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Steph Curry, Gary Payton II share love for Draymond Green's 3-point ‘booms'

Steph Curry, Gary Payton II share love for Draymond Green's 3-point ‘booms' originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Steph Curry is who most NBA fans think of when imagining a Warriors player making a 3-point shot.

But a classic Draymond Green splash never gets old.

Curry and Golden State teammate Gary Payton II hilariously shared their love for hearing Green yell his signature “boom” after his trio of triples in the Warriors’ blowout 137-103 win over the Sacramento Kings on Friday night at Chase Center.

“I tell him all the time, ‘You get that shot, we live with it. You take it. We got confidence in it. Get your feet set. And all I want to hear you say is ‘Boom’ at the end of it,’” Curry told reporters, having assisted on all three of Green’s 3-pointers,” because it gets everybody going when he’s knocking down those shots and making defenses pay for how they’re guarding us.

“You know, three points, sometimes they’re not all created equal. Those are big shots.”

Most of the Warriors’ opponents consider Green an afterthought when it comes to perimeter shooting; it isn’t the worst tactic, as Green has made just 32.1 percent of triples over his illustrious 14-year NBA career.

However, Green has made 790 shots behind the arc, and every one of them has helped coach Steve Kerr’s offense keep defenses honest.

Plus, hearing Green yell “boom” always makes for some fun.

Green finished with 11 points on 3-for-4 shooting from deep against the Kings. While Golden State cruised to victory, Payton enjoyed seeing his teammate space the floor and create even more offense for the Warriors.

“Boom — that’s it,” Payton told reporters when asked about the impact of Green’s 3-point shooting. “[Defenses are] going to have to start inching out to him sooner or later. But if they’re not, you’re going to start hearing a lot of booms.”

Curry is the greatest sharpshooter in the history of basketball. But he might have emerging competition, as Green has made 13 of his 33 triples, or 39.4 percent, over his last seven games.

Boom.

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Referee Bill Kennedy leaves court in wheelchair after suffering non-contact leg injury

Bill Kennedy, one of the NBA's most recognizable and popular referees, had to leave the court in a wheelchair Friday night after a non-contact lower leg injury.

There has been no official update on his injury or status, but 76ers coach Nick Nurse said postgame he heard rumors it could be an Achilles injury, adding, "Let's hope it's not that." Kennedy pulled up while running down the court, not near anyone else, which is never a good sign.

Most fans recognize Kennedy as the best at the coach's challenge calls on the mic.

Kennedy, 59, is in his 26th season as an NBA referee. He is approaching 1,500 NBA regular-season games officiated as well as 139 playoff games, which includes six NBA Finals games. Kennedy, the second openly gay official in the NBA, is one of the most respected and well liked referees by players and coaches around the league.

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Penguins Call Up Skilled Forward From AHL

The Pittsburgh Penguins have announced that they have recalled forward Rafael Harvey-Pinard from their American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. 

Harvey-Pinard has yet to make his Pittsburgh regular-season debut, but now that has the potential to change with this call-up. The 27-year-old has appeared in 32 games so far this season with Wilkes/Barre Scranton, where he has posted seven goals, six assists, 13 points, and a plus-8 rating. 

Harvey-Pinard also spent most of this past season in the AHL, but with the Laval Rocket. In 40 games with Laval in 2024-25, he had five goals and 19 points. He also played in one game for the Montreal Canadiens this past campaign, where he has was held off the scoresheet. 

In 84 career NHL games over four seasons, Harvey-Pinard has posted 17 goals, 14 assists, 31 points, and a plus-3 rating. Most of his offensive numbers came during the 2022-23 season with the Canadiens, though, as he posted 14 goals and 20 points in 34 games.

Overall, there is no harm in the Penguins giving Harvey-Pinard a look on their NHL roster. It will be interesting to see how much of an impact he can make from here. 

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Buffalo Sabres Call Up Skilled Defender

The Buffalo Sabres have announced that they have recalled defenseman Zac Jones from their American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Rochester Americans. 

Jones getting called up to the Sabres' roster comes just one day after he was sent down to the AHL. Now, after recording a goal and an assist in the Amerks' Jan. 9 contest against the Laval Rocket, Jones is right back on the Sabres' NHL roster with this latest roster move. 

While Jones has been called up multiple times to the Sabres' roster this season, he has still yet to make his debut for the club. The left-shot defenseman will be hoping that this changes after landing today's call-up to Buffalo's roster. 

In 28 games this season with the Amerks, Jones has posted three goals and 32 points. He also leads the entire AHL with 29 assists, so there is no question that he is impressing in a big way with Rochester. 

Jones appeared in a career-high 46 games this past season with the New York Rangers, where he posted one goal, 10 assists, 11 points, and an even plus/minus rating. 

