Category: Sports News

The Mavericks got smoked Sunday night again, losing 122-92 to the Toronto Raptors. The Mavericks were led by Cooper Flaggs ‘ 17-point, eight-rebound, six-assist, one-turnover game, and a dominant 21 and 10 rebound double-double by Daniel Gafford on 10-for-10 shooting. The Raptors pulled the Mavericks apart, with eight of their players finishing with double digits. The best game of their night was had by RJ Barrett, who had 31 points on just six missed shots on 19 attempts. Scottie Barnes also had 17 points while keeping Cooper Flagg in check for the good part of the first half, before the Raptors ended the game entirely by halftime.

Dallas struggled to find an offensive rhythm for most of the first half as Toronto steadily built control of the game. The Mavericks leaned heavily on Daniel Gafford early, who kept them afloat by going a perfect 6-for-6 from the field for 13 points while adding 6 rebounds, finishing lobs, and cleaning up misses while the rest of the offense sputtered. Cooper Flagg still impacted the game despite the scoring struggles, collecting 4 assists and 3 blocks in the half, while Naji Marshall provided a brief spark with a few early baskets. Outside of those contributions, Dallas’ perimeter shooting was the Mavericks’ problem, as the Mavericks shot just 2-of-14 from three and 40.5 percent overall in the half. Toronto took advantage by moving the ball well and consistently generating good looks, piling up 18 assists while getting strong scoring performances from Gradey Dick (16 points) along with steady downhill pressure from RJ Barrett and Scottie Barnes. The Raptors’ length and activity also disrupt Dallas’s possessions in the second, allowing them to gradually push the margin into double digits. By halftime, Toronto led 57–44, thanks to its shooting advantage and Dallas’ cold three-point shooting.

The second half never really turned into much of a game as Toronto maintained firm control from start to finish. The Raptors quickly pushed the lead deeper into double digits early in the third quarter behind steady scoring from RJ Barrett and interior finishes from Jakob Poeltl. At the same time, Dallas struggled to generate any consistent offense outside of Daniel Gafford’s finishes and the occasional Daniel Gafford finishes and occasional shots from Cooper Flagg and Khris Middleton. Toronto’s ball movement continued to carve up the Mavericks’ defense, eventually finishing the Mavericks’ night with 39 assists on 48 made field goals, while Barrett poured in 31 points to lead the way. Dallas briefly showed life with a few Flagg buckets and a couple of Gafford dunks, but the Raptors consistently answered with threes, transition layups, and second-chance opportunities. By the time the fourth quarter arrived, the game had essentially shifted into garbage-time rotations, with both teams emptying the bench over the final minutes. Toronto ultimately cruised the rest of the way to a 122–92 win, outshooting Dallas 50.5% to 39.8% while dominating the flow of the game for the entire second half.

1: Made Max Christie Shot

Max Christie had one of the roughest performances of the Mavericks’ season in this loss; it’s impossible to ignore how much it hurt the offense. In 25 minutes, Christie went just 1-for-11 from the field (9.1%) and 0-for-7 from three, finishing with only 2 points while somehow committing more turnovers (2) than both made shots (1) and assists (1). The struggles were not just missed jumpers, either. Dallas desperately needed guard creation with the offense already sputtering, and Christie repeatedly stalled possessions with forced pull-ups, empty drives, and careless mistakes. When your starting guard logs heavy minutes and produces little efficiency or playmaking, the offense has nowhere to go. The Mavericks finished the night shooting 39.8% from the field and just 5-for-30 from three, and Christie’s brutal shooting night is part of why the offense never found rhythm.

The bigger concern is that this was not some random off-night. Christie has been trending downward for several games now. Over the past week, he has bounced between inefficient shooting nights and low-impact stat lines, including a 4-for-15 night against Charlotte, 2-for-6 against Orlando, and several games hovering around the low teens in scoring with inconsistent playmaking. For a guard expected to stabilize the offense, the assist-to-turnover numbers have been particularly frustrating, and the shooting volatility makes it even harder to justify the minutes. At some point, Dallas has to be honest about roster priorities around Cooper Flagg, and that likely means emphasizing guards who can reliably create offense and space the floor. If this stretch is any indication, Christie is starting to look very expendable heading into the offseason, especially for a team that desperately needs better guard play and offensive stability.

