Arne Slot’s first season could not have gone any better while Wolves fans drank to Vítor Pereira’s arrival
By winning the league, the Dutchman surprised pretty much everyone. He faced the daunting task of succeeding Jürgen Klopp and inherited the German’s squad, adding only Federico Chiesa, who barely kicked a ball in anger. Not much changed from the previous year, except Ryan Gravenberch became the designated defensive midfielder as Slot’s Liverpool looked to get on the ball as much as possible. Slot was never going to be a personality who generated headlines like Klopp did, keeping his cards close to his chest, but he always comes across as someone who is very personable and has brought the players closer together. Slot made Liverpool an efficient winning machine – rarely thrashing teams, often winning by the odd goal or two – and that allowed them to race to a second Premier League title. No one could compete with the Reds, which was partly down to rivals dropping their standards but most of it can be attributed to the fact Slot made his team superior.
INDIANAPOLIS – Around 10 pm on Sunday, some of you were probably putting Karl-Anthony Towns in the trade machine. Maybe it was for Giannis Antetokounmpo. Maybe Kevin Durant.
Other Knick fans were cursing Tom Thibodeau’s coaching or Jalen Brunson’s turnovers.
Things looked bleak at the time.
The Knicks were 12 minutes away from a 3-0 deficit in the Eastern Conference Finals and probably a few days away from the start of their offseason.
And then, improbably, Towns saved the Knicks’ season.
Towns’ 20 points in the first seven minutes of the fourth quarter gave the Knicks life in a game where they looked stuck in the mud.
When Towns started scoring, the Knicks were down 10. When he hit a 30-foot three pointer with 5:07 to play, New York led by four and had a clear path to win No. 1 in the Eastern Conference Finals.
They sealed the win with a big basket from Brunson, huge rebounds and clutch free throws from Josh Hart.
But none of it would have mattered without Towns’ 20 points.
“Fourth quarter is different. It’s a whole ‘nother game,” he said afterward. “Forget that last game and those last three quarters and just focus on giving yourself a change to win the game.”
THE RIGHT ROTATION MOVES
Thibodeau shook up the lineup ahead of Game 3, inserting Mitchell Robinson and moving Hart to the bench.
He also changed his rotation, giving minutes to Landry Shamet and Delon Wright ahead of Cam Payne.
After the game, Thibodeau didn’t go into great detail when asked to explain the decisions.
“Whatever gives your team the best chance to win. I know you try to put everything into a box. I don’t work that way,” Thibodeau said in response to a question about his rotation. “People think, ‘I want a low-scoring game.’ No, I just want more point than they have. I don’t care if it’s low scoring, high scoring, medium scoring. I just wanna win. That’s the bottom line.
“Whatever gives us the best chance to win, that’s what we’re gonna do. And so, that’s what I felt was gonna give us the best chance to win tonight’s game, so that’s why we did it.”
The Knicks starting lineup had been outscored by 29 in the first two games of the Pacers series.
They were a +1 in 14 minutes on Sunday.
The Knicks’ original starting lineup – Brunson, Towns, OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges, Hart – was a +9 in 3:30 in the game.
Whether you agree with Thibodeau’s moves or not, you can’t say they didn’t lead to success on Sunday night.
With Miles McBride in foul trouble, Thibodeau went to Wright and then Shamet.
Shamet had been out of the rotation since early in the Detroit series. Wright hadn’t played regular minutes in roughly seven weeks. But both players contributed to the Knicks’ fourth-quarter comeback.
McBride had nine points and a steal in 14 second-half minutes.
New York outscored Indiana by 12 with McBride on the floor in the second half.
“Coach did a great job with moving things around and we figured it out,” he said.
HART TO HART WITH THIBS
Hart had a huge contested rebound of a Myles Turner missed three with 20 seconds to go. The Knicks led by two at the time. Hart drew a foul on the rebound and hit both of his free throws to give New York a two-possession lead.
He was everywhere in the fourth quarter, finishing with five rebounds (two offensive), two assists and one steal. He also hit all four of his free throws.
Not bad for a bench player.
After the game, Hart said that he played a significant role in Thibodeau’s lineup decision.
He’d been thinking about the lineup change since late in the Boston series when he was having a tough time against Luke Kornet. When it was time to make the switch, Hart was fully on board.
“It was kind of my decision. I was comfortable with it,” Hart said after the game. “It was something that I’ve had in the back of my mind and I’ve always been wiling to do. Down two (games against the Pacers), especially with how (Robinson) played last game, that was something that we had to do. And obviously that’s a group decision that really boils down to Thibs and myself (agreeing on it).”
The decision obviously worked out well on Sunday.
