Jalen Brunson scored 28 points, Julius Randle added 25 and the New York Knicks cruised into their All-Star break with their third straight victory, blowing out the Atlanta Hawks 122-101. New York settled things right from the start, building a 24-point lead in the first half and leading by double digits for the final 42 minutes of the game. The only sign of life from the Hawks came late in the third quarter, when they crept within 11. But Obi Toppin and Josh Hart connected on back-to-back 3s early in the fourth. De’Andre Hunter led Atlanta with 20 points.
Mikal Bridges scored a career-high 45 points, including 15 in a row for Brooklyn to break open a game that had been close for 3 1/2 quarters, and the Nets beat the Miami Heat 116-105 on in the final game for both teams before the All-Star break. In his third game since coming from Phoenix in the trade for Kevin Durant, Bridges had an electrifying scoring stretch that could even match Durant. The Nets led only 90-89 before he went to work with an array of drives, 3-pointers and jumpers over the next three minutes.
Jayson Tatum scored 38 points, including 24 in the third quarter, and the Boston Celtics rolled to a 127-109 victory over the Detroit Pistons. Malcolm Brogdon had 25 points off the bench, and Al Horford added 11 points and seven rebounds for Boston. Marcus Smart finished with nine points, seven rebounds, six assists and six steals in his first game back after missing nine with a sprained right ankle. The Eastern Conference-leading Celtics enter the All-Star break with five wins in their last six games. Bojan Bogdanovic led the Pistons with 28 points and five rebounds. Isaiah Stewart added 14 points. Detroit has lost five of six.
Joel Embiid scored 29 points — including the 10,000th of his career — and the Philadelphia 76ers survived a rocky second half to beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 118-112 on Wednesday night. James Harden added 19 points and 12 assists to help send the 76ers into the All-Star break with their fourth straight victory. De’Anthony Melton added 18 points, and Tyrese Maxey had 16. Donovan Mitchell had 33 points — including 25 in the second half — for the Cavaliers. They had won seven straight. Darius Garland added 27 points for Clevland, and Evan Mobley had 23.
TOP 25 MEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Zakai Zeigler and Santiago Vescovi each scored 15 points and No. 10 Tennessee took down newly minted No. 1 Alabama 68-59. Playing its first game as the top-ranked team since the 2002-03 season, the Crimson Tide led just once in the early going and committed 19 turnovers. Unlike football, when Tennessee fans stormed their home field after beating No. 3 Alabama 52-49 in October, this sellout crowd stayed in the seats when it was over. “Rocky Top” loudly blared as the Volunteers ended a two-game skid. Tennessee is 20-6 and Alabama is 22-4. Alabama became the last Power 5 men’s team to lose a conference game this season. The Tide reached No. 1 in the latest poll by The Associated Press on Monday.
Elsewhere, Marquette beat Xavier 69-68.
NHL
Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad each had two goals and an assist as the New York Rangers beat the Vancouver Canucks 6-4 for their sixth straight win. Chris Kreider and K’Andre Miller also scored for the Rangers, who are 7-0-1 in their last eight games. Igor Shesterkin stopped 25 shots. Andrei Kuzmenko had a goal and an assist and Curtis Lazar, J.T. Miller and Conor Garland also scored for the Canucks, who have lost three straight. Elias Pettersson had two assists and Arturs Silovs had 22 saves in his NHL debut.
Tage Thompson picked up his 36th goal of the season, Casey Mittelstadt had the go-ahead score late in the second period and the Buffalo Sabres snapped a four-game losing streak with a 7-3 victory over the Anaheim Ducks. Alex Tuch had a goal and two assists while Peyton Krebs, Dylan Cozens , Tyson Jost and Mittelstadt each had a goal and an assist for the Sabres. Zemgus Girgensons also scored and Rasmus Dahlin and Jack Quinn each had two assists and Eric Comrie stopped 19 shots. Anaheim defenseman Cam Fowler had the fourth two-goal game in his 13-year career, Kevin Shattenkirk had a goal and an assist and Derek Grant had two assists.
William Nylander had a goal and two assists, Ilya Samsonov stopped 27 shots and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Chicago Blackhawks 5-2. Auston Matthews, John Tavares and Rasmus Sandin each added a goal and an assist, and Conor Timmins also scored for the Maple Leafs. Sam Lafferty and Philipp Kurashev each had a goal and an assist for Chicago. Petr Mrazek finished with 37 saves.