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FA Cup roundup: Sunderland beat Everton on penalties as Strand Larsen hits treble for Wolves

  • Wolves beat Shrewsbury 6-1 to continue revival

  • Leicester win 2-0 at Cheltenham to avoid giantkilling

David Moyes refused to criticise the players who missed all Everton’s penalties in a 3-0 shootout defeat to Sunderland in the club’s first FA Cup tie at Hill Dickinson Stadium.

Unconvincing efforts from James Garner, who had scored from the spot in the 89th minute to cancel out Enzo Le Fée’s first-half strike, Thierno Barry and Beto were all saved by Robin Roefs. It was the first time in Everton’s history they had failed to score a single penalty in a shootout, and they became only the second top-flight team to lose an FA Cup shootout without scoring after Blackburn, also against Sunderland, in 2003.

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Line Combinations: Red Wings at Canadiens

The Detroit Red Wings and Montreal Canadiens will renew one of hockey’s most storied rivalries Saturday night at the Bell Centre, meeting for the first time since Detroit opened the season with a stunning 5–1 rout on home ice. This time, the Wings head to Quebec to face one of the most intense atmospheres in the sport, with both clubs entering the matchup tied atop the Atlantic Division with 56 points.

Detroit holds a slight edge with a 26–15–4 record, while Montreal sits at 25–13–6 after pushing more games into extra time. Both teams are red hot, as the Red Wings have gone 12–4–1 over their last 17 games for the second-best record in the league during that span, while the Canadiens are 8–1–2 in their last 11 games, also ranking second in the NHL over that stretch.

The matchup also highlights contrasting styles and a compelling battle in goal. Montreal’s offense has leaned on star power, with four players averaging more than a point per game during their recent surge, while Detroit has thrived on depth, getting multiple goals from 13 different players during its 17-game hot streak. The Canadiens have won four of the last five meetings between the teams, though Detroit had taken seven of the previous nine before that run.

In net, the Red Wings are expected to turn to veteran John Gibson, who has won 11 of his last 13 starts with a 2.17 goals-against average and .927 save percentage, while Montreal counters with rising American standout Jacob Fowler. The 21-year-old has helped the Canadiens earn points in all but two of his eight NHL starts, posting a 4–2–2 record, a 2.37 goals-against average and a .912 save percentage, setting the stage for an elite showdown between two rivals battling for divisional supremacy.

Bookmark The Hockey News Detroit Red Wings team site to stay connected to the latest news, game-day coverage, and player features. 

Detroit Red Wings’ Expected Line Combinations vs. Montreal (Saturday):

Finnie – Larkin – Kasper

DeBrincat – Copp – Kane

van Riemsdyk – Compher – Raymond

Soderblom – Rasmussen – Appleton

Edvinsson – Seider

Chiarot – Sandin-Pellikka

Johansson – Benard-Docker

Gibson

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Antoine Semenyo’s debut goal helps Manchester City rout Exeter 10-1 in FA Cup

After 52 minutes, joy for Antoine Semenyo on his Manchester City debut. Rayan Cherki’s pirouette presaged him threading the ball in behind Exeter’s defence for the wideman to run in and beat Joe Whitworth to cap a memorable display. A little later Semenyo was replaced to an ovation and, from his seat in the stands, the suspended Pep Guardiola, in a flat cap and winter coat, approved, too.

Tijjani Reijnders’ curled finish, Nico O’Reilly’s flicked header, an 18-yard shot by another debutant, Ryan McAidoo, and Rico Lewis’s second completed City’s goal-plunder, while the substitute George Birch, 19, smashed home a memorable first Exeter goal for their consolation.

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Calgary Flames At Pittsburgh Penguins Preview: Lineup Changes, Where To Watch

The Pittsburgh Penguins have won six in a row heading into Saturday's showdown against the Calgary Flames. 

The Penguins currently sit in a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference and will try to make it seven wins in a row against a struggling Flames team. The Flames have lost four in a row heading into this game and have given up four or more goals in all of those losses. 

Nazem Kadri leads the Flames in points with 32, but only has eight goals this season. He's been much more of a playmaker when he has the puck on his stick. 

Rasmus Andersson has been great for the Flames as their top defenseman, compiling nine goals and 27 points in 44 games. They've also gotten contributions from Mikael Backlund, Blake Coleman, Jonathan Huberdeau, Matt Coronato, Joel Farabee, and Morgan Frost.

Goaltender Dustin Wolf is an absolute stud, even though his numbers are down this year. He has played in 35 games, compiling a .898 save percentage and a 2.97 goals-against average.

Wolf finished last season with a .910 save percentage and a 2.64 goals-against average. He was the biggest reason why the Flames were in the playoff race all year and will be a good goaltender in the league for plenty more seasons to come. 

