LeBron James moved within 89 points of breaking the NBA’s career scoring record and climbed into fourth place on the assists list, finishing with a triple-double in his return to Madison Square Garden as the Los Angeles Lakers beat the New York Knicks 129-123 in overtime Tuesday night. James had 28 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds, with the points giving him 38,299 for his career. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the leader with 38,387. He had earlier moved ahead of Mark Jackson and then Steve Nash into fourth place on the assists list during his first game at Madison Square Garden in three years. Anthony Davis added 27 points and nine rebounds for the Lakers. Jalen Brunson scored 37 points for the Knicks.
There’s going to be some angry people in the NBA on Thursday night. With good reason, too. The votes from the coaches are now in, and on Thursday, the NBA will reveal the 14 players, seven apiece from the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference, who got picked to be reserves for the All-Star Game. Here's the problem. There's about 25 or so guys who have serious arguments for those 14 remaining All-Star spots. That's going to lead to some hurt feelings.
Paolo Banchero is headed to NBA All-Star weekend. The only question is whether it’ll be for one game or two. The Orlando Magic rookie and No. 1 pick in last year’s draft was announced Tuesday as a participant in this year’s Rising Stars Game. It'll be held on Feb. 17 in Salt Lake City. That's two nights before the All-Star Game. Banchero leads all rookies with a 20.7 points-per-game average. He may still be selected as an All-Star reserve. Those players will be revealed Thursday.
WNBA
Brittney Griner’s return to the WNBA has collided with free agency which has raised questions once again about teams chartering flights. Griner announced in December that she would return to the league after spending last season in a Russian jail before being released in a dramatic prisoner swap. The 6-foot-9 center is a free agent and says she'll return to Phoenix. Players can officially sign with teams on Wednesday. Players have been unable to negotiate for charter flights and the current collective bargaining agreement requires all teams to fly commercial. If Griner needs special travel accommodations due to safety concerns the league will have to come up with a plan and any change would have to be approved by both the union and the WNBA.
NHL
Brady Tkachuk scored at 18:41 of the third period to lift the Ottawa Senators to a 5-4 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday night. The surging Senators extended their winning streak to four. Tim Stutzle scored two goals and added two assists, while Alex DeBrincat and Claude Giroux also found the back of the net for the visitors. Anton Forsberg made 28 saves. Rafael Harvey-Pinard kept the Canadiens in the game with two third-period goals. Kirby Dach and Mike Hoffman also scored for Montreal, which dropped its fourth in a row. Jake Allen made 24 saves for the Canadiens.
Evgeny Kuznetsov scored 26 seconds into overtime, and the Washington Capitals defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-3 on Tuesday night. The win extended Washington’s lead over Pittsburgh for fourth place in the Metropolitan Division to three points. Trevor van Riemsdyk scored twice, Garnet Hathaway added a goal and Kuznetsov also contributed an assist. Charlie Lindgren stopped 31 shots. Andrew Peeke, Eric Robinson and Johnny Gaudreau scored for Columbus, which has lost three straight and seven of its last nine to remain in last place in the NHL. Joonas Korpisalo stopped 30 shots.
Sebastian Aho scored on a power play with 53.8 seconds left in overtime as the Carolina Hurricanes rallied to beat the Los Angeles Kings 5-4. Brent Burns, Paul Stastny, Jordan Staal and Teuvo Teravainen also scored for the Hurricanes. Carolina trailed 4-1 entering the third period. Andrei Svechnikov had two assists and Frederik Andersen stopped 17 shots. Adrian Kempe scored twice and Kevin Fiala and Anze Kopitar added goals for the Kings. Kopitar and Drew Doughty each had two assists, and Pheonix Copley made 26 saves.
NFL
A person with knowledge of the pact tells The Associated Press that the Denver Broncos have agreed to a deal with the New Orleans Saints to hire Sean Payton as their head coach. The person says the Broncos will send a first-round pick in this year's draft and a future second-rounder to the Saints in order to get Payton in Denver. The Saints will send a third-round pick to the Broncos. Payton stepped down as the Saints' coach last year but remained under contract with the team. The person spoke to The AP on condition of anonymity because the teams hadn't announced the agreement.
Donna Kelce is going to have to pull out her custom jersey — the one with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce’s front stitched to Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce’s back — one more time this season. For the first time in Super Bowl history, a pair of siblings will square off on the NFL’s biggest stage. Kelce helped the Chiefs return to their third championship game in four seasons on Sunday night when they beat the Bengals for the AFC title. Jason has the Eagles back for the second time in six years after their NFC title win over the 49ers.
DeMeco Ryans has been hired as coach of the Houston Texans, giving him his first head coaching job and bringing him back to the place where he started his playing career. Ryans joins the Texans from the San Francisco 49ers, where he spent the past two seasons as their defensive coordinator.
Andy Reid was an unknown assistant in Green Bay when Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie took a chance on hiring Brett Favre’s position coach to revive a struggling franchise in Philadelphia. A newspaper headline greeted Reid’s arrival with a headline that said: “Andy Who?” Everybody knows his name now. Reid won more games (130) than any coach in franchise history during his 14 seasons with the Eagles. He led Philadelphia to nine playoff appearances, six division titles and five NFC championship games. But Reid couldn’t deliver a Super Bowl victory, losing to the New England Patriots after the 2004 season. For that reason, he was underappreciated by many fans and reporters in Philly.
The San Francisco 49ers head into another offseason with major questions at quarterback after a season filled with injuries to the most important position ended without any of them physically able to throw the the ball downfield. Week 1 starter Trey Lance is close to being fully cleared following two operations on his broken right ankle. Brock Purdy is figuring out how to treat the injured elbow that prevented him from throwing the ball more than a few yards in the NFC title game loss to Philadelphia. Jimmy Garoppolo is set to become an unrestricted free agent in six weeks.
TOP-25 COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Boston College beat Clemson 62-54.
UConn defeated DePaul 90-76.
No. 8 Kansas avenged a loss to Kansas State just a couple of weeks ago with a 90-78 victory over the seventh-ranked Wildcats.