The same can be said for Thibodeau’s decision to bring Brunson back in the game with 1:37 to play and the Knicks up by two. New York played for the previous five minutes with Brunson on the bench with foul trouble. Brunson also wasn’t producing for much of the game (he was 4-for-14 with three turnovers and one assist through three quarters).
But Brunson came in the game and hit a huge runner with 1:17 to go. The shot gave the Knicks a two-point lead that they would hold onto for the rest of the game.
“I knew we had to have him down the stretch,” Thibodeau said afterward.
And he knew the right time to get him in the game. After two tough games to open the series, Thibodeau deserves credit for the way he coached in Game 3.
Mets manager Carlos Mendoza spoke following Sunday night's win over the Los Angeles Dodgers...
Vientos' defensive struggles
Mark Vientos has had a bit of a rough time defensively this season.
The youngster showed signs of improvements last season, but he's taken a drastic step back this year.
He's been losing out on playing time to Brett Baty of late, but was back in there for Sunday's series finale.
Unfortunately, things didn't quite go as planned.
Vientos booted a Mookie Betts ground ball in the top of the first, allowing the speedster the reach on an infield knock.
Luckily, it didn't come back to bite the Mets as Tyrone Taylor gunned down Betts trying to score later in the inning on a potential Will Smith sac fly.
Still, this is an ugly trend for him as he has now committed a team-high seven errors on the season.
"He's going through it defensively right now," the skipper said. "Especially on those slow rollers, as of late I feel like three or four of them where he gets on the change or he's having a hard time securing the baseball -- it happens, he's continuing to work.
"He was out there today on that particular play. He's got to keep going and he'll get through it."
Vientos was pulled later in the game for defensive purposes -- as Baty slid over to the hot corner and Luisangel Acuña entered the game at second base.
Big Pete's back on the board
It's been a bit of a tough stretch of late for Pete Alonso.
The big man has slowed down drastically after his scorching hot start to the season.
Entering Sunday's contest, Alonso was stuck in a 65 at-bat homerless streak -- the longest of his career.
But with a favorable matchup against Dodgers righty Landon Knack, it didn't take him long to snap that skid.
After Juan Soto busted it down the line to beat out a two-out infield single, Alonso cranked the first pitch he saw from Knack over the left-field fence for a two-run homer.
It was his 10th of the season and ended up being a big one in the 3-1 victory.
"It's rare for Pete to go on a stretch like that without a homer," Mendoza said. "Finally gets a breaking ball first pitch and he was ready to go -- hopefully they come in bunches now. It was good to see him from the first pitch today in the first inning and put early pressure on them."
Kodai Senga quickly found himself on the ropes on Sunday night.
After Shohei Ohtani crushed the second pitch of the ballgame for a homer, Mookie Betts reached on a Mark Vientos error and Freddie Freeman lined an opposite-field double to put two in scoring position with no outs.
Will Smith then stepped to the plate looking to add on.
The sweet-swinging catcher floated a liner to shallow right-center which Tyrone Taylor broke in on at full speed and made the catch before unleashing a perfect throw home to catch the speedy Betts trying to score.
That ended up being a huge play for the Mets in what ended as a 3-1 victory.
“That’s not an easy play,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “He’s coming from a different angle, but then he has to put himself in a different position quickly to align the hips, the shoulder to make that throw to home plate -- that’s what makes him a special defender.
“He’s really good out there because of the little things like that. When he’s going pretty much away from the play and he’s got to turn and put his body into position to execute a perfect throw to the plate.”
This is just the latest of numerous game-changing plays Taylor has made this year.
The 31-year-old has stepped up tremendously in the everyday centerfielder role since Jose Siri went down with an injury -- currently ranking in the 92nd percentile, according to Baseball Savant, with a stellar 3 Outs Above Average.
Mendoza and the Mets know this is who he is, they certainly aren’t surprised.
“With TT and you’re talking about defense, you’re not surprised,” the skipper said. “This guy that whether it’s the jumps, the routes, the range overall, and then the arm. That’s not an easy play but for him to just turn and execute the throw -- he’s an elite defender.”
And it’s not just defensively where Taylor has provided a spark -- prior to his 0-for-2 showing on Sunday night, the veteran was riding a seven-game hitting streak with two doubles and an .847 OPS over that span.
The Knicks needed someone to step up offensively on Sunday night.
Time and time again this season that person has been Jalen Brunson -- there’s a reason he won the NBA’s Clutch Player of the Year award -- but this time it was someone else’s turn to put the team on their back.
After a rough first two and a half frames at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, the Knicks found themselves struggling to get into a groove and trailing the Indiana Pacers by double digits late in the third.
