Cross beats Damon Heta 4-0 to book last-16 meeting
Anderson holds off Wattimena, Ryan Searle through
Rob Cross thrashed Damon Heta 4-0 at the PDC World Championship to set up a last-16 clash with the reigning champion, Luke Littler.
Cross, who beat Phil Taylor in the 2018 final, lost only two legs against Australian No 1 Heta as he cruised into the fourth round.
Continue reading...During the 2025 NHL off-season, the Buffalo Sabres signed defenseman Zac Jones to a one-year, two-way contract. This was after Jones posted one goal and 11 points in 46 games with the New York Rangers during the 2024-25 season.
Overall, signing Jones was one of the Sabres' smaller moves of the summer, but there is no question that the left-shot defenseman has been making a big impact in the American Hockey League (AHL) with the Rochester Americans.
In 25 games so far this season with Rochester, Jones has posted two goals and an AHL-leading 27 assists. The Glen Allen, Virginia native also currently leads the Amerks in points with 29, so there is no question that he is having a strong season with the AHL club.
While Jones has yet to make his regular-season debut with the Sabres this season, he is providing Rochester with plenty of value. The 25-year-old blueliner is helping create offense for the AHL club, and the Sabres' prospects are benefiting from it.
If Jones continues to produce strong offense from the point for Rochester, perhaps it could open the door for him to get a chance on Buffalo's roster before the season is over. This is especially so if the Sabres end up getting bit by the injury bug as the campaign rolls on.
In 115 career NHL games over five seasons, Jones has recorded four goals, 24 assists, and 28 points.
"It's real life," Wink Martindale said of recent events. "There's little ones that have to be up-rooted from school and things like that. It sucks."
Steve Kerr drops humorous one-liner about Steph Curry for advice to younger self originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Steve Kerr knows what advice he’d give his younger self when starting his Warriors coaching career in 2014.
The 60-year-old shared his hilarious answer with reporters on Sunday before Golden State’s 141-127 overtime loss against the Toronto Raptors at Scotiabank Arena.
“Just coach Steph Curry if you get a chance,” Kerr said. “Stay with that guy. I followed my own advice on that one.”
There isn’t any better guidance than that.
Kerr has spent his entire 12-year coaching career with Curry and the Warriors, and has enjoyed working with the sharpshooter to form the team’s iconic dynasty, which won four NBA championships and reached six finals between 2014-15 and 2021-22.
The coach-guard duo also has dominated internationally, winning gold together at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics for an iconic Team USA men’s basketball squad.
Kerr is grateful to have won a lot alongside Curry. He, too, has enjoyed shaping Golden State’s offensive identity around the 11-time NBA All-Star’s 3-point shooting prowess.
“It’s a good question,” Kerr said. “It’s funny because I came in that year (2014-15), and we played a little differently than a lot of teams and everybody said we were really innovative.
“It didn’t feel innovative to me because it was things I already learned with Phil Jackson and Greg Popovich. If anything, some of the stuff we were doing, I went back 30, 20 years to bring back. Today, we are sort of doing the opposite. We’re following other trends around the league.”
As he implied, Kerr carries several lessons he learned as a player who won five NBA titles over 15 seasons alongside other basketball legends into his coaching efforts with the Warriors.
While Kerr wisely would tell his younger self to stay attached to Curry — as he already has — the coach also would suggest being as adaptable as possible.
“I think what I’ve learned is that the league is constantly changing,” Kerr said. “And as a coach, you have to constantly be aware of what’s happening. Best example of that is two years ago, you wouldn’t have ever been able to convince me that we should crash on offensive rebounds. Now I know differently. It took our younger coaches to bring that suggestion to me. It took watching film. It took experimenting.
“So even having that conversation, 10 years ago, I wouldn’t have entertained it. So what I’ve learned 10 years into my coaching career, having been a part of championship teams, great teams, I’m learning something I never knew before. I think that’s just the case forever. Life’s always changing. Things are always changing. The game is always changing. You have to be a lifelong learner and you have to embrace everything that’s happening.”
Kerr’s journey with Curry isn’t over yet.
But even before knowing how the story ends, Kerr would tell his younger self to stay with the game’s greatest shooter of all time for the long haul.
What we learned as turnovers doom Warriors in collapse to Raptors in overtime originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
With a chance at having their first four-game win streak of the season, the Warriors on Sunday gifted the Toronto Raptors a 141-127 overtime win three days after Christmas.
