NBA
Immanuel Quickley scored 39 points, one shy of his career high, and Quentin Grimes had a career-high 36 in the New York Knicks’ 138-129 victory over the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday night. Obi Toppin added 32 points and the Knicks shot 52%. Mitchell Robinson finished with 14 points and 16 rebounds. Jalen Smith scored 19 points for Indiana, T.J. McConnell had 18 and Bennedict Mathurin 17. McConnell had 12 assists. The Knicks had a 52-37 rebounding edge.
Mikal Bridges scored 26 points and the Brooklyn Nets moved to the verge of a playoff spot by beating the Detroit Pistons 123-108. Former Pistons guard Spencer Dinwiddie shot 1 for 10 from the floor but matched his career high with 16 assists for the Nets (44-36), who won for the fourth time in five games. They need one more victory or loss by Miami (42-37) to clinch the No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference. R.J. Hampton had a career-high 27 points for Detroit, which has lost 22 of its last 23 games. Jaden Ivey had 23 points and 10 assists. Joe Harris had 18 points on six 3-pointers, all in Brooklyn’s 47-point first quarter.
Malcolm Brogdon scored 29 points and hit two late free throws to help the Boston Celtics hold on for a 97-93 win over the Toronto Raptors. With Milwaukee’s win over Chicago, Boston (55-25) secures the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Jaylen Brown added 25 points and 11 rebounds. Derrick White finished with 17 points. A night after their two-point loss at Philadelphia the Celtics played without three starters. All-Star Jayson Tatum (bruised left hip, Marcus Smart (neck spasms) and Al Horford (back stiffness) all got the night off on the second night of the back-to-back. The Raptors (40-40) fell a game behind eighth-place Atlanta (41-39) in the standings. Pascal Siakim had 18 points and 11 rebounds. Scottie Barnes added 18 points and eight rebounds.
The road to the NBA Finals now goes through Milwaukee. The road out of the Western Conference goes through Denver, for the first time ever. And the rest of the top half of the Eastern Conference playoff bracket is now set as well. The Bucks will have the No. 1 overall seed and home-court advantage for the entirety of their time in the NBA playoffs, after defeating Chicago 105-92 on Wednesday night. Milwaukee is now 58-22 this season; no other team in the league can get to more than 57 wins. Denver's No. 1 seed out West was secured when New Orleans beat Memphis.
NHL
Chris Kreider and Tyler Motte each scored twice and the New York Rangers beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 6-3. Kaapo Kakko and Artemi Panarin also scored, Mika Zibanejad had three assists and Barclay Goodrow and Adam Fox each had two to help the Rangers win for the fifth time in seven games and improve to 11-2-2 in their last 15 games. Igor Shesterkin stopped 28 shots to win for the ninth time in his last 11 starts. Alex Killorn had a goal and an assist, and Darren Raddysh and Brandon Hagel also scored for Tampa Bay, which snapped a three-game win streak. Andrei Vasilevskiy finished with 31 saves.
MLB
Gerrit Cole outpitched Aaron Nola in a marquee matchup, Gleyber Torres had three hits and two RBIs and the New York Yankees beat the Philadelphia Phillies 4-2. Torres also stole two bases and is hitting .421 with six RBIs and five steals. Jose Trevino added a two-run homer off reliever Gregory Soto and New York won its second straight series by taking two of three from the NL champions, who have skidded to a 1-5 start — their worst since 2007. Coming off six scoreless innings against San Francisco in the opener, Cole pitched shutout ball into the seventh.
Garrett Mitchell hit a tiebreaking homer off Adam Ottavino in the ninth inning and the Milwaukee Brewers defeated the New York Mets 7-6 on Wednesday for their fifth straight victory. Mitchell sent a 3-2 cutter from Ottavino over the right-field wall for his third homer in his past two games. The rookie outfielder went deep twice Tuesday in a 9-0 triumph. The Brewers swept a series of at least three games for the first time since winning three straight at Cincinnati from June 17 to 19 last season.
A strong threat of rain and thunderstorms forced the New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies and Baltimore Orioles to postpone their home openers on Thursday. All three teams announced Wednesday the openers will be pushed back a day with the Mets playing host to the Miami Marlins, the Phillies taking on the Cincinnati Reds and the Orioles facing the New York Yankees on Friday. All three cities had weather forecasts calling for at least a 70% chance of rain and thunderstorms on Thursday, the National Weather Service reported on its website.
NCAA
First lady Jill Biden’s walk-back of her suggestion that runner-up Iowa should join NCAA women’s basketball champion LSU for a visit to the White House doesn't sit well with Angel Reese. The Tigers star said on The Paper Route Podcast the Tigers should celebrate their title with Barack and Michelle Obama rather than with President Joe Biden and his wife. Jill Biden attended Sunday's 102-85 LSU victory. She said Monday that as part of the longstanding tradition of having champions visit the White House, the Hawkeyes should come as well because they played such a good game.
GOLF
Round 1 of the 2023 Masters begins this morning at Augusta National Golf Club. Defending champion and World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler is on a dominant streak and is eyeing a second-straight green jacket. World No. 2 Rory McIlroy and No. 3 Jon Rahm are dreaming of claiming their first.
Fans will also witness Tiger Woods’ second start of the season, just four years removed from his fifth Masters title, and Jordan Spieth’s latest attempt to revisit Butler’s Cabin on Sunday.
For the opening round, Woods will play alongside Viktor Hovland and Xander Schauffele, and they’ll tee off at 10:18 this morning. You can stream today’s first round via ESPN+ or watch the action on TV on ESPN.
Masters chairman Fred Ridley is hopeful of a Masters just like any other. Ridley says the interaction with LIV players at the champions dinner made it feel like everything was normal in the golf world. But it's been all the chatter for the last 10 months. The Masters gets underway on Thursday. Tiger Woods is playing. Phil Mickelson is back in the field. Bad weather is in the forecast. Ridley believes the Masters is above it all. He says every player in the field wants the same thing. And that's to be wearing a green jacket on Sunday afternoon.
Max Homa comes across on social media as snarky, witty and plain funny. And that's what most golf fans knew about the former NCAA champion until the past few years, when his game suddenly began to match his social media brilliance. Now, Homa's expected to contend for a green jacket at the Masters, and just imagine what his tweets would look like then. The world's fifth-ranked player has followed his first win in 2019 with five more, including the Farmer's Insurance Open in January. Not surprisingly, patrons at Augusta National are recognizing him a lot more these days, and not just for his tweets.
NFL
Baltimore general manager Eric DeCosta says Lamar Jackson’s situation isn’t causing the Ravens to look at quarterbacks differently in the upcoming draft. However, he did say the team could conceivably take a QB in the first round. DeCosta, coach John Harbaugh and director of player personnel Joe Hortiz hosted a pre-draft news conference. Reporters were told to keep questions focused on the draft. The Ravens put the franchise tag on Jackson last month. Jackson also announced recently that he’d requested a trade. DeCosta wouldn’t comment on the ramifications of that.
OLYMPICS
Sapporo’s bid for the 2030 Winter Olympics has been slowed by fallout from the still-developing corruption scandal around the 2020 Tokyo Games. The pursuit could resume if Sapporo Mayor Katsuhiro Akimoto is re-elected, as expected, against two anti-Olympic candidates. The Japanese city suspended actively promoting the bid three months ago and hoped damage from Tokyo’s scandal would fade from view. Sapporo was viewed as the favorite of the International Olympic Committee until arrests began last summer connected to bid-rigging, vote-buying, and bribery around the Tokyo Olympics. Without a clear candidate the IOC has pursued Stockholm, Sweden, which now appears as a favorite.
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