NFL
Kansas City Chiefs stars Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce vowed to thousands of fans celebrating their Super Bowl championship that the team will be back for more in the future. During a victory rally Wednesday following a parade through downtown, Mahomes and Kelce joked about “experts” who played down the Chiefs' chances to make the Super Bowl in what some said would be a rebuilding year. Mahomes said he “didn't know what rebuilding means,” and than said this season was just the beginning. Coach Andy Reid praised what he called the greatest team, the greatest organization and the greatest fans in the world.
Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin said Wednesday he never intended to offend anyone for attending the Super Bowl wearing a jacket that critics deemed to feature an offensive depiction of Jesus. Hamlin posted a note on his Twitter account saying he understands the criticism while referring to the coat's depictions as being abstract art. Former NFL running back Adrian Peterson took offense by calling the Kanye West Eternal Saint blue varsity jacket blasphemous. Peterson says he has since cleared the air by speaking personally with Hamlin. Hamlin continues recovering after having to be resuscitated on the field after going into cardiac arrest during a game at Cincinnati six weeks ago.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
A Texas prosecutor said Wednesday he will dismiss a felony domestic violence case against former Texas basketball coach Chris Beard, in part because of the alleged victim’s wishes not to prosecute. Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza said after a review of the evidence, and considering the wishes of Beard’s fiancée, his office could not prove the charge beyond a reasonable doubt. Beard was arrested Dec. 12 after his fiancée, Randi Trew, told officers he strangled, bit and hit her in a confrontation in his home. She later said Beard acted in self-defense and didn't want him prosecuted. Texas suspended Beard the day he was arrested and fired him on Jan. 5.
NASCAR
Alex Bowman won his third career Daytona 500 pole and will be joined by Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson on the front row for NASCAR’s season opener. The Hendrick dominance is no surprise. Bowman is on the Daytona 500 front row for the the sixth straight time and the organization has produced a pole winner in eight of the last nine years. Jimmie Johnson and Travis Pastrana both qualified for the race. They were among six drivers competing for four open spots in the Daytona 500.
SOCCER
A U.S. judge has slapped a Las Vegas lawyer with a $335,000 penalty for pressing a bid to force international soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo to pay millions of dollars more than a hush money settlement he paid to a Nevada woman who claimed Ronaldo raped her in Las Vegas in 2009. U.S. District Judge Jennifer Dorsey blasted attorney Leslie Mark Stovall for “bad-faith lawyering” and held Stovall personally responsible to pay Ronaldo's attorneys. Stovall and associates didn't immediately respond Wednesday to telephone and email messages. In a related case, a Nevada state court a judge rejected Stovall’s bid for a court order to unseal crucial documents — including a Las Vegas police report about Mayorga’s rape complaint against Ronaldo.
The presidents of Ukrainian and Russian Olympic committees fought together as teammates at the 1992 Barcelona Games and won a gold medal in fencing for the post-Soviet Unified Team. They are now on opposite sides of the war that Russia is waging on Ukraine. They're fighting each other in a growing split within the Olympic movement over whether Russia and ally Belarus should be barred from next year’s Paris Games. Ukraine's Vadym Guttsait now speaks only with contempt of Russian Olympic Committee president Stanislav Pozdnyakov. Guttsait says in an interview with The Associated Press “I don’t want to talk to him. I don’t want to know him at all. He is my enemy.”
GOLF
Tiger Woods could only make it through 16 holes of his pro-am at the Genesis Invitational in the wind and cold. The good news? He had no trouble getting up the 52 steps to the clubhouse at Riviera. The real test comes on Thursday when Woods plays against a full field of the world’s best players for the first time since the British Open. Adding to the challenge is that Woods has never fared very well at Riviera. He once either won or was runner-up in 10 out of 11 tournaments on the PGA Tour. The exception was a tie for 18th at Riviera.
table tennis
Hugo Calderano is a Brazilian who has beaten many of China's top table tennis players. He's No. 5 in the table tennis rankings but was as high as No. 3 a year ago. Calderon is also a linguist. He speaks five languages fluently — Portuguese, English, French, Spanish, and German — and '"can communicate" in Italian and, of course, Chinese. He says "If I’m hitting my shots, I have a great chance of winning, even against the best Chinese. It’s hard to keep playing at this level for a whole tournament and to repeat, repeat, repeat. That’s the level of the top Chinese.”