0: Daniel Gafford Missed Shots

Daniel Gafford was one of the few Mavericks who actually showed up in this one, turning in one of his best performances in weeks. Gafford finished a perfect 10-for-10 from the field for 21 points, adding 11 rebounds, three assists, and a block in just over 23 minutes. Nearly all of his scoring came in the ways that make him valuable: rolling hard to the rim, finishing lobs, and cleaning up misses around the basket. While the Mavericks’ perimeter offense struggled, Gafford’s rim pressure and activity on the glass kept Dallas from completely disappearing offensively for stretches.

Watching him dominate the paint like that almost felt like a little advertisement. You could almost imagine a few Raptors fans in the building thinking how nice it would be to have a hyper-efficient rim runner like that coming off the bench for a playoff push. Jokes aside, this is the version of Gafford the Mavericks need to see more often down the stretch. Dallas gave him a contract extension in the fall and clearly valued him on the roster moving forward, but his play since then has been inconsistent. Whether the long-term plan is to keep him or eventually move him, the Mavericks need him to stack efficient games like this to rebuild his trade value and live up to the extension, because when he plays with this kind of energy and efficiency, he still looks like a legitimately impactful center.

LOS ANGELES — It’s hard to ever get a fanbase to all agree on something, but one thing about the Lakers everyone seems to acknowledge is their struggle to beat good teams.

They are 15-19 against teams with more wins than losses and entering Sunday’s matinee against the Knicks, they had just four victories in 16 attempts against opponents that had a winning percentage above .600.

The Lakers finally flipped the script on Sunday, though, picking up not just a win over a “good” team, but a Knicks side that has the second-best record in the Eastern Conference and defeated them just last month, making the victory all the sweeter.

It wasn’t just the fact that they beat a good team that made this the best result of the year, it was how they did it.

Even with LeBron James out, the Lakers established dominance from the jump. This was a vintage Reaves performance as he wasted no time getting going offensively, scoring the team’s first five points.

He was attacking the paint with positive results — he ended the game going 8-10 from the foul line — and his 3-point shot was back as he knocked down half of his attempts.

“We just kept telling him, ‘touch the paint, touch the paint, touch the paint,’” Lakers head coach JJ Redick said postgame. “He was really strong today. We always talk about physicality on defense, but you need physicality on offense and I thought he was very physical offensively and that allowed him to squirt the basket, allowed him to draw fouls. They’ve got a lot of size and they’re a big team and he did a great job.”

Early in this season, Reaves having this kind of game wouldn’t have been newsworthy. But he’s failed to score more than 20 points each of the past eight games, so this was both welcome and needed.

Even with Reaves playing well, it takes a total team effort to defeat the Knicks.

LA was offensively aggressive, taking 44 3-point attempts, well above their season average of 33.5. Rui Hachimura re-entered the starting lineup, replacing LeBron, and scored on his first four shot attempts, ending the game with 13 points. Jaxson Hayes led the bench with 12 points and once again closed out the game.

However, the team’s most impressive feat was also its most shocking. The Lakers won this game largely thanks to their defense.

They held the Knicks to just 97 points, this was only the fourth time this season that LA held a team to under 100.

Not only did New York fail to crack the century mark, but the Lakers ended many of their offensive possessions with turnovers, forcing 19 and scoring 21 points off them. Add in five blocks and holding Mikal Bridges scoreless and it becomes clear why LA earned its second straight win and fifth victory in six games.

“You go down the stretch, I think we had three or four possessions where we end up with either a deflection or steal and all of that was on multiple efforts,” Redick said. “We were able to sustain that for all four quarters.”

