The Warriors forward brushed off the incident when asked about it by NBC Sports Bay Area’s Dalton Johnson after the game.
“Yeah, the game was over,” Draymond said. “Don’t matter.”
But the Rockets guard wasn’t as diplomatic, taking a direct shot at Draymond.
“Just talking,” Jalen told reporters after the game. “Steph [Curry] had a good game. The reason they won. Just talking. [Draymond] can’t really do much of anything else, so talking is his only way.”
Jalen Green on what was going on with him and Draymond Green arguing after the game:
"Just talking. He can't really do much of anything else, so talking is his only way." pic.twitter.com/mLExzRMShy
Draymond wouldn’t confirm if he told Jalen to go paint his nails, as the video alludes to, and he wasn’t sure why the young Houston guard was so upset.
“I’m not sure what he took [umbrage] to,” Draymond told reporters. “But it was a good win for us.”
The Warriors and Rockets are teetering close to an explosion, and tensions will continue to rise as the series progresses.
Golden State and Houston players don’t like each other, so expect more fireworks over the next few games.
Steph Curry and the Warriors pulled out a 104-93 win over the Houston Rockets in Game 3 of their first-round NBA playoff series on Saturday at Chase Center.
That bodes very well for Golden State’s chance at advancing to the Western Conference semifinals, as NBC Sports Bay Area’s Dalton Johnson pointed out after the game — and they did it without the Robin to Curry’s Batman, Jimmy Butler.
The Game 3 winner when a series is tied 1-1 in a best-of-seven series has gone on to win 74.2% of the time
Those are astronomical chances in favor of the team with a 2-1 series lead, and the Warriors will head to Houston with a chance to clinch the series victory if they can win again at home on Monday night.
Curry scored 36 points, complemented by 17 from Buddy Hield and 16 from Gary Payton II in the victory, but Golden State is hoping to have Butler back in the starting lineup for Game 4 after he sat out Saturday with a pelvic contusion.
But the Warriors proved they can beat the Rockets no matter who’s on the floor, pulling out a shorthanded victory that now has them flying high toward another deep playoff run.
Defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders and Punjab Kings shared a point each after rain forced this Indian Premier League season’s first no result in Kolkata on Saturday.
MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Twins acquired infielder Kody Clemens from the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday.
Clemens, the 28-year-old son of seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens, was designated for assignment by the Phillies on Wednesday. The Twins were in need of another infielder after rookie Luke Keaschall broke his forearm in the first inning of Friday’s game against the Angels.
Minnesota is expected to use Clemens as a backup at first and second base, but he also has played third base and both corner outfield positions in the majors.
“We can move him around on the field and ask him to do a lot of things,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “I’ve seen him do that before with other clubs, but that’s the way that I see us using him right now.”
Clemens played 56 games with the Tigers in 2022 before spending parts of the last two seasons in Philadelphia. This year, he was hitless in six at-bats in limited playing time with the Phillies.
“I had a really good spring, and then didn’t really get any chance to play,” Clemens said. “It made sense with the roster construction they have - I’m not dumb to that. I’m just super excited for this opportunity here.”
Phillies manager Rob Thomson said he sent a text message to Clemens on Saturday morning, and he wishes him all the best.
“It's too bad we couldn't have given him more of an opportunity here,” Thomson said. “It was just the fit, you know, because he's a good player. He's a big league player. ... He's a great teammate. He's a great human being.”
Clemens is a career .197 hitter with a .611 OPS and 14 home runs in 402 plate appearances.
Manchester City failed to sell full allocation at Wembley
‘I understand it’s not easy, I understand they don’t come’
Pep Guardiola has called on the Football Association to reconsider playing FA Cup semi-finals at Wembley and move the fixtures to more convenient locations to help fans. Thousands of seats will be empty on Sunday after Manchester City failed to sell out their allocation of 36,230 tickets amid travel and cost concerns.