Finally, Miles McBride came off the bench and put together a 7-0 scoring run of his own to get them back within single digits heading into the fourth.
New York ran with that momentum from there and Karl-Anthony Towns completely took things over offensively -- dominating during an incredible scoring run in which he put the team square on his back.
“He made some tough shots for us,” Josh Hart said. “He showed his ability to get to the rim, his ability to post-up, his ability to space the floor. He’s a tough matchup for anybody in the league when he has it going like that -- it’s great for us.”
The most notable bucket during that stretch was a monstrous slam on Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard, which gave the Knicks their first lead since early in the first quarter -- and they went on to pull out the come-from-behind win.
Towns became just the second player in franchise history to put together a 20-point quarter in the playoffs.
“My teammates were just putting me in spots to succeed and I wanted to capitalize on the opportunity,” Towns said. “All of us were just doing whatever it takes to win the game and put ourselves in a position to get back in the game -- shoutout to the locker room.”
At some point in the months ahead, perhaps that six-game loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS last October will be remembered as a coming-of-age moment for the Mets.
That is, they clearly weren’t good enough at the time but off their impressive series win this weekend at Citi Field it appears these Mets have taken important strides in matching up with baseball’s glamour team.
For starters, don’t dismiss the grit they showed, bouncing back from that agonizing 13-inning defeat on Friday night to win the final two games at Citi Field, including Sunday night’s 3-1 win behind Kodai Senga.
“Why you gotta bring that back up?” Tyrone Taylor said, only half-kiddingly when a reporter asked what it said about his team. “But, yeah, we’re pumped about it.”
If you were looking for him to expound on that answer, well, he didn’t. It’s not Taylor’s style. When he was asked how he pulled off his spectacular throw, with all his momentum going to his left, that nailed Mookie Betts at the plate in the first inning, his reaction was basically, “I thought (Luis) Torrens made a nice tag.”
I point that out because Taylor’s modest description of the play was emblematic of the Mets’ reaction to winning the series from the big, bad Dodgers.
Nobody was beating their chest, put it that way. As manager Carlos Mendoza said more than once this weekend, “We know we’re good too.”
Fair enough. Still, what’s significant is the way the Mets bounced back, doing it mostly with pitching against one of the most imposing lineups in the game.
To that end Mendoza said his team did learn a valuable lesson from that NLCS that they apparently took to heart.“We attacked,” the manager said of the way the Mets pitched, holding the Dodgers to a total of three runs in the final two games. “We saw it in the playoffs last year. We gave them free passes and it cost us.
New York Mets center fielder Tyrone Taylor (15) makes a catch for an out during the first inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Citi Field. / Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images
“We did a better job of attacking this time and we got results.”
On Saturday night David Peterson struck out Shohei Ohtani three times and pitched into the eighth inning in a game when the Mets’ bullpen was exhausted, but if there was a moment that best defined the attack mentality Mendoza referenced, it was the third inning on Sunday night.
Ohtani had ambushed Senga for a monster home run in the first inning, a moment that had to sting for the Mets’ ace against his fellow countryman. Yet, in the third Senga did indeed attack Ohtani, striking him out on three pitches, a 91-mph cutter, an 83-mph ghost fork, and then a 96-mph fastball above the strike zone that Ohtani chased for the K.
It was a statement of sorts by Senga that he was up to the task, despite the fact that Mendoza said of him, “he didn’t have his good forkball tonight but he found a way. That tells you how good he is.”
Senga didn’t seem to entirely agree about the ghost fork. He indicated that he believed the Dodgers were going to the plate looking for his forkball, and he had to adjust.
“That’s very Dodger-like,” he said. “They’re a clever team. They have a bunch of clever hitters.”
At least partly as a result, Senga had to work awfully hard and was constantly in deep counts, throwing 91 pitches to get through five innings, and 101 in 5 1/3 when Mendoza pulled him for Ryne Stanek.
Four walks and five hits made for a lot of traffic on the bases, but once again he was at his best when pitching out of jams.“He made some huge pitches,” said Mendoza. “That’s who he is.”
That and 3 2/3 near-perfect innings from the bullpen, on a night when Edwin Diaz wasn’t available after pitching Friday and Saturday, locked up the Dodgers’ big bats for the second straight night.
It’s significant because, once again, it was evidence that the Mets aren’t leading MLB in team ERA (2.81) with smoke and mirrors. Just as they did to the Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs, two other powerful offenses, their pitching proved to be for real.
And it was needed because the Mets still can’t seem to get the bats going in a big way. It was a good sign that Pete Alonso broke out of his career-long home run drought with a two-run shot in the first inning, but otherwise it was another quiet night offensively.
