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Unfortunately, these potential Detroit Pistons statement games keep turning into who’s available games. The Pistons take on the new-look Cleveland Cavaliers tonight, but this won’t be the team Detroit might see in a seven-game series.

Cleveland’s best player, Donovan Mitchell, is out tonight with a groin designation. Cleveland’s new addition, James Harden, is questionable with a thumb injury. Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley are critical Cavs pieces; they are two of the best rim protectors in basketball. While that’s true, those guards are the reason many see Cleveland as a legit threat.

Detroit will be without its backbone in Isaiah Stewart again tonight. With those pivotal pieces potentially missing tonight’s game, this probably isn’t a true statement game, but there is one message the rugged Pistons can send to Allen and Mobley.

Game Vitals

Where: Little Caesars Arena, Detroit, Michigan

When: Friday, February 27, 7:00 pm EST

Watch: ESPN or Fan Duel Sports Network Detroit

Odds: Detroit (-6)

Analysis

This could be another individual statement game from Jalen Duren. When the Oklahoma City Thunder ruled out Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein on Wednesday, Duren did exactly what he was supposed to do on the offensive end.

Duren made the Thunder look like those 8th graders in his early hoop mixtape. Dominating Allen and Mobley the same way would be very impressive. Duren has that in him; he went straight through Victor Wembanyama a few nights ago.

It would have been a fun matchup seeing Cade Cunningham guarding Mitchell or Harden. Blocks and steals aside, Cade is showing qualities of an elite defender.

We knew he was solid or good on that end, but he has a shot to be a premier two-way threat at his best. The size, willingness to slide his feet, and constant engagement on that side separate him from star guards like the Cavs have.

Former Piston Dennis Schröder and Keon Ellis were other in-season Cavalier additions. Both are listed as day-to-day and questionable tonight. Those two add to the Cavs’ depth. Schroder can change the pace in a playoff matchup, and Cleveland is +16.6 with Ellis on the floor. He’s always been an impactful scrapper who’s had good shooting stretches.

The Cavs have other snipers who can get going. Sam Merrill has been one of the league’s top flame throwers this season. He’s shooting 46 percent on over seven 3-point attempts. Merril erupted from deep, going 9/10 against the Washington Wizards earlier this month.

The Pistons obviously aren’t the Wizards. It’s hard to find a team that rotates on the perimeter better than Detroit does. Before even needing to get into rotation, Merrill and the other Cavs role players will need to get by the sturdy Pistons perimeter defenders — no easy task.

Detroit’s role players match up nicely with those Cavs role players. Ron Holland, Javonte Green, and Paul Reed are not the preferred matchups for NBA players. You’re in for a long night of active hands and constant bumps if any of those three are assigned to you.

That nonstop pressure is a team-wide trend on both sides of the ball for Detroit. Cleveland could get beat up in the paint even though they’ll trot out a massive frontcourt.

Detroit averages the second-most points in the paint, and Cleveland has the fifth-best points in the paint team defense. Per PBP stats, opponents shoot 50 and 52 percent with Allen and Mobley at the rim, respectively.

Duren, Cade, the scrappy role players, and the perimeter drivers can show the Cavs why they’re different tonight. Maybe the star guards don’t suit up for Cleveland, but Detroit can still send a message to Cleveland’s double-big lineup.

Lineups

Detroit Pistons (43-14): Cade Cunningham, Duncan Robinson, Ausar Thompson, Tobias Harris, Jalen Duren

Cleveland Cavaliers (37-23): Dennis Schröder (?), Sam Merrill, Jaylon Tyson, Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen

Question of the day

Has Detroit’s offensive paint dominance or team defense been more impressive?

There are wins that feel like oxygen, and then there are wins that feel like you can finally unclench your jaw. Thursday night against the Los Angeles Lakers was the latter for the Phoenix Suns, a game that washed over the fan base and let everyone breathe a little deeper as they look ahead to Sacramento on Tuesday. When you do not play again for a few days, a performance like that lingers in the best way. It rides shotgun with you through the weekend. It hums in the background while you mow the lawn or rewatch possessions on League Pass.

Injuries have reshaped the rotation, and when that happens, space opens up. Minutes are not handed out, they are claimed. Opportunity sits there waiting for someone with the nerve to grab it. On Thursday night, that someone was Rasheer Fleming, the rookie out of Saint Joe’s. He stepped into his window and looked comfortable doing it. He did not float through the game. He impacted it. And on a night when Phoenix needed contributions from everywhere, he answered the call.