When City face Nottingham Forest, it will be the 28th time the club have played at the new Wembley as a neutral venue since it opened 18 years ago. The allure has diminished while the price of attending a semi-final has increased, with tickets costing £150, £120 and £90 still available on Friday morning.
All three judges score the fight 116-112 to Eubank Jr after a brutal and gruelling contest
Anthony Yarde has won a close but uncontroversial unanimous verdict over Lyndon Arthur in the final undercard bout. The judges’ scores were 115-113 and 116-112 (twice). It’s Sweet Caroline time in North London. We should be seeing Eubank Jr and Benn making their entrances shortly.
The Tottenham Stadium looks almost full as the main undercard fight between Anthony Yarde and Lyndon Arthur reaches the halfway stage. This is a 60,000-plus crowd that currently seems more enthused by the musical breaks than the boxing. I am not sure too many were watching closely, but they missed young Aaron McKenna utterly dominate a proud old fighter in Liam Smith. McKenna calls himself ‘The Silencer’ and I’ve followed him closely for a few years and been with him in dressing rooms before fights. I always knew he was good; but tonight he was outstanding as he won a near shutout victory and knocked Smith down in the last round. He has moved up to a significant level – not that the Tottenham crowd cared much. They will only really start making noise once the undercard is over.
If the Denver Nuggets advance from this series, this will be the play that will be remembered.
In the final seconds of Game 4 between the Nuggets and the Los Angeles Clippers, Denver star Nikola Jokic was forced into a tough fadeaway as time expired.
But just a tenth of a second before it did, forward Aaron Gordon flew for the putback dunk that counted after review, winning it for Denver 101-99 on the road.
AARON GORDON WITH THE WILDEST BUZZER BEATER EVER 🚨
Gordon immediately had confidence it would count before the official review, running the full length of the court and celebrating with teammates.
The series, now tied at 2-2, will return to Denver with Gordon helping the momentum be with his team entering Tuesday.
Jokic, as usual, posted incredible numbers to lead his side: 36 points, 21 rebounds and eight assists. Every Nugget starter scored double-digit points, with all five playing at least 42 minutes or more in a key game.
Gordon, with the game winner, finished with 14 points, six rebounds and five assists.
Los Angeles went a bit deeper with its rotation, but didn’t have one player clearly above the crop. Kawhi Leonard led the way with 24 points, nine rebounds and two assists, with Norman Powell adding 22 points.
Ivica Zubac tried to rival Jokic with 19 points, 12 rebounds and six assists, but James Harden mustered just 15 points to go with 11 assists and four rebounds. Bogdan Bogdanovic led the bench with seven points.
Apr 26, 2025; Miami, Florida, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell (45) reacts after scoring against the Miami Heat in the third quarter during game three for the first round of the 2025 NBA Playoffs at Kaseya Center. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
MIAMI (AP) — Donovan Mitchell didn't have a great shooting day. Darius Garland was in street clothes, out with an injury.
And Cleveland rolled anyway, moving to the brink of Round 2.
Jarrett Allen scored 22 points, De’Andre Hunter added 21 and the Cavaliers - bullying Miami around all day - handed the Heat their worst playoff loss with a 124-87 win Saturday to take a 3-0 lead in their Eastern Conference first-round series.
The Cavs took control with a 33-5 run early, outrebounded Miami 46-29 and outscored the Heat 60-30 in the paint.
“Our guys knew that was the key, rebounding and winning the rebounding battle,” Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said. “We really executed defensively.”
Evan Mobley scored 19 and Max Strus added 18 for Cleveland. Ty Jerome had 13 points and 11 assists in 22 minutes - he was plus-33 in those minutes - and Mitchell scored 13 on 4-for-14 shooting.
They didn't need more from him and didn't need anything from Garland, their All-Star guard who was out with a sprained toe.
“Look, our guys really want this and it probably looks like our guys don't," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “But I know what our last six weeks have been like, just to fight and scratch and claw to get into this.”