Instead, it came down to the little things, if you will. Taylor’s throw in the first inning may well have changed everything, preventing the Dodgers from taking a 2-0 lead after Ohtani’s home run, an error by Mark Vientos, and a double by Freddie Freeman.
There was also Juan Soto’s hustle, notable after what happened in Boston last week, as he beat out a hard ground ball after a bobble by Max Muncy with two outs in the bottom of the first, allowing Alonso to get a turn and hit his home run.
There was also a gorgeous double play in the sixth inning that featured Brett Baty, playing second base, handling a tough hop and backhanding a flip perfectly to Francisco Lindor coming full speed across the bag and making the throw.
Soto even chimed in with a nice running catch at the fence to rob Michael Conforto of an extra-base hit in the seventh inning.
All of it making a case that these Mets could be a more well-rounded team than the one that lost to the Dodgers last October, especially with a healthy Senga on the mound.
It’s a long way to another postseason matchup with LA, of course, but if this weekend proved anything, it was that Mendoza was right to keep making his point whenever anybody wanted to wax poetic about the Dodgers:
WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Willie MacIver hit a go-ahead single in the eighth inning of his major league debut. Minutes later, the 28-year-old catcher threw out a runner trying to steal second for the final out that ended the Athletics’ 11-game losing streak.
“I woke up hoping for a Gatorade bath at the end of the game and, man, I’ve never felt such a good feeling with such cold water,” he said after the A’s beat Philadelphia 5-4 on Sunday and stopped the Phillies’ nine-game win streak.
MacIver was among five players brought up from the minors on Friday. He started Sunday in place of Shea Langeliers in the day game after a night game.
“This is part of the talk that we had in spring training, it was going to take the whole army that was in the room,” said manager Mark Kotsay, who watched the end from the clubhouse following his first ejection this season.
MacIver, hitting .389 with two homers and 30 RBIs at Triple-A Las Vegas, grounded out in the second and fourth against Jesús Luzardo, then struck out in the sixth.
After Trea Turner homered in the eighth off Hogan Harris for a 4-3 lead, another Friday call-ups sparked the rally.
Logan Davidson walked and scored on Lawrence Butler’s triple against Matt Strahm. MacIver fouled off a fastball, then drove a cutter into center field to bring home the go-ahead run.
“I’m always upset about walks,” Strahm said. “I just feel like I’ve had too many too close together.”
A day after blowing a ninth-inning lead, Mason Miller allowed a two-out single in the ninth to Alec Bohm. Johan Rojas pinch ran and MacIver, who had been in the minors since 2018, threw to shortstop Jacob Wilson, who tagged the sliding Rojas on an elbow.
“I had family here, friends, teammates, ex-teammates,” MacIver said. “It’s a dream come true. I can’t even put it into words.”
Rojas at 29.9 feet per second has the fifth-highest sprint speed in the majors among players with 10 or more opportunities, according to Statcast.
MacIver was selected by Colorado in the ninth round of the 2018 amateur draft from the University of Washington. He played in the 2021 Futures Game with Bobby Witt Jr., Julio Rodríguez and Spencer Torkelson.
MacIver became a minor league free agent last November and signed a minor league contract with the Athletics a month later.
“I’m so grateful for my family and for my support system,” he said. “They’ve been everything to me and I obviously wouldn’t be here without them and like I can’t thank them enough. ... The fact that they could be here and see my first hit and how that game ended, man, it’s awesome.”
Davidson started at first a day after Nick Kurtz left the game because of a left hip issue. He had two hits and two RBIs a day after a forgettable debut.
Davidson entered as a pinch runner for Kurtz in the 10th inning. He was thrown out at the plate, called for obstruction and ended a 9-6 loss by striking out.
“There’s a lot of confidence that I have in this kid,” Kotsay said. “I’ve invested a lot of time, we’ve had a lot of conversations through the last two seasons about what it was going to take for him to be a big leaguer and he has not backed down from anything that I’ve given him and to see the reward come today and just his first start and contributing and having such an impact to the win, was awesome.”
The conditions on the first-round pick involved top-13 protection in 2025 for the Rangers as well as the option to defer the pick as an unprotected 2026 first. Since New York is in the 12th overall slot for the draft, they can choose to keep the pick this year if they so desire.
And there are arguments on both sides as to why they should keep it or defer it.
Why they should keep it
Simply put, the Rangers aren't really putting themselves in any position to be tanking right now.
Sure, they could try to tank for Gavin McKenna next season. But, then, why trade for Miller? Why hire Mike Sullivan, a win-now coach? Why make the priority retooling this summer?
