little more balance? I’m really excited about next year.”
Kerr, Dunleavy as well, would be excited about Antetokounmpo, too. It’s still an appealing thought. Less appealing to them would be a rebuild that like would leave Curry the only holdover from their glory years.
All-rounder has been playing for his country – on and off – for 20 years and is relishing Thursday’s Test in England
In a Zimbabwe squad not exactly packed with experience – only three of its 16 members have played as many Tests as the 21‑year‑old English spinner Shoaib Bashir – Sean Williams is the most glaring of exceptions. When Jimmy Anderson took off his England cap for the final time last summer, 21 years, six months and 27 days after his debut, Williams took over as the cricketer with the longest ongoing international career: by the final day of the one-off Test at Trent Bridge this week he will be able to look back at precisely 20 years and three months at the highest rung of the cricketing ladder.
And still he is breaking new ground: England, who have not played Zimbabwe in any format since 2003, would be the 28th opponents of his international career, taking him two short of the world record held by the retired Kenyan Collins Obuya. “Definitely for me as an individual, it makes it massive,” he says.
New York Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said he’ll talk to Juan Soto about hustling out of the batter’s box after the slugger watched his would-be home run bounce off the Green Monster for a single Monday night against the Boston Red Sox.
Leading off the sixth inning on a chilly night at Fenway Park with a 15 mph wind blowing in from left field, Soto hit a 102 mph line drive to left and stood watching as it sailed toward the Green Monster. The ball hit about two-thirds of the way up the 37-foot wall, and Soto was only able to manage a single.
Soto went from pumping a long single to stealing yet another bag
“He thought he had it,” Mendoza told reporters after his team’s 3-1 loss. “But with the wind and all that, and in this ballpark — anywhere, but in particular in this one, with that wall right there — you’ve got to get out of the box. So, yeah, we’ll discuss that.”
Soto stole second on the first pitch to the next batter, but the $765 million star ended up stranded on third. He denied lollygagging on the basepaths.
“I think I’ve been hustling pretty hard,” he said. “If you see it today, you can tell.”
It’s not uncommon for balls hit off the Green Monster to result in singles: In the first inning, Pete Alonso was thrown out trying for second base on a ball off the left-field wall. But Soto had also failed to run hard out of the box on a groundout Sunday night at Yankee Stadium.
Dodgers pitcher Landon Knack delivers in the fourth inning of a 9-5 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday night at Dodger Stadium. (Kyusung Gong / Associated Press)
Dodger Stadium was eerily quiet for much of Monday night. And not just because whole sections of the upper deck sat largely empty.
In a 9-5 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Dodgers didn’t just drop their fourth straight game, but turned in a performance that elicited as many boos as anything else at Chavez Ravine, stumbling to a season-worst losing streak on a night they did little right in any facet of the game.
There was bad defense early. In the first inning, center fielder Hyeseong Kim lost a fly ball in the twilight sky, leading to two runs that would have been unearned had it not been ruled a double. In the second, third baseman Max Muncy spiked a throw to first on a slow-rolling grounder that led to another preventable score, even though his miscue was also ruled a base hit.
The pitching wasn’t great either. Left-handed opener Jack Dreyer followed Muncy’s bad throw with an even wilder pitch to the backstop in the next at-bat, advancing the runner to set up an eventual sacrifice fly. Landon Knack took over in the third and promptly gave up a pair of two-run home runs, one to Lourdes Gurriel Jr. on a down-and-in slider and another to Gabriel Moreno on an inside fastball.
Even the few bright spots offensively weren’t close to being enough.
Mookie Betts hit two home runs in his continued search to break out of a slow start. Shohei Ohtani retook sole possession of the major league lead in long balls by whacking his 17th of the season. But all three blasts came with no one on base. And they represented the Dodgers’ only hits of the night against Arizona right-hander Brandon Pfaadt, who was otherwise unbothered in a six-inning effort that included no strikeouts (or even a single swing-and-miss from a Dodgers hitter) but plenty of fine plays from an athletic defense behind him.
“It's hard to start games behind before you take an at-bat,” manager Dave Roberts said. “We've given up runs in the first inning. We got to put up that zero and kind of get a chance to get the game going.”
While shaky defense and inconsistent production at the plate have been bugaboos for the Dodgers (29-19), it is the team’s increasingly pitching struggles that have stood out most during this four-game skid — the club’s longest since losing five in a row in late May last season.
With the loss to the Diamondbacks (26-22), the Dodgers own a team earned-run average of 4.28, which ranks 22nd in the majors and is their highest at this point in a campaign since 2010.
The main root of the problem is easy to identify. Starters Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell and Roki Sasaki remain on the injured list, forcing the club into plans such as Monday with a rookie in Dreyer opening for a depth arm in Knack. The bullpen has been shorthanded, too, with Blake Treinen, Evan Phillips and Kirby Yates all injured, as well.