Bam Adebayo scored 22 and Davion Mitchell added 16 for Miami. The worst Heat playoff loss before Saturday was a 36-point defeat in Game 3 of the 2013 NBA Finals at San Antonio.
That Heat team won an NBA title. This Heat team is on the brink of being swept.
It's the 11th time that a Cavaliers team has taken a 3-0 lead in a best-of-seven series - the other 10 were all in the LeBron James eras in Cleveland, and they all ended in 4-0 sweeps.
These Cavs will try to finish off a sweep of their own in Game 4 at Miami on Monday. It's the 159th time in NBA history that a team has taken a 3-0 series lead; the first 157 went on to win the series, and Oklahoma City is the 158th and could oust Memphis later Saturday.
It was all Miami for the first 5 1/2 minutes. After that, it was all Cleveland, the Cavaliers taking full control of the game over the next 8 minutes with a 33-5 run.
Cleveland shot 13 for 17 during the spurt, scoring on its first eight possessions of the run. And it ended with five consecutive makes from 3-point range, those coming in a span of just over 2 minutes.
Just like that, 15-6 Miami became 39-20 Cleveland.
“We took the first punch,” Mobley said. “And from there we just took the game over.”
It was 62-42 at halftime, and Cleveland missed its first eight shots of the second half. But Miami scored only four points during that span, wasting a chance. Cleveland led 88-64 going into the fourth and that was it.
“Clearly, a very disappointing day,” Spoelstra said.
Without Jimmy Butler on Saturday night, the Warriors had to rely on their defense to beat the Houston Rockets, and that’s exactly what happened at Chase Center.
And while Steph Curry went thermonuclear to the tune of 36 points, Gary Payton II knows exactly how the Warriors won the contentious game.
“We got stops,” Payton told NBC Sports Bay Area’s Kerith Burke on “Warriors Postgame Live” moments after the final buzzer. “Talked about getting stops and converting them, take care of the ball. When we take care of the ball, it’s very hard to stop us. So that’s what we did. We got stops and converted.”
Butler was ruled out roughly an hour before tip-off due to a pelvic contusion sustained in Game 2, but the Warriors didn’t throw in the towel. They fought and scrapped their way to a win that most observers didn’t think they could earn with the six-time NBA All-Star in street clothes.
For Payton and the Warriors, they won the game for Butler.
“Protect Jimmy at all costs,” Payton told Burke. “Have Jimmy’s back. When he gets back, you know, be ahead. So, tonight we did that, had his back, everybody stepped up and made huge plays down the stretch and now hopefully we get him back for Game 4.”
Butler has roughly 48 more hours to rest up and get ready to possibly play Monday night. But if he doesn’t suit up, Curry will be ready to carry the load.
“We get him open, we get him looks and you know most of the time, he’s going to knock them down,” Payton said of Curry to Burke. “So we can continue to get him looks, crazy things happen.”
The Warriors are two wins away from advancing to the Western Conference semifinals, and they stole home-court advantage away from the Rockets.
If Butler returns Monday and Curry goes off again, the Warriors could make quick work of the feisty Rockets.
The Edmonton Oilers faced the prospect of going down 3-0 to the Los Angeles Kings in Game 3 of their first-round series, but former Buffalo Sabre Evander Kane played a key role in the Oilers 7-4 comeback victory at Rogers Arena on Friday.
Kane took the spot of another former Buffalo winger Jeff Skinner in Game 2, and after a scoreless outing in his first game in 10 months, the big forward assisted on Connor Brown’s second-period goal and tied the game on a controversial goal late in the third period. After going to the front of the net, Kane kicked the puck to his stick and slide it past a prone Darcy Kuemper.
The officials ruled it a good goal, but Kings coach Jim Hiller challenged the goal for goalie interference. After ruling that there was not any contact with Kuemper, the Oilers went on the power play and Evan Bouchard scored the game-winner 10 seconds later.
After a review for a kicking motion AND a challenge for goaltender interference, Evander Kane gets his first of the playoffs.