When you see Rasheer Fleming step onto an NBA floor, your eyes do not have to work very hard to understand the intrigue. He looks the part immediately. 6’9”. A 7’5” wingspan that seems to blot out light. 240 pounds on a frame that carries it with ease. When he extends those condor arms into a passing lane or rises to contest at the rim, it is not a mild inconvenience for the offense. It is a problem that has to be solved in real time.

This season has not been about rushing him. It has been about building him. He arrived raw, the kind of prospect who makes you lean forward in your seat during Summer League and whisper to yourself that if it ever clicks, watch out. You could see the outlines of something meaningful in Vegas, yet on the offensive end, he would drift, processing a half-second late, thinking through reads instead of reacting to them.

Time has a way of sanding down those rough edges. Reps in the G League matter. Film sessions matter. The unglamorous minutes matter. And with each stretch of action, he has started to look more comfortable, more decisive, more in tune with where he is supposed to be and when he is supposed to be there.

There is also the draft context that lingers in the background. A second round pick, yes, although taken 31st overall, which is as close to the first round as you can live without technically being invited to the party. That slot carries its own subtle message. It says the league saw something. It says the gap between him and the traditional first-rounder was thin. Three spots behind Ryan Dunn the year before, which is less a separation and more a technicality.

Now the physical gifts that made you believe are starting to align with the on-court feel. And when that happens, when body and brain begin to sync up, that is when a developmental project starts to look like a rotation player in the making.

What we witnessed on Thursday felt like another mile marker in Rasheer Fleming’s growth chart. It was another reminder that this stretch of opportunity for the young guys is something you cannot properly measure with a box score or a spreadsheet. Development does not move in straight lines. It moves in minutes, in trust, in moments that stack on top of each other until a coach starts to lean your direction without hesitation.

Fleming had logged 266 minutes entering the matchup with the Los Angeles Lakers. That is not nothing, although it is not a featured role either. Lately, the runway has been longer. He has approached 20 minutes in five of the last six games he has appeared in, including Thursday night, and those minutes have not been accidental. They have been intentional.

Jordan Ott has started to weave him into the fabric of the game earlier, slipping him into the rotation in the first quarter, letting him feel the tempo while the contest is still finding its shape. It gives Phoenix a different look, more length, more switchability, and more chaos on the defensive end. It asks the opponent a new question.

Thursday followed a familiar script at first. Fleming checked in with 4:22 left in the opening quarter. That timing tracks. He entered with 3:15 left in the first against the Boston Celtics. He stepped in with 4:59 left in the first against the Portland Trail Blazers. The pattern is there.

What shifted against the Lakers was the leash. In prior games, his first stint had a defined endpoint. Against Boston, he exited with 6:22 left in the second quarter. Against Portland, his run ended at the start of the second. On Thursday, after the mandatory mid-quarter timeout, Ott let him stay out there. He kept Rasheer on the floor.

That detail matters. Coaches show belief in increments. An extra rotation. A few more possessions. Trust revealed not in words, but in substitution patterns. And on a night when Phoenix needed energy and length and a little bit of fearlessness, the rookie was given more room to breathe, which is how growth becomes real.

Ott saw the disruption. He saw Rasheer Fleming make life uncomfortable for Luka Doncic and LeBron James, and when that timeout hit, he did not reach for the substitution pattern he had been following in previous games. He let it ride. Why? Because Fleming earned it.

That is the ecosystem this roster is trying to build. Minutes are not gifted. They are claimed. You want to stay on the floor? Prove you belong there. On Thursday, Fleming proved it. His defense was active, physical, and aware. He used every inch of that wingspan to crowd air space, to shade driving lanes, to bother pull-ups. Disruption is his entry point into this league. If he hangs his hat there, the rest can grow around it.

The body has always been ready. The question was always whether the athletic gifts would align with the mental processing. That alignment is starting to show. He anticipates screens instead of reacting late. He navigates contact with balance. He keeps his hands high to deter passes, to alter sight lines, to make scorers think twice. These are not accidental habits. They are learned behaviors, signs that the game is slowing down for him.