Steph Curry’s latest breathtaking show again couldn’t end in a Warriors win. Curry scored 39 points, giving himself 10 games of 30-plus points this season. The Warriors now are 4-6 when he scores at least 30 points this season.
The rest of the Warriors’ Big Three also did their part. Jimmy Butler tallied 19 points, six rebounds and five assists, and Draymond Green gave them 21 points, four rebounds and seven assists.
But the Raptors had three players who finished with more than 20 points, and seven in double figures, including their entire starting five.
A handful of issues undid the Warriors in a frustrating loss. The Warriors were outrebounded 55 to 42, and forward Scottie Barnes came down with 25 rebounds by himself. The Raptors scored 29 points off 18 offensive rebounds.
More than anything, though, the Warriors were bitten by their constant penchant for turnovers. In the end, the Warriors lost the turnover battle 21-15, turning into 35 points for the Raptors. The Warriors now are 4-13 when they have more turnovers than their opponent, while being 12-3 when having fewer or equal turnovers.
Here are three takeaways from the Warriors’ three-game losing streak coming to an end.
There were two road games Curry circled before last season: Charlotte and Toronto. Curry matched how many seasons in the NBA his father, Dell, played last year and the two cities hold sentimental value for different family reasons. Charlotte is home to Curry, where Dell spent 10 of his 16 seasons in the league. But his final three, which Steph remembers best, were north of the border with the Raptors.
Now that Curry officially has passed his father’s time spent in the NBA, he gets to play two of his final three games of 2025 in those two special road arenas, starting with Sunday’s (loss or win) in Toronto. And Curry right away added to a never-ending highlight reel in the first quarter.
Curry’s shot-making ability and gravitational pull brought him to 15 points at halftime while going a perfect 5 of 5 at the free-throw line. The Warriors’ first points of the second half then came from a four-point play by Curry, putting them from down one to ahead by three.
The second half was more reason for all of North America to always watch Curry. After 15 first-half points, Curry exploded for 24 points in the second half – 14 in the third and 10 in the second. He made all 11 of his free throws on the night for his second game of 10 or more free throw attempts this season.
Through the first month of the season, Green gave Golden State another threat behind the 3-point line. He was shooting 35.7 percent on threes over 16 games, a number the Warriors will gladly take. Green even made multiple threes in half the games he played (eight) over that month’s long stretch.
But then his accuracy from deep began abandoning him. Green in his last month of nine games played came into Sunday having shot just 26.3 percent (10 of 38) beyond the arc, with teams begging him to let it fly. The Raptors used the same strategy, constantly sagging off him, and Green finally made them pay. He made two threes in the first half to bring him to 10 points, which gave Green just his third double-digit scoring game this month.
Another two threes in the third quarter brought Green up to four threes, his most in a game since making five on Nov. 7.
Green’s aggressiveness offensively was a major plus for the Warriors. He reached 20 points for the first time this season. But Green also was one of seven Warriors with multiple turnovers.
Same story, different day. Another clutch game for the Warriors full of inexcusable turnovers.
The Warriors had a 12-point lead in the final minute of the third quarter when the Raptors then reeled off an 8-0 run behind two free throws and scoring off three straight Warriors turnovers. Right when the Warriors could have put the game away, they let the Raptors off the hook and paid severely for it.
In their final home game of the calendar year, the Warriors had a lowly 11 turnovers for six points against the Dallas Mavericks. Those same fortunes didn’t happen against the Raptors. The Warriors were completely undone by being careless with the ball.
Going into halftime, they were winning the turnover battle by one, six to seven, in which the Raptors had scored 10 points off turnovers. The second half was another story. The Warriors turned the ball over 13 times, six more than Toronto’s seven, and the Raptors took advantage by scoring 23 points off them.
For the 17th time this season, the Warriors found themselves in a clutch game. They’re now 6-11 in such games. The Warriors turned the ball over five times in the clutch of the fourth quarter, and another two more in overtime. The Raptors in that time period didn’t have any turnovers while scoring 11 points off the Warriors’ seven turnovers.
The Buffalo Sabres seemed a big sluggish after the first period of their first game after the Christmas holiday break, but in a second period in which they took control of the game, the unlikely Sabres scoring star was blueliner Mattias Samuelsson, who assisted on goals from Ryan McLeod and Peyton Krebs before scoring a career-high sixth goal of the season in a 4-1 victory at KeyBank Center on Saturday night.