With a roster that is just beginning to age out and a goaltender making $11 million, the Rangers almost have no choice but to maximize the window that they're in. They followed up a President's Trophy-winning campaign in 2023-24 with a dud of a season, but with some reshuffling, they may still be able to contend.
Deferring the pick to 2026 signals to your roster, your coach, and your organization that you don't necessarily believe you'll be better next season. Is that really the message the Rangers want to send to their players this offseason? That they're counting on a potential lottery pick?
No, probably not. Even though the draft is deeper next season, they should grab a good player at 12th overall, especially since next year's pick may be way later than 12.
The argument could be made here that the 2026 draft is simply deeper - by most accounts, it is - and, even if the Rangers finish mid-teens to early-20s in draft order, they'll still be getting a very good player. It could also be argued that there's no guarantee they won't be worse next season.
But beyond that, there is another sticking point: the 2026 NHL trade deadline.
If the Rangers decide to defer the pick to 2026, that means they'll have that first to leverage should they be in position to do so. If they retool their roster in the offseason and find themselves in the playoff mix in February next year, they may be looking for that one final piece to give them a leg up in competitive advantage.
And because the 2026 draft is deep, that pick should hold a fair amount of value, even if it's a mid-late first.
Deferring the pick allows them to be reactive to however their season goes in 2025-26 rather than being stuck in no-man's land if they end up being worse next season. If they're fighting for a playoff spot at the deadline, they can use the pick to acquire talent. If they're near the basement at that time, they can keep it and, potentially, be in the lottery conversation.
When looking at the pick from a value standpoint, deferring it and allowing the Penguins to have the 2025 pick makes a degree of sense.
Two pitches in to Sunday's rubber match between the Mets and the Los Angeles Dodgers, Shohei Ohtani took Kodai Senga deep for a solo shot that gave the Dodgers an immediate 1-0 lead.
Los Angeles would quickly put runners on second and third with nobody out in what looked like could be Senga's first real bad outing of the season.
Instead, with some help from Tyrone Taylor's fantastic throw from center field, Senga escaped the inning without allowing another run. The leadoff home run ended up being the only run Senga allowed over 5.1 innings -- on a night he didn't quite have his patented ghost fork working, either.
"He made huge pitches because I didn’t think he had the forkball today," manager Carlos Mendoza said after the Mets' 3-1 win. "From the very beginning when you watch that Freddie Freeman at-bat in the first inning, he was fouling pitches off, he was laying off. Then Will Smith laid off one of them too and you could tell that he didn’t have it.
"And then a few 2-0 counts, but I just thought that he kept making pitches. We made some big plays – that play in the first inning that Tyrone Taylor threw to home plate was huge. He kept battling. He used the cutter even though I don’t think he had that pitch either, but he found a way and for him to go back out there for the sixth and get us one out there, it was important. That goes to show you how good he is on a night that he’s not at his best against a lineup like that, he’s able to keep us in the game, make pitches when he needed to and gave us a chance."
Aside from the first inning, Senga still had to deal with traffic on the bases for most of the night. The right-hander allowed five hits and walked four against what he described as a "clever" Dodgers lineup as his command continues to be a bit of problem.
But regardless of the situation, no matter how stressful, Senga was able to work his way out of it. It's something he's beginning to be known for now in his career -- getting out of sticky situations.
"I used my whole repertoire," Senga said through an interpreter. "Used every pitch in all sorts of situations and I was able to get through it."
It wasn't just Senga, though, as Ryne Stanek, Max Kranick and Reed Garrett combined for 3.2 scoreless innings against one of the top offenses in baseball. Kranick, in particular, shined as the right-hander pitched two innings and hasn't been scored upon in his last three appearances (5.1 innings).
Really all weekend New York's pitching dominated the Dodgers. And if the Mets' offense was able to produce just one hit in extra innings on Friday night, they would've swept Los Angeles.
"We attacked," Mendoza said about what his pitchers did well against the Dodgers. "We saw it in the playoffs last year and we gave them free passes and it ended up costing us. We saw it today with Max Kranick, perfect example. Coming in in that situation, attacking hitters, staying on the attack, make them swing the bat and let the defense take care of itself.
"I thought overall, the whole series, I thought we did a better job of attacking those guys and executing pitches when we needed to."
The series win against one of the top teams in the National League came at a great time for New York who was coming off back-to-back series losses against the Yankees and Boston Red Sox.
The Mets improved to 32-21 -- the same record as the Dodgers -- and are now 2.0 games behind the Philadelphia Phillies who lost earlier on Sunday against the Athletics.
"For us to bounce back the way we did and taking the last two, winning a series against a really good team, obviously, it shows a lot about that group -- our ability to bounce back, the grit, the resilience and it was on display the whole weekend there," Mendoza said.