Offensively, the confidence is creeping in as well. The three-point stroke looks clean, repeatable, unhurried. He went 2-of-3 from deep on Thursday night, stepping into those looks without hesitation. The season number sits at 27.6%, which tells part of the story. The recent stretch tells another. He is 7-of-17 over his last five games, good for 41.2%, and those attempts have come within the flow of the offense.

For a young player, that blend of defensive impact and growing offensive comfort is how you carve out a role. Fleming is beginning to understand that, and more importantly, he is beginning to show it.

There is one layer you would still like to see him peel back.

When the ball finds Rasheer Fleming above the break, the first instinct is often to keep it moving, to swing it to the next option, to stay within the structure of the offense. There is value in that. It shows discipline. It shows he understands the scheme. Yet there are moments when you want him to pause for half a beat, read the defender in front of him, and consider that the advantage might be his.

Attack.

Not every possession. Not recklessly. Not in a way that hijacks flow. Although when an athlete with his physical abilities catches the ball in space, there is room to explore. We saw a glimpse of it when he rolled off of a screen towards the cylinder in the third. It worked. The defender gave ground. The lane opened. The finish followed.

That is the next frontier in his development. Trusting that his length can carry him past contests. Trusting that when he extends toward the cylinder, his length creates angles that most players cannot erase. He might surprise himself with how unblockable he can be once he commits to the drive.

It is a small adjustment, although an important one. Growth in this league often lives in those in-between decisions, the choice to swing the ball or seize the moment. For Fleming, learning when to turn a catch into pressure on the rim feels like the next step in a journey that is already trending upward.

“We always tell him he has no idea how good he can be,” Collin Gillespie said of Fleming after the game.

I am grateful he had the runway to play through mistakes, to settle in, to leave fingerprints on the game. I am also grateful the front office resisted the urge to chase a veteran power forward on the trade market or in the buyout aisle to soak up those reps. They stayed committed to the developmental arc, trusting that when the window opened, it would belong to someone like Rasheer Fleming. Thursday night, the window opened, and he stepped through it.

This is what patience looks like. You draft a player 31st overall, you invest in the reps, you live with the uneven stretches, and you allow the growth to compound. When opportunity arrives, it does not feel foreign. It feels earned.

As I have said before, growth is linear. It climbs, it dips, it steadies, it climbs again. The next matchup might not fit him as cleanly. He might run into a coverage he has not solved yet. He might have to process something new on the fly and learn in real time how to counter it. That is not a setback, that is the curriculum.

Development in the NBA is not about perfection. It is about exposure. See it once. Adjust. See it again. Respond quicker. Fleming is in that phase now, gathering experiences, stacking possessions, building a foundation that will support the next leap.

SILVERSTONE, England (AP) — Cadillac is naming its first Formula 1 car in honor of 1978 champion Mario Andretti, who calls it the “ultimate compliment” ahead of the team's inaugural race next week at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

F1's new 11th team announced on Friday its car will be the MAC-26, short for Mario Andretti Cadillac, for the most recent American F1 champion.

“Naming our first chassis MAC-26 reflects the spirit Mario carried into Formula 1 and the belief that an American team belongs on this stage,” said Dan Towriss, chief executive of Cadillac Formula 1 Team Holdings.

“His story embodies the American dream and inspires how we approach building this team every day.”

Andretti is an ambassador for the General Motors-backed Cadillac team, whose F1 entry originated with a bid fronted by his son Michael under the Andretti Global name.

The original bid was rejected by Liberty Media, the commercial rights holder of F1, amid prolonged wrangling. Michael Andretti stepped aside and the entry was restructured with Towriss at the helm and an increased role for GM.

“Racing has been the joy of my life. It is the ultimate compliment that Cadillac Formula 1 Team sees those years as meaningful and worthy of recording with this honor,” Mario Andretti said in a statement.

“I cherish the opportunity that it gives me to have a lasting board with F1 and am genuinely appreciative of everyone who continues to acknowledge my part in racing history.”

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

The New York Knicks and their fans have had plenty of rough patches over the last few weeks, and the most recent updates regarding Deuce McBride’s injury don’t help.

On late Thursday afternoon, Stefan Bondy of the New York Post reported that the backup guard could still “miss the remainder of the regular season.”

This isn’t a complete surprise, as the initial reports indicated that McBride may be out until the playoffs. But it is a reminder that McBride, who many had hoped would come back a bit earlier, could still not see the court again until the postseason. And it puts the Knicks, who have left fans wanting more even though they have a strong regular-season record, in a tough position.