Samuelsson, who had seven career goals in 212 regular season games going into the campaign, is tied with Bowen Byram in defensive scoring with 18 points and has more goals than regular defense partner Rasmus Dahlin, but unlike his teammates, he has been stout at the defensive end of the ice, which is reflected in his team leading +15 plus/minus rating.
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"His physicality has been really good this year. I think he ends a lot of plays. He's really on top of his game,"Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff said after the game. "From what he's done, chipping in offensively and the work he just done on the PK, then playing against every top line and big minutes every night, he's really playing a good brand of hockey for us."
Samuelsson’s contribution was necessary with Dahlin still not back from Sweden. The Sabres eighth win in a row has them back to within range of an Eastern Conference playoff spot, as they are tied with the Florida Panthers for the last wildcard spot, but they need to keep winning, as they are only three points from second-last in the conference.
Dahlin is expected to meet the Sabres in St. Louis, where they will take on the Blues in the first of a three-game road trip on Monday.
Follow Michael on X, Instagram @MikeInBuffalo
Morris was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2022
Glamorgan lead tributes to ‘fine human being’
Hugh Morris, the former England and Glamorgan batter who went on to hold senior positions with country and county, has died at the age of 62.
Born in Cardiff in 1963, Morris became Glamorgan’s youngest ever captain at the age of 22 before returning to the role later in his career, leading them to the Sunday League title in 1993, their first trophy in 24 years.
Continue reading...Forward scores only goal of the game in 65th minute
Milan had gone top earlier in day by beating Verona 3-0
Lautaro Martínez scored to give Inter an important 1-0 win at Atalanta on Sunday, sending his side into the new year at the top of Serie A. Inter lead a tightly contested league table on 36 points, one clear of Milan and two ahead of Napoli.
Marcus Thuram appeared to have put Inter into the lead just before the interval, but the goal was ruled out after an offside by Martínez in the build-up. Atalanta felt a similar sense of frustration soon after the restart when Nicola Zalewski broke through one-on-one with Yann Sommer, only for the Inter goalkeeper to produce a spectacular leg save.
Continue reading...Giannis Antetokounmpo was exactly what Milwaukee needed on the court Saturday night, returning from missing eight games with a strained calf to score 29 points and lift the Bucks to a much-needed win over the Bulls. He even ended the game with a controversial windmill dunk that led to words with some of the Bulls players after the buzzer.
After the game, however, Antetokounmpo shot down any talk of controversy about him and his future in Milwaukee — he was not going to discuss it.
During his post-game media session, he was asked, "Do you want to be here if you guys are not going to be able to…" but Antetokounmpo cut the question off.
"I'm here. I'm here. I'm here. Don't ask me that question. I'm here. It's disrespectful towards myself and my teammates. I wear that jersey every single day. It's disrespectful towards the organization, my coaching staff, myself and all the people that work hard for me to come out here and say I don't want to be here. Don't ask me that question. I'm here. I'm putting on the jersey. And as long as I'm here, I'm gonna give everything I have even in the last second of the game."
This echoes what Antetokounmpo has said going back to media day before the team's first practice: Antetokounmpo is all in on these Bucks and is fully committed, then will reassess the situation in the offseason. As he says he does every offseason (last offseason he pushed the Bucks to have conversations with the Knicks, but at a point late in the summer, after Mikal Bridges had been extended, when finding a trade was next to impossible).
The Bucks continue to shoot down teams checking in on Antetokounmpo's trade availability at the deadline, instead saying they are looking to add to the roster and want to build something that can better compete in an open Eastern Conference.
The only way that dynamic changes is if Antetokounmpo demands a trade, and as his statement above shows, that is unlikely. Antetokounmpo does not want to play the bad guy, he does not want to disrespect his teammates like that. Now, next summer, entering what can be the final year of his contract (he has a player option for 2027-28), he can tell the Bucks he is not going to sign an extension, and that will force Milwaukee to trade him or risk losing him for nothing.
But that is next summer. Until then, Antetokounmpo is all-in on trying to win with these Bucks, who are 10-8 when he suits up this season (but 3-11 when he is out). Antetokounmpo continues to play at an MVP level, averaging 28.9 points on 64.1% shooting, with 10 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game.