"It was a good series win," Taylor said. "We’re out here trying to win every series and they have a really good team over there so to get this one is huge."
The Florida Panthers have a little bit of experience dealing with the situation they currently find themselves.
Over the past three postseasons, all three of which Florida has reached at least the conference finals, the Panthers have held a 3-0 series lead five times.
The first time, against the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2023, Florida lost Game 4 at home before closing out the Leafs two nights later.
It happened again the very next round, against the same Carolina Hurricanes Florida is currently facing.
Back then, the Panthers were able to complete the sweep thanks to a last-second goal by Matthew Tkachuk in Game 4.
In the first round of last year’s postseason, Florida took a 3-0 lead against the Tampa Bay Lightning, lost Game 4 in Tampa and then closed out the Bolts on home ice in Game 5.
Then, of course, there was the Stanley Cup Final, where the Panthers famously (or infamously, I suppose) won the first three games against the Edmonton Oilers only to lose each of the nex three, setting up an incredible Game 7 that Florida won 2-1 to claim the franchise’s first Stanley Cup.
How it plays out this time remains to be seen, a status that several regulars in Florida’s lineup also share.
Sam Reinhart left Game 2 early, and Niko Mikkola and A.J. Greer left Game 3 early, so the availability for each on Monday night wouldn’t be decided until earlier in the day, according to Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice.
Here are the Panthers projected lines and pairings for Game 4 against Carolina:
Photo caption: May 24, 2025; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Florida Panthers center Jesper Boqvist (70) celebrates with teammates after a goal during the third period against the Carolina Hurricanes in game three of the Eastern Conference Final of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Amerant Bank Arena. (Sam Navarro-Imagn Images)
The Knicks defeated the Indiana Pacers 106-100 in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Sunday night.
Here are some takeaways...
- Looking to shake things up with the starting five struggling, head coach Tom Thibodeau inserted Mitchell Robinson into the lineup in place of Josh Hart for the first time in the playoffs. The big man made a quick impact with three early boards and two buckets, and Hart was the first man off the bench, as expected.
The Knicks were also forced to reach even deeper into their rotation early, as Miles McBride came off the bench and picked up three quick fouls, so reserve guard Delon Wright saw his first non-garbage time minutes of the playoffs.
New York did hold Indiana to low shooting percentages all-around in the opening frame, but they struggled from the field as well and found themselves trailing by four after one -- it was the first time they've lost the opening quarter this series.
- The Knicks then opened the second with a lineup that featured Wright running the point and Landry Shamet on the wing and the Pacers were able to take advantage of it -- adding onto their lead behind some strong play by the pesky TJ McConnell.
Things went from bad to worse for New York over the closing few minutes of the half -- both Jalen Brunson (four) and Towns (three) were forced to the bench as they fell into foul trouble and Indiana's high-powered offense piled on down the stretch.
The lead stretched out to as much as 20, but a late 8-2 run helped get it back down to 13 at the break.
- With the rest of the Knicks' offense struggling to get going, OG Anunoby was doing what he could to provide a spark coming out of the locker room, but the Pacers offense had an answer each time. They suffered a big blow a few minutes later, as Aaron Nesmith needed assistance off after suffering an ankle injury.
The lead was pushed back up to as many as 18 points but New York finally put together a run late. Seeing action for the first time since the first quarter, McBride scored seven straight points of his own to help get them back within single digits heading into the final frame.
- New York carried that momentum into the opening minutes of the fourth -- they tightened things up defensively and Towns was finally able to get into a rhythm, putting together a string of big buckets to cut the lead all the way back down to three.
Moments later, the big man jammed down a monstrous slam on Andrew Nembhard and converted the free throw, giving the Knicks their first lead since the first quarter -- they wouldn't be able to get that over five points as the teams went back-and-forth trading buckets.
- As always, Brunson knocked down a late lay-in to give the Knicks a two-point advantage. Hart then came up with a massive rebound on the other end and knocked down a pair of big free throws, helping New York put away the massive Game 3 victory.
- Towns scored 20 of his 24 points in the fourth quarter and he reeled in a game-high 15 boards. Brunson had a relatively quiet night in the scoring department, finishing with just 23 points. Anunoby knocked down six of his nine shot attempts to finish with 16 of his own.
Game MVP: Karl-Anthony Towns
Towns stepped up and put together a huge fourth-quarter surge when the Knicks needed it the most.
Pete Alonso reacts after hitting a two-run home run during the first inning for the Mets. (Seth Wenig / Associated Press)
Shohei Ohtani provided the Dodgers some temporary reprieve on Sunday.