The official call is that Kane kicked the puck to his stick and was able to shoot it before it went in. pic.twitter.com/Aw0y3ZgMVJ
SAN FRANCISCO – Playing without Jimmy Butler because of a left pelvic contusion he sustained in Game 2, Steph Curry and the Warriors willed their way to an exhilarating 104-93 Game 3 victory Saturday night at Chase Center against the Houston Rockets in the first round of the NBA playoffs.
History is on the Warriors’ side, too. The winner of a Game 3 when a series is tied one win apiece in a best-of-seven series has gone on to win 74.2 percent of the time.
Curry had to remember what his life was like before Butler’s arrival, but the four-time NBA champion put on his hero’s cape and gave the home crowd a show to remember. He started slow, but once his flame began to grow, Curry couldn’t be stopped. Curry scored a game-high 36 points on 12-of-23 shooting, went 5 of 13 from three and added seven rebounds and nine assists.
While the four starters alongside Curry combined to score 26 points, Buddy Hield gave Golden State 29 huge minutes off the bench. Hield was a plus-14 with 17 points, going 5 of 11 behind the 3-point line.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr made a change to his starting lineup knowing he would be without Butler. In came Jonathan Kuminga, as well as rookie center Quinten Post, which pushed Moses Moody to the bench. Kuminga scored seven points in seven minutes and only grabbed one rebound. Post in 27 minutes scored just two points but came down with a career-high 12 rebounds.
Houston’s length continued to be a problem for Golden State in a multitude of ways. But the Warriors were able to overcome the issue through other means, with more second-chance points, points in the paint and fastbreak points than the Rockets. They also had a lowly 10 turnovers, a winning number for the Warriors.
Here are three takeaways from the Warriors’ Game 3 win.
Let Curry Cook
To state the obvious, the Rockets are going to do everything in their power to get the ball out of Curry’s hands. He played into their strategy, passing too much to start the game, and his passes were sketchy at best. The Warriors for the third straight game were held to 18 points in the first quarter, with Curry only having two points on four shots.
About halfway through the second quarter, Curry began taking things into his own hands. Driving into the lane for finger rolls. Burying buckets from downtown. Even hitting a mid-range jumper. Curry only made one 3-pointer through two quarters but went into halftime with 15 points, while the rest of the starting five had 11.
Then the real takeover happened in the third quarter with Curry scoring 12 of the Warriors’ 23 points, giving fans some sizzling highlights. Curry’s scoring clinic brought him to 27 points going into the fourth quarter. He continued to get little help from the rest of the starting five.
Curry in the fourth quarter nailed two more threes and scored nine more points to put a cherry on top of this Warriors win.
The last few weeks have been quite the ride for Kuminga. After being a DNP-CD (Did Not Play, Coach’s Decision) in the final game of the regular season, Kuminga again wasn’t in Kerr’s game plan in the Warriors’ lone NBA play-in tournament game, a win against the Memphis Grizzlies. The same goes for Golden State’s Game 1 win against the Rockets.
And he wasn’t expected to play in Game 2 until Butler went out to injury late in the first quarter. Now with Butler sidelined, Kuminga was back in the starting lineup for Game 3. Kuminga was very successful playing the Rockets in the regular season when he averaged 21.3 points and 6.8 rebounds per game against them. That same success didn’t follow him early Saturday night.
Kuminga in the first quarter only played five minutes, which was the fewest among the starting five. He had a turnover on a pass out of Draymond Green’s reach and attempted a wild left-handed shot attempt through traffic that had no chance. Kuminga played just nine minutes in the first half and scored three points.
He added four points in the third quarter but didn’t see any action in the fourth, showing where Kerr’s trust is with him. If Butler can play Monday in Game 4, Kuminga might be fully out of the rotation again. If he is given another big opportunity, he’ll have to do more with it.