“I thought I’d seen the worst. Then Christmas came. It topped it. It just topped it." Tom Izzo said after NBA draft pick James Nnaji got eligibility.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin continued his purple patch for Leeds, who had the better of an entertaining draw
1 min Leeds, in their blue change strip, kick off from left to right as we watch.
There’s a minute’s silence for Patrick Treuer, a non-executive director of the club who has died aged just 52.
Continue reading...Steph Curry rocks sentimental pair of Nike Kobe 11 shoes for Warriors-Raptors originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Steph Curry’s sneaker free-agency tour continued Sunday in Toronto.
And the Warriors superstar’s choice of footwear for Sunday’s game against the Raptors was extra intentional and sentimental.
During pregame warmups, Curry rocked the “Northern Lights” Nike Kobe 11, the shoes that late NBA legend Kobe Bryant wore during his final All-Star Game in 2016 in Toronto.
He kept the sneakers on throughout the game, too.
It isn’t the first time Curry paid homage to Bryant.
In fact, during his first day of sneaker free agency after parting ways with Under Armour, Curry wore Mambacita Kobe 6 Nike shoes while warming up before the Warriors’ game against the San Antonio Spurs on Nov. 14.
After that game, Curry explained his decision.
“I know it’s weird seeing me in anything else other than my own shoes, but just the idea of what he meant — I’ve talked about Kobe a lot. That specific pair, I think it speaks for itself, what it means,” Curry told reporters after the win. “Other than that, just something I wanted to take advantage of that moment and pay tribute. I think it gave me some good energy tonight.”
Earlier Sunday, Curry arrived to Scotiabank Arena wearing rapper Drake’s Nike NOCTA Glide.
It’s clear Curry is having fun with his free agency.
After resuming training on Saturday, the Montreal Canadiens will play their first post-Christmas game when they take on the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena this afternoon. While the Habs eased themselves back in yesterday, the Bolts were taking on the Florida Panthers in a battle of Florida. It turned out to be a spirited tilt, with 136 penalty minutes handed out. Jon Cooper’s men still prevailed 4-2, but it certainly wasn’t a walk in the park.
Meanwhile, the Canadiens provided an update on Jake Evans, who will be missing four to six weeks because of a lower-body injury. Evans had left the previous game just minutes in after a knee-on-knee collision. In a way, the worst has been averted since he’s not going under the knife, but knee injuries (if it is a knee injury) are tricky to recover from, and it does happen that a conventional approach turns out not to be enough. Fingers crossed this is not the case here.
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As for Alexandre Texier, who also left the last game after being shaken up in a hard collision, he was practicing and wearing a regular jersey, which means he will be available this afternoon. In Evans’ absence, the lines at practice were as follows:
Cole Caufield – Nick Suzuki - Zach Bolduc
Ivan Demidov – Oliver Kapanen – Juraj Slafkovsky
Texier – Phillip Danault – Josh Anderson
Owen Beck/Samuel Blais – Joe Veleno – Brandon Gallagher
On the backend, the pairings were the same as they were before the break:
Mike Matheson – Noah Dobson
Lane Hutson – Alexandre Carrier
Arber Xhekaj/Jayden Struble – Adam Engstrom
With Samuel Montembeault being officially recalled, Martin St-Louis wasted no time in announcing that Jacob Fowler would be getting the start against the Lightning. The Florida native posted a 6-2 win against the Boston Bruins on the eve of the Christmas break and had shut out the Pittsburgh Penguins in his previous start, so the coach has decided to ride the hot hand for now. Still, he did mention that the plan was to get Montembeault some game action soon.
It’s the second year in a row that the traditional road trip over the holidays includes some uncertainty in net. Last year, Jakub Dobes made his debut in this road trip after Cayden Primeau was assigned to the Laval Rocket. The Czech goalie never went back down; it remains to be seen if the result will be the same for Fowler.
Fowler has never taken on the Lightning, while Montembeault has a 3-3-1 record against Tampa Bay with a 2.99 goal-against-average and a .898 save percentage. As for Dobes, he has a 0-1-0 record with an 8.80 GAA and a .727 SV against the hosts.
At the other end of the ice, Andrei Vasilevskiy, who was in the net on Saturday against the Panthers, has a 16-3-2 record against the Habs with a 2.08 GAA and a .931 SV. As for backup Jonas Johansson, he’s 3-2-0 with a 3.81 GAA and a .872 SV and was in the net for the only game between the two sides so far this season.