Either Deuce comes back closer to the six-week point—which is April 9th—and has a very short period to ramp up and get back in rhythm… or he comes back closer to the eight-week mark—April 23rd—and has to find his way back in the middle of the first round, with the Knicks’ regular-season finale scheduled for April 12th and the postseason proper set to start on April 18th.

In the meantime, the Knicks will continue to miss McBride’s shooting and point-of-attack defense, and will now have the tough task of trying to stay afloat in the Eastern Conference standings without one of their most impactful players.

McBride, who has continued to travel with the team since undergoing surgery to repair a sports hernia, was having a career year, averaging 12.9 PPG, 2.8APG, and 2.6 RPG, while shooting an impressive 42% from three.

New York won’t complain much if Deuce comes back right by the start of the playoffs, but the lack of any announcement or report about a comeback timeline does leave some room for concern about a quicker-than-expected rehab.

The Brooklyn Nets are signing Grant Nelson to their squad on a 10-day contract. Nelson has spent the season with Brooklyn’s G-League squad, the Long Island Nets, on a regular G League contract.

Mike Scotto of Hoopshype was first with the news …

The Nets later confirmed it.

The signing will give the Nets six rookies for at least the next 10 days. Such contracts can be extended a second 10 days, essentially giving Nelson a three-way tryout for the 15th standard contract created at the deadline when the Nets added two players in trades while waiving three players.

Nelson, a 23-year-old seven-foot power forward, went undrafted out of Alabama last June. After playing for the Nets in the Las Vegas Summer League, he signed a non-guaranteed camp deal with Brooklyn in October, but was waived at the end of preseason and assigned to Long Island. He has spent the entirety of his rookie year at Nassau Coliseum.

Following his seven-week layoff due to left knee soreness, Nelson has gotten back on track, despite a minutes restriction. In the 15 games – all starts – since, his per 36 numbers are 24 and 12.

In 23 total outings at the G League level, Nelson has averaged 11.0 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 1.2 assists in 19.1 minutes per game. He’s made close to 60% of his shots from the floor and over 80% of his shots from the foul stripe.

“I really like the coaching staff,” Nelson told NetsDaily early on in the season. “I like the plan they had. There’s a lot that goes into it. My agent knows a lot more than me, so I just really trusted his plan, and I feel like this is a great spot to be. I like my teammates, coaches, and the system.”

Back in January, ND also spoke with Nelson about his knee injury and how the Brooklyn performance and medical staffs helped resolved it. “I’ve been dealing with knee soreness for I don’t know how many years, really, since I started college. It was kind of just affecting how I was playing, and I had to get it over with and get all the rehab done, and get it back to feeling 100%. The performance staff here did a great job. Everyone really cares about me, and that meant a lot.”

Since he returned from the layoff, Nelson has been on an injury restriction playing between 16 and 27 minutes. In 15 starts, he’s averaged 24 points and 12 rebounds per 36 minutes.

Nelson also spoke about his goals, which included a two-way spot with Brooklyn. “That’s been a goal of mine since the Summer right after the draft to get a two-way spot with Brooklyn. I’m still competing for it, and I’m still fighting for it, but hopefully soon.”

Now, though, it appears that Nelson may be trying out for the standard deal. The Nets three two-way slots are all filled.

Nelson, who played three seasons at North Dakota State before transferring to Alabama where he played his final two seasons of college ball was seen as among the most athletic bigs in the NCAA last season, his big moment coming in March Madness vs. Cooper Flagg and Duke…

Nelson also set an NBA Combine record last May in the shuttle run which measures athleticism…

The call-up is a testament to Nelson’s hard work this season, even dealing with a nagging knee injury. He fought through the injury, rehabbed, and played better than he had been.

The deadline for the Nets to sign Nelson to a two-way spot is next Wednesday, March 4 if they chose to retain him as a two-way. The Nets also announced that Ben Saraf is returning from Long Island and Drake Powell will replace him on G League assignment. Saraf has spent the most time in the G League this season with 21 games, Powell the least with two.

Regardless of where any of us fell on the spectrum of belief that the Lakers could actually be a championship contender this season, we could all agree that their most realistic path to reaching that status would be on the offensive side of the ball.