Before the game, he faced hitters for the first time since undergoing Tommy John revision surgery in 2023, drawing a large crowd in the visitor’s dugout at Citi Field as he touched 97 mph with his fastball and struck out two batters in five at-bats.
Four and a half hours later, the two-way star dazzled with his bat, as well, belting a second-deck leadoff blast in the first inning against Mets ace and fellow Japanese star Kodai Senga to tie the major league lead with 18 home runs on the season.
“I thought that infused some life into us,” manager Dave Roberts said.
Alas, it wouldn’t last, the Dodgers instead going quiet the rest of the night in a 3-1 rubber-match loss to the New York Mets.
They were doomed by bad defense early, the Mets scoring three early runs with the help of two Dodgers errors. They were frustrated by wasted opportunities at the plate later, hitting into three double plays for a second consecutive game.
It sent the team to a series defeat in the weekend’s rematch of last year’s National League Championship Series. It also dropped them to 3-6 in their last nine games and 9-11 in their last 20.
Really, outside of their 8-0 start to the season, they’ve been little better than a .500 team, going just 24-21 since then (even with another seven-game winning streak mixed in to that stretch).
And while they’re still in first place in the NL West, and trailing only the Philadelphia Phillies, Detroit Tigers and New York Yankees for the best record in baseball, they aren’t playing like a team anywhere near that distinction.
“Tonight was one of those nights that we just gave them extra outs, and they took advantage,” Roberts said.
“It's been pretty frustrating,” echoed third baseman Max Muncy. “Just keep shooting ourselves in the foot.”
There was no bigger self-inflicted wound than the one Muncy suffered in the bottom of the first.
After two strikeouts from Landon Knack to start the inning, Juan Soto hit a sharp grounder to third that Muncy bobbled on a high hop, recovering too late to throw Soto out at first.
It was Muncy’s eighth error of the season, second-most among MLB third basemen, and first not to come on a throw.
“It's one of those things where I'm just really not good defensively right now,” Muncy said. “Not going to shy away from it, but all I can do is keep showing up every day, working on it, trying to figure things out, trying to get better. That's what I've been doing.”
On Sunday, however, there was nothing Muncy could do.
One pitch later, Pete Alonso whacked a hanging curveball from Knack for a two-run homer. The Mets (32-21) wouldn’t squander the lead the rest of the way.
“We were trying to get it down a little bit, and obviously left it up,” Knack said. “I would say he’s a little more aggressive with runners on, so was able to take advantage of it.”
As Alonso rounded the bases, Muncy stared stoicly into the distance.
“It makes you feel like the game is on your shoulders. That's how I feel, at least,” Muncy said. “It’s a play that needs to be made, and I should have made it. It's just a frustrating one.”
There were plenty of other moments, however, that left the Dodgers (32-21) shaking their head.
After Ohtani’s leadoff homer, their offense had the chance to add more. Mookie Betts reached on an error. Freddie Freeman moved him to third with a double. When Will Smith followed with a fly ball to center field, it was deep enough for Betts to break for home. At least, that’s how it seemed.
Instead, Mets center fielder Tyrone Taylor delivered a strike to the plate. And after Betts was initially ruled safe on a feet-first slide, a Mets challenge got the call overturned. A chance to build some early breathing room for Knack had disappeared. And despite repeated opportunities to claw back later, the Dodgers failed to scratch anything else across the plate.
In the fourth inning, Freeman hit a leadoff single … only for Smith to promptly ground into a double-play.
Later in the inning, Teoscar Hernández doubled and Muncy walked to put two aboard … only for Andy Pages to hit a deep fly ball that died at the warning track in left.
In the fifth, the Dodgers generated their best chance against Senga … only for the right-hander to induce a two-out grounder from Smith that ended the threat.
In the sixth, Muncy drew a one-out walk … only for Pages to roll into another double play, the 42nd for the Dodgers this season (fifth-most in the majors).
“I think that the tale is we've just got to play clean baseball, have a good offensive approach, because we're going to see some good pitching,” Roberts said, with the Dodgers in the midst of a 29-game stretch against nothing but playoff-contending teams.
“Case in point is Shohei didn't get a fifth at-bat [tonight], because they made plays and they got a couple double plays and things like that. All that stuff matters. So that stuff, that's really highlighted when you're playing against good ballclubs."
The Mets scored their only other run against Knack — who delivered just the 14th six-inning start of the season for the club — in the third. With one on and one out, Mark Vientos hit a hard grounder up the middle that Betts impressively got to from shortstop. But then Betts misfired on a flip to second base, sailing the ball over teammate Tommy Edman’s head to put runners on the corners. A fielder’s choice from Soto in the next at-bat scored a run.