Up front, the Canadiens will need to keep a close eye on the usual suspects. Nikita Kucherov has 46 points in just 39 games against the Sainte-Flanelle, while Brayden Point has 26 points in 30 games, and Jake Guentzel has 23 points in 19 duels.
Meanwhile, the Canadiens have only three players who have reached double digits in points against the Florida outfit: Gallagher with 19 points in 38 games, Danault with 14 points in 27 games, and Suzuki with 13 points in 19 games.
Today’s game will be the second of four duels planned this season, with the other two taking place on March 31 and April 9. Tampa has won seven of the last 10 tilts between the divisional rivals, but it hasn’t been that long since the Habs grabbed a win at Amalie Arena. Montreal won there on December 29 by a score of 5-2 with Montembeault in the net.
The game is set for 5:00 PM, and you can catch it on The Spot, TSN2, and RDS. After the tilt, the Canadiens will take a short flight to Fort Lauderdale in readiness for their next game, a battle with the Panthers on December 30.
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If things don't shake out the way the Philadelphia Flyers might hope, they could find themselves a little lighter on their salary cap hit with a contract termination.
Though they started the season without him, the Flyers have turned to Emil Andrae on defense and haven't really looked back.
That decision, of course, has had consequences, leading both Egor Zamula and Adam Ginning, who made the NHL roster to start the season, back to the AHL Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
Zamula, unlike Ginning, had become an established NHL player over the last few seasons, but strings of poor performances has seen him play himself off the Flyers... perhaps for good.
According to NHL insider Elliotte Friedman, Zamula's camp has offered the Flyers an opportunity for a mutual contract termination, though the Flyers would prefer to trade the struggling 25-year-old defender for an asset.
"One player who I think is trying to work out something. . . is Egor Zamula. He was sent on waivers earlier this year, he's at $1.7 million for this year and next [sic]. He's represented by Alex Texier's agent who terminated his deal so he could sign as a free agent in Montreal," Friedman reported in his most recent "Saturday Headlines" segment for Sportsnet.
Flyers Defenseman Benched After Struggles, Agent's Criticism of TeamJust two games into the season, <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/philadelphia-flyers">Philadelphia Flyers</a> defenseman Egor Zamula has already been benched for his continued struggles.
"I believe the offer is there to do this too. I think there'd be interest at a lower number. Philly prefers a trade for a player who can help them at the AHL level or later this year in the NHL, but Zamula's going to be a name to watch because he cleared waivers and he is an NHL defenseman, just not at the number right now for Philadelphia."
Zamula is a pending restricted free agent at the end of this season and, as Friedman noted, carries a $1.7 million cap hit this season. That's a bit rich for a team that would like to add a depth defender on waivers, especially if that team is a contender of some sort.
As of now, the Flyers are saving $1.15 million by stowing the 6-foot-3 Russian in the AHL, but can move his full $1.7 million off their books via trade or the aforementioned contract termination offer from Zamula's camp.
The end of Zamula's tenure with the Flyers has felt almost inevitable since head coach Rick Tocchet called for him to pick up the pace in the preseason and the results, of course, never followed.
Previously, it was reported that the Calgary Flames had trade interest in Zamula.
Giannis Antetokounmpo scored a game-high 29 points on his return from injury as the Milwaukee Bucks earned a 112-103 victory over the Chicago Bulls.
Antetokounmpo had missed eight games with a right calf strain, with the Bucks losing six of those matches.
The defeat for Chicago ended their five-game winning streak, but they still sit ninth and two places above Bucks in the Eastern Conference.
Elsewhere, Victor Wembanyama also made his return from injury, but his San Antonio Spurs fell to a 127-114 defeat by the Utah Jazz.
Wembanyama scored 32 points in his first start since 14 November, but 29 points from Lauri Markkanen and 28 from Keyonte George were enough for the Jazz to end Spurs' eight-game winning streak.
Anthony Black scored a career-high 38 points as the Orlando Magic beat the Denver Nuggets 127-126 despite another triple-double by Nikola Jokic.
With 21 rebounds and 12 assists, Jokic earned the 180th triple-double of his career, putting him just one behind Oscar Robertson for the second most in history.
The New York Knicks beat the Atlanta Hawks 128-125, while the Sacramento Kings secured just their second win in eight games with a 113-107 victory over the Dallas Mavericks.