Not only did LA win the game easily, but they remained in control during the second half.

With 4:35 left in the third quarter, the Knicks were down by just nine points. The Lakers responded, shutting down the New York, who failed to make a shot for over four minutes. By the time they did, Los Angeles was up by 19.

In the fourth, the Knicks tried to go on a run and got within 13 points thanks to a Jalen Brunson three with 8:23 left in the game. Redick called a timeout and LA’s guards in Dončić, Reaves, and Luke Kennard responded by knocking down shots, never allowing New York to even get within single digits.

The purple and gold did everything to win this game. Marcus Smart was diving on the floor. Luka was sacrificing his body to draw charges. Jarred Vanderbilt was bumping into courtside fans.

This late into the season, every win is needed. The Lakers earning this kind of victory during a nationally televised game against an elite team makes it clear that while LA’s 2025-26 story has completed multiple chapters, how the tale ends has yet to be told.

Inside the Lakers locker room, the win was business as usual. The goal is to never get too high or too low. They passed this test, but plenty more are on the way, with Minnesota next and games against the Nuggets, Rockets and Thunder looming.

“My job is not to overreact,” Redick said. “We’re 15-9 in our last 24 [games]. We’re a top-10 offense and a top-15 defense. That’s what we wanted to be coming into this season with this group, and that’s where our group is right now.”

You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.

LOS ANGELES — Like a few of his teammates, Mikal Bridges was saddled with foul trouble Sunday. 

And he never recovered. 

The guard went scoreless for the first time this season in an ugly 110-97 loss to the Lakers, missing all six of his attempts — including four from behind the arc. 

It was the third time Bridges failed to score since joining the Knicks before last season, although one occurred as he logged just a few seconds in a meaningless finale to maintain his consecutive games played streak. 

On Sunday, Bridges started by fouling Los Angeles’ Austin Reaves on a 3-point attempt just 15 seconds after tipoff. It set the tone. Bridges picked up his fourth foul about 1 ½ minutes into the second half and was benched for the remainder of the third quarter. 

“Just not being out there. I think that’s the biggest thing. Being in foul trouble takes me away from being out there to try to help my team win,” Bridges said. “I’ve got to be better, starting off the game fouling a shooter from 3.” 

Knicks coach Mike Brown blasted his team for lazy defending, saying it was the driver of the foul problems. The Lakers took 30 free throws compared to New York’s 21. 

“We got beat off the dribble often,” Brown said. “We got beat to the middle. And being lazy about it we reached at the last second and sent them to the free-throw line.” 

Luka Doncic, who finished with 35 points, attempted a game-high 10 free throws for the Lakers. Reaves took seven. 

“When we guarded the ball, we tried to make up for it with a crazy reach,” Brown said. “Thirty free-throw attempts is crazy.” 

Josh Hart was also foul-happy with four personals in just 22 minutes. He was benched for the entire fourth quarter, which was more about the coach rolling with Jordan Clarkson. 

“Yeah, it’s tough. Especially some of the fouls that they called they cause you — your physicality is not there and it’s tough, you’re not able to play the way you want to play,” Hart said. “You get taken out and you don’t have the flow of the game. Obviously that’s a frustrating thing. You’ve got to figure out and not put them on the free-throw line. It’s tough.” 

But nobody had a tougher afternoon than Bridges, who was looking forward to redemption Monday against the Clippers. 

“Just bouncing back. We have an opportunity to show that tomorrow off a back-to-back,” Bridges said. “Not playing as we wanted to, we get another chance to bounce back. It’s a game of life. You know what I’m saying? You’re hit and you’ve just got to get back up. So what are you going to do? We’ve got another opportunity tomorrow.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Up next

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

Cincinnati: At New England Revolution on Sunday.

___

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reaves played as though he internalized those words Sunday. 

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

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

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

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

But since then, things have slowed down. 

As for Reaves’ mentality entering Sunday’s game? 

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

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

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

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

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

Rui Hachimura summed things up concisely. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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