The Penguins will have a different top line since Bryan Rust is day-to-day with a lower-body injury. Rafael Harvey-Pinard was recalled from WBS before the game. 

Based on the goalie rotation, Arturs Silovs is in line to start against the Flames after Stuart Skinner played on Thursday. 

Saturday's game is set to start at 3:30 p.m. ET on SportsNet Pittsburgh. Fans can also listen to the game on 105.9 'The X.'

Bookmark THN - Pittsburgh Penguins on your Google News tab to follow the latest Penguins news, roster moves, player features, and more!      

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Craziest stats from Bruins' historic 10-2 win over Rangers

Craziest stats from Bruins' historic 10-2 win over Rangers originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

It’s going to be an exciting sports weekend in Boston, and the Bruins started it off with a bang.

The B’s hosted the rival New York Rangers for a Saturday afternoon showdown at TD Garden. The Rangers scored 84 seconds into the game, but it was all Bruins after that.

The Bruins scored six unanswered goals and ultimately won 10-2, improving their record to 24-19-2, which puts them just one point out of a wild card playoff spot in the Eastern Conference standings.

Here are some of the wildest stats from the Bruins’ historic victory.

Double hat trick

Marat Khusnutdinov (four goals, one assist) and Pavel Zacha (three goals) became the first pair of Bruins teammates to tally a hat trick in the same game since 1964.

Khusnutdinov had just five goals entering Saturday and nearly matched that total in this game.

Khusnutdinov’s four goals ties a team record for a single game. The last B’s player to score four goals in a game was Patrice Bergeron versus the Detroit Red Wings on Nov. 4, 2021.

Zacha came into this game with 10 goals on the season. He now has 13, which is one shy of the 14 he scored in 82 games last season. He has a good chance to hit the 20-goal mark for the third time in his Bruins career.

Saturday’s hat trick was the first of his career.

The last time any team had two players record their first career hat tricks in the same game was the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 2008-09 campaign. They won the Stanley Cup that season.

10 Goals

The last time the Bruins scored 10-plus goals in a game was Oct. 16, 1988 when they beat the Chicago Blackhawks 10-3 on the road.

Saturday was not the first time the Bruins have scored a ton of goals on the Rangers. In fact, the Bruins’ team record for goals scored in one game is 14 against the Rangers on Jan. 21, 1945.

David Pastrnak makes history

Pastrnak didn’t score a goal in this game, but he set up plenty of them for teammates.

He finished with a career-high six assists. He’s the first Bruins player with a six-assist game since Bobby Orr in 1973. He also joins Orr and Ken Hodge as the only Bruins players ever to have six assists in a single game.

Pastrnak’s six points Saturday give him 888 for his career, tying Orr for the seventh-most in team history.

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Olympic organizers ‘100%' confident NHL will play in Milan Cortina despite arena delays

MILAN — Olympic organizers are “100%” confident the NHL won’t pull out of the Milan Cortina Games with the new ice hockey arena finally ready. Or almost.

Construction delays and other concerns about the Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena have drawn headlines for weeks ahead of the NHL returning to the Winter Olympics for the first time since 2014 and the women’s tournament opening on Feb. 5.

The NHL has expressed concern about the construction and quality of the ice surface. NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said last month in Winnipeg that the league would not send its players if there were any safety concerns.

When Andrea Francisi, the chief games operations officer for Milan Cortina, was asked on Friday how confident he was that NHL players would participate, he said, “100%, 100%.”

IOC sports director Pierre Ducrey echoed his sentiments.

“I’m very confident they will be here and it’s going to be extremely exciting,” Ducrey said. “We’re very excited they’re coming back; 12 years, there was a lot of work from a lot people to make sure this happens.

“So, yeah, you will have NHL players here in February and it is going to be amazing.”

The NHL is expected to release a statement at the end of its visit to the new arena, with a delegation at a long-awaited test event over the next three days.

The first match of the test event — the final league and cup games of the domestic season — was briefly delayed to fix what organizers said was a small hole in the ice.

A spokesperson from the Milan Cortina organizing committee told The Associated Press the ice master — Don Moffatt, who works for the Colorado Avalanche — was happy with the ice and reassured them that this was a completely normal occurrence that can happen the first time the ice is skated on.

Florian Wieser, who played in the game, posted to social media: “It was a small hole that was fixed in 5 minutes. Ice was really good, I was surprised how good it was and it will only get better.”

The original test event scheduled in December didn’t happen because of the construction delays. The one scheduled this weekend is less than a month out from the women’s competition.

On Friday, the arena was obviously far from complete — in a cosmetic sense at least.

Seats were missing and there was an abundance of plastic sheeting. But organizers said those were just “the finishing touches.”

“The next two days will be really very important because they will allow us, having three matches a day, to test exactly the days as they will be in the Olympics,” Francisi said.