“You go through certain situations like this, it’s just tough to find a way to get back healthy and get our guys back out there,” Betts said. "But we’re battling with what we got.”
Arizona's Gabriel Moreno, right, celebrates with teammate Josh Naylor after hitting a two-run home run in the third inning Monday. (Kyusung Gong / Associated Press)
The good news is that several of those sidelined options are on the mend. Glasnow and Snell are both progressing in their throwing programs, with Glasnow “a tick ahead of Blake,” according to Roberts. Sasaki is expected to begin his throwing program during the team’s upcoming road trip. And Ohtani, who has been throwing regular bullpen sessions all season, is beginning to build up his pitch count as the club targets his return to the mound sometime around the All-Star break.
But in the meantime, the Dodgers have still expected more from their currently healthy group.
"It's not the staff we thought we'd have this season, but I feel that what we still do [have], and have done in the past with injuries, we're not doing,” Roberts said. “In the sense of getting ahead of hitters, and keeping them in the ballpark.”
And to do that, Roberts cited one place to start.
“On first glance, we need to be better at getting ahead in counts,” he said. “It doesn’t take a deep dive to see we start 1-and-0 quite often. When you do that, it makes pitching tough.”
Indeed, the Dodgers entered the night 24th in the majors with a 59.8% first-strike rate, a problem Roberts believes has led to too many long innings, and too large a workload for the staff.
“The 30-pitch innings just don’t play. It’s not sustainable,” he said. “And that starts with getting strike one. That ultimately goes to our entire pitching staff.”
The Dodgers were better in that area Monday, starting 27 of 49 at-bats with a strike. But it didn’t help. Dreyer needed 38 pitches to get through his two innings. Knack threw 106 to get through the next five (including 16 in one at-bat to Moreno in the fifth).
And when long reliever Matt Sauer took over in the eighth and gave up a two-run home run to Geraldo Perdomo, much of a season-low (and atypically quiet) crowd of 41,372 began streaming for the exits, not sticking around for one of the Dodgers’ flattest showings this year.
Who’s ready for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final in Raleigh?
Let’s just try and keep it to closer to 60 minutes this time.
For the second time in three seasons, the Florida Panthers and Carolina Hurricanes will fight for the right to represent the Eastern Conference in the Stanley Cup Final.
Just like the last time, the series will begin at Lenovo Center.
Back then, Florida won both games in Raleigh…in overtime. Game 1 was a quadruple overtime marathon while Game 2 ended early in the first overtime, both on goals by Matthew Tkachuk.
This year, Carolina has not appeared to face much resistance en route to the Stanley Cup semifinal.
The Hurricanes dispatched the New Jersey Devils in five games in the first round, with three of their four wins coming by at least two goals.
They followed that up with a five-game series victory over the Washington Capitals, the top regular season team in the Eastern Conference, and also with three of four wins coming by multiple goals.
Carolina will face a different kind of beast in the Panthers, though.
Will Florida be able to crack the Hurricanes’ strong defensive systems?
Through 10 games, Carolina has allowed more than two goals only three times, and allowed one or fewer goals five times.
Meanwhile, the Panthers are averaging 3.75 goals per game during the playoffs, second to only the Edmonton Oilers mark of 3.91. To their credit, Carolina isn’t far behind Florida at 3.40 goals per game.
And while the Hurricanes are the stingiest team in the postseason, allowing just 1.80 goals per game, Florida is second, giving up 2.42.
Here are the Panthers projected lines and pairings for Game 1 in Carolina:
Photo caption: Jan 2, 2025; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Florida Panthers center Aleksander Barkov (16) skates the puck up the ice against Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Brent Burns (8) during the third period at Amerant Bank Arena. Mandatory Credit: Rich Storry-Imagn Images
Oklahoma City was expected to be here before the season even tipped off. Minnesota traded fan favorite Karl-Anthony Towns away for Julius Randle right before the season — in a trade all about saving money — but they are back in the Western Conference Finals for the second straight year. And they may be better this time around.
When does the Timberwolves vs. Thunder begin?
Denver travels to Oklahoma City for Game 1 of the series on Tuesday, May 20, with an 8:30 ET tip-off. The rest of the series goes every other day after that.