Sure, they added some free agents who could help bolster their defense, but those players were never going to tip the scales so severely to catapult the team into the upper echelons of the league on that side of the ball.

No, if the Lakers were going to win — and win big — they’d do it by being such a force on the offensive side of the ball that opponents wouldn’t be able to keep pace.

Despite a record that has them 10 games over .500 on the season and one of the 10 best records in the league heading into Friday’s games, the Lakers have not been the offensive juggernaut one might expect, even when contextualizing that record through the lens of all the injuries the team has had this season.

Yes, the Lakers, currently 11th in offensive rating, have been mostly a top-10 offense all year and have been particularly strong at the end of close games, where they’re the best clutch offense in the league. But hovering around 10th while boasting a great finishing kick is not the same as outpacing opponents over the course of full games and making every sort of defense pay.

Which brings us to the big three of Luka Dončić, LeBron James and Austin Reaves. Any shortcomings on that side of the ball rightfully put them squarely in the crosshairs. This team is built around their offensive prowess and the idea that together, and when staggered into different lineup groupings, they’d be able to lift the Lakers over the course of a full 48 minutes to put the screws to any defense in the league.

Indvidually, while things have not always been perfect — see the end of the team’s loss against the Magic on Tuesday — all three have mostly been holding up their end of the bargain.

Luka is leading the league in scoring and is third in assists while boasting shooting percentages in line with his career marks from the field overall, behind the arc and at the foul line. He remains a top-five MVP candidate and is on pace to make another All-NBA First Team.

Austin Reaves, meanwhile, is having the best statistical season he’s had in his 5-year career, scoring 25 points and dishing out over five assists a night while shooting 50% from the field, 37% from behind the arc, and 87% from the foul line. Before his calf injury cost him over a month, Austin was on pace to make his first All-Star game.

LeBron’s production is not where it’s been in recent seasons, but he’s still scoring nearly 22 points and handing out seven assists a game, is shooting 50% from the field and, after a slow start, is back to 75% from the foul line.

Besides raw points per game, the only real decline he’s shown statistically on offense is from behind the arc where he’s shooting just 30% from deep after consecutive seasons that saw him hit 37% and 41%. But, even disregarding his age, the only player averaging as many points and assists as him while shooting as well from the field overall is Nikola Jokic.

However, when they’ve shared the court as a trio this season, things have not always lined up.

This season, the NBA’s worst offense is the Indiana Pacers, who have an offensive rating of 108.7. To put this number into context, it’s a full 12 points per 100 possessions worse than the league’s best offense, the Nuggets. When the trio of Dončić, James, and Reaves share the floor, the Lakers’ offense is just 106.7, two points worse than the bottom-dwelling Pacers.

Should this be a huge cause for concern? Well….yes and no.

It’s pretty clear that when these three share the floor, there’s a replication of skill sets and not yet much chemistry on how to elevate each other through the natural way each of them likes to play. When the team is not running organized sets or specific plays, there can be a tendency to play too much standard pick-and-roll or isolation basketball where one of the Luka, Bron or Reaves just commandeers the possession while the other stars stagnate.

This can often lead to one- or no-pass possessions where LeBron might get a post-up and look to bully his man in the paint or Luka/Austin simply call for a ball screen that turns into a fairly predictable outcome where either they shoot themselves or the player they pass to shoots.

There are also countless freelance possessions a game where one of the three — and it’s Dončić who does this the most — will hunt their own offense early in the shot clock without making a single pass at all. How many times have you seen Luka take an early clock stepback three when both LeBron and Austin are in the game?

And while he has the ball the most and can be singled out, it’s not just Luka who can play on an island in this way. Again, just as I can see in my mind’s eye Luka taking that early clock three, I can envision Austin dribbling up high and calling for a pick so he can go into his dance and try to get a shot up for himself. Or I can visualize LeBron dribbling above the break and going into a backdown of his defender to try to post up, only to take a contested fadeaway.

They all have this tendency and it’s too baked into the culture of freelancing on offense by relying on the individual greatness of a singular shot creator. And these sorts of actions don’t do much to elevate the other stars on the court who don’t have the ball, as they often end up watching their teammate go and try to cook the defense.