On Monday, International Ice Hockey Federation President Luc Tardif said parts of the arena might not be fully finished on time.

Ducrey thinks there is “no chance at all” it won’t be ready for competition.

“(Tardif) will spend the three days here, he’s going to have an opportunity to see the plans, to see the hockey going on ... but from our perspective it’s clear,” Ducrey said. “We knew exactly where the venue would be at at this stage, and we are pleased with the progress.

“A lot more progress will be done so that we are absolutely ready for Games time.”

The men’s Olympic hockey tournament is scheduled from Feb. 11-22, the women’s from Feb. 5-19.

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Coco Gauff beats Iga Swiatek but Poland best US to reach United Cup final

  • Gaudff wins 6-4, 6-2 but loses in doubles

  • Sabalenka into Brisbane final; Alcaraz beats Sinner in exhibition

A statement victory for Coco Gauff over her great rival Iga Swiatek proved to be insufficient to the American’s hopes of leading her team into the final of the United Cup. Poland showed their depth in an excellent team performance to close out a 2-1 win over the United States at the Ken Rosewall Arena in Sydney.

Poland, who finished runners-up to the US last year, exacted their revenge courtesy of the doubles specialists Jan Zielinski and Katarzyna Kawa, who maintained their unbeaten run in the competition by defeating Christian Harrison and Gauff 7-6 (5), 7-6 (3) in the decisive third rubber. Poland face Switzerland in the final on Sunday after the Swiss defeated Belgium 2-1.

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With Konecny out vs. Lightning, shorthanded Flyers give Michkov intriguing look

With Konecny out vs. Lightning, shorthanded Flyers give Michkov intriguing look originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Flyers have a tall test Saturday night against a red-hot Lightning team.

They’ll be without Travis Konecny, Bobby Brink and Jamie Drysdale as they host Tampa Bay (7 p.m. ET/NBCSP). All three players are recovering from upper-body injuries. That’s on top of missing Tyson Foerster, who the Flyers won’t have for the rest of the season.

Meanwhile, the pedigree-laden Lightning have won eight straight, a stretch in which they’ve scored 4.75 goals per game.

“It’s next man up,” Sean Couturier said after morning skate. “We’re down a couple of guys now, but we’ve had guys all throughout the year come in and out of the lineup and have an impact and help us in good ways. We’re counting on that. It’s going to be a collective effort to kind of step it up.”

The good news on Konecny is that he’s considered day to day after missing the third period and overtime of the Flyers’ 2-1 loss Thursday night to the Maple Leafs. Konecny, who was not on the ice at morning skate, will miss his first game since March 4, 2024. He had played in 143 straight.

Brink is also considered day to day after missing Thursday night’s game. He was on the ice at morning skate in non-contact fashion.

Drysdale was placed on injured reserve, a stint retroactive to Tuesday, so the earliest he can return is Wednesday next week. He was also at morning skate in non-contact fashion.

“You want to be prepared for opportunity,” Rick Tocchet said of his banged-up team. “We have guys that are going to play in different roles.”

Without Konecny, the Flyers will have Matvei Michkov on their top line alongside Christian Dvorak and Trevor Zegras. Michkov and Zegras combine for all kinds of playmaking ability, but one would think the Flyers will keep a close eye on their matchups against Tampa Bay.

Here’s how the Flyers looked at morning skate.

Forwards

Matvei Michkov-Christian Dvorak-Trevor Zegras
Denver Barkey-Sean Couturier-Owen Tippett
Nikita Grebenkin-Noah Cates-Carl Grundstrom
Nicolas Deslauriers-Rodrigo Abols-Garnet Hathaway

Defensemen

Cam York-Travis Sanheim
Nick Seeler-Rasmus Ristolainen
Emil Andrae-Noah Juulsen

Goalies

Samuel Ersson (starter)
Dan Vladar

The Lightning’s first line features Nikita Kucherov, who has an MVP on his résumé (2018-19) and put up 144 points (44 goals, 100 assists) just two seasons ago. His center is Brayden Point, who has scored over 40 goals four times.

“Obviously that top line is pretty dangerous, Kucherov especially, so you’ve got to be careful when they’re out there,” Couturier said. “They play a pretty well-structured game and they have a good goalie (Andrei Vasilevskiy). It’s going to be a good challenge for us, but we’re up to those challenges.”

Saturday night is the Flyers’ first of consecutive games against Tampa Bay, both at Xfinity Mobile Arena. The Flyers host the Lightning again Monday to kick off next week (7 p.m. ET/NBCSP).

“It’s hard to shut them down, but you’ve got to pay attention,” Tocchet said. … “To me, it’s awareness when you play teams like this. It’s almost like chess, you’ve got to read the play two moves ahead because that’s what they do, they put you in those situations where if three guys press forward, they hit the backdoor. They’re one of the better weak-side teams in the league.”