The 3-1 deficit proved too much for the Dodgers to surmount — ending a day that had begun with so much optimism around Ohtani’s two-way talents with a dud of a performance and frustrating series loss in Queens.
The Mets defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-1 at Citi Field Sunday night to take two of three in the weekend series.
They got strong starting pitching from Kodai Senga and an early two-run home run from Pete Alonso to spark the win.
Here are the top takeaways...
-Senga gave up a monster home run to the first batter he faced, fellow countryman Shohei Ohtani, but then shut the door on the Dodgers for 5 1/3 innings before a high pitch count forced him out of the game.
Senga had to pitch around four walks, in addition to five hits, but held the Dodgers without another run before being relieved in the sixth at 101 pitches.
Along the way, Senga exacted some revenge on Ohtani, striking him out on three pitches the second time up, getting him swinging at a high fastball for the K. He also got him on a shallow fly ball to CF with a good ghost fork in the fifth.
As usual, he was at his best with runners on base. Throughout the season, and going back to his 2023 season, he has been one of the best in the majors at stranding runners.
Senga’s ERA rose slightly to 1.46.
-Max Kranick gave the Mets two scoreless innings in relief, pitching the seventh and the eighth, buzz-sawing through the fearsome top of the Dodgers’ lineup without allowing a hit.
In all, the Mets got 11 outs from their bullpen, two from Ryne Stanek, six from Kranick, and the final three from Reed Garrett for the save as Edwin Diaz was unavailable after pitching on both Friday and Saturday night.
-Alonso broke the longest home run drought of his career with a two-run shot to left in the first inning off Dodgers’ starter Landon Knack.
Alonso had gone 65 at-bats and 71 plate appearances without a long ball, a span that stretched over 16 games, though he thought a strong wind cost him two home runs during that time, one at Yankee Stadium and one at Fenway Park.
It was his 10th home run of the season.
Juan Soto set the stage for it by hustling to beat out a hard ground ball that Max Muncy bobbled for an error.
-Tyrone Taylor, who is playing a Gold Glove-caliber center field this season, made a spectacular throw in the first inning to nail Mookie Betts at the plate in the first inning and limit the Dodgers to one run -- Ohtani’s leadoff HR.
With Betts at third and Freddie Freeman at second and no outs, Will Smith lofted a fly ball toward right-center. The ball was fairly shallow and Taylor had to run hard to make the catch, with his body angling toward right field. With great body control Taylor turned and threw in one motion, making a perfect throw to Luis Torrens to get Betts sliding at the plate.
-Soto made an impact with his hustle play but otherwise had a rough night at the plate, going 0-for-4 with two weak groundouts and a strikeout swinging.
He did make a good running catch near the right-field fence to rob Michael Conforto of a hit leading off the seventh inning.
Game MVP: Kodai Senga
It's tempting to give it to Alonso but the Dodgers’ lineup is so potent that Senga gets the nod, allowing one run over 5 1/3 innings, giving LA nothing after a leadoff home run by Ohtani.
Senga probably could have gone deeper into the game if not for his pitch count of 101.
It wasn't that long ago that Tage Thompson was part of the long term plans for the St. Louis Blues.
But on Sunday, the No. 26 pick in the 2016 NHL Draft by the Blues helped end a lengthy drought for the United States at the 2025 IIHF World Championship.
Thompson scored the overtime goal, the lone goal of the game, a golden goal in the gold medal game to give Team USA its first gold medal in 92 years with a 1-0 win against Switzerland on Sunday at Avicii Arena in Stockholm, Sweden.
It was the first gold medal for Team USA since 1933, and it's a full 20-minute period and teams play the NHL's style of 3-on-3 until a winner is determined.
Thompson skated through the neutral zone and into the offensive zone before wiring a wrist shot from the top of the right circle past Switzerland goalie Leonardo Genoni at 2:02 for the winner:
Blues fans will remember Thompson was a key piece to the trade in 2018 that brought Ryan O'Reilly to the Blues from the Buffalo Sabres along with Patrik Berglund, Vladimir Sobotka, a 2019 first-round pick and a 2021 second-round pick.
Of course, the Blues will call the trade a win since they went on to win the first Stanley Cup in franchise history that very next season, defeating the Boston Bruins in seven games in 2019.
Thompson, 27, has gone on to have a very nice career with the Sabres, reaching more than 40 goals twice in the past four seasons, including 44 this past season and a career-high 47 in 2022-23.
Thompson spent one season with the Blues in 2017-18, playing in 41 games (three goals, six assists).
Chesterfield native Clayton Keller, captain of the Utah Mammoth, who grew up in Swansea, Il. was also part of Team USA.