Denver vs. Oklahoma City Playoffs Schedule 2025
All times are Eastern (* = if necessary) Game 1: Timberwolves vs. Thunder; Tues., May 20 (8:30 ET, ESPN) Game 2: Timberwolves vs. Thunder; Thurs., May 22 (8:30 ET, ESPN) Game 3: Thunder vs. Timberwolves; Sat., May 24 (8:30 ET, ABC) Game 4: Thunder vs. Timberwolves; Mon., May 26 (8:30 ET, ESPN) Game 5: Timberwolves vs. Thunder; Wed., May 28 (8:30 ET, ESPN)* Game 6: Thunder vs. Timberwolves; Fri., May 30 (8:30 ET, ESPN)* Game 7: Timberwolves vs. Thunder; Sun., June 1 (8 ET, ESPN)*
Players to watch
Jalen Williams
After scoring 20 points or more in all four of Oklahoma City's games against the Grizzlies in the first round, he struggled against the Nuggets. Shooting 37.5 percent from the field, J-Dub averaged 17.6 points, 5.4 rebounds, 6.0 assists, 1.4 steals, 0.9 blocks and 1.3 three-pointers per game. While Williams came through in Sunday's Game 7 victory, scoring 24 points on 10-of-17 shooting, consistent production will be critical against the red-hot Timberwolves. With Shai Gilgeous-Alexander likely being occupied with Jaden McDaniels, Williams' productivity will be key if the Thunder are to reach the NBA Finals for the first time since 2012. —Raphielle Johnson, Rotoworld basketball analyst
Rudy Gobert
After spending the first two series matched up with Jaxson Hayes and Trayce Jackson-Davis, Gobert is set to have a much tougher matchup in the conference finals. He’ll have to deal with both Isaiah Hartenstein and Chet Holmgren while still helping out on drives from OKC’s guards, specifically Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Outside of having 27 points and 24 rebounds in Minnesota’s Game 5 closeout win over the Lakers, Gobert hasn’t had many strong performances during this postseason. However, this series will be a more important matchup for him. SGA is second to Cade Cunningham with 19.5 drives per game during the playoffs, and as a team, OKC leads all teams in passes out of drives during the postseason with 22.4 per game. However, if the defense cracks, those passes will become layups instead. Gobert is going to have to dominate the paint during this series for Minnesota to advance to the Finals for the first time in franchise history. —Noah Rubin, Rotoworld basketball analyst
Keys to watch for in Minnesota vs. Oklahoma City
Turnovers
Minnesota gets a little loose with the ball and has a propensity for turning it over; they did so on 13% of their possessions in the regular season (10th highest percentage in the league). In the playoffs, that has jumped up slightly to 13.6%. No team has forced more turnovers in the playoffs than the Thunder, doing so on 15.7% of opponent possessions.
Ask Denver what happens when you turn the ball over against the Thunder.
The Timberwolves have to take care of the ball in the face of the most on-ball pressure and steal-happy team in the league. Things will turn quickly and get ugly if they don’t, and Minnesota can’t afford to give away games in this series.
Lu Dort on Anthony Edwards
This is so much fun. Dort is one of (if not THE) best on-ball defenders in the league, he is physical and disruptive. Anthony Edwards is the All-NBA engine of the Timberwolves' offense and a guy who can pull up and knock down the 3 or be physical attacking the rim. This is a matchup for the ages.
Minnesota will make a point of trying to switch Dort off of Ant, but there are two challenges with that: 1) Nobody in the league fights over screens and sticks with his assigned man like Dort; 2) There are no pigeons in the OKC core rotation, there is not some easy target to switch on to and attack. Edwards could try to go after Holmgren, but he has the length and speed to challenge shots at the rim or the arc.
Julius Randle/Chet Holmgren
Which big man gives his lead guard enough support?
Randle has done that this postseason, averaging 23.9 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 5.9 assists a game. It took time (most of the season) for Randle to figure out how to play off Ant and next to Rudy Gobert, but when he did, it supercharged the Timberwolves.
This is a much better matchup for Holmgren, with Daigneault likely going with him as the only big for extended stretches (something that he couldn’t do as much against Jokic). Holmgren is averaging 15.7 points and 9.7 rebounds a game, plus 2.2 blocks a night in these playoffs, but the Thunder are hoping to get more out of him in this series. —Kurt Helin, NBC Sports lead NBA writer
Predictions
Jay Croucher (NBC Sports Lead Betting Analyst): Thunder in 6
This series may be Anthony Edwards' reckoning. Oklahoma City will force Edwards to make sped-up decisions, and Edwards hasn't proved he can problem solve at the highest level (4.5 assists per game to 3.2 turnovers per game this season). Minnesota has a turnover issue and OKC's defense is one of the greatest of all time at creating and punishing turnovers.
Drew Dinsick (NBC Sports Betting Analyst): Thunder in 4
I'm looking at a Thunder sweep as the most likely result in the Western Conference Finals and have them around an 87% to advance to the NBA Finals. This is a perfect matchup for them on both sides of the ball, in my opinion, and I am most interested to see if Daigneault continues to use the double-big lineup or elects to go small to put Gobert in harm's way. The defensive matchups for the Thunder against the Wolves' offense, and Ant in particular, look ideal, and projecting a rating in the 104s for Minnesota this series.
Kurt Helin (NBC Sports lead NBA writer): Thunder in 6
I never would have thought I’d type this sentence, but here we are: Minnesota is better this season with Randle instead of Towns. This is a balanced, athletic, big and physical team. This is also just a bad matchup for them. For me, it comes back to turnovers, the Timberwolves are going to cough the ball up too much under pressure to beat a Thunder team that is hitting its stride.