Buddy Buckets
It was easy to forget about Hield through the first two games of the series. The veteran shooting guard who made 200 threes for a seventh straight season only made one 3-pointer on five attempts coming into Saturday night for a total of seven points. On a night when the Warriors were searching for scoring help, Hield showed up.
Hield at halftime was up to 11 points and had made three 3-pointers after missing his first two attempts. In the final two minutes of the first half, he and Curry went on a 9-0 run to cut the Rockets’ lead to three points. Hield in that span hit a 26-foot three and raced ahead of the defense to catch a long pass from Curry for an easy layup.
The outside has questioned Kerr’s faith in Hield throughout his highs and lows in an up-and-down season. The Warriors’ Game 3 win was a shining example of Hield’s value. Their offense much of the night was a hope and a prayer of Curry and Hield making threes.
They combined to go 10 of 24 on threes. The rest of the Warriors went 4 of 21. A big game from Hield was required, and he provided the juice to take a two-games-to-one series lead.
The Florida Panthers had a chance to put a stranglehold on their opening round series with the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday in Sunrise.
Instead, the Lightning came up with a big road victory in Game 3, their first win of the series, by a score of 5-1 at Amerant Bank Arena.
While the day ultimately belonged to Tampa, it didn’t take long for the Panthers to open the scoring and send their fans into a frenzy.
Sam Bennett drove toward the net after pulling the puck off the boards, but his stick was lifted just as he went to release a shot.
The puck instead slid to Matthew Tkachuk on the opposite side of the crease and all he had to do was just taaaap it in to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead at the 2:43 mark.
Later in the period, with 2:45 to go, Jake Guentzel took a pass from Nikita Kucherov and dangled through the slot before firing a shot that hit Brayden Point on its way past Sergei Bobrovsky to tie the game at one.
Moments after Florida killed off a Tampa power play late in the second period, the Bolts would take their first lead of the game.
With Brad Marchand hustling to the bench after his stick broke mid-shift, Nick Paul found space in the right circle and fired a shot that seemed to handcuff Bobrovsky. It went off his left pad and trickled into the net, giving the Lightning a 2-1 lead with 6:43 to go in the middle frame.
Guenzel scored his first of the game and second of the series just 21 seconds into the third period on a funky play that had Bobrovsky looking the wrong direction and playing without a stick.
Tampa had three goals despite being outshot 26-17 at that point of the game.
A rush goal late in the period by Luke Glendening and an empty-net goal by Anthony Cirelli shortly after would seal the win for the Lightning.
On to Game 4.
QUICK THOUGHTS
We’re still waiting for our first home win of this series.
Tkachuk is up to two goals and four points so far during the playoffs.
Sam Bennett had the primary assist on Tkachuk's goal. Bennett has points (two goals and two assists) in all three playoff games so far.
Florida’s penalty kill went 5-for-5 on Saturday and has killed off 12 of Tampa Bay’s 13 power plays this series.
ST. LOUIS — The Milwaukee Brewers placed center fielder Garrett Mitchell on the 10-day injured list Saturday.
After an MRI, Mitchell was diagnosed with a left oblique strain.
Mitchell started in right field Friday night. He left the game, a 3-2 Milwaukee loss to St. Louis, after the fourth inning. After the game, Mitchell said he hurt it on one of his swings in his lone at-bat in the second inning when he grounded out to shortstop Masyn Winn.
The Brewers have selected the contract of left fielder Daz Cameron from Triple-A Nashville.
Cameron, 28, was acquired by the Brewers from Baltimore on April 7. In 10 games with Nashville, Cameron is hitting .372 with five homers, 16 RBI, nine runs scored and three steals.
Cameron is the son of former major leaguer Mike Cameron, a former Brewer. In his 16-year career, the elder Cameron also played for the Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Seattle Mariners, New York Mets, San Diego Padres, Florida Marlins and Washington Nationals.
The Brewers also transferred center fielder Blake Perkins from the 10-day injured list to the 60-day injury list. Perkins is out with an injured right shin.