On the flip side, heading into Thursday’s game in Phoenix, the sample size for these three playing together this season is not yet very big at just 213 minutes. Further, 94 of the 213 minutes this trio has played come from the original starting lineup head coach JJ Redick deployed with Deandre Ayton and Rui Hachimura flanking his three stars. This group has posted a particularly abysmal offensive rating of 97.6 in those minutes, drastically underperforming the offensive talent on the floor.

There is a longer discussion to be had about why this group isn’t meshing, but putting that to the side for a moment, there are a couple of lineups where by simply making a single substitution — either swapping out Rui for Marcus Smart like the team has of late in the new starting lineup or, alternatively, Ayton for Jaxson Hayes — where the five on the floor are considerably better offensively and perform much closer to expectations:

• Austin, Smart, Luka, LeBron, Ayton: 55 minutes, 117.1 offensive rating
• Austin, Luka, Rui, LeBron, Hayes: 22 minutes, 117.8 offensive rating

These numbers mirror what the Lakers did with all three on the floor last season, where the team posted a 117.8 offensive rating, which was buoyed mostly by the team’s small-ball look where those three were flanked by Rui and Dorian Finney-Smith. Those groups posted a 124.9 offensive rating, which is a hint that the team might have more small-ball looks in its future now that everyone is healthy.

Heading into the Suns game, surrounding the team’s big three with Smart and Rui has led to a 132.0 offensive rating — though only in 12 minutes. Not a sizable enough sample to latch onto as meaningful, but in line with the team’s success last year in a similar lineup construction.

So, is the glass half-empty or half-full? I guess it depends on the night and how generous you want to be towards the team.

I could argue that, despite those two straight losses against Boston and Orlando that both left a sour taste in our mouths (and a third against the Suns on Thursday), the Lakers have a couple of lineups they can turn to that, even if it’s only small margins, are showing they can be successful together when the team has its three best players on the court together.

Those groups still aren’t scoring to the level they could be, but with better commitment to running more organized offense rather than freelancing, the team has shown it can be a high-functioning half-court offense that puts defenses in situations with few good choices.

That said, there’s also an argument to be made that this team has not shown a proclivity to commit to playing that way at all. There’s also an open question of whether health will permit the team to play these better-fitting lineups together as consistently as needed and whether Redick will even lean into those lineups to the degree that the small data samples imply he should.

Sticking with the lineup point a bit further, of all the combinations of the Lakers’ three stars, there are not many variations that have shown to be a net positive this year. When any of the Dončić, LeBron, or Austin trio play by themselves, the Lakers have a positive net rating.

But of the Dončić/Reaves, Dončić/James, and James/Reaves pairings when the other star is off the court, only the Luka and Austin duo have posted a positive net rating this season.

There’s an argument to be made, then, that instead of tethering Austin and LeBron in the way he does to start the second and fourth quarters, Redick could lean more into exploiting the Luka and Austin duo while forming a more athletic and defensive-oriented lineup around LeBron, as was the case when Reaves was out with his calf injury.

Whatever decisions are made, though, need to happen now. Coming out of the All-Star break is a massive sprint to the finish line where the playoffs are the ultimate goal. Injuries have not allowed the team to get the footing through information gathering it would have liked, but the race does not stop so that you can get your bearings.

The Lakers do not have the time to falter or linger on ideas that have not yet panned out. Here’s hoping they can find their way and do it now. Because if they don’t, they’ll have a very long offseason to consider where they went wrong…again.

You can follow Darius on BlueSky at @forumbluegoldand find more of his Lakers coverage on the Laker Film Room Podcast.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Soccer star Lionel Messi was knocked to the ground by a fan and a security guard at the end of Inter Miami's friendly match in Puerto Rico.

Inter Miami was playing Ecuador’s Independiente del Valle in Bayamón on Thursday when a fan ran to the center circle and grabbed Messi by the waist before both were pulled down by a security guard.

Messi appeared to be unharmed. The Argentine star immediately got up and walked to another part of the pitch.

It happened around the 88th minute of the exhibition tour match. Several fans jumped onto the pitch at Juan Ramón Loubriel stadium.

The match was originally scheduled for Feb. 13, but was postponed because Messi felt discomfort in his leg during the previous exhibition match against Barcelona SC of Ecuador.

Santiago Morales and Messi scored in the 16th and 70th minutes respectively to give Inter Miami a 2-1 win.

Miami, which started its MLS season with a 3-0 loss to LAFC, faces Orlando City next Sunday.

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